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Published: March 17th 2009
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Deanna and I
in the taxi at York! The city of York was founded by Roman soldiers in 61 A.D., because it sits at the crossing of two rivers--the Foss River and the Ouse River. Pieces of the original Roman walls still stand as well as the city gates. However, most of the city walls we see are from medieval times, when the Vikings had taken over the area. In fact, all the streets have Viking names. Instead of "Monk Street", it's called "Monkgate", because
gate means
street. They called the city
Jorvik (and the "J" is pronounced like a "Y"), which is where we get the current name
York.
After the Vikings ruled, the Normans (who were basically another Viking group) busted up in here. The northern invaders were finally evicted in the 10th century by the Anglo-Saxons from the Denmark-Germany area.
Deanna and I take pictures out the window of the taxi, excited to see Roman walls between modern-day shops and restaurants. It's early evening when we arrive at our hostel. We put our stuff down and venture out to see some of the city, even though mostly everything is closed already.
The Shambles is a cute little street. We've heard about it from
friends who have visited York already, so we make a mental note to return when things are open.
Eventually, we stop at the huge cathedral, Yorkminster Abbey, which we keep mistakenly calling "Westminster Abbey". Outside the cathedral, a group gathers, waiting for a Ghost Tour of the city. Our tour guide is a young, well-versed actor who provides us with historical information as well as humor throughout the tour.
He points out the old stables, which was converted to an orphanage. But the manager of the orphanage was abusive and negligent of the kids. Children died on a regular basis, and he would lock the corpses in the downstairs cupboard before burying them.
But my favorite story is about a six-year-old girl who died during the Plague. We stand outside their little home on the corner, which has been converted to a treasury house. As the story goes, when someone on that street caught the Plague, the city quarantined the entire neighborhood, closing the streets. Eventually, as more people there caught the Plague, the city began boarding up their houses, nailing the doors and windows shut. At this particular house, the whole family caught the Plague, including
the little girl. One by one, the family died, but the little girl recovered. She went downstairs to find her entire family dead. And she couldn't get out of the house, for the city had boarded her in. Needless to say, she died of loneliness and starvation.
As I said, that house has been converted to a treasury house, and the office staff who work there report hearing a little girl, during the day, laughing and playing upstairs. But when night falls, they hear her crying, scared and missing her family.
I officially like York. We'll do more exploring tomorrow! There's so much to see!
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