Wearmouth-Jarrow, or Kicking it with Bede

On Saturday, I headed up to Tyne & Wear to visit Wearmouth-Jarrow. But first of all, remember those pictures I posted from along the river? Well this was what that path looked like on Saturday.That's right, that would be it UNDER THE RIVER by the trees. Crazy flooding. Also, I just like this picture because I think the haze is kind of cool. Just ignore that weird spot towards the bottom left; sometimes my camera puts weird spots on things and I can't make it go away.

Right, so back to Wearmouth Jarrow. Wearmouth is home to St Peter's monastery, while Jarrow is home to St Paul's. They were both founded by the same guy and are considered to be essentially two branches of the same monastery. They also happen to be the UK's nominee for World Heritage Site 2010. We went to Jarrow in particular, because the World of Bede, a museum dedicated to arguably the UK's most famous medieval scholar and author, is housed nearby. Also, they were having a Christmas Fair. And that is exciting :)

To get there, we took the train from York up to Newcastle and then the metro out to Jarrow. While signs helpfully directed us the right way out of the metro station, the signs stopped abruptly right outside the metro station. So there was a bit of wandering in what we hoped was the right direction to find the place.

Here's a shot of a portion of the Wearmouth/Jarrow Way, a 12 mile trail connecting the two monasteries. They're only about 6 miles apart as the bird flies, but the roads meander a bit. I still can't believe how green everything still is.

Before hitting up the Christmas extravaganza and free admission to Bede's World, we stopped off at St Paul's and the church there. Ta da! Not terribly impressive from this angle, but then again, churches this old were kind of small, squat, thick-walled things, so that's only to be expected.

The front part is a Victorian addition to the original church dating back to 681. 681! The Anglo-Saxon church (pictured) now forms the chancel of the modern church, but originally seems to have been a chapel to Our Lady, obviously used by the monks of St Paul's. The Anglo-Saxon chapel includes 3 original windows and a tiny stained glass window has been reassembled from fragments found in excavations.

Around to the right are the extant ruins of the monastery, mostly dating to the 11th century. Bede lived at St Paul's in the late 7th, early 8th centuries, but alas that incarnation of the monastery was largely destroyed by the Vikings in 794.

I'm going to refrain from putting up more pictures of the ruins; I really ruins. I think its the archaeologist in me. But moving on.

We then headed up to the World of Bede for some craft/food/toys/etc stall browsing and some "edumacating."

Hee hee!

They had some nice replicas of Franks Casket, illuminated Bibles the size of a bed pillow, monks habits, etc. Can you imagine transporting this thing? I know there's nothing to show the scale, but take my word for it that it is about the size of a pillow, just thicker.

 

The Codex Amiatinus was produced in Northumbria (the medieval kingdom in modern day northern England) in the style of Roman illuminated Bibles as a gift to the Pope (and as a way to show off the skills of the Northumbrian scribes.) The real one is still in Italy and was actually only recently identified as a product of Northumbrian scholarship because the scribes did such a good job imitating Roman styles. It is unusual in that it is a manuscript of the entire Bible. When everything is handwritten on vellum, you can see how big a complete Bible gets. A collection of the Gospels or individual books of the Bible, such as a psalter, were much more common. The Codex is actually believed to be the earliest complete copy of the Vulgate Latin Bible. Go Northumbria. The reason they showcase it at the World of Bede is because it was commissioned and completed at Wearmouth-Jarrow, and it appears that Bede was likely involved in its compilation. Cool stuff :)

After wandering around there and buying Christmas gifts, we ventured out to the Anglo-Saxon replica farm, where they attempt to showcase how farming worked back in the day. Of course it was raining and muddy and most of the animals were taking cover, but it was kind of neat to walk around.

 

After successfully completing our medieval dork pilgrimage to Jarrow, we headed back to Newcastle in search of dinner and hung out at the pub until it was time to catch the train back to York. <3 cheap yummy fish and chips. Advantages to towns along the coast!

Christmas Starts Early in England

Ahh, Christmas. That most wonderful time of the year. Now if only York would stop hitting almost 60 degrees in the afternoon so that we can see it all covered with snow! While in the States, the unofficial start of the holiday season is the day after Thanksgiving, it starts about a week earlier here since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving. The city of York kick started the holiday season last Thursday with the First Night Festival, which of course we had to go to.

Buildings were lit up and fairy lights were on the trees.

Shops were also open late, and the outdoor market will be selling Christmas gifts & craft items everyday until late.

And for the kiddies, there's a baby carnival with three really lame rides- a tiny carousel, a train that goes around in a circle, and cars that go around in a circle. Hope you like circles kids. But the booths had some cool stuff to look at, including these really cute finger puppets. Rachel bought some for her 2 year old nephew and we had a lot of fun picking out which ones she got.

In addition to "normal" animals like lions, tigers, monkeys and cows, there were some fun ones like hermit crabs, seahorses, and octopi. There were also vendors selling a lot of woodwork, jewelry, cheese, candy, t-shirts, knit sweaters/hats, etc.

In mid-December, York hosts the Festival of Angels. On First Night, there was a preview of the ice sculpture to come during the festival of angels. Plus all the store windows are all decked out for Christmas, including the Disney Store and the Jorvik Viking Centre.

How cute is that? In case you were wondering, you can in fact buy Viking-themed Christmas gear, including runic ornaments and Santa Viking hats (basically a red felt santa hat stuck on top of a horned Viking helmet.) Anyway, we checked out the outdoor ice rink that opened that night, but passed on skating since it wasn't really cold enough yet and the ice was melting pretty fast. The few people out there were kind of skating in puddles. So we grabbed Italian hot chocolate (what can I say, I'm a total sucker for thick, dark chocolatey deliciousness. Nobody does food like the Italians) and headed out to listen to some Christmas tunes played by a local wind band around the Christmas tree in the square (it was windy, the tree isn't quite as Charlie Brown-ish as it looks.)

We also saw a parade of little ones with glowing stars and their parents led by Santa. I'm not really sure what the significance of the parade was, but it was kind of cute. It looked like the kids decorated their own stars because the colored patches were different on each one.

Churches were lit up in purple (the liturgical color of the Advent season), and even the Minster got involved.

So fun stuff :) Next weekend, there is the St Nicolas Fayre, with more outdoor shopping marts to peruse, as well as a Medieval market. I have no idea what will be at the medieval market, but I'm intrigued to find out more! Then in December, the International Christmas Fayre arrives in Parliament Street, so that will be fun to check out too. York does all kinds of stuff for Christmas- it likes to claim that its the best destination in the UK for the season. Judging by the number of tourists, I'd say that's probably accurate. The number of tourists had dropped down after October, but I guess quaint English Christmas has a lot of appeal.

This weekend, I headed north to visit Wearmouth & Jarrow, the "one monastery in two places" most famous for being the home of Bede, English medieval author/historian extraordinaire. So we checked out the ruins of the monastery at Jarrow, the World of Bede museum, and THEIR Christmas fayre. But more on that + pictures in the next entry.

A Hodge-Podge of Recent(ish) Happenings

First up, I have a special gem to share. I'd meant to post this photo with the Eddie Izzard entry, since that's when I made the discovery of it's existence but somehow forgot to include it. Check out what lives in Exhibition Square (i.e. the area comprised of King's Manor and the York Art Museum) late at night. I don't actually know how often or when it gets there because I've never seen it before or since, but then again, we got back from the train at like 12:30 am the day we saw the comedy show and I'm never out that late, so it could be there all the time and I just don't know. I suppose its like Schrodinger's cat. And yes, I'm aware of how dorky it is to reference that in conversation, but dorky is the new cool! Accept it! :)

Without further ado, check out the Baked Potato Waggon!

It is actually a bit strange, because they usually call baked potatoes "jacket potatoes" here. And they're pretty ubiquitous as lunch options at various sandwich shops/cafes with a variety of filling options. I had one the other day for lunch with "mince" filling; ground beef and peas in some kind of sauce stuff. It wasn't bad. I would kill for a potato with plain old chili and cheddar cheese though. I'm ok with the mince stuff too, but I'm sorry, various forms of curry on a potato just doesn't appeal to me.

You may have noticed that I talk about food a lot. Food is always what gets me first in a foreign country. I like what I like and I miss what I like. And I'm afraid I'm not done with food for this entry yet :)

Last Sunday (wow have I been bad about updating...) I went with a couple other girls to experience a traditional Sunday Roast. Its kind of a tradition here that people go to church and then either go to a pub (or enjoy at home) roast beef with all the trimmings. We attempted one pub that came highly recommended, but everyone else in York apparently also heard that recommendation, so we went to a less crowded pub which was also recommended called the Evil Eye.

Here is what 7 pounds will get you on Sunday afternoons:

Even I don't know what all is on that plate. There's roast beef, cabbage mush, what I think were about 3 different kinds of potatoes, broccoli, carrots, some kind of squash mash, and Yorkshire pudding. The "Yorkie" is a bread that's cooked using the fat droppings from the roast. That's the thing on top that's a bit dark around the edges. Its not bad, but it kind of just tastes like meaty bread. Underneath the Yorkie was something that vaguely resembled what I can only describe as stuffing pureed into baby food (ick.) And of course, gravy over everything. As you may or may not be aware, I have this thing about not liking my food touching, and for exactly this reason. I don't like my gravy getting all over stuff it shouldn't. Case in point, I do not care for gravy on broccoli or carrots. And I don't like cabbage mush to begin with, but certainly not with gravy on it. Gravy belongs on potatoes and meat and that's all. Aside from the kind of weird mushed up stuff, it wasn't bad. Well, ok, the potatoes, meat, and Yorkie were pretty good. I don't know that I'll be ordering another one anytime soon.

Afterwards, we trekked about three doors up the street to Starbucks, where I enjoyed a delicious chai latte. They actually have different flavors here, which is probably to be expected. There's a dark chocolate cherry mocha that is apparently delicious that I'm going to have to try next time I convince myself that I can spend like 3.50 ($5!!) on a small drink. We were pleased to see that UK Starbucks sell proper scones, not those silly little lemon things that the US stores sell. 

And now for something not food related! I'm taking you on a walk with me to the Rougier Street bus stop (where I then caught the bus to campus to spend a few hours at the library.) So from my house, I walk down the street and then cut through some teeny tiny streets and end up walking along the Ouse River, which is pronounced like "ooze."

The Ouse is actually one of 2 rivers running through York, the other being the Foss. These were of course the reason York was historically a major center in England because both rivers are pretty large and allow for shipping access. Later York became a railway hub, continuing its history as transportation center for the North of England. The leaves have only been falling the last 2 weeks or so; temperatures are still ridiculously mild here, considering I'm basically as far north as Alaska. Yay Gulf Stream. We're hovering around 50 degrees during the day, so I'm still just wearing a corduroy jacket (totally the best thing I bought to come here) or a light sweater and a scarf. It does get colder at night though. And night here is basically anytime after 4:30 in the afternoon. It is full dark by then when I get out of class, which is really weird. Because as a girl and living in a city for the last few years, I've had it drilled in to me to be super cautious at night, not to go anywhere alone, etc etc etc, but that just feels silly when its dark in the late afternoon!

Anyway, back to our stroll. Here is Lendal Bridge, which connects a tower on one side (all that remains of the city walls there; also on the market if anyone wants to buy a medieval tower. It is attached to a modern house if that's a concern!) and the city walls on the other.

You can see bright red boats past the bridge. Those are the York Boats, which is on my list of things to do if anyone ever comes to visit me. No one here seems interested. :( 

Here's a little sandwich shop that I've been meaning to try, mostly because I think the building is really cute. I'm a sucker for anything with crenelations. Vocab word- crenelations or battlements are the technical terms for the top part of castles that go up and down sort of like this:

 _    _    _

|   |_|  |_|   | (sorry, that's the best I can do). They allow for arrows to be shot while offering some protection for the archer's body. You can also see the shields on the bridge to the left. I think its pretty nifty.

Finally, here's a shot of the city walls running off towards the train station located just outside the walls.

From here I cross the street, walk past a neon green sandwich shop called Krunchy's which I also kind of want to try (are you sensing a pattern? Lots of sandwich shops) and arrive at the bus stop and await the giant purple monstrosity that services the University route.

So there you have it. More or less an average day in my life, minus the boring library bits. :)

Why yes, I am American

I've found that it is pretty strange what triggers an overwhelming sense of American identity. In a lot of ways, life in the UK is very similar to life in good ole US of A. Sure, the pronunciation is different and they've got different names for some things, but generally things are pretty similar. But the other day I was walking through campus on my way to the library wearing jeans and a hoodie with my iPod blasting something or other and it dawned on me that in that moment I was incredibly American. Hoodie & jeans are practically the college student's uniform, right? Wrong. I have yet to see a British girl wearing a hoodie around. It is all the international kids that wear sweatshirts and such. It is a bit more common to see guys in sweatshirts though. Also, if you are a British girl attending college, almost without fail you are wearing a short skirt and opaque black tights and heel-less boots pretty much everyday. If you're bored, you might mix it up with a pair of short shorts on top of tights. That's not to say that there aren't girls in jeans, it is just much like the Ugg Boots phenomenon only much more popular. And then there's the iPod, standard accessory for most of us American college kids, but not used in public much here. You'll see people listening to them on the train or something, but very rarely walking around or even in the library. And then there's the ice cream. I bought a pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream, which in America is described as Chocolate Ice Cream with Gooey Marshmallow & Caramel Swirls & Fudge Fish. Here, and I kid you not, it is "Chocolate Ice Cream with Marshmallow, Caramel & Chocolatey Shaped Fish." Who knew fish could be shaped like chocolate?

Unrelatedly, I did laundry today and it cost me the equivalent of $10 to do 2 loads of laundry. TWO loads! Sheesh, now I understand why the British tend to be much more lax about wearing clothes more than once.

Bonfire Night part deux

Today I present proof that I did end up seeing some fireworks. Granted, it was through my skylight and on Friday night rather than Thursday, but I'm still going to say it counts.

I've got some other pictures and stories to share, but I have to transfer pictures over to my laptop, so in the meantime, here are some quaint British/medieval-y things.

This is a view down the street just past Bootham Gate, walking towards the Minster. I had to return a book to the Minster library :) Its really true that all the shops have the hanging signs. I really like them, I think they're cute. You may also note that people are walking down the middle of the street. Most of city centre is pedestrians only during the main part of the day. Even bikes have to go a round about way around to avoid the pedestrian only section.

And here is the side of the Minster, as seen from the Minster Gardens, which aren't very big, but nice to walk around. You can also see all the scaffolding on the end- that's the East Window (THE largest medieval stained glass window) and it is undergoing preservation work expected to end in 2014, but our tour guide at the Minster said not to hold your breath for that, so don't expect to be able to see it in all of it's glory anytime soon. But they do have a full-scale banner hanging in the space so you can sort of almost envision what it looks like. Also kind of cool, while preservation work is on-going, they have panels on display so you can see them up close. It is amazing how much detail goes into each frame, especially since the fine detail is completely lost to viewers from the ground. I mean, how could it not be, the thing is the size of a tennis court!

I have no idea what this is, but I think its cool. If/when I find out what it is (I assume a monument of some kind), I'll let you know. Located near the Minster Gardens entrance.

And here is the opposite side of Bootham Gate. I showed you the front in one of my first posts- it has Roman fortress/walls stuff underneath. The city wall runs off to the right and is a medieval addition built on top of earlier Roman fortifications. I was "inside" the city where I stood to take this picture. However, there were walls within walls around walls all over the place in the medieval period. St Mary's Abbey, which is located behind King's Manor had its own set of walls which still stand in sections around Bootham down to where I live. Speaking of where I live...

That's my street. It isn't terribly exciting, especially since they've been doing all kinds of crazy road work and scaffolding has gone up on and down on a bunch of buildings. But it is a nice area. Most of the houses on the street are actually B+Bs. The Bootham area is kind of the Bed and Breakfast zone in York. If you keep walking down this street, go down about 5 stairs, walk across the public parking lot, you arrive at the River Ouse, (pronounced Ooze. And before you ask, no, it is not named because it is sludgy and disgusting, although you can't swim in it. The current is really fast and strong and people (often intoxicated) do drown every so often.) The Ouse will be one of the subjects from my next post, once I upload pictures :)

Anyway, back to my living situation. My house might not be the prettiest or the nicest or the cleanest house ever, but we do what we can with it :)

Procrastination + Bonfire Night

So as you can probably tell, I avoided my reading for like an hour and a half and fiddled with adjustments to the blog template here. If anything breaks or gets wonky, let me know, its still a work in progress.

November 5th is Bonfire Night (also known as Guy Fawkes Day) in the UK. Today we celebrate that wondrous man who absolutely failed in his plot to blow up Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The plot's goal was to literally blow up the houses of Parliament while the Protestant nobility (and the Catholic nobility- whoops) were inside as a means of ending the Protestant rule of King James and to end the discrimination against Catholics in England at the time. The plot was foiled when Fawkes was discovered setting up the explosives after officials received an anonymous warning letter. On Bonfire Night, bonfires are lit and effigies of Guy are burned in a tradition dating all the way back to 1605, and fireworks displays go off in a tradition going back all the way to whenever fireworks became the standard means of public celebration. Sounds like my kind of day, right? Well it would be if York, the BIRTHPLACE of Guy Fawkes mind you, did anything for it. They decided a few years back to scrap their Bonfire Night festivities because it was too cost prohibitive to meet all the safety regulations put in place in recent years by various government agencies.

So I have no idea what I'll be doing tonight. Apparently there is a small bonfire in Heslington, the villiage near the main York campus. I'm not sure if fireworks displays from any other cities will be visible or not. Apparently the York Tourism Board is equally disgusted with the lack of festivities, because lots of potential tourists contact them about planning a visit around Bonfire Night but then bail when they hear we don't do anything.

Anyway, the Guy Fawkes legacy lives on. In 2002, he was voted #30 in the list of the 100 Greatest Britons (which is kind of ironic actually, seeing as he a) attempted to bring down the government and b) failed at it) and he has been immortalized in the masks and poem (re)popularized by the movie V for Vendetta.

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

The gunpowder treason and plot,

I know of no reason

Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

A Proper English Cream Tea

An English cream tea consists of tea (obviously) with either cream or lemon and sugar, and scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream. As I mentioned yesterday, I spent rather a lot of money on groceries which were delivered today, including everything I need for my own cream teas for breakfast :) Now, I went with plain scones because I don't really care for raisins, but really there should be raisins in the scones. Fun factoid, jury is out on how you should pronounce "scone." Most English & Scottish people will pronounce it as if it rhymes with John, however it is also acceptable to pronounce it rhyming with cone. So now you too can sound snooty and British the next time you have a scone and pronounce it the British way! Anyway, in addition to the tea, you have to have a scone topped with jam and clotted cream.

Clotted cream traditionally comes from Cornwall and Devon, and there are therefore two corresponding methods for eating your scone. And there can be serious debate about which method is preferable! I personally subscribe to the Devonshire tradition, in which you half the scone and put first the cream and then the jam on top. I feel that it is easier to spread the jam on top of the cream than the other way around. But this is likely because I typically eat Devonshire clotted cream, which is a thicker consistency than Cornish clotted cream. The Cornish method is the opposite; jam goes on first, then the cream. Either way, be sure to slather both on and enjoy.

Now, you may be wondering "what the heck is clotted cream?" Well, I could tell you, but then you probably wouldn't try it. Its a cream spread sort of the consistency of marscapone if you've ever had that. Just, you know, made of cream instead of cheese. There are tea rooms all across the country where you can enjoy a traditional cream tea, or any of a multitude of other desserts or sandwich options. In York, the best has to be Betty's. Its a bit pricey, but totally worth it for the atmosphere. If you get a table along the wall of windows, you score a prime spot to people watch because it is right off a big square. Mom, we're totally going if y'all come visit me!

EDDIE IZZARD!

Last Thursday, Ellen, Brian and I rode the train an hour north to Newcastle-upon-Tyne for Eddie Izzard's "Stripped" show. The show is a two hour "stripped down" account of the history of the world. And it is an absolutely fantastic show. Jesus preaches to the dinosaurs (but not to worry, it is not the same as his bit about that in a previous show) plus an absolutely HILARIOUS section on the limitations of the Latin language. I was basically crying during that part I was laughing so hard.

The show was held at the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena, which looked pretty big- standard arena type stuff on the tickets webpage. But it is actually basically just a hockey arena. Like, say, Walter Brown-sized for those of you familiar with BU. So our seats which we thought were pretty good on the map were a lot closer than we thought they'd be. Of course, so was every other seat in the arena! Fun fact about UK event food- they have the usual not very good burgers, pizza, fries, and soda, but they ALSO sell hot fresh donuts. Hot. Fresh. Donuts. Oh man. I totally wanted some but I refrained. While we were waiting in line to pick up our tickets at the box office, we thought we smelled funnel cake and got really excited and then were very confused when there didn't seem to be anything like that around. And then we saw the donut stall. They looked (and smelled!) pretty good; I'll have to try them if I go to another show while I'm here.

Here's a not very good picture- my camera couldn't really handle the giant screen in a darkened arena thing very well.

And now we come to the not so exciting part of the story. The show was supposed to last 2 hours. The venue listed the show as running until 10:10. The last train back to York was at 10:46 and the station is only about 10 minutes from the arena, so we figured we'd be fine. Well, that would be true if Eddie had followed his lighting cues to wrap up either of the first two times they blinked at him. So at 10:30, we start worrying. But then, miraculously, he wraps up! Clapping, clapping, we can totally make the train! Oh no he's back for an encore. And its about the American space race. Dang it. So we, along with about 10 other college aged people make a beeline out of there and RUN for the train, figuring we're totally going to miss it. We're running, we get there, it is exactly 10:46... and the train is listed as 2 minutes late. Thank goodness. So we didn't get stranded in Newcastle for the night and all was well, except that we missed the last bit of his routine. But the DVD comes out at the end of the week, so one of us will have to get it so we can see what we missed.

If you are at all familiar with Latin, I recommend this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4YOmOd40iY for Eddie's take on Latin inefficiencies :)

He'll also be back in the US for an abbreviated tour, so if you're interested, you may want to check that out. So yeah, that's about all that's new. I spent the weekend sick so I haven't been up to much except watching old movies and whatnot in the past few days. Oh, and doing reading for class. Can't forget that...

Today I spent 50 BPDS on groceries at Asda (yay Walmart) and made some interesting discoveries:

1) Asda only charges 3.50 for deliveries during the day, as opposed to Tesco's 5 pounds all the time.

2) Ground beef is "minced beef" here.

3) There is no American or Mexican cheese blends available here. Which is only to be expected, I suppose, but still somewhat disappointing. We have cheddar back home! Show North American cheeses some love, UK!

4) There is no shredded cheese, but there is "grated cheese" as long as you want Cheddar, Gloucester, Parmesan, or Mozzarella.

5) It isn't sour cream, it is soured cream. Which is not quite as appetizing of a name...

6) YOU CAN BUY SCONES AND CLOTTED CREAM! I already had the strawberry jam, so prepare yourselves for some picture spam and poetic odes to the glories of a cream tea sometime soon.

7) US fries = UK chips. This is common knowledge. US chips = UK crisps. Also (semi) common knowledge. The exception: Tortilla chips. Still called chips. However, the UK's idea of corn chips are Doritos. All kinds of different flavors of Doritos. I did find a "lightly salted" flavor that I'm hoping is just regular old tortilla chips.

8) Baileys makes non-alcoholic cream like for coffee/tea. I did not get any but I was intrigued.

9) Technically an old grocery store discovery, but I'm going to share here anyway. They have really good strawberries here year round. They're a lot smaller than the California monstrosities we're used to, but the weather stays good enough year round for sweet delicious strawberries.

10) They do not sell deodorant/antiperspirant in a tube that you twist up and rub on your armpits, unless you buy the stupid expensive (not to mention foul-smelling) organic brand. Everything else is aerosol spray. Weird.

11) You can buy macaroni cheese (they don't put the & in for some reason) in a can. It is apparently disgusting, but you can. No blue box here! :(

12) I did find, however, El Paso Taco Kit! So excited.

So basically half of the battle to finding something resembling what you want is knowing what to look for. I had to search through pages upon pages of "dairy" to find "grated cheese" because I simply didn't think to search for grated rather than shredded. But I'm picking up the differences and I'm sure that by the time I leave I'll have finally gotten everything sorted out!