With all this glorious summery weather, I’ve been dying to take a little trip somewhere, escape the big smoke and get some pretty pics for the ‘gram. I’ve actually had this weekend trip to Portsmouth booked off from work for aaaaages, but it would seem that in order to get a weekend off from my pub job, one is required to make a blood oath with the devil and sacrifice their first-born child. Chris’s family are lucky enough to have a little sailing boat, and this was my first trip out on it. The trip ended in disaster (more on that later), but I had a lovely couple of days and I thought I’d share a few pictures from the weekend with you…
We were up at the crackers-of-dawn on Saturday morning to catch the train from London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour. I decided that the only suitable breakfast for such a journey was a traditional Cornish pasty, so I scoffed that and then proceeded to do very dodgy makeup (including liquid eyeliner) on the train. We arrived just before 11:30am and went to drop our stuff off on the boat.
I’ve never been to Portsmouth before, and when I first got off the train at Portsmouth Harbour I was a bit like “….errrrrrr, Chris where have you brought me….???”. But as soon as we got off the sort of run-down looking street and into Gunwharf Quays, I was in love.
Gunwharf Quays is a new designer shopping outlet and general swanky town centre-style location on the south coast. It’s full of luxury stores with good discounts, coffee shops, bars, restaurants, clubs and beeeeautiful scenery. Oh, and it has a harbour, so if you fancy sailing your 450ft super-yacht down for the day so you can pick up some Tommy Hilfiger or Levi’s bits, you can. Alternatively, it’s about an hour and a half from London Waterloo, and would make a welcome break from the busy city for a cute shopping day-trip.
The weather was stunning daaahling; about 24 degrees. We got to the boat and dumped our stuff, and proceeded to polish off two bottles of prosecco while Chris’s mum sorted out a quick lunch for us. After that, we found an outside table at the Slug and Lettuce, which overlooks the whole harbour, and polished off yet another bottle of prosecco (but this one was rosé because variety is the spice of life). It got to about 1:45pm and Chris and his mum, sister and stepdad set off for the football match they’d bought tickets to.
I’d arranged to meet up with my old friend, fellow blogger/YouTuber and general queen, Emily. We met when Emily was 17 years old and I was buying her drinks from a Devon pub. We were dating boys from the same band, which is how we were first introduced, and I remember being so excited to have met another blogger in real life! We’ve literally only bumped into each other since that evening, and have always meant to get something planned so we could hang out properly. Emily is at Southampton university, so I messaged her asking if she’d be up for meeting me for the afternoon in Portsmouth. And she was!
I went to meet her off the train only to realise she’d got off at the wrong stop like a plonker. She hopped in a taxi and met me outside Portsmouth Harbour station. We made a beeline for Slug and Lettuce’s outside tables in the sunshine and got the espresso martinis ordered. We had a wicked catch-up and talked all things blogging, YouTubing, general social media, boys, makeup, skincare and university. It was so nice to have some time with a proper girlfriend who I get on soooo well with. Considering it was the first time we’ve properly hung out, I was surprised at how much we actually had to talk about.
A bit of torrential rain and hurricane-style wind, we went for a little walk around the harbour and had a little nosey in the shops. Unfortunately, we slipped and fell into Tiger Tiger and ended up having another three cocktails; Pornstar Martinis this time! We watched the sunset, continued our gossiping, asked some randoms to take a few pictures of us, then decided to head off in separate directions. Emily hadn’t eaten all day (unless you count sugar syrup from espresso martinis and passionfruit from pornstar martinis(???)) and I was due at dinner with Chris’s family. We discovered her train had been cancelled so we very tipsily threw her on a random train and hoped for the best.
I went off for my dinner at Coast to Coast, an American themed restaurant on the harbour-side. To be honest, it left a lot to be desired. We’d expected something quite posh, but it was quite shitty food in the end. We got free drinks on the house after two of the meals had to be sent back (I work in customer service so I prooomise I never complain unless something is truly tragic), and then headed to Slug and Lettuce YET AGAIN for YET MORE COCKTAILS OH MY GOD NOW I KNOW WHY MY HEAD HAS BEEN HURTING FOR THE LAST TWO DAYS FFS.
Then the biggest bloody electrical storm started over the bay, right over the harbour and of course, really close to our boat a.k.a my bed for the night. We watched the storm for a while before heading to bed, and luckily, we were all quite smashed so we didn’t really notice the storm. I slept fine in the boat. Chris and I had a bit below deck that turned into a triangular-shaped bed, and it was waaaaay comfier than I had expected it to be. I got woken up at about 3am with some rocking, then fell back asleep easily.
The next morning we were up at 8am, grabbed an iced coffee from Café Nero and got sailing to the Isle of Wight for lunch. I had a go at steering and seemed to get a good hang of the boat. We had a drink at the Island Sailing Club (an obscure place full of posh-folk and with huge framed pictures of the Queen and Prince Phillip on the walls), then headed to a little pub for lunch. I managed to break the water urn on the end of the bar and smash two glasses, prompting the manager to call me ‘Crash’ for the remainder of my visit. The food was lush; I had whitebait to start, then medium rare steak and chips for my main. I also indulged in an Elderflower Gin and Tonic. My new fave!
And with that, we headed back to the boat to come home. Except the f*cking steering thing on the boat snapped off just as we were leaving the harbour, and we got flung round the other side of the marina and managed to tie ourselves back to safety. If that’d happened in the channel, I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog post up quite yet! (Then again, I may have drifted round to the Mediterranean and then I wouldn’t be vexed at all).
We ended up getting the commercial ferry back to the mainland, and then train back home. We got back to our flat in London at about 9pm, and were so deliriously tired from our adventure that we pretty much fell asleep straight away. Well, after some creamy, garlicky, bacon, cheddar and brie pasta I made quickly.
I had suuuuuch a fun weekend, and would definitely love to get to Portsmouth again soon. It’s quite an expensive place to visit, so I’ll be saving up for my next trip. I really want to make use of the shopping outlet and maybe have a little clubbing session at Tiger Tiger next time! My vlog is down below, so feel free to have a gander at that. Some of the storm footage is incredible (if I do say so myself!).
Have you ever been to Portsmouth? What are your favourite things to do there?
Lots of love,
Jasmine x
Portsmouth looks so good!
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