Today we were in a hurry and had to scarf down some cereal before rushing off to catch out bus with Evans & Evans tours. Our first destination was Oxford college. I learned that Alice from Alice's adventures in wonderland, was actually a real girl who often played in the area's around the college. I had a nagging feeling of inferiority when thinking about all of the brilliant minds and even leaders of countries that had attended college there. I thought about how many doors would have been automatically opened for me just by attending that school. Then I came back to reality and realized how amazing it was that I was actually even visiting that school right then. It had a lot of great historical buildings, but it was a short rushed trip. We didn't even get to see the great hall that was the inspiration for the great hall in Harry Potter, so I was a bit disappointed by that. However, our next destination made up for that. Warwick Castle was exactly what I thought a castle would be like. On the inside they had restored all the rooms, and had a bunch of wax figurines to represent what it would have looked like in it's days of operation. They were made by Madame Tussuad's and they looked so realistic. I liked being able to see the gaol (jail). They had a hanging man shaped cage, and an oubliette where they left people to be forgotten. I also enjoyed getting to climb up to the top of the towers. We had to climb hundreds of narrow stairs that wrapped around and around. There was a great picturesque view of the surrounding village, and the river that flowed next to the castle. We didn't want to leave, but we had another stop which was Stratford upon Avon; the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Standing in the room where he was born it affected me to the point of chills. To know that such an extremely talented playwright and poet was born in that very room was amazing, but what was also intriguing to me was the thought that so many other famous authors had made the voyage there to admire Shakespeare standing in the very same place as I had. I made sure to sign the guest book so that if by chance one day I do become famous they will have my signature on the page as proof that I too visited the birthplace of a genius. I bought a mini-book version of Romeo & Juliet there as a souvenir. One of our girls was very late getting back on the bus, and we almost had to leave her. It was quite embarrassing for our entire group! On the trip back I met a lovely Canadian couple and we had a good chat about traveling. I know that now I want to do what it takes to go on more adventures abroad, and I am hoping Italy is next. After we got back we had a tasty dinner in China Town, and then me and two of the girls got ready to go out. It was a Friday night and I finally had a day that I could actually sleep in so I was excited to really hit the town. Unfortunately we ended up at some college dance. We thought it was a night club, and had already paid a cover so we stayed there a bit. I really didn't enjoy it too much, and after a long day we headed back early catching the last tube train of the night at 12:30AM.
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