I started the day off with some orange juice and two croissants, because I honestly had no idea when we'd eat again. It was my first time traveling the national rail service, and I had heard about delays, so I figured it'd be better to be safe than sorry. Come to find out, that was probably a good idea. Anjelica and I then went to the Warren Street station, then rode to King's Cross. She then realized she had forgotten her BritRail pass, so we went back to the dorms and got it. It was no big deal though because we left so early in the morning. In fact, it was a bit of a relief because if we had not gone back we would have gotten there thirty minutes earlier than we needed to. But, we eventually arrived at King's Cross Station, found our train, and climbed aboard.
The train and the ride were incredibly comfortable. It took about two hours to reach York, so that was nice. We got some great views of the English countryside, which is simply an awesome. The hills are so green and beautiful; it's really something to behold. For some reason every time we went into a tunnel though our ears would start popping. I can't figure that one out. At the stop in Peterborough, an English couple (Sue and Graham) sat in the seats across from us. They indulged us with some good conversation on the ride to York. They were very nice, very pleasant people. And check this out: they own a house in San Diego. Apparently they just got back from there last week, so that means they were most likely there when my parents were. They agreed with all I had heard about San Diego, that it's lovely and whatnot. They have two sons and a daughter, and Graham is an accountant. Again, they were very good people to speak with and it made our train ride very entertaining.
Once in York, Anjelica and I picked up a map of the city (for 1 pounds--kind of overpriced) and then made our way out of the station. We were really impressed by the great views of the city. The Roman wall, the bridges, and just the general landscape of York is very pretty. We crossed the river there and made our way towards Yorkminster to take the tour. On the way we passed by several architecturally fascinating structures and tried to just bask in the town. Not to mention: it was a very beautiful day. The sun was shining, the clouds were at bay--it was nice. Yorkminster was closed until 1 o'clock for some reason (a service, I think), so we walked around the town a little bit. Anjelica and I had started to feel queasy for some reason, so we decided to eat an early lunch. We decided it must have been the train ride, because it hit both of us around the same time.
We stopped into a pub called The Punch Bowl and ordered lasagne. I know, that seems really out of place, but it was quite good. The Punch Bowl had the exact same menu, and I do mean verbatim, the exact same menu as The Eagle & Child in Oxford. It was kind of weird, because the description of all the dishes and such were the same. The only difference in the menus was the description of the pub and its history on the back. Nonetheless, we got to relax and enjoy the food, then we made our way down the little cobblestone York streets and shopped around. It was a bit crowded through there, but it was still fun. Apparently it had rained while we ate lunch, so luckily we were able to avoid all of that. York had a lot of clothing stores, bookstores, and sweet shops.
Before we went to Yorkminster, we stopped in an antiquarian bookseller that had some really great books for sale. After touring Yorkminster I stopped in and picked up two books that I plan to give as souvenirs to some people I think would really appreciate them. Truthfully though, I could have easily spent a fortune looking around this place. The books were old and really quite fascinating. But, nevertheless, we went to Yorkminster and checked it out.
We toured the Minster itself, as well as the crypt area underneath and, next to St. Paul's, Yorkminster is the most impressive church I have seen since arriving here. Total I've seen Yorkminster, St. Paul's, St. George's Chapel, St. Mary the Virgin, and Christ Church, and really Yorkminster, just like the others, really gave me a feeling of humility and grandeur at the same time. The vaulted ceilings were so high and intricate, the stained glass so rich, detailed, and glowing with the sunlight bursting through--it was something awe-inspiring. The states in Yorkminster had some rather strange poses at time, they weren't all the classical poses you come to expect. But, the Minster was just such an impressive place that I can't really describe it all here. The pictures I took do it some justice.
After touring the Minster we went down into the crypt area and looked around there. It wasn't quite as impressive, but it was interesting to see old artifacts from the church and the thing that really amazed me was the age of the church itself. The site started out as a Roman fort nearly 2,000 years ago. In fact, in 306 A.D., it was the place where they believed Constantine was named Caesar. It would later be overrun by the Normans and finally turned into a church. As far as the age of the site being used as a church, it's probably somewhere around perhaps 1,200 years or more. I'm not really sure, it's just important to realize that the site of Yorkminster has been used for a long, long time as a church.
Once we had finished in the crypts, we exited and went walking around the streets of York once again. I suppose it was the area we were in, but I never really saw any places for people to live. It was all shopping and whatnot. We wandered over to the York Castle Museum and Clifford's Tower. We didn't go into either, but we got some great photographs of them. It was such a beautiful day that, after Anjelica and I picked up some sweets (I got some Yum Yums, a tasty, doughnut-like pastry, and a shortbread bunny cookie), we decided to just kind of chill out. So, we made our way over to the park by Yorkminster and laid down in the grass and bathed in the sunlight. There were a lot of other people, especially schoolchildren out there throwing rugby balls and whatnot. Two little kids were playing with their grandfather. It was a really neat time. On another note though: the Europeans seem to have different standards in regards to public display of affection than we do. For what is easily the fourth time now, I have witnessed people pretty much making out in public or performing some other form of physical display of affection that, back home, would be really inappropriate. I'm not saying it's appropriate here, but I think it may be more accepted. I'm also not the only one who has noticed this, so it's not just me.
Anywho, after lounging in the park, we walked around a bit, then made our way back to the train station. We walked down the Roman wall a bit then got back to the station. Low-and-behold, our train was 45 minutes late, so I got to sit down and read a little bit of one of the old books I purchased. Finally, once the train had arrived, we got aboard and made our way back home. But, as luck would have it, the train got delayed for another half-hour or more. Fantastic. Thankfully though, we did get to have some more great conversation with an Australian named Tom, who works for an environmental grouped called Friends of the Earth (they are somewhat like an advocacy group against environmentally hazardous projects). Tom was a really outstanding person to speak with. He gave us great perspective of how, I would assume, many people in Britain think about the War in Iraq, the environment, and just in general other issues. Granted, I didn't necessarily agree with Tom on all issues (he was a bit more left-leaning than I am), we did get to have some great dialogue about these issues and more. We spoke a good deal especially about humanitarianism and the need to lend a hand to people in need.
Tom was quite pleasant and not militant in his ideas, which was quite relieving. He also gave us a recommendation to a good comedy club in England, which I intend on looking into. But anyhow, we enjoyed speaking with Tom. It was nice to speak with some of the natives (he was from Australia, but had lived in the UK for the past 11 years, although Sue and Graham were from Cambridge), and overall I really began to appreciate the people here much more. The ones outside of the city of London seem to be much more open to conversation and much more pleasant to deal with.
So anyhow, we arrived at King's Cross around 10:45ish, and we made a quick stop by platform 9 3/4 so we could grab a few quick photographs. We then took the train back to Warren Street, trekked back to the dorms, and decided to rest. Right now (Sunday), I'm probably going to lounge around and do a whole lot of nothing, if I can help it. I'm about to shower and go check out Speaker's Corner, but overall I want to take it easy today. A few photos of yesterday's time in York can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8494714@N03/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8494714@N03/page2/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8494714@N03/page3/
