LINCOLN TRAVEL DIARY

As soon as I knew that my friend, Jennie, was moving to Lincoln I just knew that, at some point, I would visit her. Lincoln isn't a city I had visited before and, after seeing lots of beautiful pictures of it online, I knew that it was the kind of city for me. Which, in hindsight, it definitely is. I visited with Jamie (my boyfriend, for any of you that don't know already) and his brother; I think it's safe to say that, despite how tired we were on the last day, we all left with brilliant memories and a great desire to return one day.

We visited for 3 days and 2 nights, and this is what we got up to:

DAY ONE

The drive for us was just under 3 hours. We stopped off at Whetherby for a bite to eat, then took a de-tour to cross the famous Humber Bridge. Shortly after we arrived, we met up with Jennie and took a look at her student accommodation, played games, and got some adorable Instax Polariods. It was great having that bit of time where we didn't have to worry about where we were, and use it as an oppurtunity to chat and catch up with one another.

After that, we headed over to Brayford Warf (which is where we were staying and described by me as a 'mini London Southbank') along the river and, obviously, as students do, went for a cheeky drink in the local Wetherspoons. At this time, we were waiting for Jamie's brother to arrive on the train so we avoided doing too much exploring so that he wasn't to miss out. One thing that we definitely didn't hesitate to get our hands into was an amazing Wagamamas. I'm not even gunna lie here, I got Katsu Curry. I'm a basic gal with a not-so-basic adoration for Katsu. The Wagamamas in Lincoln is a 'floating' restaurant so, at night time, there's some excellent views across the harbour.

After that, when our last party member had arrived, we walked the short walk along to the Hilton Hotel and up to their very popular roof-top bar: The Electric. Now, despite it being freezing outside, we couldn't help ourselves from being touristy and wanting to sit outside on the balcony for a few cocktails (2 for £9, might I add). It was after that that we headed back to the hotel room for a bit more catching up and snacking on sweet treats that we'd previously bought from the local shop. As 12:00AM ticked along, the boys walked Jennie home and, upon their arrival back to the hotel, I was already fast asleep.

DAY TWO

We were all up bright and early on Saturday morning because there was so much to explore - I really wanted to get up and see as much as I could. After breakfast in the hotel, we began shopping on the high street which has some pretty excellent shops and all of us were successful in some way. I particularly enjoyed visiting Flying Tiger and Jack Wills (two shops that aren't particularly local to me at home) as well as basking in the amazing architecture of some of the buildings - this place obviously has a medieval history. 

After that, it was up Steep Hill but the guys were edging on hungry, so we avoided shopping on the way up and instead headed for the cafe that I'd found online: Basecamp Coffee. This artisan/hipster coffee house served cakes, exotic coffees, and rather posh food. Both Jennie and I opted for the cream-cheese bagel which was packed with rocket and seeds of all sorts. The bagel itself was delicious! I'd go back again, but it was a bit on the pricey side.

As I said, we left the shopping on Steep Hill until after we had re-energised a bit more so, after Basecamp, we headed up to the Cathedral and had a nosey around the Farmers Market. We visited fudge shops, Chocolatiers, saw an adorable Timepiece Repairs workshop, and explored a wonderful antiques shop on our way down the hill. But, now with a shared craving for sweet treats, we continued back down in the search of something to catch our eye. We quickly came to the attention of The Ticklebelly Lane Bakery (how awesome is that name!). In there, we all sat down, dropped our bags, and practically faceplanted a pot of tea. A lot of adventuring was well rewarded by a scone with jam and cream. 

Later that evening, Jamie and I finally decided to celebrate late Valentine's. We had previously found a voucher for a 3 course meal at one of my all-time favourite restaurants: Pizza Express, so, as just the two of us, we got dressed up and indulged in a lot of pizza. This is surprisingly one the highlights of my trip, the meal (and undoubtedly the company) was just heavenly. We both shared a bottle of wine, shared pizzas, and just spoke about bits and bobs - everything was enjoyable and calm. I hate to be soppy but, it's times like that we're I can't appreciate enough how lucky I am.

After that, Jennie and the guys went out to a club. I, on the other hand, was sat in the hotel room playing games on my phone and feeling pretty damn proud of myself for not forcing myself to go out to a club and put myself in an uncomfortable position. Understandably, sitting in a hotel room by yourself isn't the most enjoyable thing known to man but, by gosh, in my books, it beats standing in a night club any day. Little steps.

DAY THREE

On Day Three, we were tired. Having all gone to sleep no earlier than 2:30AM, despite having a very long and tiring day before that, it had caught up with us all by Sunday. Despite this, were were up for breakfast (at the not so earlier time of 10:30) then ventured across to a retail park. Why? Because there was a Homesense. We kind of looked around the retail park, saving Homesense until last but I reckon it got to the point where we were sort of dragging ourselves around the shops. I mean, no one even wanted to take responsibility of dragging the shopping trolley around. 

Eventually, we came to The Tower Bar, which is the University's 'Student Bar' for some lunch before we began travelling home. Jamie and I decided it would be a great idea to share a sharing-platter called 'Platfrom 1' which was so big that, when I did arrive home later to my mum having cooked one of my favourite dishes only for me to turn my nose up in a bloated state, it wasn't such a good idea for so long. Despite that, the food on there was indulgent - to say the least. Fried, carby goodness - what an amazing way to end a brilliant weekend. 

And, thus, we travelled home.

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