Live Bands/Trip to York

---

Friday night I went to the Campus Bar with some friends to catch some local rock bands. It turns out that the headliners, Hungover Stuntmen, are rather renown in this section of the UK, particularly because three of the four members are graduates from the university. All the bands were pretty great, especially the second act, Little Comets. They sounded a lot like a British version of Vampire Weekend, but more danceable and musically interesting.

Saturday we took a trip to the historic city of York. There was some sort of food festival going on so of course we hit that up for all the free food. There was a German salami stand with dozens of kinds of salami, all of which were delicious, and the smoked salmon from the fish tent was some of the best seafood I've ever tasted.

Later on we decided to hit up one of the many pubs; we decided on The Golden Fleece, "the most haunted pub in York". Apparently the crew from television's "Most Haunted" had confirmed the existence of paranormal activity in the building, which included a small hotel above the bar and restaurant, and as such the place was littered with newspaper clippings, plaques and signs alluding to their prestige (for the record, I didn't feel anything, but that could be attributed to our time of arrival - about noontime). I also tried Yorkshire pudding for the first time, and it was pretty delicious despite containing about three times the food I was capable of eating in one sitting.

After that we headed to the famous York Minster. What a beautiful building! Stained glass windows reached for stories around the central nave, and there was even a wedding procession occurring just as we entered. After touring the grounds we decided to trek up the tower to the roof of the cathedral, and exhausting 275-stair climb up a narrow spiral staircase. It was pretty scary going up and down, but the view from the top was well worth the agony.

Finally we visited the Undercroft of the Minster, which housed various ancient Roman artifacts discovered over the years. Apparently the Minster had been built over a Roman city, and bits and pieces from the dead village constantly surfaced as the area was renovated. It was neat and a little overwhelming.

That evening I took a well-deserved break and spent the night in the kitchen with my flatmates before going to sleep. Classes start tomorrow, and while I still have a few discrepancies with my schedule (two of my core classes clash with one another) but I'm confident everything will work out. As for today, I'm going to hike to the city center and purchase some last-minute items for the kitchen and my room -- plates and cups, cutlery, toilet paper, etc -- and hopefully prepare myself appropriately for tomorrow.

---

Photos

Sunderland!
On a bridge overlooking the Wear River

German salami stand
The garlic and cheddar flavor was scrumptious.

Yorkshire Pudding
Delicious.