Saturday 12th: (York 2/2) doing stuff in York, leaving York

I had a huge sleep in today until 8:58am. I had to check out by 10am otherwise I could have slept for even longer. I checked out and that was all fine. Since I've only got a backpack with me it was very easy to pack my things up. Much easier than when I had the big suitcase. It's great.

After I checked out I decided I'd have a sit down in the lounge room for a while before leaving the hostel since I was still feeling a bit tired and wasn't really sure what I wanted to do this day. The other person in the room couldn't figure out where the remote control for the t.v. was, so we were watching a news channel. I didn't really mind. The egyptian so-called dictator had stepped down in response to all the protests and his military not really supporting him. Then the guy found the remote so we watched a show about crazy traffic accidents. It was kind of entertaining. Then the guy found the remote and decided to change the channel. At that time there were about 4 others watching the show and apparently enjoying it. So I found it a bit weird that he felt entitled to change the channel without consulting anyone! After flicking through a bunch of channels, he couldn't find anything, so he left and offered me the remote. I didn't really have an interest in doing the same thing, and I was almost re-energised so I decided I'd head out.

It was about 11am at that point. A slow start to the day, but I felt like I should have a few quieter moments so that I don't completely exhaust myself. I had a few plans for the day and I left the hostel.

This is the outside of the hostel I stayed in.

Some young people were making some kind of protest or demonstration. There was a bit of funky music, dancing, and enthusiasm. They were kind of wearing army things. Later someone asked me to donate some money. I think they mentioned something about war victims or soldiers or something. But I'm not really sure.

I found a McDonald's. I almost thought they didn't have one. But they do. (I didn't buy anything from here)

A train driving around the street. I think it is connected with the York Railway Museum. I didn't make it to that museum unfortunately, but I've been told it's really good. A guy from rambling told me there is video of the old mail trains where apparently they'd speed through stations without stopping, but as they went through, some hatches were opened and the mail would fall into somewhere ready to be delivered to that particular area. Amazing.

I was headed toward York Minster, but then decided I'd have a little look at the York Art Gallery since that is close by. It is free too.

The Art Gallery. The person the statue is modelled on was the 'royal academician'. Awesome job.

This image is produced from 10,000 photographs of the queen. The material it's constructed on is something so that when you move around, you see a slightly different image. So as you move, the picture of the queen moves a bit too. It was quite cool.

Inside the museum they had an exhibit by David Hockney. He had painted a huge picture by painting 50 individual regular size canvasses that all combine to form a huge image. He used some digital technology to help piece together how it was going. I thought it was very cool and inspirational.

Here is the link describing the David Hockney exhibit: http://www.yorkartgallery.org.uk/Page/ViewSpecialExhibition.aspx?CollectionId=48

After that I left the gallery and walked towards York Minster.

Outside the Minster is this statue of Emperor Constantine. He was proclaimed emperor of Rome near this spot! Amazing. I did not know this.

This tells of the constantine thing.

I'm inside the Minster now.

There is a lot of restoration work needed for this building. A few decades ago they realised that it was about to collapse because the Norman foundations were not strong enough for the massive weight of it all. Some stones need to be removed and replaced. They are selling those stones here in an auction where the funds will help to pay for restoration.

Huge stained glass window.

They're preparing for some kind of 'rock' concert. Later I went up to the tower, and as I came down, there was a very loud and ominous rumbling noise which I later realised was drums. The guitarist had some interesting synth-like tones going on. The singer was a bit typical angsty. There was a lot of delay effect added. They were doing a sound-check but playing at a very loud volume. I didn't mind particularly because the sounds were a little interesting. But the people who sell the tickets were scuttling around with very upset facing saying how terrible it all was. It was a bit loud though.

at 1:15 I lined up ready to climb to the top of the tower. There were a whole lot of stairs, all of the spiral kind. It was quite fun. There was a bit of groaning from the people around me about how many stairs there were, but I was feeling good. Hooray!

After some length of time the stairs ended and we came out to a little walkway at the base of the sloped roof for the main height of the building, but below the big tower. So we were about halfway up. There were some nice views of the medieval construction.

Very narrow door!

Going up to the tower were quite a few people and because it's so narrow it's single-file all the way. On this little ledge the people behind me were kind of stopped taking pictures, so I took a few as well, since I wasn't holding them up. A little while later a beeping sound was heard, and a lady over an intercom asked us all to keep moving along!

(from this point I'm writing this while in Finland so the details are a bit vague).

We got to the top. It is 60 metres tall. One of the people who work there was telling me general stuff about it all. She was German, and thought I was as well for some reason. Although I'd only spoken one word before she asked.

 After a while we had to go down. Again some people stopped and over the intercom the lady asked everyone to keep moving.

I had more of a look around including the 'crypt'. No photos were allowed in there. They had some of the original roman structure remnants down there, discovered during some restoration. I found it interesting that the Roman fort followed the contours of the land for best strategic defence, while the norman and medieval structures had an east/west orientation.

Awesome organ pipes. One day I will construct a smaller version.

The room off to the side. I think people sit in here if they feel like doing that.

I was quite tired from all the standing and looking so I left.

I think this roman column was found buried underneath the york minster. I think it had collapsed after the roman building stopped being used. Something like that, anyway.

The old castle thing. I never went up there. I think it would have been fun but I was running out of time. It was only 3 pounds I think, but my money was whittling away. Also it looks like you just climb up and have a nice view. I think the inside is empty.

I stopped by at the Jorvic Centre again, since when I went the previous day, I was very tired and didn't look around that much. The ticket to this is valid for 12 months.

I didn't have that much of a look because I was rushing to get to the city museum before it closed to have another look through there. I went on the ride again at the Jorvic Centre. Different audio commentary this time. Also, they had a new display up. It sprang up overnight (the previous day it was covered by bits of cardboard).

I made it to the city museum. I had a good look through. They had quite a lot about the civil war. York played quite a part in that apparently.

It was almost closing time so I left. I wanted to walk the rest of the way around the city walls. But I got there and a sign said that the gate to the walls usually close at dusk. It was basically dusk now so I decided not to risk getting locked up there. The walls are sometimes very high along some sections. I went for a little walk through the city on the south side of the river, which I had not yet explored because it has less of the medieval buildings.

Next time, I think this river boat might be fun.

walking through alleys...

... and looking over fences.

This cat was quite friendly. Although soon it realised I had nothing of value to it. Then it seemed to be plotting an attack upon a bird. The bird was up high on a telephone cable. I think the bird was fairly safe.

It was getting dark so I headed to an area where I had previously seen a few italian restaurants. I ordered a spaghetti ragu thing, which I think is a different way of saying spaghetti bolognese pretty much. Also a '250ml' of some kind of red wine. Both the food and wine were very good.

strange under-table shot since I didn't want to bring the tourist element into these people's nice meal.

I had a nice amount of time left to walk toward the train station.I had a short walk along the wall along a section that has no gates.

So tired.

On the first train there were drunkards. They didn't really have a ticket although they seemed to think that they did have one at some time. The ticket inspector wasn't really satisfied by that so they had to either buy a ticket or [some other thing possibly involving calling police although that was a mock gesture]. They got off at the next stop. They were a bit loud. It was interesting.

I had one change to make for this journey. At Sheffield. It was quite chilly since it was late at night. The connecting train was about 40 minutes late I think! I wouldn't have been bothered that much, if not for the cold.

When I got back to nottingham I made the usual epic walk back to the hall of residence and got some sleep.