What's the fuss about Oxford?

My Korean co-teacher would be proud of me. I finally did it. That's right, I finally spent a few days in one of her favourite places in England - glorious Oxford.

Of course, not everyone shares her passion for the city well known for its universities, colleges, hoards of bicycles and boffins. I mean, I received some pretty strange looks when I told work colleagues and friends where I was headed for the weekend:

'You what? Oxford? Why? What's there?'

And:

'Why are you going all the way there when you can find the same cobbled streets down the road?'

What would they know, eh? I wasn't going to be put off by pessimistic remarks; this was one of the places I had promised to visit upon my return from teaching abroad. Needless to say, I had expectations. Very high expectations.

So, after a few days spent in Oxford, what did I think? Well... let's just say it wasn't exactly what I had expected.

Before boarding the 7:50am train from London Paddington I already had a list of places to visit: Trinity College, Christ Church (Harry Potter!), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford castle Unlocked, Covered Market, Alice's Shop, the Bodelian Library and many more.

As a dedicated Harry Potter fan, I was especially looking forward to paying a visit to the Great Hall in Christ Church; the setting used for the dining hall of Hogwarts, the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But you probably knew that...

I remember my co-teacher gushing about the impressive architecture of colleges and universities scattered around the city centre, and I couldn't agree more. The medieval and grand features of historic buildings such as Magdalen College and Radcliffe Camera were truly jaw-dropping and certainly rivalled famous attractions in London. No wonder the poet Matthew Arnold once called Oxford 'That sweet city with her dreaming spires'.

Still, I couldn't help but feel that I'd seen it all before...

With so many literary links and famous names like Oscar Wilde, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll - to name a few, it's not surprising the city has gained a world-wide reputation in its own right. Locations in Oxford have also starred in popular films like Harry Potter and The Golden Compass, and landmarks like Christ Church inspired Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll in the creation of Alice's adventures in Wonderland.

I understand why visitors to the city would be bowled over by Oxford, I really do, but it just didn't have the same effect on me. To be honest, I don't know what I was expecting - and I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it at all - but my visit to Oxford just failed to live up to my standards. I (not so) secretly blame my co-teacher for setting the bar so high in the beginning.

My favourite part was visiting Christ Church - I was like a big kid running around the place taking pictures of the staircase and courtyard that appeared in the Harry Potter films. I might have also taken some snapshots that didn't actually appear in the film, but hey, who's going to notice, right?

While following signs leading up to the Great Hall, we paused to take pictures of the garden and managed to get into trouble with the old porter who disapproved of me sitting down to pose for pictures. You would have thought the pavements were made of gold judging from the way he reacted.

And then we were there... on the very grounds where Harry Potter and his friends dined in the film... just me, the Great Hall, my camera and... about 50 other people left, right and centre! You can imagine my horror when I realised visitors were to walk through the Great Hall in a single file. I nearly cried when random people appeared in my photos, blocking the familiar lamps and chairs.

Fortunately, I still managed to get a few pictures without any 'randomness' in them. How did I do it? I'm not proud to admit it but let's just say there were a lot of tutting, evil glares, shoving and, 'Er, do you mind?' comments involved. There was just no way of injecting friendliness into it, ok?

So much for spending some quality time admiring the Great Hall!

While I'm on my ranting rampage, I might as well talk about the food in Oxford. Firstly, I've got to point out that having about four Italian restaurants a few doors away from each other on the high street seems rather pointless and secondly - not once did I finish a meal with satisfaction.

The salmon pasty didn't do it for me (apparently this particular shop had won prizes for its delicious pies but you could have fooled me), the Thai food across our hotel was so salty that I woke with a dry mouth and cracked lips the next morning (no joke), the pizzas we ordered were rock hard (good job we didn't break any teeth in the process) and don't get me started on the burger I ordered... I mean, how can you go wrong making a burger, seriously? Alas, the blandest lamb burger I had ever tasted.

Still, I think many others who visit Oxford would be captivated by the medieval architecture, literary links, famous filming locations and ghost tours that are offered on a daily basis. For me, I think I'm just relieved to have finally ticked Oxford off my 'Places to visit' list - more than anything else.