Day 13: Oxonian Antics

This is one of a series of entries from my travel journal chronicling my recent trip to Europe. You can click here for the archived entries.

Day 12 | Day 13

England photo gallery here.

14 Alma Place, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK 18/06/08

Sitting here at the breakfast table in Jeff's flat, waiting for the coffee to drip through (as well as for the slug-a-bed to arise). Today we plan on taking the bus into London and touring around.

Yesterday was a fun day spent in Oxford. Our tourism was fairly low-intensity compared to my time in Hungary and Ireland. After breakfast yesterday Jeff took me around town and showed me his college, Brasenose, and a couple others. Oxford Universtiy is comprised of some 40 colleges, all previously independent, and each still maintaining a large degree of self-administration while under the umbrella of the University. Because of this there is no campus as such, but rather colleges scattered throughout town, each with its own quad, chapel, dining halls, and surrounding grounds, which can be quite extensive and impressive for some of the larger colleges. Everything is hundreds of years old, and looks it. Coincidentally the freshmen undergraduates ("freshers") were finishing up final exams, so we saw loads of young students walking around in sub fusc (black tie formal dress complete with colored carnation according to one's year) and later at the pubs celebrating with their friends over a pint or a glass of champers.

A sidenote - this Continental blend coffee from Cardew & Co. in the Oxford Market is fantastic!

So it worked out well for me to be touring Oxford this week because I get to see the University in full effect, as it were. We climbed the tower of St. Mary's (a spiral staircase that proved difficult for a couple of the larger American tourists). The top of the chapel affords an excellent view of the town, with towers from various college chapels punching up out of the otherwise low skyline. A remarkable view - I certainly felt transported back to the "olden days" moreso than at any other point on the trip thus far.

We stopped in for some refreshment at the Turf Tavern, a great spot located down an alley which turns into a nice patio. The Turf seemed to cater to tourists and students alike. I tried a Ridgeway, which I think was my first cask-conditioned ale to date. Apparently all the ale in England is cask-conditioned, meaning that they pour the brewed beer into casks to let it ferment and carbonate itself naturally. The bartender has to hand pump it out of the cask instead of simply opening a tap powered by CO2. This results in a pint that is far less bubbly than I am used to (I would characterize it as flat) and also significantly warmer than all other draft beers I've had. (Finally I can confirm the long-standing stereotype about English beer being warmer, which frankly I figured was just American-centric nonsense.) Cask-conditioned ales definitely take some getting used to - I prefer my beer ice-cold with a good head. But the flavor of the ales I've had thus far have been good, so I will make the sacrifice in the name of international beer research and continue to sample them while I'm here.

We needed some lunch after this and went to a sandwich shop on High Street that Jeff had been raving about (with good reason, I found). After a lunch of fresh mozzarella, basil, and tomato sandwiches, we headed back to Jeff's place to meet up with Jules. Italy and France were playing in the Euro Cup football tournament and we wanted to find a suitable venue to take in the game and get some dinner. We started off at the Angel & Greyhound, a nice establishment if not particularly lively at the time. I played my first game of bar billiards, the English variant of pool. It's a fun game although it takes some adjustment from the pool I'm used to. Players alternate shooting the cue ball from one end of a small table to the other. Several holes on the playing surface represent different point values. If you sink a ball you can continue shooting and build up a big score, but in order to record the score you must "bank" it by shooting the cue ball so that it touches a ball without fouling out by missing or hitting one of three penalty pins placed in key spots on the table. It's also timed for about 15-20 minutes so it's a fast-paced game. I was pretty awful for my first go-round.

We left the Angel & Greyhound and after some deliberating on Jeff and Jules' part we headed over to the Oxford Blue, which had a great menu, good selection of beers, and a big screen playing the football match. The game itself was a bit disappointing - rather unexciting for the most part. Italy scored off a penalty kick 26' in and then scored again off an indirect kick in the 2nd half. France never really seemed competitive. I had bangers & mash for dinner - pork & leek sausage over mashed potatoes and assorted veggies, swimming in rich gravy. I also tried a bite of steak & Guinness pie. Excellent food. We were joined by one of Jeff's friends and his girlfriend - good people. It was fun watching the match with a table full of Italians next to us screaming and a few glum Frenchmen in the pub. It actually reminded me quite a bit of watching the World Cup back in 2006, the final game of which I also watched with Jeff and Jules in Cambridge, MA, and which also featured a victorious Italy over France (remember the headbutting by Zidane?) A good taste of English pub atmosphere with some international flavor thrown in. Most of the Europeans seemed older - probably grad students or post docs. From my limited exposure and Jeff's input it seems that Oxford undergrad is still very white and British, although not the posh man's school that it used to be.

After the game, heavy food, and several pints we were once again absolutely knackered, and decided to try to get some sleep in anticipation of a full day of sightseeing in London to see the Queen in her dang undies.