Travel : Brussels & Bruges

I feel like I'm on Myspace again, documenting my holidays. This is just a few of the maaany photos from Brussels and Bruges just my boyfriend and myself visited the weekend before Christmas, and so they mainly consist of Christmas markets, Christmas trees and an awfully strange Christmas nativity parade (red jacketed marching band). Belgium is such a beautiful country and I'm so happy we managed to squeeze in travelling to Bruges for the day, even if it was full of tourists (ourselves included)... 

My favourite places are as follows... The botanical gardens which featured in my first outfit post, with incredible turquoise statues lining the pathways. 

A little gem of a record shop that stocked everything you could ever imagine. We picked up a 'Petite Surprise' package of 7" lps for 2 euros - which was a little Christmas present to ourselves! 

Grand Place, the obvious tourist destination. Each evening, every half hour or so, orchestral music starts booming around the square while a spectacular light show lights up each magnificently grand building. Seriously breath taking. 

St Catherine's Christmas markets are also a must see - there's so many stalls to see and so much gluhwein to drink!

Four days was pretty much the perfect length of time for a 'weekend break', enough time to see all the sights, find a favourite café and actually have a break from real life! I'm off to Egypt tomorrow for an all-inclusive week of writing my dissertation and lying by the pool. I'm excited to escape the freezing English climate, although it means I need to try and remember how to dress for hot weather... 

What I Wore : Brussels Day 3

We stayed at Hotel Bloom, in a superior king room which we found at an amazing last minute price on Booking.com. It's a boutique style hotel with completely individual rooms - each has a mural painted by a different artist from a different city from around the world. Ours was an Irish painter who had created a beautiful, pink scene with a woman stood in the corner, supposedly emulating Spring. The decor of the rooms are seriously cool AND you even get a full blown coffee machine to yourself! I would recommend staying in Hotel Bloom a million times over and if I ever go back to Brussels, I'd most definitely stay here again!

We went out for a meal on our last night to an Italian style restaurant called Drug Opera. The buildings of Brussels are beautiful and all at least three storys high, which means the interiors of restaurants and bars have mezzanine style balcony's and staircases overlooking the lower floors. Because it was Christmas time, everywhere was covered in twinkling fairy lights and it was maaagical.

I wore this amazing yet irritatingly itchy jumper dress from H&M which I want to wear every single day of my life. For £14.99 I can kind of deal with scratching my neck off everytime I do wear it...

What I Wore : Brussels Day 2

I've been searching for the perfect camel coloured roll neck jumper for so long before finding this one from Gap at the back of my mum's wardrobe. Apparently it itches. I think not. Therefore it's now mine and I absolutely adore it. I always end up pairing it with my flares - which are my favourite jeans in the entire world. Add some hoop earrings and you have total unintentional seventies vibez. 

We traveled up to Bruges on our second morning to explore their Christmas markets. It's honestly one of the most beautiful places I've been. The multicoloured buildings and little cobbled streets were covered in Christmas decs and there was even a real-life nativity parade featuring a brass band, a few sheep, horses and a donkey!

What I Wore : Brussels Day 1

A week ago today we were mid-way through our four day pre-Christmas weekend in Brussels. It's now three days post-Christmas and it all feels a bit of a blur. 

Time is the one thing you can never have more of, so it seems a waste to not go out and do things and see the world. The only thing I really want to do in life is to see everything every country, city and tiny little village has to offer. Unrealistic, I know, but I'm yet to spend a holiday lying around doing nothing when I could be exploring...

We mainly decided on Brussels for it's Christmas markets, where we spent most of the weekend drinking gluhwein and amaretto. It's such a beautiful city and the locals are so friendly and helpful and I think we literally walked a hundred miles over the four days just trying to see and cram in as much as we could! 

These photos were taken in the botanical gardens just by our hotel - so worth a visit. The turquoise blue statues stand amongst fountains, mazes and winding tracks that lead downhill into Brussels city centre. The main attraction is of course the domed greenhouse, where inside there is a bar and a roundhouse where they hold gigs every week or so!

I'm so glad I found this coat in the Urban Outfitters sale last year - I hadn't worn it until last week and turns out it's perfect for the cold Belgian weather. I also wore my Vagabond boots all weekend which I'm pretty impressed about, especially with the amount of walking we did. Comfiest-shoes-ever.

Regress

Filles a Pápa F/W 2014 is too perfect. Their mustard cords and layers-on-top-of-layers, combined with a totally bare faced look book is everything. 
Scandinavian minimalism has been overplayed all year, and the freshness of this collection and photography style give a whole new take on the trend.
I think I want pretty much every piece. 
Starting with a certain pair of mustard flares... 

Taken from full look book*