Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Friday, 17 February 2017

A WEEK IN ITALY- PART THREE

                                                                    VENICE

On Thursday  our first full day  we went to a few museums, St Marks square  and St Marks Basilica!

We didn't know that the water levels rise in Venice, so when we first started walking around the square there was water everywhere and didn't know why. After we came out of one of the museums the water level had risen a lot so we had to buy these water boot things! They were so cool.
To get around in the centre of  Venice you go by ferry bus! It was very strange at the beginning  especially  not seeing any cars! We had to do that a few times especially  when we went to visit another  island called Lido  which had a beach but by the time we got there it was pitch black!








On Friday really early we went on a gondala ride which was really nice especially as we had such a lovely man guiding us round.  We then had a long walk down towards this hidden bookshop, which was my favourite thing ever. There were so many different kind of books that were both English and Italian as well as postcards around.  The place itself was so unique at one end of the bookshop it opened up and there were couches right in front of the water and at another end of the bookshop it led outside to this stairway made out of books!!  Later we decided to head on over to Murano island where it  is known for glass making.  We wanted to find a back work shop as we heard they give away broken bits of glass.  We were really lucky and got a love book stopper thingy which I will treasure for the rest of my life!  As it was still early, we went back to Lido beach and we made it there for just before sunset which was so nice to see because we got to walk on the beach and see the views. We stayed there till the sun set, we had some pancakes in a restaurant nearby before heading back home.












On Saturday which was the last day of our trip we visited a food market, which was a good experience.  There was so much fresh fish, meat, vegetables, nuts and fruit as well as stalls selling pasta and fashionable goods.  It was cool to walk around get a real feel to what Italian life is like. It was really busy, swarmed with people looking, haggling, and buying; we really enjoyed ourselves.  We walked around the area as we were there and wanted to explore before going back to the main square. We made a last minute decision to visit another small island called San Giogio Maggiore, we didn't do much there other than walk around as we didn't want to be late back.  We had dinner by the canal on St Marks Square before collecting our luggage and heading on to the airport where we had a long wait... and there was not much to see either as it was soo small! We arrived back in London late evening and had a lift back to our homes.








This was one of the best holidays I have ever been on, it was the first away from my family and even by myself ever, so learnt a lot from it and I am so happy to have spent it with my bestie Milly!!

Thursday, 9 February 2017

A WEEK IN ITALY- PART TWO

                               PISA AND FLORENCE

We got the train to Pisa and went to see the  Tower of Pisa.  It was a sight to see, with a lot of other tourists trying to get those iconic pictures with it- including us!  It was really funny trying to get the pictures as it was so hard, and we tried so many different poses.  We walked around the grounds but decided not to go inside and walk up as there was a while to wait and I don't think I could have walked those stairs! We went inside a cathedral that was there and it was small but had lovely designs.  As we left to go on the bus back to the station it was quite rainy.







After our look around we traveled by train for about 30 minutes to Florence where we spent most of the day looking around, exploring and shopping.  We went to Museum Ferragamo which was all about the designer and his shoe designs in years.  We went to this other museum called Museo Galileo, which was a really interesting museum about science, life and other facts in that area. We went to the main square looking for the cathedral we came across loads of shops, there was a lindt shop with all types of flavours  to taste that you could ever think off! We came across a gelato  shop and decided to have some as  we hadn't  yet, and Italy can be known for its  gelato. While walking around  eating, we came across the grand cathedral in the middle of the  square, it was so big!  We headed back to the train station and hung a round there till it was time for our train.  We had mini pizzas with hot chocolate while we waited.








Our last trip of the day via train was to Venice.

Friday, 3 January 2014

RESOLUTIONS, DREAMS, LIFE

I have been reading and watching people's resolutions all around me and every year I join in and make them too.  This year though I have not made any... wait that was a lie... I made one which really isn't a resolution but a wish.. to pass my degree with a good mark!  I always have the same wishes of, raising money for charity, doing things for others, travel and bake more. With baking is easy I have time for that. But with the others it is difficult, I don't have no way to do charity or I do not know how to go about it.  I am too scared to travel which I will probably never ever do which upsets me, but you never know what will happen this year.
I don't want this year to turn out like my other years just doing the same thing, it is not helping me find myself or doing anything for my life but I hate change so much and it is hard not doing the same things I have done for many years.  I am going to try though and myself for the better and do more activities once uni is over in May, not only work but in my spare time, travel London.  I live in London but have hardly seen any of it which is why I promise to myself I will do that; whether it is by myself- which I hate- or with others.
I read an article where they posted these resolutions (down below), and I felt like I was agreeing with most of them so I will see if I can accomplish any, like numbers: 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 27, 30, 34, 35 and 36. Which is like all of them haha, but I will aim to do at least 9 of them this year if not more!
"1. Don’t neglect yourself. You are the one person you can neither leave nor escape, so invest in your relationship with yourself. Take yourself out for coffee, sit yourself down and get to know yourself.
2. Stop being so mean to yourself. We say some terrible things to ourselves we would never say to others. Learn to be kind to yourself.
3. Leave the country or go somewhere you’ve never been before. If you don’t have money, look into doing charity work abroad, some programs will sponsor you, otherwise you would be surprised where you can get with a bus ticket.
4. If you hate your job, quit your job. Love what you do, and you will never work another day in your life. If you think you can’t quit your job, think about all the reasons. You may surprise yourself and realize there is a lot more you can appreciate.
5. Don’t focus on losing weight, just focus on being healthy. Think about what you are putting into your body and make time to exercise. Your body is your greatest asset, take care of it.
6. Invest in your relationships. If there is something you’ve been meaning to tell someone or a relationship you wanted to repair, just go ahead and do it. There is nothing worse than just thinking about what could be, find out.
7. Cut bad people out of your life. These are the people that are always taking from you, whether emotionally or physically. You deserve reciprocity. You need to surround yourself with people that make you feel awesome, so you can be awesome. Every person around you is someone that you chose to keep around in your life, and it will always be your decision to keep them away. Letting go is difficult, but you can always find people that lift you up.
8. Learn a new skill. There is always room for you to improve, but it doesn’t always have to be life changing. Don’t ever feel limited in your growth potential.
9. Meet new people. We all like meeting new people, but not everyone has it in them to strike up conversation. You never know who you will meet or how they will impact your life. Whether you make a new friend or uncover a new business opportunity, meeting new people will open up new paths.
10. Live without regret and never look back. Remove “I could have, would have, and should have” from your vocabulary and stop living in the past. What’s the worst that could happen?
11. Stop caring about what other people think of you. Live the life you want to live, not anyone else’s.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs
Don’t compare yourself to other people, just do you.
12. Cross something off your bucket list. These are the things you actually want to do so go do it. You can always say you don’t have time, but you will only have less time as you get older.
13. Learn to cook. Eating out every day is only going to make you wonder where your money went. Eventually, you will have to learn to take care of yourself, but it’s also a skill you can use to impress that special someone.
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
14. Keep a journal. Writing about things that made you happy in the last 24 hours lets you relive the happiness. Otherwise, being able to look back on how you were feeling and reading what you were thinking at any given time is something you can appreciate down the line.
15. Put family first. I thought about how I would feel if I didn’t have my parents or brother around and if there is anything I would have wanted to say. It gave me every reason to strengthen relationships with family members. Your family cares a lot about you, no matter how much you don’t think so.
16. Help others. “Share it forward,” do good things for the world, even when you have nothing to gain. I read this every morning when I wake up:
“Today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.” – H.H. The 14th Dahlai Lama
Making other people happy and successful will make you happy and successful. If you are not adding value to other people’s lives you are wasting your time.
17. Conquer a fear and learn to embrace failure, remember it is a part of the process. The only time you’re not allowed to fail is when you have not exhausted all your options. If you failed, you did something most people won’t ever do. You tried. If you have trouble starting, stop making excuses and start again. If there is something you want to do, just f*cking do it.
18. Stay off your phone in the company of others. If you can’t appreciate the time you are spending with that person, re-evaluate if that person is even worth your time.
19. Shop locally, eat locally and recognize where your money is going. Support your local small businesses, they are the life line of your community. Imagine if every town in America started to look the same. These mom & pop shops add the character and personality we’re proud of.
20. Take the stairs. We all have to take some small steps to make bigger changes. Being conscious of your most basic habits can start to help you realize areas of improvement.
21. Wake up early. You will fall in love with just having quiet time for yourself. At 6 AM, there is no one to bother you so you can invest some time in yourself. It’s ridiculously hard at first, but it gets easier.
22. Go to sleep earlier. Make it easier for yourself to wake up earlier, you aren’t missing out anything. Nothing good comes after 2 am.
23. It’s okay to express how you feel, it’s not healthy to just bottle everything up. They say those that cry are the ones that have been strong for too long.
24. Read. If you were to write a book today, what would you write about? You would put everything you know into that book. People spend years writing some books but you can read it in a few hours. Reading is one of the best forms of mentorship, you have access to all the knowledge you need.
25. Establish a personal mission statement for how you want to live your life. This should be based on your principles and values, not around other people. Everything around you will always change, however your character and your beliefs are something you can be grounded in. It focuses on what you want to be (character) and to do (contributions and achievements) and on the values or principles upon which being and doing are based.
26. Practice meditation. Meditation is not about thinking of nothing. It helps build your awareness of your own thoughts and how you think about and treat others. With every distraction we have in this world, meditation helps you practice focus so you can appreciate being in the present.
27. Figure out the areas of your life where you want to improve, and ask for help. There are plenty of benefits to having mentors, but make sure you are ready before you start looking.
28. Be proactive, not reactive. Remember, you have the ability to choose how you respond to certain events. It is always your decision to empower any negativity and invest your energies in things that bring you down.
29. Do first things first. We do a lot of things that are not urgent and not important to us but it’s often where most of our time goes. Think about everything that you do and how much it contributes to your overall happiness. If it isn’t helping your cause, don’t do it.
30. Be happy. Life is not about the pursuit of happiness, realize that you have plenty to be happy about. We often think that success will bring us happiness, but you need to be happy with yourself in order to be successful.
31. Start your day by expressing gratitude for what you have. Giving thanks and appreciating what you have allows you to scan the world with a positive mindset to uncover opportunities.
32. Start posting about things that actually matter on social media. Stop posting reactions to celebrities doing stupid things and commenting on things like the injustice of the Trayvon/Zimmerman case. Raise awareness on things where you can make a difference and focus on moving closer to taking action. Expressing disapproval is different from empowering change.
33. Share it forward. You always know more than someone else. If you can share that knowledge to save someone from a world of struggle, why wouldn’t you do it?
34. Drink more water. It is easy to forget how important water is to living. Skip the sugary drinks and make water your new favorite beverage, you will live guilt free.
35. Live in the moment: laugh, chew and taste your food, focus on your breath. Sadly, only a tiny percentage of the people in this world will actually experience their lives today. So many of us will be stuck on another day, another time and place that troubled us and caused us to spiritually stumble, and thus miss out on life as we’re living it.
36. Stop procrastinating. The hardest part is starting. Just commit to two minutes to actually start, and you would be surprised how much further along you will be."
http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/how-to-break-into-the-new-year-the-36-resolutions-that-actually-matter-for-2014/
Have a read for yourself :D
Thanks guys for reading