WANDERLUST; Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary & Performing Arts (I)

Jacqui and I purchased our tickets during a highly competitive and stressful 2 hours in October last year. Luck was on our side. According to the Guardian, the 137,500 tickets sold out in 4 hours. From memory, after the 3rd hour twitter was abuzz with talk that all the tickets had already gone.

Glastonbury is not for the faint hearted. Even getting to the festival was hard work!

On Wednesday June 22, 2011 we put on our wristbands and caught the train from London to Castle Cary, waited in line at Castle Cary for about 1.5 hours, got the bus to the festival, then waited in line for another 2 hours, then it took us an hour to walk from the entrance to the other side of the festival where our campsite was.

The moment I met the Glastonbury mud. It really is a hybrid breed of super mud.

We undertook this journey whilst attempting to not put our many bags in the mud, needless to say – after about half an hour in the line waiting to get into the festival site we gave in and just sat on our bags in the mud.

Upon arriving at our camp site – Tangarine Fields – we decided to have a nap. 14 hours later we woke and it was Thursday morning.

The camp site was outside the actually festival site, but only a short walk away.

The positives of camping in the Tangarine Fields area were that our tent was already set up when we got there, the camp site was very clean and orderly, we had nice toilets, a cafe and hot showers. There also wasn’t such a high risk that valuables would be stolen from our tent whilst we were out adventuring for the day.

The only negatives were that we missed out on some of the festival atmosphere and couldn’t bring friends that we made back to our camp site.

On Thursday we explored the whole Glastonbury site. As you can see, it is quite large. We camped just outside gate B, in the north east.

I’ll tell you about the different areas in the next post.

WANDERLUST; Sunday in London including the markets.

Sunday is London is best spent started off with a delicious breakfast, followed by exploring the markets in East London and concluded with cider.

I really, really, really love the four The Breakfast Club cafes in London.

Part of the lighting display at The Breakfast Club in Spitalfields.

During my 10 days back in London at the end of my trip I visited all four; in Soho, Hoxton, Angel and Spitalfields.

Polaroid wall at The Breakfast Club in Soho.

WANDERLUST; Montmartre in Paris.

Montmartre is my favourite area of Paris.

You can see how far Paris sprawls whilst standing on the steps of the Sacre Coer. I would recommend hiking up all the steps; more than 200. Sitting on the grass of the Sacre Coer hill whilst drinking beers and watching passers by is such a relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

Montmartre’s history as the artists quarter continues to this day. Artists still paint and draw in Place Emile Goudeau, which is at the top of the hill and behind the Sacre Coer.

WANDERLUST; Paris – the must see and must do list

Paris is famous because it is grand, rich in history, romantic and beautiful. To even skim all of what Paris has to offer you need to stay for at least one week, in order to explore and have a perfect balance of a touristey experience and getting to know the more hidden Paris.

Here is my list of the Parisian sights worth seeing and visiting.

The Eiffel Tower, of course. This iconic 324 metre tall tower was built for the world fair in 1889 World Fair and was originally going to be pulled down afterwards. Mum and I had lunch on the first floor whilst enjoying views out over Paris. I would recommend taking a picnic of cheese and wine and sitting on the lawns nearby on a sunny afternoon.

WANDERLUST; Street art in Paris

For the first half of our week in Paris mum and I rented this apartment through airbnb in Belleville.

I really liked the area because it was multicultural – I could get baklava at any time of the day or night – but mum wanted to be somewhere more elegant, ie. somewhere that conformed to the stereotype of how Paris is in most people’s minds.  So we struck up a deal; half of the week in grungey Belleville, the other half of the week in the posh Hotel Baltimore in the 16th arrondissement.

Here is the view of a quiet Parisian street out of our apartment window.

Disneyland Paris.

Most little girls dream of visiting Disneyland. As a child I imagined Disneyland as a land of bright colours where dreams come true. Visiting Disneyland Paris with my mum and as a 21-year-old exceeded all my expectations.

I was a bit worried I would think it was lame and that the magic perhaps dissapears once you grow up, but it was completely the opposite. As I get older my memory links in more with all of my senses (instead of just sight and hearing) so I noticed more aspects than I would have as a child. I had so much fun pretending I was as carefree as a child again in the most visited theme park in Europe.

Disneyland truly is the happiest place in the world and I barely stopped smiling.

WANDERLUST; San Sebastian

After our hectic tour and Barcelona visit we decided to go to San Sebastian, near the border of France, to chill out and soak up some sunshine and beach vibes.

There are three main beaches in San Sebastian; Playa de la Concha, Playa de Ondarreta and Playa de la Zurriola.

WANDERLUST; Barcelona

The highlight of Barcelona is the Gaudi architecture.

He designed and built Park Güell in Barcelona – a perfect place for a picnic and architectural feast.

WANDERLUST; Spain Tour

I met up with mum in Madrid and two days later we started a one week tour around Spain.

The Spanish fields.

We went to six cities and it was the most hectic week I have had since I began my trip. Here are my favourite photos and moments:

WANDERLUST; Lisbon

Life slowed down once I arrived in Portugal.

It was a warm humid night and riding through the city in a taxi confirmed that I’d reached the chilled out part of my holiday. I had been away from home for nine weeks but arriving in Lisbon meant it was time to properly unwind and gear up for the European summer.

The Portuguese are kind and relaxed with a very witty sense of humour.

I explored Lisbon on the first day with two South Africans I’d made friends with at breakfast.