This was my second day in Oxford. Even though I was endowed with the bicycle to assist the exploration, I felt that relying on my feet was better, since I could enjoy every scene without having to find a place to park the bike. Thus, equipped with my thick winter jacket, scarf, and gloves, I set my way unto the gloomy and foggy city.
As I was in Oxford, I did not want to miss any college. If I could, I would set my foot on all the colleges. Well, something quite impossible, especially without the Oxford University card. Quite fortunate, my friend's flat was located near Nuffeld College. In under than five minutes, I reached the LOCKED gate. Darn! Taking my chance, I put my camera behind the bar and started taking pictures that I could get. Just two shots and I decided to got around the college, hoping to find a door to enter. Bum! Nothing......
Luckily, near that college lied Oxford Castle. Castle, huh? I would like to try it, entering one of the castle and saw what was inside, after my disappointment with Buckingham palace (which was very plain in its outer architecture). Visitor attraction would cost me two pounds. Huh? I did not want to pay to explore the hill. In fact, the castle must be more interesting than that. But I was wrong. The castle was nothing other than food court. What?
Not wanting to waste more time there, I started walking again, trying to f
ind other fun colleges. Heading without any clear direction, I stumbled upon Christ Church. It was the biggest and most famous college in Oxford, for the first two Harry Potter movies were shot there. Well, now I am willing to pay for this, I said to myself. At least, I only needed to pay around two pounds. But again, I was wrong! The concession rate for student was 4.50 pounds. Darn! My calculative mind was furious with that. Fortunately, my 'civilized' and 'cultured' side were being more dominant. (But still, four and a half pounds? Puh-lease!)The main quadrangle in the college was pretty big. Unfortunately, with my status as a visitor, my exploration area was limited. I could not step my foot on the Hermes fountain in the middle of the quadrangle. Or perhaps, it was still grass for fellows only? I always questioned that concept. A little ridiculous. Quite nice, but with limited area, I felt confined.
The dinning hall, on the other hand, was very much IMPRESSIVE! No wonder it was used as the Hogwarts' dinning hall. The arrangement looked very exquisite and expensive. All the pictures of notable alumni were hanging on the wall, covering most of it. And it even had a real fireplace, not an electric one. I wish I had a friend from Christchurch who can take me into the formal hall there. Hehehehe!
Move on to the cathedral, the decoration and room division were sophisticated and elegant. The seating arrangement was similar to other chapels, the altar was very detailed in the carving of crucifixion. The mosaics depicting several saints were also there. St. John the Baptise, St. Caecilia (I'm sure that my mum would be very flattered knowing this), and some other saint which I could not decipher from the latin writing. I sat down and prayed (yeah, I prayed after such a long time) in the right hand side of the cathedral, the private chamber.
After finishing Christ Church, I saw several colleges. Most of them were closed for public. Darn. But learning from experience, I decided to sneak in, only to take some shots. And the first one was Oriel College, one of the oldest colleges in Oxford. Next victim was Corpus Christi. Only two shots for this relatively small college. But at least, I got the shot of the special sundial in the middle of the first quadrangle.
Merton and University College were both closed by the bar. I could only sneak my camera behind the bar and got limited view of the college. As I continued the tour, I saw a very big and nice college. The gate tower was very classic, but not as rigid and conventional as the other colleges. It was Queen's College. Quite big, and it would be unfair to compare it to Queen's College in Cambridge. But again, it was closed! Daaaaaaaaarn!!! Not even any opening in bar, thus I could not steal some shots.Next to Queen's, I saw All Souls College. Yes, said I in mind. I had been wanting to enter this college. One of the oldest, classic. The gate was opened but there was the announcement that the college was closed. Remembering the suggestion from several people, I put my poker face. When nobody was around, I stepped confidently into the first quadrangle. To my surprise, the porter stopped me. I never thought that he recognized every face of college residents. As I said that I was looking for my friend, he asked me the name. Spontaneously, I mentioned any common western name. Yet again, he frowned and said that there was nobody with that name in the college. Damn! I had to get out of here. There was no way I would be arrested for trespassing. I said that I would call my friend outside and quickly ran to the nearby University Church.
After calming myself, I continued walking to Exeter College. It was a college inspiring Philip Pullman for Jordan College in His Dark Material trilogy. As a scholar of children's literature, there's no way for me to miss that. But again, it was closed! Shoot! That time, I decided not to sneak in. Did not want to repeat the All Souls tragedy.
I decided to continue the walk and cross Broad Street. There were Trinity College and Balliol College. Trinity was closed, so it was not an option. But Balliol was opened. I stepped on and went to the Porter's Lodge. The admission fee was cheap, only a pound for students. But when he found out I was a Cambridge student, he allowed me to enter for free.
Balliol was not that big. But it certainly lived up its name as the oldest college in Oxford. The wooden floor to the chapel was creaking. The chapel itself was quite nice and warm. The light entered nicely and created yellow nuance on the brownish chairs. The garden was also quite nice and big. It was too bad that I could not enter the hall. But hey, this was not Christ Church......The colleges were done for that day. But since the sun was still shinning, I did not want to get back home early. So, I saw a unique building near Trinity and decided to go there. It was the Bodleian Library. The History of Science museum was there. Interestingly, this building was actually the Old Ashmolean. So, my tour on that day was ended by the visit to the museum and the Shelley Ghost exhibition. A special exhibition of Shelley's family's writing. Well, who does not know him? At least people would recognize his famous wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. But his poems were also equally beautiful. Ozymandias would be forever linger in my head.
The rest of the day was not very exciting. So, that was all for the second day in Oxford.
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