Hi guys,
so back in July I went on holiday to Rome, Italy.
As a history student, this was a dream come true! Myself and Hilly went for 7 days and stayed in the heart of Rome in a small hotel called Hotel Floridia.

The trip however was not without its stresses. As we live in Newcastle (UK) we had to get a connecting flight to Italy via Paris CDG. This didn't worry us too much as we had connecting flights in Valencia and we had plenty of time between the landing and departures. However, things didn't go as swimmingly as we hoped. Long story short; our NCL-CDG flight was delayed by half an hour and by the time we landed in Paris we were held up on the plane for around 45 mins (Air France said this was because it was Bastille Day... which we knew was a lie because as history students we know Bastille Day is on July 14th and not the 11th which is when we travelled!), which in turn left us sprinting through CDG to another terminal. We reached the gate with a minute to spare but were turned away as we were 'too late' and the flight had 'already departed'! Great. So we ended up stuck in Paris overnight and boarded the next plane to Rome the following morning.

That didn't stop us from having an amazing time, and we visited all the major landmarks and discovered some little gems in the city. We visited the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Colosseum, Vatican City, the statue of Giovani Bruno and more! I will say if you want to visit the Colosseum and the Vatican Museum, you should 100% purchase your tickets before you go! This saves so much time and most hotels will print them off for you too!

We also went to the beach twice and if you are planning to go to Rome I would definitely advise making room for a day at the beach. Most beaches are 30/45 mins on the train and there are plenty to choose from. We went to tourist-y Saint Marinella and also to relaxed Fregene. I would recommend Fregene over Saint Marinella as all of the beaches at Fregene are free (unlike S.Marinella where you have to pay to sit on the nice parts). However, DO NOT GO TO FREGENE ON A SUNDAY. We made this mistake and definitely added stress to the day. Bus services are confusing in Italy and bus stops are hard to come by, especially on a Sunday in a small town. To get from the station to the beach you need to take the bus as it is quite a distance. We managed to get to the beach fine, but it took us 2 hours to catch a bus on the way back and were stuck in Sunday traffic for around 30 mins. Adding to that, the train we were meant to catch had got in an accident at the station before ours... which meant we were waiting for even longer to get a train back to Roma Termini!!! Eventful right?

Anyway, I will upload some photos of my trip for those of you who are interested, and if you guys are thinking of going to Rome, I would definitely recommend. It is a beautiful city with amazing people and so much history.

view from the hotel room

Trevi Fountain:




 Pantheon:

Saint Marinella

Roman Ruins

Gelato!

Colosseum: 








Vatican City:

Fregene

Hello and sorry,

Sorry that it has been such a long time since my last post!! I have been very busy with uni, and I have also been on holiday.
Myself and Hilly went on a little trip to Valencia, in south-east Spain, and we had an absolutely amazing time.
We visited the beach, the main town, all the little side streets and the new arts and science area of the city. It was beautiful, to say the least.
I want to share a few photos from my trip and I'm sure Hilly will post some professional snaps on her blog soon.

Our beautiful VS passport cases (beautiful but impractical)

Flying over the snowy mountains of Spain. I'm presuming they were the Pyrenees, but I could be way off)

The view from our hotel balcony

There were palm trees lining the streets of the city

Palm Tree ft me.

Happy as larry in the sun.

 When we arrived, we freshened up and went straight out for a walk around the town. We walked up and down the streets (which all looked the same to us on the first day, but by day 5 Hilly could navigate our way perfectly, and I happily followed). We went to an amazing patisserie and ate pizza and doughnuts in the sunshine- what more could a girl wish for?

Beach ready

The beautiful beach

Our new favourite spot with Mojitos!

Tapas is love, Tapas is life.

 Day 2 and we ventured to the beach. Who knew public transport can be so cheap? €1.50 to go anywhere on the bus!!! Amazing right? so metro ken (only funny if you're a geordie) can get lost with his £5 daysavers. Anyway, within 20 mins from getting on the bus we were at the most beautiful beach! Clear skies, clear water and beautiful glistening sand! We lay about in the sun for around 2 hours before grabbing some lunch. We had amazing tapas, served by Juan, our amazing waiter, who smelt like Paco Rabbane Invictus (my occupation requires me to know peoples scents, another story for another time). And to follow the tapas we had a mojito (or 3), some olives and some watermelon. Shout out to Juan for being so hospitable to two silly Brits who can't speak a word of Spanish.

The Town Hall in Valencia

The amazing food market!

Fruit juice, straight from the market

There was so much graffiti on the streets of Valencia

basking in the sun

Are you dead yet?

The Colossal €7 Cathedral

Fan girl

Valencia's speciality

serious snapchat face

strolling through the town at night

gorm(less)

rats

 On Day 3, we walked into the main/old town Valencia. We google mapped our way to the city centre and passed many designer shops on the way (think Carolina Herrera, BOSS, Zadig and Voltaire). We went straight to the marketplace, and entered a HUGE food market, which literally made our mouths water! We then went to a small church, before wandering the streets in search of the Cathedral. The Cathedral was immense and very very grand. We bought some amazing street art created by a fantastic woman, whose Instagram is linked here. We then visited the fort, before stopping for a spot of lunch. Served by another fantastic waiter, Carlos, we had paella (which is actually said to have originated in Valencia FUN FACT) and drank the Valencian specialty Aqua de Valencia. The drink is a mix of orange juice, vodka, champagne and a lot of sugar. This drink came to haunt us in the days after. After a little siesta, we went out for dinner. Once more, we were greeted and served by 2 lovely gentlemen, who couldn't speak too much english haha, one was dressed very Pitbull-esque in an all purple suit ensemble! We had an amazing array of tapas, and a beautiful Spanish cheesecake. On the way back we had a little photoshoot, and then off to bed it was.

back at the beach

a drunken shoutout to our fave place in Valencia

We went to the beach for the final time on day 4. We knew that a storm was approaching towards late afternoon, so we decided to go to our favourite restaurant for lunch. The storm came and the rain poured so heavily that the restaurant (which was outdoors) had to close its makeshift windows to protect us. To keep us occupied during the thunder and lightening, we decided to get drunk, and what's the best way to do that? Mojitos and Aqua de Valencia methinks. Jesus! That foreign alcohol is strong stuff I tell thee. Getting the bus back was hilarious, Hilly was so proud of herself for saying merci to the driver before realising that we were in Spain, not France. And supermarket shopping in a foreign country, whilst under the influence is something that should be on everyone's bucket list.

some futuristic shenanigans

Science and Art

an outdoor indoor garden situation

The Barcelona sunset

On the final day we took a stroll into the 'new' part of Valencia. Honestly though, it was a bit creepy. It was super clean and there were loads of futuristic looking domes on water. There was also an outdoor/indoor garden. We have a theory it's actually a cloning factory, but that's just a theory. Anyway, we had a beautiful last lunch in the park (and churros). We then hopped in a taxi to the airport, and caught 2 planes home (VAL-BCL, BCL-NCL).
It was an unbelievable fun trip and I would honestly recommend a holiday to Valencia, if you're looking for somewhere with beautiful beaches and historical landmarks- but without the heaps of tourists.

Speak to you soon
Beth