This whole marina area has massively changed since I was last here, there used to be fuck all but boats and warehouses but now there's all bars and restaurants and art galleries and shit. Pretty nice
The area as a whole isn't super busy tonight but some individual places are. The bar opposite me called "hygge" looks well minimalist and scandinavian but it's blasting cheesy as fuck music with disco lights and noisy drunks outside. You can change the aesthetic but you can't change the people eh
There was a restaurant in the area I wanted to try but it shut at 8:30(??) so I'm off somewhere else. If I have to get takeaway so be it
That bar actually did open up & it's lit up in rainbows. And there's another one that says it's pretty gay in there. Not going rn but good to know
As for my belated dinner I bought a Wendy's burger and ate it sitting on a bench in the square lol
Hull is definitely a lot more queer than it used to be. Which was not very
Main thing I've been doing today is exploring the city centre see what it's like these days
Honestly it's kind of a mixed bag, decline in retail has left a lot of empty units & vape shops but there is cool independent stuff here and there, the market & the old shopping arcades are pretty good
I also went to the art gallery, that was cool. You can see lions painted by a 19th century french queer woman who had to get police permission to wear trousers
Rn I'm on princes avenue which always used to be a nice area & so far it still is. If I moved to hull I'd probably be living around here. I just had a really good pint from Atom & now I'm eating this
I had planned to explore a few of the other avenues in that avenues area but I got there pretty late & I was tired so I did not. I did check out some of the adjoining residential streets though in case I did end up moving there and they seem entirely fine and normal
I bought these earlier from a vendor in a lil market that had opened up in a unit of one of the shopping centres
That was cool that's a good use for these spaces. More of that
Also check out https://saddiscoclub.com if you want stuff like this
My train stopped at Stevenage & they made an announcement saying "to the passengers who just joined at Stevenage, this is a set down service only, we DO NOT pick up passengers at Stevenage"
Fuck off Stevenage wankers I guess?? I've never encountered that before
I'm back home and I'm tired as fuck but here's another thing I bought in Hull. It's a t-shirt from Beasley's which is a cool independent shop selling new and vintage clothes. Used to go there all the time as a student & was glad to see they're still going strong. Shout out to them
Like: The area I'd want to live in is nice. I think I'd be happy living day-to-day there
The city centre is OK, there are decent things to be found there, but also obvious decline in parts & it is just simply a fairly small and out-of-the-way place that doesn't have as much going on as larger cities
So the question becomes
Do I want to live in an okay house in a nice area of a somewhat crap (affectionately) city
Or a tiny house in a crap area of a better city?
I think the former is more appealing at this point? I've spent years living in shit housing to be close to things. Maybe I'm over it
@lion It's 2026, everything is shipped these days!
ok since i've been back for a day let's reflect
this was a trip with a Purpose which was to find out if I would be happy living in Hull considering I could get a very cheap house there
And I still don't really know lol but I do at least have a decent impression of what it's like now