Ashmolean Museum

I finally managed to make my way to the museum I had been wanting to see since the beginning. the Ashmolean Museum. Not only the oldest museum in Britain, but also one of the coolest in my opinion. Started as an eclectic collection by a British Antiquarian (the name of whom I have as usual forgotten) it once contained interesting objects such as the only remaining part (the foot) of a Dodo in the world (now moved to another Museum). What it did still hold was beyond interesting and extremely varied.

The first part I wandered through was very old and made up of cultures such as Sumerian and Assyrian. It also contained a lot of very interesting cuneiform pieces, the one on below (left) was especially interesting in my opinion. It was the Sumerian King list dating from around 1800 B.C. It told of a legendary flood that covered Mesopotamia - and it is probably inspired the writing of the great flood in the Bible.

 There was also an interesting, though very small, exhibition on prehistoric humans which showcased the clear differences between species.

The section on Egypt wasn't the biggest I've been to but it well made it for it in the pieces it held. From this crocodile like head of Sobek to mummies galore.

Beautiful tomb walls.

This rather unexciting looking stone made my day. It is in fact 'The Tale of Sinuhe' and I studied it in university. It is the largest surviving limestone fragment from ancient Egypt and talks about a courtier who travels in the Levant. It was interesting to study due to the politics and trade links it revealed. Mainly, it was extremely exciting to simply stumble across it!

This was another interesting thing I came across. These gilded bronze letters are from the gate of Hadrian the emperor. They were built to commemorate his visit in South-West Turkey and spell out 'Traiano' in Greek which marks him as the adopted son and heir 

Wandering

The night before in the hostel I had met a really nice girl called Pamela from Peru who was in my dorm. In the morning she had some time to kill so we went exploring together which was great fun.

I finally got my token English photo (Thanks Pamela!)

We spent our time wandering by the churches and beautiful buildings in Oxford that I had not yet ventured to.

Wandering the heart of Oxford and its surrounding University splendor. 

Trying to take the path less traveled by as often as possible, and the rather unattractive river that ran through Oxford.

Oxford

I left London with mixed feelings, I loved my time there and was sad to leave, but even more so to say goodbye to Tash was really hard. We had such a brilliant time but it was off to Oxford for me to look for a job and go to the one job interview I had secured. 

I did in fact get the job instantly at the coffee shop I had an interview for, which was a nice confidence boost if not the kind of job I was after. So I worked there for a bit and enjoyed the town when I had time. My first proper sight in Oxford was this awesome tower and beautiful old houses.

This amazing old Church was just casually stuck in the middle of the busy city, opposite the local Tesco's I went to.

The most talked about place to go was Christ College so off I went. It was unfortunately closed due to the proximity to Christmas which was such a shame as from what I had seen of photos the inside was phenomenal. I made do with wandering the outside and not seeing the Great Hall used in Harry Potter. 

It was easy to see where brilliant writers like J.R.R Tolkien and C.S Lewis got their inspiration from. Imaging studying and working within these beautiful buildings!

Christ College from the front

The History department for Oxford University

It was a long but lovely day filled with many amazing buildings. As the sun set I made my way back to my hostel.

Jamie Oliver (Again!) and Winter Wonderland

Being in London again meant we once again had access to the amazing Jamie Italian restaurant. How could we resist a second round!? We tried an amazing elder-flower cocktail (Does this make anyone else think of the Redwall books?) which was the nicest cocktail (and indeed drink) I think I've ever had. I would highly recommend it!

After much indecision we decided on the pasta Carbonara. I can quite easily say it was the best I've ever had and enjoyed it even more than the last time we had been there. Although the food was even better this time (somehow!) Our waiter wasn't as nice and we couldn't fit dessert which was a shame. I suppose we will just have to go back again some day, how terrible!

After our extremely satisfying dinner we decided to top it off with Winter Wonderland, the huge Christmas market in Hyde Park. It was our last night in London and we almost didn't go (we had postponed it so many times, usually due to tiredness or wanting to avoid the cold) but I am so glad we decided to brave it and go. It was one of the highlights of our times in London in my opinion. 

At first we didn't think it was that big, just a long line of Christmas stalls with the usual lovely but over-expensive items on sale. How wrong we were! Once we passed the stalls, amazing smelling foods and numerous pop up bars, we came to the giant theme park bit which seemed to continue forever. We ended up wandering for hours.

The hordes of people around the bars were crazy so we perished any thoughts of drinks (not that we needed it after Jamie Olivers!) it was then that we spotted the Ferris Wheel and entered the realm of the awesome rides. 

Haunted houses, River rides and rollercoasters, Winter Wonderland had it all. We spent a few minutes gleefully watching each unsuspecting victim zoom around the corner of the haunted house on the track (seen in the right-hand photo below) before screaming their lungs out as an actor jumped from the shadows and terrified each poor soul. It was wonderful. The rides however, were expensive, so we wandered for ages looking for a fun one to do so we would have at least experienced one. We ended with the roller-coaster type on (pictured below on the left) and it was SO WORTH IT! I could have gone on so many more! adrenalin buzz fulfilled however, we headed back to the hostel. It was a fantastic last night and fitting end to our wonderful times in London town.

The Tower and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

Some of the other things we did of note in London included the Tower of London and a rather old pub. The tower of London was quite cool but as neither of us could afford to see it from the inside we simply admired it for free from the outside. It is an impressive structure but I imagine the inside makes it a lot more interesting. 

 We walked around it to see it from all sides and decided that this side probably had the most impressive view. It was even more stunning a few months again when I went with Shyla and they had the bright red poppies climbing the walls and blanketing the ground in remembrance of all the fallen of World War I. I wish they had left it there permanently. 

London Bridge! It instantly got 'London Bridge is falling down' stuck in my head for the next hour. 

We then headed off to find a nice pub for lunch, and in doing so stumbled across this sign which made us giggle. 

Having no luck finding a pub in the area we were in at that point we decided to postpone lunch and go find the Globe theater instead which was very successful! It was quite cool to see from the outside and the gift shop was awesome - there were so many things I wanted to buy! Especially the blood-splattered Macbeth shirt proclaiming 'Something wicked this way comes' but it was 20 pounds of course. We didn't pay to tour inside either, but all in all we enjoyed the lovely (free!) trip.

We consulted Lonely planet and found a likely sounding pub so off we went, passing Fleet street (Much to Tash's excitment) on our way - there was even a barbershop in operation on the street! You couldn't pay me to go there (Demon barber of Fleet street!) and we also crossed the Millennium Bridge which is apparently, a big deal. Who knew?

 At last we reached our pub for a very belated lunch and drinks. It was so dark inside (Windows weren't a thing) that I wasn't able to get any photos of the interior but the outside signage was pretty cool regardless! I am pretty sure it was the oldest pub in London, having been rebuilt after the fire of London - Rebuilt. So it had stood long before the Great Fire as  how cool is that! The patronage of the numerous royals through the ages shown on the sign below was also awesome.

Wandering London at Christmas time

London at around Christmas is an awesome place to be, for all that people told us we came in the wrong season due to the often dismal weather. We did however get a couple of beautiful (though cold) days which was lucky - It was odd thinking that the time I had been there before with Shyla we had been wandering around in summer dresses!

We went to the usual tourist spots including Trafalgar Square and Tash got the obligatory Lion statue photo - though with her fake nails on she didn't dare attempt to climb up the statue itself! Fair enough too.

There was a lovely market on around Covent gardens and we wandered there for a while, the Christmas decorations added colour and cheer and a group playing breathtakingly on violins added amazing atmosphere. 

Although we didn't go in, I thought this was a cute pub sign.

We also spent time just wandering the busy streets as half the fun of London was the amazing Christmas lights!

The view from up top the double decker was especially nice. Look how many people there are on the street - and that wasn't even at its busiest by far.