Onward to Spain!

It's been a while since I posted last, so here is a brief account of what I did- more for my benefit as it won't interest many since it was so a while ago and I won't go into detail unless it was significant or really fun! :)

Friday 3 July- I was going to go to a nice club with Gaby, so I went out to buy shoes that would be a bit more trendy than my Keen sandals (I only have my Keen sandals and Keen light hikers... not classy enough for clubbing). I found some and returned back to Grant's to have dinner with Grant and his friend, Averon. It was a nice dinner and I was sad to leave, but eager to go out with Gaby. Unfortunately, my new shoes still didn't cut it for the bouncers, so Gaby and I just wandered London, got some pasties and then headed home. It was uneventful, but still fun. We got to talk instead of dance, so it was a nice change.

Saturday 4 July (American Independence Day)- Some CSers were having a Pub Crawl in the afternoon (not for Independence Day, just for fun). In the morning, I bought my Ryan Air ticket to Barecelona, then went to te French Market on my way to the pub crawl. I found some great French pastries and some wooden train-car-like letters (like what you would spell a kid's name in) and got some for Grant as a thank you when I left. I took my treats and train to the pub crawl and it was a lot of fun. There was another American there, so we 'celebrated' the 4th of July with Sam Adams and a shot of Jack Daniels.

Sunday 5 July- In the morning, I packed up to leave my two week stay at Grants. He had some friends coming over to play computer games, so I moved over to Ade's couch in Bethnal Green, in East London. Ade's 'couch' isn't really a couch, but a deluxe queen sized air bed. There was another girl staying there (a mere 18 years old!), so we watched the Wimbeldon Final (and got to see Federer win over Roddick by not much, but still win! Yeah!) and then the surfer and I went out to Guanabara to meet Gaby and her friend. It was fun to dance one last time with Gaby and since Bruno was there, we got to hang out with his friends after for a while, too, trying to find a place with an espresso machine that wasn't broken (hard to find that night). We were unsuccessful but it was getting late, so it was ok with me.

Monday 6 July- I went out to have 'lunch' (translate: coffee) with Bruno on his break and then took the bus back to Central London to meet the Suttons. A long bus ride back and a few phone calls and texts later, I met up with them in Trafalger Square. We wandered in the rain, had some hummous and tea and then they went to a show and I went to buy (late) Father's Day gifts for them to bring back to Dad. I went to a nice Chinese Restaurant (one of the very rare times I have eaten out on my own on this trip) and it was sooooo delicious.

Tuesday 7 July- I met the Suttons for the Changing of the Guards, then we went to St. Martin's in the Fields where I found some gifts for Cole, also, including a handkerchief that has an embroidered French Horn and says 'Blow Here'. If you know Cole, you understand why it was so perfect. After more wandering of London, I left the Suttons annd went to CS Drinks at The Couch for one last time. On my way to meet Bruno for the drinks, I was walking past TCR station and saw a guy that looked familiar: tall, dark skin, really tall, with a guitar (unless I imagined it). Did I say he was tall? It turns out I recognised him from the Ailee River Youth Hostel in Doolin, Ireland, where I had heard him play (one of his two) guitars. I never met him there, but we recognised each other and I told him about the CS drinks and he said he was a CSer, too, and was waiting for his friend to go to The Couch, too! Small world! Anyway, I met Bruno and we headed back to The Couch, where I was returned my coat! One long month it was gone and now it was back in my arms! I was so excited to finally have it back (kind of pathetically, but when you travel, you get really attached to your belonging... at least I do). It was great to see everyone again before I left and to have two final giant bags of Gummy Babies (I shared!). They were on sale 2 for 1. It was Tesco's going away present to me.

Wednesday 8 July- Wednesday, I flew to Barcelona. It was exciting to continue my trip after getting stuck in London (in a very good way). By the way, Ryan Air flies in to Girona Airport, which they say is Barcelona, but it's really a good hour drive from Barcelona. Once I arrived, I found my way on the metro to the youth hostel, which was nice but a sudden change from a month of couch surfing. After I got settled, most of the shops had closed but one still had 30 minutes left, so I hurried to find it and bought some pasta. My first adventure in a Spanish supermarket was quick and hasty, but easier since it was in Spanish and at least I could ask for help. When I returned, some Italian girls from my room invited me for wine, but I was starving and exhausted so I went to eat, search for a couch in Barcelona and then sleep.

Thursday 9 July- My first day in Barcelona, it rained. According to a lady who started talking to me while searching for her umbrella (in Spanish), it was the first day in over a month it had rained. She ended up helping me to the metro and to find the detour to the other metro entrance. She was very nice, but spoke very fast. I went to the Picasso Museum and stood in line, in the rain, to buy my ticket. After getting it, I was walking to the entrance and passed a guy who looked familiar who was looking at me like I was familiar. It turns out that we had met in London at a few events and picnics. We wandered the museum together, then found the Tour de France that was going through Barcelona. We waited maybe an hour and got to see the leaders go through. It was fun to have someone to spend time with and after seeing the Tour de France, we went for Paella, then wandered for a while since it wasn't raining. When I left him, I went to the hostel for my bags then to Fernando's house where we had olives, wine and dinner. My mouth is watering now just thinking about the combos of green olives and white wine he gave me.

Friday 10 July- After a nice relaxing morning, I headed to the market for some fruit, then to Las Ramblas to grip onto my bag and watch all the tourists funnel through the street, wide-eyed and sadly not seeing the 'true Barcelona'. After a few detours, I found an H&M where I searched for a dress that I loved, but they didn't have my size so I went into the city to find another H&M, but none had the dress in my size so I went back to the first store and bought the dress in the size bigger than I wanted, but I think in the end it was ok since I'll wear it with a tank top or longsleeve shirt under. That day, I did wash that had some of Fernando's clothes in it and some of mine, including the new dark pink pashmina I had bought in London. Sadly, it turned everything pink but Fernando was able to bleach his white sheet back.

Birthday Wishes at Midnight in a Brazilian Club from a French-Brazilian in London

I'm in my bathing suit!!! Yes, it's a heat wave in London and the hospitals are on alert. It's wonderful. I wanted to be in my bathing suit before the end of June but I thought it would be somewhere nearer the Mediterranean and not in England, but yesterday I went swimming and read in the sun for a while... it was almost too hot at times when there was no breeze. Anyway, let me start from the beginning, when I last left you.

Sunday was a nice and relaxing day. I finished my book, Eat, Pray, Love, and went to Hampstead to find another book. I found two books that looked interesting. One was a detective novel that takes place in Turkey and Venice. The other was about Guenica, Basque country and the Luftwaffe bombings. Both were interesting so I read a bit of the beginning to see which appealed to me more. I read some of the detective novel and was intrigued but the first page I opened to in Guernica said "Guenica; Dave Boling is a journalist in Washington state, USA. This is his first novel." Well, that answered that. I don't think the gal who sold it to me was quite as excited as I was to find a book by someone from Washington state while in London. But I get excited about odd things. Anyway, I bought the book then went to the other end of town to get baking supplies to make Snickerdoodle cookies for my birthday (Monday). I came back just in time to have the sandwich I bought and then leave again for dancing with Gabby and other CSers at Guanabara, a Brazilian club in London. We got there at 7 and watched the end of the forró dance competition. It was fun to watch and after about 30 minutes of free dance (Gabby, the other CSers and myself just watching in awe) we heard over the speakers "BRAZIL, BRAZIL, BRAZIL... (echo-like)" and the dancers slowly got off the dance floor and projected onto the screen behind them was a football match. No, not just any football match, the Confederation Cub Brazil-US match. So, there was two hours of saying I'm Australian (I had a few people going, too!) and trying to not cheer for the US. We scored at 10m and 27m but then Brazil scored just after halftime and then twice more, so we lost 2-3. Honestly, there was one bad call so maybe it should have been 2-4 but either way, we lost. Apparently it was amazing that we got as far as we did. Three hours, two caipirinhas and one bowl of garlic and red pepper spiced olives (soaked in olive oil... yummy) later, they began dancing again. Forró is a lot of fun to watch and a lot of fun to dance if you know what you are doing or have a good dance partner. I danced with a few guys who represented the spectrum of good and not good leaders. It was all fun, though. Toward the end of the night, one guy asked me to dance but kept catching me looking at my feet and told me to look at his eyes instead or at least look up and try to feel where he wants me to go, not watch his feet. Well, that's better than being asked if I would kindly allow him to lead me (like I was told my first time at Tito's). He was a great dancer and just as the club was closing and we were still dancing, I frantically asked him if it was past midnight. He looked at his watch and said it was 6 minute til and I told him it was almost my birthday. We kept dancing and when they closed at midnight, he went to the DJ and had him announce me a happy birthday. My first birthday wishes on my birthday! I knew it would be a great birthday from then on! Bruno and I went for cappuccino (yes, at midnight- he said it how he celebrates birthdays with his friends) and then we took the same bus back, realizing he lives about 10 minute walk from Grant's. We took a detour and went to Parliment Hill to see London at night and made plans for me to visit him on his lunch break the next day for a birthday lunch!

Monday, my 25th birthday (which had started already fantastically!), I began by making the cookie batter for Snickerdoodles so it could chill while I went to lunch with Bruno. I learned that 1 part Baking Soda and two parts Cream of Tartar makes the same as Baking Powder. Who knew? I thought I made a costly mistake in the baking soda/powder/cream of tartar part of the recipes (going between two recipes is just disastrous but one was from Mom and the other was a UK recipe (for the American cookie) so I figured they would use ingredients you can find here (I never did find cream of tartar). Anyway, I got it all sorted out. I put the batter to chill and took the London Overground to meet Bruno for a market lunch, which ended up being just cherries but it was worth it. Fun to see a funkier part of town, very eclectic and gritty. When he went back to school (work), I wandered town for a bit and bought some watermelon (that I will eat just after I post this!) and a new toothbrush (my birthday gift to myself!) and, of course, a white chocolate hazelnut Ritter Sport bar. Yum. Back at Grant's, I made cookies and thought they were the best ever, which they were, fresh from the oven at least. I met Grant and others at Games Night in Central London and discovered my cookies had turned rock hard. There were a few soft-ish ones, but there were many (joking, but serious) comments to watch out for your teeth so they don't break and teasing comments like that (I was making them, too). Andy brought Blamange, a sort of creamy, strawberry, pepto-colored jell-o-type pudding. It was good. Not everyone thought so, but after two 568mL (that comes to just over a litre, folks) of Bulmers, anything will taste good (except my rock cookies). After my two Bulmers, being drug out by my hair (almost literally) by Grant ('there are two hungry Irish people waiting outside for us!'- was that meant to reference the Irish potatoe famine or was it just in my head, Grant?), we went to Wagamama (a noodle bar) where, when told the kitchen was about to close, Grant assured her that 'we will eat so fast you won't even see us.' We ordered whatever our fingers pointed to and we didn't really know what we got until it came, we ordered in such a rush. It was really good though. After we (we being me after two Bulmers) sang a round of 'Magica Emi', we parted ways from the friendly Irish and Grant took me back to Hampstead (about a 20 minute cab ride) in Black Cab fashion. It was my first black cab in London and it was so much better than the bus or tube. Nothing against public transport, but it was a nice treat for my birthday. Back at his house, he showed me photos of his adventures and I must have felt something because at precisely 00:35 (12:35 am to Americans!) I looked at the clock and realized it was my birth minute! I was born at 16:35 Pacific time on the 29th, which is 00:35 in London on the 30th. So I celebrated my birth minute that didn't fall on my birthday. Haha. Took some explaining to get people to understand it (not really important, but small trivial things that I love!) but I got to celebrate it, well, recognize it, at least. It was a great birthday.

Tuesday, Grant and I met up with the Irish gal from dinner and went swimming in the duck-shit-infested mixed swimming pond (they also have separate men's and women's ponds) at Hampstead Heath. It was fun, if you forget the ducks and duck shit you're swimming with. After coming back and showering (soap is a must), we had some tea, everyone left and I went back to the Heath to read in the sun. My 85 SPF sunscreen has done the trick and I don't think I got too burned. Bruno joined me when he got off from rehearsal and we just hung out and chatted until we had catch to the tube to go meet our respective friends. I went to The Couch again to meet CSers for drinks and then we went out to another bar (some close at 11, like The Couch, and some close later) but it was too loud to hear anyone and I was getting tired, so I found a bus that, theoretically, comes every 10-15 minutes after midnight, but I am positive I waited 20-30 minutes for it. I saw too many other buses go by before my #24 bus came for me. Luckily, since it's a heat wave in London (only 2 degrees Celsius cooler than Barcelona, someone said!) it wasn't cold at all past midnight and I was fine in a light jumper (sweater), skirt and sandals. If I had known the bus would take so long, I would have taken the tube (but it costs nearly twice as much) but by the time I realized how long it was taking, the tubes were almost closed and I knew if I left to see if there was one last one I could catch, the bus would come just after I left.

I got back around 1am and since staying at Grant's, my new alarm clock has been the kettle when he makes tea for us in the morning. Today, I didn't hear any kettle, but I woke up to the sounds of Velcro (on Grant's ankle brace from when he injured it walking last week) downstairs and when I looked at the clock to see it was past 10, I went downstairs to find him getting ready to walk out the door, late, because he slept through his alarm. I said goodbye and then went back to bed. I am going over to Bruno's to watch a Brazil football game tonight that is being played in Brazil. He said the telenovelas (like our soap operas) are such a big thing there that they don't change their time slots for anything, even football. So matches can't start before 9:45p which is 2:45a here. Anyway, I'm off to buy some bagels and top up my phone.

Some of the Best Souvenirs in London are Free (or) Bussing, Marketing and Clubbing (or) As You Like It (standing in the sun for two hours)

Greetings! Only a week to catch up on (!) and I'll do my best to not make myself look lazy, but it's hard to hide the truth sometimes! :)

Saturday, the 20th, I had a nice lazy day where I last left you. My host made Mexican dinner for us, which was really "Mexican" dinner of tortilla shells, guacamole, lettuce, cheese and ratatouille (definitely not Mexican). It was a good dinner and after an online episode of Frasier (so many people here love Frasier!), I headed to bed.

Sunday I left my host's house and went to a Couch Surfing picnic in Kennington Park, just a short walk (seems longer with my pack) away and relaxed in the sun/shade for a few hours. Met some new people and saw a bunch of people I knew already, which was fun. The weather was beautiful and after, I went to Susy's for a few days.

Monday, Susy and I went to a local student art show just near her flat. It was very cool to see what students can do after going to museums with famous works. It was obviously more modern and quite impressive. Susy kept saying things like "I know this artist," "I know the person in this painting," and "this person comes to my pub all the time and now I know why she always has blue paint on her arms." It was fun and since it was in the art school building, there were classes going on and art students everywhere. A neat ambiance after being in museums for so much of my trip. After a quick drink and light bite and Wetherspoons, we started making our way to Valaria's new flat for dinner and games. First, we went to Sainsbury's for plastic plates and some seasonings. When we only found paper plates (for lasagna, plastic is very important and paper just won't cut it) we went to Tesco and found everything. On the walk back to the bus stop, we ran into Grant and his family. Quite random to bump into someone I knew after only being in London for a few weeks! I was able to confirm that he could host me in a day and we caught our bus. At Valaria's, we were greeted with homemade lasagna, tiramisu and lots of games and wine. We played Apples to Apples again and it was a lot of fun. It's the British version, of course, so it was educational with the historical cards and places. If you've played Apples to Apples, you know what I mean. If not, don't worry about it. Just know that it's a great game and you should play it if you ever get the chance! Since Valaria had just moved, she had gone through some things and she found a nice coat for me since I still don't have mine (long story I won't get into again). So now I have a coat, not my coat, and it won't go with me to somewhere warm, but it's really nice for when it gets chilly here. Of course, since I got it, it's been in the mid 20s (around 70-80F) here so I've only worn it leaving her flat when she gave it to me. I'll probably wear it on my walk to the shop now since it's chilly and rainy. Anyway, dinner and games were great fun and well past midnight (she wouldn't let us leave earlier!) Susy and I got a night bus with Omar, another CSer, back to Susy's area and went out for a drink. Needless to say, I didn't get to bed until 3:30am so I was not expecting Tuesday to be productive at all.

Tuesday, Susy and I decided to forgo cooking breakfast (at lunch time) and we went out. It's hard to find a good, family-run breakfast place where we could sit in the sun at noon and while we were wandering, a gal came up to us and asked if we wanted free haircuts. She was in styling school and needed to cut short hairstyles for her level. Susy and I both had short hair and had no problem going shorter (especially for free!) so when she asked when we were available, Susy said next week sometime and I thought and said "well, I'm free in about an hour after we eat lunch." So after my fantastic brie and roasted red pepper toasted baguette I went to meet Mai and get my haircut. It was a great thing that I didn't have any other plans that day because it took about two hours. She was certainly a student and wanted to do a good job and her teachers came over a few times to make sure she was doing everything properly (they were for everyone else, too, so I didn't fear too much for my hair, plus if they were watching everyone, there wasn't as much of a worry that you'd come out with a bad haircut!) and she did a great job, I think. After she was done and got the approval from her teacher, so told me she was going to dry it and if I decided I wanted fringe (bangs), she could give them to me after it was dry, so I had about two minutes to decide. I decided I may as well, so she gave me fringe and I love it. It's really quite short in the back which is nice for warmer weather. After, I went to H&M to buy a new top and earrings. Then I went to The Couch for CS drinks and then off to Grant's.

Wednesday, I went to Camden Market. The market is huge and I found too much to buy, but it's all useful, so I figured it was ok. I found a pashmina, small pocket mirror, tiger's eye bracelet and a piano to play for about a half hour. After a few hours wandering the market, I went to Susy's to return her keys and stayed for tea and the Simpsons. The highlight of the day was the Science Museum for Adult's Night (Lates they call them). The museum is open late one day a month for adult only and they have live music, drinks (yes, wine and beer) and no children to occupy the hands on stuff! We wandered for a bit, had some cake, and then went to the silent disco floor where they gave us all headphones with two stations and we were to just dance to whichever we wanted. It was a lot of fun, even more so when you took off the headphones and saw everyone dancing in silence. We went to the hands on area and had our turn at what the kids usual take over, heat camera, spinny things and rice transporters. Lastly, we went to a show on bubbles. Usually it's for five-year-olds, but even since it was a room full of adult the gal still treated us like kids, telling us to "clap really loud for your favorite bubbles... or for any bubble I tell you to clap for!" and just going on about keeping our bums on the ground- even the people dressed up and leaning on the wall. She wouldn't start until everyone was seated quietly. Some people left before she was done, so we all screamed "bubble haters!" which is an odd thing for a room full of adults to yell, but it seemed to fit nicely in the atmosphere. It was a lot of fun and at the end, she let some of us hold a carbon dioxide (?) bubble. I named mine Bebe the Bubble.

Thursday I found my way to the Tate Britain on the bus, but after 15 minutes on the bus it inconveniently changed destinations and dropped me off about 15 minute walk from the museum but since it was a really nice day, I wasn't too bothered by it, just annoyed that it changed destinations after I got on. I got to the Tate Britain just in time for a tour which interestingly turned into a discussion group. Most of the art we looked at on the 45 minute tour was modern, slightly abstract art and one (very vocal) man kept saying how he "didn't get it." He couldn't tell what it was or was supposed to be and just thought it was worthless ("how much did the museum pay for this? So I could just take paint and brush it over a canvas and get paid that much for it? I could just buy a boat and then write 10 words and associate them with the boat and the museum would buy it from me?") While he had interesting points, he didn't have an imagination. The tour was small, only 6 of us, so we were able to put in our two pence (two cents! haha) and tell what we saw in the artwork. The guide was impressed with my comparison of art and music. I think that the classical art (portraits, scenes, etc) are like classical music that tell you what to see or hear and you appreciate the technical aspects but don't need to use your imagination too much. If you look at landscape paintings, it's more like that pastoral music and you have to use your imagination a little bit more, finding your own story and how you feel about it. The most modern art is more like progressive, improvisational, abstract music where it doesn't elicit a storyline, it just tries to get you to feel certain things. Everyone is going to feel something different about them. While you may see horizontal lines of red, yellow, orange and one purple line, you may thing of one thing, but I think of an African sunset. I've never been there, but I connect it with what I imagine my Aunt Dorthea sees in Nigeria. Since other people don't have that connection, they may not see it, but for me, that's exactly what it is. The artist was trying to get us to have an emotion about the painting and for me, it was peaceful, just like I would feel watching a sunset with those colors. The man said he wanted to understand, but he wasn't trying to use his imagination at all and kept talking about how worthless and easy these paintings would be to do. While it was interesting, it was quite annoying to have him slam the art so much. Anyway, I explored the museum and then found myself another Tesco meal deal and Starbar (delicious chocolate bar with peanuts and caramel) then met Susy and a few others for drinks in Central London.

Friday, I went, on Grant's suggestion, to Bourough Market and found greatness! The weren't goods for sale like at Camden Market. This was more about food. Actually, all about food. There were food stalls (including a long line for falafel, I opted for a venison burger), cheese counters, bread booths and veggie stalls. There was plenty of options and it was hard, but I needed to be selective. I found a great Roasted Red Pepper & Basil Focaccia, almonds and hazelnuts covered in milk chocolate and cinnamon, a Sundried Tomatoe bread loaf and some portabella mushrooms for sandwiches the next day. After making my purchases and chowing my burger, I went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and saw the show As You Like It. I bought a 5 pound Groundling ticket, so didn't have a seat, just stood near the stage. At intermission, a couple with a perfect spot right at the stage edge left, so I took their spot and was able to lean over the stage and be in the shade. It was a fantastic show and I really enjoyed it and am considering going back for another. For 5 pounds and two and half hours of Shakespeare in the arena he wrote his plays for (even though it's small now since they rebuilt it), it is well worth it. After the show, I went to the Themes (the Globe is right on the bank) and read for a bit, then came back to Grant's before going with another CSer to a Cuban club in Camden, but there was sadly not much dancing and it was very crowded, so I didn't stay too long there.

Saturday I didn't do much of anything in the afternoon besides catch up on some things online and ate bagel, cream cheese, smoked salmon, pepper and lemon that Grant put together, then I made us sandwiches with the red pepper bread from the market, yellow pepper, portabella mushroom and Edam cheese toasted then topped with tzatziki sauce. It was delicious. In the evening, I met Gabby (from CS) at Brick Lane for Bangladeshi dinner and then more Salsa dancing at Tito's, the same place we went last week. On my way to the tube, it poured. Grant gave the understatement of the week, telling me before I left that I "might want to take an umbrella because it might rain a bit later." It was so bad that he told me his carpet downstairs is wet from the rain on the balcony. I am quite glad that I took my umbrella because I didn't take a coat and only took my pashmina since it wasn't too cold and I'd rather loose that at the club than a coat. Anyway, the dinner was great and the restauranteur gave us a free glass of wine and 20% off the bill because they were competing with all the other Bangaldeshi restaurants on Brick Lane, which is quite a few! Gabby and I split a Lamb Ragon, a dish that was a variety of other dishes, naan, and lemon rice. It was really tasty. At the end, we tried to guess what the bill would be and decided that the person wrong would buy dessert. I was closer and Gabby bought some treats from a Bangladeshi shop but we never ate them because after Salsa dancing, we were both still full and Gabby wasn't feeling well so we called it an early night (at 1am). I found my buses back to Grant's and slept a very peaceful sleep until 11am.

Now it's Sunday, just one day until my birthday and I'm going to Forro dancing with Gabby and other CSers tonight in Central London. I'll have a bite to eat before I leave here, or maybe just get something in town, and then try to stay dry. It's just started to rain and it's been getting a little dark all afternoon but my umbrella works well! :)