York and Whitby trip

Sorry, these pictures are all out of order! :(

This was our hostel from the backside

A window in York Minster

A fooseball table that was in York Minster, I got really excited!...but dont worry I did not play it.

The African group, they were so happy and it was fun to watch.

Molly and I with our bananas on the bus

Me in front of BEAUTIFUL Whitby
Whitby Abbey(which inspired the story of Dracula)

Sunset

Sunrise

Our room in the hostel..at the least the window, we couldnt fit the whole room in a picture...
The view from our window (I didnt realize that I took it in black and white at the time)
The view from the steps on the way into town

Sondra and I with the beach background


Warwick Castle
Jessica and I were very naughty and look at our punishment....
My European boyfriend...except he's made of wax.
What would have been an awesome picture, if the wind hadnt blown my hair that way...
Warwick Castle.

I went on my first overnight trip with the whole group, and it was really fun!

We left early Thursday morning and drove to Warwick Castle. It was huge and we had a pretty good amount of free time to walk around and see everything. One of the exhibits was a reanactment of Medieval Times by using wax people. It was very creepy, they looked real, and they just kind of freaked me out..but i took pictures with them anyways. The views were amazing and the castle was really big. They also had a peacock garden. All the peacocks were really far away from us, but then I got my sandwich out and they all started flocking towards us, which was really cool. After we were done looking at the castle, we still has some time left, so we walked into town and found a famous church to tour. I think it was St. Marys. Robert Dudle was buried here, and while this did not previously excite me, I found out that he was Queen Elizabeth's supposed lover.

After Warwick, we got on the bus again and got to Whitby around 6. I was SO surprised at how nice the hostel was. The rooms were very spacious, we had our bathroom, the bed was nice and comfy, and breakfast, lunch, and dinner were served there. I could not have been more pleasantly surprised. We stayed right next to the Whitbey Abbey and it was on top of this huge hill. We had to walk down and down 199(yes we counted) steps to get back and forth from the hostel to town. Let's just say my calf muscles are VERY sore....but it was so worth it. Everything about the town of Whitby was quaint, and relaxing. It was just so much fun to sit on a cliff and look at the beautiful surroundings. We didn't really "do" a whole lot. We did tour the Abbey, and we walked around in town a lot. There was lots of time for playing games. I dominated in fooseball, which was very exciting and then we playes this game called "signs" with a lot of people both nights in a common room.

We left for York on Saturday morning, and we toured the York Minster when we got there. Then we had free time for about 5 hours. This was way too long. We did not know really what there was to do in York, and we were so tired that we really just wanted to head back to Oxford at this point. However, Jessica, KrisAnn, and I walked around and we saw this group from Africa performing and they were REALLY cool, so I am glad we got to see that.

It was exciting to come back into the house and for it to feel familiar. I really am enjoying being here, this is such a cool opportunity. If I ever get the chance to go back to Whitby, I will. I really did like it.

It was a luxury going a trip where everything was planned, and I will soon see how much of a luxury that really is. I loved going as the whole group too. I can now offically say I have caught the traveling bug!

P.S. Everyone is getting sick and it seems it is only a matter of time that I will get it...please pray my immune system stays strong.

Also, I put a lot more pictures up on facebook if you want to see them.