Norwich

I left my previous post on a train out of Lancashire and on my way to my next destination in order to celebrate the New Year with some friends. As you’ll have guessed from the title, I was headed southwards to Norwich, a city I’d never yet visited and to which my friends Luisa and Sol have moved to. This trip had been arranged after I managed to catch them in Leeds whilst over for Em and Lincoln’s wedding. It’s crazy how these things happen!

Also visiting them down in Norfolk was Evie, Luisa’s sister, who I know well from a the odd past trip to Germany in order to join the festivities at the beer festival in their small town. With all four of us reunited, it promised to be a fun weekend spent seeing in 2023.

I should also apologise in advance for the lack of photos – we were having so much fun I forgot to take hardly any!

Anyway, I arrived at Norwich train station in the evening, from where we headed to their place so I could drop my stuff off before heading out for tea. Luisa had reserved a table at a local Mexican restaurant, where we enjoyed a lovely meal over some margaritas, after which we went for a tipsy snoop around the city and then headed back home. There, I managed to eat a whole easter egg (yes, they were already selling them at Tesco) in record time whilst we had a boogie to some international music before heading off to bed.

The next day was New Year’s Eve, so we headed out to grab some ingredients for lunch and our evening meal. We had a good old laugh snooping round the local supermarkets, where I grabbed a lot of Cadbury’s chocolate and some very disgusting vermouth. England doesn’t seem to sell any of the good stuff!

Back at Luisa’s, we had a lovely carbonara and then began preparations for the later celebrations. Nibbling on some of the Spanish meats and cheese I’d brought over, we all got dolled up and had a few drinks whilst we waited for the clock to strike midnight on the telly.

Well, having the TV on mute turned out to be quite the error, as the slow clock on the living room wall tricked us all into believing that we’d still time before the proper celebrations begun. It was only when someone noticed the fireworks on the TV that we realised we’d missed the big moment!

I scrambled to eat the twelve grapes that I’d dutifully purchased in advance as per Spanish tradition, then we all bundled out of the door and hit Norwich town centre to spend the rest of the night. That was quite an experience, but wound up being lots of fun with some cheesy old English party music and then some greasy food to end the night properly!

The next day we all awoke quite late but with enough time to have some lunch and head out into the city to have a proper snoop around the place before the sun went down. Luisa showed us the main sights around the centre and then we stopped for a hot chocolate before heading home for another relaxed evening playing Scrabble and eating yet more delicious pasta!

The next day I was up, packed, and out relatively early as I’d to grab a train down from Norwich to Stansted Airport. Back at the train station, I hugged Luisa off in the station before climbing on board the very expensive train even further south, where I’d to suffer the dreary chaos that is Stansted Airport in order to grab my flight back to Madrid.

With that, I rather quickly summarise my quick trip down to Norwich. As I’ve had no photos for reference, I’ve probably missed out lots of fun little details, but I had a fabulous time. Many thanks to Luisa and Sol for having me over, and thanks also to Evie for inviting me over to Germany again this year for another beer festival experience. This time, we’re thinking of taking on Nuremberg…

Happy New Year!