England, Day 3: Oxford

Next morning we went to Victoria Station to catch the bus to Oxford. We were waiting at the stop the website had told us to wait at, and a bus to Oxford was there, but it wasn’t the company we had booked with, so we figured ours was coming soon, because we saw a number of their buses driving around the coach station. Still, we were getting a little worried, so I asked a policeman nearby, who got a bit shirty with me, really (if I can quote Harry Potter… a theme for the trip) -- “Didn’t you read the internet when you bought your tickets?” “Well, yeah…” “No you didn’t, what time is your bus supposed to be? If you read your internet you would have seen that for that time (the other company) is covering that route. You would have missed your bus.” Yeah, thanks. You really needed to hear the tone to appreciate this. Bah. Anyway, we got onto our bus, which was double-decker! So we rode up top and all got our own seats, so we could stretch out. The ride was lovely, and we passed some other fun things that we hadn’t had a chance to see earlier in London, like Grosvenor Square, the excessively attractive part of Hyde Park, and the royal fishmongers. That one was a surprise. There was a man being interviewed outside of it for the news, and I thought it was funny that this little shop was the royal fishmongers. Anyway, we journeyed through the countryside into Oxfordshire. Oxford town is GORGEOUS, especially if you have any appreciation for architecture at all. Oxford University takes up most of the city, with each of the colleges occupying its own space throughout.

We got off the bus and immediately found a Pizza Hut with a buffet… bonus! We walked to our hostel – too early to check in, but we wanted to stow our bags. We buzzed at the front door, where we were told: “You have to really kick the door….” We tried. “No, really, just kick it…” We tried again, harder, combining our efforts. “Are you in yet?.... really, really kick it!” Finally I did give it a good solid kick, and we were in. After stowing our bags, we headed out to explore (in the wrong direction at first… oops!), found Oxford Castle and mound thing, which we, being castle snobs, decided not to go into, and made our way through the shopping district into town. We went first to Christ Church college, where they filmed parts of the first two Harry Potter movies. It’s very pretty, but you could only see a very small portion of the school itself, because there are actual students there. Angela got REALLY excited when she found out about the HP connection. After going through the hall and chapel, we all had to use the toilet, so we were directed to a bathroom that, as it turned out, was broken. This is where the spy movie comes in. The man working on the toilets told us to “go into the Quad there… look for the man with the bowler hat, and ask him…” We did as he instructed, and lo! A bowler hatted man!

Now, in the Quad you can only walk along one side as tourists, and the rest is for real college people. We told him about our dilemma, and he thought we could use a bathroom a little ways into the forbidden zone, but he would have to take us there one at a time while the rest waited behind the invisible barrier. Suddenly, another be-bowlered man arrived! The two held council: “well, it’s a bit embarrassing really, not having working toilets… I was just going to take them in here” – “Oh, well we could use the one in the JCR.” – “Yes, then they could go en masse...” – “Yeah, I think it’ll be ok, if I go with them.” You can’t make this up, people. So, the second one took us THROUGH THE QUAD!! We got to be special, leaving all the other tourists behind us as we walked through the forbidden zone! We entered a room, and hat man, unsure where the ladies’ toilets were, left us to go find out, and someone yelled “quick, take pictures!”, and we all whipped out our cameras and complied - because, of course, we were in uncharted tourist territory. We all quickly put them away however, and when he came in we were all the “picture” (ugh) of innocence. He led us up the stairs to the, pretty ordinary, bathroom of the JCR (which he told us means the Junior Common Room, where the students hang out). Still, it was fun. He then gave us a mini-personal tour on our way out, which was lovely.

We next wandered through town. I wanted to go to Magdalen college (pronounced “maudlin”), where Tolkien and Lewis had both taught, but the others didn’t want to spend the money, so I went in and they went to the Botanical Gardens. Magdalen was quiet and picturesque, and I honestly enjoyed exploring it alone. They have lovely grounds, including the river and a deer park. After going through the buildings that are open to tourists, I walked along the river for a bit (and over a bridge to nowhere!) and admired the general splendor. The windows in the chapel there were odd… black-and-white and sepia toned. They also have an impressive copy of “The Last Supper.” After Magdalen, I spent some time walking through town and checking out bits of the other colleges and a church. I eventually met up with the others who had been relaxing in the large lawn at Christ Church. We went back to our hostel to check in, passing the ice rink on the way, which was exciting for Jaye, who plays hockey at home and hasn't seen an ice rink in months. The hostel was very nice (we now had the knack of flinging ourselves against the front door to open it), and Jess, Julie, Jaye and I had a room to ourselves. We met Angela on the hostel's top deck and enjoyed some tea in the late afternoon. Eventually we went to the grocery store for dinner, which we ate on the floor of our room, followed by a small singalong. Later, we went out to see the Eagle and Child pub, where Tolkien and Lewis used to gather with other literary friends and discuss their works, and then went to Rosie O’Grady’s Irish pub down the street from our hostel for a drink. The bartender was from Dublin, and we were the only ones there for a while, so we were telling him all about how we were in Galway studying and such. We said how nice it was to hear Irish accents again after being in England. He asked how long we’d been away… “three days!!” we wailed. He rolled his eyes. It was a lovely day.