So this is my fourth day here. And I thought it would be a good chance to talk to everybody about what the travel experience has been like so far, how it's been different, how it's been the same, and how it was going through Heathrow and traveling in the age of COVID. So let's dive right. right in here. So this trip came about last February when they released the course information for the summer courses. I had done a summer course five years ago about the English language and ever since I've wanted to do it again.

So I decided to do this one on Horatio Nelson because he's one of my favorite British historical figures and I wanted to learn as much about him as I could. I booked the course and hoped that I would be able to go. When I booked the course, I didn't know if I would be able to go because in this age, a trip back to Britain has been canceled four times. So I booked it and hoped. And until I was on the airplane on Thursday night, I did not know, I did not believe I was still going.

So after years and years of wanting to be here, I'm finally here. And I guess the quick question is, is it everything I hoped it would be? The answer is yes. So, but let me talk about going through here. and the actual flying and travel experience because I've been getting a lot of questions about that on our social media channel and there's a lot of news in the media about how terrible does to fly right now.

So my initial reaction is, well, everything was fine. I mean, it couldn't have gone more smoothly. Now, the caveat with that is I did a lot of things to make it smoother and also there was a lot of luck involved. So there's Heathrow, if you read the headlines, is a nightmare right now because the, because of COVID is still ongoing, because of staff shortages, which were partly the responsibility of the pandemic, partly the responsibility of the airlines for letting so many people go when the pandemic started.

Now they can't staff up quickly enough. And part of it is the airport. not staffing up properly. There's just, it's a vortex of things not working right. And it got to the point a couple of weeks ago where Heathrow actually stepped in and said, the airlines have to cap passengers. There's a daily maximum number of passengers that we can handle that need to stop selling tickets. Now, thankfully, my ticket was already sold. and so there are a lot of flights have been canceled into Heathrow.

Now, most of the flights that are getting canceled are short haul flights from Heathrow. So that doesn't affect most of the listeners of this podcast who are American or North American or from other countries. The, those long-haul flights are not really being canceled because they're more valuable to the airlines anyway. So I was not particularly concerned that my flight would be canceled. But again, this is where luck came in. Literally the day I arrived, there was a there was a refueling.

strike at Heathrow. The people who gas up the airplanes went on strike. And if you were flying out of Heathrow on Friday, your flight was probably going to be canceled because there was nobody to gas up the planes. Thankfully, my flight was arriving. So that wasn't a, that wasn't a worry for me. But if I was flying out on Friday, like I would have had to have been rescheduled. So I left on Thursday night, British Airways out of Chicago.

It was fine. I mean, It was on one of their newer Dreamliner aircraft, so the interior was new. I love flying on the Boeing Dreamliner because it's a very comfortable flight, no matter which airline you're on, because it's made of carbon fiber. The cabin has kept it at a lower pressure. It's just more comfortable overall. And so I had dinner on the plane and I went to sleep and I woke up an hour out of Heathrow.

So you can't ask for a better flight experience than that. It landed smoothly and I was in England for the first time in four years and I cannot tell you how happy that made me. I will not lie. I got a little misty-eyed when I landed. It was so good to be back after such a long absence. You know, I've talked about before how I consider Britain to be my second home, home away from home. It's where I'm most comfortable.

I love it here. And to be gone for so long was at various points over the last four years physically painful. But now I'm back. So going through Heathrow itself, you know, we parked the plane. The terminal was not very crowded. The border has actually changed. So four years ago, you had to fill in your landing card and you had to wait in line and have your passport stamped and all. You don't do that anymore. They introduced EGates a couple years ago and now with the pandemic and everything, they've really pushed those where you basically, you get in line at these e-gates, you scan your passport, and it lets you in.

Like, granted, the system does not work perfectly. It's computerized, so sometimes it's slow. You have to get the passport on the reader just right. People in front of me had issues with this, but I literally put my passport on the gate open and I was in, it was technically in Britain. Like, no questions, nothing. It was, it took less than five minutes. It was great. So I if I was reviewing airports or heathor, I'd be like, the eGates are wonderful.

That was great. Now, this is where forward planning came into bearing as well. I did not check a bag because all the things I'd read online and on social media said that if you check a bag, there was like a 60% chance you're never going to see it again or it's going to be delayed substantially. I don't usually check a bag anyway. And then while I'm going to be here for 10 days, that's kind of the cut off for bringing enough clothes and one carry-on.

I pushed it to just be a carry-on, so I didn't risk losing anything of value. And I've read everywhere that if it's something you're going to miss and you have to check a bag, do not put it in your bag. So only put things in a check bag that you will not be sad to lose. Like I said, I didn't check a bag, so I sailed right through the airport and I was in England. The first two days of my trip, so long-time listeners, long-time readers of Anglotopia will know that my favorite place in Britain is the town of Shasbury and Dorset.

I'll put in the show notes, the post on the website that explains this, but basically it encompasses everything I love about England. Gold Hill is my, the place I dream about, it's the place I've wanted to go more than anything since the pandemic. I've actually stayed in a cottage on Gold Hill called Updown Cottage, which is since sold. So that was, even though I was coming to Oxford for the course, I built in a couple days so that I could go back to Shastbury and spend some time in the place that I love most of all.

The problem was I didn't have a rental car, so I had to get to Dorset, which is quite a ways from Heathrow. I considered the train, but Heathrow is not well connected to trains if you're going west. If you're going into London, it's fine. If you're going west, you have to take a bus to get to Basingstoke and then you have to, or Reading, and then you have to get on the training network there. That did not appeal to me after being on a transatlantic flight and being slightly jet lagged.

So, or it's Woking, I'm sorry, not Basingstoke. So I booked a taxi. Thankfully, there are quite a few taxi companies in Shaftesbury or in Northern Dorset who regularly do runs to the airport and back. And so that was old hat. for them. So they quoted me to pick me up at the airport and take me to Dorset, and it was reasonable enough. So I was like, okay, it works for me. And then they emailed me a week before and said that because of the rising fuel costs, they had to raise the price.

It was still acceptable to me. I'm not going to nickel and dime my dream here to get to where I want to be. So I booked with country cars out of Shaftesbury. A man named Kevin met me, and he was lovely. The drive was lovely. It was great not to be driving after my Transatlantic flight. And I had eaten breakfast on the plane. So I got right in his car and he drove me to to Shaftesbury.

It was a great drive down. We started hitting some traffic and took a different way. We went via Salisbury. So we got to drive through the countryside and through some villages. I mean, it was like, it was already ticking all my boxes and I was barely off the plane for a couple hours. So I got to Shaftesbury around about an hour or two after lunch. So it was quite surreal to finally be back there after so long.

As far as where I stayed, now, in previous years, I would stay at the special place of up-down cottage on Gold Hill. Like I said, that has since been sold. So I had to find somewhere new to stay. So I found a cottage on Airbnb, and it's literally at the bottom of Gold Hill, across the street behind one of the thatch cottages in St. James. And it's called Gold Hill Cottage. And the owners, Paul and Julia, they were lovely.

The cottage is well appointed. It's in an older building and there's like a yard behind their cottage where there's a there's another building where there's like a loft conversion where they put this this cottage in and it was great. It was everything I needed for my return to my favorite place. It was atmospheric. You open the doors and get the breeze off the Blackmore Vale. You could hear the birds and you could hear the owls and the wind and it was perfection.

So I'll write more about in detail about the place I stayed in later on when I get back. So yeah, so the first day there, I got there around 2 o'clock. So I took a shower because I hate that feeling after you've been through an airport and flying like you feel gross. So and then after that I took a nap because I always take a nap on the first day. I allow like 30 to 45 minutes of a nap to sort of reset the clock a little bit and it seems to work for me.

And then I went for a walk because that's all I wanted to do for four years is go for a walk in the English countryside. And I did and I was rewarded with some beautiful views and walked through a atmospheric, scary old English oak wood and went to the grocery store and got some groceries and it was it was great. And so I ended the first day and went to sleep, woke up the next. day. It was the Saturday.

Now, Shaftesbury was having a festival called the Shaftesbury Fringe, and it's sort of an independent arts festival. And they hadn't had it because of the pandemic, so it was a return to form for them. I was slightly concerned that it would be too noisy at my piece of a little town, but it was fine. But I, the one thing I wanted to do with my Saturday is I wanted to go to a national trust property. And I wanted to go for a walk and see a stately home.

and see a nice garden and have a nice National Trust cafe tea and cake and lunch and everything. So I had a taxi, a local taxi take me to Starhead, which is one of my favorite National Trust properties, which is nearby. And yeah, I've spent most of the day there. I walked around the lake, took pictures, took my time, communed with nature, walked around the house, had a cup of tea. Then I had lunch, had more cups of tea, and then I went back to my cottage that afternoon.

So it was great. At that point, the fringe festival did get rather noisy, but thankfully, there was a cutoff at like 10 p.m. where they had to stop, so it got a lot quieter after that. So the next day, I needed to get to Oxford. So I took a train, and longtime readers and listeners will know that I love trains, and I decided So I had to take a train from Gillingham, which is the town north of Shaftesbury.

And so I took a train from from Gillingham to Basingstoke and then had to change trains there. But I had like a 45-minute gap between trains. So I had tea and bought a newspaper and I kind of enjoyed being in a busy railway junction train station. And then I took a train, got the next train to Oxford, got to Oxford around lunchtime. and yeah, I got to Christchurch, which is a very old cottage here in Oxford, and checked in, got my room, and began my Oxford experience, which the, which is literally what it's called, the Oxford experience.

And so far, it's everything I hoped it would be. The first evening was like an orientation, you meet all your fellow classmates. There's there's 10 other courses going on at the same time. So you kind of meet everybody. And then after dinner, you kind of break out into your different courses. You meet your tutor. You find out where you're having your classes and whatnot. And yeah, so that was nice. I met my tutor, a gentleman named John Harris, who was an expert on British Naval History.

And, yeah, so that was the first day. So today, Monday, we had our first full. day of lessons. It's the morning after breakfast. Now, I should probably give an overview of the amenities here. So I opted for the full room and board package when I booked this. I had my own room. I have my own bathroom. And breakfast, lunch, and dinner are provided by the college, and you eat it in the dining hall. Now, the dining hall is famous because it's the basis of the dining hall and the Harry Potter films.

So it's bonkers. You're like every day, every meal you're eating in, you feel like you're in a movie. The hall is incredible. So highly recommend visiting Christchurch if you're on a tour of Oxford. So every morning you have breakfast with your fellow of the other courses and in the great hall. And then you go to do your, to your, to your lectures. So there's, they start at like around nine o'clock and then you have an hour and a half of lectures.

So you have a tea and coffee break for about a half an hour. And then you have another hour and a half. And then you have lunch again in the great hall. And then every day in the afternoon, there's sort of a, there's a different mix of things you can do. So today, for example, you could do a tour of the college or you could do, I remember what the other thing was. I didn't want to do it though.

I wanted to do the tour of the college. So I did that. That was great. We had a walking tour of an expert guy who's one of the porters who works here at the college. Got to see behind the scenes and see all the interesting architectural detail and hear interesting stories about the college's history. And then we got to go, we ended the tour in the library, which is, it's called the new library, even though it's like 400 years old.

And that's incredible. I mean, I love old libraries. They have the most wonderful smell. And then, and then you have dinner, which is more formal. It's, so like, Everything else is kind of informal. You can wear what you want, to breakfast and lunch and at the course of everything. And then for dinner, you have to dress more formally. So you have to wear a sort of business casual. You have to wear nice slacks and a buttoned shirt.

You are not allowed to wear shorts or blue jeans. So that led to a fun situation for me because I didn't bring enough nice clothes for various reasons. So I had to pop into an M&S and buy another nice pair of slacks and another buttoned up shirt. So I had enough nice clothes. for the dinner. While we're tomorrow night, I get to go, I have high table dinner. And so in in the great hall, there's the regular tables.

And then there's the high table. And that's like by special invitation of the dean or the president of the college. And so everybody gets to have their night at high table. But when you go to high table, you have to wear a suit and tie. I did come prepared for that. I brought my nice suit and tie for that. So that should be fun. And then, yeah. So the weather has been wonderful. That's been a huge surprise because earlier in the week they had, they literally recorded the hottest day on record and British records like 104 degrees Fahrenheit, I think.

And thankfully, by the time I got here on Friday, that he had broken. So the weather has been cool and mild and wonderful in the mid-70s Fahrenheit. I can't ask for better weather. It's been a mixture of sunny and cloudy. It drizzles occasionally. But the heat did take its toll on the landscape here. You'll notice in a lot of my pictures, the grass is brown or yellow and not green and verdant like it usually is. And that's just because they haven't got a lot of rain, a sustained rainfall, and they had the heat that just parched everything.

But hopefully that's going to change. The forecast is fair for the whole rest of my trip. It's going to be in the 70s. I don't like being hot. So, and there's no air conditioning in these little colleges. But thankfully, they've provided fans. So if it does warm up, you can turn the fan on in your room and stay cool. But it's funny. The, someone was telling me, I'm in, I'm in the Meadows Quad, which is, which is famous because I guess Sebastian Flyte lived in the Meadows rooms when he was at Oxford and the movie in the novel Brideshead Revisited.

So as I watched Brideshead Revisited last week in preparation for my trip here, for the upteen's time. I'm quite chuffed to be in rooms that Sebastian Flyte would have been in. The room itself is very Spartan because it's student accommodation. It's not supposed to be, you know, ornate. It doesn't look anything like it did in Brideshead or visited. But it's perfect. The most surprising thing is they give you a tea caddy, which is not surprising with a kettle and everything.

But Christchurch actually has their own tea blend. And I'm happy to report that it's delicious. It's wonderful tea. So they have a shop downstairs. I'm going to go buy some of that before I come home. It's a very good tea. And they serve it in the Great Hall as well. So, but yeah, that's where things are right now. I'm not going to rattle on for a whole hour like I normally do in the podcast. I think I think I'll I'll cut it off at half an hour.

As far as has England changed since the last time I visited, I mean, not really. It still feels very much like England. Yeah, I know the political situation is different. There was a different prime minister the last time I was here. There's been a different prime minister who's now leaving office and now there's going to be another one in a few weeks. But that stuff doesn't really have a bearing on tourists when we're visiting. England is still very much England.

It's still the green and pleasant land that I know and remember. These, you know, 800-year-old Oxford colleges are still uncharted. changed. Everybody is friendly and warm and, and yeah, all the things that I've loved and remembered from my previous visits are still very much the same. So that pleases me. And I think that's one thing I really love about traveling here is that you know, once you understand the place and you know the place, it's not really going to change much.

And that's nice. It's sort of a permanent thing in an impermanent world. Yeah. So I'd say there have been maybe a few minor changes. A lot of places don't want to handle cash money. So they want to take a card. That was, and that's, that happened in the U.S. as well. A lot of places only want to deal with cards. They don't want to deal with cash because money is dirty. So a lot of places, even if you have cash, they're like, can you please use your card?

That happened to me a couple times. Even paying for a three pound cup of tea, they're like, can you please tap your card? That's another thing. Contact list is becoming a thing in the U.S., but that's very entrenched here. So be prepared to tap your card. I've had issues, though, where my American card doesn't tap correctly and you have to put it in for the chip and still have to sign, which is bizarre to me. But so, you know, I only had, I came to the country with 65 pounds, and I only just spent it all the other day paying for taxis.

So taxi drivers still would prefer cash. So that's one thing to keep in mind, even though they all take cards and they're supposed to take cards, they still prefer cash. But yeah, I don't think I'll be getting more cash, though, because I'm not going to be taking many taxis for the rest of the week because I'm very much in the college and not really going to be venturing further out because they're keeping us so busy, which is nice.

It's very late here sitting here looking at the spire of Christ Church Cathedral. It's glorious. The college is very quiet right now. That's the nice thing about these colleges in Oxford in general is it's very busy during the day, filled with tourists, but once all the tourists leave and the colleges lock up at night, I mean, it's as quiet as an English village. I can even hear owls and birds and occasionally someone on, you know, walking down the flagstone walkways, but it's very quiet and peaceful, and it's, something I've really been looking forward to these last few years is a bit of quiet and peaceful England.

So I'm very happy to be here right now. Very happy to be meditative and thinking about what I'm going to write about when I'm going to write about when I return from this trip because while this is a working vacation, it's all going to be content on Anglotopia and the podcast as well. So I'll probably I do another podcast while I'm still here and probably do one when I get back and hopefully we'll start doing more regular podcasts, but we'll just have to have to wait and see.

So thanks for listening. I'm going to leave it there. And anything I talked about, I'll be sure to pop the show notes. And thanks for listening. Have a great one, everybody.