Thursday, August 5 I woke up especially thrashed. I mean, we were tired ALL the time, but the Thursday, August 5 I woke up more thrashed than usual. I think the extra traveling and the length of the trip was starting to get to me. Plus I tend to value time joking around with the girls, returning emails and chatting with everyone back home over my sleep. Anyway, I was tired and running late, but I was able to run down and grab some yogurt just as breakfast was closing and hopped into the van for the 5(ish) hour drive to The North!
After Jorvik, we got to explore the city. York is seriously awesome. We got some ice cream (clearly), and then checked out “The Shambles.” This part of town is preserved to look exactly like the Medieval street it once was. A little creepy, but fun. I even saw a cool reference to a movie I love, V for Vendetta!
We met up at Yorkminster for Evensaid. Evensaid is weird, not as good as Evensong, but Yorkminster is my favorite Cathedral. It is incredible. It’s huge, the biggest in the North. Fantastic.
After Evensaid, everyone dispersed to attend various Ghost Tours around York. London had Jack the Ripper tours, but no other city had anything to compare to this. There were upwards of 10 different Ghost Tours across the city, ranging from 2-10 pounds. Not really sure why. This prompted me to utter a phrase which henceforth became a sort of inside joke for our group.
We didn’t want to pay, but we were ALMOST sneaky enough to tag along with a random tour. Too risky. Instead Jessica, Sam, Megan and I went to Pizza Hut. It was the best idea we had all day. It was just as good as American Pizza Hut, and exactly what we needed. Our ginger waiter entertained us with some flirting and sharing his opinions and perceptions of the United States. We had a much needed girl talk, plenty of sharing and bonding. Then we walked up to Clifford’s Tower. This was scarier than a ghost tour, I thought. In 1190, over 100 Jews piled into the tower and burned themselves alive rather than concede their beliefs or be killed and mutilated by the surrounding mob. Yikes.