Oxford ... finally

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It's 11pm here and I'm bored so I thought I'd get my arse into gear and finally blog Oxford. A bit belated, I know, but here goes:

The first thing you notice about Oxford is the amazing amount of bicycles cluttering the city. As Oxford is university town, bikes are the main form of transport. The bike rack at the station alone held at least 300 bikes and it was packed every single time I passed it. And bike racks are everywhere througout the city - they're just as plentiful (if not more so) than on-street car parking.

After Bath, I had really expected to love Oxford immediately and was disappointed when I didn't. Whereas Bath felt welcoming and homely straight away, Oxford felt cold, distant and standoffsh. It was a nice looking city, but didn't have any of the warmth of feeling I'd loved about Bath. Nevertheless, I ploughed on, determined to do my "sightseeing duty".

Just off the train I took the Citysightseeing tour and got 10% off with my ticket from Bath. Bonus! At the station as I was buying my ticket I met the lady who was about to start her shift as guide on the bus and we chatted for a good 10 minutes before it arrived. She gave me a brief history of Oxford and also pointed out a few places I might be interested in (and showed me where my hostel was, which would come in handy later). The tour was interesting and, as we'd struck up a conversation previously, she directed a lot of her commentary my way.

After the tour I went to the world's "biggest bookstore" (as claimed by my tour guide). Turns out it was Blackwell's, who are also a publishing company I used to deal with at Sequel. I laughed as I discovered that the shop in Oxford also runs the worldwide publishing and shipping company. Finally, I understood why Blackwell's were so terrible - they come from the same place as Oxford University Press who are by far the most difficult publishing company I have ever had to deal with.

But enough of my rant. Following my quick stint in Blackwell's, I moved on to a guided tour of the Bodleian Library. Oh. My. Lord. I was in book-geek heaven. And Harry Potter heaven, as a few scenes from the movies were filmed in the library. We also got a sneak peek at the Literature Reading Room, which I'm led to believe is off-limits to those who aren't Readers at the library. Awesome!

I decided to continue my book-geekiness and head to the Eagle and Child pub, the place where J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to get together over a few pints and discuss their latest drafts. By pure chance I ended up sitting in the very same room they used to frequent so of course I pulled out my travel diary, hoping for some inspiration. Instead, I apparently caught the attention of one of the group of old Oxfordians at the next table. Upon them discovering I was from Brisbane, I soon found myself engaged in conversation with at least one of them for the next hour. As soon as they left an Australian couple took their seats and immediately began chatting with me for another hour. At this point, I began to appreciate Oxford a little more and realised that perhaps I had at first misjudged the place.

When I finally reached the hostel (a little worse for wear, I will admit), I met two lovely American girls in my dorm named Syanna and Courtney. We chatted for a while but were all exhausted so quickly fell asleep. The following morning, after my first cooked breakfast at a hostel (KYLIE - go stay at the YHA in Oxford. Yum!) the girls decided they'd tag along with me on my planned trip to Blenheim Palace. And we had an absolute ball wandering the stunning grounds and learning about the history of Winston Churchill's birthplace. We even saw the guy who lives there - the Duke of Marlboro - wandering around and discreetly took photos and thought we were very cool because of it.

When we headed back to Oxford I had 2 hours to spare before my train back to London so we headed for Christ Church College, where they'd filmed the Great Hall scenes from Harry Potter. Courtney and I got all Harry Potty and took stacks of photos.


Sadly, it was time for me to head back to the station for London and the girls were heading off on the night train to Glasgow. But I was pleased to discover that with cities, as with people, first impressions don't always count. The Friday I spent at Blenheim with the girls was one of the best days I'd had so far and when I got back to London I realised that the spark of adventure had been re-lit. I was finally ready to leave the safety and comfort of Desh's and venture out into the big wide world on my own.

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Comments

[Bec]

Oh so so jealous...
J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and beer!!! OMG OMG OMG!!!! *is dripping with jealousy*. I've just had to educate my Mum about the Chronicles of Narnia and the fact that just because they've brought out The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and are about to bring out Prince Caspian doesn't mean that these are the first to chronologically. Anyway, finally managed to squeeze some time into my busy schedule to read Good Omens, very awesome!! I was up until 2am one going "shit, must sleep soon, uni in the morning... but must keep reading!" Anyway, tonight is not a night for staying up too late... Main thesis stuff is due in less than a fortnight!! *hugs and love*