Hello all! Different kind of post here, since I’m once again actively traveling. It’s way different this time since I’ve found free ways to call friends from my phone and of course computer, so I don’t feel quite so disconnected from the world, even though I’m a world away.

I am currently in my 4th city, since leaving a week and a half ago, so there have been a lot of trains and car rides and my trip has only just begun. I spent a few days in York, England, which really has to be experienced to be appreciated. The city is 3,000 years old, and retains remains of the Roman occupation from 2,000 years ago crumbling around here and there and under things. The most visible parts of the city date from about 1300 onwards and is the English city with the most intact original fortification walls.

I walked the walls with my friend Wendy (who was raised there and who has worked in archaeology and paleoanthropology) with whom I was staying, and as she politely explained the walls were “tarted up” by the Victorians. But, that was only the tippity top parts.

The walls are interrupted by gates called bars to both let people in and out of the city and display chopped off heads, whatever the case may be.

We took a day trip to Whitby, a town of multiple charms where we searched for–and found–150 million year old ammonites along the beach. It’s fun knowing other people who like to dig things up. Our sense of a good time is pretty much the same. I have been lucking out with the English weather. It’s been just a bit chillier than Seattle, but not much rain, so we walked along the cliffs to pass by the Whitby Abbey which inspired Bram Stoker in Dracula.

I spent 28 hours in Edinburgh, a few days in London and am now in Portsmouth, England. I’ll have to figure out how to write more posts without boring everyone to tears with the length, but there is so much to tell!

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