Since it’s been literally forever a little while since I’ve updated Geeky Tourist, I thought the beginning of the month – Hello October! – would be the perfect time to stop procrastinating, pull my finger out, and give you guys a bit of an update as to why I’ve been so vacant.

The short story? I’ve been super busy. I honestly don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that September has been the busiest, most draining month of my entire life. Possibly of anyone’s life, ever.

In fact, I have so many things to tell you that you may want to consider cancelling all your plans for the rest of the day. Ok, so that was an exaggeration, but I do have a lot to catch you up on, and I’ve got a lot planned, so stick around if you want to have a nosey.

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Victorious Festival

Let’s start with Victorious. I’m a massive music geek, and every August bank holiday, Portsmouth hosts a festival on the common, so I had to get tickets. It’s never particularly huge, but it’s relatively cheap, and they always have a few decent bands playing. This year, it spanned three days for the first time, but we didn’t end up getting into the arena until about 5pm on Friday because it was pouring down. We headed straight for the closest tent for shelter, discovering new bands we’d never heard of whilst downing pints of ridiculously expensive cider, until it was time to see Kaiser Chiefs and The Libertines. I was surprised at how many Kaiser Chief songs I remembered, and how little of the Libertines I actually knew, but both bands were incredible.

Saturday couldn’t have been more different. The sun was beaming so we went to the festival early, but it was probably the worst day for music, so we spent quite a lot of time outside the arena in local pubs, staying away from the crowds. We returned to watch Brian Wilson’s Beach Boys set as the sky started to turn pink – it was pretty magical – then ended the day humming to Paloma Faith whilst eating bubble waffles which are pretty much the greatest food invention of all time. The final day was a struggle though. I was exhausted and felt more unsociable than I’d felt in a long while. To be honest, I was contemplating not going at all, but thankfully snapped out of it before The Prodigy played – they were insane. I usually don’t mind being an introvert, but there are occasions when I wish I could deal with people as easily as others can.

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Exploring Yorkshire

I’ve lived in Southern England my entire life – you can’t really get more southern than Portsmouth – but most of my family are from The North. There aren’t many of them left these days, a few uncles and aunties here and there, but I still like to go up to Yorkshire with my mum every now and then, just to see who’s still around. The only problem is, its forever away. If you were to imagine Westeros from Game of Thrones series, and how long it would take you to get from Dorne to, well, The North, it’s probably the equivalent. I could basically fly to France or Spain quicker than driving to Yorkshire – however, once you’re there you get to explore the whole county, and it’s just one of the most beautiful places in England, so I can’t complain too much.

In between visiting relatives, we managed to drive through the Yorkshire Dales – getting lost for 3 hours looking for this waterfall where they filmed some of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which is a movie I’m slightly obsessed with. We then toured the vast Moors in search of Hogsmeade, or at least the railway station they used to film those particular scenes in the Harry Potter movies. We even headed to Whitby by the coast, and got to see Dracula’s castle which was stunning. On our last day, we had a look around York itself where I found the most amazing Harry Potter store – I’m thinking about doing a little geeky guide of the city, specifically for any Harry Potter fans out there, so watch this space if you’re a Potterhead and plan on visiting.

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Brilliant Bands

Victorious Festival wasn’t the only live music that made up my month. I got to see my absolute favourite band in the entire world – Incubus – perform in London, and The Arctic Monkeys in their hometown of Sheffield. I can’t even begin to explain how much seeing Incubus meant to me. I think I’m going to have to dedicate an entire post to their show and how incredible it was – the best gig I’ve ever been to, hands down. There’s just something unbelievably special about watching a band you’ve loved for over half your life, live, for the first time, with your favourite person in the world.

The Arctic Monkeys were brilliant as well. I’ve always liked them, but I probably wouldn’t have bothered seeing them on their tour if Jess didn’t love them so much. He’s a massive fan, so I couldn’t resist getting him tickets to see them, especially when I saw they were playing Sheffield. The arena was huge, and every seat was filled. We were standing down by the stage and the atmosphere was incredible. You could sense the love and pride everyone had for the band, and getting to be in the middle of it all was overwhelming.

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Sherwood Forest

When I found out how close Nottingham was to Sheffield, I decided that we needed to head up a day early to visit Sherwood forest. I’m a massive Robin Hood fan – if you hadn’t of guessed by the 3 hour Prince of Thieves waterfall hunt. When other girls were swooning over Prince Eric and Charming, I was head over heels in love with that little orange fox from Disney’s Robin Hood. Since then, I’ve loved the character in all its forms – Cary Elwes, Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe – so I couldn’t resist finding a little more about him in his natural habitat.

You hear Sherwood Forest mentioned in relation to Robin Hood all the time, but I don’t think I ever truly realised it actually existed. Yeah – Sherwood Forest is totally a real life forest that you can visit, in real life. I was stoked. And there are loads of other places around the area, related to the fairytale, that are real too – like the Major Oak Tree that Robin and his Merry men are meant to have partied in, and the church where he married Maid Marian. I can’t wait to show you guys all the Robin Hood related locations we visited. There are so many.

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Theses are just a few of the main things that have been keeping me busy, but I’ve got a lot more geeky adventures to share, so expect quite a few posts this month – for a change. And don’t let all this real life stuff fool you, because I’ve spent my fair share of time binge watching TV shows too. SO MANY GREAT SHOWS OUT RIGHT NOW!

What have you guys been up to since we last talked? Anyone had an adventure or two of their own?