Month: April 2016

After a hectic weekend in London, I whimsically decided to fly to Budapest for a few days. As always, minimal planning was involved (There was really no planning done whatsoever… So I guess it wasn’t really involved) No expectations, no real prior knowledge of Budapest, just the hope of having a good time. Well, it surpassed any hopes I could have had. It was BEAUTIFUL. I’ve been to some beautiful cities, Barcelona, Madrid, Amsterdam, but this was different. It wasn’t swimming with tourists, it was barely swimming with locals. It felt incredibly open, spacious, free.  How such an incredible city is so widely under-appreciated I don’t know. I won’t tell you what I did there, or what beautiful buildings I saw. Frankly, I don’t want it to be flooded with tourists so you guys keep undervaluing Budapest and leave it all for me! I guess you can have a few pictures though.. I took enough! 

   

  

 
I decided I was going to leave Budapest at 2am on Wedenesday morning, I’d had an amazing time and I didn’t want to spend a day there alone. It wouldn’t have been the same. I really wanted to go to Italy. After seeing so many different types of art in both London and Budapest I was eager to see what the home of Renaissance, Florence, had to offer.. I knew that there were flights between the 2 cities existed so it’d be simple to orchestrate.. Right? Is anything ever straight forward when I travel? Of course not. I’m a walking clusterfuck. Flights that day were few and far between… Norway? Too expensive. Poland? Too cold. New York? Marginally too far to justify for a short break. Barcelona? Ahh, home. Booked. With only 4 hours before take off, I hastily packed up my stuff, ordered an uber, and I was off. 

Something I’ve come to learn about travelling is that how you feel, and what you feel like doing can drastically change both your outlook on a city as well as your experience there. There are going to be days when you can’t be bothered to do all of the tourist stuff that trip advisor claims are absolutely unmissable. Well TripAdvisor, my feet are sore. I feel particularly introverted today.  Or I just don’t want to spend 2 hours trawling around this must see Picasso museum when to be honest, I just don’t really like his artistic style. Sorry not sorry. 5? 6? times in Barcelona, I’ve still yet to visit that museum, and unless it suddenly becomes free I’m not going to. Anyway, back to my point. Feelings. Travelling. Yeah. I loved my time in Budapest, there wasn’t a moment in which I didn’t feel at ease. Content. A place so beautiful, so relaxed, so… Carefree? These past 2 weeks have been somewhat of an anomaly. I’ve been weirdly social. I’ve wanted to spend time with people. I’ve… Dare I say it? Missed people. Visiting family, friends I haven’t seen in years, travelling with friends, making new friends along the way, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my last fortnight. I wouldn’t change a second of it. 

I arrived in Barcelona with the intention of staying just 1 night, then heading down to Valencia and finishing my break off there. 

“So Flynn… All of your planning always works out perfectly, right? Tell me… How did this plan go?”

Well, voice inside my head… It went perfectly. After staying awake all night to get to Barcelona I was exhausted, slept straight through my alarm, and missed my train. Excellent. 

  
Now, I love Barcelona. But I’ve been there a zillion times, I wanted new. I wanted the modern architecture in Valencia, I wanted a beautiful beach, I wanted Paella that was to die for. Well, Barcelona may not have the most modern buildings, but the Paella is phenomenal. Unexpected twists and turns are now very much expected. I’m going to fuck up along the way, that’s just who I am as a person. But as long as I have my passport, bank card, phone and some clothes on my back I’ve come to realise that there is no situation big enough to spoil my adventure. Everything else is purely optional. I was going to be in Barcelona an extra day, no big deal.. I’ll go to Valencia tomorrow I told myself. But before you book any tickets, go and enjoy the day. Well, I went and enjoyed the day so much that I didn’t want to go to Valencia anymore. I explored, and I wandered, and I got completely and utterly lost. I discovered art galleries I didn’t know existed, I found festivals being prepared, I turned over pages I didn’t know the city had even written. It’s impossible to see everything a city has to offer in a short trip, but I figured I’d covered a pretty substantial chunk. Oh how wrong I was.

This time Barcelona was all about getting lost. I got lost in the labyrinth that is the Gothic quarter, I stumbled upon a world renowned contemporary art exhibition randomly placed on the roof of a shopping centre. There’s a vibe that seemingly pours from the streets of this city that I can’t help but fall in love with over and over again. 

     
Sometimes the best laid plans, are no plans at all. There’s something to be said for living completely in the moment, being free and open to whatever you’re comes across your path. Nothing about my time in Barcelona was ever more than 12 hours ahead. I stayed in a different room every night, 4 bed, 6 bed, beans bags in the hostel common area. Which reminds me. If you ever go to Barcelona (Which, if I could offer you one piece of travel advice. It’d be to go to Barcelona.) you have to stay in Gracia, specifically the Sant Jordi hostel in Gracia.. The people you meet along the way play a massive part in any journey you take and well, you won’t find better people than I did there. When a guy you’ve met once previously offers to let you stay at his house for free because the hostels fully booked that night and then when that falls through for one reason or another then lets you stay in the hostel for free instead of you having to find somewhere else you know you’re in good company. To Ronnie, Wagner, Bernie, Linda, Santi and all the guys I met travelling.. You guys helped move Barcelona even closer to my heart. You went above and beyond for me, and I appreciate it more than you know. I’ll be back, without a doubt.  

 As I stand here in line to board my Vueling flight to Paris, incredibly sleepy and consequently somewhat grouchy. Deep down I couldn’t be happier. I couldn’t be happier to see my friends tomorrow, I couldn’t be happier with how I spent my time in London, Budapest or Barcelona. I’m spending each day doing what I enjoy. I can’t remember the last time I worried about my future, a 9-5 job, or living upto expectations. I’m present, and that’s pretty special for me. I’m in a really really good place right now. Long may it continue. 

Flynn! X

One of the main advantages to university study is the massive amounts of free time you have. 2 weeks off for Easter? Don’t mind if I do! Instead of spending my time mostly bored playing video games until my eyes hurt, then playing some more, like my younger a self would’ve done. I try to make the most of the added freedom university gives me. After the arduous journey from Paris to Liverpool, getting sick along the way. I spent 5 days at home catching up with friends and family. It was exactly what I needed after 3 months in France. As much as I love living abroad and travelling around there are certain home comforts that you just can’t replicate. It’s the little things: lying on the sofa, watching The Chase with my Nan & Grandad… Laughing at how terrible my Grandad is at The Chase. Waking up in the morning with my dogs lying around my feet at the foot of my bed. Helping my little sister with her homework. No amount of sightseeing or exploring can give me those exact feelings.

After relaxing at home I took a trip down to London. Now, London is a weird city for me. My previous encounters with the capital have all been pretty negative. Overly touristic, over crowded, over priced, I was over it. But I wasn’t going there to see the city, I was going to see a friend. Before this weekend I hadn’t seen Joel since early 2012 – so a catch up was loooong overdue.

The London I knew consisted of inferior monuments when compared to the rest of the continent. A Ferris wheel, a clock(bell) and a bridge. Whoooop Deee Doooo. Big deal. This trip has given me a much more well rounded view of London. The diversity the city has to offer once you get outside of the hordes of selfie stick wielding drones.

I could try and list off all of the things I’ve seen this past weekend in chronological order, but I know full well I’ll get it completely wrong and no doubt forget at least 40% of what I did. So instead, I’ll talk about the experience and how it’s somewhat changed my outlook on the once dreary capital.

Is everyone still rude in London? Yes and no. The waves of cockney suits storming through the tube stations with pound signs in emblazoned onto their retinas, yes. Very, very, rude. But the people who in my mind make the city special, the people who have moved there with the almost “American Dream” mentality of making their way and living life to the fullest. Those people. Lovely, friendly, polite. Everyday people make a city what it is. Paris is amazing because of the people’s keen sense for art and fashion. Paris also sucks ass because the people come across rude as sin. It’s a double edged sword.

Is London just a tourist trap filled with tacky royalist souvenirs? Absolutely not. Will you still see the queens face or the Union Jack at ever corner? Most corners. But amongst the bustling buses barrelling by and the overflowing underground there’s so much more on display if you can see past the swarms of people in your immediate view. I got to see a side of London you’d only see by living and working there. There’s an overwhelming amount of choice in the city. I got to spend time seeing each walk of life in London, from the traditional upper class white houses of North London, to the open spaces in West London. Grass and open space in London!? Well I never. Movie set London in Notting Hill. Urban, multiculturaled Brixton, Camden and Portobello Markets. Trendy SoHo and Shorditch. The hidden unground graffiti and skate tunnels underneath Waterloo. I stumbled across a fricking music video being shot for gods sake! Claudio Marquez-Made in Lisbon. In case you’re into Grime with a Portuguese twist. London showed me much more than I’d previously given it credit for.

 

Food and Drink played a massive part in this trip. To the point that I’m scared to check my bank balance – it’s far too easy to spend on your card without realising quite how much!! Outside of the Starbucks’, the Pret A Manger’s, the McDonald’s, there are some really amazing places to eat and drink. This weekend just so happened to be the London Coffee Festival. My drug of choice-Caffeine keeps my heart beating. We decided checked out the opening night, There were some amazing independent coffee stalls and some sensory enhancing exhibitions which were pretty cool. Apparently “espresso martinis” are a pretty big deal in London? Personally, I found them to be pretty awful. I’ll stick with my flat white thank you very much.

London’s multiculturalism is what makes it special for me. I love that you can get so many different things in one place I ate paella made by a Spaniard, Pizza and Gelato from Italians, you get my point. It’s similarities in differences that make London a great place to be. Everyone brings something to the table.

Over the last 3 days, this graffiti tag kept popping up all across the city. Something about it is striking to me. After looking into it online I found out that the artist usually tags it on temporary locations, wooden planks, constitution panels, hidden crevices. Something about its simplicity is beautiful to me. Now, art is subjective and to me good art is anything that induces feelings in people, regardless of what those feelings are. So if it doesn’t appear this way to you, that’s fine. But this is London to me. The best parts of London aren’t the landmarks, the constantly changing skyline, or the royal family. They’re behind all that, lying in the shadows there are gems within London. They’re in the independent restaurants, the art, the people who’re doing what they do for the love of it not the commercial success. The scenery you don’t see stood on Oxford street, the people who aren’t barging past you to be 30 seconds earlier to work. Much like life, it’s the little things that make the bigger picture special and well there are a lot of amazing little things in London.

 

Flynn!

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend! That you’re all stuffed to the gills with chocolate! I’m unfortunately not, yet. When I eventually spend some time at home, rest assured by the time I leave, I’ll be at least 65% chocolate.

Anyway, I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was unlike any Easter weekend I’ve ever had. It started on Thursday. Late Thursday evening/The early hours of Friday morning I saw that Macklemore was playing a concert in Paris. Am I a huge Macklemore fan? Not particularly. But after a little while here the same old things get pretty boring. So it’d be cool to get out and so something different! Plus, I hadn’t been to a concert in foreverrrr. Would anyone go on such short notice? Would anyone go not actually liking Macklemore that much? Probaaaably not. Anyway, I soon realised that there were no standing tickets left, and frankly, the idea of being in the seating section of a concert just doesn’t sit right with me. Especially at a rap show. Anyway, moving on. Amongst all of this, Ramsey was up for the idea of going to a concert. So I wasn’t in this alone! Failing to find any good concerts on such short notice, I went to bed.

That morning, once again for the 6th? week in a row my Spanish class was cancelled for no good reason whatsoever. So that was totally worth getting out of bed for. That’s a rant for a future blog, but yeah. I went to my weekly 3 and a half hour French grammar class, when randomly as part of our work the teacher shows us a Rap/Electro festival happening the following day. THIS IS EXACTLY THE TYPE OF THING I WAS LOOKING FOR. Admittedly, I knew none of the artists, but after listening to one of them in class I was down for this. My teacher must have spotted me bopping away with the oversized classroom headphones, when she started telling me how one of the rappers was super well known in France. How was this early 30s, white, French lady so up to date on Rap? I do not know, it was very much unexpected.  Could I understand a single word? Nottttt really. Did it sound pretty cool though? Yess!

On a whim later that day, after discovering one of the DJs playing we had heard earlier that week at an event at “le musee de beaux arts” we were in. I didn’t ever get around to writing about that.. But we saw some cool art, did some doodles, and heard some pretty good music too!

So, the next afternoon after mild confusion with the printing setup, we got on a bus to the middle of nowhere. Not quite knowing where we were going, nor why. But we were going and that was that. After an hour on the bus, we arrived at what I can only describe as an industrial park. A huge carpark, with a warehouse attached to a small theatre. What. The. Hell. Are. We. Doing. Here? Why has my French teacher told me about this bizarre place. Onesies everywhere, goth boots with yoga pants, parents with extremely young children what rap festival!?

To cut a very long night somewhat short… IT WAS AWESOME. I found a lot of French rap that I actually liked, after struggling through seamlessly endless amounts of Trap inspired French rappers this semester. Odezenne is definitely one I’m going to be looking up more.  I saw my first Grime act “Ocean Wisdom” – pretty cool! Even if he wouldn’t give me a CD for my last 5€.. It was all I had! His stuff’s on Spotify but I kinda wanted to support the guy/ a souvenir would’ve been cool! I saw my first Rap battle, even if I didn’t understand a word of it. Bigflo et Oli put on an awesome show. The whole place was going crazy, they were rapping in and amongst the crowd. Then midway through the set they had a full on rap battle with one another. It was an amazing show. Since then, I’ve listened to them almost nonstop, slowly trying to learn their lyrics, failing miserably! Caribbean Dandee Party Mixed heavy rap with reggae vibes, some of it was pretty good. I liked the fusion, but understanding it would have definitely helped. Well, I understood one song. He was literally rapping to a splif. Like, ignoring the entire crowd whilst staring at the lit spliff in his hand. It was a little weird I won’t lie.

The later portion of the night was less rap, more electro. Words were a thing of the past, now onto eclectic beats. I’m not massively up on the intricacies of DJing. But they were all better than the David Guetta set I saw many moons ago, a slightly creep middle aged man pressing play on his laptop. Frankly that performance wasn’t deserving of a headline spot. However watching people actually make their songs live was pretty cool! Some of the DJs made more appealing sounds than others. Thylacine was pretty cool, if you’re into DJs that’re kinda upbeat, less harsh-more melodic, with actual live instruments and not just computer made sounds. CHECK HIM OUT. Really cool. The video to his song mountains is up there. The other Electro acts, whilst cool live, I probably wouldn’t listen to at home.

Anyway, the marathon was drawing to a close. It was late Saturday night early Sunday morning. Did we totally forget that the clocks were going forward? Yes. Did we have to catch our coach back at a very specific time? Yes. Had that now been effected by the 2 o’clock actually being 3 o’clock? You bet it did. Panic set in, we were about to miss our bus. We were in the middle of nowhere, at 3am, with no idea how to get home. However, thanks to the general lack of organisation that I’ve now come to expect from France the coach was almost an hour late. Tired and cold we made our way back to Angers, very much ready to sleep the following day away. That’s exactly what I did.

Flynn! x

Extra: As I FINALLY (It’s taken a few days of procrastination) finish writing this, it’s 5am. Much like that 4am coach back to Angers, I’m tired and cold. I’m about to get ready to take the bus to Paris, followed by a bus to London, followed by a train to Liverpool, and finally followed by another train to Bebington. I’m very much ready to get home to my own bed. See you Sunday, Bebington.