Tuesday March 15th
B and I head to Waverly train station in the morning, running late as per, and head to boots to grab the essentials:
- Shampoo
- Conditioner
- Body Wash
- Chewing Gum
- Diet Soda
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| Oot on the toon |
After making these purchases we boarded the train, located our seats and settled in for the journey ahead of us. Excitement was running high as we text our mothers confirming we were on our way and updated our snapchats in order to make everyone jealous of our trip (if you don't plaster everything you do all over social media did you really do it?). During the first part of our journey a lady came through the cabin with a trolley of snacks and I can confirm that I had to all but rip my voice box from my throat to stop myself from telling her that "we'll take the lot". During our train journey we passed many wonderful British landmarks such as:
- Field of cows number 1
- The ocean
- North Berwick
- Field of cows number 2
- Field of horses
- Trees
After we were finally able to turn our eyes from these amazing landmarks B and I turned our attention to Harry Potter Top Trumphs (purchases at the platform 9 3/4 shop in King's Cross Station I'll have you know). Rather than play the game the conventional way B and I made up our own rules #HipstersInnit and this kept us amused right up until the train pulled up to the platform in the Newcastle station.
As we stepped from the train it was like a thousand knifes stabbing us all over, we couldn't breathe, couldn't think it was so damn cold!! I gave thanks to the great cat goddess in the sky for guiding me to bring a coat on our trip and B cried a thousand tears because she did not and we made our way through Newcastle in no particular direction, heading to an absolution that would never come. Our first stop was the hostel to dump our bags and after a slight hiccup when neither myself of B had the £2 that was required for the receptionist to keep our bags behind the desk until our room was available B and I finally sold our souls for this service and we were on our merry way once again.
This was it B and I taking 'the big city' one step at a time turning tricks and fucking shit up. As if floating on a breeze B and I happened upon our first destination:
Fenwick and the great mall of Newcastle: once you enter you never leave.
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| That's what I thought of B's company |
The rain had stared and the temperature has plummeted and so we took our exploring indoors to a department store called Fenwick. We initially explored the gift department and set ourselves the mission of buy one another a fun gift/activity for £5 or less, once this crazy mission had been completed we took to the escalators as the escalators lifted us up into a whole new world B remarked very offhandedly that she liked to buy designer brand bedsheets (this is a lie) and so I naturally confirmed that I also liked to do this and that my bed sheets are home we very "Coup Du Wah". Instantly we made an unspoken agreement that from that moment on everything in Newcastle would be Coup Du Wah, maybe everything everywhere would be Coup Du Wah but only time would tell.
Now as far as reviewing the sights of Newcastle I have to say this: if you are in Newcastle you have to visit the Fenwick foodhall because it was amazing! Their easter egg selection was one of the most breathtaking things I had ever seen and never in my life had I been more tempted to spend £80 on chocolate. Somehow we managed to get from Fenwick to a massive shopping mall (Eldon Square I believe) which had a pretty impressive selection of shops, if you are after shopping then I would recommend otherwise maybe not because at the end of the day it was just a mall. B and I chose to eat at the Garden Kitchen on the top floor of the mall and the food was really nice (possibly the best food we had during our stay, however we did visit subway which is a firm fave of ours sooo...). After we had eaten we decided to turn our attentions to an activity that we couldn't have just done in Edinburgh, as it was already 4pm and a lot of things were shutting at 5pm we chose to visit an art gallery which was free to visit and on our way back to the hostel.
Laing Art Gallery
B and I discovered on our way to the art gallery that B had forgotten to bring her ID to Newcastle which killed our plans of going on a crazy Geordie night out (B has become increasingly obsessed with Geordie Shore and had been hoping to live the life of Charlotte Crosby for one night, I was just hoping to get drunk for the first time in forever). Although at first this was a disappointment we bounced back pretty quickly because the really reason for the trip was to see Ellie Goulding not to go on a night out.
We arrived at the art gallery and as expected there was a lot of pretty impressive art, most of it is a blur in my memories though because I was so completely mesmerised by this on painting: it had a seat you could sit on to view it; there was a button to press; pressing said button resulted in the lights dimming, the painting lighting up and a range of sound effects. The painting apparently depicted "The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah" and I dont know anything about that other than it made for a great painting. B and I sat and watched this painting for a while then examined some other pieces of art before leaving and heading back to the hostel. We decided that since we weren't going out we would go out for a nice meal and then buy some alcohol and have a mini party in the hostel. We chose Jamie's Italian for Dinner
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| Girl date |
Jamie's Italian
We were seating upstairs next to a window so there was a nice view of the streets and the youths of Newcastle getting into bother from the police. B and I ordered Garlic bread to start with, cocktails (restaurants never ID, if you learn anything from my blog let that be the lesson) and for main I got Tortellini and B got some kind of aubergine dish. I thoroughly enjoyed mines but B said hers was kind of meh. We returned to the hostel for some Cosmo Fizz and salt and vinegar crisps. We exchanged gifts, B got me facepaints and I got her a harmonica. The night was full of tipsyness, gossip, face painting and ended in a sleepover on the top bunk.
Overall reviews from Day 1
Would recommend:
- Fenwick Foodhall
- Laing Art Gallery: The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
- Eldon Mall Garden Kitchen
Wednesday March 16th
B and I woke up (flawless) bright and early and hangover free. Our activities for the day included visiting the bridges of Newcastle, doing a practice run to the Metro Radio Arena and lunch.
The Gateshead Millennium Bridge and the Tyne Bridge
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| Brich |
The day was slightly milder and the walk was pleasant, the area leading down to the river Tyne was pretty cute and googlemaps had greatly overestimated how long it would take us to get to the bridges. The first bridge we happened across was the Tyne bridge (although it was pretty much right beside the Millennium Bridge). We took some pics and vids I made a terribly wrong assumption that the council building across the river was the arena. B and I speculated over whether Ellie would take her concert to the top of the Millennium bridge and then as we turned around my eyes caught sight of something... could it be? We crossed the road...
Catpawcino
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| Cat city, cat, cat, cat city bish |
I LOVE CATS. CATS. CATS. CATS. LOVE EM. Everyone one a solid 10/10. For a long time I have been desperate to go to a cat cafe but they have either been overbooked or I simply haven't had time and so it really was fate that we found one completely by chance in Newcastle. I am planning to write a post about cat cafes and so I wont go into too much deets right now, suffice it to say that the cats at Catpawcino were dazzling and appeared to be exteremly well cared for. B and I turned up just as the cafe was opening and so we got the entire place to ourselves, the staff were so friendly and encouraged us to play with the cats and my hot chocolate was delish.
After B's allergies kicked in we left the cats and went for a walk, we crossed the Millennium bridge and went to what we not knew to be the council building. We explored the gift shops and checked out the view of Newcastle from the building and the recrossed the bridge. B and I discovered some gym type equipment on the walkway at the side of the tyne which kept us amused and then our wandering took us to Newcastle Castle, however; due to time constrains we prioritised lunch over touring the castle.
Fat Buddha
B and I went for lunch and cocktails (as I said before restaurants never ID) at Fat Buddha, it was so nice to rest our weary feet and to review the pictures we had taken that day. The cocktails were delicious, we both got a Fat Buddha cocktail, however; in my humble opinion the cocktails were far better than the food which I felt was just okay. We made our way back to the hostel to prepare for seeing Ellie Goudling (full deets of the concert included in the previous post). We also made a stop off at the Fenwick foodhall again to purchase some chocolate as our lunch hadn't really filled us and the chocolate had been on my mind since the day before, it definitely lived up to my expectations and was tres coup du wah!
Final Reviews from day 2
Would Recommend:
- Visiting the bridges of Newcastle as they are a city landmark and free to visit
- Catpawcino if you love cats and cafes, its a no-brainer really
- Walking along the Tyne
- Fat Buddah for cocktails
Overall
The best food: Eldon Square Kitchen for B and Jamie's Italian for me
The best activity: Walking along the Tyne: you see the bridges, thats how we found that cat cafe and there was a lot of random fun stuff to see.
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| Grey skys, classic |
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| thar she blows. |
B and I are journeying to London this Thursday to see Ellie again (goodbye to all my savings). I'll no doubt write a review of this trip and of the concert at some point (hopefully we will do slightly more in London so there is more to review) but I am working/on placement pretty nonstop over the next few weeks so who knows when this will be done.
The moral of the story is love will never be forever feelings are just like the weather, and if we are talking about Newcastle weather in the middle of March that that would mean pretty shit tbh.
Until next time
xoxo
Queen G
