Corinne CrawfordI left Liverpool on Sunday and had a short train ride to Manchester. I had booked a hostel for 4 nights. The first two nights were in a bunk bed in a female dorm room and the last two nights, I reserved a private room. This was my first time staying at this brand of hostel called Selina. I had heard about the chain from a guy I was sitting next to on a flight from Athens to Paros in Greece the year before. I did a little research and it appeared to cater to remote workers and did not have a “youth” hostel party vibe. I even checked out the facility they had in Lisbon, Portugal when I was there and it looked very modern and nice. But after two nights in the dorm, I have to say I was quite disappointed in the place. Not very clean, no place to work, just the kitchen table in the small common room, no laundry facilities and the set up in the dorm was just inconvenient. I was hoping the private room was better, although it wouldn’t change the lack of amenities in the common areas. For a hostel that hosted possibly a hundred travelers a night, they only had 3 coffee mugs in the kitchen. Are we supposed to bring our own coffee mug?
So I decided that it was my best bet to do an activity that had me away from the hostel for the entire day until my Zoom meeting at 6pm, my time. I had done some research on historical sites, castles and hiking and found what appeared to be the best of all three combined. I took the train from Manchester to Hope, although I was initially planning on getting off a stop earlier at Edale. My directions had suggested I disembark at Edale and walk along the road to Castleton, about 2.5 miles. So as I stood to get off the train right before it stopped at Edale, the young train attendant looked at me and said, “you going for a hike?” I had my hiking pants and shoes on, my raincoat and a backpack. I replied that I was and he asked if I was going to do “Jacob’s ladder”. I said no, that I was walking to the castle and he suggested that I get off in one more stop and do a shorter and prettier walk from Hope to Castleton. He was right, the walk was very pretty, even though it cycled between a moderate rain, light sprinklers, and just misty. I actually prefer that type of weather because it typically means that less people are out and about site seeing or hiking. And it was pretty peaceful during the entire time I was on my excursion. As I walked into the town of Castleton on the path that followed the road, I passed a sign that indicated a footpath to Hope and I knew I would take that path on the way back to the Hope train station. I first went to the Peveril Castle site. It was a ruined walled fortress with the keep and the walls still pretty much intact but all other buildings were long gone. It was on top of a hill and was used mainly for administration over the surrounding forest lands.
It was initially in use from the 1000’s. After the castle, I made my way down and went to the visitor center where I was hoping to get a trail map to some of the caves in the area. I got a free map and went to a local pub for a pint while I investigated options for walking to one or more of the caves. After some research and asking the bartender for some feedback, I decided against going to the caves. Each one had an entrance price of £18 or more and it would be a 2.5 hour round trip if I took the trails. I still had to get back to Manchester in time for my 6pm call so I just had lunch instead. After a good hearty lunch, I started the walk back to the Hope train station, this time taking the lovely foot path that crossed through sheep pastures as it wound through the countryside along a creek.
I timed it perfectly and had to only wait about 15 minutes for the next train back to Manchester.
I was checking out of the dorm portion of my stay at Selina in Manchester and moving to a private room. I had to check out of the dorm by 10am but my private room would not be ready until 1pm so I took myself out to breakfast and then walked to the library to get some work done as I waited. But I found out when I sat down at a table and fired my computer up that the Wi-Fi at the library was configured in such a way that did not allow me to connect to my company’s VPN. I found that to be the case oftentimes when there is no Wi-Fi password for a public network. Not all the time, but more than half of the time I am unable to work at a place with no password for the internet. I passed the time writing this before going back to the hostel to check into my private room and then I was going to find a laundry mat as I was completely out of clean drawers.
