Gorey, Jersey

Can I give you some advice? Never watch two final episodes to two different series on the same day. I am a complete wreck. Both Grimm and The Vampire Diaries had their last ever season finales last night and I watched them before writing this.

Jesus Christ.

Deep breath and let's get on with some more of what we got up to in Jersey.

Our third day started the way the second did, with the hotel breakfast and a reasonably early start to pack as much in as we could.

I knew I wanted to visit a castle or two and what I didn't tell you about the day before was the afternoon, before our date night, was a bit of a failure. 

We'd originally attempted to visit Elizabeth Castle but it turned out it wasn't the right time of year and then we tried to go to the Maritime Museum as well, but it turned out that was only open on Sundays! What a palarva. So that's when we settled for the arcade.

Anyway as it was a brand new day, we thought we would try the Maritime Museum again which was thankfully open! We literally just got inside when the heavens opened and it hailed very very heavily. Lucky for us, we spent the next hour or two wandering round the museum looking at all the shells and sealife and boats.

It was quite interesting but rather expensive!

Again, as per our usual, we went back to the hotel for a quick break before heading back out again, this time to visit Mont Orgueil Castle in Gorey (the opposite side of the island - took about 20 minutes to drive to!)

I loved this castle. We drove past The Paper Fig restaurant and wove our way up and up these narrow twisting lanes to the castle on the hill above.

We got to the little hut where we had to pay for the entrance and the weather turned once more for the worst - only quick bursts of heavy rain but enough to keep us hovering inside a little bit longer.

The guy behind the desk gave us a map of the castle and challenged us to find the four hidden items on our scavenge through the castle as it had many many little hidey holes and so many tucked away crevices!

Once the rain had stopped the sun came out in all her glory and it was a beautiful day. The views were absolutely stunning and we had so much fun winding our way around all the rooms and completing our mission to find the secret items.

We were starved by the time we left though so we took a different, very windy route back to the hotel but came across this adorable little garden centre with a tearoom. The food was amazing. It was packed so it must be a good spot for a Sunday lunch.

After that we made our way back to the hotel, packed our bags ready for our departure the following day and made use of the hotel amenities one last time.

One last post to come for Jersey but that's all you're getting for now!

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Aimless and Unmotivated

Do you ever just feel like you're going through the motions, just going along with life as it sees fit, not how you would like it to go?

I don't know what's wrong with me of late, but I just cannot pull myself together.

I mean there's nothing wrong with my life, I just feel like I'm going nowhere.

I'm not motivated to run, I'm not motivated to write - blog posts or my book, I'm not motivated to do anything. Work doesn't seem as enjoyable anymore, I'm tired of living with these people but also scared to move on somewhere new.

I'm also at that point in the year where my body has decided it doesn't like the change in the weather so it's produced a mass outbreak all over my chest and back which, yanno, doesn't make me feel any better about myself. Grand.

I hate having these down moments and I feel awful for moaning about it considering these problems aren't proper problems for the likes of those who are homeless or disaster has struck their homes. Those people out there who would give anything for a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs. But I guess everyone has their own problems to deal with.

The picture above was taken whilst I was at my grandparents on Saturday. It was the most relaxing long weekend I've had in a while.

I had from Wednesday off and I drove home on Thursday. I spent the majority of my time unpacking my room as it had all been packed up for my carpet to be redone (and if that doesn't contrast completely with a couple sentences above then I don't know what does). It was so calming to go through all my teenage memories and relive them.

I chucked a lot of stuff or bagged it for charities which made me feel like I was doing some good in the world.

I considered last year even going to another country to help in the rainforests or in building volunteer projects or in helping with disaster relief. But I didn't realise you had to pay a couple of grand just to volunteer. Why is the world ruled by money?

Getting sidetracked... anyways, after unpacking all of Friday and a bit of Thursday afternoon it was nice to spend the day at my grandparents and chill out in the sun. Their garden is so beautiful, full of colourful flowers and wildlife ornaments.

I sometimes wish I could spend more time there. Living in London has separated me from my family even more and it bugs me.

Adeel is so close to his family and gets to see them all very frequently. I feel like an awful granddaughter, cousin, sister, niece, friend because I'm never around.

I feel like I've already said all of this. But I don't feel needed.

And TV shows don't help. They're all perfect and beautiful. Yes they're not real but they make me feel insignificant and disgusted with myself.

God that was depressing. Just a big fat bleurgh of thoughts all over this page.

Now I'm going to go and finish reading HP7 because a little bit of magic always makes me feel better.

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The Final Paris Adventure

Minus the other two, Yasmin and I headed off early to Montmartre to see the Sacre Coeur, bags packed and left in the trusty hands of our check-in receptionists (Yasmin had been the previous day - God knows what I was doing - but we wanted to buy everyone French novelty gifts!).

With the sky a tremendous blue and the sun shining down on us for the first time in our four days, we soaked it all up not wanting to waste a second of the beautiful March day. We headed around all of the typical touristy shops and stalls, finding a little cobbled square full of boutique cafes and antiques, spending our Euros as we went on plenty of souvenirs, chocolates and pastel coloured macaroons!

We came across the most beautiful chocolatier - stunning architectural French buildings were carved into slabs of chocolate and put on display behind glass cases, taking our breath away.

Before we wound our way back to the hotel to pick up our luggage for our return journey home, we perched ourselves on a rustic bench beneath the shadows of an overhanging tree up on the hillside, the Sacre Coeur above us, surveying the hustle and bustle of Paris in all of her beauty below us.

What a perfect way to end our trip and a great gift to myself for my twenty first birthday for the following day!

Although I was disappointed in myself for not being able to explore as freely as I would have liked or in being comfortable abroad in myself, I really did enjoy my time there and it was definitely a stepping stone to get my confidence up with travelling and facing my many fears (I mean since this time last year I have been to Dubai for two weeks with a combined time of 14 hours on a plane as well as doing many days/weekends out of my comfort zone, including a recent weekend to Oxford for my 22nd birthday! Although I'm happy to report that that wasn't so out of my comfort zone and I am slowly conquering my fears once and for all. Can't wait to bring you the posts on my time in Oxford!❤)

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