TRAVEL: MARRAKECH

While most of our friends abroad headed straight home after our six months abroad, my mate Trish and I continued the fairytale, venturing down to North Africa and exploring the beautiful country of Morocco. We began in Marrakech, a tried and true starting point (at least according to Lonely Planet) and a wonderful city to soak up while beginning to come to terms with the fact that our time in Lancaster was over.

Our time was filled with balmy days getting lost in the maze of the Old Town, conversations over long dinners of tagine and cous cous, and hours on end by the pool in our weirdly-hotel-like hostel. On a whim, we signed up for a 36 hour whirlwind trip to the Sahara Desert, an experience that was easily one of the highlights of all my time abroad. On the way we visited some Game of Thrones filming locations, which was mighty exciting for my inner tourist and Khaleesi fangirl, among various Moroccan towns and villages. In the Sahara, we were treated to a delicious meal before a traditional Moroccan music performance, after which we slept in wildly over-insulated tents. It was like nothing I've ever experienced before and after six months worth of travel around Europe it was refreshing to be taken completely out of our comfort zone. 

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TRAVEL: AMALFI COAST

  

It seems a far cry from rainy old England, but it's comforting to know that these kind of beaches lie barely an hour's flight from where I'm living right now. With a few weeks study behind us and several more to come, a few friends and I booked ourselves a post-exam escape on the Amalfi Coast to get us through our revision, and, oh boy, was it worth it.

We stayed in Salerno for a few nights, making day trips to Maori and Positano for a couple of glorious beach days, and a trek to Pompeii to see the city, Mt Vesuvius and surrounds. Our final night was spent in Rome, dining on pasta, red wine and coconut gelato next to to the Trevi Fountain and wandering the streets of beautiful Roma in the wee hours of the morning.

I don't think words can describe how wonderful it was, but perhaps these photographs help. I'll be saying goodbye to the two of the three ladies I traveled with at the end of this week and the only thing that makes it okay is the incredible memories we've got to hold onto.

Hold your pals tight, friends.

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EAT: A CERTAIN ROMANCE

After a week of opting for a good old muesli/yoghurt/banana combo whipped up and consumed in the hotel room, we ventured out for breakfast on the morning of our last day in Melbourne to the lovely Caffe e Torta on Little Collins Street, just inside the Block Arcade. It was chosen on a whim partly by how groovy it looked, though the lighting inside was very dim so none of those photos worked out very well. You'll just have to take my word for it.

All three of us started off with freshly squeezed juice - my brain is testing me right now but I'm pretty sure it was orange, ginger and... something else. My mother went for mushrooms, feta and poached egg on sourdough rye and my dad went for 'Eggs Italiano.' They both looked equally delicious and by all accounts tasted just as swell. I went for (the incredibly dull choice of) a bowl of porridge with banana, cinnamon and maple syrup, but it was worth being unadventurous because it was SO GOOD.

I don't know why I felt the need to spell that all out for you, but I guess I just really like talking about food so there you go. I also don't really know what else to write because I've spent all weekend at work and, lets face it, food is far more interesting than work.

This is turning into psychobabble so I'm going to put an end to this post and wish you all a lovely week!

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Song of the Day: A Certain Romance by Arctic Monkeys

~pls be prepared for all my blog posts to be named after arctic monkeys songs for the next 3995872 weeks they have been on replay since do i wanna know? was released~

PLACE: NEW YORK, NEW YORK

I don't buy INDIE magazine terribly often because it can be a bit expensive and tricky to find in Brisbane, but when I saw this issue - the 'New York City' issue with Marky Ramone on the cover - I couldn't say no. It was a good decision, this is one of those issues that I know I'm going to read over and over again.

I loved the theme. New York is such an iconic place. In literature and films, most settings are simply places, but New York often becomes a character herself, so big and bold is she.

It is no secret that I love travel. I love to talk about far away places and examine photos and books about the treasures that foreign cities and countries have to offer. I love New York, because every time I talk to someone about their ideas and experiences about the city, you get a totally fresh perspective. It's different for everyone. I love hearing about what people did or saw or ate or thought while they were in New York, or if they haven't been, I love to hear about what they think it's like based on the books, movies, television shows and songs they know.

Just Kids by Patti Smith is possibly my favourite 'New-York-based' book, but there are dozens more that I adore: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. New York is such an integral part of all of these books, and they definitely influenced my perception of the city prior to visiting it (except for Wharton and Salinger, I only read them recently).

Breakfast at Tiffany's, again, and Annie Hall are my ultimate New York movies, and I'm (not) ashamed to admit that Gossip Girl was basically my guiding light in where to go and what to see when I visited.

What about you? What are your 'experiences' with New York City?

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GAULTIER

A few photos from 'The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk' exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. It was one of the last things we did. The exhibition was amaaaazing. Such an incredible assortment of Gaultier's designs. It was so big that we sadly didn't have time to look at the rest of the museum.

Now, I am hoping to make it down to Sydney for the Chanel Little Black Jacket exhibition later this year!

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SHE APPEARS COMPOSED, SO SHE IS, I SUPPOSE

Can you spot Central Park?

So delicious!

Soho!

Feet in Soho!

The Cloisters

Goodies from Magnolia Bakery!

Brooklyn Bridge

Feet on the Brooklyn Bridge

Apologies for the photo-heavy post, but I couldn't narrow it down any further. I WANT TO SHOW YOU ALL OF MY PHOTOS.

New York was such an amazing city. It was so vibrant and full of life, and there is such a myriad of things to do and places to see.

The Guggenheim was a definite highlight. Such an amazing building and the art collection was perfection. It was so exciting to see the artwork of Yves Kline, Seurat, Robert Delaunay, Duchamp, Dalí... The Rineke Dijkstra Retrospective was brilliant as well, we bought the big coffee table book as a souvenir! It was one of the best art museums I've been to.

Soho was another favourite, I think I managed to get there three times in the eight days we were staying in NYC for! It is actually unexplainable how good it felt to just walk into a Topshop store and be able to buy things off the racks. I'm so scared of online shopping! And as well as the big stores, the little boutiques, the bookshops and the cafes were all wonderful, it was a really great area.

I also managed to spot a number of Gossip Girl locations while we were out and about! The Met steps of course, and the building used for the front of Constance and St Judes (it's slipped my mind right now... was it actually a museum? A library?), Grand Central Station, The Empire State Building, parts of Central Park... I'm bummed that I missed the Palace Hotel though!

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