OXFORD!!

On Saturday I was lucky enough to hitch a ride with the archery team and visit Oxford. Since I'm still getting used to my new bow, I didn't make the team, but seeing Oxford was fun.

After gathering at the Oxford Blue pub before the competition, I headed out to explore. I stayed on the high road of the city, but most of the buildings I wasn't allowed into, because I'm not a student with the university. I only had 3 hours to kill, so I had to hurry my sightseeing.


Queen's College:


Found Another One!









First stop I made was a bookshop that sold very old books, for obscene prices. There was even a local student that started to beg the bookseller to give him a discount on the book on top of the discount given to all the books. I found his begging strangely funny. Only in Oxford would a teenage kid haggle over an ancient book.

Next I went into an Antique shop. British antique shops always have the best stuff. I even found some really interesting coins, like the two that were from the reign of Elizabeth I. I would have loved to have one of those. They had a portrait of her on the coin face. A portrait in good condition is very rare apparently.

The last place I went into was a pen shop that sold calligraphy, fountain and ink pens. Some of the pens were selling for over 50,000 pounds! I got myself a considerably cheaper one. It's a pretty blue and writes like a dream. While I was in the shop I met an American Oxford student that was just as enthralled with the pens as I was. He was studying Neuroscience, from Minnesota, had greasy hair, wore his baseball cap backwards. He defined the American geek from the mid-west.

On the way back to Nottingham the team stopped at a restaurant where I had hands-down the weirdest experience since coming to England.

We went to an American-themed restaurant.

Yes, you read that right. It was called the Baltimore Bar & Grill. The plates had an American flag on them. There was an American Eagle statue above the toilet sign. They were proud to serve American beers. There was a see-through decal on the windows of American landmarks, like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. Burgers, steak and Mexican-ish food was on the menu.

I was left speechless.