[Migrations & Peregrinations] Whitby: for those who want to suck blood or...

Wanting to get out into the countryside again, I made the somewhat
spontaneous decision to head for Whitby, a town on the Yorkshire coast
that inspired Bram Stoker when he wrote Dracula. It's an odd
combination: part seaside resort (more ice cream parlors than you can
shake a stick at), part magnificently Gothic. On a hill overlooking the
town and the steep sea cliffs, there are several structures, the most
relevant being a splendid ruined abbey, an intact church with a small
but jam-packed graveyard, and the hostel where I'm staying. It's a
somewhat insane hill to climb with full luggage, but the views are
superb. You can look out over the North Sea and imagine a ship sailing
in through a storm, carrying an unholy passenger. Tomorrow, I'm going
off hiking, probably along the coast (and probably in the rain...whee!).

Assuming, of coarse, that Dracula doesn't get me in the night.