Goodness, I'm getting so behind on this blog. Again... Somehow the weeks pass, and I realize I could write a novel about what has happened since the last time I wrote something here. After my fantastic adventure in Asturias, I was back in Madrid one more day to see Melissa before she headed back to the States, and then my friend Dani arrived the day after. It was pretty easy to pick her out of the airport crowd with her blond hair among a mass of black. She was surprisingly awake and ready to go after such a long flight, but mostly was just better than me at fighting off sleepiness. I felt as though I could have slept for days after my trip and having Melissa here visiting. It was great to see Dani, and not as strange as I would have thought to be guiding her through the metro on the way back to my apartment. It's actually starting to feel quite normal having visitors here, and I like that. We passed a few fabulous days in Madrid, seeing the sights and some of my favorite haunts, and it was fun to be back in her company for the first time since last summer.
Before we knew it, we were off to the airport a few days later to spend the night trying to sleep in the airport (my second time in five days), as we had a 6:00 flight to Sheffield, England to visit Chris and Dave after their trip to Amsterdam. Sleepily, we arrived in East Midlands, and caught a bus that took us through a few quaint English towns (with streets that reminded of Privet Drive), and a train through the beautifully green English countryside. Chris and Dave were waiting for us on the platform when we arrived, and as always, it was great to have my boys back.
In true English fashion, we took a double-decker bus from the train station to a stop near his dorm. Sheffield, while the fourth biggest city in the UK, felt nicely small in comparison to Madrid, and had the familiar feeling of a college town, with bars and tasty places to eat scattered all over the place. Chris lives in a luxurious dorm with a living room (so jealous), and definitely has more of a college life than I do this year. At times I do tend to miss it. We spent the day walking around town, which was actually quite beautiful despite the unwelcoming English skies. It was a bit strange to have everyone speaking my native language again, and I think I got a little taste of the culture shock I'm going to have when I get home. Even though the culture is of course quite different there, having English spoken by everyone in public places had a strange effect on me which is quite hard to describe. I felt a bit awkward talking to people there and I still don't know if that is because I'm not used to people speaking fluent English in public places, or if it is the difference between English and American English that gave me some sort of inferiority complex. I think it might have been the latter. It was quite funny to read the street signs there, some of which contained phrases that I honestly had to think about to understand.
The next morning we were already off to London. For some reason, the bus near Chris's apartment was significantly late in passing his stop, and the traffic in the city was horrible. With panic on our faces, I could tell that each of us was mentally trying to create a path on the street for the bus to pass. We arrived at the station exactly when the bus was supposed to leave, and we saw it still idling on the other side of the building though the glass windows. Sprinting with our backpacks and suitcases, we arrived just in time to catch the bus to London. It was a long ride (around 4-5 hours), but I happily took the time to rest.
London was beautiful, and raining, of course, when we arrived. We navigated our way though the Underground, with our veteran Chris as the leader, and were soon at the hostel, where we were promptly told it was full despite having reservations (I've never understand how that happens, but it does frequently) and moved to a hostel a few blocks away. Kindly, they did refund my 10% deposit on the room though... Our hostel was an absolute crap hole, but for 10 pounds a night, not any worse than I was expecting, and we wouldn't be spending much time there anyways.
After some lunch nearby, we set off on the Underground to see Big Ben and the Parliament, which were stunning next to the Thames River, despite the light drizzle. We walked along the chilly waterfront as it started to get dark, and passed the beautiful Westminster Abbey, a spooky statue of Sir Winston Churchill, and eventually arrived at Buckingham Palace after a walk through a mysteriously foggy park. We spent another hour or so walking through the upscale neighborhoods nearby. Then we paid a visit to King's Cross to satisfy our Harry Potter appetites, visiting Platform 9 3/4, where they have the back end of a luggage cart sticking out of the wall, the other half on its way to the Hogwarts Express. The train station is beautiful. After deciding we had had enough walking for one day, we headed back to the hostel to grab some dinner and play some cards that night. It was great to just sit around and shoot the breeze with such good friends.
The next day was much more beautiful than the first, and although there was a biting wind that howled all day, it was finally sunny. We walked around Kensington Palace, the former residence of Princess Diana, enjoyed the park nearby, passed by the magnificent Tower of London, and got caught in a storm on the Tower Bridge that only lasted a short time. After a coffee to warm our chilled bodies, we passed through the Globe Theatre and continued our walk along the river down to the London Bridge. The city is so beautiful, and really, you can see most of the important things in just a few days. Granted, we didn't go into much because of the lines and outrageous prices (especially when everything is in pounds), but it was a lot of fun just being able to walk past such famous places one after another.
To top off our London experience, that night we had a tasty fish and chips dinner in a cozy little restaurant near our hostel, and played a few more rounds of euchre before hitting the sack. Since the city chose that weekend to do major work on the Underground, basically all of the useful lines were to be closed the next morning when we needed to get to the airport. A cab picked us up at 4:30 that morning, taking us to the nearest metro stop with a connection to the Gatwick Express train, and we were already on our way out of London after our short but pleasant trip.
We arrived in Madrid very sleepy after a long morning and only a few hours of sleep, and after constructing a four person bed on my floor using my mattress and our spare, and closing my window shutter, we all drifted into a blissful three hour nap in my dark room. Dani had one more day in Madrid, where she got to visit many of the same places again as I showed Chris and Dave around. It was such a treat having them all in Madrid, and the boys and I had some great times together even after Dani was on her way back to the homeland.
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