Recap II: England

Hello again! As promised, part two of the recap from the last month. Here we go!
So after my return from Lisbon on Wednesday I had exactly 3 days to wash up and get ready for my two week vacation to England with my folks. Even though I’ll be turning 22 this August, I still love going on holiday with my parents. Since we are all quite busy during the year, it’s a nice way for us to get together and reconnect. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’m an only child as well, I don’t know. Anyway, we packed our bags and left Saturday morning with the car for a 10 hour drive to Moreton in Marsh, a small, picturesque village in the county of Gloucestershire. We rented a cottage so we could do some of our own cooking, since eating out in Britain in a lot more expensive than in Portugal. But to our surprise, the temperature was quite similar! After fixing a local news paper we found out that Britain was experiencing one of its hottest summers since 2006, with temperatures up to 30 degrees Celsius! Ironically, we only packed trousers, jumpers and umbrellas, because, hey, it’s the UK for crying out loud! Not the bloody Provence. So one of the first things we did was hit the stores for some summer frok and open shoes. Not too bad in my opinion. This shopping was often interrupted by tea, scones and clotted cream. And I mean lots of clotted cream. We didn’t beat our old record, but I’m pretty sure we had ourselves a cream tea every day or two. So we did alright. We also visited a lot of gardens and country estates, since my mum is a passionate gardener. So we had a nice balance between shopping and visiting old towns, and on the other hand gardens and the more rural views of the Cotswolds. Another thing I planned for this holiday was a visit to Oxford. Since I’ll be doing an internship in Oxford this January, I thought it would be a nice idea to meet my supervisor during my holiday. But boy was I nervous! Luckily, the meeting wasn’t until Thursday, so I had plenty of time to prepare. This was nicely timed, especially since she asked me to give short presentation of my previous projects. We planned it in such a way that my parents would drop me off at the research building and then we would meet up later in the city center. Which turned out to be a little later than I expected with all the paperwork we had to fill out for funding applications. But I really appreciate the time she made for me, and I feel we really got to know each other a little better as well. She’s a really sweet woman, and I feel a lot more secure about my move in the winter. Since there wasn’t much time left for me to look around in Oxford (although I’ve been there 3 times by now), we planned a second trip later in the second week. But enough with the talking, here are some photo’s, so you can see the loveliness of the Cotswolds for yourself ;)

 

Bourton House gardens

Find out more here

Bourton on the Water

 

 

The amazing Sudeley Castle

For more information on this beautiful place visit their website

If you ever plan to go there, I recommend to visit the places above, including Stow on the Wold, Stratford upon Avon and Cirencester. So that’s all, for now ;) Hope that your holiday is/was/will be as good as mine!

With love,

Willemijn

p.s. Red2 was awesome! Must see movie!

Recap I: Lisbon

Yes, I have completely neglected my blog. With the my internship coming to its dramatic end, and holidays so closely following one another, I just couldn’t find the time, or energy. But to make it up, I’m planning a long post! Here comes the last month in a nutshell, but if it gets too much I might do a second post.
So for starters, my final presentation went good. My final meeting with my supervisor a little less. It was very clear that we had nothing other to discuss. He was mad for me saying “no” to his ridiculous assignment and behavior, and I still felt hurt for the way he treated me. So in the end, I got a 7. Which isn’t bad, but it isn’t great either. So I can’t complain, but I also can’t shake the feeling that he probably graded me lower due to the whole argument.
But then! On Sunday! I got sick. And I mean really, really sick. So sick in fact, that I wasn’t sure I would be able to go on holiday to Lisbon on Wednesday. I was so mad, because I knew this was just all the stress of the last two weeks coming out. I hadn’t been sick in over a year, so this was just too coincidental to be “just a cold”. But there was no way I was letting the aftermath of my internship ruine my long awaited vacation with my two best friends. So I swallowed a whole bottle of Advil and Strepsil and went on that damned plain. Did I mention I hate flying? But I’m sooo glad I pushed through, because I was one of the best vacations ever! The hottest one too, since there was an unexpected heat wave, which increased temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius. But we didn’t let it stop us! We just shopped on! The Amoreiras and especially the Colombo shopping malls are a girls dream come true! And of course we also did (some) cultural things, like the Torre de Belém. Which is a long walk from the train station by the way, in the scorching Portuguese sun. To make the heat a little more bearable, we would go back to our hotel room around 1pm, sleep and eat for little while, and go out again when the worst of the heat had settled. And since the nicest temperatures were at night we stayed out later. Finding a good place for dinner was a little harder. Food is very cheap in Lisbon, a meal costs around 10 to 13 euro per person, but since my friends aren’t too fond on fish we were sometimes left with minimal options. In the end we found this lovely restaurant called “Aura” at the Praca do Comercio, which served lovely cooked food and a killer chocolate cake. So we ate there when we couldn’t find a decent restaurant, which happened a couple of times. In total we stayed in Lisbon for 7 days, which was enough to see the city. Towards the end, the rough edges of the holiday were starting to get more visible, so we were ok with going home. For one, the beds were rather small, especially since I was sharing one with my friends. And since it was one of those old fashioned spiral spring mattresses, we would get launched up in the air every time one of us rolled over. Which was funny at first, but after 7 days your body is getting a bit bruised. But hey, we only paid 20euros a night per person, and the breakfast was really good. Also, the location of the hotel was right in the city center, so I would definitely stay at Pensoa Nova Goa again. Another thing was the beggars. We Dutchies (or at least we) are not used to beggars. Especially not to that rude little brat who came all the way up in my face, while I was eating an McDonald ice-cream, and stuck her finger in my cup. She just stuck her FINGER in my ice-cream! I was so baffled, my instant reaction was to slap her on the wrist, which surprised both her and me. I know what you may be thinking, “well didn’t you react a bit harsh”, but there was something about that girl (and her friends) that made me suspect she wasn’t your typical poor girl living on the street. For one, she was dressed pretty decent, and she didn’t look as dirty as any of the others I had seen on the street before. And, she didn’t beg for money, but for an ice-cream. I’ve heard a lot of stories where people begging for money turn out the be just normal people, trying to make an extra penny, and the way she looked just made me suspect she and her friends were just in it for the kick. Which my friends thought too. Needles to say I didn’t finish that ice-cream, but I did buy a nice bag. I’ll show you some nice pictures at the end of the post, and hope the ice-cream-finger-incident hasn’t put you off of going to Lisbon, because it’s really a wonderful city!

I definitely can’t fit it all in one post, so stay tuned for post number two! It probably won’t happen tonight, since I’m taking my folks to see Red2 (just love a little family time). So see ya tomorrow!