For my 26th birthday this year in March 2017, I was lucky enough to visit the gorgeous city of Newcastle for the weekend…

On my actual birthday, I went to see ‘Mamma Mia: The Musical” with my mum, at the Theatre Royal. It was absolutely amazing. At the end of the performance everybody in the audience got up dancing, and singing to Abba songs. Such a great atmosphere…

Saturday was our main day for sightseeing. The touristy attractions we visited included the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and the Life Science Centre museum, both were fantastic. The Baltic exhibited three artists’ works, Mare Nostrum – raising awareness of refugee and migrant journeys across the Mediterranean Sea – Holly Hendry’s ‘Wrot’ exhibition, and my personal favourite, Rodney Graham’s humorous and witty ‘That’s Not Me’ collection of photographic images.  The Life Science Centre showcased a Maker Faire the weekend we visited Newcastle, featuring a whole array of geeky, techy and robotey stuff, as well as talks and performances, really cool stuff. Me and my mum also mooched around the city centre of Newcastle, the main shopping areas, and popular Grey Street. Our hotel was very close to Quayside, so we had the opportunity to take some nice photos of Tyne and Millennium Bridge too…

At night we went out for a few cheeky cocktails, hehe. I have never felt more like a sardine than in Newcastle’s Flares, it was honestly so hectic! It must have taken us at least 5 minutes to squeeze from one side of the room to the other! After a while we decided it would be much more comfy and relaxing to head back to the hotel bar, for a couple of refreshing and fruity bottles of rose 🙂 …

Sunday we caught the bus at Gateshead Interchange to go and see Antony Gormley’s ‘Angel of the North’, it’s HUGE! and HUMONGOUS! 😛 A very impressive piece of art. We then hopped on the metro to the beautiful and quaint little town of Tynemouth. At this point in the day, the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining, so made for some lovely photographs. We dined and drank cider at a posh fancy restaurant before making our way back to Gateshead…

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Newcastle, and I would certainly go again in the future. I definitely recommend it to anyone who is considering going. Every single Geordie I spoke to was ‘canny’ friendly, easy to talk to and welcoming.. and if you needed help with anything the response was always ‘nee bother pet’…

‘Propa belta’ of a time! 😀

References

http://www.balticmill.com/ Accessed: 03/04/2017

https://www.life.org.uk/ Accessed: 03/04/2017

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