It has been rainy and cloudy all weekend here in England, but Derek and I decided to go to Oxford today after not doing much of anything yesterday.
We went to Paddington Station around 10:45, and just missed the 10:51 train. We stood in line to buy our tickets, and they ended up being 20 quid...which was definitely more than the 14 quid I paid to go to Cambridge. Then we planned to catch the 11:21 train, and went to get breakfast and wait. For some reason, when we came back to the platforms at 11:18, the platform that the Oxford train was leaving from was already erased from the board. So we missed the 11:21 train as well. We hung out and went to some of the shops at Paddington such as The Body Shop and Boots to wait for the 11:51 train. Finally we got on that train and took it all the way to Oxford.
When we got to Oxford, we went to the tourism booth at the train station, and I grabbed a free advertisement for the hop-on-hop-off bus tour only because it had a map of the city in it. The Oxford campus was an extremely easy walk from the train station. Derek and I decided not to take the bus tour, and instead just walked around ourselves using the map as a guide to where we were. We had fun just seeing everything, but if you want to learn the significance or history behind any buildings, I don't recommend doing it our way.
Almost all of the buildings at Oxford cost money to enter, so we only really walked around the outside. There were tours from the Oxford information center, but we did not want to pay to get in on one. The only landmark that was truly important to me was seeing the bridge that is mentioned in the book The Great Gatsby. In the book, Jay Gatsby shows his friends a picture of him under the landmark Hertford Bridge at Oxford, and wrongly convinces them that he actually attended university there. Now I have a picture just like it.
We also passed by the college that C.S. Louis and other famous authors studied at. The Christ Church college is famous for having some of the scenes of one of the early Harry Potter movies filmed in their staircases. Derek and I did not get to see where it was filmed because, again, it cost too much money. Seriously, we felt every building cost 3 quid to get in to and it wouldn't be worth spending all of that money for each individual building. I honestly do not know how Oxford gets away with charging that much to tourists. Perhaps they do so in order to keep the number of tourists to a minimum...and allow only the truly dedicated to roam around. Pity I'm not wealthier, because I really wanted to see what a classroom looked like.
We also walked by the Oxford Castle because it was 6.50 quid to get in and we didn't know what attractions lay inside that would be worth the expense. There was a giant hill next to the castle that cost money to climb, and there were small children just swarming all over the hill. Also, people dressed in period costumes manned the entrance to climb the hill, and I saw a man at the top dressed in a scary black hooded robe. I took a picture because he reminded me of a dementor.
A dementor on the hill at Oxford Castle
Tourists lined up to see where a few scenes were filmed in Harry Potter
Christ Church College at Oxford
Oxford Castle
Derek and I thought there would be nothing cooler than to be able to tell people your school was called University College
*Side Note*
Finally I just want to quickly put to rest a rumor that you may have heard. Before I left for England, I was told that "you can't find peanut butter there." This statement is not true, because Marks & Spencers sells their own store brand creamy peanut butter. However, if you are a chunky fan, you are potentially out of luck. I hope this sooths any worries that may have been keeping you up at night.
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