England: Day Four, Oxford & Birmingham + Day Five, Birmingham.

Bob *You've got 206 bones in your body, want one more?* zegt:
I make new friends too
Bob *You've got 206 bones in your body, want one more?* zegt:
there was this time in 2004…
Bob *You've got 206 bones in your body, want one more?* zegt:
… never mind
Bob *You've got 206 bones in your body, want one more?* zegt:
besides, what's the last time you met someone completely new, who you don't just party with and actually do boring friend stuff with as well?
Kev (good music / i dance / no good music / i not dance) zegt:
does sex count?
Bob *You've got 206 bones in your body, want one more?* zegt:

very much not

Okay, I'm actually getting a wee bit bored with the England saga myself, which I should have seen coming, because despite the fact that Tim and me had a lot of fun, it's not a lot of fun to read about two guys having a lot of fun. It's sort of like inside jokes: they're not funny to anyone else, which is why we call them inside jokes. But still, I started this and I'll finish it, damnit.

So, Oxford is where we left off. The second day I was still really sick, and we had a lot of time to kill before we had to take the bus to Birmingham. We had breakfast, which I still managed to enjoy, but after that it all went downhill quite fast. We walked around, saw a lot of stunning buildings, Tim visited a college chapel, but I preferred staying out in the sun.

We also visited the Divinity Room above the Bodleian library. If all that means nothing to you, I suggest you google if you're really burning with desire to find out what those are, suffice to say the room was interesting enough, and had a rich history and it looked real fancy. The girl who gave us a talk about the room was very clearly not English. Actually, that is something I noticed: English people don't work in England. Wherever you go, shops, hotels, monuments, diners, the staff is never English. I suppose if my country was constantly overrun by a herd of tourists, I'd want to avoid interaction with them as much as possible too.

Anyhow, for lunch we went to some tea place and I got scones, which were delicious, but after the first one I was sort of nauseous and the lovely non-English shopgirl gave me the second one in a doggy bag and God bless her, because it was all the food I'd be existing on for the next two days.

The busride to Birmingham was uneventful, and upon arriving there we were picked up by Mark, Tim's English friend and a very nice fellow. He dropped us off at a huge mall. People in Birmingham don't have to go out ever, the whole town is one giant shopping mall, and they're all connected with each other. Considering my being ill, I could totally live with that.

After a couple of hours Mark, now joined by Italian hottie Nicola, his boyfriend and an equally swell guy, came to get us and we went to their appartment. Tim and our hosts later on went for dinner, but I declined and stayed in bed sick. And I wasn't getting any better either. During my hot shower I suddenly got the most horrific cramps in my back, causing me to fall down and nearly drown, until I managed to get my ass out of the bathtub and into bed, but the pain didn't go away, so I sort of spent 4 hours in agony, literally screaming at times. The neighbours must have loved that, but it was really more painful than anything I've experienced since I was 13 years old.

When the other guys returned, they pumped me full of painkiller (bless them!) and it got better, but for the next two days I pretty much had to take those painkillers non-stop just to be able to walk. That also means that I didn't set a foot outside after that in Birmingham, though Tim did visit Ironbridge Gorge (I think that's what it was called). Luckily our hosts were a lot of fun during the evenings or I would have been bored to death. And luckily they had a lot of pills :)

And that was pretty much Birmingham. The next morning we were taken to the University where Mark works and from there we took a train to Manchester, our final destination, but that's for next time.