Trip to Oxford

Oxford is college city defined. The streets are lined with shops and bars for college students. Nearly everyone you meet is in their late teens or early twenties and there are pizza shops and late night food spots at every corner. However unlike many US college towns, the college buildings have a castle like quality to them, the buildings are spread out around the entire town instead of being nestled into a mall area within a community and the multi million dollar stadiums are nowhere to be found.

Wow...Oxford. One of the most prestigious names in Academia and then one of the college lads, whistles and it feels just like any other college campus.

We spent the day wandering through the town, looking at beautiful churches, school buildings and the bookstore. I spent the evening in a local pub, reading, talking with some locals and enjoying a pear cider. By the time my friends and I went to catch the last train back to London at 11:45, the train station was closed. We had missed the last train, so went to grab some pizza and make our way to the bus stop, which would take us another hour to get home.

We catch the 12:20 bus, give our £10 for the ride home, pick a comfortable seat and get ready for the long journey back. After about 20 minutes, the bus stops and the lights go off. The driver turns the engine over again, but it stops again. A couple of people on the bus ask what's going on, no answer. The bus driver walkies over to the head office. The engine turns over again, nothing. The bus driver announces that the technician is coming. We wait in the stalled bus for another 15 minutes before another bus comes up behind us. We gather our belongings and load up in the new bus. We finally made it back to London at a quarter passed 2am, catch a 40 minute night bus back to our part of town and then walk another 5-10 minutes home. I was exhausted. Good thing I didn't have class or work the next morning.