Friday, July 3, 2009

Mickey and Hannah Invade York, by Hannah and Mickey

When the people of York hear Mickey's fierce battle cry of "I'm hungry! I'm thirsty! My feet hurt!" they flee in terror (actually, they run behind the nearest pub, because Mickey will stop anywhere for celebratory fish and chips) because it means Mickey and Hannah are invading York.

We were there for one full and two half days (that would not make it two whole days, as Mickey seems to think, because we came on Monday afternoon and left Wednesday morning), but it was still super awesome. The city itself was very, very small, slightly bigger than a mile square, meaning we had to walk everywhere, much to the chagrin of Li'l Prunie, used to her life of glamor and luxury (Li'l Prunie = Emily).



Look at her, with her fan... and headphones... and cheesily drawn-on sunglasses... and luxury limo. It makes me sick.


As soon as we entered the hotel room, Mickey stole the shower cap, put it on her head, and promptly lost it. Nice job.

We then went off to York Minster. Piece of trivia to know and share: two of the coolest people ever spent time here - Constantine the Great was crowned here, and Alcuin taught here for quite some time (Google him). Also, apparently, there are carvings of Star Trek characters somewhere in York Minster - who knew? Some restorer who didn't follow instructions well carved them instead of some biblical characters. Huh.

The next day we went off to Haworth, which was so cool, because you would turn a corner and, POW!, there was the Bronte house! Hey! There's the Black Bull, where Branwell got drunk! Look! There's where he bought opium (and Mickey tried to buy... Orpheum...)! Hannah and Mother Dearest enjoyed seeing all of it, and Mickey puzzled over the quote from Catherine: "I am Heathcliff!" (you would think someone named after Emily Bronte would have read Wuthering Heights, but you would be wrong).

Hannah also flipped out when she found out there would be a version of Wuthering Heights with Burn Gorman as Hindley Earnshaw, but then became very sad when she realized he would be murdered... (Mickey: "NOT MR. GUPPY!!!") But it had the guy from Ms. Pettigrew Lives for a Day as Linton, so I guess it's okay.



(While we're on the subject of English literature, Hannah had a very strange dream involving Heathcliff, Mr. Darcy from Bride and Prejudice, and Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley from the Keira Knightly Pride and Prejudice playing doubles. Heathcliff was desperately in love with a hammer and hated, instead of everyone in his family, a large ceramic pan that appeared where ever he went. Later, when he played doubles, he played with Mr. Bingley. In way of explination, Mrs. Bennett said that Mr. Darcy "got between Heathcliff and his pot." Yes, a very strange dream indeed. But not as strange as the one with the biscuits... but that's for later.)

On the way there and back, Mickey kept trying to take a picture of a cow, but it never worked. As soon as her camera was ready, the wall would be right there (we mean as soon as the camera was lifted to take the shot, the wall would appear). Mickey would ignore some of Hannah's shouts of "Mickey! Look! Cow!" until it was too late. She could take all the pictures of sheep she wanted, but none of cows, meaning that the universe hates her. Finally, she took one very blurred picture of a cow.

We also went on a ghost walk, involving much poking and whisperings of "it's a phantom!" Of course, neither of us could sleep that well afterwards.

On the last day, we went to the Richard III museum and the model train exhibit. There were some very creepy mannequins of Richard III, although it was an awesome museum. When we read that Edward IV's wife went and lived in Bermondsey Abbey once her sons were "dead", Hannah at least got a very vivid image of Bermondsey as a nun. It was very cute.

Mickey adored the model trains, every bit of it (she has no favorite part).

We then took the train to London, making Mickey super happy because of her obsession with trains.

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