hollyabroad

Home of punk

Even though the previous day was nothing but naps, somehow I still slept in. Well at least a sleep in by Kylie’s standards, I think she was itching for me to get my arse out of bed and kick off our Saturday. When I finally emerged around 10 (I call a sleep in past noon), there was no way we’d get ready and tubed to Notting Hill markets before they closed at 1pm, and actually have enough time to enjoy them. Next best option, Camden Markets.

Arriving with a grumbling stomach was not a good idea. So many delicious food stalls with yummers from all corners of the earth. But there was no going past a Yorkshire Pudding Burrito. Roast beef, stuffing, potatoes, greens and gravy all wrapped in a larger than life Yorkshire pudd. Kid you not, I was making mmmm sounds as I ate. Or at least my stomach was. Soooo good, how do we not have these in Australia? Hmmm, food truck idea…

With appetites satisfied, it was time to wonder aimlessly through the lanes and buy things we didn’t need. The markets themselves are glorious, old red brick buildings, tunnels and open air stalls, so beautiful that Kyles called it – not the next best option after Notting Hill, better than.

Falling in love with a million little things, it was a lesson in restraint. I really didn’t NEED a wooden gin serving tray, a black cape jacket or a 60s style handbag. Just really really really wanted them. But I do prefer to spend my money on experiences rather than material things. And spend $$ on gin, gin makes some experiences bearable. Plus, with still over a week of my trip left, I knew if I shopped up a storm I’d be surviving on a diet of dust for the rest of the trip… but I did come across a Levi’s jean jacket with silver sequin angel wings that I couldn’t walk past… too old for sequins, maybe. Do I care? Not one bit!! Absolutely loved the markets, lots of things I just knew you’d never see in AUS, but of course, a lot of the stock standard things every second stall seems to have.

The highlight and possibly one of the most super cool stores in the entire world, Cyberdog. A raver’s dream, all things neon and glowing, everything you could ever dream of needing for a music festival or rave. Will be back before Glastonbury to stock up on flashing mouth lights, glowing eye lashes and neon fur coats.

After what felt like 50,000 steps, we took a drinks break at the funkiest bar ever. Exposed brick, neon lights, retro posters and arch windows. Would love to teleport that bar to Adelaide.

Having our fix of the markets, it was a leisurely stroll around the streets of Camden. So different to any place you’d find in Australia – well, at least the places I’ve been to. Shops selling everything from pot flavoured lollipops and chocolate to punk rock Doc Martens that’d make any Ramones fan proud. The place has a life of its own, an absolute buzz which explains the hoards of people packing the streets. Loved Camden, it’s added to the shortlist of places I could live if (or when) I move to London. Understandable why the mega superstar Amy Winehouse lived here.

With a 40th birthday to prep and pamper for, we reluctantly headed back to Brixton, having to leg it to a tube station further down the track. The Camden station was so busy they had to close it temporarily. Could you ever imagine that happening in AUS?

Back in Brixton we had the luxury of time to get ready for the 40th birthday of Dylan, a friend of Kylie’s and her house mates Kam and Sean. Wish I’d taken more pics of Kyles and I looking glam for the night, having been a super annoying tourist and taking millions of photos every minute, for some reason, only took one pic the whole night. The photo booth at the party got a good workout but with so many peeps per shot, kinda forgot to grab any evidence for myself.

The party itself was at a gorgeous bar overlooking the city. Once again, no pics. Why oh why. Fabulous night, Dylan’s partner Joe put together the sweetest video of birthday messages from his family and friends in Brissie and of course the music was amazing so we danced the night away. Loved meeting so many new people, felt like maybe, just maybe, I could start a new life here. Or get on with making the current one even more amazing.

Saturday 12th January 2019.

January 17, 2019 0

Recovery 2.0

So today I booked a tour of Oxford University, Stratford and the Cotswolds. I imagine it would have been beautiful had I made it.

The problem with setting an alarm for 6.30am when it’s around 7am already is that it bloody won’t go off until the next day. Yeah. So when I woke up at 9am and was supposed to be at Victoria Station at 7.45am for my tour, it took a minute of confusion and checking the clock 10 times to realise what had happened. Massive oops, and various other profanities.

Needless to say I was completely useless for the rest of the day! Slept, dozed through various Netflix movies and ordered Deliveroo. Normal Sunday in Adelaide.

Here are some photos of what I would have seen had I rocked up for my tour:

Friday 11th January 2019.

January 16, 2019 0

Bender

A day of semi-rest was planned, with Kyles working from home so a contractor can paint her leaky roof and then only lunch and the theatre. Easy peasey.

It was my favourite kind of morning, a little sleep in then I cranked some tunes and took my time getting ready for a lunch date with my favourite Londoner.

Our lunch date was at Canova Hall… by golly, I want to live here!! Just a short stroll (or quick bus if you’re having a lazy day like us!) then into the coolest, industrial style warehouse/cafe/office. So first up, they cater to people who need to go somewhere and just work, a quiet zone with bottomless coffee and super fast Wi-Fi. Then for the ladies who lunch (that would be us!), booths and amazeballs food. And of course a bar and a small gin distillery, as you do. Had it of been bottomless gin I would never have left.

If I had all the money in the world, I’d buy this place and turn it into a warehouse style apartment and live my best life. Ok, if I had all that money, I’d also want to end poverty and make sure no one was homeless, but anyhoo… and yes, there are pictures of the bathrooms because they are super cool, wasn’t at all awkward taking those pics…

So after one of the best lunches possibly of my life it was a hop skip and a jump over to the West End to see the show I’d heard rave reviews about, Hamilton. I managed to snag a £100 ticket to a matinee show, single seats makes that so much easier. I had wanted to get Kyles and I tickets for her bday present but evening show tickets started at £250 for the time I was here. Wish I was that good a friend that I could have afforded it!!

The show was on at the Victoria Palace Theatre, one of the most beautiful and ornate theaters I’ve ever been to. Absolutely stunning, could have sat there for hours just looking at the ceiling and beautiful stalls.

After a sneaky gin or two while waiting, it was showtime!! It only took 30 seconds to realise this was the best show I’d ever seen in my life, trumping my faves Kinky Boots and Billy Elliot.

The story is about the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s founding fathers and right-hand man to George Washington. Washington being the dude who instigated the American revolution, achieved independence from Britain and became America’s first President. Synopsis sounds yawn worthy but add hip hop and R&B singing and dancing plus a beautiful African American cast and it blows your mind. I laughed, I cried, I got goosebumps multiple times and had a little dance in my seat. Can’t even explain how brilliant the show was, everyone will just have to see for themselves! I know I left there with a massive smile on my face and the feeling that I’d just experienced absolute artistic genius. Of course Lin-Manuel Miranda, the writer and composer is this brilliant, he is a massive fan of Brooklyn Nine-Nine after all.

So once again with a big goofy smile on my face, I headed over the road to meet Kylie at The Market Hall, two floors of food truck like vendors serving mouth watering food from stalls. I guess with limited space in London, food trucks en mass wouldn’t work so squish them all together, add a bar and you’ve got a bustling market hall. Still full from lunch, we just stared longingly at people’s food, wishing we had enough space in our bellies for more. There was of course space for a few gins…

From there we took the scenic walking route to The Piano Works in Farringdon, an awesome bar with a live band that plays requests from the crowd, well, most requests. My request for Lose Yourself by Eminem went unanswered, maybe because in the tip area on the request form I wrote “Be nice to your mother!”, guess that didn’t go down too well…

It was a bloody brilliant night tho, dancing and singing and proof Kyles is now a London local, running into a couple of friends and producing the only evidence the night ever happened…

So this is where I be honest and disappoint my mother, it was a MASSIVE night. So much so that when we finally got home I set my alarm for 6.30am to get up in time for my tour, too bad it was after 6.30am when I set it…

Thursday 10th January 2019… and into Friday 11th January…

January 16, 2019 0

Sun and snow

For me, the beach is my happy place. I feel myself exhale and relax. Lucky for me, I get to live right by the beach in Adelaide. But having been land locked since Christmas, well last year if I can be so lame and claim that, I felt a longing for the ocean. So today I headed to Brighton, also the namesake of the beach next to where I live so was on my list of places I had to visit.

I feel like getting around London is super easy, thanks to my awesome City Mapper app but also because the tube and trains are always on time and easy to move between… says a foreigner only doing it for two weeks, I’m sure locals have something else to say! So a tube and a train and I’m in Brighton, about an hour and a half travel all up.

And then there it is, the ocean. The locals must have thought I was a looney because before I could help myself, I said out loud, “Hello ocean!”. I actually have a bad habit of saying hello to inanimate objects, usually things I love, hello home, hello bacon…

So after 10 minutes of staring at my beloved ocean, I meandered down the esplanade to my breakfast stop. A long train ride so I knew exactly where I was going and the chorizo and egg goodness that awaited me, the breakfast martini was a welcome surprise!! Hello breakfast…

Having purposely not planned to do much of anything except chill at the beach, I wandered up the esplanade and everywhere I looked, I fell more and more in love with Brighton. So English with the terrace houses and chimneys along the foreshore rather than the modern monstrosities they build in adelaide. And the little shops and bars tucked away under the esplanade. And when the sun peeked through, perfection.

At the gorgeous Brighton Palace Pier I found Zoltar!! Might not mean much to some but I LOVED the movie Big with Tom Hanks growing up and Zoltar has a starring role making dreams come true. While I didn’t technically make a wish, he did tell me my fortune, scarily accurate about the past and hopefully true about the future. Starting to think the big wish is coming true too, that’s probs got more to do with butter beer and pies though…

The one major thing that AUS Brighton has on my new love Brighton… sand!! The pebbles, rocks or whatever they are, surely would not be comfy to sunbake on and how the hell would you even make a sandcastle?? I also once again for the millionth time in my life wore inappropriate footwear….

With time up my sleeve, I had another chance to mess around with my SLR camera and pretend to be a photographer. Would be nice to stop pretending and actually learn when I get back! Here are my faves:

Also had time to sit back at a gorgeous bar called Lucky Beach and enjoy a gin and the sunshine, while getting lost in my own head.

An impending theatre date with Kyles meant I needed to be back in the city pretty soon so I decided to wander through The Lanes, an old shopping area on the way to the train station. As soon as I stumbled onto the first lane, I knew I should have sucked up my gin quicker and spent more time here! Cute little lanes (hence the name!) that looked straight out of Diagon Alley with eclectic shops and market stalls. Could have spent hours, managed to buy a couple of rings and a birthday present then leg it back to the train in time, and by leg it, I mean I ran, in boots and all…

So after the sun came the snow, Jon Snow that is!! The Christmas present from Kyles, tickets to see True West starring Kit Harrington. After a delish dinner at The Port House, a random pick but awesome share plates, it was time to hit the West End. Being the dork that I am, I was ridiculously overexcited and when Mr Harrington just wandered onto the stage while everyone was still taking seats, I nearly lost my shit. Weird way for a play to start, dude sitting at a desk on stage reading, that’s when I realised I knew nothing about the play… other than Jon Snow’s starring role. But before me was not Jon Snow, not that I expected him to be kitted (like that!) up like a crow but he was the exact opposite. Porn star mustache, his glorious hair cut and slicked back, and in shorts and loafers with a 70s style shirt, ahhhh… the play started and all thoughts of my favourite member of the Nights Watch were gone, out came a southern American accent and a struggling play write was before my eyes. Round of applause to Mr Harrington for completely breaking the brooding pretty boy stereotype and doing something completely opposite to GoT. Complete respect. Great theatre, enthralled from start to finish.

Being hump day for Kyles and having had a busy few days myself, neither of us were up for a big night so a quick pop by Somerset House to check out the ice skating, still sore from skiing, we literally looked then left. Sometimes you gotta know when to call it!

Wednesday 9th January 2019.

January 15, 2019 0

Nerd Alert

I’m a massive Harry Potter fan, don’t care that I’m probs too old but really, are you ever too old for magic?? Having last minute booked the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour at 4.30pm, the rest of the day was about finding fun in London while I waited…

First stop for brekky, Shoreditch. Kyles housesat here and loved it and I’d read a bit about its hipster style, more of an alternative type hood in London. After a 2 second google of the best brunch, couldn’t go past a place called The Breakfast Club and getting lost on the way was an awesome chance to check out the neighbourhood, definitely on the short list of places to live if I were to find myself moving here. Just really chill and quirky, and not full of pretentious hipsters like I half expected. And by gosh, I am a hipster because I’ve missed my smashed avo on rye. The food, the music, the staff, the He-Man wallpaper in the toilet…awesome funky place that hopefully I’ll get back to before leaving!

Next stop, THE British Museum, not just any old museum, THE British one…

I beelined for the Egyptian display, always my favourite at a museum along with dinosaurs but I guess they didn’t have any dinosaurs in Britain… so impressed, amazing sculptures, tombs and mommies (not mummies right?!?), and lots of stories with each display, would have loved to live back in those days, as a well off man or a goddess, us normal joe blows didn’t get much of a chance back then. How they were able to erect the pyramids, create these humongous sculptures, some say aliens but in reality, just bad OH&S that meant people were slaves and it didn’t matter if they lost their life for yet another larger than life sculpture of Ramses II.

After letting my imagination wonder in the times of Osiris and Ra, I found the one things that drew me to the museum, The Rosetta Stone. Had heard so much about it, like a code breaker for Egyptian hieroglyphs and being a nerd that wanted to be a computer hacker and instead settled for being a boring Java programmer – this was absolute bewilderment. If it wasn’t for the masses of crowds around it, I would have stared at it all day. Just looks like a rock in the pic but up close it is absolutely magnificent…

Nearly all museumed out, I did a quick browse through the Japanese history gallery, love the history of the samurai warrior but TBH, wasn’t overly impressed with what was in there, obvious the Egyptian section was the show stopper. With really only seeing about a quarter of the museum but unable to read or look at another thing not from this century, it was time for a strong coffee, double shot. Strolling through the streets of London, I adore the lines of houses and stumbling on this place, the University of London, hmmm, wonder where the psychology department is…

Finally ended up at Carnaby Street, a cobbled street of cool cafes, funky stores and finally, good coffee…

Before I knew it, the time had come to indulge in all things Potter and not be embarrassed even slightly that I’m a thirty something adult in an Gryffindor sweater excited as a school girl… arriving in Watford and getting on the dedicated Harry Potter bus, I loved seeing other adult nerds dressed just like me, probs without the goofy smile though.

The Warner Bros studios are beyond amazing. Every Harry Potter fan MUST visit. After entering the Great Hall decorated for Christmas then through to the different sets, costumes, props and a dream come true, flying on a broomstick!! Video to come… oh, Harry and I have the same size hands, completely useless fact…

I can’t put into words how awesome this place is and how magical it feels just being here, bloody brilliant, as Ron would say… and of course butter beer and butter beer ice cream for dinner made me even sadder that my letter from Hogwarts never arrived…

They recommend you allow three and a half hours to tour the studios, after four and a half, I called it a day. Really could have stayed there for hours more, so much to see and read about, and the self guided audio tour means you can be part of the magical world of witches and wizards for however long you like. Forever please???

Tuesday 8th January 2019.

January 15, 2019 0

Mondayitis

Ah Monday 7th January, the day people not living it up in London Town are back at work. Although there was some guilt that I was snoozing while Kyles was up and at em and back at work, there’s also a little bit of pleasure in waking up on a Monday being able to do whatever the hell you want while the rest of the world works.

Pleasure until there’s Facebook messages and text messages to FaceTime home… a moment of panic until FaceTiming home looking like a bloated zombie only to find the panic was that I hadn’t posted on Facebook for 48 hours so my parents presumed I’d been kidnapped by gypsies… I get where some of my paranoia comes from (note: do love that my parents care so much, will be eternally grateful).

A day with nothing planned, tempting to be a lazy arse again but felt the pull of so many things to see and not enough time so I made a shortlist of all the touristy things that I wanted to do that I knew Kylie would be doing with all her other visitors. The plan was to start at Westminster Abbey then onto Harrods and Hyde Park.

Best App Kyles recommended to navigate London was City Mapper. Pop in where you want to go and it gives you the bus, tube, walking and taxi options plus the where’s and when’s. So I figured out the how and where, forgot that you also need to know which direction… took a punt on the next bus and luckily was on my way. City Mapper also shows all the stops on the way so came across a stop for the Imperial War Museum… why wouldn’t ya?

Love that museums are free in London, although they do encourage a “donation”. One of the most beautiful buildings I’ve seen so far, absolutely massive.

Each level of the museum is a different war so starting at World War I, I wandered through and realised how much I didn’t know about the war… like that the dude who’s assassination was the catalyst for the war is also an awesome Aussie band Franz Ferdinand… what hit home the most though was just how many people died, millions, on both sides. For god, for King, for country, maybe they didn’t even know why. And for the first time in my life, I hated the effectiveness of marketing, the war machine of campaigning that convinced all these innocent young men to surrender their lives. Overwhelming how much propaganda there was, and scary how effective it must have been.

Besides the tragedy of it, an amazing exhibit. Eye opening and sad.

Still amazes me that after the massive loss of lives in WWI that the Second World War even happened, as said in my fave movie Hunger Games, “we’re fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self destruction”. Couldn’t be more true. Although I love reading about the history of the war and seeing all the machines and artefacts, it’s heart breaking how many lives were lost all in the crazy pursuit of power by an evil man.

Venturing into The Holocaust section of the museum, I knew of the history and the stories of the atrocities committed, what caught my attention particularly was how the nazis treated people with a disability. So often it’s not mentioned in movies and books about how the sterilized and killed people with a disability in the name of cleansing the population. Made me feel sick. Since working in my current job for over two years with people with a disability, I know first hand that they are sweet, loving and beautiful people, heart breaking that being different is cause for someone’s belief that you shouldn’t exist. But I guess that was the whole belief system of the Nazis, if you don’t fit their profile of the Aryan race, you don’t deserve to live. Assholes.

As the prolific quote inscribed on the wall said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” How the world let this happen is beyond words.

After being at the museum longer than planned, I jumped back on the double decker headed for Westminster Abbey. Feel like an excited school kid every time I get on a double decker, must have tourist written all over my face with my goofy smile.

London was not turning it on for me today, gloomy and cold but still gorgeous. Disappointed Big Ben was still surrounded by scaffolds but walking over London Bridge, taking in the sites, just love love love this place.

The Abbey itself is just stunning. Beautiful gothic architecture, stain glass windows, marble and stone statues and more gold than I’ve ever seen in my life. It did occur to me that the Abbey is one big tomb, so many people buried or entombed there, bit eerie if you think about it too much – wandering through a building of dead bodies… hmmmm, must try not overthink things…

While i expected it to be the resting place of plenty of royals, I didn’t know that Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Dickens were also buried there. Lucky dudes, would be my preference to be buried there too, sure I’ll be important enough one day?!?

So after a massive touristy day, I found a typically British pub to chill while waiting on Kyles to finish work. Just love pubs here, they are all gorgeous.

Once Kyles joined me we got stuck into some british pies, Three Bird Roast and Hampshire Game, oh my yum… so damn good will never be able to enjoy another Balfours… I’m not patient enough to take food pics when the food arrives, half eaten by the time I remember…

Before calling it for the day, we headed to what is known as the Walkie Talkie building which has views all over London and quite honestly is so super cool with indoor gardens and floor to ceiling glass. Words can’t describe. Or I’m tired and my words can’t describe!

Monday 7th January 2019.

January 14, 2019 0

Recovery

Waking up at 3.30am for a 6am flight after a pub crawl and hunting auroras, that hurt! An hour long bus trip to Ivalo then Finnair back into London and tubes back to Kylie’s house was beyond tiring.

The only solution, a day of Netflix and veg. With ramen in a bucket. Naps are my new favourite Sunday past time!

BTW, Bird Box on Netflix, bloody brilliant and terrifying!

Random google ramen photo so this days post isn’t completely lame…

Sunday 6th January 2019.

January 12, 2019 0

Shoop, shoop, shoop

Having gotten a taste for all things snow, today was the day Kyles was knocking another thing off her bucket list and learning to ski.

After smashing the freebie brekkie again, we headed up the mountain/hill/hump to the Saariselka Ski & Snow Resort.

One thing about Finland, everyone that works here, albeit not Finnish, are absolutely lovely, and happy. Pretty sure I would be too if i lived and worked in a magic snow globe.

We once again kitted up, hiring boots, skis and helmets ready for our noon lesson. The awesome Heather from Birmingham, while helping us sort what was what, let it slip that last night, while we were snoring our heads off, Saariselka had one of the most impressive northern lights displays – no hunting required. They could be seen as clear as day from very ski hill where we stood, 5 minutes from our Inn. Far out brussel sprout is the PG reaction.

With half hour to burn before our lesson, we heel and toed it to the cafe next door, I forgot how damn awkward it was to walk in ski boots, and that after 5 minutes your feet feel completely numb!

Both full of nerves at the impending doom, for once, we decided that gin was not the answer, just coffee – caffeine and warmth.

Luckily for us, since we didn’t book in advance we got our own personal ski instructor, Danny from New Zealand. Another awesome human being who for 90 minutes helped us shoop shoop shoop down the slopes.

Having skied three times before, although not in over 10 years, I still needed a lesson too. Turning out the left ski to turn right still doesn’t make sense in the blonde head of mine.

For a complete newbie to skiing, Kyles absolutely killed it. In a good way. For the whole 90 minute lesson, only fell over once! But there was the fencing incident…

Overall, absolute superstar! Never seen a first time skier stay upright while top speed down a slope and come off the winner with the rope lift. She was legen… wait for it… dary! Legendary!

I managed to make it through some wobbles and to the end of the lesson without any going arse up… the reward, a nice cold beer and sweet potato fries in the half time break.

After not seeing each other for 6 months, I love that we can still spend an hour and a half sitting in a cafe laughing til our stomachs hurt and talking crap about everything and anything… while still somehow pondering our existential existence. We go between crying tears of laughter at lame jokes like these:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mikespohr/new-dad-jokes

To talking about the meaning of life – to live every moment, do things that scare the crap out of you and to never for a moment forget that we are blessed to live the life we lead. Sounds like a fridge magnet.

Round two and it was time to tackle the slope without Danny as our guiding light. Once again, superstars. 2022 Winter Olympics here we come! Maybe not but kinda proud I made it down the main slope without stacking it, although at snails pace…

As the slopes cleared we thought it was time for a break and headed back to the cafe for more courage. I mean beer. After resting our battered bodies, we decided to retire gold medal winners. Too bad the last bus to town had already left. No wonder the slopes were quiet!

After hiking back to town and indulging in more delicious Rudolph burgers and loki, we finally got around to a pub crawl around Saariselka. And then for some reason thought it was a grand idea to hunt for auroras again. Made sense at the time! We hiked up the tobogan hill but alas, the clouds hid the lights and Eileen was no where to be seen.

More vids and pics to come!!

Saturday 5th January 2019.

January 11, 2019 1

Opposites attract

Waking up in Saariselka is like waking up in a snow globe, magical views, snow delicately falling and I swear I can hear sleigh bells jingling all the way. After a quick hotel buffet brekky – which I’m still not sure whether we were meant to pay for – Kylie being an amazing Wonder Woman had our day all sorted, snow mobiling then sauna, or sow-na as they say here, don’t go being a bogan aussie and saying sore-na…

So before kicking off our adventures we had time to burn, or freeze… spent trekking around Saariselka just taking in the wonders and enjoying the living snow globe. I’ll never get sick of the sight of snow covered trees but after this blog post, you might be…

So after exploring and planning our pub crawl for the evening, we kitted up at Husky & Co for our 2 hour snow mobiling adventure. It’s no secret I like anything with a motor, it’s in my genes, so I was super, ridiculously excited for this one. Kitted up and ready to rumble…

It did not disappoint. Instead of saving for a mustang, I’m now saving for a snow mobile… and moving to a place where here’s snow… Could not wipe the smile off my face the whole time! Not only amazing scenery but “fangin it” (as one my fave people says) on a snow mobile is my new favourite thing. Gliding, skidding, bumping, all too much fun – only disappointment is that I wasn’t allowed to just let it rip and get the amazing beast up to the 100km/h I knew it was capable of. Something about insurance, blah blah…

On an adrenaline high after our spin, we were off to our next adventure – a Finnish sauna. Interestingly, sauna is the only Finnish word to appear in the vocabulary of every other language, thanks for that Mikko! Somehow, we are killing it with our navigating skills, finding a remote resort when I still get lost on my way to Henley. Must be the Kyles factor.

So apparently a “fun” thing to do in Finland is to roast yourself in a smoke sauna, to the point where you’re eyeballs boil… then jump into an ice pool – and by ice pool I literally mean a hole in the ice. The ice pool quite literally takes your breath away and made me squeal like a… I don’t know what, never made that sound before!!

Hylie after sauna…

Hylie in ice pools… those are crazy smiles…

Boiling hot + freezing cold = fun. Kinda was. I love trying new things and not too much is out of my comfort zone but damn this was. We repeated about four times before calling it and trekking back to Saariselka for reindeer pizza and beer.

What a day!! Needless to say, we didn’t make the planned pub crawl…

Friday 4th January 2019.

January 8, 2019 0

Holly vs the world

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