reminiscing over Portugal

This summer I travelled 1200km around Portugal, my first experience of travelling, living in hostels and meeting such a variety of people and you know what, I loved it. I cannot wait to travel to other countries, it made me realise how beautiful the world is and I want to see way more of it.

Flying from London to Porto we picked up the cutest fiat 500 (we named her Fiona) and headed on our journey. The whole of Portugal was covered in beautiful buildings, I love nothing more than photographing buildings. A lot of buildings as you can see in my photos are covered in beautiful blue tiles, which was originally associated with wealth. 

We then headed to Aveiro, Figueria da Foz, Coimbra, Nazare, Lagos, Sagres and flying back to London from Lisbon.

Lagos I spent my life sunbathing on beautiful beaches and Sagres we went to the 'end of the world' point and watched the most beautiful sunset I have ever witnessed. Coimbra we went to what I could only call a Harry Potter style university. Talking of Harry Potter, we visited the book shop which inspired J.K Rowling, and it was incredible. The ceiling was covered in the most amazing glass work I have ever seen.

I wouldn't even hesitate in going back to Portugal, plus I loved the heat that went along with it. 

Jess x

The Green Smoothie

Hey Guys,

Welcome to the Green Smoothie. If someone had asked me to drink this a few months ago, I would have taken one look at the colour and probably laughed in their face. However I have been getting really into my health and fitness and I have found that in actual fact just because it is green does not mean the taste is utterly vile. I've made this smoothie sweet, so you wouldn't have an issue drinking it. 

You will need:

• 1 ripe banana
• 1 scoop of impact whey protein, mine is vanilla cookie flavour. (you don't have to put this in if you don't want to)
• 2 handfuls of spinach 
• 1 handful of kale
• Strawberries I put around 6 in, it doesn't matter how many
• I put 300ml of water in, it depends how thick you like it, so you can experiment with adding more or less liquid. 

I'm so obsessed with making smoothies now, I have the Active Blend which makes it so quick and easy, and for such a great price too. 

Let me know if you decide to try this smoothie, or share any other recipes you love.

Jess x

An Icelandic photo diary

Hey Guys,

Today I wanted to share with you some of the beautiful photos I have captured from my recent trip to Iceland. This place is utterly breathtaking and the views I have seen are just incredible. As many of you may know I'm not well travelled so this was all a very new experience for me, however get me on another plane.. NOW. I think I might have the travel bug.

DAY1: After arriving at Keflavík airport, we proceeded to go in search for our hire car. Having a car is a lifesaver, I don't think I witnessed one bus over the duration of our stay, albeit there were bus stops. ( heck, when temperatures reach in excess of -8 who wants to be standing at a bus stop).
Next stop our house. I can only say WOW it was beautiful and the owner welcomed us into her home as if it were our own, we even had our very own Jacuzzi.

DAY 2: Today was the day we headed out to explore, we took the long, yet totally worth it trip to the national park in Iceland. Getting here was a slight nightmare, its safe to say Icelandic weather can rapidly change. One minute we were driving along a road with the sun beaming in through the windows, then the next thing we knew there was a massive snow blizzard and we literally couldn't even see an inch in front of the car. I was totally scared, but we made it and got through to the other end. YAY. 

Next stop was to the Geysir in south of Iceland, where we viewed sprouting hot springs. As you can see the water shoots around 70 metres in the air, and I managed to capture the process of this on camera which looked pretty cool. Finally that day, we headed out to Gulfoss where we witnessed the most beautiful waterfall ever. It was so incredible, I think it looked even more amazing covered in snow. I may have had a slight accident and fell most of the way back down the steps. Luckily I was uninjured, however I cannot say the same for my dignity. 

DAY 3: We headed out to Selijalandsfoss, not before the satnav decided to take us on a wild goose chase, where we ended up in the middle of a random farm. We viewed another beautiful waterfall, this time it was possible to actually walk around the back of the waterfall.

DAY 4 : On our last day we headed into the capital of Iceland where we were all excited to visit the hallgrímskirkja church. The architecture involved in this building is phenomenal and I am so glad we were able to visit. Inside was again just as impressive. They had a man playing the organ, the sound was totally mesmerising and I just watched for at least 15 minutes. After wondering around the city and having lunch in a quirky burger bar, we headed out to the tourist spot that is the Blue lagoon. This is based on plenty of natural hot springs around Iceland, however this is probably one of the main tourist attractions. Initially getting into a bikini before you step foot in the water is soooo cold you wonder what you are doing with your life, yet it is so worth it when you get in. The water is that hot that if you then stand up in the -8 degrees you literally do not feel cold at all.

I have literally had the most amazing time visiting Iceland and had so many laughs with such an awesome group of friends.

Let me know if any of you have visited Iceland or if you would like to?

Love Jess x

Top 3 favourite phone cases

Hey Guys,

I thought I'd do a little bit of a different post today and share with you my three favourite phone cases. I never realised how important protecting your phone was, until mine fell off the table and decided never to work again. *sobs* ever since then I never let my phone go without a case. I like to make them pretty to.
1. Cat sims feather case from Iconemesis* This has to be my ultimate favourite. It fits my phone so snuggly and it doesn't even feel like there is really a case on my phone. not to mention this case is now in the sale. Bargain alert! After using my Topshop case to death, this one has certainly become a firm favourite of mine.

2. Black and white snakeskin look case from H&M I think the look of this is so cool and on the inside it has like a velvet feel to it. It looks way more expensive than it actually is.

3. This Topshop reflective holographic case was my first and I love it, its so cool, It sort of changes colour with the light. Unfortunately I cant find the link online, but it should still be in some stores.

All items marked with an asterix* were kindly gifted to me, but all opinions are my own.

Love Jess x