Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/u8HuHrbb8XsU1Prr5
Finally made it over to England after Boris basically announced that despite the Omicron wave, that England would be fully open for business. Gotta say, this definitely made me more pro-Boris. So I flew from Dubrovnik to Manchester. Probably my most unique immigration yet, as the officer knew that I had been out of the US since August (why even bother with physical passports anymore? Just scan my eye or something), and demanded that I show proof of funds because my explanation that I quit my job and have been travelling for a few years did not suffice. So I had to log into my HSBC app on my phone and show her my savings account and then she promptly let me go. Hopefully this isn’t an issue during my final 3-6 months of travel in 2023 when my savings account starts to run lower. As it is, I’m finishing off *most* of what I want to see in Europe right now so hopefully it isn’t a problem.
From the Manchester airport, I took a bus to transfer over to Leeds. I had been to the city twice before, in 2012 while studying abroad in London and again in 2019 (before I quit) when visiting England, to see two Leeds United matches. Unfortunately am not able to see any this time around as the combination of Premier League status and post COVID pent up demand means it’s basically impossible to get tickets for me. But it was my first real time actually walking around the city. The city itself seems like a nice spot to live in – tons of bars, tons of varied ethnic cuisines, and relatively cheap prices (meals <10 pounds, beers <4 pounds, with ~1.33 USD to 1 GBP). However, honestly, if I wasn’t a Leeds fan, I’d say that the city is very skippable. I walked around the outskirts of the city to check out some Leeds United murals, and then went over to the Elland Road stadium before heading back to the city center. The outskirts of the city were very grey, almost like a stereotypical scene of post Thatcherism in northern England with run down rows of brick townhouses. The city center, on the other hand, was a very pleasant and walkable area with nice Victorian architecture and tons of bars, restaurants, and clubs scattered around. I also stopped by the Leeds University campus to check out the location of the recording of The Who’s seminal live album, Live at Leeds. There was a blue plaque outside which documented this. So The Who, along with The Clash, are my two favorite bands, and Live at Leeds is by some distance my favorite ever live album (also considered the GOAT live album by a lot of music critics). Definitely a cool slice of history to see here, and sort of started off the whole Classic Rock theme of my time in England, which I intend to continue when I’m down in the southern part of the country.
Regarding the Leeds murals – my personal favorite was one of the manager, Marcelo Bielsa, in the form of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio Di Janiero. Bielsa is Argentinian, and has been with the team for 3+ seasons. I think it’s safe to say that I have never in my life seen a city take to a sporting figure the way Leeds has embraced Bielsa. This much was obvious even before visiting Leeds just from following the team, but you really get a sense of it when walking around the city and seeing the murals of him and people wearing Bielsa tshirts, or even Argentina and Newells Old Boys (his old club in Argentina, the stadium is now named after him) gear. He’s just the most unique and selfless sporting figure I have ever seen, and I totally buy the hype like the rest of the city. Win or lose (and he tends to win, having gotten the team promoted and then recorded the 2nd highest ever points total for a newly promoted side the first year up), his teams are massively fun to watch, and I think a large part of his appeal is the fact that he never accepts praise, always accepts blame, and has garnered immense self improvement from a group of previously mediocre players. Even players like Brian Dawkins or Nick Foles in Philly who are beloved don’t quite have the same sense of aura/worship that Bielsa does with Leeds, or like he has even had in his previous stops, from Rosario to Chile to Bilbao. Just his principles and morals make him that much more likeable, beyond him simply being a good coach. But again, as cool as the murals of him and the rest of the team are, they’re obviously only worth checking out if you are a Leeds (or Bielsa) fan.
From Leeds, I also took a day trip to the medieval city of York. The OG York doesn’t hold a candle to New York, but was still a decently enjoyable city in its’ own right. The city boasts an impressive history, being a Roman city first (Constantine the Great was declared emperor here!), then a Viking settlement, before becoming an Anglo-Saxon town. The city center is filled with narrow streets and wood framed houses. The major old street, called “The Shambles”, actually reminded me a ton of Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter films. And the soaring York Minster cathedral dominates the town. Built in the same Norman Gothic style – the reason old English churches are so similar to old French churches is because of the Norman invasion – it was a very attractive church and a massive one as well. Honestly would not have been out of place at all as a major French cathedral. I also got lunch at York’s oldest pub, Ye Olde Starre Inn. The food was decent enough, but made me really appreciate a new discovery from this go around in England, Greggs.
Greggs is a chain bakery selling fresh savory pastries, with traditional British fare like steak bakes, sausage rolls, cornish pastys, etc. The dirt cheap prices – a meal can be had for under 5 pounds – plus the fact that it is quick and also traditional food (as opposed to regular fast food) made this a regular pit stop for my meals. It’s apparently taken over England over the past 5+ years, and there are a bunch of articles online in places like CNN and The Guardian about how it’s effectively “conquered” Britain.
The highlight of my time in Yorkshire was my trip to the coastal town of Whitby. On the long, 3+ hour bus ride from Leeds, the last hour went through the Yorkshire Moors, which is this scraggy green national park that has attractive vistas (obviously not as cool as the Grand Canyon, but like the Grand Canyon, pictures don’t do it justice) of rolling green meadows and bush as far as the eye can see.Towards the end of the park as we approached Whitby, this gave way for verdant green pastures and picturebook villages dotting the landscape, with sheep in tow grazing on the land. It was such an amazing setting honestly – like exactly what I think of when I think of rural England. Dare I say, it was very Shire-like, and just the perfect representation of pastoral and rustic life. Was great just driving through this scenery bumping the Shire theme, as well as Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick (the acoustic intro here will forever be linked to pastoral England for me, ever since I fell in love with the song/album in middle school).
Whitby itself was a surprisingly pleasant town. Reminded me a ton of New England, specifically Maine, yet still was distinctly English. The novel Dracula was partially set here, and the town is also famous for being where Captain James Cook basically learned how to become a captain. But the most famous thing here is the ruined Whitby Abbey, which was left to rot after King Henry VIII started the dissolution of the monasteries (this is an act you can do in the video game EU4!). Northern England in particular is actually filled with these ruined abbeys, and Whitby is probably the most famous one. It’s perched on a cliff overlooking the town, and is quite a dramatic setting. Definitely a very evocative place, and I would say it’s by some distance my favorite ruined church that I have seen (over Goa and Armenia). Gave off a haunted feeling pretty well and you could definitely see how it influenced Bram Stroker when he was writing Dracula. For lunch here, I ate at what is allegedly the best Fish and Chips spot in all of England, Magpie Cafe. Granted, it is just fried fish and french fries with a side of mushy peas, but I do have to say, this was a fantastic lunch. The haddock was perfectly fried with a nice and tender inside.
After my brief foray into Yorkshire, I headed over to Liverpool for some Beatles tourism to continue my dad rock travel after seeing the Live at Leeds plaque in Leeds. Most of their stuff is also well outside the city center. As a whole, I think the Liverpool outskirts were a bit nicer than the Leeds outskirts, though both city centers were comparably attractive. But again, much like Leeds, if you aren’t a Beatles fan (or a Liverpool or Everton fan), there’s really no reason to visit this city. It was a pleasant enough Victorian architecture but nothing really notable.
I started off by going to an old church cemetery, where there is a gravestone for one Eleanor Rigby. This was the church where Paul McCartney and John Lennon first met, and while Paul has stated that he doesn’t recall that specific gravestone, I think it is very likely that he subconsciously recalled that name from his childhood when writing the song. From there, I walked further north ~20 minutes (so towards the city) to the site of the former Strawberry Fields salvation army children’s home. Growing up, John Lennon was with his aunt as his mom was in and out of his life, so he spent a good amount of time at this children’s home. And finally, after this, I walked a further 30 minutes towards the city to take a stroll down Penny Lane, which was a nice suburban street that is really only notable because it’s, well, Penny Lane. From here it was another hour+ to walk to the actual city center, and that was a rather forgettable walk. But there was an Eleanor Rigby statue in the city center and then a really cool statue of all four Beatles walking right by the waterfront. Objectively it was a cool statue, and it being the Beatles obviously made it even more so. I capped off the day by stopping by the Cavern Club for a drink. This was a club where the Beatles performed regularly in their formative days (post Hamburg, of course), and it’s also hosted numerous other famous acts such as The Who, The Rolling Stones, and in more recent times performers like The Arctic Monkeys and Adele. The Cavern Club actually reminded me a ton of Rainbow Bar out in LA, as both had a hallowed rock history and were filled with really cool memorabilia of old concert posters and signed photos. All in all, definitely cool to see all of these Beatles things. They are probably my third favorite band, and I have also been on a bit of a Beatles binge lately (recently saw Peter Jackson’s Let It Be doc which is fantastic).
Headed to London after this and will probably stay there for a few weeks, with a good amount of day trips from there as well. Overall, northern England was great. Culturally it felt distinctly English – from the scores of old men wearing those old school British flat hats (my grandpa used to wear these all the time too!), to the borderline incomprehensible accents (there were stretches in Leeds where I couldn’t understand groups of college kids walking in front or behind me when eavesdropping because of their accent), to the general architecture of the cities. This was especially nice since my only prior exposure to England has largely been London, which is, for better and worse, a more historic New York City.