Arriving in Oxford

So, On with the vacation recap! I'm hoping to post an entry a day, assuming I can keep ahead of that pace.


We arrived on Thursday late afternoon and caught the bus from Heathrow to Oxford with a group of 4 of us. Found our way to the Youth Hostel, checked in and immediately went out for a bite to eat at the first likely looking pub we found: O'Neils. Now, the fact it was an irish pub in the middle of Oxford possibly should have been a clue to us... oh well. The food was good and us foreigners didn't recognize the place as a chain. Not that there is anything wrong with chains - but the large posters advertizing desserts in the windows did kind of detract from the atmosphere.


Frank (Germany), Ted (Montreal), Dave, Debbie (Philly) and Bob (Rochester, NY)

Anyways, like I said we had a good meal and were just sitting back chatting when Kate and Clare txt'd me: they were off work and met us at O'Neils. They are both locals who helped plan the event so I was eager to meet them, and they were eager to get a jump on the gathering. Introductions were made, and they immediately suggested they take us to a "proper" pub. OK! Lead the way we said. Off we went to the Lamb and Flag, where we were later joined by Antonella from Switzerland and Sonja from Sweeden.



And later still we walked to another pub for more food.


Clare, Sonja, Antonella, Bob, Kate, Ted, Frank

It was a lovely evening. Low key and nice to get to meet some new folks without the crowd that the main weekend would bring. Managed to stay out all the way to 10:30 I think - LOL! We dragged ourselves back to the Hostel dearly looking forward to climbing into our beds - be they bunks or otherwise. :-D