This afternoon, I will arrive in Oxford for the last time as
part of my Master’s program. This time when I leave, I will carry the degree
away with me and I won’t have the excuse of being a student to justify coming
back again.
It’s been a kind of magical experience to intermittently
live in this medieval college town, but for different reasons than I was
expecting. I’ve got them old, familiar graduation goggles on and everything’s
feeling nostalgic and achey. Then I realized that a list of the things I’ll
miss most about Oxford might make for a pretty compelling list of things you shouldn’t miss if you ever visit.
So, here they are, the ten things I will miss most about
this place (and the ten things you shouldn’t miss on your own visit here).
1. The Architecture
It’s a bit of a given, but I’ve made a concerted effort not
to forget to look up as I walk these streets. Every path and alley and corner
has some ornate evidence of its history and the architecture is particularly
stunning in those drawn out northern evenings when the golden sun lingers on
what are affectionately called the “dreaming spires” of Oxford. The University
has around 40 individual colleges (like the houses in Harry Potter) and many of
the old ones are veritable fortresses with their chapels, dining halls and
common rooms inside castle-type walls. In fact, a [ghost tour] guide here once
told me that long ago they were actually used to protect students from
warring factions the way a real castle would.
Magdelan College is hard to miss as you come up the High
Street into town and it’s worth paying the small fee (or flashing your student
ID) to check out the inside. C.S. Lewis was a fellow there and the rooms that
were his in the New Building (new because it only started being used in 1733),
are marked by window boxes of bright red flowers. Worchester College is my
favorite and a less common one for tourists to visit. It has a gorgeous
courtyard with one of Oxford’s signature perfectly manicured lawns, but a door
in the stone wall off to the left takes you to a little more relaxed garden and
a pond where the geese have clearly ignored the “Keep off the Grass” signs and
so do the students. A large, burly tree grows straight out over the water like
a levitating dock. I always meant to climb that thing.
The head of Broad Street is one of the most interesting
crossroads of architecture in the whole town. The Bridge of Sighs connecting
Hertford College and New College Lane, curves above the street on one side and
the Sheldonian Theatre rises on the other, fenced in with a row of carved heads of emperors or scholars whose names have been lost to time. Go exploring in this general area.
Literally everywhere you turn there is something new (and by new, I mean very
old) to look at and appreciate.
2. Humming Meadows
and Quiet Walks
I was told early on in my time here that Oxford’s
educational philosophy includes deliberately making both time and space for
long, pondering strolls to be part of an education here. As such, the place is
filled with parks and meadows and college grounds and greens that provide
really wonderful places to think and talk and picnic and ponder.
My favorite of these is Christ Church meadow, particularly
when the evening is becoming dusky, but you can still see all the shapes of the
distant spires and rooftops reflected in the river (the same river that, during
exam time is suddenly filled with glitter and confetti because so many people
celebrate being finished by getting decorated by their friends and then jumping
into the water).
University Parks is another great place for a jaunt and
perfect for jogging because its looped, but meandering pathways make an excellent place to do laps. The waterfowl at the duck pond
that you run past will gladly consume any bread you decide to throw to them
(might as well double down on your University Parks health plan by running and giving away your carbs). Port Meadow
is another not-to-be-missed though slightly out of the way place to visit. In
spring and early summer it becomes a field of yellow wildflowers and throughout
the year, wild horses roam around the meadow grazing.
3. Jim-Bob’s
Baguettes
I’ve found that most people here agree on the good bargain
that is half-price sushi after ten at Itsu on Cornmarket Street or the
international cheap eats you can pick up at the giant open market at Gloucester
Green several times a week, but it seems like every person has their own idea
of what sandwich shop is best and they will defend their choice to the death.
Jim-Bob’s Baguettes is mine. And so help me, I will defend it. TO THE DEATH.
The sandwiches are inexpensive and their wheat bread in
particular is delicious (even if you’re not a wheat bread person). My usual
there is brie and grape with cranberry sauce on wheat and my mouth is watering
just typing that out. They have dozens and dozens of combinations and you start
getting free stuff on their punch card after only like four sandwiches. The
have quick wifi, friendly service and often pretty good music playing. This
place is the closest I’ve ever been to having restaurant where I walk in and
everyone knows my usual and everybody knows my name.
Go there. It’s across the street and down a little from the
Ashmolean Museum which is free and world-class and has among other things, Lawrence of
Arabia’s Arab clothing.
4. The “Great
Exhibition” of Natural History
And speaking of Museums, the Oxford University Museum of
Natural History became my happy place in my time here, I don’t know why. It’s
sort of built like a cathedral on the inside, only most of the ceiling is glass
so it feels like stepping into The Great Exhibition in the 19th
century when they’d bring animals and treasures and technology from around the
empire for people to gawk at in London.
Among the treasures of the museum are the most complete
remains of a dodo that exist anywhere in the world. They are less complete than
you would expect, but it’s still interesting to see. You walk down these aisles
and aisles of dinosaur bones and crabs too large to fit your arms around and
snakes and giant tortoises and precious stones and every natural thing worth displaying
you could think of. The museum also uses its central tower as a place to study
and breed swifts so you can watch the little baby birds on the swift cam
whenever there are any in the nest.
Also note, the same building houses the Pitt Rivers Museum
which is…an experience. It is the enormous hoarded collection of one very rich,
very well-traveled individual from long ago and they left it sorted like he had
it—by category rather than by culture or time. So there is a display case of
“Things made of bone” or “vessels for carrying water” or “how to deal with enemies” each displaying a mish-mash of things from cultures and tribes all over the
world that fit into that category.
5. Punting on the
River
Oxford and Cambridge disagree on the proper way to punt and
obviously, Oxford is correct. A punt is like our own little version of a
gondola like they use to navigate the canals in Venice (without the stripes or
the singing). In Cambridge you stand on the front of the punt to propel it, in
Oxford you punt from the back. The person standing on the back carries a long pole and uses it to push off the river bottom to move the boat forward.
I think most people rent a punt from the Magdalen Boathouse
because it’s right in the center of things and so easy to find. It’s an
excellent option. You will pass Magdalen Tower and the greenhouses of the
oldest botanical garden in Britain and one of the oldest scientific gardens in
the world. Catch it in the waning, golden light and you’ll get another
enchanting view of them dreaming spires.
You can also punt from the Cherwell Boathouse. It’s a little cheaper though a little harder to get to by foot. You can take your punt down to the Victoria Arms pub and alight for a snack and at some times of the year you can hang around on the shore by the boathouse and catch floating opera performances from another passing punt.
*Note: Punting is kind of hard to master. If you
find you are zigzagging from bank to bank rather than gliding down the middle
like the Lady of Shalott you’re probably leaving your pole on the river bottom
too long. Try pushing off and then letting the pole drift backwards and direct from
behind like a rudder.
6. The Greatest Shop
on Earth
I’m not a shopper. If you’ve ever looking for great shopping
tips about a destination, I am not your girl. HOWEVER, Scriptum is probably my favorite store on the face of the earth. If
I could, I would buy myself one of everything that’s in there. Maybe if I ever
get rich, I’ll do just that.
Scriptum is a
little stationary and journal and globe and mask and compass and miniature hot
air balloon and pen shop, tucked away just off of the High Street in Oxford.
Walking in there kind of feels like walking into the study of an old eccentric
professor. One with whom you would hope to be lifelong friends. Everything is close
together and interesting to look at and gadgety and vintage and printed and
beautiful. GO THERE.
7. Radcliffe Camera
and Everything Around it
Oxford doesn’t really have a central
student union since each college has their own facilities meant for their own students, but if there were a center of campus, it would be RadCam Square.
The Radcliffe Camera is the domed, above-ground reading room for the massive
Bodleian Library whose materials fill the underground chambers and tunnels
below as well as many of the buildings around it.
Visit the Bod. It’s probably haunted and definitely
beautiful and they’re so strict on their policy of not checking out books to
anyone that when Oliver Cromwell came through with an army during the English Civil War (1640s) trying to check
something out, they were threatened and pressured and finally wrapped a book
for him and sent him on his way. When he opened the parcel he found that,
instead of the book he came for, it was a copy of the library rules with “we DO
NOT check out materials” circled repeatedly. I can't definitively say that story is true, but the sentiment seems to be.
When you’ve seen the Bod, come out and just stand on the
cobblestones by the RadCam and look up at it. It’s stunning against a blue sky
with All Souls on one side and Brasenose on the other; the spire of University
Church reaching up tall behind. You’ll probably have to move for a bike to pass
and the ice cream vendors may or may not succeed in tearing your attention away
from the view, but enjoy it for me.
And just to one side of University Church as you make your way to
the High Street from here is the Narnia door. There an intricately carved
lion’s face in the middle of it and two fauns decorate the doorframe and if you
look from there back towards the square, there’s a lamppost. It may just be a
rumor, but people always say that this little collection of images, in such close proximity, inspired
C.S. Lewis as he created the imaginary world we would later check our closets
for as children.
8. Oxford’s Own Ice
Cream Café(s)
Drinking is also incidentally a big part of the Oxford
experience, but when you’re Mormon and looking for a way to connect with
friends on a Friday night, you go out for ice cream instead. G&D’s is
“Oxford’s own” ice cream café and they have three locations so you’re never too
far from one. The G always stands for George, but the D stands for something
different in each location. I paid most of my social visits to George and
Danver on St. Aldates and most of my lonely, craving visits to George and Davis
on the charmingly string-lit Little Clarendon Street.
The ingredients are local and the available flavors change from day to day, but there are two important things you must do there if you
can. 1) Before you order, take note of the chalkboard that tells of the week’s
challenge. If you take them up on the challenge, there’s free ice cream in it
for you. I have pantomimed my order, sung the requested song and done more
tongue twisters than you can imagine to earn my dessert. My extensive
repository of totally useless trivia facts suddenly becomes very valuable at a
G&D’s. 2) Do yourself a favor and order a cookie monster. It’s a scoop of
ice cream sandwiched between two heated cookies and it’s just too good. Their
Daim Bar cookies, when heated, have pockets of melted toffee (i.e. chunks of
Daim Bar) and it pairs with practically any ice cream. It's the perfect amount of soothing warmth and sweetness to take the edge of a blustery Oxford day (they can be like that sometimes).
9. Oxford Markets
(Covered and Giant)
The Oxford Covered Market is a series of little storefronts
and permanent stalls under a giant roof, which are open during regular business hours pretty much every
day of the week. Check out the Alpha Bar in there for good vegetarian (or just
healthy) food and eat it while you window shop intricately decorated cakes and
elaborate hats.
The Giant Market, as it is sometimes called, is a temporary
outdoor market that crops up with rows and rows of blue and yellow canvas
stalls in Gloucester Green by the bus station on Wednesdays, Thursdays and
Saturdays. The local vendors there feature everything from used books and
clothes to antique coins to fancy cheeses and pastries. Most recently I met a
vendor there who calls himself Peter the Brass and specializes in old doorbells
(with actual bells a la A Christmas
Carol) and skeleton keys with functioning locks and antique tools. The
place is full of characters as much as it is full of products and that, along
with the cheap dumplings and Indian food and Hungarian fried bread and
paella, makes the market well worth a browse.
10. Rubbing Shoulders
with History
Last, but possibly most, I will miss the feeling in this
place like you are sharing air space with inspired and intellectual and
interesting people from years past. I like walking past the Bird and the Baby
(pub) and knowing that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien used to exchange ideas and
read things they were working on to each other there. I think it’s funny that each
July there is an Alice in Wonderland themed celebration in the entire town and
that Wonderland and the little girl that wandered there came out of someone’s
imagination who sat on the same benches and looked at the same buildings as me.
I like to see Einstein’s scrawled notes preserved on a chalkboard in the
science museum from a time he gave a lecture here. I like wondering who else
has studied at the same desk I’m sitting at and who sang in this chapel and who
thought about what in this garden.
Most of my graduation ceremony was in Latin, so I was left
to sort of imagine what was being said, but the one bit he did tell us in
English was that Oxford will be a part of our experience and our identities for
the rest of our lives. I couldn’t help looking around at the ornate décor
inside the Sheldonian Theatre as he went on and feeling awed by that thought. I saw the
edge of a statue through the windows above him and thought “I am now as much a
permanent part of the history of this place as that statue is. Whatever tiny
part I had, I had it and it’ll always be here. I’ve left my tiny entry in the
800+ year journal of this place.”
So, if you visit, see a few of my favorite things. And while you're there, remember me and that singular, blessed, lovely moment in my young life when I called this place home.
