Perception readjustment: Two Aussie's travel the world

Have you ever arrived somewhere with a preconceived idea only to have it shattered within the first few minutes? This happened to me today. OK, so maybe shattered is not exactly the right word however my perception was certainly readjusted; The neatly ordered thoughts shaken up like one of those little souvenir snow domes you buy at airport newsagents. Am I being too dramatic? Yes, quite probably. Let me explain though.

We arrived today, a very warm day by English standards at 30 degrees, in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire. As you may know the city is famed for its prestigious university which was established in the 12th century. Also, the city, and it's 38 colleges, offer some extraordinary examples of architecture. The colleges are all located in the medieval centre of the city and their magnificent buildings inspired the name City of Dreaming Spires. A lovely name I think, and very fitting.

To graduate from the Oxford University one needs to attend one of the 38 college's which are affiliated (for lack of a better word) with the University who sets the curriculum. Each college works to, and delivers, the curriculum set by the University and on completion of the examinations (at the right passing grade) one graduates with a Degree from the Oxford University. It's an interesting structure. Some of the 38 college's have only around 350 students with the largest having about 900 students. Apparently some 60 percent of them from state schools also, not just privileged private schools.

Anyway, I plan to elaborate a little on all of that and other amazing little things I learned about Oxford later on however today I need to explain why my perception of it was somewhat wrong, skewed. You see, in my mind I had a peaceful, contemplative, studious environment pictured. You know, students speaking in hushed tones, reading on the grass under a tree...people walking around dressed like students out of the Hogwarts School from the Harry Potter movies...Boy, was I wrong!

Oxford is pumping! Seriously, people everywhere, laughing, joking, having fun and generally clogging up every little bit of space available. There's a lot going on. OK, admittedly school is out for the summer so studious activity is not a priority but I wasn't quite prepared for how busy the place was. We were fortunate enough to gain access to the college of Corpus Christi one of the smallest college's and we had a little tour which was nice. Founded in 1517 it's the 12th oldest out of the 38 college's. It was quite peaceful once inside away from the throng of people and a nice respite. Once back on the street it was crazy-town again!

So, our arrival in Oxford today was a bit of a surprise, not a bad surprise, just not really what we expected. It's great though as there's no shortage of things to do by day or night in such a busy place so we are sure to have a great stay. Tomorrow we're heading to Blenheim Palace which should be pretty amazing and in only a few days now we'll be off to Finland to visit my family. I was chatting with my brother @tarazkp today and it sounds like he's got some cool things planned for our visit to Finland but to be honest just hanging out with my family will be great. I have not seen him for 12 years and have never met his wife or daughter so we are so keen to get there!

Thanks for reading and following on our journey.

Faith & Galen x

The image is the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, taken today.