Back in April, we went to Longleat for the day to celebrate my friend Luke's birthday! I'm so fortunate to live close to Longleat, but I really don't visit nearly enough. As well as a wonderful safari park, Longleat has a wonderful huge hedge maze to get lost in for a few hours and some lovely gardens and manor house to explore. Frankly, though, I only care about the animals and, fortunately for us, they were all out and about! Sarah was even brave enough to take her car through the monkey enclosure despite their notoriety for causing damage to vehicles!
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I set out to blog about this trip with the best intentions! I wanted to write down every day and what we did, in the right order, but ultimately I just never found the time. I'd remember to document the day's activities over dinner, and by the time I got back to our hotel it was long forgotten in a haze of well-fed exhaustion. We had five days in the park, generous for Disneyland Paris, really, but filled every one of them with a lot of walking, rides and laughter. I won't be able to do an accurate, day-by-day recap like I'd initially wanted, but I'll hopefully remember enough to capture the holiday perfectly! We went from Bristol via Easyjet, thanks to my very patient dad who gave us a lift at 7am up to the airport! Because it's really out of season, Disney were doing a special deal where you get two nights and days free if you book two nights, so Moose and I had booked Sunday-Thursday at the Sequoia Lodge hotel. I'd never stayed in a proper Disneyland hotel before because they're always so expensive, but this deal made the whole trip, including breakfast and park tickets, just over £500 for the two of us. Considering park tickets alone are 80€, I'd say it was a heck of a bargain! However, because the only flight we could take Sunday would get us in far too late to enjoy the park, we booked a Saturday morning flight and planned to stay in Val D'Europe, just down the road from Disneyland Paris, and right outside a big mall. The plan was to check out the mall, grab some essentials and dinner on Saturday, and then enjoy a full day of Disney on Sunday. We stayed at the Séjours & Affaires Apparthotel after reading some reviews. It was super cheap (around 40€ for the night) and basic, but perfectly adequate for what we needed. It was easy to get there from the airport (TVG train down to Disney, and then RER back up one stop - it was hard leaving Disney behind even though we knew we'd be back tomorrow!) We rested up and then had a long look around the mall (turns out, malls everywhere are busy as heck on a Saturday!) and grabbed dinner in Del Arte, an Italian restaurant we'd visited before on my birthday trip a few years ago. I had fond memories of the meal we had there before, but my meal this trip wasn't very great. I don't know if I just chose badly, but it was very boring and kind of canteen-y. Moose had a yummy looking pizza though, so I think it was probably just a bad choice on my part. On Sunday we grabbed a McDonalds before heading towards the park. My suitcase wheel melted as we were heading towards the mall, so we decided to get the free Disney shuttle bus. We went straight to Sequoia Lodge and oh my gosh! It was just the most beautiful place! The second the bus turned into the forest I was in love. The hotel was wooden and brick and birdsong played in the lobby and around the bar. The staff all wore National Park uniforms! It was adorable and cozy and lovely. We had opted for a Golden Forest Club upgrade, which offers free drinks and snacks during the day, so we took advantage of that before we jetted off into the parks. The first park we hit was Walt Disney Studios Park, because it closes earlier than the main park and because the best rides are there! We did Armageddon, which was a sort of behind the scenes of the special effects walk through, and then queued up for the Aerosmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, which I'd never done before! Don't I look like I enjoyed it? Though honestly the lady in front doesn't look much happier! I know we rode the Tower of Terror next, but honestly the rest of the holiday is a complete blur to me, so, here's a collection of some of my favourite pictures! We did pretty much everything open in both parks apart from the Disney Junior show, and the Motor Stunt Show. I love Disneyland Paris! Sure, it's not the American parks, but it doesn't try to be. I've been to Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida and the first time I went I was so worried I'd compare it unfavourably to those, but really it has a charm of its own. Here's a mini summary of the five days we spent in the parks.
And I'm sure tons of other wonderful stuff I've forgotten about! And then it was home time! As we were about to take off, a snow flurry hit the plane and we had to wait around hours to get de-iced before we could take off, which meant we got home super late. I've never been inside a plane as they de-iced it before, but it was rather like being in a car wash. We didn't back home until 1am, by which time we were absolutely shattered and pretty much fell asleep where we dropped.
Absolutely can't wait to go back to Disney though. I can't wait to 'do' Florida with Moose, since I haven't been in years and he hasn't been since he was a kiddo. Hopefully in the next couple of years! If Disneyland Paris keep their cheapy deals on though I might just have to sneak back to France in the meantime! Tags:
Sorry for such silence here lately, but this is why! Last week, Moose and I celebrated our fifth anniversary in Disneyland Paris! I'll do a proper photo-post and recap soon, but suffice to say the whole trip was magical and I'm so sad to be back to reality now! However, one thing about finally being back in my normal routine means I can finally get serious about blogging here on Dream Somehow! I really want 2015 to be the year this place transforms into something great, and that means actually posting regularly and throwing myself into the wonderful community online around geeky girls and their awesome blogs!
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I'm happy to mooch around cities forever, but my dad isn't much of a city-goer and much prefers getting out and about, so we got a car and decided to make use of it. We drove down to Coney Island and had a brief look, but the whole place was of course closed up for Winter. We headed down to Long Island, Dad's goal was to check out a couple of exclusive golf courses down there, and we stopped off at a diner along the way. The last few days were a lot of driving around some beautiful small towns in New Jersey, shopping and eating at various diners. :) I spent far too much money in Toys R US (buying TRU exclusive ponies we can't get in England) and MIchaels, mainly on scrapbooking supplies. Oops. I love New York. I love large, busy cities so of course it's right up my street. Shopping in America (as a Brit) is incredible, too! Everything is so cheap compared to over here, it's crazy. I can't wait to go back to NYC, probably for NYCC someday. <3
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Today would be our last full day in Manhattan, as we were planning on grabbing a car for the weekend. Just as well, since the weather was due to turn pretty wet and miserable! We went to Macy's to take a look at their famous window displays before heading up to Central Park. Macy's was great! We went in and had a look at their huge Christmas department, and fell in love with all the beautiful decorations! In the end, Mum decided to buy a Nutcracker figure with a Christmas countdown on it, because New York was full of Nutcrackers everywhere and it just summed up the whole trip to us! We took a train to the north of the park since I'd only seen the south part before, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it, especially in Winter! There really wasn't anything there... we spent hours just wandering down to the south part of the park. I guess I should have researched it before we went there. The bottom half of the park is wonderful, though. After Central Park we were all pretty exhausted, so we walked towards Times Square and the Rockefeller Center to try and snap some photos of the tree when it was less crowded, but unfortunately the Heavens opened and it poured down! Just in time for us to go and get the car for the rest of the holiday, really! We also heard that William and Kate were due to fly into New York soon and didn't really want to get involved with the extra crowding and heightened security, so the rest of our holiday would take us away from Manhattan!
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Day two was a really full day for us over in Manhattan. We took a ferry over from New Jersey and it dropped us off pretty much directly next door to the World Trade Center site, so we decided to have a look around there and visit the memorial. We passed the One World Trade Center (the Freedom Tower) on the way, and that building is so impressive! The way it's been designed is so crazy, it makes it look so tall if you stand at the base and look up, due to the optical illusion of the fine point at the top. It was beautiful to see on such a clear sunny day. It's really a strange thing to visit the 9/11 memorial. I can't believe the whole thing happened over a decade ago, it still feels so fresh and recent. The actual memorial area was beautifully designed, two huge pools of flowing water surrounded by the names of those lost in the attacks. Some of the names had white roses tucked into them, and I later learned that it would have been their birthday. There was a beautiful callery pear tree there that has been dubbed the Survivor Tree that had been nurtured back to life, and oddly enough it was the only tree there in bloom when we visited. A callery pear tree became known as the "Survivor Tree" after enduring the September 11, 2001 terror attacks at the World Trade Center. In October 2001, the tree was discovered at Ground Zero severely damaged, with snapped roots and burned and broken branches. The tree was removed from the rubble and placed in the care of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. After its recovery and rehabilitation, the tree was returned to the Memorial in 2010. New, smooth limbs extended from the gnarled stumps, creating a visible demarcation between the tree’s past and present. Today, the tree stands as a living reminder of resilience, survival and rebirth. The museum was very hard, though. I'm glad we did it. I was dubious at first, because it all feels so macabre to ogle the dead. However, it was all presented so thoughtfully - with the upmost of respect. There were a few things I couldn't bring myself to do - they had little telephone handsets where you could hear the last phone calls and messages from people who called from the towers or the planes. I just don't like that. I head them enough, over and over, when they played them on the news at the time, and it bothered me. These were private messages, the last words these people said to those they love, I've no right hearing them and nor does anybody else. Largely though, the whole experience was really worthwhile seeing, and really difficult. A lady near me left in tears. It's obviously still far too raw and far too real for some people. I walked around in tears at some of it. It was horrible. It sounds awful to call it a 'good day out', because of the subject matter, but it really is worth the trip. I didn't take many photos inside the museum. I found it incredibly tacky for the most part. People were taking selfies up against photos of the tower collapsing. It was grotesque. I really liked this line though. Afterwards, we grabbed a bite to eat at a local cafe (authentic, recommended by one of the World Trade Center employees, where I had a very yummy philly cheese steak and salad, nom!) and took a slow walk down towards Battery Park to go see the Statue of Liberty! We weren't planning on actually going to the Statue of Liberty herself, I went last year with Moose and found it incredibly disappointing. Instead, we planned to take the Staten Island Ferry across to take some photos and see her up close from the vantage point of a dry, warm (and free!) boat. We ended up getting to see her at sunset, which was incredibly pretty (and the photos don't really do it justice, sadly). We decided to head back up to the WTC area afterwards, where we grabbed a drink at a local Irish Pub before heading back to the apartment. It was a busy, full day and we were shattered! Day three coming soon!~
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Apologies for the lacklustre blogging lately! Honestly I've been so busy I just haven't had much time to sit down and catch up here! My family and I spent a week in New York a couple of weeks ago, and then we went to Danny Elfman's concert in the Royal Albert Hall, and then I went to the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland with my buddy Laura. So, I'm going to try and catch up with everything before Christmas. Eep! Anyway, so New York! Basically, my parents haven't had a holiday in a few years now after inheriting my nan's cat. Tigger is very insecure and we've never felt all that content putting him in a cattery while we go away and have fun, but after a few years they both really wanted a break and a vacation! We chose New York because I'd been there last year with Moose and really enjoyed it, and because Mum has wanted to visit there forever. Dad's actually not a big fan of busy cities or crowds, so the plan was to break it up, stay in New Jersey and get a car half way through so we could travel around and do some more 'real' America. It was the best of both worlds, really! We flew out on December 2nd with British Airways. They were great! I used to be a Virgin Atlantic fangirl but BA really won me over, the crew were fantastic, the in flight entertainment was great and the food was yummy. By the time we got through security (seriously, three giant flights land and Newark Airport had four immigration desks open), and got to our apartment, we were all far too tired to do much else that night. The apartment was crazy though! We overlooked the Manhattan skyline, it was beautiful. Day 1~ We were only a quick train or boat across from Manhattan, so we spent our first day exploring our local area and grabbing pancakes at the City Diner. They were lighting the Rockefeller Tree later that evening, so our plan was to walk up to the Newport Mall, have a look around and then rest in the afternoon before taking a train over to Manhattan in an attempt to get to Rockefeller. That's where I had the cutest interaction with a child, ever! I was stood on the train with my parents when this woman said to me "she's obsessed with your hair." I looked down to see two little girls, both smiling at me. Of course, I've got bubblegum pink hair at the moment, and the woman, obviously their mother, explained that they thought I was a mermaid. Honestly, I've been rehearsing this interaction ever since I started dying my hair! I told her I wasn't a mermaid, I was a unicorn and that's why I had pink hair. It was so adorable! The older girl said her name was Elsa and she had snow magic (uh huh) and her little sister poked her tongue out and told me that she had 'snake magic'. I didn't question what snake magic was, but she was at the age where she probably saw a snake recently and realised I Like Snakes. It was so perfect. They asked me if I was a unicorn, where was my horn? And I said you can only see it if you believe enough! If I have children, I'll make sure they're as cute as these two were, full of magic and excitement. It was so busy though. We knew it would be, with the tree lighting and all, but the crowds were crazy! Mariah Carey was performing 'All I Want For Christmas' so that kind of explains it, but she was so bad! Like, her performance was super off key. We learned later that she was meant to record her performance but didn't turn up at the recording session so was just forced to perform it live. Which, y'know, is probably what a multi millionaire singer should be able to do anyway, but what do I know? Ahem! We left the crowds because it was just too crazy, and stumbled across the entrance to the Empire State Building, completely by accident! Since that was absolutely on our 'to do' list, we decided to go up and enjoy the view. It was super windy and cold up there, but I took some great pics! I'm gonna wrap up day one here because I'm posting lots of photos! I'll be back soon with part 2! :)
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Last Saturday, my friends and I went on our annual pilgrimage to the Bath Christmas Market! We all met at university in Bath, so meetups in the city are a lovely occasion even though none of us live particularly far. Unfortunately, we could only make Saturday, which was the busiest and most hellish day, so it wasn't the relaxing romp it usually is. It took me over an hour just to snake my way in and out of the car park, and then we spent the whole afternoon trying to find somewhere to eat that wasn't closed or packed to the brim. As fun as the market is, we all decided that if we had to go on a Saturday again, we probably wouldn't bother. It was pretty and it's always nice meeting up with my friends, but the crush just made it more chore than fun. Oh well! I actually nearly lost these photos. Half way through copying them onto the PC to make this blog post yesterday, I got a popup saying the card needed to be formatted. I was getting 'memory card error' in every device I put the card in, and I spent the evening flailing and Googling for help. Eventually, I came across a program called Zero Assumption Recovery which managed to save all of the photos (which was crazy since anything else I tried told me there was no disk in my SD card slot at all, it just wasn't recognised at all!) Best of all, it was free! Total lifesaver. Gonna chuck the card in the bin now, hah. Every year, one of our traditions involves climbing up Bath Abbey. They offer special little tours where you're allowed up to the very top, overlooking the whole city below, with complimentary hot chocolate or mulled wine. We do it every year, it's just really nice. And here's a bonus photo by Sarah, since I'm never in any photos I take myself. Rockin' some very fuchsia pink hair at the moment... waiting for it to fade to the baby pink I prefer. Anyway! Tomorrow my parents and I are flying out to New York City for a week of festive good times! In typical nerd fashion, I am absolutely taking my laptop (and tablet, and phone, and camera, and 3DS...) as well as a Smash Book, a sketch book and some other goodies, so you won't be without me long. We chose an apartment with free wifi. Of course. :>
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Yesterday, I was invited along to Bridport Hat Festival by my friend Sarah who went a few years ago and enjoyed it! I had a free day and figured it'd be a fun, different day out, so we dragged Luke along too and made a day of it. The festival was pretty cute and quintessentially English - full of quirky eccentric people parading all manner of headgear, from store bought Santa hats to fully home-crafted towering pieces of art. There were competitions for best hat, of course, and talks and exhibitions. There was a regular market selling all sorts of vintage and second hand things, and a separate hat market featuring, well, lots of independently crafted hats for sale. The event was nice and cozy but sadly it ended pretty promptly and earlier than we expected - while the schedule looked really packed full of things to do through 'till night, we actually found ourselves at a loss after lunch and realised most of the crowds had dispersed and the live music was packing up. By 3 pretty much everything was over, so we looked around the town (where I managed to buy four new books in Waterstones!) and headed over to a pub called The Bull, which was hosting a 'Cocktails & "Fascinators' party - basically a cozy pop up tequila bar offering specially 'hat' themed tequila based cocktails! I had a 'Milliner's Mule'. Oh, and the books I picked up were 'Popular' by Maya Van Wagenen, 'The Maze Runner' by James Dashner, 'Timeriders' by Alex Scarrow and 'Knife Edge' by Malorie Blackman - I'm on a bit of a Young Adult kick, can you tell? Tags:
Every year, since I was a little girl, I've attended the Great Dorset Steam Fair with my family. Years ago, Dad created the Morris Minor LCV Register, a register of all surviving Morris Minor commercial vehicles, so we had a slot in the steam fair for displaying members of the club. Growing up, I've always loved the place for the funfair (largest one I've ever seen), and as I got older I started enjoying the night life (beer tents, live music!), and took to camping overnight to make the most of the event.
We've usually been really fortunate with the weather, too, but this year it's been raining. A lot. In all the years I've attended the steam fair, I think I've only encountered one really muddy event. Until this year! We've had reasonably decent weather until the past few days, but the rain has been torrential lately and sadly it has affected the fair. It was like a quagmire! And at first, it was really funny. The novelty of dancing around the mud and trying desperately to stay upright was really fun (dad was the only one of us who fell over!), but eventually, it kind of got the better of us. We couldn't enjoy the market (on a hill, it was hard to negotiate the way between the slipperiest mud, and many stalls had closed up already (or just plain not turned up)), we couldn't enjoy the funfair (it was too muddy it became a chore to even walk around it) and the craft tents felt smaller than usual, too. We usually take a while to look at the various displays and animals on show, but it wasn't really possible with the mud :( In the food hall, I bought some cheese, special flavoured brandy and a lot of cider. Kind of the same as usual, in that respect! I adore the Great Dorset Steam Fair, and we'd usually go back on Saturday to check out the things we'd missed before, but it was just too much hard work in this weather, so I'm not sure if we'll bother unless it really improves. Such a shame, too. We look forward to this thing every year! Hopefully next year will be really sunny and lovely and we'll make the most of it again. Until then, have some photos of me, cider, and a whole lotta mud. Tags:
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Hi! I'm Selena an artist, blogger and gamer!
Dream Somehow is my little corner of the internet where I talk about life, the universe and everything! Here, you'll find travel, adventures, vintage style, life in the South West of England, a little bit of Disney dreaming and a whole lot of geeky nonsense. If you'd like to learn a little more about me, click here! Instagram
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