London/Oxford (Day 5 and 6)

Thursday March 26

This day was kind of absurd. We were all supposed to be on the bus and on our way to Oxford by 9. Of course people are late, and we don’t even get going until around 9:30. Then there’s obviously ridiculous traffic, as London is one of the most congested cities, and I think it took us over an hour to get out of London proper. Also one of our teachers was annoying the hell out of everyone by playing at tour guide and telling us all about the things we had heard on our bus tour a few days ago, when all anybody really wanted to do was sleep.

When we finally get to Oxford and have mostly unloaded everyone’s luggage, we realize we’re at the wrong Holiday Inn (we were staying at the Express by Holiday Inn). So load back up and back on the bus for a bit. Finally make it to the right hotel (also, this whole trip took so long that we missed a guided walking tour of Oxford that I think I really would have enjoyed), and they don’t have our rooms ready? So they want us to leave our luggage in the lobby and they’ll put it in our rooms. Uhhhh, what? No. It’s somehow worked out that they give us our room keys so we can all drop our stuff off. Back on the bus to take us into central Oxford for lunch.

We make it slightly (15 minutes) late to the place we’re having lunch, the Vaults and Garden Café. It was apparently supposed to be a buffet, but since we were late they decided to take orders giving us options of like four dishes. I decided that the vegetable tart sounds most appealing. It was delicious (turned out to basically be a big slice of a quiche) and I think I may have gotten the last serving of it, as they were running out of dishes and having to redo orders. They also got us slices of cake for dessert, and promised us all a drink on DIS after our lecture.

So we got to a lecture by an Iranian born journalist, and it ended up largely being a lesson in Iranian history (which I didn’t need) and illustrative of the ignorance of select members of my group. So that happened and then we all went to a big Irish pub/restaurant wherein we ordered any drink we wanted (vodka and cranberry). Then Kathryn, Caitlin, Anna, Jenna, and I went to try to locate Christ Church (to see the Great Hall) – we found it but it was closed. Also stopped by the pub where C.S. Lewis did a lot of writing, then went back to the same Irish pub to get food as we knew it was cheap (and cheaper than anything else we had seen). Took a black cab back to the hotel and watched “Waitress” on my laptop, then went to bed.

Friday March 27

Get up and have breakfast and a “wrap-up” lecture from one of our teachers. Highly annoying. It ends up that we’re basically going to be able to have an hour or so in Oxford. They call cabs for us and pay for the cabs we take back to the hotel, we just leave our luggage in a holding room and they will load it onto the bus before we get back (I took my backpack with me though, wasn’t leaving my laptop to be flung into storage under the bus). Jenna, Lauren, and I go to Christ Church even though the Hall is closed, but the Cathedral and rest of the building was pretty cool. We also popped over briefly to the covered market, and I bought a cookie from what I had been told was the best cookie place in the world. It was pretty good, but I don’t know about best. Took a cab back to the hotel – it was amusing because there were like three cabs in a row all filled with DIS people. Hopped on the bus for the transport to Stansted Airport.

When we got to Stansted I left the group to wait for my bus back into London. Worked out well. Then I hopped on the tube to King’s Cross/St. Pancras. I found the Eurostar luggage services to make sure my bag wasn’t too big to take on the train (it wasn’t), and then walked to the hostel. Then I bought some Internet time and drained my battery completely, and went to bed.