Travel Series: York

So once again starts the travel series blogs on the places that I will be visiting (largely but not entirely with Sara) this break. Anxiety leads people to prepare extra for the coming weeks, though I will admit that most of my focus was on surviving the first week before being able to fly home.

Sara and I set off our journey at 10 am with her friend John, dropping him off at the airport. We then met our friend Heather in London to chill before our megabus trip to York. It soon became clear that with my bow and everything that I stuffed in it and my bag which for some reason seemed larger than usual, I was carrying around a lot more weight than last time. My arms were screaming and I was quickly becoming fatigued with our travelling. I avoided complaining about it and looked forward to not having to carry it around at the hostel. While hanging out with Heather, I looked at my watch and all about freaked, thinking that we had only 30 minutes to get to the bus station. We rushed to leave and it was about the time that we hit the underground that I realized I was off by an hour. Deciding that it was best to continue on at this point and certainly a good thing that we now had an hour and a half to get to the station, we continued on our way. It turns out that for part of the megabus trip, we would be on a west midlands train and then pick up a bus that would take us the rest of the way to oxford. Our train left at 3:15 and we arrived in York around 7pm.

It was a Saturday night and there were plenty of young people out and about looking to party. We followed the directions to the hostel that I had reserved in advance and asked for directions once. We found it a good 15 minutes later. We were pleasantly surprised to find the hostel to be a gorgeous townhouse and a historical sight in itself. The micklegate house was practically a mansion and it included a generous free breakfast and a very nice and cozy atmosphere as well as a kitchen. We settled in for the night, pleased that we had found it without too much trouble. The wifi wasn't the strongest, and the lounge was more crowded than we would have liked but for the most part it was great.

After a semi-restful night (how much sleep can you get with 10 girls in one room), we had breakfast and set out to do some exploring. York is a small town. You can walk from one end to the other in about 30 minutes (this is specifically talking about the historic part of town, anything included in the wall). We went towards the York Minster cathedral and walked along the wall around its gardens. The cathedral was gorgeous in its gothic architecture and very similar to many of the churches we had seen before. Walking along the ancient ruined wall was particularly fun in that it provided a uniquely historic perspective.

Once we had finished following the wall, we continued to monument park and botanical gardens, which was a beautiful sight to behold. The ruins of some old churches and the oldest known hospital still remained. Not to mention it was a gorgeous day in the sun. The flowers were in bloom and the air was warm and crisp. No matter who we ran into, they were helpful and friendly. This was a pleasant surprise which led to a comparison of Yorkshire individuals being the Canadians of the UK.

We continued walking through town and passed by a large mound with fort atop it and the palace museum. Both attractions had a fair fee, but given that we are poor college students, we merely admired from afar, particularly the numerous daffodiles that covered the sides of the mound. We found the Viking museum and had a nice picnic lunch outside it. At this point, we realized that we had covered most of the ground of the city and so we headed back to follow up on some advice and visit Betty's tea house. There was a line stretching outside and it sold some of the cutest desserts and chocolates. We each got the house tea and shared some french toast and the famous scone.

We were pretty stuffed by then and had about 2 hours to kill before a performance that was being held at York Minster that Sara and I had decided to attend. We went back to the hostel and Sara practised her violin while I did archery reversals with my bow. We then set off for the recital performance/religious service at the York Minster cathedral. The men and boys choir sang pieces accompanied by readings of passages for lent. The service was very beautiful and calming and largely relaxing. After the performance, Sara and I went to cook some dinner and settled in for a night of relaxation.

The next day, Sara and I had time to kill before our bus and so we walked along another portion of the wall and came across a park. We then visited an old monastery which had an exhibit talking about the life of the monks and nuns in the area, their founding and religious persecution as well as numerous aspects of their culture. It was quite a neat exhibit and someone was practising the organ the whole time which provided a nice atmosphere. We collected our things from the hostel before waiting at the bus stop for the 5 hour return journey to London and the continued travel to Paris, but I will leave that for the next travel series.

York on a whole was a lot smaller than I expected. The city itself was quaint deeply historical but also a bit monochromatic. The people were very kind and that it probably the biggest and best impression that York left on me. We had fun, and in many ways, the city served to ease us in to bigger travels to come. I hope you enjoy the many pictures. I'm sure Paris will have even more. Until next time.

Adventures Await

KH