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I have finally travelled outside of London, but within England! I’ve already visited Edinburgh & Cardiff — which are in the UK, but in Scotland and Wales respectively — so our weekend trip to Oxford finally hit the sweet spot of being solidly outside London without leaving England. Woot!

Taking the Oxford Tube from London to Oxford

I’m excited to start exploring more of the UK, too, despite Europe being so accessible. (Though what with Brexit and all, perhaps I should focus on Europe before this country cuts all ties? But we won’t go into that here!) So when the opportunity came to visit some new friends in Oxford, we said “yes, we must!” and grabbed tickets for the Oxford Tube (which is actually a bus).

BTW, the Oxford Tube is totally fine. It is slower than the train, and is obviously Not A Train but with travel time just under 2 hours from central London, tickets half the price of a train, and plenty of leg room, wifi, and power outlets, it certainly made more sense for us.

Touring Oxford City Centre and Magdalen College

We arrived in the city centRE, and were immediately surrounded by buildings that are old and beautiful. Half of them looked like castles! It was really pretty to walk around since the centre and the colleges are so darn impressive. We were literally surrounded by the different Oxford colleges (which are kind of a same-same-but-different situation which I don’t fully understand) and on a summer weekend the streets were crammed with tourists and graduation ceremonies. Like, you might as well walk on the street instead of the sidewalk kind of crammed.

We escaped the madness.

You can tour most of the colleges in Oxford, so we paid £5 each to enter Magdalen College to have a look around.

Note: true to British/English pronunciation form, this college is pronounced, “MAUD-lyn.” Not MAG-da-lyn.

Yes it is spelled MAG-da-lyn. Yes nearly every other language would pronounce this well-known surname as MAG-da-lyn.

But it’s MAUD-lyn.

Because British.

To review: How do you pronounce Magdalen College?

You don’t; you just throw your hands up and sigh, then avoid saying it ever again.

The campus-which-shall-not-be-pronounced is really wonderful though! We had ah-maze-ing weather with lots of sun and a refreshing breeze, so walking the grounds was a real treat. We were led by our friends to a secluded pond for a bit of lounging on the grass to have a good chin-wag, which I-kid-you-not is British slang for “chat”.

That afternoon and evening our friends introduced us to British pop-culture television shows QI and Black Books, both of which I will be binge-watching promptly. Then we prepared for the next day of punting by drinking too much wine and playing board games until 3am. For friendship!

Punting in Oxford

Oh, it’s just as exciting as it looks! And by that I mean it really is fun to spend time with friends on a boat in the river. On the Scale of Fun it is right up there with reading a book on the beach or a fireworks show: you can sit back and enjoy it with a nice, cold beverage… if you’re a spectator.

If you are running the show —er, punting the show I suppose— you have to pay attention to a lot more things! Things like sneak-attack ducks, low bridges, crazy currents, sticky muddy banks, and my favorite: Not Tipping All Of Your New Friends Into The Thames While You Use A Long Metal Pole To Navigate A Long Boat Like A Drunk Gondola Pilot, After Listening To Questionable Instructions From A Teenager At A Summer Job.

Luckily we took turns. 🙂

So to sum up: hooray for friends!

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