I'm 25! And that means if I want to pretend to be a tourist in my hometown, I will!
Okay so credit where it's due: I first spied this route on Secret London. I had it filed away for a not-so-rainy day and my birthday being at the end of August seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it out.
According to my Strava, it took us just over two hours to complete the 10km walk and pretty much hit every possible landmark: Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, The Mall, Buckingham Palace...
St James's Park, Westminster and Big Ben (sadly undergoing repairs while we were there), the the London Eye and the Southbank...
The Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and then over the Millenium Bridge...
To St Paul's Cathedral, then along Cannon Street (where we stopped for tea and cake)...
Past Monument...
And Tower Bridge and the Tower of London...
To finish at St Katharine Docks where we got two eye wateringly expensive pints at the delightful Dickens Inn.
In hindsight, my beat up pair of Converse were not the best shoe choice for this walk. Were I doing it again, I'd be in some nice walking shoes or something with arch support but I still had a lovely time and we had gorgeous weather. I fully endorse this walk!
Long time, no holiday! The last time I was out of the country was a my trip to Bruges (quaint, delicious waffles, A+, would recommend) back in April 2018 so this was long overdue!
Sorrento has been on my revisit list for a long time now. I first went almost 10 years ago with my family. Sitting opposite Mount Vesuvius in the Bay of Naples, there is so much to do but life is much more relaxed than Naples itself. If you want to get busy and see all the Roman ruins, you can, but it's just as nice to laze about the pool and stuff your face with pasta. And I'll be honest, the food was the main reason I was back.
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As is my preference for a summer holiday, we operated a day-on, day-off mode of exploring the area: a day exploring, a day reading and enjoying the view from the hotel:
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And it was a nice view!
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In a slightly off the beaten track decision, we hiked from the hotel in Sant Agata due Golfi (up in the hills, which is how we got that fantastic view) and walked down to the abandoned fishing village of Crapolla, way down in the cliffs on the Amalfi Coast.
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There's a dinky little train that goes from Sorrento to Naples, and stops at Pompeii and Herculaneum along the way (also where you'd get a bus to climb Vesuvius). It's never 100% on time but it'll get you where you need to go for a decent price.
However, don't rule out what you might consider a tourist trap straight away! We managed to find a Vesuvius and Vineyard tour for a very reasonable price. Entry to the National Park, time to hike, and then to a private vineyard for a three course meal and six glasses of wine (we were rolled back onto the bus).
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Lacryma Christi is a protected-status wine from the slopes of Vesuvius and is delicious. Highly recommended if you can find it! The name comes from a story that Jesus looked down on the Bay of Naples from heaven and thought it was so beautiful that he cried. Lacryma Christi.
Continuing with The Year of Creativity, I decided to try my hand at paper flowers - or roses to be more specific!
This project is one of those I had put on the backburner for a rainy day. With it being the long weekend over Easter, I found myself with some spare time and although it is decidedly the opposite of a rainy day today (20C and sunny, yes please!) I got cracking.
I had most of what I needed lying around already but these flowers do call for a hot glue gun and crepe paper. Crepe paper is regular tissue paper that's been coated with sizing (a kind of glue) so it holds its form if you crease it. It's also a bit more durable than regular tissue paper which I needed as the paper would be getting wet. It's not that rare but did require a trip to Hobbycraft (which unfortunately for me is two bus journeys away - boo).
When I had returned home victorious and got started, it turns out a little crepe paper goes a long way. I bought three packs of white paper and I only used half of one for this trial attempt. At least I'm stocked up now for future flowers!
To begin, I cut out petals from the paper. I tried to keep things vaguely realistic by making the folds of the paper go vertical up the petals. Then I mixed some acrylic paint together. You don't need to use any special colours for this - just a decent amount of white, and a small amount of of red and yellow. Although the petals dry lighter, colour (especially red) goes a long way when added to white.
Placing a petal over a jar/unimportant pot/scrap paper, I misted them until they were damp (here you'll learn how thick your paper is, go easy on the water until you've got an understanding of what you're dealing with!). Gently begin adding colour to your petals!
Let them dry and peel them off their surfaces. I've seen some people speed up the process by putting the dish in the microwave for for 15-30 second bursts but as it's a long weekend and sunny(!), I wasn't in a particular rush.
I nipped out into the garden and uh, relieved a hebe bush of a burdensome twig. In future I'll be on the lookout for larger, fallen branches as it will allow for larger flowers. I hot glued the petals together, beginning with a curled petal and working out. The buds were similar only scrunched up smaller.
And here is the finished flower! I'm really happy with this as my first attempt and it's lovely in my flat. Plants (both real and 'fake' like this) are slowly taking over the the flat and I am absolutely okay with it. Perhaps I'll try my hand at another species next time...
