Even though I have been living in London the past year, from my blog posts it doesn't seem like I spend a lot of time in London, or in the UK. That's a little true; because I travel around Europe every single holiday/break I get. But I have been around London, and the UK. Ok, not as much as I would have loved to, but there is only that much time one person has, and to be fair, living and eating out in the UK is expensive. Well, more so than several other parts of Europe.
Nevertheless, I did get around to visiting some of the more popular cities in UK. For the longest time, York has been one of the cities in England that I have wanted to visit. Seeing pictures of its medieval architecture online, and hearing about other people's trips, I was always so envious. The main reason I didn't visit York before was because it costs 60 whopping pounds just to get there. And that's with the railcard! Then one fine day, my friends and I scored an 18pounds return ticket, and off to York we were.
Most people stay for a weekend or a couple of days in York and explore more of the area, but we weren't keen on paying for accommodation, so we opted for a day trip instead.
We arrived early in the morning, walked around a few parks, across the River Ouse, and found ourselves at the National Railway Museum.
The museum was a lot bigger than I expected. It was like a flashback to the past where trains were colourful, run on steam, and had so much more character than the modern ones we have today.
In the different trains, you get to look in and see the set up of the interiors, from regular coach seats to actual rooms with beds, tables and chairs (what I assume parallels be a first class night train. Not that I've ever been on one).
My favourite part was the different exhibitions of suitcases people carried in the past and what they had in them. It was mind boggling that they carried and entire suitcase with SO LITTLE in it when these days, we just try to stuff as much as we can into one hand-carry.After spending sometime at the exhibits, we left the museum and headed for The Shambles, passing through some markets and stopping at a café for lunch.
After traveling alone for the past couple of trips, it's nice to have companions and friends to have a nice meal and a beer with talk about the food and all sorts of other things.
Walking around York doesn't get too boring because you have all these medieval architecture, brown brick walled buildings, and interesting shops and market stalls that add a touch of something-something to the english city.
One other attraction we wanted to visit whilst in York was the York Castle. We made our way there mid-afternoon and climbed up the stairs only to realize we had to pay and entrance fee. We thought about it for a bit, and decided to spend our money on food instead of the attraction. That's the thing about paid attractions, I'm always reluctant to spend on them. After all, a castle is a castle is a castle... Right?
Anyway, after contemplating, walking around the castle and taking a couple of pictures, (sone of huge... Ducks?Swans? I have no idea. I didn't dare go too close for the fear of them biting me - I have this odd fear of birds pecking me) we concluded that our money should go to a nice english afternoon tea, and so we headed off to do just that.
Going on day-trips is such an excuse to eat out and have fun. Normally, i'd choose to cook instead of eat out when I'm back in London, because its just so much cheaper. But when you're on a day trip, or any sort of trip, it just becomes totally understandable to have afternoon tea and spend over 10pounds on it!
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