oh! oxford!

oxford oxford oxford... the famous place where the famous oxford university is! and this was where i spent my last weekend in!=) so day 1 in oxford was spent in this outlet shopping place called bicester village... its quite a high end place, and has all the famous brands like FCUK, Gucci, Fred Perry, G-Star, Paul Smith, Ted Baker... and the list goes on... one good thing about this place is that the layout is simple and neat. the shops are lined on both sides of a long stretch of road, and you can easily walk down the road and alternate between the shops... see what you like and making a mental note of it... then after completing all the shops you can return and make your purchases!=) easy peasy! but beware! the stuff here might not be as cheap as you think! there are some really good deals in some of the shops but u really got to be quick and spot those stuff cuz they get snatched up really quickly! and

and fred perry has got 10% discount off the items in their store for students only!

haha=D be sure not to miss it cuz i missed that sign and paid like 8gbp more for my items! okay thats not alot of money but 8gbp could get u an advance train tix to london! haha=D in the end of the trip i made off with 2 fred perry polos, 1 for myself and 1 for my brother... and yups! figured that i would be coming back again during summer so i'll hold my purchases till then!=) it takes about 5 - 6 hours to walk the whole place, and we did it without having a proper lunch... we brought in snacks like muffins and biscuits in our backpacks so we took a really quick and short lunch break on one of the benches in the village... alternatively you could have lunch in the restaurants there (note they have less than 5 restaurants there) and i think they are pretty expensive so you'll be better off packing your lunch to bicester village! remember that your aim here is to shop! shop! and shop! haha=D

bicester closes at around 7pm... so by 6pm the crowd started to fade already... and so we made our way back to the train station - bicester town (its a 1.30gbp return day ticket from oxford station) and then took a ride back to oxford...

check out the funky walls of our hostel!=D

luckily our hostel is quite near the train station.. cuz the winds were so strong... it made us feel sooo cold! the hostel is quite nice and cosy... and we checked into a 12 man bunk... which seemed quite alright cuz everyone's kinda nice and courteous.. so no rowdy people in the room and hostel.. and there are strict rules in the hostel which everyone has to follow.. so its quite a nice environment there... and its good to have hostel that serves breakfast too! ours does! haha=D okay... don't hope for those kind of hotel syle hot breakfast.. but for the budget backpackers like us, the hostel provided sufficient to fill our stomach to last us thru the morning and probably into mid afternoon too!=) the hostel breakfast consisted of bread, jam, butter, peanut butter, cereals and milk... simple and easy... haha=D so at 16gbp per night its definitely worth the price!

christ church college=)

day 2 was spent touring around oxford city... we joined in a city tour which lasted for about 2 hours... and its highly reccommended that you join a city tour when you are in oxford cuz if not, probably you would be walking about just staring at the sights and not knowing any of its history or significance... so i gained alot of knowledge from the city tour, which mostly brought us thru the different parts of the university. went to jesus college, merton college, the christ church college meadows and stuff... quite an eye opener to see how oxford university is being divided into different colleges (or halls in the singapore context cuz the students in each colleges live in the rooms within the colleges), and the part they play in the university...

pies at pieminister! check out the really big pies! =O

lunch! was at this place called the pieminister... originally wanted to have pub lunch but everywhere was full! haha=D so we went to this cafe called pieminister at the oxford covered market... apparently pieminister had won numerous awards for their pies! and they do have a really wide variety of pies!!=O and there's student discount here too! 4.95gbp gets u a pie, mashed potato with gravy and minty mushy peas!=) yum yum! definitely fills your tummy!=)

after lunch we went in search of the authentic oxford university shop... there are so many shops selling university stuff there! from hoodies to t-shirts, key chains to postcards... haha... but dun worry! they are all roughly about the same price... about 10 - 50p difference only... so we went to this place called the varsity shop, which we thought was the authentic university shop cuz it seemed like one... and i bought a tea towel with all of the university colleges'crest as a souvenier... and guess what?! after we bought it, we walked down a few units and we saw the REAL university shops selling all the authentic university merchandise! heh!

check out the dining hall at christ church! where harry potter was filmed!=)

next stop: christ church! a must go and the most touristy spot of the oxford university! students pay only 4.50gbp to get in=) and why is this place so touristy? cuz its the place which dining hall was used for the great hall in Harry Potter's 1st film! haha=D and yup! you see the long rows of tables, the tall arches and the elevated platform where dumbledore and his other aides seat... haha=D

check out einstein's blackboard and the 1st 3 variants of bunsen burners! =O

okie dokies... after that we hopped over to the museum of the history of science, which tells you how science had evolved... and has exhibits like einstein's famous blackboard, the various apparatus chemists used before proper test tubes came about! haha=D

and that pretty much wraps up my oxford adventure... and as u can see... oxford is a pretty small town and 2 days would suffice!=)

~ hearts for my girlfriend!<3<3<3