Behold the beauty of Cambridge, courtesy of my Canon A80:
I was actually quite amazed at how these pictures turned out. They remind me of those old style postcards you can pick up at antique stores.
How’d you like to go to school here?
On Saturday, Saalim and I took the train up to Cambridge for the day. He went there for undergrad, so it was nice to actually be with someone that knew their way around the area (and could get onto the college campuses free of charge…believe it or not, they charge tourists admission to see the campuses!).
One of the activities we did was punting on the river Cam. Punting involves propelling a flat-bottomed boat with a long pole (the river isn’t very deep, so you shove the pole into the river bottom and push the boat that way…or something…it’s weird, yet cool).
This is punting:
This is me punting…it’s not as easy as it looks…I was really a horrible punter:
We managed to involve ourselves in “extreme punting” which involved grounding the punt on some cement fixture, traveling through some wild brush (quite Amazon-ish, really), and nearly impaling a swan with the punting pole.
It was nice to see Cambridge…I had one of those “Oh, so this is what it’s like to go to a university with a real campus (aka not a city)” moments…which soon vanished after realizing that I’ve gone to college in two of the greatest cities in the world. Besides, we could introduce punting to the LSE…I’m thinking on the Thames, with really long poles, and only when the tide is low. It could work…
More Cambridge pics here.
To continue with another swan story, today Taline and I went to Kensington Gardens. I purchased some bread to feed the ducks and swans with, but they did not seem very interested in my medium sliced white bread from the local convenience store. Taline yelled “They don’t want your cheap bread. These are British swans, you should have brought scones!” but I insisted on throwing bread at the swans. I balled up a large piece of bread and gave it my best baseball style pitch (in order to throw it out towards the swans farther out, you see) and ended up smacking one poor swan right on the head (a la “About a Boy”). The poor fellow was a bit dazed, and I’m pretty sure I gave him a concussion. Oh, well, I’m sure PETA will be after me soon enough.
From Ryan:
Those Cambridge pictures are great. They almost don’t look real. Can you send me the original sizes?
From Helen:
Hey, lindsay,
how r u? Do you still remember me? it’s really nice to see your pics in cambridge, they are amazing!!! Guess you must have a great time there!!! Cool!!! Keep in touch, mate!! =)
From tracy:
poor swans… what did they ever do to you?!?!?!
From Ehi Akinlade:
Would it be possible to use the jpeg titled “cambridge_river_punting_2.sized
I would like to use it as a header for a website for Traditional Punting Company, you may actually have been on one of their punts.
From Prof Shashi panikar:
Hi, These are wonderful pictures.Iam from India, Mumbai. I too like travelling and Cambridge is one of my favourite destinations.Some of your pictures look like paintings.
Your interest in former East Europian countries is also fascinating.If you think of visiting India ,you may contact.
Best of Luck!!