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The second half of our weekend journey we got to visit the famous town of Cambridge. We left the hostel early and made our way to Waterloo Station where we were supposed to meet our group. Well, turns out Waterloo Station is conveniently right next to Leake Street. Leake Street is home to "The Tunnel", one of the last remaining legal street art areas in London. Graffiti. London. Bet you can guess what's coming next. Yupp... Banksy ((: In 2008, Banksy organized a "Cans Festival" to take place in this abandon tunnel. He invited 40 international artists to partake in the festival that thousands of people would attend. Banksy returned in 2010 and used The Tunnel as a site to premier his (amazing) street art documentary "Exit Trough the Gift Shop".
Even though I didn't have a lot of time before we were supposed to meet our group, I couldn't not go see this tunnel if I was so close. It definitely was a sight to see! Think that tunnel behind Anchor Park only times 20. It was awesome!!! Contrary to popular opinion, I think graffiti is definitely an art and takes talent to do. I was bummed because I didn't have nearly enough time to look at all the art ( ;) ) that was there. So this morning was just kind of a preview and I will definitely be revisiting the famous tunnel.
Pretty sure Cambridge is a sister school of Hogwarts. Lots of very old, gothic looking buildings with incredible architecture.
Dodging all the bikes (it's what all the smart-kids do), we made our way into the town. Cambridge is made up of about 30 different colleges, including the renowned King’s College. We could have ooh-ed and ahhh-ed at these magnificent buildings from the streets like any other tourist in any other town. However, we were study abroad students in Cambridge. Therefore, we ooh-ed and ahh-ed from a little different view. Just as Venice is known for its gondolas, Cambridge is known for its “punting”. Punting is the term given to taking a flat-bottomed boat down a river. Instead of using an oar like a gondola, the punter (the guy standing up at the end of the boat) uses a long wooden or metal pole. As you can guess, we got to go punting! This was definitely the way to see Cambridge. Simply gorgeous view looking up at all the different buildings from the river. Plus, our skilled punter Charlie, was able to tell us a little more about each of the colleges and the town in general. A couple tid-bits he told us that I found particularly noteworthy are A) Sir Isaac Newton discovered the speed of sound here and B) the River Cam has a bridge known as “The Bridge of Sighs” just like the one in Italy. Charlie joked that the bridge got its name because it connects the students with their dorms and their classrooms. C
After our punting outing, we got to tour the inside of King’s College. This is an olddddd building. As in King Henry VI laid the corner stone in 1441 old. Throughout the college, you see many emblems representing the House of Tudor. The Portcullis and the Greyhound (badge of the Beaufort family aka Henry VII’s mom), the Tudor Rose (incorporating the red rose of the House of Landcaster and the white rose of the House of York), the Coat of Arms, and the Dragon of Cadwallader (Wales. Represents the Tudor family of Henry VII’s father). Pretty spiffy place for sure.
We had free time for the rest of the afternoon. There was a local market going on so walked around that for a while trying some delicious free samples, browsing through all the different artworks, and even stopping to smell the roses ;) Of course no market would be complete without local musicians! Ahh man… I have just been in heaven with all this live music everywhere! Listened to a “one boy band”, a 16 year old named Tom Korni who drew me in with one of the most amazing covers of Snow Patrol I’ve ever heard. The fact that Tom was the winner of “Cambridge has Talent”, “Cambridge Street Performers” and “Buskers Festival” does not surprise me one bit. This kid was incredible. He doesn’t use a looper at all but is still able to create a whole band sound. Definitely worth checking him out. Here, I’ll even make it easy for you: http://www.tomkorni.com/ or he’s on YouTube and Facebook too (:
Just down the road was another young aspiring musician. A little boy probably about 10 or 11 was out on the street modestly sharing his excellent violin skills. He was honestly really good! Especially for being so young. When I put money in his case and told him “Good job! Keep it up!” His face turned about 50 shades of red. He was absolutely adorable (:
K, one more then I’m done. While we were walking down another street, our ears perked up to a beautiful voice coming from around the corner. We followed it to find yet another musician jammin out sharing his passion with all those who pass by. This guy was about my age and drum roll… his name was William!! (For those of you who don’t know, I kept joking that I was going to find my future husband over here and his name was going to be William ;P ) I suppose his name alone would have been enough to make me want to listen to him ;P but he did have a very sweet, enticing, acoustic sound. Also worth giving him a listen http://www.willrobert.com/ Ended up buying a CD from him (couldn’t help it). I still had that sharpie from Rudy William and the Heavy Weather the other day in Canterbury, so I had him sign his CD for me too. This definitely made his day haha he got so smiley and told me that people don’t really ask for his autograph. I guess I just like making people feel like rock stars (:
Returned to London and then made our journey back to Canterbury to end the incredible weekend.
Woof-da. Thanks for reading!
Keep Calm and Punt On.
Cheers!!
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