Okay, so next up was Oxford! Caught the Oxford Tube (which is a bus!), which went past Hyde Park, Grovsner Place and Mayfair. Yay for richville! Arrived in Oxford after about an hour, had a coffee, looked at the food markets (yum, olives!) and then caught the hop-on, hop-off bus for the skinny on Oxford. I, of course, being the nutter that I am, sat up the top in the open air, only to freeze in the brisk Oxford cold. It was freezing. Anyhoo, it was very informative and saw a lot of the sights that I never would have been able to walk to (cos I would have given up trying to find them, not cos they were that far!).
After the bus tour, I hopped off at Christ Church College, super pumped to see the setting for something in Harry Potter. I got to the gate and discovered that the Dining Hall was shut until 2pm. Man. These stupid attractions not being open when I want them to be! Anyhoo, wandered over to the Oxford Story, a pretty naff attraction which straps you into a cable car and trundles you through Oxford's history. Still, fun times with the kitch! Went to the Radcliffe Cinema next but the darn thing wasn't open to the public. Damnit! Also, Oxford is slightly obsessed with Alice in Wonderland, as Lewis Carroll was a lecturer at Christ Church and Alice was the dean's daughter or something. They had a shop called Alice's Shop and everything! Oh, and Oxford is also obsessed with gargoyles. They're everywhere! Anyhoo, made it back to Christ Church College, paid my money and wandered around. It was kinda meh, and I wasn't too sure what was in Harry Potter. I think its the Dining Hall but as with Neighbours' Ramsay Street, the whole thing is way smaller in real life.
Finally, went up Carfax Tower (more bloody steps) for a great view of Oxford. Then it was back on the bus to London to meet Vanessa for tea before The Vegemite Tales. Unfortunately, the traffic was horrendous in London and what was supposed to only take an hour ended up taking two and a half. So we grabbed something quick to eat and then it was on to watch Blair McDonough take his shirt off. So worth the cover price (he's really hot in real life!)
The next day it was back to playing with Tish and Deanna. Yay! Unfortunately, I twisted my ankle really badly before meeting them so it was Limpy McLimp for me. I bought a brace and that seemed to help heaps. Anyway, we went to the Tower of London, which was great! Our Beefeater tour was amazing, they are such funny buggers, those guys! And it was really interesting how you got to be a beefeater - you had to do a certain amount of time in the armed forces, with an exemplary record, no blemish at all allowed! And it can be anyone in the Commonwealth, so they currently had a New Zealand guy as a beefeater! After the tour, we went and saw the Crown Jewels, which just looked like plastic to me. I think it was because my brain could not compute that the astonishing amount of gold and precious stones could be real, so it must be polished plastic. However, the big safe door about three feet thick probably lend credence to the idea that maybe they're not plastic... Unless the English are just messing with us poor colonials. I wouldn't put it past them!
While we were at the tower, we also saw a film crew! We thought maybe it was some rapper filming something, but we think in the end it was an American tv show, something like "so and so visit London". Anyway, that brings film crew sightings up to about three!
After the tower, we met Tish's friend Kate for lunch, so Tish and Deanna could hand back the key. It was sad times as they were leaving that day! So we celebrated by going to the cute tea shop around the corner from the Borough Markets, where they have tea cups hanging from the ceiling and fairy statues on the tablecloths! I had high tea, which was fantastic. I swear the jam was home made and the clotted cream... mmm. I also had about 17 slices of salmon in my sandwich (heh). After that, all over red rover for Tish and Deanna so we hugged goodbye and then those guys left for Heathrow and Australia, and I shopped in the Borough Markets for the dinner I was making for Vanessa and her flatmates as a big thankyou for letting me stay with them. The dinner went well and we had the Beaujolais wine I brought back from Contiki. Yay!
After eating a determined breakfast of eggs and bacon (I had half an hour to cook it and make it, but I had bought that bacon, damnit, I was going to eat it!), I caught the train to Brighton. So yay, beach! Not yay, pebbles :( The water was surprisingly warm, though, esp as it was so darned grey there! Walked along the beach to Brighton Pier and then was lambasted by the garishness of the tacky rides on said pier as I walked up and down it. Still, it was Brighton Pier! Next up was the Royal Pavillion, which was super cool! The Dining Room was amazing, such splendor! And the English know how to frame such splendour by having the rooms around it full of understated elegance. Not like Versailles, where each room topped the next, to the point where you just couldn't be dazzled any more. Oh, and the kitchen was awesome. All those cool pots and pans... fun times!
I got threatened with death if I didn't go to Shakeaway while I was in Brighton. Not that I knew where it was. So I texted the death threatener (Vanessa) and got a precise location :) Anyway, got there and it was amazing! It was like Cold Rock, but a million times better. After much deliberation, I chose an Apple Crumble with Cinnamin Shake, hot. Mmm, it was awesome! Then it was time to catch the train, pick up my backpack and meet Vanessa at Victoria Station for our megabus trip to Manchester. Hm. The bus was... interesting. The toilets... hm. But we did have a little break, as they needed to change drivers about 21/2 hours into the drive, and the dude said we could have ten minutes to stretch out legs! Nice! We got to Manchester at about 11.30pm, and Vic and Nick were there to greet us. So nice of them! We ended up talking til about 2am and then it was time for bed.
Time for the obligatory break, guys! Next post, tales of Manchester!
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