Two of my best friends from my time at the Newcastle University, Hannah and Kelsey, have recently / are going to get married. It has made me kind of nostalgic about my time with them. How much we all have grown up since our time at the university. That was the time when our only cares in the world were getting a good grade, having a good time, and travelling. And I am proud to say, we managed all of these pretty well.
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| Hannah, Me, Kelsey, and Helen |
Newcastle is really the best place in the UK if you want to study AND have fun at the same time. It is a pretty little city with enough history and more than enough clubs, bars, and pubs to keep you busy.
One of our favorite pubs was Crow's Nest, which was close to our University. That was the place where we used to have our lunch after our morning class. The place served excellent apple cider, which our friend Helen used to dig. The place also served a Loaded Burger, which once left one of our classmates in a state worse than a food coma. I, myself, never tried it. Apart from a classic heavy burger patty, it had bacon, fried eggs, and onion rings. You can probably imagine what that would mean. Apart from the loaded burger, the pub also served pretty awesome Fish & Chips, Tuna Melt Sandwich, and Apple Crumble too. But more than the food, I remember the awesome time we had at this place. Mostly it was just the four of us, Hannah, Kelsey, Helen, and me, but at times our entire class joined us for cribbing and bitching sessions.
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| Celebrating our Birthday Month during one of our night-outs |
Our favorite place to begin a night-out was the Charles Grey. Their best cocktail that went with the tantalizing name of Screaming Orgasm, was a delicious mix of Cream, Bailey's Vodka, and Cacao. And to add to that, they almost always had a 1+1 offer on most cocktails. Helen and I once ordered the entire platter of their cocktails, two times over. Helen didn't even bat an eyelid and finished all. My share, however, took all four of us to finish.
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| When Helen and I ordered the entire menu, each |
While our parties almost always began at Charles Grey, they never really ended there. We moved from pub to pub,tiring or one place, walking into another, dancing at one, chatting at another. I don't remember the names of any of the other places, but life was fun, carefree, and bindaas. To add to it, it was pretty safe throughout the night. We would be walking all over the city in our pencil heels without a care in the world. We would be taking public transport, buses, taxis at 2am. We would be having pizza at a Deli at 3am to wrap up the "evening".
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| Screaming Orgasm before it was had |
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| Hannah, after downing her nth glass |
I don't even remember what all we talked about, but I do remember that we talked a lot. And we did some pretty crazy things. Borrowing pink hats from random strangers to pose in them, crazily cheering an obviously out-of-tune live musician. Chatting with strange Geordie men. All this may sound crazy, but I loved the uninhibited freedom.
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| Posing in the pink hat borrowed from a random stranger |
Today, when I look back at those times, I would not want to live that life again, but I wouldn't mind a night-out or two every year with those same friends, hopping those same places, doing those same things. That time is etched in my brain forever. I don't really cherish my first stint at education as much as I cherish my second stint.
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