A Day In York

My day started bright and early as I climbed out of bed at 7 a.m. and began preparing for my trip to York. We actually managed to head out only 10 minutes late, 8:10 a.m. The journey was three and a half hours long, luckily I slept at least 2 and a half of those hours. When we arrived in York, at 11:40 p.m., the first thing we did was to meander our way back to the Tourist Center, to grab a map of the city and to try and map out things we wanted to do. Mick, Justine, Carina, Jana, Belinda and I decided to head off together and there were 3 main places we wanted to go: York Minster, The Dungeon and Jorvik Centre.

The first place we went to was York Minster, we looked at the prices and hemmed and hawed for a good time before finally making the decision to just go in. Mick and I decided to just do the underground area, while Carina, Jana, Justine and Belinda bought a ticket to do the entire Minster, which included a walk up 275 stairs to look out the top. While we were there we got to experience our first wedding of the day, it was a military wedding of some sort, but the brides dress looked quite lovely and it really is a gorgeous place to have a wedding. While the others finished up walking around the Minster, Mick and I decided to go for a wander ourselves. We went down the little side streets and they had some really cute stores and we picked out places for lunch. We also found an outdoor market and not like Camden Market, where it was all clothes, this had food and clothes, but it's exactly what I had pictured a market to be. We ended up finding a couple of really cool stores, one was a store where they took your name and did a family shield... they were gorgeous, but to expensive there. I think I could have gotten it cheaper in Warwick, but that's okay, the second was this little hole in the wall book store that I could have spent hours looking in. It was great. By the time the others were out of the Minster, it was 2:30 and people were getting hungry so we stopped for a quick bite and then headed onwards. By this time it was after 3 and we had to be on the bus by 6.

Our second stop was going to be Jorvik Centre, however we stumbled across the que for the Dungeon first. Unfortunately the que was to long and it was £9 to get in with our student discount, so we decided to skip. It's a shame, because I think it would have been really cool to see, but onwards we traveled. We finally made it to Jorvik Centre and found out it was £6.60 to get in. Which was fine by me, I heard it was the place to go, so I was going. Belinda and Carina ended up coming with me and the others went off and we decided we would meet up before heading off to the bus. We went down these stairs and then they take you into this car and it's like a ride and it shakes and it takes you back into the Viking Era. Then you get out of the enclosed car and into another more open car... and it takes you for a ride through Jorvik. It was so cool to see the detail that was put into the design and to see the evolution of how things came to be and how they were able to survive with what they had and survive well. After the ride, you get off and then go into a little museum where there are actual artifacts and skeletons that have been dug up from the area. I really enjoyed it and we spent about an hour there, because by the time we came out it was nearly 4:45 p.m.

We started to make our way back to York Minster and met up with the others and made our return to the bus at about 5:25 p.m. but we were so cold, we were okay with sitting for a little bit. Then it was another three and a half hours home when we finally arrived back to uni at 9:45 p.m. or so. Another day trip down and I really enjoyed this one. My next adventure Dublin, I leave on the 3rd of April and will be back on the 6th. I'm looking forward to it and should be a nice little trip. Saint Patricks Cathedral is right around the corner from where I am staying and I've got a little guide as well, for things to see and do while I'm there. It even gives me an entire day planned out! So very cool. After Dublin, it's only day trips for the rest of break, hopefully one to Oxford and one to Bath. Then in May Italy and Greece!!! Then back to the real world.