Wondrously Wandering

Hello hello! How is it the last day of 2019?! This year has flown . I swear every year is getting faster. I had a pretty good year regarding travel. As I was doing an internship in Madrid from January to August, I was able to take advantage of cheap public transport within Spain and cheap flights within Europe. I travelled to 5 new countries - Switzerland, France, Belgium, Czech Republic and Hungary - and to countries I had been before. So I thought that in order to celebrate the end of 2019, I'd share my top 3 favourite travel destinations from this year. 1. Budapest, Hungary View from Buda castle I travelled to Budapest at the end of July with my cousin and absolutely fell in love with it. It's a stunningly beautiful city with the Danube running through it, but what got me was its 'vibe'. We arrived in the evening, not sure where we were going to eat or what we should do, and we happened to stumble upon a square (which we found out the next day is the m

Hello, hello! So it's been a while... I don't really know where the past 8 months have gone but they have absolutely flown by. I can't quite believe that I am back in Bath about to start the fourth week of my final year. I feel like I moved to Madrid back in January, blinked and it was all over. So what have I been up to? Well, I finished my internship in Madrid back in August. I absolutely loved my job - the people, the fun and laid-back office atmosphere, the work itself... I got so many amazing opportunities during my 7 months there, such as an all-inclusive trip to Sevilla for 5 days where I helped out at a recruitment event for the company. However, outside of work, I struggled a bit. Something just didn't click between me and the city. I actually wrote a short blog post about it back in March which I never published but I'd said: You know how people get annoyed when they ask how you are and your answer is simply "fine." "Fine doesn&#

As Madrid is right in the middle of Spain, it makes for a great location to travel from as nothing is too far away for a weekend trip. At the beginning of March, I took advantage of this and spent the weekend exploring the city of Zaragoza in the Aragón region of Spain, about 300km north-east of Madrid. I arrived in Zaragoza at 12pm after leaving Madrid on the 9am bus. It was a really comfortable journey and the bus is so cheap! If you can't decide between getting the AVE or the bus from Madrid to Zaragoza, I would 100% recommend taking the bus if you're not pushed for time. There are some super pretty views to enjoy on the way (well, what I saw when I wasn't napping anyway...) So without further ado, here was what I got up to during my weekend in Zaragoza and what I would recommend if you find yourself there... Walk around the Plaza de Nuestra Señora del Pilar I made my way to the Plaza de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, which is the main square of the city and there you

Anyone that comes to stay or live in Madrid for an extended period of time will know there are two places almost everyone visits during their time here: Toledo and Segovia. Both towns are situated no more than 1 hour and 30 minutes from Madrid by public transport and both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. I took a rather spontaneous trip to Segovia yesterday as I felt like I just needed to get out of the hustle and bustle of Madrid for a bit after a rather busy 6 weeks here. (I honestly can't believe I've been here that long already!) As I'm a poor student being paid lower than the minimum wage at my internship (no joke..), I scoured the internet to find the cheapest way to get there and back that suited the time I had available. In the end I decided to take a Regional train from Chamartín station at 10.15 which got me to Segovia at 12.15. There are quicker trains which can get you there in under an hour, but this train cost me just €8 and it took a really pretty sce

My year abroad has involved spending 5 months studying at a university in Chile, and moving to Madrid just 4 days ago to spend a number of months doing an internship for a multinational company. Two very different things in two very different places. But they have two things in common: 1) Both are amazing opportunities to improve my Spanish and learn about the very diverse cultures of these two places and 2) Both are away from home. Before I went to university I was such a homebody, which is why I think a lot of people were surprised that I was even considering going to England to study. In school I was the shy girl that stayed within her comfort zone at all times pretty much. But when the time came to apply to university, I was ready to break away from that. I wanted to become more confident, to meet new people, to see new things and to experience a different way of life. And I knew the best way of doing so was to step far out of my comfort zone, to pack up my stuff and to leave h

Hello hello! And Happy New Year! I know it's been the phrase of the week but I honestly can't believe we're in 2019! I feel like it was 2015, I blinked and next thing it was 2019! With new a year comes a new beginning and I do like to use the new beginning to reflect on the previous year - the good and the bad - and to make a list of my achievements, and things I want to continue in the following year, as well as things that didn't exactly go according to plan and things I want to continue working on in the following year. So I thought today I'd share some of my goals for 2019. I have split them into 3 sections - Travel, Career/University, and Personal Growth.. I feel like having this post public can maybe help me stay on track in order to achieve these goals and maybe can inspire even one person to come up with their own! Travel As I mentioned in my previous post, the 5 months I spent studying in South America have given me a serious case of wanderlu