june 2024

June was a jam-packed month! It started with a day trip to Canterbury with my friends, where we walked around town and had lunch at the Old Weaver’s House, a must visit restaurant on the canals where I had a goat cheese open faced sandwich that was to die for. We wandered over to The Parrot, another historical pub in town and had a pint before heading to the punting on the canals (where they use a wooden pole to push the boats through the canals). I’ve done the punting twice now and both times used the Canterbury Punting Co., which I can’t recommend enough. They are great tour guides and it’s an absolute must do if you visit Canterbury! After the punting, we went to the Foundry Brew Pub, which had an excellent selection of beers and I had my first beer tasting flight since moving to the UK (it’s not common to see a brewery, let alone one that does tastings!). After taking the train back home, I went to Soma cocktail bar with some friends and had a wonderful night! If you are looking for a quick day trip outside London to a historical town, I highly recommend Canterbury – it’s only an hour train ride from King’s Cross!

The following week, George and I flew to Spain to see some of my friends that live in Madrid and then to visit Tordesillas & my host family and friends there! I haven’t seen my host family in 5 years (since I started this blog!). Spain was a blast – we spent 1.5 days in Madrid and 3 days in Tordesillas. I wish we had more time, but we were able to pack so much into the short time! In Madrid, we stayed in Cheuca with my friend and got in late Wednesday night so we just had tapas at this random place before meeting my friend Tonisha (throw back to 2019!!!). It was incredibly coincidental that we were there at the same time & we met up at this cute bar called Specia Atelier. The next day, it was 35 degrees & we were absolutely melting, but George hadn’t been to Madrid before so I took him to all the sights – we went to Puerta del Sol, Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena, Real Jardín Botánico, Parque del Retiro & rented a boat on the lake, met up with friends at Madrid & Darracott for a wine tasting, had dinner at a random tapas bar, and more drinks at Inclan Brutal Bar.

The next day, we took the train to Valladolid, where my friend Andrea picked us up. We bopped around the city a bit, got pastries & coffee at Manolo Bakes, I showed George Campo Grande (the central park of Valldolid that has peacocks everywhere!, and then we drove to Tordesillas. We met up with my other friends and went for lunch at Camping Al Astral. It was the Tratado de Tordesillas celebration, so everyone was out on the town (unfortunately due to weather, the concert was cancelled). We spent time with friends, had dinner with my old host family, which was so wonderful, but my Spanish is definitely rusty! Saturday night, we went on a tapas crawl through Valladolid, met up with Tonisha & her old host family, and stopped at some fantastic places (none of which I remember the names of – sorry!). We ended the night at a new cocktail bar in the city called Cul De Sac, and shared so many laughs. Sunday, we had birthday lunch for Juanjo’s dad and it was really wonderful to see everyone who I hadn’t seen in so long! It was a quick trip, but I know I’ll be back.

The rest of June was filled with fun activities – George moved in with me (YAY!), I hit 100 classes at Orange Theory (very proud of myself!), I went to see Mt. Joy perform at the Roundhouse, which is a really neat music venue in London, saw Harry Potter & the Cursed Child (both parts in one day – it was SO GOOD), and saw Inside Out 2. I went with a friend to Kew Gardens for a Wine Walk, where you have a wine tasting at four different places in the gardens and you get to walk through the gardens. It was beautiful and the wine was fantastic. We went to the Royal Ascot, which has been a bucket list item for me, and had the best time. I bought a fascinator, got dressed up, and sipped sparkling wine while the horses raced by. I lost some money, but made up for it in memories! George and I went to a restaurant I’ve been wanting to try, called Smokehouse, which was delicious but interrupted by a short trip to A&E for George’s sprained ankle!! We had a work event at Swinger’s, a mini golf place, that was a lot of fun. I volunteered twice this month & loved getting to see the other volunteers / patrons – we have such a nice little community that I’m thankful to be a part of. We finished off June with a dinner at Bellanger, this fantastic French restaurant, the night before our flight to the British Virgin Islands, where George and I were meeting my family.