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ENGLAND | |
My second night at Borough Green was a night of preparations. I had agreed to work the following day on the farm in exchange for three nights accommodation. Obviously, I had not intended on giving up an entire day of my already crowded agenda, so Damien and I had devised a scheme to sneak me out so that I could go on a day trip to Hastings.
 The last two survivors of the 1066 Battle of Hastings are still on exhibit today. |
After another
festive night with Damien's co-workers, I arose earlier than some of the
roosters and made my way to the Borough Green train station. I arrived in
London Victoria, caught my connecting train at Charing Cross Station and was on
my way to Hastings. Hastings plays a very rich part in British History, there was a great battle fought here between the Saxons, led by King Harold and William the Conqueror's Normans in 1066. The Norman's victory, in which Harold was killed, allegedly by an arrow through the eye, ended years worth of conflict and the Saxons & Normans were eventually united. The Battle of Hastings has been brought to life by the Bayeaux Tapestry, now on exhibit in France. I arrived in Hastings and fell in love with the place immediately. What a lovely coastal town Hastings turned out to be. The streets were alive with shoppers, locals and so called "Fringe Dwellers." After a pleasant walk through the vibrant city streets, I came out to the boardwalk and a festive but unspoiled beach. I began to curse the fact that I was a tourist with no swimsuit available and I wasn't about to go skinny dipping in the freezing English Channel so I decided to give a swim a skip. |
I finally made my way up to the cities main tourist attraction, the castle. Perched high on a hilltop overlooking the city and its pier, the castle, or at least what's left of it, offers an extraordinary view. The castle itself has been reduced to a few brick walls but we were treated to nice slide program about the Battle of Hastings which made the entrance fee well worth it.
I can't say I was too eager to leave Hastings Castle. It was so pleasant up there, with the cool breeze and the fantastic view of the sea, which seemed to go on forever. After the tiresome long walk up the hill, it really was the perfect atmosphere. Nevertheless, I eventually made my way down the hill, back to London and back to Borough Green. The final night at Borough Green Farm was a festive one with friends coming from nearby farms to gather by the campfire. I did not envy the job Laura and Damien had, stuck in a barnyard endless hours a day, chopping up fruit, but they seemed to enjoy it and the evening pissups by the fire were certainly something I could do with. The following morning I departed and made my way to the majestic Bradford..... Yes that's right, Bradford. Bradford is certainly a peculiar place for a tourist like myself to go but I had my reasons and yes, it had something to do with football! There probably wouldn't be any real other reasons to visit, as Bill Bryson rather bluntly stated in his novel, Notes From a Tiny Island "Bradford's role in life is to make every place else in the world look better in comparison." This may have been a little harsh on the tiny industrial town which lies only 9 miles west of Leeds. It certainly wasn't contaminated by tourists. With a large Pakistani and Indian minority, Bradford has struggled to find a way to stabilize it's employment situation. Bradford used to have a thriving wool trade industry. Now that has collapsed, it has struggled to stand up to it's much larger and illustrious neighbor, Leeds. |
Above; Fortunately I never felt any of the effects of the Borough Green Farm Madman's disease. |
The whole point in coming to Yorkshire was to attend the Carling Weekend Festival in Leeds. The annual three day rock smorgasbord used to known as the Reading Festival. When the decision was made to co-host the event with Leeds the name changed to its chief sponsors Carling. Rather than buy the three day 80 pound (about $130) ticket, I opted to purchase the individual day long tickets @ 33 pounds each for Sunday and Monday- thus missing Saturday's bill. Stereophonics, Placebo, Slipknot, Eminem, Blink 182 and Rage Against the Machine were among the acts I would be missing. The only performer that I had any slight regrets about was Ian Brown, the ex-Stone Roses front man. This way however, I could catch the twenty minute shuttle over to Bradford to catch the Bradford City - Leicester City football match and see the city of Leeds later on that night.
In order to avoid the disaster that was Manchester City, I made sure I had tickets to both events well in advance. On my way back to Borough Green from Manchester, I had stopped over in Leeds, which is only an hours detour in order to buy my tickets and make hotel reservations. I was booked in a hotel close to the Headingly Cricket Ground, which was a short bus ride away from the centre of Leeds. I left my bags there and made my way to Bradford for the football match. Right; Spot the ball.........There was at least something going on in Bradford |
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The game itself was a dull 0-0 draw but the atmosphere at Valley Parade was quite phenomenal. While the home fans at the Hearts-Celtic game was virtually silent the whole time. The Bantam fans cheered their side the whole time. The game also included stars such as Benito Carbone and Dan Petrescu from the home side while Leicester boasted the likes of Muzzy Izzit and Tim Flowers. Both teams would go the opposite direction after the match with Leicester in third place at Christmas time while Bradford kept firmly rooted to the bottom throughout the whole season.
 Is it a Foo Fighter? Is it a Quantity Surveyor? No ... it's the Super Furry Animals! Click the picture for a full report on the Leeds/ Reading Festival. |
Despite being the second largest city in Britain, Leeds is a surprisingly friendly place- somewhat of a novelty in huge cities. It could easily be mistaken for one huge shopping mall with it's many busy streets filled with shops, pubs and restaurants. Add to that a huge society of students and you have quite a vibrant city. It's no wonder Leeds has been dubbed the "Knighthood of the North". Leeds doesn't exactly have that much to offer in terms of sight-seeing but there is the wonderful Tetley's Tour on Brewery Lane and plenty of pubs. That wasn't the reason why I was here though. I like, like many other youngsters roaming the streets around the city centre had come for the Leeds / Reading Carling Weekend Festival. The entire city was covered in mud. It was all over the train station, the side walks, every shop or restaurant had mud everywhere. It had rained cats and dogs the first day of the festival and this was bad news for the city of Leeds. Even though the festival was taking place at Temple Newsom, some ways away from town; festival- goers were still coming in and out of town and tracking the mud in like crazy. |
I spent the next two days treated to the joys of Oasis, Pulp, Beck, Primal Scream, Gomez, Embrace, Shed Seven, Badly Drawn Boy, Foo Fighters, Limp Bizkit, Elastica and many more top musical acts. But that's another website altogether. Click below to find out what really happened. I left England the following Tuesday having accomplished so much in the last three days. The only shitter was that I never hooked up with my twin pals from Abu Dhabi; Mark and Richard Schneider. Fearing another huge accommodation conflict in Edinburgh; I chose to give myself a good days worth before catching my plane back. Nevertheless there will be another time. I don't know when and where, but there' will be another time.
Questions or comments? E-mail me @ glenn_stevens@glennaldo.com!
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