Conference in Cambridge

On the 20th of February 2008, Paksu and Kakcik went to Cambridge. Paksu has a conference there where he presents a paper about metamodel. We arrive in Cambridge evening of the Friday the 20th. It is a very long journey, about 5 hours. From Lancaster we took a train to London Euston. From there we took a tube to London King Cross and take another train from King Cross to Cambridge.
On arrival we straight away went to dinner on Sweet & Spicy Restaurant on Mill Road. Mill Road is a road full of shops and restaurants for eastern people. There are more shops that sells asian and middle eastern food product than product of UK or Europe. The best part of all, they have halal restaurant. For a muslim that comes from part of UK that doesn't sell Halal meat, Cambridge is paradise.
We stay at Felix Hotel which is a very nice hotel not to far away from the conference venue. Also staying at Felix are two of Paksu's friend, Leeni and Emy.

Paksu's presentation is on Saturday the 21'st of February while Leeni on the 22nd and Emy on the 23rd. Besides attending the conference Paksu, Kakcik, Leeni and Emy also went to sighseeing around Cambridge. Cambridge city is built around the Cambridge University. The university itself is part of the city or should i say the city is part of university.

The main attraction to the city are the historical colleges of the university. Some of the famous ones are Kings College, St John College, and Trinity College. They all have monumental building that show the greatness of the architect at the time. We also take a boad ride (punting) along the river in the middle of the city. The river run along the colleges and the tour guide tells us the weird and interesting stories that happen around the colleges. Like any other universities that are hundred years of age (Cambridge is celebrating its 800 years old birthday) they have a lot of weird traditions and tales.



One thing that is interesting to Paksu is how the colleges are manage. Unlike any other University that Paksu has been to or visited, none of them allow their colleges to manage their own wealth. Colleges in Cambridge manages their own wealth; some of them are rich and owns properties and lands all over UK.

The trip to Cambridge is fun but it does not last long. Paksu and Kakcik went back to Lancaster on the 23rd. We went back the same way and we took a train in the morning. After enduring the beautiful city of Cambridge and the terrible weather, Paksu got a fever and a flu.