Hey guys! Get some tea, a few snacks, wrap a blanket around yourself and prepare for the last part of my Brighton adventure. On the second day of our Brighton adventure I woke up early, not because I couldn't sleep but because a clan of pigeons was fighting a clan of seagulls right outside our window! So much for a good start of the day. Looking at the date however made me forget all about the bird war going on outside our window. Today was October 31st. Halloween but maybe even more important, the day we were going to see Dan and Phil on their amazing tour is not on fire!!!! Ever since the day we ordered the tickets it felt kind of unreal. Like a deja vu of some sorts. Even on the day it was actually going to happen I still couldn't comprehend the fact that it was actually going to happen. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. After breakfast we went out for a walk on the beach, explored a bit more of Brighton and did our first proper bit of shopping before returning to the hotel again. Time was running out, TATINOF was coming closer and closer and for some reason I wasn't nervous at all. Neither was I realising that I was actually going to see them today but I already told you that. We queued up about an hour and a half before the doors would open. It wasn't busy yet which was kind of nice. As 18 and 19-year-olds we felt a bit out of place, I think approximately 80% of the people there were 16 and younger. NOT JUDGING THO, JUST AN OBSERVATION! A guy started walking past taking in the phan-art, reason why I was a weird kid stories, internet support group problems and 7 second challenges. Everyone in the queue was really enthusiastic and kind towards one another which was really great. As the only two Dutch people there we did feel a bit out of place though. Indoors we met a nice girl who joined us until we went into the actual theatre and took our seats. The pre-show music was the best ever and the entire theatre was singing along which made me so so happy. TATINOF itself was just amazing. It was completely and utterly amazing. The show was perfect, Shrek Dan and Thor Phil were just as I had imagined them to be and in the end I even cried a little. Seeing them live was one of the best moments of my entire life and up to today TATINOF crosses my mind every day. I won't put any spoilers in here but if you get the chance to go and see them on tour please do so! The same goes for when the DVD will be released (they are filming the tour) and you are able to buy it please please do! You will not regret it and might understand why I cried afterwards. After TATINOF we were still full of adrenaline and decided to go to the beach again to calm down a bit. We had bought a box of maltesers before the show which got eaten really quickly. The sun set and we still sat on the beach as the skies got darker and time kept ticking away. The Halloween vibes started filling the city and as two Dutch girls from a country where Halloween isn't much of a thing we were kind of excited about Halloween and also really curious to what would be going on tonight. The award for best Halloween costume that night definitely went to the girl that was dressed as trash! You looked awesome and it was like the best thing ever so yeah you go girl! Also the people spending their evening drawing hearts on the side walk you made our day even better and you made the city look super cute and lovely. Shout-out to whoever drew those hearts!
Eventually we missed out on most of the night as we were like super tired and unable to function properly due to all that happened that day. This day was one of the best of my entire life and ended way too quickly. And like that the last day of our Brighton adventure came lurking around the corner much too soon. So here we are, the last day of our Brighton adventure. The last day of the best time of my life. The last day in a beautiful city with so many things left unexplored. The day started with another pigeon vs. seagull war followed by the longest stroll on the beach ever. We decided to turn around once we had passed the colourful beach huts. Some more shopping was done and by 2 pm. it was time to head back to the train station and go back to Holland. Brighton you have been so good to us! You were and are absolutely lovely and I'm 100% sure you will see me again one day in the near future! Those three days were the best days of my life and I will never ever forget them. Everyday they cross my mind and every time they do they make me smile. So many memories were made so many pictures were taken and so many unforgettable moments were lived. Thank you Charlotte for being in my life and getting me into Youtube in the first place! We've known each other for almost four years now and in those years we have done some crazy things and many more crazy things are to come! Thank you for being my companion on this trip! It was the best thing ever and don't you dare to go back without me! So yeah, that was it. That's the end of my Brighton adventure which took way too long to write and upload and I'm sorry for all the cheesy bits. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed reading these posts as much as I enjoyed writing them. I highly recommend you visit Brighton one day if you get the chance. Lots of love, ThatDutchGirl96
Get ready the second part of my Brighton adventure. Make yourself a cup of tea, wrap a blanket around you and continue reading. We took a bus from the airport to London Victoria. Rain was falling down the sky but the grey clouds couldn't burst my personal bubble of happiness. I was going to Brighton and nothing was going to bring me down. At London Victoria we got on the train to Brighton. For a foreigner in an unknown area I felt weirdly at home. The closer the train got to Brighton the more clear the sky became. Before we knew it the grey clouds had gone away and been replaced by blue sky and sunshine. Was this real? Yes it was, the universe was copying our happiness and on the 30th of October two Dutch girls arrived in Brighton and the sun was shining. A bit lost we wandered around leaving the train station behind is in no time. We walked down the street not knowing where to turn to get to our hotel. Thanks to the directions we printed from Google maps we succeeded in finding our hotel rather quickly. The Grand Pier guest house would be our home for the next three days. Our room was lovely, not too big, not too small, it was exactly what we needed. First things first, the sea. How I love the sea. I've always had this thing with seas, hence why my room has a lot of sea themed decoration in it. For some reason the sea has always been my happy place so being on a beach again watching the waves crash on small rocks of which the beach exists. From the moment I set foot on the beach I knew we would be spending a lot of our time here and I turned out to be right. The rest of our first day was spent exploring the Pier, more of the beach and visiting Sea Life. The pier is known as one of Brighton's most popular sights and it was pretty crowded that day as well. The arcades, the food-stands, the fair and of course the terrifying seagulls. There were so many of them that it felt like, and I quote my friend Charlotte here, "the seagull apocalypse" was about to happen. Those birds scared the crap out of me and were the least enjoyable bit of all Brighton. After walking up and down the Pier a couple of times, avoiding the seagulls the best we could, taking pictures like a couple of real tourists and just enjoying ourselves and the view we decided it was time to move on to something else on our 'to-do list': visit Sea Life. Sea Life was better than I hoped for. I had heard a lot of negative things about Sea Life so I had no idea what to expect but it was absolutely amazing. Charlotte and I were probably the only not family there at the time but who cares. We were both mesmerised by all the different kind of fish and the stingrays and the turtles and the jellyfish and the unicorn fish and just everything. It was Charlotte's first time walking through an ocean tunnel and her response was priceless. My response was quite like hers as it was utterly beatiful. All the different kind of fish, the sharks, the absolutely massive stingray and the ancient turtles. Sea Life was great and for young adults that are 18 and 19 years old we were way too enthusiastic. We stayed in the ocean tunnel for nearly half an hour before exploring the rest of Sea Life. Soon we had seen it all, except the Jurassic seas. As massive Jurassic Park fans this was something that excited us a lot. We made dinosaur noises, acted like compete idiots and got weird looks from several adults and kids. I don't know where all the negative comments on Sea Life come from, I had an amazing time and would definitely come back another time!
We had been in Sea Life so long we had missed the sunset so that would have to wait until the next day. However the sun had already set we decided to stay on the beach for a little while none the less. So far Brighton was absolutely perfect and we were enjoying it so much we almost forgot to have dinner. After dinner we went back to the sea before heading back to our hotel for the last time today. Sooooo..... This is where I leave you guys again. The last part of my Brighton adventure will be uploaded very very soon so keep an eye out for that! I hope you enjoy these kind of blogs and if you do or if you don't please share your opinion with me in the comments below! Anyway, lots of love, ThatDutchGirl96
Hey!!! As the title already kind of gives away, I HAVE BEEN TO BRIGHTON!!!! Yes, the caps are necessary. Last week my friend Charlotte and I left Holland to explore Brighton for a weekend. A city the both of us had never been to before but always wanted to visit one day. The idea of this trip was born a couple of years ago and the idea started coming to life in April this year. Hmmm Renée what a coincidence, your favourite youtubers announced their book and tour that month too. Yeah skip the coincidence part that announcement was totally how the coming to life part started. So in April this year our favourite youtubers (AmazingPhil and Danisnotonfire) announced they were going to publish a book AND go on tour this year. This news of course excited us enormously but there was just this tiny bit of a problem. The tour would be a UK tour and both Charlotte and I happen to live in Holland which is not in the UK at all (sad fact). WHAT SHOULD WE DO??????? After a lot of discussing, thinking and contemplating with each other and our inner fangirl we decided we were going to do it. We were going to buy tickets for the Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire and no not for the London performances no, the both of us had been to London multiple times already. We decided to combine the Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire with another dream of ours, visiting Brighton. With a lot of excitement the tickets were bought and us going to Brighton became a fact. WE WERE GOING TO BRIGHTON AND SEE OUR FAVE YOUTUBERS! It felt so unrealistic and I personally thought it was a dream for a long time. Well for a couple of months at least. Summer holiday came and ended, October started coming closer and I was still convinced I dreamt it all. Then the day finally arrived, not the day we were leaving for Brighton, no the day where all the adult, responsible and planning stuff would be done. Finding a hotel, booking our flight, deciding what more we would and could do in Brighton, printing all the routes from the airport to Brighton, from Brighton station to our hotel, from our hotel to the Pier, the Brighton Dome and all the other things we wanted to visits. It was an intense day on Google Maps. After the planning came the packing. We decided to make a list with all the things we would need which turned out to be pretty useful actually and since we are both 24/7 users of medicine these lists are a bit more complicated than your average 'to pack' lists. Then, after months of waiting, thinking it was a dreaming and slowly feeling my stress levels rise to a new limit, the time had come. The day we would wake up way too early to catch a flight to a hopefully unforgettable, absolutely amazing time in Brighton. Way too awake for this time of the day I got in the car trying my hardest not to burst from excitement. After we both got through border control nice and easy we headed to the gate, ready to board the plane. This nice and easy was kind of a new thing for me as either my insulin, insulin pump or blood sugar measuring device mostly catch the attention of border control and lead to me explaining I'm not trying to get drugs out of the country just a medicine that keeps me alive and I would die without. Oh the joys of being diabetic. We were called to the gate and the boarding began. After the safety instructions were given it was time to take off. Charlotte started to become kind of nervous now as this was her first time flying. The view was incredible, the cities, villages, forests, endless fields of grass, rivers, North Sea, the clouds and the sun. All these things made the view from our flight amazing. Slowly but surely the plane started to prepare for landing and the city of London came closer and closer. The city that seemed to be made out of Lego from up high slowly got back to it's normal size as the plane came closer to the ground. Charlotte thought we had already landed and was kind of surprised you didn't feel the moment the wheels of the plane touch the ground but at that moment the wheels of the plane touched the ground. For me this was the most fun part because I knew this was coming and the look on her face was so funny I couldn't stop laughing for a long time. Besides this she handled her first time flying really well though.
We had arrived, we were in the UK, in London. It was real and it was now. In a couple of hours we would be in Brighton, a city we had heard so much about and were so eager to discover ourselves. In just a day we would be seeing our favourite youtubers, two awkward young man who had played such a massive part in us becoming friends, live on their tour. The next three days were going to be amazing, full of feels and new things to see, do and enjoy. Lots of love, ThatDutchGirl96 ps. The second and also last part of our Brighton adventure will go up on Thursday!
A little over a week ago, on October 20 2015, the time had finally come. After months of waiting it was time to catch the train to Amsterdam to see Fall Out Boy on their American Beauty American Psycho tour.
This was the second time I got to see them in concert and god it was incredible. Last year already blew my mind so the stakes were high. A couple of hours before the doors opened my friend Charlotte and I arrived at the venue. As we left the train we were observing the others that also got off the train. Who might be going too? Turned out quite a lot. As we got closer to the venue we noticed the queue was pretty freaking long already. We walked past one side of the queue and over to the other side of the queue which was a little shorter so we sat down on this end.(I know this sounds weird but for some reasons there are two sides to the FOB queue at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam.) A little later one of our friends contacted us and we joined with her as she set closer to the entrance than we did.
Then the venue doors opened and everyone started acting like primitive human beings to get inside the venue as fast as possible. This is possibly one of the most funny yet utterly terrifying parts of the entire concert because the chance you die due to falling down and being stepped on or choke to death are quite high.
Eventually Charlotte and I got inside, put/pushed all our stuff in one little locker and went inside the actual concert hall. Thankfully there were some nice peepz around us so that was cool. About half an hour later the time had finally almost come BUT FIRST it was time for the supporting act to give us their best. This year the support act was Charley Marley whom I had never heard of before so I was kind of curious. They did manage to get the crowd going, I must give them that although it wasn't really my style and I personally thought they weren't quite right as a Fall Out Boy supporting act. Which is just my personal opinion!
Then the time had finally really come!!!!!! I put my ear plugs back in (hearing safety everybody) had a small freak out session with Charlotte and was ready for the actual show to begin. The entire thing was just amazing! The lightning was perfect, the set list was great, the background effects were magnificent. The entire crowd was singing along and there was an amazing atmosphere going on. During one song they released a whole bunch of massive balloons from the ceiling which honestly scared me a lot, yes I am one of those people but with a valid reason (I think).
Before the little acoustic part started off Pete or should I say Pepe (thanks Charlotte) hit us with a classic dad joke which I won't repeat. The acoustic session was amazing, I nearly cried (again).
The concert was over way to soon and still a bit mesmerised we headed back to the train station with nearly everybody that had also been at the concert. Fall Out Boy merch everywhere. Fall Out Boy you did it! Once again I went home with a feeling of wow with a bit of amazing and a slice of 'never going to forget this ever' which is personally my favourite after concert recipe. It had been a wonderful night and I am glad I decided to go again. See you next year? Lots of love, ThatDutchGirl96
TATINOF itself was just amazing. It was completely and utterly amazing. The show was perfect, Shrek Dan and Thor Phil were just as I had imagined them to be and in the end I even cried a little. Seeing them live was one of the best moments of my entire life and up to today TATINOF crosses my mind every day. I won't put any spoilers in here but if you get the chance to go and see them on tour please do so! The same goes for when the DVD will be released (they are filming the tour) and you are able to buy it please please do! You will not regret it and might understand why I cried afterwards. 
The day started with another pigeon vs. seagull war followed by the longest stroll on the beach ever. We decided to turn around once we had passed the colourful beach huts. Some more shopping was done and by 2 pm. it was time to head back to the train station and go back to Holland. 
