Life's a Beach

I like to keep busy. So after finishing my finals, running a half marathon and canoeing across Scotland, I was very happy to be off on yet another adventure - BARCELONA!

Me, Cat and Vicky decided to jet off to someplace new and exciting, involving sun, beaches, sangria and cool buildings. Barcelona is tip top perfect for all four of those things, so we were pretty pleased with our choice.

We stayed at Casa Gracia, a beautiful hostel with marble floors and a plant-filled terrace, in a neighbourhood filled with narrow streets, squares and bars. We had breakfast each morning outside in the sun, where we planned our culture- and food-filled days and repeatedly told each other how happy and care-free we felt!

Weird juice at Flax & Kale

I have a new (cringey and slightly unhealthy, some would say) obsession with Instagram, and somehow ended up following a few vegan cafes in the city and drooling over their b-e-a-utiful photos of yummy food whilst I was meant to be revising.. so I tried to drag the others to one - Flax & Kale, a 'flexitarian' restaurant - on the day we arrived. We tried grilled watermelon, all kinds of weird juices, and salads with some pretty suspect ingredients, and loved it. Obviously we instagrammed all of our experiences (otherwise it didn't happen) so you can check out all of those photos here.

The facade of La Sagrada Familia -
Gaudi's beautiful cathedral, still under construction

The architecture of Antoni Gaudi have helped with Barcelona's fame. His most famous (and most impressive and beautiful, in my opinion) piece of work is La Sagrada Familia, to which he dedicated 43 years of his life. We booked tickets in advance as we knew there would be hours of queueing in the sun for us otherwise, and it was definitely worth it. The outside is stunning, and despite being nowhere near finished (it's meant to finish at three times its current height) it towers over the rest of the city and can't be missed from any viewpoint. The interior is something else though. Every tiny detail was so well thought out - the stained glass windows let in the perfect amount of light and spread colours across every surface, and the pillars holding up the structure branched out like trees to a ceiling reminiscent of palm fronds. It was 100% the coolest building I've ever been into (and that's saying something, living 5 minutes away from Durham Cathedral).

Stunning stained glass windows of La Sagrada Familia

The Mercat de la Boqueria is a heavenly food market just off La Rambla, the main touristy tree-lined street leading to the sea in the city. Hundreds of stalls are overflowing with fresh fruit and vegetables, rainbows of fresh juices lined up in rows, and as many different pastries and meats as you could possibly ever want. We had lunch there a couple of times, finding it incredibly difficult to make a decision on what to buy, and bought lots of dried fruit, peppers and spices to take back home. 

Delicious empanadas at the Mercat de la Boqueria

Although the city is in Spain, it's actually culturally Catalan. So apparently all of the quintessentially Spanish things that tourists expect to be there (sangria, paella, tapas etc.) are actually not native to the region. Good thing they were there though, as all of them made me very happy indeed! We enjoyed sangria and Spanish beer together every night, and shared lots of tapas and paella. I absolutely adore padron peppers, tiny little sweet yet bitter green peppers, fried and covered with salt. My plan for Sunday is to recreate a big paella for my family, but I can tell it just won't be the same!

The floor in La Sagrada Familia,
showing Jesus entering Nazareth

One of the city's main draws for us was the beach. It stretches for miles along the south of the city, with the bright blue Mediterranean sea to cool us down and burning hot sand to warm us up again. After long mornings of sightseeing and visiting galleries, it was a perfect way to rest and relax (despite the constant calls of "mojito! cool fresh mojito, buy a mojito! mojito, sangria!" from people walking along the beach selling lukewarm 'cocktails' in plastic cups..). I definitely made up for my lack of sleep (first out and last back to our hostel room, every time!) from naps in the sunshine - so much relaxation!

An afternoon at the beach

We visited the Museo Picasso after wandering around La Ribera, an area of the city full of arty boutiques and cafes. The museum/gallery is dedicated to the works of Picasso, but it also had a temporary exhibition called 'Picasso/Dali Dali/Picasso', comparing and contrasting a number of pieces by the two artists. The main lesson I learnt was that artists copy each other a lot.. I wasn't a massive Picasso fan before I went and I certainly haven't changed my mind.. but I'm still glad we went!

Early evening at the Marina, enjoying the reflections

On our last day we visited the Fundació Joan Miró - a gallery exhibiting Miró's works - on Montjuïc, a hill to the south of the city that translates as either the Mountain of the Jews or the Mountain of Jupiter. The terrace of the museum has an incredible view over the rooftops of the city (still dominated by La Sagrada Familia) and the building itself is also impressive. I like Miró's work much more than Picasso or Dali's, especially his strong colours and simplified forms. Alexander Calder's mercury fountain was probably my favourite piece - a small fountain filled with mercury instead of water, with the dancing metallic beads flowing around the system in a mesmerising and soporific fashion, that I could have stared at for hours..

One of Miro's wacky sculptures,
on the rooftop of Fundació Joan Miró

Overall, we all had an awesome time and were pretty sad to leave! It's such a beautiful, vibrant and varied city, and I'd love to go back sometime to do some more exploring.

Now I promise I'll stay in this country for the next five weeks, before I fly to India!

Canoeing across Scotland

As an après-exam 'break', I decided to sign up to a five day Canoe Across Scotland challenge with my friend Ed, in aid of the Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team (TWSMRT). A team of 14 of us crossed the country via the lochs, travelling a total of 95km, wild camping each night. I'd also just run the Edinburgh Half Marathon the day before we started (in 1hr 57!), which made things a bit more interesting!

The 95km route across the lochs from Fort William to Inverness

The TWSMRT consists of 50 highly trained volunteers, who all have full time jobs, covering distress calls from the entirety of County Durham. Not only do these volunteers rescue lost and/or injured people from the hills but they also search for missing people within urban settings. They've done a lot for the students of Durham, searching for missing people along the river. The team is funded purely by charitable donations, grants, trusts and sponsorship.

For the last two summers I've participated in the Three Peaks 24 Hour Challenge for this charity, but this year I wanted to try something new and challenge myself in a different way. I also wanted some time to completely relax and de-stress after my final university exams - it worked a treat!

Ed and I ran a pancake and waffle fundraising afternoon at his house, asking for donations in return for yummy food. We managed to raise a very respectable £101.10 on the day from our donation jug, so we were pretty pleased with ourselves!

The Great Glen Canoe Trail runs along the Caledonian Canal, which runs 97km from the west coast at Corpach near Fort William, across to the east coast at Inverness. Only 1/3 of its length is man-made - the rest is made up of Loch Dochfour, Loch Ness, Loch Oich and Loch Lochy. They (rather conveniently) run in a straight line along the Great Glen, a massive geological fault. (Having studied Geology for three years I found that part pretty cool!). We were to be portaging the canoes (half carrying, half wheeling the canoes along the ground - definitely not as fun as being on the water!) around the 29 locks, but the rest of the time would be spent paddling on the water, cooking on a fire or sleeping in our tents. Don't you just love it when life is that simple?



Day 1

We started in Corpach at 7pm on Monday 1st June. It was pouring with rain and freezing cold - the sort of weather that makes being inside by a log fire feel like heaven on Earth. Sadly though we were outside, about to start canoeing for five days, and for most of us it was our first time ever being in a canoe..

We followed the Caledonian Canal about 10km across to Gairlochy, through the pouring rain, slowly realising that 'waterproof' doesn't mean 'able to cope with Scottish rain' and getting more and more damp. However, it was actually still really enjoyable and great fun learning how to steer and use the paddles properly. We then reached our first portage - where you have to lift every boat out of the water, put them on wheels, then roll them around the long wiggly path by the lock. After breaking one set of wheels and moving every single canoe to our camping spot, we'd cracked the technique and it was plain sailing from then on!



Day 2

The next day involved crossing Loch Lochy (what an inventive name) and most of Loch Oich. The larger lochs are quite demoralising, as the other side looks really close but then doesn't seem to get any closer, even after hours of paddling. It was absolutely beautiful though, so it completely made up for the slow pace.

We set up camp at Leiterfearn, near the end of Loch Oich. We made friends with Marselle, a guy from Holland who'd just quit his job and was walking around Scotland by himself for seven weeks. He was camping nearby and wandered over to say hello after we'd set up our tents, bringing tidings of an axe and some dry firewood for us to use. He was walking the Great Glen route, so we saw him again the next day whilst portaging the canoes, in a very good mood considering the amount of Scotch Whiskey he'd drunk the night before!



Day 3

Day three was probably the hardest day, with three portages and tiredness beginning to set in. At the end of the last, 650m, portage through Fort Augustus (marking the halfway point of the challenge) we found a plaque that read 'Loch Ness, Fort Augustus' and took a cute team photo to document our achievement.

The team at Fort Augustus, about to set off across Loch Ness

We had winds up to gale force 6 on Loch Ness, which left us almost surfing on some of the waves - pretty helpful for pushing us along, but also quite tough to steer the boat on. We camped high up in a field on the northern shore of the loch, feeling happy in the glorious sunshine and stringing up our damp clothes to dry.

By now we'd all spent too long on top of the water and fancied getting into it, so we went for a dip! It was absolutely freezing and not pleasant at all.. but I'm happy to be able to say I've now been swimming with Nessie!



Day 4

We cooked dinner each night on an open fire, and had porridge every morning, but having to use damp firewood was making it quite tricky. We stopped for an early dinner at the end of Loch Ness, where we found a load of dry driftwood and made a brilliant final fire!

It was then a short, chilled, paddle along Loch Dochfour to our next camping stop at Dochgarroch. A few of us were feeling weird having tired arms but not tired legs, so we set off on a run (which then turned into a walk, when we realised how tired we were..) to make ourselves feel better and get a different view to what we'd been seeing at loch level.

Happy paddlers on Loch Ness

Day 5

The final stretch of the challenge was a fairly chilled paddle along the Caledonian Canal, with no portages and great weather. We played around tying the canoes together, which worked surprisingly well, and enjoyed the final couple of hours of relaxation. I haven't felt so calm, relaxed, happy and free for such a long time - I now love canoeing!

We finished at 11am on the 5th of June, feeling very pleased and proud of ourselves, and very ready for sleeping through the six hour journey back home to Durham.

Nearing the finish, experimenting with two boats lashed together

The challenge was also awesome fitness training for my upcoming expedition to India, so I'm feeling even more prepared now. I've also managed to raise a very respectable £205 so far for TWSMRT, with money still coming in! If you'd like to donate money to this amazing charity by sponsoring me for this challenge, please click here. Our pancake afternoon was a great success, but we'd like to raise even more if we can, and every single pound helps. Please help us to raise as much money as possible for this great charity!

P.S. check out my new map at the bottom of the page, showing where I've been in the world!