EuroQuest: Day 1 - Zagreb

Hi everyone! If you didn't already know this summer I have spent 2 weeks travelling around Europe which I was able to do through Girl Guiding (you can read more about how I got to do this and some background info and stuff HERE) and I thought I would tell you about what we got up to!

So the first place we went to was Zagreb in Croatia! On Wednesday 24th we all met up in London as we had a really early flight to Zagreb in the morning, so we thought it was best to stay in a hotel nearby that night. I shared a room with Emii and Frances and it turns out we are the most indecisive people ever! There was a single bed and a double and we couldn't decided who was sleeping where. After almost an hour we decided there was only one way to solve it - each of us wrote down our name and it went into a hat. As soon as this was done we went straight to bed because we had to be up super early.

Our flight was from Heathrow and in the airport we noticed a TARDIS and a Dalek (as you do) so of course after we had eaten we all rushed to get photos and the TARDIS turned out to be a photo booth but unfortunately it wasn't working so we just had photos outside it!

The TARDIS in the middle of Heathrow Airport

The flight was alright, but as soon as we walked off we were met with a gust of hot air. Now, England had been having a heat wave when we left but it was nothing compared to Croatia where I think it was in the high 20's/ low 30's.

We then went to find our hostel which was called the Fulir Hostel and it was actually really nice! I had never stayed in a hostel before and to be honest I was expecting the worst! We all stayed in a room of 10 in bunk beds and the room had a little en suit with a shower and there was a communal bath room there as well so it was pretty good!

The hostel we were staying in

We then went for a little explore around the various market stalls and I was surprised by how cheap everything was! The main price difference that I noticed was that a bottle of Heineken was being sold at the equivalent of just under £1.

As we were explore we met a man busking on some stairs close to where we were staying and he began to serenade us with the few English songs he knew before one of my leaders happily accompanied him as a backing vocalist!

Everyone joining in with Giovanni Furlan

As a group we had a look around the church that was close to where we were staying and I absolutely loved the architecture, especially the detailing on the door way! It was so cool inside that we just wanted to stay there to avoid the heat that was waiting to greet us as soon as we stepped outside again.

The detail on the entrance to the church

We then went off in our own two groups of 5 to explore the city ourselves. And the first thing we did was to go get ice cream - I like to think we have our priorities sorted! Then we basically went for a walk, nipped into a couple of shops including an art shop where the sold ink along with a whole manner of art utensils for literally pennies. We stopped in a park to enjoy the sun and walked through several others on the way back which had gorgeous fountains where many people were dipping their feet in as an attempt to cool off!

Cooling fountains

We then went to a really nice restaurant where I had a huge margarita pizza but throughout the meal there was a fly buzzing around! The amount of times that we attempted to catch the fly in bottles, glasses and whatever else was on the table but alas we failed.

Not the restaurant we went to but the place next door!!

We ended our first day there by going on a little adventure on a Noddy train which did a little tour around the city, which was nice. When we got back we decided to do the Pony Song in the middle of the square and by the end we were absolutely melting. The Pony Song is one of those camp fire songs that we do as Guides and Rangers but for most of us, we had never heard it until the selection weekend!

The noddy train

If you want to see more I filmed a bit of what we were doing so you can check that out here:
The video is a montage of several clips and pictures throughout the time we spent in Zagreb as apposed to these blog posts which a split by day.

ZAGREB VIDEO: COMING SOON

I hope you enjoyed reading this and feel free to leave any comments!

Quick Fix For Broken Nails

Hi everyone! So I don't know about you, but my nails are always breaking! For some reason they are just so weak and I can't grow them too long because either the layers split or a whole chunk breaks. I thought I would share with you today a quick way I found on Pinterest to temporary repair your broken nails.

So to start with: there are a few things you will need

Clear nail varnish - or can be coloured if you prefer

I'm using my Collection (formally Collection 2000) base coat

Glue - ideally you should use nail glue but I don't have any so I use superglue which seems to work!

I'm pretty sure I just got this in a supermarket but I wouldn't know for how much - sorry!

Scissors

I've just noticed these are from Safeway - just shows how old they are!!

A tea bag

A nail file

I have absolutely no idea where my nail file is from. My nail buffer (the bottom one) is from the Body Shop but as it was given to me a present I don't know how much it was but I cannot imagine it will be over £3??

And sadly, a broken nail

So firstly what you want to do is cut your tea bag open and get rid of the tea as all you need is the bag

Then carefully cut a small square from the tea bag. Depending on how big the breakage of your nail is will determine the size of square you will need

As you can see it almost looks a bit like a small piece of bandage or gauze  that you would use to cover any cuts on your skin - it's basically doing the same job!

Then apply a small bit of glue onto the square you have cut out and position it on the breakage. Firmly press it down onto the nail and make sure it sticks down fully.

Now before doing anything else give the glue a few minutes to set - you don't want it coming off any time soon!

Then grab your nail file and file down the square so it doesn't stick up on your nail so much. If you don't do this when you nail varnish on top (especially coloured) it will be really obvious that there is something under & we don't want that!

One piece is usually all you need but because I was going to be away doing raft building and loads of other activities that would ruin my nails I decided to cut out another small square from the same tea bag and repeat it by placing the second square on the top of the first.

If you do this you will need to do some extra filing just to minimise the size it sticks up, but be careful not to do it too much otherwise you will be basically taking the tea bag off which really defeats the point!

Really sorry for the picture being so blury!

And that's it. Then you can apply your nail varnish over the top. Even if you don't want to use a coloured one I would recommend just a quick clear coat on top just to cement it.

Hope this helped & let me know if your nails are always breaking - I need to know I'm not the only one :P
And if you try it out let me know how it goes! (:

Backpacking Around Europe - EuroQuest 2013

Hi everyone! So today is the day! I've spent all day rushing around packing and making sure there is nothing I've forgotten. For those of you who don't know what I'm on about, I was selected last year to go on a South West Region international guiding trip around Europe (which I've recently found out we are the first group to try this moving around idea). If you want you can read more about it HERE.

I can't wait to tell you about it when I get back. I hope to take lots of photos and maybe even some videos to show you what I got up to! We have so many exciting things planned such as a Segway tour around Zagreb; visiting the spas in Hungary; watching a show at The National Black Light Theatre in the Czech Republic and so much more!

Although I will be away for about 2 weeks visiting 8 countries but I've written plenty of general beauty blog posts which are scheduled to post whilst I'm away so I won't be abandoning this! For you it will seem like I'm still in the UK blogging away from my bedroom!

So keep checking my blog for new updates and I will see you when I get back!!!

Girl Guding INTOPS: EuroQuest 2013

Hi everyone! What's this?! This isn't a normal beauty post? I know, I know! I want to post about something a little different today but the beauty posts will be returning, so don't worry!

INTOPS stands for International Opportunities for Girl Guides and Scouts. There are various trips ranging from going to an international camp to meet people from all over the world to going out to Africa and doing community work. It gives young people a chance to travel abroad who otherwise might not normally be able to.

Now, I am very involved with Girl Guiding. 

I was a Brownie:

I was also a Guide:

I am a Ranger:

And I am also a Young Leader at a Rainbow and a Brownie unit:

As I do all these things with Girl Guiding last summer I selected to try out for a county trip which was going to an international camp. This was quite hard for me as at the time my grandmother had died and her funeral was being held the same weekend,as I then one I was supposed to be going on a selection weekend to try out for the trip. I was also doing my work experience that week.

This meant that my family all flew up to Scotland for the funeral and I stayed at home (I did sleepover at a friends so I wasn't alone in the house at night!!). So as you can imagine I was pretty stressed out. Anywho, I found out a few weeks later that I had been offered a place on the trip! I was so excited!!! But then I had even better news: 3 of us had been selected from that weekend to try out for a South West regional trip.

This included another selection process. 40 people were selected to try out for this from the whole of the South West of England which included the channel islands and I didn't know anyone! But I made friends there and it was such a great experience. Region were running 3 trips: 1 to a camp in Belguim, 1 back packing around Europe and 1 the following year to Mexico. I would have loved to go to Mexico but as it was in 2014 and I would be in the middle of my A Levels I decided to put my name down for the backpacking around Europe one. And guess what!? I GOT SELECTED! 

So that means that this summer I will be travelling around Zagreb, Hungary, Bratislava, Austria, Prague, Germany, Holland and London completing different challenges as we go (hence the name EuroQuest) with 9 other girls whom I have only met twice in some cases!

A lot of people think it is very religious based but to be perfectly honest it really doesn't matter what you believe; it is really all about meeting new people and trying new things! If you aren't already part of it have a look in your area to see if their are any Guide units (10-14) Rangers (14-25) or for anyone 18+ you can volunteer to help at a unit and even work towards your leadership qualification! And if you aren't a girl then you can join Scouting. I have to admit my knowledge of this is very little but you can find more about Scouting here. A lot of girls also join Scouting instead of Guiding but we do a lot with the Explores (One of the Scouting equivalents to Rangers) & we do a lot of the same sort of stuff!

Girl Guiding has done so much for me and I'm so grateful for all the opportunities I have been given through it! Thank you for reading!