so train travel is pretty much NOT my favorite

so, per last post, i was mentioning the flooding. because of the epic amount of rain that has been falling, alot of the trains have been shut down, which put a damper on some of my travel plans this weekend. but i, being the fearless, intrepid, and ultimately foolish man that i am, said, “rain? floods? cancelled trains? bah! i am a kent, a seasoned traveller, conqueror of the costa rican bus system and master of jet-lag. this will not stop me.” and for my pride, i have paid the price.

philip, tregg, and i left yesterday for leeds to find hadrian’s wall, catching one of the few trains that was still leaving the partially flooded oxford station. upon arriving in leeds, we discovered that in order to get to the wall, we actually needed to ride the train another two hours north to the town of newcastle. we decided that as long as we were in leeds, we might as well get some lunch and visit the royal armouries, this stellar museum that houses much of the historical armour of england.

to get there we had to walk into the bad side of town, literally on the wrong side of the train tracks. we innocently stopped at the first pub we saw to grab some lunch, which was shall we say, less than reputable. from about the first three steps in the door i could tell that we were not welcome. it was like walking into a scene from “snatch” or “lock, stock, and two smoking barrels.” needless to say, we made a quick about face and found our way to a friendlier place across the street.

after lunch we headed up to the amouries, which was awesome. they have a huge collection of suits of armour, swords, lances, and shields, with live demonstrations of everything from jousting to swordfights. the six-year-old-castles-and-kings-obsessed side of me was in heaven.

after a few hours we made out way back to the train station, just in time to catch our connection to newcastle. we got to newcastle only to find that we had missed the buses to the wall by about three hours. it was disheartening. so, we grabbed some dinner and caught the next train back to oxford. this was a mistake.

see, the last direct train to oxford had left a while back, so we had to catch one with a change in london. but, little did we know, because of the flooding there were no trains leaving london to oxford. so, upon arriving in london late that night, and a wild ride on the bus from king’s cross station to paddington station, we discovered that we were basically stranded in london.

fortunately we were able to get in touch with some kids on the baylor in london program, and we were able to bunk with them for the night. my eternal thanks to elliot and sarah who so graciously shared their rooms with us.

this morning i woke up, willing to forgive england and her flawed public transit system. but, alas, she was not ready to kiss and make up. tregg and philip wanted to spend the day in london, so we parted ways. i knew that to get back to oxford i would need to take a train north and then loop back down again. i decided that while i was heading that way i might as well go the extra distance back up to newcastle and see the wall. after four hours on the train i walked into the newcastle station to see that i had missed the bus, again, by five minutes. five.

i admitted defeat and boarded the first direct train back to oxford, utterly disillusioned with travel. moral of the story: when they say to you, “don’t use the trains this weekend unless you absolutely have to,” you ought to listen.

it has been raining pretty much non-stop for the last week, and so consequently alot of things are going underwater. oxford has been hit pretty hard as well, and most of the trains out of the city have been cancelled, so we’re kinda stuck here for the weekend.

but do not worry. i have taken swimming lessons.

here in oxford

so there are so many things i could say about oxford, i’m going to skip the introduction and just go right into it.

oxford is what college should look like. i feel like i am on the set of harry potter meets pride and prejudice. which would make sense, since they filmed some scenes from harry potter here. everything is made of weathered stone, with pristine gardens and vaulted ceilings and old paintings. the people look out of place wearing their blue jeans and t-shirts, it’s as if we all need to be walking around in graduation gowns.

christ church (the name of the college we are staying at in oxford) is a really classy place. some of the first things you notice are the porters. these are kind of like guards, but in suits and bowler hats. since christ church is kind of a tourist attraction, they spend alot of time escorting people off the premises, saying that the place is for students only. it always feels really cool when i see a crowd of people outside the gate taking pictures and i just walk right past them through the entrance. sometimes i’ll be reading in a garden, and i’ll see some people poke their cameras up over the wall and take some shots. i can almost hear them saying, “look mommy, real students!’

the great hall is where we eat our meals. it is also where they got the design for the great hall in the harry potter movies. therefore eating in the great hall is about the most surreal experience ever, because i keep expecting to see a flury of owls come pouring in through the windows, delivering the daily mail. the walls are covered in portraits of famous students and patrons of the school, including john locke, lewis carroll, and king henry viii (the one who killed all his wives). it’s pretty much amazing.

class started last week which was kind of lame, but i guess i am here to study. the courses i’m taking are hard but pretty interesting, so that’s good. i still wish, however, that we could have all the time just to wander. right now i’m supposed to be writing a paper actually.

we’ve been taking alot of trips too, which has been neat. we went to stonehenge on tuesday which was really cool. it was a beautiful day and we had class at the monument. that night we tried some local fish and chips, which was, uhm, interesting. on friday we went to canterbury cathedral, which would have been more fun if it hadn’t been raining. canterbury had some amazing stained glass windows, really beautiful artwork.

finally, and possibly most importantly, the pubs here are great. i particularly like the old tom (because of the patio seating) and the turf tavern (because it’s older than america).

pictures are up on facebook. go check them out.

so train travel is pretty much my favorite

we are now in oxford! we just got here yesterday, and the place is amazing! and for all you harry potter fans out there, they filmed many of the scenes in the building we are staying at. cool! but this post is not about oxford, because i need to catch you up on everything else that has happened before we got here. ok, here goes:

on tuesday most of the group left for an optional trip to paris. i decided not to go because it was really expensive. instead, philip, treg, and i planned our own excursion to scotland. and it was awesome.

our first day we took the high-speed train out of king’s cross station (also of harry potter fame) to the city of york. as part of the program we get these sweet first class britrail passes. it lets us get onto any train in the country, and we get to ride first class, which is about the greatest thing ever. we get free wifi on the train, they come by and serve tea and cookies about every ten minutes it feels like, and the seats are ginormous. i’m pretty much in love with it.

anyways, we spent the afternoon in york, walking along the old city walls and seeing the amazing huge beautiful awesome cathedral. i couldn’t believe how big it was. i mean, you hear that these places are large, but when you get inside, and you look up, it’s crazy. and they didn’t have cranes or bulldozers or electricity to build it. we also had our first english tea, which was lovely.

after york we got back on the train and headed north to the town of durham, where we were booked to spend the night. the address just said ‘durham castle, palace green’ and so i thought it would just be some dinky tourist trap motel. but, to my everlasting delight, we walk up to the palace green to find that yes, indeed, we are staying in a real bonafied genuine norman CASTLE. it had a huge front gate with a guardhouse, a great hall, towers, turrets, battlements, chapels, winding stairways, tapestries, the whole deal. it was almost one thousand years old, built by william the conquerer, one of the first king’s of england. it was so cool.

after getting over our initial awe, we took a late night stroll around the town. see, this far north the sun goes down around 10 o’clock, so we had plenty of daylight, which is pretty neat, or at least a novelty. we talked about environmentalism and politics and found a local pub to sit down and enjoy a pint (of dr. pepper, of course).

the next day we woke up and headed further north to ediburgh, scotland! we only stayed for a little while becase we had to wait for our connection to inverness (as in the town next to loch ness). however at the station we visited the ‘first class lounge’ which was totally cool. we walked in, and the nicest guy with the BEST scottish accent was immediately offering us tea or coffee, along with travel advice, places to stay in inverness, train schedules, and good local eating spots. and did i mention his accent? it was like hearing a foreign language!

so after an hour or so in edinburgh we hopped on our connection which took us through the scenic and beautiful highlands of scotland. we rode through idyllic countryside filled with low rolling hills and sheep pastures (some of you know how i feel about sheep), and then all of sudden we would come to the shore of some great lake or get a glimpse of the high mist-covered mountains in the distance. it was great.

and finally we pulled into inverness, our final destination. we got there around 8 or so, but it looked like 4 in the afternoon cause it is so far north! we checked into a youth hostel (no castle…sad) and walked around the town. the whole place had sort of a frontier town feeling. we bumped into a crowd of local teenagers, all in various degrees of inebriation. the youngest (and most intoxicated) approached me and we had the following conversation:

richie: “arrre yough a turrrist?”
robert: “well yes i am.”
richie: “arrre yough amerrricuhn?”
robert: “yes…”
richie: “you’rrrre coming &$%*€! drrrrinkin wit oos tonight!”

as you can see, he had a crazy thick accent, and he used some rather colorful language. after discovering that treg was from california, he asked if he had ever seen tupac. he then went on to talk to us about some of the, uhm, finer points of british law:

richie: “in amerrrrica yough ken carrry handgoons, rrrite? in brritain, the police wood kick tha £*&% oot of yough for twenty minots ef yough even thoot aboot carrryin’ a gun!”

at that point some of his friends told richie to leave us alone. the whole interaction was possibly one of the highlights of my trip so far. anyways, we walked around some more, visited the pub, and then made it back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

the next morning we woke up early to catch the express from inverness to london, which was about an eight hour journey. the countryside was still beautiful, and i drank about a million cups of tea on the way back. and i think that is long enough for now. pictures will be on facebook soon, i promise!