On the 6th of June I went to York to meet my friend Lucinda. She lives in Edinburgh now but wanted to see our new house so we found a weekend for her to come down and we decided to meet in York. Lucinda wanted to see Operation Mincemeat at the theatre there so we booked tickets ages ago. We decided to meet at 11 so I set off after a shower. I got there in good time and parked in a disabled space outside Cliffords Tower which had no time limit on it so it was ideal. I sat there as Lucinda arrived by train and then walked round because she wanted to put her bag in my car.
We walked through Coppergate and up the Shambles. We of course ignored the Harry Potter shops (no transphobia for us, thanks!) and then went into the Shrine of St Margaret Clitherow. It's one of my favourite places in York and I love her story, but last time I was in York it was locked so I couldn't have a look! So I was glad to visit her briefly. Her mummified hand is in the convent on Blossom Street and I believe you can see it, although you have to make an appointment. Maybe one day I'll do that.
The queue for York Ghost Merchants was already soooo long so I was glad we weren't going there! We went into the Portal Bookshop which is the queer bookshop in York. I bought one book, one by Alex Gino that I hadn't yet read, so I was very reserved. We went upstairs and had a hot drink in the cafe, which was lovely but a bit cold.
Lucinda had found that there was a ghost craft fair on at St Sampsons so we had a wander in there. There were tons of stalls and a lot of ghosts of different types. It was a really cut fair! I bought a couple of birthday presents for Sam and some handmade fudge. I'm glad Cinders found this because it was really cute!
She wanted to go in the Gay Shop so we headed to Parliament St. I was a bit tired by this time so sat outside the shop. I could have gone and joined Lucinda but then I would probably have spent more money so it wasn't terrible that I didn't. I think she bought some badges but I'm not sure what.
By this time it was lunchtime so we had dithered a bit on where to go but eventually settled on Oscar's. It is one of my favourite places in York and has been for nearly twenty five years! It has moved since I first knew about it, but it's still great. I had nachos with veggie chilli and it was great!
We weren't sure what to do after lunch but then I suggested we go to the York Chocolate Story. I've been past it a zillion times but have never been in. Jacqui has and she said it was cool, so we thought we would go. It is a tiny bit expensive for what you get but I guess that is the York premium, so it's fine. There are tours every half an hour and we had just missed one so we sat for a bit to wait for the next. There's a cool shop which we looked round but didn't buy anything before the tour.
The tour is really cool and accessible and I think they did so well at making it so. There's a lift up and in each room of the tour there's a bench or other seating, so I sat down quite a bit. There's stuff about the history of chocolate itself and the history of chocolate in York - Frys, Terrys, Rowntrees, etc. I knew some of the info already just because I lived there for three years but it didn't detract from the tour. For instance, I used to live near the Nestle factory - it always smelt of chunky kitkats - and I know that the swimming pool near there was built specifically to give the workers somewhere to exercise.
In each room there is something to try, and as Lucinda is lactose intolerant the tour guide provided something different for her each time. So that was good! At the end you can decorate a lollipop and I was really impressed her. The tour guide asked if I wanted a seat, and I did, so she moved a chair over to the lollipop area for me. There were two girls in hijabs on our tour so she asked them if they needed halal toppings for their lollipops, which they did. And of course there were lactose free things for Lucinda - her lollipop was dark chocolate whereas mine was white.
At the very end there's a demo of someone making chocolates and he made caramels and we could try some that he had made earlier. There were some left over from the previous tour - and only seven of us - so there was loads left over and the man encouraged us to take some. So I did! I also bought some goodies in the shop to share with Lee.
We sat in the square outside for a while watching a street performer there, and then we weren't sure what to do. It was about 5pm and the theatre didn't open until 7pm so we decided to go to Caffe Nero. Lucinda wanted something else to eat - her lunch wasn't very big, unlike mine - but I just had a coffee. We sat there until about 7pm and then walked over to the theatre.
The musical was great! I knew what the general story was but not too closely, so I was happy to learn. It was done so well and was really clever. I would definitely see it again.
When it was done we walked back to the car and came home. I gave Lucinda a quick tour of the house before bed!
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