I went to Durham! ~ header

Today I went to Durham to visit a friend and my initial thoughts were that it was just going to be a small place with old buildings but much to my amazement it was much much more! Now of course there were old buildings (insert old building photos now!)...

...but it wasn't just old buildings. There was also;

A forest/walkway which happened to double up as a
death hill (it was VERY steep)!

A river....which looked very very picturesque may I add.

And a.....well I don't know what you'd call this
but I liked it because there was soo many different birds
just siting on the logs.

Oh, I almost forgot...there was also cobbles....everywhere!

My mission for the day was to go in some of the vintage-type stops I'd heard about to try and pick up some odd bits. We went in one shop called 'Scarlet Ribbons' and I have to confess, I just wanted to buy every accessory in that shop! They were all either very retro or very vintage from candy bar earrings and scrabble rings, to satchel bags and scarf headbands. Sadly, I only bought two items which were an 'E' scrabble ring and a red/black headband scarf thing (which I'm yet to determine if I actually like!).

I have wanted one of these for absolutely
ages...I'm so happy I finally got one...

This is the 'headband scarf thing', what are all
your thoughts on it? I'm torn between if I like it or not.

The second vintage shop we went in was a little less retro and cool and little more....interesting to say the least. I have been looking to buy a faux fur coat for some time now and when we walked into this shop I was immediately drawn to the racks of fur coats. However I quickly discovered that they were in fact real fur so that totally put me off - and they cost £300-£400 each! This got me to thinking that up until today I have never really thought about how I feel about real fur. I have never been against it nor have I been for it however, after seeing all the coats lined up today, I think I can quite happily say that I won't ever be buying or wearing a real fur coat (I may still buy a faux one though!).

After the initial shock of seeing all the fur coats, then came the foxes...yes I did say FOXES! Me and my friend were happily rummaging around the shop up until the point when she pointed out the fox scarves looking down at us from the beams above. That was where I drew the line. It actually made me real very uncomfortable and just made me want to leave the shop and frankly never go back.

So, overall I enjoyed my day in Durham. It was lovely to see my friend and catch up with her over lunch, and it also gave me an opportunity to see a city that I haven't ever seen before :D

The cafe where we ate at.

Nicest looking hot chocolate ever! (It did taste a bit strange though...)

They knew what I meant when I asked for a 'barm cake'!!!
However I wasn't expecting one quite this big.

The view was nice. I thought I'd take a photo.

Last thing, I've been wanting a notebook to carry round with me for ages, but every time I see any they are all boring plain ones. I managed to find one today though that I really really liked at a shop called 'Paperchase' which I believe is a large international chain so if you haven't been in before I'd recommend you do because is was such a good shop!