... of arabesques, goats and gargoyles
Here, as promised, are my
holiday photos!
And they really are, this time. Not just my face 20 times. Sorry, guys who saw that before! Aaah, technology.
This is days 1-3. 4&5 to follow, probably tomorrow!
Day 1
The Scotrail Caledonian Seated Sleeper is actually a form of torture. You suffer from sleep deprivation for days afterwards. I hate it hate it HATE it. But it gets you there. Slowly.
The first pictures on arrival at Oxford station, after having travelled for around 13 hours (the sleeper train is the slowest possible means to reach the south of England from the north of Scotland). I'm shattered, and my eyes are feeling too tired to put my contact lenses in, hence why I have my glasses on - something you rarely see. My brother is in a similar state.
Check in to the youth hostel - this is the view out of the window. Why there is a phone box within the hostel grounds I am unsure, but whatever. It's cool.
We didn't really do much on the first day on account of being so tired.
.... And because of this sky....
... Which turned into this.Lovely.
So the brother and I turned our attentions to the pool table instead. (I won)
Day 2
The second day dawned slightly better than the first had, so we set off on one of our Oxford missions. The Treacle Well. Lewis Carroll based the Dormouse's story from Alice in Wonderland on this well, so of course I had to visit it. (I'm an Alice geek). This is the canal we followed for the majority of the walk.
However, to me, I use the term 'canal' loosely. I'm used to the Caledonian canal, a shipping route dividing Scotland in half and about 15x deeper than this. With proper ships. I just find this strange. Pretty, though.
You heard them.
Who doesn't love ducks?
A mob of rain technicians. What's the collective noun, I wonder?
The bit that amused me most out of this was the chicken contest. I mean, WHAT?! Haha.
A while later, we arrived at Binsey... which looked like the Hansel & Gretel gingerbread house.
... And so, so English. It's weird, I'm only in another bit of the UK but it varies so much!
Following some jumping pictures (alas, on the frere's camera), we arrived at St Margaret's church, which was very small and very very old. I loved it.
It was quite a way out of Binsey, so it really was in the middle of nowhere. And even Binsey itself isn't very big!
.... And this is what we came for!
I confess that I was a little disappointed at the fact it didn't look as fairytaleish as I'd hoped, but it's still pretty cool.
How's your Latin, then?!
Haha, I only know church Latin - the standard Mass setting. I've no idea what this says!
It was neccessary. I had to have my photo taken with something that a Dormouse talked about.
People had tied rags onto a tree next to the well. An alternative meaning to the well is to do with healing - 'treacle' could be an Anglicisation of the Old English for 'healing' - so maybe people who were healed left something. I don't know.
It was just so pretty, so peaceful.
... And with a random chair
... And FIVE goats!
That completed, we headed back into central Oxford.
But which way?!
[it was the public footpath route, for those interested]
This is Christchurch Meadow, which apparently Oxford residents have grazing rights on! There were horses, cows, sheep... it was very strange. But it's also public access, so we walked across.
He always does this. :P
Ballet skillz competetion. It's up to you, dear reader... :)
Poor monsieur Lloyd Webber.... Haha.
Oxford University Press! I guarantee you have something published by them.
Goodness knows what this building was, but it looked cool.
After a lunch of... Macaroni cheese, I believe... The brother and I decided to head into St Mary's church.
It had a beautiful organ! It made me miss the lovely one my local cathedral had.... before the choirmaster sold it on eBay. No joke.
But the real reason for coming here.....
was....
The tower! Views ALL OVER Oxford. It was great! Very narrow walkway and VERY windy, but so worth it!
Anyway, the gargoyles were watching over us.
The Radcliffe camera
And a peace-signing bishop. Which I think must mean something else, because I'm pretty sure the peace sign wasn't around when this church was built!
There was graffitti from the 1700s on this wall!
Oxford's high street from way above!
The brother didn't like the wind ;)
Wherever you are in Oxford, you can guarantee a gargoyle is watching you.
Some even spit water all over you!
Then it was safely back to ground level!
We attempted to visit a couple of the colleges, but they were both closed to visitors that day.
So we headed back towards the town centre in order to do a bit of shopping!
and then back to the hostel to write some postcards!
Day 3
Wednesday brought my trip into London to see Wicked! And to have a general look around since I am a complete London geek. However, the weather was TOTALLY against me. London got an entire MONTH'S worth of rain in that one day, wrecking my shoes and somehow buggering up my left foot as well because of getting so cold all day. I couldn't risk taking my camera out since it was like being in a shower outside so I only have a couple of photos from the bus. It took AGES to get back to Oxford too, because there was so much surface water on the motorway the bus couldn't go as fast as normal. Ah well. WICKED WAS BRILLIANT. Go see it. I insist. And take me with you.
Doesn't it just look WONDERFUL out there?!
In other news, I've only gone and bloody well broken my darling Olympus E-300!!!! The on-off switch and mode dial have somehow snapped off. It happened in my bag. And I've a suspicion that repairing is going to cost a fortune. So guys,
cheer me up!
Tell me something great that's happened to you today!
Yesterday I went to see Mamma Mia with Sammy, Kirsten and Laura. Singing and dancing to ABBA when cruising through town is brilliant. :)
Peace out, amis!
♥