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Saturday, Jan 03, 2004
January 3, 2004
At 6:30am, I was done sleeping. I don't know how I got into such an odd sleeping pattern, but nevertheless, I was done sawing logs for the night. At 7am, I wandered down to the Floor 4 to check out the breakfast room. There weren't many people in there. The breakfast they offered was light, but it was free. And it was enjoyable. Toast was offered along with jam and butter that could be spread on top. Drinks included orange juice, coffee, tea, or milk. I had toast, coffee and juice. Sitting down, I was able to do some writing. The atmosphere was nice and calm. Techno music played softly in the background. As time passed, more people wandered into the breakfast room. Some look well rested and ready to start the day. Others looked as if they had spent the entire night fighting wild Grizzly Bears from Canada. What was interesting was to hear the various languages spoken by the travelers. Once again, you could see that people had come from all over the world to be in this place and explore London. I reflected upon all this as I wrote. The weather outside was surely cold, but inside, I was warm and now had some food in my stomach. I then went up to Floor 6 to see how the girls were getting along.
The three girls and Gardner were located in a room several doors down from ours. Our original plan was to have us all in one eight-person room, but this didn't happen since they made their reservation earlier than we did. Thus, they occupied four bunks and four strangers took the other beds. As I understood, some of the strangers often snored loudly. I guess the lesson here is to always bring earplugs during world travel.
I Return to Oxford
Alan and Irena decided not to go to Oxford. They were still talking about trying to fly home early. Of course, the girls were taking their time in getting ready. I joined a couple of them that were heading down to breakfast, for I could always use another cup of coffee. Finally, we were all ready to leave. But there wasn't much time. The Tube ride brought us to Victoria station and we then walked several blocks to the Coach station. Alas, we were too late. We missed our bus. That reinforced my philosophy that it's always wise to arrive early to things like that. However, there was no use pointing fingers. We simply had to catch another bus. The ticket person informed us that it was not a problem. We just had to get on the next bus. In fact, we didn't even need to get new tickets. So we now had some extra time to kill. Visiting the snack shops, we stocked up on food for the trip to Oxford; and when the time came, we boarded the bus and traveled to Oxford.
The bus ride short and really didn't seem any longer than I remember the train ride being. The best part is that it was much cheaper than taking the train. This was good information to know: always take the bus if possible. Upon entering Oxford, it was exactly as I remembered it. The buildings were old and full of character. Even the sky was gray like before. And the weather, of course, was very cold. We exited the bus and headed immediately to a little coffee house. Inside, we got hot drinks and examined the map. Having been to Oxford before (and owning the only compass), I would be our tour guide. My first destination for us was St. Mary's Church. This way, I could show them the awesome tower with the great view. We reached the church and all except heather decided to climb the tiny circular steps that led up to the tower. Yes, it was cold. But as always, it was very exciting to be up there. We enjoyed the view and took many photos. After getting our fill of scenery, we climbed back down and explored onward. Next, we walked down a few streets to take in the Oxford Botanical Gardens. I don't how the gardens look in the spring and summer, but they aren't much to see in the wintertime. Still, we toured through them and observed "nature." Afterwards, we wandered over to Christ Church. It was a place I hadn't toured the first time. Most interesting was the great hall where the Harry Potter dining room scenes were filmed. We saw that...almost. The actual hall was closed to heating. As a guide told us, without central heating, they have to close up the room and heat it for 48 hours prior to any great event. Well, a great event was coming up so alas, the hall wasn't open to the public. But we could stand outside and peer in. Since that's all that was allowed, that would have to do. I carefully snapped a few blurry photos and we moved on. It was now time for lunch. Finding a good place to eat would not be easy. Er, let me supplement that last statement. Finding a good INEXPENSIVE place to eat would not be easy. We did find a good cheap place, but it was next to a theatre. A local production of Cats was taking place. It struck me as odd that Cats, the musical, was playing in Oxford, England. Okay, it strikes me odd that the musical Cats is playing anywhere. As you can tell, I'm not terribly fond of Cats. But that's just me. At any rate, the wait was too long so we searched elsewhere. Only knowing one place to eat-the pizza place that we dined at last time, I took the group there. Fortunately, someone discovered another nearby place that also served Italian food. It was a friendly place. I ordered garlic bread for the rest of the group and calzone for myself. However, I made the mistake of starting off the lunch with a glass of red wine and found myself almost full after that one glass. Not wanting to waste six pounds for my meal, I somehow ate most of the dish. But this action did a number on my stomach.
Leaving the restaurant, we all decided to head back early. We hopped aboard a 3:30pm bus to return to London. The others slept for most of the journey. But my stomach was too upset from lunch to sleep. The first part of the ride was difficult, though my stomach settled after time. In about an hour's time, we were back in London again. Taking the Tube, we arrived back at our hostel. The plan was for us all to go out and see a show that evening. Well, that was the plan. The result was that almost everyone ended up canceling out on the show. Alan and Irena were of course sleeping. Heather and Gardner weren't feeling well. Amanda wanted to save money. So Stephanie was the only person left and she wasn't up for a show. But was up for taking a night walk around the city. Her roommate Marcel was also interested in coming along. The three of us headed out into the cold, London air and explored the sights by foot. We toured around Trafalgar square and went over to Big Ben and Westminster Bridge. For kicks, we walked over to the London Eye. It was closing at the time, and it was also 11 pounds to ride. That double shot killed any idea we had of boarding the great Ferris wheel. Next, we walked over to a nearby outdoor ice skating rink. I wanted to see what it was like. Apparently, not all ice skating rinks are the same. For starters, there wasn't any ice! These people were skating on plastic. I had no idea that this sort of thing even existed. I guess the positive aspect was that if you fell, you didn't get wet or cold. The negative side was the entire fact that you WERE NOT ACTUALLY ICE-SKATING! By law, they should have to call it "plastic skating." Sure, it's doesn't have the same romantic ring to it, but it's at least true. Needless to say, we passed on any plastic skating. Braving the cold, we headed back to the hostel. In Piccadilly Circus, we entered a small café. I was on a quest for hot chocolate. My quest changed to a quest for a croissant when I saw the price of a cup of hot chocolate. Sure, the croissant price was just as inflated, but I could justify it a little more than paying four dollars for a cup of cocoa. After consuming our food, we went back to the hostel. In short time, I was fast asleep.