The day after I returned from York, I took a day trip to Oxford with my gracious host Gavin who was an alumnus and wanted to show me around this world famous university. On a rainy day, interrupted sporadically with moments of blue sky forcing their way through the stubborn rain clouds, we took in the sights of this little city with such a big name.
Wandering around every building it was easy to see why this was such a prestigous school with its impressive architecture, incredible location in the adorable town of Oxford, and I am sure the academics are insane but I sadly didn’t get to see any examples of that since a majority of the colleges where closed due to examinations.
I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t get to see the inside of Oxford’s incredible libraries that I had always dreamed of visiting, but I was still very glad to see what I could.
Everything in Oxford seemed like some wonderfully ancient relic of mankind. The architecture was mind blowing and we got to see a couple of cool things like this old illuminated Bible.
I loved the colors of the pale buildings that surrounded the university buildings. The mixture of the architecture that was so striking in the colleges contrasted with the short, and rather plain but well colored normal houses made the town just a little bit more endearing to me.
We also got to wander around an adorable market with twinkle lights and red paint covering everything except for the white trim and the hanging lanterns.
After taking a short break in a pub for lunch, we thought we had escaped the rain, but once we left were immediately drenched in a fierce downpour that continued for a majority of our short stay in the town.
We dashed between chapels and colleges hiding as much as we could from the torrential downpour that seems so characteristic of England, which I had up until this point been spared form during my time in England.
The chapels where unbelievable, with their huge organs and impressive interiors.
Everything was straight out of a movie it seemed (probably Harry Potter if I am not mistaken) and how fairytale-like it all was.
It was hard for me to look at everything and think that it was a real school, where real people go to get an incredible education. It was just so otherworldly feeling and different than anything I had ever personally experienced back in the States. It was hard for me to wrap my brain around the idea of actually going to school in a place that truly belonged in a storybook.
We spent the whole day just wandering as I usually do when I visit a new place and I was just so grateful to get to see another wonderful town in England.
Magdalene college was probably my favorite with a wonderful courtyard and it’s back facing the deer park where deer roamed behind fences and a river that ran through oxford.
The sun finally broke through for a brief moment lighting all of the buildings and the beautiful flowers even as the sky grew darker and darker with the same old rain clouds that had been following us all day.
I really loved the river and the little colorful boats that people used to peruse down its watery ways.
With increasingly dark clouds warning us to part ways, we left Oxford behind, soaked through, but so glad I got to see what an English University looks like, because who knows, maybe I will return to take classes there some day.