york, whitby, and a little more.

So, if you are friends with me on facebook, chances are good you have seen these pictures! Sorry...I hopefully will be able to tell stories I haven't on facebook, as to not completely bore you. :)



YorK!!

We began our trip to York/Whitby...with York. Yes I am sure you had that one figured out! It was such a cute little town...not terribly too much to do, but we managed to have a full 4 hours there! We made our way to the cathedral there in the city, it was so beautiful! If you know me very well, you might know I love fog. Strange perhaps...but nevertheless, I think it is so pretty! So York covered in fog was breathtaking!

The cathedral was absolutely stunning on the inside, BUT to tour it cost 7 pounds...now we are all cheap college students abroad so that was too great of a splurge or us. We however did notice that there was a Holy Communion service and a few of us thought it would be really neat to participate. So about six of us, including Ben, Kelly, Sydney, Braden, Grant, and myself joined in. Total there were 11 people in the service...so fairly small. Since we were going in for church, not tourism, I didn't take any pictures of the inside. After all, that wasn't why I was there. So the service went underway, and for the 6 of us, we were a bit lost at times. None of us had gone to a service like this before, but it was very neat! For some highlights...the woman who was giving the service (I am not sure what her title was), started off by describing how special it was for all of us to be gathered together, on a foggy, cold (very cold) February day in York. How some of us were friends, others strangers, but for a short time we were all one, worshipping the same God, at the same time in the same place, and how never again, until Heaven, would we all be united. She went on with the service and we said a few prayers and ended with communion. After it was finished we all gathered around to talk to this woman, and she asked us all the usual questions of where we are from, why we are here, how long and so on...it was a fine little chat. She was extremely precious and as we left she simply said "Bye! I will see you in Heaven!"

hmm, I hope I never forget, how special that communion was and how special she was.

Back to the church...it had wonderful architecture! As most do around here! The picture below was taken from an arch way above a door. They are all little scenes from Genesis, starting with Creation and moving through to Abraham's story. This was my favorite section though. Look at the first carving and the third. First it is the Sun's light coming through God's fingers...and the third is Adam and Eve resting in His hands. I thought it was so beautiful! We serve one awesome, and powerful God!

After the cathedral, and lunch Kelly, Sydney, Jacob and I headed to the National Railway Museum. It was pretty neat inside...and FREE! If you are ever in York...you should go!
Whitby!!

Whitby is the city in which Dracula was based on...so the whole town is pretty spooky. Especially where we stayed. Our hostel was on top of a cliff, looking over the North Sea...right next to Abbey ruins...next to a current Abbey, with no joke a HUGE cemetery! I wish I had taken pictures of it, but I didn't. Bummer! Just take my word, it was scary, but beautiful...see:

My FAVORITE part of the entire weekend was this:

The BEACH! Granted it was freezing....and raining...and did I say...feezing! Yet, it was just so beautiful and relaxing, I didn't even notice my soaking wet feet had gone numb! Like really, we ate sack lunches sitting on rocks, on the beach of the North Sea, as it rained on us. I was in love! I honestly could have stayed there for hours and hours! I went back to the beach 3 or 4 times in one day! How could you resist?!

After lunch and cave exploring, we went walking around town...we found the most amazing playground ever known to man! I know, I know...we are all mostly 20 years old, but this place brought out the kid in us QUICK! We were all dying laughing, and played there for probably an hour! While it was raining and super cold...but personally I think that made it better!

After that we headed back towards our hostel and did a little shopping around town, until it was almost time to head back for dinner, Kelly, Jacob, Becca and I decided we wanted one last view of the sea, so we headed to a different part of the beach...

Now high tide was due to come in within an hour or so, so me...being me...paranoid....felt a little rushed. I didn't want to stuck up against the rocky cliff, while the freezing cold water pounded on me. Does anyone really? Yet, I did it anyway...the excitement was enough to pull me, reluctantly.

We sure did have to climb over these rocks:

Doesn't look too bad, right? Well this picture was taken when we first got there...as we were there the waves started coming higher and higher until we were rushing to get out! Jacob being the kind soul he is, helped us ladies across...we did in fact make it out alive, obviously, but with minor injuries to my leg.

Here is the city lights! It was a precious little fishing town!

THE END.

BONUS: just a small update on my weekend...this is what I have to look forward to. The list pictured here, is a list of the homework I would like to either get finished, or start working on. Looks like a blast, huh?

Wish me luck!

Cailee