EMILY ISA BAKER

Where we stayed, where we ate and what we did...

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Where we stayed, where we ate and what we did...

Where we stayed, where we ate and what we did...

My sister moved to Manchester in September for university and I've only just got around to visiting, I had already visited Manchester for 2 day trips in the past when she was attending interviews but didn't see too much of it. I don't know if it's only me but it seems so weird up there I don't even know why! Arrived there late Friday afternoon, we did some underwear shopping and then Beth bought a Samsung nx3000 the camera model before mine. We headed to her halls to get ready and drop stuff off and then we went out. Dinner was on the list first so we headed for Home Sweet Home in the Northern Quarter (the hippest place in MC). I ordered something I wouldn't usually order which was a chicken basket, fried chicken with chips and heaps of slaw! Was so tasty. We then headed to find some gin and ended up in a weird 90s themed bar/club, there was a mixture of people in there and I didn't get the name of it but I wouldn't recommend anyway. After leaving that dive we got on a bus (their busses make me miss Oyster cards) and headed for Font bar in Oxford Street. £2 cocktails, cute interior and they have over 100 types of craft beer so I was sold. Woke up on Saturday feeling ill with a throat infection and ached all over (not even a hangover). We didn't get out until gone 2pm so I took some medicine and hoped I could eat, we went to Federal Cafe/Bar and wow I was blown away (again ordered something I wouldn't usually order) halloumi and shrooms, poached eggs with a spiced tomato relish on sourdough bread, oh my tastebuds. We walked around Manchester shops for a few hours and even though I was tempted to spend money I resisted. Headed back because I wasn't getting any better and kicked back with a wicked cool takeaway from Southern 11 (thanks to deliveroo) fried chicken, fries, Mac and cheese and mini soft tacos! Oh and we watched The Mindy Project back to back. I had such a lovely time and I was sad to leave my baby sister standing alone at the station.

Our fourth time in this wonderful city, the walk from central station is so familiar, it almost does feel like a second home. This city is so wonderful that I actually don't mind wandering around in circles along the canals and beautiful houses in the cold, that is maybe possibly one of things I most enjoy about Amsterdam city breaks. On the Friday we celebrated Harry's 23rd birthday, we decided on not smoking this night and only drinking, which we've never actually done in Amsterdam before. Started off in our hostel [St. Christophers Inn] as it was 2 4 1 then we tried to follow a group of people on a bar crawl without paying but when we got to the second place a single spirit and mixer was 9 euros so we decided to head back and ended up at the club next to our hostel [Winstons Kingdom]. Some of us woke up pretty hungover. As you can obviously guess the rest of the weekend was a bit of a smokey haze, wandering around searching for places to eat (after just eating) and places to smoke (after just smoking). On the Saturday I decided that it would be good to do an activity instead of sitting in a dark smokey room whist the sun was shining outside, and I decided on a boat tour around the canals. It was a 9 euro trip and took an hour and well I think I made a pretty good decision, we learnt quite a bit about Amsterdam and it made us all hungry and sleepy. Don't go to Sea Palace unless you're a baller because we had gone past it on the boat and got very tempted and walked all the way there, sat down, ordered drinks, looked at the menu and realised we couldn't really afford to blow all of our euros on lunch and then had an awkward experience in how we should leave this really fancy restaurant.

The best picture from the trip, top marks Rakesh

Spent 16 days travelling around Goa and Kerala with my boyfriend and even though it was nothing how we had imagined it was still a great time. It was our first holiday and we came out of it a lot closer (well that's what I think) obviously being on holiday without having internet 24/7 makes everything a lot better, not as much trolling and more conversation (which was by far my favourite thing). We beach hoped mostly, starting in Vagator, Arambol, Anjuna, Baga and Colva then we got a sleeper train (never again!) from Goa to to Alleppey in Kerala and ending in Varkala. Our favourite place was Varkala in Kerala, we were both nervous in thinking that it was going to be exactly like the other places but it wasn't, it was a lot more relaxed and the beach was a lot nicer and cleaner! Before going I was searching the web for guides to India/Goa and didn't have as much luck as I had hoped so I planned to do this post and give some recommendations: