We were all quite tired waking up on day 6 from the previous nights excitement with the Northern Lights. However we had to check out of our cabin and move on!

Plus it was Liam’s birthday and we had promised pancakes for breakfast. Which we had in front of this beautiful view once more:

Soon after breakfast the car was packed we said goodbye to Svolvaer and we were on our way to Hamnoy!

We chose to go to Hamnoy at the end of our trip because it is a typical quaint fishing village and every other place we had been to was a larger town.

It was only two hours away and we had planned to stop at the Viking museum half way!

The Viking Museum had been built around a large archeological find. Historians had found evidence of an old Viking longhouse that is believed to belong to a Chief.

Obviously the longhouse doesnt stand there today but all of the findings were removed and an exact replica was built in its place.

The first part of the museum is an exhibition of everything that was found on the site. You get a helpful audio guide explaining each piece if you wanted more information.

Following this there is a video which tells a story of someone who once lived in the longhouse.

From here you go outside and take a short (but bloody freezing) walk up to the longhouse!

Inside it is a complete replica including human actors who are on hand for information and to answer questions.

The whole place is interactive so we spent some time trying on clothes, holding weapons and of course posing for photos.

Once we were done appreciating the Vikings and their history we were on the road once more for our second half of the journey.

We were travelling down the E10 once again and admiring the spectacular views and of course stopping at certain view points.

Then after a short 40 minutes we had made it into Hamnoy. Straight away this beautiful little place had stolen our hearts. It sits right on the fjord next to the mountains and comes with phenomenal views.

This is the one from our balcony for example:

We were staying in another Rorbuer and I had messaged ahead to ask if they had any birthday decorations. The owner replied saying they did not but she happily upgraded us to the Rorbuer on stilts with the best view. We were so pleased.

The inside of this cabin is beautiful too. We quickly unpacked, sent the boys on a walk and secretly decorated the cabin and lit the birthday candles as a surprise for when they came back.

Once we had all had a slice of birthday cake we decided to head out on a photography walk. The light was dimming and we wanted to make the most of the spectacular surroundings as we could.

We also spent some time trying to recreate the cover of my Lonely Planet Norway book, as that happens to be Hamnoy on the front cover!

Not far off I’d say!

This village is probably the most picturesque place I had ever been.

Once we had lost light and were done with our photography for the day we headed back to our wonderful cabin and planned dinner! As we were celebrating a birthday we decided to treat ourselves to a meal out.

Generally eating out in Norway is very expensive. From what we had seen you could get a main meal from anywhere between £17 – £38 (once converted from Kroner).

We decided to go with a restaurant up the road called Havet. The prices seemed reasonable for Norwegian standards and it looked like there was something on the menu for everyone.

We also treated ourselves to a glass of wine/cocktail and toasted to the birthday boy!

We weren’t sure what to expect but the food was phenomenal! I opted for the bacon cheese burger and I honestly can say it was the best burger I have ever had.

I savoured every single bite and to quote my mother I put my knife and fork down and said “oh I could eat that again!”

I was full but if someone had put another one of those burgers in front of me Id have scoffed it down with no regrets.

With our bellys full and feeling warm inside we headed back to the Rorbuer to relax, play cards and look out for the Northern Lights. Not a bad birthday I’d say!

Day 5 arrived in a little whirl of wind rain and cloud, however we had decided the day before we were going to hike Tjeldbergtind (dont ask me to pronounce that) so we layered up, whacked on our waterproofs and soldiered on!

The mountain we climbed is known at the table top mountain as it is flat (ish) on top.

Its starts of with a killer steep walk up the hill from the car park until you get to this sign which is the official start of the trail head. From here it is an upwards climb over smaller rocks. Its a tricky path that you have to take time thinking about where to place your feet. This path then winds all way up to the peak of the mountain.

Not long after starting the trail we were offered our first spectacular view. Looking back I think this is one of my favourite photos. Doesnt it look like a painting?

As we trapsed our way up the mountain with Liam helpfully playing us some peaceful music the rain started turning to sleet and then eventually snow as the peak got closer and closer.

The steps became slippery at points but we just put more thought and care into our footing.

Also, the recommended trail route is helpfully marked out by blue and white markings. So if there were points we we were sure which way up the rocks to take we looked around for the markings. If its blue and white, youre alright!

We reached the peak and the weather conditions were dramatically different. We had gone from drizzling rain to powerful winds that bit at your skin and snow underfoot.

From this point there were two further peak options.

The boys obviously climbed over to the further peak but feeling a little jelly legged about the prospect of the narrow path the girls stayed behind.

The views up here however were truly breathtaking (along with the wind). We got views of the island towns below and the mountains in the background.

By the time we had enjoyed the view, taken our photos and marvelled at our climb we were just about frozen and ready to head back down the mountain.

As the top was steeper and icy we opted for the “bum scramble” technique for the first few metres. A truly graceful and attractive mode of movement.

We quickly straightened up however and were on our way to the bottom! At the end we were grateful to be back on solid ground but feeling very accomplished!

After the hike we wanted nothing more than to dry off and warm up but we headed to the shop to get provisions for lunch first. We bought some carrot bread which turned out to be super tasty along with soup, crackers, ham and cheese. It was a lush picnicky lunch!

After this we had planned to visit the War Museum but oddly it didnt open until 18:30pm. So we decided to put the kettle on, wrap up in blankets and play some games. We were grateful we didnt have to venture out again for a while as the rain and wind were really whipping round our little Rorbuer. We were so cosy inside!

After our cosy afternoon in we headed out to the war museum.

Lofoten was invaded by the Nazis during the second world war. We learnt that the Nazis hadnt expected the islanders to put up such a good resistance against their invasion and actually managed to push them back into Sweden. It is considered one of the first victories of the second world war.

This is the typical outfit of a Norwegian mountain soldier:

There was so much stuff in this museum we could have spent hours in there. However whilst we were there our phones alerted us to high Aurora activity so when we finished up we drove to the outskirts of the city and looked skywards.

Once again though the clouds quickly moved over and the rain came again so we abandonned our search and went to grab some pizzas instead!

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and intermittently looking out for Aurora activity. Our phones were telling us the activity was really high and we were in for a good chance of seeing them. However the cloud cover was still a bit too much.

We went to bed once again with our hourly alarms set to try and catch them through out the night.

At 2am Liam woke me up to say he wasnt sure but potentially we could see something. I raced into the front area of our cabin and looked up into the sky. Most of the cloud had moved and we could see stars.

After a few minutes of sitting there a light strip appeared down the sky. Behaving very differently to cloud.

We quickly ran to wake up the others and soon we were all looking out of the open windows with heaters at our feet.

We sat in silence for a short while waiting for our eyes to adjust to the darkness. After not too long we noticed something glowing across the sky.

From our research of the Northern Lights we had learnt that initially they dont always appear as bright green like in the photos. At first they tend to appear milky white or grey and slowly turn green.

We spent alot of time going is it…? Isnt it? But eventually it was unmistakable.

What we were looking at was the Aurora Borealis. After 5 days in the country and on Liam’s birthday they had finally appeared for us.

This day started once again with an alarm but this was because we had booked in “shifts” every 2 hours to check the sky and conditions for the Northern Lights. The final alarm ended up being mine for work which I STILL hadnt turned off. This time though I managed to get back to sleep and woke up again a little while later.

I started the morning by sitting by our window and admiring the misty view waiting for the others to wake up.

Today was the day we had planned to climb Floya so once we were all up we had porridge, orange juice and coffee, layered up our clothes, packed the backpacks and headed out.

Floya is probably the most popular hike out of Svolvaer and works its way up the mountain pictured above. It is popular with mountain climbers too who climb the pillar that protrudes the mountainside. They also jump from one “horn” to the other. (The two smaller pillars poking out the top). We weren’t going to be doing that!

The trail head starts off immediately rocky and you have to use your hands to scramble up. The rocks are clearly marked with the trail route which provides you with the safest course to take.

The next section has two options. You can either take the steps up or use the chain to pull yourself up the smooth rock.

Whilst the boys obviously took the challenge of the chain climb we took the stairs. These steps then continued most of the way up the mountain. Its a killer on the legs but safe and easy.

After the steps there are more rocks to climb like at the start of the trail. Once again these were all clearly marked out and were obviously well traversed.

Unfortunately as we climbed the rain started coming and the rocks became slippery, my legs became jelly and we decided for safety reasons to stop where we were. Liam and I enjoyed the views and our friends continued up a little further but once again turned around due to poor weather. We were sensible about not forcing ourselves to the top as we had still climbed a mountain in the rain/snow and got some incredible views.

We knew that Lofoten is made up of lots of little islands but seeing it from this perspective was beautiful!

Following our morning mountain hike we grabbed some pizza rolls and coffee as a quick lunch and headed straight for the docks. That morning I had found a sea kayaking tour from Svolvaer so quickly dropped an email to nab us four spaces.

Once at the docks we were given all the necessary equipment which included dry suits, shoes, spray skirt and life vest. The end result was very fetching!

From here we were given a brief, helped into our tandem kayaks and began paddling!

Our guide was called John Kristian and he was super knowledgeable about the local area having grown up there. He led us out of the harbour and onto the open seas, pausing at points to offer us some information on local history and point out different landmarks.

The sea was incredibly clear, very deep at certain points and very shallow in others. At times we were able to see right through to the bottom.

It was such a surreal and amazing experience paddling alongside the mountains and around the islands. We had to pinch ourselves that we were actually here in Norway, sea kayaking in 1.5 degrees and seeing the breathtaking landscape from a completely different perspective.

Kayaking through the harbour was easy on the smooth waters but once we had reached the open sea the waves made paddling alot more strenuous but all the more fun!

The information JK gave us was really interesting. His grandfather had been a fisherman in the area and he had built one of the Rorbuers in the harbour that is still used today. JK explained that before a bridge was built to the main island his grandfather would have to row his children to school every day.

We also learnt that the Rorbuers are traditionally coloured red as the fishermen would paint their houses with fish blood. Only the rich could afford white paint therefore having a house painted white indicated wealth. Even today the larger and more decadant houses are painted white.

JK asked us if we were happy to stay out a little longer than the original tour time and we were having such a good time we obviously agreed. He wanted to take us out to the Fishermans Wife statue that sits alone out on the shore welcoming the men back from sea.

We stayed out until not long before sun down so some of our pictures are getting darker at this point. From here as we paddled back into the harbour he stopped us alongside the fish racks.

These racks have been used for decades to dry out fish that have been caught in the seas around lofoten. The fish are decapitated, cut in half and hung on these racks for approximately 2-3 months. Before being exported out, primarily to Italy, Spain and Africa. Lofoten exports 90% of its catch.

By this time my upper arms had started to ache and Liam was undoubtedly fed up of me paddling out of rythm despite his constant sing song of “left, right, left, right, left, right”.

We made our way smoothly back to harbour, got out of the kayaks not so smoothly and gratefully took off all equipment and warmed up inside.

I would thoroughly recommend this tour, we paid 695 Norwegian Kroner each which is around £58 and we gave JK a tip too seeing as he kept us out for longer than needed and clearly put in alot of effort with his knowledge.

After this we once again visited Rema 1000 and picked up some fish and chips for dinner – so British. Along with some more Norwegian chocolate.

Also the supermarkets are starting to bring out all of their Christmas food and drink and we have been drinking a fizzy drink called Jul Brus. Jul means Christmas. There are a bunch of different drinks designed for children that are sort of “pretend” alcohol. I remember this type of drink from when I used to live in France. We have been having that along with a drink called “Champs” which is like fake champagne. So cute!

Following our activity filled, cold day I was super grateful to have a nice hot shower and get into my PJs and fluffy jumper.

We spent the evening relaxing, planning the next day and sporadically looking for the Northern Lights that once again have evaded us. We went to bed, tired but grateful for having such an unfortgetable day.

This morning we were awoken once again but this time is was the sound of rain pelting the roof of the Arctic Dome. The snow had turned to rain and welcomed us into our second full day along with gale force winds. The Dome is surprisingly sturdy though and didnt move once!

I popped out and braved the rain to grab some snaps of the town below waking up and said hello to the mountains.

After my dash through the rain I snuggled back up into bed with a cup of coffee, listened to the rain and waited for the breakfast that was being lovingly cooked!

After a breakfast of bacon and egg sandwiches we cleared up and got ourselves ready for the day, grabbing all of our bits and bobs that had been surprisingly flung all about the Dome in the one night we had been there.

In between grabbing photos of the surrounding mountains after the clouds had parted of course.

The rain had melted most of the snow which made the journey back down the mountain much more enjoyable than the trip up!

We said goodbye to the town and headed out onto the E10 on our way to Svolvaer! The drive is about 3 hours but we had read it is one of the most scenic drives in the country so we were prepared to stop whenever we felt there was a nice photo opp. The first of which occured about 20 minutes into the drive!

We soon realised however that views like this were going to be a standard though out our journey and that we couldnt stop for every one. We did capture as much as we could through the windows though.

At some points it felt like we were driving in autumn and others we were plunged straight into winter.

Even the petrol stations had incredible surroundings!

Considering the petrol station was in the middle of nowhere it was well stocked with lovely clean toilets. Whilst we were there we decided to grab a Norwegian chocolate bar each to try.

I went for the Gullbrod, which in this instance was the poorest choice. It was essentially a block of marzipan coated in dark chocolate. Its a no from me. The others were nice! The Cuba was a milk chocolate truffle. The Toppris is like a lion bar (but actually nicer) and the Krokan was basically a Toblerone (which was fitting for the mountain backdrop).

After the sugary pitstop we carried on down the E10 (its one road the whole way). Lofoten is made up of a bunch of little islands all connected by bridges like this one:

They’re amazing to cross and get nice views of the surrounding landscape.

Our final stop was about 15 minutes outside of Svolvaer and we originally stopped as we spotted some toilets but it turned out to be an incredible viewpoint too!

From here we did our final little journey and arrived at Svolvaer. We had booked to stay in a Rorbuer which is in the style on an old fishermans lodge.

Our Rorbuer is right on the water and we are lucky enough to have this as our view:

Its a cute little cabin with a living room/kitchen and two bedrooms with en suite bathrooms. The heating had been on all day and we were grateful to warm up inside!

After unpacking and getting acquianted with our new home for the next few days we headed out to our favourite supermarket Rema 1000 and stocked up on dinner and snacks! We then headed back, cooked dinner and settled in to play games and relax.

Around 11pm we noticed that there were clear patches in the sky and cloud could be seen. We sat by the window to see if the patches were disappearing and when they didnt we quickly donned our winter coats and headed out on a Northern Lights hunt.

We started by walking around town and then decided the light polution was too much so drove to the outskirts. We stood for a while staring into the sky and watching the stars but alas no Northern Lights appeared. We did spot alot of shooting stars though! We slumped into bed vowing to try again the following night.

Today started off with a jolt as I forgot to turn off my alarm for work and so we were rudely awakened at 06:25am. Liam was able to slip straight back to sleep but I was too excited about the day ahead so decided to take a photo of the view from our window and send it to the family group chat.

As the morning went on the darkness slowly receded along with the clouds and a beautiful backdrop started appearing.

After we had sufficiently woken up we headed down to breakfast to see what was on offer. There were tonnes of the traditional breakfast type stuff like cooked breakfast, pastries, bread, cheese etc but there was also alot of fish!

The fresh fish looked lovely…although maybe not for breakfast. We tried a few different things however including what was basically a sauage but fish. It was just as unappetising as it sounds.

Following breakfast we packed up the car and decided to make our way to the supermarket and see how much food was going to set us back. The closest one we went to was called Rema. Food was pricey but not as bad as we anticipated. For reference a share bag of crisps is around £3, a bottle of coke is about the same and a pizza is £5. However you can buy a pack of maccaroni for about 80p and pasta sauce for the same. Eating in restaurants is much more though, so we were happy!

On our way back from the shop we spotted the Christmassy-est garden centre ever. So obviously we parked up and ran inside…then took a bunch of cheesey photos…

We perused the shops for a little more and then headed to a sign I had spotted on the way into the town. Narvik is actually situated within the Arctic Circle so its interesting to see all these different distances:

It was then time to head up to where we were going to be spending our night and one of the parts of the trip we were most excited about! The Arctic Dome!

The dome sits part the way up the mountain and overlooks town, fjord and neighbouring mountains. It is truly spectacular and incredibly cosy inside.

There are four of us on this trip and the dome is £400 a night which we felt was great value when divided up. The dome is wonderfully heated with two double beds, fur rugs, blankets, comfy chairs, table and chairs, tv and even a pair of cosy slippers each.

The dome is next to an old lodge house which is empty except for the kitchen which is there for the dome guests to use. The owner had filled this with all kinds of complimentary meats, cheeses, bread etc. The dome also comes with the added bonus of a hot tub!

Once we had settled in to the dome the sky opened and down came a shower of fresh snow! We knew we wouldnt get the northern lights with this cloud cover but in our opinion snow was the next best thing. It really completed the Arctic Dome feeling!

We spent some time outside in the snow acting like children on a snow day. Throwing snow around until our fingers burned red.

Following this our friends went for a wilderness walk and we warmed ourselves up inside. Admiring the view as night time fell over the town. Whilst also looking out for moose.

Once the sun had set and the snow had slowed we braved our swimming costumes and scurried out to the hot tub! Sat in the hot tub with glasses of wine and the steam swirling around us with the town below us and the mountain behind was a wonderfully peaceful and relaxing experience.

However, running from the lush hot tub across the snow was far from peaceful or relaxing!

This did mean that when we got warm and cosy back in the dome with our freshly cooked burgers and fluffy slippers on we fully appreciated it.

We have ended the day by admiring the view, under a cosy blanket, drinks in hand and reminiscing over what is clearly going to be the holiday of a lifetime.

The first day of our Norwegian Adventure had arrived! Its fair to say we didnt feel particularly prepared…we have never taken an October holiday before and we kept sort of forgetting we were going! This led to last minute clothes washing, waterproof touser buying and a dash to get some money.

Which by the way…has fish on it.

Our next challenge was fitting all our stuff in the suitcase. Turns out woolly jumpers and thick clothes take up more room than summer clothes. Who knew?

We also decided to pack some dry food. We are self catering through out the week and Norway is notoriously pricey. So we shoved our winter clothes in amongst the porridge and flapjacks and just about managed to squeeze the suitcase shut.

We knew the first day was going to be a long one and the first part of that was getting up at 3am to drive down to Gatwick. There we met our friends who we are sharing the adventure with, had some breakfast and boarded our flight to Oslo!

The flight took about 1.5 hours and was peacefully uneventful. I was hoping to see epic mountains emerging out of the cloud cover but unfortunately the weather was quite poor and as we landed we got our first glimpse of the landscape. Along with the countryside and rain we felt like we had landed back in London!

The next part of our journey consisted of a 5ish hour wait in Oslo airport. Oslo is hands down the best airport we have been to. Very modern, clean and comfortable and we passed the time quite well watching Netflix, playing games and people watching. We also had some super tasty baguettes and the time passed quite quickly.

By the time we boarded our connecting flight to Narvik – the first stage of our trip – we were all dead on our feet but we were soon wide awake at the view of the beautiful sunset and then eventually the mountains peeking through the blanket of cloud.

We landed in Narvik a swift 1 hour and 25 minutes later to the ground sprinkled with snow and dark ice. We skidded our way out of the airport in the dark to our rental car. After a few trips around the car park we were used to the automatic and on our way!

We drove through the darkness towards Narvik not knowing what kind of scenery and landscape was hiding in the dark around us. We arrived at our hotel – Scandic Narvik – and after a quick comparison of views from our rooms, flopped into bed ready to sleep for the next days adventure and excited to see what the light of day would reveal!

With last nights storm still in the air we got up on day 3 looking forward to a relaxing, treat yo’self kind of day ahead!

We headed down to breakfast with the view of keeping it to the minimum as we were going to be eating again soon. I managed to do that quite well, keeping it to a bowl of muesli wheras Liam still had his full cooked breakfast and two cinammon swirls.

After scoffing breakfast we quickly headed to our bus stop once again. We were stop number 8 and the stop we wanted was number 4 so we had to do almost the entire bus route which we were happy to do as we got to listen to more of the audio tour and learn more about the city we were quickly falling in love with.

About a 40 minute bus ride later we arrived at our first activity of the day; the New York Palace Cafe! This was probably one of the most recommended places to visit when we spoke to family and friends. It is to put it very simply a very fancy, exquisite, beautifully designed cafe. There is a section inside the entrance of the cafe that is cordoned off to allow tourists to take photos. As well as a long line of people queueing for a “walk in” table. We happily walked past these people to claim our 11am reservation and were led to a lovely table by the window.

The above picture is what we were looking around at from where we were sat.

Theres quite a selection on the menu from hot drinks, cakes, afternoon tea and main meals. I opted for the “chocolate choice” which consisted of a chocolate cake, hot chocolate and chocolate truffle. Liam ordered the “apple pie choice” and got an apple pie, cappucino and a chocolate truffle.

It was all delicious but the star of the show was the hot chocolate. It was I.N.C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E – and Ive had my fair share of hot chocolates. I mean…look at this caress…

For all this it was approximately £40 so considerably more than a normal cafe but this was no normal cafe. We enjoyed our tasty cakes and drinks whilst admiring the beautiful place and people watching! Bliss!

Following our morning treat we decided to head back to the City Park as this is where we needed to be for later on. There is alot to do in this area but we first decided to check our Heroes Square.

Heroes Square is the largest Square in Budapest and is located at the end of Andrassy Avenue. It commemorates Hungarian leaders and other “heroes” of Budapest in stone around the millenium column.

Another popular attraction in City Park is Vajdahunyad Castle. This building was originally built out of cardboard and as part of the millenium exhibition. It was designed to celebrate various diffrent architectural styles and the castle was so popular that it was rebuilt out of stone and brick. Its lovely to look at and I thought it felt almost like it were from a fairy tale.

As you can see the weather was quite stormy again by this point so decided to head to our main activity for the afternoon the Szechenyi Baths!

The Szechenyi baths are one of the largest spa baths in Europe. It has large outdoor natural medicinal hot spring baths and 15 indoor pools of varying temperatures along with pletny of different steam rooms and saunas.

You pay for either a cabin – which is a private cabin for you to get changed into and lock your belongings in or you can have a locker and get changed in the communal changing rooms. We opted for the cabin which was locked and unlocked with a wrist band. The ticket allows you all day entry until about 10pm. We had a wonderfully relaxing time and left feeling thoroughly refreshed!

After our relaxing afternoon we headed back to the hotel for a shower and a change of clothes before heading out for dinner. We walked over the bridge and into town to a street we remembered had alot of restaurants on it and we chose a restaurant called Wasabi which was very similar to Wagamamas. They has lush food and lusher cocktails!

Also the seats were swings which looked and sounded alot more fun than it was! We soon moved to a different table.

After dinner we took a wander through the surrounding streets to explore. We enjoyed looking at all the different bars and shops. There were lots of people milling around and it was a very chilled out atmosphere. We also came across a Pirate themed sweet shop which was fun!

During our explorarion we decided to find somewhere to try a Chimney cake and we happened to be near to the most popular Chimney Cake place in Budapest – Molnars Kurtoskalacs. There was quite a queue when we arrived despite it being about 9pm but it soon went down and we ordered half a chimney cake covered in cinammon and filled with ice cream and a whole one covered in chocolate. They were great! Not too dissimilar to a croissant.

They were all made fresh at the time and there is a large window you can watch them preparing them from outside.

Full of food, cocktails and chimney cake we made our way back to our hotel. As we got to the opposite side of the bridge we were distracted by the sound of some live music playing. Alongside the entrance of the bridge on the bank of the river is a bar called Platoon who were playing host to a jazzy band called Abase. We spontaneously decided to have grab a drink and join the dancing next to the rivers edge. We danced into the night before finally stumbling back to our hotel. A wonderful unexpected end to the day!

Day Two – 13/08/19

I woke up early on the second day as I was eager to get going and fill as much time as possible (holidays are super relaxing with me) I enjoyed the lush shower and huge make up mirror whilst Liam slept on. Begrudgingly he did get up a short while later and we headed down to our first breakfast in the hotel.

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Okay, starting off with a confession. You’re probably thinking…she’s got the first line of that George Ezra song wrong. No I do know that the first line is “My House in Budapest”, however…I only learnt that today. I spent the whole holiday singing “My Heart’s in Budapest” only to return and realise Ive been wrong the whole time. However, Mr Ezra is correct. Budapest is undoubtedly a hidden treasure chest.

Day One 12/08/19

After an early start (03:00am early – although it never seems so bad when you’re off on holiday does it?) we trundled down to Stansted, caught our peaceful flight and landed in Budapest. There’s not really much more I need to say about that – everyone knows how the airport works and it’s frankly boring!

We had that wonderous moment when you step off the plane and the wall of heat hits you like a warm embrace and you think… “yes, this isnt England!”. We had booked our transfer to the hotel through a company called Viator so once we had grabbed our (very grubby looking) suitcase from the baggage claim we greeted the young lady holding a sign with our name on and we were off! She introducted us to our driver who was a grumpy yet helpful man, on the way in he told us how to say thank you in Hungarian, and helped us with the pronounciation. It’s Koszonom if you wanted to know.

Our hotel was lush and an excellent choice if I do say so myself. We stayed in Hotel Clark which was right opposite the Szechenyi Chain Bridge – the most famous bridge in Budapest. It was the first ever bridge built to cross the Danube and connect the two districts of Buda and Pest to create Budapest. It has stone lions flanking each entrance and is an icon on the skyline. We decided to splash out a little more and go for a room that overlooked the Danube and the bridge. A decision we were so glad we made as we were not disappointed!

Our hotel had a cool geometric lion theme going on and it was superbly decorated and perfectly clean. Not to mention there was an epic Queen Sized bed with SEPERATE DUVETS (genius).

Enthused by our epic view and wanting to get out and explore we quickly unpacked, got changed and made our way out on to the streets of Budapest. Naturally our first port of call was getting a closer look at the chain bridge where we took our first photos of the trip!

After a few poses at the entrance we made our way across the bridge!


We were immediately drawn to the beautiful parliment building that sits right on the bank of the Danube. We took a leisurely stroll in that direction, enjoying the heat and excitement of exploring.

The building was even more stunning up close, we spent a bit of time lounging around on the grass outside the building, taking photos and perusing my Lonely Planet Budapest map (that I had already extensively studied and annotated). We soon noticed there was a charming yellow tram that past by fairly often and I recalled reading that this tram was the best one to take for sight seeing. I could see why as it passes right by the building itself.


At this point we were starting to get a tad peckish so we wandered in the direction of the main town in search of some food. We stumbled across an Aldi and intruiged by the kind of snacks available we ventured inside. We came back out with some pastries, drinks and chewy sweets. It was this moment Liam fell head over heels in love with pizza swirls. For the remainder of the holiday we couldnt pass an Aldi without him having to pop in and get one. Its worth noting at this point that Budapest is one of the cheapest cities Ive ever visited. Ill give an idea of some prices as I ramble onwards…

By this time we had been up for about 12 hours and were starting to get tired. We headed back to the hotel for a bit of a rest!

When Liam woke from his nap (and I was done studying the map some more) the sun was starting to go down and we decided to go out on another random walk. We were lucky that our hotel was right by the Fernicular that took people up the hill to the castle and surrounding area.


We could see loads of people queueing to take the ride up the hill but we decided instead to take the steps and Im so glad we did because we got lota of different and wonderful viewpoints across the city as we trundled our way up the hill.

As we continued our walk we watched darkness fall over the city and the night lights come alive. We ended up having a bit of a photo opportunity walk and we eventually made our way up to the castle.


The castle was beautiful up close and was lit up to look truly stunning against the dark sky. At this time of night (around 10pm) there were a few people up there looking round but not many. Id recommend going up there at night to not only marvel at the beauty of the building but because its significantly quieter.


Following on from our photography walk we decided to head back once again in search of more snacks. We decided to go to the basement shop next to our hotel and stocked up on drinks and crisps – we were still quite full from our snacking binge earlier.

Instead of walking back through the dark park back down to the hotel we decided to take a trip on the Fernicular! It cost us just under a fiver for both of us to go down, provided a lovely view and saved us a significant amount of time! Plus the carriages were super cute!


By this point we were absolutely dead on our feet and collapsed into bed. I fell promptly asleep knowing I wanted to get up early to cram as much in as possible. I was excited about what the next few days would bring but I was certain Budapest was going to steal my heart for sure.

#budapest #zerotohero #holiday #citybreak

In my opinion there is no greater thing to spend your hard earned money on than seeing the world.

I would love to be one of those girls who packs her bags, puts the house up for rent, quits her job and explores the world for months or even years on end. Perhaps aided by a Youtube vlog or highly profitable side job…

Realistically though, I know this isnt possible for multiple reasons:

1. Im a lucky person who loves their job and their career. I have alot of ambition to progress and I wouldnt want to leave that behind.
2. I love my family and my friends. I know there are those that say some of the best people they have ever met have been whilst travelling and that may be true but for me my friends and family already are the best people in my life. I couldnt go without seeing my family as often as I can or spending the weekend with my friends.
3. Money. Moolar. Dollar. This is probably one of the biggest walls that stand in the way of people wanting to travel more. Im not rich. I never will be. This is something I have come to accept and until I win the lottery or stumble across a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow (the latter being more likely) it will affect how often I can hop to the next adventure.
4. I am not a Youtube Vlogger – there would be no point in trying. Theres too much competition and Im definitely not as interesting as the lucky people already doing it.

It is these reasons that lead me to where I am today! I am an average girl, leading an average life, with the odd blind dog and clumsy anecdote thrown in and this is how I am trying to see the world. One trip at a time.

So up to this point I have not been particularly far or wide…

Recently Liam bought me a scratch map that you can scratch the different countires you have visited off. As you can see, theres alot of gold still on there.

So far we have done… England, France, Scotland, Italy, Western USA and most recently Hungary.

We havent even done all of the UK yet!

So I am going to document my travels on here. As a way for me to keep a record to one day look back on but also to give others an idea of what a particular place is like. Not as part of an epic road trip or quick “24 hours in (insert city here)” but just as a standard holiday.

I will try and do a bit about most of the holidays so if any of them tickle your pickle have a peruse. If not, scroll on by. ❤

#travel #zerotohero #holidays