Nott What You'd Expected...

Longest Post Ever (2 of 5ish)

DAY TWO: YORK, AGAIN
Arriving in the city of York, there is only one thing that can catch your eye, and it's always the Yorkminster Cathedral. Rising about 120 meters in the air (is that right? holy crap), Its massive central tower and two bell towers make it one of the most amazing sights in all of Britain.




The city itself has a ton of history, and actually the Emperor Constantinople was crowned emperor in York after his father died of disease. The birth of modern Christianity, that is- the acceptance by the Roman empire- essentially occured where we were standing....

The building is massive, and the following pix will hardly do it justice.... It took over 400 years to build, and statues of the 15 English Kings who reigned during its building process are shown in statues that separate the knave from the choir area. Yorkmister is home to the largest midieval stained glass window in the world, and York accounts for most of the world's stained glass.



It was amazing to be in a place of such history-- that is, amidst so much change and yet a constant understanding that the preservation of the building was important. The Minster is home to thousands of revered ministers, monks, and important people, as well as millions upon millions of pounds worth of artifacts and stained glass. Carol described it as instilling a feeling of "weightlessness" among the high Gothic arches and stone support columns that tower at more than 100 feet above.

We left the cathedral and wandered the town, eventually hitting the Fudge Shop. I don't know what it was about the fudge shop, but these girls loved it. Ok, I take it back. They loved Ian, the mysterious (because we all couldn't figure out how old he was) worker who hit on Ana (who hit on him just as hard) and gave us a hell of a deal on fudge. The story doesn't really stop at a fudge-making demonstration... Ana ran back into the shoppe after we had all starting walking down the street and asked for his number. The story gets better, but it's chronologically inpolite to ruin what I had going...

So after the fudge shop date arrangement, Ana left the group to spend 80 dollars on a new outfit for the night and we all headed to Echo, a concept-art piece that had been traveling the country for awhile, and was set up in St. Mary's church in York. Again, pictures can't do it justice. IT was eerie, peaceful, and so still that the only sound was the rain that began to fall as we ran towards the church. The pictures below help, but the basic idea was that the artist used the church space to hang thousands of horse-hair sacs that seemed to float in the stony space. Wierd i guess would be another word to describe it.... Something about the combonation of church and art exhibit seemed to elicit a special "even more quiet and reverant than normal" behavior as people came and went (and we waited out the storm)





We decided to walk along the river, as the rain had died, and it seemed pretty peaceful... AS we walked it began to rain, and eventually unleashed the most English storm we had experienced to date. Torrential downpour rendered parking lots flooded and gutters overflowing. Our only refuge was in a ladie's loo located (we later learned) miles from the Cathedral where we were attending services one hour later...

After careful shelter-hopping and a run-in with a very foreign Fish and Chips shop owner, we made our way about 1.5 miles through the center of town to Yorkminster and experienced the most amazing musical and religious service i have ever been to. I am not religious, and the trip as a whole was interesting to see the integration of history, poliitcs, the church, and commerce in what i'll call 'ancient times', but this service which included the amazing Yorkminster Choir (about 5 10 year old boy sopranos, 5 teenaged altos, 5 older tenors/contra tenors and about 5 or so bass) was like something out of a movie. Incredibly moving. In that space, that time, that mood, it was incredible.

After chuch, we made our way to Tandoori Nights, where we devoured Nan (flatbread), along wiht about 20 other strange Indian dishes. I coined the word 'Coconan' to describe the nan that was filled with coconut, and was quite pleased with myself.

Ana's quote prior to going out with Ian "I can't be the fudge whore"

We decided it would be a waste to stay in the Hostel and not explore the town, so we made our way to the town centre to look for pubs. The first few were scary- that is to say, old people, dogs (seriously, it spilled some guy's beer), and waaaay too much smoke. Finally we made our way to the Evil Eye, where we saw the most.... interesting drink list that i've ever seen. After laying down a few quid for some authentic liquid beverages (we'll talk later), we actually ended up seeing Ana, who was upstairs in a 'lounge' with Ian.

Apparently the Evil Eye is where the locals take foreigners to give them a real York experience. Go us.

In a totally unrelated note, "making out" in britain is also called "polling".


That ended our time in York, leaving Durham and much of the Northumberland country remaining.

For Eda, I'll include some awesome "THEY CALL STUFF FUNNY THINGS HERE"
1) TWIX candy bars are called "biscuit fingers"
2) porta pottys are not "in use" or "occupied", they are instead "engaged"

posted by Kevin @ 10:36 PM