Note for our memories: I’m starting this post on Sunday, July 26th, on a bus (the 843 Coastliner from Scarborough to Leeds) on the way back to York after a really nice weekend with Adam, Cecelia, and Cece’s amazing mum Maria and partner Steve. The mood is somber and melancholic after feeling all of the love and coziness with Cece and Adam and the family. We leave York in three days, which compounds the melancholic feeling.
Liverpool
After we left the narrowboat we had an easy trip from Great Haywood to Stafford via bus, followed by a pleasant train ride (this time without animals on the track causing a cancelation) to our next home-away-from-home in Liverpool. We got off the train and immediately were chatted up by a guy who was telling us about some famous comedian or something like this that there was a statue of in the Liverpool train station. Clearly adding immediately to the friendly vibe we felt the entire time in the city. The train station was big and seemed clean.
Walking out of the train station to our hostel we formed our initial impressions. Our initial impressions:
- A medium-ish city, perhaps on the smaller side of medium
- A central shopping district with outdoor performers with lots of foot traffic
- Clearly a seaside town – you could immediately hear / see seagulls and the air felt oceany (I think)
- A bit grittier, or perhaps it just felt that way coming off of the narrowboats a tiny towns in the middle of England
We stayed at a hostel in Liverpool centrally located on a street called Mathew Street. Mathew Street it turns out is famous because some of the pubs on the street used to be played at by the Beatles in their early days. See below for a bit more on how this factored into our experience sleeping in the hostel!
We were only in Liverpool for a few days but I spent much of my time on my laptop at our hostel. It turned out to be a pretty good common area / bar, and it was at least somewhat of a consolation to be sitting within eye / ear shot of the where the Beatles played during their early career.
The highlight of the trip, and actually the main reason for visiting was to see some friends we met during the Balkans hike last year. We met up with Rose one night and went over to their house for a wonderful dinner. Luke was out of town so we went out for sushi and a beer when Luke was back in town. It was truly great to see them and reconnect.
Another highpoint was a sauna and swim at this place called Wyld Sauna. I’m generally not a huge sauna guy, but the location of the sauna was in a little marina / dock area on the Mersey river. We sat in the sauna for a while, then swim in the cold water. Actually now that I type this, and looking at Google Maps, I wonder if the water we were swimming in was fresh water (from the river) or brackish, or just sea water. I should have tasted it but the industrial-ish setting made me specifically try to avoid that.
From my perspective there wasn’t a ton else we did (Lindsay did much more, but alas, I am the one typing this blog post!), but we did eat some of the Liverpool foods you’re supposed to eat, e.g. the Scouse stew on the “things to eat in Liverpool”. To be honest I don’t really know what the differences is between the Liverpool stew and an Irish stew for example, but I guess I’ve got my bases covered either way. We also had a very good coffee at Bold Coffee, which was notable because all of the coffee we’d been having was espresso-based and this was a proper filter, which was great.
We also really enjoyed walking through / around the Royal Albert Dock, although I can’t say it was something we really “visited” in a proper way, we just sort of strolled around the area.
On the bad side of things, our hostel was extremely hot, which isn’t a huge deal because it was still super hot in the UK during this point… BUT our window was on the second floor and right above this Matthew Street. Because of the Beatles history here, all of the pubs / clubs / etc on this street had live music every night, and live music pumping through speakers into the street to try to draw in all of the tourists walking around the area for the Beatles history. As a result, this was one of the hottest + loudest places I’ve slept in a while.
It was great seeing Rose and Luke, and awesome to see a new city in the UK we’d never been to. But onto York.
York
Six years ago we lived in York and absolutely loved it. This was during Covid (Covid started about 6 months into our time in York), but we loved it just the same (or even more?). Getting back to York was the primary driver for this entire UK (+Ireland) summer trip. We wanted to visit friends, see if we still thought York was as wonderful as we did before, and evaluate it as a potential place to try to find a path to split time between the UK and the US. York was the “main event” for the summer, and we would be spending most of July there.
Arriving at the train station was both very familiar and less familiar. The first time I arrived at York train station it felt like magic. This time around it felt nice, busy, but familiar. The shine of newness wasn’t there, nor the sense of adventure, instead was replaced in the moment with a bit of stress over some emails I had to write. So I pretty much sat down in the train station and got out my laptop while Lindsay went to figure out our accommodation check in.
The place we were staying was run by some great people – sisters – Clare and Rachel. Lindsay and Clare hit it off right away (talking politics, choir and pottery) and she was kind enough to come pick me up at the train station so I didn’t need to carry both of my large-ish bags the 20-25 minute walk to our apartment, which sounds silly, but was a relief in the heat.
Speaking of our home, and a bit out of order, here is a video of our home for most of July:
What did we actually do in York?
It’s a bit strange because we were in York for almost a month but it’s a bit tough to put a finger on exactly where the time went. In general, I spent a lot of time on the computer, but in the mornings I’d say that the average week day was this: Morning walk, tea (for me) and coffee (for Lindsay). Laptop until 7pm-ish. Then either stay in cook something simple, or go out for dinner at a pub, or go get groceries. Maybe watch a World Cub game if it was on that night, or TV, then bed. Repeat. Pretty normal everyday life stuff.
That said, the more noteworthy things we did were as follows:
Seeing friends
We are lucky to have made a bunch of great friends when we lived in York and we did our best to see as many as we could when we were back this time. In no particular order, we had a great dinner with our former neighbors (and landlords!) Hugh and Isobel and her sister Helen.
I saw my good buddy, David. Nice dinner followed by a cheeky pint at The Fox (more on this later). Plus I got a chance to see his wonderful kids I haven’t seen in years at Rowntree Park.
Last but certainly not least, we saw our friends from York AND Japan, Rina, Cecelia, and Adam. Lindsay met Cece during her masters program at York University, and a few years later Cece and Adam both ended up getting jobs at the school Lindsay worked at in Tokyo. They ended up living ~10 minutes walking from us in Oimachi (very very close by pretty much any city standards, but Tokyo for sure!).
Trip to see Cece’s family
One weekend we went up to Scarborough to hang out with Cece’s family. We started with a trip up to Whitby which is a very scenic seaside town. We’d gone up to Whitby when we lived here before but it was even nicer than I remember.
The inn had a pretty steady stream of ghost tours that stopped by right outside our window below which was sort of funny. Actually we were talking into the inn in the evening and there was a (different) ghost tour stopped in front of the door and when we walked in they commented on the squeaking of the door (a spirit of some sort apparently). So we might be ghosts now ourselves (not sure how it all works).
Cece’s family with Adam in Scarbados / Seamer
We spent a weekend with Cece’s mum Maria and partner Steve – both warm and interesting to talk with about birds and travel and all sorts of things. They live in this beautiful old house (300+ years I believe?) that apparently Winston Churchill once slept in. Actually the very bedroom that we slept in was perhaps once slept in by Churchill. Either way the house was beautiful and Maria and Steve made a wonderful and very fancy dinner for us the night we arrived. We chatted and then watched The Penguin Lessons. We also went for a really nice long walk and got a pint on the way home before dinner.
We also had a (one of many really, but there is another blog post to cover this topic!) very spirited crisp (aka potato chip) tasting session here.
I have to say spending time with the family just being together, drinking tea, walking, was part of what made this portion of our entire UK trip feel really special. The warmth from that familiarity and connection really added to the trip. Adding the backdrop of a beautiful old house in a beautiful English countryside certainly impacted our overall feelings about the UK on this trip I think.
Leeds
We also had a full day Leeds trip with Cece and Adam, they showed us around their town, including areas where they used to live and a bar they worked at together. We’ve spent so much time while living together in Tokyo talking about Leeds and the pubs they like, parks they’ve run through, etc, and spending a day seeing all of this stuff with them in person was great.
Other random stuff
Living in York before, British “bakes” were a bit of a fascination for us. Watching The Great British Bake Off and learning about and seeing different types of baked goods with fancy names e.g. “Madeira” or “Battenberg” cakes and then living in the country where these were common was really exciting and inspiring. Anyway, being back I made a goal to bake a few things. Specifically I made sticky toffee pudding (which I’ve made many times before in the UK and the US, and Japan frankly, but I wanted to see if I could tell any difference in flavor using British ingredients e.g. double cream). I can’t say I noticed a huge difference except in the custard I made which was richer, but to be honest that’s reproducible by altering the milk:cream ratio. I also made a Battenberg cake for the first time which I thought turned out rather well.
One fairly unique thing we did is go to our Clare’s woman’s choir concert in Acomb. This was a bit random but when we were checking in, somehow the topic of Clare’s choir came up and we asked if we could go and she got us a ticket. It was great to be able to join in something more local. York is a super touristy town but after living here we really were hoping to be able to feel a bit more connection and the concert was a great way to do that. After the concert we ran down the street to the nearest pub to watch the last few minutes of the England vs Argentina came (England ended up loosing sadly).
Speaking of the World Cup, Lindsay bought an England flag to hang in the window of the apartment to bring in the vibes when England was still in it.
What about living in York?
Every morning when Lindsay and I would go for a walk or have a coffee/tea together we’d interrogate our feelings thus far on York. Was it a great as we remember it? Did it feel like home? Was it too touristy or transient? Did our more recent experiences (home ownership, living in Tokyo, etc) detract from York as a potential place to invest our time / financial resources / future? We’ve talked about these things so many times, and even thinking about the fact that I’d eventually be writing this blog post I tried to come up with a clear narrative. Unfortunately and perhaps unsurprisingly I haven’t been able to distill my feelings down to a super concise takeaway.
One thought I had regarding how jam-packed York is with tourists is that somebody visiting York for the first time, for say, a day or two, might come away thinking “it’s all tourists, I wouldn’t want to live there” – but I was pleased that I came away feeling confident that it is easy to feel more connected and grounded and a part of a community. Walking through the streets you are bombarded with tourists, but meeting with David and his kids in the Rowntree Park cafe and you’re surrounded by parents with the kids on summer holiday you feel like you’re just living in a small, beautiful city. Going into a coworking space and seeing all of the people working there, I can see myself there once again meeting real friends. There is enough norma life I think in York to offset the tourism.
I also believe that the city is truly exceptionally beautiful and walkable, and I don’t see that changing. I am sure at some point the beauty of the minster (above) would get old and loose it’s shine, but the easy walking access to nature is also exceptional. There are several allotments (community garden basically) that are huge and feel like secret gardens you can walk through anytime. Getting out of the busy parts of York is easy on foot and before you know it you’re walking with the cows in green fields.
David was telling me about a tradition they have of going to The Fox, a beautiful old pub, on Christmas day to get a pint. Apparently it’s packed and is decorate for Christmas and is just really festive and warm and cozy. I can picture doing this and I think it would be a tradition I’d really love for myself.
Finally, I can’t emphasize enough how kind and easy it feels to talk with people in York (and the UK in general, but I’ll go ahead and say Yorkshire in particular). Somehow the type of conversations that happen naturally and easily work with my type of anxiety. It just feels easy to have a chat. I remember waiting for takeout one night in a Indian restaurant and there was a guy there who looked to have just gotten off of a construction site and an older couple waiting, they were chatting and it was the easiest thing in the world to join in on the conversation talking about football or whatever it was they were saying.
I’m a sucker for somebody calling me “luv” or “dear” so perhaps that’s part of it.
Practical things
- As a travel hub within Europe, I would say York is very good but not GREAT. Compared to living in a city with an international airport, York requires either a ~2ish hour train + bus ride costing around 10-20 USD per person, OR you could take an Uber one way in about 1-1:15 hour for around USD $70. That’s each way of course. This is to Leeds Bradford, which if time was not an issue would make this great, but for something like a quick weekend trip the extra commute side on both sides of the trip really adds up. Leeds Bradford also doesn’t fly everywhere, for example if we wanted to visit a friend in Berlin or Munich, we’d need a connection, and all of a sudden you’re looking at 6+ hours each leg of the trip. You might almost be better taking a train from York to London and flying direct from there.
- As a travel hub within the UK, York is great. York is pretty central, and there are a lot of destinations around the UK that go direct to York. It’s easy to get up to Scotland, London has many train a day. Etc. York is very well connected as far as trains outside of London go.
- York is expensive. Eating out is expensive, and frankly being there this time around it felt like eating out would not be something we’d really want to afford very often. I say “want” because even if we could, the value of eating out for what you get seems only OK. Of course there are some amazing restaurants in York with great food, but you’re talking £25-40 pounds per person for a nicer restaurant.
- Grocery stores in York are just as great as I remember them. We went to Morrisons every other day I’d be, and the selection of produce, dairy, meat, and baked goods is really good and I think well priced compared to similar food quality in the US, possibly even a bit cheaper in some cases. e.g. a good size container of white button mushrooms might cost 99p, roughly $1.3, but I’d expect to pay between USD $3-4 in Michigan.
- Renting, or buying, in York is incredibly expensive. Finding a nice one bedroom in York would cost at LEAST as much as our house in Grand Rapids, but likely more. It would be something we’d really have to work for for years, really for our entire lives, to make happen. At the same time, renting an apartment long term is also incredibly expensive. It would require careful prioritization.
So where does that leave us? Are we buying a terraced house in York and living there 6 months out of the year?
All of my rambling adds up to this I think: We would move to York, likely before London (unless we were extremely wealthy), but not in the next year or so, if ever. I believe we’ll come back from this trip, see how we feel in a month, six months, etc, and look into planning another trip back in the next couple of years, this time likely staying in York for the entire duration of our summer to give ourselves more time to settle in (because the truth is we were busy most weekends and often not even in York). We’ll see where our jobs / careers go. So I’d say York is a possible yes, but unfortunately for any sort of drama in a blog post, more of a continued slow burn for now.
We will miss our friends in Yorkshire, including those that are heading back to Japan.
For now we’re off to Ireland for a week of camping, hiking, BnBing, and Guinness drinking.