It's been two long years since Izzy and I stepped foot on European soil and our travel ready selves were getting tired of not having been to the continent we think of as our second home. After a visit from one of our old roommates during the summer of 2012, we decided that Christmas and New Year's would be the perfect time to make a return. So we packed our bags and headed out for two solid weeks. We planned to spend Christmas in London and Southend on Sea having a Bengali Christmas with our old flat mate and his extended family and return to Madrid where the old family we had made would reunite and ring in 2014 with a bang. It's funny to think we spent nearly 3 years in Spain and we'd never rung in the New Year's Spanish style.
We left Friday evening from Atlanta to London. The flight was good, arrived an hour early yet, in typical London Heathrow fashion, landed on time. We circled for an hour in cloud cover that made it seem as if the plane was sitting suspended in the clouds. The crosswinds forced our captain to make an interesting landing that kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Ah, London, I never get enough of your white knuckle entrances. Our old roommates met us at the arrivals hall and took us to their flat. We had a nice lunch of cheeses, hams, and crackers with a nice red wine to wash it all down. Oh European diet, how I missed thee. We spent the evening at a London pub catching up with old friends and acclimating to the time difference.
Sunday morning, we headed south to Brighton for the only day of sun we would get for that portion of the trip in England. Brighton was windy, a bit gray, and reminded me of the Jersey Shore. There were old abandoned amusement rides on boardwalks extending out into the ocean. Another boardwalk seemed to have gone up in flames years ago and left to rot. I can see how it would be a booming town in the summer for the five days of sun English people get a year and temperatures that might touch 80 F if they're lucky. I'm not trying to pick on the Brits for their weather but lets call it what it is, shit. We had a lunch at a local seafood heavy restaurant and grabbed a pint while watching a football match before heading back to the capital for an evening wandering around. Of course, we stopped for some obligatory sweets before getting on the train. It was a great start to our trip back to Europe.
Of course, our friend and I had to have a go at some of the carnival games crowding the Piccadilly Circus area. What's a small fair without wasting money trying to win stuffed animals no one wants?
We left Friday evening from Atlanta to London. The flight was good, arrived an hour early yet, in typical London Heathrow fashion, landed on time. We circled for an hour in cloud cover that made it seem as if the plane was sitting suspended in the clouds. The crosswinds forced our captain to make an interesting landing that kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Ah, London, I never get enough of your white knuckle entrances. Our old roommates met us at the arrivals hall and took us to their flat. We had a nice lunch of cheeses, hams, and crackers with a nice red wine to wash it all down. Oh European diet, how I missed thee. We spent the evening at a London pub catching up with old friends and acclimating to the time difference.
We bid a temporary adieu to one friend as he headed off to Turin to spend Christmas with his girlfriend and future in-laws. We wanted to have a wander around the Crystal Palace and see the ruins of the once famous glass structure that lost itself in WW2. Instead, the lovely English weather with its flooding rains and gale force winds forced us to keep our activities indoors. Instead, we were spoiled by our friend's mom who cooked some homemade food for us and we caught a movie and some bowling at a local place. It felt strange to be traveling and not feel like we had to get out and see the town as we'd been to London in 2010 during a Spring Break trip that was just as cold as it was in winter.
On Tuesday, the weather was a bit more amenable and we headed to London to wander around. Izzy wanted to visit Liberty of London to wander around. While she looked around, I had to go find a bank that would swipe my credit card and give me cash against because I stupidly forgot to pack our debit cards and I had no other way of getting cash out of an ATM. Travel note - don't forget debit cards when going abroad. It took a couple of different places but a bank finally understood what I wanted and helped me out. We had a late snack at place called Jackson & Rye in the Soho area of town. They attempted and succeeded fairly well at serving cajun style food. After our tasty late lunch, we wandered around a bit more, had a drink at a local place our friend used to frequent, and headed back to south London to prepare to head out Southend-on-Sea for a Bengali Christmas feast.
No comments:
Post a Comment