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what have you seen that surpassed your expectations

Started by pancreas, July 29, 2021, 03:46:47 PM

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pancreas

Let's kick off with Hull. Very nice centre. Lots of people were queuing here to satisfy their meat needs



Generally, I expect a lot of meat is consumed in Hull.

More picturesque were the variegated pubs. I could imagine 17th C smugglers and poachers smashing barrels on each other's head. Probably quite a lot of sexual violence—they'd just have come off whaling manoeuvres after all. Place like this:



Cobbled streets etc. It's the ambience.

Used to love going to that pub. And Ye Olde White Harte around the corner in the Old Town. Would like to go back. You're going home to a cobbled ambience.

JaDanketies

I mentioned it in the other thread, but the first time I went to the Hay on Wye literature festival, specifically the HowTheLightGetsIn weekend.

Liverpool is far nicer than Mancs and Harry Enfield pretend it is.

The Crumb

Chernobyl and Pripyat. My friend pushed for us to do the day trip from Kiev and it was the most (grimly) fascinating place I've ever been to. The scale of everything was staggering. I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

I'm evangelical about how good Hull is for a session.
Easter 2019, a mate and I did Hull away and then a proper pub crawl after the game. All the pubs were solid - the one in the picture had two wood panelled rooms, decent set of beers on. Everywhere was friendly.

In fact, I still have some notes I scrawled down about this day.

QuotePre-match beers: GW Horners
Nothing on hand-pull. Two carlsbergs. 50th birthday party in full swing in the corner. Did not catch tetanus.

2 pints in the ground. Took forever to get served.

Grand National: The New Griffin
£4.70 for two pints. Christ. Friendly. Horses on. We lost.

Onwards.

The Whalebone. Pub in the middle of some wasteland. Excellent beer. Excellent decor. Record of lost pubs on the walls. Friendly as well.

Walk into the old town, past disused bridges, dual carraigeways and a arctic trawler.

Pubs start to come thick and fast here.

The Sailmakers Arms. Decent beer, but a private party on made for a noisier experience.

ye Olde Black Boy Quality snug. Its currently 1800 ish, and the place is on the way to heaving.

Lion and Key Young crowd, rammed, but also a good dozen ales on tap.

No food, so adjourned to Eikona. Did not have chips with bolognese or tray of meat, no matter how much I was tempted.

Wm Hawkes Decent.

Walters (Google maps tells me this has closed now) Like a wine bar, but with ale. Pint slightly off.

Onwards.

Ye Olde White Harte Rammed. Decent beers. Bit gothic pub.

George Hotel We were, by ten years, the youngest people here. It was rammed. Proper standing room only.

"Apparently this place has the smallest window in the UK"
"can't see it"
Helpful Bloke: "It's there"
"oh, that is small"

Then a helpful walk to ...

The Minerva
Excellent. Right by the river. Fresh sea breeze to take the edge off.

Map on wall depicting all the pubs in Hull showed we'd barely scratched the surface.

Excellent selection of pubs in the old town - well worth an explore. Well worth it indeed.

WhoMe

Folkestone surprised me, feels alive and thriving rather than slowly dying like lots of seaside towns.

More recently, Leek (staffs.) and the delight that was Rudyard Lake. Never felt the Beeching Cuts quite so keenly.

JaDanketies

Newcastle was much nicer than Viz makes it out to be


Quote from: A Hat Like That on July 29, 2021, 04:34:01 PM
In fact, I still have some notes I scrawled down about this day.

Nice notes. There's an affectionate pamphlet about the pubs of Hull which focusses on The Whalebone.

Psybro

Agree that Liverpool city centre is unexpectedly impressive as soon as you walk out of Lime Street station to see St George's Hall as opposed to Manchester where you walk into Piccadilly Gardens.

Nashville has a full scale replica of the Parthenon which is less crowded and in better nick.

Smeraldina Rima: Thank you for the link. Nice little read.


Inspector Norse


imitationleather

I agree about Hull. So much nicer than I was expecting. Was not anticipating it to turn out to be one of the prettier cities in England at all.

And I also agree about Newcastle. Was preparing myself for a right shithole before I came here the first time.

ZoyzaSorris

Newcastle is reet nice. I too was expecting a god forsaken shitehole.


Sunderland was surprisingly nice - there's a proper beach just to the side of the harbour, the river is actually quite nice as there's quite the gorge running down to it and, key, people are friendly.

touchingcloth

It always surprises me how little chicken these days comes in chunk form. Nice to see the old customs are still observed in some places.

mr. logic

Quote from: A Hat Like That on July 29, 2021, 06:55:32 PM
Sunderland was surprisingly nice - there's a proper beach just to the side of the harbour, the river is actually quite nice as there's quite the gorge running down to it and, key, people are friendly.

Sunderland has an awful city centre, but I agree that the area and the beach itself is lovely. We had a cracking pub crawl there last summer.

shiftwork2

Liverpool has always been a far superior city to Manchester, but the Northside 1990s followed by the Commonwealth Games did lead to a bit of plastic and chrome tacked on 20 years ago leading to the hilarious 'Barcelona of The North' self-description.

I love them both tbh.


Neomod

Pretty much all of California when I saw it at 14. They say it about New York but it was like walking  onto the set of some of my favourite films. LA, San Francisco, Carmel, Malibu, San Simeon, Lake Tahoe and the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite (used as source material for the interiors of the Overlook Hotel).

Food was amazing too.

All to the soundtrack of the B52's Wild Planet.

I've been back to the states a few times but have never recaptured the wonder of that first trip. Totally surpassed my expectations.

chveik


shiftwork2

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on July 29, 2021, 09:54:56 PM
Utter bilge.

Item 1.  What did they rechristen the area around Affleck's Palace, the 'Southerner's BoHo District' or something?  Liverpool would never countenance that.


imitationleather


Shit Good Nose

Solihull.

Having grown up hearing Jasper Carrot's numerous jokes about Solihull I'd always imagined it to be an absolute shithole.  Even the name - Solihull.  But when I first went there, must be 20+ years ago, I was taken aback at how picturesque the town was and how bloody lovely most of the residential areas looked.  I've no doubt it must have some less pretty parts, but I didn't see them (and I've not been back there for years, so things may have changed for the worse in the interim).  The complete opposite of Salisbury, which you imagine would be all lovely and picture-postcard, when in actual fact it's a dump (no offence to anyone that is from or lives in Salisbury - I'm from Bristol, so I can't talk).

who cares

It's an obvious one, but La Sagrada Familia. Literally awe-inspiring. Haven't even been inside yet.

shiftwork2

If you can (dunno what the weather's like) choose a sunny morning to visit.