York, Sheffield, York, Retford, Lincoln, Retford, Doncaster, Hull, Doncaster, York... phew!

Hey guys! As you can see, the past few days saw me shuttling around a fair few places: from Tuesday to Thursday I was mainly staying in York, but I also visited Sheffield (again), Lincoln, Retford (in Nottinghamshire) and Kingston-upon-Hull. And I had a snoop around Doncaster's shopping centre, Frenchgate, but I'm not sure if that counts.



Though I did hear a band from Doncaster... www.myspace.com/presentingwipeout. They're excellent, heard them in Lincoln and they played some good covers of Whisky in the Jar, Sex On Fire and All Day And All Of The Night.



Of course, a bit happened before that: Saturday's visit to Hereford seems an age away! Found one of the best cafes so far there btw; No. 10, near the Cathedral. Very good grub indeed. And the Hereford United match was pretty good, the Hereford goalie Adam Bartlett excelled with some saves that would not have looked out of place in the Premier League. Ed also took me and Chris Parry to see Ross-on-Wye, though that wasn't quite as eventful. Nice town though, the sort that looks good on a postcard.



Then Tuesday saw me pootle around Cheltenham again (there was someone giving out free hugs: I couldn't refuse), where there was a Dalek and a Tardis in town. Could it get much better than that? On arrival to York, the answer was yes :) I have always liked York, ever since I first visited it six years ago. Interestingly, the first thing I did was to check into the hostel I stayed at on that very visit: definitely a moment of nostalgia.

Then it was off to Sheffield in order to see a bit more of the place: this time I caught the tram into town (£1.20 for a single is pretty good, and £3.50 for the whole day is fair enough), wandered about the centre a bit more, and then went to see Sheffield United take on Leicester City: I felt I should get Leicester into the tour again after what was a flying visit, and I've sort of made it a goal to watch one football match from each of the top five divisions. Have to say you won't see a better goal than Keith Treacy's equaliser in a 1-1 draw: proper belter, lad.

On Wednesday I went up to Lincoln and saw the Magna Carta, again :) Lincoln's famous for having one of the four copies. And for having a whacking great cathedral too. However, the most impressive thing about Lincoln is not being out of breath after going up Steep Hill: that street's got several tea rooms on it for a reason!

After that, it was a quick jaunt around Retford (I had a long wait between trains), which was a nice if modestly-sized town: decently located though, having two adjacent stations on the East Coast Line and the Sheffield-Lincoln line. A quick change in Doncaster later and I arrived in Hull...

Hmm. The City of Hull, superb. Hull City: awful! I liked the pubs in Hull (especially the George, home of England's smallest window), had a good chat with a Hull fan called Roger and admired the Victorian buildings and the waterfront, but it went a bit downhill at the KC Stadium. Obviously I was happy that Spurs won, but there's nothing that wrecks an atmosphere quite like a 5-1 win for the away side. I wouldn't have minded Hull scoring a couple more goals to make it interesting, especially as I was in the home end.

A quick snoop around Doncaster (changing trains again) and I was back in York, where I bumped into Jess, an ardent Man City fan and a York lass born and bred. Her friends were the worse for wear, and she clearly wanted to be shot of them, but when you're working-class and down on your luck like she was you can't afford to lose too many friends. It was a good chat, though it did make me realise that York is not perfect: the poor girl had been there for almost all of her life, and she described her situation as "Being like a tiger in a cage: with the door open, but a chain around your neck, holding you back."

Not that this stopped me from finding York a great place to explore the next day: it reeks of history, is full of awesome northern accents and has some great places to eat, as well as a thriving music scene. But it does seem a cruel injustice that while us tourists get treated like kings, people like Jess - who actually live there - get a considerably harsher deal. And judging from the front page of the Yorkshire Post I bought on Thursday, it's the young people of Yorkshire who are suffering the most. Makes me feel extremely lucky, to be fair: I may not always get what I want, but I've been fortunate enough to do all this travelling, and I can understand it if people envy what I'm doing, or even resent it. If I were in their shoes, I probably would too.

Epic updating manoeuvre! Coming up next, the Shire, to be confirmed. Thanks for reading!
Chris