That flighty temptress, adventure

This is my tumblr dedicated to my exchange and travels in Europe.

[that-flighty-temptress]

Probably should have made an announcement ages ago, but I'm home now.

I obviously got lazy towards the end of my trip which was very hectic and loads of fun.

Here are some photographic gems from my last 6 weeks abroad.

Courthouse in Brussels.

Obviously in Amsterdam.

Bikes and canals, bikes and canals....

And so we enter Eastern Europe.

Inside the Kutna Hora Bone Church.

Hell on Earth.

The Clothworkers Market in Krakow

Casual tank ride in Slovakia.

Parliament House in Budapest.

Outside the markets in Budapest.

Plitvice National Park, also known as paradise.

See?

Roof tops of Dubrovnik old town.

We had a 12 hour stopover in Belgrade. It was questionable.

Overlooking Fira, Santorini

The Red Beach on Santorini

The Acropolis. Can't say much else about Athens

Barcelona

Inside the La Rambla markets in Barcelona

San Sebastian

Delicious Pinchos in Santander

and some churros as well

The Vatican

We visited the Trevi Fountain 3 times. So the myth must be true...

The best gelato of my life...meringue and watermelon.

Sneaky shot of David in Florence.

Overlooking the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge in Venice.

I never posted anything from my time in London, but I guess we all know how brilliant that place is!

[that-flighty-temptress]

Where I currently am.

[that-flighty-temptress]

Embarking on my 6 week Euro-trip tomorrow!

Belgium, Holland, Prague, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Greece, Spain and Italy, I'll be seeing you soon!

(just managed to get the flu as well so this should be rather fun)

[that-flighty-temptress]

It upsets me that I'm on the other side of the world but am still being subjected to a running commentary of the State of Origin on Facebook.

Such a shit game.

And I apologise for the lack of posts recently. My life here in Leeds has been crazy hectic with many assignments, an encroaching exam and trying to make the most of my last few weeks in the UK.

I'll post about some of my London and Yorkshire adventures soon!

[that-flighty-temptress]

Excitement!

I have just booked my final place of accommodation for my epic 6 week Europe trip. We decided to stay in this lovely place just outside Venice, which will be our last stop before heading home. We booked through Airbnb which is a really great site. People let out rooms or their entire apartments, and it's a great way to get affordable accommodation in good areas.

My sister and friend are also coming to visit me in Leeds this weekend, and I'm so excited! It will be nice to get away from the essays for a few days, visit York, go to Jamie's Italian and show them around the place that has become my home. 

[indieleather]

Seeing Pond at Cockpit before heading over to Propaganda for a Bloc Party DJ set on the 19th May?

[that-flighty-temptress]

Sounds like my ultimate night out in Leeds.

[that-flighty-temptress]

Things I miss about home.

I was standing outside Tesco with my friend today, waiting for our taxi in the pouring rain. We were discussing what we miss about Australia, so I thought I'd make a list.

Gaytimes

Red Rock Deli Chips

Grainwaves

Tim tams

Twisties

Skittles and starburst (they taste WRONG here)

Confectionary in general, but especially Allens

proper fruit and vegetables, not frozen crap in bags

bakeries (they're few and far between around here)

Proper scorching heat, where you can actually feel your skin burn. Weird, I know

having a dishwasher

being able to drive places

being able to dry clothes on a line outside

having a proper queen size bed and mattress

playing netball and taking my dog for walks

my parents' cooking

my friends

my family

my dog

That being said, I do love it here and there are a lot of things Leeds has, which Sydney does not. Doesn't make me miss things though

[that-flighty-temptress]

I've reached that fun part of exchange.

Doing all the assignments I've left to the last minute because I was busy having fun.

Blergh.

[indieleather]

Visit Original Link

[that-flighty-temptress]

Your Eyes - Bombay Bicycle Club

Off to York tonight to see BBC! I've never been to York, so this should be quite a laugh if I've underestimated my travels plans. Whatever, it will be awesome.

[that-flighty-temptress]

I think I have just discovered the most golden solution to an annoying travel glitch.

My friend Kim and I bought return tickets from Sydney to Frankfurt, thinking Frankfurt was a great travel hub and easy to get back to.

Yeh, so it is, but it's also really boring to be in.

Our flight home is scheduled for the 11th July, the day after my birthday, and there is no way I wanted to spend my 22nd in Frankfurt. I'm sure it's nice to live there, but it's not a lot of fun being there as a tourist.

The plan was to end in Rome, however, I have just found a rather cheap Ryanair flight from Venice to Frankfurt late on my birthday which is perfect!

Being Ryanair, they are not going to the main airports, but close enough to the actual destination that this sorts out a lot of the problems. 

Ahhhh travelling, so hard to organise at times.

[that-flighty-temptress]

Paris, je t'aime

Not gonna lie, this city is as awesome as everyone says. I was blessed with amazing weather and perfect company the whole week and got to see everything I wanted and more.

I had been freaked out by many stories about Paris. The seedy men, the gypsies who steal your things and the generally snooty behaviour of Parisians. Don't listen to these people! Yes, the men leer a bit, but you can ignore them. I hardly saw any gypsies, and although I could speak hardly any French you can easily get by because everyone can speak English - just always remember to say Bon jour!

On the first day my friend took me on her tour of Paris, where we saw the Bastille, wandered around the Marais, saw the Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, visited the Invalides, chilled in glorious gardens and ate awesome French food for dinner. Yes, their food is to die for!

The next day I visited the Cimetiere du pere lachaise to see the graves of Jim Morrison, Chopin, Modigliani, Gertrude Stein, Edith Piaf, Appollinaire, Proust, Oscar Wilde and Sarah Bernhardt. It took about 2 hours to find them all and you definitely need a map because the cemetery is epic.

Then I visited St Chapelle, which has stunning stained glass, and the Conciergerie where Marie Antoinette was held before being executed.

On Monday I visited the Louvre and only spent about 2 hours there. I'm not obsessed with art, and travelling around Europe definitely gives you museum fatigue. I saw all the main pieces though, and was able to get up close to the Mona Lisa. I then had a rest in the Tuileries before visiting the Musee de l'orangerie to see Monet's beautiful water lillies.

On Tuesday I visited the Pantheon to see the tombs of Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and the Curies (yeah, I saw a lot of graves this week) before visiting the Musee D'Orsay (amazing Van Goghs, Monets and Renoirs) and then walked along the Seine. I had time to kill so decided to climb the Eiffel Tower which you MUST do!

On Wednesday my friend Natalie and myself travelled out to Versailles. The place is ridiculously extravagant and I guess you can see why the people rose up against the aristocracy. We spent the day wandering the Palace and then the grounds, chilling in the sun. It was lovely!

At night we had a picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower to see it sparkle, another must!

On my last day we grabbed the most awesome falafel ever, recommended by Lenny Kravitz before heading north (to the dodgy part of Paris) to see the Sacre Coeur and the Moulin Rouge. Then we ventured back to see the Arc de Triomphe and wander down the Champs Elysees, finishing the day off with a delicious ice cream!

So Paris is amazing. GO THERE!

[that-flighty-temptress]

The Emerald Isle

Sorry for the lack of up to date posts. I'm back in Leeds for 5 days to do assignments before heading to London for 10 days. ahhhhh life.

So during the first week of my 4 week Easter break, my friends Kim, Anna and myself headed over to Ireland for St Patrick's and then to travel around.

We started in Cork, took a day out to kiss the Blarney Stone, then had an awesome St Patrick's, watching the parade before spending the afternoon and evening drinking and dancing in this amazing Irish pub/club.

From Cork, we travelled onto Kilkenny which is this cute little Irish town. Then we moved onto Dublin which was probably my favourite place in the Republic, and definitely where I would choose to live.

The Brazen Head is the oldest pub in Ireland and had awesome food. We also visited Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, went to Kilmainham Gaol and also took a trip to the Guinness Brewery (I kinda hate Guinness!)

Next we went up to Belfast in Northern Ireland where we took a day trip along the coast and saw the Giant's Causeway. We were blessed with awesome weather and could even see Scotland!

From Belfast we travelled onto Derry which was a really lovely city with it's mile long wall. We went to the Free Derry Museum and went on a walk around the Bogside with an former IRA member to see the painted murals on the gable ends. The stories he told and the exhibits in the museum about the Troubles and Bloody Sunday were absolutely shocking. I highly recommend others to go there and see what it was like for the community not so long ago and what the British Government only recently apologised for. Mankind can be so cruel.

[that-flighty-temptress]

Edinburgh

Last weekend I took a trip up to Edinburgh. My friend Caroline studies there, and my friends Nat and Kim who are also on exchange in Europe at the moment came as well.

I have a rather extreme obsession with Scotland. I have Scottish heritage on my Dad's side, so being a super tourist, i bought a kilt in my clan tartan (yes, I know it's a Victorian marketing gimmick, but I don't care).

We spent Friday exploring the Royal Mile which is absolutely crammed full of souvenir stores - we may or may not have visited most of them.

We went to a David Bowie party on Friday night with Caroline's friends until 4am which meant we woke up rather late. We were meant to do a walking tour of Edinburgh but we decided to climb Arthur's Seat instead.

We then visited Holyrood Palace, the Queens Royal residence in Edinburgh before going to Edinburgh Castle to wander around and see the crown jewels!

After the castle we decided to visit Elephant House Cafe - the place where J.K. Rowling sat and wrote Harry Potter!

On Sunday we decided to do a tour of the Highlands with Hairy Coo Tours. I had so much fun, and definitely would have paid more if I had the cash in my wallet. Our tour guide was really excellent, and told us all about the history of Scotland and Edinburgh whilst he drove, and played excellent Scottish music as well. We saw the William Wallace Monument, Stirling Castle, Lochs, fed Hairy Coos, and visited the castle where Monty Python was filmed!

The William Wallace Monument

My friend Kim, and the Hairy Coo (Cow) Fiona lol

On my last day we visited the National Museum of Scotland and saw Dolly the sheep, the first animal cloned in the world - sadly now stuffed and in a case.

We had amazing weather the whole time we were in Edinburgh - I feel like I'll return home to Australia with the wrong idea about the UK's climate, but I'm not complaining!

[that-flighty-temptress]

Oxford

A few weeks back my friends and I went on a day trip to Oxford. I tried to do a blog on this last week but for some reason tumblr was being lame with the pictures so here we go again.

Oxford is amazing. I simply cannot imagine studying there, it's basically a fairytale university. We visited Christ Church College where they have the Great Hall, staircase and grounds used in the Harry Potter films. Absolutely stunning.

The stairs were McGonagall met the first years!

We then wandered around town, saw the Radcliffe Camera, Bodleian Library and climbed Carfax Tower.

The Bridge of Sighs

The Great Hall

And then the best part of all...seeing Emma Watson out shopping with her boyfriend!

[that-flighty-temptress]

Plans for my Easter break

I just spent a couple of hours planning part of my 4 week easter break with my friend Anna. Planning these trips gets rather complicated when you are squeezing a lot into a limited space of time, but it's also a lot of fun.

Anna, Kim and myself are going to Ireland/Northern Ireland for the first week, mainly for St Patricks Day, but we also want to see as much as we can whilst we're there.

We aim to arrive in Cork on the 15th, visit Blarney and Killarney on the 16th, spend the 17th in Cork getting very drunk and being jolly in green, then move on to Kilkenny, Dublin, Belfast and finally Derry!

From Derry I fly to Paris to spend a week with my friend Natalie who lives there, and then I think I may visit Amsterdam and Belgium before returning to Leeds to face a rather large mountain of uni work.

EXCITEMENT.

[that-flighty-temptress]

NME Tour in Leeds!

I walked to O2 Academy in Leeds on Wednesday night for the NME Tour. (I still can't get over the fact that I can walk to my city centre. But that's another story).

Azealia Banks was kind of hilarious. She can rap really really fast but all I remember was her having a hilarious DJ who was more fun to watch than her, and her repeating 'MAKE SOME FUCKING NOISE LEEDS!'. No one really did lol.

Tribes were great to watch but nothing too amazing. All the 14 year olds around me knew the words so I felt somewhat left out of the fun lol.

Metronomy were awesome. They were really great live and the lights they have on them when they play were fabulous.

Two Door Cinema Club were simply amazing. They had such a great set and judging by the new songs they played, their second album will be just as good as Tourist History. I also smacked all these young girls out of the way to get the setlist. Win for me! But again I ask, why is Ben not an official member of the band? He really should be :(

Unfortunately for me, I had a couple making out in front of me for the first 3 performances - I do not understand why you'd leave just before the headliner, but it let me get to the front for TDCC so whatever. Hooking up in mosh puts needs to be made illegal. Why the fuck did you come to the show if you're just going to be sucking face the whole time? At least they left.

I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that I got to see Azealia Banks (lol), Tribes, Metronomy and Two Door Cinema Club for $30 AUD. Going to gigs in Australia from now on in is going to break my heart.

[that-flighty-temptress]

The Lake District and life in Leeds so far.

I've been busy busy busy with life recently and feel like a total bum for neglecting this blog. I'm absolutely loving life here in Leeds. The weather is surprisingly so much better than I expected and it hardly ever rains. We even have days of wonderful sunshine.

This is the Parkinson Building - the main building at the University of Leeds!

Last Saturday I went to the Lakes District which was absolutely beautiful. The place we visited - Windermere - was covered in really deep snow which was so much fun to muck around in.

We walked to the top of this lookout and then wandered around the town before visiting the Beatrix Potter Museum for tea with scones and jam! I definitely want to go back sometime in summer.