If you look at a map of England you will see that Hull, or Kingston upon Hull to give it its proper name, is rather out on a limb. Lying on the Humber Estuary its location so close to the sea has resulted in a history shaped by sea-going trade and shipping.
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One morning in Budapest we spent wandering the city’s Jewish Quarter. In the early 2000s this area underwent a revival, with the famous ruin bars springing up in courtyards of buildings slated for demolition and a mixed community moving into the area to open shops and restaurants, create art or simply to live.
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While we enjoyed exploring Buda, and loved the views of the Danube and Pest beyond, it was the latter that we spent the most time in. We stayed there, we ate and drank there, we visited museums and we wandered its streets.
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Budapest is a city of two halves; so much so that it was once two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the River Danube. Although now united as one, each has its own characteristics. Buda is hilly, with historic buildings, panoramic views, and winding streets.
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While May has been green this year, we haven’t always had spring-like weather; quite the contrary! Some days have felt as chilly as a mild day in winter, while towards the end of the month we had a heatwave that would have felt fairly extreme even in August, with temperatures topping 34 degrees Celsius, breaking – no, smashing – all records.
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Hull has had something of a poor reputation in England in recent years, but that seems to be changing. A city voted the ‘worst place to live in the UK’ in 2005 became the country’s City of Culture in 2017 and last year its city centre was named one of the coolest places to live by the Sunday Times. From worst to coolest; that’s quite a turnaround!
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While significant parts of Hull were bombed during WWII, and many lives tragically lost, its Old Town survived and has been well preserved. The historic buildings and cobbled streets make it an ideal stand-in for Victorian or Georgian London. These streets have been transformed many times by film and TV studios for productions including The Crown, Victoria and Blitz.
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These simple, practical vehicles are ubiquitous in Sri Lanka, as they are in many other countries in the world. While tourists tend to refer to them as tuk-tuks, to the locals they are usually known as three-wheelers or simply three-wheels.
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We have had plenty of sunny days this past April; however quite often the warm sun was tempered by a fresh wind. But we have also had some almost summer-like days; indeed, on one day quite early in the month the temperature reached 26 degrees in London and that IS summer weather.
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For many years the northern region of Sri Lanka was the stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, usually abbreviated to LTTE and better known as the Tamil Tigers. But when the civil war hostilities ceased in 2009 visiting the region again became a possibility. It’s a long drive north, but well worth it to see a different side of this island.
