What Kate Did... Went to Venice

After a week in Rome Tom and I took a short plane journey to Venice for two nights, this was long enough to see the main sights and any longer may have required us to take out a small loan (a glass of Coke was £25!).

We carried on in much the same way as in Rome, lazily mooching from one place to another sampling as many flavours of gelato as possible. Venice was stunning, and definitely somewhere that I would recommend you visit if you are in Italy or travelling around Europe. It's a very small place and you can get around easily on foot so I would say 3 nights is the most you need. Anymore than that and you might lose your patience with the swarms of tourists in tiny alleyways!

Everywhere you look you see something beautiful, here are a selection of my best photos. We went in September and it was overcast for the first day so the mist has spoilt my snaps a bit.





Santa Maria della Salute






Basilica San Marco

Piazza San Marco





The view from the top of Campanile, it was worth all the steps to the top!









We stayed in the cheapest hostel we could find, Geremia Rooms, in Venice, and two nights there still cost more than a week in a lovely hotel in Rome! It was boiling as they had no air conditioning but as students it was very budget friendly. The location was great as it was so close to both the train and coach stations, ideal for getting to from the airport.

Eating was really easy for a vegetarian as in Italy you can order simple pasta with pomodoro and no cheese everywhere. No need to worry about stealthy rennet getting into your dinner. Pasta does tend to be served in a small portion which is meant to be eaten before a meat course but nowhere did we have any issues ordering a larger portion as a main. Many pizzas were served without cheese making things simple for vegans.

Top tip for Venice: the public water bus costs only a few euros (about £3 in 2011) and the route takes you past so many sights and drops you off in Piazza San Marco. A much more affordable alternative to a gondola ride, and no risk of falling in!

What Kate Did... Went to Montserrat

A few days into our trip to Barcelona, my mum and I ventured out of the city to the mountains to visit the monastery up Montserrat. The cable car ride up was described in our guidebook as 'thrilling', I was petrified.


This is my favourite dress, I got it in the Monsoon sale about 6 years ago and I haven't taken it off since.















There was a market on top of the mountain.


After a great day it was time for the tense journey down!

I'd definitely recommend taking the time to visit Montserrat if you are in the area. We took the train from Barcelona to Aeri Monsterrat and then the cable car, it took just over an hour. You can find out up to date train times and prices here.

What Kate Did... Went to Barcelona

I went to Barcelona in July with my mum. These are quite late but I've been looking at so many blogs lately I felt inspired to post more often.


Monument a Colom. It's only a few Euros to go to the top and the views are spectacular.




View of the Ramblas


Mercat de La Boqueria


Mama buying fruit



The seafront is wonderful. Barcelona is a great mix of city and beach, an ideal compromise if you can't decide what kind of trip you fancy.


Market in Placa de la Sau


This amazing Baileys pudding was the highlight of our meal at one of the vegetarian restaurants we were really excited about. It was called Restaurante Sesamo, and although it was fairly priced our mains were a bit disappointing. I had a mushroom curry and my mum had a pastry. It was actually really hard to find veggie food in Barcelona, partly because most of the restaurants only sell seafood and partly because so many places literally had no options on their menus. That was quite a shock coming from the UK where everywhere has at least one vegetarian meal on offer, even if it is only a lifeless vegetable lasagne or an uninspiring baked potato.


Parc Guell. You might recognise it was it was one of the finale catwalks on America's Next Top Model. That show was my guilty pleasure when I was at school.


Parc Guell was my favourite place to visit in Barcelona. The Picasso Museum was also brilliant, but expensive and crowded which might not be everyone's cup of tea.

Overall, Barcelona is a wonderful city. The perfect location if your travel partner fancies a beach holiday and you want a city break. You will have plenty of time to see the highlights if you stay for three nights. 

What Kate Did... Went to St.Ives, Cornwall

I took this photograph out of the train window, it's one of the prettiest railway journeys I've been on! I'd recommend travelling to St Ives and Carbis Bay by train as parking is really, really limited and pretty expensive! St Ives is made up of narrow, winding streets and a slightly confusing one way system. So for a few pounds I would hop on the train or drive to Lelant Saltings and catch the park and ride.


Once we left the train we headed straight to Porthminster to devour the picnic we had brought with us. But beware! The seagulls in St Ives have a nasty reputation, they are incredibly bold and will try and steal your food. Tom almost lost his sandwich which was hilarious but also slightly terrifying (gulls are a lot bigger than you expect when they are flying towards your face!). If you fancy a pasty for lunch then Pengenna are the best in the West Country, according to my Devonian boyfriend. The cheese and onion one is mostly filled with potato but it's still pretty good, and they do a vegan Cornish pasty too.





Then we walked round to Porthmeor beach via the harbour to visit the Tate gallery there. I'm sure most readers are aware of the St Ives art movement and it was exciting to get up close to some of the sculptures. Student discount was a bonus (£3 entry to all exhibitions).









We spent the next couple of hours milling around the shops. There are so many galleries like you would expect as well as quaint boutiques and Tom had the ladies in Cath Kidston in fits musing "is there anything in this shop that isn't covered in flowers?"

The Barbara Hepworth sculpture gardens are also brilliant, and a must visit. If the weather is nice I am sure you will enjoy having a wander around, even if art isn't really your thing. You can get a combined ticket for both Barbara Hepworth and the Tate which is slightly cheaper.

Then we hopped in the train to Carbis Bay (3 minutes, and free with our return tickets) to The Bean Inn vegetarian restaurant. It is one of the best I've been to and I have not eaten meat since I was at primary school so I've had my share of sloppy vegetable lasagne and bean burgers when eating out! To start we shared a selection of homemade organic breads with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The one with sun dried tomato bits was our favourite. Then I had a Moroccan casserole with couscous which was lovely and so filling and Tom had Thai red curry which came with noodles and a bean sprout salad.

What Kate Did... Went to Prague

In August I went to the Czech Republic with 3 friends to drink pivo and take our minds off results day.

We spent the week lazing in the sunshine in parks across Prague and laughing lots.





We stayed in Arpacay Hostel, which was cheap and cheerful and came with a free breakfast each morning and transfers to the airport. There was a metro and tram station nearby. It looks like it has been renovated since we went in 2010.







Make sure you give yourself an afternoon to wander around the Old Town Square. It is beautiful and there is always something going on. Mostly of the restaurants and bars around here cater for tourists, so the staff speak English.



The weather was wonderful and we engjoyed a picnic in the Rose Gardens.





Karlův Most










Josefov is the Jewish Quarter. We bought a ticket that allowed us to visit the museum as well as the Old-New Synagogue. Visiting this part of Prague was a highlight of our trip.






Another must visit place is the castle, we took a bus to the top of the hill where it is located and then walked back down admiring the view. I recall the entry ticket being fairly expensive but we all enjoyed it.

Overall, Prague is a really cheap city. Everything was good value. It's so beautiful and there are plenty of things to see and do. We managed to avoid rowdy stag dos the whole time we were there. Eating out as a vegetarian in Prague can be tricky. We had one awkward moment where the 'vegetarian pasta dish' I ordered came up with chunks of bacon in it, and then trying to explain why this was a problem in our rubbish German as the waitress spoke no English was interesting! For the most part though you will be able to eat, although perhaps not very inspiring dishes. The best place we visited (and my 3 meat eating companions agreed) was a vegetarian restaurant in Prague called Lehka Hlava. Public transport in Prague is really cheap and fairly easy to use. You can buy tickets for the tram, buses and metro at newsagents and then 'check in' by getting them stamped in a machine when you start your journey. We got stopped by ticket inspectors who checked we had done this, so make sure you remember to avoid a fine!