Life Travels | London Adventure: Brunch at Muriel's & The Natural History Museum

After two days of walking miles on end we started our final day in London a little later than expected. But our lazy sleep-in just gave us an excuse to head to Muriel's Kitchen for a spot of brunch. 

Life Travels | London Adventure: Harry Potter & Butterbeer

Hi guys I have another London adventures blog post to share with you today and this one is quite special. 

Life Travels | London Adventure: V&A, Southbank and Wahaca

I'm back with a new blog post that I've been very excited to share with you. Over the bank holiday weekend my boyfriend and I headed off to London to celebrate his birthday early. He had never been before and I'm always up for a Fundon adventure, so with 3 days to see the city we jumped straight into sightseeing after hopping off the plane Saturday morning.

A Weekend of Food & Fun in Cork

So late weekend my boyfriend and I decided to head off to Cork for the weekend to give ourselves a mini getaway. I recently got my driving licence (yay) so we took advantage of the family car to do the 3 hour drive in style. 

As it turns out it's very hard to do any exploring when it's wet and windy so to be honest we spent the weekend going from one eatery to another....

On our last night we decided to visit Scoozi, an Italian that showed with with great reviews on TripAdvisor. Inside, your surrounded with a cosy, warm atmosphere and decor consisting of old china plates hung on the wall, cottage floral wallpaper and regal chandeliers. 

I went for an easy vegan no cheese pizza with a delicious crispy base and spicy sauce and the boyfriend went for an interesting hazelnut and pesto burger.

For dessert I opted for some vegan chocolate buttons I had in my bag but the boy went all out on some Mars Bar cheesecake. 

I have to admit I may have tasted a bit and it was really delicious. I'm usually not a big fan of cheesecake but this one had a fluffy, light textured filling as opposed to the traditional, more solid filling. A solid 5/5!

We decided to finish the night off with a walk up the hill in the rainy mist to get a bird's eye view of the city.

(make it quick before you get run over!)

I think this weekend was really needed by both of us and I can't wait for our trip to London in a few weeks time!

Thanks for stopping by.

Ciara xx

Vegan Food Heaven in Barcelona

Hey guys,

I've been so excited to share this post with you because it's all about one of my favourite things, food. And delicious vegan food too!

Now my family and I had been in France for 3 days before my sister and I went to Barcelona for a night. Let me tell you, from my times in Paris and general experience of eating in France, being vegan there is pretty tough. They love their cheese, their meats and you'll find a bit of something animal-based in nearly everything you pick up in a shop or look at on a menu. While I try be plant-based like 99% of the time because that's what I find makes me feel good I don't mind if there's maybe a little bit of milk hidden somewhere in my cereal or bread. France however was another story because save for bread and super oily deep fried chips there wasn't anything nice and nutritious for me to eat. That's why I was super excited to go to Barcelona because after a quick Google search I found loads of cool looking vegetarian and vegan restaurants to go to.

So without further adieu lets get the ball rolling.

Gopal Vegan Deli Shop

This place was seriously the best! They mainly serve 'beef', 'chorizo', 'chicken' sandwiches and burgers with sides like chips, salads or patatas bravas. My sister went for their house 'Gopal Buger' and I went for the 'Chorizo' Sandwich with a side of fries that came with a tasty dipping sauce.

But the best part about this place were hands down the donuts! I wish I had a few more days to try them all because they were seriously good. The first night I had a chocolate and coconut combo which was tasty but the next day, our last day, I went for the Oreo donut which stole 1st prize. They legit taste like regular donuts if not better because they're not as heavy.

CatBar

We went to CatBar for dinner to try out their burgers I had read so much about. So good guys, so good. My sister isn't vegan and she loved them too. 

Boqueria Market

You can find so much good food here so it suits vegans, vegetarians and standard diets alike! We went to one of the many awesome fruit vendors to pick up breakfast. All this gorgeous food for €5!

So yeah Barcelona was great all-round: food, weather, amazing beach, sites and shopping. I'm definitely going to have to go back for longer next time.

Driving Around France

Last week my parents, sister and I went on a trip to the south of France to do a bit of exploring. We rambled around towns around the Mediterranean coast of France right along the coast of Spain. While we didn't get any rain (thankfully!) it was quite windy and chilly so a heavier coat was definitely needed. 

I thought I'd share a few of the photos I took along the way.

First Stop: Collioure

I really liked Collioure with its old town, colourful buildings and blue beach. 

Following any one of the many side streets and archways leads you to stumble upon pretty colourful houses. 

Next Up: Béziers

Béziers turned out to be a quite a nice city with lots of old churches, museums, French history and a gorgeous view.

Canet-en-Roussillon

I think I liked Canet in particular because it was the first warm, sunny day we had had all week. That being said, it was still a lovely seaside town that I'd say is lively during the summer.

I'll cut this post short here for now because it's getting a little lengthly, but more to come!

Let me know where you've been travelling to recently?

Thanks for reading,

Ciara xx

Musée D'Orsay and the River Seine |Exploring Paris 4

Last Paris blog for you today! So sad that I don't have an excuse to keep looking back through my photos reliving the holiday...


On our last day we had planned to go to the Catacombs, the resting place of some six million people, yes very morbid but it matched the tone of our last day. However when we arrived bright and early the line was already stretched halfway around the park behind the entrance and after and hour of waiting we decided we were not going to waste another second. Off we trotted to the Musée D'Orsay.

After you're welcomed by this breathtaking room (we literally gasped as we walking in) you can take your time looking at Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh and pretty much any impressionist you can imagine! 

After soaking up all of that culture we went for a stroll in the sun along the river Seine and sat down by Pont Neuf.

A perfect ending to a brilliant holiday! If anyone is thinking about going to Paris I'd highly recommend it! Even better if you can get to see Paris on a sunny day, it makes all the difference ;)

Thanks for reading,

Ciara xx

Palace of Versailles & Le Tour Eiffel |Exploring Paris 3

So as my Paris trip blogs continue, today I'm bring you along to the Palace of Versailles and Eiffel Tower.

We managed to haul our over walked legs out of bed early that morning and fuel our bodies with a pain au chocolat from a local bakery and some fruit. Eating on the go we made our way to Gare du Nord and hopped on an RER C train to the palace.

When we arrived it was only a short walk, one might call it a warm up for the amount of walking there is to do around the gardens, and found the grand palace entrance. Once again we took advantage of the free admittance for all EU residents under 25 and walked straight in!

Missing something very key for imitating this statue!

The palace is a massive place of gold, grandeur and luxury.

After being blown away by the brilliance that was the palace we went back into central Paris, stopped off at the hotel, had a bite to eat and then used our Metro skills to visit the lit up Eiffel Tower! Walking around the glowing structure whilst munching on nutella crepes was just a perfect ending to the day.

Day 3 over and done in Paris! So sad that there's only one more day left but I must say it's a good one.

Thanks for reading,

Ciara xx