Ain't No Rest For The Wicked

On Friday I tried to go to Cadburry World, a huge chocolate factory. I arrived around 12:30 and all the tickets were sold out for the day. I looked around the gift shop and got a hot chocolate before I headed to a place called Selly Manor. Selly Manor is an old Tudor home from the 1300s. It's a short walk from Cadburry World because the Cadburry family bought the house when it was slated to be destroyed and restored it to its original condition. To be honest, I probably enjoyed the Tudor house more than I would have enjoyed the chocolate factory. I also made my way to and from these places on my own with the buses, despite the fact that the buses don't have anything informing you of the stops. When I was finished I headed back to Marcella's, collected my things, and headed out to meet Marcella at the university. We walked around the university a bit, then made our way to the bus station to catch our bus to Oxford. We arrived in Oxford around 9:30 and went straight to our hostel. The hostel was fine. We were in a room for 8 people, so the two of us and then 6 strangers. There were two showers, two toilets and one sink on our hall for probably no less than 30 people. After settling in we found a local bar down the street and had some drinks.

Saturday morning Clare met us at the hostel and we set off for our own little walking tour of Oxford. We pretty much walked around and saw just about everything there is to see. For lunch we bought some pre-made food from the grocery store and took it to the University of Oxford park to eat. After dinner we went to the same bar as Friday night and ended up sitting next to five of the people in our hostel room and a German  guy also staying in the hostel. Marcella and Clare ended up turning in early but I spent the rest of the night hanging out with the people from our room and the German guy. All 5 of the roommates were British: 2 dudes and 3 chicks. We didn't get back to hostel until 4am. Lots of fun was had by all. 

Sleeping in the hostel was basically impossible. The windows in our room faced the really noisy street below. And with 8 people in one room, there was practically always someone moving around. There's also something overly intimate about sharing a room with strangers. You see how people operate on a very basic level. You likely don't even know their name, but you quickly discover whether they snore, what their morning hair looks like, if they're a light or heavy sleeper, and so on. In the end, it was neat to make such quick friends with people I didn't know 24 hours before. 

This morning (Sunday) we had to be out of the hostel by 10:30. Again, we wandered all around Oxford to see a couple things we missed on Saturday. By the end of the weekend we had visited places like Christ Church Meadow (where they filmed Harry Potter), the Oxford Castle, the Bodleian Library, the Ashmoleoan Museum of Art and Architecture, the Museum of Natural History, and likely walked half the streets in town. After an early dinner we headed to the train station, bid farewell to Clare, and headed back to Birmingham. To say that I am exhausted would be an understatement.  I head back to London tomorrow morning, where I will be until I head back to Germany on the 29th.

I'm beginning to get a little weary of all this traveling. It's only been a week and a half since I left the States, but I'm quickly growing tired of the lack of stability and the cost. I'm having fun seeing my friends and enjoying their company, but I can never get a good nights sleep, living out of a suitcase isn't fun, and everything is very expensive. First world problems, right?

Photos of the weekend in Birmingham and Oxford coming soon!