Oxford

Monday March 12, 2007

This day started too early. Of course Jennie and I hadn’t gotten much sleep and so that wasn’t fun. We got up and tried taking the bus into town. Well we missed the buss we were supposed to have taken so we took the second bus. We made it to the university but we still had to go to the bus station. Because we took the later bus we were seriously pressed for time and ended up pretty much running to the bus station. Of course I ended up triping with the amazing grace I have and seriously messing up my knee. The rest of the day was great fun trying to go up and down stairs. But we did make the bus to Birmingham. Once we got into Birmingham we had an hour wait till we left for Oxford so we went to the Bull Ring (the shopping mall) and had fun making fun of all the clothes. Whoever thought it would be cool to bring back the fashion of the 80s was seriously on something. Gold shiny strech pants? So wrong in so many ways! Well after a fun hour of that we headed back and caught our bus to Oxford. Oxford was really nice. As I had heard, it was really beautiful. Jennie and I first set out to find the tourist information center. We started having flashbacks to Cork though because we couldn’t find it, but we finally did and from there we decided to go to the Bodleian Library. It had a huge medieval library inside today that many famous people studied and worked, from kings to writers like C S Lewis. I wanted to take the tour of the Library but sadly it was 6 pounds and Jennie and I decided against it. Next we went to Christ Church, which is one of the many colleges in Oxford. It has a really great history- It was first a church, but was taken over by Cardinal Woolsey and then by King Henry the 8th to turn into a college. The most recent part of its fame though is that it is where they filmed a few scenes in Harry Potter. So any Harry Potter fans, you might recognize this great hall and these stairs leading to it.

After seeing the Hall we went into the Cathedral there, which like all cathedrals, was amazingly beautiful. I knew then that I was truly back in England. After that we went out into the Quadrangle where Jennie took this picture of me.

Isn’t it gorgeous there? Well to fully grasp the beautiful views of Oxford, Jennie and I went to the University Church of St Mary The Virgin. To go up the tower inside was 2 pounds and we only had 10 minutes, but it was well worth it. After going up a tightly cramped winding staircase we came out with a 360 view of the city. It was an amazing sight to see.

After that the city was closing down so we went into a few shops and then headed back for the bus to take us back to Leicester. We had to actually take a bus to Milton Keynes first and then wait an hour there to get one going to Leicester. Well what can I say about that hour in Milton Keynes? Oooo ho ho... well! So it did have a little inside area where you could go and get something to eat or have a smoke, so we went in there. It was so smoky that you could barely breathe. I really had to use the restroom so I went outside and found the ladies restroom… kinda wish I hadn’t. When I went in it was fairly dark and smelled like a port-a-potty. There were two stalls. The first one didn’t have a light and looked clogged so I went into the second one. This one actually had a light so I decided to go in... bad bad mistake. I looked down to discover I was standing in a puddle of piss. EWWW!!! So I quickly exited and headed back into the waiting area where Jennie was. The second I entered I started to gag and nearly threw up. The combination of whatever the hell they were cooking plus 15 people smoking was just not a good mix. UGH! I sat down with Jennie anyways and said: “three words about that bathroom- Oh. Fuck. No.” lol! And after 5 more minutes in the waiting area I couldn’t take the cigarette smoke- it was giving me too much of a headache. So we ended up waiting outside for about 45 minutes. :) It wasn’t too bad though because we reminisced about Ireland and all the funny times we had. Our bus to Leicester finally arrived and we headed back… but not before even more adventure- the bus was rocking back and forth so much you could barely sit in your seat! I took a great movie of this on my camera but I haven’t found a way to add it onto the blog, but it is a must see! Jennie and I have watched it so many times already! After that we got in, got ready for bed, and passed out.