"Make do and mend" northeast80's Profile

I was born in Beverley, a town 9 miles north of Kingston upon Hull, lived and schooled in Hull until University when I went to Nottingham, spent a great three years here, I lived in the wonderful areas of Radford and Forest Fields.
I was going to go travelling after uni but found a very cheap place to live in Walworth, London, it had mice.
Then I moved to Queens Road Peckham, this place had fleas, then moved to Stockwell, two flats here, my last stop was Tulse Hill. I worked in East Dulwich and Clapham.
Finally went travelling after three years in London, my first stop was four days in Hong Kong then Australia for about three months, to New Zealand for six months, the South Island only, back to Australia for another three months. The last stop was to be Singapore to meet up with a friend, but when I got to the airport to check in found out I didn't have enough time left on my passport, you need six months left, I had three. So had a mammoth journey home instead, only got to see Singapore airport, they have free internet! I got back to Europe and spent 6 months between Hull, London, the Netherlands (I can speak Dutch to AS-level so feel free so help me practice) and Austria.

I am technically no longer Northeast, more Southwest; I've moved to Bristol where I've been for almost 5 years and love it.

Map key-
Blue - Trip July-September 2005
Red - Trip March-April 2006
Black - Trip April-June 2006

I've moved my text about my Australia trip to an Australia page. I've just about finished Queensland, and a bit of WA, SA, NT, NSW and VIC.

My Route Around New Zealand

Map key-
Black - Trip January 2006
Blue - Trip February 2006
Red - Trip March-April 2006
I'm starting to build a general New Zealand page, though don't expect much so far, there's more to come!

Europe

Very rough map of Europe

From an early age we went on holiday to Belgium and the Netherlands with North Sea Ferries, the main thing I can remember from those trips was the jelly rats and good chocolate, huge markets and pretty town squares and being very disappointed in buying salty liquorice.

We went to France every summer for about three years, including Brittany and the Vendee, I remember visiting the Isle de Ray, Mount St.Michel, ordering 'deux baguette sil vous plait' and eating crossiants dipped in hot chocolate.
I went more recently on an art school trip to Paris and a skiing holiday to Chamonix with some work-mates. We stayed in Chamonix, however, there wasn't enough snow so we travelled into Italy instead. We skied one day from Valle d'Aosta and the other day from Cervinia all on the Matterhorn mountain which I found ammusing that you could just stick to one side because a thrid was Swiss, another French and the other Italian.
I had a great holiday this year (2007) near Dijon, right in the Beaune wine region.

We went to Spain once, stayed in Bilbao and visited Monserat and Barcelona, I remember walking along the beach and loosing a shell ornament I'd just bought, my parents getting pick-pocketed in Barcelona and just getting over the measles.

Travelled to Ireland a few times, the Republic and Northern, we travelled around Kerry one time, another we stayed on the border near the lakes, and another time took a trip to Dublin with a friend.

A few years ago we took a family holiday to Malta for two weeks, we in Buggiba which was fantastic, we took lots of the local buses around the island, visited Gozo, Mdina with a visit to the glass factory, plenty of great fish restaurants around, all the lovely ice cream shops. We lived on bread, feta, cartons of wine, olives, dolmades. They'd just become part of the EU so there were huge celebrations going on, lots of parties and parades.

Following on from that trip we took another holiday to Crete and stayed on a hill somewhere, hired a car so got out to lots of small villages, visited plenty of churches, sorry I need to look at a map to remember where we actually went to.

Stayed in Austria for three weeks which was amazing, really reminded my of New Zealand though a lot closer to home. We went on lots of walks, mushroom picking, swimming, visiting the near-by towns of Weng, Leitzen and Admont.

One place I really want too see is Italy, I've only been skiing there so would love to see more of the real country.

Trips 2010-
Throughout - London weekend trips
March - Wales (for a friend's 40th in Llanelli)
March - A week in the Lake District
August - Camping Croyde, Devon
August - Belgium; Oostende, Brugges, Gent, Antwerpen, Liege. Germany; Aachen. France; Dunkerque (only for the ferry across from Dover)

Trips 2009-
Throughout - lots of weekends in London
Feb - 2 weeks around the Netherlands, a short stop in Brussels and Paris
April - long weekend in Devon / Cornwall
August - 2 weeks Croatia, Montenegro & BiH
October - long weekend in Yorkshire
December - home for Christmas (Hull)

Trips 2008-
Feb/March - a two week trip to Prague, Vienna and Budapest, all amazing cities with so much to offer. I walked for at least 8 hours a day, went out rather a lot, took a day trip in the Czech Republic. Was amazed by the ease of travel, which is, as usual, on time, cheaper, more frequent, faster and cleaner than in the UK, and the friendliness of the Czech and Hungarian locals.
March & April - a couple of trips to London
April - three nights in Berlin.
May - Bank Holiday weekend in Thatcham, Berkshire.
May - camping in Forest of Dean
August - Valencia, Spain.

Great Britain

Very rough map of the UK

Of course I have seen a lot of my own country as well.
I went to the Isle of Wight.
We used to own a cottage in Skinningrove, in what is now North Yorkshire so used to go up there every weekend, I've got no photos here yet.
Been to most of Yorkshire really, went to Leeds recently, from the Dales to the Wolds to the Moors to the Peaks.
Took trips all the way up to John O'Groats and down to Lands End and the Lizard and everything in-between.
Though I've only really been to Wales to get to Ireland, but I did have a great trip there with work mates to climb Snowdon.
We used to go to the Lake District ever year so have climbed most of the mountains round there too, and visited every lake at least twice!
As I mentioned before I used to live in London for three years so got to know that quite well.
I love Cornwall, I had a camping trip a few years ago there and we surfed, travelled around the area, back up to a friends house in Bristol. And have been a few times to the wonderful Eden Project.

22nd Jan-
I went to my 1st VT meeting. We had a fantastic time in York, DAO really did his research and we had some great, interesting, informative walks around the city. If was fantastic to finally meet some of you, of course there was lots of food and drink and laughs involved. Here's the links to the pages I've built on the trip-
VT Meet
York Page

America

I've only been to New York City in this continent, I stayed with friends who were doing a year's work placement out there.
We had a great time, it was fantastic going out there and being with people who'd lived in the city for six months already.
Since travelling I have met a couple of Americans so have a few sofas to stay on in the future maybe.

The two loves of my life.......

Spoilt? Moi?

......ice cream and our dog. Only joking; my boyfriend too!

If you're intestested Sampson is a poodle, komondor & newfoundland mix and in this photo is around 19 months old.