England: Oxford

How is it March already? I'm so excited for warmer weather, spring flowers, and the chance to wear my Chacos! What are you excited for this month?

On Tuesday I took a trip to Oxford to see the University and check out the town! I went with Yilong, another Emory student, and we had an amazing time wandering around and seeing a bunch of the locations where they filmed the Harry Potter movies!

We took the "Oxford Tube", a bus that runs continuously from London to Oxford. The ride was really pretty; we got to see a bunch of the English countryside shrouded in mist. We arrived in Oxford at ten in the morning and and our first stop was Christ Church College, a really beautiful part of the University full of old stone buildings and little gardens.

The college had a really lovely chapel; I might be slightly obsessed with the beautiful marble floor!

At Christ Church College we saw two sites from the Harry Potter movies! The first was the staircase on which Professor McGonagall greets the first years in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone!

From the staircase we walked into the college's dining hall, which was the inspiration for the "Great Hall" in the Harry Potter movies. I can't imagine eating all my meals in there!

We walked around the grounds of Christ Church for a little while, and then headed into the main town area. There were a ton of cute little shops and a bunch of street performers out, so it was fun to explore.

Our next major stop was Radcliffe Camera, a round building that housing the undergraduate Radcliffe Science Library. It's not open to visitors but it was fun to see from the outside. 

 

From the library we took a short walk to the Divinity School. Inside we got to visit another Harry Potter site: the Divinity School exam room, where they filmed the infirmary scene. It was also the room where, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire film, the students learn to dance for the Yule Ball! 

From the Divinity School we walked to the Oxford "Bridge of Sighs" (which, funnily enough, Cambridge also has a copy of), which was tucked away at the entrance to a cute little alleyway.

 

After seeing the bridge we made our way back into the main part of  town looking for something cheap for lunch! We ended up at the tiny sandwich place called "QL", where I got a delicious sandwich of fresh, whole wheat bread, fabulous brie, lettuce, and cucumbers. So simple and so good!

 

 

Re-energized from lunch, we went to tackle Trinity College! We got to see the chapel, the dining hall (which was awkward, seeing as students were eating there at the time!) and a bunch of the grounds, which were gorgeous.

The next stop was All Souls College, followed by St. Edmund Hall College (How are there so many  different colleges? But really, guys. I don't get it.)

Our last big stop was New College, which was a little off the main drag. The college was absolutely huge! We definitely got lost wandering around it.

While in New College, Yilong and I stumbled on the Bodleian Library quad, which was featured in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when Professor Moody turned Draco Malfoy into a ferret! The quad was probably my favorite "Harry Potter site" at Oxford; I could picture the scene from the movie exactly! It was a ton of fun to see, and the area is really beautiful, even without the film history!

We finished the day off at Pret A Manger, where I grabbed an almond croissant, a banana, and some vegetarian mushroom soup for dinner (fun fact: if its the end of the day and they can't fill your soup up all the way they give it to you for free! boo ya.). From there we headed to the bus stop to catch the Oxford Tube to London! 

I really, really enjoyed Oxford; it was such a cute city, and seeing all of the Harry Potter sites in real life was a dream come true for a nerd like me! Now I just have to visit Harry Potter World in Orlando and my life will be complete...

Just a note; if you're planning on visiting Oxford, just keep in mind that, like Cambridge, you have to pay to get into most of the colleges! However, the fees aren't always huge, and some of them are free.