A perfect day in Lerwick

Hello lovelies! I'm actually super excited to write this post as I'll be writing about one of my favourite destinations of all time. Try to guess...we're talking about the northernmost point of Scotland. Yes, I have gorgeous Shetland islands in my mind. To be honest I was even more looking forward to Scotland than Norway. I have this weird love for anything UK related and I even wrote a research paper about British cuisine this year. Maybe I should try out some of the recipes and share with you my poor cooking skills? Good laugh guaranteed.  :)
I don't know about you but whenever I visit new countries I have certain images in my head of how I expect the landscape and architecture to look like. Well Lerwick (the main port of Shetland islands) was exactly as I've imagined a typical Scottish city to be like. Lots of very green grassy hills with long-haired sheep and sandstone houses. We rented a car as we had to get to the south of the island for bird watching and it was also a great opportunity to have a good look around the island. It took us only 40 minutes to get to the other part of it  and on our way there we had to cross their small airport. I have never seen such a tiny airport in my entire life and keep in mind that I come from a very small country. My mum even managed to get a picture of a plane taking off right in front of us. Amazing! After a few more minutes we reached the southernmost part of the island and parked the rental car. We were supposed to look for Atlantic puffins (cute little birds with big and bright beaks, also known as ''clowns of the sea'') but in the end we sadly only saw two of them and lots of these black & white birds. Please don't ask me about their name, because I have no idea. *awkward* Nevertheless it was great with breath-taking views of the ocean foaming around the rocks and beautiful pink flowers defying the strong wind. There was a lighthouse which played an important role in Second World II and we also learnt a lot about the life of lighthouse keepers. Time passed by really quickly and soon it was  time to leave. I was really sad because we didn't have enough time to go see famous Shetland ponies but luckily we noticed them on a meadow right beside the road and my dad quickly pulled over. There was a door in the fence and it wasn't locked so we entered their paddock, me feeling a bit guilty for disturbing their leisure grazing. There were so many of them each of a different colour from dirty white to almost black. It was a picturesque sight with daises all around them, so I might just went a bit crazy with taking photos heh. I was really surprised by their height as they're very small and chubby, but really friendly. Some of them were a bit scared of us and some even let me pat them.  A perfect day or what?  hope you enjoyed reading this post and let me know if you want to read more about Scotland.
                                                                  xoxo

Breath-taking Norwegian fjord

Hello loves! Do you want to hear about our last port in Norway? Stavanger is a charming little city with a lovely port and houses, much smaller than Oslo and Kristiansand and much more "Norwegian" if you know what I mean. I was really excited as we were going on cruise taking us to a fjord, a real fjord in my words haha. The thing is that Oslo and Kristiansand are also located in a fjord, but they aren't like one of those that you see in Geography books with very steep walls, rising high in the air, so I was a little disappointed. Well, this one was just as I had imagined it! At first I was a bit down, because it was really cold & almost foggy, with really low-level clouds, so the peaks were all surrounded with them. Luckily the boat had an inside part as well, so we didn't have to stand outside in cold while sailing towards the fjord. I must admit though, that I did went outside and took some pictures, a weird enthusiast as I am. It was so beautiful, little green islands with a few weekend houses and calm blue water all around us. And the fjord! It left me breathless! So high and flat on the top with lots of stunning waterfalls. Our boat sailed really near to one of the them and the guide got a pot of waterfall water. It was so clear & everyone got a glass of it. Much better than Volvic as you can imagine.
The sun came out later on and everything seemed even prettier. We even saw goats! I think I took millions of pictures and filmed so many videos.  But believe me, it's even more gorgeous when you see it with your own eyes. If you ever get a chance too see a fjord, feel very lucky! The two hours went by so quickly and the next thing I knew we were back in the port.

After a delicious lunch on the ship we decided to look around the city. Just beside our ship was a little village of lovely white houses in cobbled streets. They were so cute and decorated with lots of flowers. I'm not sure, but I consider them typical Norwegian. One even had a Norwegian flag! There were some curious cats peering at as with very thick fur which gave them a fluffy appearance (too bad they wouldn't let me  pat them). I was a bit jealous of their protection for cold climate and was later seriously tempted to buy one of the Norwegian knitted caps in a souvenir shop. Sadly they were all too big...I guess my head really is of a children's size. :'') I did get a key chain with a stuffed reindeer instead, because I just couldn't resist their cuteness. Well I'll always remember this magical country when I use my keys won't I? Now I don't feel bad about it anymore. :)

I was sad to leave Norway, but I will do my best to return some time in the future. Besides, there was Scotland waiting for us.
I hope that you enjoyed reading this post. Have any of you been to Norway before?  I would love to hear about your experience!
                                                                          xoxo

Strolling in Oslo

Hello loves! If you want to read more about my vacation to North Europe keep on reading! So, where were we? Oh right, we had just boarded the beautiful Eurodam, thank you! Just like every cruise in Europe we had quite a busy schedule starting on the first day with Oslo, capital of Norway. When we got off the ship it was cloudy and quiet cold. We decided to follow a walking tour marked on the map that we had got in the port. We've seen the National Theatre surrounded with beautiful statues and garden and Aulaen Hall which really looks stunning with its Greek inspired front.

 To our pleasure sun came out soon and it warmed a bit, so it was really nice strolling around and observing shops' displays. We went up a little hill to the Royal Palace, but we haven't entered it, as we decided to see as much as possible of Oslo in the limited time we had. We figured out it would take quiet a while to see the whole palace properly. There was a huge statue of Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte on a horse in front of the palace as he was the one who had started building it. I was a bit more excited about it than I am usually for statues, because I had read Désirée. This book is amazing, it tells a lot about Napoleon's era and it also has an interesting story like a novel, so it doesn't get boring at all. If you want to know more, feel encouraged to read it. Here is a .link

There is also a big park surrounding it, really nice to sit and have a snack (which I did haha). After that we walked down the main street with shops on both sides, checking out our favourite stores. There were many bakeries and of course we had to try one of typical Norwegian pastries: Skolleboller, vanilla-custard filled, coconut-dusted buns. I tried just a little bit (because of diabetes) and it was good, just really really sweet. At the end of the street we came across Opera house and Central Station.  Opera house really stands out with its modern appearance. Because it was already around 1pm, we decided to return to the ship and have a lunch there.

I really enjoyed my time in Oslo as it wasn't very tiring and we've basically seen it all. If I ever return (I hope I do!) I will for sure visit the palace again. I hope you enjoyed reading this post and that you'll see all sights with your own eyes one day.

                                                                          xoxo

Send help!

Hey guys! I just found out that the following thing on my blog doesn't work. Thank you again Morning for letting me know. :) . At first I thought it didn't work, because I had used the code for blog design, but right now I have blogger's theme and it still doesn't work. If you want to follow me (*me happy dancing*), you can still add me to your reading list. If you have any idea at all, why is this happening, please let me know in the comments. I'm really worried, so thank you very much for reading this post, well actually more a notice and I hope I'll be able to fix it soon!
                                                                                xoxo