ENGLAND london
i FINALLY made it to london! i went to visit my friend chris, who i met with enda and randall in la paz…and like the 10th person i have seen from my south america trip. good times. despite everyone telling me how expensive things are, i was not ready for it. for example: my twenty pound (so 40 FREAKIN DOLLAR) mexican restaurant bill for three beef tacos and my share of a pitcher of margarita! how i miss my $1.75 tres hermanos tacos. anyway, all the restaurants we hit up were so delicious and it was good to eat something other than bocadillos and eggs.
we basically did all the “london” sight seeing in one day, and it was efficient and enough for me. i figure i have to be back here for my flight out, so if i missed something i will catch it later. the weather was crappy overcast-typical london according to chris. but it was kinda perfect for running around the city without getting too cold or hot. we walked through some parks ( i thinkst. james´s…since it was by buckingham palace) and then down by the river to see big ben…and i finally felt like i was in london when i saw the parliament building! we even checked out the tate modern and viewed an exhibition by some french artist named louise bourgeois…and basically got my share of museums for the next five years.
this was nfl weekend since the dolphins played the giants in the first regular season game played outside america. i would have wanted to go if it were any other team…but the dolphins? the game was at wembley and was shown on skysports…but that meant i had to listen to the skysports commentators. lame. made me miss my espn…and tnt…and hilarious and most times irrelevant comments by charles barkley. in the underground we saw a lot of people who were going to the game, wearing jerseys repping practically every team. this was cool to see-gotta support your boys! go seahawks!
SPAIN barcelona (my first barça game!)
my first barça futbol game! tickets are really reasonable and we were able to get tickets for only 30 euro! camp nou is a pretty big stadium and it looked pretty packed, considering it was a wednesday night game. i got into the game instantly by feeding off the crowd’s energy and passion for their team-much different than a game back home. my friends should definitely play over here where futbol is appreciated.
camp nou has a big screen but all it shows throughout the game are names of players substituting for each-other and scores of other games. no instant replays, no nothing. this was strange for me, especially when there was a play that called for one. waste of a big screen, no? anyway, the final score was 4-1 over zaragoza!
getting home was a chore and a half! the game started at ten, so it did not get out till after midnight….which meant the metro was closed for the thousands of people who stayed till the end. i don’t know why the city didn’t just keep the metro open for an extra half hour. night buses run every twenty minutes so we knew we could get home but you shoulda seen the crowd waiting to board. and for some reason, people would pile in and then stand sardines-style in the FRONT of the bus…while there was all this space in the back. seeing this, an old man stands in front of the bus and refuses to move. so, instead of asking people to move towards the back, the bus driver lays on the horn for about 10 minutes. no joke. i felt for him and others who wanted to get on, but damn. finally, people shuffled to the back and he and about TWENTY people got on. talk about an ordeal. at least we were on the bus.
SCOTLAND edinburgh
we took the megabus to edinburgh for the weekend…which only cost us about 5 pounds each! magabus is a low cost busline that runs between cities, and is similar to easyjet/ryanair on ground…which means sometime the same route might only cost a pound!
there was so much to see, and although small, edinburgh definitely caters to tourists. we had good times on princes street and george street (the rat pack piano bar is a must!), and we even tried some haggis at a scottish place on the royal mile! liam had a whole meal of it and i had a bite..which was enough for me. thinking about eating a whole plate where the main ingredients are sheep heart, liver, and lungs boiled in it’s stomach makes me gag. so back to the sites…with my favorite was the view from “the mound,” where you can see the castle and scott monument. we didn’t go into the castle because it was 11 pounds to get in, but now i wish we had. sad. i should just sucked it up and paid.
we stayed at argyle backpackers, which is up the street from ”the meadows” (a big park in the middle of the city). i lied being a bit outside of everything, because it gave us a chance to walk through parts of the town we would have otherwise missed. make reservations at http://www.argyle-backpackers.co.uk/index.htm!
since it was the rugby world cup, we caught the argentina-south africa game…and i was sad to see argentina lose. i also learned that the last thing most irish and scottish want to see is england win at anything. so, it was better for south africa to win because they had a better chance of beating the english in the final. (which they did!) basically, the english and the americans are kinda in the same boat and have a bad rep around the globe.
SCOTLAND aberdeen
i LOVE scotland. it is really chill here, and the greenery and fresh air is amazing! reminds me a bit of home. aberdeen was a nice surprise, since it is NOT a shithole like everyone said it was. i stepped off the plane and immediately felt like i could actually breathe…which was a nice change from the shit air of barça. ugh.
liam (a friend from the pub who is attending uni here) picked me up at the airport, and off we were to start our scotland trip! first stop: the town of aberdeen and the university. (founded in 1495!) most of the buildings are pretty short-i would say six stories max. i really like this about the campus and nearby neighborhoods, since it gives the area a small-town feeling.
i was kinda scared to stay at the guys´place because i imagined houses like the u-district. but liam and his friends might keep things in order more than some girls´! they have a chore list that is kinda followed. for example, a couple of people usually cook dinner, and then others take turns doing the dishes for EVERYONE. wtf. i have never heard of such a thing. who wants to do dishes that have been lying around? aberdeen uni boys. kind of outrageous, actually.
SPAIN barcelona (sneaky bastards)
my luck ran out and i finally got robbed. even after countless stories of people getting robed every which way, i felt comfortable trusting fellow backpackers and would leave my bags in the room. the taxi rides by myself in bolivia and peru were fine…and i always kept my bag close on the metro. so it was a shock when i realized i got robbed, since it probably happened in the TWO SECONDS i let my guard down and did not even realize it. sneaky bastards.
i was flyering at the top of la rambla and had my shoulder bag slung at my hip. i ran out of flyers, went back to the pub for a refill, and as i was sitting down for a break i realized my ipod was not in the usual compartment. i started emptying the contents thinking it had to be somewhere…and then realized my wallet was gone as well. i thought maybe, just maybe i had misplaced it but fionn, (my bartender friend whose bar i was sitting at) was like, ”you got robbed!” that is when it set in. i had so much crap in this thing i have no idea how they managed to unzip my bag WHILE IT WAS ON ME and nick the most valuable things. skills, i guess.
obviously, it sucks because of the inconvenience it caused me. at first i felt extremely violated and vulnerable…but then i got angry. haha going through the steps to recovery, right? anyway, angry because i felt like i was prepared for confrontations. for one, i have mase (thanks kell!) i am ready to use and have not had the chance to yet. two: i will most definitely whip out my swiss army knife if it comes down to it. and three: i give the evil eye to random people that look like they are looking at my belongings. but all of these things are useless if i don´t know i am getting robbed!
moral of the story: the thieves here are sneaky bastards and are extremely good at what they do. watch your stuff.
SPAIN barcelona (le mercé!:dos)
parc del fòrum was built to accommodate outdoor concerts and events. since it is away from residential areas, shows can start at two in the morning and go till seven if anyone gets a chance to go there is a club called cubic that we frequented on sundays (it is closed for the winter), and it was awesome since we would go after the pub at three am and stay till seven…and then catch the train home to sleep all day. and ofcourse, since it is barça, if you still want to party there is always an afterparty somewhere! anyway, for le mercé the fòrum was packed with thousands of people as it hosted free shows. one night we we went out to see cassius (french house dj band) at a mtv-sponsored event! i don´t think there would ever be a free show like this in the states. gotta love spain!
“piromusica” is the culmination of the festival, and ends with fireworks coordinated to the colorfully lit up fountain in plaza españa. the fountain show is one thing, but to see it in conjunction with fireworks was absolutely stunning! they also handed out packets sparklers (my favorite!) with lighters which we held up towards the end. it definitely capped off the crazy weekend of festivities!
SPAIN barcelona (le mercé!:uno)
an awesome perk about living in spain is that it is always celebrating some sort of holiday. ”le mercé” at the end of september marks the end of summer/beginning of fall and is held in honor of barcelona’s saint. there are over 500 events held throughout the weekend, and i got to catch a few of them. sooo…here are some highlights:
the first was the “correfoc,” which translates into “fire run” in catalan. people in “devil” costumes (the gaudi lizard was even one of them!), parade down the street breathing out fireworks which i swear are aimed at the crows gathered along the sidewalk. but what was really scary and kind of exciting were the other dancers alongside. these dances were more like drunk bar dances at irish pubs…except replace guinness pints with what looks like the skeleton of the umbrella with fireworks shooting out every which way like a sprinkler. loud cracking noises that went off every few minutes would make me jump, as these participants danced toward the crowd who would retreat away in a wave-like motion. although a lot of people were showering in it (99.9% of these people were wearing hoodies and scarves to cover their face) i was not prepared to do so. in fact, i was ready to have a heart attack every time one came by. thank god we were only there for a half hour or so!
the human towers in plaza de sant jaume were thrilling! some got as high as the surrounding buildings, as each level consisted of people standing on each others shoulders with their arms linked. drums start rolling as there is a time limit, and the pyramid is only complete when the last participant-a little child (probably about 3 years old) shimmies up one side and down the other. who the hell decides to let their kid participate? this definitely made me hold my breath! i only saw one pyramid crumble, and as the audience we could see it was going to happen. a guy in the middle of the tower was visibly shaking looking unbalanced, and sure enough, about ten seconds later the whole tower crumbled in slow motion. but atelast no one got hurt.