07/12/2016 / Lifestyle
25 before 25
Yep, that's right this post is a 25 before 25. The very fact that I'm writing such a post makes me feel old. Not that twenty five is old but the fact I'm even thinking about turning twenty five makes me feel old . I feel old being twenty two. I think it's also to do with the fact that I've just graduated university and am officially adulting. Which I am totally not ready to do. Who knows if I'll ever be ready.
Seeing as I am the ripe old age of twenty two I thought it would be the perfect time to put this post together. That way I have three years to actually do the things on the list. I wanted to make my list as realistic as possible but still as exciting as possible. So after great thought here's the twenty five things I decided upon.
1. Teach English abroad
This is something I'll hopefully be doing in 2017. I've just started my online TEFL teaching course and am hoping to go to Vietnam for six months or so to teach.
2. Travel to 30 countries
I was going to make this 25 countries seeing as it's 25 before 25. My current country count is 22 so I didn't think 25 would be that much of a challenge so have changed it to 30 instead to make sure I travel as much as possible in the next three years!
3. Get a job
Over the next three years I want (NEED) to figure out what I actually want to do. At the moment I'm looking into marketing roles. After my gap year of travelling I really need to sit down and start working towards a career. The perfect scenario will be that by the time I turn 25 I'm working in the sector I want a career in. Bonus points if I actually like it.
4. Move out
This is something I wish I could do at the moment but it's just not the right time. Part of getting a proper job will be moving away. I live in a small town and don't really want to spend my life here. I'd love to move to a city and enjoy the city life that I loved at university.
5. Become a confident driver
I haven't driven since I started university. I was always a nervous driver but by the time I left for university I felt much more confident. Having not driven in so long I'm almost starting again so I'd love to start driving again and actually enjoy it rather than stressing out every time I have to drive somewhere!
6. Go to Dublin for St. Patricks day
This has been on my travel bucket list for a very long time. Hopefully (fingers crossed) it will get ticked off in 2017.
7. See the Northern Lights
I've always wanted to stay in an igloo and watch the Northern Lights. They look sooo amazing!
8. Still be blogging!
I've had quite an on/off relationship with blogging over the years. Hopefully, now I'm blogging about what I truly love I'll still be at it in three years time. Who knows what the blog will look like then! Or what opportunities I may get in the next three years! It's quite exciting to think about.
9. Read 50 books
This is something I have on my 101 in 1001 days list but that finishes in April so I thought I may as well add it onto this list and read another 50 books!
10. Travel solo
The most solo travelling I've done is spending the day alone in Warsaw because my flight was at 10pm whilst my friends flight was at 11 am. It wasn't as bad as I imagined but I still felt pretty lonely and that was just a day! But I need to push myself outside of my comfort zone, plus solo travelling will mean I don't have to wait until my friends are around to come with me. I can just go whenever I want!
11. Become a morning person
Mmmm. Not sure this will ever happen but I can be hopeful. Maybe in the next three years things will change. Maybe I'll love getting up early.
12. Get fit and look after my body
I am incredibly lazy when it comes to exercise but I need to start looking after my body. This means less eating rubbish and more taking care of my body. This isn't just to lose weight but to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
13. Go for a bra fitting
Yep, I've never had a bra fitting and I probably (definitely) should. I don't even know if the bras I'm currently wearing even fit properly so over the next five years (preferably sooner rather than later) I should find out whether I'm even wearing the right size.
14. Find 'my' drink
You know some people know exactly what drink they want? I want to be that person. I want to go into a bar and know that I'm going to have my favourite drink which doesn't give me a killer hangover the next day and that I enjoy no matter what.
15. Be able to run for more than 10 seconds
This may sound like an exaggeration but it's not. OK maybe it is. I can run for 20 seconds without keeling over and dying. Hopefully this will change. I'm yet to start the 30 day shred I wrote about in my November goals but maybe I'll succeed in the next month (year) or so.
16. Go to Australia to visit my friend Lili
I met Lili whilst travelling around Europe and we clicked straight away. Which was great. Except she lives in Western Australia. So basically on the other side of the world. She's been in London for a couple of months so I went down to see her and promised I'd visit her in Australia. And I really want to keep this promise. Because then I get to see Lili and visit Australia! I'm hoping I can take a trip to Australia as part of my long term travel next year but if not I want to get to Australia before I'm 25.
17. Go camping
Technically I've been camping at a music festival but I want to go camping where I wake up and go for nice country walks rather than wake up and discover that someone has peed up my tent.
18. Learn to play chess
I started to learn chess in India when we bought a mini chess set to keep us occupied. However, turns out we were playing it wrong even though we were following instructions! So I need to start over. I've found a chess set at home so hopefully my dad can teach me at some point.
19. Get a tattoo
I've been debating whether to get a tattoo for about four years now. I nearly got one whilst I was travelling Europe but I left it too late and wasn't quite ready. I think I know what I want so I just to pluck up the courage to actually get it!
20. Go on a girls holiday
I've always travelled with my friends but usually only in a pair and even when we were a group it was still backpacking. I'd love to go on a holiday, where I pack a suitcase full of really nice clothes. An outfit for each evening! And drink cocktails around the pool. A girl can dream!
21. Worry less
I worry about everything. I over think everything. If I have to walk to the post office I worry about how long it will take, who I'll bump into, what I'll say when I actually get there. I need to learn to worry less and be more relaxed in situations. This is something that will take time. I'm definitely better than I was before I went to university so hopefully over the next five years I'll improve even more.
22. Take more photos of myself
This one sounds really vain but I actually never take pictures of myself. I only ever take selfies with someone else. I've only just started getting more pictures of myself travelling. I normally snap pictures of others or scenery and spend less time trying to get one of myself. I want to change this because, as my friend says, I'm at my prime age and should be making the most of it. We're at the perfect age (apparently) so I should be documenting this otherwise all I'll have to look back on when I'm older is lovely pictures of others and none of myself!
23. Make the most of every opportunity
I feel like I've done quite well with this so far but there's still room for improvement. As mentioned in 21 I worry a lot which sometimes stops me from doing things and this sometimes means I miss out on really good opportunities.
24. Still be in touch with school and university friends
This doesn't necessarily mean I still want to be in touch with everyone, people do grow apart but I want to still be in touch with the friends that matter. The ones where it doesn't matter how long we've been apart, we still talk like we live with each other everyday. The ones who want to make the effect.
25. Wear what I want
I'm constantly seeing clothes that I love but then thinking 'I can't wear that'. Sometimes because I don't think I'm cool enough to pull it off, sometimes because I don't think it will suit me. But you know what, who cares? Why should I worry bout whether I'm cool enough, if I like something I should rock it anyway!
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So there's my 25 before 25. Hopefully I'll be able to achieve all of these over the next three years or so. I may do update posts whenever I tick one off. Do you have a 25 before 25 list? If you do then leave your link as I'd love to read them!
Sophie
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05/12/2016 / Lifestyle
December Goals 2016
Can you believe it's already December? DECEMBER. This year has gone so quickly. I know it seems that every year people say this but for me 2016 was quick. This is probably because this year I graduated from university so the year was a kind of countdown to the end. And when you don't want something to end it usually goes extra quick. Why can't the hours at work go this quick?!
So like in November I've decided to set myself some goals for the next month to help keep me motivated and productive.
1. Get to 400 twitter followers
2. Reach 200 followers on Bloglovin
3. Learn how to use the till at work
The first two goals need little explanation. This third goal is something I've been trying to get the hang of. I've only had two shifts so far so am still learning everything but the main thing I want to master is the till. It's quite an old fashioned till so really isn't that complicated but I always seem to forget to press one of the buttons because I'm too focused on the customer and taking down the correct order. It doesn't help that I get extremely nervous serving people so I become a bit stupid and do things wrong. Hopefully, the more I practise the better I'll get!
4. Exercise!
In my November Goals I set myself the goal of beginning the 30 day shred. That never happened. So this month I've decided to be less specific and just have the goal of doing exercise (preferably everyday) whether that's a small workout or my walk home from work.
5. Finish my interrail journal
When I go travelling I usually do a scrapbook about my trip when I return home. However, on my interrail trip I decided I'd journal as I went. This started well and I managed to document a lot of my journey but then I kind of ran out of time. Well rather I chose to do other things when I could be doing my journal. Mostly I chose sleeping.
Now I'm left with a half finished journal. I really need to finish it by the new year so I don't forget what happened on the trip. It would be great to look back in a couple of years at a finished journal and not one with random blank pages.
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As usual I'll let you know whether these goal are achieved in a post later on in the month. Seeing as it's December I'm also planning on doing a few reflective posts about the year as a whole. I'm thinking I might do a general one and then a travel one.
Do you have any goal for December?
Sophie
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02/12/2016 / Bratislava , Travel
24 hours in Bratislava
I visited Bratislava in September as part of my interrailing trip. It wasn't originally part of the route, however, one of my university friends suggested we add it in. And that's exactly what we did. The initial plan was to go from Vienna to Budapest and then on to Bratislava but we swapped Budapest and Bratislava around so that we could go to Sparty (the thermal bath party in Budapest). This made our train journeys a little longer but didn't have much of an impact overall.
Another reason why we added Bratislava to our route was that we had a bit too much time in the places we were already going. We were already scheduled to have four nights in both Budapest and Prague and an extra day in either seemed a bit too long. Bratislava seemed like the perfect add in, it didn't stray from our route very much and could be done with only one night there. This post will show you what I got up to in Bratislava and what you should do if you ever visit.
Arriving in Bratislava
We arrived in Bratislava (by train) at around 6pm. The information desk was closed but thankfully the hostel we were staying at had a poster up in the train station with directions (we had forgotten to research directions whilst we still had internet!). We then got a tram to our hostel. One thing I find odd is that quite a few countries in Europe work out the ticket price for the bus, metro and tram by time. For example, we paid €0.70 for up to a 30 minute journey. It's pretty easy to buy these tickets form machines at the tram station. To get to this from the train station you have to rear left as you exit and walk down some stairs. We didn't do this and headed straight towards the buses so had to turn back on ourselves. This sounds easy enough but when you are exhausted and have a massive backpack on any extra walking is like running a marathon. Or maybe I'm just really unfit.
When you get on the tram you have to verify your ticket or it's not valid. This means that if your ticket is not validated then you might as well not have a ticket at all. In all honesty I ended up not validating my tickets in a couple of places (mostly Prague), I just forgot I had to do it!
We stayed in the Blues Hostel in a three bed private room. It was in a fairly central location; it wasn't in the Old Town but was only a ten minute walk away. The room and hostel were fairly basic but if your looking for a reasonably priced place to stay then I'd recommend it.
The next day we checked out at 10am and headed off to explore. We had considered doing the free walking tour at 11 but decided we'd rather do it ourselves, partly so we could go at our own pace and partly so we could fit in a relaxed brunch before any sight seeing happened!
What to do in Bratislava
The blue church
This was the first stop on our self guided tour of Bratislava. It's not in the main part of the city but rather around a ten minute walk from the Old Town area. It's well worth a visit. We only saw the outside as we weren't sure if we were allowed in or if it was even open. It's also incredibly hard to get a good picture of the church, there was just not enough space for a good full length pic hence why there isn't one in this blogpost. But at least I have my memories of the blue church!
Old Town
Man at Work
No trip to Bratislava is complete without a picture of the 'Man at Work'. You'll find him in the Old Town area but in all honesty I can't tell you exactly where (bad blogger I know) because we stumbled upon him. We were trying to find a souvenir shop so I could get a postcard when we saw a small crowd of people. Of course we headed over to see what the crowd of people were looking at and there he was!
Bratislava Castle
We ended up walking up to the castle a really long way so I'd recommend having a screen shot of a route there rather than using the map you get from your hostel which is not quite to scale. We didn't pay to go into the castle itself but we walked around the grounds.
Because it was such a nice day we stayed around the castle for quite a while and sat on the wall that looked over the city listening to Frank Ocean and just enjoying the view and sunshine. The castle has some lovely gardens (shown in the picture below). I loved all the white statues and floor, partly because it was so Instagrammable! Yep, typical blogger right there.
Where to eat
On our first (and only) evening we didn't do anything apart from go for dinner. We ate at Bratislavský Meštiansky Pivovar. Yep I have no idea how to say it either! The food was very good and the portions were massive! After being in Austria, which we all thought was pretty pricey, it was great to get such good portions for a good price! My dinner cost me just over €7 but considering the portion this was a bargain! The restaurant was also a brewery so we ordered a beer to share. The beer was €2.10 which is also very reasonable. I'm afraid I didn't get any pictures of the food here, I was way too hungry for the blogger in me to function.
The next morning we found a really cute cafe which was perfect for brunch. It was very reasonably priced. It was named Mondieu and turned out to be a cafe chain as we spotted a couple more on our explore.
They had so many chocolate themed drinks including actual chocolate shots with strawberries and chocolate coffee. I had the chocolate caffe latte macchiato (that's a bit of a tongue twister!) and it was extremely yummy.
They had so many chocolate themed drinks including actual chocolate shots with strawberries and chocolate coffee. I had the chocolate caffe latte macchiato (that's a bit of a tongue twister!) and it was extremely yummy.
The cost of the menu ranged from €2 for a croissant to €6 for a bigger breakfast. Nothing on the breakfast menu was over €6 which I think is pretty decent. And bonus, the food was actually great; I had the egg and bacon toast (which totally had a fancier name but I didn't note it down). My friends Soph and Tilli had avocado toast which looked amazing; look how green the avocado is! They also offered salads and crepes. The salads were pricier but none were above €10. While it wasn't traditional food or a particularly cultural experience I would still very much recommend stopping off at a Mondieu cafe even if it's just to have a coffee (or chocolate shot).
We also ate at a place called Lemon Tree Sky bar which, as the name suggests, is a rooftop bar. We initially planned on just going here for a cocktail and to enjoy the view but our visit coincided with dinner time (and we were all starving) so we decided to eat here as well. The food here is pretty pricey but I think this is to be expected due to the kind of place it is. Soph had Pad Thai around €9 while I had some chicken skewers (€7). It's not exactly great for those on a budget but we didn't mind spending a bit more to enjoy the view.
If you have more time or plan your day better than we did then I'd recommend coming here just for a drink as you can definitely get food that's just as good elsewhere for cheaper. It was great to come here in the day but I also think the view would be fantastic at sunset.
If you have more time or plan your day better than we did then I'd recommend coming here just for a drink as you can definitely get food that's just as good elsewhere for cheaper. It was great to come here in the day but I also think the view would be fantastic at sunset.
The bar is only small so I imagine it can fill up very quickly. Luckily, we got a seat outside overlooking the castle but we went at around 3 p.m meaning it wasn't prime time. The cocktails weren't that cheap but I think this is to be expected. Mine was €7 which I'd say is the standard price in the UK. The cocktail I chose was a Lychee Vodka one and it was AMAZING! I wouldn't normally go for lychee but the waitress recommended it and I'm glad she did.
After our cocktails we wandered back through Old Town towards our hostel. After a quick rest at our hostel we made our way back to the train station; this time we knew exactly how to get there! We did nearly miss the tram there though because we had to buy tickets and the tram pulled up as we were doing so. Thankfully, there were lots of people wanting to get on so we hung back a little then managed to jump on and get still get a seat. We nearly decided to risk it and just jump on without a ticket but it's a good job we didn't as there was a man checking tickets. This was the first time I'd seen anyone check for tickets on the whole trip. We eventually got to the train station and headed off to our next destination, Budapest.
In conclusion
- Bratislava is well worth a visit even if it's just 24 hours like mine. Don't let lack of time put you off!
- The Mondeui cafe's are great for brunch
- Don't forget to buy your tram tickets, they'll cost you €0.70 for up to a 30 minute journey and that's pretty much all you'll need
- If you want somewhere to watch sunset head to the Lemon Tree Sky Bar
- Everything is in walking distance
- Take advantage of the free walking tour, it will pretty much show you everything you need to see
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Have you visited Bratislava? What did you think of Slovakia's capital?
Sophie
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