Leaving Lund.

I left Lund on June 9th 2014 after possibly the best 6 months of my life. I absolutely fell in love with Sweden and Scandinavia in general. The city of Lund was historic and beautiful, I loved every minute of cycling around, meeting friends for fika and travelling. I met some of the most interesting, kind, thoughtful, inspirational and wonderful people during my time there and I miss them all every single day. My plan at the moment is to apply for Masters programmes in Sweden so I may be back there in the not too distant future but I thought I would just share some of the photos taken by the ridiculously talented Paul Carleton, they are of my brilliant friends and my last day in Lund. 

Celebrating Swedish National Day with meatballs and lingonberry jam. Starting from the left we have Antonia, Amy, Michael, me and Paul.

The awesome dinner party Esbe and Paul threw for us all. Starting with me and working left we have Amy, Lucy, Michael, Maxime, Antonia, (someone I don't recognise), Matt, Barney, Marie, Dennis, (two more people I don't know), Flavia, (another mystery guest) and Esbe!  

Amy, Esbe and me on my balcony on my final day in Lund, just before I headed off to the airport. How beautiful are they!?

Thank you to everyone I met for making my time in Sweden so magical. I hope I will meet you all again some day soon!

Iceland - Blue Lagoon and Roadtripping!

It is a massive tourist trap but when you go to Iceland the Blue Lagoon is somewhere you really have to visit. It is Iceland's most popular visitor attraction, the Blue Lagoon is a giant bathtub that pools six million litres of geothermal seawater from 2000 metres beneath the earth's surface. By the time it reaches the lagoon, the mineral-rich milky, aqua blue waters simmer at temperatures between 37 and 39°C. 

The water makes your skin feel so soft and there are vats of silica clay dotted around that you can spread all over your face and body.

Unfortunately I had a migraine the day we visited but it was still a lovely experience. 

Our final adventure in Iceland was a road trip along the peninsular.

The absolute BEAST of a car we had to drive around in. There was a mix up at the hire company and our friends waited so long for the little city car they had originally hired that they were upgraded to this amazing 4x4 Chevrolet with heated seats and everything. 

This beach was home to around 15 seals when we visited but they cleverly disguised themselves as rocks and were impossible to photograph! 

Black volcanic sand in one of the coves. 

Iceland - Reykjavik

The capital of Iceland is Reykjavik - we decided to stay in a hostel close to the city centre so we could explore the city (we had hired a car in order to drive further afield). On a sunny day the city was very beautiful, looking out across the sea to the snow topped mountains which seem to ring around it. The elvish looking church pictured below dominates the top of the city and is very impressive! 

We also nipped in to Reykjavik Opera House for a quick look around, it was probably one of the most impressive buildings I have been inside. The mosaic glass roof reflects light in different shades of blue and there are quiet seating areas to sit and look out over the harbour. I definitely think it would be an awesome place to go and see a show. 

Similarly to Sweden, Iceland has many cute, brightly coloured houses which all appear to be made or at least roofed with corrugated metal. 

While we were there we stumbled across the Fisherman Festival - it was a pretty grey, miserable day but the huge boxes of ugly and unusual fish were fascinating to look at and we got the chance to try some Icelandic specialities - fish soup (yum), sour whale (yuk) and dried fish (surprisingly nice).