Exploring Wales: The Llyn Peninsula

So it's been a while since I did one of my "Exploring England" posts... Partly because I haven't really been in England very long and when I'm here in London the weather is just not compelling me to step outside the comfort of my four walls to explore! But alas, I found a reason... My really good friend Koki needed someone to go with her to explore the Welsh coast as part of her site analysis. She does architecture you see so we usually go on these fun trips together. Remember the beautiful sunrise on Barry Island? Yeah that was with her too.

I guess it'd be incorrect to call this post Exploring England then because this time we were in Wales, the Llyn Peninsula to be precise! We set off from London on what was possibly the longest journey I've ever made within the U.K. Our exact destination? I little village near Abersoch, North Wales. The journey doesn't usually have to take such a long time but with the train tracks being completely wrecked by the rains and flooding, ours was an 8-9 hour journey! Nothing is too long with the company of a good friend to chat to and some music to keep you going and eventually we arrived at the long winding hilly roads of Abersoch.

The next morning was our exploration day and the original plan was to walk as much as the pilgrims trail from one end of the peninsula to the other. Going from Abersoch to Aberdaron. It's about 80 miles long or something crazy if I remember correctly so there was no way we were going to complete it in one day. What started off as tidy but windy roads soon evolved to muddy sticky paths but the initial 45 minute walk to the coast was well worth it!

We arrived at Hell's Mouth (Porth Neigwl), a popular destination for surfers and thought we might walk the Llyn coastal path from there. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture below but the tide was nowhere near far out enough for us to even dream of walking along the beach to far down and so we had to abort the mission, it seems the tour guide we spoke to before starting our walk didn't know as much about the tide times as we'd hoped and neither of us fancied challenging the currents of the sea!

Luckily for us, it was during the school run hours and we managed to stop a guy taking his kids to school to ask him for directions to Aberdaron. He kind of looked at us like we were a bit crazy and pointed us to "a mate of his who has a taxi". You see, I put that in quote because being a city girl I would rather walk the entire length of my journey than walk up the road to a strangers house and ask him if he's "the mate with the taxi". It just sounds like something out of a horror movie, it really does. But alas, we weren't in a city and with nothing but farms around us and no phone signal we had little choice but to venture to "the house with the taxi man".

It turned out to actually be just a guy with his taxi and he was quite happy to take us through the scenic route to Abedaron which meant we stopped loads and took tons of pictures of the views. You can actually see a really prominent part of the peninsula and the coast looked so beautiful! It really was one of those "had-to-be-there" moments because unfortunately I only had my iPhone camera with me to try and capture the beautiful landscape. I think it did an alright job though.

We eventually got to Aberdaron and were greeted by a pretty empty beach and dead town. Apart from the weather not really being decent enough for anyone but the hardcore surfers to be on the beach the whole town is also very seasonal with all their shops and coffee houses opening up much later in the year. It was nice to go when it was quiet though because it felt like we had the whole world to ourselves sometimes. We even saw the chapel that the famous poet R.S Thomas used to preach at right by the coast.

We played on the beach for sometimes, skipping across little rivers and finding all sorts of really interesting rocks before we decided that it would be best not to get carried away and attempt to finish the rest of the trail from where we were. Especially as we had just taxi'd it all the way from one end to the other, essentially cheating!

 

We climbed till we reached the highest point we could get to without feeling like we were about to drop right off the cliff and into the waters below and on the way up we found the remains of a Roman/Celtic house or something.

Welcome to my humble abode!

And right there from the top we had a perfect view of the two islands Ynys Gwylan-fawr and Ynys Gwylan-bach, that marked the end of the pilgrims trail, there used to be a monastery there where they would all congregate at the end of the walk! Please don't ask me how to pronounce those, I spent the whole trip asking different locals how to make the elusive "ll" sound as in "Pwhelli". Apparently you raise the sides of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and blow out... So much more difficult than it sounds!!

Finding the two islands was definitely exciting until we saw these stairs waiting for us to make our descent back towards the beach and the sleepy town of Aberdaron. You see, I'm not exactly scared of heights but I definitely don't like them. This was definitely one of the worst parts of the walk for me, I kept imagining myself slipping and rolling all the way down to the end. Morbid I know. Luckily that never happened.

By the end of this walk it's safe to say we had worked up a decent sized appetite and so we headed to the only open pub and got ourselves some free dinner before heading back by bus to the even more quiet village of Abersoch.

The next day we were up before the sun had a chance to rise fully and commenced our journey back through the farms and trees and all the way to the high rises of London town.

My favourite picture from the trip? Definitely this one! I love all the purple and plum in the picture and couldn't resist taking some of the stones home with me. I'm really considering putting this picture into the blog banner but we'd see what happens...

Whoosh! That was a long post, it feels good to be back to writing again! Hope you enjoyed it guys. See you soon!

Reni xx

Lagos Nightlife: Four Shots in Likwid!

So I’ve been messing around with my blog again, I now have ew category tabs on the top so you my dears can quickly navigate to wherever you want! I did this partly because, I think but I’m not sure, I’m going to expand my blog to talk about more things; namely my New Year goals, including schoolwork, weight management/loss and hair growth! There are so many things I want to achieve and I thought “Hey! Might as well blog about it!” So yeah, in the next few months there might be more changes after I decide what I would like to share with the rest of the world. Oh and I also have a cool new signature at the end of my posts! Already making myself better, hehe. Anyways, that was just an update, bear with me as I try and perfect it!

On to the matter at hand today… Have you ever gone out clubbing and on your way out of the club, just before you got into your car heard 4 warning shots being fired into the air?? Yes, warning shots, from an actual hand held gun, FOUR of them! Friday night for me was so crazy and so eventful that I really don’t know where to begin. After hearing various stories about last weekend including girls falling into gutters while trying enter Likwid (A club in Lagos), people being put in the boot of their cars and warning shots being fired I wasn’t too keen on the whole idea of Lagos night life. I mean, as a babe! How can they push me into a gutter because I want to enter club! God forbid! Some things in life are just not worth the hassle! I mean, what do you even do when you’re in the gutter? These things are pretty deep as well and far from empty, how would you get out? How would you clean yourself up after? Or would you just get into your car with all the sewage and murkiness and go home? The thought of it literally sends shivers down my spine! Especially as I’m a bit of a germophobe!

Anyways after having a less than mediocre night at Koko concert the day before, (read all about it here) I decided I had to give the Lagos nightlife another go! So once again I got up, got dressed and headed out. First stop was Churrasco’s, as a true Lagosian, you can never go to just one place on a night out. The minimum is three, with four being about average. I think this pertains to the fact that clubbing is completely free, for girls anyways, except when the bouncers are being dicks. Back to Churrasco’s, I arrived there just after 11 (no this is not late, clubs generally don’t shut till the people all leave and this is typically around 5.30/6 a.m., we go hard!) and was greeted by a multitude of familiar faces, amongst this was fellow blogger and friend Afam! This would have been fine if I wasn’t so socially awkward sometimes (not with Afam, the other people!) I just get nervous and want to run away half the time! But as a sure babe I took it in my stride, or at least tried to! At about 1.30 it was finally time to head to the club, getting there and seeing the crowd I was already pissed off, my mood can be so volatile. But why the heck were people crowding around the gates, trampling and shoving each other like it was the pearl gates to Heaven? Nigerians really need to learn the concept of LINES! Everyone is always trying to use connections to get in, sometimes it’s like n*gga shut the hell up and wait in line! Ugh. At some point during this wait the gates were opened a little bit too wide and there was a mini stampede to get in. Sadly but also luckily, I was not amongst those that entered the gate. My friends and I decided Likwid was a bust so we moved on to our next joint. Radisson Blu.

Radisson was so much bants, another friend and fellow blogger @iTweetBanter and his posse give me so much jokes! After hassling our waiter Mr Innocent to no avail to find us suya, iTweetBanter and I just decided to drink the night away, it’s either the cocktails here contain far much more alcohol or I’m just a super duper lightweight, or both. By my third one I was positively buzzed and going around in shades at night like a real industry cat! **coolface**. After getting suitably tipsy all 10 or so of us headed back to Likwid, this time we got in hassle free (kinda) and danced the night away, one of the pros of being tipsy is that you don’t care if everyone else around you is just sitting and staring, if you like the music you still dance! Sometimes lowering your inhibitions can be the best thing! At 5 in the morning when we finally decided it was time to head on home, we called the driver to pick us up. One foot in the car and all of a sudden, four warning shots are fired by some MoPo’s (Mobile Police)! I’ve never gotten into a car and ducked my head so quickly; there is arguably nothing more sobering than gun shots! The worst part is, the driver tried to drive away!! Thinking about it now it was funny but really if anything had gone wrong it would have been a disaster! All in all, the night was actually a good one, better than most other nights anyways. But Likwid, Likwid, Likwid! Sort yourselves out before you become the backdrop of a tragic news story!

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NY Foodie: The Lavish Findings of My Tongue

Some days I just feel like blogging a little more than others, today is one of such days. It is 5.06 a.m. as I write this and I am irreversibly jet-lagged. There is this awkward hour or two where almost no one is awake, all the people in my time zone are fast asleep and all the ones behind it are also on their way to dreamland. Unfortunately I do not know a single soul whose time zone is ahead of mine so now I lie here, bored. Did I forget to mention how hungry I am? Starving like Marvin really, and being the foodie that I am, I’m thinking of all the glorious meals I had while I was in New York and trust me it was glorious! If any of you are ever in New York you need to promise me, no not promise, solemnly swear, that you would visit at least one of these places! **drum roll** And now, ladies and gentlemen, in no particular order, my mouth watering, jaw dropping, taste bud sizzling dining list from New York City! **cymbals clash**

1. Ruby Foo’s

            If you love sushi even HALF as much as I do then this place is a must visit! Got the monster roll which had an unusual but delicious crunchy outer roll and also their special of the day which had salmon, tuna and some other great stuff which I don’t remember all wrapped in a delicious casing of rice and seaweed. It’s hard to describe the way the flavour of the roll burst in my mouth and completely encased my taste buds. No seriously, this sushi is by far the best I’ve ever tasted! Bar none. We also got to try Sake (pronounced sa-kee) which is basically Japanese alcohol made from fermented rice, to me it tasted like tequila and cheap sambuca, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it but it was definitely an experience.

Monster roll pictured on the left with the special of the day on the right.

Concentrating so hard on the food, every bite into this sushi was a whole new experience

2. 53^rd and 6^th

            You know how people are typically very against eating food from vendors and other street shops due to hygiene and other various qualms? Well this place is definitely worth risking food poisoning for. After hearing about these guys from not one but three reliable sources, Folakemi and I ventured out bravely into the streets to find the halal guys at 53^rd and 6^th and boy were we glad we did! For a casual $6, we got the best most filling meal we had had in days! I must admit with all the hype around them you would think they would open a small shop at the corner of the block but hey! Definitely couldn’t complain. If you’re out and about in the city and need a cheap, GOOD, filling meal definitely head over to them for their chicken over rice which they serve with pitta bread and lettuce, and you can flavour with mayo and hot sauce. DI-VINE!

Yes their line does actually get this long! It's ridiculous!

My plate of chicken over rice, if I could pick any meal to have again it would definitely be this one! And the serving sizes are ginormous!

3. Rue 57

            A bit more upscale than everything else I’ve mentioned so far, Rue 57 was a treat to us by Folakemi’s brother. Although their menu was a bit too complicated for me, the waiter was pretty good and recommended their crab meat starter which ended up being the best crab meat I’ve had, save my grandma’s cooking. I ended up with a pretty basic burger, not very adventurous at all but I must say it was yum! These three mini burgers were so adorable as well!

Mine Kobe burgers at Rue 57, no not Kobe the ball player. That would be gross.

4. Five Guys

            Heaven in a bun like their ad says, Five Guys was literally the best burger I had through my whole stay in the states. The meat doesn’t taste artificial McDonalds, and the bread is not stale. In fact I’m quite certain that the burger came in a brioche bun making the bread that much sweeter and the experience that much more indulgent!