On Our Own

This weekend was the first weekend we attempted travel without our trusty guide to all things British (that would be Matt, and he’d hasten to tell you all that he is by no means an expert at it). It was… an interesting experience, to say the least. We had planned to go to London on Friday and then explore Cambridge a bit more on Saturday because we wanted to get a good feel for our ‘hometown’ over here before we went gallivanting off to Europe. So we got up early enough to walk across town and catch the 9:20am train to London on Friday morning, got ready, and made the two-mile walk. I, personally, don’t really mind walking long distances, especially if it saves me money in any way (ie no bus, no taxi), so this wasn’t really a huge deal. I’ve come to realize, however, that walking around all day, constantly, is not for everyone. And understandably so–not everybody wants to feel like their legs are going to fall off by the end of the day. I get that. The problem with this particular Friday morning was that we walked all the way to the train station…. and discovered that we needed our passports to use our BritRail passes. Which we didn’t actually have with us at the train station. So it was 9:30am and we were on the opposite side of town without anything to do.

The rock garden

Naturally, we looked at the map outside the train station and found a couple of places that we wanted to go. The closest one was the Cambridge University Botanical Gardens–so we walked there. Unfortunately, it was 4GBP to get in, which we recently discovered is about $8 (because the exchange rate has gone up dramatically since we’ve been here… ouch). But the gardens were still beautiful. Our favorite part may have been the ‘rock garden.’ It was situated right next to this small pond with a million lilypads in it, and there were small streams and waterfalls throughout the garden itself. Rachel read some of the informational signs and told us that many of the plants needed extremely specific environments to grow, and that the garden was planned out to accommodate those needs. That’s pretty amazing, especially considering how rainy it’s been here, and how cloudy. We got some lunch (it was really more of a snack) in the cafe, then walked through the rest of the gardens to the gift shop. On our way there, I discovered a small trail that led me to a pond, and some willows. I’ve always thought

my secret willow-place

willows were beautiful, but for some reason these particular willows, with the pond and the general foliage, took my breath away. Despite the general rainy-ness of the day, this moment was beautiful. And most importantly, it was mine. It was a place that not all tourists who come to Cambridge see; it was a moment that made my experience here particularly unique. It was such a little thing, but it was perfect. I’d like to go back there and just sit for a while–it seems like a good place to contemplate life.

When we left the Botanical Gardens, we headed down Queen’s Road toward the Backs. Now, the Backs are a rather famous walk around here–supposedly it’s this incredibly gorgeous walk along the River Cam where you can see the backs of all the colleges (hence the name). The backs of the colleges are much more impressive than the front gates, generally, because the front gates are just big walls that you can’t see over and smallish wooden doors. When you see the back, though, you’re supposed to see huge green fields and impressive buildings and chapels and such. Walking the Backs was strange, I felt like I was doing it wrong. I couldn’t see very much because most of the colleges extend their property beyond the river and make you pay to get in through the back gates. So the walk was pretty, with trees and big green spaces and whatnot, but there wasn’t much of the ‘gorgeous colleges.’

The Library had an exhibit on display... Can you tell what it is?

When we got back to the house, we were understandably exhausted. We watched a movie together, made some dinner, and had a decently relaxing night. We had decided that we would go to London on Saturday instead, so we woke up and caught the 9:45am train bound for London. We got to Kings Cross by 11 and walked over to the British Library. This was absolutely amazing. First off, they have historical exhibits in the Library. The Library. I really wanted to go see this one, Propaganda: Power and Persuasion, but of course it costed a few extra pounds. That wasn’t the coolest part, though. The coolest part was their Gallery of Treasures, which contained original manuscripts of Shakespeare’s plays, Jane Austen’s notebook, letters from Queen Elizabeth I and various other monarchs, illuminated manuscripts from multiple different cultures and religious traditions, and the Magna Carta. They even had a special case for original copies of Beatles lyrics. And all this we could see just by walking in. That’s probably my favorite thing about Britain so far…. Most museums, art galleries, and exhibits are free to get into. It’s only the ‘special’ exhibits that cost money. It was so cool, and I really wanted to take some pictures because I knew a few people who would freak out with me over these historical documents, but unfortunately no photographs were allowed.

After we had wonderful pizza across the street from the Library, we tried to find Bloomsbury because our history professor had been telling us about the Bloomsbury Group that lived in London in Edwardian times. We kinda wandered around a bit before giving up and going to find the British Museum instead. This, again, was free (YESS!) and we saw a ton of Egyptian sculptures and writings, even the

The front of the British Museum... very Greco-Roman, don't you think?

real-life, honest-to-god Rosetta Stone (the language nerd in me was freaking out, majorly). I was on the lookout for the mummies, because rumor has it that the British Museum has the largest mummy collection in the world. We didn’t find them right away in the Egypt section, so we quickly ran through the Enlightenment section to North American History. This was actually pretty funny, to see the Native Americans’ history laid out in front of us like some foreign country’s indigenous people… which, for the British, they are. We, of course, knew most of the history already (even though our history professor is under the impression that American schoolchildren never learn history… I don’t know what he’s talking about) and giggled our way through the beginnings of America from the British perspective. It was then that we discovered  the mummy collection. It wasn’t with the Egyptian sculptures, but upstairs in the museum’s section on death and dying. That was actually really cool, because they had x-rays of the mummies in their wrappings on display along with the sarcophaguses and the mummies themselves. We were pressed for time, however, because we wanted to get to the Tate Museum of Modern Art before catching our 5:30 train back to Cambridge.

The Tate was… interesting. It wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, it was just very very alternative and different to anything we’d seen so far. Actually, my favorite room was the section on Energy and Process. There were a few pieces that dealt with mirrors

Tate was transformed into a modern art gallery after being abandoned as an industrial factory

and windows in very interesting ways. For example, one piece was a fully painted canvas that was covered up by a mirror, so instead of seeing the painting, you just saw yourself. Another was 11 panes of glass leaning against the wall at different angles, so that when you walked past it your outline was blurred and shifted in ways you didn’t expect. Those, according to the plaques on the walls, were meant to illustrate the subjectivity of the art in question, because so much depends on the viewer. I thought that, while cool and really interesting, was slightly hypocritical because we were learning the supposedly ‘subjective’ meaning of the piece by reading what the museum was telling us it meant. It’s alright though, in the long run, because there were plenty of pieces I wouldn’t have understood at all without the help of the wall.

Sunday was another lazy-ish day for me. It was rainy and cold, so when I woke up in the morning, I went on a bit of a crazy cleaning mission throughout the house because living with 7 other college kids generally means that the house is never clean. Like, ever. So (and I’m positive my mother will be laughing at me at this point and thinking something along the lines of ‘I told you so! It’s so annoying when people don’t listen to you when you tell them to pick up their stuff, right?’ Yes, mom, you were right) I picked up the living room and the dining room and washed the tables and the dishes and felt really accomplished until I realized that I hadn’t actually done any of the homework I was supposed to be getting done. So. My weekend consisted of discoveries on how to travel by train, lots and lots of rain, and a ridiculous amount of history that I am only now getting around to processing. Just another couple days over here in England.

With pride, experience, and much love,

Bryn