england: day 10

on day 10 we said goodbye to craig. he wasn't interested in seeing the great houses in northern england (blasphemy) so we dropped him at the airport in london and neal and i headed north to the peak district.

when researching places to stay in the peak district, there were only two hostels to choose from, and the one most centrally located to all the places we were visiting was called roaches bunkhouse. yes, really. roaches bunkhouse. and it was so, so cheap. the name gave me many reservations, but in the end the adventurer in me won out and we made a reservation. it is named roaches because of it's location at the foot of a large rock formation called "the roaches." 

i can't even tell you how amusing the whole situation was. frankly it's a miracle we even found the place. it's located in a little village (and by village i mean a cluster of buildings on a tiny road off the main road in an unincorprated bit of the county) and is essentially a converted oversized garage. thankfully the owner happened to be standing out front when we arrived or i don't know how we would have found him. he checked us in and informed us that we were the only ones staying there. (neal commented that it seemed like the beginning of a horror movie.) he informed us that if we wanted to shower it would cost a pound (on the honor system) and we would have to tell him in advance so he could turn on the hot water. its a bunkhouse, so most people who stay there are backpackers and bring sleeping bags with them, but we didn't have any, so we asked to rent blankets (which the website said were available) which surprised him, but he found some and didn't charge us for them. then he left and we never saw him again, which was kind of problematic because we wanted a shower the next day but never got one. that being said, i kind of loved staying there. it was really cool (temperature) and so quiet and the village sat down in a little ravine of sorts and it smelled so good; a really clean, outdoorsy smell. there was a cute little pub up the street a bit where we went to use the free wifi and get some hot chocolate. i would stay there again in a minute, i would just arrange the shower situation as soon as i got there.

brochure

the main hallway.

our little bunk room.

the bathroom. co-ed. individual stalls for toilets and showers.potentially awkward.

the trip north didn't take as long as i anticipated, so we had time to visit lyme house and park that afternoon. 

lyme park is the house and grounds used as pemberly in the bbc versio of pride and prejudice. they do not allow photos to be taken inside the house (wink, wink). 

colin firth was here.

i half expected the headless horseman to ride toward me while walking down this path. 

after lyme we headed back to our bunkhouse, but we decided to hike around the roaches a bit. it was really fun and offered some gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside.