Gloomy Afternoon in Oxford
To start: I navigated the bus system all by myself! Wahooo!! I didn't have much of a plan today. In fact, I had no plan at all. I did know that I wanted some real coffee. Sure, I've gotten pretty used to
the coffee here. I've figured out the perfect ratio of dissolvable spoonful's to hot water, but nothing beats hot water over fresh ground beans. So yeah, that was somewhere on my list of things to do today.
Something that I am very proud of is my ability to get myself around to wherever I need to go after a very short time in a city. Atlanta? Easy peasy. Orlando? Piece of cake. I did not have it in my to pull up a map of Oxford when I could wander around and memorize streets instead. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Black Sheep Coffee within my first few minutes off the bus (I found out later that it isn't local but rather a chain and that broke my heart so I will not be discussing it further). In my limited experience, Europe does not do Hot Water Over Fresh Ground Beans so I had to settle for something a little different, but a honey cardamom latte is hardly a second choice.
I've said it at least one hundred times so if you haven't heard me say it yet consider yourself lucky. Some of the most recognizable scenes of Harry Potter were filmed right here in Oxford! One of my favourite
scenes of the entire series (spoiler alert?) is Madeye Moody turning Draco into a ferret. That particular scene was filmed at New College and they offer cheap admission to tour the college and a self guided pace. Along with the Malfoy tree, you can also see the cloisters that were used for Hogwarts as well. I didn't know that 'cloister' was a word but they are a pretty big deal here.
I couldn't actually climb the tree, which you would know if you were able to zoom out of this photo and see the 12 NO CLIMBING signs. As a former, current, and most definitely future fan of Tom Felton, to be standing in the same spot as him was definitely a little bit overwhelming. As an aspiring actress, being on film locations tends to bring that dream a little bit more down to earth and not so far out of reach.
I am slowly, slowly, snails pace slowly, getting over my embarrassment of taking my own self timed photos (but I'm glad I'm working on it because this pic is kinda fire). However, I am much more comfortable asking strangers to take photos of me. It is quite difficult asking strangers in a tourist area to take photos when you never quite know what language people speak. It is clearly a shared experience as everyone is charading up and down the bridge to ask for that perfect photo.
I wasn't able to get into Christ Church today, which was a big bummer, but I'm keeping my eyes out for tickets. Christ Church is home to Hogwarts Great Hall Stairs and their Great Hall was the inspiration for the studio made Great Hall you see in the films. Needless to say, a very big tourist spot. This just means I need to take another trip to Oxford.
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