York

York - founded in AD 71, former capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, former centre for the Viking kingdom of Jorvik, former capital city of England...

The coolest thing there is York Minster, the largest gothic cathedral in Northern Europe. Other than my general sense of being horribly uncomfortable in churches (I'm so worried about appearing disrepectful, I get a full-on turrets thing and accidentally say 'Jesus Christ' all the time), this place was awesome... really beautifully done. So much time and money must have gone into it, almost sad that kind of opulence can't really be justified anymore.

Dragged Paul into a viking museum, bit of a bum steer there. I love viking stuff, so it was a good idea in theory, but this place was utterly lame - you get into this elevator labelled "the time machine" and they have a video of 2 people dressed in today's clothes, then the thing shakes and plays heaps of dramatic 'who wants to be a millionaire' music and suddenly they are wearing stuff from 1990... mazing. Then you go through the whole shebang again and its 1980 etc, it took farkin ages to get back to 985 (ok, totally making up the year, but its about then). You get out of the elevator and get on this ride thing that takes you through 'authentic' Jorvik... only authentic thing was the smell, utterly rank. All these wanky wax figures doing various deeds (including one dude on a toilet, straining and making all the noises). Viking people must have been farkin ugly... or the dudes who makes these things the world's biggest trippers, they had some dogs either miracously balancing on one leg or in the mid-fight, dripping blood and hunks of flesh hanging off everywhere. So yeah, that sucked, but it was kind of fun to tease. The highlight of the tour was a voiceover "we've moved forward in time... its now late afternoon"

Finished up with a beer in the Red Lion, one of the oldest pubs in York... like most pubs over here, looks like Shennanigans! Probably slightly more authentic though.

oh yeah, and Paul really inspires me with his impressive knowledge of England (is that right bro? too much?)

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