City Break

May 23, 2024April 20, 2024 Kirsten

Chengdu strolls, September 2023

This was my 5th visit to Chengdu, so just one of many times where I’ve been exploring in the city! Chengdu is definitely one of my favourite places, I find it so easy to wander and there’s always something to see. On this trip I was there for 3 nights and really only 2 full days which I used to go and see the pandas, but as the base closes at 6PM, that left at least a couple of daylight hours and the whole evening for other sightseeing, plus a few extra hours on the afternoon that I arrived (from Beijing, more on that another time!). I spent a lot of time around the Chunxilu area as that was most convenient to me but I also did a long walk and took a metro ride out across the city, let’s dive into some updated photos of Chengdu!

January 22, 2024December 29, 2023 Kirsten

Italian Weekend Diaries: Rome in December

After seeing my pictures from Milan, my dad was suddenly very keen on heading to Rome – so we did a little research and ended up finding a good deal for a long weekend. Here is part two of my Italian Weekend Diaries sharing my time in Rome in December, it was nice having someone to share my time in Italy with this time – and Rome is somewhere I’d definitely return to again in the future for a slower paced trip. *This trip was taken in December 2019, some things may be the same/different*

June 2, 2021December 27, 2023 Kirsten

Italian Weekend Diaries: Milan in May

Back in 2019 I visited Italy for the first time, and ended up making two trips in the year – to Milan and Rome. Both were pretty quick stops hence the title ‘Weekend Diaries’, so today I’m sharing my quick time spent in Milan back in May 2019 and I can’t believe these two years have gone by so fast!

December 16, 2020December 26, 2023 Kirsten

Lanterns & Lights – Edinburgh Zoo 2017 to 2020

For the past 4 years, including this one, winters in Edinburgh have brought some fantastic Giant Lanterns of China events to Edinburgh Zoo! Each year has had a different theming, although this years event is Christmas Lights themed rather than using lanterns – it was still a super fun event and I think could be something combined using both light effects and lanterns for events in the future. Edinburgh Zoo was one of the first zoos to have a lantern event, particularly in the UK, and these are definitely becoming very popular events now to brighten up the cold winter nights! Some of the Giant Lantern events have even won Giant Panda Global Awards too, which is a fun accolade for the events^ This post is photo-heavy, so I will write a little about each of the annual events then leave you to enjoy the pictures of some of the fantastic lantern and light displays that I’ve enjoyed over the years =)