A Date Day in Bournemouth

2016, travel

Hello!

Having moved to Southampton, I’ve got to explore a whole new area of the country 170 miles away from home. Bournemouth is somewhere my cousins moved to when I was younger, somewhere I went on a family holiday to once and somewhere that’s just a short train journey away from home now.

Talking to people around Southampton and at uni, a lot of people are very fond of Bournemouth and rightfully so – it’s a beautiful South-Coastal city, somewhat overshadowed by the fame of Brighton’s seaside tourist attraction.

My boyfriend took me on a date day there back in late April and I’ve been back since to visit my sister when she was there over the summer, but I love the city and I really want to go back there soon.

From the train station, it’s a really short walk to the beach and it’s really pretty – so picturesque and the pier is so much fun. This area of Bournemouth is really popular in peak season, but we went on a weekend before school was out for the summer so it wasn’t too busy (we might try a week day next time just so it’s nice and quiet!).

My favourite parts of Bournemouth were the things we did on our date day and it started with a walk on the beach, we then found a little arcade and decided we were going to find a good one. We had a look at a bunch of arcades, we got chips for lunch and then we went up to the Odeon team to buy tickets to a movie we went to see later that day.

Side note: the screen we were in at the Bournemouth Odeon when we saw Jungle Book was beautiful, essentially it was a converted theatre and it’s absolutely stunning.

But before the film we went into this amazing arcade literally right next door called Fanzone – it’s not a dingy arcade full of gamblers it’s just a friendly, fun arcade with games like Plants vs Zombies, MarioKart and Temple Run as well as all the traditional penny pushers and games like that. Winning tickets is somewhat addictive, one day I’ll get the 6000 tickets I need for the giant teddy.

We then went to the cinema and saw the beautiful theatre and watched Jungle Book, which was amazing and I wrote a blog post about it at the time if you’re interested in my thoughts! You can read it here if you’re interested.

The perfect way to end this date day was by heading back to the beach and having Harry Ramsden’s fish and chips with our feet in the sand! I love the beach and the sea and chip shop chips are my favourite things in the world. Next time we go, I think we might try sitting in the restaurant because sit down restaurant experiences are my favourite, I love eating out.

If I could afford it I’d do restaurant reviews but I’m a student so I can’t afford to eat out at all, if there are any Southampton restaurants reading, I’d love to do a review…

Thank you for reading!

Sophie xx

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How to pack the bare minimum!

2016, travel

Hello!

I’ve been on a couple of big trips now and I’m slowly getting better at packing – I like being quite minimalist and I like using everything I take on a trip with me, so I thought I’d collate some tips that might help you if you’re packing for a holiday or a trip!

Side note: I’m assuming you’re going on a holiday, abroad for about a week – adjust more or less accordingly!

1) Don’t overpack clothes!

Realistically, don’t plan outfits for every day – you don’t need seven t-shirts, four pairs of trousers and three dress shirts! You can wear a t-shirt more than once and it’ll just be disappointing if you bring home clothes you didn’t even wear!

You do need spare underwear though. That’s useful.

2) You don’t need a whole library!

As someone who thinks they read but realistically don’t read as much or as fast as they like to think they do, I always take three or four books away with me and I barely finish one so save your own space and take a realistic amount of books! Or a kindle, that’s a good compromise and then if you do get really into reading you can read more if you like.

3) Be realistic with bathroom stuff!

Do you need that massive bottle of brand new shampoo with you? Probably not! Either buy travel sized cosmetics or buy those little packs of tiny bottles and portion that new bottle of shampoo into the little bottles and taking a little travel sized dry shampoo or hairspray.

4) Be careful with your other cosmetics!

Do you need all your make-up? Is it going to be too hot or too cold for make-up? Is there a sun-cream foundation you could take instead (two birds one stone?)? Only take the stuff you really need, not everything. A few hair bobbles will go in your make-up bag and do you really need your curling iron?

5) Keep only the stuff you need on the plane in your hand luggage!

Clothes, hygiene items and even some forms of entertainment can go in your suitcase – the kind of things you’d put in your handbag or your pockets (if you’re lucky enough to have male-sized pockets in your clothes!). The less you have to carry on the plane, the less you have to worry about losing – phone, passport, plane ticket, money, a book or music device, maybe painkillers or plane remedies, the list doesn’t get much longer than that.

The incentive is that you’ll have less to carry, you won’t have that feeling of ‘why did I bring this?’ when you where the same pair of shoes for the whole trip and if you want to buy lots while you’re there, you’ve got more space!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

Tanga, Tanzania | Travel

2016, travel

Hello!

It has been over 3 years since I want to Tanzania with Camps International and Tanga, the first place we went, was one of the most beautiful places on the trip and, in fact, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

It was a gorgeous camp; it overlooked the sea, there was a really nice bar and social area and it was in such a beautiful area, it was absolutely stunning.

This camp was where I started to learn to scuba dive – we had two days training in the pool and then we went into the sea and that’s where I kind of, stopped, learning to dive? I was ill at the time, so I couldn’t equalise and clear my ears, from what I remember it meant there was too much pressure in my ears and it wasn’t too much fun being in the ocean at that point, but I really did love diving so I do want to finish getting that PADI qualification at some point!

But I got to go out on the boat and I got to see the sea and experience it, in a way, and it was absolutely stunning. I really love the water, I’m really craving swimming right now so writing this post is only making me want to go swimming even more!

One of the best nights of my life happened when I was in Tanga – the night sky in Africa is absolutely stunning, without city pollution the sky is so clear and you can see the stars and the moon and I’m pretty sure we saw Venus on one night, it was just so beautiful. I remember lying with my two best friends (at the time, I’m not friends with one of them anymore, let’s not dwell on that) and it was just incredible. I love space, I have a thing about stars and it was just so beautiful.

I’d love to go back to Tanga, I’ve said this a few times but if you have any interest in travelling but going abroad alone or without guidance sounds daunting, I thoroughly recommend Camps International because you get an incredible experience in a range of astonishing countries, and you get to give something back to the communities out there. I’ve only ever been on expeditions organised through my old school but I’m going to look into their gap ‘year’ (any time between one and three months) for when I’ve graduated after third year!

I love writing about my travels and whilst I’m staying around Southampton with minimal money, I think I’m going to write about places I have been. Then I might start experimenting with day trips in the UK and just see how else I can write about travel!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador | Travel

2016, travel

Hello!

Travelling is a huge part of my aspirations and what I’d like to do in the future so I want to start writing about it! With it being over a year since I went to Ecuador, I want to start writing about the places I’ve been and what I loved about them.

The Galapagos Islands were part of my trip to Ecuador last summer. I went with a company called Camps International and it was all arranged through my school and it’s absolutely incredible, fully 100% recommend the company (I’ve been on two trips with them now).

Whilst I was in the Galapagos, I got to go snorkelling, I go to see some beautiful tortoises and learn about the history of the islands and I met some absolutely incredible people.

It was one of my favourite places in the whole of Ecuador – the times we had there were some of my favourite moments of the trip, the snorkelling was one of the best things I’ve done in my entire life and some of the photos I managed to capture were absolutely astonishing.

There’s lots of shops with all the same generic touristy stuff but I was a tourist so I bought a lot of the generic touristy stuff… but it was very nice! It definitely helps to know Spanish numbers, at least, but a lot of the store owners and venders speak very good English so you’ll probably be okay.

I saw an old American man pouring vodka into a coke can and smile at me, it was a wonderful, wonderful trip.

If I went back, I would definitely learn more Spanish, I definitely want to finish learning to scuba dive (that’s a story about Tanzania that I’ll write about one day!) and I’d love to see more of the islands because they’re astonishingly beautiful.

I hope you’ve liked this travel post, let me know if you’d like me to write more!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

The Booby Turtle

sophie counts clouds

travel blogging

A Date Day in Bournemouth

How to pack the bare minimum!

Tanga, Tanzania | Travel

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador | Travel