A Trip into the Past: Part One

When I think of history, I usually think of Ancient Egypt or Ancient South America. Rarely do I cast my mind to the Stonehenge or Loch Ness or 221b Baker Street. Oh sure, I know that last one is not a real historic site, but you have to admit, it's one of the places to visit!

Living here in the UK, you tend to hear about this historic city and that, museums and relics, folklore and bedtime stories based on a thread of reality. And so, after hearing so very much about York, I decided to visit the place with my sister who was here to see me...huzzah!

York. I literally felt like I stepped back in time as we got off at the Railway station. The breeze whispered stories in our ears as we walked to the tourist information centre. We weren't about to get lost in a place that talked to us you know. Tourist buses were all over the place and we could see domed buildings from afar calling out to us. The information centre didn't really tell us much. The wind spoke more we thought. But we did find out about a York Pass that we could buy and be granted free entry to several attractions. So we then had to decide if we would be able to visit most of those places or not. We took a risk and bought the passes and off we went! Now because we ended up doing quite a lot and because I love to mention all the details (whether important or not!), I'm dividing this account into two parts. Welcome to the first!

So, with a map in hand and no clue of how to read it, we ventured forth into the historic city of York. And yes, the wind was still busy chatting...the only problem was we had no idea what it was saying. We got onto one of the tourist buses, sat right on top with the chatterbox wind caressing our hair and tried to listen to the guide who went on and on about some lass who visited York only once and did something interesting (I did some research: the 'lass' was the Queen of England! Hahahaha!). Of course, we didn't catch the most important part of that monologue as it began to drizzle on us. Turns out that's what the darn wind was going on about all the while. Obviously, we politely asked for the rain to stop and it did after sometime.

Our first "attraction" was the York Minster, which wasn't really too far off from the Station but we enjoyed our bus ride anyway...even if it lasted all of two minutes. The Minster was huge and awe-inspiring. As it continued to drizzle, I brandished our bright green umbrella and we walked towards the entrance. It was pleasantly quiet inside and there were many statues of archbishops and saints of yore. We prayed a little there and truly felt the presence of God, which was simply awesome! After taking a few photographs we decided to go to the Undercroft; the entrance to which was within the Minster. The Undercroft has a few relics of the Norman and Roman times of York and is like a walk centred around them. We were given audio sets that explained each bit as we went through the tour. The voice that spoke into our ears was pleasant and clear and yet he made no sense at all. He went on and on about the Normans but the relics we saw before us were very Roman. Or at least they were labelled so. We went on further getting more and more confused with the speech. Finally we reached the end of the tour and suddenly we saw Norman relics. That's when it dawned on us that we entered through the exit and took the entire tour backwards! Yup, we had an interesting time down there. Suffice it to say, we quietly went back up, returned the audio sets and acted more knowledgeable than when we started the thing.

Yes, this is the end of the first part right here. Coming up next: The Yorkshire Museum, York Boat, Jorvik Viking Centre, Castle Museum and York Dungeon.