Sunday, June 8, 2014

Cambridge: Part 2

Today was (mostly) a free day!! I had a quick breakfast consisting of bananas and shortbread that I bought last night at the local co-op. We had a quick stop first at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. It was pretty cool; it was located inside a quad on Cambridge University's campus so that was awesome!! After we looked around a little (and after I did some sweet kids' puzzles), we walked across the quad to the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. This one was super cool--they had cases of artifacts from all different cultures all over the world! I love learning about other cultures so I really enjoyed this museum. 
For lunch, we went to the Eagle pub in Market Square. This was a hot spot for American soldiers in World War II, in one room they had written their names with their lighters on the ceiling and you can still see them!!
After lunch, I walked around Market Square and bought some really cool souvenirs!
Everyone decided that they then wanted to walk up to the park where Cambridge's annual Strawberry Festival was taking place! They also had a lot of cool vendors and shops. It's surprising to me to see how much Indian culture is still present on British society even though it has had its independence for nearly 65 years! Many of the vendors had an Indian style to them. Here's the strawberry tart I had:


On our way back from the festival, we walked back through another park where there was a game of cricket going on! We sat and watched for a while and munched on some snacks. The nine of us girls were lined up on the sideline watching the game and a little boy walked by with his mother and we overheard him say "That is quite a lot of ladies, mum." It was adorable!

Cricket in the park

Beautiful downtown Cambridge

After a late afternoon of relaxing in the hostel and doing some laundry, we headed to the co-op again for a quick, cheap dinner. It was fun to eat it in the big park on the grass with all of the girls and relax in the sun! (We're lucky to get some sun!!)
After dinner, one of the other girls and I went to see Maleficent at the movie theater. This was my first experience where I really felt like a local! Some things they do differently (at least at this theater in Cambridge):
1. They give you assigned seating in the theater
2. When you order popcorn, they ask if you want sweet or salty
3. They won't even seat you until the time your movie is supposed to start, then they wait until everybody is I'm the theater to start showing the commercials

That's it for today!! Sorry for the lack of pictures! Not a ton of things to see today, just experiences and stories!