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!

Famous Footsteps

Just thought I'd post a couple of travel articles I wrote for my student paper. Enjoy!

Famous Footsteps

Pop­u­lar cul­ture today is dragged along like a puppy on a leash by the media and its craze for celebri­ty.

When Vic­to­ria Beck­ham wears a new style of tiny jack­et teenage girls across the coun­try can be seen sport­ing the same with­in weeks. If Kate Moss is spot­ted watch­ing an un­known band they are al­most guar­an­teed a hit, and when­ev­er Richard and Judy re­view a novel it hits the best­seller list im­me­di­ate­ly. The media pre­sents us with ide­als of per­fec­tion to fol­low and the tourism in­dus­try is no ex­cep­tion to this bizarre rule of causal­i­ty.

The hordes of tourists cur­rent­ly in­vad­ing quiet Greek is­land Skope­los prove that celebri­ty sells when it comes to hol­i­day des­ti­na­tions too. The so called ‘Mama Mia ef­fect’ has seen hun­dreds of tourists trek to the film’s set­ting, a forest­ed is­land in the Aegean Sea. Until its re­lease last year, Skope­los was known only for plums, pears and pine trees. With a pop­u­la­tion of just 4,696 and with­out an air­port, it had man­aged to es­cape the fate of other gaudy Greek re­sorts.

Nonethe­less, the suc­cess of the film is per­fect­ly timed to boost this strug­gling econ­o­my which de­pends heav­i­ly on tourism. In the ABBA mu­si­cal Greece is idyl­li­cal­ly fig­ured, much like it was in the 1970s when the tourist in­dus­try there first boomed. As a re­sult many have praised the film as a much-​need­ed ad­vert for the area, de­spite wor­ries that this in­flux could de­stroy the un­spoilt beau­ty of the is­land.

Mama Mia is not alone; films have long been recog­nised as a great mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy to boost tourism. Aus­tralia, re­leased this year, is ex­pect­ed to in­crease tourism down under, par­tic­u­lar­ly to quirki­er des­ti­na­tions like Dar­win, where much of the film­ing took place. The Lord of the Rings tril­o­gy acted as a stun­ning ad­vert for New Zealand and Cap­tain Corel­li’s Man­dolin did more for an­oth­er Greek is­land, Cephalo­nia, than any­one could have imag­ined.

An­oth­er pow­er­ful fac­tor in­flu­enc­ing tourism is the hol­i­day choic­es of stars them­selves. Brad Pitt and An­geli­na Jolie’s choice to make Namib­ia the birth­place of their child, Shiloh Nou­v­el Jolie-​Pitt, was wel­comed by its tourism board.

In ad­di­tion to spend­ing a for­tune at a lux­u­ry re­sort in the town of Swakop­mund they helped put this rea­son­ably un­known coun­try on the map. There a prob­a­bly mil­lions of Amer­i­cans who had never heard of the South West African coun­try be­fore Pitt and Jolie’s ex­tend­ed stay there.

In fact the gov­ern­ment val­ued this celebri­ty en­dorse­ment so high­ly they were will­ing to risk their demo­crat­ic rep­u­ta­tion in order to at­tract the at­ten­tion of US gos­sip mag­a­zines. De­spite a media free­dom which is often held up as a stan­dard for the rest of the con­ti­nent, the Namib­ian gov­ern­ment im­posed strong re­stric­tions dur­ing the celebri­ty cou­ple’s stay.

They de­port­ed three French jour­nal­ists and ar­rest­ed a South African pho­tog­ra­pher to make Jolie and Pitt feel safe enough to have their baby in the coun­try. As a re­sult Namib­ia main­tained a place in world­wide news for months and the tourist in­dus­try there is on the rise.

Ad­ven­ture trav­el too often takes a lead from the celebs. Ewan Mc­Gre­gor and Char­lie Boor­man’s hit se­ries, The Long Way Round, was not only a huge TV suc­cess, but also in­spired hun­dreds of other bik­ers to take copy­cat trips. How­ev­er, the pair were in turn in­flu­enced by leg­endary mo­tor­cy­clist Ted Simon, whose book Jupiter’s Trav­els pro­vid­ed the idea for their ex­pe­di­tion.

Due to the media, all our trav­els, even those of the celebs them­selves, are in­vest­ed with cul­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal ref­er­ences. There’s no such thing as an orig­i­nal trav­el idea, but that is what makes every jour­ney im­por­tant, it is part of being human that we nec­es­sar­i­ly fol­low in each oth­ers’ foot­steps.

This is proven by the fact that mod­ern celebri­ties are not the only ones to draw hordes of tourists to des­ti­na­tions across the world. His­tor­i­cal fig­ures are of course great tourist at­trac­tions: that’s why York­shire is so keen to claim Robin Hood as their own. (Can I just say, as a Not­ting­ham girl, he’s ours. Hands off!)

These kinds of at­trac­tions can be big busi­ness for the in­dus­try: Lon­don’s Whitechapel hosts daily ‘Jack the Rip­per’ tours for those with enough mor­bid cu­rios­i­ty to see the exact spots where he mur­dered his vic­tims, and they don’t come cheap.

Lit­er­a­ture too has had a pro­found im­pact upon trav­el trends his­tor­i­cal­ly. Wordsworth and Co­leridge pi­o­neered the idea of walk­ing as a pur­suit rather than mere­ly the nec­es­sary bur­den of the poor. Michael Palin, who has him­self in­spired count­less trav­ellers, fol­lowed in Ernest Hem­ing­way’s foot­steps in an­oth­er hit trav­el se­ries based on the mem­o­ries of peo­ple who knew the Amer­i­can icon.

Ker­ouac’s On The Road is large­ly re­spon­si­ble for the ul­ti­mate ‘cool’ trav­el mode, the road trip. In­nu­mer­able trav­el writ­ers and fans have traced his route across the US and an in­dus­try has sprung up along it. Thanks to the beat gen­er­a­tion writ­ers, San Fran­cis­co is still seen as a hub of cul­tur­al ac­tiv­i­ty and the Vesu­vio café in the cen­tre of the city, where Ker­ouac was once a reg­u­lar, thrives on his rep­u­ta­tion.

Nowa­days our fas­ci­na­tion with celebri­ty ex­tends to every reach of life and we’re so in­ter­est­ed in where they like to go that The Times even has a week­ly fea­ture, ‘My Hols’, which fo­cus­es on the trav­el pen­chants of a va­ri­ety of stars. Who wouldn’t be fas­ci­nat­ed by the fact that Moby en­joys bungee jump­ing in Patag­o­nia while John­ny Vegas loves nowhere bet­ter than Scar­bor­ough?

When Colin Firth isn’t pranc­ing around on a Greek is­land prov­ing that there’s a rea­son he never be­came a rock star, the West of Scot­land and the Sa­hara are his haunts of choice. Per­son­al­ly I’d give any­thing to run into him re­lax­ing by Loch Fyne, which he ad­mires for its ‘im­pos­si­bly ro­man­tic glow’. Scot­land sud­den­ly seems a very at­trac­tive des­ti­na­tion.

It’s a phe­nomenon that has ex­ist­ed for thou­sands of years; since the birth of re­li­gion peo­ple have been trav­el­ling the routes of their idols hop­ing to gain some new in­sight into them. With new media forms and the in­creas­ing ease of trav­el these trips are no longer con­sid­ered pil­grim­ages, but ul­ti­mate­ly that is what they are.

Whether we ad­mire a fa­mous fig­ure for pro­found re­li­gious teach­ings or a par­tic­u­lar­ly im­pres­sive per­for­mance of ‘Danc­ing Queen’, fol­low­ing their foot­steps is still as­pir­ing to a per­ceived level of per­fec­tion. Sure­ly there can’t be any harm in that.