Nott What You'd Expected...

Longest Post Ever (1 of 5)

Wow. Short word, but it pretty much sums up the last five days spent in York, Durham, Holy Island, and Alnwick, along with a walk along Hadrian's Wall (more on that later, don't be so greedy).

To sum it up, our directors (Mark and Carol) will teach a English History class that is a year long that involves several long vacation/trip/fieldtrips across the continent (and possibly to Ireland)... This trip, known as THE TRIP TO THE NORTH was a valuable part in understanding the early history of england, namely the Roman inhabitation (until 410AD), the Norman Conquest in 1066, the unification under a single banner of Scotland and England in 1603 and so on.... Essesntially, the trip was a huge tour of any monestary, cathedral, ruin, and gift shop from here to the Scottish border.

(Map included)


The following entry is double duty- both a blog for myself and a journal as a part of the course, so read with caution, knowing that it could get a little dry at times... I'm getting graded on this...


First thing's first: in the US, what we consider 'old' is a 1976 rusted Dodge Charger, an old Red Schoolhouse in the middle of the country, a building with a foundation laid in 1860. In England, there's 'old' and 'older' and 'ancient'. Of the buildings we visited, none was built after the 7th century. That's the frigging 600s! More than 1000 years before they even thought of landing at Jamestown. At one point, we walked along a wall that was built in the 100s. We're talking 'Jesus was still fresh' old.... Enough mind-bending for now....

DAY ONE: YORK (SEPT 15TH)

York was possibly my favorite city. Cobbled streets, an amazing view of the river, beautiful buildings, a rich heritage of Viking descent as well as Norman influences. The city boasts a huge cathedral (Yorkminster) as well as a great (and free) art gallery, an awesome nightlife (York College, a branch of Leeds University, and another St. Something school), The Fairfax house, a Viking 'Disneyworldesque' ride/museum, and the meeting house for the Merchant Adventurers (kinda cultish-Christian group in early 11th century) and finally the Echo exhibit (art exhibit... pix later).

We stayed in the Youth Hostel in York, a pretty decent place to stay- on the river, and a pretty close walk.

I'm typing all of this from my notes, so i'll try to summarize before getting into more specific details....

Before I go on, there are some really great "American in England" moments/observations that continue to get me...
1) Walking on the right/left side of the sidewalk. If they drive on the opposite side of the road, they should walk on the opposite side of the sidewalk, right? Hell if I know... It seems like it was pretty touch and go- one minute they would be running us off the right side, then later avoiding us like the plague....
2) The 2x factor of pricing. In case you were unaware, the British pound is trading at roughly 2 to 1... that is to say, 2 dollars for every 1 pound. However, that does not mean that things are 2x cheaper (by appearance) in fact, it's just the opposite. Most things here are the same numeric value as they are in the states, in reality 2 times more expensive ----for example, a 60GB ipod in the US sells for around 300-400 US dollars, wheras the same sells for 300L in the UK (converted = around 600 dollars).. and that's just electronics.

More later.

Ok, so the Art Gallery was featuring selections from the National Portrait Gallery, a mostly commissioned branch of the govermnet that goes around and pays famous artists to paint equally famous people. included are some pics (illegal as hell, we were yelled at later for taking pics, almost had to delete them....) My favorite was either Judy Dench (James Bond movies, MacBeth with Ian McKellan in the 1970s London), and a really crazy example of modern art, when the artist took a DNA sample, a mouth swab, and framed the results of a bacterial growth as his 'portrait'...really strange.
My new leader, Prince Charles
The one and only, Dame Judy Dench (the riverwalk in York was named for her....)

The Fairfax House was a stately...estate.. in the area that features some of the most amazing plasterwork in the world... lame, i know. but i enjoyed it... We were allowed to take pictures as students, and hopefully you enjoy these awesome shots of some of the uber expensive furniture and plasterwork. Our tourguide was amazing, Geoffrey, a guy who literally (ok, maybe figuretively), got off on antique furniture. He, like every tourguide on our trip, was obsessed with his job. I would love to retire and become one of these people. Lilian at Durham, Geoffrey at Fairfax, and Kristine in all of Northumberland.... they were walking encyclopedias...

Geoffrey told an awesome story about the tradition of Tea in the UK--- it is tradition for the oldest women in the house to serve tea, a tradition that has lasted since the beginning of taxation on the luxery item. because of its steep (bad pun) price, tea was kept in a locked box that only the lady of the house owned the key. Servents brought the hot water for the lady to mix with the tea. Even now, the lady of the house pours tea. The phrase 'may i play mother' (meaning, can i pour, even though the lady or oldest woman is absent) stems from the days when the mother poured tea...... and..... i'm a geek



Merchant Adventurers House
Possibly the most boring and creepy building of the trip. A group of cult-like Christian businessmen and merchants who basically got a group together in York and built a clubhouse (NO GIRLS ALLOWED). IT was built in the 1300s (that's right, almost 500 years before USA independence), and basically turned from religion to money.... not an altogether unfamiliar path....



After going to Jorvik, the Viking Disneyworld (nasty ride through animatronics and cheesy narration (in 6 languages, English, German, Japanese, Italian, French, Norweigen)-


Brandon, Ryan and I by chance met the girls and Aaron at ASK (pizza place) in time to order food before the play. First off, ASK is Hands down, most amazing pizza restaurant in the world. Shut up, pics are included to prove you naysayers wrong. Secondly, we were schooled in the art of ordering drinks at a restuarant in Europe. No, not those drinks. We are poor college students after all.

Anyway, we ordered water. Our waiter asked us "Sparkling or Still". I replied "Still" knowing that sparkling water was A) gross, and B) more expensive than free water without bubbles. Bad Idea. There is always an unspoken water selection known as "Tap water". Instead of tap water with potent lemons, we were presented with the finest mineral water (no bubbles) from Italy, in expensive green glass bottles, costing just as much as a coke .

After dinner, we made our way down the street to the play we were about to see as a group, and managed to find our way to a Sword Shop. Personally, i think sword shops are lame as hell, but something about this one (mainly, the fact that it was the only store in York still open at 6pm), Brandon, Ryan and I made our way in and tried some things on....


We followed the night by going to "The MAn With Two Gaffers" (esentially, the guy with two bosses), and were treated to vulgar british humour and the joy of MAGNUM ice cream bars.... awesome.


Day One was done, and we passed out.

posted by Kevin @ 9:20 PM