Revisiting Tampere, Finland!

As some of you may know last week I took myself on a trip back to Tampere in Finland, after living there for a year I often find myself dreaming of being back there in the snow, eating a vast array of sweet treats or hopping on a husky ride. Now that I'm no longer a student it's so hard to get time off to do anything, so when I booked a week off work I knew what I had to do...

It's always a no brainer to fly with Ryanair as they offer direct flights to Tampere and the return flights cost me £50 making my coach to the airport more, madness! Tampere is about 2 hours from Helsinki, I do love Helsinki and the shops but Tampere feels much more homely and there is so many places that I know of that you can explore. When we arrived there was about 3 inches thick of ice everywhere so it was basically a skating rink, the day before a lot of snow had melted and turned to slush which then freezed so as you can imagine it was sooo dangerous! Luckily the next day it snowed a lot...

We stayed in a place called the Holiday Club Tampere where we had stayed before as it is only a minute walk from my old student accommodation. The views from the room are just spectacular and it was so nice waking up to this every morning.

 On our first day we headed down to a place called Pyynikki, from where we were staying it probably took about an hour to walk down but the place is totally worth it and it is a huge attraction for the locals on a Sunday. Pyynikki has a tower which you can go to the top and drink in the breathtaking views that the city has to offer, unfortunately the very top was shut off probably due to the weather but I've done it so many times before so it was not a problem, however if there had been no munkkis left it would have been a different story! Above is a picture of a munkki which do look pretty similar to a normal English dougnut, its a specialty in Tampere and they are famous nationwide. These sweet sugared doughnuts are also flavoured with aniseed, they are basically known as a sweet bread in Finland. If you ever get a chance to visit, go get a munkii!

We ate our munkkis inside with the view of the falling snow, why cant every Sunday be this perfect?!

 It was time to walk our munkkis off through the forest and head down to the lake...

Tampere is probably the only place I have ever visited which can offer you perfect tranquility, some places there may just only be yourself and you could probably drop a needle and hear the sound. It is the perfect place to go for some relaxation, the lakes were frozen when we visited but as there had not been much snow they were just a skating rink, I only ever walked on the lakes when there were other people on them too, I didn't much fancy falling into them!

 After a day of munkki eating, walking and shopping we headed down to lake Nasijarvi and to look at the Rauhaniemi sauna which was a few minutes walk from where we were staying. I went to the sauna and lake many times during the summer that I lived there, but there is no chance in hell I would contemplate doing this when its around -10! For the Finns it is a normal way of life and it's meant to be a great thing for your body to go from the two extremes. I don't want to get undressed in a warm room in this weather let alone getting into an ice cold lake brr. It always looks spectacular at this time of the year though, again it's so peaceful. When the sauna is closed anyway...

 Positively balmy...

 It was a total whiteout on the Monday, no sun and it pretty much snowed non stop.

Walking is one of the best things to do in Tampere as there are soo many scenic walks to do, you just need to know where you're going. This walk is just next to the lake and you follow it round the whole way, Monday mornings don't get better than this!

It was just like Narnia..

In love with my beaut AmeliaJaneLondon bobble hat.

I never wanted to leave!

 We walked so far that we headed onto the cross country ski track, they make it look so easy but it definitely isn't after I demonstrated this in Lapland. I saw more of the floor than anything else!

 I wish I could say I made this snowman, but I didn't..

Alternative snowman, I cant work out if this is a dog or a moomin, who knows!

The cutest little house I ever did see, is it too much to want to live somewhere perfect and snowy like this?!

 In the afternoon we headed to my favourite indoor food market.

 Finland is my kind of country, they have national days dedicated to a cake including this one! Amazing huh?!

 No where does cakes like Finland..

In the evening we took ourselves off the beaten track and went to a truly Finnish little cafe set up in the cutest little hut...

A deliciously warm hot chocolate was needed to defrost!

 On our last morning we headed down to the lake again for one last look around, we even walked on the lake a bit but I was far too worried despite there being many ice fishers and a snowmobile on the ice. It was also -10 and my hands were in agony from taking my gloves off to take pictures oww!

 Snow much fun!

It was time to wave goodbye to my old student accommodation again, so many good memories in that place!

Yet another fab trip to my beautiful Tampere, it was nice to start the year of with a revisit. It's back to work for me now but I can look back on my great memories from last week and know it wont be long until I head back again!

Until next time Finland...

Would you like to visit Finland? Have you been to Finland before?

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What a 'Wicked' show - Theatre Royal Plymouth

'Are people born wicked or do they have wickedness thrust upon them..? 

Wicked is the show to beat all shows, I am an avid Theatre fan and have been lucky enough to watch many shows in London and in the Theatre Royal Plymouth over the years. So it's a big statement for me to make, but Wicked goes above and beyond and offers an electrifying performance to make all other shows go green with envy!

It is one of the shows that I have been wanting to see since it began in London but had not had the opportunity to see it before. I was shocked when I found out that the international award winning show was heading down to Plymouth (nothing ever comes to Plymouth!) as part of the Wicked UK tour. After speaking with quite a few people over on twitter it seems that a lot of people are already familiar with it or have had the chance to watch Wicked already, and I had only heard good things about the show! Wicked originally started out in Broadway and a few years later arrived to the West End where it has been for a number of years. Wicked has become a world wide phenomenon and sees people from all over the world flocking to watch it.

Wicked The Musical arrived to Plymouth on the 20th January and is here to stay until February 14th which is a nice long time for a touring show. I was lucky enough to attend Wednesdays performance and upon arrival at the Theatre Royal Plymouth I knew we were in for a 'wicked' evening. The entrance to the Theatre was illuminated with green lighting and which invited us onto the green carpet, I felt like this was a great touch to the whole experience and really set everyone up for the show ahead.

Wicked follows on from the story of The Wizard of Oz and contains elements of it throughout the show. In short it picks up from where the story ended and goes on to tell the story from Elphabas (the wicked witch) side of things as told by Glinda, who are the two main characters and where the tale starts off with the two of them meeting at Sorcery school. As a heads up the following does contain a few spoilers about the plot of the show!

It nails the stereotypical American high school cliche and singles out Elphaba as the outcast because of her sickeningly green appearance and as the girl who has no friends, as opposed to Glinda, the posh and popular girl at school who everyone wants to know. As the story progresses it shows how their initial unlikely pairing blossoms into a perfect relationship, and which in turn unfolds into the darker side of life in Oz when Elphaba realises her true powers which leads them on an adventure to the Emerald City in search of the wizard. The wizard misuses Elphabas power to his benefit and  which leads her down a dark spiralling turn of events which makes her out to indeed be the Wicked Witch of the West.

We are initially led to believe that Elphaba might be as wicked as she is made out but as the story unfolds we get to see the true picture of what actually happened and how the both girls help each other in the end to get justice. 

The whole show had me hooked from the opening scene and the acting, costumes and scenery were second to none and I really cannot find any faults with the whole show.. It had me spellbound from the word go! 

If you do live in Plymouth I would strongly recommend you all to visit the show even if you've seen it before (I know I want to go again!), it's here until February 14th and you will be sorry to miss out on this show stopper - you can buy your tickets here! Wicked is currently touring round the UK so it might be coming to a city near you soon, you can find that out here. If you want to see a little taster of the show check out the official Wicked trailer below...

  Have you seen Wicked before? What are your thoughts on the show?

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Kebelo Enriching Hair Care Range Review

I'm back from an amazing trip in Finland now (more about that in another post!) and I'm back with lots of fresh new content to bring to you, I also have the rest of the week off work so I have plenty of time for once to do some blogging! Recently Lookfantastic introduced me to an amazing new hair care brand called Kebelo. New brands that come onto the market ridiculously excite me as I rarely ever stick to one type of shampoo/conditioner. Kebelo seem to be a great universal brand and have products suitable for every hair type. They offer 4 different types of ranges to suit each individual including; the Revitalising Range, Enriching Range, Silk Range and Velvet Curls Range. They also have some clarifying products too which are perfect for all hair types, more about that later... I have been testing these products for over a couple of weeks now so lets see how I got on...

The bundle of Kebelo products came beautifully wrapped!

 Kebelo The Ultimate Enriching Set* £29.85

I opted for the enriching range which is designed for normal to dry hair. The set includes a shampoo, conditioner and hair mask and they are all enriched with guar sugar, wheat, argan and grape oil, this range intends to create softer, healthier hair that feels nourished from within. I think most people suffer from dry hair at some time in their life and no one likes having hair that resembles a piece of straw..This set is perfect for re hydrating dry and dull hair and restoring it to luscious and bouncy locks! 

I adore the packaging of these products, the different colours on the bottles makes it much easier to distinguish which one is the shampoo and conditioner, is it only me that always gets mixed up?! The shampoo and conditioner complement each other really well. The shampoo lathers up really well  and you can tell that there is guar sugar and grape oil in the products, as they do smell pretty similar to grapes... but not in a bad way! I have then been using the conditioner afterwards which leaves my hair so silky and smooth. This set was a no brainer for me as with long hair I do suffer with dry ends so it's really helped to add moisture back into my hair. On alternate washes I have been using the hair mask with the shampoo, you can leave masks on for however long you like really, this one suggests for 10-20 minutes, the longer the better in my opinion. As a real treat I love slathering my hair in this and wrapping cling film or a towel around my hair and sleeping with it in, as it gives your hair a nice long time to drink it up. As I swim a lot I also pop a good lathering of it under my hair cap and it works a treat from protecting it from the chlorine and preventing it from drying out even more!

Kebelo Clarifying Shampoo* (250ml) £12.95

I was also given the shampoo from the clarifying range to test out which is suitable for all hair types. Clarifying shampoos basically act as a detox for the hair, they help to exfoliate your hair and delicately strip the build up of chemicals from products, daily environmental factors and chlorine from swimming - an all round perfect product for me! This product can be used as little as once a month to help keep your hair free from a build up. Personally, I have been using this in most washes and have completely fell in love with it. The product strips your hair without being too harsh and you can definitely tell the difference when using this against a normal shampoo as it makes my hair feel a lot squeakier and dryer before putting conditioner onto my hair. Once dry my hair feels so much thicker, healthier and luscious and I could not recommend this product from the Kebelo clarifying range enough as it really is a product that everyone needs to look into using. It is natural for everyone to get a build up on their hair which does need to be exfoliated and gently removed occasionally, our hair is no different to our skin at the end of the day, the only difference is we can't see the build up on our hair!

A big thank you to Lookfantastic to introducing me to Kebelo, my hair is feeling better than ever with the enriching range and a well overdue detox with the clarifying shampoo! The ranges are reasonably priced and the bottles will probably last me for a few months as you don't need to use a lot of the product for each wash. I did love the enriching range but without a doubt the clarifying shampoo is the winner for me, I often forget that hair gets a build up and it's probably worse for me as my hair is exposed to a lot of chlorine and this shampoo has helped to revitalise my tired and dull tresses and make them look better than ever, forget the teatox its all about the hairtox this month!

Have you heard of Kebelo before? Would you like to try out this range? What hair brands are your favourite?

*Products marked with an asterix (*) have been sent to me for review. However, all opinions in this post are 100% my own

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January Wishlist

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I have been having a really hectic week with work and everything else, and sometimes life really does have to come first, but there's always time for dreaming about what new things I want to buy! Once Christmas is over I'm fully ready for summer despite the pouring rain and stormy weather and the new season of clothes in the shop always excites me! Spring is all about the nautical/Parisian and pastel shades of clothing for me and I will drag similar items out of my wardrobe every year. New Look in particular have a great new selection in the shops at the moment and within the next few weeks I will be stocking up on some beauties like the ones above in the hope for some sun and warmth!

I'm off to Finland on the weekend so this will be my last post until next week but I have lots of different posts lined up for my return, so stay tuned..I hope you all have a great week!

What do you think of my picks? Which item is your favourite? Are you looking forward to Spring?

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