London - UK

LONDON! What fun we had here. We arrived in London at around 5am on Monday and as tired as we were, we were glad to have arrived in a country where the people could finally speak English! 

After a bit of a wait to get into our airbnb apartment and a nice little nap, we caught our first underground ride to Westminster! As soon as you stepped outside of the station, the Big Ben was standing right in front of us! It was awesome! We then walked to the super busy Westminster Abbey, then walked back towards the Big Ben and over the bridge to see the London Eye and the Tate Modern art museum (and saw a few red telephone boxes on the way). 

Westminster

We then had a late lunch at a pub near our apartment - it was here I tried my first Pimms and Lemonade! 
That night we were pretty wrecked so we played some cards and monopoly millionaire and then hit the sack for an exciting day ahead. 

On Tuesday, all the girls went to Madame Tussauds (Josh had already been before) on Baker Street (the Sherlock Holmes street). It was awesome! I met so many celebrities :) But seriously, it was cool! Just so busy!

After Madame's we went and had lunch in Leicester Square and then caught a train to the HARRY POTTER STUDIO TOUR!! OH MY GOODNESS IT WAS AWESOME! A double decker Harry Potter bus even picks you up from the station and takes you to the studios! If you do go - get the audio tour - worth it! 

After that amazing experience, we went and met one of Josh's friends who lived in London named Andy. He took us to this small restaurant where Ness and I had the most amazing burrito of my life!! (I would say). I don't remember what was in it other than that it had pulled pork but god it was good. After dinner, we had a few drinks at a pub and then called it a day. It had been an exciting day. 

Wednesday was (finally) shopping day. We hadn't really had time to do any shopping on this whole trip so we were super keen to hit up Oxford street. My goodness it is amazing. You need more than one day on this street and even the surrounding streets. 

After a long day of shopping, we went home to get ready to see the musical 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'!! It was at the Theatre Royal, Drury lane, which is on of the oldest theatres in London - it was so cool inside! Just like the movies, one of those olden day theatres! I tried taking a few pictures but then I got in trouble. The musical was AWESOME! You must see it, especially if you love the story. The kids were so talented!! 

As we were walking back to the tube, we stopped by a Greek restaurant for dinner. Just another great day in London... 

On Thursday morning the girls hit up Oxford Street (again) while Josh went to the Arsenal stadium. At lunch time we met with Lotte, went to M&M World, had lunch at in London's China Town and then went to the National Portrait Gallery for some delicious tea and scones in their cafe which overlooked the city (you could see the Big Ben from there!). After tea and scones we caught a tube to Buckingham Palace! So surreal being right there... 

That night we Lotte took us for dinner at Jamie Oliver's pop-up diner just next to Piccadilly Circus which is only inLondon for I think 2 years (opened up this year). It was a half an hour wait but the waitress told us Jamie was coming in that night - obviously we knew the wait was worth it. 

The food was sooooo good. I tried Josh's burger and we both agreed it was better than Brodburger (big call). I went all out and had a 3 course meal (thinking I would only be here once - little did I know..) which included some sweet potato tortillas, chicken in a basket which was pretty much chicken and chips in a basket with some awesome salad and then Ness and I shared a huge Lemon Meringue Pie and Chocolate Cake for dessert. We were pretty full. 

In between our feast, Jamie and his wife were having dinner not that far away from us with a group of friends!!!!! WE WERE SO EXCITED!!!!! Jas was literally crying. 

After a drink at the pub next door, we walked back past Jamie's diner and tried waving at Jamie who was sitting at the window upstairs - AND he waved back!!! First celebrity spotting and it was so awesome! 

On Friday and Saturday we all went to the Wireless Festival. On Friday we saw Kesha, Bingo Players, Snoop Dog, Trey Songz, Flume, Frank Ocean anddddd the AMAZING Justin Timberlake! Man he was good. WORTH paying for that's for sure. The best was when Jay-Z came out and performed 'Suit and Tie' with him! 

Saturday we saw Macklemore, Rita Ora, Calvin Harris and Jay-Z! The festival was SO much fun :) 

On Sunday morning, Ness, Jas and Christine left for Greece. So Josh, Laura and myself went to see the tower ofLondon! That's where they keep the crown jewels - they were absolutely incredible! 

We then met up with Lotte and her sister to hit up some London markets. Firstly we went to Old Spitalfields Market which was so cool! There were heaps of boutique shops around the sides and so many stalls full of clothes, food and random other things. Josh and I had the best cupcake we ever had. I don't even remember what flavour I got - could have been some apple cinnamon one but MAN it was good. They also had heaps of cheap summer dresses and I bought one for 5 pounds! 

We then went for some lunch and food at the (allegedly hipster) Brick Lane markets with Andy and one of his friends. It's crazy, there were people sitting down everywhere on the street eating food - I had never seen anything like it! Cider and Chinese was the shiz. 

That afternoon we went with Lotte and her sister to the Borough Markets - but by the time we got there, most of the food had sold out. Of course there was a pub nearby and we had a few drinks instead. That night, the three of us went and had a Sunday Roast at the wallflower pub right on the river and then went home for another awesome day ahead! 

The next morning (Monday) I went to Harrods and Oxford Street (again - 3rd time lucky) and then met Josh for lunch at Jamie's Italian while Laura went to meet Nicole who had just arrived. We then went and saw the Hangover at the movies and after that met with Laura and Nicole for a second Jamie's diner dinner, awaiting the arrival of Josh's mum. No Jamie this time. 

Tuesday was pretty much my last day in London..so to start it off we went to the biggest bookstore in Europe - Waterstones on Piccadilly Circus (where I bought The Perks of Being a Wallflower and the Rafael Nadal book). We then caught a tube to see the beautiful St Paul's Cathedral. After that, I decided to go shopping on Oxford St again (4th time - but it was my last day!). We then all went to Jamie's diner for lunch (3rd time haha). 

That late afternoon we went to Leicester square for the Wolverine Premier and saw another major celebrity spot - Hugh Jackman! Pretty awesome... 

On my last night in London we went and saw a comedy play called 'One Man, Two Guvnors' which was so FUNNY! 

I spent the rest of the night packing all my shopping into my suitcase...getting excited for Greece but sad that my holiday with my love was about to end... 

London was so great. 

 

Madrid, Barcelona and Ibiza - Spain

We arrived in Madrid pretty late at night after our flight was delayed. I'll always remember the taxi drive from the airport to our hostel in Madrid. The sun was setting, it was huge and a bright coral colour - at that moment it was the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen. I was in awe. 

 Once we got to our hostel (which was more like a hotel - and was right on the main street of Madrid) we got some dinner and planned our next day. We decided to go to Warner Bros Movie World! 

So we got up early the next morning and caught a tube and a bus out to the middle of nowhere where the theme park was. Josh was SO excited if you can't tell by the picture below and he had a right to be. It was such a good day!! 

We went on SO many roller-coasters, some a bit too jumpy than others. We got drenched on a water ride and then had burritos for lunch. The best part of the day was the haunted house. It was an extra 3 euro to do it but now we know why - it was INSANE. Probably the best haunted house ever. The whole time we were huddled together screaming and crying of laughter/being scared. God it was good. 

With Superman..

That night we went out to have our first real Spanish meal- tapas, sangria and paella. It was SO SO good. Everything tastes so fresh in Spain! 
We then did a bar crawl around Madrid. The last place we went to was this expensive discotech that had a male and female dancer on either side of the DJ. There were even grandpa's raving in the joint. It was pretty cool!

 

The next day....well the next afternoon we did the Madrid walking tour. There wasn't too much to see but the history was really interesting. Josh, Ness, Christine and I then went to see the Real Madrid football stadium. I didn't know much about the club other than that it's rich and Christiano Ronaldo plays for them. But I really enjoyed it - there was so much to see! 

The main square in Madrid

After that we got fro-yo. It was amazing. That night I had the most amazing meal of my life at this random, pretty empty restaurant. We had tapas again (some amazing meatballs, some egg and chorizo thing, croquets and I'm not sure what else..) with Paella and Sangria. Paella is THAT GOOD. 

That night the final of the Confederations Cup was playing (Brazil vs Spain - pretty awesome that we were in Spain at the time) so we found a place that was playing it on the big screen. Unfortunately Spain lost. 

The next day we left for Barcelona! Once we got there we were wandered the city for dinner and had (yet again) Paella. We later found a cocktail bar that gave free shots with every cocktail. The guy loved us! After a few of those we went to the famous Razzmatazz nightclub and found out that Pendulum was playing that night (randomly)! It was awesome! The mosh was not. 

The next morning we went to the main street of Barcelona 'La Rumbla' and ate at the huge fresh food markets. It was amazing! Fresh juice, crepes, seafood etc everywhere! We chilled on Barcelona Beach for the rest of the day, had Paella at a restaurant near the hotel and had a cute family bonding night playing cards in the hotel room till 3am. 

The next morning we went back to the markets for breakfast and then said farewell to Brendan who was heading back to Aus to set up his new life in Sydney. It was truly sad losing a part of the #eurodeals2013 crew. 

To cure our depression, we decided to do some retail therapy, so we pretty much spent the day shopping! After dinner we all went to the movies (yes, we found some playing in English). Christine and I saw Monsters University while the rest saw superman or something that they thought was crap. Monsters University was too cute. 

The next day was our last in Barca. We went and saw the La Sagrada Familia (so cool) and Of course we decided to hit up another beach for the day, had a nice dinner by the sea and then caught a plane to Ibiza! 

We got into Ibiza pretty late at night, grabbed a 1am snack and went to bed! The next day we went swimming. The beach right near us was really nice and the weather was amazing. 

We decided for that night to get tickets to the biggest nightclub in the world - Privilege! After chilling at a random beach party, we got to Privilege at about 1.30am. It was a BIG night club. But it was pretty boring (doof doof) music until about 3am when it went dark and big stage light up and out came so many Disney characters, circus performers, a singer, models etc etc. It was crazy and fun!! Nothing you would ever see in your life. It was the true Ibiza experience. 

The next day we lazed on the beach again until the afternoon where we hit up a zoo party. This was a party held in an abandoned zoo! That ended at around midnight and we were so wrecked by then that we got some food and went to bed. 

The next day was our last day in Ibiza! We went to the other side of the Island called San Antonio and Ness, Jas and I did Parasailing! It was so relaxing and fun! The views were beautiful. 

That afternoon we all ate lunch together and watched the Wimbeldon final at a cafe in San Antonio. We then went for an afternoon swim and wandered around to a famous spot for watching the sunset. It was MAGICAL. 

Our final night in Ibiza ended in fro-yo and a 2am flight to London! Spain was amazingggggggg.