Visiting York

Apr 24th 2009

A journey to another country has never been so exciting! I got invited to attend the 2009 annual meet of YPKO forum members which took place in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. Because of the recession and increased cost of airline tickets I had to fly  to London with Wizzair, a low-cost company, which meant I had to travel around 300 miles by train around the Isle.

It was the first time I rode an express service in England. The Virgin voyager travelled at about 150-200 km/h and covered the distance between Milton Keynes to Birmingham in no time. I was very impressed by the people who traveled in the my carriage - most men were wearing shirts, ties and suits. I got to know it was quite common for Britains to do buisness travesl by train. Such thing can never happen in Bulgaria.

On the next day I decided to make a 1-day trip to York - a city with rich history which was established by the Romans. What York is famous for is the vast number of museums, Clifford's Tower, the York Minster (the main catherdral of the northern diocese) and, last but not least, the largest in the world Railway Museum, which was my first point of interest.

Although I was the first visitor to the National Railway Museum on that day, soon the building got crowded with children, schoolboys and girls, parents, teachers and travelers. England has a rich history of train making and there was quite a variety of trains on display. The most stunning ones were 1829 Agenoria, the Stephenson's Rocket replica, the Duke of Sutherland's personal coach and the Flying Scottsman - the first passenger train to reach 100 miles-per-hour.

It is said the you cant walk around York without being stopped by local people. I can confirm this is absoultely true. After I'd been walking along the city walls for an hour, I was stopped by a guy who suggested he take a picture of me with my camera - how nice of him! After we talked this and that he advised me to attend a service in the Minster. I admit it was quite a bright idea.

All I can say is that I was completely blown away by the service I attended at the Minster, which was called "Evensong". Religion had never had such a huge impact on me. There was a choir of 40 men and 20 girls, the latter were probably schoolgirls from the Minster's school, who all sang like angels. The congregator read exerpts from the first 2 chapters of the Old Testament. The feeling of attending such a ceremony was so exciting left the Minster calmed down and relaxed. If only there were such cervices in the Orthodox chirches...

However, my visit to York came to an end as I had to get on the train back to Blackpool. Adios York, will return there some day (hopefully).