the day after i landed from portugal, i furiously washed, dried, folded and repacked, as the very ~next day, i was yorkshire bound. i met the rest of the girls at king's cross after i'd had the genius idea to pick up some cans for the train - an idea shared by the others so much so that when we found our seats and unpacked our treats, the just-under-two-hours journey suddenly seemed like it was going to get rowwwwdy.
with a couple of gin-in-a-tins and mini proseccos under our belt, when we finally landed in york, we were keen to keep the night going. fools! we headed to our air b&b for the night (£4 cab, thank you very much!) and changed, before taking some recommendations from some york natives on twitter and heading back out into the night.
which was a ~big mistake. we started at evil eye where we fell in love with the bartenders and had time to order exactly one drink before their 11pm curfew kicked in and we were unceremoniously kicked out. we moved on to kennedy's where there was a "dj" playing 90s hip hop and urban pop music, which was fun for about nine minutes but we realised the drinks were like.. actual pennies, so we stuck around there for a while until we were told by a passing group of euro-trash that there was a cocktail bar a few doors up that was open 'til three...
it was about three am that my weekend went from awesome to absolutely terrible; as we were walking back from the cocktail bar to the flat, i must've hit a cobble stone at an awkward angle because before i knew it, i was on the ground, on my knees, a bit embarrassed but mostly in some serious pain in my left hand - my pinky finger was all kinds of displeased, and so we iced it and strapped it, and fed me lots of paracetemol and put me to bed, hoping it would right itself in the night.
it didn't. and i'd never felt such intense pain as when i tried to peel the masking tape from my insanely swollen fingers the next morning. i remember being sat on the toilet and focusing on trying to take the tape off, then all of a sudden noticing that my head was leaning against the shower caddy - i'd blacked out from the pain, for who knows how long, and just sat there... on the toilet. ridiculous! so packing up and showering and dressing was really tough that morning, but soon enough we were out into the day, trying to source some food.
we were staying right above a really adorable cafe called 'bruks', and so naturally we headed straight there before heading out into the sunny city. yes, that's right, it was sunny! while i cradled my poor hand, we navigated the (deadly) cobbled lanes through the shambles market and to york minster cathedral. it was ~so ~effing ~ big. i have seen some cathedrals in my time, but this one blows all the others out of the water. we were short for time as we had to pick up the rental car, so we weren't able to walk the whole way around it, but it was super ~awesome.
we then walked down to the museum gardens and had a wander through the ruins there before heading back to the flat to grab our bags, and then off to the car hire place to pick up the car and head out to the wedding lodge. we'd been wandering the city for a good three or so hours, my hand was throbbing, we were all tired, and we were keen to finally sit down. again. plus, bex had planned a bit of a detour for our trip up to the dales, and we were looking forward to seeing some more of the beautiful countryside. we really could ~not have asked for a better day to be road tripping!
until the point where we got really lost and it felt like those horror movies where the car full of girls get stuck on a quiet country lane and then they get skinned alive and fed to the cows. well, yeah. i was supposed to be driving but with my sore baby finger (such a pathetic thing to break), ani did all of the driving like the hero she is. we took it slow because we're not used to country driving, and at one point actually got stuck behind a tractor. actual lol! the snapchat stories from that day were beyond amazing.
bex's detour had us inside the yorkshire dales national park for so goddamn long that we all started to get car sick. we did see some awesome limestone cliffs, that's a fact, but when we finally found a town with actual people in it, we rejoiced and got out and swapped seats because we were all so close to throwing up inside the rental. not ideal. not long after that, we were close enough to the lodges where we'd be staying for the weekend, so we celebrated by having a wetherspoons dinner because simply not a single other pub in the whole of great richmond had a flippen chef on their staff. despite claiming to have an amazing menu. and restaurant. oh wells!
within the hour, we'd met our lodge-mates for the night, i'd dosed up on some more paracetemol, and we'd baaaaathed in the serenity of our weekend surrounds. for as far as the eye could see, there was green. not a sound could be heard that wasn't made from the wildlife (or the lodge of stags next door, ahem), and we were finally out of the car. it was the end of a long day, and we'd deserved an early night.
yorkshire; so far, so pretty.
