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I have been finding it very difficult to write about our travels in the last few weeks. There is so much I want to write about yet when I start to type I become overwhelmed with everything that we have experienced. It is now officially 3 months since we have left Australia and we have met so many interesting people, experienced so many exotic cultures, heard so many foreign languages…it is hard to express the myriad of emotions and sentiments that we go through on a daily basis.
We organised a 2-day trip to Cambridge so that we could visit Litty (my friend from high school) and see her new home and met her new boyfriend Ben. National Express (UK’s major coachline company) were selling £1 tickets to Cambridge as their springtime ‘funfare’ sale, and taking advantage of this pants-wettingly awesome deal we set off from the chaos and madness of London.
Litty met us at the other end, and after checking out her new home (9 of them live in one house!! So it’s very intimate..) she took us for a picturesque stroll through the town she now calls home. Cambridge University is the reason the town exists,
and with 31 colleges (some 800 years old; the newest one built in the middle of the C20th) and thousands upon thousands of students and their service providers, Cambridge is an unexpectedly vibrant and cosmopolitan place full of buzz and life. Uncanny juxtapositions of modern retail store signage (think Zara, H&M, French Connection) protrude from 800 year old masonry facades, with ultra-modern contemporary interior refurbishments allowing hundred-year old buildings to accommodate a smattering of McDonald’s, Subway, Starbucks and Borders stores.
Cambridge really is a magical town, and meandering through the street markets with their cobblestone footpaths and the charming old college buildings with their lush green do-not-step-on immaculately manicured gardens … one really does feel as if they are in a fairy-tale entrance. To top it off, Litty invited us to Formal Dinner at her college (Trinity) where we were treated to a delicious 3-course meal and forced to brush up on never-used-before formal dining etiquette (thank god there were only 3 knives…). Aaron was unashamedly excited about being in Harry Potter-esque setting, and was eagerly anticipating the waiters to come flying through the food hall on broomsticks…
We met Ben of course, and it is always strange
to meet someone after only hearing about them first, because you don’t quite know what to expect. However, we loved him, and think he is a perfect match for Litty! Perhaps we needed him when we went punting the next day (unfortunately he had to work as he is a schoolteacher), a sport which requires extreme co-ordination and a near-impossible sense of balance. After all, you are essentially trying to row a boat with a 3 metre long stick (aka the ‘punt’). And you only have one. Needless to say I did not even dare try, and nearly shat myself when Aaron nearly fell into the Cam River half a dozen times. Litty on the other hand was quite a pro … except when she lost the punt and we had to paddle back to rescue it whilst a group of excursion-ing schoolkids had gathered on a nearby bridge to laugh at us.
Safely back on shore, we had to say goodbye to this pretty place and our gorgeous hostess with the most-est, We must also thank Ben for introducing us to the horridness of Aftershock, the strangeness of Slow Gins and the tastiness of Apple Ciders the night
before at Litty’s college bar. With cheap booze, an enchanting built environment, tranquil gardens of solace and a cosmopolitan shopping scene…no wonder Cambridge students come out so bright on the other side.
Goodbye Litty and Ben! Thanks for a great couple of days 😊
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Simon b
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Omg you went to my future home! it looks so beautiful. I loved the photo where you lost the punt lol Cant wait to go now. Miss you guys!