From Donny to York

Hello all

It has been a while and we need to get this blog up-to-date or time just passes by. Had an awesome 2 weeks living with JJ and Katie in Doncaster. They were gracious enough to let us set up camp at their place and they treated us to some awesome hospitality and a great introduction to life in Yorkshire. Most memorable was our first encounter with snow (falling from the sky!!!) The weather was icy cold and we didn't leave the house in less than 1/2 of the contents of our backpacks. The streets were covered in a beautiful thick 6 inches of snow, it was like the whole town stopped. We ran a muck frollicking around the streets, making snowmen, and launching a snowball assault on eachother. We were like kids in a candystore.

Our entire 2 weeks in Donny were spent looking through real-eatate websites and employment classifieds waiting for something to jump out at us as the right fit. When this didn't happen in the first week we decided to venture out around Yorkshire to check out the surrounding area. We visited Leeds and Sheffield but their big city feel was a bit much for us. The cities felt like they would swallow up us small town folk so we moved onto the historic city of York.

York has a population of about 200,000 and is in the county of North Yorkshire halfway between London and Edinburgh. Its only about 2 hour train trip into central London but far enough away to be affordable. The town has a rich history which includes periods of both Roman and Viking occupation. The town has a huge Castle and Minster as it's main tourist attractions and the whole town is within an ancient Roman wall which you can walk right round. The city centre is a warran of cobblestone streets, historic pubs and buildings with museums, art galleries, ruins, churches. The list goes on and on.

We spent a weekend in York soaking in the atmosphere, getting a feel for the place and trying to find somewhere to live. The real etate agents didn't want to know about us being from overseas, with no references, no jobs and no bank account. But we finally found a place with a 6 month lease and kind landlords willing to give us a start. Our place is in quiet location about a 5 minute walk to one of the city wall entrances perfect for what we need for the time being.

We have bought push bikes as our main means of travel and cycle around the city and to church on weekends. Our trip to the grocery store have been somewhat anoying having to struggle home (a 15 min walk) with 5 bags of groceries hanging on each arm or hanging from the handlebars! but it's keeping us fit and allowing us to branch out to surrounding suburbs and onto some of the many cycle tracks in Yorkshire.