Oxford

Today I went day tripping with the flatmates to Oxford. It was a pretty fun day. We caught the Oxford Tube, a 2 hour ride on a pretty sweet double decker bus, got to Oxford a little after noon. We grabbed some sandwiches at the covered market and set off to sightsee around the town. First, we walked to Oxford Castle and saw a really sweet mound. Yep, you heard me. Except, we couldn't go up the mound because it was closed for maintenance- true story. The castle was also okay, but it was quite pricey and didn't look so great. Then we checked out the standard colleges- Christchurch, Magdalen, New College and Merton, and of course walked past a number of others. Christchurch and Magdalen charged admission, so we obviously just looked in from outside. However, Merton was very scenic, and as we got caught in the middle of a shower in the middle, we camped out in a little archway, and it was quite nice.

After that, we went to a nice little place to get afternoon tea. It was so great. It was the cutest place, the tea was delish and the scones were even better. Then, we were planning to hit some souvenir shops and maybe some other stores, as we didn't really know what else to do. Unfortunately, while we were at tea, Oxford, for all intents and purposes, closed. But, fortunately, thanks to our Oxford alumnus friend, we had a list of the bumpin places to go at night. We met up with a friend of Jessica's (my flatmate) and ate dinner at one pub, the King's Arms, then rolled over to Turf Tavern for a pint. This particular joint (pun intended, just wait) is made famous by the rumor that Bill Clinton did not inhale here. It was pretty late at this point, so we headed back to the bus, got on the very front row on top, and were riding back when we noticed the moon, which I thought looked really weird. Upon getting home, I googled it and it turns out we were witnessing a lunar eclipse. All in all, a really excellent day.