Oxford: The Pub Edition

I’ve been trying to write for days. My Comparative Legal Professions Class is really making me think about life, the universe, and everything. It’s more like a philosophy class than anything else. So I feel like I’m thinking very deep thoughts and then I put them on paper (well, my computer, but you know what I mean), and they don’t sound intelligent at all. After days of trying to sound intelligent and failing, I’ll return to my usual drivel, accompanied by pictures to make things interesting. For an extra special treat, this post is all about pubs!

Friday night was a Ladies Pub Crawl, organized by our wonderful program director, Nicci. (Disclaimer: Any alcohol consumption which may be observed in these photos was done in moderation, by very responsible lawyers-to-be. Proper decorum and sobriety was observed at all times. Any indications to the contrary should be disregarded) As you appreciate these photos, keep in mind that all of these pubs are within about a third of a mile of St. Anne’s College. These aren’t part of the high concentration of pubs downtown, where the tourists go. These are real, local pubs with actual British people in them. The locals all fled when we entered, but I would have too! There were too many of us to fit in one photo, so Nicci just centered me in my photo. The group was about double this size:

Just part of our group! No wonder the locals fled.

The Rose and Crown

They had cider on tap!

This is me, totally sober, being a goofball.

Our first pub was The Rose and Crown. Nicci told us where we were going, but most of us kept mishearing the pub’s name as Rosencrantz (which we were pretty sure wasn’t right), so we just kept up and tried not to get lost. Nicci’s accent is not particularly strong, and to the untrained ear sounds perfectly British. She is in fact South African, but I can’t detect much difference in her accent. She does use some words more common in American usage than British, however, although that may simply be due to the bad influence of American students on her vocabulary. Anyway, the Rose and Crown was very nice, although a bit small. It has a rather large outdoor area under a tarp, but as we arrived just in the middle of quite a bit of rain, we were all obliged to squeeze into the parts of the pub that were covered by the roof. Even that wasn’t perfect protection, as I later noticed that the roof itself was leaking! I believe when the roof of your pub is leaking, you know you’ve found an authentic pub. About halfway through our visit, two young men got up in disgust and left the pub in search of another, quieter pub.

After we’d all had our drinks, and once it stopped raining, we moved on to our next pub, the Gardeners Arms. As we all elbowed our way into the pub, who should we see but the two men from the Rose and Crown. They did not look happy to see us. There are plenty of pubs around, and they went to this one to get away from us, only to find that it was the second stop on our pub crawl.

What really makes this pub stand out is that all the pub grub is vegetarian; veggie burgers, veggie hot dogs, and even vegetarian French fries! I would have loved to try the veggie burgers, which I prefer to the made-from-cow variety, but I was waiting for fish and chips. I’ll have to go back another time and try the veggie burgers.

The third pub was the Victoria, and there I finally got my fish and chips! They were delicious!

The Ceiling at the Victoria

The final pub was Jude the Obscure. Yes, that is the title of a Thomas Hardy book. Like most people, I haven’t actually read the book, but I feel very literary sitting in a pub named after a book.

In case you were wondering, all the pictures are of me drinking cider. I’ve had hard cider in the states, but there only seem to be one or two good brands. Here, there are varieties everywhere, and a lot of them are even on tap. I’ve been asking the bartenders for recommendations, and I don’t remember everything I’ve tried, but I’ve been impressed so far. I much prefer it to beer. (especially some of the beers here, which are served warm. Yuck!)