My Travelling Wish List

Hey Guys!

After travelling to Brussels for a city break I got inspired to travel a lot more and see more of the world while I can, so I decided to create a wish list/bucket list of places I want to visit in the future. I haven't travelled to a lot of places as my family tend to go to Lanzarote every year for our vacation, so I haven't seen many other countries around the world. I hope that in the future I can visit these places and make up for what I haven't seen so far :)

Seoul, South Korea

I've wanted to visit Seoul for so many years and every year I would look at going but its so expensive to fly and its an 11 hour flight so I've kept putting it off until I know I can have the best possible experience! As I've learnt more about the city and what it has to offer I'm desperate to go on a trip. There are so many different foods to try, and different districts to visit that offer different aspects of the South Korean culture. I have a few Korean friends who have recommended different types of areas to visit and the best places to shop and explore. I want to explore Hongdae for the night life, karaoke, bars and street performers. Myeongdong for the shopping and buy some of my favourite Korean products like face sheets, lip tints, pore sheets and BB cushions ♡ Other than the really popular places for shopping and eating the palaces are number one on my list! Gyeongbokgung Palace, Changdeokgung Palace and Deoksugung Palace are three of the most popular among tourists and locals and also the Namsan Tower is among the popular destinations on my list ♡ There are so many dishes to try as well such as Samgyeopsal- Gui (Korean Pork Belly BBQ), kimchi jjigae, pork bulgogi, bibimbap and tteokbokki ❤ If I could visit Seoul it would be a dream!

Tokyo, Japan

As you can tell from the list so far I want to travel to a lot of Asia's main cities haha! I want to go to all the popular touristy places first so that I get a feel for the country and can feel comfortable not knowing the language :) Being in a city where there are people visiting from all over the world will make it easier for me to settle and explore knowing I don't need to speak the language. What attracts me the most is the food and unique cafes! I love the busy and constant city lifestyle, so visiting cities first is the best method for me personally :) In Tokyo the streets are so busy and there are different restaurants at every corner and for me I love that hectic and busy atmosphere! Some places I would love to see is the Imperial Palace, Imperial East Gardens, all the different gardens, Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo National Museum and definitely Shibuya! 

Maui, Hawaii

I've seen so many beautiful photos and videos taken in Maui and it looks incredible! The perfect holiday destination :) I've always wanted to go to Hawaii since watching Lilo & Stitch when I was younger and been attracted to the idea of great weather and lots of beaches! Now I've seen YouTubers visit themselves and shown the beauty through their videos it has really encouraged me to visit and try out the great food, beaches, meet the locals, watch the whales and visit the Haleakala National Park. I would be living a childhood dream visiting Hawaii ❤  

Hong Kong

I've wanted to go to Hong Kong for as long as I can remember and it is mostly for the food haha! But there are other reasons I want to visit :) I would spend most of the time trying out different street foods and experiencing different types of cuisines but other than that I would love to see a few temples and the Tian Tan Buddha, Temple Street Night Market, the Clock Tower, The Peak to see the great views and the Avenue of Stars! I would love to go down all the hidden streets of Hong Kong to try proper homemade and authentic Chinese food!  One thing I'm going to be eating a lot of is Dim Sum haha ♡

San Francisco

There are many places I want to visit in America but considering how big it is and how many cities and states there are I will probably only have the opportunity to visit two or three and San Francisco is one of them! It seems like such a beautiful city! It has so much to see and offer and as its North California you can travel down to Los Angeles and pay a visit there too :) Of course the most famous sight to see is the Golden Gate Bridge but there are so many other places that I want to visit like Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, Pier 39, Aquarium of the Bay and try out their cable cart system ♡ two of my favourite YouTubers Weylie and Wah  (WahlieTV) used to live in San Francisco and from watching their vlogs it did encourage me to look into visiting, so maybe in the future after uni I'll get the chance to visit!

Paris, France

I've been to Paris before back when I was in Year 8 at secondary school but I would love to visit again! When I went in year 8 we didn't stay for long and we visited the very iconic and popular places but this time I'd love to visit some more historic places such as Versailles, the Notre Dame, The Louvre, Catacombs of Paris and get a better vibe of the city! When I went with school we couldn't go off on our own and wonder round, so this time I'll be to go at my own pace and see exactly what I want to see ❤ 

Barcelona, Spain

I've visited Spain many times on holiday with my parents and family but we have always gone to Nerja, 45 minutes east from Malaga and never to the popular cities! So, I would love to visit Barcelona and explore the city instead of the beach towns I'm used to. Barcelona seems like such a beautiful city with great weather! Why would you not want to visit haha! I really want to see more cathedrals and churches as the ones I've seen in Nerja are beautiful ♡ and the architectural buildings look stunning, so I'm sure if there was a city tour you would get the opportunity to see a lot of great places that are well known for tourist attractions such Park Guell :) 

Rome, Italy

My family have always wanted to go to Rome for a family holiday but its a bit expensive than our usual vacation to Lanzarote so its a trip we will have to save up for but there is so much we want to see and locations we want to visit! Some of our family members have been before and from the photos it looks incredible, so its definitely on the list for the future. We would definitely have to see the Colosseum, Pantheon, the Vatican Museums, Trevi Fountain and Borghese Gallery as they seem to be the top places to visit when in Rome :)

Berlin, Germany

Berlin isn't at the top of my list but there are a lot of places in Berlin I would like to visit such as the Berlin Wall Memorial, the Old Palace, the Zoological garden, German Spy Museum, the Friedrichshain park and the many historical locations around the city! I would only go for a short city break as I'd be able to visit most places within a couple of days :) If I was to go around Christmas I would definitely go to the Christmas markets and freeze in the cold temperatures haha! 

St Petersburg, Russia

I've watched so many programs and movies which have been filmed around St. Petersburg and it looks incredible! I've always been interested in visiting Russia but its not a place any of my family have visited before and I wouldn't know where the best cities to go to are but I know that going to St. Petersburg wouldn't be a mistake, it has the Hermitage Museum, the Winter Palace, Saint Isaac's Cathedral and the Palace Square and the architecture of the buildings are amazing! They are all so grand  ❤ There are a lot of city tours that take place where you go around most of the well known places and get to hear about Russia's history and about it being an imperial capital for 2 centuries. I probably wouldn't visit in the winter as I don't think I could cope with the extreme cold temperatures in Russia haha but any other time would be incredible! 

I have a very long list of places I want to visit and hopefully I'll get to travel to them all but for now I'll settle for one! 

Where do you want to travel too? Let me know in the comments below ❤

See you on Wednesday my lovelies!

Amy xx

Amy Goes To Cornwall | Photo Diary

Hey Guys!

After going to Brussels with the Media Society I went back home for a few days before travelling down to Cornwall with my parents and the dog Billy. Every year we have a tradition on taking Billy on a 'dog holiday' so he can play on the beach and have lots of walks ❤ We only went for one week and stayed in a cute little wooden lodge in the middle of nowhere! But it was quiet and peaceful and perfect for a little trip after having a hectic couple of months. It was great being able to catch up with my parents, just the three of us! 

We stayed near Launceston and explored the north of Cornwall :)

Lanhydrock

Lanhydrock Estate | National Trust

Launceston

View from the top of Launceston Castle

Bude

This was perfect for Billy as he was allowed on the beach and could go into the sea, unlike a lot of other beaches we wanted to take him on ♡

Boscastle

Charlestown

This was the location where some of Poldark, the BBC drama, was filmed so there was a lot of reference to the program. Also, there was a shipwreck museum that held artefacts from the Titanic, but it was closed :(

Plymouth | Britain's Ocean City

The Plymouth Hoe in Hoe Park

The Barbican and Sutton Harbour

Korean Bibimbap from The Slug & Lettuce

It was a great week in Cornwall where we were able to have a nice break and catch up after I was away for 3 months. While I'm at uni I don't really go home unless I really have to because the train is quite expensive and its a three hour drive! So it was great to see them and treat Billy after leaving him at home to go to Newcastle!

Sorry my posts have been all over the place these past couple of weeks, I've been back home so I've been busy seeing everyone and spending time with family ♡

I go back to uni on Saturday so my posts will be back to normal next week :)

See you on Sunday my lovelies!

Amy xx

Amy Goes to Brussels | Photo Diary Part 2

Hey Guys!

If you read my previous post you will know that at the end of March I went to Brussels with the Media Society from uni and spent 4 days and 3 nights exploring Brussels ❤ 

The first two days of my trip are shown in my previous post, part one. So, if you haven't read that one yet check that out and then come back for day three and four in part two! :)

Day 3 

On the Monday we did have to get up quite early as we had a comic book museum tour booked and needed to get the metro over to the location so we grabbed breakfast and headed for the centre of Brussels. It didn't take long and it was a really nice walk to the museum so we took our time strolling and then arrived at the Belgian Comic Strip Center to meet our tour guide. I thought that we would have a tour around the museum and see different examples of comic book artists work but it turns out that our tour was around the city to see different comic strips that had been transferred on to walls around the Brussels :)

So for a couple of hours we walked all around the city of Brussels seeing various different comic strip artists work like Herge's work on 'The Adventures of Tin Tin' and a large art piece showing 'Asterix and Obelix'. Our tour guide also gave us some great information and facts on Brussels and Belgium. It was as if we were on a history tour!

Our tour guide took us down this one street where there were loads of waffle places and recommended a few different combinations to try! So after he finished the tour near the Grand Place and we said goodbye a few of us went to find the waffle shops and stopped for a mini snack before lunch❤ There were so many different shops doing different types it was hard to choose but going for the classic liege waffle and Belgian chocolate was the best option :)  

The next activity scheduled for the day was visiting the Parliamentarian so before heading over to that part of the city we went to the Grand Place to find lunch and sit in the sun before starting to walk again. When we did get to the Parliamentarian we put all our belongings into a locker and then you go round with a little head set and as you go to different parts around the centre it tells you information on how the European Union was formed and how treaties were signed and historical agreements were made. Then you hear about how the EU  has developed over the years. It was quite interesting seeing how it all came about and how all these collaborations stopped many conflicts arising again. We were suppose to go to actual Parliament but because Article 50 and Brexit was taking place that week no visitors were allowed access and therefore we had to go for the next best thing!  

 After the Parliamentarian we had nothing else scheduled for the day and instead of eating out like we had for the past couple of nights we decided to go back to our hostel and have pizza and drinks there :) A large Hawaiian pizza was 2 euros in our hostel and we were going to head back out that evening for more drinks and to visit the Irish bar again so by having dinner at the hostel it meant we had longer to get ready and head into the city  ❤ 

We headed out after everyone was ready and like the night before we visited our favourite Irish bar Celtica, the Irish singer wasn't there but there was great music and some other students from around the UK so we had a great time in there singing very loud. Then after leaving Celtica we were looking for a club but a lot of places were already closed so we ended going back to Delirium and ending the night there! 

 Day 4

After having only three or four hours sleep we packed all our things into our bags and suitcases, got breakfast and then put our luggage in the hostel's luggage room to collect later. Seeing as it was our last day and we were going to be heading to the airport a bit later to fly home we didn't want to carry all our luggage around and would come back to collect it before going to the airport :)

After all sorting our luggage we all got on the metro and headed to the Atomium, Belgium's famous monument which was built for the World Fair in 1958. When we arrived we all took photos outside, put rucksacks and coats in lockers then headed inside. The amount of stairs and escalators you have to take makes it a whole workout haha! You go up right to the top in an lift but then you have to work your way back down by stairs and escalators. The view from the top though was extraordinary! And seeing the different exhibitions they had was great! I thought the monument would just be a quick tour but they has so much information and the exhibition on the Concorde and other aeroplane companies and how they operated in the past was really good!

We relaxed in the sun for a bit while we waited for everyone to finish going around the monument and then we all headed back to central Brussels to get lunch before collecting our luggage from the hostel and heading to the airport. 

Ending up at the Grand Place again we all got something to eat for lunch, explored some local chocolate places for souvenirs and then sunbathed on the cobbles again like the past couple of afternoons  ❤ 

Most people had gone and brought chocolate for relatives and friends back home and then when we realised it was around 2pm we departed to go back to the hostel to get our luggage. Two of my friends were flying to London and not back to Manchester so we said goodbye to them and they continued to explore around the Grand Place while we got back on the metro. 

Once all bags were collected we got back on the metro again and went to the location the shuttle bus from the airport dropped us off last time. Luckily the shuttle bus that would take us back to the airport had just arrived so we all got on to the bus and like when we first arrived we all slept until we arrived back at Charleroi Brussels Airport around 5:30pm. After checking in, going through security and waiting to board our plane, which was due to take off at 9:55pm, we had food, played games and slept. A lot of us were exhausted from the trip so most people were just napping or sat talking. It was a very long wait in the airport and seemed to go so slowly but eventually we boarded our plane and headed home. Landing in Manchester at 10:20pm!

The trip to Brussels was amazing, we all bonded and got to know each other more throughout the trip. We made great friendships and memories and hopefully next year we will be able to go on another trip together! Joining the media society was a great experience for my first year at uni and being able to travel with great people was so worth it! ❤ 

See you on Sunday my lovelies! ❤ 

Amy xx

Amy Goes To Brussels | Photo Diary Part 1

Hey Guys!

Sorry there wasn't a post up on Wednesday, I went on holiday down to Cornwall with my family for a break and realised when I got down there that there wasn't any wifi oops! So, I didn't have the chance to upload this post until today :)

Recently I flew to Brussels with the Media Society from uni for an Easter holiday, we spent four days and three nights in the city and each day we had different activities scheduled around the city. So with my photo diary I want to take you along with me so you can see what we got up to while I was in Belgium!

Day 1 

Our travels started very early on the Saturday morning at around 2:20am so I didn't end up sleeping on the Friday night and seeing as I was round my friends flat we all decided to just pack and stay up :) our plan was to just sleep on the plane. So, we waited till around 1:45am and then walked over to uni where a mini bus was collecting us all to drive us to Manchester Airport. Even though Newcastle has its own airport RyanAir would only fly from Manchester and it was more cost effective, so we had about a two and a half hour drive to the airport. But most of us just slept (or tried to) which helped the journey go a bit faster!

Our flight was at 7:50am so we chilled in the airport for a while, got breakfast and waited to board our flight. Compared to most flights this one was so short and we were in Brussels quite quickly! We landed at Brussels Charleroi airport, so we then had to catch a shuttle bus into the city which took around an hour and fifteen minutes (most of us slept the journey as we were so exhausted!) and once in Brussels we jumped on to the Metro and headed towards the station where our hostel was located near by. 

Once arriving at our hostel (Hello Hostel) we checked in and all got our keys to our room, so we could all drop our stuff off and then we had about 2 hours to freshen up and get ready to go out for half 3 to explore the Grand Place and get dinner around 6pm. 

When we left the hostel we thought we would be able to walk to the Grand Place and what mistake that was! It took so long and we ended up stopping off at a bar on the way to get a drink and relax before carrying on with our journey haha! 

Eventually, after getting lost a million times we found the Grand Place and were able to appreciate the pure beauty of the city and the surrounding buildings! We stayed in the Grand Place taking photos and looking around at all the chocolate places and after exploring on our own for a while we all met back up as a group and walked towards the restaurant where we had a table booked for all 18 of us :) the place where we ate was called Shiavelet and has apparently won many awards for the food its food!

For dinner I had a Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni, which would have been better if it wasn't drowned in so much cheese haha! But everyone enjoyed their food and we were then able to find another metro station after walking miles and miles and got back to the hostel. Some of the group went out drinking later on back in the city but the majority of us were exhausted after 12 hours of travelling, so we all had an early night and watched Netflix on my laptop in our room :) Those beds were the comfiest I have ever slept on! 

Day 2 

We left around 10:50am on Sunday after breakfast to head into the city and explore a bit more. We were suppose to go on a tour around the city but we ended up missing the time slot, so instead we found a waffle place and explored around some of the back streets of Brussels.

 We came across some cathedrals and churches and slowly walked towards the current palace and the former palace: Coudenberg. We had a guided tour arranged so, while we had some time to kill we took some group photos in the sun and around the palace :)

Once we had taken enough photos and Polaroids we went into the archaeological site and museum for Coudenberg for our tour around the site under the city. If you didn't know underneath the city of Brussels is the former Palace belonging to previous monarchs, after being destroyed in a fire the current palace was built on top leaving an archaeological site to be excavated underneath. It was really interested being under the cobbled streets of Brussels and explore what would have been there before everything was built on top! You could even here the tram and traffic above your head. I would recommend a visit if your interested in historical places like me :)

Once we got out of the museum we decided to get ice creams and head over to the park to sunbathe while we had some time to kill. The weather in Brussels was amazing for the whole trip and I really didn't pack the right type of clothes for the trip, I was roasting for the whole trip and wore way too many layers haha! Sunbathing in the park was nice and we were able to rest for a while before setting off to find a bar for a drink :)

The bar we found was Delirium, a cute little bar in the back streets of Brussels and it was the best! They had over 3000 different beers to try and at the bar there were big black boards with a list of different beers, their percentage and price depending on size. I tried to 'Delirium Red' which was a cherry flavoured beer and considering it was 8% it was so strong! After a few of them we were all feeling very merry and considering it was around 6pm we thought it would be best if we ate something, so we found a place literally a few places down who did some great deals on food! So I got a the steak and a glass of wine for 10 euros! 

Getting back to the hostel we all decided we were going to try out some of the bars and clubs in the city centre so we got changed, refreshed ourselves, brought some drinks from the local shop and has a few pre drinks before going back out! 

That night we all had so much fun! We headed to an Irish bar where there was an Irish guy performing and we were able to karaoke and get cheap drinks! The next day we had very sore throats! 

Day 3 and Day 4 will be in the next blog post in Part 2! Look out for it on Wednesday ♡ 

See you on Wednesday my lovelies!♡ 

Amy xx