10 things I've learnt at uni

I feel over the last eight months of uni I've learnt so much. I'm technically now an adult (I know, woah, scary - I don't believe it myself!), and I've definitely done a lot of growing up. There were so many changes; living away from home, moving 500 miles away to be one of very few English people in Dundee as well as all the little things like planning dinner every night and doing your own washing etc.

Here's a list of 10 things I've learnt at uni which I think are important whether you're there now or hoping to go in the future.

Live in the moment. This is so important. Take every chance and just do random things that make you happy. The number of nights I've ended up driving around Dundee with one of my best pals or climbing the Law Hill after class because it was sunny or going on an impromtu night out. Uni life is so different to anything else I've experienced, and you've gotta embrace it as much as you can!

Get on top of work early. I know that's so easy for me to say than to actually ever do, but sitting here trying to revise with few notes and little recollection of lectures really makes it so hard, which obviously adds to the stress of exams already! I do think though that's something that everyone in first year struggles with because everyone wants to party and make new friends, so I'm hoping I can take what I've learnt and not make quite as many mistakes next year.

Make time for 'me' time. If you go to uni you're most likely to stay in halls. Here you'll make life-long mates, attend some of the wildest pres and just ultimately have fun. But living in a flat of seven girls like I did can be stressful when you're seeing the same people so often - it creates tension that isn't needed such as who's turn is it to empty the bins. You'll end up arguing over the most stupid, petty things! Going to your room and relaxing with a book or episode on Netflix helps so much to clear your head - lock your door and just completely chill.

If you want to do something do it. I think the worst thing would be to look back in 5 years time once I've hopefully graduated and regret not doing something. If you like a guy tell him, if you want to go to a talk but no one you know is going, go anyways, you're sure to make friends and get along with like-minded people! You only get one shot at being a fresher and you have to make the most of it.

Keep up with your pals at home. This I cannot stress enough and I know for sure I didn't. It's so easy at uni to become completely engulfed in your new life with new people and new surroundings but you should aim to maintain the strong friendships and relationships that you hold with people at home. They were there first and know you so much better than anyone at uni does yet. It's one of the most heart breaking things when you realise that you haven't and you wonder if it will ever quite be the same again. Make time for a skype call, and ask them all about their day rather than just going on about yours.

Being home sick or not finding your sort of people straight away is ok and completely normal - you will find them, sometimes in the weirdest of places when you're not even looking. I really struggled in the first few months with homesickness but it eventually goes away. I couldn't tell you when, but one day you just stop missing home and start calling your uni flat home. Yes, there will still be days when you wish you were back but it doesn't last forever. As for finding friends, I didn't really find my best pals until I started my course and even then I still met some of my mates much later on. You just never know when you'll meet people. Take two examples:

1. I met my ex-boyfriend who I dated for the first 7 months of uni at a party dressed as a crayon, where I then shouted at him in the middle of a street for 20 mins... somehow he got my number and he became my best bud at uni. I didn't go to that party expecting any of that to happen - people appear in your life sometimes at the most unexpected and strangest times.

2. I first met one of my best pals, Jamie, after taking ages to give him a fob for the society I'm year rep for. Somehow we became good pals after this and we speak/see each other every day, go for drives to McDonalds or the Law Hill etc at stupid hours of the night and just generally have fun!

Me as a a crayon with my medic parents

Save a little bit every week as an emergency fund. Everyone lives in their overdraft at some point, especially in the first term. I sat at -£500 for most of first semester. Paying rent, food, clothes, nights out, matriculation for clubs as well textbooks takes a lot out of your bank account and sadly student finance just doesn't quite cover it. At the start of this semester in January I started to save £20 automatically from my current account to savings account. It just means that if I hit an emergency I've got money saved to deal with it, and if no emergency occurs, then I've got a little extra to spend over summer, perhaps on a holiday!


Join a sports team or club completely unrelated to your course. If you're worried about making friends this is a brilliant way. In freshers week all the clubs and societies will run a stall, you go to their taster days and then matriculate with the ones you most enjoy. I joined rowing and it's honestly one of the best decisions I've made at Dundee. I knew no one when I started but you soon make pals - you just got to put yourself out there and do what you want to do. The people are amazing; because it's a team sport you're all really close, not to mention the socials are the best nights out by far. Not gunna lie, training six days a week sometimes at 6am and then again at 1pm can be a struggle but I found it got me into a good routine and made me much more effective in my classwork. Also, that amount of sport definitely tones you up and made me feel happier and more confident about the way I look - not to mention it's super good for you!

My crew just before our race in Newcastle

 
You can be completely who you want to be. When I came to uni I wanted to change who I was slightly, not so much change, just more become the person I wanted to be. I wanted to have a larger group of mates, so I made the effort to talk to everyone and anyone. I wanted to get fitter so I joined a highly intensive sport. I wanted to be more confident so I pushed myself to do things on my own, talk to those I didn't know and speak up when I didn't understand. Whatever or whoever you want to be, you can be at uni. No one knows you - it's a clean slate.

It really is the best time of your life. I can't stress this enough. Yes, the work can be so hard you want to want to quit. Yes, you can feel homesick and want to escape back home. Yes, it can take a while to find the people you really click with. Honestly though, I promise, when everything starts to click into place, you'll have the most fun, wild and unique time of your life.

Hope you're all loving uni or do if you decide to go in the future!

Lizzie
 xxx

May Favourites!

I've never done one of these favourites posts before but I thought hey, might as well start. Hopefully I'll do one every month but who knows.

TOMS I've wanted a pair of these for ages and I happened to see them in a sale, so I treated myself. They're honestly the most ridiculously comfy shoes you could ever invest in. I was a bit worried as I have quite flat feet, but my feet don't ache wearing them at all. They're just so soft and all round lovely to walk in! Plus every time you buy a pair of shoes, they donate a pair to a child in need, so you can feel good about your purchases. You can find them here :)

YouTube I've been a little obsessed with YouTube recently. I just love watching vlogs! This month I've been really enjoying the Sarconnejolys. I have no clue why but they're just so cool and the children are so cute!

Whiteboard It's May which only really means one thing - exams. I seem to spend most of my day revising but I constantly panic during the evening because I feel as if I haven't done enough. Right now I feel as if I should be revising sand dunes for geography but I just feel too tired. However, when I do revise, I use a whiteboard. I'd never used one before this year but they're absolutely amazing. You can really easily organise your thoughts and test your knowledge, plus it's eco friendly - think of all those trees you're saving!

Running I really enjoy running and go with my friend Katie. We both started off pretty bad although I think we've really improved. We always run over the fields with our dogs and it's just so nice to clear your head and be outside. Also, you get a real sense of achievement once you've finished as we always try to extend our route each time, so you get to push yourself that little harder - it's the best feeling once you've finished and you know you've managed it!

Spotify I've probably spent way too much time listening to songs on here but I just love it so much. My favourite songs are definitely Bills by Lunchmoney Lewis, See You Again by Wiz Khalifa and and Cheerleader by OMI. They're just so good! My favourite artist of the month would have to be the Irish singer Orla Gartland. I found her by accident but I love her music, especially Souvenirs and The Ground. You can download Spotify for free here.

Here's the four of us all kitted out ready - it's like wearing a straight jacket!

Shooting As I recently mentioned in this post I do shooting every week. I went on a school trip down to Bisley which is the national shooting range to try shooting at distances of 300-600'. If I'm honest I was excited but also really nervous as there were only four of us and the other three I didn't know brilliantly, but it was such an amazing day out. The guns gave such a massive recoil - you feel like you've moved really far when you pull the trigger! 

Just to end this post I'll show you something that's cracked me up this month! I admit I find it funnier than it probably is, but I almost cry with laughter every time I see it!

Thanks for reading! What have been your favourite things this month? 

Lizzie 

 xxx

P.S Let me know if you'd like me to make this a monthly thing in the comments :)

Dublin - Day 3

Today was my last day in Dublin - it's gone so fast! 

We got up quite early as we wanted to make the most of the day as we had to leave at about 5:45pm to get to the airport on time for our flight. I'd really hoped to have a waffle with nutella, as I'd seen them yesterday at breakfast, but they didn't have them on today :( I had another huge full Irish breakfast again - it's probably good we left today otherwise I'd be getting enormous!

The river Liffey in Dublin near our hotel

We took the bus to Kilmainham Gaol. It is a former prison where many of Ireland's political prisoners were kept, tortured and executed. I found it really interesting as I didn't know anything about Irish history before I went. Plus, it's only €2 for students which is seriously good. You go into this museum area before you're taken on a tour around the prison. The conditions were absolutely appalling. Obviously prisons aren't nice places but they used to keep the prisoners in the dark for 23 hours a day, the only hour they were allowed outside they had to walk in circles with their heads down, unable to talk or even make eye contact. A lot of political prisoners were kept there, mostly leaders from the 1916 Easter Rising where the Irish Republicans tried to gain independence from the rest of the UK. I know it sounds really really silly but I hadn't even realised Ireland was once part of the British Empire.

Is it just me or does this look like the prison on that CBBC show, The Slammer?

We then took the bus back to Trinity College after a seriously yummy cake at the coffee shop in the prison. We took a walking tour around the college that allows you to get into the Old Library which contains the Book of Kells. I really like taking walking tours when I'm abroad as they're normally conducted by students who are basically the same age as me, so they pick things that young people are interested in as well as all the main sights. I hadn't heard of the Book of Kells but apparently it's the oldest book in the world. It's beautiful. It's handwritten with lovely drawings throughout. The Old Library is also really cool and looks like something out of Harry Potter! There are loads of spiral staircases between floors and floors of books. They even have those ladders that let you reach the top shelves, which I always thing are cool.

Next it was lunchtime - we got quite a lot done in the morning! I had this scrummy goats cheese sandwich with tomato and red pepper soup with a cider. I love being 18; you can just order alcohol - it makes me so happy and I have no idea why!

We took the bus to the Little Museum of Dublin mostly because it was free with our bus ticket but also because it looked interesting. There's a whole floor dedicated to the band U2, so if you're a fan, I'd definitely recommend it! It takes you from the Victorian era (I think. It might be a little earlier/later) all the way through to the present day. There was this amazing bit where there was this shop sign up on the wall and these two elderly ladies were talking about how they remember seeing Santa Claus there at Christmas as children. I love times like that, because it just makes everything so real.

That's pretty much my day and time in Dublin. Hope you enjoyed reading it :)

Lizzie

 xxx

Dublin - Day 2

Hey

I had a seriously scrummy breakfast to start off the morning. It included white and black pudding, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, a fried egg and brown sauce. We had a really nice lie in beforehand - I really needed it as I was exhausted from yesterday and my dad snoring SO loudly throughout the night.

My dad and I caught one of those hop-on hop-off buses, which I would really recommend if you're ever in Dublin. It's only €20 for two days and it takes you absolutely everywhere you could want to go. All the national museums in Dublin are free, so we went to the Natural History Museum. It's the weirdest but coolest place ever. I don't know if that's just because I absolutely love biology so science is super interesting to me anyways, but the museum is really old fashioned. It's full of stuffed animals, which I can completely see would put a lot of people off but I found it great as it meant you could stand right next to an elephant and know exactly how big they are. They are ridiculously huge! I don't agree with stuffing animals and hunting in general, but I think the animals had been there for many years, almost since the Victorian era, so I'd much rather they be on display for people to appreciate than chucked away. They also have skeletons of extinct animals such as dinosaurs hanging from the ceiling which is really cool.

We hopped back onto the bus to the Guinness factory. It's the largest tourist attraction in Ireland - last year 1.27m people visited, that's the population of Dublin! There are just so many floors, you feel like you're climbing stairs forever. Each floor tells you how they produce the Guinness from field to pint. There's this really exciting bit where you go into sense rooms to try the drink. You walk down this dark corridor playing loud music upon which you enter a completely white room with four basins pouring out different smells. You're then given a small glass containing Guinness that you're not allowed to drink until you enter the next room, which is really dark, where this man tells you exactly how to drink it to taste the full flavour. It was quite a snazzy experience but I don't know if it actually makes a difference! We ate lunch at the storehouse in Gilroy's restaurant. It was extremely yummy! I had mussels in a cream and Guinness sauce which sounds horrible but it was ridiculously good! After lunch we went to the top floor. Here you get a pint of Guinness included in your ticket - I didn't get ID'd (sorry I have no idea the right way to write that so I'm hoping you get what I mean!) which made me so happy. I couldn't drink a whole pint - it was just way too heavy especially after a large lunch. I really liked it though which kind of surprised me as I never normally drink stout.

not my image

It was pretty rainy when we got out and quite late in the afternoon. You know that awkward time when there's not long enough to go to another sight but not too little time that you can just hang around? We decided to just continue around on the bus back to our hotel. I think the whole route is just over an hour so it was pretty good. Plus, seeing all the other sites is fun, even if it is just from the bus.

We had dinner at this gorgeous restaurant on the other side of the river in the Italian Quarter. I think it was called Bar Italia, if you ever go to Dublin I really recommend it. I had smoked salmon to start with lemon juice, capers and wholemeal bread. For my main I had this lovely pasta with sausages and spinach in a cream sauce. It was so filling! I say this, but I still managed a pudding of panna cotta with summer berries. I really wanted to take a picture of the meal to show all you guys but I wasn't brave enough. It just didn't feel right in the restaurant.

We walked back towards the hotel afterwards, but stopped to have a drink in an Irish bar, with live music. I absolutely love that about Ireland. Pretty much every pub/bar after about 7pm has live Irish folk music. It's so lovely sitting and listening to them. Plus, when a faster song comes on people clap along and get up and dance - it's so so cool!!

Thanks for reading!

Lizzie
 xxx

Dublin - Day 1

Heya!

So today was my first day in Dublin and my first ever time in Ireland. I absolutely love the place! It was really lovely weather today, which I think always helps, but still it's a great city.

I flew in this morning. Yup another morning flight where you have to set your alarm for 4am! But on a positive note, for pretty much the first time ever I didn't set the security alarms off. I know it's sounds weird but seriously, every time I leave the UK I get searched and set all the scanners off. I don't know why. I once left my iPad in its case by accident and they took it away to do swabs on it, I'm such a numpty. Do you guys get this or is it just me?

We checked in at the hotel and had a little look around the area. Our hotel is in the Temple Bar region near the river Liffey and Trinity College. We went to this lovely little restaurant for lunch. If I'm honest I didn't think it was going to be up to much because there was no one else in there and for some reason it looked odd, but it was absolutely delicious. Plus, as a bonus, once we'd sat down loads of others started arriving so there was a nice atmosphere. The meal was about €13 for three courses which they served all on one plate. I had seafood chowder to start, steak, Guinness and mushroom pie with veg and potatoes and for pudding, profiteroles.

oh look, there's muggins ready for lunch

After lunch I sat and wrote my post cards as part of post crossing, as mentioned in a previous post here. I must have been there for ages because the French family next to me were joking that I hadn't stopped and could I write theirs. I bought the stamps for them in the main Post Office. If you ever go to this city just go in and look around it's completely free! It's just like it would have been in the 1800s I imagine as it's all pretty ornate with wood fittings etc.

We wondered down to trinity college after lunch although missed the last walking tour - I think I'll try to do that later in the week. It's a great place. I wasn't too bothered about going as I live near Cambridge in the UK so have seen quite a few colleges, but this is totally different. It's so odd as once you've entered the gates it's almost silent and you can't hear any of the hussle and bussle outside.

Trinity College

We left the college and had a look down the main the shopping street - I think it's the Oxford street of Dublin. It's weird how Ireland is a completely different country but a large proportion of the shops are the same as those found in the UK. We stopped at this pub just off the Main Street for a drink. I had a pint of cider which was really refreshing. Personally I don't think I've ever been drunk (although my friends may disagree) but I definitely felt really tipsy afterwards! How ridiculous is that?! A pint of cider and I was just like woah I can't concentrate on anything and got seriously giggly. I've never felt like that after just one pint so I'm going to say it must have been super strong... I tell myself this to stop me feeling like a lightweight!

We got back to the hotel and I did a little more revision. I'm panicking so much for these A levels. I'm just so scared that I won't get the place at medical school that I've been offered! Aaaah. Ok I'll stop there otherwise you'll just get a very long panicked ramble!

My dad fancied a Thai meal so we went there for tea. If I'm honest I really didn't fancy it but I didn't want to stop him as he'd been looking forward to it all day. It was quite nice but I think it's one of those things where I didn't really fancy it so I didn't enjoy it as much as I could. We shared a plate of mixed starters and then I had some tom yum soup, which was really scrummy but pretty spicy. I had duck red curry for my main, which was lovely and I really would've enjoyed had I not been ridiculously full. But oh my goodness it was spicy! When a Thai place says very hot don't think 'ah yeah it says that but I'm sure it's not too spicy'. It is. Always believe the menu.

We had a lovely little stroll along the river after tea. Do you do this? My family always goes for walks after tea when we're abroad, which I really enjoy. Especially at this time of year when the weather is nice and it stays light for ages. 

We returned to the hotel and I really wasn't sleepy so it was just revision, revision, revision! Tomorrow we're hoping to go to the Guinness storehouse as it's meant to be a bit rainy and it's indoors so it seems like a good plan.

Lizzie
 xxx

P.S. This is being uploaded a bit late sorry as the wifi in the hotel wasn't great.

Last day of school!

Hey!

Friday was my last ever official day at school, which is just crazy! My two years at my sixth form have gone so quickly and I honestly can't believe it's all over already (except those dreaded exams of course!).

I've been dreading leaving for ages but so far I haven't found it bad at all. I know it sounds odd but the main reason I've been getting so upset is because I'm leaving teachers that have helped me so much and are just ridiculously lovely, which I talked about here. I know I'll keep up with my mates, so for me that isn't a worry, although I can totally understand why it would be.

My school has this great tradition where the last day is muck up day. It's basically where the whole year plays practical jokes on the rest of the school. There were hundreds of photoshopped pictures of various teachers such as the senior management team as characters in Game of Thrones. We also put crickets throughout the school, parked a tractor in the headteacher's parking space, turned all the outside furniture upside down, kidnapped younger siblings from classes etc. It was absolutely hilarious!

To finish the day off we had a formal assembly where we went up on stage and were presented with a photograph of our year (which we'd had taken a couple of weeks ago) by our head of year, head of sixth form and headteacher. The senior prefects then performed a dance using music we'd listened to from the age of five onwards. The year went crazy throwing balloons, bouncy balls and blow up sharks (yep, odd I know but it happened!) across the whole school assembly. We then all sang the hymn Jerusalem before we were applauded out by the rest of the school. Everyone changed into their prep school uniforms, except me and my mates as we didn't go to a prep school, before the BBQ and water fight.

I absolutely loved my last day and it definitely wasn't as emotional as I'd been expecting, although I think that's because we were constantly kept busy by the vast number of activities as well as pranks through out the day.

Hope you enjoyed reading about my last day!

Lizzie

 xxx

Post crossing

A little while ago I saw this really cool blog post about post crossing here. Post crossing is this really amazing idea which is just so simple and fun! You sign up to this website for free, which allows you to send and receive post cards from all across the globe.

The postcards above are my first ever and I'm just so excited to send them! They're going to Russia and Germany, which I just think is brilliant. I was a bit scared that it would be quite a pricey thing but it's not too bad - the postage was £1 per postcard. On both the cards you put an ID number, which when the postcards arrive to their recipients, is tracked on the website allowing people to send you postcards as well as showing you that your cards have been received. 

I cannot wait to get a postcard from someone - I just love receiving post (I know a little odd!) and learning about other cultures. It'll be so cool to see postcards of places as well as reading everything that others have to say - it's lovely to think that someone will have taken time to write to me.

Let me know what you think in the comments :)

Lizzie
 xxx

Birthday in Paris - Day 2

We spent our birthday in Disneyland Paris! It was absolutely amazing!

We started the day with such a nice lie in because staying up till 2/3am two nights in a row is seriously tiring! We then went and had a really scummy breakfast of croissants, french baguette and all things yummy, and then opened our presents afterwards. I got a camera from my dad, which I'm so pleased about as now I can take lovely photos that will help me to remember all the fun things I've done and places I've been, in years to come. Apryl's mum got us both a beautiful silver necklace with a clear jewel pendent, which is just so lovely!

Disneyland was absolutely brilliant! I just love how everything is so colourful and everyone's so so happy. It was the spring fesitval when we went, so there were thousands of flowers in so many colours.

We went on pretty much all the rides I think! My favourite one was definitely either the Indiana Jones one or big thunder mountain. They were both roller-coasters and even though I've been to Thorpe Park with bigger ones before, they were seriously good. I also loved the small world ride where you sit in a little boat and sail around the world - the music is just so cute! One of the attractions was to drive around a course in a little car. I thought I was going to be good at it as I'm learning to drive but oh no, I was so bad! We crashed loads of times.

The great thing about Disneyland is how you can eat soooo much scrummy food and no one judges you! I had a burger with chips for lunch, which we ate outside (yep, it was pretty hot!). the burger was really cool because it was in a bagel which I've never seen before. I'd like to say I stopped eating after that, but no, this happened:

The most candyfloss I've ever seen

At the end of the day, Apryl, Chris (Apryl's dad) and I pretended that Chris was a really famous person. It was absolutely hilarious with Apryl trying to get his autograph and me running up beside them trying to get a shot of 'the celebrity'. So many people were looking so I'm pretty sure they believed it! Chris then photo bombed so many people's photos. There's this one massive group photo where Chris is standing at the back smiling away, and absolutely no one noticed.

To round off an amazing birthday we went to this little restaurant in Paris near our apartment for a yummy meal. Once we were back we had cake, because really there's no such thing as a birthday unless there's cake. It was absolutely delicious! The local patisserie made it for us. I didn't think I would be able to manage it after eating so much that day but it wasn't too filling at all so it was all good.

Ok, so a really bad picture but the cake was insanely good

It was such an amazing weekend away! The Monday was horrible - getting up at 4am to catch our train and then straight into school for a full day of lessons, but it was completely worth it for the brilliant time I had.

Lizzie
 xxx

Budapest - Day 3

It's my last day in Budapest and I'm definitely going to miss it! 

I ate so much for breakfast this morning it's kind of scary! I had toast with that hot paprika cream, peppers, olives and fry up and peach juice. Is it just me or do you always eat loads of food when you're in a hotel? And that food is normally the kind of thing you'd NEVER have for breakfast? 

After breakie I walked down to the bus stop to catch the bus to go towards Andrassy Avenue (Andrássy út in Hungarian). The bus stop had this bakery beside it with the largest loaves of bread I think I've ever seen in all my life - they weighed 3kg! 

The House of Terror was all about the Nazi and Soviet Union control of Hungary. I hadn't even realised that Nazis came to Hungary, which was really interesting to learn about. I obviously don't know much about the history of Hungary, but it seems to be that until the fall of the Soviet Union, Hungary had been a terrible, scary place to live. The house had three floors with the basement being used as a prison during the Soviet control. The cells only had a wooden board as a bed - a toilet and sink weren't even provided and some of the rooms had no sunlight. Apparently they used to torture their prisoners by depriving them of sleep, water and food as well as more brutal methods. I just can't comprehend how any human being could ever be so cruel, I physically can't understand how you could do that. Even though the house is now a museum and currently nothing horrible is going on, it felt like such a horrible place to be in. Everywhere there were real life accounts of what happened to the people of Hungary during the Nazi and Soviet times; they're just so awful and sad. 

After the House of Terror, we went to this restaurant for lunch. We wanted a large lunch as we'd just be catching a bite to eat at the airport later. I had tomato soup with smoked cheese and then gypsy style pork, with potato rostis and spinach. The pork looked a little like this:

I quite liked it although it wasn't my favourite thing by any means - it was quite bitter. The restaurant was really nice however and all the staff were so friendly. Everyone speaks perfect English, which is great, although I always feel so rude not even trying to speak their language. 

We walked to this church after lunch. It was really beautiful. There was this little chapel inside which had someone's hand preserved in glass in it. It looked tiny but I guess that must just be because of how old it is and how long it's been preserved for. We went for a coffee afterwards and I had a Nutella muffin - so scrummy!

I didn't manage to make it up to the royal palace today, although I'm not upset because I've had an amazing time anyways. I think it might have been closed anyway what with Putin visiting and stuff. The city didn't completely shut down like they thought it might although there were a ridiculously large amount of police and helicopters everywhere!

Sorry there haven't been more pictures of the city - my phone camera just isn't good enough :( My dad says I can have his old Nikon one if I buy a new lens so maybe next time I'll have some better photos to show you guys!

Lizzie

 xxx

P.S. please feel free to comment and follow - it means a lot

Budapest - Day 2

Budapest is still so so amazing and so sunny! It was a lot colder today but still ok :) I'd forgotten how loud cities are until I tried to go to sleep - I feel so lucky living in the countryside.

The hotel I'm staying in has the biggest choice for breakfast I've ever seen! I ate so much - waffles, a fry up, peach juice and a pear, they were all so yummy! Their bacon is absolutely delicious and crispy, just the way I like it. They have some really unique things on the buffet, such as horseradish (I can't even imagine eating that for breakfast!), olives and that chilli/tomato stuff I talked about in my last blog. Apparently it translates as hot creamy paprika, which I guess describes it pretty well.

After breakfast dad and I caught one of those tour buses just down from the royal palace. The palace is such a beautiful building and absolutely massive - I'm hoping to go there tomorrow morning. It's on the top of this big hill. I got it wrong yesterday, Budapest is actually super hilly, well half of it is (the Buda side). Half of the city is on one side of the River Danube and the other half on the other side. We took the tour bus most of the way around the city and got off for a coffee in this square near all these grand buildings, one of which was the British Embassy. We then got back on the bus and went around a different route seeing even more of the city. The buses have these paintings on the side of the windows of cartoon figures so when you see the bus from outside, the passenger's heads are drawn onto cartoon figures, some of which are quite comical :) We got off the bus along this street which contained the opera house and shops such as Gucci. My dad really wanted to see this model railway. It was seriously good! They made the whole of Budapest, Vienna and some German cities miniature; the detail was insane! It covered over 3 rooms in total and was brilliant - if you ever go to this amazing city, I would definitely recommend it.

We skipped lunch which made me pretty sad :( buuuuut I did have a Nutella pancake so I guess that kind of counts as lunch?

We walked back toward the river after this and got on this boat down the river. It was great although absolutely freezing - I can't even explain how cold it was! Dad and I decided to sit at the front outside so he could take loads of photos. The city is beautiful as the sun is setting and at night. The sky goes these lovely light blues, pinks and purples and it's just so so gorgeous! They light up all the buildings - it just looks so pretty :) If you want to see what it looks like have a look here.

We had dinner at this little Hungarian/Italian restaurant and again, like every meal I've had here, it was delicious. I had mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and ciabatta and then schnitzel with spinach, garlic and potato wedges (over here they're called steak chips). The portions were huuuuge! My main had two schnitzels and about 20-30 wedges; I was absolutely stuffed once I'd finished.

Apparently Putin, the President of Russia is coming to Budapest tomorrow so they're expecting the whole city to almost shut down for security reasons, which could be kind of fun to see.

I fly home tomorrow so before I go I'm hoping to see the House of Terror, which is meant to be really good but really thought provoking. I also want to climb up to the royal palace. Fingers crossed I'll get them both done!

Sorry there are no pictures in this blog. I'm writing it on my iPad and for some reason they didn't come out on my last one. I'll add some photos once I get home because I really wanna show you guys how extraordinary this city is :) I'll also correct those pesky spelling mistakes and formatting errors because I can't actually see what I've written on here - iPad's aren't great for blogging!

Lizzie

 xxx

Budapest - Day 1

Hey guys,

Today I flew to Budapest in Hungary with my dad for a little trip away :) I had to wake up at 5am, which is ridiculously early in my opinion! There was this insanely hot airport guy - definitely got the trip off to a good start! The flight was good though even if it was pretty early; I mostly just read my book and napped. I saw a photo on Zoella's Instagram of the view out of her window on a plane a while ago and thought I'd have a go too, although I don't think mine's as cool as hers!

It felt so warm when we landed, I guess because it was so sunny, even though it was only about 10C! While I was in the taxi from the airport to the hotel I noticed these strange houses in the woods on the outskirts of the city. I say houses, they were these odd tents made of tarpaulins with fires outside of them and duvets, clothes and mattresses hanging over a washing line. My dad said they might have been gypsies although he didn't see the 'houses' himself. I can't imagine living like that, I guess if they're happy and that's how they want to live then it's ok, but they must be so cold!

After we'd checked in at the hotel we went out for some lunch at this little traditional Hungarian restaurant down a small back street. The food was absolutely delicious! I had the fisherman's fish soup to start, consisting of these strips of fish (not sure which) in this spicy, tomatoey sauce. Then for my main I had veal slices in this paprika cream sauce with pasta. I deliberately went for dishes I'd never normally eat at home and I'm so glad that I did because they really were amazing. In between courses we were given slices of this rustic kind of bread with chilli/tomato sauce. I thought it was going to be super spicy but it wasn't too bad at all. I'm not exactly sure how to describe the taste, kind of salty and spicy but neither overpowered the other - it was so scrummy! My dad had a bean soup and then a schnitzel stuffed with cheese, bacon and mushrooms, which were both also really tasty.

After lunch I walked round Budapest with dad. It's so flat but also so spread out so you seem to walk for aaaages. The city is extremely beautiful, especially the architecture. I know that's not exactly a normal thing for a 17 year old to say, but I think anyone my age would agree if they saw it for themselves! The parliament building is particularly pretty I think - hopefully we can go round tomorrow or Tuesday as I think it'd be really interesting :) I took a picture of it because I thought it was just so amazing! It's even lovelier at night when it's all lit up, but my camera wasn't good enough to not make it look blurry at night!

We went for dinner at this gorgeous little Italian restaurant near this church. As we were walking up towards it, the bells were ringing (apparently to call everyone to mass) and it just sounded really nice. I had this lovely dish of chilli and garlic king prawns with spinach and ciabatta - it was absolutely amazing! My dad had a pizza - the first he's had since we went to Italy last year (he got so fed up of them he swore to not eat them for a very long time!). For pudding I had my first ever soufflé, which like all the food I've had here, was brilliant. The walk back to the hotel was seriously long but I didn't mind at all - it was just so nice to be on holiday just walking around and enjoying the whole atmosphere of the city!

The money here is so tricky to understand. £1~325 HUF so when the bills come in at about 10,000 HUF it's very very odd. Fun though I think :)

Anyways, I better get off to bed now as I'm so tired! I hope to write again tomorrow and hopefully include some better pictures :)

Lizzie
 xxx

Volunteering!

Hey guys,

Every Wednesday night I volunteer at my local hospital on a surgical ward, so I thought I'd just share some of my experiences and thoughts with you.

I've been volunteering at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge since late 2013 and can honestly say I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Yes, some nights have been hard or extremely sad, but after all, that's life - there will be good and bad days. I help out just before and during dinner time meaning I get the great opportunity of being able to chat to the patients as well as helping them to decide what they'd like for dinner. Surprisingly even the simplest of things, such as deciding what to eat, can be tricky. I especially enjoy advising patients who have certain dietary requirments what they can and can't eat because at times this can really be a challenge!

However, my favourite part of volunteering is being able to meet such a diverse range of people, whether they are patients, visitors or healthcare professionals etc. They're all so interesting and I'm so happy that I've been lucky enough to just be able to sit down with these people and have a chat; whether it's about something serious or the weather.

I feel like these two hours each week have taught me so much. I'm much more confident talking to others who I maybe wouldn't have normally talked to, am able to better sympathise with those in hospital/their visitors, as well as realising that people may feel completely different to how they may first appear. This really hit me when I spent about half an hour chatting to one of the elderly gentlemen on the ward. He seemed so bubbly and so calm about the operation he was due to have the next morning. He couldn't stop smiling! Then all of a sudden he turned to me and said in a saddened whisper 'who am I kidding? Tomorrow is going to horrific. I'm going to die'. Suddenly in that moment the whole conversation changed and slowly, as we talked more, I learnt about his life and why he was so worried about his operation. I discovered that this operation was to remove a cancerous tumour; the same type his wife had died from a few years before. It was really difficult to remain calm and professional, when in reality all I wanted to do was give him a big hug and tell him everything was going to be ok; yet, nobody really knew if it would be.

I know by just giving two hours a week I'm not going to achieve anything absolutely amazing or change the world, but if I can just improve one patient's stay then it's 100% worth it. Also, the enjoyment and 'buzz' I get from helping out on the ward is brilliant. It really picks me up even if I've had a super stressful day.

Volunteering is such great fun and I truly believe that you can make such a huge difference from such a small action - try it; I can guarantee you'll love it!

Please feel free to comment etc. and subscribe - it means a lot!

Lizzie

 xxx