A Brush with Claustraphobia

I had some adventures getting to Oxford this morning.

I checked out of my hostel in what I considered plenty of time to get to Paddington station to make the mid-morning train for Oxford, even given the fact that I chose to go by a more indirect tube route to avoid excessive walking in my dromedary-impersonation mode (backpacker pack and laptop case). I was going to take Northern to St. Pancras and then change for Hammersmith, but when I got to St. Pancras and got off the train, I became aware of a siren blaring, and a pleasant, disturbingly-calm female voice repeating over and over, "An emergency has occured, please exit the station at once." My first, and an somewhat freaky thought was of summer 2007 on the London tube, and my second, and possibly even-more terrifying was that this might be one of the stations many flights underground which usually is exited by elevator. Thank God this was not the case. However, trying to get a monday morning rush-hour crowd out of a central transfer station in the heart of London can't be anything but a slow process and, laden down as I was with my 35-odd pounds of luggage, I felt distinctly immobilised in the middle of the press of people. It was not fun. I still don't know what the emergency was (although all signs suggest that it was not terrorism), but I definetly did not make it to Paddington in time for the 10:20 train. I had to take a bus across town, which was very slow, although I did get to sit on the top level of the double decker, which I had never done before. Consolation prize of sorts. Actually, I was able to catch at train half an hour later, so I was hardly delayed at all (unless you measure time by all the extra heartbeats).

I am in Oxford now, writing from the lobby of my hostel, which is definitely the most well appointed of the three I have been to so far (there is actually soap in the bathrooms). It is also the most aptly named a Youth Hostel--I think most of the people here are under 18 and most more like 16. The music also reflects that. I was just serenaded by Hannah Montana over the lobby sound system--"I can't wait to see you again!" Oh, Miley.