A Short Break In Iceland

The week before last I was lucky enough to be able to tag along on a work trip with Thomas. He'd gone to Reykjavik the previous week to conduct interviews with activists there, and I flew out to meet him on Sunday.

I've actually been to Iceland twice before; once with my friend Lesley, and once with Thomas a couple of summers ago (photos from that trip are here). So it was quite nice to be able to chill out on this trip, rather than feeling frantic about needing to see all the sights and visit all the things. Which isn't to say I didn't do any sightseeing.

Thomas was working on the Monday so, after a slow and chilled morning in the hotel I took myself off for a wander around Reykjavik, stopping to photograph the beautiful street art and admire the colourful pavements. I met Thomas for lunch at vegan cafe-cum-bar-cum record store Kaffi Vinyl, which I would thoroughly recommend (my bread and dips took humble ingredients and elevated them to a whole new level). We also ate twice at Glo, which was a favourite on our previous trip and has since gone totally vegan, too.

Iceland is notoriously expensive and when eating and drinking you have to just stop converting into sterling and go with it. However, there are some (relative) bargains to be had. The aforementioned Kaffi Vinyl is reasonably priced for Reykjavik and has permanent happy hour prices on beer and wine, while Loft Hostel has a bar and roof terrace open to the public and is also very reasonably priced. We also got a free shuttle bus from outside the Harpa concert hall to Perlan, and found the cafe there decently priced (and it also had the most incredible caramel buns). While at Perlan I'd recommend the Glacier & Ice Cave exhibit, which was a fascinating (if cold) experience at a fraction of the cost of a real ice cave expedition. 

But no one goes to Iceland for a city break (or, if they do, they're wrong) and on Tuesday we joined a tour heading to the Snaefellsness Peninsula, north west of Reykjavik. It was a cold, windy and grey day but the scenery was just spectacular, from snow-capped mountains and frozen streams, to black sand beaches on the edge of lava fields. We ended the day with a visit to our guide, David's, family farm, where we had a chance to say hello to these magnificent and friendly Icelandic horses.

All in all, I had a surprisingly relaxing few days and, as always, found myself left speechless by the incomparable Icelandic scenery. Unfortunately I left my camera at home but I think my iPhone camera did a reasonable job of capturing the highlights.

A Week In Rhodes

In September Thomas and I went to Rhodes for a week and between this trip and last year's visit to Crete, I think we're finally converts to the "lazy holiday in the sun" club. We had a wonderful time sitting by the pool reading, taking in some of the island's historic sites and, most of all, eating lots of delicious Greek food.

We were staying in the village of Kalathos, on the east coast just north of Lindos. I'd heard lots of great things about Lindos and so it was an obvious choice for our first outing (after a couple of days of lying on sunbeds doing very little, that is). And it was extremely charming: a picture-perfect Greek village, with stunning views along the coast from the cliff-top Acropolis.

Overall, though, I much preferred our visits to Rhodes Town, and especially having a chance to explore the fascinating medieval streets of the Old Town. Sitting within the modern town but entirely separated from it by fortified walls, the old town was constructed by the Knights Templar in the 14th century and boasts a magnificent mixture of ancient, Byzantine, Ottoman and Italian architectural influences.

As well as wandering the labyrinthine streets, peering down alleyways and admiring the many street cats, we visited the Archeological Museum for some Proper Culture. It's well worth a visit, as much for that incredible building and gardens in which it's set.

It's a testament to how great the food is at To Marouli that we ate there on both of our visits to Rhodes Town. And we also enjoyed stumbling upon Todo Bien, a Cuban-themed bar just around the corner, whose boast of serving 'the best mojitos in Rhodes' obviously had to be thoroughly tested.

We were also lucky to find a number of excellent restaurants serving vegan food near our hotel in Kalathos (our favourites were probably Konstantin and the seafood restaurant Mythos) and generally found Rhodes far superior to Crete when it came to vegan options.

But the absolute highlight of our trip was undoubtedly the cats. Our apartment block had a huge gang of semi-feral cats - we counted thirteen in total - who included some of the friendliest and sweetest holiday cats I've ever encountered. Although most of the older cats were happier left alone, Thomas and I spent many a happy hour with the younger cats and kittens who enjoyed clambering all over us and our sun loungers, peeking up from under our books to demand attention, begging for treats, and snoozing in the shade.

We stayed in Daniel Apartments in Kalathos and can thoroughly recommend both the apartments and the island itself. Good vegan food, excellent local wine, friendly cats, and breathtaking historical sites combined to make Rhodes a very special place to be. If you happen to visit, do say hello to the kittens for me.

A Short Break In Wales

As we're still waiting for our wedding photographs to be ready, I thought I'd start at the end: with our post-wedding trip to Wales. Unfortunately, we were both in the opening stages of the virus that's been kicking my ass for the past couple of weeks, so it wasn't quite the romantic mini-break we'd envisaged. Rather less champagne-on-the-veranda and more catarrh-on-the-sofa, but we still had a lovely time.

We started off with a night in Hay-On-Wye, Wales' official book town and somewhere I always enjoy visiting. We'd booked into Radnor House B&B and would heartily recommend it: a reasonable price for an insanely luxurious room in the centre of Hay, and the most incredible breakfast (French toast for me, a vegan fry-up for Thomas).

We spent some time on Thursday afternoon and again on Friday morning pootling around the town, popping into all of the (many) bookshops and picking up some bargains. I usually visit Hay during the festival, and it's always nice to see the town a little calmer and quieter (albeit lacking the exciting buzz of festival time). 

Having struggled to find vegan options for Thomas on Thursday, it was a relief to stumble upon the marvellous vintage shop/independent makers' marketplace/vegetarian cafe/venue space at The Old Electric Shop. Fully fed and watered, we set off to drive to our final destination on the west coast of Wales.

A three hour drive later and we were in Aberporth. I'd read about Wendy, the vintage train carriage-cum-holiday let located on the cliffs at Aberporth clifftop, years ago on Gemma's blog and had bookmarked it because I knew train-mad Thomas would love it. By some strange quirk of fate, the usually fully-booked carriage happened to have two nights free the weekend after the wedding: it was meant to be!

Wendy was just as charming as I'd expected, full of cute vintage details that had Thomas fantasising about living in a train carriage full-time (two days later and the reality of being a 6'4" man in a small space had sunk in and he wasn't so keen!).

After a week of rain, Saturday dawned bright and sunny and we took advantage of the weather to walk the coastal path - which runs directly in front of Wendy - to the nearby village of Tresaith for lunch at The Ship Inn. The coast of west Wales is just stunning, reminiscent of Cornwall at its finest (although with significantly fewer crowds), and the stretch from Aberporth to Tresaith shows it off at its best. After a pint or two, we retreated back to Wendy and spent the afternoon reading some of our Hay book haul, log burner lit for extra cosiness.

It was a lovely few days away and just what we needed after the wedding. And although it's a shame neither of us were well, it does give us a good excuse for another honeymoon!

Life Lately

Life seems so busy at the moment, between work and home and my busy staring-at-the-cat schedule, that I haven't always had the chance to blog as regularly as I'd like. Not that I think I, or any blogger, has a duty to keep to a schedule, but I do like to keep a record of what's going on in my life here. So, what have I been up to?

We've had some big celebrations in our house recently, with Thomas accepting an offer of a full-time, permanent lecturer role here in Leicester, and me an offer of a place on the Gender Studies MA at Leeds University. I'll be starting in September on a part-time basis, travelling up once a week for lectures and seminars. Meanwhile, the fact that Thomas has a job locally - and, more to the point, a permanent, well-paid job - takes the pressure off for the next few years. As he's only one year post-PhD, we feel very lucky (although his hard work and amazing talent have more to do with it than luck).

I'm really excited about starting the Masters - it's a course I've wanted to study for years and I spent the last few years of teaching saving like mad so I could afford the fees - but I'm apprehensive too. Nervous about the workload and the travel, the new people, the pressure I can tend to put on myself in academic situations (and my corresponding tendency to give up on anything I find too challenging).

Somewhat linked to this is that since the start of the year I've been challenging myself to do things that scare me and as a result my anxiety has been both debilitating and something I feel like I'm getting a handle on. Often in the same day. A lot of what I've been doing isn't big stuff - 'just' things like driving to a new place, or being the one who goes to the bar to order food - and I'm not always being successful, but I do feel like I'm making progress. I've also started being more open with friends about my mental health instead of pretending that everything's fine, which has been a massive relief.

Finally, travel-wise I feel like we're all over the place at the moment (in a good way).

I spent a really nice couple of days away this week, visiting Bath, Wells and Glastonbury with a friend. We pretty much ate and drank our way around Somerset: from afternoon tea to local cider to Glastonbury pasties, we tasted it all.

Now Thomas is in Wales, hiking and camping with a friend, before we head off to Barcelona next weekend, which will be a challenge to my travel anxiety but, I'm sure, a lovely trip. Then in May I have trips to London to release my inner rock chick at a Deftones gig, to Bradford to see my mum, and to Nijmegen to hang out with Thomas's friends for a long weekend.

What's new with you?

A Long Weekend In Norfolk

I love Norfolk: not only is it a relatively quick drive from Leicester, but it's just so beautiful. Thomas and I have visited the North Norfolk coast together three times now, and especially enjoy the bleak and windswept beauty of the area off-season. As lovely as Norfolk is in summer, it can get overrun with visitors. In October (when we usually go) or February, on this trip, the roads are emptier, the pubs are quieter, and the beaches blissful expanses of sand.

Last weekend we were back on the A47 heading down to Stiffkey, a tiny village a few miles outside Wells-Next-The-Sea. Our cottage was the cutest, cosiest space we could have hoped for (although, as we realised when we were awoken at 7am on Friday, it directly abutted a building site - but that's another story!). Our plans were for plenty of relaxed walks, time spent with friends who live locally, and  lots of reading.

After a bracing but gloriously sunny walk along the coastal path, with stunning views across the saltmarsh, we headed into Wells on Friday for a mooch around the shops and a walk on the beach. I love Nomad & The Bowerbird in Wells, and always insist on a visit to eye up the vintage signs and lettering (this time I managed to escape without parting with my money).

Saturday dawned grey and rainy so we headed over to Norwich to visit the cathedral, which is one of my favourite in the UK (yes, I have a favourite cathedral. Yes, I'm a massive geek). The way they combine modern additions and stained glass work with the original building is wonderful; thanks to the pouring rain, I didn't take a photograph of the visitor centre, but it's so cleverly incorporated into the ancient stonework.

We had a delicious lunch at The Iron House (I'm still fantasising about their tofu katsu curry - oh my!) then, taking advantage of a break in the rain, poked around The Lanes admiring street art and sniggering like teenagers at road signs.

Thanks to the building work next door, we cut our holiday short by a couple of days and headed home on the Sunday after meeting friends for a walk along the marshes to Blakeney and a pub lunch. Luckily, super-negotiator Thomas has wangled us a full refund so we're already planning our visit to the area.