Getting to York and the first two days

It’s been a crazy last two days. Three days? I still get my flying time mixed up. I last left off in JFK, where I was miserable being stuck in the arrivals section of the airport. It really wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be, I just don’t like JFK. Finally the time rolled around and I was able to head back to the baggage drop off. It took forever to make it through that line, and then I had to wait in the painfully long security line. I have never in my life had to wait to long, and I’ve been to a lot of airports. It was so crowded that this TSA woman came over and escorted a handful of us over to first class security so we could speed up getting people through. The first class lounge is sweeeeeet. Perfectly air conditioned, nice chairs, clean….. On the other side of security was an actually decent terminal. Apparently it was new. It was actually pretty nice.

My flight to Iceland, I was both amazing and awkward. Firstly, Iceland air is AMAZING. Best airlines I’ve ever flown. The first class seats were all named after Norse gods and the economy seats taught you Icelandic. You got complementary Icelandic spring water when you boarded, the blankets were actually warm and soft, and the pillows had little lullabys on them in English and Icelandic. This is the English:

Bye bye and hushabye

Can you see the swans fly?

Now half asleep in bed I lie

Awake with half an eye

Heyho and welladay

Over the hills and far away

That’s where the little children stray

To find the lambs at play.

I don’t know, I think it’s cute. I was stuck sitting in the middle seat in a row of three for the fiveish hours of the trip. The boys on either side of me were brothers and kept speaking Icelandic over me. Occasionally the one at the window seat would climb onto the seat and then step over me to go to the bathroom. It was weird. I tried to sleep most of the time.

My layover in Iceland was sadly pretty boring…. There not anything in the area of the airport. Outside is just barren land. . . I had a really good chicken tikka masala sandwich though.

Second flight was in better company. A young mother from Minnesota flying to meet her husband and his family in England. The baby was not just cute but also really well behaved!

After landing in England, it took FOREVER to get through customs. It was even more difficult than trying to get back into the US. After that I went to take the Picadilly Line to Kings Cross. Everything was going great. Then I found out the Picadilly Line was closed halfway through. So a guy came on, ushered us off the train and onto some busses. Then we drove through London. Which was actually pretty cool. Then we had to get back on the trains. By the time I made it to Kings Cross I was stressed and tired. I had planned to get my tickets for the 3:00 train as it was 2:20 and that would give me time to find Platform 9 ¾. However, when I bought my ticket the guy gave me one for the 2:30. At that time I had 5 minutes to run for the train. I had no idea where I was supposed to sit and I couldn’t read my ticket. I asked a woman in a station uniform for help and she was just like “look for an open seat.” Great. So the train was starting to make noise and I was running up and down the platform trying to figure out what to do. Finally she just told me to hurry and get on so I just got in the nearest car. Turns out my suitcase was too big to fit down the aisles so I needed to find a spot in one of the two cars on either side of where I got on. I finally did and sat down. Because of the rush, I hadn’t called Ellen. I used the 15 minutes of free wifi on the train to message her everywhere so I wouldn’t get stranded in York. After awhile, I was finally able to calm down again and enjoy my train ride. Across the aisle from me was a friendly Canadian couple who I talked with some.

I got to York in the end and got to see Ellen. We went back and had cottage pie for dinner. Then she gave me a tour of Heslington, which is the village her University is in.

On Monday we walked into York proper. We walked up and down nearly every street, went into the Minster, went to the train station and the museum, walked back to the city center, then to the supermarket, then home. I feel super fit. We got to see all the interesting places in York. The wall that surrounds the city was originally built by the Romans. The Minster ‘s stained glass is so old that all of it needs to be replaced.

We ate lunch at a local restaurant and got fish and chips. The place was packed with a group of German kids on a fieldtrip.

We did so much walking that both of us were terribly sore. Even today.

Today we went to Ripon, which is the town that the Crawley family of Downton Abbey are always visiting. Modern Ripon is, well, modern. And bigger. We got there pretty early and were freezing. While waiting for the bus to Fountains Abbey, a famous ruin, we looked around town. We got coffee from the nicest barista ever and ended up in the cathedral. Unlike the Minster, this one was actually still in use, though it was also a museum. We donated some pounds and walked around. There were a line of bishop statues or something that were in chronological order. It was interesting to see how their names represented the different groups in the area throughout the years.

After that we went to the Abbey ruins. They were beautiful. At first I thought it was just a tower and some other rooms, just like the Minster and other places we visited. Then we walked down the hill and into the valley, walking around what we could see to discover a vast collection of ruins. The ones we had see from the hill were just the most intact. Behind them were the remnants of what would have fit both of the other Cathedrals we had visited. It was really amazing. After having a picnic in sight of the ruins, we hiked the trails around them. Eventually we ended up at a deer park where we saw lots of awesome deer!!