While the blog stays open (as you can see!) it’s time for the editorial team to move on. It’s been a fabulous few months and we all enjoyed sharing our favourite places with you.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the journey – from the coolest bits of Berlin, an indie pub in Southampton, a top Paris restaurant and to some of the most amazing street art across Europe. We also hope it’s inspired you to go looking for more hidden gems and then share them on the Go Find It map.

You can still read all the content created during the past few months, just browse through the tags. You never know what discover next, which is why this project remains so exciting.

It just remains to thank everyone who’s been involved, with special thanks to all our guest bloggers:

Ana, Carlo, Dario, George, Mark, Martin, Max, Paula, Sherin

Let’s keep in touch – just follow our contact details in the blog and individual posts above.

Best wishes,

Melina and the Go Find It editorial team

Dick Penn/ / CC BY 2.0

The Elephant House in Edinburgh is one of those places that you instantly like. My first visit there was actually when I had just moved to study in Edinburgh and was looking for a flat. I was supposed to meet with two girls that had rented an apartment right opposite the uni and were looking for 3 more people. As soon as I entered I loved the warm and inviting atmosphere, the staff consisted of young, friendly students and the food was great and pretty cheap too. But the best thing was the old fashioned back room overlooking the Edinburgh castle, which by the way is supposed to have inspired JK Rowling for Hogwarts. She started writing the first book here and since then the lovely place filled with elephant figures and drawings has quickly become a darling among both tourists as well as locals.

By the way doesn’t it look nice from outside?

I never got to Hampstead Heat on Sunday; I ended up doing a bit of shopping. I didn’t find too much but I bought some DVD’s and I got some photos developed so that I can decorate my room with them. However last time I went shopping I and a friend did an awesome discovery, we found a restaurant called Imli.

We were actually going to Inamo, but as there were no tables we just chose something close to it and it happened to be a wise choice. Imli is an Indian tapas restaurant situated in central London and the decor is light and modern. It felt really nice and friendly sitting there and sharing food with a good friend. I really like tapas as it’s such ‘social food’. However you can easily get bored by eating regular Spanish tapas too often, so it was great to have a bit of a change. Indian food also suits absolutely great for tapas. I strongly recommend you to pay a visit there after a heavy shopping spree.

It’s a nice and sunny Sunday, so I think I’m off to Hampstead Heat for that walk i was talking about earlier in the week. However I think I’ll need to find a place to have a nice warm tea in, afterwards. I know the Kitchen Table is good, but it would be rather nice to find something new. I’ll go for a stroll and see what I can find, hopefully I’ll find something I can share with you guys.

This weekend I am really hoping for sunny weather. The reason for this is Hampstead Heath- the amazing London park which you might recognize from the Notting Hill movie. After not being able to join my friends the last couple of times that they went there, I am really hoping to be able to join this weekend.

Parks are of course great in the summer but actually Hampstead Heath is supposed to be at its most beautiful in autumn. Just imagine all the colours, orange and red leaves and the cold autumn air. Just perfect for a walk on a sunny Sunday. Even better than sleeping till late.

This Sunday is Sunday market time. Especially one: the Columbia Flower Market. This place will always hold special memories for me since it was the very first spot I visited when I came to London. It was a sunny Sunday and the small street was crammed with smiling people filled with expectations, searching for the perfect tree to take home.

As I tried to make my way through this crowd I heard the loud voices of the flower sellers: £3. 50, only £3. 50! As I looked up I saw tops of green trees, instead of the usual London gray sky.

It felt amazing. I was in the middle of London, on a tiny street packed with color and happiness. Along the sides of this tiny street there were small harmonic shops in typical London style with bright facades and wooden floors. The smell of wood blended with the flowers and the small steamy clouds rising from the Earl Grey tea that the people were carrying around. On the pavement there was a young writer leaning against a blue door in the sunshine. He was maybe trying to work on a poem. Further in the background there was music. It was coming from a young violin player. He was probably a student.

I enter a tea shop and fall in love with a ceramic teapot. Must have it. Such a way to brighten up the winter life, Columbia road Flower market and a steaming hot pot of tea after you’ve brought your tree home.

This is what I am going to be doing this Sunday. And this time I might go for a bright yellow lemon tree to cure even the grayest winter mornings.

Baci

It’s easy to get stuck with the thought that you need to find new things to see and do while you are away, but not when you are at home. That’s probably because at home you have your normal routines and you don’t really think of the places around you. However, that’s a shame, you miss out on a lot of things when going through the day in a routine.

I got reminded of this on Sunday, when I and my friends went for dinner just outside our flat. We live in Battersea Park and there are a few restaurants that I walk past almost every day going to the bus. I never pay much attention to them and I never thought of trying them out but when my friends wanted a meal out we decided to try something close to us for once.

We ended up in place called La Bottega Di Noemi which we discovered was a real gem. It’s not really a trendy place but it has its own tacky charm and the service was really good. We got offered food that was not on the menu and it was really tasty. If you’re ever around Battersea Park try this small Italian restaurant out

When a friend of mine studied Art history in Lund I became involved in “Lundakarnevalen” - one of the largest student festivals in Sweden, always highly anticipated since it only happens every fourth year. At the beginning I only joined because the whole city was talking about it but later that decision became one of the best I had ever made. Why? Because it was mind-blowing.

Lund is a small and cosy student town in south of Sweden, very rich on student life. Here students definitely are the most visible population occupying every street corner and always organizing countless of social activities to get to know each other better. The festival is all that, only funnier. Already a year ahead students start planning the many categories where everyone can take part like for example the circus, cabaret, theatre and “train” (a long parade with trucks decorated in crazy imaginative ways with students dancing on each dressed up in a matching costume). So this means that a year ahead already students start knitting, painting and fixing, all in order to make the funniest, coolest and most original festival ever!

As she was part of a student theatre working with lights, food and painting as well as the large party committee which organized parties for over 2000 people I got involved in that too. And I have to tell you, this is something incredible to be part of. Most of all because you get to meet so many different people, all working together to make the festival worth remembering. There is this sort of feeling of belonging to something bigger than you. And I learned to be creative while having a good time with all kinds of personalities around me.

When the lights went out, everyone continued the fiesta but this time in a more intimate setting away from the buzzing crowd, playing guitar, singing and talking about how the day had been. And no one ever wanted it to end. Fortunately there would be another festival in four years.

This is my last post before going back to Spain, and I would like to talk about a place close to my village. Here you can practice one of the funniest sports I have ever tried; River Hiking. It consists of going upriver thought completely transparent water, climbing, swimming and hiking.

What is even more appreciated than the sport is the place where it’s practiced; in the middle of the nature, with crystal line water and animals in their natural environment. This place will charge your batteries to the max.

If you are interested in discovering this experience visit the site from the guys who arranges it!

After the adventure you can head of and relax in a very cool restaurant in Barcelona, where you can spend all the night eating and talking about your exciting day, in a great and comfortable place.

As you probably know I was in Sweden for my Holidays a couple of weeks ago. One of my favourite things to do when there is to “fika”. That basically means hanging out in a cafe with one or several friends for ages, having a coffee or tea and drinking it insanely slowly whilst nibbling on something sweet. I love that, I love “fika” and I’m a bit sad that this concept doesn’t seem to exist here in the UK the same way it does in Sweden. Naturally I spent my holidays doing “fika” in different cafes and at different friend’s houses.

In Stockholm I have a few favourite cafés that I got to regularly. There’s thousands of cafés in each and every corner of Stockholm and I’ve tried quite a few but for different reasons I have some regulars.

One of them is Café tubby which I already written a post about, then there’s Bönor och Bakat (’Beans and Baked’) which has the best tasting blueberry pie a girl (or a guy) can wish for. It’s also very cheap for being a café in Stockholm. The atmosphere is okay and on the walls you can find graffiti inspired art work for sale. You can see a lot of young people here and if you’re lucky you can catch the sofa to hang out on.

One of my oldest and favourite cafés is Choklad koppen (’Cup of chocolate’). It’s a gay friendly cafe in beautiful Old town which is the oldest part of Stockholm. It’s quite small so it’s best to go there when it’s warm enough to sit on their terrace. Luckily you can borrow a blanket from them so you can sit outside for quite a long time during the year. I love the historic view, the great chocolate cake and their yummy sandwiches. Also, the staff are usually really sweet.

My newest addition is Cafe Mineur which is hidden in a cellar in Old town (as the previous one). What I like the most about this place is the interior which is odd bits and bobs from different decades. They match huge sofas with 50’s armchairs and narrow sewing tables. Nothing is the same, but it matches just perfect. It looks like a vintage furniture store…

Do you know of any good coffee places around London, please let me know and I’ll teach all my English friends how to do “fika”