I blinked and almost missed the first 6 weeks...Part 3: Tripping around

York

I love York! Until you have lived in Bradford, you cannot understand how good it feels to leave it behind.

My very old and dear friend Jess came up from London to visit us for the weekend. Thinking that I would be hardpressed to find entertainment in Bradford to fill that space of time, we decided to head to York.

York is a fantastic city with the most magnificant Minster (I got told off by a Brit for calling it a Church). We started the day with a walk through the city centre which was packed with people and had the biggest selection of chocolate shops and fudge shops I have seen in such a small area. I will confess, we didn't manage to walk past the fudge shops empty handed and I can attest to the yumminess of the Belgian Chocolate fudge. Mmmmm.

We went into the Minster and listened to a choir which was playing ust inside the entrance. The queue (there are queues everywhere here) was far too long to go up the tower so instead we amused ourselves for a good half hour laughing at the array of Minster themed gifts in the gift shop. It's funny what crap people will spend their money on when they are away from home. I resisted the urge to buy a pair of Minster socks, some Saint-themed thimbles and a bendy eraser/pencil set, and we headed off to walk along the wall.

York is a walled city and much of the wall still stands in very good condition. We walked for what seemed like a very long time along the top of the wall, which gives fabulous view of the city and the Minster. It takes a little longer to walk on the wall as it really wasn't build for hoards of tourists going in all directions, and accordingly, passing was a bit of an issue.

Next, in true Kiwi/British style, we headed to a big outdoor food market and then met up with one fo the other Fellows and went off to sample one of the local pubs, of which there are many. I am told that there is a pub for every day of the year in York. I didn't think I'd get much of my essay written if I tried to find them all.

The piece de resistence of our trip was dinner at GBK - a kiwi owned burger joint. We walked past the window and I almost cried at the sight of the plastic tomato sauce bottles sitting on the table. Not surprisingly though, none of the staff in there were Kiwis and accordingly really didn't get my excitement at Macs Beer being on the drinks menu and my insistence at knowing what 'kiwi wine' actually was...in reply I got told, it's a sav. Thanks for the help. My little slice of home really topped off the trip and gave me yet another reason to board the train and head to York...