History, it's just one bloody thing after another. (BTT)

It's been a while since I've participated in Booking Through Thursday, but I fancied this question so here's my answer.

Given the choice, which do you prefer? Real history? Or historical fiction? (Assume, for the purposes of this discussion that they are equally well-written and engaging.)

It has to be historical fiction. Mere facts cannot be as illuminating as fiction can, no matter how well written it is. Gaining access to an imagined point of view on a historical event or situation can teach us just as much about it as the pure facts can and fiction gives us a social understanding too.

Ps- 'The Other Boleyn Girl' is exempt from the above praise. Historical fiction should not re-write history, it should fill in the gaps that research cannot.

Gan doon the toon

The Geordie di­alect re­mains un­touched by time. It sur­vived the stan­dard­i­s­a­tion of the En­glish lan­guage in the 18th cen­tu­ry and beat down the threat from in­dus­tri­al im­mi­gra­tion in the 19th. Today it still re­mains gram­mat­i­cal­ly close to many old En­glish di­alects. The city which gives it voice, how­ev­er, tells a very dif­fer­ent story.

En­ter­ing New­cas­tle across the Tyne is a breath-​tak­ing ex­pe­ri­ence. The domed glass of the Sage con­cert hall gleams on the Gateshead quays along­side a proud re­minder of the in­dus­tri­al his­to­ry of the area, the Baltic Flour Mill, which has been beau­ti­ful­ly ren­o­vat­ed to house a mod­ern art mu­se­um.

New­cas­tle and Gateshead are the per­fect ge­o­graph­i­cal dou­ble act: they’ve grown up to­geth­er, fought hard for suc­cess and could never re­al­ly be en­joyed sep­a­rate­ly; just like Ant and Dec! In ad­di­tion to the Sage and the Baltic Gateshead boasts the icon­ic angel of the North, the most viewed pub­lic art work in Britain, and the mul­ti-​storey car park which fea­tured in the 1971 film ‘Get Carter’. New­cas­tle, tra­di­tion­al­ly the more up-​mar­ket of the two, was re­cent­ly voted arts cap­i­tal of the UK and as home to 50,000 stu­dents is now be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly at­trac­tive to young pro­fes­sion­als too.

Some of the less dra­mat­ic art venues around the city are as wor­thy of a visit as the Baltic; al­though a trip there is es­sen­tial even if it’s just to see the view across the re­gion from the glass view­ing bal­cony. The Laing, in the cen­tre of town, is a more tra­di­tion­al gallery, boast­ing the likes of ‘The Bre­ton Shep­herdess’ by Gau­g­in and many pieces con­cern­ing the Ty­ne­side area.

The Bis­cuit Fac­to­ry in Shield­field, close to the stu­dent area of the city, is a re­laxed com­mer­cial gallery which doesn’t seem to mind the pres­ence of scruffy stu­dents who will clear­ly never buy any­thing ex­cept per­haps a poster print. The Dis­cov­ery Mu­se­um (which, cru­cial­ly, is free) and the Life Sci­ence Mu­se­um are great places for a fam­i­ly day out, or just to re­dis­cov­er your child­ish cu­riosi­ties. Whilst if his­to­ry, rather than sci­ence, is your thing a wan­der round the 11th cen­tu­ry Tynemouth pri­o­ry and cas­tle or the 12th cen­tu­ry cas­tle keep in the city cen­tre it­self.

New­cas­tle’s rep­u­ta­tion as a party city is older than its claim to cul­tur­al cap­i­tal, but just as well found­ed. The huge num­ber of thriv­ing bars and clubs also breeds com­pe­ti­tion, to such an ex­tent that tre­bles for sin­gles seems to have be­come the rule across the city cen­tre. Try Dig­i­tal or Attic for a big night out, or live music at The Cooper­age, housed in an 13th cen­tu­ry build­ing on the quay­side, is great for a qui­eter one.

How­ev­er it’s prob­a­bly ad­vis­able to avoid Sat­ur­day nights in the ‘toon’ when flocks of hens and ram­bunc­tious stags, usu­al­ly com­plete with every plas­tic ac­ces­so­ry Ann Sum­mers has to offer, flood nois­i­ly into the city cen­tre. A num­ber of quirky bars and music venues around (a few great ones are clus­tered on the New­cas­tle quays) offer less chaot­ic en­ter­tain­ment all week round. Try the Cluny, under the arch­es of Byker bridge for real ale, comfy sur­round­ings and live music.

Par­ty­ing by night means, if you’re any­thing like me, that shop­ping to com­plete that per­fect out­fit is es­sen­tial. New­cas­tle doesn’t dis­ap­point here ei­ther. Whether you’re into rum­mag­ing through vin­tage and char­i­ty shops or just pop­ping into your favourite high street stores, the city cen­tre is easy to nav­i­gate and most­ly pedes­tri­anised, which makes grab­bing those ir­re­sistible shoes all the more plea­sur­able. The curve of Grey Street, de­scribed by Prime Min­is­ter Glad­stone in 1862 as “our best mod­ern street”, is now lit­tered with de­sign­er names and busy cafes.

New­cas­tle-​Gateshead has come a long way since the glory days of its ship yards, but some­how it has man­aged to em­brace both new cul­tur­al in­flu­ences and in­dus­tri­al his­to­ry to main­tain its unique and en­dear­ing iden­ti­ty. Of course it’s not all sparkling new ar­chi­tec­ture and mod­ern art, parts of the re­gion are still se­ri­ous­ly im­pov­er­ished, but re­cent re­gen­er­a­tion ef­forts de­serve due praise. So if all that springs to mind when you think of New­cas­tle are grim min­er-​types in flat caps, it’s about time for a re­think, and a visit to this the cul­tur­al metropo­lis of the North will cer­tain­ly make you do that.

Newcastle-Gateshead Hotspots

Drink

Mr Lynch has the only 2am li­cense in the stu­dent area of Jes­mond, and he re­al­ly makes the most of it. The Kitsch décor and mis­matched sev­en­ties fur­ni­ture is enough to keep you en­ter­tained all night, let alone the im­pres­sive cock­tail menu and live music every Thurs­day, Fri­day and Sat­ur­day. If that’s not enough, they even sell Curly Wurlys be­hind the bar. Be­ware though, Mr Lynch isn’t a cheap date.

Eat

Belle and Herbs, Heaton, is an­oth­er stu­dent hotspot well worth a trip. It’s a good idea to starve your­self for a lit­tle while be­fore in order to truly ap­pre­ci­ate their mam­moth meals. The Macho Grande Club is a work of art: a three tier toast­ed sand­wich with grid­dled steak, toma­to salsa, Mon­terey Jack cheese, soured cream, gua­camole, jalepeno pep­pers, fresh co­rian­der and even tor­tilla chips AND it comes with a moun­tain of the best pota­to wedges you will ever taste.

Shop

Ok, maybe this is cheat­ing a lit­tle bit since no real per­son can ac­tu­al­ly af­ford any­thing here, but the bou­tique Have to Love in Gos­forth takes win­dow shop­ping to the next level. I couldn’t pos­si­bly buy any­thing from the su­per-​chic French label Manoush or Amer­i­can retro, but it’s all so per­fect­ly ar­ranged that even just to look at them is sat­is­fy­ing.

Sleep

If you’re in the po­si­tion to splash out, the Mal­mai­son hotel next-​door to the Hilton on the New­cas­tle quay­side is the place to do it. The im­pos­ing goth­ic en­trance may look like an enor­mous venus fly trap, but the in­te­ri­or is dec­o­rat­ed in deep pur­ples and plush vel­vets guar­an­teed to make your stay a lux­u­ri­ous one.

Backpacker Digs

Backpacker Digs

When you think of back­pack­ers’ hos­tels style is not what comes to mind. Flea-​rid­den mat­tress­es, grub­by fa­cil­i­ties, gen­er­al drunk­en de­bauch­ery or that hor­ri­ble slash­er film are prob­a­bly much high­er up the list. But times are chang­ing and the hos­tels are too. The Boar’s Trav­el team brings you our top stylish sleeps from around the world:

The Gershwin

Just off New York’s 5th Av­enue, the Gersh­win Hos­tel build­ing is a thir­teen storey homage to Andy Warhol and all things pop art. (pic­tured mid­dle right) Each floor is hung with prints from a dif­fer­ent artist. It works under a kind of ver­ti­cal caste sys­tem: below the snazz­i­er rooms on the top floors there are a col­lec­tion of cheap­er high-​spec, red wood-​beamed dorm rooms. Most im­por­tant­ly, the fourth floor is the “mod­els floor”, with extra clos­et space es­pe­cial­ly de­signed for mod­els try­ing to make it in the Big Apple. Don’t all hop on a plane at once boys, pre-​book­ing is ad­vised.

Eco paradise.

Ok so fly­ing there will give you a car­bon foot­print the size of a Yeti, but this hos­tel’s so green you might leave look­ing more like the hulk. Built com­plete­ly from re­cy­cled ma­te­ri­als and re­new­able prod­ucts He­do­nisia Hawaii of­fers a trial of the good life in stun­ning sur­round­ings. Guests are en­cour­aged to try liv­ing off the land and help out in the veg­etable gar­den. One four-​bed room is made from an old school bus and an­oth­er from a trac­tor, and all have stun­ning sea views. Even the eco-​friend­ly toi­let looks out over the Hawai­ian jun­gle for com­plete re­lax­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.

Treetop hostel in Turkey

Think you’d look good as a mod­ern Tarzan or Jane? Saban Tree­hous­es on the Olym­pos coast could be the place to give it a go. Per­fect­ly sit­u­at­ed for wa­ter­sports, hik­ing, climb­ing and ex­plor­ing the an­cient city this place promis­es a very dif­fer­ent ex­pe­ri­ence from your av­er­age flea-​rid­den hos­tel. The fam­i­ly who run it even pro­vide tra­di­tion­al Turk­ish fare in a com­mu­nal din­ing area each evening and fresh local pro­duce for break­fast, all in­clu­sive.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Hostel

The Qing Yuan hos­tel ac­tu­al­ly fea­tured in Ang Lee’s 2000 film and is full of the pe­ri­od fea­tures ex­pect­ed of a site over 200 years old. Sit­u­at­ed in the Wuyuan province in the moun­tain vil­lage of Qingyuan the hos­tel is great for ex­plor­ing rural china. But if hik­ing isn’t your thing it’s still worth a visit just to relax in the peace­ful court­yard and take ad­van­tage of the friend­ly man­ag­er’s local knowl­edge. Best of all it costs less than £2 a night!

The Santos Express

Parked right on the beach at Mos­sel Bay, a beau­ti­ful town along South Africa’s gar­den route, this hos­tel is clev­er­ly packed into an old train. Dorms pro­vide sea views and decor rem­i­nis­cent of a Vic­to­ri­an steam en­gine. Al­though it’s not quite first class, the price, great food, reg­u­lar braais (BBQs) and a live­ly bar make this a great place to relax and so­cialise.

Prison Break

Many peo­ple would think of a night in a hos­tel as a prison sen­tence, well in this case they’d be right. The HI- ​Ot­tawa hos­tel is lo­cat­ed in a for­mer prison that op­er­at­ed for over 100 years. It of­fers the chance to sleep in the cells, prison hos­pi­tal, or the gov­er­nor’s quar­ters if you can bribe your way in. On the 8th floor of this Vic­to­ri­an ar­chi­tec­tural relic the Car­leton Coun­ty Gaol Her­itage Cen­tre gives vis­i­tors a chance to learn what life what like for the prison’s in­mates and take a ghost tour of the cells. Just be care­ful not to get locked in!