~ Balliol College ~
You have probably guessed by now that I am a little bit obsessed with Oxford. The city is just unbelievably beautiful. I love spending time exploring new areas, wandering down Brasenose Lane to catch a glimpse of the Radcliffe Camera at dusk, eating pasta from Il Principe (my favourite Oxford eatery) and popping into the Christ Church meadows to spot squirrels. At the moment I am slowly (very slowly) ticking off adventures on my Bucket List, one of these adventures is to visit every Oxford College! A daunting task at 38 Colleges in all, but I am determined to visit them all! My last weekend in Oxford was spent partly listening to papers at the Medieval Language & Literature Conference. Niall was giving a paper at the conference on Godfrey of Bouillon! The latter half of the weekend was spent exploring four new colleges - Balliol, Lincoln, New and Keble. All quite different, with their own characteristics and pretty architecture!
The first college we visited at the weekend was Balliol. Balliol was founded in 1263 by John Balliol and his wife Dervorguilla of Gallaway and is one of the oldest colleges in Oxford. An interesting fact I found on the Balliol website is that about 1% of entries in the British Dictionary of National Biography are Balliol men and women! Every college in Oxford has a list of distinguished alumni, from presidents and prime ministers to writers and rock stars. Balliol has a nice Hall and the garden is pretty, and includes a really cool silver globe. The globe was put in place to celebrate thirty years of women at Balliol and is engraved with the words 'About Time' across it. Inside the globe is a time capsule containing a list of the women who were the first to be allowed in Balliol in 1979.
Spring has definitely sprung in Oxford, and all the colleges I visited were covered in beautiful bright flowers and luscious green plants. The mini daffodils and cute purple primroses stood out in Balliol, as did the apple blossom petals falling to the ground like fresh snow. All in all I had a great day exploring Balliol!
Check out the Balliol website for more info!
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