Sunday 22 February 2015

Travel | Harrogate


Valentine's Weekend
Me and my boyfriend, Harry, decided we wanted to do something a little different for Valentine's by going away for the weekend; although I recognise this may be the norm for other couples, for Harry and myself Valentine's is usually just a card (romantic, I know. haha). 
Recently on the weekends we have been visiting sleepy villages in Yorkshire: Ingleton, Skipton, Settle to name a few, and we really enjoyed our days out browsing the shops and pubs! So we decided to try Harrogate as there seemed to be a bit more going on, perfect for Valentine's.

Friday Night
We managed to find some really good deals on Booking.com, however a lot of the hotels in our price range were fully booked, so we were lucky to stumble across a deal for the The Crown Hotel. The Crown Hotel is the sort of Hotel I LOVE. As you can see from the pictures below, it is an old hotel that has been around since 1626 (according to the website), inside the ceilings doubled, possibly even tripled the height of my own house's, the rooms were all very large, including our bedroom, but they was no issue with heating or feeling too cold, and the decor and theme of the hotel in general was beautiful and although the furnishings and paint were modern, they still reflected the origins of the hotel and were completely in-keeping with the hotel's overall grandeur.   





 It was around 8pm when we arrived at the hotel, so we went straight upstairs to our room, got changed and headed out to venture Harrogate in the dark! 

 We ended up walking around for about half an hour, until we became too hungry to function, so we wandered onto John Street and into La Tasca where we were seated by a massive window (which I loved because I got to people-watch). We ordered 3 dishes each, and a side of garlic bread which was surprisingly filling and very yummy! 
 After we finished our meal (and a couple of drinks) we visited the Pitcher and Piano which is a lovely, rustic cocktail bar/pub, but with a modern twist. The cocktails were made right in front of you, which I like because you can see what the barman/woman puts into it and whether it's made from scratch or a ready-made mix (this one was made from scratch, which I personally think tastes much better). As we walked back to our hotel, we visited one last pub/bar/club: Montey's Rock Cafe. It was dark and grungy inside, with Foosball tables and a small stage, but I really liked it; filled with friendly people who made great (strong) cocktails!
A few shots and raspberry mojitos down, and we stumbled merrily back to our room. 

Saturday
I won't lie, we woke up with a slight hangover, so we pretty much raced to the dining room in anticipation of this self-serve Full English Breakfast and it did not disappoint! The dining room was so beautiful (just like the rest of the hotel) and the food was lovely, even managing to cure our hangovers. After breakfast, we went back upstairs and readied ourselves to hit the town!


From our nighttime pondering around Harrogate, we had a somewhat vague idea of where the shops were; think of a smaller 'York' when shopping in Harrogate! The town held a mix of the generic high-street shops like Topshop/Topman, New look, River Island, Miss Selfridge, Next etc, and some quirkier shops like Joules as well as those specific to Harrogate, which tended to be more expensive but had some really authentic, individual clothes in stock, which was nice to see.
After a few, somewhat expensive purchases, Harry and Myself decided a hair-of-the-dog was in order, we wandered across a bar called The Den, located on Cambridge Street, walked down the stairs which led to a deceptively large bar/café, it was cosy and buzzing with people watching the Rugby match. We sat ourselves on the high-stools and proceeded to drink and play a few games of pool. I love relaxing after shopping hours on end, and this was a perfect spot to do so, although you do lose track of time as it is a downstairs bar with no windows, so watch out if you ever go and have plans later on! Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to drop our bags off and as we had a few hours to spare before our meal, we changed into our new clothes and headed to Weatherspoons, just over the road, which by the way, is probably the poshest Weatherspoons I have been to thus far.
Valentine's Meal - Deano's Graze and Grill
Another swift outfit change (into something a bit more Valentine's-meal appropriate), and we headed out once again into town, this time to Deano's Graze and Grill. I'm so glad we planned ahead and picked this restaurant because it was amazing. As we entered we walked upstairs to the restaurant, it is small, literally like the upstairs of a terrace house with the walls taken out (apart from for the kitchen and toillets), but I loved that already it was something different. The atmosphere was superb, the staff had really made an effort to create a romantic feel, without it becoming tacky. The lights were dimmed, candles were lit, balloons were floating and small amounts of confetti were sprinkled on every table, all with a matching red colour scheme. We were seated just off of the middle of the room, but it all still felt very personal and private. The front wall of the building upstairs was floor-to-ceiling glass windows, which was really nice because it gave you the chance to look down the cobbled streets of Harrogate, and also into the neighboring restaurant across the road.
(Quick glimpse at our outfits from the night! I wore a Missguided dress, with River island heels, New Look Clutch and my brand-new Coat from Topshop).
The service was excellent and it just so happened that the co-owner of the restaurant served us and she was absolutely lovely! The menu was tapas, which surprised me as I had no idea despite looking beforehand that that was the menu choice. It was wonderful though, the best Tapas I have had to date, but I'm not surprised as the chef won the 'chef of the year' award and I can fully understand why!
Our Tapas orders included: 






< Goats cheese ‘brulee’ beetroot relish, granary toast






‘Paella’ risotto of prawns, chorizo sausage & peas






< Grilled Lamb Kofte, Mint Yogurt
We also had 'Italian meatballs, roast tomato & mozzarella gnocchi', and 'Crispy Salt & pepper king prawns, sweet chilli sauce'; the prawns were amazing, I just can't remember if that was the name of them and I was so busy enjoying it that I didn't take a picture

 


< Our puddings were: Rhubard Crème brûlée and Sticky Toffee cheese cake. 









The meal was so lovely, I would definitely recommend going if you are ever in Harrogate.
Once we finished up, we walked back to get changed (again), my heels were killing me and it was cold out! We carried on drinking until the early hours of the morning.

Sunday - Home time
Yes, trying to get up in time for breakfast (9am) was a hard feat, but we managed; again, the Full English saved our lives!
For our last few hours in Harrogate we wanted to learn a bit more about the town's history so we walked to the Pump Museum, but it was shut, so we settled for walking around the village, looking at it's gardens and the architecture. Harrogate really is a beautiful place and was perfect for a weekend break; if I were to go again I would definitely take more time to investigate it's history because it is so beautiful and I really wanted to learn more about it. 

If you've ever been to Harrogate, let me know what you think of it, and if you can suggest another place for me to visit please do!

Beth x






Tuesday 10 February 2015

Basin - Loughborough

If you're a food fanatic like me, then you'll get why I'm writing about food! I literally LOVE food. I especially love trying new foods, and subsequently eat out a lot, and despite living off of a student budget, I've eaten in some really nice places.
I recently visited my sister who is at Nottingham University and lives quite close to Loughborough, which is where I was introduced to Basin- a Japanese restaurant that also serves Chinese and Thai food.
The restaurant itself is large, but manages to maintain a cosy feel, with both an open and more secluded dining space. The theme of the restaurant is on-point, not too disney-fied (although I personally would have been fine with that), more a contemporary Japanese style, wooden floors and neutral/earthy colours throughout, so it's suited to everyone's tastes. 
Menu

The menu had a lot of choice and variety which was great, but I didn't really know what all of it was; luckily my brother and sister have eaten a lot of Japanese food before so they helped me to choose. We decided on:
- Chai Sui Pork Buns
- Siu Mai King Prawn and Pork Dumplings
- California Rolls
-Hokkigai Sashimi
- Mixed Fish Hosomaki
- Chicken Katsu Curry
- Chicken Yaki Soba
- Fried Beef Ho Fun. 
 
       
The food was presented in a style in-keeping with the theme, which was lovely to see, and it tasted as amazing as it looked, particularly the Chai Sui Pork Buns; they were so fluffy and sweet, which was a lovely surprise and the meat was cooked perfectly (in every dish). I could snack on them ALL day. The seafood in the California Rolls, Hakigai Sashimi and Mixed Fish Hosomaki was so fresh, 100x better than your bog-standard Tesco Sushi dishes.
All our dishes were packed with flavours that complimented each other and made for one of my best meals to date. I will definitely be going back and highly recommend the restaurant, particularly to seafood lovers, or those who like to try new things!  

In case you want to check them out: http://thebasin.co.uk/

Beth x

Thursday 5 February 2015

Travel & Events | Optimus Alive/Nos Alive - Portugal

Losing my festival virginity was not as scary, messy or as expensive as I thought it would be.
Yes, My first festival was abroad, on holida
y, with my boyfriend (which may explain why I left with 300 Euros, and still managed to come back with some money), and yes there were SEVERE hangovers on some days, and sunstroke on others but I loved that we combined a festival with a holiday, it made it so much more fun and meant we could combine two things we love into one, which was great, PLUS the festival was really cheap at £98 for all three days (I think) which, considering the acts, was amazing value for money (AND it's even cheaper this year!)
I hadn't heard of Nos Alive (previously known as Optimus Alive) before last year, I just happened to stumble across it via an advertisement online. The lineup was INSANE, seriously, the acts attending produced the kind of music everyone loved, but there was also a lot of variety in genre, so it seemed like the perfect first festival, plus it was a great excuse for a holiday.

Some of my favourite acts included: Ben Howard, Sam Smith, The Vicious Five, The 1975, Bastille and The Lumineers. 

I was so surprised at how amazing The 1975 were live, Matthew Healy's voice is lovely, and I honestly think I fell in love with him a little bit. 
The Vicious Five were a Portuguese group I had never heard of before until I went to Optimus, they were the first act on (on the main stage) so didn't have many people crowding around them, but they had so much energy, despite it being quite early in the morning and they really got me buzzed for the rest of the day!
SAM SMITH! What can I even say to justify Sam Smith's voice! It really was beautiful, I almost cried (could have been something to do with Whiskey being thrown in my eye though..). All I can say is that if you have the opportunity to go and listen/watch Sam Smith live, then you should, because he really does sing with passion and his voice has so much range. (Excuse the blurry Sam Smith picture, this was the best I had).
If there were any negatives to the festival, they would be: The Libertines.
EVERYONE watching them (well, almost) was British, and either a Liverpool FC fan or Manchester United fan, so subsequently there was a lot of tension, chants and threats that were never actually carried out. Also, I couldn't make out a word of what Pete Doherty was saying; he just annoyed me. Similarly, I expected Imagine Dragons and MGMT to be better than they were, they were quite disappointing: out of tune and boring. There also weren't that many activities to do outside of listen to music, eat and drink. I know that's mostly what a festival is about, but it would have been nice to do something fun while waiting around for the next band we wanted to see. 

The Food there was so good! Proper festival, 'I'm-drunk-and-need-something-filling-and-not-necessarily-healthy' kind of food: Pizzas (a lot of them), burgers, wraps, kebabs, noodles, pasta, pancakes/crepes with ANY kind of topping (they had the LOT)! Ice cream, more wraps and burgers and pizzas; candy floss, sweet stalls, chocolate stalls. The food was so yummy, and relatively cheap for a festival. My favourite was a chicken wrap, the sauce and fillings inside were amazing! 
And if the queues for Heineken were too long for you (like they were my boyfriend) then there are some lovely people who carry Heineken re-filling backpacks on their backs all day
Overall, Optimus Alive was a great festival, it's set my expectations so high music-wise. I don't think I'll be going to a festival soon that has as many musicians I like, playing at once... or for the weather to be as good as it was in Portugal.