Tuesday night, we had a formal hall here at King's (actually the first one I've been to in my own college!), and I must say I really enjoyed it. There's just something so fun about getting all dressed up and going to a formal dinner- though it does make me feel kind of old!
You can't take pictures during dinner, but here I am with my lovely ladies in blue during drinks on the lawn prior to the meal:
It is Cambridge tradition to go out after the dinner still in your formal wear, whether its to a club or a pub or even just for ice cream- you have to wear your formal duds! We went out to the Maypole (our favorite pub) for a bit, and then came back to King's to hang out on the lawn by the River Cam... it was a bit of a lazy night, but I had a great time!
Cambridgeshire (the larger county that the city of Cambridge is located in) is also home of the Orchard at Grantchester, a very famous teahouse situated in the middle of a huge orchard of fruit trees planted in 1868. The Orchard has had many famous patrons over the years, including John Maynard Keynes, Virginia Woolf, A.A. Milne, Sylvia Plath, Stephen Hawking, several members of the royal family, and (my personal favorites) Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.
I've been meaning to go to Grantchester for afternoon tea since I got here, but had never gotten around to it, so on Wednesday, three friends and I set out towards the Orchard after class. It's quite a nice walk; it takes about forty-five minutes, and the paths and trails run through some really gorgeous meadows.
Here we are arriving in Grantchester:
After that, it was only a short walk to the Orchard. It was really beautiful; lots of trees and wooden tables and lawn chairs- exactly the way you'd expect a tea garden to look! We went inside the Pavilion to order our tea and scones.
By the time we came back outside, it had begun to rain a bit, but we found a table under a big tree that sheltered us pretty well from the rain. Unfortunately, the Orchard had a bit of a bee problem, and almost immediately, we were set upon by a huge swarm of them. I'm really not exaggerating here- there were about twenty of them and they would not leave us alone! They were buzzing around and landing on our food.... we finally got fed up with it and decided to move into the Pavilion.
Bee incident aside, we had a very nice afternoon tea, and began heading back to Cambridge around 5:30. It was still raining a bit, but it was a nice, quintessential English afternoon- green, grey, and a bit drizzly....
And today, I decided to make a pilgrimage to a place I've been wanting to see for some time now:
The Abbey Road zebra crossing, home of Abbey Road studios and made famous by the cover of the Beatles' last album, Abbey Road (duh). I went with my friend Leah, who is really not a big Beatles fan at all- I mean, she is familiar with a lot of their more well-known work, but that's pretty much it. Let me put it this way: When I told her that I had listened to Abbey Road this morning in preparation for our trip, she said "How does that go again?" It's an album, dear, not a song.
Nonetheless, she was a very good sport and was designated photographer for the day, and I loved having her there with me- I wouldn't have wanted to go alone! We took the tube to St. John's Wood, and promptly encountered a Beatles themed coffee shop:
By this point, my excitement was definitely mounting, and once we hit the actual crosswalk, I was absolutely beside myself:
I couldn't believe I was actually standing there!!! Arguably the most famous crosswalk in the world... so cool! I immediately handed the camera to Leah and quite publicly expressed my excitement to the world:
Of course, we took about a million pictures (you know, those super cheesy ones where you pretend like you're walking)... I must have walked across there about ten times!
There's also a street cam that broadcasts a live video feed of the crosswalk 24 hours a day, and my roommate Caitlin (despite the fact that it was 3:15 am in California) woke up and got on the web to try and find me on the camera. I waved to her, and she said she saw me!!! She also took a bunch of screen shots for me... There we are in the center of the crosswalk (I'm wearing a reddish shirt and black tights and she's just to my right):
Forever immortalized on the internet!!! Just what I always wanted... Of course, after the crossing, I had to get my picture taken in front of the studio. I mean, just think about all of the incredible and historically significant music that has been recorded there!
Note the incredible amount of graffiti on that wall; the graffiti stretches on for at least one or two hundred feet along the wall, and has to be painted over EACH MONTH in order to make room for the newest tributes of the constantly-visiting fans. We saw some pretty cool stuff drawn on the walls:
I think my favorite is the Walrus! Of course, after admiring all of the art for a while....
...I decided it was time to add my own message! I'm glad I did it, but I'm a bit sad it'll only be there for a few weeks.
If you can't read it in the photo, it says "To the four boys who changed my life... All you need is love! Kimi, Aug 2011":
After Abbey Road, I had to make one more (much more obscure) Beatles-related stop: Marylebone train station!
I feel like Caitlin is probably the only person geeky enough to pick up on this, so I'll explain: Marylebone train station is where the opening scene of the Beatles' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night was filmed! The very opening of the movie shows John, George, and Ringo running up Boston Place, trying to escape a huge crowd of screaming girls who are chasing them (basically me and Caitlin in a past life). Boston Place runs up the side of the train station (I know Caitlin will recognize this):
The other reason that Caitlin and I love this scene so much is because as the three boys are running towards the camera, George trips and falls and faceplants into the pavement, and you can totally see John laughing at him.... Caitlin and I think it's just about the funniest thing ever filmed. Here I am sitting on the exact spot where George ate it:
What a great scene... and as the three of them try to escape the hoard of girls, they run into the train station, where Paul is sitting on a bench the platform, hiding behind a newspaper and wearing a fake moustache. It's such a silly scene, but it's so funny, and the station still looks exactly the same as it did in the film almost fifty years ago!
We had to get off the at the Baker Street Station in order to find Marylebone, so we decided to see Sherlock Holmes house before we headed back to Cambridge. For those who don't know, I have a special place in my heart for Sherlock Holmes because my favorite television character, Dr. House, is based on Sherlock Holmes. Not to mention, Robert Downey, Jr. was looking pretty fine in the most recent Holmes adaptation...
We found the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street- you can see the number over the door (in one of the many allusions to Holmes, Dr. House's apartment number is 221B... you can sometimes see it when he walks in the door):
We also stopped off at the big Beatles Store on our way back to the tube. The window displays were awesome and despite the number of Beatles-themed stores I've been in lately, I was pumped.
They had a lot of cool stuff, including a bunch of really old, rare memorabilia and some neat vintage jukeboxes and pinball machines:
Let's just say that someone who may or may not be having her birthday soon now has some presents!!! Caitlin, I really wanted to get you one of these:
The top one is her favorite picture of Paul, and the lower one is just him looking cute and talking on a rotary telephone in a field (don't question it), but BOTH of them are signed by the great Sir Paul himself.... I just really couldn't rally the twelve hundred pounds. Sorry, girl.
After that, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed back to Cambridge... all in all, a wonderful day!!
Geez, how do these posts always end up being so long?! I really try to keep them short and sweet, but I just have so much to say- and so many great pictures! Anyways, stay tuned for some last-hurrah posts... this week's gonna be a good one! Cheers!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment