To Hull and back

Firstly, I need to apologise for the slightly overused pun based title of this entry. However, it is true. I did go to Hull and back in a short space of time which I feel justifies it.
 
When I was at university, I studied American Studies. A combination of history, English literature, film and cultural topics all focussed on the USA. In 2013/14, the American Studies department at Hull celebrated it's 50th anniversary. As part of the celebrations for this, the department arranged a 50th anniversary Thanksgiving dinner which I went to with my friend Lucy who also did the same degree as me.
 
We went up to Hull on Thursday by train. The view of the Humber Bridge as we came into Hull remains one of my favourite views ever.

 
We stayed at a hotel opposite The Deep - Hull's aquarium (known as a submarium, not sure what the difference is). Once we had arrived and dropped our bags into the hotel, we decided to take a nostalgic trip to the university campus. Turns out a lot had changed in six years since we had graduated. The students union had been done up and work was being done to upgrade the university library. Luckily the University of Hull sign at the front was still there for us to pose next to.

 

 

The meal in the evening was a lot more fun than I was expecting. Both Lucy and I were quite concerned that there would not be a large turnout. Luckily, there was over 100 people there from across the fifty years of the department. Our decade, the noughties, was a bit under represented compared to some of the other decades. There was only six of us on our table which mean that the Dean of the Faculty and Director of Cultural Studies were sitting at our table to make up the numbers. Despite this, we mingled with our former lecturers and met a lot of interesting people. Including one of the first ever graduates from the 1960s.

 

The next day, we went for breakfast in old town Hull and took a quick wander of the cobbled streets in that area. The city has recently been awarded UK City of Culture 2017 so there was a lot of excitement in the area. All the taxi drivers we spoke to were hopeful that being City of Culture could lead to great things for Hull. Hopefully, it will.

Sadly, we had to return to London later that day but I'm hoping to go back again next summer with a few more days to spare so I can fully explore the area and maybe catch up with old friends in the area