*do you miss me like i miss you? do i miss you like you miss me?*
i think the subtitle to this post should be "from the beautiful beaches of scarborough to the deep, seedy underbelly of london."
i hope you are prepared, because i am about to take you on a fantastical, wonderful, radical journey in this edition of "plainrides." i hope you have your seat backs and tray tables in an upright and locked position.
day scarborough: when i last left you, i was filling your heads with visions of far off castles and my current life-long goal to someday live in a castle of my own.
well this is all true, and more.
scarborough was a fantastic day trip. i took quite a few pictures, which i will now share with you below.
view of the north sea ^
me (a rare cameo), dylan, dylan, jake ^
view of scarborough with castle in background ^
castle ^
lovely seaside scarborough ^
the castle was the main part of this trip, but that was the last thing we did. first, we walked along the shores of the sea, which was very cold (i had to feel the water). a few of us found some smooth rocks and skipped them in the water. i got only three skips, pretty shotty for a person that has a family cabin. we then wandered around scarborough where we found my favorite dollar-store-in-the-uk-name so far, "price pounder." i wish i could have taken credit for this, because it is brilliant. we then all ate at the golden grid, which is apparently famous for their fish and chips. i actually ordered it and surprisingly enjoyed it quite a bit (for those who don't know, i'm not a seafood fan). when we saw the actual castle, i knew that i needed to someday have one. or two, since i am american. jake and i talked about how this is what we thought england would be like. being on a high shore, looking out over the ocean with a cold wind whipping at your face. it was fresh, sea air. and it felt good. i loved the feeling. for the first time in the trip, it finally sunk in that i actually am in england. and for a while.
that night, a small group of us traveled to the lighthorseman to see the vikings v. cowboys, which the owner steve had agreed to put on for us. it was pretty awesome of him to put it on in a british pub. we all cheered the vikes on as they pummeled the cowboys and made it to the nfc championship game (which i will not mention again at any point in this blog).
the week was really action packed. at least it felt that way. on tuesday, we went to visit this old church, the holy trinity church. it was quite old and still in basically the same shape. i thought it was interesting that people were buried right beneath the stones inside the church. it felt almost weird walking over gravestones, but i guess when you are strapped for space, you need to do this. we then got a chance to go back to the minster and walk up to the tower, even though it was quite foggy. i still found it amazing, and we did get to hear the bell of st. peter ring, which is the second biggest bell in england outside of the bell at west minster.
stained glass in the holy trinity ^
the half-way point up to the tower at the minster ^
at the top of the tower, looking at the bell towers ^ (the big one is on the left)
dylan and i walked home from the minster together, with stopping at mcdonalds (to check the fries) and poundworld. (not as good as the price pounder). all of the snow had melted at this point, causing the river to flood a great deal.
here is dylan standing next to the bar we usually start at when we go out ^
note that the road goes to the end of the sidewalk and beyond. there is a road that runs left to right (on your screen) beyond the building. so the river ouse had flooded quite a bit. as of now (the 25th of jan. it is basically back to normal). no one really seemed to be fazed by the flooding and i heard that it happens quite a bit. they were more freaked out by the snow.
anyways, wednesday we visited a nunnery that was started by mary ward. it was really neat to see and the most wonder old lady showed us around and told us all about it. since there is a lot to talk about here, i will post a link to the wiki page so you all can enjoy the wonderful tale about this convent. i thought it was most interesting to see the actual hand of saint margaret clitherow. it is an actual hand from the 1580s and it is still intact. honesty remarkable. and she is now a saint. that's pretty sweet stuff. read more about both margaret and the bar convent at the links i posted above.
tired yet? since i am losing readers by the minute (or second) i will try to make the rest of this a little more interesting.
on thursday, i started my first day at the york city knights rugby league club. this is going to be an awesome internship. anyways, my match day was thursday night as the knights were playing the hunslet hawks. after a lot of boring prep-work, i was able to watch the match from the box seats that the directors of the clubs sit in. it was amazing. i really like the sport and it didn't take me long to get into it. most of the game was spent watching as well as simon or myself (simon is my boss and the commercial manager for the club) checking in on all of the box suites ensuring that everything was okay for them. they all loved the fact that i am american and gave me a little rubbing on now i am actually seeing real football instead of the wussy stuff with pads that is played back in the states. overall, everyone was extremely friendly and i had a wonderful time. i can't wait until the first real match v. leigh on february seventh!
friday was my first class of "middle english romance and popular fiction (john wayne to gawain)." there is only one other male student in there, and when we got the novels for the term, i sort of realized why. aside from zane grey and various popular movies and middle english texts, we have five romance novels to read. "king's pawn," "oh-so-sensible secretary," "her warrior slave," "nightcap," and my personal favorite "the sheikh's virgin." pretty exciting stuff. i do think the class is going to be great and all of my classmates seem to have their shit together, but i have never ever considered reading a romance novel, so this should be interesting.
friday was another night out with the crew (sans jake, who had traveled to london). i was meeting up with jake on saturday and going to see brand new at wembley area. i'll skip to the travel saturday as my mother thinks i write a bit too much about drinking, and, yes, friday night had a little drinking to go along with it (don't worry, i didn't spend any money. i two liters of cider to drink for the night).
saturday, i woke up nice and early and met up with vivian and joe (her friend from brighton). we were taking the coach down to london, which was only eight pounds. the train costs 23. so, we figured this was a good deal. and, let me tell you, the coach ain't too bad. yes, it takes five and a half hours, but we did get a break and, with a good romance novel assigned by my class from friday (i started with "oh-so-sensible secretary," by the way), the trip went by like that. when we got to london, we tried to meet up with jake and took a very nice long walk around london, by the river mostly. i saw it all, big ben, parliament, westminster abby, the millennium eye, the thames. oh yes. it was great. it took us almost an hour and a half to walk towards jake (whom we met by st. paul's cathedral), but it was worth it. i love london. and people said there is no such thing as love at first sight. i only took two pictures, but i will be back. and i was spending most of the time just enjoying the fact that i was finally in the city i have wanted to visit for ages. over anything. yes. i am a london kind of guy.
apollo victoria theatre ^ (i thought the wicked sign was cool and i really want to see it)
front door of westminster ^ (i like york's minster better)
*sleepyhead*
well, i am going to leave you with a cliffhanger here... i think the rest of the london trip will need its own post.
part deux: soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment