U.K. First Day

Things do not always go to plan. Today I was my first full day in the United Kingdom. The AirBnB I booked included a free bicycle rental that I was hoping to use to transport me to the train station located a 1.8 mile walk away. It was not meant to be. Last night my hosts told me that literally just a few hours before I arrived the saddle of the bicycle broke. This morning the bicycle was sent into the shop, but was not repaired in time for me to take it to the station. It is no one’s fault and things like this happen. On the bright side, I am young and able to make the 1.8 mile journey and it helped to build my stamina up after an amazing week of hanging out with my grandpa and great grandpa in Ireland.

I arrived at the Oxford train station right around noon, bought a round ticket, and made my way to Banbury. I walked into the town centre and explored a few secondhand shops. After not succeeding in finding something to catch my eye, I made my way to the bus stop for the 13:25 bus that would take me to my 14:00 meeting across town. As I boarded the bus, I got out my credit card only to find out they didn’t accept them. Luckily, I still had 10 pounds in my wallet from an early ATM withdrawal. I got the ticket for the bus ride, found a seat and waited for the bus to go. It was not meant to be. Our bus started and was shakier than it should have been. The driver got out of the vehicle, did a quick look at the exterior, made a phone call, and apologetically announced everyone on board needed to get off the bus due to something being wrong with the brakes. Before I made my way off the bus I was able to email the people I was meeting with to let them know what had happened and that I may be a few minutes late. It was good I sent that email because the next bus did not arrive until 13:55.

Everything works out one way or another. When I arrived at my meeting, my contact and I had an amazing discussion and we both left smiling. We even discussed in our meeting how some things do not always go to plan. After the meeting I was able to navigate back to the AirBnB successfully. After a short rest, I went out to dinner at a local pub (only order food, no alcohol) and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Sidenote: When you walk rather than bike you get the opportunity to observe random signs and papers. As I was heading to the train station, I had to climb the stairs for a footbridge over the River Thames and came across a random flyer. It read, “8. Watch out for weird old ladies who will rob your house…” I kept an eye open, but never found flyers for numbers 1-7.