Where is the Path? Where is the Pub?

Today was my second venture out with Outdoor Soc and boy was it English. I'm talking mud, wind, and quite a bit of rain. This week we headed off to Staithes on the North Eastern coast, about 50 miles from York. It's a small fishing village which is most known because the famous Captain James Cook once worked in the village as a boy before moving on to bigger and better things. This is where we started heading north along the dramatic cliffs bordering the North Sea. In the misty morning, trekking along the exposed cliffs you could just imagine a fleet of viking long boats emerging from the shrouds hundred of years ago. My friend Amanda and myself love finding the romanticism of rainy afternoon walks so we made the most running along the cliffs and imagining ourselves as the many travellers that have come before us on the same paths. We walked about 6 miles in the morning portion, our goal being a pub in a village. The problem ended up being the pub we were supposed to go to was very elusive and the first two pubs we came upon weren't serving food. By this time it was raining heavily, naturally, and we were all thoroughly soaked, bittingly cold, and most of all starving. Finally, we came upon a pub where we got a good deal on a sunday buffet roast. The food was excellent and the warmth of the parlour was incredible.

Unfortunately, after being fed and somewhat dried, we had to trek back into outdoors in order to make it back to Staithes. This is where we encountered massive amount of mud, indefinable paths and more rain. At one point, as we were trekking through a wooded area close to our destination, we had to go down a somewhat steep and muddy slope. This was probably the most amusing bit of the walk as everyone cautiously meandered downwards slipping and sliding. I decided it wold be safer to, what I like to call, "mud-tree surf." This is where you slide through the mud reaching for the nearest tree or branch in order to regain balance. I am happy to report that this is a most effective method for descending a slippery, wooded hillside and highly recommend it to anyone in a similar situation. We finally made it to the bus and salvation, although the bus ended up not being very warm and it was another hour and a half before i was safely in my room. Then, cold, wet and tired I turned on my shower to find that our flat is lacking hot water! What a way to end the day. Overall, the hike wasn't really bad, we even enjoyed quite a bit of it before becoming soaked through and semi-lost. So yeah, I had a good time but I won't be complaining if the next walk involves dry paths and a bit of sun...who am I kidding? I'm in England!

In other weekly news. Monday night was literally freezing. In fact, it snowed in some parts of England and I didn't realize it was possible to be that cold in October. I met with a woman about volunteering with the York Archaeological Trust which should be interesting. Halloween was more mellow than i'm used to in Santa Barbara, going on a partial ghost walk, trying some ghostly real ales and hitting up a club with History Society. Yesterday I went on a ghost cellar tour at the Treasurer's House in town. It was awesome getting to go in the cellar and hear the stories. There's even the remains of a roman column. York, then known as Eborceum, was the Roman capital of the North and was home to a very large Roman fort, bits of which can be seen at various locations in the city. I have also somewhat solidified my New Years plans as me and my pal Anne bought plane tickets to Rome so i'll be having an Italian new years, must brush up on my Italian skills :)

Again, thanks for reading. I am set on being productive this week so I must get some reading done, catch you up soon!