Like the Tree

CAMBRIDGE, UK. Cambridge pretty much embodies everything people usually imagine England to be. It's this small college town with cobbled roads, classical architecture and a slightly antique feel... basically it looks like Harry Potter movies.

I love almost anything that looks classy, so Cambridge is definitely on my love list.

Tracey, Erly and I met up super early on Saturday morning and made our way to the bus station.

For some reason I couldn't fall asleep until 1:30 the night before and I woke up at 4:30 to shower and get ready, so I was pretty tired. We all were.

Cambridge is far from Brighton. We boarded our coach at 6:30... it took us two hours to get to London, where we had a 40-minute stopover and then two more hours to get from London to Cambridge.

The other girls, Amanda and Christina, took the train there (which only takes 3 hours) but we went by coach because it's cheaper. We all met up at around 11:30.

Amanda, Christina, and Tracey wanted to go on this walking tour but Erly and I wanted to go exploring on our own, so we split again.

First we saw this street market.

I bought candy from here. =)

One of the many churches we saw.

Then we walked down King's Rd (I think that's what it was called) and saw almost all the colleges.

I didn't know Cambridge had like ten colleges... I thought there was only one! WOW. Seriously, I need to learn more about the world.

This is King's College, one of the most famous colleges. It cost money to get in so we didn't go... I'm not that interested anyway.

That sign on the grass says "PLEASE KEEP OFF THE GRASS."
Fact: The English are very protective about their perfectly trimmed, green grass.
Fact?: Only the senior professors of the colleges have the privilege of walking on the grass. (The girls who went on the walking tour said their guide told them that.)

I don't remember the name of this one...

Uh... not sure about this one either.

This is what my dream school looks like:

Pembroke College. This place is so beautiful!

Erly and I were so in awe... we took 23984937 pictures.

Exactly one year ago, Monica Pak was studying abroad here... aww!

Harry Potter style dining area.

These students were in their graduation outfits... which looked like ones from Harry Potter! haha.. yeah I compare everything to Harry Potter.

The library.

So pretty... I can't believe people actually study and go to school here.

Making our way to our next destination...

That's me... Emma! Who the heck is Tom?

Here is another college. Don't remember the name of this one either.

A church.

I'm pretty sure these pictures are of at least two different colleges, but I don't even remember which one is which anymore.

Here is the shopping area of Cambridge.

Erly and I walked around for hours until we found a place to get lunch. I was running on 3 hours of sleep and I only had 2 small bags of chips to eat the entire morning, so by noon I was starting to feel lightheaded. We finally ate around 2!

Erly and I got takeaway at this sandwich shop we saw in Erly's travel book. It was pretty cheap, which is good.

Okay, I actually know the name of this college because I took a picture of the sign in front... Sidney Sussex College.

The mall.

At 4, we all met up again and went together to our next destination...

Here is Trinity College... super nice.

And this was the best part of the day...

Punting!
So punting is this sport that Cambridge is famous for. Whoever is punting stands at the back of the boat with this huge stick. The water is shallow enough that the stick will hit the ground and you basically push off the floor and propel the boat forward that way.
...It's harder than it seems.

First Erly tried.

...then me.

I was so scared! My legs were shaking and one time, the boat tipped to the side a little and I almost fell off.

It was really fun though. =)

Christina is so tiny... so cute!

Another person was in charge of rowing... I don't know if this is actually part of punting. I think they just give all the tourists a paddle because they know we need it.

Look at my skills... I'm not even holding the paddle correctly.

I had to try again.

I got better the second time I did it... =)

To give you a better idea of what punting looks like, this is a video I took of Amanda.

I'm hoping that the background music I added covers up my voice because I'm embarrassed that I sound like a man on video...

Our backs got wet!

This is where Newton discovered the speed of sound. In other words, everyone I went to Cambridge with is a bio major and actually cares about this kind of stuff.

I really like benches.

For dinner, we ate at this Italian bar and restaurant we found on the way to the coach station. It was a good deal-- two pizzas for the price of one. We split four pizzas between the five of us.

This was the most interesting pizza. It's a "breakfast pizza" and it has ham, bacon, mushrooms, sausages and a runny egg on it.

We killed it...
I only spent about 5 pounds on food for the entire day!

I took this picture for Eseul... I saw this out the coach window when we were leaving Cambridge. There is hope for Korean food in England!

I'm really attached to my iPod. This thing kept me sane through the 4-5 hour rides to and from Cambridge...

On the way back, we had an hour stopover at London so we got ice cream cones at McDonald's.
Ice cream and good company--a nice way to end the day. =)

Like the Tree

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

How to plan a trip around Europe

Afternoon tea

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Cambridge