Road Trip to York

---

Ripon

So today we went on a road trip to York with Dom and Christoph which is about 2 hours drive from Newcastle. On the way, we stopped off in Ripon which has a massive cathedral... which according to Dom in comparison to others around the place, is actually incredibly small. The town itself was small and all the roads were real narrow. We struggled to find somewhere to park, but eventually we managed to get to the Cathedral.

The place as massive. It was amazing to imagine this had been built by humans. It was so big I had to walk halfway up one of the side streets just to capture it all in a photo.
Fortunately I was allowed to take photos inside for the mere amount of £2.5 ($6.5).
While we were in there, a preacher fellow started a brief sermon. While everyone in the church stopped and prayed, I ran around quietly taking photos of everything.

After the Cathedral, we went to a place called Gregs to find some 'Yum Yums.' Bastards didn't have any. I added eating Yum Yums to my list of things to do.

Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal

After Ripon we went to Fountains Abbey which was about 5 minutes away. It took us awhile to find a park as there was about a 20 car car-park totally dedicated solely to people with disabilities. I was quite amazed at how large this was, but also really surprised as it was almost full.

The Fountains Abbey was originally founded in 1132 by 13 monks. It eventually became one of the richest in Europe before it was closed down in 1539 by Herny VIII. He ordered for the roof to be taken off so the monks could not return.

I spent heaps of time running around like a ADHD kid taking photos every two seconds, climbing the ruins and just generally exploring. There were heaps of people at the Abbey, including heaps of kids so it was really hard to take photos without getting people in the shot. It's amazing how just in the short time that I've been here I've witnessed so much more heritage and culture then NZ. Really puts in to perspective how old England really is. The locals don't really realise how lucky they are to be surrounded by this.

The Abbey was right next to a Water Garden which was built in 1718. The garden was built in the shape of a full moon with a cresent moon on each side. There was a bit of a walk to get there and plenty of other things to see such as a Serpentine Tunnel (built to look like a Serpent! WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT!), an Octagon Tower and the "Temple of Fame" (looked like a gazebo) but more badass.
By the end of it, we were all exhausted as we'd walked around for about 3 hours and I'd probably jumped around for about an hour of that.

York

At York at last. Christoph fell asleep in the car, while Dom and I talked smack.
The plan was to get some beer and some English Fish and Chips a few beers and to watch the 3rd Season of American Dad. I soon realised that I had got sun burnt from all the walking around, but barely sunburnt. The sun over here is nothing like the NZ sun. If I was strutting around visiting castles at home I would've been as pink as a pig. Here however, the sun had barely touched me. What a pussy.

Doms flat hardly looked like a flat. In terms of flats, it looked like a 5 star hotel. The place is flash as. Here I was expecting to get to a house with paint falling off and holes in the walls, and I walked into a place that looks flasher then most houses I've been to. I arrived to find the typical family neighbor hood, kids playing on the road with a soccer goal. The flat has a sunroom, 3 bathrooms and a massive fridge. Kinda feel a bit out of place.

We got some Fish and Chips which were £1.7 (bout $5) and way less then most places I've been to in NZ. They tasted totally different though and strangely enough filled me up. Odd.
Went to the supermarket and bought a 10 box of 440ml Grolsch for £7 ($18.5) and Dom got two 1L bottles of Cider which were £4.
Drank a few beers and then fell asleep. That's the most walking I had done in awhile.

Ah well, we're off to explore some more. CU

---