By Lucia Allen, News Correspondent
If I were to mention Cambridge to someone from Massachusetts, I would not be surprised if the initial images that came into their mind would be of the Charles River, Harvard University and a few cobblestone and brick walkways. But what I am referencing is Cambridge, England, parent city to its considerably younger namesake. The British enclave is filled with narrow cobblestone streets and is home to the 801-year-old prestigious university.
I spent last July and August studying at the University of Cambridge’s international summer school program. The first thing I noticed when I entered the college town was how much it still resembled an “Old World” city. I walked alongside compact cars that seemed to be driving on the wrong side of the road and took in the unbelievable sites of castle-and cathedral-like buildings that students were still allowed to use as dormitories and dining halls.
Students fill the city all academic year until tourists arrive in the summer. Generally, Cambridge citizens resemble Americans in look and habit, though many more of them are dressed smartly, take more time more for meals and, of course, have an English accent.
The town is as walkable as Boston, and filled with small, personalized shops and eateries, with a few places for non-English foods, with most of these buildings’ architecture resembling that of medieval England.
A fantastic place for a full, traditional English breakfast is Auntie’s Tea Shop. For £8 ($12.71) you can have service for two, which includes a pot of English tea, three-egg salad and watercress sandwiches, scones, one plain and one raisin, with jam and clotted cream (an English dairy product which can be compared to a mixture of cream and butter.) Diners have the option of sitting inside or out, and the service is friendly and attentive.
Each of the university colleges has its own student pub with reduced price drinks, like a glass of white wine for £1.50 ($2.38). There are also several pubs off-campus. I mostly went to two pubs – The Eagle and Bath House – but preferred the latter. Bath House was where I watched the World Cup; it was perfect for a burger and fries and a glass of traditional English cider, like Strongbow, for a decent price. For fish and chips, I favored another pub called The Anchor, which also offered more traditional foods like Yorkshire pudding.
One more traditional must-have dish when studying in the UK is the English pasty, a type of meat-filled turnover. The best place I found for these was West Cornwall Pasty Company, where there’s a large menu featuring a variety of pasties, along with the traditional pasty with beef and vegetables.
For fun at night, my friends and I would go to bars and clubs, because in Cambridge all the pubs have last call at 10:45 p.m. One of my favorites was Fez, which had a high cover charge of about £10 ($15.89), but themed music nights that made up for it. I also liked Soul Tree, which was £5 ($7.94) with a student ID, and had a more American range of music, as well as a two-story place called The Regal. A good bar to go to with better (and sometimes cheaper) drinks than the club venues was Ta Bouche. The bartenders are friendly, attentive and quick. I always had ample room to sit inside or stand outside with my drink and talk.
Traditional partying is not the only way to have fun in Cambridge. It is an absolute must that any visitor of Cambridge should go punting on a flat-bottomed boat down the River Cam, which allows for an amazing view of the architecture of Cambridge, up close. The daring adventurers can also dive into the river. Cambridge also offers many museums like the archaeology and anthropology museum at University of Cambridge and the more famous Fitzwilliam Museum, which holds historical art and other antiques.
Cambridge is picturesque, with seemingly impossible sights like a lawn being grazed by descendants of the original French cows brought to England by Henry VIII to feed the English people, and more domestic sights like ice cream carts dotted throughout the town for tourists and students alike. It was a beautiful experience, and if anyone ever became tired of the Canterbury Tales-like town, it was only a 45-minute train ride to London.
