Manchester MCM Comic Con 2018 Haul

Happy Wednesday! As if it's the start of August already! Where has this year gone, seriously!? The end of July means for me that it's a whole year until my local MCM Comic Con rolls around again! That makes me a little sad but at least I get to keep the memories alive for a while longer by sharing all about my day with you guys! I usually go to Comic Con with my best friend, but this year I went along with my mom and she thoroughly enjoyed her first convention! Just a disclaimer, I hope that this post doesn't come across like I'm bragging about what I bought... I save up my money for ages before the event so that I can treat myself, as there's no geeky merch stores anywhere around where I live. Anyhow, I hope you all like haul posts! Expect this to get pretty photo heavy, haha!! I was going to make this post a photo diary too, but I think I'll blog that separately :) Enjoy! 

I've been attending Comic Con for the last four years, and each time I don't really have a specific shopping list in mind. I just enjoy spotting things that take my tasty and buying them. However this time around, I wrote up a little checklist on my phone, and I had several items that I hoped to find. Most of them were Funko Pop! Vinyl; if you've been a regular reader of mine for a while now, you'll know that I collect these awesome figures. At the beginning of last month, after considering it for quite some time, I decided to set up an Instagram account entirely dedicated to my toy collecting hobby. If you're a fellow toy and vinyl figure lover, you can check out my IG here :) 

Finally finding a place were I could nerd out over my figures and share my photography with fellow enthusiasts helped to revive my passion for collecting, not that it was ever really gone, it just took a backburner with all of the stuff I've been dealing with so far this year. When you go through a long period of a particularly bad episode of depression, it can be super tough to get back into things that once brought you so much joy. So thankfully, I know have my toy collecting bug back and have managed to build up my wishlist again in a very short amount of time, since I keep seeing amazing Pop's that I immediately have a mighty need for! So, which figures did I buy?

I bought home five new Pop! Vinyl in total, and I am super happy with my finds! I have been after these characters ever since they were first brought to my attention, and so it is great to have them in my collection at long last! I have been very much wanting to expand the horror characters part of my collection in particular, and so I'm over the moon to now have the iconic Chucky from the Child's Play movie franchise, and also Beverly Marsh from Stephen King's IT (she's one of my favourite characters, and Sophie Lillis portrayed her so well in the 2017 movie). Just look how bright and eye-catching Chucky is!? He's so photogenic! f you know me well, you'll know that I have the hots for Tormund Giantsbane from the TV series, Game of Thrones. Kristofer Hivju is bearded, ginger and looks like he'd give a really good hug, so what's not to love!? *insert x10 heart eyes emojis here*. I really like the character himself, his personality, and he's definitely in my top 5 favourites from the show. 

I like how vibrant Funko have made his hair and beard, and I think the knife he's welding looks cool. It's an aim of mine to get as many of the dinosaur Pop's as possible because I just love dinosaurs! I actually spotted this Jurassic World Indoraptor figure when I was on my way to the train station to go home after the convention. I picked him up at HMV in the Manchester Arndale centre. I have three of the Jurassic Park/World dinosaurs now, yay! The other figure that I bought at Comic Con was this most recent version of Disney's Mulan, which I think is just gorgeous! Her eye makeup really pops (hahaha pops, get it? I think I'm funny :D) and her outfit from the matchmaker scene in the movie is really pretty. I can't stop saying 'FA, MULAN' in the matchmakers voice ever time I look at it though! Which is your favourite Pop! Vinyl that I bought?

Considering I'm basically addicted to Funko products, I couldn't just stop at Pop's! I also bought myself one of the Series 2 Harry Potter Mystery Mini's blind boxes, in fact it was the first thing I bought upon entering the con. It was only £5 at the Forbidden Planet stall, and I didn't even realise that they were the exclusive versions until I had already spent up. I wish I'd bought more now! If you follow me on either of my Instagram accounts, you might have seen my unboxing video for this awesome little guy. I am delighted to have unboxed the Hungarian Horntail dragon from Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire! I'm super impressed by how detailed he is, and I cannot wait to photograph him outside. The Mystery Minis figures are so cool! 

One of the reasons I love Comic Con so much, aside from all of the amazing cosplay and being surrounded by fellow nerds, is the opportunity to discover so many fabulous artists. Each year, my favourites always return and it's nice to be able to support them, but then there's also always new artwork to see, and this time I decided to focus on supporting them that extra bit more than I usually do. I was on the look out for new kawaii illustrations, and especially those who were selling stickers. Some of you will know that I am building up a vinyl sticker collection to cover my laptop with, and so Comic Con was the perfect place to stock up!

I bought the adorable Cardcaptor Sakura sticker you can see above is from a store called Tea No Sugar, and their products were just so so cute!! If you've a fan of all things kawaii like me, go check them out. I picked up both this epic dinosaur skull sticker and the I Heart Brain's zombie sticker from Bluefayt Art, and this artist seriously creates the most stunning fantasy character art!! I will definitely be buying some prints by her in the future! The tiny Bananya stickers were only 50p!? I love how they both have expressions of annoyance, but have different ways of showing it :) The artist who drew these is called Cataclysmic Tilde. 

I was walking past a stall with the loveliest anime-style artwork when I noticed that they had a basket filled with prints that were on offer for only £2 and I thought this was such an awesome deal that I couldn't pass up. It was really quite tough to choose just one print, but I finally settled on this one. I just adore the shocked expression on the girls face, as well as her blue/purple hair and a dress that reminds me of a traditional Bavarian style outfit. The flowers around her are what really made me fall in love with this print, they are just so pretty and bright! How sweet is the little thankyou note with the neko girl on it!? This was such a nice touch :) The artist who created this gorgeous print is called Evangeline Lelland. Another adorable addition to my sticker collection that I got at Manchester MCM was this chubby little shark! Chao Illustrations who designed this chibl sea creature might be my favourite new artist find of the day! Her artwork is just so eye-catching and colourful!! I can't wait to pop this shark onto my laptop :) 

How stunning is this 'Creepy Cute' girl!? It just appeals so much to the gothic side of my personality, plus green and black are my two favourite colours so it's perfect for me!  I also have green eyes and dark hair too :) I love the eyeball bows in the girl's hair as they remind me of the kind of hair accessories I used to wear in my teens! Creepy cute is how I would describe my personality, as someone who loves all things spooky and macabre, as well as everything cute and fluffy and pastel-coloured. And so this sticker just caught my eye and I had to have it! The store was called Illustration by Gaslight (which is a great name!). 

In addition to stickers and prints, I also purchased a couple of badges at Comic Con as well, although I completely forgot to photograph one for this post, oops! This brilliant Red Fox one is just fantastic! Foxes are one of my favourite animals and so I'm always likely to choose them, but this store had an array of other animals so it was hard to buy just one! I'm a geek when it comes to animals, I absolutely love them and so I am so happy to have discovered Lyndsey Green Illustrations who designs the most beautiful nature-themed artwork! I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to wear this badge much though as I don't want to have it fall off my bag or something, it's too pretty to risk it! 

YASSSS NEW BROGAN CORAL PRINTS!! I look forward to visiting Comic Con each year because I know Brogan Coral is going to be there, and she's my favourite artist! If you like what you see, go take a look at my post all about my mermaid prints by Brogan Coral! Before this weekend, I had five of her prints up on my art wall, so it was my aim to get three more to even out the number. However, there was a great deal of 4 prints so I got myself one of the new Spyro designs too! I can't really put into words how much I love these prints, they are so vibrant and unique! I love the fantasy and sci-fi themes, and I just adore the way that the artist designs the hair styles and backgrounds!! How cute is the Spyro print!? I really love that they've include the little dragonfly too. It's also such a nostalgic print for me as Spyro was one of my favourite games when I was a kid. I'm curious, which print would you choose out of the four I got? 

I can't go to a convention and not come back with some Pocky! I always get mine from the Tofu Cute stall for only £1.20 a box! The milk ones and the cookies & cream that you can see above are the best favourites in my opinion, but I decided earlier this year that I really wanted to try something matcha green tea flavoured since it's such a popular Japanese tea and I've never tried anything that tastes like matcha before. I'm curious to see what I think! Do you like matcha? Do you have a favourite flavour of Pocky? Just look how flippin' awesome the illustration on this bookmark is!! I couldn't walk by it and not buy it! I am a lover of dragons, and this one just looks epic. The artwork is by Collette J Ellis, another artist who designs the most gorgeous fantasy creatures. My books are going to be protected from damage by a fantastic fire dragon from now on!  

Next door to where I bought the fabulous dragon bookmark was the stall of another of my favourite illustrators. I picked up a print from them at a previous Comic Con, a fantastic eagle wearing a Ravenclaw scarf, and the bird is just so well detailed! I love it! It makes a change from seeing Ravenclaw artwork and merch with a bird that looks more like a raven than an eagle >.< which just makes me adore this print even more! I have been falling more in love with this artist's work over time because I follow them on Instagram, and this just made me so excited to go get some more of their products at the convention. This time from Sushi Studios, I choose this gorgeous bookmark and two stickers, which are just so beautiful. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them! I'm gonna have the best decorated laptop of all time :p I need one of Sushi Studios pin badges in my life too! 

Talking about pins, I was really happy when I discovered that Magical Maidens was going to be at my local Comic Con. I am currently collecting her Ditto X Studio Ghibli pins, and so I knew before I got there that I would be picking up some more of these! There was a deal on that meant I got all three of these pins for only £20!! It was such a challenge to choose who to get, but I was driven by girl power vibes, and thus got Kiki, Ponyo & Mononoke. Princess Mononoke is my favourite Ghibli movie so I'm super glad that I now have this pin! I know that I'm linking to a lot of my posts today, but I want to share more products by these wonderful artists with you all so if you like these pins, check out more of them in this post I wrote back in May. Her pins are great quality and so noticeable, I've been complimented on them a few times! 

The final things that I purchased leaving the convention and heading for a very much needed KFC at the Arndale food court was their figural keyring blind bags. I've have been desperate to get my hands on some of these for what feels like forever, and I watched every 'unboxing' video of them on YouTube that I could find. I was super sad when I couldn't get them easily in the UK, and each time I went to Comic Con I found some, but never the Horror Properties versions. I got these at a stall, that I'm gutted I can't remember the name of, for only £5 a bag. I regret not buying more now! Keep scrolling to find out which ones I got inside...

Two Pamela Voorhes (Jason's mom from the Friday 13th movies)! It's so typical that I would get a character that I wasn't hoping for, (I would have loved to get Pennywise, David from The Lost Boys, Freddy or Lydia!) and then get a duplicate of her! I was having a good rummage through the box too, but to be honest when I was picking the second one the stall owner came over to watch me, which always makes me feel super awkward so I didn't have a good root around, and ended up with another Pamela. Even though she's not one of the characters I most wanted, she's grown on me. Her angry expression is cute, and I like the textured detailing on her jumper. Her knife is awesome too, so I'm not too disappointed that I got one of her. To get another on the other hand.. I admit I'm gutted about that, but this is something that happens a lot when you collect blind box/bag figures. If only else collects these and wants to trade, or just interested in buying this keyring off me, let me know :) 

So that's my entire haul from Manchester MCM Comic Con 2018! I got such brilliant nerdy goodies, and had a wonderful day out. It felt weird not cosplaying, but I still had lots of fun noseying around the stalls and checking out everyone else's cosplay! As usual, there were some absolutely amazing cosplays, and I'm happy that my mom finally got to see them in person instead of just on all of the YouTube videos I show her. I'm surprised I managed to leave without a new plushie, haha... It's a miracle! I hope you all enjoyed checking out what I bought; I know that I love a good haul post myself :) 

Thankyou for reading! 

I hope this month is filled with awesomeness for you!

♥ 

Have you ever been to a convention before? 

Or any  other kind of hobbyist event?

July 2018 Kawaii & Geeky Wishlist

Hi guys! As I am writing this, I feel like I'm about to melt because my bedroom is honestly like an oven! Someone told me that it's going to be raining this weekend and I am so relieved. Tomorrow is one of my most favourite days of the year, it's literally a day I look forward to as soon as the New Year begins! That's because it's time for my local MCM Comic Con, yayy! I cannot wait! If it doesn't rain, I just really hope that it's cooler than it has been these last few weeks because the convention centre where the con takes place is always super boiling inside. I want to be able to shop without feeling like I'm going to pass out from heat exhaustion! It helps that I'm not cosplaying this year because costumes are a nightmare in hot weather. I have a huge wishlist for tomorrow but I'm not gonna lie, it's mostly filled with Funko Pop! vinyl's that I'm lusting over right now :D I struggled to come up with a wishlist this month because Pop's are the only thing on my mind, but I didn't want to bombard you all with them so I've kept them to a minimum. A minimum is two apparently... and it was a struggle to single it down to just that many, haha oops! Anyhow, here's my kawaii & geeky wishlist for July. Enjoy! 

1. Funko Pop! Vinyl Fauno Figure I am so so happy that Funko finally decided to release some Pop! figures for Pan's Labyrinth! It's one of my favourite movies by one of my favourite directors, Guillermo Del Toro. If you guys have never watched it, and you are a fan of macabre thriller movies, then I seriously recommend this creepy fairytale! Funko have brought out two characters from the movie, and I would love to see more in the future. Fauno looks awesome in vinyl figure form, I especially love the look of his feet and the swirly markings on his head. It's only available for pre-order in the UK at the moment, but I'm hoping that I might find it at Comic Con tomorrow! 

2. Funko Sailor Moon Mystery Minis Another Funko product appeared!! I'm not even sorry :D They are releasing so many awesome things right now, and I am going to have a very empty bank account soon! I have been dreaming that Funko would release a mystery minis collection for Sailor Moon and my dreams have come true! I NEED THEM ALL. Any fellow Sailor Moon fans reading? I'd love to know who your favourite sailor scout is; let me know in the comments! Mine is Sailor Mars :) I love that Funko have included a little Luna and Artemis too!

3. Blue Fluffy Rabbit Bag This Blue Banana bunny bag reminds me so much of the Amuse character 'Pote Usa Loppy' and I love Amuse plushies so I have a mighty need for this bag! I am a big fan of novelty bags, even though you can hardly fit anything inside them, and I like that this one has a chain strap too. It's available in several colours, but I am always drawn to the most unique looking option, so the blue version is definitely my favourite. Who else is a fan of novelty bags? What's the quirkiest one you own? Oh, and this bag has 5% off at the moment!

4. Pink Llama Passport Holder Ever since I went on holiday this year, I have been after a new passport holder. I love my current hot air balloon one but I just fancy a change! I couldn't find one that was affordable and pretty yet also looked like it was great quality, until now! I love this llama print passport holder and it's only £4.99! I really like that it's pastel coloured and also that there's two designs of llama on it. Alpacas are one of my most favourite animals, and llamas are the next best thing right!? I would love to get it before my next trip!

5. GUND Itty Bitty Boo Unicorn Plush I told myself that I wasn't going to get obsessed with these Itty Bitty Boo plushies by GUND but I couldn't help it! I bought a Valentine's Day version of Boo wearing little heart print shorts & it's just so cute! I was really impressed with the quality of the material and it was so cuddly that I just could not resist wanting another plush from this range. I have a problem, haha! I particularly love animals/characters dressed as other characters :) Seriously though, how can anyone resist this plush of Boo dressed as a unicorn!? You know you all want one now too! 

6. Amuse Puchimaru Happy Zoo Plush Charms One of the stalls that I most look forward to visiting at Comic Con is Tofu Cute, and this year I'll be on the look out for these mini animal plushies! There's several variations that I would be happy with: the lion, the crocodile, the baboon, the owl and the lemur. I might even be tempted to get them all if I see them because I can imagine that they are even cuter in person! I just love this online store, and they have an actual store in Portsmouth so it's really nice to get a chance to visit them up here in the north of England, even if it's just with a small selection of their products :) I've just had a closer look at the pink hippo one and omg I want that one too now, it reminds me of a Moomin XD

7. Funko Pop! Vinyl Black Phillip Figure We have reached the final item on my wishlist and of course it's another Pop! vinyl :D At the beginning of July I set up a new Instagram account purely dedicated to my love of toys and collectible figures. If you're interested, you can check it out here. Through that Instagram, this fabulous new release by Funko was brought to my attention when so many of my fellow collectors from the US were taking photos of him. Black Phillip is a character on the 2016 horror movie The Witch. I really enjoyed the movie, and I liked this scary goat so I would love to add him to my horror Pop! collection! I'll be looking out for him tomorrow as well. Have you ever seen The Witch? I'd love to know what you thought of it! 

Sorry that there's not as many items as usual this month guys, but unless Funko Pop's are your thing then I would have been bombarding you with figure after figure! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend :) 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

What's on your wishlist this month?

Also, what is your favourite item from the ones I've featured? 

Bonus question, have you ever been to Comic Con before? 

Why I Will Forever Love Sims 2

Hello lovelies! What have you been up to today? I'd love to hear all about it in the comments :) My day has literally been filled with sleeping and watching crime documentaries! One of the things that sucks the most about having fibromyalgia is how one day out can impact my energy levels and how much pain I'm in for the days following. Yesterday I had a busy day; I went out geocaching and I had an awesome time. However I paid for it today, waking up feeling like I'd put my body through an intense workout! Regardless, it was still really nice to get out in nature, to hear stones and twigs crunching under my shoes, to hear squirrels foraging through the leaf-litter and birds tweeting, to feel the cool breeze and warm sunshine on my face. I found two caches, spotted lots of butterflies (also took part in my first #BigButterflyCount of the year!), and picked wild raspberries, which were delicious by the way. My legs and feet may have ached afterwards, but it was a good way to spend a midsummer afternoon! 

Anyhow, on with today's post! Which has been inspired by the fact that I can't stop playing Sims lately! Usually, and I'm sure it's probably the same for 90% of us Sims players, I go through momentary phrases of really wanting to play the game, binge-gaming for a few days, and then my game doesn't get touched again for months and months! XD So different to when I first discovered Sims as an 12 year old and was obsessed with it! Especially when it came to making a Sim version of myself and my celeb crush, and investing hours after school ensuring we were married, had a dream house and lots of kids! Don't lie, you know you did this too! 

However, I have been randomly reignited with a love for playing Sims, not as much as back in my teens, but I've still been playing it a heck of a lot! So, I thought why not blog about what's kept me going back to this game for last 10+ years (gosh, I feel old now haha!) and why it is that I still play the 2004 edition of this game, when there's now a 3rd & 4th version! I hope you all enjoy reading, and that you can relate! I'm sure I'm not alone in my love of The Sims :) 

5 Reasons why I just love playing Sims 2 so much! 

(1) I just really enjoy playing RPG's (or role-playing games), they are my favourite type of game. The Sims was one of the first ever games of this kind that I played, and it's been a part of my life for longer now than it has not. I first discovered Sims 2 when a friend of mine got the game and we would play it together whenever I hung out at her house. This was around the time when I also got my first computer when my brother gave me and my sister one of his old computers (he used to love taking apart, building and modifying computers when he was a teenager!), and so I asked my mom to get me the Sims 2 game for Christmas that year. Back then, PC games were in CD Rom form and I had to use four separate disks to install the game :D At least by this point, we were no longer restricted to just using floppy disks :D Who remembers those things!? 

(2) Something that really appealed to me about Sims 2 in my early teens was how much of an escape it was, that you could just live out (as much as Sims allows) a different life for a while, if that even makes sense. You could create people to look however you wanted, to do whatever job you wanted or to live out their lives however you wanted them to. At that age especially, it was nice to be able to design a Sim to symbolise yourself 'in the future', to create yourself how you wanted to be when you were grown up. Who else used to do this? It was cool to make your sims whoever you wanted them to be! I still enjoy this now, although it's much more in a nostalgic sense, than to create a reimagined digital version of myself :D

(3) I love the creative freedom that Sims 2 offers! You can do whatever you feel like with your characters. Want an alien baby? Sure! Wanna spontaneously set fire to your kitchen? Do it! Fancy having a vampire-next-door in your neighbour? Just get your Sim bitten by one! The possibilities are pretty endless! 

Although Sims 2 is pretty outdated compared to what you can do on RPG games nowadays, I really like the simplicity of it. This point relates to my previous one about making your Sims be however you want them to be, but for different reasons. It's just fun to create people and imagine up storylines in your head for how you want their lives to play out. Playing Sims as an adult has just made this aspect more enjoyable for me, because I now literally come up with all of these intricate backstories in my mind for the characters that I am creating. It's like I'm bringing the words of an unwritten novel of mine to life! Sometimes I even have to jot down all of the Sims that I'm creating and how they are going to interact with one another so that I can remember all of the complicated ideas that I had when I first decided to make them XD I feel like such a dork telling you guys that, haha. 

(4) I am someone who has always hated any kind of conflict, I prefer to avoid confrontation as much as I can because it makes me so anxious. When I was growing up, I would never stand up for myself, or get involved in any sort of debates or drama. There were plenty of times when I wish I could have had the nerve to say something, to voice my opinion and to argue back whenever someone was walking all over me or acting like a jerk to me or one of my friends. I always had a lot to say but would just keep it in. I'm a lot better as an adult, but I still make a point to not get involved in drama, even if I really want to say something. 

This brings me to another reason why I feel I enjoy Sims. I like that you can create all sorts of drama when it comes to your characters lives, you can make them go through all of the challenges that you see on TV dramas and you get to decide what happens. It's fun to be in control of that! The Sims 2 helps to satisfy my inner bitch so to speak! :D Everyone loves a good drama, with lots of shock factor moments and The Sims lets you cause that, from affairs to forbidden love to suspicious deaths... you can express your internal sadist? , the little devil on your shoulder can be in charge for once, as though you are George RR Martin killing off all of the characters we love in Game of Thrones/ A Song of Ice and Fire T_T 

(5) Playing Sims 2 makes me feel like a builder, an architect and an interior designer all at once! I can just spend hours making a dream house for my Sims! It's really fun to keep coming up with different designs so that no two houses are the same on my game. Sometimes I honestly just go on my game, spend ages making a house and decorating/furnishing it, and then turn my game off again, without ever playing out the characters lives at all! Let me know if you do this too :D

Why am I still playing this version of The Sims after all these years!? 

♥ Something that I really like about Sims 2 is the design of the characters themselves. I love that the people that you can create look cartoon-esque, they remind me in some ways of an anime style character. As EA Games released newer models of The Sims games, the characters started to look more and more realistic, with their features resembling real human characteristics more and more, and there's just something about these characters that I don't like. I can't speak for Sims 4 because I've never played it, but I played Sims 3 once and I really didn't like how the characters looked. I don't know why I prefer the older character graphics, because I love the design quality of characters on the RPG's we have now so much, but maybe it's because I'm a 'creature of habit' and I'm so used to Sims looking this way that I can't imagine them any other way. 

♥ Another thing that I like about Sims 2 is that you can recreate a whole town, giving it whatever name you want and setting everything out however you like. I usually save all of the houses that I like from the three towns that are already on the game, and then delete them, creating a new town of my own. I'm not sure whether this is something that's only possible on Sims 2, but I like that this game gives you the ability to do it. 

♥ I've already mentioned house making in this post but I feel like it deserves a place in this section as well :) From what I've heard about the newer Sims games is that they aren't as good as the Sims 2 when it comes designing your own house from scratch, and that they focus more on the Sims characters themselves and their lives/jobs. This is honestly now my favourite aspect of playing the game and so if I wasn't able to do this, I think I'd get bored of the game easily. The novelty of being able to design your own characters and control to an extent how your characters lives pan out has mostly gone because of the advances we've seen in RPG's over the years, but something that I feel is unique to Sims 2 alone (and maybe the others Sims games but I don't know about those) is how you can create a home with all of the different design options. I just love it so much! 

♥ The final point that I want to include about why I'm still playing the Sims 2 after all this time is because it's such an easy game to play. It doesn't require you to concentrate much, you don't have to follow any on-screen instructions or complete any timed quests to move onto another level, etc. Sure, your Sims have aspiration goals that you can complete to make them successful and happy virtual people, but this is all optional, you don't need to do them, you can do whatever you want on the game. If you get bored with something, you can change it and you can delete your characters whenever you want and start again. 

A bonus reason why I love Sims 2 are the cheats that you are able to use, which makes completing your characters aspirations even easier! There's a cheat that gives you £50,000 everytime you type it in, and another that makes all of the creator's testing cheats available, so that you can do all sorts within the game with not much effort at all. Being a spoonie means that there are times when I am too tired to do or think much, I cannot concentrate or I have little motivation, but Sims 2 is something that I can do most of the time because it doesn't require me to pay much attention or use much energy. Whenever I'm bored, I will always consider playing Sims, and it's something that I don't need internet connection for, which is great when my wifi is playing up or whatever :) 

So, those are some of the reasons why I love playing Sims 2 so much and why I can't see myself stopping anytime soon. I can imagine myself still going back to this game every now and again for the next 10+ plus years! It's just one of those classics that I can't help but love to play, just like all of the PlayStation 1 games I adored as a kid. They will always hold a place in my heart, and be memorable to me for all of the times they helped me distract myself from the things I struggled with when I was a teenager (Thanks EA Games!). I am going to enjoy my current passion for playing Sims 2 whilst it lasts, before I put the game on my shelf and ignore it for another year, haha! I hope you all enjoyed today's post :) 

Thankyou for reading!

♥ 

Have you ever played Sims 2? 

If so, what did you think of it? What did you like/dislike most about it?

If you're a fan of The Sims franchise, 

which is your personal favourite version of the game and why? 


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8 Things To See & Do In Lisbon, Portugal | Part 1

Hello everyone! How has your day been? Just when I thought the heatwave was over, the sunshine was back again today, bringing along with it all of the things I dislike about Summertime. I probably sound like some sort of scrooge right now, but I just love the rain! (If you couldn't already tell from my blog name ;) haha!). I suppose one good thing about these bright, hot days we've been having is that it's been making me reminisce about my trip abroad earlier this year. If you've ever been to a country that's known for it's nice weather, then you'll have experienced how different the heat feels over there, compared to at home. When I was on holiday, the heat was lovely and I enjoyed it for the most part, yet being here in the UK and trying to deal with the heatwave has been horrid... I'm not going to sugarcoat it, I've been a moany, achy, sweaty mess for around a month now XD On the bright side, thinking about how much I enjoyed my holiday has given me a kick up the butt, to finally get around to blogging all about it! So, at long last, here is part 1 of my little guide on things to do and see if you ever visit Lisbon, which you totally should because it's delightful! I hope you all enjoy reading :) 

* [update] I totally spoke too soon, as it started raining later today! But oh well :D I am not convinced this is the end of the heatwave! I've been hearing that it's supposed to be even hotter next week than it's been so far this year! If rumours are true, S.O.S! 

1) Belem Tower

This historical site was by far one of my most favourite visits that we made whilst in Lisbon! The Torre de Belem is a stunning piece of architecture and is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site so I'm super happy that I got to tick it off my list :) It has always been a dream to mine to visit as many of the UNESCO sites as possible! The tower was built in the 16th century as a fortress to help protect Lisbon from invasions by sea, well technically by river as the Belem Tower is found on the banks of the River Tagus (apparently it was originally build on a small island just off the shore, but its location has changed over time... how cool is that!?). It is such an impressive structure, towering over the water at over 90ft tall! The views from the top are amazing; from one side you can see across the river to Almada at the other side and get a great view of the iconic 25 de Abril bridge, and from the other side you can see over the gorgeous Belem district of Lisbon.

As far as I can remember, the entry to the tower was €6, but I think it was well worth it to see inside! You can get a wonderful view of the building without paying the entrance fee though, the area surrounding the tower is lovely. There's a huge area of grass where people sit, have picnics and relax in the sunshine (there's ice cream vans around here too!), then if you scroll down the river front for 10 minutes you find another of Lisbon's gorgeous tourist attractions. If you do pay to go inside, it is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible, there are no lifts in the tower and the stairs are very narrow and steep. There's a lot of them too... I'm sure there was a sign that said 100 steps!! It was really difficult for me to climb the tower, but there are several levels where I could stop off and rest for a while before tackling another set of stairs. Each of these levels is filled with various signs containing historical information, which was fun for a history nerd like me! 

Something that I loved about the tower was the aged white colour of it, I've never seen anything quite like it in person before! It just made it look even more gorgeous against the vibrant blue shade of the surrounding water. I found out that it is made of limestone. The best part of the experience of visiting Belem Tower for me was the view from the top... it was just so pretty and made the pain I felt all over my body after climbing worth it! 

2) Padrão dos Descobrimentos / Monument of the Discoveries 

As I mentioned above, if you walk around ten minutes from the Torre de Belem, you will reach this amazing monument. You can get a good view of it from the top of the tower, but even if you do, you should definitely go and see it on the ground, because it is really impressive and not to be missed! The background of the River Tagus really makes the monument pop, it just stands out so much and looks even more stunning! It is a tribute to the era of discovery in Portuguese history, when their ships travelled across the World and then back to the Lisbon ports. The Monument of the Discoveries stands at 171 feet, is made of dazzling white-coloured stone, and has been there since the end of the 1950's. You can also pay to go inside this attraction, but we decided not to because we'd already been up the Belem Tower (it's around €5) . The area surrounding the monument is nice for walking around and exploring. There's a marina filled with boats and also some cute little cafes/ice cream shops. There is also a cache hidden at this location for my fellow geocachers :) I can't really express how awesome I thought this monument was, so I'll let my photos 'do the talking'! 

3) Eat Pastel de Nata at Belem

If you've been a follower of mine on Instagram for a while now, you'll likely have seen me post photos of these iconic Portuguese sweet treats when I was in Lisbon, and yes they taste as delicious as they look! I was very much looking forward to trying a Pastel de Nata for myself after reading about them time and time again on Lisbon blog posts and tourist websites whilst I was researching for my trip. I'd seen people trying them on vlogs and they just looked so yummy, and I was certainly curious about whether they'd resemble the British egg custard tart. I don't like our standard egg custard tarts, but I really enjoyed the Pastel de Nata, which although it looks similar, is quite different in my opinion. The custard used is much sweeter and more fluffy? than our egg custard tart, and the pastry is thin, flaky and crispy. Biting into a Pastel de Nata creates the most satisfactory crunch! 

We found our first Pastel de Nata four days into our trip, close to another spot I'm going to talk about later in this post, at a café called Cafeteria Sao Nicolau. This lovely little place has a bakery and an ice-cream kiosk, and I'm pretty sure it serves other foods too because there are tables both inside and outside the establishment. I spotted the Pastel de Nata's in the window from a mile off and excitedly headed over because I was desperate to finally eat one! They were only €1 and they were lovely and warm, and freshly baked in store. I loved my first Portuguese egg custard tart! 

We didn't stop at just one Pastel de Nata! When we visited Belem to see the tower and other historical attractions, I knew the famous Pasteis de Belem bakery was close by! This is where literally every vlogger I watched went to get their custard tarts, because it is supposed to be the place to get the most traditional version of the Pastel de Nata tart. I can't recommend this bakery enough, because their custard tarts were so delicious! They tasted better than the one we first tried and weren't that much more price wise, which I was surprised by! There is a café inside the bakery and I kinda wish we'd had time to sit in and eat, however we were in rush to see lots more of Lisbon as it was our last day there! We found a pretty park that was hidden down the side of some buildings, and was bordered by orange trees! It was so nice to just sit there amongst the trees on a park bench and eat scrumptious treats :) 

4) Praça do Comercio, and the surrounding area

This massive square is commonly referred to as the yellow square, as it is surrounded by the most gorgeous buildings, many of which are painted bright yellow. I think they look so pretty in contrast to all of the white buildings! We didn't get to see the square in it's original state until towards the end of our trip as this area was chosen for the location of the Eurovision Village. If you didn't already know, me and my friends are Eurofans and so we travelled to Lisbon for the Eurovision Song Contest. We went to both of the semi final concerts, but unfortunately we didn't manage to get tickets for the grand finale. It turned out alright in the end though as we spent the night in an amazing nightclub, cheering and singing along with fellow Eurofans from all over the World, which was an experience I will never forget! The Eurovision Village is set up in the host city as a meeting place for Eurovision fans, where they can buy merchandise and refreshments, go to rehearsals and meet-and-greet events, etc., and on the night of the final, they had a huge screen there for people to watch the Eurovision together :) 

Cool fact: the Praça do Comercio square was originally part of the grounds of a palace, called the Royal Ribeira Palace, which was destroyed by an earthquake and the square is all that remains! 

When the Eurovision was over *cry cry* and the Eurovision Village was no more, we re-visited the square and it looked so much bigger than it seemed before! It was lovely to be able to see the huge statue in the centre and get a better look at all of the buildings and cafes hidden around the outside of the square. Leading off of the square through a very impressive archway was a street lined with restaurants and shops. This is a good place to pick up souvenirs and also where we found our first Pastel de Nata. Once you've reached the end of the street, if you keep walking forwards, you'll end up at another pretty little spot called Praça do Rossio/ Rossio Square. There you will find a really tall monument, an awesome fountain and lots of little side- streets which lead off to more shops and restaurants. 

Within the area between these two squares, you will also stumble upon another of Lisbon's most popular tourist attractions, the Santa Justa Elevator. It is such a cool structure to see! It is made of iron and is so unique to look at. It is almost 150ft high and you can pay to travel up the elevator for a brilliant view over the whole city! I think the entrance fee is only around 2 euros as well, but don't quote me on that! Oh and it was built in 1902, so it's incredible that it's still working after all this time!

So, you've reached the end of Part 1 of my little Lisbon travel guide. I'll be writing all about four more places to go and things to do in the second part of my post :) I originally wanted to write this as one long post but I can't help stop myself writing an essay everytime I start typing so I've decided it's best to have a part two, which will be up in a few days time! I hope you enjoyed reading all about my holiday to Lisbon and learning about  all of the gorgeous attractions that this beautiful city has to offer! 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

Which of the four attractions/locations I've included do you most like the sound of?

Have you ever been to Lisbon? 

I'd love to hear if you've visited some of these places! What did you think of them?