I got up and ready at 4am this morning, threw a few last things into my backpack I would need for my potentially long trip, grabbed my case, and went out to the van as I munched on one of my last few apples.
There was a perfectly sized area just behind the back two seats for my violin case and my yellow coat, so I slipped them back there before jumping into one of the seats in the back half of the van. It was a four and a half hour drive to York, so I journaled for as long as I could keep my eyes open before I crashed.
I woke up as we pulled into a little gas station somewhere north of Cardiff a few hours later. I didn't have any food to pack for this trip, so I hopped out to snag something for second breakfasts and later on for lunch. It's so easy to gain weight on this trip, just btw. Irregular opportunities to sleep, meals at all sorts of times, the few foods forgiving enough to be kept in a backpack between the mystery meal stops are high in carbs, and days like this are high in sit time and low on walk time. Lame.
I walked in and found some stuff that looked pretty good for the low price and noticed Aly by the candy shelf as I made my way to the line. She looked like a sad little kid as she looked down into her hand, slowly counting and then recounting her handful of coins. It was strangely and depressingly adorable, so I stifled a little smile as I walked over to her and asked which candy bars she was considering getting. She pointed to the Boost and the Crunchie bars briefly before counting through her coins once again. She began telling me that she had accidentally left her five pound note in Cardiff and was looking forward finding an ATM, but I had already picked up the candy bars and was agreeing with her as I put everything up at the counter. I was a little relieved when I heard the protest and sheepishness that I know all too well, because that was the only thing I knew how to really respond to. Many a kind soul has swallowed up my exact reaction with a sincere smile and happy comment, and it was high time for me to be returning some favors.
And so, it was an excellent morning.
We drove the rest of the way to York, where we stopped in at our hostel. They didn't have any rooms ready for us yet, so we stored our extra things in the back luggage room. So I unloaded half my pack and then ran back outside with the group.
We walked to the river and then along the banks for about a half mile before we came to the town. It was a nicer looking city, actually, very clean with the ancient roman wall still encircling all but 100 meters of it all. We spent a few hours being led very quickly through the town to the greatest sights and monuments: the Shambles (a road so narrow that two people can shake hands from buildings on either side), the outside of the castle, the cathedral, the main square, Emperor Constantine's statue, etc.
Once we had completed our very hasty zigzag through the town, we were dismissed to do whatever we wished for about another three hours, before we were to meet for a guided tour through the town. Tom had told us about a place where they roast a pig on a big spit, and so when you order your sandwich, they cut it right off the pig in front of you and put it in the bread, and for a half pound more, you could get extra 'crackling,' or the cooked skin. I wasn't feeling real hungry then, but my group was, so we found our way to the Roasted Boar, that sandwich place. It was super expensive there, so since I wasn't feeling up to paying a lot of money for something I wasn't hungry for, I went on my own down the street a ways, picked up a Kinder Bueno shake for a couple of pounds (haha, super healthy, right? ) and found my group again. Most of them had ordered, but Miya was still in line and now alone at the very back. Calysta was waiting for her, though she wasn't getting anything there either, so I joined them. Once Miya had her sandwich (minus the crackling, bummer eh?) we all went upstairs and enjoyed our multiple lunches.
After lunch, we went looking around the shops of York. Honestly, this was my least favorite part of the day, but that was for a lot of reasons, all most likely super lame. Moving on.
Probably fifteen minutes before we were to meet at the square for our big tour, we ran into Josie, Lydia, Abbey, and Theresa, who were by a big owl and falcon exhibit. I say exhibit because the falconer who was there was letting anyone hold whichever great bird they wished for a while (with a three pound courtesy fee) I so wanted to hold the huge snowy owl, named Oliver, but we were out of time. There were probably five owls and a few falcons there! It was super cool! I'm just definitely a bird lover, so I was all for this! We had to go though, so we left the birds and headed for the square.
The tour was super cool! We were taken all the way through the ruins of the castle, the town, and by the old buildings that had been there for about a century, some a century and a half! I really loved how many different common phrases came from the mideaval time period! Tom had discussed the purpose of arrow loops with us many times, but this guy told us that if you were good enough to shoot your arrow from the field into the loop hole, then you had achieved something great, so that was the origin of 'finding a loop hole.' The term 'the loo' came from a call chamber maids would call down from specific windows on the old buildings before they emptied the chamber pots into the streets below. Another cool bit about York is that one of the main architects who came along later would put a sculpture of a black cat somewhere on the building that he had put up, so every now and then we would see a big black cat statue in a window, climbing straight up a wall, or perched on the roof!
After the tour was over, we found the UK's shortest street, called 'Whip-ma-whop-ma gate.' Oh, the other cool thing about York is that it is where the Vikings settled after the Romans came, left, and the Saxons had invaded and settled there. So there were a bunch of Viking relics, museums, and memorabilia. One of the biggest Viking museums showcased a little ride you went on through the whole building that gave you the 'full Viking experience, including all the SMELLS.' From how sick some of the girls felt through the evening, due to a few of those smells, I wasn't too upset that I had missed that boat. Anyway, we learned at the end of our tour that almost all the streets in York are called '_____ Gate' because the word gate in Norse means street.
Just as the tour ended, Abbey and I saw a sign for a cool vintage clothing shop. We took one look at the sign, then at each other, and then, if I remember right, without any words we both jumped up and honestly ran down the street a few blocks to the vintage store. I'm pretty sure we didn't tell anyone back at the sign where we had gone, but for some reason I was really good with that.
The shop was phenomenal!! Oh, I really do love the old fashioned styles, its just a simple and fun elegance, all rolled into timeless class that you wear. Nuff said. Well, the problem with shops like these is that they are always very pricey, for whatever reason. So when I saw a box of square scarves, I turned around and looked at a rack of dresses. To my surprise, the dresses were only £12, which was odd. As much as I liked them, I didn't see anything I loved, so I kept moving around the room. Sooner or later, I found myself back at the box of square scarves. There must have been thirty different scarves in there, none of them doubled. I sighed, pulled out a beautiful gray one, and checked the tag. I'm pretty positive my gasp was audible when I read £1. One Pound!!! Holy moley, with a price like that, I could afford to get just one!!! So the search began for the best scarf, and like I said, there were around thirty in one box and about that many in another box across the room I had missed the first time. It was happiness! :) Abbey showed me how she usually wears square scarves, and within fifteen minutes, I walked out with a lovely autumn-esque scarf and Abs was wearing some sweet vintage round shades we had picked out for her for about ten pounds! Oh, good times. :)
We found a bunch of cool ghost walks through York, and we picked the one that was the most history-based, rather than creepy and found where the meeting place for it was before we walked over to the Yorkshire cathedral for the evensaid that was happening there that night. Now that I've been to both evensong and evensaid now, I must say that evensong is a little more enjoyable, for me anyway. Evensaid is just basically a reading of a few prayers and two sermons. The whole thing lasts about a half hour.
Before evensaid started, Abbey and I walked around the cathedral. This one felt a lot bigger than the others we had been to, maybe with the exception of Glauchester. It was incredible! There was a giant set of clock chimes, probably a good eight feet tall, of two great metal soldiers who would swing axes and hit two chimes at every half hour! There was also a planetary calendar that would show where the earth was in reference to the zodiac constellations as it tracked the date and time.
After evensaid was finished, we happened to run into a cute German mum with her four year old boy. We chatted with them for a while, and I tried to get the cute little boy to speak in German with me, but his mom said that he was way too shy to speak to others. Sure enough, he just hid behind his mom from us, but they were so fun to speak with!
We ran into Lydia, Josie, and Theresa then, and they told us that they were feeling super tired and that they would be going back to the hostel instead of doing the night walk, so we bid them farewell and Abs and I kept looking through the cathedral. Just before we left, we ran into Miya, so she teamed up with us.
We stopped by the Roasted Boar again for dinner, since we felt we had to get REAL Yorkshire pudding while in York, so we did. It turns out that pudding is a pretty loose term for anything in a bowl or dish that isn't solid. In this case, Yorkshire pudding was some stuffing, gravy, veggies, potatoes, and some beef in an intense and delicious bread bowl thing. I loved it!
After dinner, we saw that it was beginning to rain, so we decided to forgoe the night walk as well. Just as we were crossing the front of the Cathedral, though, something really cool happened. The light rain let up completely, the sun burst through a hole in the thick clouds, the steps of the cathedral were bone dry, and an amazing guitarist guy was playing thirty yards away. The sun had caused the whole square to light up a gorgeous gold color, especially since the stones of the cathedral where a light yellow to begin with. The light was only hitting that small bit of square, so it made the lawns, trees, stones, and buildings all around look so much darker than before. The other weird thing was that the patch of sun stayed, for like 20 minutes, though it grew and shrank often. So the three of us decided to just sit in the sun right up against the cathedral doors, look around at the nearly black clouds all around, and listen to the awesome classical guitarist. And just as we were wondering if this could possibly get any more amazing, the haunting blast of the cathedral organ sounded from the other side of the doors we were near, and a rainbow light up against the dark clouds off in the distance. Haha, yeah... there are no more words for that :)
When it started drizzling again, the three of us started out for home again. When we got to a large rugby training field along the river, the rain let up a bit and the sun came through again, casting our shadows long against the grass. Miya thought it would be a fun idea for us to spell something out with our shadows, so BYU was the logical choice (can you say 'loyal'?), so that's just what we did.
We continued along the river after that until we got to the hostel, where we got cleaned up and ready for bed. After a long fun chat among the six of us, we eventually drifted off to a much longed-for nights sleep.
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