Day at Cambridge

look at all of these bikes at Cambridge train station!
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Today I woke up pretty early since I got into bed around 2300.  I checked the weather it looked like Cambridge would be getting worse weather as the days go on so I decided to head out.  I missed the bus trip to Cambridge and had been wanting to visit the college town ever since.  Also, Uncle Gary got me really excited to see the place when I thought I was going to King's College, Cambridge!  Nope, King's College, London was the right one.

I headed out by foot to Liverpool Street Station.  It was a really nice day in London.  I just wore a short-sleeve shirt and long pants.  I brought a jacket since the weather in Cambridge looked muggier.  I walked to LSS and the entire walk was really nice.  The sidewalks were relatively empty because it was around 0945 and everybody had already made the morning commute to work.

King's College, Cambridge
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The train was scheduled to leave at around 1015 but didn't actually leave until 1030 because it was delayed in arriving.  I slept for a bit part of the train ride but kept waking up every now and then.  Cambridge was the last stop so I didn't have to worry about missing it.  The ride was 1.25 hrs long and uneventful.  The nice weather lit up the scenery beautifully.  It's always nice to get out of the city for a bit to see the countryside.

I got in to Cambridge at around 1145 and walked around for an hour trying to find Dojo Noodle Bar, recommended by Let's Go for serving heaping piles of great noodles for cheap.  By getting lost I did an informal tour of the city by walking on King's way and passing most of the colleges of Cambridge: King's, St. John's, Trinity, St. Catherine's, and I think Queen's.  I finally found the place after realizing that I had read the map incorrectly.  All of the employees were "Chinese" (on a side note, "Asian" in London refers to Indian people whereas Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. are "Chinese").  Nobody was eating but I didn't take that as a bad sign since it was an early time for lunch.  I ordered Tori Kare Udon...a curry udon.  It was TERRIBLE.  It was easily the worst noodles I have ever had.  I felt sick eating it but I was so hungry and didn't want to waste my money so I downed the entire plate.  Let's Go was right in that it was a heaping amount of food...but it tasted like mush.  I added shoyu and fish oil, then it tasted like mushy shoyu and fish.

punts on the river cam
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The restaurant was near the River Cam so I walked along it for a while and took in its peacefulness.  There were students advertising punting rides for 12 GBP/person but I wasn't too interested.  I don't know why but it just looked boring, which is different from relaxing.  I kept walking through and tried to get onto some campuses.  But since it is testing period most of them were closed!  Oh no!  Trinity College was open so I paid the 1.30 GBP entrance fee and just walked through the main courtyard and chapel.  King's College Chapel was also open.  They have a lot of history behind them.  I heard that the stained glass windows were taken down during WWII to avoid destruction.  Then it took them 6 years to put it back in.  But these chapel's were no where near as amazing as St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.  The greens were nice.  The guard said that I should check out the garden, which was basically a courtyard of nice grass, no flowers.  I took shots to make a panorama again and stitched with PanaVue.  It looks good and I'll post it on my album of pictures on Picasa.

river cam
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I walked through the town more and just got a feel for the small college area.  I crossed the bridge of sighs and walked more along the River Cam.  There was a market going on in the city square and I checked it out.  There was one lady selling nice shirts with cartoon animals screened on them.  She had penguin shirts that Donna would have liked but the shirts were of such ill quality that I couldn't be asked to buy them for 12 GBP each.

The weather in Cambridge wasn't great.  It was clouded over and glarey since the sun's rays were lighting up all of the clouds.  Good for pictures but bad for scenery.  It was pretty windy and colder than in London.  It's so weird to have weather like this in mid May!  Just a couple of weeks ago it was really bright and sunny all throughout the UK and now it's getting worse.  Good ole' global warming.

King's gate guarding Trinity College
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I had planned to be back in London for dinner with Savvas and Sacha as my going away dinner at 1800.  I walked back to the train station and caught the next train at 1600.  I wanted to catch the bus back to the Great Dover Street apartments but I forgot my Oyster card so I walked it again.  The walk was amongst the bustle of people getting off of work (1730).  It's kind of weird to see EVERYBODY in black suits and coats walking the same direction.  I was wearing my red shirt, red backpack, and khaki pants.  I felt like I stood out amongst everybody also because they were so formal looking and I was such a bum.  That's London for you...and that's also Michael for you!

Trinity College courtyard
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I got back at 1800 and immediately headed out to Nando's with Sacha, Savvas, and Richard, Savvas' flatmate who comes out with us every now and then.  We had a Jumbo platter at Nando's which was two whole chickens and 5 large side dishes.  They were all laughing at me because I was pouring on the hottest sauce on the chicken while sweat poured down my face!  I really hate that i sweat so much when I eat spicy foods.  It was a great meal and a great meal together.  We had a nice table that overlooked the River Thames.

more punts
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Savvas, Sacha, and Hao got together and bought me a Chelsea jersey as a going away present.  They somehow customized it so that the back had "Mike" and the number was " '07 " for this year.  I really really really liked it and it has immediately made its way to my favorite shirt pedestal. I'm gonna really miss these "lads".  I hope they come to visit me in Hawaii or even the US.

We were so stuffed with the great Portuguese food.  We slowly walked towards Guy's Bar where the night really kicked off.  I won't indulge too much but it was basically a great night and a good last hoorah.