January Wrap Up
We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.
Well 2016 started off with a bang and we couldn’t have asked for a better start! This month has been spent in some of our favorite places and more importantly, has allowed us to connect with new and old friends which, for us, is one of the most important parts of travel. We started off the year right in London, traveled to Kent and then to Scotland and finally back to our home away from home, Barcelona! So without further ado, here is our January wrap up!
January Wrap Up
We kicked off the year in London by sharing a ridiculous meal with martinis, wine, champagne and your obligatory cancan dancers at Brasserie Zedel where we felt transported back to the 1920s. I mean the singer even had the old timey “New Atlantic” accent!
For those of you that don’t know, we are suckers for anything 1920s themed especially when there is live jazz so this was an absolutely perfect New Years for us!
We were in London because we were house sitting for the first time, through Trusted Housesitters and it was an absolutely amazing experience. We were taking care of little Neala, a six month old kitten, in the heart of London and we would highly recommend housesitting! It gave us an opportunity to relax and live like locals for awhile and unpack our bags! Plus we were able to hang out with this adorable kitty for a few weeks. Sometimes you just need a furry companion around 🙂
While we were in London we had a few things we ABSOLUTELY had to cross off our list, including afternoon tea at Kettners, having smoked salmon at H. Forman and Son, and finally taking a photo at Kings Cross Platform 9 3/4. These were all iconic London activities and I don’t think our time in London would have been complete without them!
After our holidays in London ended we popped down to Kent to visit our friend Alex, who we met in Macedonia in October, and stayed with him in his hometown of Folkestone. Folkestone is a small town located just west of Dover and is where the chunnel leaves England and crosses under the channel. It is a very picturesque town and full of history, especially WWI and WWII as most of the UK’s soldiers were deployed from here. There are memorials all over the city dedicated to the soldiers and people who lost their lives in the wars.
There also is a gorgeous downtown full of quirky shops, coffee shops, restaurants and of course, the ubiquitous pub. The downtown is made even more charming by the remains of the old Kentish medieval buildings! Don’t you just want to get cozy in a pub here and watch the world go by?
After Folkestone we took the train back to London for a few days to indulge in London’s cocktail scene with Edna and Joe. These two troublemakers always seem to get us to go out and have waaayyy too much fun… in a good way of course! (We would never go out on our own…) And so we decided to meet at Nightjar to try out one of London’s new crop of speakeasies. While Nightjar won’t go down as one of our favorite cocktail bars in the world, the cocktails were very intriguing and made for good photos!
After indulging in a moderate the perfect amount of cocktails we decided to search out the famous Duck and Waffle we all had been hearing about. Duck and Waffle is a glorious beacon of deliciousness at 3am located on the 40th floor in Moorgate and is such a cool spot. It feels so London! Open 24/7 they offer a wide selection of dishes and cocktails but we had to go with the traditional, duck and waffle. Also did we mention the amazing views of London?!?
*Although we were too entranced by the duck and waffle to take photos….
We finally headed up to Scotland to visit our good friend, Erika, who we haven’t seen in ages! It was so great to just spend time with her and catch up! It is always so good to reconnect with friends who we haven’t seen in a long time and even more fun to plan future trips and meets up all over the world! Erika, we better see you and Louise in Miami 🙂 We also were able to see another side of Scotland besides Edinburgh and Glasgow; oh ya, and we saw snow!
After freezing in beautiful but snowy Scotland it was time to head south and back to our beloved Barcelona! We have been in Barcelona since January 18th and we couldn’t be happier to be back! We are here working on a new guide to the city and we cannot wait to announce all the details next week!!
So since we are busy researching that means we also have been busy eating as you can tell by our instagram. We just can’t get enough of the food here 🙂
So that brings us up through January, now what plans do we have for February??
February Plans
February has us in Barcelona through the entire month working on our guide but it isn’t going to be all work and no play because we are actually taking a weekend break to head to Carnival in VENICE!! We take off tomorrow to soak in the atmosphere of the world’s most famous Carnival festival. We are obviously excited and cannot wait to see all the wonderfully intricate costumes. It has been forever since either one of us have been to Venice and we are going with our resident Venice experts, Edna and Joe (they convinced us over drinks!), so we know we are going to have a great time and explore some of real Venice even during such a touristy time!
So that is us, what we have been up to and where we are going! What about you guys, any fun plans for February??
Pin for Later
Ashley
Ashley is a passionate traveler and all around geek who loves to nerd out over ancient ruins. Her passion for history and art drives her to explore the hidden depths of a culture and share them through her photography and writing.
One thought on “January Wrap Up”
Leave a Reply
About Us
We are Ashley and Alex and we're foodies and boozies who eat, drink and live local. Our goal is to scour the globe looking for inside local tips, the best places to eat and the best places to drink with the locals.
We are also authors of a culinary guidebook, "Eat Local in Barcelona: A Guide to Catalan Cuisine." This guidebook is all about learning how, what and where to eat and drink local in Barcelona. Find out more in the link below!
Follow along with our adventures, so that you too can eat, drink and live local!
Follow us on Snapchat @PursuitAdventur or just snap a picture of our code!
You’ll definitely see us in Miami!!