Oxford!

Oxford

22^nd December 2007

A last minute decision… a flurry of activity… and we were off. Almost missed our 4:45am train from Paddington… whew! When we got on board we sighed in relief. We were on our way!! :-)

We reached Oxford in approximately 1 hour 40 minutes. The town was fast asleep… the scene was incredibly dreamy. Mist, trees, Victorian houses… ah! Exquisite… We took a hop on and off tourist bus. The tickets had 2 options – Child / Student / Adult… hehe! When Aditi asked for 2 tickets she said – 1 student and 1…. …. …. Non-student! LOL!!! :-)

There was a Malaysian girl in the bus. She was studying in Portsmouth. We got chatting and she joined us on our Oxford expedition. She was a cute girl called Angel… a 21 year old student. She was wearing stockings and shorts!!! Man… it was freezing cold… brrrrr… as we got down the bus and walked towards our first destination she started shivering… we had to buy her socks and leggings!! :-)

We saw many places of interest… but some of them had intriguing stories… like Queens College… centuries ago there was a student who was reading an Aristotle book in the woods. He was attacked by a wild boar… the student shoved the Aristotle book down the boar’s throat… Aristotle is difficult for the brightest people to swallow… and as expected the boar chocked! From that day every year a head of a boar with an Aristotle book in between his teeth is carried in a plate all through the college!

Then we saw Christ Church. A part of this college is used during the shooting of Harry Potter! It’s a beautiful place… sprawling lawns… hmmmmmmmm…. :-) Another piece of interesting trivia was Bodleian Library. It is the only library which is entitled to receive a copy of every book printed in UK. The library has 10,00,000 miles of rack space and the books are transported through an underground rail system!!! Wow… Radcliff camera (designed by Sir Christopher Wren who designed St. Paul’s Cathedral in London) is one of the reading rooms belonging to the library.

Yep… I know you’re tired of reading… but some more to come!! :-) The famous St. Martin’s church… it was brought down as it was not safe. The only part left behind was Carfax tower… Looking at it reminded me of Rapunzel!!! hehe… We climbed up the winding staircase… the view on top was amazing! Then we went to Alice’s Shop… this is where Alice Linddell (Alice in Wonderland fame) bought her barley sweets… It’s a quaint store with trivia and souvenirs. Numerous tales relating to Alice and her friends are displayed everywhere…

We planned to return by the 22:08 train. As we waited at the station, an alcoholic came and sat on the table next to ours. He looked up at me and said “Women love chocolates don’t they…” I said yes… he came up to me and gave me a big packet of dairy milk chocolates! He was drunk and started chatting… in the beginning I was weary of his questions… then I realized that he was a very lonely person who was thriving on security money… the Govt was actually paying him to drink! And he was fighting with himself to quit alcohol but was anxious because he would lose his only source of income! Well… he went on and on how he wanted to help poor children in India and Africa… I was like “Dude! Help yourself first… and why do you want to come to India… there’s lots to do here!!”

I went up to the café to pick up a hot chocolate… the guy asked me – “So you’re from Spain??” I just smiled and said “India”… he looked at me and then looked at his Indian colleague and said pointing to me “This is not India” Then he tugged at his colleague and said – “This is India!” :-)

Well… this is one trip which I will remember for all the interesting stories and the fascinating people I met… :-) Just the last story… hehe… cannot resist writing this – Our train left Oxford at 22:08pm. We were so tired that both of us slept… At 23:08 the train stopped at one of the stations… I looked out to see the name of the station but could not… I asked Aditi and she did not know… I thought it’s just 11:08 so slept again… a few girls entered the train. Luckily I happened to ask them the station name and they said “Paddington”!!! Both Aditi and I ran out… :-) We realized if we had continued to sleep we would back in Oxford!!! And here ends our excursion… we’re back home exhausted and sleepy but very content and extremely happy!