Grand Finals and Grand Canals- Half Term Holidays

So, as you know last week was the half term holidays! And I thought i'd do a quick post about what I got up to during my week-and-a-bit off..

So I finished work on Wednesday afternoon, so as usual that night was spent making the now too familiar journey into London, where I arrived at 11pm..

A couple of weeks before I had made a bit of an impulse decision, and booked tickets to go to Edinburgh during the half term holidays. Now come Thursday morning I was seriously wondering why the heck I had done this, as all I wanted to do was stay in London and do absolutely nothing, and not spent two consecutive nights trying to sleep on a coach and the day in the middle wondering around a foreign city. However at 9pm on Thursday, after a day of doing absolutely nothing, I headed into London to the Coach station, and on the coach to Edinburgh. For the next 9 hours I tried, and partially succeeded at getting some sleep (I think that 5 weeks of coach travel over the summer helped with this!)

So Friday was spent in Edinburgh, and although I only had the one day there, I absolutely fell in love with the city. It was freezing and windy and hilly, so it felt a lot like home! I spent the first couple of hours wondering around and just for a change, getting wonderfully lost! I stumbled across a lovely park where all the leaves were on the ground and so I just had to run through them...

I got breakfast at McDonalds (can't go wrong with hotcakes and a hashbrown!) and then I got the touristy shopping out the way- the badge and postcard were bought and then I went and found something to do! I hopped on one of the hop-on-hop-off busses and spent the next few hours jumping on and off where ever sounded interesting. I walked up part of Arthur's Seat (you all know how much I hate hiking so half an hour up a hill was more than enough for me!). I wandered up the Royal Mile, got some lunch (I no longer feel weird sitting in a restaurant eating food alone, although people do often stare at you in pity because they think you've been stood up...)

I then had a look in the Edinburgh museum which was so cool! And I think it's one of the prettiest museum buildings I've ever seen! After that I got some dinner, and then went back to the bus station to get my coach back to London!

Some of the wisest words i've seen have been on chalk boards outside pubs. I thought some of you might like this..

Cheeky selfie walking up Arthurs seat

The Queen's residence in Edinburgh

He was wearing a Kilt!!!

Saturday was mainly spent sleeping, as my coach arrived in London at 6.30am, so by the time I got back to Sarah and Martin's I was shattered... The afternoon was dedicated to writing post cards and not a lot else.. I watched movies and watched NZ get into the Rugby World Cup final!!

Sunday was an errands kind of day, I had to get everything sorted for Venice, buy wrapping paper (because I was being super organised), and so the afternoon in late October could have easily been one in December because I spent it wrapping christmas presents!

Monday was another day full of travelling, but it was a nice change because I wasn't alone! Sarah, Sylvia, Charlie and I all made out way to Venice! Now there's not a lot to say about this, as it was mainly trains and planes, but one thing that I found crazy – it took longer to get from home to the airport than it did to get from London to Italy...

Tuesday was where the fun started! We walked to St Mark's square, which was slightly flooded so we walked along the raised boardwalk things they have. We of course had to get some gelato, even though it wasn't very warm, and then we wandered across to the Rialto bridge. Venice is one of those places where you shouldn't follow a map, so we spent the afternoon wandering around and getting good and lost (the only way to properly see a city). We went back to the apartment for an afternoon break and a much needed cup of tea, and then in the afternoon we got the water-bus out to the island of Burano at the suggestion of one of the teachers at work, and I'm so glad we went. It was such a contrast from the bustling streets and crowded squares of Venice, and the houses were all painted bright colours so it looked so different from the off-white houses where we had been that morning.

We wondered around, and Sarah and Charlie got very excited by the local cat population...

After an hour or so wondering around we headed back to our apartment for the night because we were all shattered from all the walking and all the excitement of the day.

Charlie and her new cape in St Marks Square

The next day was very much the same, we walked to St Mark's square and went into the church that's there. Where ususally in the massive European churches you're constantly looking up at the ceiling which is decorated beautifully, in this church I spent most of the time looking at the mosaic floor! While the ceiling was stunning, the constant smoke from the candles made it look quite dirty, whereas the constant flooding had kept the floor lovely and clean..

After the church we walked to the council building, where the ceilings were a lot more detailed and clean, with so much gold and ornate paintings that after about the 10^th room the wow-factor had completley worn off... We walked through the armoury and the jail (across the bridge of sighs!).

It was there that I taught Charlie what a proper hot chocolate should taste like, and I think I've converted her to Italian style hot chocolates!

The afternoon was again spent wondering around the place, taking in all the canals and buildings and boats.

Look at the different coloured marble!

The height of Venetian fashion,,,

You've got to have a mid-flight photo...

Thursday meant going back to London, so there's not a lot to report on that...

Friday was a shopping day for me! I made my way to Stratford and spent a magical few hours walking around the mall there, and then in the evening once I had finished shopping I met up with Adele! I hadn't seen her since Portugal so it was so good to see her again! We went back to Sarah and Martin's and had a good catch up!

Saturday was a fantastic day! We got the train into the city, walked 45 minutes to Oxford Street because we had both been saying how much we miss walking to places rather than always having to get trains. Then we walked to Trafalgar square and we et up with some other friends to watch the Rugby World Cup final! There was such an incredible atmosphere, and we were all wearing our all blakcs jerseys with pride! It was such an insane game, and when we WON the noise was deafening! I lost my voice from screaming at the big screen, and then screaming when we won, and then singing along to all the music! After we walked along the river and had one of those “can you believe life right now?” moments, because we were a group of kiwi's in London having just watched our boys in black make history, looking at Big Ben and the London Eye....

We went back home pretty early tho, and watched strictly before calling it a night..

Walking through Green Park on our way to Oxford Street. I just love Autumn here!

Me and my main man Richie...

Can I just say that none of the rubbish is ours... 

And so came Sunday, and I made the usual trek back to school, still buzzing off the last nights win.

So all in all it was a pretty great half term! Not exactly relaxing – I only had three days where I wasn't travelling somewhere, but it was still great! And so now you know why there were no blog posts – I just didn't have time for any!

Sorry this is such a long post, but I thought you deserved it after waiting so patiently!