The second week of my spring break was just as fun as the second half. We started on Tuesday from King's Cross Station after a relaxing breakfast, and we hopped on our train on the way to York. It was definitely one of the nicest trains I've ever been on. I didn't really know anything about York going into this part of the trip, so I was not sure exactly what to expect there. But what I found was a really charming town that had a really nice city center. After checking into our airbnb, we explored the city a bit before settling down for an early evening.
The next day we spent further exploring the town. We went to the Yorkshire Castle Museum, which had a very large collection of random items, and inside had a mock medieval town set up, showing what York would have been like back in that time. After that we went down the Shambles, which is a cute street with lots of shops and market stalls. We went to a small sandwich shop there, where we had a conversation with the nice chef there making the sandwiches right across the bar counter. We went to the York Minster, the most prominent icon in York, which is one of the most important church in the Church of England, where the Archbishop of York used to be based. There was a museum under the church that went through the entire history of the church, from Roman times to today. We finished up the day by going to a pub in town and having one of the famous Yorkshire puddings.
Most of our third day in Yorkshire was spent in the countryside, in the Yorkshire Moors, which is a national park. I really liked the British countryside, it was very peaceful, although very windy. We stopped in Whitby on the eastern coast for a few hours, getting by far the best fish and chips I've ever had. We spent some time by the beach, and just enjoyed the ocean air. That evening we got to try a North African restaurant in the heart of York that was very nice.
We then again took a train to Edinburgh, which ended up being delayed for a bit. By this time in our trip, all of us were quite tired, but Edinburgh was the nail in the coffin of my stamina. When we arrived at Waverly Station in Scotland, we checked into our apartment and then immediately made the walk to Arthur's Seat, which is the peak of the hills in Edinburgh overlooking the city. By the time we got there, both of my parents were really tired, so I made the hike up to the top on my own. The view from the top was awesome, but the wind was crazy. The hike definitely wasn't one of the hardest ones I've ever done, but I was very tired afterwards. We found a pub near our apartment, and I got to try haggis for the first time, which contains, among other things, sheep's pluck. I actually really liked it, it has a nice crumbly texture.
The next day the weather was really awful. It both rained and snowed, creating a wet slush on the ground for which I wasn't prepared. We trekked to the national museum of Scotland, where we got to learn about the history of Scotland. We got to try the British chicken fast food shop Nando's, which I thought was pretty good, a bit better than some equivalent fast food in the States. We then went to the Surgeon's Hall, which had good exhibits on surgery and pathology. It was a bit of a slower day, as this is all we did before going back and resting.
My last day before getting back to school, we spent the morning at Edinburgh Castle, which is a big military structure in the center of the city. I then had one last meal with my parents, and made my way to the airport. I had a little trouble getting to my gate, as there was a fire somewhere near there in the terminal and they closed it for about 20 minutes very close to my flight leaving. I also had an interesting time getting back to Bonn from Düsseldorf, as I couldn't find the trains that I had bought my tickets for. After such a long trip, it was nice to be back in Bonn, but I wasn't ready to get back to school already.
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