alana goes away

crazy gorge drive down to castleton sammy wandering the streets of castleton Right! On a role! Bit shorter but thought I'd share, before I get into NZ holiday. Sam and I went up to Manchester, Sam had mentioned he would like to head up there and then there was the Rugby League World Cup thing happening which he also mentioned, so I thought I'd do a wee bit of surprising and get tickets hahaha. I'd never been to a rugby game before and what a game to pick. I felt sorry for them. Anyway, It was nice to get out of town for a bit, and especially nice to be around some greenery and rolling hills too. We drove up on the Friday night, halfway, then carried on through an amazing national park and through 'Hope Valley' in the morning, it was all foggy and cliffy and pretty pretty. We headed to the Old Trafford place and got our seats (in the skies hahaha) and watched NZ sadly take a massive dive. Ah well. The next day we drove home a...

chocomel to the rescue funniest thing, i just about died laughing two smoothies please, im feeling extra seedy at van gogh museum kate thoroughly enjoying my company george looking wistful...just found a place that does bloody mary fiiinally i can see your a first time flyer... sisssstaaaas are doin it Lets take a long step back in time... To celebrate my friend Georges birthday a few weeks ago, she arranged a wee trip to Amsterdam! George and I caught the Eurostar over, while her friend Nicola caught the train from France and our friend Kate flew over from London. From the get go we were disorganised as hell, with both me and George being late to the train (still made it obvs) and Georges phone going flat, but luckily we bumped into each other walking around St Pancras station haha. I love train rides, I dunno, I think it might be my favourite way to travel. Not the tube or anything, because screw that. But long train rides are ok by...

So long it's been! Just taking a lazy break in NZ....Be back soooooon with a bunch of old things to post!

sammy pointing to where we are headed  and finally at the top wouldnt be an alana trip without an awkward jumping photo a little bit dunediny pretty much all of costello So the rest of the time we were in Ireland we pretty much just drove around sight seeing. It was the best. Driving through valleys and the bumpiest roads ever, and glassy glassy lakes and even up a mountain. And as always by mountain, I mean steep hill. We stopped in at the Connemara National Park and decided to do the walk up the 'Diamond Hill'. There are three different heights you can go to so obviously we decided to get up to the top. And boy oh boy I tell ya, if you ever go there take some moz spray, as I have never been so eaten in my life. Hunnnnnnnnndreds of them. Stuck everywhere. I was super hot from walking up the hill  but I had to put my jacket on, it was just unbearable. Teeny wee things like a cloud you just couldn't not breathe them in h...

sam being reckless woop woooop A few weeks ago Sam and I finally got our butts to Ireland! Just for a long weekend, but boy was it beautiful. We flew in to Shannon airport early on the Friday morning, and hired a car to drive up to Galway. We took the scenic route up there, via the Cliffs of Moher. What. A. Sight. And not just because I was reliving Harry Potter moments (Horcrux hunting anyone?). They were such an epic sight. It was a cloudy kind of day, and I think it was perfect for the cliffs. They just looked so massive and wild and doomy with the cloudy backdrop. Wonderful stuff. Then we were heading the scenic route to our B&B, along more super scenic coastal roads, past crazy stone formations of this place called Burren, where it looks like lava has spilled out and dried up (I've not idea what it actually is btw) but was definitely worth a stop off. We wandered around these super spongy grass/rock fields, and looking around, the hil...

canal traffic jam rialto bridge one of the many mask shops st marks cheeser! best burger shop insta shots - horror movie trailer or what sams birthday pres in action beach time standard venice canals This year for Sam's birthday, we decided to have a 4 day weekend in Venice! What a great idea! Even though London had been having a pretty rad heatwave, and I'd actually been up at Focus again (Jesus camp) which was really good, it was nice to get away (with work but it doesn't feel like it when we are out of  London) and go to some of the talks, and live in a campground by the beach etc. but getting out of the UK now that Sam had his visa (YAY!!) was a must. I've had super hectic work months due to the summer holidays, so I've been non stop all over the place - down to Cornwall for a week - back to London for a day - up to Focus camp in Mablethorpe - back to London for a couple days - bac...