Thursday, October 22, 2009

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

I got back on the 30th of September and I haven't said a word. I know; I'm a bad blogger. But I have reasons! Lots of projects! Thesis! Uh, stuff!

I haven't even started editing my trip pictures, in fact, I should do that now. Start, that is. I've been busy doing crafting, setting up some projects, writing up a storm with my thesis (13 pages in one week! For me, huge progress), and working. When I get home, I'm usually too tired to do anything and the significant amounts of rain that have been falling lately do not help at all. But I will remedy this and start talking about the trip. Now.

Damian and I spent 19 days traveling through England and Spain, with stops in London, Oxford, Madrid, and Barcelona, with a Tarragona drive-by. The whole reason for the trip was my presentation at Mansfield College at the University of Oxford. (Squee!) Damian was all, "Oh I will sacrifice myself and accompany you on this trip. Can we make a stop in Spain?" Oh, such a disinterested and noble soul!

We were going to go to Segovia but we overslept. Jet lag is awesome. And I think that was the only day we overslept because the rest of the trip was spent waking up at 6-7-8 AM. In England, we took a Windsor, Bath, and Stonehenge tour which was pretty great. We almost got left behind at every single spot (them Brits, so punctual), but we managed to make it back to London safe and sound at the end of the day.

England was pretty beautiful, just cold. Well, the problem wasn't really the temperature; it was the wind. And the exchange rate for the pound. Our wallets wept the whole time we were in the UK, that's how bad the exchange rate was. I mean, did we really have to eat? Can't we just save the money?

I kid!

Spain was also great. My word, was the change in temperature welcome. Barcelona was gorgeous: I liked the fact that I had the sea close (well, right there) and the mountains too. For some reason, I don't like being landlocked. It's one of those finicky OCD things of mine. But back to the city. Great architecture (didn't enjoy the heights though), pretty sights, and, well. Let's face it.

The food.

Oh, dear god, the food.

I think I'm still composed of wine, sugar and carbohydrates. Everything we ate (with only two small exceptions) was amazing. The seafood was insanely fresh, there were so many varieties of fruits, and let's not even talk about the ENTIRE AISLE OF CHOCOLATE.

Shit.

I'm still feeling that one.

This trip meant a lot to me, and it's not only because I spent my birthday over there, which was nice. A birthday to remember. Specially since Damian is an evil plotter and he made me cry. But I digress. I got to do so many things I've dreamed of doing since I was a child, like visiting Stonehenge and seeing Roman ruins. And presenting at Oxford, among others. It also meant a lot because I got to spend it with someone I love and who loves me.

And I'm going to stop the googly eye talk now because I'm going to lose my readers. All four of them!

I don't think there are enough words to describe how great this trip was. I had a great time and now I want to win the lottery so I can go over there and not have to return! Woohoo! I will blog pictures of the trip sporadically because I have around four thousand pictures that I have to slough through. Meanwhile, I'll do my best to blog frequently.

Take care everyone!