Search This Blog

Sunday, 31 October 2021

London: Part Five

So this week I got my work contract signed at the Chilean consulate in London, meaning that it shouldn't be too long before I can start my job in Chile! I'm really happy that things are finally coming together after so many months of waiting!

Because my appointment at the consulate was in the morning, it was more convenient (and less stressful!) for me to travel up to London the afternoon before. This meant that I had the chance to do a bit of sightseeing around the city, which I was glad about, because it seems a shame to go to London and not explore at all. I've got a list of places I want to visit there that I haven't been to before, and I'm going to try to get through as much of it as possible before I go off to Chile.

One of the places on my list was Little Venice, and as my hotel wasn't too far away, it seemed like a good choice on this particular occasion. I guess I was interested in this place because of the name - I wanted to see if it was really like Venice! There are quite a lot of places in this world that have been compared to the famous Italian city, and I've blogged about a few of them before: Sète (the Venice of the Languedoc), Bruges and Stockholm (both known as the Venice of the North), and Bourton-on-the-Water (the Venice of the Cotswolds). I've found that none of the places (except for Sète, maybe) are all that much like Venice, apart from the fact that they're built over water. But I've found all of them to be very beautiful places, and in some ways nicer than Venice itself, as they're less crowded.

Little Venice followed the same pattern: there was nothing particularly Venetian about it except for its canals, but it was very picturesque. I really enjoyed walking around the area and enjoying the autumnal scenery.














I was particularly happy to see that there was a boat with the same name as my cat, Pickle! She died in 2016, so it was nice to be reminded of her.



The following morning I got the tube towards St James's Park (where the consulate is), but as I was running early, I got off at Victoria to see another sight on my way to my appointment. 

Westminster Cathedral is the main Roman Catholic church in this country, and its architecture is said to have been inspired by Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. There's definitely something very Middle Eastern about it, and it's really impressive to see in real life. I only had time for a quick look, but I'd like to come back in the future to explore it in more detail.



Once I'd signed the contract, I still had some time to spare before I needed to go back to Paddington Station, so I picked up a matcha latte from Pret and enjoyed a little walk through Westminster, past some of the capital's most iconic sights. Unfortunately, Big Ben is still not looking at his best, and he doesn't seem to have changed since my first London blogpost, which was in February 2020!





Despite some issues with trains being cancelled, I was able to get back home in time to teach my afternoon lessons. Then I needed to unpack and then pack again in order to get a train to Oxfordshire the next morning, where I'm currently on catsitting duty! And then the day after that (yesterday), I went on a trip to Windsor involving five train journeys, so it's fair to say I've had my fill of trains this week! 

Yesterday's trip was kind of disappointing, as I wasn't able to explore Windsor Castle as much as I'd hoped to. But I made the best of my time in the town, and I'll be blogging about it very soon.

Read about London: Part One here!

Read about London: Part Two here!

Read about me and Claudio's trip to London here!

Read about London: Part Four here!

Read about London: Part Six here!

Read about London: Part Seven here!

Read about London: Part Eight here!

Saturday, 23 October 2021

Travel Tips: My Top Five Colourful Cities

It's been a couple of months since my last Travel Tips article, so I decided it would be a good idea to write one this weekend, especially as I don't have any recent trips to write about (though that will change soon!)

This week's article is about my favourite colourful cities. I think every traveller enjoys visiting colourful cities, as they're very photogenic and they put you in a cheerful mood! So here are my five favourites, plus some honourable mentions!


Valparaíso, Chile



















Valparaíso is one of my favourite cities in the world, and it's definitely extremely colourful. Not only are its buildings painted in many different colours, but its streets and staircases are filled with vibrant street art. For this reason, the Bohemian city is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Chile.

Read more here!


Coquimbo, Chile



















Another colourful city in Chile is Coquimbo, which is located on the coast in the north of the country. It's quite similar to Valparaíso in some ways, as it is built on a series of hills next to the sea, and it has houses of many different colours. But one thing it has that Valpo doesn't is a beautiful sandy beach!

Read more here!


Buenos Aires, Argentina



















Moving over to the other side of South America, you can find the amazing city of Buenos Aires in Argentina. The entire city is full of interesting sights to see, but one of the best parts is La Boca neighbourhood. This is where you can see buildings of all different colours (often with sculptures of famous Argentinians on the balconies!), as well as many pairs of tango dancers dancing in the streets.

Read more here!


Lisbon, Portugal



















The capital of Portugal is one of Europe's most colourful cities, and I really enjoyed my short trip there in 2019. It reminded me quite a lot of Valpo actually, as it's also built on steep hills, and its public transport system includes tramways and funicular railways. And of course, it has many panoramic views of buildings of different hues.

Read more here!


Bristol, England, UK



















The last city on my list is a lot closer to home than the others - in fact it's less than an hour from my house! Bristol is one of the most unique and artistic cities in the UK, and it's also very colourful. The harbourside area in particular is a really photogenic place, with its rows of houses in all the colours of the rainbow.

Read more here!


Honourable Mentions





































































































Florence, Italy




































I've really enjoyed visiting all of these colourful towns and cities, and I hope I'll have the opportunity to visit many more in the future. My list includes Menton in France, Copenhagen in Denmark, Genoa in Italy, San Cristóbal de La Laguna in Spain, Cape Town in South Africa, Havana in Cuba, Old San Juan in Puerto Rico, and Cartagena in Colombia

Next week I'm actually going to be going on a trip for the first time in nearly two months, as I'll finally be going to London to sign my work contract for my job in Chile! I plan to do a little bit of sightseeing while I'm there, and then at the weekend I'll be going on another trip that I'd planned earlier. So I'll have some exciting things to blog about very soon!


Check out the rest of my Travel Tips here!

Saturday, 16 October 2021

Country Guide: Italy

Name: Italy (in Italian: Italia)

Continent: Europe

Capital (and Largest) City: Rome (in Italian: Roma)

Language: Italian

Currency: Euro

Drives on the: Right

Time Zone: Central European Time

Adaptor Types: Type C, Type F and Type L

Description: Italy is a country in the south of Europe, bordering the Alps and the Mediterranean sea. It is well-known across the world for its delicious food, such as pizza and pasta, and also for its history as the birthplace of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance movement. Many tourists visit every year to discover the Italian cuisine, art and culture.

Why You Should Visit: Italy probably has more beautiful cities than any other country in the world, the most famous ones being Rome, Venice, Florence and Milan. However, some of the smaller, lesser-known cities are also amazing places to visit (I particularly loved Udine). The country also has various picturesque landscapes to see, including the Alps in the north, many great beaches all around the coastline, and the green countryside of Tuscany in the centre.

Fun Fact: Italy only became a unified nation in 1861. For this reason, all of the regions still have their own distinct identities.


My Blogposts About Italy

My Year Abroad Blog 2017-2018

- Udine

- Florence

- Back to Italy Again (Venice)


Charlotte's Travel Adventures

- Travel Tips: Destinations off the Tourist Trail (Udine)

- UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Florence, Venice and Syracuse)

- Travel Tips: My Top Ten Historical Destinations (Florence)

- A Weekend in Sicily (Pozzallo and Syracuse)

Travel Tips: The Best Hotels I've Ever Stayed in (Syracuse)

Charlotte's Travel Adventures is 5 Years Old! (Syracuse)

- Rome: Day One

- The Vatican City (Rome)

- Rome: Day Two

- Santa Severa (Santa Severa and Rome)

- Rome: Day Three

- Rome: Day Four





















Clockwise starting from top left: Ponte Vecchio in Florence, The Grand Canal in Venice, Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice, Piazza della Libertà in Udine, Giardino di Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence

Check out the rest of my Country Guides here!

Sunday, 3 October 2021

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

This week I've decided to do something a little different and write about my experiences of teaching English as a foreign language. Although this isn't exactly a post about travel, I still feel that it's relevant to this blog, as this is one of the best careers you can choose if you're looking for a job with plenty of travel opportunities!

In this post I will talk about my own experiences of working in this sector, teaching training, online teaching, and my go-to lesson resources. Hopefully, it will serve as a useful guide to any readers who are thinking of getting into English teaching.


How I Got Started

It had always been my intention to have a job that involved travelling and languages, hence why I studied Spanish, French and German at university. However, my initial plan was actually to become an interpreter or translator, rather than a teacher. But during my time at university, I realised that being an interpreter probably wasn't the right job for me, and although I searched for jobs in translation after I graduated, I wasn't able to find any online work in this area - the only jobs on offer were in-person jobs based in the UK, which weren't, and still aren't, compatible with my particular set of life circumstances.

So I started to consider if perhaps teaching would be a good path for me to go down. I had some previous experience in the sector, having volunteered at a primary school during my Gap Year, and having worked as a teaching assistant for the British Council in two secondary schools in Austria during my Year Abroad. Although I had enjoyed both of these experiences, I still wasn't 100 percent convinced that teaching was for me, given that I am naturally quite an introverted person.

But one day shortly after I'd finished university, I was doing my usual fruitless job search, when an advert came up that intrigued me. It was offering free hotel accommodation in amazing destinations around Europe, in exchange for helping people learn English as part of an immersion programme. I thought that sounded like a pretty good deal, so I decided to go for it, though I was slightly worried it could be a scam. Luckily, it wasn't! The company is called Angloville, and though not everything about the experience was quite what I expected, I had an absolutely brilliant time completing a programme in Poland. It was hard work that involved lots and lots of conversation, but it made me realise that teaching English as a foreign language was an area I wanted to work in. So I got back home with the sense of finally having a bit more direction in life, and decided to sign up for a TEFL course...


Teacher Training

You don't have to complete a course in order to teach English as a foreign language, but it's definitely recommended, as it gives you a grounding in lesson planning, teaching the different skills involved in language learning, and teaching in general.

Some people choose to go abroad to study a TEFL course, and this was an option that interested me. However, it was simply too expensive, so I decided to do an online course instead. I chose to get my qualification through the TEFL Academy, and I'm really glad I did; as well as being reasonably priced, its course is officially recognised by both the UK and the US governments, so it stands you in good stead when looking for work later.

After you've qualified as a TEFL teacher, you can obtain some further qualifications in areas such as business English or exam preparation, if you're interested. Earlier this year I completed the IELTS Teacher Training Program, which IELTS Australia offers for free to any English teacher from any part of the world! I'd really recommend earning this certification, as many many students are interested in taking the IELTS test, so you'll get more business once you know how to prepare students for it. And it also looks good to have an additional qualification on your CV.


Where Teachers Work

The traditional path of most TEFL teachers is to spend a year or two working in a particular country and taking advantage of the travel opportunities there, before moving on to the next destination. However, we are now living in less traditional times when it comes to teaching!

The pandemic has caused a large amount of teaching to move from the classroom to the internet, which has led to a boom in the online English teaching market. Since I qualified back in late 2019, I've only ever taught online classes, working on a self-employed basis through two companies: Cambly and Verbling. The two platforms are actually pretty different, so I'm going to write a little bit about my experiences working with both of them.


Cambly

Cambly was recommended to me by one of the coordinators at Angloville, and therefore it was my first port of call when I started looking for an online teaching job. Now I've been working on the platform for nearly two years! Here are my thoughts:

- Cambly is a great place to start if you're a new teacher who's looking to gain experience teaching online. One reason for this is that it's a simpler, less formal platform compared to some of the others, and its main focus is conversation, rather than more structured teaching.

- Another advantage of Cambly is that it gives tutors three different ways of working. Students can book reservations with you, you can "go visible" and wait for students to call you, and you can sign up for "priority hours", where you must answer every call you receive during the hour for a guaranteed 15 minutes of pay.

- The priority hour system is very useful for new tutors, as it allows you to start working and earning money straight away, and it can also help you build up a base of regular students.

- However, I am personally not a fan of the priority hours and have not signed up for one in over a year. This is because I prefer to know in advance exactly when my lessons will take place, how long they will be, and which student I'll be teaching, so that I can feel prepared. During priority hours, you have no way of knowing whether the next class will be five minutes long or an hour long, which I find a bit stressful. You also have no way of knowing whether the next student will be someone who's actually serious about learning English, as not all students on Cambly are. The worst thing that happened to me was being sworn at by two teenagers, but I know that many tutors have had much much worse experiences.

- One of the most common complaints about Cambly is its rating system. It's not very transparent, and sometimes doesn't seem to make sense. My rating took a bit of a hit during my early months of working priority hours, and never really recovered, despite the fact that for several months I only worked with regular students, who I knew were giving me five stars after each lesson. A lower rating means new students are less likely to book classes with you, and you're also less likely to be offered priority hours, so it can seriously affect your earning potential.

- Speaking of earnings, the pay rate on Cambly is pretty low ($10.20 USD per teaching hour) and cannot be changed. You are also not paid for cancelled classes (even very late cancellations) and you only receive $1.10 for a no-show. For this reason, most tutors find that they need to work on at least one other website in addition to Cambly.

- Nowadays I just do a couple of lessons on Cambly each week, so it's more of a side gig than an actual job for me.


Verbling

I applied to work on Verbling in March 2020, after the pandemic started to affect the amount of work I was getting on Cambly. Now it's my main source of income, and I have quite a full schedule most days! Here are my thoughts on this platform:

- Getting started is perhaps the hardest thing. There is no priority hour system on Verbling, so the only way you can get work is if a student books a 60-minute reservation with you (though you can also choose to offer 30-minute trial lessons). I had to wait for two or three weeks until I got my first student, but the good news is that once you've worked with a couple of students, you start to get more and more reservations.

- The pay on Verbling is a definite advantage, as teachers have the ability to set their own rates. So I earn a little more for my work there than I do on Cambly. In addition, I get paid in full for no-shows and receive 50 percent pay for late cancellations.

- I feel that on Verbling more is expected of me; I have to show my skills as a real teacher, rather than just a conversation tutor. The platform has a lot of different features, which I found a little intimidating at first, as it was so much more complex than Cambly, but I quickly got used to it. Now I really appreciate the fact that I can edit documents with my students, watch videos with them, and create vocabulary cards, all within Verbling's classroom space.

- I've found that students on Verbling are very keen to learn English and are willing to work hard, so most of my lessons are a pleasure to teach.


My Favourite Resources

Here are some of the online resources I use on a regular basis in my classes:

- Engoo Daily News: This website has articles aimed at different proficiency levels, which cover a wide range of interesting topics. They're great for learning vocabulary, improving reading comprehension, and most of all, for stimulating discussion.

- Perfect English Grammar: Here you can find detailed explanations of every grammar point you can think of, as well as exercises designed to check understanding.

- British Council: Learn English: The British Council's website has a huge amount of useful content, from grammar exercises through to business English lesson plans. The kids section of the website also has some great resources, including animated stories and songs.

- Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom: Occasionally, I get students who say they only want to practice conversation, but who aren't very responsive when I ask them questions. I've found that asking them to pick a topic we can talk about from this website is a good way of increasing their enthusiasm. It also means that I don't get stuck for questions to ask them!

- IELTS: It goes without saying that this is the best resource for information about the IELTS test and for sample questions.


June 2022 Update: I've had a message sent in from a reader, Amanda, who recommended this article about homophones. It's an interesting and very useful article, which illustrates the differences between English words that sound the same but have different meanings. Thank you for the recommendation, Amanda!


What I've Learned

Being an online English teacher has been a really educational and enriching experience. Since I started, I'm sure I must have spoken to students from at least 50 different countries, and I've learned a lot about their lives and cultures, and had some really interesting conversations. It's also very rewarding to hear my students' English improve over the weeks and months. In general, I enjoy my job a lot, and I think the last 18 months would have been so much more difficult had I not been working in this particular sector.

I also feel quite proud that I've managed to build up the student base and relatively full schedule that I have. I never really imagined myself being self-employed, and I definitely didn't imagine myself in a job that involved so much social interaction. But I've gained a lot of confidence since I first started teaching, and I've also developed skills in communication and organisation that will come in useful in whatever job(s) I have in the future.


My Future in Teaching

Within the next couple of months (if everything goes to plan), I'll finally be starting my first in-person TEFL job in Santiago de Chile, which is very exciting! I do feel a little nervous about working for a company and about working with students in person; I've got very used to being a self-employed, online teacher. But on the other hand, I feel much less nervous about it than I did last year, because I've now got more than 1000 lessons under my belt, and I know that that experience will be really useful for me. I'm looking forward to documenting my South American travel and teaching experiences very soon!

While I don't know if I will work as an English teacher forever (I'd like to try new work challenges after my year in Chile, whether that's in the education sector or somewhere else), I'm really glad that I decided to become a teacher, because it's been a great experience so far, and it's something I'll always be able to come back to in the future. And whether I'm working in a school in a foreign country or working remotely from my laptop, I know it'll give me plenty of opportunities to travel the world!


Where Teaching English Has Taken Me (and Will Take Me) so Far...





















Places where I've taught (or will teach) in clockwise order starting from top left: Modrzewiowe Wzgórze hotel in Poland; my home county of Wiltshire (pic is of Castle Combe); Oxfordshire (pic is of the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford); Feldkirchen in Kärnten in Austria; Santiago de Chile (pic is of Parque Metropolitano and the Costanera Centre).

Sunday, 26 September 2021

Country Guide: France

Name: France

Continent: Europe

Capital (and Largest) City: Paris

Language: French

Currency: Euro

Drives on the: Right

Time Zone: Central European Time

Adaptor Types: Type C and Type E

Description: France is a country in Western Europe that is famous around the world for its cuisine, art and culture. It also has a great variety of landscapes, including scenic countryside in areas like the Loire Valley, mountains such as the Alps in the east of the country, and Mediterranean beaches in the south. 

Why You Should Visit: Paris is one of the most amazing cities in the world, and I believe every traveller should try to visit at least once in their lifetime. I also really love the south of France, especially the Occitanie region, which has beautiful beaches and great towns and cities like Montpellier and Nîmes. And the final thing I would recommend are the many picturesque châteaux that can be found all over the country.

Fun Fact: France is the most popular tourist destination in the entire world.


My Blogposts About France

My Year Abroad Blog 2017-2018

- Year Abroad - France Update (Occitanie region)

- Language Course in Montpellier (Montpellier, Mauguio, Nîmes, Pézenas, Cap d'Agde, Béziers, Avignon, Sète and Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert)

- The First Week and a Half in France (Paris and Versailles)

- Rouen

- Étretat

- Le Havre

- Dieppe

- Veules-les-Roses

- The Final Part of the Adventure (Rennes)


Charlotte's Travel Adventures

- Travel Tips: Destinations Off the Tourist Trail (Sète and Le Havre)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Places to Visit in France (Montpellier, Nîmes, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Sète, Cap d'Agde, Avignon, Nice, Le Havre, Dieppe and Paris)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Cities (Montpellier and Paris)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Castles and Palaces (Château de Dieppe)

- My Gap Year 2014-2015 (Plus Gap Year Tips) (Cannes and Nice)

- Year Abroad: Dealing With Problems

- Year Abroad: The Best Bits

- Planning a Year Abroad

- UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Canal du Midi, Avignon, Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France, Paris, Versailles, Le Havre, Nîmes)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Beaches (Cannes and Cap d'Agde)

- Travel Tips: My Top Ten Fairytale Destinations (Château de Dieppe)

- Travel Tips: My Top Ten Historical Destinations (Nîmes)

- Movie Travels (Paris)

A Very Special Trip to Paris

Château de Vincennes

Travel Tips: The Best Destinations to Live in - Part One (Montpellier and Rouen)

Travel Tips: The Best Destinations to Live in - Part Two (Paris)





















Clockwise starting from top left: Cap d'Agde, Arc de Triomphe in Montpellier, Sacré-Cœur in Paris, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Sète, Étretat, Eiffel Tower in Paris, Veules-les-Roses

Check out the rest of my Country Guides here!

Saturday, 18 September 2021

A Little Update...

I haven't blogged so much over the last few weeks. Usually, I try to post at least once a week, but recently I've been busy with work, and quite a lot has been going on in life in general. Because of this, I haven't left my village in two weeks, and therefore have no travels to blog about. But I do have a few pieces of news to report, so I've decided to write a quick update post today.

The first news is that I should have been in France this week. My mum and I had planned a trip out there, and I expected to be spending this weekend blogging about visiting Mediterranean cities such as Cannes, Menton, and maybe Nice and Monaco. But unfortunately, my mum got ill shortly before we were due to go, and we had no choice but to cancel the trip. She's feeling a bit better this week, so we decided to have a little excursion yesterday to the market town of Marlborough to visit an old-fashioned tearoom there. But then my dad got ill as well, so we couldn't go on that trip either.

So all in all, it would have been a very disappointing week, if it wasn't for the fact that this week I got the best news I've had in months... On Wednesday the Chilean government announced that they will be reopening their borders on the 1st October, meaning that I should be able to go there, start my job, and move in with Claudio within the next couple of months! ❤

Obviously, what with everything that's happened over the last year or so, I'm still scared that the situation will change either in Chile or the UK, and we'll be left disappointed yet again. But I've got my fingers crossed that everything will finally come together this time. 

The final news I have is that I'll be undergoing laser vision correction next month, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. Because of this (and because of all of the things I need to organise before moving abroad!), I may not be travelling or blogging so much over the coming weeks. But I should have time for a couple more local days out with my parents, and of course I'll be in London twice for joint visa business and sightseeing trips! And then from around November onwards, this blog is going to get a lot more exciting... 😄

That's all the news I have for now, but finally, as it's the National Day in Chile today, I just want to sign off by wishing feliz dieciocho to everyone celebrating!


















Image by Rahul Pandit from pexels.com

Sunday, 5 September 2021

London: Part Four

Over the last week, for the first time since qualifying as a TEFL teacher in 2019, I actually spent some time teaching my online classes somewhere outside of the four walls of my family home in Wiltshire! Although I wasn't that far away from home, it was still nice to have a change of scenery and finally experience a bit of that "digital nomad" lifestyle that teaching English as a foreign language offers (or at least did, prior to Covid).

I actually spent the week in Oxfordshire, housesitting and catsitting for my sister and her husband while they were away on holiday. It was really lovely to get to live with a cat for a little while - I love cats, and their one is especially sweet and friendly! In addition, being based in a town, rather than a small, isolated village, meant I could lead a more independent life, which is something I haven't really been able to do since graduating university, due to the pandemic. 

One thing I appreciated a lot was that the house was within walking distance of a train station, so I was able to go off on a couple of trips during my time there! The first trip I took was to Oxford last Saturday, where I spent a lot of time shopping in the Westgate Centre, before having a little walk around the city to see some of my favourite sights, like the Radcliffe Camera, the Bridge of Sighs, and the Sheldonian Theatre. On Sunday I'd planned to go to Windsor to see the castle, but strangely, there weren't any trains returning from Windsor between 9 am and 9 pm, so that's a trip that'll have to wait for another time.

My second trip was to London on Friday, and as the title of this post suggests, that's what I'll be writing about today! It was kind of hard to know what to call this post, as I've already done a London: Part One and a London: Part Two and then a few posts about my trip to London with my boyfriend in October last year. But I've decided to count last year's trip as a sort of Part Three, making this one London: Part Four!

At the start of the year, I began creating a list of outdoor places to visit in the capital, in preparation for the times when I would be up there to organise my visa for my job in Chile. Sadly, I still haven't been able to do this, and have no idea when I'll finally be able to. But it had been months since I'd last been to London, and I fancied a trip there just because I love the city, and so I decided to get the train there after my 9 am lesson, and spend some time seeing a few of the sights on my list.

After I arrived at Paddington station, I took the tube to South Kensington in order to see the Royal Albert Hall. But firstly, I ended up seeing the Victoria and Albert Museum when I exited from the underground. It's a huge and very grand building, and perhaps somewhere I will visit in the future (there's a lot of museums in London that I haven't been to yet).




A short walk later, I arrived at the Royal Albert Hall. It's a really impressive building, designed in an Italianate architectural style, and I'm very glad I finally got to see it in real life.






I crossed over the road and entered Kensington Gardens, where I saw the Albert Memorial. Although I do not agree with monarchy, and I don't believe that so-called "royal" people deserve to be treated as better than the rest of us, I must admit it's a very striking memorial to look at.





I found a very nice outdoor café called Colicci, where I had a vegan toastie and an oat milk latte while enjoying the view of the Royal Albert Hall and the memorial, before going off exploring again!

The next stop on my tour was Kensington Palace. To be honest, I'm not quite sure why it's classified as a palace, whereas places like Dyrham Park and Wollaton Hall (which are much bigger and more elaborate) are only classed as houses. However, it was still quite nice to see, especially as there were lots of ducks, geese and swans on and around the lake (called the Round Pond) in front of the palace.






Then I walked to the other side of the park to visit the Italian Garden, on the edge of the Long Water/Serpentine lake. Inspired by renaissance Italy, this was a really beautiful and tranquil place to walk around. I was lucky enough to spot a heron in one of the ponds!












Next, I got on the tube at Lancaster Gate and travelled down to Holland Park, the next stop on my tour. I entered the park and found the Sun Trap, a little space filled with palm trees and exotic plants, which reminded me a bit of the Tropical Garden in Bournemouth.



I walked through a woodland area until I found the place I'd come to see: the Kyoto Garden. Regular readers here will know that I love visiting Japanese Gardens, and this one didn't disappoint! The highlight for me was the beautiful waterfall, and also the fact that I saw a peacock and a friendly squirrel there!









I completed my little tour of global gardens by passing through the Dutch Garden (I suppose it was inevitable that there would be a Dutch garden in Holland Park!).




On my way out of the park, I also walked through the orangery (a very picturesque area where a wedding was taking place) and the rose garden.





I finished off my trip by doing some shopping I needed to do on Kensington High Street, before getting the train back to Oxfordshire.

I really enjoyed my day seeing some of the places in London that I hadn't seen before. But there's still plenty more that I want to discover. Hopefully, I'll be going back soon to sort out my visa, and will have the opportunity to do a bit more sightseeing!

Read about London: Part One here!

Read about London: Part Two here!

Read about me and Claudio's trip to London here!

Read about London: Part Five here!

Read about London: Part Six here!

Read about London: Part Seven here!

Read about London: Part Eight here!