Cheerio! Well, after five long days of travelling out of Spain for the first time, I am back in sweet home Sevilla! It was a lot of travelling, but my journey went a little something like this:
On Wednesday, I got done with class, came back to my house and grabbed my backpack which I had packed the night before. I walked a half hour to the train station here in Sevilla to catch my AVE high speed train to Madrid. The journey was smooth, and once I got there, I used the metro pass that my friend Michele had given me and took the metro from the train station to the stop closest to my hostel. I found it easily and checked in. However, this is where the easiness of things ended. I soon found out that I would not be able to take the metro to the airport the next morning, as originally planned. My flight to London was scheduled to leave from Madrid at 7:30am on Thursday morning. The metro didn’t start running till 6am, thus not leaving me with enough time to make it to the airport. The man at the desk told me that I could take a “night bus” but that I would have to walk quite a ways to catch it. In the end, I ended up leaving my hostel at 4am on Thursday morning, and taking a 30 EURO TAXI RIDE to the airport! Expensive, but it was the only way to make it that on time and guaranteed in the right terminal of the massive airport. I ended up making it onto my flight to London Gatwick Airport just fine, and I slept the entire two hours. Once I landed, I went to the terminal where Brent would be landing an hour later to wait for him to get in. It was great to see him again for the second weekend in a row!
Once he arrived, we got on the London Gatwick Express, which is a train that takes you to the Victoria Station, in the heart of London. Once we got to Victoria, we found our hostel, but they told us we couldn’t check in until after 2pm. Deciding that we wanted to get underway, we took the metro (which was super complicated but also kind of fun) to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge! We spent a while walking around the bridge and admiring the River Thames and then exploring the Tower of London, which is not just ONE tower, don’t be fooled! It is like a huge complex of MANY towers and rooms and buildings! The crown jewels were on display there and I wished that I was allowed to take pictures! They were so beautiful and shiny and amazing! After leaving the Tower of London, we took the metro into the famous Trafalgar Square. It was such a beautiful day out, and the next day in the paper we read it turned out to say that it was the warmest day of the year so far in England: 65 and sunny! We spent a little more than an hour in the National Gallery art museum simply because we had so much to do in just a day. I loved every second of it though; I was art geeking looking at all of the paintings from some of the most famous artists in the world.
By this time, we were ready to ditch our heavy backpacks, so we went back to the hostel to get rid of them and regroup for a few minutes. We set out again and went down Birdcage Walk to get to Buckingham Palace. It was so pretty at night with all the lights and the fountain. The pictures do it no justice, as they never do, I am finding out! After that, we walked farther still to get to Big Ben and Parliament. I was literally getting teary eyed when we rounded the corner and saw the illuminated clock tower rising into the dark night sky. We spent quite some time there on the Westminster Bridge just admiring the buildings, the river, and the London Eye, which is a huge ferris wheel that you can see the whole city from. Then we went in search of something we were both dying to have: fish and chips! We ended up at the Victoria Pub, and it was one of the best meals I have yet to have! After eating, we walked back to the Tower Bridge because we wanted to see it lit up by night. We ended up running into a group of French people, and I got to practice my rusty French skills with them. They understood me though, and they seemed impressed when I told them that I learned French in the States and not in England. Eventually, we made our way back to the hostel, slept for six hours, and then got up bright and early again to hit the city before our train to Bath!
On Friday morning, we went back to Parliament and Big Ben to see it in the daylight (just as amazing) and we also went to see Westminster Abbey, where Will and Kate got married! Then we walked to Kings Cross Station (Harry Potter, anyone?!) and saw Platform 9 ¾! Too bad I couldn’t get across to the other side though! Then we walked through Kensington Gardens, which were beautiful, and watched all the kids and dogs playing. We finally ended up at Paddington Train Station, where we got on the train for an hour and half going east to Bath, England, where our friends Brittany and Wesley live!
They met us at the train station and I was so happy to see them, since the last time was during Christmas. I hadn’t even seen Wesley since the summer! We walked from the station to a sandwich shop where Brent and I could feed our starving stomachs and then we walked to their house, which was just great! For students, actually living in a house is quite nice, and their housemates and their girlfriends were all just fabulous, funny, and kind! After relaxing at their house for a while and talking and catching up, we went to Tesco and got some food for dinner, and then Brittany had to go to work at the Pub for a few hours. We all stayed at home and got ready to go out and meet her later, and then we walked down to the King’s Arms, which is the pub where she bartends. After listening to some karaoke and having a few drinks, we went to a club called Blue Rooms after she got off of work. It was a very fun night! We got home and went to bed, and then we had another early morning.
Saturday, we got up and went and had a traditional English breakfast at the Busy Bee. It was amazing! In Spain, they don’t really eat big breakfasts, so to have a “real” breakfast after almost two months was so amazing! Other than the mushrooms, I liked everything: toast, eggs, sausage, bacon, grilled tomatoes, baked beans, and coffee and oj. After breakfast, Brittany took us to her Uni, Bath Spa. She basically goes to school in a castle on an amazing green hillside. We spent about an hour walking around the campus and then took the bus back down into town, where we met Wesley, and we went to lunch at Spoons. Unfortunately, they forgot to bring out Brent and I’s food till after Britt and Wes had already finished, but oh well, such is life, we got it in the end. Then we went to the Roman Baths, which were really fun and pretty, and gratefully most of which are covered/indoor because it had started to rain (the authentic English experience)! After exploring the Baths, we went to the Bath Abbey and the Weir, which is this cool waterfall/damn thing in the river. We went back home to dry off and change, and Wesley made some amazing fajita carbonarra pasta. Brittany went into work for a few hours, and we watched a dating show called “Take Me Out” which Brent and I thought was hilarious. Then we walked down to meet Britt, and instead of going out after, we all just ended up going back to the house and hanging out. It was a fun night, and I got to meet Britt’s friend Steph, even though I fell asleep shortly afterwards.
Sunday was not a fun day. We had to get up at 9 to walk to the train station and saying goodbye to Britt and Wes wasn’t very fun. And once we got to the station, we had seen that our train back to London had been CANCELLED! Luckily, there was one that came 45 minutes later that we were able to take and it still gave us enough time. Once we got back to London, we walked to the Victoria Train Station, where we took the Gatwick Express back to the London Gatwick Airport. Once at the airport, I had to say goodbye the Brent again, which I never like doing. Then I had to run to my gate to make it back to Madrid on time. The flight was rough, since I was getting tired and hungry. Once I landed in Madrid, I had to take the metro for about forty minutes to get to the Atocha Train Station that would take me back to Sevilla. After I finally got to the station, I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, my wallet was GONE. Of course, after a long day of nothing but goodbyes and travelling alone, I was panicked and tired and crying, but luckily the cleaning lady had found it and brought it to the security desk. I had never been more scared in my life, I was convinced that I had been pickpocketed on the metro and everything in my wallet was done for. At 9:30 pm, I finally boarded the last leg of my trip and went to Sevilla by train and collapsed into my bed at home in Sevilla at 12:30.
This morning, I went to class, came home and ate lunch, and then took a much needed siesta. I have to go tutor my two little girls now, which I am excited about!
Write more soon, promise!
Xoxoxo miss you all!
