Leeds, Yorkshire, England

Despite not being the county capital, Leeds is by far the largest city in Yorkshire. This, along with the fact that it’s got several big historical buildings built when it was filled with coal money (see Billy Elliot for what happened to it), and I guess also that it’s usually quite cold, makes it the real-life Winterfell.

It wasn’t a terribly eventful place, but good enough for a short excursion to the north. The buses were hella confusing though: we kept trying to pay but not sure how. As it turned out, there’s a staff selling tickets to you after everyone’s on the bus, but since it was so incredibly packed, he never managed to get to us.

One of the malls even had real reindeer! None of them had a red nose tho.

Instead of staying in a proper place, we were a bit more adventurous and stayed at a bathhouse (they’ve got actual rooms). I will spare you the juicy details of our night, but it was quite unsettling the next day, when we learned that the cars parked outside were all smashed  – an actual hate crime – and that the establishment increased security due to a homophobic attack (literally a mob trashed the reception) a few years back. So I guess it was also a bit like King’s Landing.

York, England, UK

York Minster – a building some of my pupils thought was built 150 years ago.

The city of York, in the proud county of  Yorkshire, England is a very famous historical city. The title “The Duke of York” (currently holder His Royal Highness The Prince Andrew, HRH The Prince of Wales’s brother) is traditionally one bestowed to the second son of the monarch (at the moment Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II), which in itself was what the American New York City and subsequently the state of New York were named after. 

The shire is additionally one of only two in England with an archbishop, the other of course being the head of the Anglican world-wide communion, The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Archbishop of Canterbury, It was apparently crucial in Christianizing England, presumably in the latter years of the Danish/German Anglo-Saxons, when the Jesus-representing fish started popping up on their stuff.

Somehow, and I’m uncertain whether that’s a serious movement, there’s also a small independence movement. There usually are mock Olympics tables with Yorkshire claiming a good spot, although honestly who cares? You can’t fill your stomach with gold medals so I’m not sure why they aren’t talking more about things like the economy or export.

Anyway, it’s a nice town. It’s quite small. Good for a day trip.