It has been a quiet past few days here in Cambridge aside from all of the tourists (I can't complain...I personally consider myself a tourist as well). When really interesting things don't happen, sometimes it is difficult to find something "blog-worthy" but I'll do my best. :-)

So I guess the picture below is just a picture to show how nice of a town Cambridge is. It's really walkable, has lots of old buildings and neat things around every corner. In fact, I think Cambridge has more to do and see than Edinburgh did. You can tell it wasn't a planned city, what with all of the winding streets and alleyways. But, as my new Swedish business lady friend reminded me this morning - "Very few towns and cities in Europe were planned." I'll get to the Swedish business lady friend later.

King's College (where I'm studying and staying) is unique in Cambridge for a few reasons:

1. It has the King's College Chapel (I have included pictures further down in this post) which is world renowned because it is a cathedral-sized chapel from the 1400's, and one of very few religious buildings in England with original stained glass, since most cathedrals and churches in England were cleansed of their artwork and stained glass when Henry VIII separated England from the Catholic Church in the 1500s. In short, people come from all over to see this chapel. It's the building on every postcard from Cambridge..
2. Because of the King's College Chapel, tourists are constantly trying to sneak into the college grounds...which means the full time staff at King's College that is in charge of keeping tourists out really has their hands full. Tourists are everywhere...like when I open the big gate to exit the college into the town, there are at least 5 tourists with their huge Nikon cameras waiting to snap a picture of what lies inside the gate. It's actually a bit funny.
3. King's is right on the River Cam. A few other colleges in Cambridge University are also on the river, but King's has the most picturesque riverfront property.
4. There are fun farm animals in King's College. I kid you not. Fun farm animals. In Cambridge. There are two bulls inside one of the fenced fields. I asked the porter what the story behind the bulls being in King's College is, and he said there's an old statute that says there must be bulls on the back fields for part of the year. I can't ever tell when the porters are lying or telling the truth, but that sounds pretty cool either way. There are also lots of swans in King's that stay on the river. The funny thing about swans in the UK is that they are all property of the Queen. So you can't really do much to the swans. As my fiance and I were chilling on the side of the river the other night, a swan swam up to a group of people in a canoe rowing by and began to hiss at them. Swans are big creatures, and could probably hurt someone, or at least scare them. So when I got back to my room, I googled a bit and found that there was a swan in Cambridge up until 2012 (they clipped his wings and moved him far away so he couldn't return) that viciously attacked rowers on the river in Cambridge. The Cambridge University rowing team had to formally appeal to have him removed from the river. It's really quite hilarious, and you can google him to see the stories BBC and The Guardian wrote about him. His name is Mr. ASBO. I think it stands for something like "Anti-Social Behavioral Disorder." 

On a different note, there is a round church in Cambridge, and it is from the 1100s. Wikipedia says it was built by the Knights Templar, and it sounds cool so I'll just go along with it. It is really from the 1100s though, and it's really neat. 

And this next picture is the organ and vaulting of King's College Chapel. It really is a beautiful building, inside and out. I can't imagine people building this in the 1400's. 

And again I must mention another beautiful pillar box (postal drop box) that I think is note-worthy... it is a penfold type pillar box from Queen Victoria's reign(you can see her monogram on the lower part of the pillar box), and it is just outside the King's College gate. This one is actually original, whereas the one I posted a picture of in Edinburgh was an imposter/replica from the 1980's. I love the postal services of the US and other countries, and think the neat things about the postal services should be shared. :-)

On a side note, you can see one of the many signs displaying what people cannot do in King's College behind the pillar box to the left. You can't ride a bike, bring your dog, radio, have picnic or smoke in King's. And there are plenty of other things you can't do in King's. They basically tell you what you can do upon arrival. 

So about the Swedish business lady friend. Well, this morning I went to find my fiance in the dining hall since she bought her breakfast a few minutes before I did, and when I went to sit down, there was a girl/lady (that age where you don't really know whether to classify them as a girl or lady...say 25?) sitting with my fiance. After introducing myself, I found out she was on business here in Cambridge and she had asked my fiance if she could sit with her because she "doesn't like eating alone." I agree with her, I absolutely hate eating alone. So I was happy to have her join us. We chatted for a while, and I found out she was from northern Sweden, like 150 km north of Stockholm. Anyways, she was nice and my fiance and I were happy to share a meal with her. 

Also, last night I walked in to a tea/coffee shop with my fiance to grab a cup of coffee, and she was wearing her University of Georgia shirt. Some older man, of course clad in a fisherman shirt and fisherman pants like someone would only find in Bass Pro Shops, says "Now don't come over here and start talking like you're from Georgia" in the thickest southern accent as he smiled. So we chatted for a bit, and found out he is travelling around the UK with his wife, and they are from Rabun County, up in the northeastern corner of Georgia. It was quite amusing that I ran into someone from north Georgia in a tiny coffee shop in Cambridge, UK.