Travels With Nate

I recall once writing an article entitled "Why I'm Over Beer Festivals" which turned out to be one of my most popular blog posts, clocking up over 9,000 views after somehow going viral on Reddit and in several of those  Facebook groups. Even after I wrote it, I still kept going to beer festivals. I just get sucked in because people I know will be there, which is arguably the best part of them. The one beer festival I absolutely had to  visit being the lager lout that I am, was the Franconian Beer Festival in Nuremberg and here's why: 1) The Setting  - Imagine a beer festival in the moat of such a castle in a beautiful city as Nuremberg where you can look up at the large walls and high towers, shaded but still warm in the summer. That's how I can describe it. People talk about the IMBC venue being special, but I challenge you to visit The Franconian Beer Festival and not fall in love. 2) Free Entry  - Yup, you don't pay a single cent to get into th...

When I booked my trip to Toulouse for September I wasn't really sure what to expect from the city and its beer scene since very few people I know had spent time there so I did some googling, as you do. What I found surprised me as it was unlike any other city I've been to in that many of the pubs and bars seemed to be modelled from the British style of pub. I'd heard previously that Charles Wells had a chain of pubs in France and once I'd done some research I was determined I needed to check it out, and when I did it surprised me. The George and Dragon  is situated on the corner of an unassuming narrow residential street, at the foot of a cross road near a couple of cafes and could well be described as an estate pub had it been in Stockport and not Toulouse. There were a couple of tables out the front of the pub, with old chaps standing around chain smoking cigarettes, slowly drinking their dark amber coloured beer and occasionally engaging each other in convers...

I love Pulled Pork as it's a versatile food stuff that you can cook and get plenty of meals out of, whether you're going to eat some now and take some to work the next day or freeze it for a rainy day. I also love Chinese food, but I'd never thought about Chinese Pulled Pork until someone invited me to their house for lunch one day a little over a year ago, and fell in love with the Chinese Pulled Pork they cooked so I had to steal the recipe from him and make it myself. Since then, I've probably made it about 5 times and each time people tell me how delicious it is and how the want the recipe but y'all know me, I'm slack at getting on my blog sometimes but here it is... my recipe for Chinese Pulled Pork: Ingredients (some amounts may not be exact as that's how I roll): 1kg Pork Shoulder (rind trimmed off) 1 jar of Lee Kum Hoisin Sauce (from an Asian supermarket as I'm convinced it's better than the same brand you get in the supermarket) Ha...

Sitting on the Baltic Sea, the tri-city area of Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia is not somewhere I’d ever thought of going until we had some time booked off work, searched “everywhere” on Skyscanner and found £20 return flights, but we’re glad we did. How to get there: We got direct flights from Stansted using Ryanair who operate 2 flights there, and 2 flights back every day but it is serviced by other airports in the UK. Once you’re there, it’s only a half hour bus journey into the city centre although if you have loads of luggage with you, Uber is cheap enough. Where to stay: We stayed in a Novotel very close to the centre because we’re a big fan of the cheap convenience of Accor hotels, which cost us about £120 for four nights. Unlike many cities, I would recommend stay right in the centre as public transport is tricky due to it not being on google maps. When to go: If you like cold weather, winter is the time for you! We’ve heard that the Christmas market is ...