Arundel Castle

As it was my mothers birthday yesterday, we decided to make the most of the British summer and go out. We love our history and visiting castles, so we took a drive to Arundel to visit 'Arundel Castle'. This is also the castle where they filmed 'The Young Victoria', which is one of my many favourite films.

This is one of the sides of the castle (I'm not sure whether this is the front or not). This to me looks unreal and does not look like i'm in England, I mean there is no cloud in the sky! They also held a cute little market that set you in the medieval times, which had events such as cooking, clothing and jousting, which was amazing, because I become a geek when it comes to this sort of stuff!

We also visited the chapel, which was right by the castle and gardens. Although it was amazing and stunning with the stained glass works and woodwork, yes I admit I love that stuff, it was creepy.

The next few photos are from the gardens, which were so peaceful and calming, besides the scorching hot weather.

This kind of day out, is also suitable for younger children, as they held so many activities for them and still keeping it educational. Overall one of the best days so far of summer. Next on my list is to visit Kensington Palace, so stay tuned for a post on that! 

Thanks for reading!xo

Alice

Top 5 Summer Reads

I have always enjoyed talking and sharing about my favourite books and I thought this was be the perfect time to as it is now holiday season! I find that I practically go through my entire book collection. Below I have managed to select 5 of my favourite books to suggest and recommend some awesome reads perfect for summer. 

1. Hester Browne - The Vintage Girl 

This book is great if you like adventure and investigation stories. This story focuses on a young women who ventures to a house in Scotland belonged to her heritage. This book allows you to follow her journey in investigating the secrets of her past family members and soon discover a 

2. John Green - The Fault In Our Stars

A romantic young adult novel with comedic tone and language. This book has been the rave for months, along with one of the best authors, 'John Green'. The success and popularity of this book has lead to becoming a major motion picture. It is the perspective of a young teenage girl, Hazel, who suffers from cancer, but leads to her meeting her love, Augustus. This book had me both crying and laughing, honestly the only book that I have felt quite emotional about. I am quite put of watching the film as I expect such high expectations from the book, but I will probably end up watching it either way. 

3. Rainbow Rowell - Eleanor & Park

This book is very similar to TFIOS, with the original love story of a teenage couple, however the thing that makes this story unique is the differences and how the characters are created. The best thing about a book is watching the character progress and develop, especially for a teenage character, which this book definitely succeeds. 

4. Neil Gaiman - The Ocean At The End Of The Lane 
5. Rainbow Rowell - Fangirl 

A Trip to New York City

The last week I have had the opportunity to go and visit one of the most famous cities; New York. Although it was an educational trip with the college, it literally felt like any ordinary holiday. From going on boat rides, museums, Brooklyn bridge, walking around central park and of course shopping in Times Square. I have met some amazing people, which felt like we were a huge family. Through our experiences with our lost luggage and cancelled flights, they were a few ups and downs, but everyone supported each other. As I have so many items and adventures to share with you, I have decided to break this topic into three blog posts, otherwise this will be a long essay. 

On The first day was a walk through Times Square to get to the sea for a boat ride to see the island where the Statue of Liberty is placed. Just walking through New York is amazing, there is something going on at every angle. We all witnessed to buses crash right in front of us which made all the windows to smash, something you don't see often in the UK.

One of the best visits we went was to Times Square. The atmosphere is so friendly besides how busy it is. The best shop we went to was Toys R Us, it was literally heaven, with three floors full of toys. 

Above was a panoramic view of Central Park. It is unbelievable how big it really is; we ended up walking the full length of the park to eat lunch, although it was tiring, it was definitely worthwhile.

 We also walked over one of the worlds famous bridges 'Brooklyn Bridge' which although doesn't look as attractive as expected, it sure had the best views of sea and skyscrapers. As you can tell by now, this trip included alot of walking, which resulted to alot of us with bruised, swollen feet.

Lastly, was my all time favourite adventure, which was to the top of the rock, which basically gave you the full scale of how big New York is. You could see for miles, full of buildings. This was taken around 8:00 pm, just as the sun was setting. It was peaceful and calming, one of the best views I have seen. After the sunset, gradual lights of buildings lit up, which against the sunset was perfect. Overall the perfect end to the trip.