Maybe I was still jetlagged when we arrived in York (it was only our second day in England, after all), but our arrival in the beautiful walled city left me speechless and dumbstruck. Despite the point of the trip being to think critically and engage in history I couldn’t help but get swept away by the breathtaking medieval architecture, the city’s general charm, and the beauty of Rivers Ouse and Foss. The Jórvik Viking Centre was on our docket for the evening, which was a fascinating look at everyday life during the city’s viking days. The idea of vikings followed me around for the rest of the night, while we surveyed the city’s night life and even wound up at a viking-themed pub.
Luckily, the next day the fabulous Dr. Joanna Huntington picked my jaw up off the ground long enough for me to be productive. Before she toured us around the rainy cobblestone streets in a jet black evening gown and heels, we went to York Minster, possibly the most beautiful cathedral I’ve ever seen. Here she gave an enthralling speech on the nature of history and how we shouldn’t think about it solely in terms of its results. History is not a beautiful medieval cathedral that’s all planned out and meticulously executed, and people in history are “walking into the future looking backwards,” the same as we are. That thinking stuck with me for the rest of the trip, since it was always very easy to slide into an ahistorical mentality about the sites we saw.
The last thing we did in York was get lunch before shoving off to London, me and two others choosing to eat in an old medieval tower that is now a sandwich shop overlooking the River Ouse. That restaurant isn’t any less historically valuable or beautiful than the medieval walls or streets just because it has sandwiches in it instead of knights. London of course was next-level in terms of urban beauty and historical engagement, but the most profound moment was definitely a rainy day in York all thanks to the most fabulous woman in England.
-Daniel Menendez