On Wednesday, I woke up and opened the Facebook app on my phone. I was presented with a screen which said ‘One Year Ago’ and the following picture from my Gap Year: View this post on Instagram A post shared by V I O L A (@violahelen_) Wednesday marked exactly 365 days since I landed […]
If We Were Having Coffee… | Vol. 27
If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I’m currently on a train to London with Jack bound for Luton Airport*.We’re off to Vilnius in Lithuania, followed by Riga in Latvia. It was a pretty spontaneous booking and neither of us have been to either country.That’s another two I can tick off 😉 I’ll […]
New College Boat Party | Uni Diaries
A couple of weeks ago, New College had its annual Boat Party on the River Thames. This year’s theme was Casino, with the dress code being, ‘Black with a hint of red‘. This was the first black-tie event of term in my calendar and we were all looking forward to dressing up and escaping leaving Oxford for […]
RAG Garden Party | Uni Diaries
Two weeks ago, in the gorgeous twenty four degrees heat, Oxford’s RAG (Raise and Give) hosted a Garden Party in Oxford’s very own University Parks. The afternoon promised to be filled with afternoon tea, croquet, live music and cocktails. The best part was that it was all in the name of charity – what more […]
I’M BACK – If We Were Having Coffee… | Vol. 26
If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I have just launched my new blog! Have you noticed that I’ve now got rid of the wordpress.com at the end of my URL?! Not only have I purchased my own domain (hellooooo www.apieceofviola.com), but I’ve also gone self-hosted so keep your eyes peeled for some exciting […]
I’m Going Self-Hosted!
Hello my lovely blog readers, Today I woke up and I was searching some things up on Google, when I just decided that I wanted to take the plunge and go self-hosted today. I’m trying out this new routine where I can schedule blogging and YouTube in daily, and it seems to be working so far. […]
If We Were Having Coffee… | Vol. 25
If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I can’t believe it’s been almost an entire month since I last wrote one of these! Where has the time gone/why haven’t I written one sooner to give you guys an update?! If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I’ve been back at university for […]
Thoughts #6
I haven’t written a post like this in a while but I thought it was time to write down all of the thoughts and feelings I’ve been having, especially now that I’m finally able to put them into words. It gets pretty personal. I guess you could say for the past week or so, I haven’t […]
Shanghai in Pictures | Travel Diaries
I’ve finally got round to importing and editing a collection of photos from my latest trip to Shanghai. We spent five days being tourists and exploring the bubbling metropolitan city. We wandered around markets and street stalls filled with small restaurants and shops selling small trinkets. There were also parks, temples and gardens: We had […]
Saving Money to Travel
I am frequently inundated with messages and emails from readers, subscribers, friends and students on how I managed to fund my Gap Year entirely by myself. As this is something I’m incredibly proud of, and something I’ve achieved on my own, I think that I can share with you some travel-saving money tips… 1. ‘Take care […]