Brokie Goodbye

Monday morning I awoke early and decided to write a blog post since folks weren't yet stirring in our room. Soon, though, I recognized voices in the court yard of the YHA, which was right outside our window. Dragging our butts out of the room we grabbed breakfast and went out to join them. Many of the people not staying at the YHA had come over. It was a gloriously sunny morning. (too sunny, as I recall trying to pose for this pic!)








Joe n Me


Happy, Corinne, Liza


Sylvain, Marie


Corinne, Sonja, Kim

Dave, Monica, Linda, Sylvain, Marleen, Helen, John
(this one, I believe, was back at University Parks on Sunday. Oh well, it's cute and I wanted to use it!)


Jari, feigning shock at something Sal said.


Sal, reviewing the photo

Alas, at some point we had to check out of the Hostel. Ted had a rental car, so he went and got it and we SHOVED all our luggage plus his into it. On the way down to lunch Dave and I took detours to 1) buy a map of Wales and 2) get cash. I had thought getting a map would be easy. Go into book store, ask for map. Right? Not so, my friend. Went into book store - was totally overwhelmed with the shelves upon shelves of maps of every corner of England. Even New York, Orlando, New Orleans...! But no Wales. We finally purchased an all Great Britain atlas...

The group was slowly dwindling. About fifteen of us remained to do lunch at the Head of the River. Another beautiful outdoor deck by the river. (this one was at the other end of Folly bridge, from where we met for the memorial walk on Saturday)



Kate was ever so kind to mark up our map as to where she suggested we go, which was so very helpful as I had never really put any plans together for that part of the trip. But the inevitable eventually happened. Fifteen became eight.



Five as we headed back towards Ted's car.



Then four as we put Antonella on her bus back to London.



Ted so kindly drove us to the Hertz rental station - which was just outside of Oxford in Kidlington. Fortunately for us, Kate lives in Kidlington, so she caught a ride with us as well. And thank goodness we had both Kate and Ted to count on! Because a less accessible rental car desk I certainly have no desire to ever need to find. We knew it was in the 'auto park' near the municipal airport, but all we could see were dealerships. We finally asked and were told it was within the Vauxhall dealership way at the end of the culdesac. But even once there we were confuzzled. Finally ventured inside and saw the first Hertz sign. Very odd and very frustrating, and oh so chilling to have thought that I'd planned on getting there via bus!

And so we became just two.

Oxford '08 was a fantastic time. We loved getting to meet so many of the Euro-Brokies we hadn't before, and to reconnect with a number of the US-brokies we've met quite a few times now. Rumors are already a flyin as to where the next one will be next summer.

With that, armed with a map and a rental car -- off we went headed for Wales!