Dream Vacation - Day 17

Today was a partial day of rest, I have noticed that I need a break every now and then from the vacation and sightseeing. So I got up early and just kind of hung out in my hotel room watching this British TV series that I started watching last night called Heartbeat. Heartbeat is a British police drama series set in 1960s North Riding of Yorkshire and broadcast on ITV in 18 series between 1992 and 2010. It's a melodrama soap opera and it sucked me in with the first episode. I watched two episodes last night while I was staying in Durham and again I watched four more episodes today while chilling in my hotel room. Now I have to find it here in the states... must see more of Heartbeat.

I was debating on traveling to another city close by for the day but as I mentioned I was exhausted from all my recent traveling and decided not to. I left my hotel room around 1pm and headed back into the city center of York. I grabbed some lunch at a local fish and chips place and picked up some bracelets at an open market. I explored different parts of the city and also did "The Fabulous York Cat Trail" The York Cat Trail is a scavenger hunt with the opportunity to find and photo the numerous statues of cats which are on York's old buildings.

These were put there to frighten away rats and mice. The statues were also thought to ward off wandering evil spirits and to bestow good luck and good health on people. The older statues are thought to date back to the Victorian Era whilst those removed or rotted are believed to have origins in medieval times, when a rat may have helped carry the bubonic plague.

The walking tour consisted of 21 cats but there are quite a few more further out from the city center. I spent the next three hours walking all over the city looking for these 21 cats. It was alot of fun though somewhat frustrating at times when I couldn't find the cat. But I'm happy to say that I did in fact find all 21 cats .. woohoo!!

I wanted to check out the Jorvik Viking Centre, it's a museum and visitor attraction. It was created by the York Archaeological Trust in 1984 but the Cat Trail adventure took a bit longer then expected and it was closed by the time I was done.

As night fell I stood in front of a closed Starbuck in a very deserted street using their free wifi for about an hour. People would walk by every once in a while. It felt a bit unsettling at times but I had have my dose of social media.

I made my way back to the hotel and crashed for the night. Tomorrow I head to my buddy Daniels place down in Doncaster.