Montreal

25.08.22 — Montreal

Hello there, I’m back!

It’s been over a month since I last posted, but the reason is a valid one: I’ve been gallivanting around across the pond for an entire four weeks! This American adventure took me on a wild trip around Canada and the USA doing so much that I’m going to have to break my trip down into a series of what I assume will be about a dozen blog posts.

But enough with the intro, it’s time to strap in, because here goes the first one…

My journey began as I said goodbye to my two plants, saying a little prayer that the funky automatic watering device I’d put in them would keep them alive for a whole month. I headed down to the train station with my suitcase and backpack and jumped on a train to the airport, where my first couple of dramas occurred.

I was firstly interrogated by a guy in the check-in queue over how long I’d been in Spain. I panicked, thinking it was some kind of immigration issue, but it turns out that he just wanted to compliment my Spanish! The next close call came as I’d no idea what kind of batteries were in some of the stuff I’d packed in my suitcase, calling for the stereotypical rushed unpacking and repacking of my suitcase in front of the check-in desk to fish the little buggers out of there.

The rest of the journey then went without a hitch, with the added little surprise of lunch being included which even came with a glass of red wine – I’ve been flying Ryanair for many years and so I was pretty amazed that anything was included for free. The wine improved the rest of the journey no end, and I was soon in Canada for my first ever visit to the country.

It was my first time in Canada and the first time I’d been to see Megan after so many years of saying I’d visit!

Things got off to a rocky start as the arrival forms I’d prepared to enter Canada wouldn’t work, and then my flight’s suitcases took an eternity to show up in the baggage reclaim. I did manage to spot my new bright blue case as soon as it came down the slide, and so headed out in earnest to look for my guide for the first part of my American adventure: Megan!

The last time I’d seen Megan was when she visited Madrid back in 2019 along with Loredana and Heidi. The four of us met in Madrid, and I’d always said I’d go and see all three of them: I saw Heidi in 2018 and 2022, and Loredana just last year. Megan’s from Vermont in the US, so this was always going to be a slightly tricker one, but it was time to be reunited!

Megan met me in arrivals with a balloon which said “congratulations” in French (apparently there were no welcome ones), and the two of us excitedly headed off to find her car and head into Montreal proper. We found our hotel, checked into our room, and got ready for our first night out checking out the city.

We wound up stumbling across a comedy festival hosted by Just For Laughs, the Canadian prank show that I used to watch as a child – I never thought I’d come across them again! We watched on in amusement as street performers made their way up and down the street whilst we searched for somewhere to grab a drink. Once sat down, the show continued on as we tried a local beer and watched the parade of comedians go past.

We’d decided that while we were in Canada we wanted to eat some poutine, and so ordered some only to be told that the kitchen was closed due to the fire system malfunctioning and dumping foam all over everything. We thus headed across the road and to another terrace, where we were served a hearty portion of the gravy and cheese curd-covered chips.

After our very Canadian meal we headed back to the previous bar, enjoying one last half-pint and chatting to the waiter before heading back to the hotel for a relatively early night – I was pretty exhausted after the day of travels!

I had a pretty rough night’s sleep thanks to the jet lag, but the early morning meant that me and Megan could squeeze in some activities before breakfast. We’d wanted to go check out a vantage point atop a hill near the hotel, but the drive up their turned out to be in vain as the road was closed off. The two guys manning the blockade suggested we walk up, a suggestion to which me and Megan laughed in unison.

At least we got to see some pretty houses and areas along the way.

We retreated back to the hotel to make the most of the free breakfast, after which we hopped back in the car and drove down into the Old Port, one of the oldest areas of the city. We had a wander around as the clouds rolled in, stopping by at a café along the way to grab a chocolate croissant after Megan spotted that an underground bakery had some really good looking ones on offer.

At this same café we grabbed some bread that had full olives baked into it, resolving to eat it as we headed back out on the road later on. We took some photos around the area, wandered down to the water, and then grabbed the car back to the hotel to pack and check out.

Don’t be fooled by my hat, it was sweltering out.

Once back in the car, we began our journey out of Montreal and out of Canada itself: it was time to cross the border over into the US. We waved goodbye to the city that I’d been in for less than 24 hours and headed south to a remote border crossing point that Megan had decided would be less crazily busy than the main one.

It was a lovely drive, passing through small Canadian towns and past some beautiful natural scenery before arriving at the backroad border crossing, which consisted of a little white hut and a cone in the road. Despite its benign appearance, I wound up stuck there for a while whilst I got asked a lot of questions and had my details taken.

I was very relieved to eventually be released and reunited with Megan, now in the US! The rest of the journey saw us power on through a bunch of small American towns, where the Canadian red and white tricolour had been swapped out for the Stars and Stripes.

But that’ll have to be all for now: stay tuned for my next blog post, where I’ll delve into the first destination on my American adventure!

Ollie vs. Heat

08.08.22 — Madrid

Now back in Spain after a few short days in England for Jess and Adam’s wedding, the heat has begun to prove itself to be somewhat of a nuisance. No matter, however, for there’s always fun summer plans to be made and innovative ways of cooling off to be found!

One weekend I headed down to Luis’ place, who then promptly whisked me off to his family’s finca, their casa de campo. This rather Spanish concept sees families families own two properties: the family home, and then their “countryside house”, a more rural dwelling used for family holidays and weekends away to escape the heat.

Escaping the heat was just what Luis and I had in mind, and so we headed off with supplies in tow: our swimming trunks, some beer, and a box of Turkish delight that Luis had brought me back from Istanbul. I do love me some Turkish delight!

A Sunday afternoon spent in the pool was just the ticket.

After a stop for lunch along the way, the two of us then spent the entire afternoon lounging by the pool. We chatted, listened to music, and setup an impromptu medical centre after I wandered into a wasp nest and got stung on my foot. Turns out that wasp stings are worse than the bee stings I always used to get as a child!

Back in the city, I also had an evening planned with Napo, who I’d not seen for a while. We arranged to meet up in Lavapiés, one of my favourite areas of the city. The walk to the bar that we’d decided on was a lovely one, with a relatively cool but still sunny afternoon providing for some lovely sights along the way.

This street is one of my favourite in the city, it reminds me of Lisbon.

We first had a few beers at an old bar, sitting at the bar and chatting with a caña in hand for a good while. We chatted for so long that we didn’t realise that our favourite restaurant, NAP, had already opened! No fear though, as we did manage to get a table in the end, and had a wonderful catch up over some delicious Italian food.

The melanzane alla parmigiana is one of my favourite dishes.

As the night drew to a close we headed back towards my house on foot, making the most of a relatively mild evening and the short downhill journey to my neighbourhood. There I got an early night and prepared for what the next week of heat would bring…

Jess & Adam’s Wedding

31.07.22 — Burnley

Just a month after the last time I’d been back in the UK, I once again found myself hopping on a plane up north to England in order to attend a rather important event: Jess and Adam’s wedding!

I’ve known Jess since we were quite young, as we worked together on a drama project together back in the day and then worked together at Burnley Youth Theatre for quite a good while. I then received the invitation through the post last year and was super excited to attend what promised to be a fabulous celebration.

After flying back with Danni from Madrid, I had an early night as the very next day was the big wedding. Awaking early, I dressed myself as quickly as possible in order to not be late to the wedding: I’d had very clear instructions from Amber that I’d to be there bang on time at 1pm.

I put the effort in and was out the door on time in order to rock up at the venue just before 1pm. I waved goodbye to my parents and they headed off as I headed inside to check out the lovely rural venue: a barn in the Ribble Valley.

I followed the signs round to the entrance to the barn, entering into the space for the ceremony itself, set out with plants, lights, and some lovely views over the valley. There was nobody there, though, so I headed further inside and past the dining area and the bar, both of which were also empty.

Figuring that Amber had just told me to be there half an hour before everyone else – knowing me as she does – I set out to find a staff member to ask where I could leave my stuff before the celebrations began. Coming across a woman in the corner of the room, I let her know that I was here for Jess and Adam’s wedding, and her response left me frozen: there was no wedding there today!

She also mentioned the name of another venue, The Out Barn, which was when it fully dawned on me that she wasn’t joking and that I had, indeed, come to the wrong place. A blind panic then set in, as my parents had already headed off and the lady informed me that a taxi could take up to 45 minutes to arrive thanks to the rural setting.

As you can imagine, I was furious at myself: I’d managed to be on time, but I’d gone to the wrong bloody venue!

After much panicking and frantic phone calls, my parents showed back off and whisked me the short ten minutes in the car off to the correct location. I arrived flustered and half an hour late, but at least I had a good story to tell. Also, it turned out that Amber really did know me: the ceremony didn’t kick off until 2pm.

The views over the Ribble Valley from the wedding venue were beautiful on a gorgeously sunny day.

I spent a fabulous half an hour recounting my dramatic tale and catching up with some old pals that I hadn’t seen since secondary school about ten years ago, but we were eventually ushered into the main space and seated for the ceremony to begin.

The ensuing day was an absolute blast, with the picturesque setting and the intimate size of a group of great friends and some hilarious new people that I had the pleasure of meeting. With the tears of the main ceremony over, we grabbed drinks and began lunch, which was then followed by a night of singing, dancing, and having a big loud celebration as only us ex-theatre lot know how to!

The wedding was an absolute blast from start to finish.

The next day I had a somewhat heavy head and a distinct lack of energy – something I should have thought about beforehand! It was nothing that an early breakfast cooked up by Jess’ dad couldn’t fix, however, so we all sat around and recollected the highlights of the previous evening whilst gorging on bacon, sausages, and black pudding.

Once I’d recovered and been sent home with a generous wedge of the delicious wedding cake, I rested for the rest of the day to recover from the crash I’d had after so many days of fun with some of the best people I know.

I can’t thank Jess enough for inviting me to form part of her gorgeous wedding, and extend once again my congrats to Mrs & Mr Barrett as they begin married life together. Also a shout out to Amber for whipping me into shape, and my parents for putting up with my chaos. Oops!

I’d then a week to work back at home from the UK, but this had been cut short in advance thanks to an event with a client that I’ll have to go into more detail about some other time. I had three evenings in the surprisingly sunny British summer weather to enjoy though, and so spent the most of the time available enjoying the countryside with my parents.

Instead of wittering on, I’ll just leave you with these lovely pictures taken around my village.

And thus concluded a very short five days in England. I’d liked to have stayed a bit longer to enjoy the unexpectedly warm weather and great company, but a work event called, as well as plenty of other plans that I’ll have to get into shortly.

For now, I sign off with this photo of me enjoying the great outdoors and pretending to be one of the very farmers who used to scare me off as we played in these very fields as young kids. How time flies!

When I was young, rumour was that the farmer had a gun!

Queen & Further Musical Adventures

22.07.22 — Madrid

In between a couple of trips to Asturias and after a week back in the UK, I’ve also been up to plenty of other stuff here in Madrid. As I was looking over my photos, I noticed that a lot of them have had somewhat of a musical theme, and so I’ve grouped them all together in this quick little post.

My first little musical adventure took me, Sara, and Marta to a club, where live acts accompanied a wild programme of shows and events every twenty minutes. We had an absolute blast, even heading out for a few vermouths the day after to “balance the pH”…

Another lovely moment saw Thuy head back over to visit Spain for a few days. Naturally, we had to meet up for lunch, and had a lovely meal at a spot just a few streets away from the office where I first met her when I moved to Spain for the first time back in 2016. How time flies!

We also nipped into the office for a cheeky snoop around…

That week I also had another meal date, this time with Kevin, James, and Sara. Kevin and James were stopping in Madrid for the night before grabbing a plane back over to the US, and so we all arranged to meet up and have an evening meal at one of my favourite spots. We had an absolute hoot of a time, enjoying dish after dish whilst laughing over some hilarious stories and some strong gin and tonics…

The Cibeles Palace looked absolutely resplendent in its pride colours.

My next musical event took place when Danni came over for a flying visit. She arrived on a Thursday as I left work, but we were both back out of the house by 6:30pm in order to head to the north of the city and the WiZink Center. We arrived at the huge stadium early and in earnest to see a band which formed a massive part of my childhood: Queen!

The show was insane fun and an absolute joy – we both left absolutely hoarse, hungry, and – in my case – dying for the toilet! This was nothing that a McDonalds couldn’t fix, and so we had some tipsy chips on a bench before heading back home to rest for our next day.

We spent the day after the concert wandering the city streets, having lunch at one of my favourite spots, and then heading out for some drinks in the evening. Our original plan was to head to some of the pride concerts, but we wound up so deep in conversation on a terrace that before we knew it it was midnight!

The next day was Saturday, and we’d both to be up relatively early in order to grab a plane together back to the UK, as I’d yet again to head back to my native country for another and rather exciting event – but I’ll have to get to that next time. I’m so busy recently I can’t get these posts out on time!

I leave this post with a silly anecdote which will hopefully be as amusing for you all as it was stressful for me…

I was recently bought some new sunglasses by my mum: an actual decent pair of sunnies after years of using either cheap pairs that I’d then lose or break or, as was the case with my last pair, sunglasses that accidentally stolen from my auntie. Shout out to her for putting up with my clumsiness!

Speak of clumsiness, I was now in possession of a (relatively compared to what had come before) expensive pair of sunglasses, so the theory was that I’d be a bit less clumsy and not leave them around/sit on them/drop them every five minutes. Said theory was thoroughly disproven when, during my first trip up to Asturias, I left them on the table of the bar that I’d said goodbye to Kevin at. Thankfully he noticed them sitting there and took them back home with him, and so I was able to pick them up just a couple of weeks later when I returned up north.

Then, just two days later, I took them out again to the restaurant where I’d met up with Kevin, James, and Sara. As we left, my lesson had been learned, and I grabbed them from the table. The problem came when I popped them in the basket of the bike I used to get home – even as I placed them in it I did think to myself that there was a good chance that I’d forget to take them back out.

At about 2am that night I woke up for a glass of water, and for some reason something clicked in my brain and I suddenly remembered: crap – the sunglasses!

Well, you can imagine the sight as I, in some Christmas pyjamas that I had lying around, went running down the street to the bike station in a blind panic-fuelled hope that they’d still be there. As I arrived and realised that neither the glasses nor the bike I’d used were there, my heart sank. There was nothing to do but head back home, where I send a desperate email to BiciMAD (the public bike service here) asking them to return them on the off chance they were found, quoting the number of the bike I’d used after searching for the it in the history section within the app.

It was at that moment that it suddenly occurred to me that there might just be a way to search for the location of every bike by its number, and so I headed back into the app to see if I could wrangle the location of the bike I’d used – and lo and behold, I found it!

You know what happens next – the pyjamas went back on and I was once again power walking down the street and back to the same bike station, but this time it wasn’t to look for a bike – it was to ride one! I grabbed the first working one I could find, and off I went, speeding around the empty streets of Madrid at 3am in my festive PJs.

Arriving at the station containing the bike I’d used the evening before, I found the bike in question and – miraculously – the sunglasses were still in the basket!

The frustration from earlier was replaced with elation as I headed back home – on a bike again, of course. The elation didn’t help me sleep though, and so the next day I was tired and grumpy – but at least I had my sunglasses…

Fiestes de Cabueñes

14.07.22 — Gijón

A few weeks back, Kevin landed in Spain and spent a night with me in Madrid, a quick little visit that marked the start of his extended summer holiday back here in his home country. He spent most of the rest of his trip up in Asturias with his family, and so you can guarantee that I had to get up north as much as possible to spend time with him and the rest of my friends there!

I actually headed up north twice over a two-week period, but seeing as I’m running so behind on getting blog posts written I’ve decided to merge them together into one, so here we go…

La Fiesta

The first weekend I spent in Asturias I was in Oviedo, where I’d arranged to stay with Kevin and his brother. Kevin had planned to meet me at his flat there, but wound up stuck in Gijón until late after some vermouths and a rebel train that didn’t open the doors at his stop. ¡Reclamación!

Kevin eventually arrived in a taxi, livid at this “ilegalidad” (ilegal happening) that had taken place. After a quick catch up I’d to head off to bed early so that I’d be up on time and ready to work from his flat the next morning.

We stuck our noses in this rather beautiful church in the centre.

After work, we headed to the centre of Oviedo to a bus back up to Gijón, where we met up with Cami for a much-needed reunion. We had a few beers on a terrace before heading into Burger King for a bite to eat, which wound up in me banging on about how much I wanted one of the kid’s meal toys so much that the lovely lady there gifted me a Burger King Barbie, complete with her Burger King hat!

From there, we grabbed a taxi out to our final destination for the evening: las fiestas de Cabueñes (literally “the Cabueñes party”). This party, which took place in Cabueñes, a small town outside Gijón, is a typical Asturian fiesta de prao (literally “field party”), meaning lots of drinking, singing, and dancing the night away in a field!

I’ve missed Kevin a lot since he left to for the US nearly four years ago.

The fiesta was an absolute blast, but left us all pretty exhausted the next day. Me and Kevin had to get back to his flat in Oviedo, but there were no taxis to take us back into Gijón to get the night bus, so we wound up having to walk for about an hour. Once we were in the bus station, no night bus showed up to take us onwards even after another hour of waiting, so we wound up having to walk even further and grab the first train in the morning.

As can imagine we were absolutely knackered, and spent most of Saturday sleeping in and relaxing around the house. We did eventually have to move, as we’d arranged to spend the evening with a group of friends, and so we headed into the centre of Oviedo to meet up with them for a lovely Asturian meal.

I love this photo of Kevin admiring the meat platter overlooked by a hungry woman.

After stuffing ourselves on all the traditional dishes, from pastel de cabracho to picadillo, we headed off to an Irish pub to end the night with a cheeky gin and tonic. We then headed home, luckily arriving just before a huge thunderstorm begun its attack on the city.

The next day was a short one for me as the majority of it was spent in a car heading back down to Madrid. We did manage to squeeze a couple more things before I left though, starting with a vermouth in Oviedo with Raquel and Joel, where I managed to leave my new sunglasses on the table when I left…

I then headed up to Gijón, where I’d arranged to have lunch with Cami before getting picked up and whisked off back down to Madrid in a carshare. It was a lovely end to an amazingly fun weekend up in my second home that is Asturias.

La Churrascada

A mere ten days later I was already on a bus and headed back up to Asturias, this time to spend a long weekend at Cami’s place in Gijón. I arrived somewhat late, but we still managed to cram plenty in: heading out to buy some sheets for her sofa bed, grabbing some snacks, and preparing ourselves to head out for a meal.

In the time I’d been back in Madrid, James (Kevin’s husband) had arrived in Spain to join him for the last week of his holidays, and so our evening meal was arranged so that the four of us could have some food, drink some cider, and have a little boogie.

And that we did, with a delicious and hilarious meal complete with croquetas, tortos, and some delicious pork. Tipsy off the cider that was duly flowing throughout the evening, we headed to a club in the centre of Gijón for a little boogie, before we all grew tired and headed back home.

The next day, me and Cami were picked up by Andrea and Andrei, who’d agreed to give us a lift to the day’s activities: a churrascada (barbecue) up on one of the mountains that overlooks Gijón. Even the journey to get there was quite an adventure, with Andrei’s car overheating on the steep roads up to our picnic spot.

We eventually arrived in one piece and cracked open some drinks and snacks whilst Andrei and Joel helped get the fire started to get the meat on the go. We had some laughs and a great catch up, even if the cool sea breeze was battering us a bit in the exposed spot that we’d picked.

We all wound up huddled around the grill to try and keep warm!

Our quick lunch soon wore on into the late afternoon, with course after course of meat, snacks, and delicious homemade desserts that people had brought along with them. When the fog rolled in and the humidity made the cold too much to bear, we packed up shop and headed back to the car.

Back in Cami’s flat, me and Cami had a quick nap before heading out for the evening. We headed to a local bar for some drinks, walking home afterwards in order to get a few steps in before heading off to bed. This walk home was an interesting one, as we walked past a flower shop at midnight that had its door open and all its lights on but there was nobody inside, and then later stumbled across a long-abandoned block of flats right on the main road. Spooky!

The next day Cami and I headed back out into the centre of Gijón for lunch, for which Cami took me to a local fish and chip shop for what I judged to be a rather fancy plate of fish and chips. We then headed down to the same beachside bar that we’d had drinks at to celebrate my birthday, where we had a couple of cocktails until the weather turned very Asturian and a torrential downpour blew in.

As it was a Sunday afternoon and with the weather how it was, we decided to spend the evening at Cami’s, where we watched some TV, chatted, and had a drink together to end another lovely weekend.

The next day I worked from Cami’s flat. After work, we had a quick lunch together before I had to head off in search of my carshare back down to Madrid, and thus my second trip up north was concluded.

As usual, I had an absolute blast with these couple of quick trips up to Asturias. It was great to have Kevin back in Spain, and also to see James in person for the first time since he visited the UK back in 2017. The two of them are now back stateside, but I’ll be seeing them soon… but more on that another time!