Journey 4: Whitby and York

How cool is it that, for class, all 34 of us studying abroad get to pack up and leave one Thursday to go to Whitby and York for a long weekend? It’s an incredible experience being here. I just can’t get over it…

So yesterday marked Week 6 of my Study Abroad adventure. I don’t think I could honestly say that I’ve loved every minute of it. Like anybody else, I have my ups and downs. But I wouldn’t trade any experience I’ve had here so far for anything! That includes this past weekend.

Whitby, if you’ve never been, is a quaint coastal town in the north of England. It is definitely a fishermen’s town, with a fish and chip shop on just about every corner. Also, candy stores. There were so many sweet shops! I made sure to eat at The Magpie Cafe because it came so highly recommended by everyone. I now understand why.

All that was left of my fish and chips from The Magpie Cafe

Our hostel was right by the ruins of Whitby Abbey, which was pretty neat. My favourite part of the Whitby trip, though, was Friday afternoon. A small group of us went rambling along the cliff tops, looking out at the North Sea. That was beautiful in and of itself, but the really fun part was when we hopped the fence to go climb out on this giant black rock. We hiked down the muddy hill and stood out in the North Sea. We couldn’t stay long because the tide was coming in, so we got a few pictures and then climbed back up the hill. But I cannot express how awesome it was to be where I was, with the people I was with, and the pictures just don’t do it justice.

That's the rock we climbed out to.

York was fun. After a while though (and it pains me to say this because I didn’t think I would get to this point), all these little cities kind of start to feel the same. We went to a little café for lunch, and when we walked out, I had already forgotten we were in York. I was thinking we were back in Oxford. The one key difference, though, is that Oxford is noticeably devoid of Vikings wandering around, and well, York has plenty. Everywhere we went, men, women, and children alike were dressed up as Vikings. It turns out there was a big festival going on in Jorvik (the old Viking village part of York) that weekend, but we didn’t know that before we got there. I got a video of one of the fights we saw reenacted and will post it on Facebook soon. So, look forward to that…

A group of the Saxon army fighting off the Vikings

Some of the people we saw

Our last excursion was through Fountain’s Abbey on our way back to Oxford. Unlike Whitby Abbey, it is not just an Abbey ruin. It is like a whole conservation area that just happens to have an old church ruin in the middle. Needless to say, it was beautiful and lots of fun to explore.

What is so crazy to me is that we are just about to hit the halfway point of the semester. Spring Break is a week away, I need to start thinking about my classes for next semester, and so much homework is due really soon. Being here, it is so easy to forget the “study” of “study abroad”. I have quite a bit of trouble focusing on school work sometimes, but again, I knew it would be a challenge going in.

Sorry, not a very interesting post, this one. But thanks for following! Hopefully I’ll be able to share more of thoughts later…when I don’t have three other papers to write. Until then.