Does ANYBODY like Milan?

12.01.2008

At breakfast I met Giuseppe, the other guy staying at the B&B. He's a Ph. D student originally from Milan, but is now living in Southern Italy. He doesn't like Milan, either - I don't think anybody does! He's back in Durham for graduation. I started with some canned grapefruit, mandarins, and mango, all topped by a single maraschino cherry - a pretty filling start! Next was eggs Benedict - the hollandaise sauce was a little tart, but OK. The yolk wasn't runny enough. I finished off with some multi-grain toast, served in the quirky little English toast racks. Some OJ, tea, and then I was off to take some pictures of Durham. It was a VERY filling breakfast. I walked along the river until the library opened up - free internet, baby! The town was still pretty quiet, being a Sunday morning and it actually felt a little warm outside. I'm having camera problems again - the lens sometimes won't retract, but I've learned to simply push it back into place.

I grabbed a quick hot chocolate at Costa Cafe - it tasted pretty rich, but I wondered if it was instant hot chocolate. I've had way better elsewhere. I regretted not going back to the café where I had an awesome latte yesterday - I wanted to try something different, but it didn't work out. Back to the B&B to grab my bag. I walked quickly to try and catch my bus - I was sweating like a pig by the time I got to the station and just missed the bus by seconds after paying for my ticket. There was another bus scheduled to depart 4 minutes after, but for some strange reason it was scheduled to arrive at York 35 minutes after the one I missed. I tried to sleep on the bus, but it was very difficult - the bus driver selected the most annoying radio station ever! It improved slightly later on - I think they were replaying a top 40 list from the 70's. I arrived in York - I planned on taking the river path to the hostel, but the recent storms left the path covered in mud. I backtracked and took the main road to the hostel. It's pretty blah - far from the centre, but it will do. They serve some relatively cheap meals here. Off to the city centre to sightsee. There are a number of nice and reasonably-priced cafes in York, but they were all still more than I wanted to spend for dinner. Instead, I picked up a sausage roll, some chocolate goo cake, and milk before heading back to the hostel. The sausage roll pastry and the meat inside both tasted pretty bad, and the cake was like a chocolate brick with biscuit pieces embedded inside. It was too sweet - I should've tried the other rice krispie-like thing that the bakery had. Overall, a it was a pretty bad meal - that's the problem with trying to travel so cheaply! As I ate, I noticed a young kid eating a big block of brie with Ritz crackers - talk about mixing high class with low class! But I shouldn't laugh - I used to eat Ritz crackers by the handful when I was a kid. Mmmm ... I should buy some Ritz crackers when I get back home ... I relaxed and watched MIB 2, and Planet of the Apes. There are a lot of school groups staying at the hostel - I felt like I was in high school again! I laughed at the hostel's bar - on their information board, they tout their bar as being a great place for a cheap drink and to meet people. There was exactly one customer in the tiny bar all night long! Seeing as the bar was far too wild and crazy for me, I decided to read a bit of the Spanish-language newspaper I picked up in the Canaries and then went to bed.