Back in English speaking lands

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Today I departed Athens and started heading back west. After an uneventful flight and a long bus ride, I arrived in Oxford to visit Dave for the next couple days.

I met up with Dave and Ellie at Said Business School. I dropped my stuff off and we headed out to lunch at a place called The Mission, which is a Chipotle knock-off. With a big dinner planned for tonight, we each went light and ordered the tacos instead of the gut busting burritos. I had carnitas, which were every bit as good as those at Chipotle.

After lunch, we went back to Said for a few hours where Dave worked on his masters thesis, Ellie did some of her work and I worked on a host of things (and fooled around a bit).

We left Said and Dave and I headed back to his place. He has moved into a new apartment since I was here in the beginning of September (and unfortunately he has to move again in a few days). There I was able to take a really refreshing shower, not using shower sandals for the first time in a month.

We headed out to dinner and met back up with Ellie at Al Andalus, a Spanish tapas bar that we had planned to go to last time I was here. Our table was a trendy spot with throw pillows in a small lounge area by the front window.

We each picked a couple tapas that we would all share and ordered a pitcher of some of the tastiest sangria I’ve had. Our tapas were just as delicious, with my favorites being the dates with bacon and blue cheese and honey encrusted goat cheese. We also had meatballs, squid in ink sauce, chicken skewers, a cheese plate and pork.

After dinner we all went home. It had been a long day for me as I was up at the equivalent of 4:00 am Oxford time. Tomorrow I’m in Oxford all day.

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Photos

The Mission
The chipotle knock-off we ate at for lunch. It was just as good.

Tapas bar
We stuffed our faces at this tapas bar for dinner. The sangria here was amazing.