Posts with the label video
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
8 Oct 2018
The Split City Guide | Croatia
Despite not originally living up to my expectations, I really enjoyed Split, Croatia. If you just want to get a taste for the city itself, I’d say you only need a couple of days but if you want to explore some of the surrounding areas, then a week suited us well. Let’s get crackin’ shall we?
Where To Stay
Airbnb is your friend in Split. There’s a huge variety and all considerably cheaper than a hotel. I’d recommend staying perhaps 10 minutes out of the centre so everything is still accessible on foot but nice and quiet at night. This is the airbnb we stayed at and I can’t recommend enough. Really cute, epic view and lovely, lovely hosts who picked us up and dropped us back at the airport and brought us crepes for breakfast on our final morning. The location meant we were also in reasonable walking distance of some of the infinitely nicer beaches.
Where To Explore
Diocletian’s Palace is the place in Split; gorgeous roman ruins, twinkling bars and restaurants and allll the atmosphere. If you don’t get lost amongst the labyrinthine streets, then you’re doing it wrong. Definitely go up the bell tower for the stunning views although if you’re scared of heights, it might not be the one for you. It’s very ‘open’ when going up the stairs, with nothing more than a bar between you and the large-enough-to-fall-through glass-free windows. I wouldn’t consider myself to have a fear of heights but even I had jelly legs. Worth it for the view though.
Speaking of views, Marjan hill viewpoint has the best views of the city. I promise you, it’s worth the hill climb. Plus there’s a gorgeous café at the top which was my favourite place to eat.
In terms of beaches, our favourite was Kasjuni which was a bit out of the city but worth the walk in my opinion. It had lovely sun-loungers and a bar that served excellent drinks/food (the baileys and banana cocktails was incredible) but still maintained a chilled vibe. The sea was flippin’ gorgeous to swim in.
There are approx. 734749 different types of boat trips that you can take from Split and they are a great way to see more of the coast and nearby towns. We did a half-day one which took us to the Blue Lagoon for snorkelling and to Trogir – a lovely little town. I’d recommend going at sunset.
Krka National Park is a must. It’s only about an hour’s drive from Split; if you don’t have a car, there are plenty of companies that arrange coaches there and back.
Where To Eat
Oh god where to begin? After a bit of a bumpy start food-wise, we soon found our groove and ate at some great places. Vidilica, the café at Marjan hill viewpoint, was my favourite. The food was dreamy and the view insanely good. Not easily beaten and not one to miss.
In town, NoStress Bistro was probably our best meal – I would highly recommend the starter cheeseboard. Galija did some top-notch pizzas for cheap and we had the nicest homemade pasta at BEPA.
For dessert, get epic crepes from Choco Café or incredible ice cream from Luka’s Ice Cream & Cakes. If you want to go a bit bonkers, the bubble waffles from Juice + Waffle Box were, well, bonkers. Try Croatian doughnuts from a stall or pick up Krempita from a bakery. Krempita is essentially a orangey custard slice with pastry and icing sugar – so obvs I loved it.
Of course, it would be rude not to have a drink (or three) and there are more bars than you can dream of. Stick to the ones within the labyrinth streets of the palace – they’re the ones with the best atmosphere and the location speaks for itself. The bar is Lvxor which is set right in the heart of the palace, just under the bell tower. It’s the most unusual – the seats are simply cushions on the steps of imperial square where you can sit and watch the world go by. I adored it. Also, Croatian wine is dreamy folks. Drink lots.
22 May 2018
Singapore Diaries | Light Shows (With a Video)
If you asked me to choose my one favourite thing about Singapore, I’d probably say the light shows.
And not the light shows that took place in our hotel room because why so many goddamn light switches?
I actually came down with a cold and cough whilst we were away and spent a couple of days feeling pretty rough. But on this evening, I’d finally got my hands on some flu capsules and cough syrup and I had a new zest for Singapore.
In the early evening, we headed to Satay by the Bay, a hawker centre in the Gardens by the Bay. I wasn’t a massive fan of the hawker centres, but I did really like Satay by the Bay. It felt a little less manic and a little more airy than others and that made all the difference. Plus it’s in the middle of all the greenery and near the water; a great setting for some dinner.
This is where we fell in love with Roti Prata – a signature dish of Singapore and Malaysia. It’s fried stretched dough, flavoured with ghee (Indian butter). A bit like a combination of a naan bread and a crepe? You can have it sweet or savoury either served with a curry or on its own with different flavours. I actually preferred it plain with an Indian-style salsa dip because it was so tasty, but I tried the cheesy one as well and that was also pretty good.
I also had the best satay chicken I’ve ever tasted here. The peanut sauce was delicious; thick, spicy and creamy and I honestly think I could have eaten just the sauce alone. Who needs the chicken?!
We met Alice’s friend Ruby, who is currently living in Singapore, and spent a couple of hours eating and chatting before heading back into the gardens to catch the Garden Rhapsody Supertree light show for the second time.
The theme that night was ‘Sounds of Asia’ and we sat on the ground surrounded by many doing the same, some flat on their backs, and watched those supertrees glow in time to the music. Personally, that light show would never get old for me. But I wasn’t quite expecting to find something even better.
After the show was finished, we walked under Marina Bay Sands and into the bay area. There were a lot of people hanging about on the promenade just underneath the hotel, looking out across the water. Ruby thought she’d heard of another kind of light show that took place on the water, so we decided to sit on the steps and hang around.
We’d seen laser lights being projected from the top of Marina Bay Sands from a distance a couple of times during our stay so I assumed we were just going to see that in all its glory. Reader, my expectations were so off the mark. Lasers did beam out from the top of the hotel across the water for sure, and then fireworks started going off… and then shit really got going.
This was Spectra and the supertree light show that I loved so much paled in comparison. It was a light and water show; the water was shooting about in every direction and if you stood right on the front, you were guaranteed to get wet because the spray. But the spray was the point; colours and images were projected onto the spray and the result was just spectacular. This was all in time to some banging tunes (as the kids would say), and combined with the fireworks going off at the start – it was all pretty epic.
(We ended up going back on our final night and I can confirm it didn’t get any less epic the second time round.)
This is one of those rare case where the pictures and describing it in the written word doesn’t do it justice at all. I’ve included a video of our trip below which includes a lot of footage of these light shows, so you can see for yourself.
We spent the rest of the evening wandering around the bay, checking out the mini carnival that had been set up for Chinese New Year. This was basically more epic lights!
I’m convinced the reason why my overwhelming memories of Singapore are simply colour is because of all these light shows.
Garden Rhapsody takes place at 7:45pm and 8:45pm every evening and Spectra takes place 8pm and 9pm Sunday – Thursday and 8pm, 9pm and 10pm Friday – Saturday.
7 Sept 2017
Hitchin Lavender
My Instagram feed has been FULL of lavender fields this summer. And because I'm easily influenced by anything that looks like my camera and I will have fun, I was like I wanna go, I wanna go!
What with one thing and another, it took us a while to get round to it, but we managed to squeeze in a visit to our nearest lavender farm, Hitchin Lavender, just before the flowering season was over.
It meant that the lavender wasn't at peak purpleness anymore but it was still pretty lovely.
We arrived at Hitchin Lavender farm, paid £5 each for entry, a pair of scissors and a brown paper bag, and then set off into the rows and rows of lavender.
It was, quite literally, a breath of fresh air. The wind whipped my hair around my face, we meandered through the flowers, collecting the lavender. We watched kids running in and out of the rows, and played spot-the-secret-photo-shoot (you’re supposed to pay to conduct professional photoshoots in the farm).
Right at the top of the hill, there were some glorious views; miles and miles of Hertfordshire countryside stretching out in every direction.
We collected lavender at a very leisurely pace before heading back down to the little cabin café at the bottom of the hill which was full of various lavender products; lavender ice cream and lavender lemonade. We had slices of cake sat in the sunshine and debated what to do with our freshly picked lavender when we got home!
Photos and a little video from the day below.
26 Aug 2017
Video | Adventures in the Brecon Beacons
B A N K H O L I D A Y.
I'm currently lazing around with un-brushed hair, no make up and no bra and if that's not a crackin' start to a bank holiday weekend, then I dunno what is.
G and I are are 'hosting' a St Albans pub crawl this afternoon with some of our favourite people so I probably should make myself look half decent are some point, but it the mean time, here's the video from the famous we-saved-a-sheep weekend in rural Wales (read more here).
Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend!
9 Jul 2017
Video: Let's go to Corfu...
Just a little video from our week in Corfu (more here).
There's a lot of sea views, stray cats, enormous duck/goose/turkey bird things and excessive pastry eating.
Kay, cool, bye.
18 May 2017
Video: Postcards from New York
Hey kiddos.
It's video time again. A montage of all the lil snapshots of film I took whilst I spent a week
Warning: involves footage that will probs make you book a flight to NYC immediately and therefore empty your bank account. Soz and that.
1 Apr 2017
Video: March Vlog
Alright, important questions first, have ya seen Beauty and the Beast yet? Cos ooohhhh my god is it good. I may have downloaded the soundtrack and may have booked tickets to go see it again...
Anyway a video for ya, if that sorta thing floats your boat. In Feb, I became the irritatingly smug new owner of an Olympus Pen e-pl7 (which I probs love more than I will my first born child) and I made the decision to take it out with me everywhere throughout March (except to work cos, lol, that shiz dull) so that I would learn to use it in the best way. My little baby took a trip to Edinburgh, met A LOT of cats and stared at all the foods. Me and her had a ball. So, yeah, this was what I got up to in March. I'm off to eat some mini eggs now. See ya.
29 Jan 2017
Devon & Lyme Regis: The weekend we stayed in a castle (with a video)
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed (cos I kept posting pictures of blue skies and beaches), that we took a trip down Devon/Dorset way the other weekend.
It was a surprise trip for my step-dad’s 50th birthday and somewhat of a military operation to get nine people and a dog down there without him being aware of it. My mum had to tell him they were going on a surprise weekend away, just the two of them, and then get imaginative as to why they were staying somewhere that could sleep ten people.
We had to get the food delivered to my sister’s house in Winchester, G and I had to drive via Winchester to pick up said sister and then try and fit said food into our tiny car.
The tesco delivery guy took one look at our car and was like ‘no chance love’ but we proved him wrong. Who doesn’t enjoy a journey where you’ve got to worry about the possibilities of squashing a birthday cake or a bottle of champagne smashing onto your head?
We pootled down nice country roads (although anything would have seemed nice after the hellhole that is the M25 with roadworks), breezing past Stonehenge and witnessing the most glorious sunset whilst munching on jelly babies.
We arrived in the dark, driving through the gatehouse – yup, it had a gatehouse – archway, parking behind some trees and trying to close the car doors quietly. We then crept towards the castle, clinging onto a helium ‘50’ balloon which was rustling conspicuously loud and trying to escape in the wind.
We knocked on the first door we saw and got no answer – a true sign of how big the place was. Eventually we realised we should go through the gate where we found another door that also looked like it could be the entrance. We ran and ducked under the windows and knocked on this one instead which turned out to be the right one because my step-dad, who was expecting a Tesco delivery, answered and we yelled SURPRISE in his face.
And then about an hour later, his best friend plus family also showed up on the doorstep and did the same.
It was genuinely a lovely weekend.
The weather was frosty, with sunshine and clear blue skies. It was busy, with people dotted around everywhere; leaning against the kitchen surfaces chatting, playing with Paddy the dog, carrying dishes of food into the big dining room and lounging by the fire.
We took a trip to Lyme Regis, taking a long walk along the beach which was dotted with colourful beach huts. The kids and Paddy could run around like crazy, I could take lots of photos of those beach huts and then we all took a walk along the famous Lyme Regis Cobb, and naturally had a family photo shoot at the end with that endless horizon view as our background. We had a pub lunch (drooling over the memory of the halloumi ciabatta) and wandered around the slightly-tacky tourist shops before heading back to laze by the fire eating birthday cake (I made this chocolate and Guinness cake again and can confirm it's the best cake ever. EVER). We ate hearty brunches and dinners (with so many puddings) at the big dining room table and played murder in the dark (after muchos begging from the kids) and explored that flippin’ dreamy castle.
Because really though, the best part of the weekend was the venue. The castle, as we called it.
THIS is where we stayed (full tour in video below). It’s the remains of a medieval manor house. It has three floors, five bedrooms, five bathrooms, three (some hidden) staircases, an enormous living room, dining room and kitchen, a secret room hidden behind a curtain in the living room which hosted what we assumed was the original (huuuuuge) kitchen fireplace, and a medieval great hall on the top floor. Oh and maybe a ghost.
The size, the hidden rooms/staircases and the general air of history made the place feel magical. I felt like a child again, wanting to run around and explore with my imagination running wild.
It gave me such a rush of affection for winter ‘staycations’; hiring a big house in the British countryside and bundling in with your favourite people. You don’t need plans or focus because it’s the middle of winter. You can all just laze and chat and eat, and it’s pretty darn lovely.
(I’ve started making lil videos and the one from this babe of a weekend is below. It’s not compulsory viewing or anything; but there is a dog chasing balloons.)
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