'This Is Going To Sound Crazy But...' | A Day Trip To Rovinj

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all enjoying what's turning into a slightly elusive summer.

I'm a little ashamed that I haven't blogged in a while, especially after my last post was supposed to be a kick up the arse to sit down and write, but sometimes life throws opportunities in your direction that you were in no way expecting, but are so grateful for nonetheless. Speaking of which...

If any of you follow me on Instagram then you may have seen the shameful amount of holiday spam that I uploaded in June when I went away on a little tour of the Adriatic with my gorgeous cousin, Victoria. It was the most incredible trip, and yet a bizarre experience for us both!

Victoria is not technically my cousin but we have always regarded each other as family. Our mothers are life long best friends, just as their mothers were before them, and as I have no doubt we will be. We only see each other a few times a year at special events or our annual 'Gathering Of The Clans' weekend around Christmas so to have two whole weeks together felt like such a treat, an opportunity I hope we get again.

To say our going away together was unexpected would be a colossal understatement. Victoria had been planning and anticipating this trip for months, whereas I had two weeks from accepting the invitation to setting foot on the aeroplane! It was a bit of a spontaneous resolution, and at times an unlikely one, but as crazy as the idea was, (note the title of this post), we made it happen. I won't explain fully the reasons for the change of plans because it is not my business to discuss, I'll only say that some things we put our faith in cannot always be counted upon.

I am happy to report however, that despite the odd circumstances and perplexed emotions, we had an unforgettable trip. There were new places to discover that neither of us had previously traveled to, and old ones we had longed to revisit. Sometimes when you travel to somewhere, you return having enjoyed yourself but not really been captivated by it or really gained anything other than a sun tan. That's not what happened on this trip; everywhere we went enthralled us and left us in awe, we found ourselves falling in love with places we couldn't pronounce and being uplifted by the simple beauty of others. I'm sure that Victoria feels the same way I do, in that I came home feeling very blessed and thankful for having seen and learnt about places that have inspired and restored me. We both needed an adventure; something to reignite us by doing the things we love doing and being who we are. The world is as wide as it is beautiful, I think we both needed reminding of that.

As I said, Victoria had been planning this holiday for months and my God had she done a fantastic job! The route was wonderful, with four beautiful locations, three countries and us two running around like wide-eyed lunatics! We started in Croatia, flying to the Istrian capital Pula, where we had four days, then on to Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital city, and two days later north to Lake Bled for another two, then after a long day of travel we finished with four days in Venice. Pretty dreamy trip right?

I thought I'd come to each of these lovely places one at a time as they were all so different in character, each new place felt like a trip of its own. Croatia was our first stop so this post is dedicated to that leg of our holiday, specifically to a beautiful coastal town called Rovinj. Victoria had seen a picture of the spice-coloured waterfront on Instagram about a year before we visited and it did not disappoint, we fell in love...

Admiring the view.

My darling, Victoria.

As you can see, it is undeniably charming. We wandered through the town following alleyways that lead to the water, frequenting shops that sold countless handmade artefacts and pointing out balconies covered in flower boxes that we would want on our dream houses. The town had such an easy feeling to it, obviously it was a good spot for tourists given all the shops, bars and restaurants however as we went in June it wasn't heaving with them and we could imagine we had discovered an authentic little Mediterranean haven.

After a little exploring we sat down for lunch as it was now mid-afternoon. We chose a restaurant near the harbour called Ancora for its waterfront terrace and reasonable prices. I don't think we could have chosen a better spot, the view was humbly beautiful and had such a calming effect on the two of us as we enjoyed some divine food. We were seated to our table and sat for a good few minutes marvelling at how clear the water was just beside us and how stunning our view out into the Med looked on that gorgeously clear day. We also had a little party of jelly fish floating just next to us for company.

I had researched the local cuisine before we came away and found that Istria is, unsurprisingly, famous for its seafood. I sampled some freshly caught sea bass on our final night in Pula and it was unbelievably good. Due to Istria's proximity to Italy there are many similarities in their dishes; Istrian's enjoy pastas and risottos but the region is also well known for its olives, truffles and wine. 

With that in mind, I chose the truffle tagliatelle as I was curious to try some local truffles, and Victoria opted for an Istrian style risotto which I will admit did give me a little food envy. This was undoubtedly one of the best meals of the holiday in my opinion, and I am still dreaming about that pasta and that view.

Now fuelled by carbohydrates, we tackled our way up to the top of the hill to visit the town's church and clock tower which were again, charming as charming can be.

The inside of the church was beautiful but sometimes I do not like to take pictures in churches out of respect for those worshipping. In fact you may not have been allowed to take pictures in this one, I will own that I cannot quite remember as we visited so many. Which ever the case I do not have any pictures of inside the church, but believe me it was beautiful. 

We then paid the admission to the clock tower and ascended what can only be described as a death-defying, seemingly never-ending flight of very old, wooden stairs. You could see straight through the gap between each stair to the stone floor at the bottom of the tower and it probably took us about twenty minutes to carefully climb each perilous step. You may think I'm exaggerating but the adrenaline running through our veins whilst trying to get up these highly-questionable stairs was a fantastic source of amusement for the two of us! Much to our surprise considering the number of visitors in the church, we were the only ones at that time who ventured to the top of the clock tower which was wonderful as we had the view to ourselves. It also meant that because we were both wearing dresses we avoided flashing anyone on our ascent to the top, including the final little climb which was simply a ladder leading to a hole in the floor of the viewing platform. 

The peril was real.

As you can see, the view from the top of the tower is gorgeous. The colours looked so rich; terracotta houses, the velvet blue sea and bottle green trees matched with that limitless sky. The breeze at the top of the tower was a dream against the heavy heat of the day, we could have stayed up there for hours.

After the inevitable descent of those awful stairs, we left the church and headed back down the hill into the town, wandering this time down a street which gallery upon gallery opened up onto before us. We stopped in one at the top, just beside the church, where I purchased a postcard and Victoria a print to frame for her new house. 

The streets of Rovinj are all paved in stone that must have been there since the towns very conception, which over the years have been subject to countless feet stepping over them. The result of this is that the stones are very, very smooth, which when you're wearing sandals than are flatter than a pancake, you have to walk rather slowly and with your arms out for balance unless you should like to slide down the street on your arse instead. The two of us must have given the locals, who stood outside their shop doors to enjoy the breeze, such a good laugh as it took it us an embarrassingly long time to walk down to the flat of the harbour front again. We would have made them laugh more however should we have actually fallen over which I'm glad to say we didn't! 

When we were once again at the waterfront, we decided it about time for something cold and so we went to a restaurant called Copacabana where they have a gelato bar that looks onto the street. After a few minutes of drooling and indecision, we bought two scoops each and took a seat on a bench right on the harbour front to soak up the sun and devour our insanely good gelato. 

This tasted even better than it looks.

By this point it was about half past four, which meant we were faced with the choice of getting the 40 minute bus drive bus back to Pula at half past five, or getting the later bus at half past seven. We decided to make the most of the opportunity and catch the later bus which meant we had three more hours to casually spend around the town. We walked along the harbour back to the other side of town where we were spoilt for choice of lovely big sofas at the bars that line the waterfront. We ordered cocktails, Instagrammed the days adventures and called home. 

We spent our final few hours wiggling our way through side streets to the sound of a choir singing at mass before stepping back on the bus and heading home to Pula. We loved our day in Rovinj and I hope it lived up to Victoria's expectations, it certainly defied mine. Before this trip I didn't know very much about Croatia, other than it was becoming a popular and cheap Mediterranean getaway. I'm so grateful that I was able to visit somewhere that usually wouldn't have crossed my mind to visit as everything was such a pleasant surprise to me. I was charmed by the gentleness of the landscape, the care the people devote to their food and its flavour, as well as the modesty of the architecture. I love the sense of simplicity there is to life like this on the Mediterranean and I would love to go back to Croatia one day. I'm so grateful to Victoria for bringing me to these places, for without her I wouldn't love them as I do now. 

As I said, this was only the first of four stops on our trip so stay tuned for the next instalment and more pictures of some of the most incredible places I've ever been. It's Ljubljana's turn next and be warned, Ljubljana was my favourite leg of the trip so prepare for even more pictures and lots of superlatives! I hope you've all enjoyed this post and I'll see you all in the not so distant future!

Holly.

Mindful Musings | Hibernation, Complacency & Laziness

Hello everyone, Stranger here!

This post is something of a confession, public self shaming and an apology too. For a fair few months  now I have been pretty darn useless, introverted and atrociously lazy.

As some of you know I'm currently working part time at Marks and Spencer in Leeds whilst saving to go back to Canada in September to work the winter season with my best friend, Sophie. For the past six months I've been working 4-5 days a week, typically nine hour shifts and almost always working till the store closes at 8pm. This has meant that I've been very tired on my feet everyday, a little under stimulated from working the quietest hours of the retail day, and sometimes unsociable because my shifts haven't afforded me much time on days that I have worked for anything other than food, sleep and Netflix.

Please don't misunderstand me, I love working at M&S; I adore the the people I work with, the work is comfortable and I appreciate every hour I am given as I need the money, even if I do grumble about my shifts every now and then. And this is what I wanted, something gentle where I don't have to carry my stress home while I'm impatiently waiting for September to come around when I leave for a country where the mountains astound me in their magnitude, and the extreme landscape and climate are respected and cherished.

I have loved these months I've had at home; enjoying seeing my parents everyday, watching time roll by week after week instead of counting down the days till my next deadline, having had time to get back into reading, exercise and cooking. After all the stress and excitement of last year, it's been soothing to take things slowly and hibernate a little. I do recognise however, that my hibernation period has allowed me to embrace my introverted side a little more than I should have, and therefore has lasted much longer than I should have let it.

In this "time-out" as I was nicknaming it, I had meant to set myself challenges or simply devote more time to the things I felt I hadn't fully committed to whilst in my final year of university; such as this blog, my reading list, my exercise regime and most importantly my friends and family. Whilst I have managed gradual progress in some of these areas, I'm conscious and ashamed to say that in others I have completely failed. My parents I have taken for granted and begun to sink into old, bad habits of contributing very little to the house, my friends I have not spent as much time caring for and making happy as my free time allows, I've hardly gotten any driving practise in, taken any photographs, and this blog I have completely neglected and at times forgotten about completely.

Instead, I've managed the gym roughly twice a week on my days off, learnt about four recipes by rote which I now repeat on rotation, read only four books since the start of the year, hardly done any planning for Canada, and neglected some of my best friends despite the fact I now live nearer to them than I have in three years. This I recognise is no where near good enough.

There it is, my confession and shame at being a pretty useless and lazy, 21 year old graduate. What have I done with all the things I achieved at university? Not a lot, to put it plainly. This desire that's building inside me to actually act like an adult even if I'm not confident I'll ever become one has come from a few, very slow, realisations: I'm 22 in two weeks and really can't consider myself anything but an adult anymore, it was around this time last year that I was finishing university and, much to my constant despair, that period of my life is very much over, in my voice and eye, which I was once incredibly proud of, I have lost both accuracy and vision, and recently I have done nothing to deserve the constant generosity of my parents and the unshakable strength of my closest friendships.

This is where the apology comes in, I'm sorry to my saintly Mum and Dad for doing next to nothing to help you around this house after you very kindly took me back post-graduation, my darling friends who I have not devoted the time and energy I should have done when you have for me, and to myself for becoming so complacent that I'm not the woman I wanted to be by now.

So where to from here? Well in the long run, Canada of course. In the meantime however, no more hibernating; I will push myself to fit more into the time I have taken for granted. Do more to help Mum and Dad, send a text every now and again to a friend I haven't spoken to in a month, fit extra bits of exercise into my day where ever I am nor no matter how tired I feel, force myself to read on my commute to and from work when really I could just fall asleep again, blog on my days off so that my vocabulary and comprehension doesn't dwindle away at the rapid pace I can currently feel it disintegrating at, and finally take more pictures, even if its just on my phone and the only editing I do is on Instagram. I feel like I've become a little boring recently, that's something I don't ever want to be.

I'm reading back through this post and finding that it sounds an awful lot like a series of lists; of failings, apologies and goals and I'm doing it even now in this sentence. Lists do generally help me declutter my mental carnage however, so if this helps than I really don't care, although I am sorry if it's a bit of a dull read. The purpose of this post was primarily a desperately needed kick up the arse for myself, from myself. If it's provided any entertainment for anyone else then that's wonderful, killed two birds with one hard stone.

Until next time,

Holly.

Music Preview | FESTIVAL ON THE WALL, Newcastle | 4-6th August 2017

Hello everyone!

A rather belated welcome to the New Year on A Romantic Calamity I'm afraid...but I come bearing the most wonderful news!

Last week I received an email from the delightful team at O PR telling me about a fresh, independent music festival that's making its maiden showcase this August in the heart of the Northumberland countryside, and like all the best things to come out of Newcastle, its set to be a big one!

This August, just 12 miles out of the city centre, Newcastle is to announce itself the home of Festival On The Wall; an amazing display of the country's best musicians in a location beyond compare. With an explosive line up, 'Hot Tub Sanctuary', locally sourced food, 'Thunderdome' and a late night cinema, Festival On The Wall promises to deliver all the best of the North East in one astonishing weekend.

I will forever have a place in my soul for Northumberland and Newcastle Upon Tyne; after many beloved Easter holiday trips away with the family and my three years at university, I will never stop adoring the region for its beauty and its people. It has never failed to inspire me; the city's architecture, the untamed sea and countryside, the generosity and proud attitude of the people, and I'm not the only one to have noticed.

Festival On The Wall is the brain child of founder and director, Dale Mason, who after compiling an amazing team of local and equally passionate partners, has turned Festival On The Wall into what will be one of the most anticipated festivals of the summer. The line up looks insanely impressive already, featuring a number of homecoming acts who are set to flatten the Northumberland countryside in one weekend.

The North East has produced some of the most talented musicians of recent years, especially in the rock genre. Brian Johnson of AC/DC, Mark Knopfler of the Dire Straits and Andy Taylor of Duran Duran all descend from the North East, affording the respect that Newcastle Upon Tyne has earned as a undeniable source of inspiration to the British music industry. It is only natural therefore, that this August Festival On The Wall should exhibit some of the region's most celebrated contemporary artists on their main stage.

Headlining the opening night of Festival On The Wall will be the resilient Pet Shop Boys, who hope to awe their audience. Lead vocalist and North Sheilds-born Neil Tennant said, “We are looking forward to bringing our futuristic show to a wonderful historic area in the North East” and he's not the only local making a return as a headliner. 

On the Saturday night, Hexham-bred Pete Doherty will lead the invincible Libertines to glory as Festival On The Wall proves its historic worth on the national map of iconic summer music festivals. Maximo Park will be supporting their Northern brothers throughout the weekend as well as an array of incredible acts such as Twin Atlantic, Mark Ronson and The Sherlocks. The all important Sunday headline is yet to be announced, however I've been promised its going to blow you away. 

A festival of this magnitude and anticipation is obviously amazing news for Northumberland, not only will it showcase some of Newcastle's strongest musical acts, but also its finest food. Typically at festivals (at least in my experience), the usual standards of food and drink are comprised somewhat; booze is lukewarm, water is a forgotten virtue and mass fried burgers/hotdogs/chips leave you feeling even more slimy than you usually would after spending three days in a tent. However Festival On The Wall hopes to change that. 

After three years of university in Newcastle I can honestly say that all of my favourite restaurants and the top contenders for the best food I've ever eaten nearly all reside in Newcastle. Festival On The Wall have wisely invited some of region's top restaurants to join them in a magnificent display of fine dining as well as a number of carefully selected global street food vendors and artisan marketers. As well as this, FOTW offers a modern way to self-catered camping with 'Click and Collect' services and  ice for your beer while you're busy enjoying the music! 

The location of Festival On The Wall, named so because of its occupancy of the site of Hadrian's Wall (you remember that guy who tried to keep the Scottish out? Who knows why, you Scotts are lovely!), will also provide a stunning backdrop beyond compare to any other festival in the country. The site is only 12 miles from Newcastle city centre and yet located amongst 350 acres of privately owned farm land which promises to demonstrate some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK. As well as this, FOTW has a commitment to green policies making it one of the most sustainable festivals of the summer. 

As well as the obvious benefits to those involved directly with the festival, Northumberland County Council also believe it will do wonderful things for the local industries and encourage tourism in the region, long after the final song has been sung on the Sunday night. As both an ex-tourist and ex-resident of Newcastle Upon Tyne and Northumberland, I couldn't encourage anyone to visit anymore fiercely than I currently do. Northumberland will honestly stay with me until I die, not because I lived there for three years, but because of how I lived there for three years. Those days truly mean the world to me. 

After reading everything I could on Festival On The Wall, I have no doubt that it will bring out the very best of Newcastle in full colours. I have such an admiration for the independence, integrity and warmth of Newcastle and its people and its those qualities that I really feel are going to stand out with this festival. I sincerely hope that I shall be amongst those crowds come August the 4th.

That's all from me today I'm afraid, but I will be posting a spotlight on the Sunday headliner when announced as well. Join me in eager anticipation of who it will be!

I hope you all have a wonderful week,

Holly.

For full information on Festival On The Wall, click here.