Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Whitby: for those who want to suck blood or milkshakes

Wanting to get out into the countryside again, I made the somewhat spontaneous decision to head for Whitby, a town on the Yorkshire coast that inspired Bram Stoker when he wrote Dracula. It's an odd combination: part seaside resort (more ice cream parlors than you can shake a stick at), part magnificently Gothic. On a hill overlooking the town and the steep sea cliffs, there are several structures, the most relevant being a splendid ruined abbey, an intact church with a small but jam-packed graveyard, and the hostel where I'm staying. It's a somewhat insane hill to climb with full luggage, but the views are superb. You can look out over the North Sea and imagine a ship sailing in through a storm, carrying an unholy passenger. Tomorrow, I'm going off hiking, probably along the coast (and probably in the rain...whee!).

Assuming, of coarse, that Dracula doesn't get me in the night.

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