High faluting fun in Oxford.

To fend off them January blues, I planned myself a solo trip to go visit my dear pal Mary down in Oxford. It was a holiday filled with great company, adventure, food and even moments of intrigue and adventure. And all at an affordable price! (which is no doubt attributed to having an “in” with someone who knows how to sneak a visitor into dining halls and college courtyards like a proper bandit - more on that later). Although my notion to head south came first from my interest in some quality time with a longtime friend, I have to say the sites speak for themselves as well.  As I begin my train ride home right now from our adventures, I feel I must give Oxford two decisive thumbs up as far as travel destinations go.

Our escapades began on Friday afternoon when I arrived at the Oxford station after six hours of reading and staring out at passing pastoral landscapes of the Lake District. I arrived in time to take a brief run through the Ashmolean Museum and take in some marvelous ancient curiosities, including a Minoan Octopus Vase that brought back all kinds of forgotten knowledge from my Greek Art class of yore.

Then it was off to "sneaking" into dinning hall at Magdalen College for dinner. The thing is, Mary's college has its own dinning hall but apparently it doesn't even hold a torch to the Magdalen experience, indeed the girl has snuck in more than once. This is how it was to play out: "Okay, Cate.", Mary explained under her breath as she led our speedy walk towards campus, "just don't say anything and let me flash my student card. I'll just tell the cashier that I want to pay for both of us. Just follow my lead and pretend you know what you are doing." I followed these commands the best I could, all the while trying to fight a smile from sweeping across my non-Oxfordstudent face. The thrill made me want to laugh out loud, but that could have ruined everything. I tried to keep myself looking very sober minded.

In the end, that Mary pulled the heist off like a real natural. Very impressive for the normally prudent and academically conscious person she is. I was glad for it too, as it was much more that I had even hoped for. In the beginning, I couldn't see how this would offer much more interest than my days of having someone treating me to waffles in BYU Cannon Center. Don't get me wrong, getting to make my own hot Belgian waffle at 4pm is a real treat, but this was a few steps up from even that, to be sure. At the risk of sounding utterly cliche, American, and un-cultured all at once, it was like eating onset of a Harry Potter filming. Check it out:

Turns out that I had good reason for thinking that as this place was first sought after for the Harry Potter dinning scenes but the college refused. No doubt they rue that judgment call as Christ Church, the college where it was filmed, rakes it in from all the visitors that pay to see it.

The next day included lots of great touring through different colleges and libraries,

Mary in front of "All Souls" college - the most elite of them all!

 There were so many pretty courtyards we walked through.

The "Oxford Eye" Library - not even money will get you in there. Students only.

Courtyard and dinning hall of the "Harry Potter" college (Christ Church). For the record, this dinning hall pic is from an online image search since my pics didn't at all do justice to the place.

The day also included a walk through the marshes behind Christ Church college. Mary got devious again, and there was even some fence climbing so I think we really did see most of what there was to see around the place. It was gloomy lovely.



That evening included another sneak in to Magdalen dinning hall and a concert at this place.

Our adventuring went a bit too far though when somehow Mary realized she didn't have her keys once we got back to her flat. After retracing our steps and searching the concert hall to no avail, Mary cheerily pointed out "Really these stone steps here are well lit and would probably be safe enough if we needed to sleep there." Although my humour had not failed me through it all, I am told I was poker faced when I said, "Um...I am not keen on sleeping on the Oxford streets in the middle of January. What is plan A, B, C, and D?" We were probably on about plan F when we found ourselves getting a lift to a nice ward family's home around midnight. The only real penance we had to pay for our misfortunes beyond blistered feet and some waiting around the next day for campus security to find the master key, among what seemed like hundreds of choices was that I had to wear my concert going trousers to church. My casual church clothes, and with the help of Mary's introduction to me in Relief Society as "a good friend of mine who is visiting", I got all kinds of arms of fellowship reached out to me until I made a comment in class that used the terminology "personal revelation". Once I dropped that and some other Mormonese terms, people seemed to stop treating me like an investigator.

In the end I have to say that Oxford is one heckuva place to visit, with much to see and do. Still, I would recommend that to maximize your traveling adventures in those parts, you really ought to find yourself a Mary to add that extra flavour and grandeur to your experience.