Martha Marcy May Marlene

This eery and menacing psychological thriller will have you clinging to the edge of your seat (or the nearest person). It's more psychologically challenging than 'scary' and isn't dissimilar in style to 2010's Winter's Bone, having both been filmed in isolated forestry in central America and being focused on the lives of tormented and troubled teenage girls.
    Martha's sister, after recieving a desperate and discouraging phone call from Martha immediately comes to her aid and picks her up from an unknown isolated location. After going back to Martha's sisters house, it's revealed she lives with her British husband - who doesn't approve of Martha's increasingly disturbing behaviour when she arrives back with her sister - having lied about where she was staying for years to her sister when she was in fact living with a crime focused destructive cult. It's easy to observe how difficult she's finding coming to terms with whatever has happened to her - which is always kept ambiguous to a certain extent, even though we are shown certain selections of her memories. It's clear Martha is really mentally affected by the things which happened in those years when she went away - the whole way through the film the narrative is revealed to us by her flashbacks, putting us in her mindset - in places it's difficult to differentiate which is a past memory and which is present - mirroring Martha's mindset. After Martha partakes in particular activities, they persistently reveal flashbacks of both mental and physical abuse during the time she was with this cult. The things she experienced, to us, are downright bizarre and completely socially unacceptable, but with an extreme brainwashing by the cult, Martha finds herself copying many of the insane behaviours when she escapes and is constantly paranoid that people are coming to get her. We're led to believe this concerns Marcy's sister a great deal, also being paired with Martha's silence and restraint also emphasises her fragile mental state and creates an enigma for us to solve. We're left with an extremely ambiguous ending. Overall, definitely worth a watch, not the film for you if you're not good with ambiguity though!

A trip to Brighton Pier



Brighton Pier
Photograph: Amber Townley



Brighton, one of the most cultural cities in Europe, has been the place to be since the 18th century when it was a pretty fishing village and hometown to the iconic and ever-famous Georgian townhouses. Somehow, Brighton has always had an ability to draw people into it with a subtle charm. The historic, cultural pier has been around since the late nineteenth century and is definitely worth a visit – still a marvel now costing a grand £27,000 to build all that time ago. The pier itself is open all year - except christmas day from 10.00-22.00 Monday to Friday between April and October. 11.00-17.00 Between October and March - It's even open on bank holidays.

 The Victorian pier boasts a variety of restaurants  and bars - palm Court Fish Restaurant, Victoria's bar and Horatio's bar. Palm court recently being called the 'Spiritual home' of fish and chips - available to hire for evenings for events. There are plenty of food kiosks, selling both sweet and savoury treats for all the family. There is even a milkshake kiosk named 'Moo Moo's' and a model cow outside.

There is also a variety of rides, just to name a few: The Dodgems, Ghost Train, The old favourite - The Waltzer and of course, The classic Carousel. The Turbo Coaster will have you clinging onto your seat as you plunge down the drop which hovers perilously close to the sea!

 So there are plenty of things to do at Brighton Pier, even if it's taking a birds eye view of Brighton from the coaster, or sticking your head through the photo boards, singing karaoke at the glitter bar, or riding on the carousel. It's guaranteed you'll never be bored at this spectactular place!

Travel guide - Krakow

 

Krakow's Main Square and Historical Centre

 If you're looking for a more lively visit to Poland rather than a historical expedition, perhaps visit one of the many restaurants in the main square - there is a massive choice from 'Al Dente' to 'Zloty Piec' - all fairly reasonable in price. There is a whole range of European and oriental food: Italian, Polish, Japanese, Argentinian, Spanish, Ukrainian, Mexican and international.

You're spoiled for choice here, Krakow also features a wide spectrum of bars which have greatly expanded in size and numbers since the 80's, when finding beer in a bar was in sporadic dire supply - like finding a needle in a haystack. Many of the best bars/pubs worth a visit are in the centre of Krakow - fortunately for us tourists, saving us drunken expeditions in all directions of the city! Don't be afraid to venture out of the centre though, where there are still old fashioned piano style bars - not lacking of any style and flaunting class out of their quirky cave like crevices. Many of these bars feature religious aspects (gargoyles for example, not so comforting to be around, unlike religious crosses and pictures). It's easy to visualise how the dim lighting in the majority of bars here is cozy in the winter time, making bars like this sanctuarys in Poland's cruel sub zero temperatures. 



Piano Rouge - located in the main square in Krakow.

The hotels in Krakow are good value as well as the beer and food, as so many things in Krakow are - considering it's the second biggest city in Poland it's surprising it's so cheap everywhere! Globus Rooms and Apartments Inn in Krakow - (Parallel to the popular Jewish District Kazimierz) is an example of how far your money stretches here, from as cheap as £30 a room - all equipped with everything to suit your needs, from 26" LCD TV's to ironing boards and microwaves, (which you may need to request!) Other hotels here are also cheap in value and have unique rooms to suit every character. 

Globus Rooms and Apartments - Krakow

Polski Polska - buildings of interest and areas to visit

In February 2012, I was lucky enough to visit the astounding, cultural city of Krakow, the second biggest city in Poland - home to some of the world's most beautiful cathedrals and historical buildings, such as: St Mary's Basillica, Crakow's Historic Centre (The largest medieval urban centre in Europe, which has been around since the 12th century and a popular hit among tourists), Malbork Castle and Wieliczka Salt Mine - just to name a few. 

Poland is a largely Catholic country buried in the heart of Europe, and features some of the worlds most admired landscapes, still one of the most diverse countries in the world through its multicultural society.


Krakow's main square - Medieval Historic Centre can be seen in the background
Photograph: Amber Townley

Krakow's Historic Centre's market stalls in winter
Photograph: Amber Townley

  Unfortunately, after world war two and Hitler's reign, many of the iconic buildings (particularly synagogues and other religious buildings) were vandalised, bombed, and stolen by the Nazi's - vastly changing the outward appearance of Krakow - the beauty has remained through all its history though - Krakow's resilience and energy make it all the more magical today.
The 'Royal Route' is definitely worth a visit too, Polish royalty took this route when visiting Wawel Castle which has not only been an archaeological site of interest for 130 years since 1874, but also provides spectacular views over the city. In 1921, it was given official status as the residence of the president of Poland. Today it is used as a museum: 

Wawel Castle
Photograph: Amber Townley

Royal Route - on the way to Wawel Royal Castle, Krakow
Photograph: Amber Townley

This magnificent structure dates back to the year 1000, making it a historical site of interest for over 10 centuries.
Also located in Krakow is one of the biggest Jewish districts in Poland - Kazimierz. It is located on the outskirts of the city and is one of Krakow's prettiest and cultural places. It has been home to the Jewish community since the 14th century and was a city until the late 17th century when it was given a district status.
This part of Krakow was largely affected post-war, with many buildings being deserted and left to perish - an eerie sight of a place which was once full of people.

Notes for styles of travel writing: Article off the travel page of The Guardian: ‘Ocean drive: a road trip around Portland, Oregon’

·         Rhetorical question to attract attention

·         Cultural knowledge of the places

·         Lots of positive hyperbolic language

·         Not only cultural knowledge, but knowledge of the scenery/areas

·         Passive voice – only personal when brief and relating to how amazing or bad the place is – people are more likely to listen if it’s a personal account

·         Lots of metaphors & similes & sibilance to make the place sound mellifluous.

·         Literally only anecdotal when talking about how beautiful the surroundings were – e.g. when she’s saying what they did and where briefly while mainly describing the beauty of the place they stayed/what they could see/what they eat or drank.

·         Alliteration again to make it sound nice

·         When it’s anecdotal, it’s very descriptive about surroundings. (Sights, smells, sounds etc.)

·         Extremely descriptive and over the top in some anecdotes: ‘Sleepy village of wooden houses hugging a sparkling inlet’

·         Statistics properly referenced or from own research – e.g. how many people live there/how low or high the crime rates are etc.

-          ‘40,000 Native Americans live in Portland’

·         Know a bit of history about the place as well to add to the cultural knowledge factor:

-          ‘Unratified treaty created the Coast Range Reservation in the 1850s. Road-diggers turned up Alsea graves in the 1930s when they built the coastal highway.’

·         Statistics with distance as well, saying how far one place is from the next (shows knowledge of ability to navigate the city well)

Such as

-          ‘Bend is 1,100m above sea level’

-          ‘Dunes sweep for 50 miles from Florence to Coos Bay; the most impressive rise over 150m, at Umpqua.’

·         Knowledge of wildlife native to the area

·         Link to anywhere mentioned (as much as is possible) – like bars/restaurants/cinemas etc. Copy the link to their address if possible as well e.g. 

‘(616 East Burnisde, rocknroseinc.com)’

·         Pictures to go alongside descriptions – brief description under the photo and name of the photographer

·         Just really hyperbolic descriptions – much more than needed

·         Light humour e.g. ‘We gorged on cheddar samples, and nearly left after consuming half our bodyweights in lactose …’ ‘late-night bars whose names I can't remember’ – only very rarely is it not specific (for humour purposes)

·         Biblical descriptions to really emphasise ‘Heavenly’

·         Even mentions street names where places are. Very detailed.

·         Constantly mentioning statistics such as ‘1.6 acres of new and used volumes’ (even the amount of magazines in a book shop)

·         Mentions names of well-known people as well so also implies knowledge of ‘important’ people.

·         Says all the quirky places to go, describes what they are/do, so essentially reviews these places while mentioning and linking them

·         Shows knowledge of the climate etc.