TRAVEL

EASTBOURNE | HIKING THE CHALK CLIFF

Hello lovely people and welcome back to another travel blog. I hope you are enjoying the beautiful sunny bank holiday at the end of May. I sure did! I am so happy to finally share another “travel” blog post with you guys as I finally left London for a day to do an adventurous hike on the South Coast of the United Kingdom, Eastbourne.

To go to Eastbourne, I took the train at St. Pancras and it takes you about 1:45 hours to get there. You will need to change trains in London Bridge or in East Croydon, whatever is convenient to you.

Super excited to have done this hike with a friend, the weather was perfect, great company and a hell of a hike. Happy to say, I made it (alive) and I am super proud of myself that I did the 24km in total (from and to home), but man… it was tough at some points. It is a lot of uphill (envisage on UP) and downhill. The view, company and weather make it all worth it.

Eastbourne is famous for its Britains highest chalk cliff. From the station, it will take you up to maybe 30 min to get to the South Downs Way. The old town looks a bit like you are in France or Spain, the architecture is so different from what I am used to seeing in London.

From there we hiked up to the west of Beachy Head, Birling Gap. We took some time to have lunch and enjoy the pebble stoned beach. The complete hike is mesmerizing, nature, the sea, the sun and majestic chalk cliffs.

A tip is to bring some lunch with you to eat on the beach, so you don’t have to line up and wait a very long time to get lunch from the beach restaurant when you are in Birling Gap. There is also a pub called Beachy Head, not sure if you need to book in advance, might be worth it as well.

Another beauty on the way is the Beachy Head Lighthouse, it is the last traditional style ‘rock tower’ that was built by the Trinity House. Another lighthouse we saw is the Belle Tout Lighthouse “Britain’s most famous inhabited lighthouse”. It is a Bed and Breakfast now, I would love to stay here one day. Can you imagine the night sky from here?

From the beach, at Birling gap we were heading back to Eastbourne. This was the heavy part of the hike. It just seemed like there were a lot more uphills with the wind against us, which made it a tough hike back to the old town.

Heading back to the old town, we had a traditional Fish and Chips waiting for us near the Eastbourne Pier. We were planning to go to the famous Odyssey Fish and Chips, but we went to Harry Ramsden’s instead. Just because the Odyssey only do take away and we wanted to sit somewhere inside after the last part of the hike was very windy and it got a bit colder.

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Above are some of the pictures I took along the way. This hike is a recommendation. There are so many beautiful sites here in the UK to explore, I can’t wait to see more of them. If you enjoyed this blog post and find it useful to get some inspiration when travelling to the UK, please rate the post below.

Thank you and enjoy the rest of Spring, especially since it is finally getting warmer.

ART

PHOTOGRAPHY | ROTTERDAM BY NIGHT

Hello Lovely People, Here are some mesmerizing pictures I took during a few evening walks in my hometown, Rotterdam.

This series is based on the evening walks through the beautiful area of Kop van Zuid and in the city centre. These areas remind me of “The City” in London. It almost felt like home while being at home. Basically, both places are my home, but I didn’t expect that both cities had such beautiful similarities.

These pictures are taken with an iPhone 11. I didn’t edit the pictures a lot to any. Just wanted to share these beautiful pictures with you here 🙂 and on Instagram.

ENJOY!

FOOD CORNER

Hello Food | Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Hello Lovel Readers, it is time for another easy peasy recipe after almost a year. I have to say, I love cooking again. It feels a bit like therapy and I am very happy that I can cook for others this period. If you like to follow my cooking journey, best is to follow me on Instagram. For specific cooking-related content click as follow; my cooking journey in 2020 and my current cooking journey in 2021.

Spaghetti alla carbonara is a simple recipe that I ate many times before but never made myself. Mainly because I always thought it was hard to make the carbonara the right way, at least that were always my thoughts.

Recently I saw this recipe again on Social Media and I thought this is actually not so hard to make. Plus you do not need a lot of ingredients. So, I wanted to challenge myself and make a delicious Roman spaghetti alla carbonara.

What do you need ?

  • Eggs – I use the yolk, but I think it is allowed to use the whole egg. Tip; use 1x yolk per person and add an extra one at the end
  • Black pepper
  • Pecorino Romano cheese – 50 grams per person
  • Pasta – spaghetti 100 gram or less per person
  • Pancetta – or Guanciale or bacon 50 gram per person

What’s next?

Prepare the pasta as usual. Brown the pancetta in a non-stick pan. In the meantime, put the egg yolk in a bowl and add the cheese and black pepper. Mix this up and add a bit of the pasta water to dilute the mixture and make it creamy. When the pasta is al dente, add to the pancetta, turn off the heat to prevent cooking of the eggs. Add the carbonara sauce to the pasta and mix mix mix. Add a bit of pasta water to make it creamier.

Et Voila! My first-time Pasta alla Carbonara looked perfect and it was very delicious. At least that is what they said 🙂 Enjoy making your version of this delicious Roman dish.