12 March, 2009 (Thu) – Cambridge, UK - Day 1

Today marks the start of my 3 months-long tour around Europe. My first stop is Cambridge, the famous university town in England beside Oxford. In the morning, I followed Mike, my cousin-brother-in-law, to Farnborough (Main) train station to catch a train to London Waterloo station. Unfortunately, the train was delayed by 14 mins, this delay doesn't affect me but it affects Mike as he would be unable to catch his connecting train later on. We parted at Woking train station and I continued on my journey to London Waterloo. From there, I took the tube to Victoria train station and walked to the Victoria Coach station to board the National Express bus to Cambridge. As I was 40mins early, I sat down and read my Lonely Planet guidebook. The bus departed at 10.30am and there are only around 10 passengers on it. On the way, I can't help but think how I'd wish I had a travel companion (my sis or my buddies) beside me. It's rather unusual, as I was always OK to solo traveling. I concluded later that maybe it's because I've been with family and friends for the past 4 months hence this feeling of loneliness. Around 12.40pm, we arrived at Cambridge Park Side bus stop. Coming off the bus, I see a huge open field, the Parkers Piece Recreation Ground, where teenagers kicking football at one corner, while some others just sat at the benches / grass to chit-chat.

It's spring time, yet it was still quite cloudy and cold. With my heavy backpacks on my shoulders, I make my way to the Cambridge YHA hostel. After making some wrong minor detours, I finally arrived at the hostel. While checking in, the friendly reception told me that I could either join the YHA membership for ￡10 or pay an extra ￡3 per night (for non-member). Since I'll be staying here for 2 nights and later on staying at Belfast's International Youth Hostel for another 2 nights, hence it make more sense to just sign up for the membership. I was assigned to Room 2, bed 8, a 4 bed female dorm. There are 2 double-deck beds, a chair and a wash basin in the room. Toilets and shower rooms are outside in the hallway. A set of fresh sheets, pillow cases and duvet cover was given so I can make my own bed. There wasn't anyone in the room yet. After sorting out my stuff, I went out to explore the town. Based on the simple map given by the hostel, I tried out another route to go to the bus stop (as I'll be leaving very early Saturday morning). I stopped at Subway to get an Italian B.M.T as my lunch. Yes, I think this is a slightly shorter route than the one I took this morning. With this mission done, I make my way to the tourist information centre where I picked up some main attraction brochures and also 2 postcards.

Cambridge city, is where the world famous university is located. It is built out of the various colleges in town and is filled with undergrads and scholars from all over the world. Bicycles, bicycles, bicycles... everywhere you go, you'll see people on their bicycles whizzing past you, you see bicycles being chained at the side walks / railings. I guess this is one unique feature in a university town, in any university town. Many of the bicycles here have a huge rattan basket tied in front of their bike to store their bags or stuff. Hmmm, makes me yearn studying here and cycle around town on that bicycle too. Crazy huh, my motivation to study is due to the love for the rattan basket on the bike. Hahaha...

I came across the St. Botolph's church, a small but very old church, dating way back to the 14th century. Next to the church is the Corpus Christi College. From the outside, you can only see high walls with an arch door at the middle and a short dark passageway. However, upon entering, it suddenly opens up to a bright big square, surrounded by the buildings at the four sides, and in the middle, there's nothing but a lush green grass field. At each corner of the field, there were signs asking tourists not to step on grass. The right hand side building was marked as 'Private' hence not permitted to visit. I followed the left hand side lane towards the end where there is a beautiful passageway leading to the nice little courtyard at the back. The chapel was closed for the day so I only managed to peek through the glass doors.

Next is the famous King's College housing one of the most impressive buildings in Cambridge, the King's College Chapel. Again, the landscape is similar with buildings at the four sides and grass field in the center. (I wonder if it's the same in all the colleges here?) Since King's College is a working college, hence only the chapel is open to the public. However, the chapel was undergoing some renovation work so part of the building was covered under the scaffolding. The chapel was closed when I got there in preparation for the choir service later at 5.30pm. Going beyond the chapel is another big field before coming to the Cam riverside. Here, you'd see punts going up and down the stream. If you are up for the challenge, you can just rent a punt and try to navigate it along the river Cam; or if you prefer, just pay a small fee of ￡10 per person to hire a punter (mostly the Cambridge students making some pocket money) to do all the hard work while you just relax and admire the scenery. It's really easy to differentiate the professional punters from the amateurs (tourists). The pros just stood confidently at the back of the boat, pushing and drawing the long bamboo sticks to navigate the punt effortlessly. While doing that, they will also introduce the history of the colleges as they passed by. On the other hand, you would see most of the amateurs struggling to get the punt going smoothly and towards the correct direction. Many times, their punts will either head towards the banks or just circle round the same location and you will hear all sorts of suggestions / commands given by their friends on the punt 'trying' to help the poor punter.

Across the bridge to the other side of the river, there's a white stone with some Chinese character carvings. I went over to have a closer look and realized that was the extract of the famous poem '再别康桥' (Goodbye Cambridge) by 徐志摩 (Xu ZhiMo), written on the way back to China after revisiting Cambridge in 6th Nov, 1928. Xu was here between Oct, 1920 - Aug 1922, and viewed Cambridge as the very important place inspiring his poetry life.

'轻轻的我走了，正如我轻轻的来，我挥一挥衣袖，不带走一片云彩。'
Quietly I take my leave, just as quietly I came here; Gently I flick my sleeves,
Not taking even a wisp of cloud.

The view of King's College from here is simply amazing. It's only about 4.30pm hence I left the college and went to the Guildhall. There are 2 models in front of the Guildhall illustrating the neighboring buildings and colleges, courtesy of the Rotary club. Behind the Guildhall is a market square and the Great St. Mary's Church, the University Church for the University of Cambridge. At 5.15pm, I went back to the King's College Chapel to attend the King's College Choir choral service, an evening prayer services. The choir consists of choral scholars (male students from the college) and choristers (boys educated at the nearby King's College School). There is already a small queue when I got there. The public was first let into the chapel, followed by the choir boys and finally the clergy and his fellow assistant. The choir boys were dressed in black suit with a white overcoats. Everyone was given a booklet so we could follow the proceedings. The choir singing is absolutely amazing. The whole service lasted about 45mins. If you are in town, I strongly recommend you to attend this service even if you are not a Christian.

The chapel is one of the finest examples of late Gothic (Perpendicular) English architecture. It features the breathtaking fan vault, the largest in the word and perhaps the most beautiful ever devised; the 26 great windows containing what is possibly the finest surviving range of pre-reformation stained glass in the country; exquisite heraldic stone sculptures, representing various symbols of the Tudor dynasty; the wooded organ screen (a gift from Henry VIII), dates from 1533 – 1536; and the Rubens masterpiece, The adoration of the Magi, painted in 1634 for the Convent of the White Nuns at Louvain. So if you are like me, want to save a few pounds on the chapel's admission ticket, just attend the evening choral service. You can admire the fantastic architectural designs while listening to the heavenly songs. One stone, three birds.

Coming out from the choral service, the sky is getting dark. Hence I quickly make my way back to the hostel, but of course I got a little lost in the beginning before finally finding my way back. On the way back, I stopped at Sainsbury to get my dinner. Since I wasn't feeling very hungry, I just bought a Quarter Pounder Chicken burger and a pint of Organic milk. It's quite a long way back and my legs are really tired by the time I reached the hostel. I heated up my burger at the self-catering kitchen alongside other hostelers preparing their dinner too. Luckily mine just took a minute in the microwave to heat up. Later, I went back to my room to find another dorm mate checked in. The hostel shower sometimes gives out lukewarm water but the good thing is you don't have to keep pushing the knob to keep the water flowing unlike some other hostels I've been to before.