A miracle...

SUN! I cannot believe it, there is not a cloud in the sky! I honestly started to think this entire trip would be done under a never-ending blanket of grey. I LOVE YOU, YORK!

Cheers bruv!

The weather was still poor when I arrived yesterday and there were a few spots of rain in the air, but, as mid-to-late afternoon rolled along, the clouds started to break up and I could finally see some encouraging dashes of blue. I had a preliminary explore of the city centre and a walk along a stretch of the city wall, which became much more pleasant as the afternoon became fairer. I also had a wander through the Museum Gardens, where the remains of St Mary's Abbey are. One of the richest and most powerful monasteries in the country at the time, it was another victim of the Reformation.

Part of the wall

Remains of the Abbey

The Roman Multangular tower. With children. I got arrested shortly after taking this photo.

After that, I went to Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant, which was disappointingly so-so. The service was casually blasé, and the music selection, positively baffling. I love soul and Motown hits as much as the next man, but the theme from Shaft doesn't say fine or relaxed dining to me. The food itself was pleasant enough, but nowhere near the best I've had in an Italian restaurant, or at home for that matter, and was just about adequate in quantity. Nice loos though.

Imagine a hellishly dystopic future where everyone lives in one of the loveliest cities in the country but football in all its televisual forms has been banned by the aggressively polite ruling middle-class dictatorship...that's York. I had a mad dash in and out of the maze-like cobbled streets trying to find a pub out of the dozens around that was showing it. I ended up in a bar that probably wasn't far off your average Ben Sherman-filled faux-classy establishment you find in most towns. Lloyd's no.1, I'd compare it to. It was here I got talking to a group of burly middle-to-old aged men from Sunderland about football, York, Slough, Sunderland, some place near Sunderland they said is a shithole, my trip, how much of a dick Arsene Wenger is and how they actually wanted Newcastle to win and Sunderland to lose their last games just to stick it to him. Its why I'm slightly hungover this morning.

A glorious end to the day