I haven't been to Oxford for nearly 3 years now.
The train journey was a brief 40 minute jaunt from the borders of Brum (Birmingham): short enough for a grand day out, and as contrasting in architectural detail, cultural riches and social atmospherics, as to induce something approximating - on the sensory level at least - a sexual orgasm.
Yes I know, shocking isn't it, how a few antiquated educational establishments, museums and air conditioned buses can make the difference between spiritual life and death.
I used to take a small rucksack filled with sandwiches, camera, phone, pen and notebook - this was my kit for forging into the dark heart of middle England from the even darker liver and small colon of Birmingham.
(Brum's okay in small doses...I think.)
Oxford is the wanderer's or flâneur's paradise on earth.
There's so much stuff to see in a relatively small area and most of its free!
Some people have remarked that I'm a premature boring old fart, as I always make a beeline for the Oxford University museum of Natural History...I prefer to think that my enthusiasm betrays an inquisitive, ever vigilant, rapier-like mind.
The Pitt-Rivers Museum which is also housed in the same building is also a wonderful place too. Here's the facade of the natural history museum:
I'm just one of those people who prefers to weave in and out of the crowd, floating with the urban drift, cataloging the oddities and out of the way anomalies of the social and architectural landscape - the curios stalker of the inanimate.
Unfortunately, now I'm living in Edinburgh, the cheap Oxford day out's have been set aside for the moment, but the Scottish capital has many riches of its own of course.
Here are some of the reason's I enjoy Oxford:
The Tao of Dog, I enjoyed this post so much. I have never been in England and of course in Oxford. Your photographs, all of them, are amazing. I wish I could walk on the streets of Oxford and look at it's historical buildings. Architecture is fascinating.
ReplyDeleteYou are an excellent photographer. All photographs are amazing. I probably would go to Oxford University museum of Natural History but wouldn't stay there for a long time. I would rather wonder on the streets and watched people. I consider myself a stalker of animate but like you I don't like to be in a crowd of people.
What is about life in Edinburg? I have never been there either. Do you like this city?
Thanks Kaya,
ReplyDeleteThose Oxford pics came out alright seeing as how they were done on a 3 megapixel phone camera.
Edinburgh is a lovely city, very medieval in parts, its also very hilly too which I enjoy. There's lots of little alleyways and close's, cobbled streets and high vantage points to give panoramic views.
Edinburgh is very cosmopolitan too because of the famous universities there, the shops, streets and bars tend to be full of foreigners - living and working.
I'm enjoying Scotland a lot, but not keen on the freezing weather!