Cambridge pt. 4 - Wrapping Up

*disclaimer: as I am writing this I have just returned to the States so while I’m writing about all these things after they’ve long past, but hey there’re still stories to tell so read on. I’ll write one more after this (yeah kind of defeats the purpose of blogging while you’re overseas, but oh well these things take a while to write and I don’t have all the time in the world)

I leave in less than a week so things are certainly wrapping up (for me at least. The rest of the people are leaving next Friday because the last round of finals is next Thursday) It’s strange to consider the fact that we’ve all been here nearly 2 months now and now that we’re at a point where we’re comfortable with one another and are used to seeing each other on a daily basis it’s a shame to think that we’ll all be leaving soon. Just how things go I suppose. In any event, this past month has been a little less exciting that the first mainly because I’ve gotten used to getting around and have gotten comfortable with being here, but as I have found out there are always new things to see and experience.

Kayaking + Punting: Punting in Cambridge is probably the signature activity after visiting the various colleges. Much like Venice is characterized by going up and down the rivers in gondolas, Cambridge is known for the many punts that run up and down the River Cam, a tribute to a larger river that runs along the west side of Cambridge. The river itself is separated into two tributes: the lower and the upper river. The lower river is the more popular one as it runs past a number of the larger and richer colleges (King’s, Queens, Trinity, St. John’s etc.) and it’s because of the views of the colleges that the river offers that the lower river is typically packed with punts, especially during the afternoons. Typically between 11am and 4pm every day the lower river is filled with punts (at least 30 punts will go past if you sit in a spot for 10 minutes) which are filled with all sorts of tourists. Mixed in with the punts that are chauffeured by tour companies are people who have hired out private boats where they handle the steering themselves. Because there are no limits to how many punts can be on the river at any one time, there are some days where the river will have dozens of them. The smallest punts are designed to fit about 5 people comfortably, and the biggest punts fit up to 12 people. At night some companies offer a dinner on the punt so the 12-seat punts (which are the widest ones) will be retrofitted with a table where food for 2 can be placed and a couple can enjoy a nice evening meal on the river. It’s nice.

 I tried doing it once for about 20 minutes and I don’t find it too hard to figure out, but I can understand why some people would have difficulty with it. It is a good workout though because it takes some strength to push the boat forward, especially if you have 11 other people in the boat.

A punt, for lack of a better description, is a skinny, shallow boat that is maybe 15 feet? and is propelled by pole vs. an oar (which is what a gondola uses) Pretty much the punter stands on the back end of the boat and uses the pole to push against the bottom of the river and propel the boat forward (simple in theory, but in practice it’s actually pretty difficult to steer). It’s pretty funny watching some people try to get around because what typically happens is that people understand the concept of moving forward, but not necessarily in a straight line. What usually happens is that people do a zig-zag pattern along the river and bump into other boats + walled sides of the river a couple times. A lot of people are afraid that the punts will tip over, but in all honesty the likelihood of that happening is really low because the boats are usually wide enough and shallow enough that flipping over completely is not going to be a common occurrence. What does happen more often is that people will lose their poles in the mud (these poles are usually 20 feet long and are either made of wood or metal. The wood ones are more traditional, but you can get splinters from them if they’re old and wearing out) and if you happen to get stranded in the middle of the river with your pole floating away you either have to brave getting into the disgusting water to retrieve it or hope that another boat comes along and gets your pole for you.

All throughout the central square there will be a dozen or so employees of various punt companies who will hold boards advertising punting tours and asking every group of 2 or more people if they would “care to go punting today” or “if they are interested in going punting this afternoon” or some similar request. The cheapest fare is about 8-10 pounds for children, and can be as pricey as 15-18 for adults. Another company that I went on charges 60 pounds for the whole boat, but you can fit up to 12 people so it really depends on how many people you can organize at any one time. Students in our program however have a fortunate alternative: King’s College owns about 5 boats that residents of King’s can rent out for 4 pounds an hour and you can fit up to 6 people so it’s infinitely cheaper. Downside is that you actually have to punt yourself; a task that is harder for some than others. The tours the companies offer usually last 45 minutes and take you up and down a stretch of the lower river that run past the major colleges. During your time on the river the punters will typically give you a short history of the colleges or sites that you are passing by (granted, some companies provide more informative tours than others). The downside of punting past the colleges is that the banks that run from the edge of the river to the college grounds are pretty steep so if you want to take pictures of say, college buildings, your shots will be taken at odd angles and most of the time the bottom half of the buildings will be cut off.

I later found out that a lot of the punters who are employed by these companies do tours during the summer as a temporary job to help pay for tuition later in the year, and I must say it is pretty lucrative. As I mentioned earlier, the largest punts cost 60 pounds for a 45 minute trip, and sometimes the punter doesn’t even do the punting the entire time; he’ll ask people in the boat if they wish to try and while they do he gets to kick back. While the punters don’t receive the full 60 pounds, they still make a good amount of money considering that one can easily do one trip per hour for say a work day of 8 hours. I had a thought: a lot of Chinese people like to do punting tours, and thus far I have yet to see any Chinese punters giving the tours, so I think there’s definitely an employment opportunity. There are a couple dudes that speak French and a couple Spanish speakers, but otherwise the market for speakers of Asian dialects is still open.

Stonehenge + Bath: So I realize that being in Europe usually means – take advantage of being close to other countries and travel around as much as you can since you’re already there. I agree and if ever you find yourself here by all means go out and explore; personally, I decided that during my stay here I wasn’t going to go out of the country and instead just see England. I must say I’ve enjoyed it, granted I haven’t gotten to go everywhere I wanted to (trip to Liverpool was upsetted by the riots that broke out there after they broke out in London, and a day trip to Wales wasn’t worth the $100 train ticket). I did however get to visit Bath and Stonehenge and it was great.

There’s a local tour company that runs strictly out of Cambridge (if you’re ever here, check out Roots Travel Company) and the main tour guide lives about 15 minutes from my place. Anyhow, the company is small but it runs several day trips out of Cambridge to cities across England such as York, Windsor, and Bath and Stonehenge. I took the trip with one of my friends I met here and also found out on the day of that there were other people in my program going on the same trip so all together there were about 20 people including 8 people from our program. From Cambridge to Stonehenge the trip takes about 2.5 hours and the scenery is nice, but it was a rainy day so it’s rather grey. Stonehenge is…somewhat anticlimactic, but if you’re in the country you kind of owe it to yourself to check it out because it is world famous and it is actually a pretty impressive site when you think about it. The stones themselves sit in the middle of nowhere and it’s a little strange because in all directions of the rock formation are miles and miles of plain fields (which for the most part have been converted into agricultural land so there are cows and haystacks all around) In any event, there isn’t too much to see when you get there: there’re the rocks themselves which you can’t get that close to there’s a trail that runs all the way around the but closest you’ll get to the rocks themselves is maybe 20 ft., there’s a small gift store that sounds random junk, and a coffee stand that sells overpriced consumer goods. It is worth it to go once though especially if you’re already in the country because it’s so famous.

From Stonehenge to Bath you have to drive about 50 minutes…east I think it is. You drive through more green open space but apparently portions of that land are used by the British military for training purposes so while you drive you’ll see signs for pedestrian crossing, cow crossing, and tank crossing. Bath itself is an odd town sandwiched between several mountains so the buildings themselves are built in the valley as well as all along the mountain side. It’s a very beautiful city and it’s well worth the visit – the architecture is really cool and the city is very nice to walk around in as everything is pretty old but clean and the atmosphere is just very nice. The most famous attraction at Bath is the Roman baths (go figure…) which were built who knows how long ago, but pretty much what stands today is a significant portion of the original building which was this very large rock building where people could go to bathe in the natural hotsprings (it’s cool the ground still producing the natural hot water so while there is a standing pool in the baths themselves you’re not allowed to actually do anything in them. What has been developed is one of those modern saunas that feed off the natural springs, but naturally they charge I think 35 pounds for the most simple treatment so yeah…) The baths have also been converted into a museum where they display old artifacts from the time period of when they were still in operation and there’s more to see than you’d expect (it’s not free though so if you want to see it it’s 10.5 pounds) Other than the Baths, the city has some significant landmarks (Jane Austen lived here so you can go to a museum dedicated to her), there are some very rich and nice looking neighborhoods that other famous Brits such as David Livingston lived in, and there are small shops too but I didn’t have time to walk around much. Bath is a little far out from Cambridge it’s a 3.5 hour drive and I think from London it’s a similar distance, but definitely worth a visit.

Shakespeare’s Globe Theater: In addition to Edinburgh, our program offered one other trip that was included in our fees and that was a day trip to London. The day trips would happen every weekend so you could choose which one to go to. Over the course of the trip I visited London a bunch of times but this is what I did when I went with other PKP people. We left from Cambridge by bus in the morning and were there all day – they dropped us off in two main tourist attractions and from that point we were pretty much free to do whatever we wanted until night when we were to meet at Shakespeare’s Globe as the trip includes a ticket to see a play there. We had the choice of being dropped off at either the Tower of London (here is where the Royal Jewels are kept and in another time it was a big prison) or at Trafalgar Square (where the Harry Potter Premier was and where the National Gallery is located). I chose the former but didn’t opt to go into the Tower which is now a museum and luckily it was a nice day in London so walking across Tower Bridge (the subject of “London Bridge is falling down…”) and along the river was great. A group of us led by one of the PA’s walked over to the Borough Market (Jamie Oliver shops here for his produce) which is this large open-air market where you can buy all sorts of stuff, but mainly fresh fruit, flowers, meat etc. On this particular Sunday though they were offering this condensed version of the market (they’re usually closed on Sundays) where it was just one square with maybe two dozen stalls that sold a variety of stuff, but all food. It was a really great environment because they had hired a small band of 3 (upright bass, accordion, and clarinet) who provided mood music and there were stalls selling all sorts of stuff – you could get freshly shucked oysters, Turkish delight, tea leaves, fresh fruit, wheatgrass shots. And they sold old fashion slices of watermelon which was awesome (cut the long way) and artisan sandwiches composed of fresh bread, ham, and cheese. Afterwards we spent some time at Harrods (an awesome department store that is an absolute must in any visit to London), the Kensington Museums (3 museums – the Natural History, Science, and Victorian & Albert; all free), and then headed off to the Globe Theater. The globe itself is really cool: it’s an open air, circular theater that is constructed of wood and has a thatched roof and while I don’t know what the history of the place it, I imagine that it looks very similar to what it was like during Shakespeare’s time. We watched one of Shakespeare’s comedies “As you like it,” and like it was with Richard III there were definitely bits which I just could not understand. The performance itself was a lot of fun though it was a pretty small production (6 actors who played multiple parts) and there were musical interludes throughout the whole play which were great (the people were really multi-talented and could play violin, clarinet, harmonica, accordion, guitar, and spoons haha. Oh and they could all sing too.) The downside of the performance had to be our seats (or rather lack thereof) As the theatre is circular, the seats run all the way around, but there is a significant courtyard in the middle where people can stand for 5 pounds. It’s a nice experience, but really standing up for 3 hours is no fun. It’s kinda cool though the actors make use of that courtyard and walk through the crowd and it’s a good experience (granted we’re fortunate that it didn’t rain because it’s an open roof and during the performances umbrellas are strictly prohibited). Anyhow, if you ever get the opportunity, go watch a Shakespeare play at the Globe (they do perform other stuff that wasn’t written by Shakespeare and it differs from week to week so find something that suits you)

Riots: It was strange to hear on the news that riots had broken out in London because they broke out Sunday which was when we were there for the trip, but they were only in certain parts of the city. Over the next few days things certainly escalated and we found that the riots had spread to other cities (ie. Liverpool, even Cambridge) so we all got forwarded emails telling us to be very careful and to maybe cancel any plans we had made to the particular areas. It reminded me a lot of emails that we would get at Berkeley when there were odd protests or riots. In any event things got pretty serious in London as buildings were burning and there were mass lootings. In Cambridge it wasn’t a big deal: one night there was a group of about 20 teenagers who picked a fight with the cops but it wasn’t as drastic as the London riots; there were a lot more police around the streets though. I had a friend who was studying abroad at the London School of Economics and she told me that the whole city was crawling with police as the London City Officials apparently called in extra police from neighboring cities to handle the situation. Interesting stuff.