summer – Page 2 – oh to go a wandering

About a week ago, my boyfriend and I got back from two weeks travelling around four Polish cities: Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan and Gdansk. We had an amazing time, and needless to say, I took a LOT of photographs. Many of them will be included in upcoming posts about the amazing places we visited, the food we ate and the culture we discovered, but there are really far too many just to go into regular blog posts.

I also wanted to create a series of posts which allowed photography to be the main focus (this one aside, perhaps, since I appear to be rambling on…) and so I got to thinking about a regular photography feature on here. And so, many trial alliterative names later, I decided on ‘The Friday Frame’. I apologise to anybody who still finds the title toe- curlingly cliched, but honestly, you should have heard my initial brainstorming…

Each Friday, I’m going to share a photograph with a simple caption, either from my travels or from closer to home. It could be an image of anything really, and it’s a straightforward way to start working on a more consistent posting schedule now that I’ve finished university and have more time to dedicate to blogging. I hope you’ll enjoy each Friday’s installment: do let me know what you think.

Today’s image is of children playing in a fountain on a warm day in the Old Town, Gdansk, Poland. I love the carefree moment which it captures, with parents around the edges looking on.

Children playing in a fountain in the Old Town, Gdansk, Poland.

Children play in a fountain in the Old Town, Gdansk, Poland. 2014.

Once we’d finished our exams, we found ourselves in the unfamiliar situation of being in Oxford with two weeks to go before the end of term and nothing in particular to do. Being in college with no essays to write and no exams to revise for was very weird, but with every intention of making the most of it, we set out to enjoy our last few days of university in the sunshine. I love a good list, so here are my three favourite things that I got up to in those last few weeks, with lots of photographs.

1. Blenheim Palace

I’ve loved visiting historic homes since I was little, and Blenheim was really interesting: it’s the birthplace of William Churchill so that’s a big focus of the exhibitions, but the guided tour also included lots about other residents of the house. There were collections of Churchill’s letters and diaries, giving an insight into his personal life and not just his well- known wartime persona. I was especially taken with the story of his life long love affair with his wife Clementine, including how he was so nervous about proposing to her that she had to be taken on a ride around the palace grounds by another member of his family while Winston worked up the courage to ask. Given that the main image I’ve always had of the wartime leader was of a rather gruff, forceful man, it was nice to see a different side to him. It made me like him more.

His iconic World War Two speeches were also playing throughout the exhibition, and although I don’t tend to think of myself as especially patriotic, his speeches, and the amazing sense of unity which they inspired, really get to me every time. The grounds were also amazing, complete with their own lake, a huge stone bridge, a chapel and a rose garden.

Lakeview

White roses

Blenheim Palace

Rosebeds

Waterfall

A shady spot

From the rose garden

2. Burgers

One of the places I’ve wanted to visit since I got to Oxford is Atomic Burger on Cowley Road, a burger place famous for its American style burgers, fries and milkshakes. I’ll admit that things like ‘Diners, Drive- Ins and Dives’ on the Food Channel may have contributed to me wanting to try it! So when my brother came to visit for a few days we headed down there, and we definitely weren’t disappointed.

My brother had ‘The Garfield’, which was basically a burger with lasagna on top: the menu describes it as ‘so wrong but oh so right’, which just about sums it up! I had the ‘Audrey Hepburn’, which was topped with a fried egg, bacon and an onion ring, plus fries and the BEST strawberry milkshake I’ve ever had. My boyfriend had the ‘Dead Elvis’, which was topped with Swiss cheese, American cheese, bacon and onions. He also went for the ‘Dirty Fries’, which were loaded with beef chilli, aged cheddar sauce & jalapenoes: he was pretty much in heaven with those.

So lunch was awesome, and the surroundings made it even better: the menu describes those behind Atomic Burger as pop culture junkies, and that sums up the place. A TV plays loads of old music videos, the cornier the better, and the walls are filled with geeky sci- fi memorabilia. My brother said that eating there was like being in ‘Pulp Fiction’, which he reliably informs me was a positive thing. They also had cool ketchup/ mustard bottles: tick, tick, tick.

Pop culture wallpaper

Ketchup and mustard

BEST MILKSHAKE EVER

Dead Elvis & Dirty Fries

3. General Bumbling

What do students do when they finish their exams? Go to pubs. Lots of pubs. Well we did anyway. One of my friends has a pub crawl poster with about fifty pubs on which she’d been ticking off gradually throughout our degree, but in the last two weeks she went on a one woman mission in a bid to visit every single one. We also spent a lot of time lying on the quad in the sunshine, sleeping, and going to formal dinners. At times it was quite emotional, since we knew this was the last time that we’d all be in Oxford together, but I really tried not to let it all get too much. I knew that once I let the emotion overwhelm me I’d be useless, and I really wanted to make the most of my last few days. The photographs below are from a lunch I had with two of my best friends in a beautiful pub by a meadow just outside Oxford. It was quite a long walk there, which we spent setting the world to rights and laughing a lot: exactly what friends are for.