Lake Como, Italy

On our final day in Italy, we navigated the local public transport and managed to make it to Lake Como (Lago di Como), 50 miles north of Milan. Nestled at the foot of the Alps, it is known as one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

We wandered around the town of Como, stopping at a restaurant overlooking the water for a light lunch and a couple of cheeky cocktails.

We took a funicular railway up to the mountain village of Brunate and then walked up to the Volta Lighthouse (Faro Voltiano di Brunate) which is located 150 metres above the village and a DECEIVINGLY long walk. However, the unobstructed view from the top was definitely worth all of the complaints about tiredness, dehydration and overheating along the way. We were lucky enough to visit on a fairly clear day and so were able to see the snowy peaks of the Alps in the distance, rising up behind the town of Como below.

As the sun began to set, I got some lovely shots of the lake and its surrounding architecture in the gorgeous low orange light. I love the way the houses are nestled into the hillside, almost blending in to the amazing landscape. 

If you ever find yourself in Milan or northern Italy, or even in the Alps, I would highly recommend taking a day trip to Lake Como! These photos don't even do it justice compared to what it was like in person!

...Introducing Matt, my boyfriend! He put up with my stopping every 5 minutes to get a good photo, gave me a piggy back on the last leg of the walk up to Brunate's lighthouse and even let me pop into Brandy Melville on the way back without even complaining a little bit. (And no, we didn't intend to wear matching outfits!)

Thank you (or should I say grazie) for reading!

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Milan, Italy

After having studied Italian for nearly two years, I thought it was about time to actually visit Italy for the first time and give immersion a go. Although, as always, natives seem to speak an entirely different language to the one you've learnt in the classroom, I still had a lovely few days wandering around Italy! We visited Milan, got a spontaneous train (language skills came in handy here let me tell you) to a city called Pavia and finished off our trip at the infamously beautiful Lake Como. This is the first of three blog posts about my trip, so please do follow me using the links to your left (shameless plug) if you'd like to hear more!

To change it up a bit, I'm going to give you a few words of basic Italian vocab as I go along, so you can wow people with your cosmopolitanism and I can pretend I'm revising for my exams!

I fell in love with the beautiful coloured houses (la casa [sing.], le case [plu.]) with their window shutters and delicate balconies looking out onto the narrow, paved street (la via) below. I feel like if I lived here, I'd have to burst open the shutters and break into song (a la Disney) every day just because.

Milan's Duomo is one of the most stunning pieces of architecture (l'architettura) I have ever seen! Iy did a little bit of research and found out it took over SIX CENTURIES to build - can you imagine starting a project (il progetto) and knowing that not only would you not be alive to see it finished, but neither would your great, great, great grandchildren? 

The roadside flowers (i fiori) were beautiful and stopping gave me a chance to totally embarrass myself in front of some locals in my attempt to put together a sentence! Yay!

Honestly? I took this picture (la fotografia) because I thought it looked "edgy" (not even going to try and translate that one) with the Lana Del Rey lyrics next to a classic Italian Vespa (not even sure whether this is a Vespa but let's go with it)...

I asked Matt (the boyf) to take a photo of me and he took this lovely, perfectly focused gem but I guess I'll take what I can get! Looks like he was more interested in the motorbikes behind me...
ALSO if you follow my Instagram already you'll already know, but I chopped off 15 inches of my hair to donate to the Little Princess Trust to make wigs for children with cancer and alongside this, I am also raising sponsorship money for Coppafeel! If you're feeling generous or simply curious, click here to find out more about the whole thing!
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Morocco: Holiday Outfit #5 (City)

We decided to take a break from relaxing by the pool and travel into the heart of Marrakech to discover the city, the locals and the customs. The tour guide we were allocated only spoke French and Arabic, which although wasn't a problem for me as a French student, my family couldn't understand a word he was saying! Luckily he had a friend who spoke English, who bounced up to meet us with a huge grin on his face, which was the same expression we saw all day on the faces of the locals who met us.

Morocco: Holiday Outfit #4 (Pool)

My days in Morocco were mostly spent by the pool, purely because it was too hot to do anything else and I kept having to jump in to cool myself down! It was definitely a holiday more focused on relaxing than exploring the actual country, but I have had my fair share of those holidays and really just needed some time to chill out after a stressful year.

Morocco: Holiday Outfit #3 (Tennis)

The resort we stayed at in Morocco had two amazing clay tennis courts, which nobody was playing on because it was far too hot (45 degrees Celcius!) My brother is absolutely tennis crazy, so we decided to wake up early every day to play tennis before the heat became too unbearable.

Morocco: Holiday Outfit #2 (Evening)

My general daily schedule while on holiday in Morocco was: wake up at 7am, have breakfast, play tennis, get changed for the pool, sunbathe & read, have lunch, sunbathe & read & swim, get changed for the evening, have dinner, sit in the bar with drinks watching the entertainment. So, I had about 3 outfit changes on a regular day. This outfit is one of my favourites which I wore in the evening.

Morocco: Holiday Outfit #1 (Pool)

I've just come back from an amazing 11 day holiday to Marrakech, Morocco with my family. I took a few photos while I was out there, of some of the outfits I wore, the beautiful hotel and the interesting city itself. I've decided to do a short series of posts, showing you just a snippet of the lovely time I had.

A Trip to London

A few weeks ago, my mum and I hopped on the train to London for a day out. We had quite a busy day and so I thought I'd write a post about some of the places we visited and what we did!

One of the main reasons we went up to London was to visit the King's College London Strand Campus as I am currently trying to decide where I will be going to University in September 2016 (next year eeek!) I was optimistic but when we arrived I knew immediately that it wasn't going to be the place for me. As someone who dislikes stressful environments and large groups of people, you can see why I wouldn't cope with studying in the centre of London, on a main road! Putting the issue of living costs in London aside which I had already been worried about, when I saw the architecture of the building (above) I wasn't too inspired. I'm definitely more in favour of going to a university with old beautiful architecture, such as Oxford, Bath or St. Andrews (although Exeter is really tickling my fancy too right now.)

After that disappointment, we decided to go for lunch as food pretty much solves every problem in my book. I decided I wanted to try out The Good Life Eatery on Sloane Avenue after having read a review of it by Niomi Smart. It is a tiny little café, so tucked away that we almost walked straight past it! They had an amazing selection of wheat free cakes on display in the window, the red velvet taster I had was insane and I really regret not having a whole slice! The interior was quite small and I can see it getting cramped on busy days but luckily we found a table. I ordered a lentil salad which came with quinoa, peppers, apple, and my favourite salad dressing of all time - balsamic vinaigrette (I don't know what it is but I can't get enough of this stuff!). The food came in good portion sizes and was extremely filling due to all the wholesome ingredients.

We took a stroll through Chelsea and Fulham pretending we lived there and looking in awe at the neat, orderly, pristine houses which pleased me very much as I enjoy things looking perfect! I spotted a wine quote which I had a giggle at and thought I'd also share with you guys.

We went for a look around the Science Museum which I was really excited about but wasn't very pleased once we were inside. The exhibitions were interesting but as it was the school holidays there were hundreds of children running around and being generally loud, which really took away from the experience. I'd love to go back there on a quieter day to have a proper look around and release my inner nerd!

We then went to the V&A museum to see their Fashion exhibition which showcases fashion through the ages. I really enjoyed seeing how styles have changed and admiring the amazing details of all the items! One of my favourite pieces was a Chanel sequined trouser suit which was designed when women were getting more freedom around the way they dressed and could finally wear trousers as well as dresses and skirts. Chanel brought out a regular trouser suit and a de luxe sequined trouser suit for the evenings too!

After spending the whole day on our feet, we had a well deserved break in the V&A Café before heading back to Paddington. The decor was absolutely gorgeous and I spent the entire time looking up and admiring the beautiful designs. I had a lovely pot of tea and shared a strawberry shortcake and a Victoria sponge with my mum.

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I had a really lovely day wandering around London with my mum, even though I'm pretty adamant I don't want to spend 3 years there for university! My favourite part was probably the V&A Museum and Café, it was right up my street with interesting exhibitions, beautiful architecture and fantastic cake! I was hoping to see the Alexander McQueen exhibition but unfortunately it was fully booked, so I might have to head back to London for that at some point!

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My French Exchange to Rouen

As you may know, one of my greatest passions in life is for the French language and anything to do with France in general. I was lucky enough to participate in a French exchange between my college and a college in Rouen, and finally the time had come for us to travel over there! The journey was insanely complicated and stressful with three different trains to catch, but we were all so excited that the 12 hours of travelling flew by with card games, word games and just general chatter in both French and English! We got the Eurostar to Paris and then walked through the beautiful city to the other train station, and I think in that tiny space of time I fell in love with it all over again. It's my dream to move to Paris in the future and I was just reminded of how much I want to do that!

Friday

On the first full day, we drove to Caen to see the memorial museum all about the Second World War which was amazing and also very upsetting and made us all reflect on the events of the past. We went to one of the D-Day landing beaches and then to Ohama beach to see the American War Memorial. I was completely blown away by the sheer amount of graves, all white crosses or stars in perfect rows, seeming to stretch on forever. We then went to the Pointe Du Hoc which you may know if you have seen Saving Private Ryan as it is where the soldiers are climbing up the cliffs of Normandy. There are still huge craters in the landscape from where bombs landed. In the evening we went to a crêperie with all of the correspondents and then to a bar for drinks, where I had some of the best white wine I have ever tasted.

Saturday

On Saturday morning we had to go to college with our correspondents as the poor things had school! We sat in on an economics lesson in French which was an odd experience. We then went to the house of the teacher organising the exchange and did some French baking, including chouquettes and madeleines. They tasted amazing and we ended up eating far too much. We went to a big shopping centre with our exchanges but the shops were very similar to the UK so we ended up in yet another bar. In the evening I went to a party at another correspondent's house which was so fun! We played ring of fire in French and it was really nice to talk to all of their other friends whose English is not so advanced as we had to speak French to them with no exceptions. We danced the night away to both French and English music and I had my first (few) tequila shots with salt and lime.

Sunday

On Sunday morning I finally was able to have a lie-in. (I don't know how they cope having school on Saturdays!) Solveig, my correspondent, went out to buy pain au chocolat aux amandes for breakfast and we had a lazy morning talking with her brother, who looked like Alex Turner and was wearing British flag socks as I was there! In the afternoon, we went to see a French film in the cinema with my friend Natalie and her correspondent, who is also Solveig's friend. We were both baffled that we understood it completely without subtitles!

Monday

On Monday we spent a day in the centre of Rouen. We walked through all of the pretty side streets with colourful wooden houses and stopped off in a café for a coffee and popped over the road to a boulangerie where I got the best pain au chocolat aux amandes I have ever tasted. We visited some of Rouen's most famous cathedrals which were absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. We went to the Sienne museum to look at the impressionism which was also a fantastic experience and I found what I think is one of favourite paintings; Claude Monet's Vive la France. We went for lunch and I ordered macarons for desert which were so delicate and delicious. We then had some free time to walk around to shops, but we only managed a bit of shopping before we ended up in yet another bar for more drinks! Solveig and her sister took me out to dinner at a really expensive traditional French restaurant which was absolutely lovely of them. I was so proud of myself as I managed to conduct the entire conversation while we were there in French! As it was our last night, we met up with all of the correspondents for more drinks and to say a little goodbye.

I had some of the best days ever in Rouen and I can't wait to go back again. I have fallen in love with the French language and culture all over again and I know it's what I want to pursue in the future! My French has improved an insane amount and I am so much more confident in my speaking, however I did learn quite a lot of slang which I need to remember not to use in my exam... I'm now in a permanent state of Franglais as I am just using whichever word comes to mind whether it is French or English, much to the dismay of my boyfriend who doesn't speak a word of French!

I hope you enjoyed this slightly wordier post about my time in Rouen as much as I enjoyed my time there and also reflecting back on it by writing this!

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Gifts from my French Exchange

I am taking part in a French Exchange with my school and another in Rouen, France. Last week, my correspondent from France came over to Cardiff for 5 days to experience our language and culture. She was one of the sweetest girls I have ever met, really polite and helpful around the house and so happy and smiley. When she arrived, she was extremely excited to give me some gifts she had brought over from France. They consisted of a lot of food; chocolates, nougat & macarons, as well as some beauty items too, purely by chance! I thought I'd make a quick post showing you the generous gifts she brought, as I thought they were too pretty not to mention on my blog!

I am really excited to try out the L'Oréal Colour Riche lipstick she got me; it looks like the perfect pink colour to transition into spring! I love L'Oréal Paris products and I will be sure to pick her up a few Rimmel London products before I go to Rouen! While we were out shopping in Cardiff on Saturday, we decided to buy matching friendship necklaces to remember each other while we're apart. We chose some beautiful dainty gold necklaces with intertwined hearts.

I had an amazing time with my correspondent, Solveig, and I really missed her when she left. I am so excited to travel to Rouen next month to experience her culture and spend more time with her, as she was so lovely and we got to be really good friends. I'm looking forward to practicing my French - she warned me that hardly anyone can speak English there, and everybody greets you with a kiss on both cheeks! I will be taking my camera to France with me so I can take some photos of Rouen and obviously the beautiful Paris, and then I'll write a blog post documenting my time away!

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Solveig (left) and I (right) smiling away at Roath Park Lake!