Portugal

Hi,
I know it's been a while, but here I am again :)
A few weeks ago I went to Portugal with my sister and her friend, to be exact we went to Porches.
We stayed at a places thats called Vila Senhora de Rocha, a beautiful place with all different houses and apartments. We stayed at one of the apartments and it was lovely. Here is what we were up to :)

Day 1:
We took our plane in Ostend at 7pm and arrived in Faro around 9pm, what we didn't knew was that there was a time difference of an hour :) but we found that out pretty quick. So after finding our taxi that we had pre ordered we went on the road. It would have take us about 50min but that driver was crazy and it only took us like 30min. After finding our apartment we went on to settle in, took a shower and went to bed, so we could get up bright and early the next day.

Day 2:
We woke up early because we had to do some grocery shopping, thats the part of being in an apartment and not in a hotel, but we like it that way. So we looked up the shop online and it would take us 15min by foot, so thats what we did. It was already quit hot but we hoped we could get back before the real heat :) The shop was big and we found everything we needed, we had 3 bags and a six pack of water, so we had a lot. And we had ice cream with us, so we quickly went back home.
There we had some breakfast and after that the lady of the apartment came by to fix the wifi. And then we went for a swim, because we had a private pool and beach :) First we went to the beach and on the way we saw a little shop at 5min from the apartment :( To get to the beach we had to go down through some stairs, but from up top the view was amazing and from the beach it was also pretty cool. The water of the ocean was super cold but we could use the refreshment. We could also go to another beach through a whole in the cliff, so we tried that out but we preferred our beach, it's was more quit over there :) After a few hours at the beach we went home for some dinner and after that we went to see the outside pools we also had access to. Then we headed back home to shower and play some games before sleeping.
 And like that we had a great first day :)

Day 3:
After breakfast we went and found a place to do some sightseeing of the caves. Because this place is famous for having the most beautiful caves of Europe. We found a place where we could hop on the boat directly and for not much money, so we did it. We were alone on the boat and the boat was pretty small, but we found out that this was great cause now we could enter even the smallest caves. Our captain was a cute old guy who didn't speak much english but still showed us amazing details, we ended up understanding him. For example when we got out of a cave he told us to look up because the rock above us looked like a face, all such small things made this a great experience. Also getting in the smallest caves was awesome, because even boats a little bigger than ours couldn't go in there. This boat trip was the highlight of our trip!! If your there one day you have to do it!
After getting back from the trip we went back home to trop everything of and just leave in swimsuits and towels, because we had a plan. From the boat we saw that just next to our beach there was a cave we could swim to if we went around a cliff, so thats what we did :) It was amazing! At one point my sister went crazy and swam on a rock because she thought there was a shark :) but it was a false alarm. After that we went back home for some diner. Then we went to the cliff to do a little hike and call our parents to show of the view.
After that we went for a swim in the pool and then back home to shower and sleep.

Day 4:
Our last full day :( We decided to go see a town so we could get some souvenirs and such, because where we were there was nothing. So we went to book a taxi to go to Lagoa, but the driver told us there was nothing up there but he knew a nice place not far from that. So he took us to Carvoeiro which is a lovely little town by the ocean. We took some great pics there and did some shopping for souvenirs. We stayed there the whole afternoon. After getting back home I wanted to go for a swim because it was the hottest day so far, it was 35°C!! Then we went home for diner and after that the girls wanted to go for a swim in the pool, like every night they stayed there till 10pm. Then we went back to shower and sleep.

Day 5:
The last day :( We don't want to leave, this place is amazing, so much to do and so quit.
After breakfast we start cleaning and finish packing, then we go place our luggage at the reception and then went for a last time to the beach to enjoy the view and then we went to a bar for some refreshments. Around 2pm we went for some late lunch because we didn't knew if we would have something to eat later on. Then we went for a last walk on the cliff were there was a church on top of it and we enjoyed the view from up there. Then a last drink before leaving for the airport.
At the airport we still had some time to kill, because we were the last flight of the day. So we went to eat and drink something at PAUL, my favorite place for croissants :) Then it was time to check in and leave this beautiful place.

We had the best time on this trip and we recommend this to everyone :)
This place is so beautiful and quit, not like the big cities around. If you like to party you could, at our reception there was a bus leaving for a party place at night but we didn't felt the need to party.
Here you can go with kids, friends and family. It's just amazing and I would go back if I can one day!
Hope you enjoyed reading about my trip and if you go there one day let me know :)
We also made a blog about our trip on our youtube channel if you want to check it out :)
Love,
Sarah

How to pack your bags for (short) travel

Hi,
I know it's been a while since I last posted something.
Today I wanted to talk about packing for a trip with the plane.
Because when you'll read this I will be in Portugal with my sister and her bff.
We're going for a girls trip in the sun and will be gone for 5 days, but I'll update you about that in another blog :)

How to prepare before your holiday. (this is for the summer, for the winter I would pack warmer)

• After booking

          - Are all my documents / passport still valid? If not make sure all is are valid.              

• 2 weeks before departure

           - Do I need to buy any medication?

           - Can I still fit in all my clothes / swimwear?

• A week before departure

          - Do I have all my reservation documents?

          - Is my medical bag in order?

          - Are all my liquids under 100 ml and in total under 1l?

          - Do I need to buy anything else?

          - Do the last of your shopping (small deodorant, shampoo, body lotion,...).

• 48h before departure

          - Online check in for the plane.

          - Pack your bags (suitcase + hand luggage)

          - Make sure you don't have to much with you, check the weight you can bring (for us it's 10kg)

          - Print out all the needed documents

          - Take a cope of your passport / driver license.

What to pack?

• Medicines

          Dafalgan (or whatever you take for headaches), creme for wounds + band aids

• Beauty

          Sunscreen + aftersun, body lotion, shampoo + conditioner, make up + make up remover,               hairbrush, toothbrush + toothpaste, ... 

• Clothes

          1 shorts, 1 dress, 1 skirt, 3 t-shirts, 1 sweater, sunglasses / glasses, swimsuit, beach towel + beach bag, underwear, pajama, shoes (1 closed pair / one open pair)

What to wear on the plane?

I like to go casual, nothing fancy on a plane for me :)

I'll wear my legging with a t-shirt and a hoodie, we fly in the evening to go and in the night in return so I need my hoodie :) I'm always cold in the plane.

I also like to wear layers because if you go to the sun like I do now you'll want to undress a bit at arrival, if you leave from a colder country :)

This is my packing list for a short holiday in a sunny destination, if I would go longer I would of course take more and if I would go out of the summer I would take warmer clothes :)

I wish you all a great holiday with a lot of sun 🌅

Love,

Sarah

UK Roadtrip

Hi,
I know it's been a while, so sorry about that, lots to do.
A few weeks ago I went on a road trip through the UK with my dad and sister.
It was an amazing week where we had a lot of fun and of course we also did a lot of driving :)
We did 4 cities in one week, Oxford, Leeds, Edinburgh and Brighton. On the road we also made some other stops and about a few of them I wanna talk about today.
If you wanna see all what we've been up to on our trip you can see it on our youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpiKGAm1dEcAOUiFoFQsY6w
We did our first vlog week and it was so exciting I hope you'll enjoy watching it.

But today I wan't to talk about 2 specific stops we made and they both are related to Harry Potter!
The first stop we did was in Oxford where they filmed for one of the movies was the new college, we couldn't get in but you could see at the outside of the building that it was in the movies. Another stop was a the museum of Oxford, where they also filmed, we did't go inside cause the line was so long and we only were one day in Oxford. But a pleasant surprise was that the museum actually was the home of the father of Alice from Alice in Wonderland. We also found the candy shop where Alice went to buy her favorite candy, now it's named Alice's shop. Another we learned is that this city was the home of a lot of great stories, like Narnia and also JRR Tolkien called Oxford his home. I didn't know a lot of Oxford but it was a really pleasant surprise to learn so much of this beautiful city, I would recommend it to everyone and especially if you like stories like me :)

Another stop I wanted to talk about was Malham Cove where they filmed for Harry Potter and the deadly hallows part 1. This was first of all quite a drive to find it, we had to drive on the smallest roads ever! But at the end we arrived, but not before taking the hike of our life :) First we had to walk a little while till the bottom of the cove, i think it was about a half hour, but it went quit fast. We took a lot of pictures and then we started the climb till the top, because there they filmed for the movie. I'm not gonna lie, the climb was killing me and my dad, my sister did quit well :) We had to stop 3 times until we made it till the top. But once up there it was so beautiful we forgot all the pain of making the climb. Also there we made a lot of pictures and had our picnic. After staying there for about an hour we went back down, what was also painful with all those stairs, we had quit the workout that day :)
It was a beautiful day, but sadly enough we found out a few days later we deleted all the pictures of that day on my sister her canon, luckily we also took pictures with our phones.

Those where the 2 main stops I wanted to talk to you about, if you want to see more of our trip you can see pictures on my instagram:theadventure_oflife or on youtube with the link on top. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. I would love to go on a trip through Scotland in the future to because it's such a beautiful county to. I loved traveling through the UK and the company was also the best :)

Love,
Sarah

Chocolate chip cookies

Hi,

Today I'm back with another recipe :) I'm going to make chocolate chip cookies.
It's a quick recipe that you can make anytime for any occasion.

What to you need:
120 gr unsalted butter
180 gr dark brown sugar
180 gr sugar
2 eggs
540 gr all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt

Preheat the oven at 190°C and put parchment paper on 2 baking sheets.
1. Put the butter in a microwave safe bowl and put it in the microwave until melted. Let it cool for a bit. Then whisk the sugars, eggs and butter in a large bowl until smooth.
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, you can do this with your hands if you like or with a wooden spoon. Next you can stir in the chocolate chips in it.
3. Roll the dough into balls and put them on the baking sheets, with some space in between them. Bake the cookies until golden but still soft in the middle, for 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how chewy you like your cookies.
4. Transfer the hot cookies with a spatula to a cooling rack. After that they are ready to serve.
Store the cookies in a sealed container for up to 5 days. If they last that long :)

I hope you enjoy making these cookies as much as I did, it so easy and quick to do.
Enjoy eating them with friends or family :)
Love,
Sarah

Chocolate cake

Hi,

So yesterday was my sisters birthday and I made a chocolate cake for her.
Here is the recipe I used :)

This is what you need:
250gr plain flour
125gr  cocoa powder
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
425gr unsalted butter, at room temperature
350gr golden caster sugar
2 eggs
225ml milk
400gr icing sugar
4 tablespoons of milk

Step 1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease 2 tins of 20cm with butter.
Step 2. Mix the flower, 75gr of cocoa, the baking powder and 1 teaspoon of fine salt in a bowl and whisk it all together. Keep it to one side.
Step 3. Cut 125gr of the butter into chunks and place into a bowl and beat it for a couple of minutes until creamy.
Step 4. Add the sugar and beat for a few more minutes until pale. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, make sure scrapping the mixture off the sides and bottom.
Step 5. Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix slowly until it all comes together.
Step 6. Beat vigorously for a minute, then divide the batter between the two cake tins. Place them in the middle of the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until cooked through. When they are ready leave the cakes to cool for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Now for the buttercream.
Step 1. Cut the remaining butter into chances and place into a bowl. Beat on a high speed for 2 minutes until creamy, then put in the remaining cocoa and half the icing sugar. Add 2 tablespoons of the milk and beat again for 1 minute.
Step 2. Add in the remaining icing sugar and add the remaining milk, then beat everything on a high speed for a couple of minutes until super smooth.
Step 3. Spoon some buttercream on the first cake and spread it out to the edges, then top it with the second cake.
Step 4. Spoon on the rest of the buttercream and gently spread it over the top of the cake and down the sides, until the entire cake is covered.
Step 5. On top off the cake you can also putt some shavings of chocolate, if you like.
You can decorate with what you like :)

I hope you enjoy making and eating this cake as much as I did :)
Love,
Sarah

 

Harry Potter Dinner

Hi,

I'm back with a new blog today.
Yesterday I went to a Harry Potter themed dinner with my cousin. We were super excited!
A friend of mine found it on a website and told to me about it. After looking on the site I was sold, it looked awesome!

So we had to be there at 19:20 and the line was long, I think that there were around 400 people. But on the outside they've put some colorful lights and you could here the music from inside.
Once at the door we showed the tickets and you could take a picture, there were also some little shops with Harry Potter gadgets. But I already have a lot of things so I didn't buy anything.

When you entered the great hall you could see the tables like in the movie with the banners hanging over them. At the end you had the table with the teachers and you also had the flying candles.
In the middle of the room you had a stage where something was going to happen. On the tables you had butterbeer and water. Honestly I had the butterbeer in the London studios and it was way better there, here I think it was a lemonade with vanilla extract, so totally not my thing.
You also had 2 tables with the dessert buffet. I didn't think it would be enough for all those people and other people shared the same feeling, but it looked amazing.

After everyone entered and took a seat the show began, professor Dumbledore took the stage and started the speech. It was literally the same speech as in the movie, then professor Umbridge interrupted, also like in the movie. It was ok and funny to see. Then on the center stage you had professor McGonagall who did the sorting hat ceremony. That was nicely done, except for the part when you see people who are totally dressed in a house and you put them in another house, you saw there disappointment, I thought that they could do that part better. The people who registered to get sorted but didn't got called on stage were asked to go to the photo area where a personalized letter would wait for them. But when we got there they said that there were no letters, but you could take  your picture with the sorting hat on.
Then they announced that we could get in line for the buffet, but table by table to keep some order. Buy that time everyone was hungry and waiting to get in line. We were at the third table and you already could hear people wonder if there would be enough for everyone. By the time it was our tables turn there was less choice than in the beginning I felt, the buffet tables were less full. But in we go! We got a little of everything, but the pieces we got were not normal slices of cake, there were like mini slices and we could only take one of each. Like I don't like whipped cream on anything so I could choose from less, so I asked of one if I could have a second one and they said no. Also when you booked your ticket you could let them know if you had an allergy and I heard the people in front of us complain about that, cause there son had an allergy and they didn't got anything in the place like they said online, so the kid had to eat a few chocolate frogs instead.

When we got back to our table we started to eat and honestly it were the worst cakes I had ever eaten. We were so disappointed by that time. And we weren't the only ones, we heard a lot of people complain about several things.
While eating my cousin saw that there were owls standing in the corner where you could take pictures of them, so after our meal we got to see them. I found it a bit sad for the owls cause of the lights in the room and all the noise. Then we got back to the table and everyone wondered if something else would happen, maybe another show... And indeed then there was a video they played about Godric Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff, it was weird but funny, the content wasn't quite correct with the original storyline. And after that it was finished, they said that the bar would stay open for a little while more but that was it. Before we left my cousin saw a guy walking around with a real life snake on him and I wanted to get out of there :) but he passed us and we both touched the snake, but again I felt so sorry for the poor animal.

I hope you enjoyed my blog more then I enjoyed my night. Everyone just expected more cause on the site it looked all so nice. I just gonna have to go back to the London studios or maybe to the park in the USA. But for the first time that they organized this it was ok I guess, they only can take the comments of the people and do it better next time.

Love,
Sarah

Cheese and mushroom pastry dinner

Hi,
It's been a while but I'm back :)

I've been a vegetarian for a few months now, I'm not really missing the meat and fish, actually not at all. In the beginning I thought that I was going to miss it, but thats not the case.
Today I'm going to show you how to make an easy veggie diner, this is a really easy and fast type of dinner.

Here we go.
This is what you're going to need:
- camembert cheese
- mushrooms (you can mix different types here)
- garlic
- puff pastry
- salt and pepper
- egg

So I'm going to start with cutting and cooking the mushrooms. Also add a bit of salt and pepper, how much you like and also the garlic. I put one clove of garlic in it, depends on your taste. You can also add parsley and union in it if you want, but I didn't because my sister is allergic to it.

Then you take you puff pastry and cut 6 circles out of it. If you make it for 2 people like I'm doing use 2 puff pastries. After cutting your pastry you can start cutting your cheese. Put the cheese on half of your pastries and on top of that you can put your mushrooms. Then cover it up with another pastry. You can now roll up the edges of the pastry and then push it together using a fork. With the fork you should also put some holes on top of the pastry, so the air can come out.

Now put your pastries on an oven dish and before putting them in you can take the egg and mix it up. Then take a brush and put the egg on top of your pastries. Now you can put it in the oven. Put the oven on 200°C for 15 minutes. Let it cool down for a few minutes. In this time you can put a salad together to eat with your pastry.

I hope you enjoy making it and eating it.
Let me know if you make it and what you think of it :)
If you like brie you can also make it with that and put a little bit of honey on top of it.
Enjoy!

Love,
Sarah

New year, new me. Or not :)

Happy new year!! 2017 has started!

Today we make our new years resolutions.
What are yours?
For me and my family I hope it's a year without sorrow or setback. Actually I hope that for everyone of you! That everyone has a great year and that all your wishes may come true!
For me personally I will start a diet and really stick to it! I hope to have lost at least 10kg by this summer and then another 10kg after the summer, that would be nice. For my health and for me in general. Let's hope this works!
For me it's not really a new year a new me, I'm not gonna change dramatically, at least not my personality, cause I know who I am and what I want. The only thing that is gonna change is hopefully my body and mindset about food :)
I'll keep you posted and let my progress know in about 6 months, hopefully I don't let myself and you guys down.

So new years eve, what have you done?
Party or stayed home?
I stayed home with the family, like last couple of years, I'm not really liking going out. Maybe I'm getting old or maybe it's just not the same anymore... Don't really now.
But I like staying home with the family in the holidays, thats what's it all about for me.

I hope you all had great holidays and to all a happy new year!

Love,
Sarah