YORK and Rampaging the Ruins!

Today has been an AMAZING day! First, I got to wake up really early and go on a four-hour bus ride with the most uniquely uncomfortable chairs in the world. Haha, ok, so that’s not really the amazing part, but I felt obligated to be fully honest. It was all worth it when we arrived at the Fountains Abbey in Ribons. Just look how cool it looks in this picture below!

When we first arrived, we all thought it would be just another abbey or monastery, like the ones we have been visiting and walking past constantly these past few weeks. We couldn’t have been more wrong! It used to be one of the largest and coolest monasteries in the area, but blah blah blah, they’re now just ruins. (Insert a long history lesson where I have typed Blah blah blah. It was cool and all, but you guys don’t really care and I don’t blame you….) ((And yes, we're on top of this awesome pillar!!))

Mom, we took this model shot just for you!! Hehehe :)

The best part was that we could fu

lly explore and play there! We took hundreds of crazy cool, creative pictures. We sprung on those ruins like third graders running to the playground for afternoon recess. I vaguely remember standing on top of full-on pillars, scaling old walls, being hefted onto hidden rocks in the wall so I looked like I was floating, taking classic jumping pictures (go HSM), posing on top of arches, running through the gardens, etc. Simply put, I have never had so much fun in an abbey in my life. I Will return there someday. Seriously, though, we just ran from room to room finding new places to take fun pictures. I would have sent up a tent in the ruins and stayed there for a week, if they would let me.

We totally look like we're floating in this one!

And this window was way too fun!

I got onto this pillar easily, but Liz STRUGGLED! It was so fun!!!

Sadly, though, we couldn’t stay forever, so we loaded back onto the bus and headed to York. We’re staying in this really sweet hotel, and it’s so fun to have a smidgeon of privacy for a few days! I’m sharing a room with my amazing bunkmate Sharon (who will get engaged within a month of us returning home and we’re all so excited for her!) and we have had so much fun! But we ended up wandering the city of York looking for Shambles Street, which is apparently the oldest shopping street in all of Europe. By the time we finally made it there, every shop was closed. It was only 5:20!!! Everywhere closes so early over here! So we just kept wandering the city and loving our lives.

Liz, Ashley and I somehow got separated from the group of girls we were with and had the most spectacular night. First, we bought me a 4 pound cell-phone! To my best friends that never skype me and my family members that I haven’t talked to yet: beware, I Will call you! We talked to the 19 year old sales rep working there and learned all about how the universities work over there. It was crazy; he’s engaged to be married in 18 months. 18 MONTHS!!??! That’s an insanely long engagement! And we asked him where the best, cheap food was in York. He directed us to this crazy pub called the “Lettuce Cellar” down some creepy alley. I have never had such amazing food in all of my British life. It’s the best food I have had since Mom’s cooking! And we followed it up with some strange “crumble of the day,” uno, rook, and as always, plenty of laughter. I love road-trips, I love Fountains Abbey, I love York, I love Hunter’s Chicken, I love mysterious crumbles, I love cards, I love the girls here, I love laughter, and I love this study abroad. Thanks Mom and Dad for helping me get over here!

This is us inside the amazing pub-style restaurant.