Now that all the Easter chocolate has been consumed, there’s no more chocolate beckoning to be eaten instead of writing this blog post. 

I’ve actually been really excited to sit down and write this blog to tell you all that I spent Good Friday and Saturday in Plymouth! 

My university city will always hold a special place in my heart (probably the nostalgic part!) and so I was stupidly excited for a night away with Will here. 

Fuelled on a McDonald’s Breakfast, we braced the traffic down south on Friday morning and were pleasantly surprised that we weren’t stuck in gridlock traffic for hours on end as I had imagined. 

We went straight to Drakes Circus shopping centre to get Will’s holiday shopping to-do list done.

Surprisingly, as a couple, we are very good at clothes shopping together. We’ve developed a method of me picking out things I like, and then Will says yes or no and tries the Yes’ on. Rapid shopping. I (not needing anything new), made Will set a 5-minute timer for me to have a mooch around the women’s section — I was excellently restrained, probably due to the fact I was more excited about the rest of the day’s activities. I did pick up a new face mask from Lush though.

We then grabbed a quick lunch to energise at Nando’s in The Barcode, where I had a surprisingly DELISH salad… who knew a chicken chain could get lettuce leaves to taste so good! I’m always hesitant eating in places renowned for their meat because as a veggie you get very limited choices (which normally is a dry spicy bean burger) so I was quite chuffed with the salad.

Then, onto one of my favourite locations, my old little bouldering wall at The Life Centre.

The amount of hours I must’ve spent here is pretty unbelievable considering my bouldering skills are somewhat non-existent! It’s not a particularly impressive place for bouldering and is actually relatively small, but I always found it quite homely and safe (which is nice as a nervous and scared-of-heights climber). 

Having not climbed for a while we were both knackered quite quickly and opted for a quick walk in the sunshine around Central Park before we checked into our home for the night.

Now, you won’t believe this. When we got to our hotel, we discovered our room had been upgraded. Will and I have only ever stayed in 4 hotels together, 2 of which have been upgraded (the other time was when we went to Rhodes in Greece). How’s that for a 50/50 record ey? 

The room was great, but what was greater was the view. We stayed in the Crown Plaza right next to Plymouth’s infamous Hoe, so we had a fantastic view!

With the weather bringing out the summer vibes in all of us, I was ready for a dip in the sea. Yes, it’s only April, but cold water swimming is AMAZING! I think I’ve caught the cold water swimming bug, especially after doing it so much in New Zealand in December (admittedly it was their summer then). I’ve taken to a few swims in the Marine Lake in Clevedon (near home), so I had all the kit ready to go for this weekend.

Going back to my student roots, we nipped into the Tesco on the way to grab a cider for me and a beer for Will to enjoy a beverage in the sun before I had a swim.

Whether it was that the sun was out, or that I’ve got a bit more tolerance to cold water, or the half a cider I had before I went in, it wasn’t too cold and I didn’t get chilly drying off afterwards either!

After washing off the sea salt with a shower back at the hotel, we got ready to go out for some dinner and drinks.

My restaurant of choice was The Stable which was mine and my flatmates go to whilst we lived in Plymouth, and where I went for dinner after my graduation a few months ago. It’s a solid choice if you fancy a pizza with a great view when you’re in Plymouth.

From there we took a walk around the Barbican which was absolutely bustling with people soaking up the last of the sunshine, and socialising next to live music in the pubs.

We ended up at the Plymouth Gin Distillery which has a very cosy evening cocktail lounge and spent a few hours in there enjoying some fantastic gin cocktails. We were also served by an old friend from uni which was a funny and really nice coincidence.

Sensibly, we headed back to our room at half 10 and got a good night’s sleep ahead of a day of paintballing the following day.

The paintballing was actually why we ended up booking a night in Plymouth, it was the source of an excuse. My good friend Rebekah had organised for her friends from all over to meet and go paintballing at Delta Force for her birthday. It was good fun, but let’s just say the bruises on my legs indicate that maybe I’m more of a laser quest person!

I hope you all enjoyed the same beautiful sunshine we had over the Easter weekend.