Screaming children, Asda, Ember and Butt Lane

England, like most of Europe, greatly values holidays and time off, and so, it has a series of Bank Holidays built into each month. The Easter Bank Holiday is 4 days long (whoop whoop!), and so my dear friend May and I decided to go on a walking trip to the Yorkshire Moors.

Every aspect of this trip went better than we could have ever planned or hoped for: the weather, our housing, transportation, location, etc. Thinking back, there were several small things that could have been viewed as frustrations or disappointments, but because we were together, we made those stressors into something fun. Amazing what being with a great friend can do!

To get to Yorkshire, we took a train from King's Cross to Leeds. And then a train from Leeds to Keighley.

King's Cross. Not exactly Harry Potter-esque

The train ride was anything BUT relaxing. First of all, it was 100% packed! Friday afternoon of a 4 day weekend leaving London.

Every seat was taken

6 year old child SCREAMING through
literally 90% of the trip. Had I been alone,
I would have been furious. With May,
we could not stop laughing (this picture
took great effort since we were hysterical)

May's new best friend: this adorable
kid wearing (I kid you not) a tweed suit
complete with leather elbow pads. He walked
up and down the aisles, silently staring at everyone
with snot dripping down his nose

Things to note in this picture: Cous Cous salad (mine; which I spilt everywhere). THE MILLION TICKETS. The UK needs an intervention. For some inexplicable reason, they give you a million train tickets/printouts that LOOK like train tickets. It's wasteful! (but mostly it's just confusing). 

We had booked a room on AirBnB from a woman named Judy. Judy is an artist who had (what looked to be) an incredible flat located right in a quaint little town in Yorkshire. We contacted her and requested to book, but unfortunately she was going to be in London for Easter and wasn't too keen on leaving us the whole place without supervision (or someone to let us in and show us around). I persisted, writing a series of emails that my mother would have been proud of (I learned from the best!). In the end, she found a way to work it out contingent upon our willingness to feed her cat, Gabi. According to my last email, May and I loved cats, which is uh, um, well not exactly the most accurate statement. [Sidenote/funny story: Apparently, the first night, I started talking in my sleep and said, "Gabi is the best cat!" She actually was though (mostly because she seemed to like me)]. Anyway, since Judy wasn't going to be able to let us in, she had arranged for her friend Suzi to meet us at the house to show us the gate, rooms, Gabi, etc. We were instructed to text Suzi from the train. BUT when I tried sending messages and then calling, the number was out of order! Dun dun dunnnn! In the photo on the left, I am getting frustrated that we can reach neither Judy nor Suzi. 

We got off the train without having made contact with our host or greeter and knew we had to kill some time. 

Train station

We exited. And we saw it... an Asda... a supermarket. We figured we could get fixings for lunches...and we went inside... and it was ENORMOUS! 

Mind. Blown. 

Outside of the house, located in Bronte
Square. Looks normal. 

You have to understand that supermarkets in London are tiny. Like tiny. Very limited stock. Very, very expensive. Walking into this store was like walking into another universe! We stocked up on supplies for sandwiches, breakfasts, and wine (£3 bottles! yes please!). It ended up being a blessing in disguise that we hadn't connected with Suzi... we didn't need to rush off to the house right when we got off the train (a good thing because the town had no supermarket whatsoever). Finally in the taxi, we managed to reach our greeter! We met her at the house, went inside, and MIND. BLOWN. AGAIN. We could hardly contain our excitement, but had to continue to be proper, mature, and composed while we were shown around.

May is dancing with Gabi

May is chaneling her inner Bronte

Inside staircase! You could change the color of the
 lighting  (blue, green, red, or orange!).
Note: we did not take this picture
 until we were alone in the house. 

The living room and dining room upstairs. SUPER cozy, modern, beautiful.

It was pouring rain outside, so we opened a bottle of wine, had grapes, and planned our treks for the next few days. Gabi came out to greet us and we quickly became best friends. She was the friendliest cat I've ever met and has completely changed my opinions of them. Go Gabi! 

At some point, it stopped raining and so we ventured off into town (a 3 minute walk from the flat) for dinner. 

Our street.

View from the top of our hill 

Aparently this apothecary is famous. I still don't know why. Also, May is making a scary face (I think I told her to). For some reason, I think of apothecaries as scary places. Apparently. 

I FINALLY have taken a phone booth
photo. Check that one off my list.

We end up dining at a place called Embers.
For any young people reading this, I started
singing, "It's going down! I'm yelling embers!"
Oh so witty and knowledgeable about pop culture.

Here, May is drinking a beer and looking at the menu while waiting to be seated at a table 

This restaurant had their act together! May and I found it slightly hilarious. We came in, were welcomed and instructed to go up a set of stairs. We arrived at the top, were instantly greeted (by name) and asked to sit on this couch. We were given drinks and menus. We then were seated (back downstairs) when our table was ready. We had superb, fresh pizza and drank from elegant glassware. I don't know why we found all of this so funny. It may have been because the restaurant was so small (and inexpensive) but so intense at the same time. It may have been because they had a fancy menu on which things were priced between £12 and £22 and then an "Alternative Menu" on which everything was exactly £8.75 (from which we ate). However, it was most likely because we'd had a bottle and a half of wine.

May waiting for dinner to be served

Fresh cider, fresh pizza, friends, BLISS

After dinner, we made our way back down Butt Lane (baha!) and home to see Gabi. I did some bumming around on the computer before we both turned in for the night. We needed our energy for our massive hike the next day!!! 

...to be continued...