[Migrations & Peregrinations] Older and in another country

Since I last updated, I have been to Oxford, back to London, and as of
this afternoon, Dublin, Ireland.

I'd been expecting to love Oxford, where nerds have gathered knowledge
for centuries. Sadly, I was not in love. Partly I got out on the wrong
foot just after arriving, misreading my map while attempting to walk
from my hostel into town for dinner and walking 20 minutes in the wrong
direction. However, when I finally did locate the town center, Oxford
redeemed itself by providing the first proper burrito I'd had since
arriving in the UK. Yay!!! I've eaten decently over here, but there is
a (perfectly understandable) shortage of Mexican food. The next day I
set out to tour the city. Unfortunately, I was sort of doomed to have a
less than excellent day because I woke up with a hideously painful
crick in my neck (still not 100% gone). Still, I determined to enjoy
myself as much as possible while not turning my head to the left. There
are some really lovely buildings and tons of history in Oxford, but
something about it rubbed me the wrong way. The colleges that form the
university all have their own mini-campuses in the city, and each is
surrounded by a wall. Most of them are only open to the public for a
few hours in the afternoon. Some charge for admittance. Some aren't
open to the public at all. While I respect the need to create an
academic space and not have the students and scholars treated like zoo
exhibits by the tourists, the result felt way too exclusionary. I am
fine with colleges that are exclusive about who gets to be a student
and take classes (I went to one), but when other people can't even roam
the grounds and see the outside of the buildings, it creates too much
of an us vs. them atmosphere. When you are actually inside the walls,
they have these impeccably manicured lawns with signs all over warning
you not to walk on them. It seemed a sad contrast to Parish Beach, the
big, friendly lawn at Swarthmore where students lounged around doing
(or pretending to do) their reading on nice days, playing frisbee,
chatting with each other, and generally enjoying ourselves. In the
evening I saw a community theatre production of Twelfth Night that I
enjoyed quite a bit. I think I might have liked Oxford better if I'd
visited during term time, when a better student to tourist ratio and
the usual university postings about exciting goings-on would hopefully
make it feel more like a living community of learning and less of a
museum to very smart dead white guys. Still, Oxford has one major
insurmountable problem: it isn't Swarthmore, my much-missed alma mater.

Onward to London, where I met with my friend Joy, remarkably energetic
after her long flight from Cape Town that morning. It turned out that
Joy wasn't going to be able to come with Ireland to me as planned,
which I'm pretty bummed about, as she is a truly wonderful person and a
great adventure buddy. I delayed going to Ireland so I could spend my
birthday with Joy in London rather than alone and in transit. Yep,
folks, I'm now officially older.

My birthday was the best one I've had in a while. Joy and I went to the
British museum (or a tiny part of it), where the highlight was two
rooms of gorgeous and fascinating antique clocks and watches, many
still working. We ate Indian food for lunch, then met up with one of
Joy's theatre friends and another Swarthmore alum who randomly happened
to be in London. We sat around in a park outside Buckingham palace,
walked to the science museum and caught a tiny bit of it before
closing, then went to a pub for dinner and quiz night. Our team won the
pub quiz! We won actual money. (About enough to pay for dinner, but
still! We won money!) It was an excellent birthday.

Then it was on to Holyhead, Wales, for the ferry connection to Dublin.
I didn't manage to get a train early enough for a same-day ferry, so I
booked into a guesthouse in Holyhead. I got really lost while trying to
find it on foot with all my luggage. In the rain, of course. It sucked.
I was so tired out by all the walking with luggage in the rain that I
couldn't bear the idea of going out again to look for dinner, so I ate
a bunch of trail mix, two granola bars, and some chocolate digestive
biscuits that I had with me. It sounds grim, but it filled me up
adequately and was much less grim than walking around in the rain for
goodness knows how long trying to find anything open in Holyhead (I
don't think there was much, and no, I couldn't find any ideas for
delivery places).

After a good night's sleep, I took the ferry to Dublin. To my
disappointment, the ferry didn't have a top deck. Everyone rode in the
interior, which greatly resembled an airport that swayed slightly and
had sea-view windows. As we got to Ireland, the sun came out. I found
my hostel with minimal getting lost: go me! Dublin's a large city with
a cosmopolitan feel, and I will describe it more later as I have just
noticed that if I'm not off this computer in a moment the counter will
click over and charge me another euro.