A Festive Food Market

One of my favourite things about living in Sheffield is that there always seems to be something going on. 

Today I popped into town to run some errands and stumbled across a huge food market which ran the full stretch of the high street. 

There were stalls selling foods from countries all over Europe.

I spoke to a few of the people running some of the stalls to find out what was going on. 

This event is know as Marketplace. Traders from all over Europe can pay to have their stall as part of the market that tours all over the country. 

We couldn't believe the vast range of food these stalls offered and the amazing quality of all of the food that was available. 

This event has been in Sheffield for the last few days and tomorrow is their last day. 

Their next stop is Glasgow, before moving on to Norwich, Newcastle and Exeter before continuing their journey. 

Of course we got a crepe! It would've been rude not to, and they were delicious!! 

This stall was by Bedazzled Cupcakes, I spoke to the man running this stall who told me what it was all about!
(Thank you nice man) 

Today is a freezing cold day up north and seeing this in town created such a festive atmosphere. 

I will link the Marketplace website so you can check out whether they're coming to a place near you this festive season! 

Marketplace Europe

I hope you enjoyed this post, I'm so pleased I stumbled across this today and I strongly recommend you check it out if you get the chance! 

'til next time,

Hannah xo

First Month, Fresher's Flu and Homesickness

After a month at uni I've come to the conclusion that I think I'm going to enjoy it here. 

However, that doesn't mean that being here is at all easy. 

Aside from the cooking, money management, cleaning, laundry and doing a degree, just being in a new place has been hard enough recently. 

I've not experienced homesickness when away from home ever before. If I'm honest I didn't expect myself to struggle at all.

For the first few weeks it was pretty easy, but the last week or so I've hit a wall. 

I had a cold when I arrived at uni and it hasn't yet released me from it's grasp. I don't know if the relentless illness has played a role in my homesick feelings in the last week but I have a feeling it's been a contributing factor. 

Having Emetophobia is one of the things that made me most scared about living on my own. For anyone else who has it you'll know how scary it is to be away from your parents in this situation. So far I've managed to cope pretty well. 

Luckily, I've been surrounded by my lovely flatmates and friends from my course to help me through it and help me stay positive. 

I told myself before I moved to Sheffield that I would try and stay up here for the first term to get properly settled. I've managed to stick to that and I'm so proud of myself. 

There have been (very few) some days when I've wanted nothing more than to go back to my house, my room, my family and my 'normal'. 

But as each day goes by, this is becoming my normal. 

I've found keeping busy to be the best way to get over how I've been feeling and I am definitely feeling a lot more positive this week. 

I know it isn't meant to be easy and weeks 4-6 are renowned for being the hardest weeks for Freshers. 

We've also decided that we're just going to have to accept this new lower level of health as we're just not sure whether this ever lingering Fresher's flu is ever going to get better. 

Now I'm feeling more positive I feel as though it is definitely time to start getting more involved in more of the things uni life offers and I'm so excited!

But also in saying that, I'm also super excited to go home for Christmas.

There's no place like home. 

'til next time

Hannah xo

For those of you who don't know- My Emetophobia Post

I Started University!

At some point over the summer I had a change of heart about the prospect of starting university. Beforehand I would feel sick and scared and emotional just at the thought of it. But after my exams and a bit of travelling I started to become excited, and ready.

Despite the excitement surrounding starting uni, results day was a day that everyone secretly wished would never arrive. After a sleepless night and an emotional week I woke up to a 'Congratulations!' email from UCAS. Phew. 

So here I am, sitting in my flat in Sheffield, where I am studying Journalism. Wow. 

I've been here almost two weeks and I can't believe how quickly I've settled. So I thought I'd talk you through some of the things that have happened in the last couple of weeks. 

It was a sunny Sunday morning and I woke up to see the piles..and piles...and piles of boxes, bags and baskets full of all of the things I thought I'd need at university. I reluctantly forced down a dry scotch pancake before loading up the car.

The 2 1/2 hour journey felt like a lifetime. I was anxiously Facebook messaging my flatmates, praying that they felt as nervous as I did. 

On that note, something I'd definitely recommend after finding out your accommodation is making a group chat with the people that you are going to be living with. This meant that the last thing I was worried about on moving in day was meeting my flatmates. We'd been speaking for around a month and seemed to get on pretty well, so I wasn't concerned about that at all. It definitely takes away some of the mystery! 

We stopped at the service station to kill some time, I had a peppermint tea in an attempt to cure my crippling stomach pains- it didn't work. 

To this day I'm still not sure what made me so nervous on that day. As soon as we arrived at the accommodation my stomach settled and I felt nothing but excitement. My sister and I jumped out the car to pick up my keys and then began the mission of unloading my piles of belongings up 6 flights of stairs. Lol. 

I opened the door of my flat for the first time to meet 4/10 of the people I'd met through Facebook messenger. I can't explain how surreal it was to actually be moving in. It was something we'd talked about for so long and at that moment it was actually real.

My family and Michael helped me set up my room and my cupboard in the kitchen. We then went for a walk into Sheffield and I showed Michael and my sister around some of the places I'd seen on the open days.

It would've been rude not to have a Nandos, so obviously thats what we did. After lunch we walked back to the flat and thats where they left me. By myself. All alone.

Except I couldn't have been more wrong about that image of loneliness that I had created for myself when thinking about moving out. I'd managed to forget about the fact that I now lived with 10 other people. Who turned out to be 10 amazing people. That evening we sat in the common area, chatting, drinking and getting to know each other. 

I can't believe how settled we all were even after just 2 days. Now it feels like we've lived here for months. 

Freshers Week or 'Intro Week' as the uni like to call it, was an interesting experience. There was lots of drinks, dancing and most importantly, daily introductory meetings for our courses. Aside from those things I spent a lot of the week walking around the city and the local town, exploring and getting my bearings.

One of the things I've struggled with so far at university is organising my cooking. I now appreciate the effort that my Mum goes to, planning meals for a week and buying the food to fit the plan and the best before dates. HOW?! 

I guess it's something I'll figure out soon. Doing washing is easy- but expensive, a clothes horse is a good investment! 

I haven't yet needed to iron something so I'll let you know how that goes. 

One of the biggest things I've noticed in the last couple of weeks is that, the things I was most excited about, independence, eating what I want, going where I want to when I want to, being totally responsible for myself and only myself, are the things that have been the hardest to adjust to. Making these decisions for yourself isn't always easy!

I'm so settled and so lucky to have landed myself a great group of flatmates and a lovely group of course mates that have made these few weeks so much easier. My next challenge is to overcome Freshers Flu, urghhghhhghghghhghg!!

I hope to be blogging more now that I have the time to do so, I will hopefully learn how to do a better job of it too! 

I've had a bit of a change of aesthetics on my blog so let me know what you think. 

If you have any questions about starting uni or the application process feel free to ask me! 

I vlogged my first week if you want to check it out :Starting Uni

I also made a video about applying to uni: Applying to Uni

I hope you enjoyed this little update,

'til next time,

Hannah xo

When in Rome...

I feel as though my blog has been a little neglected recently, mainly as a result of being swamped by revision and exams. But that's all over now! Now I finally have time to get back into doing what I love. 

Last week I was lucky enough to be able to travel to the beautiful city of Rome. Michael and I had no real plans as to what we were going to do whilst we were there and left our days pretty open for exploration. 

I'm going to make a video on tips and advice for being in Rome on my YouTube channel which is linked above. I also filmed everyday so you can see those vlogs there too. 

So here are some of my favourite photos and some of the things we did in our 5 days.

DAY ONE:

Our flight was at 8am on a Wednesday morning. We arrived in Rome around 12pm and caught the train from the airport to Roma Termini which took exactly half an hour. We grabbed some lunch at a little restaurant on one of the main streets and then took a walk down a little side street and came across this. 

We found an amazing Gelateria just off the Colosseum which wasn't even that pricy and we had these delicious ice creams. The gelato in Italy is THE best ice cream in the world. 

That afternoon we decided to take a walk in the opposite direction of the Colosseum, there were lots of stairs but the views were worth it. 

At the top of those stairs was a little square with this beautiful fountain and an amazing view of the city which I have a photo of later. 

We'd had quite a late, big lunch that day so by the evening we weren't hungry for more than a little snack. We stumbled across this little takeaway called Pastaway by the Trevi Fountain from which we got these. YUM. (They also both came with a glass of wine- winning!)

This was the view from the square I spoke about earlier, we took a lot of photos up there because it was just stunning, especially at night. 

DAY TWO:

This is where we ate breakfast every morning on the roof terrace. We had croissants, Nutella, toast, fruit, yoghurts and cold meats and cheese. 

I spy a colosseum!

On our second day we initially planned to seek out tickets for the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, but by the time we found the kiosk it was midday, the sun was burning and the queue was super long. We decided we'd come back tomorrow and took a walk a little further down the road we were on.

This was where we came across this monstrosity. The Monument Building. 

We stood staring for a while before realising you could go in and walk around, for free.

We walked up to the second floor and found a little ticket desk selling tickets for the panoramic lift taking you right up to the roof. We knew we had to do it. For just €3.50 we got this view.

On the evening of our second day we decided to take a walk back down to the Trevi Fountain to seek out some food at one of the restaurants we'd seen the night before. This is definitely one of my favourite places in Rome.

DAY THREE:

On our third day we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and down to the ticket desk bright and early. It was completely worth it. We got tickets which were valid for two days, one entry to the Forum and one entry to the Colosseum for €12 each. 

The Roman Forum, full of ruins was honestly one of the most incredible places I've ever seen. The photos don't do it justice. You can't explain the size of the buildings. We basically had the whole place to ourselves for the first hour we were there too. 

Then we decided to take a walk down the road to the Colosseum. In hindsight we wish we'd waited until the next morning and visited the Colosseum early as we did the Forum. When we managed to get in past the vast queues of midday Colosseum visitors we managed to have a proper look around this incredible structure. 

It even looks amazing to this day, I can't imagine how magnificent it was back in it's day. 

You can just picture what might have gone on here, it was definitely worth seeing. 

By this point we were boiling hot and managed to find this little place down a little back street near the Colosseum where we found these yummy sandwiches. Tomato and mozzarella and parma ham and mozzarella. And of course chips. 

That afternoon we decided to take a walk to find the Spanish Steps. They're undergoing some renovation at the moment but it was still a lovely sight and the square that surrounds them had some amazing shops and of course lots of yummy ice cream. 

For dinner we found a restaurant on the street we were staying on. We were exhausted and so ready for this meal. I had a pepperoni and roasted peppers pizza and Michael had Canneloni. 

After dinner we walked back down to the Trevi Fountain area. Little did we know that after over a year of renovation we'd arrived on the day it was finished! Thousands of people were gathered round, fighting for their space to take a photo next to this stunning fountain. We felt so lucky to have been there and it really is beautiful. 

DAY FOUR:

After 3 days walking around the city in the crazy 35degree heat we decided to treat ourselves to a day at the beach. We travelled to Santa Marinella for €4.50, an hour train ride and it was beautiful.

We had a swim and a sunbathe, had pizza and ice cream and returned back to the city for our last night in Roma. 

This night we had dinner at a restaurant that we'd walked by a few times and it had seemed to be very busy. It didn't take long to realise why it was so busy.

We were brought breadsticks, bread, balsamic and olive oil and and little glass of Prosecco upon arrival. I chose these mixed salamis to start and Michael had salted cod which looked amazing. 

DAY FIVE:

On our last day we didn't need to leave for the airport until around 6pm so we decided to have a walk to Vatican City and see the Vatican and explore another part of Rome. 

Here's me melting in the 38 degree heat. 

I didn't manage to go into the Vatican as my shoulders were showing and as it was so boiling hot and it was our last few hours we decided to give it a miss. We still managed to get pretty close though and Michael had a good look inside which I've put in my vlog. It was also Sunday which was crazy busy. 

After we were done wandering the square we grabbed some drinks and headed back to our favourite area for one last meal before heading to the train station. I cannot express how hot it was this day. We'd managed all week to keep going but the exhaustion and the sadness of leaving made this day a little harder. 

We were so pleased to arrive for lunch and indulge for one final time in the incredible Italian food. 

Michael ordered these mussels and clams which look amazing. (Sadly I'm to scared to eat seafood because of all of my emetophobia business!) 

We had the best few days and saw some incredible things, ate some incredible food and far too much ice cream. 

I will make a video on some of the key points we learned whilst in Rome and give a few more details about the logistics of our trip in case you're thinking of going yourselves! 

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

I hope you enjoyed this post!

'til next time,

Hannah xoxo