A little Kitten in Downton-Abbey-Land ENTRY NR 3 - DAYTRIP TO WHITBY It’s been slightly more t

A little Kitten in Downton-Abbey-Land

ENTRY NR 3 - DAYTRIP TO WHITBY

It’s been slightly more than week since I arrived in England and it took me until now to settle so far that I can write another entry to this blog.

Upon arriving in Manchester, my most wonderful friend Chealse granted me a few days of rest in her apartment in the city. After having lunch on Saturday with my Russian friend Anasatasia, who will study in Manchester from this month on, we drove to York on Sunday where we quickly unpacked my belongings before we went out for a delicious Sunday roast and some sightseeing.

I will not lie, the first two days weren’t easy. I felt quite alone and although there was much to see and visit, I felt a little bit overwhelmed with the new circumstances and environment. Nobody was there yet, but somehow I managed to find a few Asian girls who had spent their summer here, brushing up their English and now and then we met to stroll through the city and run some errands.

I have by now seen most of York’s city center, including the Minster, which can only be described as absolutely brilliant. I have walked the city walls (yes, you can indeed walk on top of them) and painted my own pottery, had delicious cupcakes and cream tea more than it could ever be healthy.

To make a long story short, I have settled just in time for the introduction weeks. Today almost all of my fellow students will arrive and tonight they have organized a Karaoke party I am looking most forward to attend.

Yesterday although, my new friend Joanne and me took a bus to Whitby, a small fisher town even further north than York. It takes more than two hours to get there by bus, but our journey through the foggy moorlands was at least as enjoyable as our time in Whitby itself. For those that have never heard of Whitby, Bran Stoker sojourned there for a summer and let himself be inspired by Whitby Abbey, an old monastery that Joanne and me visited towards the end of our day, to write his famous “Dracula”.

There is not much but ruins left on the cliff above Whitby, ruins that overlook the city like the spooky ghost of long forgotten times and almost disappear in the fog in the afternoon. One who has read Stoker’s Dracula will surely understand where the author found his inspiration, but for me the remains of the cathedral looked just like the decayed ruins of the Red Keep. I wonder whether Mister Martin has ever visited Whitby, or maybe one of the producers of the show, because Daenery’s stroll through the snowy and destroyed Throne room.

I slept through most of our drive back, but I still remember the sheep running free in the moor, grazing and looking at our bus with curiosity in their eyes. You couldn’t even see past a hundredth meters due to all the fog. It was brilliant.