In a word, my day can be described as: fantastic. Although I was running a little late this morning, taking the metro to Newcastle proved to be easier, cheaper, and faster than expected. We arrived about 10 minutes before the main mall opened up, so we found the library and grabbed a map of the city and started planning our day's excursions. A security guard kindly told us the easiest way to get to Castle Keep (like I said, everyone is so helpful here, I love it!). The mall ended up being much much larger than we imagined, so naturally with 4 girls walking around a shopping center, we spent quite a bit of time in there before we headed out to go exploring.
My first impressions of Newcastle were anything but bad; just like York, the architecture was all super old and super Gothic and super beautiful. I kept reminding myself that most of the buildings around town were at least 2 or 3 or even 4 times as old as America, and yet they were easily all 10 times more beautiful than anything in the States. While we were walking to the Castle, we found the St. Nicholas Cathedral (built in 1359) and heard its bells ring a couple times throughout the day (fun fact: one of the bells in the cathedral weights almost 2 tons. TWO TONS! That's crazy). We had to pay to get into the Castle Keep (circa 1172), but it was probably the best £4 I've spent since I got here. Years ago when I came to England with People to People, we went in more castles than I could count, so I thought that I was a seasoned castle-explorer-lady. But even though the Keep was tiny in comparison to most other castles I had been in, it was definitely the coolest. There weren't any rooms or crevasses that had been roped off, so you literally could explore the entire thing. I loved stumbling upon tiny little rooms and tiny little windows throughout the castle; we even found two tiny little holes that were used for toilets back in the day (pretty gross, but they had a certain air of royalty to them, so it was okay). We climbed to the very top and were granted a phenomenal 360-degree view of Newcastle. Other than the cathedral's steeple, we were at the tallest point in the city. The sun decided it would peek out at us for a few minutes while we were up there, so we had plenty of wonderful photo ops. Two postcards and a bazillion narrow (and steep, and circling, and dizzying) stair steps later, we were ready to take on the rest of Newcastle.
We crossed one of the bridges to get on the other side of the Tyne River because we spotted a giant futuristic-glass-shell-looking building. Turns out, The Sage Gateshead was a giant music hall that held tons and tons of performances every day. We only walked through the foyer but I was mighty impressed with the design (check out a virtual tour of the interior
here -- it's like you're right there with me!). Then I drug my flatmates to the Baltic Center For Contemporary Art because I hadn't been in an art gallery in a long time, and I needed my art fix (disclaimer: the future-art-gallery-owner in me is about to come out, so just bear with me). You'd think that a 6-story art center would have loads and loads of art, but overall I was unimpressed with it. There was only enough artwork to fill mayyybe 2 stories, and I didn't really like the way the exhibitions were installed... To me, the Baltic was aimed at creating a community center instead of an art center, because I felt there was more of a focus on all the peripherals (like the 5th-floor "viewing box" of the city and the massive gift shop), and the artwork itself was secondhand. But I loved how crowded it was; it's really encouraging to know that some people
do still care about art (I'll get off my soapbox now).
We caught the tail-end of the outdoor Quayside Market right beside the river, and I picked up a card featuring the work of a local photographer, Ben Nash (support your local artists!). By this time we were getting pretty tired from walking, so after grabbing some Starbucks we caught the metro back home. All in all, I had a pretty fantastic weekend, but now it's time to get back to the grind of classes. Next weekend's adventures: the circus!
My first impressions of Newcastle were anything but bad; just like York, the architecture was all super old and super Gothic and super beautiful. I kept reminding myself that most of the buildings around town were at least 2 or 3 or even 4 times as old as America, and yet they were easily all 10 times more beautiful than anything in the States. While we were walking to the Castle, we found the St. Nicholas Cathedral (built in 1359) and heard its bells ring a couple times throughout the day (fun fact: one of the bells in the cathedral weights almost 2 tons. TWO TONS! That's crazy). We had to pay to get into the Castle Keep (circa 1172), but it was probably the best £4 I've spent since I got here. Years ago when I came to England with People to People, we went in more castles than I could count, so I thought that I was a seasoned castle-explorer-lady. But even though the Keep was tiny in comparison to most other castles I had been in, it was definitely the coolest. There weren't any rooms or crevasses that had been roped off, so you literally could explore the entire thing. I loved stumbling upon tiny little rooms and tiny little windows throughout the castle; we even found two tiny little holes that were used for toilets back in the day (pretty gross, but they had a certain air of royalty to them, so it was okay). We climbed to the very top and were granted a phenomenal 360-degree view of Newcastle. Other than the cathedral's steeple, we were at the tallest point in the city. The sun decided it would peek out at us for a few minutes while we were up there, so we had plenty of wonderful photo ops. Two postcards and a bazillion narrow (and steep, and circling, and dizzying) stair steps later, we were ready to take on the rest of Newcastle. 
We crossed one of the bridges to get on the other side of the Tyne River because we spotted a giant futuristic-glass-shell-looking building. Turns out, The Sage Gateshead was a giant music hall that held tons and tons of performances every day. We only walked through the foyer but I was mighty impressed with the design (check out a virtual tour of the interior here -- it's like you're right there with me!). Then I drug my flatmates to the Baltic Center For Contemporary Art because I hadn't been in an art gallery in a long time, and I needed my art fix (disclaimer: the future-art-gallery-owner in me is about to come out, so just bear with me). You'd think that a 6-story art center would have loads and loads of art, but overall I was unimpressed with it. There was only enough artwork to fill mayyybe 2 stories, and I didn't really like the way the exhibitions were installed... To me, the Baltic was aimed at creating a community center instead of an art center, because I felt there was more of a focus on all the peripherals (like the 5th-floor "viewing box" of the city and the massive gift shop), and the artwork itself was secondhand. But I loved how crowded it was; it's really encouraging to know that some people do still care about art (I'll get off my soapbox now). 
We caught the tail-end of the outdoor Quayside Market right beside the river, and I picked up a card featuring the work of a local photographer, Ben Nash (support your local artists!). By this time we were getting pretty tired from walking, so after grabbing some Starbucks we caught the metro back home. All in all, I had a pretty fantastic weekend, but now it's time to get back to the grind of classes. Next weekend's adventures: the circus! 
My goodness Hannah I don't know how you get your photos to look so phenomenal every time but you do! This entry was really informative and I got excited by your enthusiasm for your adventures.
ReplyDeleteLove you
Jason