Out East.

I'm still here, but I've only got a week left in Berlin (in fact, this time next week I'll be on a train somewhere around Leeds, on my way back to Durham from my Dad's). Last week, though, I had a week off work and I popped out to Poland and to Budapest and mostly forgot to take photos.

Here are some of the ones I did take...

Buildings in Warsaw old town//

Sunset over the mountains in Slovakia (taken on the bus from Krakow to Budapest)//

various sights of Budapest from various angles

Poznan (of which there are no pics...) was wonderful; Budapest even more so. Warsaw was nice enough but I didn't need to stay so long, and I have no desire to return, unlike most of the other places I've visited on my travels.

All the above pics are from instagram, btw...

around town

So you might've noticed the Vice badge over to the right there, and I believe I mentioned in passing that I was now a Vice magazine Student Ambassador...as that goes, I get a ton of information for the promoting from Vice.

I'm not gonna write about everything, obvs - as I always do, I'll write what I damn want, it's my blog. But as it goes, I was gonna write about this anyway cos it's all relatable.

So, long-ish time readers and friends will know about my travelling adventures in October, all over Europe (newer readers, archives - Oct last year - gogogo) and also about my shiny iPhone times (as a christmas present...). I went a bit app mad upon getting said iPhone, as I'm sure most do, but both that and this app would've been mucho useful in October. Gah.

Nike True City (download it here!) is a guide to 6 European cities (ones I went to and everything!), as added too by people in the know - clubs, bars, food places, shops...it's like google maps + wikipedia + "i heard from a friend of a friend of a friend that there's this cool place down here.." all rolled into one.

I heartily enjoy that the above screenshot is of Berlin.

I guess they also point out where Nike stores are...?

I downloaded it a few days ago, but since I am in none of the cities currently it's a bit wasted on me right now. I shall certainly be using it next time I'm in London, or if we do indeed traverse to Berlin at Easter as planned.

Some of us were gonna go over this weekend just gone, for fashion week, but it never materialised.

*sniff*.

I love Berlin...

Hey, if they need a Newcastle one I am available for pointing out excellent places.

marbled

Still working on the sketchbook..I might post pics of it if it looks decent enough. Anyways, I'm making some print ideas to fill up some space, and I thought I'd post my favourites.

These are all marbled floors and coloumns from the Vatican Museum - I took SO MANY pictures in Rome, it was a little ridiculous. I love the colours and the patterns in marble, they're pretty awesome. I'd love to do some samples onto fabric for said sketchbook, but I have no way to do them at home. Hmm.

I should really get back to sticking stuff in; I haven't done any work actually IN my sketchbook for a week now, since before I went up north; the last few days has been all photoshop work (although not that much of that either...I've mostly been sleeping in odd patterns and watching Wife Swap USA, with a side order of flailing about in the pit at the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - expect a post on that soon. Like, when I can be arsed to upload the photos.)

All images are miiiiine, ALL MIIIIINE bwahahaha. Yeah, please credit me/link back if you use 'em an' ting.

french fancy

I mentioned this film wayyy back when I saw it at the Tyneside in July, but I'm putting my sketchbook together right now (blogging is procrastinating if nothing else) and it was suggested in the brief that we include films that have influenced us and such.

Well, this did just that, and now I have film stills and I thought I'd post em up.

Pierrot Le Fou, Jean-Luc Godard (1965)

All French; starring the wonderful Anna Karina, and in all bright primary colours and beautiful imagery.

Watch it!

It's a little surreal and it looks awesome; certainly my kind of film.

paris; day 2

Lying in bed without a hangover even after that much wine is amazing.

Doing such after an night where me and Bailey ate about double our daily calorie intake worth of food (probably soaked up the ol' alcohol...) and then went to the x factor house IN OUR PYJAMAS (cos it's only about 15 mins walk away) and were loud/giggly enough after reading the graffiti to bring out the bouncer was BRILLIANT.

And then we laid in bed on facebook, and Bailey fell asleep with the screen on my profile and her hand on the keyboard.

Hilarious.

ANYWAYS

PARIS

DAY 2

dead folk; monuments; tiny art; cocktails

Went to Peré Lachaise cemetry. It was awesomely creepy.

That bit of cobweb was floating in the breeze, it was SO CREEPY.
Famous graves! Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde ♥

So yeah; that was cool.

Went to that tower, walked across the river and up to the Arc De Triomphe and all the way down the Champs Elysees to the Louvre and then behind to Notre Dame.

Actually, thats a lie, I stopped of at the best charity shop EVER.

Well, the best if you like fur coats and leather jackets and the €1 bin. Which I do. Blew €61 euros on the most amazing, soft, well fitting, made of awesome faux fur coat and a dress. I'm gonna have to do a "stuff I bought in Europe" blog post, cos there's enough.

FYI, I didn't see much of the Louvre. Partly cos it's bloody massive, partly cos I couldn't feel my feet at this point; mostly because I saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus di Milo and I was like "meh". At least I got in for free.

Mona is a bit small and you can't get close enough to it to appreciate it as art, so....yeah. Not impressed Louvre; not impressed.

I adore this picture of Notre Dame. Cos there's random petals out front; and it makes me think of t'Hunchback (one of my favourite Disney films. NAY, ONE OF MY FAVOURITE FILMS) and the feast of fools kerfuffle.

Not a lie; one of the soundtrack songs came on my iPod on the walk up to it.

I totally took it off shuffle and played the rest of the soundtrack. Man, I'm cool.

Met up with Liam and his housemate and had copious amounts of €5 cocktails at this bar in the Latin Quarter, before returning to my hostel to find a large amount of Australians who were going back home the next day. Became an honorary Australian; stayed up til 5am. Wasn't hungover the next day; the usual, the usual.

OH YEAH

On the Champs Elysees there's an exhibition, of sorts, of French Vogue covers through the years. My favourite was this Audrey Hepburn effort.

Ahhhh, Europe. Excellent times.

Next on the agenda? Saving up for Scandinavia, maybe a little Poland and Russia, and definately some Iceland and certainly, CERTAINLY, a return to Berlin; some time next year. I hope. Whee!

Let's return to the fashion posts an ting, hmm?

-----------------------

I'm no longer friends with my case.

Being dragged around Europe for a month, full to the brim of clothes an ting, and being dragged/bounced down any steps I come across due to laziness does not make for a happy case...

The bottom has bucked, the wheel trims have fallen off, the handle threatens to snap off when it's fully extended, but if you only extend it halfway the thing falls over every 5 seconds cos the wheels go wobbly.

I have been quite vocal about the fact that I hate my case. I've shouted at him in the street and everything. I gave him a pep talk when we got to Bailey's (and dragged him up all the stairs to her 3rd floor flat) and informed him just to keep it together, cos he only now has to get from here to Golders tube station, from King's Cross tube to the train, from the train at Newcastle to the bus (over the road) and from the bus to home (down the street). IT'S NOT THAT HARD, CASE, YOU CAN DO IT.

Although all that awaits him there is the bin. Don't tell him that, he might give up on life at an inconvenient time. (Like Monday rush hour on the London Underground.)

oui, oui, parissss!

My first day in Paris...

OK, so my first few hours. I got in from that bus journey at about 12, and couldn't check into my hostel til 2 so I had some food (EXCELLENT pumpkin soup; I do love pumpkin soup. Might buy a pumpkin and make some when I get home, 2 days!) and then a shower when I got to my dorm so it was like 3 by the time I left.

Excellent hostel, FYI. St Christophers, with a bar/restaurant downstairs and lovely rooms, and a dorm full of Australians (what's new! I'm pretty sure there are about 3 people left in Australia cos they're all backpacking round Europe).

Anyways, since I wasn't too far from Montmartre I wandered up there. I've wanted to go there since I first fell in love with Moulin Rouge; you can imagine my excitement....

Montmartre is pretty cool; it had some excellent graffiti. YSL graffiti: the classiest ever...

Photos from around about, including the little curvy streets and me and my umbrella (MORE RAIN!!! I am LITERALLY the rain God, all bow before me; etc) infront of MR, and the Sacre Couer and view from it...

I assume the view would've been several times more awesome if it weren't for the rain.

barcelona; day 2

I do not want to talk about the 15 hour bus ride, no siree bob. I will say, I enjoyed the crazy customs guy who boarded the bus just outside of Paris (bit late dude, we've been in France for quite some time now), but not as much as I am enjoying this latte + pumpkin soup + beef casserole with wild rice in the bar of my Paris hostel. I need a shower. And to get changed. But eating a proper meal was nice.

So yeah! I went back to Placa Espanya and to a museum around them parts and that was pretty much it....here are some photos of said stuff. Would I be right (and I am directing this question at one Daniel Gourley) in thinking there was an ANTM final held on these steps? I seem to think they came to Barce one cycle. Shrug.

You get a bonus pic of me doing a silly face there.
I thought these lights in CaixaForum (the museum I went to) were really awesome - the way it's lit is really interesting, no? It's an exhibit of Islamic art, fyi.

AND SINCE THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A FASHION BLOG OF SORTS...

...here are some outfit type things. (I'm still wearing this outfit. Stupid bus. I need to go shower and change.)

barcel-ooooooo-naaaaaa

This post brought to you courtesy of Freddie Mercury; apparantly.

Erm, yeah, I pretty much got here and went to sleep. It was midnight, I'd a stressful couple of hours. They waited up for me. That was nice of 'em.

A hearty breakfast was enjoyed, before a trek on up (OK, a metro ride, and one of only 2 I've taken here. The other being from the ferry to the hostel, obvs) to Parc Güell for a spot of Gaudi-fangirling. This post is gonna be quite Gaudi heavy, fyi. Oh yeahhh.

Wandered down to La Sagrada Familia, then for a closer look at Torre Agbar and all the way up to where La Pedrera and Casa Batlió are. And around there a bit. And into Zara. And up to the til with the thigh high boots.

AND THEN (moving swiftly on)

into an asian buffet place - they had chinese, thai, AND sushi. For 10 euros. I was in heaven. I ate a lot of food - so much so I wasn't hungry again all day - and went on my way, down to La Ramblas and then all the way up past Plaça Espanya and back to the hostel. Google Pedometer says around 14 miles. Yup.

Some pictures!

Including a mental Miró sculpture. I do like a bit of Miró, I researched him for GCSE art. Fact.