Oxford Travels, Rainy Punting and Hen Party!

My cousin had a Covid-19 wedding last week, so we didn't get to celebrate a hen party. She's having a second wedding party in August so we also organised a Hen Party weekend to Oxford. 

Click here for the vlog or watch below. 

After celebrating my birthday and some excursions, I quickly got packed, changed into a dress and made my way to my cousin's house. Some of the other's were coming from Wakefield and another from London, so we all met at the "brides" house and then made our way up to Oxford. It was so hot, at 32 degrees, so the journey down wasn't the nicest. It also wasn't the worst, and it was great that one of the girls boyfriend's had a 7 seater car that was surprisingly spacious and so a great option. 

The airbnb was ridiculously spacious. There were 3 double bedrooms, 2 lounges and a massive kitchen. We turned one of the lounge, the one upstairs, into my bedroom and the other 6 slept in the bedrooms. I was a little bit of a late add on (by a few days) after my birthday party got cancelled because 3 people said yes to the hen party...slightly annoying! Of course, I still had to pay the same amount unfortunately, but hey ho. 

We waited for a food delivery and I was shocked at how much the host had ordered. We ended up taking the majority home because we only really stayed in for one meal, a pizza party Friday night. Once things settled and everyone unpacked, we decorated the lounge and then gave Emma a present from all of us. It was just a small sunflower ring, but she seemed really happy. 

We also got matching homemade shifts. Sadly, my boobs were far too high and perky, too small and the shirt itself was also a little tight. Nevertheless, it made for a cute quick photo opportunity briefly. We were initially going to go out to some pubs in the evening, but because we were all so hot and sweaty, we decided on pyjamas and board games. 

The Saturday was the busy day and sadly the worst weather! I started the day in a cami top, then before breakfast was even over, I had put on a cardigan and then my waterproof. Thank god I brought it, because the rest of the day was miserable. Unfortunately, some people didn't and instead resorted to wearing bin bags. We had brunch at Quod, which is a "The Ivy" type place. I would have happily eaten inside, but everyone else wanted to eat in the courtyard, which was odly full of scaffolding. 

Then we walked through Oxford city centre. It has such an eccentric mix of architecture and buildings, but some of them are truly gorgeous. Funnily enough, I so almost applied for Oxford university because I absolutely loved the course for Medicine, but not so much the city to be honest. 

The next stop was the Natural History Museum. Everyone was thrilled to spend a couple of hours inside but I couldn't think of anything worse. Unpopular opinion but, I hate museums...

The main part of the day was planned and pre-booked and pretty much a disaster. We booked 2 punting boats and I've been punting many times before, but always had a professional or volunteer do the punting itself. It wasn't the funnest as we kind of debated who was going to do it and no one wanted to. I have very poor balance so didn't particularly want to volunteer. In the end, the girls were amazing and after the first 15 minutes, got the hang of it. We stopped at the half way point at a pub, and enjoyed a handful of chips, garlic ciabatta and some had calamari. 

Because the weather was so miserable, we didn't spend quite as long as originally anticipated punting, so we had the chance to go home, freshen up and change. Everyone had been in dresses or skirts all day, but because it was raining, I'd gone for cropped jeans, so popped my maxi dress on when changing. The meal in the evening was lovely and I think everyone enjoyed their meal. 

To finish the night, we went to Westgate shopping centre and a couple of bars on the roof terrace. I was absolutely freezing and to be honest, hadn't warmed up since about 10 am. I kept asking for someone to swap with me, because not only was I the further from the heater, but I was also right on the edge and not covered by people either side. I was pretty miserable. 

The night finished late, after 1am, as we played some board games when we got back, so we had a bit of a lie in which was lovely. Sunday morning was very chilled. We got up when we wanted, got ready, packed, ate some snacks and then loaded up the cars. We checked out at 11am and then slowly walked into the city centre for lunch. I was very disappointed that everyone wanted pizza again. I was so over pizza because it would be the fourth time in 4 days...kill me! I didn't even really like mine as it was very burnt and the staff weren't the most efficient. 

After eating, we got picked up with the already packed car and made our way back to Nottingham. Luke wouldn't come pick me up, so luckily one of the girls volunteered and had a 10 minute detour to drop me off at mine, instead of having to walk an hour.

All in all, even though it was quite a low key weekend, I was still pretty tired. I'm not sure I'd be totally up for a proper drinking hen party, so I enjoyed the relaxed nature of it.