Off to the countryside...

After Paris, it was back to UK and off to the countryside.

This is the park in the town of Cirencester (where my friend lives)

I really do like the English countryside. It's full of lovely old buildings, wide open spaces and quaint towns with cobbled streets. As my friend, Antonia, lives in the countryside. I got to spend a fair amount of time getting to see some of it.

A grand old building in Oxford.

On one day we went to see the very pretty, University town of Oxford (if you have never been, I can highly recommend it). The buildings are very cool, there are a lot of lovely stores and I liked that so many people seemed to ride bicycles around the town.

Bibury is very pretty.

Not too far from Oxford is the very small and picturesque town of Bibury (apparently quite a few period dramas have been filmed here). Obviously, we had to stop there to get some pictures.

 Not a bad view at all

I was very lucky to get to experience some warm, spring days while I was in England. On one of those sunny days, Antonia and I decided to go and have tea at Cowley Manor

(which a posh hotel and spa located in the Cotswolds)

very fancy looking

Cowley Manor is absolutely stunning and had a 'Downton Abbey-ish' look from the outside, but was rather modern inside. 

Our tea time was delish and included very large fruit & plain scones, clotted cream (it looks like butter, but its just really crazy cream), jam and teas.

After tea we took a walk around the sprawling manor grounds (Here is a pic of how enthusiastic I was about that) and daydreamed about owning our own country manor. 

The Cowley Manor gardens

 
I really enjoyed my time in the countryside and hope to find myself trotting around it again soon.

To see more of my photos, you can follow me on Instagram (name: beingbrazen)

Oh Paris...

After a few days exploring London , it was off to the English countryside for one night and then I caught a flight to Paris with my friend Antonia (we had not seen each other in 10 years, so we decided Paris was a perfect place to celebrate our reunion).

*Le sigh*

On arrival we were taken by shuttle to the Hotel Elysees Union and were lucky enough to have a absolutely breathtaking view of the Eiffel Tower from our room's balcony (yes, the above photo is the actual view from our room - i was literally jumping up and down on the balcony with excitement)

Since this was my first time in Paris and we were only staying for 2 nights, we decided we would try and see as much as possible and walk around a lot (which actually turned out to be the best way to see most of the city)

 Ta Da! Me and the Eiffel Tower 

Our first stop was obviously the Eiffel Tower and it was waaay bigger than I thought it would be (We thought about going up to the top, but the lines were insane).

Next up we decided to take a cruise up the river Seine. Since loads of the famous sites (including Notre Dame)  and cool bridges are located along the river, it is definitely a good idea to do it.

Cruising the river

After finding a nice Parisian cafe for lunch, we headed to the Champs Elysees. This road is full of awesome stores and we obviously had to make a stop at Laduree for some macaroons and to look at all the pretty treats

 

Located on the Champs Elysees is the famous Arc De Triomph monument. It usually has tons of traffic racing around it, but when we were there the police had stopped all traffic as there was a bomb threat. While it wasn't that cool to know there may have been a bomb around, it did give me an opportunity to get a great photo of it (see below).

 

the Arc de Triomph

Most of the rest of our first day was spent walking around central Paris. We went to see the Louvre and walked through a stunning park area that had statues, rows of trees and big pond in it. 

Oh so pretty

We also visited the Pont des Arts bridge, where couples attach locks to the side of bridge walkway (with their names on it) and throw the keys in the water below as a sign of their love.

one day I will put a lock here

Our second day was mainly spent walking around Paris most famous shopping mall the Galeries La Fayette and eating a delicious lunch at a Parisian cafe.

Paris street view

All in all I absolutely loved Paris - I loved the old buildings, cheaper wine (its cheaper to drink wine than water at most restaurants), the location of my hotel and the little cafes everywhere. Also, despite hearing how rude Parisians are, all the people I encountered were very friendly. I cannot wait to come back and spend a lot more time getting to know this romantic & beautiful city.

To see more of my photos, you can follow me on Instagram (name: beingbrazen)

London calling

After a very long flight (11 hours to be exact), I arrived in London on Saturday morning.

Since landing I have been rather busy and very tired. So far, I have managed to do a little shopping and on Sunday I went into London to do some sightseeing....

 

The London Marathon was on Sunday, so it made getting around a little bit harder. Though, it was cool to see all the supporters and runners out in full force.

The Thames river (above) featuring the London eye (left) and Big Ben (right) has to be one of my favourite London views. 

I trotted around a lot of places, including Piccadilly Circus (above). I must admit I have been struggling with how busy London is. After the chilled vibe of Cape Town, being surrounded by swarms of people can be a bit overwhelming. 

 The weather in London is pretty chilly at the moment, though I have been told by the locals that this is amazing weather in comparison to three weeks ago (oh, thats St Pauls Cathedral in the middle).

 I also visited the Tate Modern art gallery. It's three storeys high and it's nice to just wander around in (plus it's free ).  I spotted this older couple hugging infront of a painting, it was too cute not to photograph (I want what they seem to have).

Note: Check out my instagram for more photos 

So....

Darlings, as some of you may have noticed, I took a little break from blogging. Due to a few recent events, the main one being the end of my relationship after 7 years, I really felt like I needed to step back and take a look at where my life was going and where I wanted it to go. Anyway, even though it seemed like a crazy idea and I had to dip into some savings,  I decided that the time just seemed right to take a trip this year.

So, from this Friday I will be off on a two month long trip. I will be visiting the United Kingdom, Paris, New York City, Florida and Los Angeles.

While away I plan to visit some of my faraway friends, deal with some difficult feelings, see some amazing places and have a mini 'Eat, Pray, Love' sort of adventure (though it would probably be more accurate to call mine 'Drink, Laugh, Hug' . hehe). 

I plan to blog, instagram and tweet about my trip (feel free to follow me to keep up to date).