Oxford

Saturday we didn't have to get up quite as early as Friday, but it was still early in my book.  Bailey and I were at the train station at 9:30 to catch our 10 AM train to Oxford.  I was really excited for this for a few reasons; 1) Oxford is Harry Potter land and if you haven't guessed it, I'm a Harry Potter freak, and 2) we were meeting my old friend Katy, who happens to be studying in Birmingham this semester.  It's funny that we are closer to each other in Britain than we are back home.

Our train arrived in Oxford first and Katy's came in around noon.  From there we hit the town, but none of us had a map.  Only Katy was smart enough to research the town and places we should check out, but no map.  Luckily we came up with a plan, or I should say, Katy came up with a plan.  We found the nearest hotel, sauntered in and asked reception for one, which they gladly handed over.  Smooth work out of us.  I will have to remember that technique.

The place we wanted to tour wasn't open until 2 so we just started walking, and as luck would have it, we stumbled onto a castle.  I'm not even kidding.  We saw a Primark sign and started walking towards it when suddenly I spotted a building that looked a lot like a castle next to a huge mound of grass, and wouldn't you know, it was a castle.  We decided to give it a tour.  It was £6.50 for students to enter on the Oxford Castle "Unlocked" tour which included going to the top of the tower, hearing a live guide tell us stories, visiting a crypt and looking in on the castles modern use as a prison.  Not sure if it was really worth the £6.50 but now I can say that I have been to two castles and two palaces.  The view from the tower was great.  You could see all of Oxford and get a good look at the countryside too.  That's all you can really ask for.

The big mound is the green patch on the left.

We left the castle and started walking towards the colleges.  We passed through a big shopping center on our way.  There were some street performers there that we would see again later.  They were really talented and I managed to get some video of them.  It was pretty crowded and most of the people around were students, but since it was graduation day, there was a pretty hefty smattering of parents there as well.  We found the colleges and walked around them for a while, taking every opportunity for pictures that was presented.  The streets were much less congested by cars than in London.  Half of the wheeled traffic came from bicycles.  They were parked everywhere and in massive clumps.  It was certainly a sight.

The movie An Education has a scene from here.

As we wandered through the university and its colleges we had a few key areas we wanted to hit.  One was the Bodleian Library.  According to Katy, that is where the divination classes in Harry Potter were filmed.  Sadly it was unavailable due to the Graduation going on.  From there we made our way towards the Christ Church where the Hogwarts Great Hall is located.  On our way there was some sort of street festival going on and some animal cruelty protest at the head of the street.  Bailey felt the need to go pet the dog that was sitting in front of the protesters because it was cute.  The festival was kind of lame.  It was geared more towards kids and reminded me of a street version of KidsFest.  Not our thing.

The entrance of Christ Church

We got to Christ Church around 2:30 and had to wait in a queue  to get in.  The wind was bitterly cold and cutting right through us.  For being such a sunny, wonderful appearing day, it was freezing and deceptive.  One time I looked up to see girls from our program entering the church ahead of us with their tour group.  I yelled and waved at them, and let them know I was jealous that they were getting in before me.  The church was really pretty, but I must say that I was deeply upset by the great hall.  It wasn't so great, you could even say it was kind of small.  The queue to get in was larger than the room.  Movie magic is incredible, because they make that hall look gigantic.  Not only was it small, but there were portraits all over the wall, and looked nothing like the movie set.  I guess it was kind of naive to think that it just always looks like the movie.  After the great hall there wasn't much to see, but a garden and gift shop.

The Great Hall.

Me and Katy.  Look!  I brought my wand with me.

In the Cathedral Bailey gives a sermon.

By the time we left we were all starved for warmth and decided to head towards a famous pub that was recommended to Katy.  It's called The Eagle and Child.  It was at this pub that authors and friends C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien would meet on Tuesdays to chat it up.  I geeked out at this.  I love both of those authors.  We got a table in the back and ordered some dinner.  I tried this Steak and mushroom pudding and washed it down with a Strongbow black currant.  I think the bar tender was hitting on me a little bit, and I didn't mind cause I thought he was kind of cute.  His working at an awesomely historical bar worked in his favor.  We ate, talked and left only to discover that we had two hours until Katy's train left and three hours until mine and Bailey's left.  With this knowledge we headed out to find a suitable pub to sit and chat some more.  I don't like how European towns shut down at 5 PM.  No wonder there's a drinking problem, that's all people can do from 5 PM on.  The museums and shops should stay open later, but that's just my opinion.  It worked out for us cause it allowed for ample conversation time to catch up with one another.

Bailey and I arrived back at Vandon House just before 11 and were asleep by midnight.  It was a really good day.  Up next will be my internship week 5 recap.

Pip Pip Cheerio!