Eiva Poppins: Brighton Blogger

Here she is casually giving me the best blowdry of my life.

I was so gassed when I left the salon that day, so many people were giving me compliments. .

My first cut and blowdry that I ever got from Vanessa. Love it.

This is first time in my life where I found THE ONE HAIRDRESSER and don't want to have my hair touched by anyone else. If you live in Brighton you have probably heard of Cuttlefish, A beautiful fancy salon that only uses vegan products and is extremely ethical when it comes to waste. They also play nice tunes and treat you like the queen (or king) that you are. Vanessa has been working there for a while now and she takes a lot of pride in her work. She says it is her life, she absolutely loves it and takes it so seriously. I have had my other friends go see her and they were all really satisfied. She actually listens to what you want and if you say you want five inches off it won't be fifteen! She likes to keep clients' haircut style the same and improves them but her main thing is colour. 

This colour was so amazing. I loved this hairstyle so much!

And here is another amazing pink! Wow. I am not sure which style and colour is my favourite. 

I have recenly decided to go back to brown after I really really damaged my hair a few months ago by some random colour from Superdrug and Vanessa did a great job at transforming my poor hair. Thank god I have her. 

But let me show you some other transformations that she's done. I have just been on a big stalk through Vanessa's instagram and I found some of my favourite before and after hair dos. 

I mean come on, this is actually insane. She is a witch with scissors and colour! You will find more before and after pictures on her instagram. Personally, I find it really satisfying. 

Wow, she is just amazing, she will save your hair and make it look colourful and stylish and the same time! 

I believe the ones above and below are in Kings Garden.

While we were visiting Copenhagen we were actually staying in Malmö in Sweden those cities are connected by a bridge which you can cross by train. It was super expensive to stay in Copenhagen on the dates when we went so we stayed in Sweden. Later we found out it was because there was a hockey match but it actually worked out really well because we stayed in a really nice cheap hotel with amazing breakfast. Some days I had three plates of food. Oh yeah! Malmö is a slow-paced town with parks and rivers. It was pretty relaxing to walk around. I really liked the beach and pier and we also saw some traditional Swedish houses. I know there is a chocolate museum which sounds like something I would definitely like to visit but unfortunately, it was closed while we were there.

Anyway, across the river in Copenhagen my biggest highlight was possibly this cinnamon bun from Torvehallerne food hall, a place filled with the tastiest food. I swear I had a salad and I enjoyed it so that says a lot. It is a very modern place with food stands but also open-planned restaurants if you don't fancy a picnic lunch.

There was also sort of a flea market next to the food hall, there are markets scattered around the city pretty much everywhere so if you like browsing through old books, ceramics, black and white photographs of strangers you will have a good time.

In every big city that I visit I like to see their botanical gardens so this time I went to 'University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden' that happens to be about 15 minute walk from the food hall so you might as well see both of these places. I mean cinnamon buns and cacti? Travel goals.

The botanical garden is so beautiful, there is this round staircase that takes you up to a landing where you have a beautiful view of the palm trees and it feels like you're in an actual jungle because you are sweating a lot...Anyway, the entry is free so that's a bonus.

We also went to see Nyhavn because you know, we are tourists and it was busy, nice but you know just like in the photos, nothing unexpected. Personally, I think the cinnamon buns were more attractive. Unfortunately, we also went a loooong way to see The Little Mermaid statue. It is definitely not worth it, it is just this small statue, there are tons of tourists and it quite far from the centre. Save yourself some time, look it up on google, it is enough.

And of course, Freetown Christiania a community of about 1000 residents where you are not meant to take photos (I got told off after this one:) and where people trade different substances, drink and have a good time. There is more to it and you can find more information about how it all started here. Danish laws don't apply to this community and it is very different from the rest of the city. There are galleries, homemade houses, a skatepark, music venues, cheap eateries etc. 

So that was just a few quick tips on what to do and maybe where not to go, (ehm ehm The Little Mermaid). The best thing to do in any city is always to get lost and just go to that nice street with that cool sign or see that park with that beautiful bush or maybe sit by that lake with swings. You know what I mean. Every time that you're not following some touristy route you are more likely to discover something amazing.

This year marked my five years in England, five amazing somehow terrifying years. Before moving to England at the age of 20 I lived in a small village near a small town which was near another small town. I have always felt like I needed to see more than that and I have visited the UK for five times before moving here. First time I went to London was when I was 12, I was lucky enough that my parents paid for me to come on a school trip to Paris and London and I was mesmerised, of course I was sold after seeing all the posh buildings and everyone being super polite and nice to me. I was always a Harry Potter fan so that helped a lot. Vinegar chips served by our host family didn’t necessarily did it for me but that was just one teeny tiny detail. 

(Picture of me carrying CVs around and handing them to everyone who cared. I have NEVER found a job through this method. :)

There was a lot of exploring done in the first weeks in Brighton and I was loving it all but I was also very stressed about finding a job. My English was great but I didn’t have much experience and was very ‘fresh’. I will always remember Megan, my supervisor who hired me for my first ever job for a big catering company. My first job title was ‘Catering Assistant’ for bus drivers in a canteen, I had to cook, take money, orders, clean and cash-up all this by myself. I was given all the evening shifts and earning minimum wage which back then was £6.30 but I have never had a real fulltime job before and I was so happy and even surprised how much I have earned in one month. I am smiling now thinking about it because you can imagine it wasn’t exactly a lot of money but I was able to pay my rent and buy food and even some clothes and that was all I wanted back then. I didn’t last very long in this job to be honest but I had another part-time work working for a digital agency as a Czech coordinator, it was a really interesting job in a multi-national environment but unfortunately I was made redundant together with maybe 15-20 more people and slowly but surely the company disappeared after two big clients didn’t want them anymore. That was sad. I managed to land a marketing job with a small company and I was super excited but after a month of working for this lady who seemed very nice I was paid £300 less than agreed. She was a foreigner as well and being exploited by another foreigner was tough. From then I remembered to always sign work contracts and never take anyone niceness and politeness too seriously. There are a lot of shady people around! 

I was diagnosed with Epilepsy two years after I moved to England and I ended up in a ambulance and hospital twice. I was robbed. I have also experienced depression which almost drove me away from the country. I was homesick a lot and thought about moving back quite a few times. There were periods when I didn’t like living in Brighton but it was usually due to my own circumstance and by that I mean I hated my job :). It wasn’t always skateboarding down the beach while watching sunset and eating icecream. It was often worrying about money and the next place to live, not having any savings or any friends to call. I often felt lonely and wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay but I am glad I did. It was all worth it.