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Cambridge, the Precocious Little TeenagerStory and Photos by Sascha Stokes
"You don’t live here to be normal" my opposite outside Peet’s Cafe answers my obviously puzzled expression. He ponders the meaning of life for a few fleeting seconds and then dashes off into the ever-heaving potpourri of Harvard Square. Adorable Chaos
Harvard Square pulsates. It smells of 1000 different perfumes and after-shaves, of traffic jams and café lattes, of breakfast muffins, dusty bookstores and yesterday’s fresh air. It tears at my nerves and intoxicates. It consumes and demands. It invites and shows off. Yes, it flexes its muscles and plays off its larger than life ego right in my face! Tranquil Sophistication Catching my breath under the Great Hunger Monument in the green oasis of Cambridge Common, I digest my food for thought. It is quiet here and the graceful red brick buildings of Harvard University radiate an air of calm and wisdom. I am just here because the most on-the beaten path of Cambridge has pushed me out. The bearded man on the park bench looks as if he is always here. He feeds the pigeons. A variety of young men are here to run off last night’s pizza. It is peaceful enough to read a book here on Cambridge Common, 500 endless yards away from manic Harvard Square. Books here make a point of reminding the visitor that they are an essential and integral part of the Cambridge fabric, anyway. Bookstores come in quirky superlatives around Harvard; a record number of books in the smallest place possible for example. Golier Poetry Book Shop at 6 Plympton Street is such a case where a good 15000 titles fight for fresh air in the space of a walk-in café. Then there is The Globe Corner Bookstore with the best collection of travel-related literature and maps I have ever come across. Of course, space or rather the lack of it is also a factor here. In fact, this bookstore is a little Harvard Square microcosm. It is loud in the visual sense, a little chaotic because of the shortage of shelf space in relation to the number of books, a tiny bit dusty in a way good bookshops ought to be and certainly has a lot of attitude. I browse through the store and travel from Siberia to a Safari in Namibia within the space of an hour. This is very Cambridge, this is the world condensed within a few yards to my left and right. On the Edge There it flows, glittering in the evening sun, completely oblivious to that larger than life teenager south of its banks. I share a park bench with Jason here on the immaculately kept strip of green at Memorial Drive. Jason knows a thing or two about Cambridge. He has lived here for six years somewhere between waiting jobs and university courses and tells me that he probably wouldn’t ever want to leave, or maybe only once he has a family. Cambridge to him is the sort of place he has to escape from ever so often because it is "ever so slightly exhausting". For some miraculous reason he cannot stop himself from getting back to it, though. Apparently, it is all a bit like an all-consuming love affair; too hot to handle, too addictive to leave. Jason resorts to digging his heel into the gravel and adds: "I somehow have Cambridge under my skin." I fully understand. How could I possibly not understand after sampling this charming eccentricity? We look at Boston on the other side of the river as if Boston could help us to pinpoint the essence of Cambridge. The skyline of Boston smiles back, confident it will keep that rebellious little neighbour in check for quite a few more years. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Visitor
Information Flights to Boston Logan,
MA Best way to get to Cambridge: Take the ‘T’ (Underground) to Harvard Square, taking the Red Line Boston Logan International Airport is linked to the underground system. Author’s favourite dining with music: The Original House of Blues, www.hob.com/cambridge, 96 Withrop Street Creative American cuisine and the best of jazz, blues and soul (617-491-2583). Author’s
favourite haunt on Harvard Square: Harvest, 44 Brattle Street,
(617-868-2255). Backyard finds and off-the-beaten path discoveries Candy Land Bookstores mentioned:Grolier Poetry Book Shop 6 Plympton Street, Cambridge (617-547-4648) The Globe Corner Bookstore Palmer Street, Cambridge, www.globecorner.com (800-358-6013).
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JustSayGO Travel Show
As soon as I set foot into Cambridge, I realise that this place is a couple of
sizes too small for its own ego and its energy level. Like a rebellious
and precocious little teenager, it buzzes along south of the Charles
River, flexing its adolescent muscles at graceful Boston.
Music, music everywhere!
Three different sorts of music within ten yards are blurting out
of cars, speakers and saxophones. They call it the noise war, but
the noise war forms a strangely harmonious melody of individualism. Campaigners,
campaigners everywhere, all proclaiming the essence of their message off
their soap boxes; Communism, capitalism, nationalism and anarchism
all clustered around the same little corner, offering a microcosm
of political possibilities. The buzz pushes me along like a merciless
force, eager to convince me of this epicentre of all wisdom and life.
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