Some parts of York are fairly cheap, but York is an expensive city compared to other places in the region, partly because it's so in the middle of nowhere and partly because it's so iconic. There's a mix of ex-council, inter-war, new builds and, of course, lots of Industrial Revolution terraces, so it really depends what you're looking for. My flat is aimed at the top end of its band at the moment, and we're asking about £120,000 for a two bedroom flat.
Buses after 11 depend on where you live. The one right past my house stops at about 7.30 and doesn't run at all on Saturday, but there's one ten minutes walk away that runs until 11.30 every day of the week.
The congestion can get pretty bad, especially if it rains, doubly so if anything floods. It's much better for cyclists, and the congestion is only really bad if you need to get into the city centre, which is so small you can park pretty easily on the edge and get in to where you need to be. I'm only half an hour's walk from this side of the city centre, and less then an hour from the far side.
There is actually loads to do. We've got a few good gig venues, from the two big theatres and the Barbican to the smaller Joseph Rowntree Theatre, and the Duchess, which gets some awesome bands from right across the spectrum. Leeds is convenient for proper nights out, and we've got museums up the whoopsie. Three cinemas, a big Vue on one of the shopping estates on the edge, one nearly independent and an arthouse in the centre. Plenty of open space, a fantastic range of festivals (including the biggest goth festival in the country, I believe, a nice little folk festival at the Black Swan, one of the biggest food and drink festivals in Europe, one dedicated entirely to chocolate, and regular vintage and made in Yorkshire events at various locations around the city).
The people can vary, but we're so inundated by tourists that we're very patient. I've never seen anywhere where the residents stop for photographs quite so easily. We don't even register them properly, there's just something that gets hardwired into your brain that goes "camera, avoidance maneuvers engaged". Half the people here are bonkers, the other half are still pretending they're not.
I can't think of anywhere where your feet stick to the floor, apart from the Duchess. I've still managed to rapper dance on that floor, so it's not even that bad.
Important things to know about York are that it's full of students most of the year, tourists the rest of the year, and half the year it's both. Once the tourists hit town it takes twice as long to get through the centre, unless you know the back streets. You also cannot learn all York's back streets, because I swear they move.
We've got lots of libraries, but only two council gyms. There are lots of hotels that offer fitness memberships and plenty of private gyms, though, including at least one right in the centre. The town centre is fairly expensive for clothes and the like, because it has a lot of prestige brands (we used to have a Vivienne Westwood, for instance, and I think that's coming back somewhere else), but the market is still great and there are three big out of town shopping centres, with another starting construction this year.
You proabbly didn't want a 10 page essay, but I warned you I like chatting about York :P Here's another essay I wrote about it for a review site, which might cover more stuff I've not thought of: http://travel.ciao.co.uk/York_in_General__Review_6054340
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Date: 2013-04-17 09:04 pm (UTC)Buses after 11 depend on where you live. The one right past my house stops at about 7.30 and doesn't run at all on Saturday, but there's one ten minutes walk away that runs until 11.30 every day of the week.
The congestion can get pretty bad, especially if it rains, doubly so if anything floods. It's much better for cyclists, and the congestion is only really bad if you need to get into the city centre, which is so small you can park pretty easily on the edge and get in to where you need to be. I'm only half an hour's walk from this side of the city centre, and less then an hour from the far side.
There is actually loads to do. We've got a few good gig venues, from the two big theatres and the Barbican to the smaller Joseph Rowntree Theatre, and the Duchess, which gets some awesome bands from right across the spectrum. Leeds is convenient for proper nights out, and we've got museums up the whoopsie. Three cinemas, a big Vue on one of the shopping estates on the edge, one nearly independent and an arthouse in the centre. Plenty of open space, a fantastic range of festivals (including the biggest goth festival in the country, I believe, a nice little folk festival at the Black Swan, one of the biggest food and drink festivals in Europe, one dedicated entirely to chocolate, and regular vintage and made in Yorkshire events at various locations around the city).
The people can vary, but we're so inundated by tourists that we're very patient. I've never seen anywhere where the residents stop for photographs quite so easily. We don't even register them properly, there's just something that gets hardwired into your brain that goes "camera, avoidance maneuvers engaged". Half the people here are bonkers, the other half are still pretending they're not.
I can't think of anywhere where your feet stick to the floor, apart from the Duchess. I've still managed to rapper dance on that floor, so it's not even that bad.
Important things to know about York are that it's full of students most of the year, tourists the rest of the year, and half the year it's both. Once the tourists hit town it takes twice as long to get through the centre, unless you know the back streets. You also cannot learn all York's back streets, because I swear they move.
We've got lots of libraries, but only two council gyms. There are lots of hotels that offer fitness memberships and plenty of private gyms, though, including at least one right in the centre. The town centre is fairly expensive for clothes and the like, because it has a lot of prestige brands (we used to have a Vivienne Westwood, for instance, and I think that's coming back somewhere else), but the market is still great and there are three big out of town shopping centres, with another starting construction this year.
You proabbly didn't want a 10 page essay, but I warned you I like chatting about York :P Here's another essay I wrote about it for a review site, which might cover more stuff I've not thought of: http://travel.ciao.co.uk/York_in_General__Review_6054340