READ ME FIRST!!!!

On Thursday, we got up a little later and had a bakery breakfast of a proper French croissant which was so delicious, and then we headed straight to the Louvre (free entry with passports again) and had a good wander around. Both of us (while not the best artists - Rhiannon is much better than me) can appreciate art quite well so we gave ourselves plenty of time to explore the Louvre, and since we got there about fifteen minutes after it opened it wasn't toooo busy and we hardly had to queue to enter. Also got to see the famed Mona Lisa which was pretty cool. Definitely got chills again!!

After the Louvre we headed across the bridge to Musee d'Orsay, again hit a bit of a slump due to some rather keen protestors in the Jardin du Tuileries who started harassing us a bit because they could obviously see we were tourists - it wasn't too dramatic and we walked away with all our belongings (I 'dropped' my purse and I wonder if in the scuffle someone had plucked it out of my bag but all my money was still in it and I still had my phone and passport so I genuinely do think it fell out accidentally and to give them their due, the women did give it back to me - was still slightly scary though so if anyone walks up to you in Paris asking if you speak English, learn "I don't understand" in a very obscure language and walk quickly away!!). But we made it to Musee d'Orsay in one piece and again had a hot chocolate and a snack, had a wander round the Gaugin and Van Gogh exhibitions, as well as the amazing Impressionist exhibition and left feeling much happier.

We then hopped on the metro again and zipped up to the Eiffel Tower to see it in the daylight and oh boy - this was definitely my favourite part, it's absolutely breathtaking in real life, the sheer scale of it is just amazing. We paid €8 to go up the lift to the 2nd floor and it was just amaaaazinnggggg I have no other words!! We did some photo taking and location scouting from the top and then went back down to take photos at said locations. And then, a little wander to the Rachmaninoff Conservatoire because Rhiannon loves Rachmaninoff and wanted to take a picture of it, before hopping back on the metro and going to Champs-Elysees to complete our Paris in 48 hours!! We went to Pomme de Pain for a late lunch (kinda like Subway but French...) before heading to (you guessed it) Sephora!! We were in there for what felt like hours and yes I did come away with one Fenty product (will perhaps feature in a post sometime soon!) and I LOVE IT. Then we wandered up to Arc de Triomphe, took our last photos and headed back to the metro to the hostel.

That evening was really nice actually - we actually spoke to the other girls in our hostel room! We weren't really there that much so didn't get much chance but (typically the last night) we all chatted and got to know each other a bit more and went out for Vietnamese food which was really nice! A few of us had some face masks too which we did that evening in the room which caused much hilarity - it was my first try using a sheet mask and I have to say I didn't enjoy it that much but my skin does feel slightly smoother from it I guess!! Then we all turned in and that was about the end of our trip!! Friday morning the flight was at 8:00 and after a mad dash through the airport (give yourself more time at CDG because they have passport control in Departures as well as Arrivals which means you have to stand in more queues for longer) I made it onto the flight - Rhiannon came back separately on the train - and got back to the house at about 10am and wow. It's been an exhausting few days I have to say but I've enjoyed it immensely and it was such a good introduction into the 'travelling alone/with friends' thaaang because I've never done that before but decided I quite like it!! We're already planning our next city break...

Have you ever been to Paris? If so, what were your best bits?!

Em xx

Paris In 48 Hours | Versailles, Picasso & Notre Dame

Hello and welcome back to another post!! It's been a while again and this time I'm not going to say this is the end of my slump and I'm back for good but we all know that's not necessarily true!!!

Anyway, as you'll know if you follow my Instagram (if you're not, you should) me and my housemate Rhiannon recently spent a bit of time in Paris and I thought I'd tell you about it because not only did we do it on a budget, but we also did it in about 48 hours, which was tough but we made sure we had a list of what we wanted to see before we went which made it easier!!

We flew in at 2:10 on Tuesday 4th and landed at about 16:35 Paris time - we had a bit of a fluster at the airport because we had no idea that a T+ ticket doesn't get you from Charles de Gaulle to the centre of Paris and instead had to spend €10 on a different type of ticket, so if you're flying into CDG and have to get public transport just be aware of that!! The queue to buy train tickets at the airport was also huuuuge so it took us about two hours to get out of the airport!! Another hour later we'd made it to the hostel - we were staying at St Christopher's Inn Canal, which was one of the cheaper ones we found through HostelWorld, at only £17 a night it was a really good bargain! Unfortunately we found out that you only get free breakfast if you book direct and not through HW but it wasn't too expensive for breakfast added on. Our first dinner in Paris was a cheeky Maccies since we just needed some food and our beds at this point, the stress of trains had really got to us!!

On Wednesday we got up suuuper early because we spotted a €20 shuttle that the hostel provided to Versailles which was really cool!! I'm interested in Versailles just because the period of history was so interesting and it also all ties into Les Mis which (as you know) is my absolute favourite musical, so the shuttle made it really easy to visit! We wouldn't have managed to fit it in/afford it if we'd taken public transport so it was really helpful for us. We got the bus at 8:30 in the morning and then arrived back at the hostel at about 1:45 so managed to explore Versailles in it's entirety (or what felt like it!) in that morning and to be fair, you do need that amount of time because it is just huge on a completely insane scale!

Wednesday afternoon we headed back out, eager to cram as much as we could in and went to Le Maison De Victor Hugo (the Victor Hugo house) which I dragged Rhiannon to because, you know, Les Miserables, and also Hunchback of Notre-Dame which I haven't read but know the story which is incredibly good. We then went to the Picasso Museum which was interesting, sure, but also we hit a rather large slump at this point during the day. The sun had seriously come out and we had to queue for agesss (just because they weren't letting people in, not for any other reason!) and then realised we didn't need to queue that much because we technically already had 'tickets' with our passports - if you're 18-25 and have an EU passport you get free entry to a lot of museums, so just so you know you don't have to go in the 'visitors without tickets' queue!!

(just a very gay bakery that we found that I loved)

But, we had a hot chocolate/coffee and felt much better after that and headed down to the Pompidou Centre. We didn't actually go in because it would have taken ages and we would've had to pay entry but it was still really cool to see the building, it's so incredibly ugly it's sort of beautiful in it's own way!! Next, we headed to Notre Dame to have a wee look at the cathedral and...just wow. Possibly up there with one of the best things we saw the entire day, it was just beautiful, and we were lucky enough to go in when a service was taking place, and trust me when I tell you you don't have to be religious to appreciate how awe-inspiring a service in a building like that is. Chills for sure.

For dinner on Wednesday we decided to splash out a little (since we only visited museums where we got free entry) and treated ourselves to a proper French steak at Le Relais de L'Entrecote. They specialise in one type of steak so it's a set menu, but for €26 you get a salad starter and two (!) portions of steak and chips and it was sooo good! I had mine cooked 'saignant' which is basically like having rare steak (sorry to any vegetarian readers!) and it was absolutely perfect! Afterwards, we hopped on the metro just up to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up in the dark, and then finally headed back to the hostel for some well earned rest. We clocked just under 30,000 steps on Wednesday, which was crazy but managed to see six different attractions in just one day which I'm incredibly impressed with!

For part 2 of my 48 Hours in Paris watch out over the next few days - I decided to split them up because it was literally going to be a year long blog post if I didn't!!

Em xx

Gallivants In Leicester

As if I hadn’t already banged on enough about it, this weekend I went to see my best friend in Leicester!! Like I said in Five Good Things yesterday, I’ve had a really rough week to say the least and if I’m being completely honest the only thing getting me through at some points was the thought of seeing Vicky this weekend and being with someone who knows me better than I know myself. We had a night in on the Friday and watched Netflix and ate a lot of Ben & Jerry’s and pizza and then got a good ten hours sleep like the grandmothers we are!! On Saturday we gallivanted around a little bit, went on a lovely shopping trip where I picked up some bits for my next makeup tutorial (VERY excited about this one so I hope you are too) and then went on a pretty big bender I won’t lie!! I’m currently writing this after having done the stressful train change from Leicester to Nottingham and I’m on the two hour journey from Nottingham to Manchester so I thought what better time to write a post and share some cute photos that Vicky took for me.

Hiking To Stay Fit

Greetings from very sunny, very warm Virginia, USA!! Me and my family are out here for a couple of weeks travelling with my older sister who has been doing Camp American up in New York for the entire summer, so thought I'd take the opportunity to talk about fitness. Lol.

I know, I know. At this point you're probably thinking something along the lines of "but, Emilia, you've never mentioned fitness before and you're about to go all gym wanker on us?" Well, no. I'm turning into a bit of a gym wanker it has to be said but I'm not suddenly going to start talking about pumping irons and counting macros and all that hardcore stuff. What I mean is, I just want to talk about some different ways of getting in some cardio and raising your heart rate which is always good for your body. I do want to talk about fitness a little bit more but I thought this would be a good one for a first post.

The other day, we did a fantastic hike (or walk, as my mother keeps telling me to call it - "hike is so American") to a beautiful waterfall in Pembroke, VA, called Cascade Falls. The hike was 4 miles there and back, and quite physically stimulating, with bridges and scrambles and lots of uphills and steps. In other words, it gets you a good sweat on just walking it. It'd also be a really good fell running trail, as there's a lot of interest involved in it so the time would almost fly by. My stamina still needs some work before I'd be able to run something like that but I would love to run that particular trail, shame it's in America is all!!

I don't feel like this photo really captures it properly, it was one I snapped in a hurry because the camera battery was about to die given that I'd been filming snippets of the hike for my YouTube and hadn't charged the battery first. Lesson learned there.

At the end there was this beautiful pool which people were full on going swimming in - we did not, but did go for a bit of a paddle and let me tell you, it was freezing. See that shirtless guy in the right hand side of the above photo? Yeah, he was properly diving into that pool. And trying to convince his girlfriend (sat on the rock) to as well, but she steadfastly refused. I reckon I would have done if I'd had a wetsuit - us English gals are waaay used to freezing water temperatures, am I right?!

Anyway, back to the point. Though this hike is in America, there are really great walks all over England that are physically challenging but also just really good ways of spending more time with friends and family in a cheap way. Take the Lake District for example - a huge range of walks and peaks for any level, and youth hostels all over the place which hardly cost anything. A couple of years ago me, my Dad and my older sister did a wild camp up near Scafell Pike - it was the most challenging walk I'd done at that point in my life but I enjoyed it so much. Climbing peaks like that can also give you an immense feeling of accomplishment. Last year we did a trip up Snowdon - Snowdon is slightly different in that there are two well known trails up called the Pyg Track and Crib Goch. Pyg is a lot easier, your standard run-of-the-mill walk, whereas Crib Goch you should tackle if you've had some sort of mountaineering experience before as it does involve quite a lot of challenging scrambling and short climbs, plus a scramble along a rock ridge towards the end of the climb. We also did it when it was really foggy and the visibility was not good so I can say I was pretty scared at some points on that particular hike - but we made it out alive and I can say I've got a good experience under my belt.

The point is that walking is easy, accessible and a really sociable way of getting your sweat on and just getting that little bit of cardio in. If you live in the countryside there are so many different walks around the fields (Buckinghamshire has the Cross Bucks Way for example, me and the fam have completed the first 6 mile leg of the 26 mile total, really good and fills up a day too!). Cardio is essential if you're trying to get fitter - you can't just go to the gym and pump irons all day, although muscle strength is important cardio is also equally as essential. It increases your self-worth and sense of accomplishment, builds up your stamina and just raises your heart rate and gets you some fresh air which is always good for the brain.

So there's no excuse really!! Get a local map of the area, or even easier just Google some good walks near you, or even make it into a holiday and take a trip up to the Peak or Lake District and do some exploring around there.

Good luck and I'll be back soon with another fitness post, involving some water this time ;)

Emilia xx