I am happy to be home. Nothing has changed much except I will need to get used to things, mainly the size of pop bottles and toilets full of water. I had an amazing trip with my mother and I wouldn't change a thing (maybe to have brought the Spain National team back to our hotel room for personal Spanish lessons) My mother was an excellent travel companion and let me take the reigns and guide us through Europe whether it be backwards or forwards. (I seemed to always be going backwards and never forwards) but we found our way and were amazed with what Europe had to offer. I am going to go city by city and explain what I loved best about each city.
London: London is such a big city, it really grabs hold of you and sucks you in. I loved the fish and chips at Covent Garden. I loved spending almost five hours at the London Zoo, who knew watching a Giraffe being fed bread could be so amusing or wondering if the hippo should look so shiny or looking for the mystical tapirs (never did find them :( )Going to the movies and watching Young Victoria, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Knowing. Watching Fulham vs Hull City at the half way line, right at pitch level. There is too much to go on about, it's just an amazing city with an amazing history and really needs time to explore to its fullest. I really enjoyed going on the Arsenal stadium tour and it was the best of all the ones we had been on.
Edinburgh: What sold me about Scotland was the train ride with National Express to Edinburgh. The Scottish coastline was beautiful and I liked that train ride the best of all the train rides we did. Edinburgh was a beautiful city. The weather was good to us and we had blue skies and sunshine as we explored the museums and walked up the Royal Mile to the Castle. Our first hostel experience was interesting with an old lady with a big radio, a big bag of chips and a big clock. We went on our free tour which was really amusing and gave us background information about buildings we would have just wandered by not knowing that they had any significance. I tried haggis and pork sandwich and it was good. I shared a pint with my mother and learned I am not much of a beer drinker. We learned the valuable lesson that every museum is bound to have a bathroom whether it be the Children's Museum of Edinburgh or the Tate Modern in London.
Glasgow: We didn't spend enough time in Glasgow to have it make much of an impact on us. The colours were bright and it seemed all the children were set free on the streets in mass hoards. We stayed in a nice Euro Hostel, the only complaint would be the fact the fire alarm went off at 1 am. Luckily we did not burn to death, never did find out why that went off just that I do not ever want to hear such a noise in my life. We did manage to get out to see Auntie Chrissie in Uddingston which is about 45 minutes out of Glasgow(something like that and you needed a train) and a little walk from the train station. We brought her hot cross buns and she had already brought some out. We had coffee and talked about her legs and Mom growing up and some cousins I don't know about and some other people. She mentioned Auntie Vickie as a baby and singing a song that made her cry. She thought someone else was going to be with us but it was only us. Unfortunately we had to cut the visit short as it was late and all we wanted to do was get stuck in the dark in Uddingston.
Manchester: We arrived in Manchester by bus because it was much cheaper than a train. It was an annoying experience, the guy I sat next to was really greasy and reminded me of a blond Snape from Harry Potter. Not a good thing. Mom sat next to this man who wasn't wearing shoes the whole ride, that was really gross. The man was travelling with two women and they sat in the back of the bus, taking up five seats to themselves and chatting loudly the whole way. It was super annoying and I think mom wanted to smack them both. We chose a hotel that was a little out of Manchester and after walking a bit we took a cab and boy are we glad we did. Manchester to me wasn't a very exciting city, it had potential but nothing really screamed at me besides the factor of Manchester United and Manchester City. We hit up Old Trafford and went on the stadium tour almost right away and it was not as good as Arsenal but it was good. We went to the Red Cafe afterward and had a nice meal. The till was down when we wanted to pay so we got a free drink, yay for that. We went to Sportcity which is Manchester City's stadium and were disappointed with their megastore because of the shoddy selection of anything and their massive endorsement of Robinho.
Liverpool: A long walk from Lime Street Train station to Anfield road. My directional skills allowed for Anfield to lead us to our hotel but not to account for the distance we would have to travel to get there. One big big hill and lots of road. We stayed at Brian Epstein Hotel (he was the manager of the Beatles) but it was overbooked because Patrick the manager seemed to be short of a few brain cells and we ended up staying at Patrick's house down the road and ended up sharing the room with three guys around my age. Mighty exciting. We went and soaked up the atmosphere of the approaching Liverpool vs Real Madrid match and then watched it from a pub just down the road from the stadium which was so cool because they were singing and it was just a blast to be there. Went to some museums and Goodinson Park but Anfield was the main pull.
Paris: What can I say about Paris? The driving is crazy, the people are different, everything else is lovely. Our hotel was not prime but it was a bed and that's all that counted. The Louvre was amazing, so was the Arc de Triomphe and I totally recommend going up it, its a lovely view on a good day.Versailles was another amazing experience and I recommend going maybe in June, to beat the crowds and get the lovely gardens hopefully in their glory.
Barcelona: I am in love with Barcelona. It is such a wonderful city and it offers you so much. I love Gaudi and La Sagrada Familia and going up it was such an experience, I have never felt more scared or thrilled all at once. I will definitely go back to Barcelona, the weather, the people, everything was so nice and it definitely needs more exploring.
Valencia: Valencia had a lot of hidden surprises for us that we would not have expected. Just going down an alley way in Valencia would lead you to some marvel and then another. It was opening doors for us into their way of life. We were awed by Fallas and the fact that they spend hours and hours and thousands of dollars on these masterpieces and then just burn them all. It was hard to wrap our minds around this all and we loved everything we saw. I really enjoyed going to the beach and can't imagine how packed it would be in the full swing of summer.
Madrid: Madrid is a big city. Not as big feeling as London or Paris but it is still a capital and you get that from it. I really enjoyed the Spain vs Turkey game and to see familiar faces like Xavi, Gerard Pique and Juan Mata who I have watched before live was really cool. The bullfight was a disappointment, I guess we just thought it was going to be what you know, bullfights are. A mistake but an experience that I won't forget.
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