Greetings, England- Day 23: Cambridge and the Botanic Garden

So, today is another day of intensive walking and adventure! Who's up to some trekking? Me, myself, and I, apparently!

I was woken up by my host dad at eight in the morning. We had breakfast, I changed, and he took me to the nearest bus station around their house in Milton Keynes. I am going to Cambridge!!!

Now, for sure there would not be enough time to get to know everything, but I tried.

The bus I took was Stagecoach X5, and it took more than two hours to get to Cambridge. I was mostly phubbing, occasionally glancing out the window. I didn't dare to sleep, or I might just miss the station I was planning to get off, like on the MRTs of Taiwan. Sitting up straight was undeniably a hard task. My back hurt! 

The views on the way, on the bus

Summer Common

 I got off around a place called the Summer Common, which is a small area of fields with small paths for pedestrians and bikers. Passing the Wesley Methodist Church, I plotted my way into the center of Cambridge, taking pictures of houses and fields along the way. It was a cool thing, to see that every part of England has their own characteristics when it comes to building. Maybe not that distinguishable, but harmonious as every build share the same radiating hospitable atmosphere.

This is the Wesley Methodist Church

Street view

For me, on a trip like this, it is always more enjoyable when I go alone. It is not that I try to avoid interaction between humans, but a considerable number of pros come to mind when I hear the phrase "traveling alone." Firstly, the incredible flexibility of the schedule. Being alone, the only person you need to look out for is yourself; second, you can go as unplanned as I am, for where you are going to is up to your decision at the moment; and also, you can walk around for twenty minutes, looking for a botanic garden just because you certainly can’t read the map, with only yourself to deal with. Yes. Details later.

England is a nice place for park lovers

It is hard not to relax right here.

At first, I wanted to get closer to the center, where I believed would be more crowded. I walked across another park called the Crist’s Piece. With the small nimble garden in the center, it brought some park lovers around and the sight of people delving into leisure mode was certainly a relaxing sight.

Next to the Christ’s Piece was the Christ’s College, where the school asked for no admission. I walked inside and find it crowded with a lot of tourists, one of them was standing on the lawn, and getting his photo taken. It was a piece of lawn that had the sign with “do not step on the lawn” on it! I wasn’t quite sure which word he did not understand, so with a disgruntled sigh, I continued down the path.

Entrance lawn

Small map of the college

It was a beautiful college! Green with a wide variety of plants, flourishing and in order, which obviously had been under perceptive care; the other corners of the buildings were quiet, otherwise, and on the paths had people with luggage cases, possibly checking out their future campus. Maybe it was that I had never cared enough to notice, but it seemed like the colleges in England are more of attraction than that of Taiwan. I know that we have our beautiful NTU, but that is all! In England, simply a tour of the colleges and the universities can take you days or even weeks! Maybe when I get back to Taiwan (which is soon), I could go to NTU for a visit to see if I would have any different thoughts on it.

Plant life growing.

Dining hall

I got out of the Christ’s College, and I found myself in a much noisier place. With all the guiding tours and the students from summer courses in Cambridge, I could see that Cambridge is a much crowded and more visited place comparing to Oxford. Not that this is entirely a good thing. Sometimes, when touring, a peace of mind is really important. Anyway, all the thoughts vanished as soon as I came across a Waterstones bookshop. “NO! No more books! You have bought enough alre...”

“What did you say? Enough? There is no such thing as enough books in this world!”

My mind roared in two different voices when I paid for two books.

…

On my defense, one of the books was on clearance and cost only one pound!

But the other book was a hard back so it got kind of… balanced.

To buy or not to buy, that is the question.

*cough*

When I got out of the bookstore, it was raining hard. I was suddenly glad that my host dad had lent me the umbrella on his car. I was about to take out my map to see if there are any place I could go next, a vacant feeling rumbled in my stomach. I went to a restaurant next door, called Itsu, which offered cuisine around Asia, especially Japanese. I ordered a Thai-styled rice (given that Thai food is my favorite, it wasn’t hard to choose) and a can of Belvoir Elderflower carbonated drink (my favorite drink in England, along with Dr. Pepper) and dug in. An economic choice, and wasn’t half bad to eat!

In the restaurant, I saw the rain kept going on and off like a light switch, and took out my map inside the restaurant, wanting to first find my next destination. 

Walking around in the rain

I like the buildings here.

It was the Cambridge University Botanic Garden that caught my eye. Since I didn’t get to visit the plant land (unofficial language) in Oxford, I HAD to take a look at this one in Cambridge. Just as what I was used to doing when I want to find a destination. I went to Google Map for directions. I followed the path. On the way, I came across the Cambridge Press Bookstore and… went inside for a free test of English proficiency. The regular one wasn’t that hard, and I got a full point on it. For a more challenging one, I took the one designed for business English. I got a 20 out of 25, and I know I have to work on that. 

Street performance

I kept on going with the directions provided by Google, took a left and turned into a small alley and ended up facing a locked gate in front of me. Through the gate, I could see the botanic garden, so I was sure this is the place. I was confused, so I took the directory of the garden, which was placed near to the gate and checked if it was open at the time. It was! But how…

The trees next to the gate

I paced around in the alley and fumbling with my phone to look for an alternate route. I walked deeper into the alley with no harvest. After twenty minutes, I gave up, thinking that it just wasn’t my time. Maybe I should just visit the art museum I saw on my way. It didn’t sound bad, anyway.

But that was the moment when I saw two young ladies riding their bikes and turned into where the gate that blocked me from going in. (p.s. I did consider about climbing the gates, but it was good that I did not put the idea into practice.) Without further pondering, I went over and asked if they are going to the botanic garden and if they knew the way over. They said yes, and I was so happy! I told them how I was wandering about and was about to leave when they led me out of the alley…

And the entrance was just on the left-hand side. I didn’t see it because I was following the directions the Internet provided me with.

Moral of the story? Don’t entirely trust the Internet, even if it were Google.

Finally got inside (grunt)

(I used the original size for this picture)

The admission fee for the garden was five pounds fifty pence. I got a map and directory, then head straight into a place with over 8000 species of plants, according to the directory at the back of the map. The sun was shining down, blazing its golden light down on the world for the first thirty minutes in the garden, barely enough for me when I get from the Lynch Walk, through the Henslow Walk, through the Gilbert Carter Woodland (number 13), across the Middle Walk, and into the Cory Lawn, where the Dry Garden (number 17) was located in.

All the colors in the garden form a beautiful aspect to enjoy life.

It was a nice, beautiful garden, with lively plants flooding the lawns. Along the paths, there were a lot of trees that had branches that had grown too low that even a child could get hit. It was not a problem for me though. In my opinion, it simply showed the vitality a plant can demonstrate.

It started raining soon after I had marveled the aviating scent of the lavenders planted in the area, with all the bees droning and landing on the flowers. With the umbrella in my hand, I kept on with my tour, knowing that watching flowers in the rain was also as enjoyable as doing so in the sun. I left the botanic garden around four thirty and that was the end of my tour in Cambridge. I would love to stay longer, but the schedule of the bus I took had other ideas. 

The last bus I could take back here to Milton Keynes was at 18:40, and I didn’t want to take the risk of missing the last bus. I was about a mile away, from the garden to the bus stop, and when I got to the stop, I saw that the next bus was merely four minutes away! Delighted at a thirty-minute wait wasn’t needed, I asked the bus driver if the bus went all the way to Milton Keynes.

… In a story, this was pretty much the point when you should wait for another shoe to drop.

“No,” said the driver with a curt shake of his head. “Take the next one.”

So, I waited for another thirty minutes, and who can blame anyone?

I certainly had a nice time in Cambridge, and I know that given enough time, I would be as emotionally attached to this place as I am now to Oxford.

Tomorrow would be another adventure. I will take the national railway to London, and with the one-day ticket for the underground system. There would be many stops to go. For now, I have decided that my trip would start from the British Museum, and for the others I think I might as well improvise on the way.

This is all.