Side Trip to York--End of Week One-Ashley Lawson

This past weekend Casey, Laura and I decided to make the two-hour train ride to Yorkshire, England. Our first and only day in York was spent sight seeing and shopping. Personally, I really enjoyed going to the York Minster. The York Minster was originally built in 627 A.D. by Edwin of Northumbria, an Anglo Saxon King. Much like Edinburgh Castle, the York Minster has gone through many changes in its long and eventful lifetime. Now, it is one of the world’s largest medieval cathedral and even boasts to have its own police force.

When we arrived to the York Minster, the three of us had this bright idea to climb to the top of one of the towers. Once we found the ticket counter and told the woman we wanted to climb to the top, she then started reading a disclaimer about how they are not responsible if we get hurt and then asked us about our physical fitness. This should have been a warning, but we were apparently too excited to notice. As we started our ascent to the top of the Minster, I began realizing why the lady at the counter had the disclaimer. The staircases of this place were narrow, steep and winding the whole way! Over 200 steps later, we arrived at the top. I must say that the ending result was worth every step on that terrifying staircase. This was by far one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. I would argue that it is bout as beautiful as the views from the top of the Duomo in Florence, Italy.

Once we caught our breath and it was our time to go back down, we realized fully what we had gotten ourselves into. Instead of climbing up, we had to go down this behemoth steep tower… without falling. If you fell, you essentially would take down every person who was in front of you as well. I was behind the girls on the steps and I was terrified that I would lose my footing thus taking down half the study abroad program with me. Luckily, we all made it down without falling. Once we got down, we noticed that our legs were shaking from the physical activity we had just put them through. In the end, it was completely worth it though. Yes, I must say I am STILL sore from our excursion but I know that its not very likely that I will get to see a view so breath taking as from the top of the York Minster.