I'm done with classes for...well, it looks like pretty much for the year. Easter Break started yesterday and lasts until April 20; after that I have some essays (papers) due and then a few "revision sessions" before my exams begin in May. My last exam is June 10. I'm going to have a lot of time to kill.
Next week I'm off to Ireland, France, and Italy. Look for some updates in April on my completely innocent activities backpacking across these three countries.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
From York to Stonehenge
The title pretty much sums up the past few weeks. Two Saturdays ago I went to York with my friend Kyle, who's from Connecticut. This trip was an attempt to get out of Lancaster and do something after two weeks of inactivity. I'm glad I got to York, because it's a beautiful city. It's surrounded by walls from the 13th-century, and if you walk along the length of them you can pretty much traverse the entire town. There are a fair number of Roman ruins in the area, and several parks, including one in which we watched an impressive bird show.
The highlight of the trip was the York Minster, the number two cathedral in England (after Canterbury). This thing was HUGE. Inside were some very large and very old stained-glass windows, one of them the size of a tennis court; I think they're largest in the world. Kyle and I were planning on taking a trip up the cathedral's tower and also descend into the crypt, but we decided there wasn't any time to do that.
I'm glad we came on the day we did, because that Saturday was the culmination of the Jorvik Viking Festival (Jorvik is the Viking name for York). Everywhere we went there were people dressed in Viking costumes, complete with swords and shields; in every restaurant you could spot someone with fake wounds pasted to their face. Toward the end of the day the Vikings paraded through the center of the town to where the castle once stood; alas, Kyle and I had to leave before the planned Viking/Roman clash.
This past weekend I went to Bath and Stonehenge. These two locations are in the extreme south of England, meaning the bus ride was about four hours with a food stop in the middle. It was well worth it. Bath is a very Roman city, like York, though Bath was much more hilly (the San Francisco of England). Compared to Lancaster and York, there were many more churches in Bath, it seems like one on every block--and some were actually being used! At the center of the town was the Bath Abbey, which was a little bit smaller than York Minster but pretty impressive.
Saturday involved us taking a tour of the Roman Baths (note: I was traveling with a group of international students). Basically, these are ancient swimming pools that occasionally bubble--all in all, nothing too remarkable, except for the fact that they are 2,000 years old. On display were lots of statues to Gods, Roman mosaics, heads of Minerva, etc. I enjoyed it, but the admission price of £9.50 was a little steep.
We stayed overnight at a hostel, which was included in the travel package. In the morning they served us a free "continental" breakfast the next morning, which meant toast, cereal, and orange juice. I think I like American continental breakfasts better.
On Sunday we went to Stonehenge. We came upon it so quickly that I only had time to think, "Is that really Stonehenge?" It wasn't that it was small, it was just so close to the motorway that I probably would've missed it or assumed it was just some Stonehenge-themed rest stop. The bus driver said we were lucky to come when we did, since it's usually windy and rainy at Stonehenge, and that day it was sunny. You can't actually go up to the monument, just circle it, and we did so for about a half-hour, pondering such things as just how exactly those ancients got the stones on top of the other ones 5,000 years ago, and what exactly a henge was (I subscribe to the theories presented in this video). I left Stonehenge thrilled at seeing one of the wonders of the world, and no thrilled with the prospect of a four hour drive home.
Pictures of these events will be available soon. Next weekend I'm going paintballing for the first time, which should prove quite interesting. I've made some plans for Easter Break--on March 26 I'm going to Dublin, and on April 3 I'm going to Paris to hop around Europe with my friend Phillip. Exciting stuff.
The highlight of the trip was the York Minster, the number two cathedral in England (after Canterbury). This thing was HUGE. Inside were some very large and very old stained-glass windows, one of them the size of a tennis court; I think they're largest in the world. Kyle and I were planning on taking a trip up the cathedral's tower and also descend into the crypt, but we decided there wasn't any time to do that.
I'm glad we came on the day we did, because that Saturday was the culmination of the Jorvik Viking Festival (Jorvik is the Viking name for York). Everywhere we went there were people dressed in Viking costumes, complete with swords and shields; in every restaurant you could spot someone with fake wounds pasted to their face. Toward the end of the day the Vikings paraded through the center of the town to where the castle once stood; alas, Kyle and I had to leave before the planned Viking/Roman clash.
This past weekend I went to Bath and Stonehenge. These two locations are in the extreme south of England, meaning the bus ride was about four hours with a food stop in the middle. It was well worth it. Bath is a very Roman city, like York, though Bath was much more hilly (the San Francisco of England). Compared to Lancaster and York, there were many more churches in Bath, it seems like one on every block--and some were actually being used! At the center of the town was the Bath Abbey, which was a little bit smaller than York Minster but pretty impressive.
Saturday involved us taking a tour of the Roman Baths (note: I was traveling with a group of international students). Basically, these are ancient swimming pools that occasionally bubble--all in all, nothing too remarkable, except for the fact that they are 2,000 years old. On display were lots of statues to Gods, Roman mosaics, heads of Minerva, etc. I enjoyed it, but the admission price of £9.50 was a little steep.
We stayed overnight at a hostel, which was included in the travel package. In the morning they served us a free "continental" breakfast the next morning, which meant toast, cereal, and orange juice. I think I like American continental breakfasts better.
On Sunday we went to Stonehenge. We came upon it so quickly that I only had time to think, "Is that really Stonehenge?" It wasn't that it was small, it was just so close to the motorway that I probably would've missed it or assumed it was just some Stonehenge-themed rest stop. The bus driver said we were lucky to come when we did, since it's usually windy and rainy at Stonehenge, and that day it was sunny. You can't actually go up to the monument, just circle it, and we did so for about a half-hour, pondering such things as just how exactly those ancients got the stones on top of the other ones 5,000 years ago, and what exactly a henge was (I subscribe to the theories presented in this video). I left Stonehenge thrilled at seeing one of the wonders of the world, and no thrilled with the prospect of a four hour drive home.
Pictures of these events will be available soon. Next weekend I'm going paintballing for the first time, which should prove quite interesting. I've made some plans for Easter Break--on March 26 I'm going to Dublin, and on April 3 I'm going to Paris to hop around Europe with my friend Phillip. Exciting stuff.
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