Mensiversary

To celebrate the conclusion of my first month in York, they organised a big fireworks display. Now that's what I call a friendly and considerate gesture!

I celebrated New Year's Eve in England once, when I stayed with Elise at my parents' place, who at that time were living in Comberton near Cambridge. For the occasion I had bought one piece of fireworks, which was not easy to find at that. At the turning of the year, the entire village was dark, there was no one on the street. We did light our hard-won piece, but after it had gone poof! ten seconds later, we concluded that this was sad rather than festive.

Instead, the English choose to have their fireworks on Guy Fawkes' Day, and since I certainly did not want to miss out on this event I had booked a ticket at the York Maze. While doing so and looking into the background a bit, I discovered some facts interesting enough to share with you: 1. Fawkes was actually born in York, so they burn him here with a vengeance; and 2. Fawkes fought on the side of the Spanish during the 80 years' war against the Dutch, so he really was a bad guy. Let him burn!

Buying fireworks around November V? No problem at all!

Before I started off to the event this evening, my "landlord" dropped by to retrieve some large cardboard boxes that he needed to send milk powder to China. A bit thoughtlessly I asked him if he planned to go and see any of the many fireworks, at which he smiled a bit and made it politely clear that he did not think this worth his while. I could see his point of course, I would not go out of my way to buy Gouda cheese here.

Getting to the York Maze, which is some way outside York but on the same side as the university, turned out to be harder than I thought. The route I had planned went via Sunday's golf course, I imagined this was a good moment to explore the bridleway: but after a few kilometers in the pitch dark - the second set of batteries in my bike's headlight is running out because I keep forgetting to switch the thing off - the road just ended. That was rather unexpected, but a quick check on my phone confirmed that, indeed, there might be a footpath leading on but no more than that. So there was nothing for it but to turn back on my track and try another road.

Would you believe that the exact same thing happened to me again? The road just ended in the middle of nowhere! Looking at the map I now think there is a military airfield in that direction, that must be the reason you can't go that way. Still it is strange that the roads just peter out, without proper warning.

I almost gave up on the whole thing, but not quite. Though I had surely missed the lighting of the bonfire (GFD is in that sense a mixture of New Year's Eve and Eastern, at least as celebrated in the east of the Netherlands) there were still 40 minutes left to the start of the fireworks, which should be enough to get there via the highway. Indeed that turned out to be the case, though this was along a road eminently unsuitable for bikes, I felt very uncomfortable with my meagre lights.

As the hour of 20:00 got closer, more amd more cars were parked on the side of the road, clearly with the idea of enjoying the show from there: and indeed this was a good place for it, in the open and the dark, clear skies, good views. All around you could see rockets going up, in isolation or in concert.

Bonfire with fireworks behind it

The York Maze was very lively, with merry-go-rounds, food stalls, a playground for children (of which there were plenty), a rousing announcer, and eventually a rather good fireworks show, lasting about a quarter of an hour. I'm glad I decided to persevere.

Obviously there is also a maze, I suspect of the maize variety, but I didn't check it out - probably would have been closed anyway - instead preferring to hurry back home straight away, ahead of the masses insofar possible. That worked out well, but I definitely intend to install my next set of batteries tomorrow.