Sunday Sept 04, 2011 – First Trip outside London
As planned, Sunday morning we had to visit Oxford, one of the most famous places in the world for its world class education. As usual, we dint leave on time which we had decided the previous night because of laziness, I guess. I sometimes realise that I hardly end up doing most of the things on time, which is so ridiculous. It needs to change, and it certainly needs to because I have seen the level of punctuality that people follow here in the UK. It really sets the tone for all other things during the day. I would dare not miss a timeline at office if I want to be safe! Ya..so anyway, we finally got ready and left for Oxford at about 9 from our apartment. We had taken a fair bit of idea from office colleagues as to what could be the best way to reach the city. We took a bus to Victoria terminus, which is supposed to be the centre for all possible conveyances for any and every possible city within the United Kingdom. We reached there and saw the Oxford Tube waiting at their respective location. We took a return ticket and checked with the driver on how long is it, before we left. 2 minutes is what he said, and before we could go to the upper deck of the bus and settle down, the bus moved. Another classic example of how punctual these people are just makes you respect them more and more every time.
A wonderful and well maintained double Decker, extremely comfortable bus makes your journey just half tiring as it could possibly be and the feeling comes right as the journey starts. That is exactly what happened to me. London to Oxford is supposed to be an hour long journey and approximately 15 minutes after we started it started drizzling. I was in serious thought if it will be worth going there, if it actually starts raining heavily, and to clarify my doubts, half way through the journey it started raining cats and dogs. If that’s not the correct way to define “extremely heavy rainfall” then whatever may be the superlative can be used at that place. 3 miles to Oxford and the rain slowed down and by the time we reached the city it was all dried up...Good Luck to me! We got off the bus at the last bus stop which was Oxford City Centre as suggested by some ex-resident, who happens to be a friend of mine. Well, things become easier when some guidance is there, especially when you travel to distant places, completely new and unknown world.
The city looked pretty small when we entered but as we started walking, it looked like it would never end. Colleges on the left, colleges on the right, Libraries, Book Shops, Souvenir Shops, Art and Craft and what not. Almost all the things which could possible attract any tourist was there, and it is surprising that I entered almost every possible shop that I crossed. I wasn’t behaving the way I usually behave...Haha, complete shock for me as well. Multitude of things, each of them worth a look and many of them worth taking home, but then pockets have to be really deep in order to fulfil such desires. This is the city where the famous “Harry Potter” series was apparently shot and that makes it a even bigger attraction amongst the tourists in the UK. I haven’t seen anything of Harry Potter ever, so I choose not to comment on it, however, from a bit of what I know about it, the concept behind Harry Potter or the theme has always sounded ridiculous to me. Sounds like a completely atrocious story only aimed to fool kids, but the unfortunate part is that a number of grownups have liked it and so on...Anyway, why am I discussing something which is ridiculous to me? So, saw “Christchurch College” where the “famous HP” series was shot and then moved towards another marvellous architecture named the “Bodleian Library” which happens to be one of the oldest Libraries in entire European Continent and second largest by size, just after the British Library. Fabulous work inside, and known to be the most famous library for all research scholars studying at the “Oxford University”. I visited the Bodleian Shop as well and liked a number of “costly” stuff which, of course, I left as it is and bought a few lighter ones which are good to have and will be good to remember the place. The next wonderful stop was at a chocolate store which was selling about more than 1000 varieties of handmade chocolates. I spent about more than half an hour checking out various varieties and ended up buying some lose handmade chocolates. They said there won’t be a problem carrying it for up to 2-3 months, so I am guessing, I will be able to give everyone back home a chance to taste handmade chocolates
The walk around the city continued until the clock struck 5, which is when we reached bang opposite the “University of St. Mary the Virgin Church”. I am utterly religious person and anything that comes in my vicinity gets to see me. That’s what happened with this wonderful church, and as I entered I was perplexed to see the silence and that too on a Sunday just before the “Sunday Mass”. Big Church, quite well maintained as all other Churches and enough space to sit and pray. Since, we had to rush to London before it got dark; we just stood there, prayed for a while, lit up the holy candle and moved out of the Church premises. The Oxford City trip came to an end with a good deed.
We went back to the city centre to board the bus back to London which just about left the moment after we boarded the bus. The overall experience was wonderful as the place was quite quiet and beautiful. After reaching London it was time to get back home, get some dinner and take a nap as next morning was the start of the week at work and the coming week was expected to be tiring as new work and trainings will replace the sad and dried out no-work days which we had during the last week, as part of our settling down program. Rest of the story and experiences I will share when I write tomorrow. Until then, it’s Good Bye!
As planned, Sunday morning we had to visit Oxford, one of the most famous places in the world for its world class education. As usual, we dint leave on time which we had decided the previous night because of laziness, I guess. I sometimes realise that I hardly end up doing most of the things on time, which is so ridiculous. It needs to change, and it certainly needs to because I have seen the level of punctuality that people follow here in the UK. It really sets the tone for all other things during the day. I would dare not miss a timeline at office if I want to be safe! Ya..so anyway, we finally got ready and left for Oxford at about 9 from our apartment. We had taken a fair bit of idea from office colleagues as to what could be the best way to reach the city. We took a bus to Victoria terminus, which is supposed to be the centre for all possible conveyances for any and every possible city within the United Kingdom. We reached there and saw the Oxford Tube waiting at their respective location. We took a return ticket and checked with the driver on how long is it, before we left. 2 minutes is what he said, and before we could go to the upper deck of the bus and settle down, the bus moved. Another classic example of how punctual these people are just makes you respect them more and more every time.
A wonderful and well maintained double Decker, extremely comfortable bus makes your journey just half tiring as it could possibly be and the feeling comes right as the journey starts. That is exactly what happened to me. London to Oxford is supposed to be an hour long journey and approximately 15 minutes after we started it started drizzling. I was in serious thought if it will be worth going there, if it actually starts raining heavily, and to clarify my doubts, half way through the journey it started raining cats and dogs. If that’s not the correct way to define “extremely heavy rainfall” then whatever may be the superlative can be used at that place. 3 miles to Oxford and the rain slowed down and by the time we reached the city it was all dried up...Good Luck to me! We got off the bus at the last bus stop which was Oxford City Centre as suggested by some ex-resident, who happens to be a friend of mine. Well, things become easier when some guidance is there, especially when you travel to distant places, completely new and unknown world.
The city looked pretty small when we entered but as we started walking, it looked like it would never end. Colleges on the left, colleges on the right, Libraries, Book Shops, Souvenir Shops, Art and Craft and what not. Almost all the things which could possible attract any tourist was there, and it is surprising that I entered almost every possible shop that I crossed. I wasn’t behaving the way I usually behave...Haha, complete shock for me as well. Multitude of things, each of them worth a look and many of them worth taking home, but then pockets have to be really deep in order to fulfil such desires. This is the city where the famous “Harry Potter” series was apparently shot and that makes it a even bigger attraction amongst the tourists in the UK. I haven’t seen anything of Harry Potter ever, so I choose not to comment on it, however, from a bit of what I know about it, the concept behind Harry Potter or the theme has always sounded ridiculous to me. Sounds like a completely atrocious story only aimed to fool kids, but the unfortunate part is that a number of grownups have liked it and so on...Anyway, why am I discussing something which is ridiculous to me? So, saw “Christchurch College” where the “famous HP” series was shot and then moved towards another marvellous architecture named the “Bodleian Library” which happens to be one of the oldest Libraries in entire European Continent and second largest by size, just after the British Library. Fabulous work inside, and known to be the most famous library for all research scholars studying at the “Oxford University”. I visited the Bodleian Shop as well and liked a number of “costly” stuff which, of course, I left as it is and bought a few lighter ones which are good to have and will be good to remember the place. The next wonderful stop was at a chocolate store which was selling about more than 1000 varieties of handmade chocolates. I spent about more than half an hour checking out various varieties and ended up buying some lose handmade chocolates. They said there won’t be a problem carrying it for up to 2-3 months, so I am guessing, I will be able to give everyone back home a chance to taste handmade chocolates
The walk around the city continued until the clock struck 5, which is when we reached bang opposite the “University of St. Mary the Virgin Church”. I am utterly religious person and anything that comes in my vicinity gets to see me. That’s what happened with this wonderful church, and as I entered I was perplexed to see the silence and that too on a Sunday just before the “Sunday Mass”. Big Church, quite well maintained as all other Churches and enough space to sit and pray. Since, we had to rush to London before it got dark; we just stood there, prayed for a while, lit up the holy candle and moved out of the Church premises. The Oxford City trip came to an end with a good deed.
We went back to the city centre to board the bus back to London which just about left the moment after we boarded the bus. The overall experience was wonderful as the place was quite quiet and beautiful. After reaching London it was time to get back home, get some dinner and take a nap as next morning was the start of the week at work and the coming week was expected to be tiring as new work and trainings will replace the sad and dried out no-work days which we had during the last week, as part of our settling down program. Rest of the story and experiences I will share when I write tomorrow. Until then, it’s Good Bye!
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