Cambridge is lovely, eclectic, full of life—I am in love.
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| quiet morning cambridge streets |
Yesterday, after writing, my friends and I explored a bit
more, ducking down a random path-way to discover a forgotten grave-yard,
crumbling into the ground. It was such a delicious reminder of all the history
that lies saturated in the ground here.
It was a bit tough getting to sleep—the hostel is boiling,
and without AC, our tiny room soon becomes a veritable oven. The staff gave us
a small fan, but it barely made a dent in the heat. Oh well. It’s a bit cooler
today, so hopefully the “heat-wave” has left us for good.
We headed out around 9:15 for a walking tour of Cambridge.
We met at Market Street, where vendors gather daily to hawk their wares. I
explored a bit while we waited for our tour guide. There was hand-made jewelry,
vintage records, colorful fruit and vegetables, pyramids of freshly baked
bread, dim sum, etc.
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| market |
Our tour guide was a lovely woman named Mary in her 60’s—she
was quite cheeky and cute, leading us perkily on a literature tour of the city.
We saw some of the laboratories, Kings College, and Trinity College. We also
saw where Alan Turing lived, where 17th c men met in secret to
discuss Martin Luther’s theses, where Lord Byron and Henry Marvell went to
university, and a church that inspired one of George Herbert’s poems.
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| trinity college (king henry VIII on the front!) |
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| college of anthropology |
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| king's college |
We stopped in the Eagle Pub which has loads of
history—Shakespeare visited there, Dickens frequented it, and it was in that
same pub that James Watson and Francis Crick (the scientists who discovered
DNA) announced to the world they had found the secret to the universe. The
pub’s ceiling is stained from the smoke of nicotine, and World War II pilots
wrote their names and drew pictures on it with lipstick and their cigarette
lighters.
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| order up! |
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| the eagle's pub garden |
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| pub ceiling (there was a naked woman drawn there too, but I left that part out) |
Around 12, it started raining, but Mary didn’t care. She
just chatted on cheerfully, blithely disregarding our stop time of noon. We
stood in the rain for twenty minutes or so as it drizzled dreadfully on our
heads. The weather decided to turn cold and windy, and as soon as Mary decided
she was done, I split to find warmth and shelter.
Along with two other friends, I headed to Nana Mexico, a Mexican street-food
restaurant, for some comfort in the form of cheesy quesadillas.
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| how cheeky! |
After this bit
of warmth and sustenance, we were fueled for a bit more Cambridge exploration. We headed down several side-alleys, discovering adorable
shops, quirky art-galleries, and several cute cafes.
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| adorable pottery gallery |
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| used bookstore-- what a treasure trove! |
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| candy shop |
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| yet another quirky boutique |
My friend got a nose-bleed and we stood in the middle of the
street for a bit, stopping the blood with napkins and looking a bloody (pardon
the slang) mess. We popped into a theatre and the staff was quite kind,
allowing us to use their restroom to mop up.
After a few more shops (books! clothes! crepes!), we headed
back to the hostel. I wish we had spent two weeks here instead of Beer—this place
is buzzing with a quiet energy. Maybe it’s just me and my love for cities, but
I could see myself living somewhere like this. Everyone bikes, there’s a café on
every corner, and you seem to always be uncovering something new whether it’s a
restaurant or vintage clothing store—it’s utterly delectable. It’s such a
change from the country where we’ve been for the past few weeks, and I’m not
complaining one bit!
I’m in another Costa (free wifi & good coffee lures me
like Odysseus’ sirens) where I’m sucking down another iced Americano before
typing up my essay for class. I am not looking forward to such drudgery. Alas.
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