It was my birthday on Thursday, so my parents took us on a mini holiday to Bristol. Tom surprised me with a box of macaroons on the train, so we munched them on the way as breakfast. After arriving at the very fancy Brunel-designed train station…

we caught a ferry to the city center. They also do booze cruises, which sound like fun!

Bristol is famous for it’s pirates (can you tell by the accent?)…

and graffiti, though we failed to spot any Banksy

Knitten Kitten Jenny told us to check out the awesome exhibition at the City Art Gallery.

I love this display of books. We told my Mum to pitch the idea to her library when she gets back.

Tom liked the robots.

I liked the cupcakes.

There was an awesome gypsy caravan, I’ve been trying to win one in my boxes of muesli

We wandered around Clifton afterwards and went for a coffee at the Boston Tea Party – a cute coffee chain, which I’ve only seen in Bristol.

Tom spotted an awesome train tea pot in a shop window. If anyone’s in Bristol and could do me a favour, send me a message!

We spent the rest of the day exploring, then my parents treated us to dinner at Carluccio’s. It was raining too heavy in the evening to do anything, so we snuggled up in the cinema and watched Salt.

Bristol was only 2 hours away by train, so I’m sure we can nip back anytime for another visit.

Today we went to Santa Cruz, which is the main city of the island (Tom sang The Thrills song at me).

It’s crazy seeing the old buildings mixed in with the new.

There was lots of awesome graffiti. We didn’t stay too long, just enough time to grab some lunch and go to a bookshop – I’d finished reading the first Twilight book and needed to get the second.

Afterwards we headed to Icod de los Vinos to see Dracaena draco, the Dragon Tree.

It’s the the largest and oldest tree of it’s kind and it has crazy looking roots and branches.

The locals believe that it bleeds blood because it’s sap is so red and that it’s made up of human bodies (as the poster shows).

There was also a volcanic cave, which was kind of creepy.

There was a mummy inside – very creepy.

Icod de los Vinos is also the main wine town on the island (the name gives it away), so we went to a little shop where we tried lots of different liqueurs.

Dad got us cute cookies.

I befriended a couple of parrots.

This one tried to speak to me but it only knew Spanish.

We then went for churros and hot chocolate, one of my favorite Spanish snacks (I posted a recipe for these ages ago) before heading home.

Tonight someone was singing Duffy’s Warwick Avenue song at the karaoke bar over from our hotel, which made me miss home. Also, worst news ever – Mr Warwick Avenue’s Service Information board has been replaced by an electronic one. How’s he going to write his witty signs now?!