A York Weekend

Here is a synopsis of my York experiences...

Friday

We arrived in York, and after taking an hour guided bus tour, we were off to explore! We walked through a lot of cute shops in the town centre. Allie gravitates to the jewelry shops (to look at diamond rings), and Erin heads straight for the clothing stores. I make Kathryn and Jill follow me to the bakeries or chocolate shops.

We made our way to York Minster, the Anglican Church Cathedral, where we attended Evensong. The boys choir sang, and it was amazing! They were almost as good as the Faith Lutheran choir back home. ;)

After our ears were pleasantly entertained and our bodies were freezing from the cold air inside the church, we ate dinner at a nice Italian restaurant with a colorful older man as our server. Highlight of the dinner: My calzone was twice the size of my head.

At night we went to the local Pantomine at the Royal York Theatre. It was a different theatrical experience. The audience was very involved, and the plot was very random. There was also a lot of current issues and British jokes that went over our heads at times, but it was definitely an entertaining cultural experience.

Saturday

We got back on our bus and headed an hour and a half to see the Yorkshire Dales. Dale is the Scandanavian word for valley. We saw beautiful rolling hills with lots of sheep in fields.

We went to the small town of Skipton for a couple hours. They had a cute castle, (I feel weird describing a castle as "cute") and a market to browse through as well. We went through many shops, and I had my first mocha (I don't know why I have waited so long to have one of these) at a quiet coffee shop.

After exploring a small town (it was refreshing to be in a small town!), we got back on the bus for York. Once we were back, we walked along a wall that encloses most of the city. (I wish I could remember all the history of the wall, but there was history overload this weekend...)

We went through the Castle Museum, and then I had my first fish and chips experience at a local pub. I can't wait to have fish and chips again - very deep fat fried and delicious.

Last night we went on a Ghost Walk of York. We found out that York is the most haunted city in the world. Our guide also told us that our bed and breakfasts were also probably haunted. (No old man should ever be allowed to tell a gullible 21 year-old girl from the States that she is sleeping in a ghost's playground...)


We experienced a lot in our short time at York and Skipton, including a full English breakfast. Here are some tips for dealing with this morning food:

Skip the bread pudding. It looks like a chocolate candy bar, but this is very deceiving. It's cow blood.

Be prepared to have your arteries clogged for days after consuming the fried bread. (I didn't know it was possible to deep fat fry a piece of bread.)

The bacon looks like a gross piece of ham. Some parts can be tasty if you cut around it.

Nonetheless, I recommend eating it (the mushrooms and tomatoes weren't bad... and the greasy egg could have been worse), and I am sure I will do it again sometime.

Oh, it's only the beginning of many more cultural experiences to come!