Holiday Recap - Austria

My family and I went to Austria this year for our dear friends wedding which was beautiful. 
It was also an amazing place that was so quaint and whimsical. 

We were able to share this new adventure with our closest friends who also came to the wedding and we all stayed in the same hotel which is always fun! 

Also the weather was AH-MAZING it was 40C/100F most days and stayed hot the whole week we were there. 

Graz, where we stayed, was surrounded by mountains, literally. At points it just took my breath away. One night there was a thunder storm with lightening landing on the mountain tops, Bud (my brother) and I just stood there under a roof while the rain poured down and we just talked about life. It was awesome. 

How cute is this view?

The town which we visited like typical tourists, was adorable, every building had such detail and class that made you just stare at the intricate detail each one had. 

The building with the decal is of course Swarovski which fits it perfectly!

Just a snapshot of the adorable road with the tram lines running through the town.

We visited an array of places while there! We went to the Schlossberg which is a mountain that has an amazing view from the top of the whole city, it was probably my favourite as I love seeing views like that - to see a whole town from a birds eye view just puts life in perspective!

Here it is! Yep we walked down all those stairs!

The view from the top. Check out those mountains

We also visited a cave, and I don't really know what to say about it as it is hard to explain if you have never been to one, but it was partly in a mountain and partly underground. It was pretty funny because we turn up to the place to see all these Austrian people in rain jackets and hiking boots (bearing in mind it 100F/40C) and then there was us, a group of English tourists wearing shorts, vest tops and...flip flops. Yep we had no idea. Well as the tour starts, which was all in German, we enter a dark, small tunnel, and we are properley hiking through this thing! We got wet. Let's just say we were NOT used to this sorta thing! 

The pictures don't really do it justice but it is the best I can do!

We also went to the world's largest armoury! "wow, amazing" I hear you all scream, but to my brother and dad it was kinda the coolest thing. As they both love, LOVE history and all that is to do with it, to them it was the best. Bud makes small models of tanks and everything and my dad knows just about everything to know about every war. You get the picture now...

So we went and it was cool, not my cup of tea, but nonetheless I enjoyed it. It was even better to have Bud tell me every single weapon that place had and the look on their faces when there were 4 floors (yes. 4 floors.) full of armour and weapons!! 

Don't think I would be too afraid if 
I saw one of these in battle!

Horse armour

The last night we were there, after the wedding at midnight, a group of us sat outside on deck chairs and just stargazed...
There were many laughs and many memorable moments ;).

I have never seen so many stars. It was extraordinary. They covered the nights sky like particles of dust on a wood shelf. We saw constellations and we found out after that the shooting stars which everyone saw (except for me who was never looking at the right time) and the channel of 'dust' was the beginning part of the Perseids meteor shower, an annual event that happens each August. How cool is that? We had no idea, but thoroughly enjoyed it! 

So there you have it just a few tourist spots we hit while in Graz, Austria! It was a lovely place and I would not mind going back again! 

Em 

Livin' around London town

I was thinking about what to blog today as I walked to one of the nine Royal Parks in London for a lovely picnic. Then it came to me, how awesome is it that I live in an amazing city? If you haven't been to London I would definitely recommend it. This place is so cultural and beautiful. Wherever you go there is something different and exciting. The markets in Central London are so quaint and you can find some real treasures there. The Royal Parks are always filled with so many people soaking up the good weather. The busy streets and towns are packed with all kinds of people running around and minding their own business, but sometimes its nice to slow down and just people watch! Not only is the city itself great but the towns that surround it. I live in a beautiful town close to the centre which is a picturesque town full of great people (and some celebs) right next to the Thames, with amazing views that I just can't get enough of! 

Yeah the weather may not always be great, it's unpredictable and I like that. It might be warm, maybe cold or windy or rain or like this summer, super hot! But it is always changes and I don't mind that!

Here are some pictures I've taken over the past year of London, they are mainly from my Instagram (follow me @emmartin29)

Top left: outside of Liberty as a typical taxi drives by. Carnaby Street this summer.
Bottom left: view from Richmond bridge looking at the riverside and view from Hampton Court Bridge.

Hampton Court Palace where King Henry VIII lived. Close to where I live. No big deal. 

Kingston by the river at sunset, this is just one of the many row boats you see at this time of night.

The boats by Richmond Bridge, love the colours in this picture!

Em

Temporary Goodbyes

Today I had to say goodbye to my best friend Emily (EmiG) She is awesome and originally from America but lived in London and now at uni in California, she was over for the whole summer and we had a blast and had so much fun. Today we had to say goodbye which is hard, yet thanks to social media and wifi I can text her, tweet her, Facebook her, Instagram her and FaceTime her all the time! Can you imagine if we didn't have the internet? I think we take it for granted as it means you can literally be anywhere in the world yet still be connected with your friends. How cool is that? But then I guess we take a lot of stuff for granted, even friends. People who know you so well and that you can spend all day with and never get bored or run out of things to say or do. 

So, I'm gonna miss ya, but talk soon chica!! 

And have an amazing year in Cali ;) 

Em

Twerk it Out

Hey how was your bank holiday? Oh right no one actually wants to know they just want your opinion on Miley Cyrus at the VMAs.

Well to be honest, it was gross. Just plain yuck. I mean really? 

1. She has a lot of self confidence in her self to get on stage and do 'that' 

2. Who gave her those ideas? To dance how she did, twerk and get close with a man way older than her (oh yeah shame on you Robin Thicke you didn't help the situation either)

3. What on earth was she wearing? When would that ever be ok to wear on stage? 

And 4. Bravo Miley, you got the whole world talking about 'you' and what you have done with your life and how 'grown up' you have become, from the innocent days of Hannah Montana. 

To be honest I was mostly disappointed, because I was a fan of hers in the ole' Hannah Montana days, seriously, I loved that show!! I couldn't wait to get to my grandparents house in America just so I could watch the Disney show 24/7, which is what I did seeing as we didn't have the channel in England so I only watched Disney once a year! 

Anyway...yeah... I was disappointed, like urgh. Who are you? I hope children and those who look up to her don't follow the short-platinum-haired-red-lipped-tongue-out 'rolemodel' she has turned out to be. 

Unfortunately what we saw at the VMAs was inevitable. Think about it, her new style, her new music, it was a ticking time bomb to the big 'finale' of who she now is and her 'new look' that was plastered all over twitter, instagram and every newspaper and magazine. So really the media didn't help, we were waiting for another story, and there we have it. Everyone (including me) have something to say about it. And thats what they wanted right? Everyone to remember Miley. Everyone to watch the performance on Youtube and care more about her. 

Miley we care, because no one wants you to turn out like every other Disney child star.

I feel like an old lady typing this, ranting on about how generations are changing. But she is my generation. And that's what bothers me, I don't want our generation to be known for that or her performance.

Em

Rising Quick

Rising Quick?

What does that mean?!

WELLLL......

I should explain the title of my blog. I wanted to start a blog, but the title is the hardest part

(AM I RITE?!) and I was trying to think of a cool, quirky name but something that actually meant something, then I knew what I needed to do, go to my super-cool-quirky friend EmiG and my sis Nay.

SO I told them I wanted to start a blog and they were all like "oh cool, whatcha gonna call it?" and that's when I needed their help. When we finally put our heads together EmiG happened to put on my favourite song for inspiration - Something Beautiful by Needtobreathe. And in the lyrics it says "rising quick" and then it came to me...

EPIPHANY!!!

In life we want to try and reach our goals and dreams, we can't do that by going in the wrong direction, the only way is up, north, moving ahead in life striving for your goals and doing all you can to achieve them. But in life you choose what you do with it.

You can either be someone who has dreams and aspirations, but when they grow up they do a job they don't love and never strive to fulfil their real aim in life. They settle.

You can be someone who is very happy with their life and has not a care in the world and are happy for what they have achieved, they settle.

Or there is the person who has a dream from a young age and knows there is nothing they would rather do than what they love. They make their hobby their career and never work a day in their life. Those people rise quick, they achieve their goals because they don't settle for possible they reach for impossible.

They don't settle for anything that isn't the best for them.

So when people asked me when I was around 13 what I wanted to do in life it stumped me because I realised you can do anything if you set your mind to it. And I thought, what do I enjoy? What is it that makes me happy? What do I want to spend the rest of my life doing? And then it came to me and I knew what I wanted to do.

So I'm gonna trust in God and  hold on to the promises he has given to me.

One of my favourite verses in the bible is Genesis 39:2

"The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man"

That means the Lord is with me with you! And we are successful!

Em

Introduction

Nice to meet you...

Seeing as I haven't really introduced myself properly here is a small overview..

Well hi, I am Emily, 17 years old.

I live in the suburbs of London and love all that this amazing city has to offer. I am blessed with an awesome family and extended family. I have 2 sisters, a brother and a brother-in-law who are all older and awesome. On this blog I will refer to them as V and her husband Alex, Bud and Nay :) My family also extends to my church family who I have grown up with all over the world, and they know me best. As my mum is American I have gone to America every year of my life visiting family and friends in Pennsylvania. SO yeah I like to travel and definitely travel more as I get older.

Well here is a small segment of my life :)

Here are some recent pictures of my family when we went to Austria

Em

HEY THERE!

Oh hello!

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by! You are probably wondering why another person has started another blog for another reason! Well you can add me to that list! My name is Emily and welcome to ma blog! woo! So why did I start this blog I hear you say?! Well... It is to just have a place where I can let everything off my chest and just write, write about life, what I'm thinking, what I'm believing and what I want to do with life! So during this long adventure I join myself to the ranks of the blogging world!

Thanks for reading !

Em