Lindsay and I got a lift from Mel to the train station at Harrogate. I waited with our bags while Lindsay went and found us some lunch. While sitting there I made new best friends with 2 ladies and a young boy who I believe was autistic and had a huge interest in trains. They had come to the station to watch the trains come in. He saw me with all our luggage and wanted to know where we were going and was able to tell me what train we needed and when it was coming! The women with him were then very interested to know where I was from and where we had been. Lindsay came back to see me chatting away with this group of people. When ever he leaves me to go look for a train, buy something or even use the toilet I somehow manage to make new best friends with random people!
Anyway, we hopped on the train to York,
It didn’t take long at all
We arrived at our hostel, Ace Hotel. It was stunning! An old Georgian house with chandeliers and big old fashion leather couches and MTV blaring in the corner? and a really grumpy and rude man behind the desk. It cost a fortune! 20 pounds each a night. For that we were staying in a room with 12 people and had one tiny shower and toilet between the 3 of us. And when we asked if we could use the dining room to eat the food we had bought they said no…they it couldn’t be used after 9am! We had to sit on the floor next to our bed to eat our dinner. We got the feeling that the owners really wanted a Hotel but while they undergo renovations they wanted to make the building a hostel. They certainly didn’t treat us like paying customers but rather like a dirty annoying inconvenience.
Anyway after chucking a tanty in the entrance foyer (I was not impressed with the way they were treating us) Lindsay and I walked into York to take a look around.
We walked to Shambles, an old street in York.
I have been here once before, when I was 14. It was about the same time of year, but freezing cold, wet and misty! So it looked very different in the warm summer air.
We then wandered around and found a nice grassy place to sit and watch the world go by.
What did go past was a flock of geese, they had fluffy baby gosslings
a pigeon and a duck also went by, they seemed to think they were part of the flock of geese.
That night we went on a ghost tour of York. The tour guide arrived.
Stood very still in front of everyone, didn’t say anything. Then suddenly shouted very loud “If you are here for the tour stand against that wall, I will be back soon” Everyone was busy changing their pants after having the **** scared out of them. He came back and made us stand on the other side of the street. Glared at us evilly then left again. He came back for us, had some fun scaring some children and then stalked off expecting us all to follow. The stories he told us were not particularly scary, but his acting was terrifying…but also funny. You didn’t know wether to scream or laugh. At one point on the tour everyone had to stand and hold their breathes. One lady tried to hold her breath but would laugh hysterically making everyone else laugh. You could people trying to hold their breath but eventually the LOL took over! The guide would glare at her and asked us to try again…but she laughed and made everyone else laugh. It was so funny! Watching him trying to maintain his scary persona was pretty good!
The best part was when the guide got all 150 of us to line up outside a posh italian restaurant with big windows. We had to pretend to be listening to something he was telling us, and then on his signal we had to walk up the glass and stare in at the patrons. Then on his second signal we had to pull funny faces at them for 1 minute before running away. It was fantastic!
Once the tour was over we walked back through Shambles to our hostel. Along the way he came across some Morris Dancers.
This is the traditional folk dance for Yorkshire. No offence to anyone…but seriously I have never ever seen anything so camp! There are men skipping, with bells around their ankles, flowers around their hats and waving white clothes around. They skip in and out and around in a circle. More camp than anything I have ever seen in the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney thats for sure!
York has an Old wall around the city on which you can walk almost all the way around the city.
We walked half way around the wall and hopped off for a bit of a wander around the small winding streets. We stumbled upon this lovely old church.
It has been used since before the Victorian Era, so was still laid out the ways churches used to be before the reformation. There are booths in the church with benches inside the boxes, each family would have had a booth.
We then walked to the famous York Minster. A minster is a church that is on a site that has been used as a place of worship since the normans. Under the minster in the Crypt was a museum which was quite interesting.
Afterwards we wanted to have a look in the Minster but the admission fee was 6 pounds each. Mel a few days previously had told us that they can’t actually charge people to enter a church. Instead of an admission fee of 6 pounds its technically a “recommend donation amount” but the tourists don’t know this and the signs don’t give a hint of this. If you jump the line and walk into the minster without paying they are not allowed to stop you.
Not that Lindsay and I snuck into a church without paying…
Nope, no sneaking at all…we walked confidently past the long line of people being tricked into paying a small fortune and straight into the church.
It was very magnificent and extravigent inside.
There were lots of tombs in the minster. Some had a statue of the person buried below. Most were tasteful, with the person lying in armor with their arms crossed.
Others just were disturbing and posed an awful lot of questions!
such as
Why is he lying like that?
What is he touching with his left hand?
What is he looking at?
After having a lot of fun finding rude and crude induendos in the Minster we continued on our wall walk
I got hungry towards the end….
We found an Igloo made out of stone! 
It was actually used to store ice during warmer months
We then decided to play peek-a-boo-dangle-the-very-expensive-camera-so-we-can-take-cutsey-photos
On our last day we went to the York Castle Museum. It was pretty awesome. It was about life in York since the Victorian era. It was had lots of things to look at and information to read.
They had an old street set up like it would have looked in the 1800s
they also had a section of kitchens over time.
this was one the of the Kitchens! Old ladies were looking at it saying “oh I remember when my kitchen looked like this” ….. I remember when my kitchen looked like this (and it doesn’t anymore only because we moved) and I know people whose kitchens look like this!?!?! and now its in a museum! I think its a worrying day that something you think is normal everyday stuff ends up in a history museum!
We left the musuem for a break and something to eat and discovered my hand was blue?
Why was my hand blue? Don’t answer this, its supposed to be a rhetorical question because I don’t have an answer.
After chicken legs drumsticks and a salad from Marks and Spencer we went back into the musuem for the 2nd half.
This part was in the old York Gaol, where we learnt about the 60s, the era of Love, Peace, the Beatles and Doctor who!
The old gaol cells were really really great! In each cell was a projection of a an actor dressed up like a prisoner/gaurd/lawyer talking about their connection with the gaol. A must see!
The next day we went to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Not a hugely exciting place. We stayed in a cheap hotel there. 1 day Lindsay had to do work and I watched lots of TV (you have no idea how much you miss watching TV while backpacking)
The next day we had a wander around the town
We looked at an old castle
And found Sydney Harbour Bridge’s twin
We then made our way to the station to hang out there while we waited for Cassie and Jimmy. The staion had free wifi which made the wait tolerable. I did get bored and did useful things like take photos of my shoes
Lindsay’s Ear
and his eyes
Cassie and Jimmy arrived and rescued Lindsay and I from the Manchester fans who were about to arrive at the station and for whom 50+ plus police were waiting for!