Leeds + Haworth

When within the first fifteen minutes of my arrival I was asked whether I knew a good place to buy some 35mm film (I didn’t), I was pretty sure Leeds was going to be amazing.

I’m not even going to try and hide my excitement about Leeds. BLOODY LOVED IT. Admittedly, I only spent like two and a half hours there because I missed my train from Cambridge. But still: definitely going back some day. The city is just so vibrant and artsy and not too big but very cute and and and. There was this one perfect moment when I walked into one of the arcades and I could hear music playing in the distance. I turned a corner and in the middle of the arcade there was a white piano and a young man was playing Angels by Robbie Williams on it and his friend was singing along. PERFECT.

In the evening, Lukas picked me up at Laynes which is supposedly the best coffee shop in Leeds. He also taught me the difference between a latte and a flat white. From now on I will be ordering said flat whites; more coffee, less milk.
I spent the night in Bradford (the Curry Capital of England). So we had curry for dinner, obviously, and watched the Portugal – Switzerland game. I wasn’t aware of exactly how dangerous Bradford is but apparently, that’s a thing. Lukas got an Uber to drive me to my hotel and like literally the minute we said goodbye fireworks went off in the distance. Lukas then informed me that this wasn’t someone celebrating but a way of communication for drug dealers to know that the drugs arrived safely. Knowing this for some reason terrified me and I was super glad to arrive at my hotel in one piece. Walking to the train station the next day I made sure to stick to big streets rather than taking shortcuts through dodgy alleys. I feel like I should get a shirt saying „I was in Bradford and made it out alive“.

The next day I had planned on taking the steam train to Haworth, a little town where the Brontë sisters grew up. HOWEVER, the steam train didn’t run that day and was replaced by a diesel train from the 1960’s. That together with the rain just made the whole experience very disappointing. The Brontë Parsonage / Museum was super interesting though, so at least I learnt something  🙂

Honestly, I feel as if though I need to take another trip next year where I spend some more time in Leeds and get to see the bloody steam train and FINALLY, visit the Lake District up north. So, we’ll see if that happens.

Anyway, here are some cute pictures. (And there’s a tiny video postcard here in case you’re interested)