A Holiday in Oxford

After 11 weeks of backpacking, it's been a while since we have had anything close to a family around us. And so when we took a bus from London to Oxford and spent two nights with Andy, Sue and Elise, who welcomed us into their home and gave us a chance to experience England with some locals, it was absolute bliss. So to start with I think the only thing I can say to sum up our trip to Oxford is this: 'thank you'.

We had been in London for about 12 days before heading to Oxford, settling in and taking more of a slow travel approach to get to know (and love) the city. (I will write about London soon but we still haven't really left it at the moment, and instead we are using it as a base for our travels until we fly to Amsterdam on October 31st). But when the chance came for us to explore English life outside of a big city we jumped at it. Proving just how true the phrase 'it's a small world' is, we went to stay with family friends of Mike's parents: Andy and Sue and their daughter Elise. The connection between their families started all because of surfing, and along the way has lead to Andy helping Mike's sister find work in the Uk when she was taking a gap year, and let Mike's Mum and Dad to meet up with them as well and exchange emails and pictures over the years. Even though they had never met us before, they had been following this blog and so had a bit of an idea who we were and kindly invited us into their home.

We arrived in Oxford in the afternoon, and within seconds heard a man calling out to Mike 'well I'd recognise that hair anywhere'. Andy greeted us with a big friendly smile and took us to their beautiful house in Abingdon, one of the satellite towns of Oxford. Andy gave little fun facts about the town on the way home, but we were most excited to hear that Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke used to live there and still visits to get his hair cut at a place that is right next to Andy's work. So according to my calculations, we have now met Thom Yorke by six degrees of separation??

After months of hostels, their house was absolute luxury: we were spoiled enough to have a room with the comfiest bed I have slept in since leaving home, and it even had an ensuite. Since this was our first time outside of London, their house was everything we pictured the English countryside to be, complete with a huge garden that they told us is frequented by some unusual visitors- squirrels, deer and pheasant. I had to take a sneaky window shot to show people back home:

We were welcomed into the home by Sue and Elise, and in typical English style we were offered a cup of tea within minutes of entering the house. Then they simply asked us: 'Italian, Chinese or Indian'. So after a bit of deliberation we went to their local Italian restaurant in Abingdon for dinner. And in a true show of their generosity, Andy started the evening by saying 'just so there's no confusion, tonight is completely on us'. Like I said, we were spoiled (and very grateful )for our stay.

Abingdon was such a lovely and quaint town that it seemed Andy and Sue were like family with the Italian restaurant owners. We had an amazing two course meal (which felt more like a feast to us) that was some of the best Italian food we have had- even better than some in Italy. It was great to get to know their family and hear stories of how they had crossed paths with Mike's family over the years. I also loved hearing the three of them talk in their English accents, because it was the first time we were actually surrounded by the accent- hostels are mostly full of Australians- and so I loved just hearing them talk. It reminded me of the way my Nan speaks, since she still has a hint of an English accent.

The next day was our chance to explore Oxford. Sue, who is originally from Liverpool, was convinced that we would get bored of Oxford quick smart and was offering to pick us up when we have had enough. However we are happy to report we filled in an entire day of sightseeing and, despite her fears of boredom, really liked exploring the city. Armed with a list of suggestions from the time when Mike's sister Alex lived in Oxford on her gap year, we set out to see the famous university town. We first visited Christ Church meadows which had these awesome cows in the meadows and it looked eerie to see everything covered in the grey, fog-like skies (apparently just a normal occurrence in England when it's cold... don't know if I'd get used to that).

Attached to the meadows is Christ Church College, one of the universities in Oxford. Our visit taught us that 'Oxford University' is actually made up of just a lot of separate colleges, and this one was particularly famous for two reasons: scenes of Harry potter we're actually filmed in the grounds, especially scenes from HarryPpotter and the Chamber of Secrets (cool to see for Harry potter fans like us!):

The hall that inspired the Great Hall:

And the stairs used for a scene when the students get to Hogwarts at the start of the second movie (i promise we're not that obsessed to know these things, the brochure told us):

And the writer of Alice in Wonderland, who writes under the name Lewis Carrol, actually attended Christ Church college, and based some parts of the book around that- apparently there's this part in the book where Alice eats something which makes her neck grow really long, and Carroll got the idea from these figurines by the fireplace. So in the stain glass windows they managed to sneak in a few of the Alice characters which was pretty cute.

Afterwards we made our way into the centre of town and wandered through the streets. Since it was our first taste of England outside of London it was really nice to walk down the main street filled with all the old-style architecture.

We stopped off in Blackwells bookshop,( I think it is the biggest and oldest in Oxford), and lost about half an hour in there just looking at all the books. After coming from countries where we would have to hunt to find somewhere that sold English language books, this was a real treat. We then went to explore the Covered Market of Oxford, which felt like traditional England at it's best- bakers, butchers, leather makers and tailors all had these little shops inside the big marketplace.

Everywhere in England seems to be going a bit Halloween crazy at the moment, and we found a place with these decorated cakes:

But thanks to the tips from Alex, our highlight from the market was a cookie from Ben's Cookies (still fresh and warm from the oven), and milkshakes from Moo Moos (we had a toffee and banana one and a chocolate cheesecake one that were probably better (and a bit cheaper) than the Three Monkeys shakes we love at home!

The rest of the day we spent strolling around the streets, and we soon realised that the city centre of Oxford is quite small. If we were trying to find a particular place, we'd unintentionally loop back onto the main street every time! We walked past the little canals that linked to the River Thames and saw the little boats where they do punting from in the warm weather- Andy explained to us that on a sunny weekend a popular thing to do is to hire these little wooden boats, pack a little picnic and some drinks and steer yourself down the river with a big wooden pole-thing. From the pictures it looked like lots of fun, but sadly we just missed punting season because it's starting to get a bit cold now (and on second thoughts, I'd hate to end up in the water on a cold day!)

That night we were treated once again to a delicious spread of food- this time Indian takeaway from another one of their local favourites in Abingdon, a place that won something like the 5th best curry in Britain. While we were waiting to pick up the food Andy took us to his local pub, funnily enough called the Prince of Wales, which was this homely little place with a big fireplace and people playing cribbage. It was great to see a proper English pub, and compare the differences to home... Theres not a pokies room in sight over here!

After our Indian feast, Mike and Andy retreated to 'the den' to watch some surfing movies, while I watched a bit of trashy English tv with Sue and Elise. It was nice just to sit and relax and be surrounded by a bit of normal family interaction, something you can easily take for granted back home.

The next morning came and it was time to say goodbye and leave behind our English home and return to hostel reality. Our trip to Oxford really was like a little escape, and Sue and Andy's hospitality was so warm and welcoming that it felt like we had known them for a long time. We returned to London feeling restored, like we had that bit of 'home' that we have even missing while constantly on the move. We have since been to Bath and are currently in Bristol, but so far it's not comparing to the feeling of home we had in Oxford.

And for that we only have Sue, Andy and Elise to thank. We hope to see you again one day and hopefully you can make it over to Australia sometime and see what a REAL beach is like!