Blogs from Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 51

Well busking seems to be not-so-bad after all! I must say that the Oxford crowd are much more enthusiastic than the one in the London tube- especially seeing as they are all drunk and happy! :) (It was the weekend). I busked for 2 nights in total and a little during the day and made a grand total of £100, which paid for all my accommodation, food and I still have £20 more in my wallet than when I came here! I managed to sneak back into the youth-hostel during the wee-earlies and sleep on the floor the night I was 'living' on the mound (hey, I was alive and I was on the mound! That constitutes "living"! :P) They didn't seem to have a problem with it- which was good, seeing as it was either ... read more

Tis been two days, two drunk days. I think I'm an englishman. I've been caught drinking endless Strongbows, John Smiths, and Guinesses. I've been recruited by the local cricket team (more explained below) I've been known to say "Howa ya, mate". I haven't yet eaten fish and chips, but I've learned that its not considered normal pub food. Instead it's Chilli Chicken, Monkfish with veggies, and Pidgen Lardens. My sister's good friend from San Rafael used to date a bloke named Alex, with whom we're staying here in Chalgrove village 45 minutes from London. He lives in a "village" of 3500 folks, but all I seem to see here are the little kids who get out of school at 3, around the same time that Melanie and I seem to make it out of the house ... read more

Next we saw Oxford which was really cool. One of my best buddies, Rachel Sparks (aka Sparky) went here for a semester so I was excited to see where she lived. Oxford was really incredible- so old and yet so full and busy. We walked down the streets and played tourist. We looked in old bookshops and I saw my first starbucks in 8 months. Weird, being from Seattle, not to see them all over the place. UG bought me a coffee : ) We saw the different campuses and walked around looking at all the pubs and student hangouts. We also went to the Eagle and Child where the Inklings used to meet. Evidently its been remodeled and the back was knocked out to make it bigger but the front room is the same. We ... read more

Yesterday was a lovely warm summers day and, as Benny and I had nothing much to do, we decided to take a pleasant country drive to his friend's estate for a leisurely game of badminton in the back garden of his 500 year old mansion! I felt it was a most English thing to do and worthy of an entry! Also, as I was feeling a tad idle in the morning (oh, did I mention that for best effect, you should read this in a posh British accent?) I wondered what my good friends Alaya and Ash were up to, and so promptly bought a plane ticket to Austria in order to find out! To my pleasant surprise, it was only advertised at the splendid price of £2.50! Much better value than the sodding old lear-jet, ... read more

Wow, it's been 9 months since my last post, and looooads has happened since, where to start.... OK, firstly the best news, and that is we have decided to try and go to Australia again, after not going after NZ we were a bit disappointed for a few months but then gave up on going on a Working Holiday Visa as it is only 2 years until I am too old to get one (30) ... and we got on with our lives did some things and then in the last few weeks we have decided that what we want to do we can do here in the UK or over in OZ, but the difference being that we would be much happier doing it in OZ and also now that OZ have changed the WHV ... read more