De Madrid al cielo

I am back in town!

After a year around the world I finally get to spend a couple of weeks in my home country Spain! You will hear more from this wonderful place during the next days! Stay tuned! :)

Rock and Roll (literally)

A very fascinating landscape we saw during our Ireland trip was the Burren. It's a region in the West of the island that is covered in karst, like this:

It's mainly made out of limestone and it is such a special environment, that it hosts arctic, Mediterranean and alpine plants all together. 

As you can see in the picture above, the valleys are green and farmed by the owners of the grounds. The top of the hills are covered in the karst (you can see the beginning in the lower and the upper right side of the picture). The small rock walls were built from the stones in the Burren and, according to our guide, this was one of the strategies of the English to keep the Irish busy. 

On top of one of the hills there was this wishing tree. If you tie something to it while wishing something it becomes true (kind of reminds me of the wishing tree in Singapore where you had to throw the coins). :)

The stone formations are really amazing!!

Very diverse landscapes. Good job, Eire!

Tenth College: Darwin College

I know I am a bit behind on the College challenge, BUT since I will be on this island for another year I can come back to Cambridge in case I don't manage to see all of the Colleges in the days I have left...

More good news: today I'll show you one of the Colleges I grew to love the most. A very good friend of mine is a student there which is why I have spent quite some time on its grounds! I give you:

Darwin College!

A very cool thing about Darwin College is the fact that it has an island (with a cute little bridge to cross over). Also the river you can see on the picture ends at one of the punting stations, so people can punt around the island as well.

I assumed that this college was one of the old batch, but 'tis not so! Darwin College was founded in 1976 by no other than the three colleges Gonville and Caius, St' Johns and Trinity and named after one of Cambridge's most famous alumni: Charles Darwin.

Part of the land conveniently belonged to the Darwin family already, so I can see where the name is coming from (not that these theories Darwin was formulating were reason enough to name anything after him, of course...). Darwin College is the first graduate-only college and also the first one to accept both male and female students (at this point I want to add that female students were not regarded as full university members until 1948!! I am in shock! And this is not even that bad! Harvard only accepted women from 1977 on. I would have never guessed that it was that late!)

The island has a very nice path above the water - it's like going on an adventure!

One of the coolest features this college has to offer are the incredibly fancy interior decorations. The room above is where we very casually had tea after lunch once. Does it not look great?

And it's mostly like that (from what I have seen). This is where I was waiting for my friend the other day reading the paper:

In this college you don't feel like a knight (like at King's and co.), you feel like a Sir! 

I'm back!

And this time I don't have any travel excuse!

I know it has been a while, but things have been quite crazy lately! Good news: my next destination is confirmed now. I will be staying in London for the next year doing my Master's at Imperial College so you'll read about this city starting October. Whoop!

Also, the count-down is on! I have a week left here (pretty much exactly) before I fly back to Spain (I will finally be able to include some pictures with the sun here...). So lots of stress packing and preparing... the time here has gone by so fast! A lot of people are leaving apart from me and I have to make the most of the little time I have left with them.

I know I cannot completely make up for the neglect but I hope this picture helps:

Just when you thought you had seen it all...

Ninth College: Murray Edwards College

Ok, the title already gives it away, but had it not been for the great tradition of counting the Colleges I would have shown you this picture and let you guess what this is:

You have to admit, that the last thing on your mind would have been a College (after all the Hogwarts pictures I showed you, you should know better!). 

Welcome to Murray Edwards!

Murray Edwards is one of the few colleges in Cambridge that only admits women. It was founded in 1954 (what? The incredibly baroque buildings are not from the 16th century?) and initially called New Hall. Although I am not too much of a fan of the new colleges and their architecture I like the entrance of this one with the palms (that photo could have been taken in Singapore!).

This building is a bit bizarre, to be honest:

I guess the weirdest thing was the fact that it was so empty! In the older colleges you expect to be all by yourself in those huge castles, but here you'd think people should be around, right?

The thing I enjoyed the most about this college was the fact that it was very luminous. Some of the other modern colleges are much darker (seriously why, WHY did they pick the fifties out of all times to build the new colleges, where everyone was thinking they had to be so innovative and unesthetic!). Anyways... they also had a lot of art going on there with pictures and sculptures decorating all the hallways (way to go!).

Stepping out into the garden actually reminded you of the fact that you were still in Cambridge and seeing the terrace already gave you the urge of having some tea...

This college could actually be the set of some futuristic movie. I can totally see the villain fighting the hero on the roof of what clearly is his his observatory in the picture above. 

All in one interesting College! 

Also, we almost cleared a third of the colleges, yeah!

Back in the jungle

Although England is a pretty green country, after coming from Singapore this looked like a desert to me (when I went to Madrid the last time I really could not believe how dry it was and it never caught my attention!). There is one little spot where I can get my old Singapore back though. Welcome to the Conservatoire of the Botanical Gardens!

One of the coolest plants there is this one:

It is actually incredibly thick! I was very tempted to try whether it could hold me or not, but there was a second half of a concert that I had to attend so I rather wanted to stay dry...

This was a very climber-friendly tree. I wonder what it has up there that it wants to protect so badly. Pots of gold?

This is basically what my way to work looked like back on the Island, lah! The most disappointing part of going to the lab now is not the lack of plants, though, but clearly the lack of monkeys!

Dublin's Cathedral 1

Dublin is not such a huge place.. and yet it is one of the very few cities in the world that has TWO cathedrals. One of them is Christ Church Cathedral and the other is St. Patrick's Cathedral. The latter is the biggest church in Ireland and quite beautiful:

The windows are beautiful! (more pictures to come)

Luckily they were having some choir practice when we were visiting which created a much cooler atmosphere.

The floor was incredibly complex. It's actually a pity that most people won't even look down after someone has pretty much spent his life on that...

A detail I liked were the pillows that were hanging from the chairs (for kneeling down, I assumed...). They were not only quite cute, but also all different! 

The promised windows (aren't they incredible?!):

Some of the flags there had not been changed in a couple of days/centuries...

Long post with many pictures and little words, but I really need to get to bed! To wrap it up I give you what I assume is the Stairway to Heaven:

Good night!

Eighth College: Gonville and Caius College

I never really perceived Gonville and Caius (or just Caius as they call it here) as a college. I think the main reason is its proximity to King's College and the fact that it is located at the beginning of the old town center. This is also the cause for us not finding the door and literally walking around it twice, before getting in (we'd still be there if a guy had not just walked out the door the moment we were passing it).

It is impressive how you never expect these huge lawns behind the walls. I have actually walked quite often on the street that is on the other side of the gate on the picture above and it's such a tiny alley that you'd rather expect the wall to be the back of some small shop...

Caius is the 4th oldest college and apparently pretty wealthy. Due to it's super central location the lawn part is not as interminable as Jesus College for example, but it is till surprisingly big.

Of course they have their beautiful chapel (who doesn't, duh!).

Ok, I took this picture because I liked the architecture and did not know that the guy was an important English academic named Stephen Perse. As a matter of fact, Caius has a lot of famous alumni such as: Francis Crick (the guy from the DNA structure), John Venn (the one from the Venn diagrams (surprise!)), Sir James Chadwick (Discoverer of the Neutron) and Stephen Hawking (who is a fellow there, not an actual alumni). Not too bad...

At first I thought that they were making publicity for Chanel (just like the street lamps in London) but then I noticed it was a C and a G.Clever..

Ok, one last thing about Caius. Yes, caius. Are you reading it? CAIUS!

Well, chances are you are not pronouncing it right in your head (or aloud if you are reading this out for some reason). The name is (inexplicably) pronounced like the word "keys". So it's Gonville and keys.This is a classic "We don't care how you spell it, let's say it this way"-case of the English language. A guy told me on the street that John Caius was born John Kays and changed his name to Caius to sound latin (who does not want that). But apparently he insisted on the old pronunciation (which is kind of cheating, you either change your name or you don't) so this is why everyone is mispronouncing it, but I still do and always will pronounce it "Kah-ee-ouz", because there are things that one can simply not get away with...

Pose like there is no tomorrow

Dublin is full of statues and sculptures of all kinds of things which makes posing like a real tourist much easier (not to mention more entertaining) than buildings or landscapes. Here are some of my favorite monuments:

Of course the first statue is the one of Éire, the matron goddess of Ireland. Although she seems to be quite an important Gaelic goddess, after very extensive research there is not much information about her on Wikipedia. So far I know that she was daughter of Ernmas and therefore one of the Tuatha Dé Dannan and her sisters were called Banba and Fódla. Yes, most of the Asian people I have met had easier names.

The statue is really beautiful and expressive, which is why it is one of my favorites. In case you are looking for it it is located in the Merrion Square Park. 

I am starting to regret that I am not an Irish citizen, because from what I have seen as good as everyone can get a monument there. The picture above shows Molly Malone a fictional character from the song with the same name. At some point people started claiming that she did exist and there is still a debate going on about whether street-hawkering (totally a word) was her only occupation or wether she had another job during the night as well. Be as it may, the Dublin Millenium Commission found a girl with the same name that died on the 13th of June, which is why this now officially the Molly Malone day and therefore one more reason to celebrate. In case you were wondering where all of this hype about this woman is coming from, apparently the song has become the unofficial anthem of the city over the years and is therefore a big part of their culture. The more you know...

A more chaste figure is St. Patrick the primary patron Saint of this country. As you all read my post containing explanations about the St. Patrick's cathedral I don't need to tell you how much he baptized everyone and all of that...

At the Guinness museum you had many opportunities to satisfy your inner tourist by posing with all kids of interactive exhibits. This guy is from the famous advertising where he is running away from a lion. In this case it's me fleeing from more alcohol...

This statue was in the basement of (I want to say...) Christ Church Cathedral. I am not sure it is famous or meaningful, I just enjoyed the admiring look of the girl to the incredible piece of eye-candy on the right.

Here you can see me hanging out again with my buddy Oscar. This is the statue that has his quotes on some pillars next to it and you can find it on Merrion Square Park, where you can also find... 

...this throne! From what I have read it is there to commemorate Dermot John Morgan, an Irish comedian and actor (EVERYONE gets their own monument here!). I this case I am just showing you what a great queen of the world I would give (just saying...). 

Definitely a lot to see around Dublin!

Some more ethanol

After this post you might be getting the impression that we have some kind of alcohol problem especially considering older Ireland posts, but I have to assure you, it is the Irish' fault, not ours! It's their idea to build half of their tourism around alcohol, we just did our job visiting all the important attractions of the city. Now that this is clear, I give you:

The Jameson distillery museum!  

Unlike the Guinness Brewery the actual factory is not located in Dublin anymore, but somewhere else in Ireland (that is probably less expensive than the MIDDLE of the capital...). How cool is the lamp in the picture above, by the way? (and if you are enough of an alcoholic or have a couple of years you can make one yourself!).

The exposition was quite interesting. They showed how the distillery worked back in the day and even had an entertaining (and unexpectedly well done) video about it.

Of course the also explained how they produce the whiskey today. Since I tend not to have a clue about the different kinds of alcohol, this was quite instructive for me (We learned about the varying types of whiskey and why they taste and look different).

.At the end of the tour I even obtained a certificate as qualified Irish whiskey taster, which is more that I ever expected to get as a non-drinker... Good night!

Seventh College: Emmanuel College

Yay, another college! 

After my tour last weekend I have to keep them coming one after another in order to win my challenge. This time I'll show you:

 Emmanuel college!

 Emmanuel College is actually one of my favorites so far (the fact that they had a free bouncy-castle in their gardens once might have influenced this opinion to some extend). Another reason is that it is not too famous (like King's is) and yet not only really beautiful but also one of the best colleges. The fact that it always scores best in the Tompkins Table (apparently this is a thing they do here where they compare the average of all the students' grades and see which college has the smartest kids (I am not making this up... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tompkins_Table)) has some people calling it the Ravenclaw college (this one of the many funny Harry Potter analogies here).

In the upper picture you can see a very British phenomenon. I have put no filter or anything, that is the actual color of the grass. This is what happens when it does not rain EVERY SINGLE DAY for a couple of days. Having more precipitation than... (nothing to compare here since the UK is pretty much as bad as it gets in terms of rain...) ... everyone, these people probably don't even know what a sprinkler looks like. So whenever it gets hot for a week everything dries out. But don't you worry, these people take it very chilled, I have heard people saying we just need to wait for the next rain and everything will be fine again. Seems fairly easy to me.

The dining hall is really cute in this college. While usually they tend to be rather dark and sinister (and yet very impressive) this one is happy and classy (except for the paintings, can they be any darker, please?).

The chapel is very cute as well:

Nothing incredibly spectacular (after seeing what feels like 1000 college chapels...) but instead they have this:

It is the most amazing tree I have ever seen in my life!! Really. And you cannot tell how awesome it is from the picture, but the branches go all the way to the floor and then up again and when you are inside it's like you are in a huge dome of leaves and happiness! Unfortunately you are not allowed to climb on them though :(

Another big plus of Emmanuel College is its fancy swimming pool. From what I heard it is actually pretty cold but I still want to jump in some day (the problem is you need an Emmanuel Student to go there and, damn, those people are busy!)

They have a small lake with ducks and cute houses everywhere so a very nice atmosphere. 

10 points for Ravenclaw!