Posts Tagged ‘cemetery’

York: Hope for Humanity and Hedgehogs

Monday, June 30th, 2014

While in England I took a series of day trips to spread my knowledge’s reach to other parts of England beyond London. Branching out on the train lines I set out to adventure in England beginning with York where I stayed for two glorious days. With just my purse and my camera packed away I trekked across London to the King’s Cross Station, which is a big impressive station, next to the even bigger and more impressive station in my opinion, the St. Pancras Station. I had a bit of a long wait for my train so in the meanwhile I explored the area surrounding the station, and even watched a Lays commercial being made with a blind taste test where people kept burning their mouths on hot food.

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Then I explored the interior of the station and realized that King’s Cross has Harry Potter’s Platform nine and three quarters and in the actual station they have this whole elaborate set up now for tourists looking to follow the Harry Potter things in London. It was a baggage cart cut in half next to wall with even an owl stuffed animal on it, and people had lined up, zigzagging through the station to take a photo with it pretending to be going through the wall. Not being a huge Harry Potter fan and finding the fanaticism funny, I sat on a nearby staircase watching the insane antics knowing if I had been with my friends we would have been one of those groups waiting in line since all of my friends are pretty die hard when it comes to Harry Potter. So I sat back and watched, laughing for almost an hour, watching the line snake its way forward endlessly.IMG_3342

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Finally my train arrived and I was really surprised by how nice the trains where, especially after having used Trenitalia all semester in Italy which is pretty bare bones on the regional trains. The seats where plush and each one either had a chess/checkers table or a monopoly table for playing games. I had a really nice seat all to myself and a nice big window to watch the countryside roll by.IMG_3361

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The two hour ride from London to York was wonderful, we essentially crossed all of England, almost to Scotland and the countryside was beautiful. Rolling hills of mustard grass and buttercups coloring the hills like a sea of yellow. Cows and cute towns speckled the landscape, the occasional river and undulating little hills with the fields of cows or sheep passing by the speeding train. I loved the ride and was almost sad when it ended, but even more excited to see what York had to behold.

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I rather liked the little train station and once outside in the sunny, slightly muggy air I made directly for one of the towns most famous aspects, the ancient walls that still enclose the city. IMG_3377

I have thus far neglected to mention an important part of this little solo adventure to York, the fact that I was couch surfing with a total stranger. My housing for York fell through and I had to last minute find random housing and a 66 year old woman named Heather was kind enough to accommodate me. This was the first time I had ever done this and I was a little worried. But I had a few hours to kill my first day in York before I was supposed to meet her at the house. So I began with the wall.

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 The wall that runs almost entirely around the city of York is an artifact of ancient times, the preservation of the old city’s fortress walls. Almost entirely intact, today you can go around the city on the winding dragon spine of this town to take in its sights. I got onto the wall and could see York Minster in the background and I started making my way along the wall to see what there was to see. At the end of my first section of wall that dipped at a bridge crossing a river leading to what I assume once was an old guard tower tucked away by the riverside. IMG_3385

Much to my surprise I discovered that this little turret tower was in fact an adorable coffee shop. I knew I had to go in and see what a tower coffee shop looked like, but first I made a stop by the river to look at all the baby geese wandering everywhere in the town. IMG_3389

(Notice in the background of this shop, the super pissed off goose ready to chase me off)IMG_3396

I climbed the stairs to the tower and looked inside to see wooden beams crossing the ceiling and couches filling every inch of the room that wasn’t taken up by the counter. It was really extremely cute, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend my money just yet having just arrived maybe 10 minutes previous to this point in time. However, I wasn’t given much choice by a nice, but bluntly gruff man sitting in the corner whom, upon seeing me standing, gawking in the doorway, hollered at me to step in and get something to drink instead of just staring. He was a hilariously caustic man I came to known was called Shawn. Little did I know that him calling me into the coffee shop against my will and my wallet’s desires would lead to one of my favorite experiences of my entire month of travel after my program. IMG_3403

I shyly shuffled in and still a little cautious of the man who had called me in who was now muttering over his computer, I ordered coffee from the very kind barista. After I ordered I figured I could take a few pictures, so I asked permission first and the man in the corner, Shawn once again pipped in saying he would be very glad to model in the corner. And as I was taking pictures another traveler such as myself wandered in behind me and seeing me taking photos, jumped into my shot just like this. Didn’t have any idea who he was, but I deeply loved the photo. IMG_3404

So laughing I sat down with my delicious coffee and began talking with everyone there, observing the barista and Shawn who obviously where friends ad kept poking fun at each other; Shawn caustically muttering and the barista calling him a grouch and an old man because of his bad behavior. And I got to talking with Ben, the traveler who, like me had just hopped of the train, and we wound up sitting and talking for about 2 or 3 hours. It was a marvelous time, laughing at Shawn bashing every city in England besides York to prove that York was clearly the best city in the UK and the barista teasing him about him just being a silly grumpy person with impossible standards. Ben told me he was traveling from Scotland to meet up with his grandmother whom he loved very much so the two of them could travel together in the UK. I told him all about Italy and the cultural curiosities of the country that most people wouldn’t know. The entire time, any time I would say something he liked he would stop and hunched over his little notebook would write anything he liked that I said in his little journal for later so he could remember the things I said. It was invigorating to have a conversation with a total stranger and realize that my words mean something to him; that even though he would probably forget my name, my words remained in that little black book to be viewed again.

I was very sad when he realized he was late for his train and ran off, neither of us realizing the time that had passed while we were talking. He ran off, and I didn’t even know his last name at the end, it was a saddening end to a wonderful encounter, but my entire time in that coffee shop was so up lifting and had me believing so thoroughly in the goodness of total strangers that when I got back to the wall I was grinning from ear to ear with the possibilities of human interaction, which, coming from an introvert, is not a phrase I say often. I was just so happy and felt so rejuvenated that I wandered down the wall in total awe of people and a new hope for humanity blooming in my heart.

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I walked all the way around the wall, enjoying the views, the flowers, and the warm summer air. IMG_3443

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I got off the wall to go to another ancient site in York, Clifford’s Tower, a lone little circular tower perched high atop a hill overlooking the city. I walked through a field of geese and their little babies just to get to it. IMG_3464

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The tower was very interesting and from there, with more time to wander, I decided to just weave my way through the backstreets of the city to see what there was to discover.IMG_3492

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I found purple doors, with fox door knockers, old churches knee deep in buttercups and dandelions, ancient cemeteries in older churchyards, and crooked streets leading me to crooked buildings.

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Past convents with shining stain glass windows, flowers blooming a deep crimson, old english buildings and back to the river again to hang my feet above the water with a beer in hand.IMG_3602

I took a short break on the water after an interesting encounter over taking pictures of geese that went a little something like this: I was taking pictures of some adorable baby geese, and realized there was an elderly gentleman also taking pictures of them. I thought it was a nice moment to share together, we made eye contact and I opened my mouth to affirm what I thought we both were thinking, how adorable are these baby geese?, when he looked at me, also about to speak but before I could say what I thought he was going to, he just looks at me and whispers, DINNER.  I was so deeply shocked at how wrong I had read the situation that I just started laughing and couldn’t stop until he had left. IMG_3611

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After that encounter, it was time to meet my host for the night, who riding up on a bicycle with bunting covering the straw basket, didn’t even stop before asking me, Do you want to come bird watching in an old Victorian cemetery with me tonight at sunset?

Who says no to that? Easily one of the strangest experiences of my trip, I ran/walked next to her for about thirty minutes outside of York while she rode her bike until we reached the cemetery. IMG_3634

The cemetery was entirely overgrown, a glowing green radiance summoned from the depth of these vine covered graves and deep rooted behemoth trees with branches reaching out like arms to encompass the entire cemetery like a mother raven pulling her children tightly underneath her broad wings. It was beautiful, quiet, peaceful, and despite it being a cemetery was a place full of life and solemn solitude.

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The birdwatching itself was kind of a bust with a majority of the group entirely fine with examining the calls of black birds, desperately craning their necks and squinting their eyes to make out a pigeon in the distance, but the surroundings where astounding and I was very glad I went and got to experience his oddity. IMG_3657

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After leaving the cemetery at dusk and run/walking back into York I broke off again from my kind host and decided to go wander around York at night to maximize my day and time for exploration.

After again sitting on the banks of the river with my feet dangling above the black starry water with a cider in hand, I finally headed home on the crooked cobblestone streets.

While on my journey back to the house, I saw something crossing the street, at first I thought it was a really weird looking rat because I could only see its outline in the dark and its strange waddling stride. I thought it was the strangest looking rat I had ever seen, I mean it didn’t even have a tail, when to my surprise as I wandered closer I realized it was a wild hedgehog. I have always wanted to see one and nearly lost my mind when I realized I had encountered one in the wilderness of York’s streets. IMG_3691

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After doing a little dance of celebration in the street at my luck, I made sure to take a few pictures and then leave the creature to its night wanderings. IMG_3694

I went back to the house grinning once again from ear to ear as I had done when leaving the coffee shop that same morning. My host was gracious enough to give me my own room in the attic of her terrace home. It was adorable, but felt a little haunted or something at night, but still adorable. IMG_3695

So after talking with my host about art, wildlife, her work, my travels, and a huge array of random topics over English tea, we both retired to bed after a long but fulfilling day.

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Day Ten: Mackinaw City

Friday, June 29th, 2012

This is the winding down, the final frontier of the trip: we have entered the state of Michigan. The very tippy top of the state is the goal and end of the trip in Keweenaw County and we stayed the night about the half-way point right before the Mackinac Island Bridge.

We left Cincinnati early in the morning and headed up to meet some of my mother’s old high school friends whom she was really excited to see after to many years. We met them for lunch right above where my mom lived as a child in Birmingham, Michigan. After lunch at Olga’s, an old favorite of my mother’s which serves gyros, we headed down memory lane to reminisce about my mother’s old home. Even though it is no longer there, the house next to cemetery, we still drove by where it once stood and even stopped at a garage sale at the place that now stands in its stead. We drove all over as she pointed out points of interest from her childhood including the cemetery. It was a huge trip down memory lane, even though the town had changed incredibly, we had a great time wandering around.

After Birmingham we kept heading north to Gaylord where my uncle and his family are in order to stop in and catch up with them. We got dinner, visited a small but beauitful lake, and even got to see some elk.

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We got in really late last night because it was hard to say goodbye yet again, even though we will see them in a couple of more days. We drove to Mackinaw City in the dark and could see the lights blink on the bridge as we pulled in to the city. It was a wonderfully warm night but we were so tired we just collapsed right into bed.

 

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Villach, Austria

Saturday, July 30th, 2011

After our few short days in Germany we started to make our way down towards Italy. On the way though was Austria. We drove through miles of countryside and finally the Alps. It was beautiful driving around the countryside of Germany, and Austria. Here unlike the USA, towns are scattered, rather than having a large city that fans out into countryside, it seems like hundreds of little towns were plopped down in the middle of nowhere without purpose.

The little villages are so tiny and quaint all the red roofs, surrounding the epicenter, the church.In many places these towns are not allowed to build structures taller than the church. I thought that was an interesting notion.

Villach is a relatively large place and is quite beautiful. The town surrounds a beautiful church named after St. Jakob.

 

The town itself like many others here is speckled with multicolored buildings and quaint little shops on every corner.

Maiya was lucky enough to get chased around buy a guy in a weird suit trying to sell Fanta to tourists.

Instead of Fanta we stopped in a cute little cafe for some gelato!

They gave us gigantic spoons that were really fun to eat with and on a nice hot day in Austria, nothing beats gelato.

After a nice little trompe through the town we went and visited a very interesting cemetery. With a beautiful entrance way the cemetery was basically begging us to come inside and have a look around.

It is interesting, in this cemetery there were plenty of flowers but it seemed like instead of more flowers most graves were dotted with little red candles. Apparently that is tradition here and it is one I really enjoy. I think it is an extremely nice idea to leave behind a burning candle to light the ways of the ones you love that have gone their separate ways.

Our stop in Austria was very brief but very interesting. We had stopped to have lunch with the family I am traveling with’s son who is doing an internship there. We ate at a nice little place where I got very typical German/Austrian food. I got goulash with some dumplings which is basically the only kind of food that they eat; meat and potatoes. That and cake. 🙂 It was extremely good and flavorful and after just one dumpling I felt ridiculously full. It was a good Austrian experience and I was glad for the stop. However it was just a brief reprieve from our little road trip down to Italy and within that, VENICE!

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Utah Road Trip Day 1

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Today was a driving day. With each days goal in mind we have set out again on another road trip to try to grasp just one corner of nature’s beauty and try to hold onto it. AS always, our beautiful country has so many wonders it is near impossible to see them all. But that will never deter my attempts. The following week my mother and I will be doing a road trip around all of southern Utah, seeing national parks, hiking, running, photographing, and having a generally awesome time together in the desert sun.

Utah is one of my favorite places to visit because it has such astounding beauty that is unlike any beauty i can seen near me. Red rocks, canyons, desert expanses that stretch for miles, and of course the bluest skies you will ever see. Our trip began today hours before dawn heading out to St. George, UT, right past Las Vegas. This means that our day was entirely full of about thirteen hours of driving without any planned stops along the way. However any good road tripper can find amazing little adventures and detours to occupy time and make the day seem less daunting and more fun. Our first stop was to take pictures of dilapidation.

One thing about desert is that there is no end to the amazingly broken down and graffitied houses on the side of the road. It just so happens these are some of my favorite things to photograph. So we pulled off down a tiny road and found three old homes that had long since pasted their prime days.

Shells of their former self, gutted, empty and abandoned, left only for the sun and time to slowly peel away the paint off the walls, these houses are the definition of desolation. Here they are simply forgotten remnants of a life no one seems to care to remember. They have a sadness and a mystery that hangs from the broken ceiling beams that I find extremely alluring.

Speaking of forgotten desolate places, our next stop was a tiny ghost town that could hardly be called that. Just a few miles from Mojave Desert National Park is Silver Lake, or what little is left of it. An old Talc mining town, today there are only a few scarce building foundations buried in sand and a cemetery with a few solitary head stones.

On a happier note we then made our way to the Devil’s Playground in Sin City, yes Las Vegas. We stopped to gorge ourselves on the Bellagio’s glorious buffet and do a little shopping in 100 degree weather. Look I even have proof

As usual the food was glorious and we had to sample all sorts of delectable treats that elsewhere we would never find.

We also explored the gardens in the Bellagio which were beautiful and with some sort of American patriot theme.

So here we are after the first of many days to come of adventure. Tomorrow the fun really begins with our first national parks including Zion, Cedar Breaks, and Bryce Canyon. I can’t wait but for now we can only wait for dawn to come and watch the sun slip away behind a veil of red.

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Holy Cross Cemetery

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

I went on a small adventure with my mom and my camera and ended up in an interesting place. I found this cemetery with one of my friends near the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter and finally returned to get a better look. This cemetery is a somewhat creepy place mainly because many of the tombs are cracked, old, and written all over. It has an extreme air of a melancholy, and forgotten place that once used to be beautiful but was left to wither in time by vandalism and time itself.

Some of the headstone still intact were extremely beautiful like this one that just have such a haunting air about them. Some of the tombs still had flowers near them, but very few are still intact. Just a few people, it seems, keep coming back to visit and honor their dead while most others simple destroy a place once so beautiful. Even the graffiti on the wall seems haunting.

I look forward to finding more hidden places like this around Santa Cruz or anywhere, if you know of any cool haunts are Santa Cruz county please share i would like some new places to explore.

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Mary

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Mary is watching
Waiting for you
Standing ever patient
In a field of green
That never dies
Or withers with time
She stands in a place
Untouched by time
Sorrow or shame

Mary is watching
From very far away
Because the world we live in
Is to dark for her
And too unforgiving
For her to enter
So she stands
On the other side
Patiently waiting
Because she has
All the time in the world
But you don’t

Mary has been waiting
But now her wait is done
She slowly walks forward
And crosses the threshold
Into where she doesn’t belong
To retrieve her children
She has missed for so long
To take them to her pastures
Have untouched eternity
Where she stands
Smiling gently
With open arms
And a bowed head
Welcoming her children home
Back from the land of the dead

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