Whitby looked booming. My first impressions were it looked like an average sized town with more than it's fair share of Saturday night revellers. I was loving the look of the place and wanted to go straight to a pub and start drinking. Tom however was very anxious to find a B&B/somewhere to sleep for the night, so we started searching for anywhere with beds/rooms available. After a couple of failed attempts we bumped into a crazy drunk guy dressed in a pirate costume who showed us several potential places to stay. Still no luck. We then walked further out from the town centre where we saw a few B&B's with 'Vacancies' signs outside. We tried a few of these but by this time it must have been around 11.30 and nobody was answering. Tom was even more anxious now. We then went to a pub (more to get out of the freezing weather than anything) and Tom ordered a pint of beer (he didn't actually want a drink - it's just the standard thing he does when he goes to a pub, he could have ordered a soft drink or a bag of crisps but oh no he went for the beer lol). Tom found a map of Whitby in the pub and we started looking for potential places to shelter incase we couldn't find any accommodation. I started to doze off and was warned by the barman that he'd have to kick me out if I fell asleep - great. We stayed in the pub until it closed at 1am. Looking at the map didn't fill us with confidence as there didn't look like many if any potential places to shelter. We decided to seek refuge in a takeaway pizza shop. I ordered a large peperoni pizza. Tom looked on the map and saw a park - he was thinking camp in the park. The park was close by. I flat out refused to camp but said I would help set Tom's tent up and walk around the park until the morning. This idea was soon dismissed. We spoke with the guys in the pizza place and the customers who were all very friendly but did not know anywhere we could stay. After the filthy greasy pizza and complimentary water we headed back into the town centre to see what we could find. Tom was seriously worried and getting impatient now. We had now got to the stage where we were looking down alley's to see if there was anywhere that would offer some kind of shelter and warmth from the freezing night. No luck. We headed back to the town and walked around but could still find nothing. Tom now had had enough of walking so I said I'd walk round a bit more whilst he sat on a bench. So I set off in a new direction in search of somewhere we would potentially be able to sleep. It was by a marina - I did have a glance across at the boats but I don't think this would have been a good idea as allo the boats were lit up and we would have probably been caught if we'd try to sneak onto any of them. Then I found somewhere - there was a door that had not been closed on the outside of the marina building and inside was a warm room (it was a chemical disposal sink in a small room so not ideal - but did not stink, was not too dirty and most importantly was warm - so this would have to do). I ran back to Tom to tell him the good news. He was well relieved. Tom then decided he wanted to go into another pizza shop he'd been sitting outside to get warm. The owners did not mind this but warned us that it was getting close to the club's closing times and soon it would be filled up with drunks in here. It was still pretty cold in the pizza shop and I wanted to see more of the town/kill some time so I decided to go for a run whilst Tom stayed. I ran through the town centre - it was a bit busier now, before heading along the side of the marina towards the sea and along the pier. I then headed back to Tom as I was getting a bit concerned incase things were kicking off at the pizza shop. When I got back (roughly 30 mins after I left) it was pretty busy but calm and Tom was having a conversation with a few drunk people. I joined him and we had several drunk conversations during the time we were there (it was interesting looking at everyone from a sobre perspective for a change - normally in this situation I'd also be drunk). I was enjoying our time in the pizza shop and it was making the endless countdown to our 7am coach seem quicker. Also I was very impressed with how despite the bitter cold the girls were still braving skirts barely covering their arses and guys in t shirts/polo shirts - either the drink was keeping out the cold or the Northern population were tougher and better able to handle the cold than the rest of the nation - me and Tom were cold despite having about 5 layers of warm clothes on!!! At around 3.30am Tom finally gave in and ordered a small pizza and was given a complimentary portion of chips - it wasn't that he was hungry it was that eating was another way to pass the time and possibly a hot greasy pizza would warm him up a bit. He ate about a third of the pizza and a few chips before giving away the leftovers. We stayed until 4am when the place closed. One final seemingly neverending freezing drunken conversation outside the pizza shop with maybe 4 or 5 guys/girls before heading off to our room in the marina. When we arrived Tom was impressed and praised me for finding this warm area. The room which seemed warm when I went there earlier whilst was considerably warmer than outside was still pretty cold when just sitting there for a length of time. I set my alarm for 6.15am incase I fell asleep (I intended to stay awake as didn't want to risk falling asleep and risk missing the coach). Tom fell asleep (the room was just big enough for him to lay flat out on the floor diagonally) whilst I huddled half asleep on a small bench behind Tom. I may have dozed off for an hour or so when I needed a dump. I was grateful for this as it woke me up and forced me to go outside. I remembered a portaloo I'd walked passed at the side of the marina earlier so headed there with some toilet paper we'd taken from Lovesome Hill a few days ago. I returned shortly before 6. There was no point in going to sleep now so we looked at the photos and videos on my camera to pass the time until it was time to walk to the bus station to catch the coach. We got to the coach station at about 6.15 and walked around the perimeter of the small bus station in circles until the coach showed up. We were massively relieved to see the coach pull up at about 6.30. Tom suddenly had a hilarious burst of energy and grabbed his bag and sprinted onto the coach despite it not due to leave for another half an hour. As we boarded the coach we saw a couple of the guys we'd met in the pizza shop about 4 hours earlier walking/stumbling down the street towards us. I was not very happy to see them as they could potentially delay the coach departing should they get on the coach/cause any trouble. Then the coach broke down. Great. The driver informed us that we'd have to wait for either a breakdown truck to turn up and fix the coach or a taxi to arrive and take us to Leeds where we'd get another coach to London but we'd have to wait until probably 9am for either the taxi or breakdown truck. To add to this miserable situation the coach was freezing cold as the doors were wide open/ no heating was on. The driver then asked to see our tickets - the tickets we had were for yesterday - we'd seemingly made a mistake asking for the wrong date when ordering the tickets rendering the tickets we had useless. So we had to fork out around £35 each for another ticket. Absolutely awful. The drunk guys had got on the bus and were talking to us - Tom did most of the chatting as I was not in the mood. They had gone to a house party after leaving the pizza shop and I think were on their way home when they saw us and the coach. One of the guys wanted to come back to London and go for a night out that night which was pretty funny. 9am came and went - still no taxi or pickup truck. The coach driver very kindly offered to go and buy us a much needed warm drink each. These drinks helped a bit to keep out the cold but about half an hour later we were cold again (Tom wasn't too bad as he had a massive thermal sleeping bag to snuggle up in whereas I didn't even bother getting my thin sleeping bag out as it wouldn't have helped much. 10am came and STILL no taxi or pickup truck. I asked for a complaints form to fill out in the hope that I would be entitled to compensation for my ticket and completed this whilst the driver made a few calls. The drunk guys had now left - one of them taking Tom's pringles with him. Thankfully the driver offered us his unwanted bacon sandwich which helped to limit the hunger. Finally a taxi turned up at about 10.40 - massive relief. So we happily sat down in the warm cosy taxi and promptly fell asleep. We remained asleep/half asleep until we got to Leeds coach station about an hour and a half later. Tom was feeling a bit queasy after the long journey in the hot cab so he got some Panadol in the shop before we boarded the coach. The coach departed at about 12.30 I think so the wait was not too long. The coach was crowded (the coach up had far more empty seats allowing us to spread out) but we didn't mind as it was a direct coach to London and the journey would seem fast compared to the 9.5 hour marathon journey up. After finishing any remaining snacks I could find I was sleeping/dozing all the way to London. We got to Victoria coach station at approx. 5.30 (an hour later than we should have done).
Ratings
Whitby pizzas - 5/10: pizzas were average at best (better than Domino's but anything is better than Domino's). However friendly service and complimentary water were great.
National Express Coach - 5/10: The journey from London to St. Bees was fine with no delays or problems and we arrived on time. However the ridiculous wait in Whitby on the way back and the difficulty getting a refund/some kind of compensation for our tickets were awful.
Lessons Learned
Take more care when ordering coach tickets (make sure you book it for the correct date). Book accommodation in advance or look at alternative coach journeys home (we could have got a coach from Whitby to Victoria at 9.30pm Saturday night which would have been a much better option).
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