York

I spent a week in York in 2003 when I was supposed to be staying with a friend in London who apparently forgot this fact and left for France. It was a confusing few weeks. My Dad's cousin was kind enough to put me up, especially considering we'd never met, and also her son almost died of pneumonia a few days before I got there. I had a great time back then, and will probably never be able to repay her. It's a lovely city, so Mom and I decided to spend a night there instead of going all the way up to Edinburgh in one day.

Most places won't book for only one night, so we ended up at Crook's Lodge, which was lovely, but whenever I tried to figure out exactly where it was on Google Maps, it appeared to be situated in the middle of an empty field. Considering the name of the place, I was a little concerned, but thankfully it's just a programming glitch.

We wandered about and I made Mom climb to the top of the York Ministry, and then we spent the rest of the day with jelly legs and a surly Mom. We also got to listen to Don McClean's doppleganger. We're not entirely convinced it wasn't Don McClean. We took another Ghost Tour, only this time instead of a small group and mostly historical facts, it was an enormous group and a man in costume playing the part of a surly ghost hunter. It was really funny, the best part being the little kids who probably didn't get to sleep until 3am after all that hysterical giggling.