Edinburgh Zoo has re-opened again! Back at the start of January the Zoo decided to shut the doors once again, while the new restrictions didn’t force it, the ‘stay home’ guidance meant there would be fewer visitors than there even were already, so it does seem like the most logical thing to do. However this past week the zoo announced their re-opening plans for weekends only, with the first weekend for members only – I jumped and booked my time slot immediately! Not much has changed since my last visits in November, the one-way system is still in place with just the few indoor enclosures closed (Budongo Trail and Koalas), and the need to book a time slot for entry still in place. This post is panda-heavy, I took almost 200 photos of just the pandas, and not so many of the other animals – but I still had a great day and saw almost all of the animals at the zoo. It’s also really been something to look forward to, hopefully I can make another visit again soon!
Continue Reading “Pandas +more | Edinburgh Zoo February 2021”Pandas +more | Edinburgh Zoo February 2021
One Year Without Travel
The last time I travelled was my trip to Copenhagen at the end of January 2020 – that ended a busy month with 3 ‘long-weekend’ city breaks which included visiting Belgium and Germany. I got back home on the 1st of February and had no idea there would be no travel for such a long time. I had one trip planned for 2020, in June I was to stay at the Pairi Daiza Resort in Belgium. Luckily that was the only one and it was easy for me to get refunds/vouchers and hopefully the trip will be possible in the future. Also luckily, I hadn’t yet planned anymore travel, but since the lockdown, travel is all I’ve been thinking about!
At first it was quite nice to be at home for a while and being settled – despite loving travelling, there is a stressful element to it – but after a while it’s just been very demotivating with the ‘not knowing’ of when travelling can be possible. I used to live for my holidays – whether they were a real break or even just travelling for a conference – they were really what motivated me at work as something to look forward to, and now there’s nothing like that to look to. But obviously, I’d rather sacrifice not travelling at the moment for a year (or two, but I really hope not more) so that it can be possible again in the future. Without any travelling to actually do, I’ve planned so much theoretical travel that I don’t think there will ever be enough time to get it all done, but I can dream!
I think it’s unlikely I’ll get to travel anywhere this year, sure I’d like to make use of my voucher to visit the Pairi Daiza Resort (and stay in the most amazing hotel with a room looking onto the polar bears) but that will still be there in the future. For the meantime, I’m in my final year of laboratory work for my PhD – not being able to travel is the perfect reason to get my head down and get on with my long to-do list, and in 2022 I will then be working on writing my thesis. I’m hoping if I work hard now, then by the end of it all I can enjoy the perfect trip away. Japan in the dream! Luckily without travel or socialising in the past year-ish, I’ve been able to make some great savings and really work towards making my ‘I finished my PhD trip’ a reality.
I’m glad my last travels before the pandemic were great ones, and I saw pandas, what more could I ask for? But it’s been a year and I’m having some panda (especially panda cub) withdrawals. I still have quite a few posts to share about my travels in the past few years, I hope those will see me through until I can have a new trip to share about.
Do I wish we could have all been out and enjoying the world, of course, but it’s important to think of the bigger picture at the moment still. Keep safe!
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 =)
Continue Reading “Lanterns & Lights – Edinburgh Zoo 2017 to 2020”Edinburgh Zoo – November 2020
In November I made two trips to Edinburgh Zoo on some days off that I had. The regulations in Scotland are currently that no-one should be entering into or out of the Edinburgh area, so at the moment the zoo is really for local visitors only – there are pros and cons to this, it’s nice to have fewer visitors (I went on both a morning and an afternoon, it was a little busier in the morning, but it was by no means busy) however this isn’t great in trying to help the zoo raise the funds it really needs to keep going. Despite it being November and a little cold and grey, with rain forecast on both of my visits, I had great trips with some great photography opportunities – hopefully you enjoy these pictures!
Magical first time at Shanghai Disneyland
When I was thinking about planning my trip to China last year I focussed on going somewhere I hadn’t been before – other than Chengdu I’ve been to Xi’an and Beijing, and while I love those cities, I need to branch out! I also need to visit some smaller places (for example Guilin is high on my priority list, it looks beautiful!), but I was thinking I should tick off the major sites first – which brought me to Shanghai. In my research Shanghai Disneyland kept coming up on travel blogs and TripAdvisor, but I was a little apprehensive about going alone. I then searched on Youtube and came across videos by thisnatasha, who has been solo to Shanghai Disneyland and really made it look super easy, so I became sold on the idea! I started my 2019 China trip in Shanghai, spending 4 days there split between Disneyland and visiting the city – it’s safe to say that the 1.5 days I spent at Shanghai Disneyland are in my absolute life highlights of things I’ve done, I just had the best time there and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since!
