Oxford

Aye, I realise that most of you have probably been missing me and the posts seeing as I technically havent been writing for about 2 weeks now but rest assured I am alive and kicking. Since we last made contact I had left the very chilled and very knowledgably Chris. Seriously, I was talking to Dawsey last night and if we had a quiz night that we could get a few people from around the blocks involved in, we'd be unbeatable. Chris with History, Dawsey with Sport, Bex with Entertainment, etc, etc. Think about the Quid we could rake in!!

Anyway, Oxford was the next stop on the trip and that meant that I had come to the home of the University town and I got to find out that Oxford University isn't technically a university. It is a culmination of 39 different colleges which fly under the banner of the Oxford University. Best part about Oxford? LOTS of students pubs and all of the museum-y things were all free, while the Uni grounds required an entrance fee... Damn Uni's making any money they can. All the same, you pay it because you are there right?

The buildings are just insanely old. Big and Old. I mean there are university buildings that were started in the 1200's right through until the 1800's. How can that not be presitious going and studying there? Same in Cambridge mind you, but I liked Oxford more. More to see and do in my opinion. Can't really remember the days and the events in order, so lucky for you all I'll give you the abridged version :D

I managed to get through eight of the campuses in the time I spent there, many were closed to the general public without a tour group and others were just closed. The two that I would have liked to have seen were closed because they were filming the new Inspector Morse series, Louis, there, so that counted them out. But the guided tour of Oxford took you to the outsides of them all the same and gave a bit of history where is was warrented. One of the more interesting things about Oxford is the ringing of a BIG bell called Tom.

It rings 101 times from 21.05 as a tradition when all 101 students of that college needed to be in their dorms before the ringing stopped.

That and there was a huge Students versus the public brawl that lasted days and the 'streets ran red with blood', after an altercation between a student thinking that his beer was watered down and threw it at the publican who then decided to get even, ring the emergency town bell and start a riot. Gotta love it!

Went on a bit of a time warp with Alice in Wonderland having its roots in Oxford, mainly in Christ Church College. The daughter of the dean there was none other than Alice, and the dean became the White Rabbit because he was always running about, lookiong at his watch. The rabbit hole was a stair case which was hidden behind the main dining hall's wall that the dean always used to get away quickly. The Dodo was none other then Lewis Carrol whose real name is actually Charles Ludwige Dodgson.

He had an extreme stutter, so pronouncing his name lead to "Do-do-Do-Dodgsen". Interesting stuff. There was a lot of other things in there, like the Chesire cat, the Tree he was found in, the deer park, the queen, etc. All very cool.

 

Oxford is seriously FULL of history in the literary world. And the science world so it turns out too. Aside from that I went and found J.R.R. Tolkien's (of Lord of the Rings fame) grave which was at Wolvercote about an hours walk north of Oxford. Took me a while to find it but thanks to modern technology, the internet and Luke, I managed to find the modest grave. He is actually buried with his wife. I saw squirrels too!

Other highlights of Oxford:

* Catching up with Craig for the afternoon the first day. Very cool guy who was set to be interviewed for a college position the day after I met with him so wish him luck.

* The cool museums around the place, especially the natural History museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum.

* Seeing the Bourne Supremecy and being allotted a seat in a movie theatre (haha, England!)

* Having a Homeless guy staying in my dorm room who was an alcoholic and suicidal. GREAT combination and the place seriously STUNK because he did not shower for the 5 days I was there and he was arrested one night, whislt not coming home another night because he passed out in a park... gotta love that egh?

* The cool breakfasts at the hostel every morning :D

NEXT STOP:

Basingstoke, the lovely Miss Bex and another entry still to come :D