22 May 2004

Slept better than the first night, but still pretty crappy. Had to get up about 7 for breakfast, then pack everything for the trip to York. Being one of only two males on the trip, I got the task of riding ahead in a cab with all the luggage. I swear the driver was crazy, but he definitely knew what he was doing. We got to the station fairly quick, and he helped me unload everything. His parting words were something along the lines of "You'd better keep your fuckin' eyes on this lot, or somebody will mick it around here." Not exactly encouraging. But everybody showed up sooner than I was expecting, and we were able to get on the train fine. The trip was only about two hours long, but, like on the plane, there was a negative amount of leg room.

It was a pretty long hike from the station to the B&B (all the way to "The Avenue"), but there were some amazing sights along the way. The first was the city wall; no longer complete, but still awesome. In some places, you can still see the Roman foundations, built sometime around AD 71, when the city was founded as Eboracum. There are also places where the Vikings added on, when they invaded and changed the name to Jorvik. Most of the wall you can see today was finished around the 14th century. But the most impressive sight of all is York Minster, the second largest Gothic cathedral in Europe. Like Westminster, it is ridiculously large; also like Westminster, it is constantly being repaired. We'll be visiting that tomorrow, so expect an update then.

At eight, we (except Alyssa) went on one of the city's many ghost-walks. This was one of the traditional ones: no actors or people in masks trying to scare you, just stories. We visited several "haunted" (I really don't believe in ghosts) locations, including, but not limited to, King's Manor, York Minster, the tax office, the Shambles, and a few others area I can't remember the names of. We didn't see any ghosts, but we did encounter one very drunk Englishman, who apparently celebrated a little too hard after a wedding that afternoon. We also learned of several interesting, if outdated, bylaws that are still in affect: 1) If any woman is drunk in public, you can have them publicly flogged at Whip-ma-whop-ma Gate; and 2) If you were born in York, you can shoot any Scottish person inside the city walls, as long as you use a bow and arrow. I thought those were cool. Whether or not there actually were ghosts at any of the locations, the man was an excellent story teller, and the walk was well worth the £2 [each] that Barb ended up paying for us to do it.

We decided to do a ghost hunt of our own; but, since it still wasn't dark yet, we decided to hit up a pub. On a suggestion, I tried a double-vodka with lemonade: very good stuff. Maybe a little too good. When it became apparent that we would still be there for awhile, I ordered another. It was also good. It also taught me that I should never order more than the equivalent of four shots. I was still in full control of myself, but I was definitely a bit tipsy. Chelsea, Crystal, Emily, Rob & I headed out to hunt ghosts--everybody else headed back to the B&B. We didn't see any ghosts, we did have a good time, and we got pictures of some haunted locations, so we'll see what happens.