Goodbye Wales, Hello York

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I woke up in time to eat breakfast with my roomie/ new Irish friend Kieran. It was pretty much a continental breakfast of toast and apple juice. After breakfast I packed up my stuff and headed downstairs to check out. Kieran was heading to go explore the city while I was leaving, so he carried my luggage downstairs for me. I gave back my room key to the hostel owner, said goodbye to Kieran, and headed to the train station. I had one connection this time on my way to York. It was about a 3 hour train ride but split into two trains. It is always funny getting on the train because everyone is looking out the window trying to avoid you because they don’t want you to sit with them. I have become an English person when it comes to trains. I put my stuff in the seat next to me so no one will sit down. Most of the time it works, but sometimes I feel bad and move my stuff so someone can come sit down. Once I got to York, I walked to my hostel. I ended up passing it because it was called The Ace York, but on the outside said Safestay. I ended up going back to it and going inside so I could see if that was the one. It ended up being it, but I had to wait a few minutes while they changed shifts. After I checked in, I lugged my stuff up the stairs, no gentlemen around, and found my room. I had to use a key card to get in and I had a numbered bed to choose from. I was room 1 and bed 7. The room was empty when I walked in, so I searched for my bed. It was pretty hard because not all of them were numbered. I walked to the end of the room when this Asian guy popped out of the top bunk I was standing near and asked where my bed was. I told him I was trying to find it and we started talking. His name is JY, short English version, and he is from Singapore. He ended up studying in Aberdeen, Scotland for two years and was on his way back home. After a couple of minutes there was a knock at the door. JY told me it was that guy and that I could let him in. I had no clue what would be waiting on the other side of the door. I opened it up and in walked Philipi. He is an architecture major from Brazil who was studying in Italy. I should have known then that it was going to be a hilarious day. They started going off about this old woman who stayed in the hostel the night before. Apparently, late at night this woman arrived. A hostel employee announced the woman’s entry saying, “Here is the old woman who has epilepsy.” She ended up sleeping on the bunk bed beneath Philipi. All through out the night she would shake the bed and make noises. Philipi said that she kept whispering to the wall, asking some spirits or something to come and that he kept thinking “no, please let nothing come.” She kept yelling out and falling off the bed. The best part was that she wasn’t old, so they didn’t know why the guy announced her as the old lady. We ended up calling her the witch and made references the whole night about it. I had to make a break for some groceries and dinner. When I got back we started talking about our countries and weird stuff that we do. Apparently in Singapore, you can’t chew gum and you get the death penalty for having drugs on you. They also go out on these three day adventures that include B-B-Q, camping, and going in abandoned hospitals. Needless to say, I laughed the entire night with them, but mostly at them. In the middle of our conversation, Frances from Texas walked in the room. She tried to help me explain what a waffle fry was. It didn’t really work out that well. We had to move our conversation down to the lobby so people could sleep in the room and we could use the bad WiFi. After a while, we all went up to sleep. Tomorrow, JY and Philipi will both be heading on while me and Frances will stay in York for another day. Until then,

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Photos

York Minster