Author: addictoftravel

Seaside escape to Brighton

DISCLAIMER: I am lagging in posting my blogs – so bare with me (am currently in Germany – too much travel!!)

Recently, my friend Amelie who was visiting from Munich Germany and I decided to go on a day trip from Cambridge to Brighton. All in all the journey only took about 2hrs – but as we were profusely catching up, the time just went by….

The seaside was only a short walk from the station – roughly about 10mins. When we arrived at the seaside, I couldn’t help feeling slightly disappointed. You see, I was expecting a nice sandy beach where we could bask in the sun for a few hours, chilling. Instead, the entire beach was ROCKY – not even pebbles, they were rocks! And it actually semi-hurt the bottom my foot (I was wearing thin soled shoes – Toms, but still…). After my initial disappointment, I appreciated the fact that the sun was out, blue skies and I was at the sea! We walked along the shore, occasionally stopping to enjoy the scenery.

We arrived at Brighton Pier – which is basically like a fair/carnival just built on a pier – weird if you ask me… but we still explored the pier, I also thought I’d make use of the workers here and asked them about the “Brighton Beach Huts” – total fail! Whomever I asked had no clue what I was talking about (I’m sure they certainly exist!!)

By this stage we were hungry and decided to go for fish and chips – but we couldn’t find anything close by. We ended up going to a little cafe in the vicinity of the Pavilion. Lunch was followed by exploring the grounds of the Pavilion – such a lovely area with nice gardens.

We decided to also go inside and explore this amazing structure – the exterior had a South Asian design, yet the moment you step into the building it was all Chinese – peculiar but grand! We weren’t allowed to take photos inside – but oh how I wish we were allowed. The interior was designed so spectacularly – every inch totally exaggerated, much to King George’s liking ofcourse… The kitchen was HUGE – what I liked about this kitchen compared to other royal displays was the fact that they had on display ALL the copper pots and pans – the things that were actually used for cooking – as opposed to tea cups and saucers…. We spent about an hour in here – the audio guide was brilliant, although some points could have been alot shorter but its easier to skip…

We then decided to go back to the seaside and go on the Volk’s Electric Train – apparently its the oldest running electric train in the world. So we bought our tickets to the “marina” (mind you we had no idea where this was…) and hopped on the train! The train basically took us to the end of the line, to the “marina” where there were fisherman. Nothing too spectacular to see here – unless you wanted to be at the seaside without all the hundreds of people. We then caught the next train back to the pier.

We each bought gelato and sat on the rocks and enjoyed the moment. We were truly impressed by the amazing weather!

What I found strange is that there was alot of development on the actual seaside itself – lots of shops, kiosks hiring out beach chairs, fish and chips stalls – only to name a few. Back home in Australia, thankfully we don’t have any – well at least none on the south coast. I think the beach and the seaside shouldn’t have development and remain original/natural. We humans tend to spoil wherever we go – tis a sad fact…

I would definitely recommend checking Brighton out – a day trip is surely enough. A must is the Pavilion, it was SPECTACULAR! I would have enjoyed the electric train ride if I were 5 – so you can give that a miss…

Quaint Ely

Over the Easter long weekend, my friend Amelie came to visit me from Germany. She is completely obsessed with English afternoon tea, so I thought I’d take her to my recent discovery of Peacock’s Tearoom in Ely.

Ely is a 15min train ride from Cambridge – having said that, I’ve only been there once before and that was only 2wks prior to this visit (I’m actually embarrassed to admit this….).

We made our way to Peacock’s which was only a 10min walk from the train station. The walk is actually quite nice, as it is along the river…

After waiting in line on Easter Sunday (clearly popular) for about 15mins, we were seated in one of the 3 rooms. The decor is unique but tasteful and very Britishly cute with pretty little tea cups hanging on the walls. The menu cover is actually quite amusing – I would definitely read this as it’s a good laugh! Our tea arrived in a cute flowered tea pot, and shortly after our scones also arrived together with Cornish clotted cream and raspberry jam. YUM – it was truly amazing!

After an amazing afternoon tea (Amelie thankfully also agreed that it was AMAZING!), we walked over to Ely Cathedral and boy is it a mammoth of a building – it’s truly spectacular! What intrigued me most were these round large iron structures which were heaters! I’d never seen heaters in a cathedral before, I thought they were brilliant!

We then walked over to Oliver Cromwell’s house which had been turned into a museum. However, we had missed out on the last admission so we couldn’t explore his house.

Ely is a quaint little town which is worth a visit if you are in Cambridge for a while. Regardless, it’s definitely worth a visit even if it’s just for the scones at Peacock’s…

Stonehenge: Simply Surreal

Stonehenge – I couldn’t believe that I was actually at Stonehenge! It was a surreal moment for me as I first lay my eyes upon the mysterious stones…

You see, I remember helping my brother who was in primary school with an assignment about Stonehenge. Ever since then, I had always wanted to see it, and now that I was standing before Stonehenge – I simply couldn’t believe it!

As I was on a tour of Stonehenge (see Bath post for tour details), our guide Matt had organised our tickets and audio guides. We got on a bus from the Visitor centre which took us to the Stonehenge site which was located about 2kms away. When we got off, Matt explained the significance of Stonehenge and the recent developments of the theories surrounding the existence of the structure. Interestingly, the BBC recently showed that due to advancing technology, now researchers from the UK together with Austria have been mapping the entire area via a 3D laser scanner. This has enabled researchers to see through the ground and explore what civilisation looked like thousands of years ago!

Listening to Matt saved me from having to listen to the hour long audio guide – so not a fan!

At our own pace, we then circled Stonehenge. NOTE: you don’t actually get to go right up to it, you’re about 5m away from the structure. BUT if you visit during the Summer or Winter Solstice you are infact allowed to go right into Stonehenge (together with the thousands of people who also visit that day!).

As I walked around Stonehenge, I had a magical feeling – although I can’t quite describe how I felt, it was a unique atmosphere. I took my time circling the structure and enjoyed the moment… As I reached full circle, the wind picked up and I hurried back to the bus which took me back to the Visitor centre.

There was also an exhibition about the civilisation that once lived there – on display were bones, tools, trinkets from years ago. The exhibition is small, so you only need about 10mins or so…

Overall, I really enjoyed Stonehenge and I definitely recommend a visit!

Beautiful Bath

Over the Easter long weekend, I decided to book a day trip tour with Roots Travel to Bath & Stonehenge. I’m not a tour kind of person, but it was convenient as it departed from Cambridge (and kind of a last minute decision…). Given that Bath was about a 2.5hr drive from Cambridge, I thought LETS DO IT and booked online.

Matt was our guide and we were a group of about 12. We arrived about midday and set off on a mini city walking tour. Matt took us to The Royal Crescent and explained the history behind this amazing piece of architecture. It was a prime example of Georgian architecture – and the sheer size of the building was truly amazing! We were told that there were strict rules as to what owners could do to their houses because it was a category 1 heritage building (basically you cannot do ANYTHING to the building despite owning it and paying ALOT of money for it).

We then made our way over to The Circus which was built by the son of the architect who had built the Crescent. I simply couldn’t capture The Circus because it was basically 3 HUGE buildings forming a “roundabout”. I managed to capture one of the three…

As we kept on walking, Matt pointed out Charles Dickens’ house – which had a plaque stating that it indeed was Dickens’ house. We walked past another famous authour’s house – Jane Austen, who apparently disliked the people in Bath at the time as they were the “rich” from the Industrial Revolution and were simply a different kind of rich (Note: If you’ve read Northanger Abbey you will understand). There is also an actual Jane Austen Centre which is a museum and with tea rooms on the upper levels. I didn’t go in as I didn’t have much time (hence why I don’t like going on tours…)

En route to the centre of town we came to a stop infront of an Italian restaurant. Matt explained that this was Beau Nash’s house – who was basically a matchmaker and a witty man. In those days people paid taxes according to the number of windows in their houses, with 6 windows being free of tax. So witty as Nash was, he sealed up 2 windows in order to avoid paying his taxes!!

We continued along to the centre of town and Matt explained the history behind the Roman Baths. Apparently it’s the only Roman bath that is still in operation in the whole world! Standing there, I noticed a really long queue for the recently opened thermal spa right beside it – clearly this was VERY popular….

We were given some free time (about 2.5hrs) which was seriously no where near enough time to explore Bath properly… I had read online that Bath Buns were a must and that Sally Lunn’s was the place to try them. However, 20 other people also had this idea – hence the long queue, so I had to give that a miss….

I went over to the Roman Baths, but the queue was also long here, so I didn’t go in here either. Instead, I went into Bath Abbey (free entrance) – which had amazing somewhat gothic architecture. I also walked along the river and walked across the Pulteney Bridge – it’s similar to the Ponte Vecchio in Florence where when you walk across it and you don’t even realise that you are on a bridge, it’s lined with shops and cafes on either side. After reaching the other side, I walked along the river and admired the bridge and this aspect of Bath…

I randomly walked past a cafe that sold Bath Bun’s, and to be honest, they aren’t anything special – they were nice but I was so glad that I didn’t wait in line at Sally Lunn’s….

My experience of Bath was primarily wandering around the town and taking in the amazing architecture. Matt was a great guide and I’d definitely recommend going on one of his tours. Bath really is a beautiful town and I hope to go back and spend an entire weekend to have the full experience…

The Circus

The mighty Crescent

no.1 The Crescent

The Jane Austen Centre

Dickens’ House

The Circus

Bath Bun’s

I salute you my Australia!

The Circus

Bath Abbey

12 Apostles

We arrived at the 12 Apostles before sunset – YAAY! So we managed to fulfil part 1 of our mission. Part 2 of the mission was to secure a good viewing spot to make our time-lapse and capture awesome shots of the sunset. BUT before we set up we thought we’d explore the National Park a bit…

There are many beautiful things to see here – we only managed to get to one of the viewpoints. There were others that we really wanted to see (e.g. London Bridge – rock formation) but we couldn’t risk not making it back in time to see the sunset at the Apostles. So we made our way back to the Apostles view point.

It was such a surreal moment when I first set eyes on the Apostles – I had wanted to come here for such a long time that I couldn’t believe that I was actually there! There weren’t 12 of them anymore – nature had taken its toll. I think there were 7 or so Apostles remaining, but even then, it was absolutely beautiful. We set up our tripods and began our shoot. About 30 mins later, there were 3 other tripods set up next to us – we weren’t the only ones eager to capture the sunset… Slowly the crowds formed so we were happy that we had secured a brilliant spot. It was about 10pm and we were still there! It hadn’t gotten completely dark yet – but the wind had picked up and we were beginning to get cold. We saw the moon rising and we actually managed to capture this in our time-lapse. We wanted to photograph some stars as well but it was too cold and it hadn’t gotten dark enough for the stars to be easily visible through our lenses – so we decided to call it a night.

If you plan on road tripping along the Great Ocean Rd – definitely spend a good few hours at the 12 Apostles National Park. There are a lot of view points and hikes that you can do that would definitely be worth it. Seeing the sunset at the Apostles is a must – absolutely breathtaking! Also, spread out your trip if you have the time. We wanted to go to the zip-lining park around Cape Otway but it was raining on the day and we thought it wouldn’t have been as fun.

All in all – one of the best road trip destinations with loads to see along the way. You will definitely be stopping every half hour just to take a photo of the amazing coastline of Australia!!

: Yours truly behind the lens…

Roadtrip: The Great Ocean Road

I have always wanted to drive along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. That part of the country is absolutely stunning! So, during a visit to Melbourne, my friend Brooke and I spontaneously decided to go on a mini road trip! The weather was beautiful, company was great – what more could we ask for? Well, it was the Australia Day long weekend – so ALL the accommodation was completely booked out! Stress levels were on the rise but we both really still wanted to go! So instead of making our cortisol levels sky rocket, we packed the tent and sleeping bags and hoped for the best, so we set out on an adventure…

Our first stop was Bells Beach – where the Ripcurl Pro Surf tournament is held. The view was simply amazing! There were a lot of local surfers, it was nice to see some surfing action whilst we were there. The surf was insane – MASSIVE waves, seeing this made me understand why the best of the best come here to compete….

We then had lunch at Apollo Bay – which was absolutely stunning! This town seemed more touristy, nevertheless, it was still beautiful. There was a main promenade with the beach on one side and shops and cafes on the other. The beach looked really nice and flat. We scored the front yard of a caravan park to put our tent up – sorted =)

We continued along to Lorne – which has a really long jetty that local folk fish from. We walked along the jetty and when we reached the end we were utterly surprised to see SEALS! And there were TWO of them! They were so cute – rolling around in the water. There was a group of local kids jumping off the jetty and climbing back up via the ladder. There was one particular girl who couldn’t bring herself to do it. After many failed attempts, she succumbed to peer pressure and actually jumped off! On our walk back, a small boy was screaming with delight. As I looked over, I noticed that he was happy because of the little fish he had caught. At the end of the jetty there is a nice fish and chip shop – so if you do want to grab a bite to eat, this place looked ok…

Our mission was to get to Cape Otway Lighthouse before it closed. However, en route we saw cars parked on the side of the road and people walking around, pointing up. Let me set the scene: we were in the middle of the bush, in the middle of nowhere. Hence greatly surprised to see random scattered cars parked along the way with people pointing up. Then the penny dropped! Our friends had tipped us off about the wild koalas on the way to Cape Otway – REAL WILD KOALAS! So we parked on the side of the road and also began to hunt for koalas – it was like a game of bingo, as soon as you spotted one you would call out to your friend! As an Australian, I’d never seen a koala out in the wild, so you could imagine my delight when I spotted my first one – I was ECSTATIC!! They were so cute, just chilling in the eucalyptus trees…

We made it to the lighthouse and managed to climb up. The tour guide was very informative and enthusiastic about this particular lighthouse. If memory serves me correct, he mentioned that this was Australia’s oldest lighthouse! All I kept on singing was “have you ever, ever felt like this?” – if you grew up in Australia you will know that this was the opening song from the TV series Round The Twist (the family lived in a lighthouse!). Around the lighthouse grounds were colonial accessories – from houses to anchors…

Our next mission was to get to the 12 Apostles so we could make a timelapse of the sunset and also score some awesome shots…

Funky street art of Melbourne

I love street art – living in the UK I am very lucky to see some of the best in the world eg. Banksy. But I must admit, Melbourne has got some really really good street artists.

So I began my mission with a latte in hand (yes I went to Lorca at Centre Pl again and the same hipster barista made my coffee AGAIN!!) and wandered over to the well-known lanes: ACDC and Union. I got to see a piece by Vexta (the skull with the fluoro geometric shapes) who is my favourite street artist – I even met her a few years ago at Circular Quay in Sydney where there was a street artists festival, she was super cool! In general, I did see some nice work here but the crowds were annoying me…

I walked up near RMIT (in the north of the city) as Google had told me that there was street art in this area. Indeed, I saw amazing work here. My favourite were the cardboard cut outs – so creatively cute! It didn’t take me long to see all the work in this area though…

Not feeling satisfied, I decided to catch a tram to Brunswick St which is the main/high street of the suburb Fitzroy. As I got off the tram, I immediately saw a huge piece on the side of a café and I thought oh my word this is definitely the place to be! I was very excited to see so many large pieces here – just about every building had artwork. To be honest, I simply didn’t know what the best way was to capture the street art… I was getting strange looks from all the chefs that were having a break in the laneways (SLRs sure are loud!) but they didn’t bother me – I was having too much fun!

I came across a car park (The Rose Car Park) and I thought I had hit the jackpot! It was entirely covered with street art and I don’t mean just skillful tags, these were actual graphics – TRULY AMAZING!! I think I spent about half an hour in the car park just admiring all the work…

I was short for time so I didn’t get to explore the other suburbs of Melbourne for street art. Brunswick St is only a short tram ride (max. 15mins) from the city and you will definitely see some brilliant street art there. Sure the lane ways in the city also have some amazing work, but these are mostly tags and are overcrowded with people… With latte in hand, I truly did have an amazing street art experience in Melbourne and I definitely recommend it!

Vexta

Cosmopolitan Melbourne

On a recent trip back home to Sydney, Australia in January, I wanted to visit my good friend Brooke, who lives in Melbourne. Months ago we had bought our tickets to the Australian Open Round 3 and were now super psyched to be finally going! We also were hoping that we’d get to see one of the top seeds ie Rafa or Roger!! But that wasn’t till later in the evening. So I had some exploring to do around Melbourne.

Upon Brooke’s recommendation, I made my way to Centre Place, which is just between Flinders Lane and Collins Street. Oh my word, was I lost for words – this lane way was AMAZING! You could really get high from the amazing coffee fumes coming out from each of the hipster cafes! I walked the length of the lane way, just to absorb the atmosphere – it really did remind me of Europe. I saw the big orange sign with “Lorca” written on it and made my way over to kick start my morning with a latte. The barista was so friendly and über hipster, he handed over my latte with a smile and I was on my way. With an awesome coffee in one hand, I was ready to start aimlessly wandering around Melbourne on a gorgeous sunny day.

I found myself in front of the State Library and given that I’m a lover of architecture I decided to go in (plus it’s free!). The inside was simply spectacular – it had a neo-classical feel to it. I came across Ned Kelly’s infamous steel helmet and attire – which had been polished so much that it was giving off a shine. We actually learnt so much about Ned Kelly and other bushrangers in primary school – something that I find odd now that I look back (I mean he was a thief!). I made my way to the “dome room” and I actually spent a lot of time in here – I was in awe of the beauty of the architecture: a dome white roof with windows, with white balcony’s along the walls coming down and the ground had parquetry floors with desks that had green lamps, ahhh so nice!

Next up was the Melbourne Botanic Gardens – and I had a lot of fun photographing the bees amongst the flowers (thankfully none of them stung me!). There was also a war memorial in the gardens – it was a mammoth of a building!

I had to meet Brooke in St Kilda, so I caught a tram from the city. I actually ran into an old friend on the tram that I went to uni with and I hadn’t seen him in 10 years – just goes to show what a small world it truly is! I didn’t like St Kilda too much – it had a Miami-esque vibe, which I’m not too fond of (exaggerated tanned people with a weird sense of what constitutes swimwear…).

The Australian Open was AMAZING!!! It turned out that we were seeing Rafa play against some guy who wasn’t even seeded, plus Maria Sharapova playing against a non-seeded girl. We got to the arena a bit early (NOTE: definitely use public transport – works so well!) to explore, there were loads of activities to do. We heard a bunch of kids asking the security guard where the players were warming up, we thought it was a grand idea, so we followed the kids. We actually got to see Fernando Verdasco warming up – which was super cool! The matches we were watching were in Rod Laver Arena. The women played first – it was a great match, despite Sharapova grunting and of course defeating the non-seeded girl. Then the men came out and boy did the crowd cheer for Rafa! He wasn’t feeling too well but he gave it his all and won in 3 sets. The final set was the most entertaining one as his opponent actually made him fight for it. After the match when Jim Courier was interviewing him, Rafa even made a few jokes and thanked the crowd for the support…

Overall, Melbourne was great, as usual. The public transport system is really good, they have something similar to an Oyster Card (London) which works on all forms of transport. If you do get a chance to go to Melbourne, make sure you indulge in the great coffee!! If you do want to go to the Australian open – the tickets went on sale in September 2014, so make sure you purchase your tickets in advance to avoid disappointment, as they definitely sell out!

Centre Place: amazing place for coffee, especially from Lorca

State Library

spectacular dome room of the State Library

State Library

State Library – love the geometry

State Library

Shakespeare in the State Library

Ned Kelly’s gear

State Library

one of the many shopping arcades…

shopping arcade

alot of the window displays had a tennis theme

St Kilda Beach

Theatre at St Kilda

St Kilda beach

Luna Park in St Kilda (Sydney one looks way better!)

St Kilda

The Yarra River

War Memorial at the Botanic Gardens

Botanic Gardens

inside the War Memorial

YAAY we’re at the Open

some unknown tennis player signing autographs

Verdaso warming up

Rod Laver Arena

Post-match Nadal interview

Inca Trail Photos

Day 4 Inca Trail – The Summit on my 30th!

The guides had woken us up well and truly before sunrise, in order to get seats at the final gate (just in case it rained…). I was feeling horrible – I couldn’t even put breakfast down my throat. I could barely walk… at least we got to the gate early so we did manage to get seats. An Irish couple gave me some tablets for my upset tummy – I wished so bad that the drugs would kick in immediately… the Turtles stuck with me as I was walking very very slowly… I simply didn’t have the energy to walk at all. They force fed me an energy bar and juice. A friend carried my day pack for me, which helped me immensely – total lifesaver!! Just as we got to the base of the “sun gate” I was faced with the worlds most steepest stairs – which didn’t even look safe. I don’t know how I managed to get up without cracking my head, but I managed YAAY!

The rest of the group had managed to secure a good vantage point to see the sunrise above Macchu Picchu, so we joined them. I simply wanted to sit down. To everyone’s disappointment, the clouds did not part. The “faster” portion of the group continued to walk to Macchu Picchu, whereas I needed some more time, so the Turtles waited with me. We were somewhat lucky, the clouds parted for about 5 minutes and we saw Macchu Picchu in all its glory – but it wasn’t long enough. We decided to continue our walk and we made it to Macchu Picchu. Close up it was far more amazing. To be honest, the view from the Sun Gate was abit of an anti-climax. But seeing it up close, was AMAZING!

Our guide took us to a few sites and explained the importance. After this, we had free time to explore the Incan site ourselves. It was really cool to be wandering around and taking in our surroundings…

All in all, wandering around Macchu Picchu was truly SPECTACULAR!

We then made our way to Aguas Calientes to catch up with our group. (NOTE: do not spend a lot of time here, it isn’t a very nice place, all the prices are severely inflated).

We bid our farewells to our Inca Trail guides: Angel and Clisor, then caught the train and bus back to Cusco.

We spent one final night in Cusco, where we went for wood fire pizza in celebration of my 30^th. The group had even chipped in to buy me a gift – which was very very thoughtful. Our night of fun continued at karaoke – this was sooo much fun! One of the guys even sung “Single Ladies” by Beyonce, which brought the house down!!! I had a very enjoyable and memorable 30^th =)

Addict Of Travel

live the adventure

Author: addictoftravel

Seaside escape to Brighton

Quaint Ely

Stonehenge: Simply Surreal

Beautiful Bath

12 Apostles

Roadtrip: The Great Ocean Road

Funky street art of Melbourne

Cosmopolitan Melbourne

Day 4 Inca Trail – The Summit on my 30th!