I am not a very spontaneous person. I don’t know why, because every plan I ever make has a massive habit of going terribly wrong and whenever I do something unplanned it turns out the best. Which is exactly what happened this weekend.
The plan was to go to a car boot sale and get some bargains. We looked up what ones were open on the Saturday evening, and headed down Sunday morning, despite wanting to stay in bed to a ridiculous amount. Anyway, turns out someone on the internet was having a laugh at our expense as no car boot sale was on so we drove back home, got back into bed and then was like; let’s go to York, carpe diem. And we set off.
I’ve never been to York before, to be honest I thought it was going to be a tiny little town but it’s actually huge! Our first port of call was to get some food and after walking past a lot of cute little cafes, we spotted Missoula, a nice looking but reasonably priced bar and restaurant (well, bar and grill to be concise).
Missoula overlooks the canal and has old style, quirky Western decor which I loved. I was genuinely tempted to steal one of the cushions! Wwe got some Missoula Sliders to start; three mini burgers, one topped with pulled pork, one with blue cheese and one with BBQ sauce. They were absolutely delicious and beautifully cooked, my only complaint was the top milimetre of the buns were a little tough but it didn’t detract from how tasty they were at all.
For a main, I got the chargrilled chicken sandwich with seasoned fries. The sandwich came on pretzel bread (which, between you and I, is remarkably like brioche buns) and had chargrilled chicken, sauteed spinach, caramelised onions and roasted cherry tomatoes with herby mayo. It was hands down, an amazing sandwich. The caramelised onions were perfect, sweet and soft and really complimented the chicken, which was perfect and moist. The chips were revolutionary. No joke. You know the perfect French fry? The one McDonalds should be? It was that. The King of all French fries. Crispy and flavoursome, and the portion size was really generous. I had to stop eating halfway through, give it five and then carry on eating.
Scott got the triple decker club, which looked equally as nice as mine. Both of us were too full to get any of the milkshakes but they look insane and we’ll be going back; the salted caramel shake contains southern comfort (aka the BEST DRINK EVER) and there is also a alcohol Reese’s peanut butter shake! I would have got one but I was at that point when you’ve eaten too much and might physically be sick so figured it was bets to avoid it.
After eating, we explored the town. We both had pretty big food babies so didn’t want to do any of the touristy guided things (although we are going to go back and do the York’s Chocolate Story guide) so we just ambled about and browsed the shops. York is bloody huge! We checked out all the little quirky homeware and bric a brac stores, where I was reluctantly peeled away from spending fortunes on (cute) crap, and then I spotted the most beautiful coat in British Heart Foundation’s window and nose dived into the store. I am sad to say I did break my spending ban, but for £15 I got a mint condition, 100% wool camel coat in a trench-boyfriend hybrid style. It’s so so beautiful, not one inch of me regrets it. In fact, I loved it so much I put it on straight away and then pointedly admired myself every time I saw a reflective surface.
A sides from a trip into the Disney store (where Scott bought me a little Pascal who I love intensely), it was a relatively uneventful visit that somehow took us four hours. We checked out a few shops, pondered through the market and contemplated getting some ice cream but decided we were still too full from lunch.
It was nice to get out and do something, even if that something was really a whole lot of nothing. Working full time and then blogging in the evenings can make it feel like computers and the internet is taking over my life, and actually it’s something I’m really struggling to get used to after the freedom of university. Having an impromptu, spontaneous day out just me and Scott (or just Scott and I, which for some reason really bugs me!) was exactly what I needed.
Where have you been visiting lately?
