Hey Guys!

It has been a VERY long time since I have blogged anything but I am back with some new things coming up! But first I would like to apologise for my absence, I don't really have an excuse for it I just got side tracked. Anyhow, back to the new stuff.

So firstly, I have some new posts all planned out for you guys. Little live updates if you will. I was considering doing youtube videos and posting them there but as I am lacking in a good vlogging camera I am still undecided. 

As for travelling I have gone on a trip to Melbourne recently and didn't think to even take photo's let alone write posts on that. Whoops. Next time perhaps.

University for myself has just started up again so I am quite slow with reading books for leisure, mostly literature (shakespeare and all that) just to get myself in the right mind frame for uni work, plus I really like some of his plays, and I think reviews on that would be plain old boring for most people as there are so many of them out there. Maybe summaries would be better...hmmm... 

And gaming season has just settled down again. There were quite a few tournaments recently that I have missed out on for blogging but have somewhat kept up to date with those via Twitter.

That's mostly it for now! If anyone would like any specific updates or posts or recommend any books let me know via comments, emails as I believe I have that linked up, or twitter.

Cate 

xx

Book Review: Insurgent

ISBN 9780007536740

Insurgent - Veronica Roth

It took me two sittings to read Veronica Roth's second installment of the Divergent series and I must say that I was both impressed and unimpressed by the book. After the excitement and adventure you take with Tris and Four/Tobias in the first novel, I was expecting something with more personal hurtles involved instead of everything being done as if for a chess game. The portrayal of Tris' frustration with Four was delivered perfectly, throughout my readings I was getting quite frustrated myself by his stupid reactions to certain situations. The emotions Tris was feeling was however poorly done in my opinion, the scenes felt rushed and any indepth information was skipped over. Whilst becoming enthralled in the build up of the storyline the importance of the main characters became quite transparent which is something I'm not a fan of when I read a series - I'm there to read about this characters journey and decisions and what they do about certain situations, not everyone elses. In the significance Insurgent plays in the series I would say it is both significant if you wish to know why certain characters have changed and died off, and insignificant as you could (if you wanted) skip this novel and piece together the events whilst reading the third installment. I am glad however to have read it as it means I can move onto the third and final installment Allegiant, with an indepth background of the characters and the storyline. Hopefully the ending to the series wont be a giant cliffhanger...

The Problem I Have

I'm the type of person who wants to learn new things and master them in a respectively short time frame, or spend a large amount of time doing so. I also want to learn new things at the same time and perfect those. Even if I wasn't going for mastery or perfection, I still feel the need to become confident and good at doing it. This has led me to become time inefficient.

I want to be an academic. With high grades, a broad spectrum of knowledge, and smarter than my old self by a long shot. At the same time, I want to be a gamer. To be able to immerse myself in a game and be good at it and enjoy myself. I also want to be fit, which requires regular exercise. I wish to be creative with drawing and sewing and be able to do marvellous things with this skill.

I wish to do all these things, but to do these things all at once. In my own perfect little world, I would have time to study for hours, play games with friends for an unreasonable amount of time, be able to go to a dance class or do some yoga at night time with some running or swimming in the morning. To be able to take some time out after dinner to shower and bathe and be a girl with the face masks and moisturisers and all that stuff. Also to spend time in the kitchen making food without worrying how early or late it has to be ready. 

In my perfect little world, an entire day would probably be about 36 hours long if not more.

Something I need to figure out is balance. For now I have not managed to find that. The things I need to do like work, study, remain somewhat healthy, I have been lacking on. The things that are (really) unnecessary like playing games, reading for leisure when I have other things that I need to read, they become my priorities.

New tasks for the next 6 weeks;

• Get my studying up to date and done
• Fit some exercise in somewhere, anywhere, as long as it exists at least twice a week.
• Reduce gaming time to night times with an introduced self curfew (lame)
• Try to have some fun that doesn't involve technology.

Not too sure how I'll go but we'll definitely find out by the end of August (come on will-power, be strong).

Note #12

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

♡ Becoming more Healthy ♡

I'm unhealthy. I'll admit it. I don't try to be overly healthy, it seems too hard to me. Having to put a whole lot of money and time into making food that's good for you. Especially the money side. Fresh fruit is expensive and doesn't keep. And then there's the exercise. I struggle with exercise. Running is such a bore and so strenuous that I cannot bring myself to do it. I've contemplated joining netball teams, horse riding lesson, dance lessons, yoga classes, pilates classes, rock climbing groups on weekends. I think of all these things that would be so much fun so participate in, and then realise, each one of these things requires me to pay a lump sum of money that I don't really have any room for in any kind of budget I can draw up.

So both eating healthy, and exercise, in my mind has been ruled out as too expensive. 

I've thought long and hard about what I want to do to get in better shape and eat better without spending a huge amount of money that I don't necessarily have. 

I've decided to start off with a yoga mat. My next task, as soon as I have money to spare, will be to purchase a yoga mat. Not to go out and take yoga lessons or anything, or to do yoga only at home. I've found muscle exercises and stretches I want to do. Little things that would require very little movement compared to running, and yet use my entire body. I am excited to start this. As soon as I have my yoga mat so I don't destroy my hands and knees and joints on the wooden floors (and I tried using a blanket or something similar, it slips). 

As for eating healthy, I'm still a little stumped on that one. I like the idea of going out and getting a whole bundle of fruit and having fruit for lunch, maybe some toast or something for breakfast if I'm hungry. Dinners I don't  have much control over as it's cooking for an entire family and everyones tastes are completely different (and in our household, you cook for everyone only, not yourself as thats considered wasteful and rude). But like I said before, fruit can be quite expensive. Maybe I'll have a look into frozen fruit bags and smoothies. As for other lunch ideas, I hate cooking. Anything that requires a stove or oven I hate doing. Using a stove means using a pot or pan which means more dishes and the chance of burning yourself. Using the oven just seems cheap and over the top and unhealthy. I'm not saying it is, that's just how I feel about it. 

We'll have to see what happens in the next month or so. I'm hoping that once I've drawn up a budget that includes fresh fruit, things will get along quite smoothly.

♡ Rearranging My Bedroom ♡

Last week I decided to move all the furniture in my room around. No real reason. Just felt like changing things up! Once I finished moving things around and tidying up, I realised I was missing something and my bedroom didn't quite look finished. So I headed on down to Kmart and picked up three 4 Cube storage pieces for $19 each (bargain considering I was thinking about getting them from ikea for $59ea.) in white, as well as some little, what I think would be called "accents", for the cubes! 

I started off with the basic 3 cubes of course which costed me $57AUD in total which is brilliant. As I had moved my shorter bookcase into my closet, I didn't have anywhere to put my jewellery stand or candles so ontop of the cubes became the perfect spot for those. I already had the jewellery stand and most the candles, but I found a Vanilla & Fig candle in Kmart for $6 and it smells amazing. I've been trying to find a nice vanilla scent for a while, I wasn't too sure about the fig but once I had smelt the candle there was no going back. I also got the fake plant from Kmart for about $5. I have a lot of fake plants in my room as I think that every room needs to have some kind of greenery either in it or visible from the window and being on the second story I don't really get a huge window view of any plants. I also got two plastic containers for $2 each and the white ceramic glass for $7. Previously I was storing my makeup in a giant pile on my drawers so I figured this was a cleaner, more organised way to store everything. The ceramic owl was only $7 which isn't too bad. It's quite large and doesn't really have much purpose other than decorative so I was happy enough to pay the $7. As there are now 12 cubes for me to fill and I don't have any idea what each of them will contain, I figured it'd be nice to have one or two with something decorative in them. LASTLY, I got the owl doorstop. This one was $3 on clearance. For months now I've been hammering my Mum to install a door stopper on the skirting board behind my door (as I'm terrified of using a drill) and I saw this whilst I was browsing around and thought it would suit my room perfectly and now my door can remain open without slamming shut. 

For now I have quite a few empty cubes. I do plan to fill a few with some more little bits and pieces. One cube in particular I am working on with a collection of things which I will reveal eventually (probably as a haul of sorts or monthly favourites).

Note #11

A room without books is like a body without a soul

- Cicero

Note #10

The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think,
than what to think - rather to improve our minds,
so as to enable us to think for ourselves,
than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.

- Bill Beattie

The way our education system is set up, I have thought about this before. You go through primary or elementary school being taught how to think a certain way. When it comes to thinking for yourself, in your own unique way, you don't know how. The few classes where you are supposed to be able to be free and think the way you wish, such as art classes, dance, drama, we are all told what to do and how to do it. When we stray from these in any way, we are told we are doing it wrong and that we aren't creative enough. As much as our education systems may set us up for universities or colleges or jobs, they don't set us up to think for ourselves. This is how our history will repeat itself. With everyone thinking the same way as our predecessors.

Crash Bandicoot - PlayStation 1!

This is a game very near to my heart. One of the first games I ever played as a child. My older brother Blake used to set up our playstation and we'd all take turns doing the levels and trying to get as far as we could before our lives ran out. Released almost 20 years ago (1996), Crash Bandicoot is still one of my most favourite games of all time. 

Loading up the game you enter into the home screen where you are given the options to play, load game, enter a password, or go into options. I know that in our house we lost memory cards all the time and for a long while we couldn't save our games (which if you used a PlayStation 1 you know that when you enter the load game screen, you can see all saves from all games. Kind of cool). The password option is something a little different from what we would normally define it as today. Whilst playing the levels you can collect these cards of Tawna's head. Collect all three and you go to a little side level where you navigate your way across tnt's, metal, and wooden boxes. A few containing extra lives. Once you've completed the side level, you get a password code consisting of the triangle, x, circle, and square. There is a mega password you can use to unlock all the levels and gems and keys. But using this is a little less challenging.

The purpose of the game is to get Crash Bandicoot safely through 3 islands containing 32 levels in total to rescue his, what I assume to be girlfriend, Tawna from the evil Dr. Neo Cortex. On each island you will have to get passed his henchmen, or bosses. As you progress you will find each boss gets harder and harder and become more frequent. I wont spoil the ending of the game for you (you can youtube that yourselves) but I found it to be a huge relief, and then annoying as the credits took forever. 

I would recommend this game to everyone and anyone. It's a big nostalgia trip for a lot of people. The music and levels. Bosses. Not to mention this is the flagship game for the franchise. Getting your hands on a cd copy isn't easy but you can purchase the games on the PlayStation Network for around $4.99AUD.

For those who disagree and say it's actually Coco Bandicoot in the first game, it isn't. Tawna is the girlfriend of Crash Bandicoot and after releasing the first game, she was removed for being represented as a basic sexual stereotype. Coco Bandicoot was then introduced as Crash Bandicoots little sister, also genetically engineered by Dr. Neo Cortex and Dr. Nitrus Brio (who is an annoy boss to beat)

Note #9

Most people would rather be certain they're miserable,
than to risk being happy.

- Robert Anthony

Note #8

I believe in ordinary acts of bravery,
in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another

- Veronica Roth, Divergent.

I have spent the past two days rereading Divergent to prepare myself for the next novel (yes, I am one of those people) and I came across this one last night in my late night reading frenzy. I think it's just one of those things that doesn't need to be said, but at the same time, for those people who have gone a little astray and aren't always thinking of how they affect others it's something they need to be reminded of. That standing up for another person is considered brave, and that's something not everyone can do easily.

Note #7

You're not a bad person.

You're a very good person, who bad things have happened to.

Besides, the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters.

We've all got both light and dark inside us.

What matters is the part we choose to act on.

That's who we really are.

- Sirius Black, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This is by far one of my most favourite book quotes from the entire Harry Potter franchise. I saw a photo of the scene the other day and immediately thought I must put that on here for everyone to see. I just love how it applies to everything and its the truth (apart from Death Eaters, we don't have those). I think if everyone realised that we as individuals could all act upon the good inside, the communities we're involved in (whether it's online, work, school etc.) would be a much more pleasant and productive place. 

♡ Finding Clarity ♡

I've never been a person to find clarity and peace in other objects. Sure, when my room is messy I feel like my mind is overrun and cluttered. Cleaning it makes me feel like I'm capable of thinking clearly and originally. But for clarity or peace, I've never been able to find a place to go to gain it. I've always had to sit and wait, frustrated, mad, waiting for this rare thing to happen. But for the first time last week, I found it. 

I was on the way home at 8am on Monday, the train line to get from Perth to my house runs alongside the river. I was staring out the window absent mindedly, trying to avoid the awkward stares with strangers, when I found myself feeling peaceful, in awe, and clear minded from staring at the river. With everything untouched for that day, clean crisp winter air, smog covering the far side of the river before the bend. Everything was...ready. It was perfect.

Whenever people talked to me about finding peace of mind or clarity, I've always looked at them as these weird hippies who are living in a fantasy world. The idea of it just seemed unnecessary and unimportant to people with busy lives and things to do. Now after experiencing a moment of clarity, I kind of get it.
Since finding this little piece of paradise for my mind I've decided I'm going to head back there when the weather gets a bit warmer :)

Note #6

For even the very wise cannot see all ends

- J. R. R. Tolkien

Note #5

Don't only practise your art, 

but force your way into its secrets,

for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine.

- Ludwig van Beethoven

June Lootcrate Unboxing!

For those who don't know, I am a proud subsciber of lootcrate! Each month I get a box of goodies that are relevant to that month and appeal to my geekier side. They're sent out on the 20th of that month and usually arrive around the 27th for me (as I'm in Australia).  For the month of June I recieved;

Marty McPrime Shirt. Red isn't particularly a colour I wear but the print on this one is awesome. I love how they've mixed Transformers and Back the the Future.

Transformers Blind Box which is the adorable little guy at the side. In the blind boxes there's always a chance of recieving 1 of 2 or 3 figurines. Given the two choices, I am super glad with what I recieved.

Transformers Sticker Set. Whenever I recieve stickers I always get really paranoid about using them as they're both awesome, and can't be reused. So at the moment I have this growing collection of stickers from lootcrates and tech buys which I am happy to add this one in the mix.

Transformers Hex Bugs. I'm not 100% sure what I would be using this one for but it'll do nicely with my collection of past lootcrate items.

Warheads Candy. I'm always picky and iffy about eating candy I recieve in parcels as it sits for at least a week but I love warheads. I got 2 Black Cherry and 1 Watermelon which was nice to eat whilst I was looking through everything.

MLG Terry Cloth Wristband and the MLG Starter Kit. I'm more of a PC gamer and tend to stay away from online multiplayer console games. The wristband I will definitely be keeping. The starter kit which includes one month of GameBattles Premium Access I will be giving to my sister as she tends to spend most of her freetime player CoD on her boyfriends consoles so that'll make a nice little gift to her.

All in all I am pretty happy with this months crate. I'm not really familiar with the Transformer franchise but that will change this weekend when I go to see Transformers: Age of Extinction. For those interested in lootcrate definitely go check out their site where you can see past lootcrates which all look fantastic. Now to await next months lootcrate...

Note #4

"Becoming fearless isn't the point.

That's impossible.

Its learning how to control your fear,

and how to be free from it."

- Veronica Roth, Divergent.

This week I decided to buy the Divergent box set so in my excitement to read the series, I picked out a line I found quite interesting and relevant to, I imagine, all readers who have had to face a fear in the past.

♡ Current going on's ♡

As things start getting a little more intense with studying and work things will slow down an incredible amount. There will be my first games post soon as I've narrowed it down to 2 games. Also an unboxing one shortly from a subscription box. Just to keep things a bit more regular I've added in something a little different as well.
You may have noticed a few new, little posts entitled "Note #_" along with the Bits n Pieces tab. I like poetry and quotes and just little sayings here and there, and I thought I would write them down somewhere and add them to my collection. Then I realised that would require physical paper and a place to store them, which I would rather have them on display somewhere where I can see them all laid out. Hence, the new small posts of quotes and pieces from poems. Plus it adds to regular updates.
The books side of things will be slower as I do have a lot of studying to do and make sure that's all up to date and I've done all my assignments and labs. Along with the hauls. Those will mostly remain untouched as to do a haul properly, I'd prefer to save up a decent amount of shopping money. 
So there will be, most likely, daily snippets of things I've found both online, through people, and books. Also a games one sometime this week or next, and an unboxing sometime next week.

Note #3

And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say, 
They think everyone else does too.

- Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

Note #2

Clarity and focus doesn’t always come from God or inspirational quotes. 
Usually, it takes your mother to slap the reality back into you.

                                           

                             - Shannon L. Alder

Note #1

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

        - J. R. R. Tolkien

♡ Candles and Baths ♡

I love candles. They smell amazing and can perfectly set the mood. I'm a sucker for vanilla scents, they're not too sweet, they aren't filled with spicy undertones, and they just smell comforting. For us in Perth, the number one place to go for candles is Dusk. They have a million different candles and scents in different sizes and ranges. I found a new candle that I believe is going to be in my all time favourites list... Presenting to you, the Pink Butter Icing candle. I bought this one in large (85 burning hours) and it smells amazing. It's sweet with vanilla undertones, isn't too overpowering but still strong, and is really quite relaxing. I've had it for three days now and have lit it every day. I also have a 'Vanilla' soy candle and four small 'Black Currant and Plum' candles, but the 'Pink Butter Icing' candle is by far my favourite this winter. 

I struggle to get warm in winter, and being on the computer all the time my hands are generally freezing. I'm also not a bath person. Showers for me are just easier, they get the job done, they're quicker, and I don't really see the need for using a whole tub of water. Being freezing all the time (and having an amazing boyfriend that picked up the nicest smelling bath product ever), I've become a bath lover. I know I am exceptionally late to the party, but Lush have some seriously brilliant bath products. I've tried out two so far, the Creamy Candy Bubble Bar and the You've Been Mangoed Bath Melt. They both smell delicious but for someone who gets bored in baths the Creamy Candy Bubble Bar has somehow made is more interesting. It smells very sweet, like an overly sugary fairy floss scent. For those who are after something sweeter, this one is definitely  up your alley. Your bath smells amazing, the bubbles are soothing, and when you manage to climb out of the bath your skin faintly smells of the bubble bar. So for all those people who are unsure about baths or want it to be a little less boring, definitely try out the Creamy Candy Bubble Bar.

 

Pompeii & Mount Vesuvius!

I was super excited about this particular tour. Our day started off with a 6am wake up to get ready and out the door by 7. We all met up with our tour guide and other travellers and headed off by 7:30. The drive from Rome to Pompeii took us roughly 3 hours. A long one.

Perfectly preserved ceiling

When we got there we all headed straight into Ancient Pompeii for a 2 hour walking tour with a local guide. I thought walking in that I would see small/half walls, a few vases in houses, and no casts of the bodies. Oh boy I was wrong. Ancient Pompeii has been so greatly excavated, it’s almost as if you’re walking through normal, populated places in Europe. Half reminded me of Arles actually…

You also see quite a few casts of the bodies they uncovered. They aren’t located in the houses they were found in as quite a bit of Pompeii is still roped off understandably. There were, if my memory is correct, 2 human casts inside one building that still contained the original ceiling artwork and colouring, a cast of a dog inside an area where the archaeologists stored the vases, and 2 other human casts that accompany the dog. I did feel a bit disrespectful and inappropriate taking photo’s of the casts but after seeing so many other tourists take them, I figured I wouldn't be returning any time in the near future and it will be a good reminder of what the people felt at the time of the eruption.

Cast of a dog

After lunch we all headed off to Mount Vesuvius! Once again, super excited about going there. The tour bus drove half way up the mountain and dropped us all off at a little cafe/kiosk/bar. I got out of that tour bus incredibly fast and headed straight up the walking track as fast as I could. Stupidly, I decided to try get up there as quickly as possible. It took me 20 minutes to get up to the top and by that stage I was as red as you can get. I sat down for a while and waited for Grandad to make his way up to join me before I headed out to stand next to the crater. Luckily I had time to cool down a bit before I had my photo, though I am still rather red and sunburnt as you can see. 

Cast accompanying the dog

After heading down back to the cafe, we all jumped on the tour bus and headed back to Rome. Visiting Pompeii was such a wonderful experience. Would definitely recommend making the trip out there if you head to Italy. It is such a long tour (13 hours in our case) but worth it.

...and I got to cross something off my bucket list :)

View from the top of Mt. Vesuvius

A very red Cate at the crater 

Borghese Gallery

I typically don't like going in to gallery's. Purely because I find them to be quite boring and I feel like I've seen all the good ones from photographs and movies. The Borghese Gallery however blew my mind. Not because of the sculptures, which I am aware is one of the big draws to the place, or because of the paintings on the walls. I find most paintings that contain a cross, a halo, or any kind of christian/catholic religious symbol in it to be an eye roller. 

The thing that blew me away was the paintings on the ceilings. I've never seen paintings on such a large scale done so incredibly well. 

Also, above each doorway were two cherubs holding a golden leafy vine whilst staring down on the person passing through. Each pair of cherubs were positioned differently with different expressions of their faces. It was really quite marvellous. 

Unfortunately you're not allowed to take any bags, cameras, or phones inside the gallery so I couldn't manage to grab any photos. If you do go ahead and look up the Borghese Gallery and see some of the ceiling art, I must must must inform you that they don't do any justice at all. I did go ahead and try to find a photograph of my favourite ceiling that did it justice but I couldn't manage it. 

If you do decide to travel to Rome, I definitely recommend heading over to the Borghese Gallery even if you don't particularly like seeing art.

Part of my favourite ceiling

♡ A few changes ♡

You may or may not have noticed a few changes happening over the past week with my blog. Firstly some of the photos may not have been showing up in posts. I believe I have fixed this issue (which was due to my stupidity whilst playing around with settings in a different but linked program). Silly me. Also I've added in one new topic and changed an existing one. 

We'll start with the existing one, "Gaming", which I've changed to "Games". I've played many games in the past on many different platforms under different genres, all aimed at different age groups. So I figured why not do a fortnightly post on one game that I find to be entertaining and fun. The posts will generally be covering Playstation, PC, and Wii platforms so if you're interested, keep an eye out for those.

Introducing the "Unboxing/Hauls" tab. For those who don't know what an unboxing is, an unboxing is when you receive a package containing various items, or you purchase something like a computer or tablet or phone for example, typically you record yourself unwrapping and explaining what's inside the box with a few comments and opinions thrown in as well. Toward the end of the month there will be a post up on an unboxing and occasionally one in-between as well.

So keep an eye out on those if they interest you. I'll still be doing posts on Books as well, generally once or twice a month (study load permitting). I'll be travelling until the 8th of June so those posts will be coming through probably up until the 9th or 10th. Of course any travelling or holidaying I do in the future will be posted up in the Travels tab also :) 

Delphi - GREECE

Your first view into the ruins

Originally we weren't planning on heading out to Delphi but after finding out that our Mycenae tour included Corinth, we decided to change! And what a brilliant change it was, so glad we did. It was a long drive out from Athens, roughly 3 hours, but definitely worth it. 

When you arrive, you start out at the bottom of the archaeological site, pay for a ticket (or in our case collect it from the tour guide), and start walking up the stone path that heads up the mountain through Ancient Delphi. As you walk up you have a beautiful view of the mountains surrounding you. I personally found as you headed further up to the top of Delphi, the more beautiful the scenery appeared.

Treasury of the Boeotians

The first thing you'll see is a few open rooms shown in the picture on the left. I won't go in to too much detail about it as I didn't find it to be too jaw dropping, however I will point out that whilst building the walls, the ancient Greeks made them capable of draining any water that may flow down them as you can see in the patterns in the walls. Smart.

Treasury of the Athenians

Continue walking approximately 30-50 metres ahead and slightly uphill and you come across the Treasury of the Boeotians. The pathway to the left of this has been roped off however there is a plaque sitting on the left side indicating it also led to another treasury. Delphi must've been a treasury centre as only a few metres further forward and uphill (again), you see the beautiful Treasury of the Athenians. All the artefacts found from this site are located down in the museum attached, roughly a 3 minute walk from the entrance of Delphi.

Further along you have the Rock of the Sibyls, an object used to foretell the future.

Temple of Apollo

And on to the most wondrous part of Delphi (in my opinion), the Temple of Apollo. My favourite part of Greece is the rich background and cultural investment in the Greek Gods. Apollo being apart of this Greek God family, naturally peaked my interest. After walking around the Temple of Poseidon the day before, being able to walk around the Temple of Apollo was an amazing experience.

Finally we have a shot of the Treasury of the Athenians and the ruins that surround it. From this far up the mountain the view is incredible. Unfortunately the clouds were billowing in quite quickly as by the time I had reached the top, going past the theatre and up to the stadium, it was almost raining.

For anyone thinking of going to Greece, would definitely recommend taking a tour out to Delphi as the tour guides are quite informative and Delphi itself is a beautiful place.

Views from the mountain 

Athens (sneak peak!)

Mycenaen Tomb

As I am still out exploring and doing things in Greece I thought perhaps I should share some photos and snippets now, and on Saturday morning, share my adventures from Delphi! I will be posting some individual posts with additional images for the places that I personally quite enjoyed but for now, here are a few photos to give you an idea!

 1. From our visit to Mycenae and Corinth
    Mycenaen Tomb

 2. On our way climbing up to the Acropolis 
     Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus

 3. My most favourite place of all so far
     Temple of Poseidon

Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus

Temple of Poseidon

Chateau du Chillon, Switzerland

I figure instead of writing a huge amount of descriptive words poorly stringed together, perhaps Switzerland would be best described if you could see it for yourself. 

First (1) photo is of me (yes, I know I'm awkward) in front of the Chateau du Chillon. We had to park a while away and walk alongside the train line and decided this would be a good enough angle to take photos from! I think it turned out alright... 

Second (2) photo is from a window on the highest part of the castle. For those who don't know what a chateau is and hasn't guessed it already, means castle...mostly...The majority of the roof and towers look like this from the outside with the inside looking like a stereotypical medieval castle you'd see from movies or Game of Thrones. Probably more so Game of Thrones.

Third (3) photo is from a window inside the castle looking out toward the South. I thought it was just the perfect view to have from a window. The stone slabs are extremely thick, I'd estimate at around half a metre at the thin points. Taking this photo did scare me a bit as I had to lean out and stick my arm out over the water. I am slightly paranoid of dropping things down places where I can't retrieve them.

Fourth (4) is from what I believe was the "womens area". It isn't technically called that but in the description of what the room was used for, it basically described that the females in the castle would spend most of their days in this particular room doing whatever was req. Unless they had to leave the room of course.

Fifth (5) photo was simply taken because I have never seen a white swan before! I live in Western Australia. We only have black swans there so seeing a white one was just weird. Personally think the black ones are prettier but that could just be me being biased. I suppose if you're accustom to seeing white swans this could be a strange photo to post up but I figured it was a part of my experience in Switzerland, and why not!

♡ I'm baaaack! ♡

It's been a while guys but I've finally managed to stop and rest for a day and get some decent net (which is harder to find than you'd think)! I'll be uploading posts on my trip through Switzerland and where I currently am, in Greece. On Saturday I will be heading from Greece to Italy and spending a week there so hopefully I'll also be able to find some net to update you guys there as well! Especially as I will be swinging by Pompeii which I believe is entitled to its very own post. 

When I get back from my trip I have a list of books I'd like to read as well so there will be a few of those posts (it's a bit hard to carry books around when your suitcase is overflowing). I've also got a few little projects I'd like to start so there shall be updates on those too. 

So yeah! Keep an eye out as my posts will (hopefully) be coming through more frequently now and in 2 weeks some different things as well! I'll also be posting links to my posts on Twitter as soon as they're published so keep an eye out on that, or subscribe to posts via email and you'll be sent a notification.

More posts coming soon!

Pont Du Gard and Millau!

Roughly an hours drive away from Arles we finally reached our first stop of the day, Pont Du Gard. I wasn't sure what to expect. I've seen photo's of the monument but in each photo it was not clear on what size it is and what's around it. Unless you get an aerial photo of course, then you can see everything surrounding it and get some perspective.

Myself at the Pont Du Gard

I thought it would be...longer. As you walk up to it you can see parts of it through trees, seeing one end of it but not quite the other. Impossible to tell where it ends by seeing just one end, it made my imagination go a little overboard. Grandad and myself made the walk up to the Pont Du Gard with Grandma staying behind in a cafe. Unfortunately we've all come down with a cold so walking a distance against strong cold winds isn't the best idea. We made our way out to it, walked halfway along the bridge adjacent and stared up. I tried to read the plaque stuck onto the side, a considerably recent addition, as well as all the graffiti that has been etched into it over the decades. The plaque was written in French even though it is in an old style, similar to Greek, and dedicated to Emperor Napoleon III for his restoration of the Pont Du Gard. I didn't know this at the time and only recognised the name so I asked Grandad for a little bit of background on Napoleon III as I was unsure of exactly what he did, and why he was so important he had his name on the monument. We discussed it as we walked back to the car, meeting Grandma on the way.

Chateau in Millau

After the Pont Du Gard we continued on to Millau where we are to spend the night at a chateau. The view driving in was incredible. I was too awe struck to dig through my bag and find my camera. You drive in from such a height that you get an aerial view of the entire town. Surrounded by lush, green mountains, a huge bridge in the distance behind it, Millau looks like the little hidden town you could run away to and be safe from everything from the outside world. Of all the French and Spanish countryside I have seen in the last few days of tours and driving, Millau is by far the greenest. That, coupled with the style of the town makes it one of the prettiest places I've seen. The chateau we're staying in overnight is so large and quaint, old and modern. It's adorable. The hourly ringing clock tower next to it not so much but the chateau is adorable.

Side of Chateau and clock/bell tower beside it

Tomorrow making our way up to Lyon for an overnight stay and then on to a weeklong stay elsewhere. 23 more days of exploring parts of Europe!

Arles, France!

France. Honestly never thought I would ever make it here. Sure, Spain and Portugal were always going to be a definite as the ship I was on (Liberty of the Seas) was stopping there whether I wanted to or not. But the idea of driving up through France was a reality I was beginning to question...

View of Arles from top tower of Amphitheatre

Arles was our first stop. My first impression was that it was windy and cold. Much colder than I thought it would be. On the best of days it was 19 degrees, minimum 3. Needless to say I was less than prepared.

Scarily narrow streets are a hard thing to stop be scared about. Driving on the right hand side when your accustom to the left is one thing, but doing it on a street barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other is a different thing entirely. Once I managed to get over the fear of having a head on collision or my side of the car being wiped out by a pole, I began paying attention to the buildings and people. The architecture is so uniquely beautiful. At first it was just a bunch of orange, white, and pink buildings, but after a few minutes of staring I noticed the details in the window sills. How each house had it's own individual style from different ages, how the personality of each house managed to remain unique in a city that looks the same. 

Inside the Amphitheatre

Once we reached our hotel and had settled, we walked around for a while looking for somewhere to eat dinner (thankfully Grandad is fluent in French so finding a menu we all liked wasn't too hard). Once that was sorted and our reservations made we walked across the road from our hotel and went inside the amphitheatre. I thought something that old wouldn't have modern structures inside it, let alone still host festivals. At the time of our exploration a gladiators class was going on inside. We sat down and watched them fight for a while before we moved on to dinner.

Gladiator's lesson

Food in France I am told is amazing. I expected great things when I ordered my food. Gladly, I wasn't disappointed. Unfortunately there were no frogs legs or anything exotic or native to try, just duck, fish, and lamb. Whenever I eat meat I generally don't notice much difference in quality or taste unless it's terribly good or bad. Vegetables I tend not to eat. Obvious reasons; 1) They don't taste great and 2) they don't contain my favourite thing of all, sugar. I wasn't surprised at all with the meat, but the vegetables... I couldn't stop eating them. I'm not sure what they did to them but they were amazing. Hopefully tonight's vegetables will be just as good if not better.

The following morning (this morning) we packed up everything and moved on to our next stop, Pont Du Gard and Millau!