University of Cambridge, or A Race With Time

Since I last wrote to you, Blogger, the two most notable things I have done are: returned to college and visited Cambridge. I won't lie to you, I'll be honest: there are things I could have written to you that I wrote to tumblr instead, but you can't control these things. Some things just seem more appealing sometimes, and tumblr is very good at gratifying you more instantly than you are, Blogger. But I shan't abandon you, because I like that you're of Traditional Blogging as opposed to this new-fangled "microblogging".

College has been okay. It's been interesting to return back to reality, and it has affected my mood in notable ways, but I still think there's an importance to being back "out there". I don't feel the need to go over this in much detail because I already have on tumblr, and this whole blogging deal is essentially me writing things that I can look back on, ponder, and reminisce about in the future. If whoever's reading this feels slighted or shortchanged by this, I suggest you get a tumblr and follow me, where I update more frequently.

I did, on the other hand, save my Cambridge post for you, Blogger. If it makes you feel any better, I tend to post general thoughts on tumblr, but specific events to you, Blogger. Does this make you feel any better? I think this is a fair split. Naturally, tumblr will have more updates because I think up far more things than I can actually execute, but there is something special about the execution of thoughts, so you should be happy.

Cambridge is interesting. Naturally, I'm going to compare it to Oxford, and what I can say is: Oxford's layout seems to be more organised. There is central Oxford where everything is and specks of other stuff outside of that. Whereas with Cambridge, it feels like things are spaced out (the colleges esp) and I'm not sure how I feel about that. By consequence, I felt more inclined to think there are more things to do in Oxford, because it's easier to navigate and you know where things are.

Cambridge felt more like a normal city than Oxford. As I mentioned before, Oxford felt like an awkward blend of ancient and modern, but Cambridge does this blend seamlessly and there is nothing strange about it. However, in retrospect, Oxford's high contrast in architectural styling makes it quite memorable (I had Oxford stuck in my head weeks after I visited), so perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing. But yes, Cambridge doesn't feel as intimidating; it makes you feel at home and comfortable.

I'm not going to either of these universities, by the by; I went to their cities because my friend is choosing between them and I wanted to accompany her (why would I turn down an opportunity to travel?). We took the coach there and had a problem. The coach broke down and we had to wait for a replacement to pick us up, so we ended up getting in Cambridge one hour later than expected, giving us one hour less in the city. This ultimately resulted in our missing the last coach out of Cambridge to our changing station (we/I wanted to see Queen's College very desperately and decided to be stupidly risky about it). We had to figure out a way to beat the coach we missed to Milton Keynes Coachway, otherwise we would be screwed and stranded. But we put our heads together and beat Lady Time in her own race. We essentially hitch-hiked a coach into Bedford, and from Bedford we took a taxi to Milton Keynes and we made it with time to spare. Needless to say, I bought a celebratory coke.

It was a good day all in all. Here are some pictures from that (there are more on my photography tumblr):

The skies open on Bedford





Good ole fuckin' Milton Keynes

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