Scarborough

Scarborough.  I love this city.  Perhaps it was the longing for the ocean that brought me here, but likely it was because I wanted to pick some city that I could get to from Leeds within 2.5 hours.  Knowing nothing about this city, other than it was on the ocean, I journeyed forth tabula rasa. 

Similar to my train trip to Edinburgh, I fell asleep, then woke up, shocked and excited to see the coast.  Upon leaving the train station, I took a quick look around, having no idea where I was, or where I wanted to get to.  I had the coast in mind, but I didn't know how to get there.  What do I do when I'm in a new city, and need to get my bearings?

I climb a hill.

This seems to be a new theme with me, (I also did this while exploring Leeds).  I find that one of the best ways to conjure a mental map of a city is to find the largest hill and to climb it.  I see a large monument at the top, which catches my eye, and promptly decide, "I'm going to get up there,".

I take some pictures along the way to the base, and promptly find it more difficult to navigate up slope than it should.  Once or twice a lady commented to me that I was in a private residential area, and that I would need to completely backtrack to find the right road, (I don't regret this, because I made friends with an adorable kitty). Eventually, I do find the proper road, and then see a trail going up beside it.  I hike up the trail, cutting some time off my trip, and continue along the spiraling road again.  I find an overpass above the road, cross it, and promptly step up a very steep incline.  Almost at the top.

Your cuteness depleted my camera battery.

I follow the road some more until I gleefully see the monument that was my goal.  It is a war memorial.  I walk towards the short stone wall before the cliff, and marvel at the view.  I'm pretty happy.  It is an absolutely lovely sight, I see the oceans crashing into the harbour, and far off I see Scarborough castle sitting proudly on its peninsula.  I go to take a picture, and promptly discover that my camera is out of battery.  It turns on, but then shuts off when I go to take a photo.  This is very saddening.  I realize that it is probably because I didn't charge it before leaving, and that I took too many pictures of this cat.

I try, and I try to take a picture before the camera automatically shuts off.  I send out a request to two deities, asking "I need this.  Please, just one photo!"

My wish was granted.

Thank you very much.

All subsequent photos in this post were taken by my phone.

There's a little stone map near me, showing the layout of the city.  I decide to set a goal for the ancient Roman wall that was build on the other side of the castle.  I ask some of the people around what the best way to get down is.  They look at me confused, and surprised that I walked up here.  I ask at the restaurant, and the waitress informs me to just follow the road down, so I do this, without taking any short cuts this time.  I wanted to admire the view for longer.  I make my way through the city, closer to the coast this time than before.  I'm slightly disappointed that a lot of the shops are closed, (it was Sunday), and continue along.

Holy yumness.

I find what would be the City Centre, and enjoy the little shops that are open.  I found a Thornton's café, which delights me, as I had previously only seen its chocolate shop-only franchises.  Imagine finding a Purdy's Chocolate Café.  I look at their menu, and promptly see what I need, the Thornton's Hot Chocolate Supreme.  This beast, if I remember correctly, was made by taking a glass, riddling it with chocolate syrup, adding a scoop of chocolate ice cream, adding marshmallows, pouring hot chocolate over top, loading up with whipped cream, and generously sprinkling chocolate flake.  And it was served with a complimentary chocolate on the side.  Happy.  This is where my quest to find the ultimate hot chocolate began.  The quest continued in Nottingham, and then again in Belgium. 

I should have bought a large.

Where you aware that earlier this year I spent
two weeks living and working aboard a tallship?

I continued a long, a little surprised by all the fish and chips shops I passed.  I'm not kidding when I say I passed three on one block.  I then come to a Maritime Museum!  It isn't very big, just one small room, but I excitedly enter to fawn over the tall ship models.  I chat briefly with the nice lady working there, and then depart for the waterfront.

I'm sad to say that the tourism down by the waterfront puts a damper on the city.  Where we have beautiful, raging ocean waves crashing into rocky shores, and both proud and humble sailing vessels lined up after the day's catch, we then see a bunch of casinos, carousels and greasy fish and chips places.  The water front of Scarborough has been turned into a carnival, and that is kind of sad.  Aside from that, the fishing village has a very distinctive charm.

After making my way through this area, I found the trail and steps that lead up to the castle!  I hike up, and was quite impressed by the fortifications set up around this castle.  I was thoroughly disappointed to find out that it was closed for the day, and may consider returning for it.

This Panorama was edited by DesignNomad on Reddit

After admiring the castle, I followed a path down, and visited the ruins and reconstruction of St. Mary's Chapel.  The ruins dated back to 1000 CE.



I continued past, and took a right turn towards the ocean, (then realizing that the castle was on a stubby penninsula, I was a little disoriented to have the ocean both behind and ahead of me).  What I saw and heard shocked me.  Before me was the raw power of the ocean tides crashing into the shore.  We don't experience this the same way in Vancouver, because we have Vancouver Island protecting us from the rough force of the sea.  The nearest opposing land body across from Scarborough is Denmark or Germany.  I stood there, watching the waves from above in awe.  The ocean roared.  I saw someone walking along the ocean boulevard and get smoked by a crashing wave spay.  I laughed. Schadenfreude. 

I took this panorama of the bay, but the still frame doesn't do the dynamic spectacle justice.

And thus concludes my trip to Scarborough.

York

It's been quite a long time since I've updated.  I would try to say the reason is because I've been busy going out and doing things, or doing homework and school stuff, but, really, it's because my mom figured out how to use Skype and Facebook, so I haven't felt the need to keep her updated via blog.

So, York!

York is very close to Leeds.  The train trip took about one hour going there, and less coming back, depending on how many stops the train made.

The first main features I noticed upon leaving the train station, where this giant ferris wheel and the imposing York Wall.  I found myself missing the London Eye, and London in general, looking at the ferris wheel.

York Wall

Naturally, I climbed up onto the York wall, and began to venture in the direction I hoped would lead me to the city center.  I was not disappointed.  The wall itself was quite a fun walk.  The path is narrow, and there are only railings in the particularly elevated areas.  It makes sense to me, after all, you'd only be defending against invaders from one side of the wall. 

I soon came to the end, where there was a bridge that needed crossing.  There were some interesting buildings around the bridge, one was a cafe, possibly a repurposed toll station, and I'm not sure what the other is.




Below in the images are the bridge and the cafe.

Café

Bridge

   
 After crossing the bridge, I wandered through a park and found a museum.  I didn`t enter the museum, because of the admission fees (if I remember correctly), but did very much enjoy the park, and these very large ruins nearby

A lovely day for a walk in the park!

Check out the people for scale!  I think this may be the remains of a cathedral?

Upon leaving, I heard the sounds of bells, and remembered that the York cathedral was a recommended sight to see.  Following a few signs, I made my way towards the ringing.  Nearby, I stopped to take a picture of the much more humble looking Catholic church

How cute!

Before reaching this giant, imposing monster.

I've been around England, and I've seen some pretty massive cathedrals and abbeys (notably St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London), but this still caught me off guard.  Once again, they changed a generous entry fee, so I didn't see much of the interior.  A lady remarked to me outside that it used to be free admission for everyone.  Oh well.

The blurriness of this photo saddens me,
but the brightness of the coats enlightens me

My money was latter spent buying fudge from these friendly gentlemen.  It was rather fantastic.  I choose a slab of the chocolate orange fudge, and was delighted by the happiness and smiles and rainbows that emanated from the dapperly dressed staff.





I'm noticing that I'm bombarding you, the reader with photos.  I hope you're OKAY with that.

Happy belated Bonfire Night, by the way.

I came across this on an inn in York.  

"Remember, remember 
The Fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot."

Bonfire Night is a big celebration in England, and outdoes Halloween for firework displays.

The Shambles - Note the narrowness of the path
and the overhang of the buildin

I found The Shambles, which is one of the oldest streets in England.  According to the street's official website, the Shambles is, "mentioned in the Domesday book (making it date over 900 years)..." I didn't even know this when I was there; I thought the Shambles were likely 500 years old, not nearly 1000!

On this street, I treated myself to discount icecream, and bought presents for my mom and for Aunt Kathy.  

Mum says that she has safely received their 

York Lucky Cats in the mail.

I determined that Donald likely wouldn't fully appreciate a Lucky Cat, which was an excellent decision, because I found something more appropriate, yet very similar, for him the next day in Scarborough. 

I then found a Viking Museum, and definitely determined that to be cool enough to pay admission to visit.  I was not disappointed. 

Fun facts I learned about Vikings:
- Vikings invaded and inhabited York (Jorvik!) 1000 years ago

- Hair combs at the time were made out of bone/antler, and costed around £400

- People who couldn't afford combs washed their hair in horse urine to kill bugs, and keep it blonde and soft

- People drank more beer than water, because waste polluted the wells.  Beer was distilled, and therefore safer to drink

- People ate oysters as cheap snacks
- I'm pretty sure I saw a human coprolite, which I later saw featured on QI

The more you know!

So, this concludes my day in York, early October.  Let me know if you've read this, and I can determine whether I should write about Scarborough and Belgium.  Ta ta~