Oxford: First Impressions

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Clarissa

July 10, 2015

So it turns out that it’s not a very brilliant idea to stop a cabbie in Oxford and ask him to take you to the university.

“This is the university,” the cabbie says, looking at one with the compassion usually reserved for the severely intellectually limited. “The entire town is the university.”

I was expecting something more American-like where the town and the university are two distinct entities.

The town (=university) is very crowded (compared to my town / university). I entered a dinky little hole in the wall and found myself inside a humongous bookstore. It was so huge there were even some books in Spanish, all of which I immediately bought.

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9 responses to “Oxford: First Impressions”

David P. Bellamy

July 10, 2015

I hope it does not cost you extra baggage fees to take the Spanish books you bought on your flight home!

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1. Clarissa
  
  July 10, 2015
  
  I didn’t check a bag on the way here and want to avoid checking one in on the way back. Shopping will have to be severely curtailed. 🙂
  
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  1. Stille (@aperfectbalance)
    
    July 10, 2015
    
    If you have the time, see if there’s a courier/fedex/similar service that delivers to the US around. This is definitely the way to book shop in an intra-EU holiday, and it might also work for UK/US.
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      July 10, 2015
      
      Great idea! Thank you.
      
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Socal dendrite

July 10, 2015

Hahaha! I love this anecdote about Oxford 🙂 I was an undergrad there (from a provincial town with one small bookshop) and was also duly impressed when I first went into that bookshop 🙂 I trust you made it all the way down into the subterranean levels. On reflection, I think a great deal of Oxford is subterranean – I am convinced there are secret passageways between many of the buildings.

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1. Clarissa
  
  July 10, 2015
  
  Yes, the bookstore just went on and on, through strange hidden passages and nooks and corners. When I finally emerged into the street, I discovered that there was another part of the store located across the road.
  
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Socal dendrite

July 10, 2015

More unsolicited advice: do take a peek at the (free) Pitt Rivers Museum (located inside the Natural History Musuem, at the back) if you get a chance.

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1. Clarissa
  
  July 10, 2015
  
  Thank you, I’ll check it out! Advice is welcome.
  
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anon

July 10, 2015

If you can find a map of where the various colleges are located, it’s definitely worth taking a day or half-day to do a self-guided walking tour and checking out the various cloisters and gardens and chapels and such. I think I basically looked up all my favorite authors that went to Oxford and visited all their colleges… The central tower in the cathedral is a nice climb to get a panoramic view (but it does have really tight winding stairs). Got a very nice pie at the Eagle and Child which is where CS Lewis and Tolkien and others used to have their writing club.

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