Tue 14th July. Oxfordians

So, that was the day to take a train to Oxford, city maybe best known for its universities, city i knew hardly anything about. First, we went to a tower, Carfax Tower, to view the city and the people and the roofs below ( i guess i saw my dreamapartment ). It took 99 steps to get there and 99 steps to get back to the ground.

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At this point i must say, Oxford's got those lovely lovely narrow streets...

Next stop was the Christ Church College and Cathedral, pretty great place. Actually some of the shoot for Harry Potter took place in there ( that's why so much tourists...). Actually the first two films.

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............ just like a postcard..........

As we wanted to see the dining hall too ( it was being used then and we visitors couldn't get in ), we left walking round the city for a while, went to a shop called Past Times, where I bought a brooch and some Ration Chocolate for my chocoholic friend. I got to say I was kinda stingy though half of the shop was screaming to leave there with me.

And! There was a shoot going on in the streets. Only show that occured to me was Sergeant Lewis, an English crime series from which I've seen about two episodes, but mommy and her friends are 'fans' of the show, so I suggested maybe they're shooting that show. And they were! Caught a glimpse of the guys playing Lewis and Hathaway. No no I wasn't acting like a foolish paparazzi, although mommy asked me to.

Then back to the Christ Church thing, we went to the gate and while mommy was giving her ticket to the guy there, a cute superold raisin-looking man, he didn't even take a look to her ticket at all, just told ma 'he could see nothing but her sparkling eyes'. Oh the laughter and smiles...! And the brat ( see the post before ) then asked ma what colour her eyes were, they're green, ok then, they aren't that special at all!

Well, back to London then, we visited the friend of mommy's friend. She lives in Princes Risborough only on weekends and the weeks when she goes to work, she lives in a boathouse. Real cute place, got to say, looked more clean and modern than the Risborough house. We had fish and chips, really a great night we had, good company and good music. Then to the hotel by taxi, almost fell to 'my' bed and zzzzzzzz........

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wed 15th. Typical tourists.

A word about the hotel breakfast. Really poor. I mean, two toasts with butter and jam, cup of not-so-delicious tea. That's it, and usually morning's the only time I'm very hungry. I've been to a few Hilton hotels in Finland, where the breakfast is HUGE and you got things to choose from. Well, let's not get into the prices then....

Today, we were going to take the typical sightseeing bus by Big Bus Company. So we toured around the city, saw nearly all of the tourists attractions (without visiting any of them, exept St Paul's Cathedral, there we did visit) and snapped dozens of pictures.

And we did visit Harrods, but only to buy sandwiches. We did some shopping today, too.

We also took the river sightseeing boat. By the way, we'd been amazingly lucky as it hadn't rained on us nearly at all, we got only a bit wet on the boat, but otherwise we had been inside while raining.

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Today it surely had been an exhausting day. We had had nothing but the toasts and sanwiches, and as it was ten at evening we had to find a restaurant. (The whole week we've always eaten out, how lovely). After wandering on the streets, we found an Italian restaurant (Italian food, my new lover...) called Anacapri or something. Went in, it was buzzing in there. And it turned out that the food was lovely, prices lower than anywhere else we've eaten during our stay, and the waiters were just so nice. Perhaps again tomorrow?

Z Z Z.

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Thu 16th. Bright eyes wide open in Brighton.

Well, time to visit Brighton then, I'd surely been waiting for it cos I just love everything that's by the sea. My expectations about Brighton were pretty high and so oldfashioned I was dissapointed a bit. Well, i asked for it.... Did i?

Let me tell how I pictured it to be. A grey weather, it's windy, sea's foaming. Walking towards the beach and its white sand. There'd be some high rocks where you could look down to the water. And the Brighton Pier, just a wooden thing with a café in the end of it.

But. The sun was burning on my skin, wind was just a kind warm breeze. Well, that was actually ok. But whole pier was turned into an amusement park! Over-priced ice-cream, brightcoloured merry-go-rounds, game hall and loud hit music. Great.

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............ grannies and ice cream........

Then we took a walk on the city and The Lanes, visited some shops but didn't really buy anything. The Lanes looked nice, though.

Next stop, London again. (There was some trouble in the train we were in at first so we had to switch to another and ended up in London Bridge station, whatever.) Shopping it is again, and my feet's killing me. But no whining, I mean from me.

And then to the Italian again. The friend of my mommy's friend was with us now, as it was our LAST NIGHT IN LONDON, sigh. She'd been so nice, told me my English had got more confident. Goodbye's for her. By the way I had some ravioli this time.

By midnight, it was our usual gingertea in the hotel room. And then news about swine flu from tv. So, sleepy head was off to bed. Did I already tell I loved the sounds of the city? And it was so dark.

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Later, I'll write about the very last day in the city.