Christmas in England

el 29 de diciembre de 2008

Again, posts have become few and far between. This is not, per say, due to a lack of interest in posting, or a lack of wanting to share my adventures, but instead a busyness that became me the past couple weeks. Anyways, this is what I've been up to...

Months ago, Georgina ("George") jokingly mentioned how fun it would be for Cory and I to stay at her place over Christmas. When she noticed we were not kidding around, she asked her parents and got the OK. So we bought some plane tickets and last Sunday the 21st took off for England. I was happy to get away from the rain and wind of Santander to enjoy... the rain and wind of England. But it was not to be so. In fact, it was sunny most of the time we were there. Anyways, George picked us up at the airport and we drove 2.5 hours to her home in North Hampton. The trip is normally about 1.5 hours, but she drives like a grandma and the heckling from Cory, James (boyfriend) and I didn't help.

Her house is amazing. It's a converted stable, and so it's big and beautiful. Cory and I were put in the guest room, and as we arrived late we headed to bed promptly after introducing ourselves to her parents. That was Sunday.

Monday. Monday we slept in. Lazed about the house. Went grocery shopping, and that was that. At night, however, things heated up. Cory was tricked into making Paella for the family (we were 6 including Cory and I). So that was how our night was spent, with Cory cooking the paella, me helping make the Sangria which took about 2 minutes (then just let it soak up the fruity goodness) and then there was general tomfoolery as I was now in a position of Big Brother in the household, and as such picked on George and her sister Emily (nickname "Pid". Don't ask. I don't know the answer.) Dinner was amazing, and we all rolled into bed eventually.

Tuesday. Up early and out the door to the train station to head to London for the day. Present was George, Kate (George's mom), Cory and myself. We spent the day walking the streets, seeing the sights and enjoying the not-rainy and quite mild weather. It was really amazing. Sights seen include: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge, and Guards with funny hats who can't smile. We also enjoyed a nice lunch of fish and chips, mashed peas, English beer, and a cute waitress from Canada. We left London to head home, such that George's parents could make their dinner date with friends. George, Cory and I rendezvoused with some of George's friends at the pub on the bottom of her street. This is where I learned a new drinking game called "Beer Mat." Well, it's called that now anyways.

RULES: Hang a coaster half way of the table. Flip it up in the air and catch it without letting it drop. If you fail, drink. Otherwise everyone else goes. Add another beer mat to the stack. Repeat. Get drunk. It's great.

Wednesday. Christmas Eve was upon us. We slept in again, and I actually don't really remember much of what we did during the late morning, early afternoon. However, in the evening we went to the neighbor's house through the village for Christmas drinks. We spent several hours there getting tipsy, and Cory and I walked around introducing ourselves as the Americans, picking up silly English catchphrases. Highlight of the night: Hearing an Englishman actually say "Cheerio!". It was brilliant. I spent most of the night talking with the gentlemen there about European traveling, differences between the US and Europe, politics, economics, environmentalism. It was actually fucking awesome. George came up to me afterward and asked how bored I was all night. I countered saying I had a blast with all the conversations I had. I even came out with a book recommendation. We left around 7 after singing Christmas carols, and headed home for dinner. Before we got there, we made a stop at the Pub, where Dave (George's dad) kicked my ass in Beer Mat. 16 he hit. The bartender was being a real wanker so Dave stole the mats. Haha. That guys was awesome. I guess the bartender noticed after we left and got pissed. Never going back there again. Oh well. I think sleep came shortly after. Oh yea, I remember: Love Actually was on and I caught the end. It made me think of Crosspatch and how I managed to make it 9 months practically living there without having seen it once through. Thusly made me a bit home sick.

Thursday. Merry Christmas! We woke up and showered, ate, dressed, headed to church service. It was very nice, but because we were in an old Victorian style English church, they have installed space heaters into the ceiling. The trick is to sit in the line of fire to keep warm during service. Anyways, it was nice and afterwards we said hello to some acquaintances from the night before and headed home. We opened presents and shared some laughs. Afterwards we went to another neighbor's house for Christmas drinks, but only stayed for one. We didn't particularly like these neighbors I guess. Christmas dinner at the Hetherington's was amazing and really fun. Their grandparents were there which was great, and we enjoyed ourselves laughing and eating and having a good time. After dinner movies were watched and more drinks were had. It was a great day and I was so so so thankful to be able to spend Christmas with a family. I also missed you all very much. I did get to skype my family, so that made me feel better too.

Friday. Boxer Day. We were up early again (ish... like 10) ate and dressed and got in the car to go watch the setting off of the Hunt. That's right. An old school English Fox Hunt. It was bomb! It was just like out of Mary Poppins, red coats and beagles and everything. It was really great. The afternoon was spent watching a movie (Iron Man... great flick!). With the onset of sunset we took a short drive to a park about 20 minutes from their house where there are tree tops lookout spots. Unfortunately the park closes at dusk so we were only able to enjoy one of the lookouts but we still had a good time. The view was incredible. Friday night's dinner was fun, especially because two more relatives Tom and Dan were there (late 20's I think?). Dan happens to live in Prague teaching English, and so he gave me the complete run down on what to do while I'm there over New Years. The night ended well, though was a little sad being our last.

Saturday. Up and at'em. Cory and I woke, packed, and got ready to move. We had time before we had to leave, and Dave cooked us a full fledged English Breakfast. Bacon, beans, eggs, sausage, I can't even remember what else but it was amazing. After our breakfast we thanked them again, said our goodbyes and hopped in the car with Dave to head back to the airport. We arrived quite early and had time to mull around, find some food, and even grabbed a coffee.

Summary: It was amazing. What a great way to spend a holiday, and I can't wait to go back and visit (if I can) some time in the spring. It really was a blast. Also: so much tea and toast. Holy crap. You might notice most of our time was spent either watching movies or drinking, but to be honest it was such a blast. We got to sleep a lot and truly relax. Considering how much we did as well, it was a great vacation. I got to see a lot and relax. What could be better?

So that was last week. I spent Sunday doing laundry and hanging out, spent today food shopping and getting ready for tomorrow, and now I'm heading to bed. The next move is:

Tomorrow: bus to Bilbao, flight Bilbao to London, London to Prague to rendezvous with Farp, Dillon, Rob and Justin.
Friday (2nd): Train with the same guys to Vienna for a couple days.
Sunday (4th): Fly with Justin Vienna to Venice.
Hang out in Italy for 5 days, hoping to see Florence on our way to Rome.
Friday (9th): Fly Rome to Santander.

I'll have more adventure details when I return. I hope you are all well and that you yourselves had a Merry Christmas. Happy New Year to you all!

Miss you all dearly, as always.

Un saludo,
Andrew
Santander, ESP

Barcelona

el 9 de diciembre de 2008

It's been a while since I've updated I guess. I've been doing a lot of stuff actually. I went to Barcelona two weekends ago, from November 27 to December 1 (Thursday night to Monday night). I meant to update when I got back but things got busy. So here it is now!

The city is very international. I heard more Italian and English than I heard Spanish. Many of the Spaniards speak English as well. The city itself is gorgeous. I love the architecture, something that I can't get in Santander. Once again this is my only regret about this city. It doesn't have the historic ancient section of the city, which takes a lot of the fun out of being here. Back to Barcelona... Night and Day differences: we arrived at night. There were men selling beers right from the six pack all down the main roads, and there were a couple of hookers at the end of our street. The street was also full of probable pickpockets and homeless people. The next morning the city was something completely different: a boisterous, beautiful city full of displays or art, music, and dancing in the streets. I couldn't believe it. What a transformation.

Starbucks. We stopped in. Several times. Lots of times actually. I celebrated the fact that they were there a little too much. Again, international city: every street corner has Starbucks or fast food. NOT like Santander at all.

The Collectibles Shop: Here was where I found several amazing things. Most of them were the most gorgeous chess sets I have ever seen in my entire life. Ever. I wanted to buy one SO badly it hurt. The prices were reasonable, only about 75-80 Euro for a set. But what a set, hand crafted and beautifully painted. If only I weren't a poor college student. I also found in that shop Blokus Duo which, that's right, is two player travel blokus. Again, the 30 Euro price tag outdid me.

Food. The food was amazing. We ate well, but economically all weekend. The first night there we stopped in a restaurant across the street from our hostel and I had the best salmon I've had in my life. It was right up there with my mom's home cooked meal, it was so good. I devoured it. We had ourselves the menu del dia several times and enjoyed the hell out of that too.

Picaso Museum. This place blew my mind. It was great to see how Picasso's art evolved. Before he developed Cubism, his paintings were just like any other master's art, in that there were landscapes, portraits, etc. His Blue Period has to be my favorite. Even more than Cubism. It's the obsession in the artist that drives me to wonder and awe. This man was feeling something deep down in his soul and for who knows how long, could not paint a picture, could not create art without having heavy blue overtones. And like I said, it's so strange seeing him go from that to Cubism.

Water Fountain Light Show. Oh my god, this was one of the most awe inspiring things I have ever seen. It was a HUGE fountain downtown near the Olympic Park, and they run a 15-20 minute light and music show where the fountain just dances. Literally, the water was dancing. I'm trying to use the term as literally as possible... little room for metaphor. The way they engineered the show was just brilliant. The way they played with the mist and the streams, and moving them together. At one point they had the entire outside ring doing mist, and with the lights it looked like there were figures dancing in the shadow. It was awesome. I think Cory took a video, so maybe he'll put that up online somewhere. I hope if any of you are in Barcelona you will make it one of your top priorities to go here. It only takes a half hour and it is truly worth it. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Quantom of Solace. Yep. Barcelona has movie theatres that show the movie in their original language with Spanish subtitles, so we took the opportunity to catch the latest Bond flick. Worth it.

Sagrada Familia. Gorgeous and very impressive, but very under construction. It's a giant church for those wondering. It was one of Gaudí's last works. It's still incomplete. We had more fun in the little christmas fair outside.

Park Guell. So the whole trip was really worth it just to see the sunset from this park. Again, one of the must sees in a trip to Barcelona. The top of the park crests and there's a small bald spot where you can look out upon all of Barcelona. We could see the entire city stretching before us, and we were lucky enough to get there at sunset. I'll not comment more, but instead leave you with this picture.



Museo Gaudí. Though it was nighttime when we got there, we checked out the outside of the Park Gaudí. It was a lot of Gaudi type things, all beautiful of course. I love his intricate style of everything. The colors he uses and the designs he creates are gorgeous.



Barcelona Zoo. I hate zoos. I've decided. Especially ones in big cities. I've never seen more sad looking animals with such small living space in my entire life. The only fun thing I enjoyed was when the peacocks came and had lunch with us. They are so used to people being around that they'll get within a meter of you. It was crazy. Plus there was an albino one. How cool is that?


Other things we did that are worth a mention but not much commenting:
-Dunkin Coffee. It was gross, but funny to find.
-Statue of Columbus
-Irish pubs. Three. All right next to each other. And full of Brits. We only went in one.

All in all, the trip to Barcelona was amazing. Huge success. My favorite part was sharing it with the people I did. We all live in Santander, and we're all good friends, but when you're thrown into the same small hostel bedroom for 4 days, the bond deepens... and the jokes fly. It was good time for sure.



I can't wait to go back!!

Hasta pronto,
Andrew
Santander, ESP