There's Something About Newcastle....

Hello how is everybody? How on earth are we in June already?! I have been crazy busy with work I love it though so I don't mind but I'm finding it a struggle to make time for my blog some days! How was everyone's Bank Holiday? I can't believe we have to wait until August until the next one! This post is yet another throwback but I really want to write about my time spent in Newcastle. Forget Throwback Thursday this is Wayback Wednesday's lol!

Last April, my friend Sian, my Mum (Angie) and I travelled to Newcastle for the weekend because A) I love Newcastle B) It was my Nana's hometown and C) I was seeing the amazing Mr Murs at the Metro Arena (That will be another Wayback Wednesday post) I love taking time off every now and again to go travelling by train up North I absolutely love it!

We travelled up on the Friday which turned out to be a disastrous day! I always buy my travel in advance from www.trainline.com, which means you have to travel on certain trains and you can't miss your connections! As it happens when we arrived at Rayleigh Station there was no where to park so we had to park literally a mile away. Our train was due at ten past eight and by now it was already five past eight! We literally grabbed our luggage and took a quick picture of the ticket machine (so I could pay for parking on the train) to our dismay we missed the train by a minute! I was literally freaking out by this point, I suffer from anxiety anyway so this really didn't help matters. If anyone knows me they will know that I HATE the Underground so I bought tickets to avoid London, so missing this train literally meant we were going to miss every single connection, not such good times!

The day got even worse when I realised that when I phoned to pay for my parking I had in fact put the wrong code in so our car wasn't covered at all! As I predicted we literally missed every single connection. When we arrived at Shenfield station it turnt out that the train to Ipswich only ran once a day, so we had to travel to Colchester then from there onto Ipswich. What a nightmare! Then to add even more dismay to our journey once we arrived at Ipswich, we were informed that the train to Peterborough ran every three hours and we had just missed it! So we were then  to advised to travel to Cambridge to catch our connections. As you can imagine by now we were all getting fed up and tired it felt like we were never going to get there! We had a long wait once we got to Cambridge and the station was so packed and to make matters worse the train coming in was only going to have three carriages! Luckily, we managed to get on the train and it wasn't as packed as I first thought it would be. Things were set to get worse though, it was quarter to twelve and our connecting train to Newcastle was due at quarter past twelve, it was going to cost us £300 each if we missed the train, so quite frankly I was crapping myself! The next thing I know a ticket inspector comes by and we find out our ticket isn't valid for that particular train, how were we suppose to know? After a grumble or two we were lucky enough not to have to pay more money! As you might of guessed we totally missed the train to Newcastle but thankfully the staff at Peterborough were so lovely and understood our situation and we managed to travel on the next train with no extra cost! So thank you Peterborough Station!

Finally, we were at Newcastle, later then anticipated. After such a disastrous day we just wanted to get a cab to the hotel. We used the black cabs outside the station, just a word of advice if you ever find yourself in Newcastle NEVER EVER USE THESE CABS! OMG they are the rudest and awful drivers I have ever met in my entire life he was vile! He drove like a lunatic, shouted at us then just threw our luggage across the road and sped off! We were staying at the Jurys Inn which is a really pleasant hotel, but not quite as nice as their sister hotel in Gateshead, the rooms were really small and hot!

The next morning we went for a buffet breakfast in the hotel which was absolutely the best ever. I could have sat there all day eating! We then took a stroll into Eldon Square to do some shopping! I love looking around Eldon Square, many many years ago the shops used to be massive old houses and it is where my nan was born. As a bonus it was a lovely hot day and the shopping centre is so pleasant to walk around. I love the mixture of high street and designer that it offers, I was even more excited to find a Michael Kors store.

After a lovely retail therapy session Sian and me decided to take a look around the Metro arena and see how far away it was. It turnt out it was literally a five minute walk! We started gate hanging for a little while but we quickly got bored and walked away! There was so many people there it felt pointless to wait around as the chances of meeting Olly were pretty slim. I'll be honest it was nothing like I expected it to be, I don't know whether that was because I had always wanted to go there and was imaging a really spectacular place, I don't know? But it was horrible it felt old and dirty and smelly but that could have been the bin I was standing next to lol! It could also be because I am so used to going to the O2 and the arenas are worlds apart, to me nothing can beat the O2 it is like the best place on earth! The massive advantage compared to the O2 is the fact you can hang around the back gates for a chance to meet the acts thats one thing that I love to do!

We went back to the hotel and relaxed for a little while before getting ready for the evening and dinner. The dinner at the Jurys is as superb as the breakfast i opted for a pizza but it was really weird because all the toppings were under a really thick layer of cheese! We then headed over to the arena and had a amazing night although trying to get out of the arena was hell! I had a wheelchair with me and cars had blocked the pavement and curbs so I was literally stuck for ages until the traffic had calmed down which wasn't fun!

I will tell you all about Olly's tour in my post next Wednesday so if you would like to find out more remember to visit again next week! You won't want to miss it! I had a fabulous weekend in the end and I can not wait to travel back up there soon. I even managed to do the underground without having a panic attack. I know to most people travelling on the Underground is nothing just a day to day thing but for me that was something major and I proved to myself I can do it! So there most defiantly will be more trips to London now! I really hope you enjoyed reading this! Speak to you all again Monday!

Love Sophie xx