Tag: weekend

24 hours in Oxford

I’ve never been to Oxford before. Well, I’ve never ‘properly’ been.

I was only there once in 2014, at the beautiful Blackwell’s bookshop to meet the talented, humble,inspirational astronaut Chris Hadfield who I followed for months on Social Media, taking and posting pictures of our beautiful planet from the International Space Station (including a snap of my gorgeous home island), doing live experiments and videos giving insights to the rest of us on how things work in space. That’s a whole other story though.

Five years later, a lot has changed since and it happened that my now best friend who grew up in Oxford moved back home and I went to see her this weekend. It’s amazing to think that she might have been at the bookshop that day, as it’s her favourite, I might have even bumped into her.

Saturday, 1:10pm. After a wonderful, peaceful train ride with a cup of tea, a book and music I made it to Oxford.

The city was buzzing with people, I forgot how busy it can get on a Saturday. First stop: Lunch.

The place Shebs had in mind was full so we discovered a little cafe on top of a bike shop that we now love, the Handle bar Cafe and Kitchen. It was busy but luckily a sweet man who waited at the bar for a table offered us his so we didn’t have to wait.

The decoration was just beautiful with bikes hanging on the wall, a very rustic, cosy vibe and the food was in-cre-di-ble.

Shebs had the coconut pancake stack with berries and I had the smashing avocado on toast. If you know me, you know that’s one of my favourite brunch/lunch meals and I often order it, so I tried it in a lot of places. The one I had at Handle Bar was by far the best. It wasn’t just a typical avo on toast with a poached egg on top. There was feta, chilli, paprika, almonds, seeds and beetroot hummus, it was on another level.

After that we wandered into the city centre and Shebs took me to the most beautiful shop I’ve ever been. I need not say anything else. Just have a look.

We of course went to Blackwell’s bookshop and browsed for a while and since it was too dark to admire the architecture and it was getting closer to the time we had to be at the theatre, we went for dinner at a great Spanish restaurant, Al-Andalus tapas bar. Another awesome meal. Every single tapas we had was bursting with flavour. We had freshly baked bread served with Catalan style tomato sauce and olives on the side and we went for four different tapas: Pincho de Tortilla (spanish omelette), Brochetas De La Huerta (grilled vegetables), Bunuelos De Bacalao (cod fritters with garlic, parsley and ali oli) and Albondigas (meatballs) and a jug of light, refreshing Sangria. We were so full we couldn’t finish all of it.

After this wonderful dinner we met Sheb’s adorable mum and we had a laugh and sang along to Sister Act- the musical at the Oxford playhouse.

We were in no rush on Sunday morning, so we enjoyed a cup of coffee at home before heading out in town.

On Sunday we mostly did sightseeing, passing by the Bridge of Sighs, Hertford college and the Bodleian Library, one of the oldest libraries in Europe. I was in awe of the architecture and the wealth of history.

Before I headed home we went for a quick lunch at one of the most beautiful cafes I’ve ever been, the Vaults and garden cafe, which used to be an old church. We both had the Goat cheese rarebit, delicious.

Sunday, 1:15pm. A day later, I hugged Shebs goodbye and I got the train back to Southampton. What an amazing day it has been. There’s so much to see and do, 24 hours are not enough, there’ll be more next time I visit.

I usually dread Mondays but today I feel blessed. Blessed I had such a wonderful day with my best friend, chatting and laughing whilst wandering in such a stunning city. Oxford is definitely worth a visit.

Eleni

How am I 31 years old already!

Thank you everyone for all your lovely messages and gifts and a special thank you to Sofy and Suki for our lovely lunch today and to my lovely Helena for my birthday treats, you are the best!

My first year in my 30s was challenging to say the least. I struggled mentally, financially, personally… I’ve made MANY bad decisions, I lost friends, I wasted time and money on meaningless things but it wasn’t all bad.

I’ve been home three times, which was one of the things on my bucket list, to visit home as often as possible, spend time with my friends and my family, especially my two sisters who I love to bits. I had the most amazing three weeks in July, visiting friends, sunbathing, swimming, and of course I became I godmother to my little prince, who I can’t wait to see every time I go home. And I also got to spend Christmas at home after many many years. My latest visit in April was just what I needed to help me get through rough times. Some people asked me whether I’d go somewhere else other than home that often but for me is necessary. Just think, how often do you get to see your family? I can only see them a couple of times a year and I wouldn’t change that for any holiday.

Although I’ve been through rough times, struggling with anxiety and melancholy, I made new friends, I had the most laugh one can have at work with lovely colleagues almost every day, I spent endless afternoons sitting at the park with Sheba chatting about life, went to the theatre, watched my first opera, spent hours wandering in London with friends, watched a Midsummer Night’s dream at the Globe theatre at midnight, the most amazing three days in Berlin, Helena’s hen do, the Winchester Jazz festival, Common People with the loveliest bunch, singing with my SingNow friends (I’ll never forget that day we got soaking wet at Holyrood church but we sang until the end!IMG-20161001-WA0005) Go Ape where I faced one of my worst fears with a little help from friends, One Sound 2017, and most of all I loved being spontaneous with Sheba such as our hilarious lunch at the park or our lunchtime venture to Boots trying on perfumes until we found the perfect ones we were looking for or happily crazily dancing with all of our energy until exhaustion and other I can’t share here!

So all in all it hasn’t been a bad year but I learned from my mistakes and I’m doing much better now. I moved to a new place for a fresh start (thank you Chris for all your help, although it turned into a drama/comedy!), I sold my beloved car to a lovely couple as I didn’t use it that much and spent too much money unnecessarily, got rid of my credit card and now repaying my debt so I can in just over a year’s time decide whether I want to get another job or move to another city or another country or go travelling or study… who knows…

And there is a LOT to look forward to for my 31st year already. My best friend is coming back very soon for more adventures, going home in a couple of weeks to have fun in the sun with family and friends, climbing Snowdonia with some of my favourite work people, which will be a challenge- if you want to help for our amazing cause you can find all the details here https://www.gofundme.com/Snowdonia-Superstars-for-Tempo-Wellbeing– , spending a week in Italy (which I can’t believe, I can’t wait!) are some of the things I’ve planned for the next couple of months which for me is a MASSIVE step forward as planning scares the hell out of me.

Thank you all again for my birthday wishes. And thank you to all my friends and family, I love you to the moon and back.

Eleni xx