Megan Goes to Leeds: A trip to Cambridge.

Haiku-a-day:

Feb 20^th

Sometimes plans are meant

to be broken and sometimes

plans simply just fail.

Harry Potter

Must Harry Potter

movie marathons be so

truly wonderful?

Yesterday I spent the day in a place in England I have always wanted to go: Cambridge! Originally named after the bridge that cross the Cam river, Cambridge dates back before the Roman Empire. It is a college city containing the second oldest university in "England and the English speaking world" (Wikipedia) (yes, I just cited from wikipedia!). The University of Cambridge is ranked first in the world in the 2010 QS World University Rankings (again, Wiki).

Our journey began yesterday morning at 8:15AM as Roxanne, Leah, and I headed out through a snowy Leeds to the Parkinson building on campus to catch our coach bus. The ride there was a little over 3 hours. We arrived a little short of noon and set out across a foggy, wet Cambridge to enter the city center. After taking pictures of Queen's college and the famous Cam River, we, and the larger group of friends that joined up with us, stopped at a restaurant to eat lunch. I ordered a lasagna with chips. It was the most interesting lasagna I've ever had. It was good, but everything seemed to melt. I could taste the noodles, but if I tried to pick them out, I wouldn't be able to because everything melted together.

After lunch we headed to the King's College Chapel. The building from the outside is quite lovely, but the inside is rather typical. It did not strike me as anything other than "another church in England." That is not to say I disliked it, simply that after seeing great places like Minster, Westminster, and the Liverpool Cathedral, this cannot compare in the least.

Next, we toured the gorgeous grounds of King's College. They take their gardening seriously. The lawn...perfect. No flaws, discolorations, uneven ground--perfect. The buildings of the college were lavishly constructed. I love the feeling of walking through a place, knowing it is centuries old, seeing standing history...amazing! The entire city was like that. Almost every building seemed to be extremely old.

We visited St. John's College (not a very long stay there), then went into the Great St. Mary's Church, and the Round Church. Both were quaint. Quite small compared to others we've seen, but each possessing cute features such as small doorways or domed ceilings. My friend Eric and I went up to the tower of Great St. Mary's Church. Though we were not all that high up, the view was still amazing. From the top, we could easily see all of King's College, part of Queen's, a bit of St. John's, the Cambridge Market, and plenty of Cambridge local life (houses, shops, etc.). I'm sure the view would have been even better if the fog had not hung around everything, but it was still lovely.

After leaving Great St. Mary's, Eric and I got the chance to speak with a Cambridge student! The guy informed us a little bit about how school was run over there, where students lived, where classes were located, etc. This was one of my favorite parts about this trip. There is nothing like learning about a place from someone who lives there, goes to school there, and has a totally different view of the city than you. I was lucky enough to have the chance to speak to a second Cambridge student later in the day! After Eric and I rejoined part of the larger group (who had carried on while we were in the tower), we set off to find the market. On the way, we found Jesus Lane! While waiting for people to take pictures with the sign (because who can pass up an oportunity like that?!), I had the chance to speak to a man wearing a suit with a black cape and a blue sash. I enquired about what his outfit meant. He told me he had just graduated! He said that graduating students have 3 (or 4?) different colors sashes. There was (at least the ones I can remember) white, blue, and red. Honestly, if there are more, I didn't hear them. This man said that the blue sash he wore meant that he had just received his PhD! The other colors meant undergrad an masters, I believe. It was very neat talking to him and seeing so many Cambridge students in this outfits. We certainly picked a lovely day to go there!

We detoured into a Swedish candy store while on our way to the Fitzwilliam Museum next. The candy store was huge! It was 2 stories tall. I didn't get anything, but believe me, I wanted everything. (I did buy Turkish Delight at the Cambridge Market though! It was the first time I'd ever had it.) The Fitzwilliam Museum was very cool. Unfortunately they didn't allow any pictures inside, but I took some neat ones of the outside. The museum itself is one of the coolest ones I've seen so far. It was like a mixture of the British Museum and National Gallery. It had paintings, statues, an Egyptian exhibit, pottery, etc. So much. We definitely didn't have enough time to see everything in it. I could have spent hours there. This was our last stop before heading back to the buses to go home.

Afterwards, my two pals (or should I be British and call them mates?!) bought frozen pizzas to (cook and) eat while watching Harry Potter. A great way to end the day!