Tag: british backpacking

Stupid git at Llandudno Junction told me I had to change trains at Shrewsbury. I should have stayed on instead, would have saved myself an hour.

I really should have looked into the bus and train schedules more. I could have caught the 9:40 bus from Cockermouth, been in Penrith at 10:50, waited 40 minutes for the station to open, and still caught the train when it passed through at 11:45. I could have slept an extra two hours this morning and saved £7 on bus fares. Oh well, it was nice having that certainty.

Bloody incredible! I love this place. The sun never sets. It just sort of dips under the horizon at 1:00 am, and starts to rise again at 3a.m. I’m going to stay up and watch the sunrise.

Bloody hell. Long day. So glad I did this. Cool people. Cool trip. Amazing sights. Write more later when not so nackered.

Made it to the hostel. Cool place. Nice rooms. Loads of facilities. Roomy hot showers with real water pressure. Large comfy beds. Free hot chocolate in the kitchen. Large common room with internet accesible computers. I met a ot of the current residents while waiting for a computer. Seems like many of them have been here a while. Lots of people from Europe and British Commonwealth countries. Probably here on those visas you can get to work menial work in another country. Sounded to me like they live here on a week to week basis.
I wonder how everyone else is doing? Aaron, Mikey, Katie, Darby, Steph, Fran, Mom, Dad, Steve, Gillian. Everyone and Ivy Hall and Ivy House. I hope they’re doing okay.

Certainly nice that I got to add York to my list of places. The Minster was nice, but it’s the city itself that impressed me. This place still had the original Norman wall, built close to a thousand years ago.
Overall, I think it’s the mixture of old and new that gets to me. London isn’t a good example, it’s constantly re-inventing itself. York was a really good example – modern office buildings next to medieval wall and gates next to Victorian homes and Edwardian businesses. And they all work together so well! There was even one building that was designed in a very medieval castle manor, though it couldn’t have been more than 20 years old.

Let’s continue on yesterday, shall we? After I checked into the hostel, I wandered around for a while. There were cobblestones streets, and narrow alleyways, and stairways with names. Speaking of stairways…
This hostel is incredible. It’s an old building, it might have been part of the grounds of the house that’s situated next to the Abbey. From the window in my room I could see the Abbey itself, and from the front door I can see St. Mary’s church and the graveyard.
Last night I took a “ghost tour” of Whitby. There actually aren’t that many ghosts in Whitby, who was a bit overdramatic but effectively sinister, embelished with stories of witches, Dracula, and demon-hounds. All in all, very interesting. I got to see parts of Whitby I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
This morning I went for a walk along the top of the cliff. I nearly got blown off, the winds are that strong.