Day 9: Every Mouthful Counts

I left the station in York to buy a hot chocolate from the hotel Lilley recommended as a wonderful place to hang out and work if I'm ever early to arrive in York. The girl behind the bar sounded doubtful about whether she'd even serve me a take-out, but when I said I was talking about hot chocolate, she was reassured. She rushed off to get a takeaway cup.

Like this, but in a paper cup.
And from a machine.

Upon placing a flat white sized cup on the counter, she smiled and said '£3.95, please'. WTF? £3.95 for what turned out to be a teacupful of instant hot chocolate from a machine (I have good taste buds - it's the same machine as they have in KPMG in Canary Wharf - almost very nice, but not quite). As I gawped, she said 'you can say you don't want it if you like'. But no... she'd made it. I hadn't asked beforehand how much it would be. I learnt a lesson.

In passing, before leaving, I asked her to fill up my filtered water bottle. She was fascinated by it. She was Dutch. She said she couldn't drink the water here because it's cloudily packed with chlorine, but she missed drinking the litres of tap water she'd always drunk before. She was excited. Using my limited knowledge of York, I told her where she could buy one.

Ha! Google Images tells me this is...
a CHAIN! Of course it is

She then filled mine up with soda water. It was her suggestion, which I acquiesced to. I learnt a thing or two there, too. That the bubbles survive the filter, which is nice. That the gas builds up and pushes water out of the top. If you close it properly, it does a little explode (as it did at a gentleman on the platform - I wish we'd fallen in love and were destined to get married - what a great meeting story that would have made). Also that, open or closed, gassy water in one of those bottles leaks. It was leaking down the back of my legs and leaving a trail on the platform. Even when you think it's calmed down, it still persists. 

Verdict: I'd do the water again, but not the hot chocolate. AND I don't regret it. I had a lovely conversation with the Dutch girl, which I wouldn't otherwise have had. And I learnt that I'm unlikely to go to that place again, but it was a good thing to try. Better still would be to lose the habit of wanting to buy a drink for a train journey. Sure, it shouldn't be banned, but what if i drank every last thing I'd brought with me before I moved onto anything else. I'd probably be there by the time I got to that stage... which would be nice.