LDN: comedians, tourist duties and a drunk Yasmin.

London for me is a place that holds a lot of great memories. It’s somewhere I don’t tend to visit as often as I used to, so having the opportunity to go down for a weekend was delightful. I tend to only go down to London if I have a reason to, my reason this time? To see a comedian.
Who’s this comedian? And why travel from Glasgow to London to see him? Questions I hear you all ask. Well.. his name is Mark ‘Jiggy’ Jigarjian and he’s an american comedian. If you’ve heard of him it’s probably because he supports the Impractical jokers on their tours across the states usually. I love any excuse to go to London and the fact Jiggy was coming over to the UK to do one show down there, well I just HAD to go.
I travelled down my bus (megabus) it is always the loooongest journey ever but I’m constantly skint so cheap and not so cheerful way to get down there it is for me. Leaving Wednesday night I arrived on Thursday morning. I tend to stay in Travelodges when I go to London, mainly because that’s where I’ve always stayed, this time was no different staying in the King’s Cross Royal Scot Travelodge where I’ve stayed before. Hey, it has a bed and that’s all I care about.

On the Thursday Jiggy decided to do a podcast in a pub not too far from my hotel so of course I was going. He had brought 2 friends over with him (Tim Brierley and Mike Charette) so they performed a small comedy set first and then the three together done a podcast. These are 3 seriously funny guys, so please check them out! 

Afterwards we said hey, got a picture and I did buy one of Mike’s shot glasses because I have a thing for them. Whenever I travel somewhere new that’s what I buy myself so I have a small collection now. Everyone then headed upstairs to the pub and we all got drunk.

I’m really not fond of this photo but Jiggy is a just a complete babe.


The Friday was payday and a day of sightseeing. Shopping was first on the list, myself buying make up, make up and yet more make up. Usual! I’ve seen London many times before so all I seen was big Ben and the London eye because when you’ve seen them once you’ve seen them a million times.

Sightseeing over with. I then met up with some friends that were down in London, we ended up in Zebrano it was 2 for 1 on cocktails as well so I was in my element. I can’t even remember the cocktails I had (I think I had about 4) but they were all delicious!
Saturday called for camden market to start the day off! 

And I’m not going to lie. The best part was finding somewhere to get cocktails and the food. I wasn’t all that impressed with the place I’m not going to lie. After a change we headed to Jiggy’s proper comedy show, where I met up with another girl from Glasgow and some other really great girls. We laughed, we drank, we had fun. I won’t go into details about the rest of the night because it was fun yes, but it was also ruined slightly (that’s a story for another time though) let’s just say I ended up in Beckys hotel  (the girl from Glasgow) till about 8am drunk af. Good times!
My trip to London ended by meeting up with jiggy and everyone else and going for a nandos then hanging with some girls before leaving to get my coach home.

No matter what I’m down there for, I always have such a great time. Can’t wait to go back in October now.
Until next time LDN!


Unusual city breaks

After our weekend in Amsterdam my friends and I have decided we need to be going somewhere for a city break at least once a year. 
The thing is, a few of us don’t want to do the usual city breaks. We’ve done Amsterdam but we want to be going to more unusual places. Some of us are throwing ideas about and it includes places such as: 

  • Copenhagen 
  • Stockholm
  • Kraków 

Although I would love to visit these places and think they would be amazing, theyre just not unusual enough for me. I want random places that most people won’t even have heard of! 

This is where you all come in.. I was hoping you all would be able to give me ideas of places? 

Is there anywhere you have visited? Somewhere you’ve heard of? 

I keep searching, trying to find really unusual places and I’ve found a few such as:

  • Olomouc
  • Valletta
  • Sibiu
  • Wroclaw

We don’t have any specifics at all, as to where, what there is to do, weather etc. 

Please guys, any advice on where to go would be much appreciated. Leave a comment and let me know! Thanks. 

Girls weekend in Amsterdam – Day 2

 

How beautiful and picturesque is this city?

I’m definitely glad we decided to visit Amsterdam at this time of year. The weathers actually been really great, not to mention Amsterdam just looks beautiful in the Autumn.
Day 2 (Saturday):  

Our second day started off rather early, we were up at about 7am and quickly headed down to have our breakfast in our hostel. It was lovely, consisted of things such as: breads, rice cakes, cheese, meats, fruit, cereal etc. we filled ourselves up on that before starting our day!

 

Anne Frank Huis, such an emotional place.

Our first stop for the day was the Anne Frank Huis. We arrived there about twenty to 9 (it opens at 9am) and the queue was twisted around the side of the building. After it opened at 9, we found it actually moved rather quickly and at 10am we found ourselves entering. 

What a place. I don’t quite know what I was expecting it to be like but it definitely wasn’t what I imagined it to be. The annex was a lot bigger than I imagined it to be for a start (the whole place was), but then I guess if there was 8 people living there 24 hours a day it wouldn’t feel so big! I guess I just imagined something completely different. Although I’ve read about Anne’s journey before going here definitely opened my eyes more to it, learning more about Anne and her family and everyone else that spent time in the Annex hiding. It is a must see when visiting Amsterdam, I would definitely recommend getting up that bit earlier to head along. 

Our next stop was the Amsterdam Dungeons. I have to admit I wasn’t too fussed about going here, having been to both Edinburgh and Berlin dungeons I wasn’t that mad about going. But, I ended up going with my friends. If I could have navigated the trams myself I would have went to the Van Gogh Museum instead as that’s where I really wanted to go, I have to admit though the Amsterdam Dungeons were pretty good. I got picked to go up on the court and try to convince them I wasn’t a ‘witch’ it was a laugh to say the least. 
Two of my friends then went to Madame Tussaud’s, and the rest of us went shopping for both souvineers and clothes. After which we met up and it was back to the hostel for a much needed nap!
We decided to find a nice place to have dinner as it was our last night, and we found ourselves in a nice little place where most of us ended up with lovely pasta dishes. If I could remember the name of the place I would say where but I can’t. 

 

Girls on tour, just before we hit the red light district!

We decided we could not leave Amsterdam without having been to the red light district.  So of course that’s where we found ourselves next. I have to admit, once again.. It wasn’t anything like I expected.
 
Red Light District – full of absolute beauties!

For a start, every single girl was drop dead gorgeous we were walking past just thinking “Why do I not look like that?!” It wasn’t as sleazy as I imagined it to be either, yes you have windows full of practically naked girls trying to entice people in but it wasn’t as crude as we all thought. We’re definitely glad we went a walk along, just to see what it was all about.
Well that was our weekend in Amsterdam. Have you been before? Is there anything we didn’t do that you think we should have? Tell me all. We’ll definitely find ourselves back there one day.
Bedankt en tot ziens! 

Girls weekend in Amsterdam – Day 1

Views as the sun rises on the way to Amsterdam – mooi!

6 best friends + a weekend in Amsterdam = Most chilled out weekend ever.  
Considering we were only there for a short amount of time (Friday to Sunday) I wasn’t really expecting to do that much if I’m honest. But the days seemed super long and we seemed to cram loads into them!

Day 1 (Friday): We had a 6am flight from Glasgow so we arrived in Amsterdam about half past 8. We headed straight to the train and towards where we were staying Stayokay Amsterdam Zeeburg. As our room wasn’t ready we left our bags and headed straight back out to explore some of this beautiful city. Dam, being our first stop. Food was on the agenda which was quickly followed by dropping into our first Coffee Shop, we decided to take it away and took in some sights while having a puff or a brownie.

Having decided all the things we planned to do over the weekend our first tourist spot was to the Heineken Experience. We got our tickets there for €18 each, which I would say was definitely worth it. You learn about the history, how the beer is made etc not to mention a few glasses of beer to enjoy! You get one small glass about half way through and about 3 questions are asked which whoever the first are to answer correct get another glass of beer (I answered correct).

 

Toasting to ourselves

There’s things to do along the way too, game type things, it was definitely enjoyable and at the end a few of us poured our own glass of beer to enjoy, which we got a certificate for. It was a great experience and I would definitly suggest for people to go experience it! 

We headed back to our hostel to get sorted into our room and have a much needed power nap. 

We got ready and headed back out again, we grabbed a quick slice of pizza on our way to the Sex Museum I don’t know what we were expecting but it was an experience to say the least!  

Giant penis’ in the sex museum, this was pretty tame compared to some of the sights we seen!

We got on a tram towards Rembrantplien, and found ourselves in another Coffee Shop. Unfortunately for us it was absolute mobbed and after purchasing our brownies, muffins and pre-rolled joints we went outside and found a pub not too far away where we could sit outside and enjoy ourselves.  

Brownies, Corona and Weed.. What more can you ask for?

Needless to say it was the most chilled out, relaxing vibe ever and I don’t think that was all just to do with the weed! Amsterdam itself just has this laid back vibe and considering prostitution and certain drugs are legal you would think the atmosphere to be completely different. I can completely see why this is one of the safest cities in the world.
Amsterdam is a must! Day 2 coming in my next post!

Bedankt en tot ziens.

  

Newcastle with the gals – Wey aye man.

You really don’t have to get on a plane and go somewhere exotic to really travel and experience different things in the world. Sometimes it’s the simple things that make the best memories.

For me, as long as I’m with my 5 best friends I know I’m going to have a great time full of laughter, fun, banter and many stories; that may be best staying between the 6 of us! A simple weekend driving over the border into England can be just as exciting as going on a plane and spending time in, Berlin for example.

If you’ve never got in a car with your best friend and driven somewhere planned or unplanned you’re truly missing out. For us a 3 hour car journey from Glasgow down to Newcastle was in store. It isn’t all fun and games, let’s be honest even when you’re with your best friends car journeys can be boring you just have to make the most of it. For the 3 of us in one car, this involved 20 questions (someone thinking of a famous person and the other 2 taking no more than 20 questions to guess who; although at one point this may have turned into Unlimited questions… Shh don’t tell).

I’ll be completely honest. Our weekend was going to be filled with one thing, and one thing only.. Tanning as much alcohol as we could possibly consume. Let’s just say “Hey we’re Scottish” you take a guess as to how much we may have got through because your guess is as good as mine. We know how to handle our liquor. We did go down with the plan to be cultural, tourists and actually learn something about Newcastle, maybe visit a museum or two, but this plan quickly went out the window.. We did however take a trip to visit The Angel of the North before we headed back home so I guess we get to tick that cultural box after all?

Unlike myself, my 5 friends hadn’t been to Newcastle before. So obviously because I’ve been once before for the weekend this apparently turned me into an expert of where to go and what to do (according to them) which obviously was not true. Our first night was spent in TupTup and yeah it was okay, not as good as I remember it being before but I can’t complain. Our second night was spent in Tiger Tiger which we definitely enjoyed as we got a booth for us all which for £30 each included entry, a bottle of vodka, a bottle of prosecco, a large cocktail pitcher and 3 normal cocktail pitchers which was pretty good.

All in all, it was one of the best weekends I have had in a while, mainly because I spent it with my best friends.

Newcastle is definitely a must visit place if you like your nightlife and hey, maybe unlike us you’ll try be a little cultural and learn something about this city.

Newcastle anyone?

I’m planning on going to newcastle upon tyne this month, 25-28 to be precise and I’m really struggling to find somewhere relatively cheap to stay!
There’s five of us and everywhere I’ve looked is either fully booked or too expensive. I’ve tried hostels, hotels, apartments…

Basically if any of you have any idea of where we could stay it would be a great great help.