The Other Place

Remember way back in the day when I mentioned that we had a swap with our rival college, Trinity? (At least, I think I wrote about that. Well, whatever). Turns out we have an even bigger rival: Oxford, also (affectionately) known as "The Other Place" (fun fact: they also refer to us by that nickname). Though Oxford makes up half of the Oxbridge name, Cambridge has always been considered (by Cambridge folk and The Guardian!) the better of the two universities. Still, as they say, don't knock it till you try it. So in mid-May we finally got around to completing our Balliol-John's swap (Balliol College, you will remember, is St. John's sister college at Oxford). And though I'm still a big fan of ol' Cam, I must admit that Oxford was awfully nice.

After a treacherously long bus ride (through Milton Keyes no less!), we arrived in Oxford and went on a mini-tour. I got to see the beautiful Bodleian Library, which I must say is nicer and less imposing than ours. 

We wandered around Balliol College, where my good friend went as an undergrad. The college was beautiful and had a lot more greenery than John's does. I even got to walk on the grass! Believe me, that's a treat. 

The best part of our mini-tour was visiting the covered market and getting cookies from Ben's Cookies. Oh. Mah. Gawd. It was half-baked and super gooey and greasy and everything I could ever want from a cookie. It was amazing.

All right. Enough of that. I'm making myself hungry.

After touring a bit, we went back to Holywell, the housing for Balliol. We got all dolled up and indulged in some pre-dinner cocktails at the famous Duke of Cambridge (I know, a bar with Cambridge in the name, located in Oxford?) and then pre-dinner champagne at Hollywell.

Dinner was held at the college in their gorgeous Hall. Balliol is arguably the oldest college in Oxford, and the Hall was incredibly impressive. Dinner was delicious from start to finish. Starter of asparagus, tomato, greens, and balsamic. Main of pork, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. Dessert of rhubarb and custard. Mmmm....

Sheesh. I'm making myself hungry again.

In typical English fashion, it began to rain as soon as we left Hall. We faced the turbulent weather and went back to the Holywell bar before trekking out again to go dancing. At the club I got the bartender to make me a never-before-seen drink I named the “Dean”. Don't know what was in it but it was pink and sweet and had practically a whole fruit salad on top of it.

The night ended with cheesy chips from a street vendor, some singing in the streets, and lots of puddle splashing. Ah, English rain.

We were up surprisingly early the next morning, but it was probably because we were anticipating the Balliol brunch in the MCR. I filled up on bagels and bananas and tea. We talked about Renaissance Fairs and hillbillies and man-eating catfish. It was entertaining. Then a group of us went to do some more touristy stuff. We started off at Magdalen College, which supposedly has a deer park. I didn't see any deer when I was there so I'm convinced they just tell tourists that so they'll visit. 

Next we snuck into Christ Church College (it was officially closed to tourists because of a wedding), pretending to be students of the college. Christ Church is famous for having the Hall used in Harry Potter. Sadly, because of the wedding, the Hall was closed off. 

After evading suspicious porters for a while, we went to Worcester College, home to Emma Watson (Hermione Granger). Again, missed out, and didn't get to see her, but did enjoy the absolute gorgeousness of the college.

And that, my friends, is Oxford. The city is like a mini-London, much bigger than Cambridge, has better cookies and more Harry Potter stuff going on. I would love to go visit again (if I didn't have to take the X5 to get there) and know I probably will eventually. In the meantime, I am going to greatly enjoy my home, the (I believe) better half of Oxbridge. :)