Portugal

20.08.15 — Lagos

It’s been a week since I landed back in the UK but with commitments such as working for Burnley Arts Centre and organising some Scholarship Project work, I’ve only just got round to piecing this post together! Blatantly obvious is the location which I visited: Lagos, in the glorious country of Portugal.

This post has a soundtrack, click here before you continue. Ears full of cheesy Portuguese club music? Good. Continue.

Lagos is a beautiful town in the Algarve region of Portugal, boasting a tonne of shops and restaurants in it’s old walled town centre, as well as a marina and a smattering of coves and beaches. Spending two weeks there was bliss, which began with the nightly trips out to eat and browse the local shops. Even on holiday, though, this universally recognisable graphic term didn’t pass me by…

I spent a good amount of time wandering around one of my favourite spots in the town, an old fortress forming one of the main entrances to the walled centre…

After a few days lounging around the pool of the lovely Aqualuz apartments we were staying in, my dad and I got somewhat restless and grabbed our cameras for a snoop along the coast. We first chanced across this abandoned hotel which I’d taken interest in on our last visit a few years ago, but this time we ventured slightly further into the complex…

I have posted the photos from our snooping around the abandoned hotel, the Hotel Golfinho, in another blog post which you can read here! Anyway, after a quick snoop around it’s peeling exterior, we continued heading towards the coves.

The views from the Algarve are breathtaking, and needless to say we spent quite a while wandering up and down the coastline to take enough photos to all but fill my 64GB memory card. Here’s a few of the best…

As we hit the edge of the coastline, where Lagos bends towards an area known as Luz, the most breathtaking part of the coastline was to be found: the grottos. We had already booked a boat tour of the grottos, but took the time to descend an unforgiving number of steps to take a few photos. Here’s a lovely panorama I managed to take on my phone:

As I said, however, most of our time was spent wandering through the centre of the town, where I took the following snaps. Do forgive my expression on the one of me down there. It’s the best of a bad bunch.

Anyway, back to that boat trip that we had booked. To begin, we headed down to Lagos Marina and boarded a big orange boat before heading off out into the Mediterranean Sea, never straying to far from the looming stacks and arches of the coastline, however…

After a little while, and many photos of the coastline (with which I shall burden you not), we dropped anchor and were invited to jump into the freezing ocean (we’d discovered how damn cold it is on a trip to the beach one day). Ellie, fearing not the cold, clambered straight up onto the roof of the boat and threw herself into the water.

Well, she does want to be a marine biologist

Then it was time for part of the trip I’d been waiting for, a chance to have a ride on a modified ‘banana boat’ which had been designed not to tip over. Naturally, of course, I managed to get thrown off it after only a couple of minutes, and then my useless bobbing life-jacked-adorned self had to be unceremoniously rescued from the freezing water. I was not impressed.

The next day, fancying some time away from the sea, my dad and I ventured out once more with our cameras slung over our shoulders. This time we encircled the outer limits of the walled town centre, before dipping in to meander up and down the steep streets. Here’s a couple of photos from our journey…

On our final full day in Portugal, my dad and I once more decided to give the pool a miss and found something else to do: ride Segways around the town! Picking them up from a lovely Portuguese gentleman in the town square, we zipped around the marina before daring to head into the busy commercial areas of the town.

The Segways were so much fun, both me and my dad agreed that we wanted one – and if it weren’t for the UK laws restricting their use, would probably look into getting one. However after this it was time for one last Italian meal and then back to the apartment to pack up, ready for our transfer the next morning.

I loved my time in Lagos, and would very much recommend that anyone thinking of a holiday on the continent doesn’t forget about Portugal. It’s lovely people, old charm, brilliant food and cool sea breeze are not to be missed. If you’d like some recommendations of places to go in Lagos, feel free to get in touch.

You may now end the cheesy Portuguese music (if you bothered to play it). If you want more, try this. Até logo!

Deutschland

24.07.15 — Herzogenaurach

It’s been well over a week since I landed back in the UK, but here’s a belated post on my eight day trip to Germany with Rhea and Izzy to visit Luisa and her lovely family in their house down in Bavaria.

Naturally, when me and Rhea landed we headed straight to the Smith family house in Herzogenaurach, where made a beeline for the local Eiscafé (ice cream cafe) after Luisa had been gushing over Spaghettieis (spaghetti ice cream). Here was mine – it was delicious!

Later that evening we picked up Izzy, who had flown into Nürnberg airport separately, and headed for the part of the trip I had been most excited for – the local Sommerkirchweih or Bierfestival (beer festival). It was an amazing evening of beer drinking, music, and tipsy dancing on benches. It was lovely to see that nobody there was too drunk or aggressive – it was just a lot of fun for all the townspeople.

All of us on the way to the beer festival

We returned to the Kerwa for a second evening of festivities the day after, where I cracked out the tackiest shirt I could find and me and Iz treated ourselves to the biggest pretzel I have ever seen…

The day after, still in Herzogenaurach, we headed for the Freibad. The Freibad (literally ‘free pool’) is a huge open-air pool, complete with a trio of diving boards and a waterslide, which cost about 3€ for all-day entry. With an entry free equivalent to £2.50 or so, I did not expect the place to be so beautiful, clean and well-equipt! We spent most of the morning there making a nuisance of ourselves, splashing around and trying to re-enact Dirty Dancing…

That evening we headed out into the centre of Herzogenaurach for more ice cream and some tea, and found ourselves in a lovely little Italian Restaurant, where I had a delicious pizza. We then headed back for an early night for an early start – for we were travelling up to Berlin for four days!

So for the next few days we took a bus ride up to Berlin, where we’d booked a hostel, and spent the time exploring the cosmopolitan city. Signing up for the Alternative Berlin Tour, we spent time poking around the city’s thriving urban art and graffiti scene, as well as visiting some more kooky spots.

Found this guy down a graffiti-covered side street

Naturally I gravitated towards this odd light fitting

The tour ended in a place called Urban Spree, a huge outdoor art/club venue set in an abandoned railway hangar. We took a peek around their art gallery, and stopped for a burrito, but spent most of our time just taking in the endless street art. We even returned to Urban Spree in the evening for a night out organised by Alternative Berlin. It was awesome!

On our tour we also visited the Kunstraum Kreuzberg, an ex-hospital which is now an exhibition space and music school, where we spent some time looking at various projects, including one where the artist had activated spray cans and let them whizz around the room of their own accord. Another one which caught me off guard was installed in the actual toilet facilities – one of the sinks was continually spouting deep blue water. Being the fool that I am, I put my hands in it and ended up parading my blue-tinted digits around for the rest of the day. Nice work, Briggs.

One morning we took a trip to the Bauhaus Archives, where I was in my element – the Bauhaus philosophy and the whole modernism movement in general are of great interest to me (check out this project I completed on Online Typography and Modernism). Unfortunately photography was forbidden within the archive, but the building alone made a striking statement…

After this we headed on down to the East Side Gallery, a graffiti/street art gallery set on the remnants of the Berlin Wall through the centre of the city. There we spent a while admiring the work, and then ended up being offered free beer and a space to drink it right on the street! Only in Germany…

Sadly though, before long it was time to leave Berlin, but all was not lost as we headed back to Bavaria to visit Nürnberg (Nuremberg, as we English like to call it), spending a day wandering round the beautiful old city. The most breathtaking views could be found from the castle atop the hill, where we enjoyed the gorgeous architecture as well as panoramic views of the city.

After time spent lounging and napping on a man-made beach, and a mouthful of chilli chocolate Mexican ice cream, it was time to head back to Herzogernaurach – but all was not lost, as we had time to head out for one last night at the bierfestival!

Me and Evie (Lu's sister) look very happy to be here

Overall my time in Germany was amazing – from the traditional beer festivals of Bavaria to the cosmopolitan and liberal Berlin, it’s a country I severely underestimated and am very keen to visit again. Having been inspired and having already started learning German, who knows – maybe I’ll try and spend some significant time there one day!

Update: I’ve added some extra photos which were taken on my old film camera in a new post, Film Aus Deutschland, which can be found here.

Selside Outward Bound

22.07.15 — Selside

As part of my scholarship training, the lovely people at the University decided to send us on a three day outward bound trip off into the Yorkshire Dales, to spend some time engaging in various outdoorsy team-building activities based around a hut in a field called Selside. All first year scholars plus some second years (including me) were invited to tag along and enjoy caving, climbing, ambling, marshmallow-roasting, and more…

On the first day we arrived (just about) in the blue rust bucket that was our designated minibus, and after claiming a bed and a pair of indoor Crocs each, were sent straight into the adjoining field for some challenges. These involved walking on planks, building plank bridges across barrels, transporting ‘radioactive waste’, and communicating directions to others whilst blindfolded – all of which we managed successfully! This meant that our lunch was made for us – best prize ever.

Not sure if team-building shot or renaissance art

In the afternoon I took charge in deciding what activities we should go out and enjoy, with the general consensus being that people either wanted to go caving or go climbing. We split into two groups, and I joined the caving team for a trip under the Dales. The cave we had been assigned, it turned out, I had taken on exactly ten years ago when I was in Year 5 of primary school! I was pretty impressed when I could remember most of the layout.

Anyway, after peeling off our waterlogged clothes, roasting marshmallows over a BBQ, and accidentally sitting on the lid of Selside’s septic tank, we all headed off to bed.

Day two began as actively as the first day had ended, with us bumbling back through the deadly roads of the Dales for a spot of Ghyll Scrambling. This involved climbing up the riverbed of a river which ran down the side of a hill – however we got off lightly as the dry conditions meant there was little to no water flow – ideal for someone like me who had been moaning about being cold all morning. The midges, however, did not let us off lightly – we were bitten to death whilst trying to pass various scholars through a rope web at various heights as part of a quick team-building exercise.

In the afternoon I decided to push myself and volunteered, along with Adam, to co-lead the next expedition down the cave with the second set of scholars who had arrived. With my caving experience limited to the previous day’s efforts and my primary school trip a decade ago, I was very worried about getting the whole team lost for all eternity in the black caverns under Selside. I learned, however, that to be a respected leader one must carry on with false conviction in order to create the illusion that you know what you are doing – and if it turns out that you got it wrong, you have to know when to throw your hands up and admit that you screwed up.

Happily, however, I managed to successfully lead the rest of the scholars through the cave, and we resurfaced with the same number which we descended with. We did, however, return to Selside to the news that Pippa had been stretchered down the hillside from a walk she’d been on – an injury which ended with her in Leeds General Infirmary for the night! I am please to report that she has since recovered.

Day three began with just the second group around, all of whom went Ghyll Scrambling – however with me having already done it, I opted to stay indoors and help cook up some lunch for the returning scholars. After whipping up some stuffed potato skins, soups, sandwiches, and a ridiculous number of apple pies, the scholars returned to feast and then end the outward bound with some indoor team-building activities.

Returning from our Gyhll Scramble with a new hat

The outward bound residential, in brief, was a whole lot of fun concealing a whole lot of learning. It was a lovely opportunity to get to know the scholars, try new activities, and build on our leadership and organisational skills. Thank you to all involved in making it happen!

Image Credit: All photos in this blog post, unless otherwise stated, are property of Damian McDonald / The University of Leeds.

Scholarship Residential

11.06.15 — Leeds

Exams are over and the sun has shown its face, and so English summertime has well and truly begun, which for me means it’s time to crack on with my Undergraduate Reserach & Leadership Scholarship. One of the most enjoyable times of the year for us scholars is our annual training residential which this year took place again at Weetwood Hall.

After an early start and greeting a bunch of familiar faces, we sat down for presentations from the scholarship teams, then a very enlightening presentation workshop run by the university’s Staff & Departmental Development Unit. After this I, and all other second/third year scholars, had to present an overview of our research projects so far to the group. Having completely misread the email abou these presentations, I hadn’t had time to pull together an accompanying PowerPoint, however I think I managed to pull it off – I like to think that the group were laughing with me rather than at me!

After this we all split up, checked in to our lovely hotel rooms, and reconveined in fancy formal dress for our evening dinner. The complimentary wine began flowing, we enjoyed an amazing presentation by Dan Crow (who has worked at Google and Apple amongst others!) and a lovely meal, before hitting the bar for a bit more socialising before bed.

The next day we were up bright and early for “Wake Up, Shake Up”, which, as cheesy as it may sound, was loads of fun! It consisted of a series of five teambuilding/communication activities, such as building towers, travelling on planks and firing rockets! However, we soon had to wrap up and head in for some more workshops, including a research poster workshop in which I divulged a few nuggets of design knowledge (which naturally included a rant on Comic Sans…)

I divulged a few nuggets of design knowledge – which naturally included a rant about Comic Sans.

All too soon though we had finished all the workshops and networking and were asked to group up and make 1 minute videos to describe our experience both at the weekend and as scholars and ambassadors of the university in general. Damian has taken these to work some post-production magic, and was also snapping photos of us throughout the two days, so I shall be posting a link to all this media once it’s been posted…

Overall it was a very enjoyable weekend – so much so that I completely forgot to actually take any photos! So I do apologise for the rather text-heavy post, but it was too much fun not to write a little about. I shall be back soon with more updates, including stories upon my return from the upcoming scholarship outward bound trip, and some details on what my reserach so far has been like… Stay tuned!

Ellie Visits Leeds

11.06.15 — Leeds

So somehow the great weather has been relatively unchanging, and campus has been looking lovely, so I thought I’d invite my sister Ellie over for a couple of days gallivanting around Leeds!

The first stop was Belgrave for a snack, where I introduced Ellie to the beautiful Dough Boys’ pizza, and she loved it! I ordered myself one of Patty Smith’s Colonel Patty burgers, which was as delicious as ever! Patty Smith’s themselves picked me up on this pic, which can now be found all over their Facebook (my claim to fame for the week)…

Whilst wandering around Leeds before our Belgrave stop, me and Ellie noticed that Leeds Food and Drink Festival was in full swing, and so decided to head on down – where we managed to spend £10.70 on fudge alone! Oops!

After that we headed back for some shopping, then off home for an evening of chills with the house, all before heading back home for Danni’s birthday! Another busy couple of days…