Highfields Park

Today I'm going to write a quick post about Highfields Park in Nottingham. This is a park next to the university campus, which has a big lake surrounded by trees. It's a great place to walk around, and I used to go there a lot when I was studying in Nottingham, as it always made me feel relaxed. It never occurred to me to blog about it back then, but now that I'm getting more into this blogging thing, I think it's a place that's definitely worth writing a little bit about!

There's more to do there than just walking. It's possible to canoe and kayak on the lake, and there's also a crazy golf course! If you're interested in art, the Lakeside Art Centre has regular exhibitions as well as a very nice café. Across the road, you can find another art gallery which also has a café that doesn't get so busy.

At the weekends, the park can get very crowded, especially in the summer. So I always preferred to go during the week or when the weather was bad, because that was when it was most peaceful.

Here are some of my pictures from my walks around the lake...

As you can see, it's a beautiful place with lots of amazing wildlife!

I'll be blogging again very soon, as I've got a trip planned for this week. I'll be going abroad... well, sort of! Actually, I'll be spending a day in Cardiff, Wales. It so happens that I'm going to be pretty much confined to my village for the next month, so this trip is a chance to escape for a little bit. My plan is to visit the castle and as many other attractions as I can pack in. It's been a while since I last travelled anywhere, so I'm quite excited!

Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Places to Visit in Santiago

I lived in Santiago de Chile for several months in 2018 and have been back a couple of times since to see my boyfriend, so it's a city I know pretty well. And the great news is I'll be moving back there when I start my new job in March!

It's a brilliant city that I would definitely recommend visiting, whether you like hiking, going to museums, or seeing cultural sites. There are too many great places to visit to list them all, but I will write a bit about my ten personal favourites, in no particular order!

Parque Metropolitano

Parque Metropolitano is the biggest park in Santiago and is best known for Cerro San Cristóbal, a large hill with a statue of the Virgin Mary. It's possible to get to the top by funicular railway, cable car or by hiking. However, there are many other places to see in the park. I really like the Japanese garden and Piscina Antilén, a huge swimming pool with views over the city.

Read more here, here and here!

Cerro Santa Lucía

One of the other most famous places in Santiago is Cerro Santa Lucía. This hill is the remnant of a volcano, and is now a park with lots of monuments and two forts at the top. It's a really beautiful place, and the views from the top are amazing.

Read more here!

Plaza de Armas

La Plaza de Armas is the historic centre of Santiago, where you can find lots of old buildings, including the main cathedral of the city. A short distance away, you can find plenty of shops, as well as el Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, a really interesting museum about the native culture of Chile.

La Plaza de Armas feels like the heart of the city, and is always filled with activity. I remember going there not long after I arrived in Chile for the first time and seeing a group of people doing amazing salsa dancing on the bandstand in the middle of the square. Moments like those are one of the things I love about being in Latin America, because they just don't really happen in the UK or other European countries, in my experience!

Read more here!

The Costanera

Standing at 300 metres tall, the Costanera, also known as Gran Torre Santiago, is the tallest tower in Latin America and the second tallest in the southern hemisphere. It's possible to take a lift up to the very top of the tower and look out over the whole city - an experience I would definitely recommend. At the bottom of the tower, there's a huge shopping mall with a big food court and a cinema, so it's a great place for a day out!

Read more here!

Plaza de la Aviación

My boyfriend took me to la Plaza de la Aviación when I returned to Chile over the New Year last year. This square was designed as a monument to Chilean aviation and features a large display of dancing fountains. At night, the fountains are especially beautiful, as they are lit up in different colours.

Read more here!

Templo Bahá'í

The Bahá'í temple in Santiago is one of only two temples of the Bahá'í faith in the whole of South America. It is situated at the top of a large hill and is a beautiful place with views over the city. We went there on a wintry evening in July 2018, and the atmosphere was really spiritual and tranquil.

Read more here!

Parque O'Higgins

Parque O'Higgins is the second largest park in Santiago. It contains many attractions, including the Movistar Arena. Places I've visited within the park include the theme park Fantasilandia, the Olympic-length swimming pool, and the artificial lake pictured above. One really nice activity to do there is to take a little boat out on the lake, where you can see several different types of birds.

In fact there are lots of beautiful parks throughout the city. Two of the others I like are Parque Araucano, which is known as the Chilean version of New York's Central Park, and Parque Bicentenario, where you can see flamingos and swans.

Read more here!

Pueblito Los Domínicos

Pueblito Los Domínicos is a charming little market which I visited for the first time on my latest trip to Chile. You can buy traditional Chilean artisan goods there, and it's also a really nice place just to stroll around. I liked the fact that there were lots of cats hanging about there!

Read more here!

Cerro Manquehue

At 1638 metres above sea level, Cerro Manquehue is the highest peak in Santiago. When I was studying at the UDD, a group of us from the university climbed this mountain. It was certainly an experience I'll never forget, for many reasons! Although the hike was a challenge, I felt really proud and happy when we finally completed it. And the views from the top were absolutely incredible.

Read more here!

Parque Quinta Normal

Parque Quinta Normal is another place that I visited for the first time on my most recent trip to Chile. As you can see in the picture, there's a lake you can ride around on a boat. But this park is best known for its museums. My boyfriend and I visited the train museum and the science and technology museum. The science and technology museum in particular was really entertaining, with lots of fun, interactive exhibits.

Read more here!

To sum up, Santiago is a great city with many things to see and do. In addition, there are also other touristic highlights nearby. Cajón del Maipo is a short distance to the east, and Valparaíso is a short distance to the west. Both are amazing places to visit, and because Santiago is in the centre of the country, it also makes a good base for exploring the whole of Chile. I'm really looking forward to living there again and travelling to new places!

Check out the rest of my Travel Tips here! 

The Cotswold Water Park

In this post, I'm going to write about The Cotswold Water Park, a place very close to where I live. Of course I have all these dreams of travelling the world, which I recently wrote about here. But I also love taking trips to destinations that are closer to home, in order to escape from the routines of daily life for a little bit.

The Cotswolds area is famous for its quaint little villages and towns, whereas the Water Park is a lesser-known part of the area. The name makes it sound like an amusement park with lots of swimming pools and flumes, but it is actually a system of lakes which extend across several villages. However, there are lots of places there to watch nature, go walking and practice all kinds of watersports. There are also plenty of cafés and restaurants. 

I'll tell you a bit about a few of my favourite places!

I really like visiting the Hoburne Cotswold holiday park. You can stay in a lakeside lodge or a trailer there, but its facilities are also open to the general public most of the year. A day pass costs £10 and gives you access to the gym, swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna and steam room, so it's great if you like sports. Last time I went, I visited the café after my workout and was pleased to see that there were plenty of vegan and allergy-friendly options there. The complex also has a restaurant, a children's play area, tennis courts and crazy golf!

When I was last at Hoburne Cotswold, I went for a walk around the lakeside area, which is something I hadn't done before, despite the fact that I've been going there for about twenty years! It's a really beautiful setting. The scenery of the lake and the lodges seems more like Canada and the United States than England, so for me, it's kind of feels like being abroad while being 10 minutes from home!

A café in the area that I like going to with my family is Jennie's Kitchen. The food and coffee there is really good and it has a pretty garden with lots of flowers. However, what I like best is the fact that there is a field of alpacas right next to the café! They bring a little touch of South America to the local area, which is nice for me, as I often miss being in Chile.

Another place I would recommend is the Cotswold Country Park, a park with two lakes where you can swim or do watersports. It even has a beach! There are also plenty of children's play areas and a high ropes course. In the summer, it's always really busy. However, in the winter, it's very quiet and is free to enter.

Last week, I went there with my dad and took some photos. I really liked all the wooden sculptures of animals around the park. We also saw interesting things like wicker parasols and a beach shack restaurant, which seemed like they belonged more in a hot country rather than England in the middle of winter!

A really nice place for a walk and for seeing wildlife like ducks and swans is Neigh Bridge lake. I have been going there with my family for many years.

The final place I will mention is South Cerney Outdoor, a great place for watersports. After the Rio Olympics in 2016, there was a programme throughout the UK where people could try new sports for free. I had the opportunity to try windsurfing at South Cerney Outdoor, which I loved. I would really like to do it again sometime in the future!

In conclusion, the Cotswold Water Park is definitely worth a visit, especially if you like nature. What I like about the area is that some of the places there are reminiscent of other parts of the world, so going there is kind of like going travelling, but close to home!

Edited on 12/01/2020 to add some alpaca photos taken on 10/01/2020!

Happy New Year and a Happy New Decade!

So it's the end of another year and another decade too! I was 14 at the end of 2009, and things have changed a lot in my life since then. The last two and a half years in particular have been very eventful. I'll be 34 by the end of the next decade, so it's likely there will have been even more big changes in my life by that point. I wonder if I'll still be writing on this blog!

2019 has been quite a challenging year for me, but there have been many positive moments too. Although finishing university was not the happy and celebratory time it should have been, at least I now have a degree. And since then, I've qualified as a TEFL teacher and started my online teaching job. So it's been a good year in terms of my personal development. I didn't expect to still be living at home six months after graduation, but hopefully that will change soon.

Of course my travels have been some of the happiest parts of my year. I started 2019 in Santiago de Chile, celebrating New Year with my boyfriend and his family. Then we travelled to the beautiful Atacama desert before I went back to university. Since graduation, I've had two other amazing trips abroad. I spent a very memorable week volunteering in Poland with Angloville this August, and last month I went on an fairly spontaneous trip to Chile, Spain and Portugal. Poland and Portugal were new countries for me and I really enjoyed discovering both of them. This year, I also had the chance to explore some new places in England and Wales, which is something I hadn't done for a long time. It's been a year since I started documenting my travels on this blog and I feel like writing here has encouraged me to find new places to visit, particularly in my own country.

My New Year's Eve this year hasn't been quite as exciting as last year, but I did have a small travel adventure this morning, as my dad and I revisited a place in my local area that I hadn't been to for twelve years. I'll be writing a blog post about it and other nearby places very soon.

I haven't got any travel plans right now. Of course, I am still looking for a teaching job in Chile, but there isn't much work available at the moment, probably because of the current situation out there. So what 2020 will bring is a bit unclear to me right now!

All that's left to say is Happy New Year to everyone reading, and happy travels!

Image by Designecologist from pexels.com

My Dream Travel Destinations

I haven't blogged for a while as I've been busy celebrating Christmas and starting my new job! I am now working as an online English teacher, and so far I've found it to be a really fun and interesting job. Hopefully it won't be long before I also have a job in a school in Chile!

Now that I have a bit more time to blog, I'm going to write about some of my dream travel destinations. To be honest, I would like to go everywhere in the world, but in the interests of conciseness, I will try to pick just one dream destination in each continent!

Europe

I've mentioned before that I have a goal to visit every country in Europe, and at the time of writing, I'm about halfway there. Although I've visited the majority of western, southern and central Europe, the Nordic countries are an area I'm yet to go to. If I had to choose just one to visit, I think I would go for Norway, as the nature there looks incredible.

Image of Flakstad, Norway by stein egil liland from pexels.com

South America

Hopefully, I'll be living in South America again very soon and I'll have the opportunity to see more of the continent. So far, I have seen quite a lot of Chile and a bit of Argentina. Next time, I would particularly like to visit Rio de Janeiro in Brazil as it looks like a beautiful city with amazing beaches. I would also like to go to Peru and other countries if I have the chance.

Image of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by Matheus Bertelli from pexels.com

North America

I have been to North America once before, having visited Toronto, Montréal and the Niagara Falls with my family in 2010. In the future, I would like to visit some of the Central American and Caribbean countries. I would particularly like to go to Costa Rica to visit its beautiful beaches and national parks. I was thinking of going there on my Year Abroad to volunteer for a charity that helps turtles, and that's definitely still on my travel list! Other places I want to visit are Havana, Cuba and Yucatán, Mexico.

Image of Costa Rica by Jose Acevedo from pexels.com

Africa

Now I'm moving on to the continents I haven't visited yet! Morocco is only a few hours on a plane away from the UK and is one of the countries in Africa on my travel list. I would like to see the mountain and desert landscapes there, as well as beautiful cities like Marrakesh and Casablanca.

Image of Casablanca, Morocco by Gabriel Garcia from pexels.com

Asia

Asia is such a huge continent with many places I'd love to visit. In particular, I would really like to go to Turkey to see Istanbul, which looks like an amazing city to explore, and the region of Cappadocia with its strange rock formations. And the fact that it's a country with lots of great beaches is another reason why I want to go! I would also really like to visit some of the southeast Asian countries in the future.

Image of Turkey by Taryn Elliott from pexels.com

Oceania

I have always dreamed of visiting Australia and going to cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, swimming and surfing at the beaches, and seeing the Great Barrier Reef. A couple of years ago, I was thinking of moving there after university, but things worked out differently than I expected! I would also really like to visit New Zealand to see some of the places of natural beauty there.

Image of Sydney, Australia by Brett Stone from pexels.com

Of course Antarctica is also a continent, but it's a bit tricky and expensive to visit. However, if someone offered me the opportunity to go there, I would jump at the chance!

So that's my list of just a few of my dream travel destinations. Hopefully I'll be able to visit at least one in the near future!

Check out my 2023 update of this post right here!