A Hop Across The Pond

Sorry guys – I know it’s been another couple weeks since I last updated you. I hope you got through that last post without falling asleep. I warned you it was long.

Alright so I told you that the week after Ireland would be slightly boring and miserable. After all the leprechaun shenanigans I was pretty strict with my intake and activities. I put myself on a juice cleanse and worked out twice a day for the entire week. Friday I even got in a triple. No alcohol for the entire week either, (I know, crazy right?).

No worries though, I still had a little fun. You know I can’t go an entire week in Londontown without exploring. Monday through Thursday were long days playing catch-up at work. Thursday though, I successfully made my way to the O2 store to top up my SIM card for month 2 but then I decided I didn’t want to go home right then. Instead, I walked down Oxford street, (which was absolutely, absurdly crazy with people getting in their shopping fix for the week), and over to Regent’s street before taking the Picadilly line back to Sloane street. No, I didn’t buy anything…. But I wanted to. It was still really warm out Thursday so I decided to opt out of my evening bootcamp that night and go for a night run instead. I started out a little uneasy because I was running around alone at night but there were at least 100 other runners doing the same route I was so it wasn’t even close to an issue. I ran down to Buckingham Palace and on the way back I noticed a commotion of blue lights and policemen stopping traffic. I stopped for a minute to figure out what was going on and realized I was following the Queen through the Wellington Arch by Hyde Park. Ya, casual, no big deal. I gave my girl the royal wave and continued running.

Friday was supposed to be another one of our office lunch runs but no one was down except for me. I almost backed out since I had done a morning bootcamp but then I figured, since I brought my running gear I didn’t have an excuse not to. Boy am I glad I went out for that run. It was absolutely gorgeous – about 65 degrees, sun shining, not a cloud in the sky. Still pretty rare for London in October. I took my coworkers advice and ran along the Regents canal, the opposite way we had a couple weeks ago. There were a ton of adorable boats tied up along my route – some looked to be just for show while others may or may not have been permanent residencies. Regardless, it definitely kept me entertained. That night I did another bootcamp, rounding out my triple-threat workout (#neededit), before my dinner date.. with myself. It was just one of those times that you just need to chill out and have a solo dinner date, you know? I walked through Harvey Nichols on my street to get to Wagamama for take-away. Before I go on, let me just mention that I was in my sweaty workout gear walking through the upscale men’s apparel section of Harvey Nichols – I got a few looks. Whatever, Wagamama didn’t judge. I walked up to the bar in the back and ordered my take-away meal of choice: seared Tuna and grilled veggies with sweet potatoes!! (YUM!) Anytime there are sweet potatoes on the menu it’s an automatic done deal for me because you can’t find much of them here. While I waited, the bar tender gave me a water and hot tea to sip on. He was fabulous. Brought the terrific take-away back to the flat, watched BBC, and FaceTime’d my parents for about an hour. Solid Friday night.

Saturday was another solo day but I totally didn’t mind. I got to sleep in, make a nice healthy breakfast, and enjoy my DD PUMPKIN SPICE ICED COFFEE. Ya, you heard me correctly. The night before I cleverly brewed some PS coffee with my French press. Spence had helped me figure it out the week before – I felt a little Amish and old school but it was so worth it. Just having coffee over ice was amazeballs.. but it was PUMPKIN. Too amazing for words. I got in another bootcamp and a 5K around the beautiful lake in Hyde Park before spending the remainder of my night exploring and shopping.

Sunday was the first time that weekend I actually had human interaction. First things first though – Bootcamp and a run. Oh, AND more Pumpkin iced coffee. I had leftovers. So, Sunday was “High Tea” with some of my co-workers. We had a 3:30 reservation at the Kensington Royal Garden Hotel (how posh does that sound, right?) for high tea and champagne. Don’t worry, I kept my promise to myself and turned down the champagne. No alcohol for the entire week… a detox after my week of Guinness was nothing short of absolutely necessary. I did have about 2 pots of tea though, which explains why I didn’t sleep that night. They brought over these little finger sandwiches sans crust, pastries, and a board of smell-testers so we could pick our tea. I got the blossom-something, which was an actual flower of herbs that opened up in the hot water. I really just wanted to see it more than anything… worth it. I almost forgot to mention that I purchased my first-ever floppy hat for this occasion. I found one that didn’t have a giant brim, so it wouldn’t swallow up my tiny head, and pretended to be British for the day. After all the finger sandwiches and being ridiculously hopped up on caffeine, I actually got in a third bootcamp that night. It just had to be done… but I still didn’t sleep so whatever.

Monday was very exciting because my coworker, Steph was coming to town and staying with me! She arrived around 7:30am and we went into the office together. Unfortunately we didn’t have a ton of time to explore while she was here but I did get to show her Harry Potter’s platform 9 ¾ in King’s Cross during lunch and later we had a delicious dinner at Brasserie Blanc in Covent Garden. Tuesday evening after work we headed right to Heathrow – we were going to España for the week! Lucky for us, we have another office in Barcelona so we were scheduled to hold a training there Wednesday-Friday. Our flight was short but we had the pleasure of sitting a row away from a man that was puking the entire flight. You know what everyone around him was thinking (the “e” word). I spent the duration of our journey with a scarf wrapped around my face. We didn’t arrive to our hotel until about 11pm so our only option was bedtime.

Wednesday was our first day in the Barcelona office and we were busy right from the start. Instead of taking a break for lunch, I decided it was a way better idea to take advantage of the 75 degree weather and the fact that Barcelona beach was right down the street. I quickly changed into my running gear and ran a 10K along the beach to the W and back to work. I wasn’t planning on running that far but it was way too gorgeous to stop. At the midpoint I was determined to touch the water so I walked to where the ocean met the sand and reached down. A wave came up… my sneakers were soaked. Oh well, the water was warm, I was on a beach in October, and I was hot anyway. On the way back I saw a few naked old lady boobs before reaching the office. Wait….. Ya. It was also a nude beach. Quick shower, working lunch, and training the rest of the day. That night Steph and I went out with our coworkers for tapas and of course, TINTO DE VERANO. My single most favorite thing in the entire world. I would replace water with tinto. (Don’t worry, I’m just kidding. That would totally make me an alcoholic). We ordered all of my favorite signature tapas that I had missed oh-so-much from my semester abroad: croquetas, tortilla patata, patatas bravas, camarones, and some other newbies. I was elated. Since we were in Barcelona and it was still warm out even though it was already 9ish, Steph and I went over to see Gaudí’s unfinished masterpiece: La Sagrada Familia. I had seen it 4 years ago but was just as impressed the second time around. The giant sand drip castle was magnificent – you can’t help but be completely overwhelmed with its incredible presence. Lit up at night, it was even more beautiful than the first time. Afterwards we made our way to another one of my Gaudí favorites: Casa Batlló. You know, the one that looks like Dr. Seuss personally visited Barcelona and allowed Gaudí to illustrate his story in apartment-form. Well.. that was quite a day so it was time to head back and hit the hay.

Thursday we made plans to get into the office super early so we could head out a bit before Park Güell closed. This was the only Gaudí monument that I missed the first time I visited Barcelona. I was devastated that I didn’t get to see it before so there was NO WAY I was missing it this time. I got a second change and we capitalized on it. The view from the top of the outside ring was incredible. I’ve actually never seen a landscape that included a major city speckled with iconic buildings, alongside a beach, parallel to a mountain range. I looked over at Steph and said, “Soak it in… you don’t see something like this very often”. Before we went into the Gaudí section, we took a break to sip on some sangria in the open park area. It’s a damn good thing I was wearing a dark blue dress with a multicolored print on it because I spilled my entire cup of red sangria on my lap. Standard Holly move. I’m a mess. It came to be our time to queue up for the monument section of the park and meander through the mosaic wonders of Gaudí ‘s interpretation of nature through architecture. He believed that since nature had no straight lines or sharp corners, buildings and structures should be built in the same fashion. Park Güell was a perfect representation of this belief. There were floating banisters, walkways, and giant lizard fountains decorated in colored glass, positioned in every section of the park center. I’d say it’s the closest thing I’ve seen to a real-life version of Alice and Wonderland. For dinner we met another coworker – Mike, who was also visiting the Barcelona office from the Lexington office – for tapas and tinto de verano (duh) along Las Ramblas, one of the other infamous streets in Barca.

Friday was our last day in the Barcelona office and we celebrated with the ridiculously awesome breakfast they have for all the employees. We walked into “The Cloud” on the fourth floor and had to collect ourselves while we stared at about 8 full tables of Spanish breakfast sandwiches, croissants of every flavor, organic fruit, donuts, cereal, and yogurts. Thank the lordddd I was going on a run that day. I had met one of the Barcelona girls in the London office last week who mentioned she was training for another marathon, so she invited me on a beach run this week. We met up at lunch time and headed for a run along the water and around the marina. It was a bit shorter than my Wednesday run but I’m confident that I worked off 3-4 bites of that chocolate croissant I had for breakfast. After the work day, Steph and I departed for Barcelona Sants train station. We were off to Madrid for the weekend… holy crap was I excited.

For those of you that didn’t know (impossible), I spent the fall semester of my junior year at Bentley in Madrid and stayed with a host family. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I had no idea when I would ever get the chance to go back to that amazing city so the opportunity to pop over there for a weekend, four years later, was just surreal. When we arrived there Friday night, our friend and former coworker, Isa, picked us up from the train station. We tossed our bags in the trunk and she drove off toward her house, down so many familiar streets. I literally could not contain my excitement; all I could do was squeal. After my internal freak out of happiness, we arrived at her place right by the Santiago Bernabeau Futból (soccer) stadium, left our bags, and walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Let me just add that it was after 10:30pm – totally normal time to go to dinner in Spain. It was still about 70 degrees out so no jackets necessary. We sat outside on a terrace, ordered tapas, sipped on tinto de verano, and caught up on what’s been going on the past couple years.

Saturday had a packed agenda so we woke up reasonably early and headed out to grab a quick bite for breakfast. Even though it was already 10:30am by the time we made it over to Starbucks, there were hardly any people out on the streets. Spaniards are literally vampires – up all night, sleep all day. It gave us some time to walk around without having to weave between the crowds for a bit. After charging up with some caffeine, we started on our adventure. This is when my giddy-ness reached the next level. All of my favorite places, in one of my absolute favorite cities, were right in front of me again. We walked through Plaza de España, up Gran Vía, to Puerta del Sol, around Plaza Mayor, through El Mercado de San Miguel, over to Palacio Real, and back through Plaza Isabel to…. (drum roll please)… MONTADITOS. 100 (Cien) Montaditos was my spot back in the day. It was cheap, delicious, friendly, and absolutely everywhere. It is like the Dunkin Donuts of Madrid, expect Spanish. And they don’t have donuts. But they do have tinto… the best tinto. I hinted to the other girls that I really wanted to go back to the exact Montaditos that I always went to during my semester abroad, which was the one right by Plaza Mayor. Funny side story: When I used to go there pretty much every day, they couldn’t pronounce ‘Holly’. It’s just a weird name for them so I decided after 1 week of confused looks and mis-spelling that I would change my name to Christina, a more straight-forward nombre. Every time I ordered my little finger sandwiches and jarra de tinto (for just 1€ apiece), they asked my name and I replied “Christina”. By the end of my stay in Madrid, the bar tender knew me as Christina and she would address me as such every time I walked in the door. So, I thought it was only appropriate to put my order under my former Montaditos alias. After only about 5 minutes they called “Christina” and my already obnoxious smile turned almost Grinch-like. Man I love Montaditos. I sucked down the best mug of tinto that exists, paired with three perfectly crafted mini bocadillos and continued to look around, remembering all the nights I spent there having an absolute blast with my friends.

After that episode of greatness, we walked all the way back down to Parque Retiro, one of the most gorgeous areas of the city. It was close to 80 degrees during the afternoon so we were basically walking around in tank tops, admiring the flowers and watching people row around the Retiro pond in their paddle boats. I literally got a sun burn on my back… and it’s basically November. Me encanta Madrid. Oh – I forgot to mention how awesome it was to be able to use my Spanish again. Of course, it was pretty pathetic how much I lost, not having used it in quite some time. But the fact that I could understand 99% of what people were saying and that I could respond was a win. Grammar was most definitely not correct but hey, I didn’t have my Spanish verb-conjugation chart with me this time around. Anyway, after Retiro, Isa took us to a place I had actually never been before: Terraza Círculo de Bellas Artes. It was a museum with several exhibitions but it also had a roof top bar that overlooked the entire city. I’m actually mad at myself that I didn’t know about it before. It was absolutely incredible – they had paintings lining the borders of the rooftop, different levels of greenery where you could relax/siesta on patterned pillows, while resting your cool glass of tinto de verano on a perfectly located side table. We picked a spot on the green and sipped our tinto while enjoying the warm, sunny afternoon overlooking the Madrid skyline. I felt pretty spoiled at that point.

After our boujie little hang-out on the roof, we walked through Chueca and over to the Pata Negra, a bar, to watch the futból game. It just so happened that Madrid was playing Barcelona IN MADRID. Like, HELLO?! How freaking cool is that. If we had a spare €1,000 we would have gotten tickets. We watched the first half with Isa’s friends at the bar and then went back to her neighborhood, which was right by the stadium. We had apparently just missed a riot – people throwing flames, chanting, and singing. It was so funny to see that every single restaurant, bar, pub, or small shop that had a TV also had a crowd surrounding the doorway outside. That was normal and totally allowed. Plus, Madrid won 3-1 so pretty much everything was OK for the city that day. After the game we got all dolled up, went to an early dinner at 9:30pm and left for our first bar of the night. Isa laughed when she said we were going there but I didn’t understand why until I saw the size of the drinks. They were literally in 1-meter-high glasses. We split two of them and probably should have stopped there. In the meantime, we met up with more of Isa’s friends at the bar before going to Kapital around 12:30am…when it opened. If you’re not familiar with Kapital or haven’t heard of it, look it up. The place is ridiculous: 7 floors, all different themes. One floor is dedicated solely to mojitos, another to karaoke, and another to traditional Spanish music. We spent some time on the Spanish music floor and the group we were with laughed as I tried to pick up the moves. “All you’re doing is dropping it low like an American”. Ummmm… yes, I know. Sistababygirl don’t have much rhythm. I took the constructive feedback, still didn’t learn how to dance like them, and spent the rest of the night with everyone else on the main floor. They had an electric violinist playing all kinds of techno stuff, accompanied by a laser light show, confetti, smoke machines, and outrageous movie clips in the background. My explanation just can’t do this place justice. Take my word for it… Kapital is 100% out of control. We left early, around 5am (Woah woah, did you say early?? Yes, that’s early for a Saturday night), and took a taxi back to Isa’s.

So, Sunday didn’t really start until about noon, which was pretty impressive considering our club departure time. We grabbed a quick breakfast at another outside terrace on Calle Serrano before dropping Steph off at the airport. Afterwards, Isa kindly brought me over to my old stomping grounds, Calle Vallehermoso, to meet up with my former host family. They came out to meet me on the sidewalk and I was immediately enveloped in Paloma’s arms. It was so nice to see my host mom – she was seriously the best person ever and the reason why my experience was so special. I had told her and the kids that I wanted to take them out for lunch since that was the least I could do to thank them. We walked over to Taverna de Quevedo and ordered a giant plate of mixed tapas to share while catching up with everything. Remember, I had to speak Spanish this entire time..... after a night at Kapital. It was rough and I was embarrassed by how many simple words I forgot but we managed to get through a couple hours of conversation. After lunch we walked back over to Paloma’s house, which was so crazy and special to me at the same time. I walked around to see my tiny old room that I stayed in during my time abroad, the dining room that we ate every meal together in, and 1 more thing: the picture I gave them on my last day. It was still displayed on the top shelf in their living room, exactly where it was when I left them. Seeing this meant so much to me – I hope I had as much of an impact on them as they did on me. We had a cup of tea on their terrace, chatted a bit more, and decided that they absolutely need to come to Boston soon. It was finally time to say goodbye, which was just as hard the second time around, and head to the airport to go back to London.

I’m so happy that I got the change to go back. I already know this week is going to fly by and then it’s November. Where in the world is this time going?!? I’m heading to Berlin this weekend – Jennelle is there for work so I figured, “What the hell, let’s go to Berlin for the weekend”. So, I booked a flight on a whim and can’t wait to knock another country off my list. Until then, it’s back to vegetable juice and mandatory workouts.