DISNEY, DUBLIN AND FESTIVAL FUN

As the days get colder and the rain more frequent, I've found myself looking back through photos from the summer. I was lucky to have a very busy few months after finishing my first year of university and had the best time so I thought I'd do a recap of everything I got up to.

Festivals

I'd never been to a festival before and this year I went to 3! The first was The Isle of Wight Festival which was just amazing and I definitely think it's a festival for everyone to enjoy. We were able to see some amazing artists including Lewis Capaldi, Tom Grennan, The Kooks, Rudimental, Madness, Shaggy and so many more. I did end up burning myself really badly on the first day, despite frequently applying suncream but that was a small price to pay and I've already planned to go again in 2023! 

I also went to Boomtown which is a different kind of experience music wise but was so good to spend time with my boyfriend - Ryan and our friends. Also, the sets were incredible, and the effort that is put into the whole event was amazing. I feel like it definitely gave me the proper festival experience by living on little to no sleep, covered in dust and having to deal with not the nicest smells to put it lightly! I was very grateful for a proper bed after, that's for sure! 

I also went to Victorious Festival on the Sunday with my boyfriend, his cousins and their partners. Sam Fender and Becky Hill were definitely highlights and it was sort of nice to be able to enjoy the day but not camp for a whole weekend!

Dublin

In August I went to Dublin for a weekend away with my boyfriend, his family and extended family, there were 15 of us so it was a great group and we all stayed in a hotel together. I've always wanted to visit Ireland and was very excited so I'm pleased to say it was worth the wait! We did the typical touristy thing and visited The Guinness Factory and both evenings went out for food and drinks. The atmosphere was great, especially in the live music pubs and it was such a fun weekend trip, I'd definitely recommend it to anyone that's never been!

Florida

I was very lucky to end the summer with a 2 week trip to Florida with my boyfriend and his family, which was just the best time! We crammed absolutely everything in. visiting Disney's Magical Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Epcot, as well as three waterparks. We also stayed in the Hard Rock Hotel for a weekend so we were able to get in early to Universal and Islands of Adventure and also ate out and visited a karaoke bar on Citywalk. I'd been to Florida before with my family when I was 6 (I'm now 23) and as someone with a pretty good memory, re-visiting Magic Kingdom felt so nostalgic! I used to get pretty bad motion sickness when I was younger and so theme parks weren't really places I went to that often and I hadn't really been on many big ones since no longer suffer from the motion sickness. I was a bit apprehensive, particularly of the rollercoasters that go upside down but I really wanted to experience it all and definitely feel like I did! I started off tamer and as the holiday went on, I got more and more adventurous - going on rides like The Hulk, and Velocicoaster. I'm glad we went to Busch Gardens towards the end of the holiday as I might not have gone on rides such as Iron Gawazi, SheiKra and Tigris but they were actually so fun and I'm now a coaster convert! 

We ate out at a variety of different places and had some delicious food, whilst away, the portions were massive! I'm a big fan of orange chicken and also had a Jerk chicken, pineapple bowl with rice from Bahama Breeze which I liked so much that I've tried to recreate something similar myself!

I also enjoyed some beach days in Brighton, going to the Alcotraz cocktail experience, an escape room and of course, my boyfriend's graduation!