Sticky Toffee Muffin & Banana

Today- Friday, February 17^th

            Today was a day trip, planned by Professor Hall & his wife, to Oxford. We took a morning train there, and I think the 8 of us that went all really enjoyed our day there. Basically, we walked and walked and walked a lot. As a group we all started at the Christ Chuch. We walked through the gorgeous Cathedral and casually walked on the stairs that were filmed in Harry Potter! AND…WENT IN THE GREAT HALL! I can’t believe that this part of Hogwarts history is just casually the dining hall for some of the Oxford students. I know the hall is remade in studios & digitally enhanced and all of that…but the real hall is so much smaller than the Great Hall. Definitely wasn’t expecting that.

            After exploring Christ Church some more we climbed the Carfax tower to see Oxford from the top. Which was cool I guess. Then we managed our way to a covered market. Really cute with a lot of fun stores and so much delicious food. Seriously we could have done a sweets tour of Oxford easily.

            *London FUN FACT: There are no bathrooms, or excuse me-toilets, anywhere! It took us like 15 minutes to find one in a McDonald’s (which by the way are so much nicer than our Mickey D’s).

            We stopped in the market for lunch at Brown’s Café. Went with the typical Banger’s & Mash, which was delicious. Then, after searching for a bathroom, we stumbled upon Moo Moo’s! (for Elon people…imagine a Cook Out with 224 milkshake flavors plus smoothies…yes I counted.) I got the daily special milkshake: sticky toffee muffin and banana. Absolutely delicious. The banana muffin flavor was really obvious and delicious with a toffee aftertaste. I don’t even understand how they did that; it was ridiculously creamy too. So yummy.

            So like I said in Oxford, we really just walked around and around. We saw a violinist on a tight rope casually on the side of the street. We saw Radcliff Camera, the most photographed library/building and the Bridge of Sigh’s. We hung out in the Botanic Garden (yes botanic not botanical). And of course we did an Oxford Castle tour which ended with prison guard costumes and mug shots. We climbed the St. George’s tower to see Oxford from the top. Again. And then climbed the castle mound to see it up high. Again. We got a lot of Oxford aerial views today.

            Then, we started the day with the Christ Church, and ended it there too with an Evensong. It was a really cool experience, lots of beautiful singing, though I think we were all a little too tired to fully appreciate it. A lot of the similarities in the prayers to Catholic prayers shocked me. It was a great day. I fully intend on returning to Oxford for my English masters (maybe. In my dreams. Ha).

[Oxford pictures will be up later…too tired tonight].

            Sorry this is so long…I actually split these last two blogs because at first it was just one really really long blog. Tomorrow is my day trip to Cotswolds! Cheers!