As my sister’s been here in the U.K. for over a month now without leaving London, we decided it was time to take a short trip. Oxford won out as our destination by virtue of the fact that it’s easy to get to and none of us have been there before. Our friend Ian decided to come along (he’s English, but he’d only been there once before when he was a little boy). Here we go…

Buses run from London to Oxford just about every 15 minutes of every day, so we decided to catch one Saturday morning from Shepherd’s Bush. Here’s Amy, Ian, and Snookums waiting for it to arrive. (Snookums isn’t tired; I just timed the photo badly.) There was some commotion when the bus arrived, as this elderly couple tried to jump the queue and a young guy at the end called them on it. Luckily another bus pulled up at that very moment, so we fled before we found out how it ended.

We arrived in Oxford an hour later and headed for our bed and breakfast to drop off our stuff. This is Bramley House, where we stayed. It was tiny (there were only four guest rooms), but clean and nice and available. (Helpful tip for you travellers: don’t try to book accommodation in Oxford the day before you leave. It’s nearly impossible.) Amy had a nice little single, while Snookums and I shelled out for the swanky en suite double. (We like to pretend we’re extravagant “Internet people” every now and then.) Ian was only staying for the day, so no room for him.

Here’s Amy and Ian waiting for the bus to take us back into the city centre. The weather was cloudy, but it didn’t look like it was about to rain just yet. (Why can’t I take a trip with good weather?)

Here’s Snookums. In case you’re wondering, he’s letting his hair get long so that he can shave it into a Mohawk or something when we have our next party. Until then, it’s a rather cute little mullet.

So we get into the city center and immediately we hear a large crowd chanting. Amy’s like, “Oh, it’s a parade!” Then we see the police on motorbikes coming down the road towards us.

It was a protest! A couple hundred people were protesting some lab where beagles’ legs are broken. They even had a coffin with little stuffed doggies in it. The cops had sealed off most of the side streets and were just trying to keep things from getting out of hand. Damn… that sort of thing never happened at ND.

Here’s the flyer some Rastafarian handed me, in case you’re curious. Now I’m not arguing for the torture of animals, but this thing doesn’t back up its claim that the experiments are “useless.” I mean, it’s not like people would just do that sort of thing for fun. There’s gotta be a reason, whether economical or safety or whatever. I just with they’d made more of an effort to present all the information, as opposed to trying to ply me emotionally with some (literally) puppy-dog eyes. (Besides, I’m not that fond of dogs.)

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