10th March

"True love is like a psychic experience. Everyone tells ghost stories, but few have ever seen a ghost." François de la Rochefoucauld

As soon as I arrived in York at noon, I went straight to my hostel, which was an 18th century building called Micklegate House. This house was built for John Bourchier whose ancester, Sir John Bourchier, was one of the signatories to the warrant for the execution of King Charles I. I was staying in the playing card room of this majestic house.

I then went to explore the city. York is beautiful in that it has kept its city walls from when the Romans lived in 71 AD (similar to Bath). York contains history from many generations that have inhabited this romantesque area. After the Romans, it was the Angles that lived here where it served as the capital of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria. When the Vikings captured the city in 866 AD they renamed it Jórvík and it became the capital of a wider kingdom of the same name covering much of Northern England. After the Norman conquest, the name "York", which was first used in the 13th century, gradually evolved. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a major wool trading centre and the ecclesiastical capital of the northern province of England. The Province of York has remained one of the Church of England ecclesiastical provinces (along with Canterbury), where it houses the magnificent York Minster.

As I walked along the city stone walls, I made my way to York Minster. The title "Minster" is attributed to churches established in the Anglo Saxon period as missionary teaching churches, and serves now as an honorific title. It is now the seat of the Archbishop of York. This church is built on top of an old Norman cathedral and even earlier a Roman Principia. It now contains the world's largest medieval stained glass window, which I did not get to see because it was being restored and cleaned (an eight year project).

By night, I went on a ghost tour. Because York has so much history, it also is the home to many spirits, and this of course leads to many interesting ghost stories. Although I am a sceptic, the staff in my hostel highly recommended a certain tour that incorporated humour in the nightly walking tour. I learned of one famous story where a builder heard a horn and saw a Roman army marching past him. This army turned out to be the 9th legion. I finished my night with a romantic candlelight dinner, with red wine...the works...alone. I had to plan the following days of my trip since I had nothing planned.

The next morning, I went on a free walking tour to learn a little more history from this story-rich city. On the tour, I started talking with a German girl, named Kerstin. She was a bit weird and quirky, but in a good way. She would sometimes laugh at things uncontrolably from imaginary scenarios she would concoct in her mind (I know this sounds borderline crazy, but believe me, she was a really fun, sane girl). We decided to go for lunch where she told me about her relationship with her longtime boyfriend and the issues she had to overcome in order to stay with him.

After lunch we parted ways, as I wanted to go to the Jorvik museum before heading off to Newcastle. The Jorvik museum was fun, but I think it was more directed to kids where a mini-ride guides you through the history of York during the Viking period. After the museum, I had lunch at an interesting restaurant called Orgasmic before taking my 5pm bus to Newcastle.