Seeing the Sights: The Birthday Trip, London

April 8th, 2015:
The bus pulls into Victoria Coach Station at 6:30am. Like most accommodation establishments, I can't check into my hostel until 2pm. I have all my belongings with me. What will I do?

Cambridge
After a bit o' thinking and trip planning, I bought a bus ticket to Cambridge. When in London, I exclusively use the Tube or walk. This trip reminded me why I'd decided not to use the Overground, as it took us an hour just to get to the city outskirts, having woven through traffic. But we did make it to Cambridge. In short, there really isn't a bad angle of this city, aided by the fact that the sun was out and the birds were chirping. I had some homework to get done, and I figured what better or more motivational place to do it than Cambridge? I'd find a cafe, grab a snack and some tea, and get stuff done. (Spoiler alert: This did not happen. Well, not the homework part.)

One of the things I have not missed being in the less tourist-hot Eastern Europe is the people who try to sell you things on street corners. Of course, they are placed in the most touristy areas, which means you cannot help but pass so many of them. Pretty much all of those I passed were working for groups that take you around the city in the punts, something I'd completely forgotten was a thing in Cambridge. While it sounded like a cool idea, the shear number of people who asked me made me not want to give them the satisfaction, so I didn't. I didn't have a lot of time in the city, so I got to see more in-land than from the river.

River Cam

Do you see what I see? That's right, this restaurant has root beer!

Because who doesn't draw Daleks on the side of
their antique university buildings?

King's College

I had crêpes for lunch, since the restaurant was in a less packed portion of town and they had the "free wifi" sticker in the window. Unfortunately, you still needed a password for it, and with the people that kept walking through the door and only one guy working behind the counter (taking orders, making drinks and crêpes) I wasn't up for bugging him, so flipped through a Cambridge magazine instead. And that's why I didn't get any homework done. That and the fact that the buses I was on didn't have wifi. (Estonia, I miss you!)

"There is no love sincerer than the love of food."
-George Bernard Shaw

In search of a postcard, I ended up in a bookstore. (All right, so if I'm honest the postcard might have been an afterthought once I was already inside, but whatever. It was a beautiful big bookstore. So shhhh.) A book I really want to read came out on St. Patrick's Day and I haven't seen it in the stores in Tartu yet, so I popped into several stores on this trip to look at it. I didn't have space to buy it on this trip, and I would have had to ship it home anyway, but I just like to look at it. I've got a tab open on my computer to buy the Kindle edition, but I'm trying to wait until I get home. Either way, I loved browsing through the Waterstones in Cambridge. There was an author signing books (not a person nor novel of which I'd heard). When I go to bookstores, I often take pictures of titles to remind me to find them cheaper/more convenient elsewhere, so I acquired many new photos this afternoon. Probably too soon, it was time to head back to the bus stop to return to London.

Pearce Park

I was on the bus back when my phone started vibrating. Since I've left home, there is really only one person that calls me, but because it's my birthday, I knew exactly who was on the other end.

Unfortunately, with bus and traffic noises and international phone charges, it wasn't the best time for a call, so after my gramma sang "Happy Birthday" I told her I'd call her back later.

I checked into my 18-bed hostel room which looked a bit ridiculous. Each bed had curtains and most people had used clothing or towels to fill the gap between them. Essentially, 18 adults and built forts. It was awesome, if a bit cramped. Luckily, having slept most of my life in a twin bed, sharing a small space with all my gear wasn't that big a deal.

My bunk with my drying towel

After checking in I headed to the London Hard Rock, a place I have yet to visit in my previous trips to London.

They found space for me at the bar in front of the kitchens. The server asked where the party was, but since it was just me he and the other staff amused me. The asked question and talked to me, all in a non-creepy way. They were all really friendly and it was actually awesome. It made the London Hard Rock my favourite that I've visited. It's also the smallest, which surprised me for being such a big city. They have the free birthday dessert, but I sprung for the Oreo cheesecake instead with my strawberry-mango piña colada. 

I learned it's really hard to take pictures of yourself while
you're eating.

After getting back to the hostel and setting myself up in the kitchen, away from all of my sleeping dorm-mates, I called my gramma back over the noises of the hostel. Hostels, of course, keep slightly different hours, so there were still plenty of people up, but we managed. Then I crawled into my pod and slipped into Dreamland.




April 9th, 2015: Oxford
After finally figuring out my plan for the day, I took the Oxford Tube to Oxford (duh!).

If it surprises anyone that my first stop was part of the Bodlein Library... do I know you?
The round library wasn't one open to the public, but man was it pretty. It's sits across from the university church, so that was my next stop.
Now, I've seen a lot of churches since coming to Europe. You can't walk 15 feet without seeing a new one in most places. I can see 3 (nearly 4) from my dorm window and Estonia's not a very religious country. But the university cathedral had some cool features. First off, part of the ceiling is painted to have stars on it. Secondly, they have a display showing how the church has changed since it was built. I found this really interesting because it shows not only the change in religious observance and style over the centuries but also the change in the size of the city. A balcony was added to hold undergraduates (but has since been removed) and organ was added, the altar and pulpit moved around, etc. University church, not only pretty, but educational.

     Like many churches, I'm always surprised by the floor, which to be made entirely out of graves. It's one thing to have people buried in the walls of the church, though England's churches especially seem to have walls made out of graves as well, but I kinda feel bad about stepping on these people. There's just no way around them!

Anyway, after checking out the church, I stumbled upon the (non-disappointing) Bridge of Sighs. I tried to recreate the perspective I remembered from Midsomer Murders, but didn't quite managed it. I remembered it being higher off the ground (though clearly it isn't) and with more trees/greenery on the other side. Either way, I found it!

     I was trying to find the "Marks of Genius" exhibit the Bodleian was putting on, but I don't think I ever did. I stumbled into a MASSIVE bookstore and found the bookstores edition of it (or at least I hope this wasn't the entire thing) but that was pretty cool as well. They had some third edition Shakespeares, and the one that had me nerding out the most, first edition Jane Austens. For a mere $20,000 I could have been the proud owner of a first edition, three-volume Emma, or for $16,000 a second edition Sense & Sensibility. They had the first edition, three-volume bind-up of my two favourite Austen's Northanger Abbey & Persuasion for $30,000 if I remember correctly. 

In a corner at the top of the stairs leaving the exhibit was a massive pile of Harry Potter books. 

...uh, guys?

Other than the university buildings and the library, I wasn't sure what else I'd find in Oxford. I looked for the Eagle & Child pub where the Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and others used to host the Inklings Club. Looking at the map now, seems I walked around it in circles, but I didn't find it while I was there. 

But! That doesn't mean I didn't find cool things! I found this bit of Shakespearean architecture in the middle of a shopping district. Which just looks epic, might I add. 

Krispy Kreme!

When I passed the Krispy Kreme in the area I spun around and bought a Lemon Meringue Pie donut that was fantastic, though there are probably a number of factors that contributed to this: hunger, attitude, elevation of Krispy Kreme to near god-like status, lack of donuts in Tartu, and the best pie flavour ever. Now, I'm a bit disappointed in myself that the thing I ate in Oxford was an American donut, but not so disappointed that I wouldn't do it again. I did buy chocolate from the Bodleian (peach raspberry white chocolate) that was phenomenal, so that makes up for it a bit.

Listening to a tour guide passing as I took this picture, this is one of the most unique colleges in Oxford, since it has no students. All Souls College only has research fellows. But this little bit of the campus you can see is really pretty, much like the rest of Oxford. 

Oxford is a lot cheaper than Cambridge, so I did actually go into one of the buildings here, the Divinity College at the Bodleian, which you'll probably recognize from the picture as it served as a background for several Harry Potter scenes, maybe most notably the Yule Ball dance tutorial. This room, like the church, also had some information posted about what used to take place in the building, though not as extensive as the info in the church.

One of the things I absolutely loved about Oxford is the number of bookshops, and the number of them that were combined with cafes. This one, with the lamps reading "Speak Friend And Enter" is just one of many that I passed. It was like an entire city built out of pieces in my mind palace. Just down the street is Christ Church College which sits on the edge of the centre of town and has this huge, expansive lawn. It's one of those things that boggles my mind. Here's a "bustling" city, narrow, winding streets, and then BAM! Massive grassland with tractors and all. Oxford probably just became my favourite day trip from London. So much Oxford Love. 

AND! It taught me a new word: "Plinth"

After returning to London, I ran to meet up with a Jack the Ripper tour. I tried to go last time I was in London, but it didn't work out. This time, I wandered around the meeting point outside Tower Hill station and didn't see anything. Fifteen minutes after the tour was supposed to start, I give up and head toward the DLR to go back to the hostel. I pass a group of people who turn out to be exactly who I was looking for and sneakily joined the tour. I found it interesting that the government has built over all but one of the places were Jack the Ripper's victims were found. This was done after World War II supposedly in an attempt to curb that kind of behaviour, but since the murders occured in the late 1880s and WWII didn't end until 1945, that seems like quite the delay. If nothing else, I learned some things I hadn't heard in the other videos and readings I've done on Jack the Ripper, so that was cool. And, of course, maybe the Masons did it.