H
HR2
Guest
Made up me mind yesterday to have a ride over to Sunderland today by bus. Not because I have any great love for Sunderland but because the bus takes over two hours to get there and it's a nice ride for part of the way.
Left the house and caught the 9:30 bus [638] with the landlord and settled at the back for the trip. For once all the windows and the top vent were wide open [the bus we had yesterday into town had the heaters on] and a nice cool breeze was evident while in motion. Now the 638 is a strange mixture of a bus route in that it passes mostly through scallylands with occasional parts of decent areas. The first place we come to where low-life abounds is Winlaton which is as bad if not worse than a lot of the nasty parts of London. It's not totally bad as some good folk live among all the scum but maybe they do so from choice.
Onward we go and descend Shibdon Bank which is a low-gear-all-the-way effort and reach the bottom safely. Along Shibdon Road to Swalwell where we turn right to ascend Swalwell bank. This bank is 12% and steeper in places [as is Shibdon Bank] and I see a real treat turn the corner ahead of us. An old Atlantean bus which was possibly a former Busways vehicle started it's long slow grind up the hill in front of us and you Diesel loco guys would have loved it.
The clag [why is it called clag? we used to call exhaust emissions Fug. Clag is sticky mud or clay] that came out of that bus was nobody's business. Great clouds of thick blue smoke and that beautiful 'Atlantean Roar' as it struggled up the hill was a sight to behold and hear. This grand old chariot eventually got to the top after an epic grind of about 7 minutes at about 10 MPH. At the top it turned right and left us but I would not have missed seeing it for the world. Our bus carries on through Whickham which is quite nice part of Gateshead and past Teams and into Bensham. This is another part of run down Town but further along Saltwell Road near the Crematorium its quite nice. The cemetery is not a bad place to live either. Turning left we go up another steep bank [Belle Vue] to Low Fell and then along the Durham Road to Harlow Green which is close to the Northern Angel then left again and up more hills to Wreckenton. Wreckenton too has seen better days but it's not too bad I hear.
Further on Springwell is reached which I have always found a pleasant place to pass through but looks can't tell what it is actually like. I don't know so onwards we pass. Next up is Washington, the chav capital of the north east. The houses look decent enough but the folk who live in them are far from it. As if to prove the point a bunch of loud mouth scally girls get in. These are the type of girls I call 'badly baked cakes' I.E. they started off as maids of honour and finished up as tarts. Fortunatly we don't have to suffer them for long. Onwards into Sunderland proper which lives up to it's reputation. It's the biggest city in the north east and also it's biggest crap heap. For all the tarting up and rebuilding of the city centre and the 'Bridges' shopping malls Sunderland cannot shake off the 'cheap and nasty' feel it has always had which is exacerbated by it's populous. Girls that look like painted dummies, lads that look like adverts for prisons and drugs. I could go on but I won't.
After a quick lunch in Burger King [no decent eateries in Sunderland mate] we decide to take the Metro back to Newcastle. The metro also goes through some rough places too. Pelaw, Heworth, Felling, Stadium. All places where folk should be paid to live and not t'other way round. To be fair though some streets in Felling are decent. While on the Metro we have hoards of shell suited baseball capped Burberry clad denizens get on board nattering and chattering nine to the dozen which makes us glad to get out at Haymarket.
A quick bit of shopping in Marks & Sparks with a bus ride home rounds off a mixed day. Followed that with the normal afternoon nap and now I am setting out this little report. Living in the northeast is nice but like everywhere else in depends on which part you live.
Left the house and caught the 9:30 bus [638] with the landlord and settled at the back for the trip. For once all the windows and the top vent were wide open [the bus we had yesterday into town had the heaters on] and a nice cool breeze was evident while in motion. Now the 638 is a strange mixture of a bus route in that it passes mostly through scallylands with occasional parts of decent areas. The first place we come to where low-life abounds is Winlaton which is as bad if not worse than a lot of the nasty parts of London. It's not totally bad as some good folk live among all the scum but maybe they do so from choice.
Onward we go and descend Shibdon Bank which is a low-gear-all-the-way effort and reach the bottom safely. Along Shibdon Road to Swalwell where we turn right to ascend Swalwell bank. This bank is 12% and steeper in places [as is Shibdon Bank] and I see a real treat turn the corner ahead of us. An old Atlantean bus which was possibly a former Busways vehicle started it's long slow grind up the hill in front of us and you Diesel loco guys would have loved it.
The clag [why is it called clag? we used to call exhaust emissions Fug. Clag is sticky mud or clay] that came out of that bus was nobody's business. Great clouds of thick blue smoke and that beautiful 'Atlantean Roar' as it struggled up the hill was a sight to behold and hear. This grand old chariot eventually got to the top after an epic grind of about 7 minutes at about 10 MPH. At the top it turned right and left us but I would not have missed seeing it for the world. Our bus carries on through Whickham which is quite nice part of Gateshead and past Teams and into Bensham. This is another part of run down Town but further along Saltwell Road near the Crematorium its quite nice. The cemetery is not a bad place to live either. Turning left we go up another steep bank [Belle Vue] to Low Fell and then along the Durham Road to Harlow Green which is close to the Northern Angel then left again and up more hills to Wreckenton. Wreckenton too has seen better days but it's not too bad I hear.
Further on Springwell is reached which I have always found a pleasant place to pass through but looks can't tell what it is actually like. I don't know so onwards we pass. Next up is Washington, the chav capital of the north east. The houses look decent enough but the folk who live in them are far from it. As if to prove the point a bunch of loud mouth scally girls get in. These are the type of girls I call 'badly baked cakes' I.E. they started off as maids of honour and finished up as tarts. Fortunatly we don't have to suffer them for long. Onwards into Sunderland proper which lives up to it's reputation. It's the biggest city in the north east and also it's biggest crap heap. For all the tarting up and rebuilding of the city centre and the 'Bridges' shopping malls Sunderland cannot shake off the 'cheap and nasty' feel it has always had which is exacerbated by it's populous. Girls that look like painted dummies, lads that look like adverts for prisons and drugs. I could go on but I won't.
After a quick lunch in Burger King [no decent eateries in Sunderland mate] we decide to take the Metro back to Newcastle. The metro also goes through some rough places too. Pelaw, Heworth, Felling, Stadium. All places where folk should be paid to live and not t'other way round. To be fair though some streets in Felling are decent. While on the Metro we have hoards of shell suited baseball capped Burberry clad denizens get on board nattering and chattering nine to the dozen which makes us glad to get out at Haymarket.
A quick bit of shopping in Marks & Sparks with a bus ride home rounds off a mixed day. Followed that with the normal afternoon nap and now I am setting out this little report. Living in the northeast is nice but like everywhere else in depends on which part you live.