Tyne & Wear

I don't know why so many people make a face when Rebecca tells them she lived up north for 6 years in Newcastle, Gateshead, and Sunderland. (Rebecca also lived in Durham, but this is widely regarded as a most desirable place to live) I wonder if many of these people have ever actually been there, just drove through, or have only heard negative things about the Tyne & Wear area? Very similar to the reaction we get when telling people we live in Coventry. That being said, I have been guilty of this very attitude towards the north! Some years back my good friends from Holland took a ferry over to Newcastle and expressed how much they enjoyed it. I had driven through the area before, but not actually visited. I joked with them on numerous occasions about their choice of first places to visit in England. 

The Tyneside area is beautiful with really nice parks, great views of the river Tyne which separates Newcastle and Gateshead, and the seaside in Sunderland. (Picture above is of the river Tyne and beautiful music venue The Sage). 

This makes me think of many negative views and perceptions that I carry towards places, things, and people, that I have never really experienced...