I started of in Berlin Germany in January, Easter was Calpe, Spain, the summer saw me travel to Sorrento in Italy and Paris, France. And then to round the year of I got to visit festive Prague in the Czech Republic.
Being able to travel so much in the last 12 months is something that was a huge blessing for me and really reaffirmed by desire to travel, every time I got off the plane (or eurostar) the wanderlust came flooding straight back and my imagination was already dreaming up the next place I could fly away to or explore.
My student status is one of the main reasons why I was able to travel so much in 2016, Berlin was a study trip as part of my uni course, and Italy, Paris and Prague all happened in the rather large holidays that being a university student affords you. I don't want to take for granted the amount of wonderful places I got to visit in 2016, as I know that once I graduate in the summer and hopefully enter the working world the gift to travel so much won't be as much a part of my life.
I'll do things logically and start with Berlin shall I?
I visited Berlin in early January 2016, as I mentioned earlier this was a study trip with uni, the purpose of which was for us to visit the trade fairs that were going on during Berlin Fashion Week. As I assume you can imagine, not all that much studying went down whilst we were in Berlin. I distinctly remember one of the girls in my room coming in from a night out at 6am, two nights/days in a row, it was a very full on 5 days. There was a lot of snow and cold, but that actually added to the beauty of the place. Berlin is a very raw city, that has obviously had it's fair share of heartbreak. It's such a unique city and one that I definitely wouldn't describe as beautiful. It's so, so easy to get lost in the streets of Berlin, everywhere you turn there's another tiny little cafe or giant poster advertising a techno club. I can imagine in the summer it's a really lovely city to stroll around and take in all of the history the city has to offer, but in January strolling wasn't so lovely it has to be said.
During my Easter break from uni, me and my parents went back to my favourite place ever, Calpe in Spain. It's a tiny fishing village 40 minutes from Benidorm, it's calm and relatively quiet, with the most wonderful local food and gorgeous views of the sea whichever way you look. It was a week of peace and tranquility in a place that I'm just totally in love with, we've been to Calpe nearly every year for about the last 10 and it really has captured a huge part of my heart. There isn't much that a week eating paella and ice cream (not all at once tho, that wouldn't taste great) and walking along Calpe beach can't fix or heal.
My first trip of the summer was to Sorrento, Italy; and it was a sunny one at that! I'd never visited Italy before, and sure was looking forward to a week of pizza, pasta and gelato! It was lovely being able to discover a whole new city and also get a bit of sun on my face and feel the sea breeze in my hair after months of slaving away indoors at my uni work. Although the 10 hour coach trip on a bus with no air con and a hotel with very dodgy wifi didn't always make for the happiest of Holly's. And yeah you did read that right, Italy in the height of summer, a coach tour, 10 hours and no air con, put it this way, by the end of it the instigator of the whole trip (my mum) was rather apologetic! Italy is always somewhere I've wanted to visit, but I do have to say, I won't necessarily be rushing back to Sorrento, there's definitely other parts of Italy I want to see first!
If there was one place people were surprised I hadn't visited until last year, it was 100% Paris! I'd always dreamed of visiting this seemingly glorious city, but had never had the chance, until last summer. My best friend Laura and I headed to Paris for 4 wonderful days of exploring, food and museums, oh and watching really random films in French with English subtitles until 2 in the morning. It was a really fun trip falling in love with a city I now can''t wait to return to.
Last, but by no means least, was festive Prague in the Czech Republic. We visited the Christmas markets, and explored it's vast ancient streets. I froze until my fingers turned blue and drank all the hot chocolate. I took pictures and looked at views that even know take my breath away. Prague in December all festive and decorated is just magic, and oh so so beautiful too. (Although the fights at check in on the way home definitely weren't so beautiful or lovely)
There we have it a little travel diary of the beautiful and exciting places I got to visit last year. All those trips seem like years ago now, not months. I'm so filled with wanderlust at the moment, and just want to run away for a little while. But as 2017 goes, at the moment only one trip is planned, although when this post goes up it'll be about two weeks until I'm getting on the plane to visit the incredible city of Tokyo (Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it if I'm gonna survive not getting lost and the million hour flights)
Love
God Bless
