My highland adventure

Its official, the house hunt is over! Our lease has been signed, deposit paid and we are going to be living in Edinburgh for the next 6 months it seems.  So why have I been so slack in keeping you up to date?  Well I decided I had a few weeks to kill before we could move in, so I have been on the move again with some more holidays (don’t be too jealous, the job hunt is about to begin soon).   My travel buddy already had plans to go to Octoberfest in Germany, so after 4 months the time had come to have a week apart.  I can imagine some of your reactions going along the lines of ‘did we need to be surgically removed’ but to prove you all wrong, it turns out I can cope alone!!

My week started with a few more days in Edinburgh to explore and I admit I did a lot of wandering around the city trying to familiarise myself with the area and did very little touristy things.  I did however run into a Scottish independence rally one day and it turned out to be a bit of fun.  I was shocked by the thousands of people marching down the street (it was estimated to be around 10 thousand or so) holding their flags and dressing up in some questionable attire.  The rally made its way to the Princes St gardens and with the sun shining it was a marvellous day to sit down and see what the locals have to say.  After sitting next to someone who tried to convince me for the next half an hour that Australia needs to remove the union jack from our flag, I decided it was time to make an escape and grab some lunch.  I ended up at the national gallery’s cafe and ordered something not too traditional at all but worth a mention, goat’s cheese & caramelised onion salad.  The first few bites were delicious and I don’t know what they had done to the onions but they had a unique sweetness to them I could not pick.  While it was delicious I am a little disappointed to say that after the first few bites the flavours were too overpowering and I probably wouldn’t go back to give it another whirl. I then thought it was only fair to treat myself to a cupcake from a bakery I had been eyeing off for days (Bibi’s bakery) and I settled for a caramel cupcake.  It was super amazing with a hidden caramel inside, now this one I will be heading back to again!

After surviving the first three days alone it was time to hit the road and head on a highland adventure. I decided on a 3 day Isle of Skye tour with Haggis and gosh I don’t know where to start.  Our first day began with multiple stops to see things such as William Wallace monument (for all those Braveheart fans), a highland cow or hairy cow if you are a local, Ben Nevis (the highest mountain in Scotland which had its first snowfall the day before), the train out of the Harry Potter movie (yes this was the highlight of my day), the ruined Inverlochy castle and the commando memorial just to name a few.  Words cannot describe the beauty of the landscape (everything is so green!) but gosh it was chilly and it’s not even winter yet, how am I going to survive in this place! The first day was sure an exhausting one but we turned up to our hostel just in time for a hearty Scottish meal of Balmoral chicken.  This is commonly served throughout Scotland and is chicken stuffed with Haggis.  Already having tried haggis in Edinburgh I had a high opinion so was looking forward to it being served in a different way.  It was certainly very different to the haggis being served alone but the standard of the haggis itself was not nearly as good as the one I tried in Edinburgh.   I think I will need to give this one a go at a restaurant to give it a real review but I would recommend this to any of you that are not real sure about trying haggis as if you hate it, you can scrape it out and just have the chicken!

Day two rolled around and before I even dive into it, I am going to set the expectation at the start and tell you all I did not take a single photo of food for the next two days...opps.  This is not to say that the food was not delicious, but I was just too distracted by either the landscape or that fact that I was too cold to get my camera out before eating!   We headed off to the Isle of Skye with dim hopes as the rain began to bucket down, but before arriving we made a stop at probably my favourite place of the whole trip, the Eilean Donan Castle.  The castle was reconstructed and reopened in 1932 an exact replica of the 13^th century castle that once stood guard.  I was so surprised with all the rain that seems to be in the area, the water levels around the castle are so low that I didn’t even realise that the castle was on an island with the only access being across a bridge.  

  Time to get back on our ‘Wild and Sexy’ bus and head to Skye.  We were so lucky that the rain cleared for the remainder of the day and I was able to get some happy snaps.  The island itself is an isolated place, but I was shocked at how large it was and how populated it was.  While it is primarily a farming/fishing island, the small towns we stopped at were much bigger than the tiny town I grew up in and had things such as bakery’s, supermarkets or cafe’s.  One stop we grabbed some lunch at a little bakery where I needed to defrost and some homemade vegetable soup hit the spot, it tasted just like mammas!   
Our final night ended with lasagne and some drinks at the hostel and playing endless hours of the what could possibly the most amazing game on earth, jungle speed! Google it people!!

 

Day three and the main event of the day is Nessie hunting!  It was sadly raining for most of the day and that limited the amount of stops and exploring we could do but we were able to stop at a Whisky distillery and see some top notch Scottish whisky being brewed.  It was actually very interesting and I even gave it a taste.  I don't think I will be drinking the good stuff anytime soon, ill stick to anything I can add a mixer to, but was well worth the stop.  The remainder of the way home we managed to see some more of the countryside on our journey (that is when I wasn’t asleep) to make it back to Edinburgh safe and sound.

All in all a very successful week ‘alone’ but we have been surgically glued back together and we are now in Dublin, Ireland to explore a little more country side before settling down to begin the job hunt and the hibernation for the winter!
I hope you are all enjoying the weather wherever you are as I bring to you a random fact that there is 84 days until Christmas, plenty of time for me to bring you up to speed with more foods the world has to offer xx

The house hunting begins...and the blogging slows down

As time goes by I seem to get slacker and slacker with getting these posts up but gosh I have got a good one for you! I am now in Edinburgh, Scotland which should give you a hint with what is about to follow but first another catch up.
I could not leave Nottingham without doing some serious cooking in a kitchen and I made the most of it, cooking every night we stayed there.  I made some of our weekly favourites from home including chicken and leek pies, stir fry and fish.  It was so nice we didn’t want to leave but to say goodbye to the Nott we headed out to a high ropes course called Go Ape in the Sherwood Forest.  It was so much fun where we headed up into the tree tops and did some zip lines from tree to tree and climbed many ladders and ropes, some a little too high, but I’d highly recommend it to anyone who loves outdoor activities.

Back to London we headed and luckily the weather was still holding out for us.  We were very excited to be able to catch the end of the Paralympics and headed out in the sunshine to see the marathon races.  It was mind blowing to see such inspiring athletes putting in 110% no matter where they were coming in the race. After spending many hours out on the streets we decided to head across to the River Thames to grab a bite to eat for lunch as the Thames festival was on.  I decided on a chorizo salad, which was super tasty, and I loved being able to eat it overlooking St Pauls cathedral and watching the boats go by.  A very relaxing day before spending the evening catching up with a friend from home, an awesome way to say goodbye for London.

As I have mentioned we are already in Edinburgh, after a nine hour bus trip I might add, and have decided we will settle down here and look for a place to live and work over the winter.  I am not sure why we decided on Edinburgh as it is simply freezing and I can guarantee that summer is now over for sure.  It is however a beautiful city and the people are very friendly, it’s a little scary that we have chosen a place so similar to Ballarat when the one thing we hate about it is the weather at winter!  Anyway we have spent a lot of time looking for a place to live (I am not sure how much longer I can tolerate sharing a room with 6 or so other people) so do not have a great deal to report on the city so far.  We have done a few of the tourist things though including walking the famous Royal Mile (where there is sa small street called Jackson's Close), checking out the school that was J.K Rowling’s inspiration for Hogwarts as well as the cafe she supposedly wrote the first two books in and went to say hi to good old Dolly the Sheep, the first ever cloned sheep.  We are yet to go into the castle or walk Arthurs seat but once we settle down they are top of our list and the views of them both from the city are breathtaking.

 

So on to what you have all been waiting for, the Scottish food I have been taste testing.  Well firstly I have to admit I have now had my first bowl of soup which to me says winter is definitely here! It was cauliflower and was actually very tasty alongside my fish finger roll from a really nice pub.  But the most traditional thing that is a must try when in Scotland was Haggis, Neeps and Tatties.  It took me at least 3 days before I would try this as the thought of eating a sheep’s lungs, heart and liver all mixed together was a little too gut wrenching for me but I plucked up the courage and I must admit it was surprisingly delicious.  The whisky sauce it is served with is a welcome change to all the ketchup that we have eaten recently but I would definitely try it again and recommend to all of those visiting Scotland.  Oh and I almost forgot yesterday we stumbled across the parade of Team GB's Olympian's proudly displaying their medals in the pouring rain from an open top bus.  The streets were lined with locals showing thier support for the Athletes so it was certainly worth a few drops of rain.

 

Rereading this it is a very short update for you, but I should get back to finding a place to live so you can all come and visit just to try some Haggis!  Wish me luck as we have an inspection tonight and fingers crossed it works out so you can get some delicious homemade updates sooner rather than later! xx

Brick Lane never disappoints...and apparently neither does the weather

I have some brilliant news for you! I bet you are guessing it is about a delicious meal I have eaten or something that you can try cooking yourself (this is meant to be a food blog right!?), well sorry to burst your bubble but it is not related to food.  I am currently sitting outside in the sunshine wearing shorts and t-shirt....wait for it....IN ENGLAND! That’s right, the brilliant news is that it is still warm enough to be wearing summer clothes in England in September!   You can pick yourselves back up off the floor now and I will stop bragging about the weather and instead brag about the food that we have eaten in the last week or so.

I will begin where all good days should and that is with breakfast on our first day in Dubrovnik.  Perhaps not the healthiest of choices as we wandered down the promenade full of cafes and restaurants but when we saw ham and cheese pancakes on the menu at a little stand we decided to give them a whirl.  I was surprised when something that looked like a chikko roll turned up on my plate but after removing the odd look from my face I took the plunge and cut it in half.  It was in fact a pancake with cheese and ham rolled up and then deep fried served with lemon and mayonnaise.  Not my favourite breakfast for the trip but I enjoyed it non the less, probably something that is more suited for a lunch meal rather than a breakfast I must admit.  Lacking enthusiasm to check out the local sights we decided to spend the day sitting by the beach and enjoying some of the sun before it leaves us.  It still amazes me after months of travelling when I see people stripping down to their togs (sometimes even less!) miles from the beach and sunbaking in parks or cement walkways or anywhere they can.  After a tough day we trudged back up the 241 steps to our apartment with an armload of groceries to cook our first meal in literally months.  I was so excited to be eating something fresh but to find any ingredients that we knew or could read turned out to be much harder than anticipated so we settled for a chicken pasta.

The following day we decided to get off our lazy butts and wander into the old town to discover what Dubrovnik has to offer.  We had heard so many positive reviews about the town that we were expecting it to be amazing and it did not disappoint.  The main achievement and most spectacular thing we did was walk the castle walls giving an amazing view of the city and the coast.  Well worth all of those stairs that we climbed that is for sure.  It was rather exhausting so we did what we have become very good at and choose somewhere to eat a delicious meal.  I was still on the search for an amazing risotto so I opted for prawn and basil.  It was nice but still was not the creamy, silky texture that you expect with a risotto.  I have now given up on finding another amazing risotto!

Our third and final full day we decided to again make the most of our final beach destination and spent most of the day soaking up the rays followed by a delicious home cooked meal for dinner.  This time I cooked chilli & lime chicken with some fresh vegies and rice noodles served with salad.  It was super delicious and went down very well while overlooking the city from our balcony sipping on a glass of wine.  After dinner we decided to head back down to the promenade to check out a cave bar we had heard about.  It was really spectacular and well worth the visit for a cocktail on our final night before heading off to the capital of Croatia, Zagreb.

The main purpose for visiting Zagreb was to see the Red Hot Chilli Peppers perform at their first ever Croatian concert.  It certainly was worth the trip and probably the cheapest concert I have ever been to (around $50 AU) with an amazing supporting act of 2 cellos. On arrival to the airport, where we coincidently arrived at the same time as the band and were mobbed by media which was kinda fun, we discovered that we were staying out in the sticks and not at all in the main centre of town, however the one thing that we did have within a 2 minute walk was a massive shopping centre.   Over the next three days we spent A LOT of time in that shopping centre preparing for a freezing Scottish winter.  Luckily there was a bar and grill where we could get some dinner and wow it was so amazing that we ate three times there, luckily it was amazing as we had nowhere else to eat!  My travel buddy said it was the best steak she has ever eaten in her life..so I had to do it and taste some.  For someone that does not eat steak, it was pretty good and I can see myself trying a steak in the not too distant future.  The best meal I had was a grilled lamb burger and vegetables but was closely followed by a mousakka type dish with grilled eggplants and mince meat topped with tomato sauce and cheese, yum!

 The time had come to return to the UK and to be honest with you I was so very much looking forward to getting back to an English speaking country where I understood what people were asking me, could read labels on products or even read something as simple as a newspaper or watch the tv. Since arriving back we have done a few more touristy things in London including the London Eye which was spectacular to overlook the city, but most importantly we returned back to the world famous Brick Lane for some Indian tucker.  It was a super fun experience where we again ate more than our tummies needed with the three courses of food we got for £10.  I opted for a chicken dish with tomatoes and it was one of the milder choices, one I probably wouldn't choose again as I am a spice lover.  We are however already planning another trip when we are back in London next week!  We also tried to attend the paralympic games but had the most horrible time trying to buy tickets as we did not have a London address so we have given up on that idea for the time being (hopefully we can go to the marathon on Sunday) and headed to Nottingham to catch up with a friend for a few days and have some much needed time in a house.   
Before signing off to go and cook for ourselves in a kitchen for the third day in a row, yippee, I have to quickly tell you about our visit to the animal park where you drive your own car through the park and the most amazing animals can come up to your car, some sticking their head in the window.  It was so much fun, maybe I can become a zoo keeper while I am over here!  This goes above and beyond the Werribee open park zoo that is for sure with animals including giraffes, elephants, camels, lions, tigers and many more are just roaming around near you, if only I could afford a trip to Africa while I am over here!  Oh well, time to put that kitchen to use xx