Ribadesella & Fiesta de San Juan

09.07.18 — Ribadesella

First things first with this blog post, and that’s that I have to apologise for how late I am in bringing it to you. I tried to upload the photos so that I could get it written a week ago, but I’ve been having some ongoing problems with my website and I couldn’t get anything uploaded – and a blog post without photos isn’t really worth your time – especially this one!

Anyway, let’s get on with things, for once again I write to you all whilst sat on yet another train. This time I’m headed southward with my mum and sister; the only difference being that they’re flying in at hundreds of miles per hour in a plane over my head somewhere! That’s right, the three of us are set to meet in Murcia in less than an hour, but those updates are to come later – for now I must focus on catching up on the antics from my trip to Oviedo two weeks ago.

Upon arrival in Asturias I was once again greeted by Kevin, an event so familiar that I now feel like Oviedo has become a second home – indeed, when we got to his house I didn’t even have to ask to do a single thing, it’s all become second nature! We weren’t at his flat for long though, as it was fiesta time – las fiestas de San Juan, to be exact. This involved us meeting up with a friend and heading down into Kevin’s neighbourhood to see what was going on.

Well didn’t I get a shock when, pizza in hand, we rocked up to a full blown festival right in the middle of what’s usually a sleepy plaza! An array of fairground rides and stalls selling all kinds of food and drinks were gathered around the huge crowds gathered at the centre, everyone focussed on the main stage where a local band were performing a medley of all the local hits.

As you can see, it didn’t take us long to grab ourselves a couple of bottles of the local speciality, natural cider; and as you can also see, I still haven’t quite got the hang of it since I first tried it back in summer last year! We were soon quite happily and tipsily away, dancing and singing along to everything from La Bamba to the unofficial anthem of Asturias.

We were all having a ball of a time singing and dancing in the street, but suddenly the main stage was hit with a series of power cuts, and eventually the poor guys had to call it a night and cut their set short. Not to worry for the rest of us, however, as a big marquee which was earlier just a bar had been converted into a huge dance floor, playing all of the modern Spanish hits!

After arriving in Oviedo at 9pm and complaining that I was too tired and didn’t want to go out, I wound up having an absolute blast with Kevin and Nerea, with one of my personal highlights being singing along at the top of my voice to “Fiesta Pagana”, one of my favourite party songs which I discovered last time we went out up in Oviedo. It was a phenomenal evening, and one which I very much hope to repeat next year, but as we headed home in the early hours I think we were both more concerned about how our heads would be the next day…

It was quite a shock when we woke up rather quite fresh, albeit slightly late, but that was to be expected as I was already tired before I was (rather willingly, as you probably noticed) talked into staying out until 5am. By two in the afternoon, me and Kevin had waved Nerea back off home and boarded a bus to another mystery location – Kevin always has a plan under wraps, and after the last trip to gorgeous Cudillero I was more than happy for him to continue making them!

It turned out that this time Kevin had brought me to yet another beautiful seaside town, Ribadesella. Once we’d hopped off the bus, we headed straight for the restaurant area, as we’d not really eaten much in the morning besides a few magdalenas (mini muffins). We found a lovely looking place which offered a menú del día for 14€, and then commenced to wine and dine our way through an absolute feast of a meal.

I was too preoccupied with my wine, croquettes, seafood soup, roast cabrito (goat meat), and then a huge bowl of homemade natillas (a bit like custard) to even think about taking any photos of the food, but take mine and Kevin’s word for it that it was delicious. For a few weeks now I’ve been trying to eat healthier and cut down on portion sizes, but it’s apparent that Asturias does not allow any such nonsense – even the soup came out in a huge mixing bowl and I was told to say when!

Stuffed full of gorgeous homemade grub, we paid the bill and headed back into Ribadesella, heading first through the beautifully quaint town centre. As usual when me and Kevin are reunited, we spent a good time snooping around, taking photos, and engaging in deep debates in which we put the world to rights.

I’m sure I don’t need to wax lyrical about how breathtakingly beautiful the little town was, as you can get a decent idea from the photos above, but I was caught off guard as we approached the estuary on which the town sits.

The place was just like a picture on a postcard, and I made sure to take it all in as we strolled town the waterfront. It was proving to be a lovely relaxing day, which was just as well as I was tired from the fiestas and full from the meal, but then Kevin went and dropped the bombshell that he wanted us to scale a large jut of land which shielded the estuary from the full force of the sea beyond.

As per usual, Kevin managed to talk my grouchy self into heading upwards, and so we began the ascent up some steps which had been mounted along the side of the incline – it was like Cudillero all over again! No complaints though – that place too was gorgeous and well worth every ounce of energy spent.

After an initial struggle, things began to level out as we ascended and, most importantly, the breathtaking views began to come into focus. Naturally it a time to stop for a selfie break as we discussed the complicated caveats of the English and Spanish languages – just an everyday conversation for the two of us frikis.

A streetlight is consumed by the foliage

As we headed even higher up the jetty, we could really begin to properly appreciate the dramatic landscape which framed the idyllic town, with mountains in the background and the estuary stretching out in front, bordered by sandy shores. It really was like looking down on a fairytale!

Once we reached the summit of the cape, we were presented with a 360° view over the town, mountains, estuary and the sea into which it fed. Up here we spent a while taking in the scene which lay before us, discussing memories of primary school whilst overlooking the sea and natural pools which had formed in the rocks below.

A natural pool at the base of the cliffs

Looking over the water from ground level

After this we descended back to ground level, walking back towards the beach as Kevin recounted the Celtic folklore which dominates Asturian tradition. I was in a what I’m sure came across as an irritating touristy mood, nagging that I wanted to go to the beach across the way to feel my toes in the sand and have a cheeky dip in the sea. Kevin wanted to take me to see one last thing though, and so we circumnavigated the meandering estuary in order to cross the bridge to the other side.

Once we’d crossed the rather expansive bridge, Kev led me down a path towards the entrance to a cave. This cave is home to what, if I remember correctly, is some of Europe’s earliest cave paintings, but as per our luck it turned out to have closed a couple hours prior to our arrival. I wasn’t too upset though, as I was fascinated by some shipwrecks which, stained green by algae, had been exposed by the low tide.

Upon discovering that there’d be no caves for us that Saturday afternoon, we retreated back to the beach, which by this point was all but empty. Throwing my tote bag to the ground, I was soon wading out into the cool shallows, and had the ever-suffering Kevin taking photos of me – the fruits of which can be seen below:

As we had a long way to walk back to the bus station ahead, involving crossing the bridge over the wide estuary, we began to head back on to dry land with a good 45 minutes to spare. Relaxedly patting the sand off our feet, I fumbled for my bus ticket in my tote bag, and to my horror discovered that the bus was scheduled to leave 20 minutes earlier than we had thought, leaving us just 10 minutes to make what would have been a 20 minute walk.

A moment of panic ensued, after which we made an executive decision to do our absolute best to run as fast as we could to the bus station – it was the last bus out of the isolated town after all! Looking back it must have been quite the dramatic, picturesque scene, with the two of us sprinting as best we could across the bridge as the sun set beyond the mountains in the background. It certainly didn’t feel at all romantic as we sped towards the station though, with neither of us accustomed to exercise of such intensity.

As we approached the station, running over a set of railway tracks as a shortcut, we managed to catch the bus just in the nick of time. We used the last ounces of energy we had to haul ourselves into our seats, and then settled down for the 45 minute journey back to Oviedo.

We had thought about going out to the fiestas once again, but once we’d arrived back at Kevin’s flat, we slumped into the sofa and a rest from which we knew we were not to reanimate. This early night was a good idea in the end, however, as the following morning I found myself with plenty of energy and the will to spend the Sunday in Gijón.

After a relatively early start for the two of us, and a fiasco when we arrived in Gijón and the ticket machine charged us without dispensing a ticket, we found ourselves in the centre of the coastal city. Here we sat ourselves down in a lovely little pincho café, having a drink or two and discussing the future as we waited for our friend Sara to join us.

Once Sara showed up we had a wonderful catch up, with the conversation switching to Spanish and my more dramatic Spanish language personality coming out – it’s true what they say about your personality changing when you speak in one language versus another! We’d all brought beach gear along with us, and so we were soon headed for one of the beaches that the lucky gijóneses have at their constant disposal.

After a good few hours sunbathing, swimming in the sea, and eventually grabbing ourselves an ice cream, it was finally time to round up the weekend and catch the train back to Madrid back from Gijón train station. I waved Kevin and Sara off for a few weeks, but it wasn’t so bitter as I knew I’ll be back up for a more substantial visit in just a few weeks time!

So since this journey only two weeks have passed, but despite that so much has happened, and I am now hopelessly behind with my blog posts. I’d like to blame it wholly on the technical issues I mentioned earlier, but a lot of the reason has just been that I haven’t had time to stop and pull a single post together!

I’m now on the train back from Murcia up to Madrid, after having started this blog post on the way down and having spent 48 hours in the south. I hope that this week I have time to bring you another post, possibly two, but with so much going on I can really make no promises. Until then I shall have to bid you all farewell and eat my bocadillo de chorizo that’s waiting for me in my bag. Let’s hope it’s not gone too limp in the heat…

We Had Joy, We Had Fun, We Had Premieres in the Sun

24.06.18 — Madrid

My last post about the sun arriving in Madrid ended with the prediction that the city was soon to become one big oven, and I can report that, to my utmost despair, I was correct. This week we’ve been suffering through temperatures of up to 32°, but I think the worst thing is that the temperature drops only slightly during the nighttime, as I have to try and fall asleep at 1am when it’s still 28°.

Anyway, enough complaining, as just a week ago I was actually still wandering around with my coat on. Me and Heidi started one of the cooler weekends when we went to watch the final match in our friend Loredana’s football league, and to celebrate I brought along some gin and tonic, which went down quite well…

We also had the upmost honour of being graced by the presence of Stuart, one of the player’s dogs, who was a very good boy – even if he did commit the odd pitch invasion…

In the end I have no idea who won, as Stuart kept me rather distracted from the gameplay, but a good time was had by all, so who really cares? Afterwards me and Heidi headed out for some ramen, after I’d been harbouring a craving for quite a while by that point, and once we found somewhere which was open, we were not disappointed!

The Heidi & Ollie food tour didn’t stop there through, as the next day we were once again back in the city, this time in search of a cute little bar for some lunch in Lavapiés. Once we’d found a spot, we tucked into some delicious homemade dishes like croquetas (croquettes, duh), empanadas (a bit like pasties) and I had some delicious albóndigas (meatballs).

In one of our recent installations of our Taco Wednesday (trademark pending) tradition, I decided to make the most of the sunny yet relatively cool weather, and strolled up to the city centre through Lavapiés instead of getting the metro. It turned out to be a lovely wander, and I stumbled across plenty of streets and bars which I’ll have to revisit in the future. For now, here’s a few photos I took during my favourite time of day: when the sun is low in the sky.

The day after, I had arranged to meet Sofia, who worked at Erretres until she left just a couple of months ago. She took me to an amazing little Ecuadorean spot for lunch which was hidden away in one of the markets near work, where we had a delicious lunch and I tried ceviche (a dish made with fish which has been cooked by soaking it in lime juice) for the first time – it was delicious!

After lunch we headed down to a lovely little spot in the west of the city, “La Rosalia del Parque del Oeste”, or “The Rose Garden of the Western Park”. The place really lives up to its name – you can smell the roses before you even arrive! I visited back in winter when it was all completely dead, but when we ventured inside I saw that it had been transformed, as almost every plant was in full bloom.

Whilst we spent even more time chatting and wandering amongst the roses, we noticed the cable cars were back up and running overhead, but I commented on how I wouldn’t go on it as I am deathly claustrophobic. So, what happened next? Why, of course, as we were leaving Sofia suggested we give it a twirl and so we soon found ourselves clambering into an unnervingly swaying cabin…

I wasn’t keen on the idea of being suspended in a box, but here we go…

Once we’d been what felt like pretty much launched out of the station, we were soon flying over the rose garden we’d just been in at quite the speed. I’d never really realised how long the cable car’s route actually is until we were up there and on the thing, but thankfully someone had warned me in advance back in 2016 that the other station is in the middle of nowhere, and so we’d been sure to grab return tickets.

Once we’d reached the other side we asked the operator what was to be found near to the second station, and sure as hell he responded that “aquí hay campo”, meaning “here there’s countryside”. Goes without saying that we didn’t stick around for too long, taking just a few pictures before making the return journey back into the city.

Last weekend it was also time for Spain to play Portugal in the World Cup, and so I allowed myself to be talked into going along to watch the game at a bar in the north of the city – the key word here being dragged, please don’t be fooled into thinking that I am interested in professional football in any way. It actually turned out to be a really fun night, even though I didn’t drink anything (mainly because I’m poor), and it was nice to have a snoop around the more built-up northern district that I don’t often get chance to visit.

That same weekend, Heidi’s brother and his girlfriend came to visit the city, and so I met up with them all in Retiro Park for some sunbathing. Once we’d spent enough time lounging in the sun, which by this point was getting rather hot, we headed back to Lavapiés once more for some tapas for lunch – hell, if I hadn’t found my Westlife reference so funny, I would have named this blog post something related to Lavapiés. I’ll get back to why this blog post is called “We had joy, we had fun, we had premieres in the sun” after the photo break…

So now to the title: why did we have “premieres in the sun”? Well, as you definitely won’t know because I am sworn to secrecy at work, we’ve been working on the design for a new TV series over the past few months. The series, “El Día de Mañana” (which they’ve translated as “What the Future Holds”), is a new historical drama by Movistar+, who are owned by Telefonica – quite an impressive client!

The identity we designed was launched on Tuesday night, when we all convened at the Capitol theatre on Gran Vía. As it’s a very famous theatre, serving as the location for all the famous television and movie premieres, I put my glad rags on and rocked up to see what we’d been working on all up in lights!

Once we’d seen some of the stars arrive (including Brays Efe, the star of my favourite TV series Paquita Salas – if you speak Spanish you should absolutely see it), we headed inside, took our seats and waited for the screening to get underway.

Before sitting in the theatre and watching the first two episodes, I hadn’t actually had chance to watch the previews that they had sent us months before, and so I had next to no idea what they’d be like. An hour and a half later though, I was dying to watch more, and I’d definitely recommend anyone with access to the series give it a watch – the story is very fast paced and the visuals are stunning – and I’m not just saying that because we worked on the graphics!

The best part of the premiere evening though has to have been the after party, as we found some people from Movistar that we knew, and they invited us to join them on a fancy hotel terrace for a few drinks!

The terrace was a gorgeous setting for drinks, with views out over the city by night, but I didn’t take a photo as I didn’t want to be that out-of-place guest that is just really excited to be here – even if in reality that’s exactly what I was.

Needless to say that with free snacks aplenty I totally forgot about my diet, and that with free drinks all round I quickly wound up quite tipsy, but I didn’t think that arriving home at 2:30am is all too bad – even if I had a bit of a fuzzy head at work the morning after…

So now to the present, a Friday evening (at least at the time of writing), and I’m actually typing up this blog post whilst sat on a train on my way up to cloudy Asturias! Once again I’m going to spend the weekend in Oviedo and it’s surrounding area with Kevin, in what promises to be if nothing else a welcome bit or respite from the sauna that the capital has become.

As usual I’ve not really been told much of what Kevin’s got planned for us, but I do know that we’ll be having some cheeky beverages and visiting the coast tomorrow at some point – after just a week of Madrid summer weather I am 100% ready to just throw myself into the sea!

As I pass now through the mountains which separate Asturias from the rest of Spain, and as the landscape turns from clear skies and scorched earth to scattered showers and lush greenery, it’s time for me to sign off from this monstrously large blog post. I’ll try to keep the next one a bit shorter, but knowing what my weekends in the north are always like, I’m sure I’ll be returning with plenty of photos and stories to share.

Until then, enjoy this terrible cover by Westlife from my childhood, or if you’re a traditionalist, a more original version. I’ll be back soon, and probably a good few pounds heavier…

Let There Be Sun

03.06.18 — Madrid

As we enter the month of June, the weather here in Madrid seems to be going somewhat crazy. We’ve had over a week of intermittent thunderstorms, but when it’s not been making it a nightmare for me to dry my washing, the sun has actually been heating the city up rather nicely. Naturally I’ve been making the most of the pleasant temperature, and so below I share a few photos of my wanders around the city.

We’re currently on Goldilocks temperature: not too hot, not too cold.

And naturally I havne’t been on my own the whole time, with plenty of time spent amongst friends, including the traditional Taco Wednesdays – I concept which I explained just a few posts back here. As well as our Mexican feast, on Friday Loredana and Heidi also hosted drinks on their lovely central roof terrace. It was another great chance to catch up, have a cheeky sangría and, of course, take more photos…

I was also gifted a lovely surprise by Megan, who had sneakily brought back mini bottles of maple syrup when she returned from her hometown in Vermont, USA just this Christmas! It was a lovely thought, and I now have a fabulous excuse to make the batch of pancakes I’ve been thinking about whipping up for a few weeks now.

All that brings us up to date to this weekend, where I’ve been pretty lazy in all honesty. Opting to relax at home rather than head out, I’ve been suspicious as the weather, although nice, has been looking threateningly unpredictable. I wasn’t a total sloth however, as I managed to find the time to head out to my beloved Mercadona (a low cost supermarket) and procure the ingredients to try a few new baking recipes.

As you can guess, I whipped together the (rather laborious) carrot cake above, which I shall take into work tomorrow morning to share with the team at Erretres. I can also very happily report that after 8 months of struggling with dodgy ovens, overzealous baking powder and Spain’s refusal to accept that self-raising flour actually exists, I have finally perfected my spongecake recipe! Watch this space guys, I’ll be back soon with a Victoria sponge to slay those of all your grandmas.

Yes, I went there, and I’m bowing out until I return with more updates from the 640km² oven that Madrid will soon become…

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Manzanares El Real & Royal Wedding Shenanigans

20.05.18 — Madrid

So what’s been going on since I got back to Spain from my trip back to the UK I hear you all ask, and so I shall reveal the two most interesting things that have occurred since I got back. I’d make a big fanfare to reveal what these two things were, but I already gave the whole thing away in the title of the blog post, so let’s just get straight down to it…

First up was Tuesday’s trip to Manzanares El Real, a small town in the province of Madrid, but way outside of the city limits. As it was a bank holiday (which rather awkwardly happen here on Tuesdays), we jumped on a bus and headed out to see what I thought would just be a castle and adjoining lake.

As we hopped off the bus, we were greeted by a cute little castle, but as we got closer we soon realised that it wasn’t yet open for visits. I’d quite liked the idea of having a snoop around the castle, but all was not lost as our friend Loredana said we could grab a free bus up to some natural pools to dip our toes in the water.

Once this little free “bus” rocked up, however, we soon realised that the four of us weren’t going to fit in it, and with the next one not scheduled for another hour we resigned to the fact that we were going to have to walk the 40 minute journey. We set off in good spirits, although I had declared that I wasn’t going to walk for more than 45 minutes as I was wearing jeans and lugging around a tote bag – not exactly the kind of gear one wants to go hiking in!

Once we’d started off a little game to keep us all occupied during the walk, I soon realised that I had been deceived – the walk was looking more like 90 minutes than the mere 40 I’d been told! We had a break for refuelling in the form of some teddy-shaped biscuits Megan had brought along, and then I reluctantly returned to the uphill climb towards this promised land.

Thankfully though we soon crested the hill we’d been walking up, and it was then that the views and our destination came into view – and what a view it was! I took a few photos, but I was more concerned about picking up some speed on the downhill section, as me and Megan had an inkling that there might be some kind of bar down in the valley – and that meant a well deserved beer might be up for grabs.

Smiling on the outside, dying on the inside

Descending further towards our destination

And lo and behold, look what we found! As we returned back to civilisation, we made a beeline for a bar and grabbed a beer to sit on the terrace and recover, taking in the surroundings and discussing where we were going to head to next. After chatting to one of the guys working there, we discovered that if we headed down to the river which ran alongside the bar and followed it downstream, we’d eventually be spat back out into the town of Manzanares El Real where we’d began our long walk.

This measly caña might have been the best beer I’ve ever had in my life.

Once we’d polished off our beers, we had another spot of relaxing down by the riverbank, taking time to do a spot of sunbathing, singing and even a few minutes of yoga. Slapping a bit of suncream on when some of us began turning a touch pink in the midday sun, we soon began our trek back downstream and into a series of stunning views.

Before too long, and after another refreshment stop at a cool little bar in the forest along the way, we found ourselves back on tarmac roads and heading back to where the whole hike had started – I call it a hike now as what had started as a 40 minute walk did eventually turn out to be an hours-long trek up and back down the valleys which cradle the river Manzanares.

I can’t say I didn’t complain at all during the actual trip, but as we finished off I realised that it had been a great day spent out of the hectic city centre, and it was nice to be up on my feet doing something when I spend most of my days sat behind a computer screen.

I’d definitely recommend anyone who is visiting Madrid for a few days and wants to see a bit of nature pay the place a visit – just be sure to dress more appropriately for the journey than I did! You can catch a bus from within the city for just 1.70€ each way, so it really is an absolute steal of a day out!

And now, keeping on the theme of castles and royal locations (Manzanares El Real literally means “Manzanares the Royal”), as someone rather indifferent to football, Saturday could only mean one thing for me – it was time for the royal wedding! Love it or hate it, I saw it as a chance to host a get together and have a few cheeky drinks over a selection of British food, and so I invited my friends over to mine to watch the live stream and wave flags around a bit for a couple of hours.

We had a great time critiquing people’s outfits, singing along to the songs that we knew, and tucking into tuna mayo and egg and cress sandwiches (with the cress sneakily substituted for some chopped spinach as it seems like cress doesn’t exist here). The excitement was all over way too soon, but before everyone left, it was time to sample a British party staple – the humble scotch egg. Those don’t exist here either, so I took up the challenge of making them myself from scratch, and although they weren’t perfect I’m pretty proud of how they came out.

With the shenanigans all over and with it being a Sunday evening, there’s only one thing I should be doing right now, and it’s not sitting here writing this blog post. I shall then be leaving it here, putting on a face mask, and spending the next hour relaxing in the bath!

Liverpool, Leeds & London

09.05.18 — London

So now that I am back in Madrid and one year older, I bring you this update on how my life as a 23-year-old kicked off! As I mentioned last week, I did have big birthday plans, and so I have just returned from a whistle-stop six-day tour of England! Before leaving, I had a nice little birthday send-off at work, as we all clubbed together to buy food and beers for an aperitivo, after which I was eased into my return to England with a sudden downpour…

Anyway, enough with the preamble – let’s get straight to the hectic six days I spent back in the motherland!

After a frantic morning moving through Madrid, I landed at Manchester Airport before I could even catch a breath. I headed outside only to be greeted rather nonchalantly by my mum, who didn’t even bother to look up from the text she was writing! Whoever received that message should feel rather humbled, you are clearly more important than a son who lives thousands of miles away…

All joking aside though, it was lovely to see my family again, and especially lovely that I had been brought a bag full of snacks and throat spray (I had woken up with a nagging sore throat which plagued the trip, but enough of that.) After no time at all driving and catching up, we arrived in Burnley and headed straight for item number one on my agenda: going to see my grandma.

We had to leave her all too soon though, as me and my mum had a joint hair appointment, after which she dropped me off at Burnley Youth Theatre so I could be reunited with my ex-colleagues. It was lovely to see everyone there again, and a little bizarre to be back in my old office less than 24 hours after leaving my new one at Erretres!

Once I’d worked up an appetite, I hitched a ride with Bam, who dropped me back off at home for part of the trip I’d been looking forward to more than I probably should have: mum’s cottage pie. After I inhaled the delicious meal, I stopped for a chat and a quick gin and tonic before heading to bed for a relatively early night, as the next day I had an equally busy plan lined up.

The morning after I was up (relatively) bright an early and in the car with my friend Abi for a trip to the lovely city of Liverpool, which I last visited with Kevin quite a while ago last year. Once we’d arrived, we met up with my sister Ellie, who I’d arranged to meet in Liverpool as she’s currently at university in Sheffield. I think in organising myself and everyone else for this trip I got a taste of what it’s like to be a mother!

Once we were all reunited, we headed to one of my favourite areas, Bold Street, and settled in a little café for a slap-up lunch of sandwiches and bottomless chips – a deal not to be sniffed at! It was a delicious start to the trip, and as the weather was holding out quite nicely, afterwards we sauntered down to the docks for a while.

My sister really is a big fan of avocado.

Once down there we had a wander along the riverside, passing plenty of kooky street food places along the way. After a quick trip to see the Liver Building, we (perhaps inevitably) found ourselves in a bar for a cheeky 2-for-1 cocktail deal.

All too soon we had to leave the docks and head back into the city as Ellie had to catch her train, but that didn’t stop us all from grabbing some delicious waffles along the way! Once I’d waved Ellie off at the train station, me and Abi headed back to Burnley, where I had to endure the obligatory rendition of “happy birthday to you” before we all treated ourselves to a slice of chocolate cake.

Approaching the train station in Liverpool

The next day I was once again on the move, this time to visit all my university friends across the border in Leeds. Before I waved my mum and dad off at the train station, however, there was one more thing on my list of must-eats which we hadn’t squeezed in: fish and chips. For this there was only one place which would suffice, Grandma Pollard’s in Todmorden, where I enjoyed mine with a side of mushy peas – I seem to have developed an addiction after years of being indifferent to them as a child…

I arrived in Leeds quite late, and so made a quick visit to my friends’ house to drop off my bag, as Em and Lincoln had been so gracious as to put me up for the two nights I spent there. After another rushed taxi journey to the city centre, I was soon once again reunited with (almost) the entire graphics gang!

As per tradition, we soon found ourselves having a drink or two at Belgrave, catching up and joking around as we always did – even through the stresses and trials of our final year of university. The general consensus was that even though we had a lovely time at university, we were all pretty glad to be free of it and in the big bad world of adult living.

Because we’re all now living in said adult world, none of us could really stay out late as everyone had to work the next day – everyone except me. I had a lovely lie in the following morning, before ambling to my friend Pippa’s house, who I’d arranged to wander to campus with for a catchup over some lunch.

Eventually we decided that we didn’t fancy going anywhere in particular on campus, and so we descended into the centre of Leeds, where we made a pit stop at Trinity Kitchen for burritos and then McDonalds for milkshakes. As Pippa was heading into her last few weeks of intense final year work I had to let her go sooner than I would have liked, but I still had a trip around Leeds Docks to make and a couple of design shops to visit, so it wasn’t all too bad. Even the sun had shown its face, which made for an extra-special treat!

That same night heralded my last night in Leeds (are you beginning to get a sense of how hectic this whole trip was?), and so I headed out with Em and Lincoln for a lovely walk to one of our favourite pizza spots. After we’d gorged ourselves on plenty of fresh sourdough delights, we grabbed a bottle of wine and had a relaxed evening in, catching up and laughing about all the nonsense that we used to get up to at university.

Once more I couldn’t afford to stay up too late, as I had a 6am start to be in Leeds train station for a train I really couldn’t miss – as on Saturday morning it was time for me to head down to London! Emily was the only person missing from our graphics reunion in Belgrave as she now lives and works in the big city, and so I’d arranged to spend the weekend down there with her.

Once I’d arrived and we’d been reunited in her lovely neighbourhood of Fulham Broadway, we wasted no time in heading straight back out to visit a couple of places that I’d requested: the Design Museum and the Lush Shop on Oxford Street. After we’d paid the two a visit and I had bought myself a little something in the Lush shop (a very little something as my hand luggage bag was already bursting at the seams), we nipped back to Em’s place for a snack and to meet her housemates.

As a little gesture of thanks for letting me crash at her place, I’d brought Em some chorizo from Madrid, which went down well – maybe a little too well as we found ourselves heading out for a very late tea, and even then we couldn’t finish our pizza!

The next morning, and after a breakfast of delicious cold pizza, we headed once again into the city centre. By now it was Sunday and the last day of my tour of England, but things weren’t set to slow down, as through some stroke of divine luck it just so happened that our friends Sophie, Joe and Rhea were also in London!

Needless to say that we’d all arranged to meet up for some delicious lunch, and do so we did, stuffing ourselves with delicious Bao steamed buns until we could eat no more. After this we found a pub with a little outdoor terrace, and so we plonked ourselves down, ordered some drinks, and let the alcohol and conversation flow.

I was quite upset then when the time came for me to begin making the long journey back to Madrid, but after a round of hugs and farewells, I found myself back in the chaos of journeying from Soho to my bed in the south of Madrid. After two tube trains, a very expensive airport transfer train, a one hour delay and two hour flight, and then three metro trains which I thought I would miss because of Ryanair’s delay, I eventually made it to my flat at 3am and within ten minutes I was out like a light.

I could now moan about how a mere 5 hours later I had to be up and ready to head to a client meeting as I’d rather stupidly not taken another day off work to rest and recover, but I’d like to end the post on a happy note. A crazy busy trip it may have been, it was a delight to see everyone again, even if rather rapidly due to my timetable. I’d say that next time I’ll have to go a little easier on myself, but anybody who knows me will know that that just won’t happen.

All that’s left to say then is a huge thank you to everyone who rearranged their timetables to see me, and especially to the two Emilys and Lincoln who let me crash at their places. I hope to be having people over in Madrid soon, but regardless of that I’m currently trying to sort my summer holidays out after having had such a great time back in England!

I’ll be back again soon with more shenanigans from the Iberian peninsula, so don’t you all be going anywhere!