Taste of Cambridge

June 1-2, 2011

Definitely a long day’s walk. I wonder why we didn’t bother to rent bikes in this city of bikes.

Cambridge, being a student city, has that youthful and peaceful atmosphere. But it took me overnight to appreciate Cambridge. It was a warm, sunny Thursday, enough reason for the city centre to be quite packed. First attraction of the day was a group of African street performers — a taste of Africa in England.

Here’s Manami buying the CD. :) Their live performance made us buy their album for 10 quid (the cheapskate that I am, I normally wouldn’t spend my 10 quid for a thing like that). They’re street performers, but apparently they have an album! They just looked sooooo genuinely happy with all the singing, dancing, and instrument playing. Even if I didn’t understand what their songs were all about, watching them made me wanna do something meaningful in my life, like make a difference, contribute to world peace or just be a better person.

Ruta then showed us the pub where, according to some legend, Watson and Crick discovered (or announced their discovery of) the form of the DNA. This is the The Eagle pub. Ah, the British drinking disease — definitely contagious!

As pseudo-students of Peace Studies doing the peace sign at the Fort St. George pub near Midsummer Common park, having drinks with Ruta’s friends.

The streets in the city centre are typical narrow, pedestrians/cyclists-only zone European streets. They look like the streets in York. Cambridge is a small city, but it has quite a number of large green areas/parks. From our hostel to the pub, we passed by 4 relatively massive parks. And under the sole dried out tree at a park called Jesus Green we had our picnic lunch. Cambridge is also basically all about churches and colleges of the University of Cambridge. The upper right photo is the Great Court of Trinity College, considered the most aristocratic of all the Cambridge colleges. The lower right photo shows the back view of St. John’s College, where some of the Harry Potter scenes were filmed. I don’t really watch HP, but oh well. The building’s all engulfed in greens. The colleges were closed for visitors on this day because of exams.

To call it a day (and the whole trip to Cambridge as well) barely 2 hours before my train trip back to Braddie, we went punting on the River Cam (Thus, the name CAMbridge). Here you can see our gorgeous punter, Sam. :p This reminded me of the gondola rides in Venice. It was just a 45-hour ride to see some of the colleges. We saw some random students having drinks and fun after exams. :) I can imagine how AWESOME and uber COOL it is to be studying at Cambridge Uni! How I wish I were a smart ass and/or filthy rich!

Here’s Manami on the punt with King’s College on the background, Noris and Ruta (the happy couple) on the punt, me with the always-smiling Manami by the River Cam, me with goofing-around Ruta by the River Cam, and Ruta with King’s College on the background.

The most convenient thing ever on this trip was using my phone’s crappy camera. I didn’t bother bringing my humongous dslr. It’s all about the fun, anyway.

After this trip, I would absolutely have to work my ass off both at uni and at work! But Manami chose to spend her last days in England with me and Ruta, so it’s all worth it. “So cuuuute” (Manami Goto, 2011). I will definitely miss my travel buddy, Manami!