Friday 11th: (York 1/2) going to York, doing stuff in York

[ I took a lot of pictures this day (174) trying to see where the limit is for the battery life of my camera. Here are all pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/110144623598348247797/20110211?authkey=Gv1sRgCOaq7-CM5eqikAE# ]

I was catching an 8:40 train in Nottingham. It was hard to get up but I eventually managed it. I didn't want to miss the train. I got ready and then headed out just 5 minutes after my decided ideal time to leave. I made good time walking to the station. It is 4.7km away so there was some walk.

I got there and managed to sort out the trains. This is the first time I've caught an inter-city train in England so it was exciting. The ticket I get says that it leaves at 8:40 and stops at Sheffield sometime. So the system seems to be that I look to see which trains leave at 8:40 and choose one that stops at Nottingham.

Waiting at Nottingham train station. I think this train had a problem because it didn't leave on time and I had to go to a different platform to wait for my train.

Hooray! I made it onto the train. The seats are really comfortable.

Another power plant. It is quite foggy this morning.

I made it to York station!

The train ride was very comfortable. The seats were comfortable and the ride is very smooth. Busses seem to throw you around a lot. The train journey was: Nottingham, Alfreton, Chesterfield, Sheffield. Change train. Sheffield, Doncaster, York.

My train got in at about 11 I think. I walked toward my hostel since it was really close to the train station. Along the way I saw some of the city wall. It was great. I was quite excited.

The train station is just outside the walls. I walked around the walls a bit, heading for a road that goes in.

Awesome gate lets me in. This is Micklegate (name of the street. It doesn't get a 'street' or 'lane' or anything). Also the name of the gate I think.

My hostel is just a short way down the street. Along the way I saw lots of great medieval houses. I took pictures, but there are lots in York, so I'll add the better ones later.

I got to my hostel. It's a nice big Georgian style house. Usually I have to wait until 2pm to check in, but there was no one sleeping in the bed last night so the lady let me check in.

Each room had one of these telling what it was used for. It looks like they are suggesting that public executions happened in this room. But I find that hard to believe. This is the room I slept in.

The inside of the room. Nice view over the street outside and an old church with an old grave yard. There are four bunk beds in this room. 8 beds. There were no other guests in this room while I was there!

I was very hungry. I only had a crossant at the train station and nothing else. I embarked on a mission to get lots of food. I headed toward the centre of the city. I found a bakery. They didn't have exactly what I was looking for but they had sausage rolls for 70p or so. I got one and asked for tomato sauce as well. I was sensing a bit of confusion. They said they don't have [name for the small plastic package of tomato sauce] kind, as if that was the end of the deal. I must have looked a bit disappointed because they offered to pour some on from their big squeeze bottle. I thought that was a great idea. As I was walking out, I looked back and saw them in a bit of a huddle with screwed up faces like I'd asked for the weirdest thing ever. Either I'm seeing things, or this is one of those things that English people don't do.

Sausage roll and sauce is a classic combination.

Crossing the River Ouse. While crossing, I liked thinking of how the Vikings once sailed up here.

I kept walking, hoping to find more food. I found it. Another bakery. This one with what I was after.

"Yum yums". I'm told that these pretty much only exist in York. So I had to try one. I tried two actually. They were pretty good.

I was reasonably well fed now. Reasonably. So I decided to go do some things. I wanted to find the shambles area, which is a big area of old medieval houses. I found that place and had a wander through.

There's a bit of an open space at one point, so all these people sell stuff. There is a nice variety of junky tourist things, fruit/vegetables, and fish.

It's difficult to capture this scene well. I'm walking through a narrow lane that goes underneath another building. The roof is slightly lower than my head so I'm ducking a bit. I'm thinking this is a bit absurd, hence my expression.

I came out onto the big York Minster. It is a very big one. I think it might be larger than Westminster Abbey.

I walked around it.

Perfect place to build something.

I decided to see if I could walk along the city wall. I can. Yay! The wall almost goes the entire way around the city. There is one section where a lot of water meant they didn't need a wall, and a few other places where some was destroyed in the civil war. But I think it must cover about 80% of the circumference.

"I'm on a wall and there's a big medieval building behind me"

My hands are very cold! They have turned red in retaliation.

I walked a long way around and then came to the York Castle Museum. Next to it is a castle/keep upon a mound.

Inside the museum. They have this street scene thing. Not really my kind of thing, but it was alright.

I looked around the museum for a while. Then I went out to find the Jorvic Centre. It's a place where they have stuff about vikings. I later found that the Jorvic Centre is almost next to the museum (across a carpark and down a street). But I didn't know then. I walked through the shopping area then found a "cornish bakery" (they are everywhere up here, even though it is so far from Cornwall) and bought a vegetable pasty. It was really good. I asked the lady for directions to the Jorvic Centre. Directions worked well.

I went inside the Jorvic Centre. The people here were all very nice. Downstairs they had a glass floor where underneath they'd recreated the archaeological excavation where they found lots of Viking stuff. A lady spent a lot of time explaining it all to me. She was very jovial and friendly. I've found the people in York are very genuinely friendly. It's nice.

I couldn't spend too long looking at the floor because my legs were feeling very tired. I decided to check out this "ride". I got into a seating device like you would find on a pleasant ride at a theme park. The big chair thing was hanging from the roof from a track with wheels. The floor was solid and it was all contained so it was pretty cosy. I selected the language as it started moving away. The thing moved along, with a guy through the speakers telling me stuff about what I was seeing as I went past. The whole chair structure swivelled to the side to imply that I should be looking at stuff. They had kind of recreated a viking town, with lifesize wax people that were very realistic. They had artificial smells of what things in the town were supposed to smell like. For example a rat devouring some animal parts smelled a bit bloody.

Usually I think these things turn out a bit lame. But I think this one worked well. They'd put a lot of effort into it and it gave a pretty unique experience of how it all might have been.

Afterwards I got a city map from the people in the gift shop. I consulted that and decided to head to the dot labelled "roman bath". I didn't know they had one of these.

I got there and had to decend steps to the underneath of a pub. The level of Roman structures is underneath all the medieval houses due to strange geological things.

I got in and the guy was just about to give a bit of an audio tour to some people about the roman bath. I decided to give it a go. I've never seen a roman bath afterall.

This museum was a bit small and strange, being in the basement of a pub. But it was kind of interesting.

Some roman tiles with imprints from the feet of some various roman legion troops. Pretty awesome I thought.

After this I was feeling very tired. The man giving this audio description for us was very friendly. Unfortunately my brain was exhausted and not really working. I tried to find somewhere to sit down. It was quite wet this day so all the outdoor seats were wet. I went into a big department store called Marks & Spencer and sat down in their cafe area without buying anything.

After a bit of a rest I decided to walk along the river.

I walked along this cobbled section. It was very very muddy! It looked like the river rises to this point but I can't see how that is possible since there are houses here. Once I was further on from where this photo is taken, it became very sludgy. Then a big weird duck hissed at me. I finally made it back to dry ground.

I was very tired, so I went back to the hostel and had a sit down inside on their lovely leather couches. I watched top gear and then decided I needed to get back out and find something for dinner.

I knew there were some italian restaurants around but I couldn't find them. This is where I decided on a strategy I will try for when I visit a new city: first get a city map so I can find things and not get lost; then mark restaurants on the map so I can find a good one later when I need one.

I had to settle for pizza hut. I tried a mozarella and tomato ravioli. It was okay but I was starving and wanted a bigger serve. The serving girls were very friendly though. (York people seem to be very friendly)

Afterwards I decided that walking through the shambles area (the place with the big concentration of medieval buildings) would be fun at night time.

I saw some people gathered for a ghost walk, so I decided I'd go with them. It hadn't started yet. 5 pounds for the walk... quite expensive I think. But I'll give it a shot.

The person taking us for the walk was very dramatic and full of self confidence. He did a very good performance. At first I was disappointed because it seemed to be more about being funny than telling us some interesting things. But it was quite entertaining, so I didn't mind too much.

The best part was when the guy said that for our next place we would all stand on one side of the street looking toward an Italian restaurant pretending we were hearing some story told by the man. When people had noticed us we would all wave at them. Then when they waved, we would all walk over and peer in (there were about 50 of us) and then pull a ridiculous scary face. It was very ridiculous.

The person taking us on the ghost walk.

The italian restaurant across the street.

After we had all rushed to the window.

Afterwards I walked home and had another rest on the awesome leather chairs in the lounging room.

Very tired.

I watched a strange English show. It was about a group of about 5 people who set up an elaborate hoax to scam a lot of money from someone involving football deals and pretending that someone was a really great player and that the 5 people were high flyers. At the end one of the scammers had a fall which caused him to get a neural problem where he could only tell the truth. That caused some problems but in the end he told the person the truth that they were terrible scammers who were trying to take lots of his money etc. The other person believed this was a ridiculous joke, and so he went through with it and lost his money. The scam was very elaborate and I'm not sure it made any sense. I think there are a few british tv shows/movies like this.

I went to sleep and had a great sleep.