The evening of the 28th was my latest night yet, especially since I was two hours behind Finland time. We didn’t go to sleep until nearly 2am because I arrived after midnight, and then we had some catching up to do.

Now, when I say “we,” I’m talking about myself and my surprise guest: Timmy! You might remember him from Zurich in 2017. I visited him there while he was doing a summer research stint at a Zurich university, and now he’s doing a Master’s stint at Cambridge. What a cool cat. A chemistry wiz and a biking fanatic. With long hair. That about sums him up! Pictures of Timmy to come later.

I stayed with Timmy in his dorm in Churchill College, which he quickly informed me was once the residence of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark! Crazy world.

What was even crazier was the toilet’s disdain for flushing, the bathroom light’s disdain for turning on easily, and the bedroom heater’s disdain for heating the room. Turns out that even dorm rooms in the world renowned Cambridge University are still just dorm rooms.

Timmy had to jet off to his lab in the morning, and I took the opportunity to stay in bed much later than I had any other day up until this point. But I finally made my way up and at ’em.

Ooooohhh… Ahhhhhhh…

I decided to start my day with a free walking tour of Cambridge. I’d been here once before for a day trip, so I had checked a lot of the main boxes that time around. I thought a tour would be a great way to get some insider knowledge, stories, and history on the University, and I was right!

For example, there was this clock that moved when a little grasshopper-like time monster walked on the top of it, pulling the seconds under him and eating away our past:

And we visited many colleges, churches, and bars with plenty of stories to tell.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember most of the stories well enough to feel confident writing them down on the internet to be fact-checked, so I’ll just show you some more pretty buildings:

I do remember a fun story that is unlikely to be fact-checkable. Apparently formal dinners are a very common thing at the university, and each college hosts one as often as once a week, so with 31 colleges in the university, there are likely several formal dinners occuring every night. Jackets are required for men, but dress codes do differ from college to college. Apparently some require black tie or white tie for men and floor-length gowns for women.

So our tour guide, Will, who happened to be a student at Cambridge some years ago (in Kings’ College, I believe), vividly remembers attempting to attend his first formal dinner. Supposedly, the doorman/entry guard, upon learning of Will’s intentions to enter the dinner, asked, “Are you a Mancusian?” Will had to ask what this meant. “Are you from Manchester?” the guard clarified. Will answered no.

“Are you from New York?” Again, no.

“Then why are you attempting to wear brown shoes to a formal dinner?” the man asked. He then asked to see Will’s cufflinks, which were novelty cufflinks in the shape of little pig faces that he had borrowed from his father.

The guard then told Will to come back after he had acquired proper attire, and his entrance was denied. Will then spent the remnants of his first term’s student loan on his first tailored suit and a new pair of shoes. Poor guy.

I’m sure it’s no secret that this kind of dinner sounds AMAZING to me, but I didn’t pack any fancy attire into my HP wonder backpack for this trip. If I manage to visit Timmy again, though, I’m bringing my prom dress.

Will also told us about the May Balls, which are the largest formal dinner parties of the year, hosted my several colleges. There’s a tradition that if party goers manage to keep up the party until sunrise, they get a gigantic group picture taken and are labeled as the “survivors.”

Here’s the famous Mathematical Bridge:

And some shots from The Backs:

And another “I came across a bridge in Cambridge” moment:

As with all ‘free’ walking tours, people are strongly encouraged to tip pretty well, but I looked in my wallet and saw that I only had US dollars, some large-bill euros, and some Danish Kroner. I thought about offering to buy Will a coffee, but I decided I was too awkward for such nonsense and instead slinked off to the market behind St. Mary’s Church.

Hungry and craving Italian food and hot chocolate, I managed to find the perfect spot!

I mistakenly ordered what the waiter called “thick chocolate” instead of standard hot chocolate, so I was expecting to be given a sort of drinking chocolate. I was surprised to see how large the glass was then, and I was also surprised to find that the ‘drink’ was actually more like hot chocolate pudding. Eh. Still hit the spot! As did the prosciutto.

Then Timmy and I met up to go to service at Kings’ Chapel and to see the Kings’ College Choir perform. I was expecting the choir to be made up entirely of college students, so I was surprised when a bunch of little guys walked in. I’d say about half the choir was college students, but the other half were much younger, some looking to be as young as seven or eight.

And they had LITTLE ANGEL VOICES. Ugh. I cannot explain. I knew this choir was a big deal, but my, my, my. The two soloist boys, both of the younger bunch, were…. I honestly am not even going to try to put words to it.

And we were in THE Kings’ College Chapel.

Quite insane. I talked to Jonathan about it later that night because he used to sing in a boychoir, and he said, “They’re the choir that every American boychoir is trying to be.” I don’t doubt it. I guess Jonathan’s choir was actually conducted by the Kings’ Choir director at one point, and that same director is retiring later this year, so I caught one of his last performances with them. Such a treat!

As we exited the chapel, it began to rain.

We walked a bit and settled on an Indian street food restaurant for dinner, but since I’d just eaten that giant flat bread, I just got a mango lassi and a green tea. The waiter was a bit confused. “Lassi, cold. Tea, hot?” I just laughed and agreed. No regrets! Both were delicious. I haven’t had a mango lassi in white a while, and this one was top notch.

As we ate and caught up, the rain turned to snow, so that by the time we walked back to Churchill, it was sticking to grass and cars.

Oh, and my eyelashes.

We stopped by the store on the way, and I freaked out over the tiny milk jugs. I want all of them.

Then some more snow walking…

I attempted to make a tiny snowman, but Timmy said it didn’t really count without a face. Oh well!

Then we went over to have hot chocolate with his friend Julie. She’s lived in this same room for five years, and it was adorable! And she had a giant window seat! She also had a very impressive collection of hot chocolate to choose from. I chose mint.

Julie was a lovely lady, but she eventually had to kick us out so she could return to work. It was past eleven by this time, and we agreed it was time to turn in. We walked through the college, though, so I could see some more of the spaces. And we accidentally came across a friend of a friend from back home!

This is Chen Chen. Timmy met her and found out she was friends with Venk, a friend of mine from UW. Timmy doesn’t know Venk super well, but he knew of him through me, and he therefore felt the need to introduce us. This short introduction quickly turned into about an hour’s worth of card playing.

I didn’t play because the game was unfamiliar. Timmy had only played once before, but as we stood there, he was asking questions and studying the moves, so that by the time the round was up, he wanted to test out his skills. Twice. Hahahaha. They also did something I’ve never seen before, which is that instead of one person dealing the cards out to the rest, they just stacked all the cards in the middle and took turns around the circle, taking one card at a time, until all the cards were in the players’ hands.

The game was called Tractor, and it was a trick-based game involving multiple decks of cards. For whatever reason, at the end of a session, certain people would have gained a number of overall points, and these points were them tallied up and added to a massive college-wide spreadsheet. The boy to my left had 500-something points, the most points in the college. The boy to my right, who showed up just after we had and was dressed in the remnants of his formal dinner wear, was in the 400-something range. When I asked Timmy later about the spreadsheet and why it existed, he shook his head with a chuckle and said, “It’s Cambridge.”

So that was day one in Cambridge. It ended up being past 1am again when we went to sleep, but that didn’t stop Timmy from getting up early to go to the gym. I took it a bit slower, haha. Oh, and here’s his cute little room and its view:

And then it was off into sunny Cambridge for one last morning adventure!

There was a street nearby called The Crescent, and it was shaped like… a crescent. The funny thing, though, was that all of the buildings on the inside of the shape were rounded to match the curve of the street.

There was also this snow-covered marsh grass that for some reason felt so English to me.

The ice was doing a fun thing where it had crystalized into large prisms wherever there had been a puddle.

I call this one “Whimsy:”

The Backs were beautiful with the sun and the snow, and there were even a couple snowmen.

I eventually made my way into the city.

A trip to the market meant I had to exercise self restraint to not purchase all of the scarves on display… So cheap! And so pretty! And so soft! But I really didn’t budget for shopping space in my backpack, and I don’t exactly need any more scarves. Ugh. There were some that were 100% wool, sooo soft, and only £5!!! Maybe I should go back, now that I think about it…

I settled on lunch instead, a delicious and cheap bibimbap.

I had some pretty views while I ate, too.

And then I decided to climb the tower in Great St. Mary’s Church. I’d done the climb when I visited a couple years ago, but my motto when it comes to climbing towers is, “You’ve yet to regret a single climb!” And that’s counting repeats!

Did I regret my adventure? Of course not! And I took about thirty pictures in my excitement.

Half the ground space on top of the tower was still covered in snow and ice, frozen solid into a thick, trecherous layer covering the wooden floor planks. There was a volunteer up there working hard to scrape each plank with a tool not unlike a giant car windshield scraper. I caught his eye at one point and commented on his hard work. He took this opportunity to saunter over and begin a thirty minute chat, tour, and history lesson on Cambridge from some number of feet up. (Dude, I just tried to Google the height of the tower, to no avail. Any insider information would be appreciated.)

 

But yes, the little old man had so much to tell me. We walked around all four corners of the tower so he could point out different buildings, give me tips about the city, and tell me stories about the university’s past. He was clearly proud of his town and of the university, and I don’t think he stopped smiling once during the whole conversation. We started the talk with about eight other people up there with us, but by the time we said our goodbyes, we had been alone for about ten minutes. P cute. P cute.

After my tower visit, I walked down the main road, and every time I saw an open church, I ventured inside.

I managed to come across two different organ players practicing in their respective churches! That was a treat.

I also took a gander around Pembroke College. This was one of the few main colleges that was open (and free) to the public, so I took my opportunity to stroll around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quite pretty. Quite pretty.

I found another, very old, church along the way and wandered through its garden and graveyard.

And then I finally made my way to the Fitzwilliam Museum. Believe it or not, this was my original destination all along. I’d even plugged it into Google Maps before leaving the dorm that morning, and I was planning on walking straight there. As you can see, I got side tracked. But I made it nonetheless, and I only had about twenty minutes to explore what I could before meeting Timmy for a last-minute walk and hang-out sesh, just in time for my bus to the airport.

The entranceway alone was worth the visit.

The museum admission was free, so I was not too stressed about my quick look around. And I was not disappointed, either! Seurat! Rodin! Renoir! Quite the impressive collection in this university museum.

And some more, less name-droppy favorites…

But all too quickly, the time had come to move along. I met Timmy out front and we walked back through the heart of the city. When we passed Corpus Christi College, and I saw that it was only open to students and alumni, I asked if we could take a peek in. Timmy wasn’t sure if he would be allowed since he was a member of a different college, but I encouraged him to ask! The porter ended up being pretty chatty and very welcoming once Timmy flashed his Cambridge ID card. He told us all about the college, recent renovations, and the split between undergrad and graduates. And then he let us on through! Woohoo!

The sun hadn’t made its way to the courtyard yet, leaving a bunch of pretty snow on the grass, and we found another organ player practicing in the college chapel.

Then we were off again! And this time, to the bus!

As we said goodbye, the cheeky bus driver commented, “Ooooohhh… Goodbyes! Very emotional!” And when Timmy said he might join me for a weekend later on in my trip, the driver said to me, “Oh, might! Might! It’s not a definite!” Haha. Not sure what he was trying to go for.

I wrapped up my day with a long sit on the bus, a longer sit at the airport, and another good sit on the plane.

Denmark’s next on the list, but until then…

Cheers!
-Lizzy-wa