Since I have finished my internship in August, I have had some time to myself over the summer. In that time, I spent 48 hours in Lincoln, and I have also recently been to Hastings in East Sussex.
My boyfriend, Joe, is from Hastings when we aren't at uni together so I go there to visit him from time to time when he's at home and I really like it there.
It's right on the sea and Joe's house is walking distance to everything so I got a lot of steps in. When I drive into Hastings I get to drive along the sea front which is so pretty and it always seems to be nice weather when I go there.
When I arrived in Hastings, we did our usual walk around by the beach and through the town. We have a little tradition of going to this little local seafood shop by the beach and getting some food so we did that on the first day and sat on the beach for a little while.
I also love to get an ice cream when I'm near the sea so we did that too, after eating our seafood. Hastings has so many local seafood restaurants and fish and chip shops, you really can taste the difference in freshness with it being a seaside town.
In the evening, we went for a few drinks but didn't stay out too late.
The next day, we went to the seafront again and played some minigolf. Joe won, I am still yet to beat him but it's going to happen one day!
After spending the day out again, we went to a seafood restaurant in the old town called Whites. The old town in Hastings, is more individual restaurants, shops and pubs as opposed to the new town with things like Primark and Pizza Express. I really like that they have both options.
We had a huge seafood platter which is unlike me because I'm really fussy with food. I just wanted to try it because we were right by the sea and I thought I'd like most of it. All of it was so nice apart from oysters, I don't think I'll eat one of them again in a hurry.
After we ate so much food, we went for a few drinks on the pier. Hastings pier is quite big and since the social distancing rules have come into place, they put a DJ set on the pier with a bar and tables for drinks. I have never had drinks on a pier before so it was something new for me.
Just before leaving on my last day there, we went on a dog walk at a really pretty country park called Fairlight, it had such amazing views to the sea.
I quite like writing about places that I visit in the UK, so I will definitely be doing more 48 hour style blog posts whenever I go anywhere now.
Where's your favourite place to visit for a weekend away?
Wool of the King
Just a little update on me - I have now finished my year marketing internship ready for starting my final year of university in September. I am trying to get a little bit of a summer by doing things before I go back to studying. The first thing I did after finishing was visiting one of my friends, Robyn, who lives up in Lincoln and goes to university there.
It was very hot there and I had to put sun cream on because
of how pale I am so it kind of felt like a holiday, we’ll call it a staycation
as that’s where it’s at at the moment! If you want to read more about travel,
see my favourite travel destinations. I am living in Wiltshire at the
moment so it took about 3 hours and 20 minutes to drive there, but I felt like
it went pretty quickly.
Day 1 in Lincoln
After arriving in Lincoln, we had a walk along Brayford Waterfront
and took some cute pictures. We then walked up the steep hill to the cathedral.
There is a reason why it’s called steep hill and it is not an exaggeration! But
once you get up there the views are pretty good, and there are lots of cute,
independent cafes on the way up.
It was quite a hot day, so we had to go back to shower and
get ready before going out for the evening. We booked into Zizzi for dinner and
it was a Monday so we got that Eat Out to Help Out discount! After that, we
went to the Slug & Lettuce for some cocktails. That was the first time I
had been out for drinks since the lockdown and it was actually a lot less scary
than I thought it would be.
Bars do seem to be closing earlier now than what they used
to. So, after leaving Slug & Lettuce we got some end of the night food from
a chip shop. I had to try the cheesy chips and gravy because I’d never had it
before being a southerner and they were so nice even though they looked kind of
gross. Proper comfort food. I have to say, the north does takeaways better.
Day 2 in Lincoln
Day 2 was a chill one after a busy first day. We had a lie
in and went to McDonald’s, classic after night out food. After that, we went to
Boultham Park, which was really nice. We sat by the river and saw lots of cute
ducks and swans. Again, I had to put on sun cream for this.
Once we had sat there for a while, Robyn wanted to show me
round her uni so we walked around Lincoln University which was quite cool, it
was really quiet though due to it being summer and Covid-19. I like nosying
around other universities so I can compare them to my own.
In the evening, we just chilled and watched some TV because
I was getting up early to leave the next day. It was one of the hottest days
when I had to leave and my car has no air conditioning so I left at 8am to try
and get home before the hottest point of the day.
I really enjoyed going to Lincoln and really want to visit
more places in the north as I haven’t been to that many places up there. It is such
a pretty place and I hope to go there again soon.
Where is your favourite place to visit in England? Let me know in the comments! Special thanks to Robyn for letting me
stay with her and looking after me so well.
Looking for more day out ideas in the UK? Read all about my trip to Sculpture by the Lakes in Dorset.
Wool of the King
I recently went for a day out at Sculpture by the Lakes in Dorset with my friend Kitty, which was organised by Bournemouth Bloggers and Darren Northeast PR. This was actually my first event with Bournemouth Bloggers and I'm looking forward to attending more with them.*Press Visit - all opinions are my own.
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Exploring Dublin
If you have seen my posts on Instagram, you will know that I travelled to Dublin last week, primarily to see Lana Del Rey. Yes. It was as good as I expected!
My friend Robyn and I travelled to Dublin last Thursday evening, but the concert wasn't until Saturday.
On Friday, we just walked around Dublin and did touristy things. We walked around the shops on Grafton Street, visited Trinity College, sat in St. Stephen's park then had dinner at Zizzi, followed by a drink at Bad Bobs in Temple Bar.
Be warned, the Centre of Dublin is quite an expensive place to visit, especially for drinks. We didn't take that much money to use for tourist activities but if we did I definitely would have visited the Leprechaun Museum and would have gone on an open top tour bus.
Seeing Lana Del Rey Live
After arriving at the stage, second row from the front at 3:30pm, we soon realised that nothing was starting on the stage until 6:30pm. We didn't leave for food, drinks or anything because we had such a good spot and as people piled in behind us, we wouldn't have got back to our spot.
After waiting for around 3 hours, the first support artist, Kojaque performed. He brought Luka Palm and Kean Kavanagh from Soft Boy Records on stage with him. There were rumours around the audience that Lana Del Rey asked them to join her performing that night literally two days before the event. If you haven't heard of these guys, which I hadn't until they performed, then go check them out!
The second support artist was called Tamino, who I also hadn't heard of prior to the concert. He had an amazing voice but his songs weren't really for me.
Lana Del Rey didn't come on stage until 9pm but she was definitely worth the wait. As we were near the front, we were surrounded by superfans who had travelled from all over Europe and the rest of the world to see her. She started with Born To Die and then went on to sing newer songs and old songs too. She sung her cover of Doin' Time for the first time that night. There were swings and palm trees giving it a California summer vibe.
The whole thing was amazing and Lana's voice was even better in person. Seeing as how Lana Del Rey hardly ever comes to the UK I had never seen her in concert before and have wanted to see her for around 7 years, it was a dream come true.
One downside though, is that so many people were shoving and becoming quite selfish with wanting to get to the front. As a result, lots of people started arguing and shouting at each other. I just concentrated on not falling over and tried to ignore all of that as I'd waited so long for this I wasn't going to let anything get in the way.
She walked off the stage down to the front of the audience, it was madness. I was about 5 metres from her! A lot of people got selfies with her and autographs, unfortunately I didn't but I was just grateful to attend one of her shows.
Make sure to check out my personal and blog Instagram accounts to see videos of the concert and more photos of my trip to Dublin.
Personal Insta: @_laurenken
Blog Insta: @wooloftheking1
Until next time x
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