Travel | A long weekend in London

So I've not written a post for a while as I have been really busy with exams and moving out of Manchester, but now that I have finished my second year of uni, I've found a bit of time to talk about what I've been up to!

Recently I visited London with my boyfriend, Harry. I had been wanting to go for a while, and with both of us having time off we decided to book our tickets and go.

Before I begin, if you are reading this and considering going to London to do all of the 'touristy' things without a budget, like we did, then be prepared to spend a soul-crushingly large amount of money (unless you are already used to southern prices).. 

Harry and I stayed in The Wesley hotel, a two minute walk from Euston train station, it was a good hotel for what we wanted, having recently had a £3 million re-vamp the room was clean, comfortable and modern, with a large bathroom, although the room itself was a bit small; however we knew we wouldn't be spending much time in the hotel anyway. It was perfect for a long weekend. 

Friday | Euston, Piccadilly Circus and Soho.

We arrived early on a sunny Friday afternoon, dumped our bags in the hotel and then left to venture our surroundings. 

Cider Tap

Just 5 minutes walk away from the hotel, off of Euston road, was the 'Cider Tap' and the 'Beer Tap', basically two arches that doubled as bars, one serving beer and the other cider. We went into the cider bar for a quick drink, it was really quirky and relatively well priced, with a lot of different ciders on offer. I would definitely suggest going if you are nearby. 

Piccadilly Circus | Piccadilly Theatre

We walked from Euston to Piccadilly Circus, which took about 25 minutes and booked tickets for The Jersey Boys at Piccadilly Theater; we picked one of the cheaper options, but the lady who served us was nice enough to reserve our seats for one of the more expensive areas (which saved us a good £60). I would definitely recommend going to a theatre in Piccadilly Circus, there's always loads of shows on and it makes for such a memorable experience; keep in mind though, the price of the food and drink inside a theatre is REALLY expensive. If you are on a budget, I would suggest buying some snacks in a corner shop before hand. 

Food and Drink in Soho and Piccadilly Circus

We ate at Carbon in Soho, located on Brewer Street. The food was amazing and cheap, and reminded me of my holiday in Lisbon, Portugal (lots of sauce and meat, yum)! You can also take your food to go, so if you are going to the theater I'm sure you could buy food from Carbon first.

We then went to The Argylle, a pub located just a minute walk down the road from Carbon, it was really cheap (for London) and a very popular pub. There are a lot of pubs located around this area, making it an ideal area for a night out or pub crawl. 

Saturday | Leicester Square, Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Southbank and Borough Market.

Leicester Square

Saturday we walked to Leicester Square, which is home to loads of quirky little cafes and restaurants. We visited The Garrick Arms, which had recently been re-decorated and looked really inviting. The breakfast menu had something to suit everyone and the waiters/barmen were really friendly and chatty. The portions set us up for a day of walking and the food was reasonably priced.

Buckingham Palace

We arrived at Buckingham Palace just in time to stumble across the changing of the guards, which was pretty cool and something that you should really take the time to see while you're there. There are beautiful parks to walk through surrounding the palace: St. James' Park and Green Park, which are very well maintained and manicured and beautiful on a sunny day. And if you're an architecture fan then you have to see the Palace!

Westminster

Here you can find Westminster Abbey, a beautiful, gothic church and again, if you appreciate architecture then you should definitely visit there. We also went to see Big Ben and the Houses of Commons/Palace of Westminster. 

Lambeth

We crossed over Westminster bridge (where a couple were having wedding photos taken!) and turned right at the end onto the embankment, where we walked for about 15 minutes until we came to a bar on a boat (known as Tamesis Dock); Harry really wanted to go into the boat bar, and it was really cool, like a tardis, so much bigger than what I initially thought it would be, although a little expensive but I think that's just because of the novelty of the place and well worth it really. 

Southbank/Southwark

After this we walked past the London Eye to Southbank/Southwark, where street food pop-up festivals were being held. Eventually we arrived at Borough Market (with a little help from Google Maps) and it was amazing! Food everywhere, bustling with people (although if you hate being packed like sardines, then maybe wait for a quieter time/day than Saturday.) I had fresh crab and harry ate oysters; we also went to The George Inn which was recommended to us by our waiter at The Garrick Arms, as it was one of the oldest pubs in London (I think), from the 17th century. 

 

Covent Garden 

There's a lot to be done in Covent Garden: Shopping, dining and drinking, and is home to some very quirky and popular shops/bars/restaurants with something for everyone, in an easy-to-navigate space. We were too late to go shopping, so we headed to Punch and Judy - a really popular although quite expensive bar. After here we ended up visiting a jazz bar, which cost £6 entry with a student card and £12 without. It had a 1920s feel, people were dressed up and seated at private tables, the experience was really unique and enjoyable, if you like music then I would recommend going.

Sunday | Trafalgar Square, Oxford Road and Covent Garden. 

Trafalgar Square

We ate in a nautical themed pub/restaurant called The Admiralty, which was super yummy! Generally well known for it's (VERY delicious) pies, happily reminding me of the North and it's traditional pie and mash. A must if you are in Trafalgar Square as it is quite reasonably priced and uniquely themed. 

Oxford Street

If you love shopping (or even if you don't) you have to go to Oxford street, the shops here literally have the best stock and the biggest shops, with something for everyone. Oxford Circus tube station is located here, which makes it really easy to carry a tonne of bags back to wherever you're staying, so don't worry about how you're going to carry all these bags around and carry on shopping! 

Covent Garden

 We booked a table at Joe Allens; it wasn't what we expected at all, located on a back street in Covent Garden we walked downstairs to a window-less room, but we were pleasantly surprised. It was quite busy and the food was very tasty, although the room was so dark I kept falling asleep. Next to Joe Allen's was a cocktail bar called Be At One, we happened to stumble in when it was 2 for 1, which meant I got 2 cocktails for £7.00 (yay).

Monday | Camden Market and Going Home. 

Monday, sadly, was our last day in London. We left our hotel at around 10am and headed to London Euston, hopping on the tube to Camden to make the most of the few hours we had left. 

The market was one big maze, and ideally I wouldn't have gone with a suitcase as all the paths were cobbled although the market was empty on Monday, so there wasn't the additional hassle of trying to push through a crowd of people. Not a lot of the stalls were open but those that were mainly sold bags, clothes or art; a lot of crafty things, so if you're interested in that then I would recommend a visit!  

Have you ever been to London? I'd love to know your favourite places to go in the City! Check out my Pinterest board below for more travel inspo!

Beth x

Follow Beth Dallas's board Wanderlust on Pinterest.

Beauty | Bobbi Brown Makeover

Harvey Nichols - Bobbi Brown - Manchester

As a very early birthday present, my mum thought it would be a nice idea to get a makeover at Bobbi Brown in Manchester. I'm not very well educated when it comes to makeup, or particularly concerned with buying only the 'best', which usually means the most expensive, but I have always been interested in having some sort of a beauty regime and I'm alright with splurging my money on makeup, once in a while. 

I booked the makeover two days in advance for the coming Friday, at the Bobbi Brown pop-up-store in Harvey Nichols; the ladies who worked there were great and rang me a day before the makeover just to make sure everything was still going ahead.

I decided to go for the 'ultimate makeup lesson' and my mum opted for the same but without foundation (she doesn't like to wear foundation, her skin's great anyway). I was seated and my makeover began as soon as I arrived. The makeup artists ask you questions before hand such as 'what is your daily beauty regime?' 'what makeup do you wear?' 'what would you like to learn from today?' I knew I wanted to find a foundation that was not only the closest match to my skin, but that was durable and would last me all day, and I also wanted to leave with a personalised beauty regime. I told  the lady (Wendy) who was doing my makeup all of this and she started from the very beginning: keeping your skin clean and worked all the way through to a full face of makeup. 

CLEANSING

I told Wendy that I use makeup wipes and then wash my face with water to clean off my makeup, apparently makeup wipes only drag your dead skin across your face and don't properly take off makeup and water doesn't really do anything. Wendy used a Cleansing Oil and Bobbi Brown Soap to clean my face and I could see and feel the difference, my skin felt a lot smoother and looked brighter and cleaner. Wendy then applied serum and moisturiser to my face, which left it feeling really soft. 

MAKEUP

Foundation

Wendy applied foundation first, trying three different foundations on my face (my cheek, forehead and chin), she picked the colour which closest matched my skin. She cleaned off the foundation and then applied the foundation which matched using a foundation brush, she said not to use your fingers to apply foundation as firstly, it's unhygienic and secondly she personally felt that you could get better coverage and a nicer finish using a brush.  

Concealer & Corrector.

After the foundation was applied Wendy applied eye cream under my eyes and then added correcter, which is pink to cancel out the blueness of bags under my eyes, she dabbed it in so that it blended into my foundation as well, then she applied concealer and set it with powder.  

Extras

Once the base of my makeup was applied, Wendy used powder to set the makeup, only applying it to my T-Zone as it is a bit oily and the rest of my face is dry so I didn't need powder on my cheeks. 

She also applied a small amount of bronzer to my face, to add a bit of definition, depth and colour, as well as some Shimmer Brick highlighter to my cheeks which gave me a dewy complexion. Wendy finally applied a cream blusher (because I have drier cheeks). She said the blusher colour should resemble how you look when your face is flushed. Wendy dabbed the blusher onto my cheeks and spread it using a blunt, thick brush.

Wendy also added eyeliner above my eyes, mascara and defined my eyebrows to finish off.

 I think the makeover was a great idea, my mum and myself had a great time. Our makeovers looked so natural; the makeup used felt really light on my skin and spread really evenly, and the ladies who gave us our makeover were so lovely and really easy to talk to.

The only downside to the day is that the makeup is SO expensive, I personally feel you could find very similar equivalents for a lot cheaper, but I decided to splurge on some of the items they used on me anyway.

    BEFORE

AFTER

Hope you enjoyed the read. I'd love to know what kind of makeup you use or your beauty regime? Do you use Bobbi Brown too, or do you swear by a different brand? 

The link to Bobbi Brown website is here

Made by me | Knitting bobble hats.

 I am a complete novice at knitting, but it was cold (as it usually is in the UK) and everyone was wearing funky, knitted bobble hats. My head does not suit hats at all, and I was desperate to find one that looked good and actually fitted but I gave up looking after December and decided instead that I would learn how to make a hat, this way I could make one that fitted, and I would actually wear.

You will need: 

Knitting needles (either circular or straight)

Wool (and/or fake fur pom pom)

Cardboard

Blunt sewing/threading needle

For my first hat (the dark grey one with fake fur pompom), I bought a knitting kit from Fred Aldous, a wonderful craft shop in Manchester, the link to which is here. 
The kit provided me with: instructions, 8.0mm circular needles, 100g of super chunky wool, a blunt sewing needle, fake fur pom pom and a 'made by me' label to attach once finished.   

I ordered my kit online and it arrived the next day, which was great because I couldn't wait to get started. 

There are instructions showing you how to cast on, however I found youtube videos and googling it more helpful than the ones provided. I used a long tail cast on method, without the slipknot at the beginning. The instructions tell you to cast on 40 stitches, I only cast on 36 because I have a small head. 
Once you have cast on, you are instructed to knit in a 'brioche stitch' I literally had NO IDEA what this was, it sounded so complicated and scary, but after browsing youtube/google/pinterest A LOT, I came to realise Brioche stitch was pretty similar to Fisherman's Rib Stitch, and there are a lot more videos and information for this too. Here's a ribbing stitch tutorial by New Stitch a Day, who have an amazing youtube channel for knitting.

To begin. First Row   

For my first row, with 8.0mm Circular Needles I: Knit 1, *Knit 1, yarn in front and slip 1 purlwise and then repeated the process after the * until the last stitch as you will knit that one; this means that you will have a neat edge to your work. To slip one purlwise, you bring the working yarn to the front of the needle (the needle you're knitting the stitches onto) as if to purl, and with that same needle, push the end of it down through the first stitch on the other needle, and slip the stitch off. Then  carry on knitting 1 and slipping 1.   

Second Row.

When you look at your first, finished row, you will see that two stitches cross over, don't panic! This is exactly what's meant to happen and is completely normal. The picture to the left highlights the two stitches crossed over!

When you start to knit your second row, remember that the first and last stitch on the needle needs to be knitted!

The pattern I followed for my second row was: Knit 1 *Knit 2 together, yarn in front and slip 1 purlwise. Then repeat from * until the last stitch where you will knit 1. FYI, the two stitches that crossover each other are counted as 1 stitch, so when you 'Knit 2 together', you knit the crossover stitches and the slipped stitch.

REPEAT ROWS 1 and 2 UNTIL YOUR WORK MEASURES APPROX 17cm (although I only did mine to 15cm as I have a small head) It's up to you how long you want your hat really, if you want to roll the edges up then make sure you take that into consideration when deciding on the length of your hat.

Shaping the crown

First row

Once your hat is at it's desired length, for the first row I followed the pattern: Knit 1, *Knit 3 together, yarn in front and slip 1 purlwise. Repeat from * to the last 3 stitches where you will knit 3 together.

Second row - fourth row

Work in original pattern without decreases.

Fifth row 

Knit 1, *Knit 3 together, Yarn in front and Slip 1 purlwise, * to the last 3 stitches where you knit 3 together.

Cut the yarn and leave a long tail of thread, pull this through the blunt threading needle and transfer the stitches left on your knitting needle onto your threading needle, and fasten your hat off. Then add a Pom Pom! 

With Straight Needles

For straight needles, I used this website which suggests casting on 60 stitches, but even that was a little snug for me, so I'd suggest 70 maybe even 80.
I decided I wanted to have a fold over in this hat, so after casting on to 5.5mm needles, I began the pattern of: Knit 2, Purl 2, until my work measured 7 cm (next time I may work it to 10cm). 

I then went off on my own and used the ribbing/brioche method, instead of the suggested stockinette stitch. STICK WITH STOCKINETTE! Oh my, I had such a difficult time trying to shape the crown of my hat! I had to pull stitches off all the time and start again, it became super tedious but I am proud that I managed to finish it (I couldn't tell you how, I have no idea). My hat was probably 12cm long, not including the roll up part of it (overall, it was approximately 18cm) although, I think I should have made it longer as the hat was originally for my boyfriend, but it's too small for his head and coincidentally fit mine almost perfectly.

Once I FINALLY finished my hat, I cut a long piece of thread off of the end (approx 20 inches), threaded it through my blunt needle and transferred the stitches from the straight needle onto it. I then seamed the edges of my hat together using a mattress stitch, closed of the top of my hat and made myself a pom pom following a tutorial on youtube.

Here's how the hat turned out...

Hope you guys enjoyed. I'd love to know whether you have been making anything recently, or have any ideas for me? I really want to knit myself a jumper, although technically, I don't think I'm quite there yet!

Beth x

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

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

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 holiday, 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.