York

Yesterday I got up and did Laundry. Laundry while backpacking is the most down time you get, because you’re forced to do nothing in your hostel until it’s done. You could go on a walk, but when all you do is walk you’d rather just hang out, read, write, or whatever. You’re forced to just relax. But I still hate it, especially when after 2+ hours of waiting, your clothes are still wet and you didn’t bring any more money down with you to the laundry room! I packed all my half-dry clothes up in my north face coat (little trick I’ve come by) and hung them out all over my room. 24 hours later there still not perfectly dry, but I’m not that concerned anymore.

After laundry, I went out to wander around the little university town of York. It is SUPER cute here! The streets are all really, really tiny, and there were no cars at all! It was a little weird.. I found a cute little hippy street market selling lots of jewelry, candles, incense, and scarves, but nothing really caught my eye. York is a walled city, so I walked around the walls a bit too, and saw the huge gothic cathedral that York's sort of famous for. I had lunch at El Piano, an all vegan, sort of Mexican-Indian café. It was so good, but I actually had to get the waitress to pick for me because I’m not good with choice! She was like, “I know what you mean, I’m vegan too, but can’t you just pick something?!” I was like EF fine! Haha. All the food comes tapas-style in these little bamboo boats, it was really cute. I ended up deciding on the potato soup of the day and the salad sampler (it’s all the salads in a big boat so you don’t have to decide! Brilliant!) It was really good and really filling, I couldn’t even get desert I was sooo full!

After that I continued to wander around, and I went to the Jorvick exhibit, which talks about the ancient Viking town of York, and how they discovered it, etc. etc.. It was really cute you get into a “time capsule” that shakes you around and turns you back in time to like 907 CE or something, and then you get out and get into these ride cars that explain everything and move you around the exhibit. It was really cute! There were TONS of hanging animals and furs everywhere though, so that turned my stomach a little. But it was good. After Jorvick I wandered around, came back to the hostel and made dinner, and pretty much passed out!

Off to Liverpool today! Hope everyone is doing well in the home country!