London Day 2

So far so good. Well, despite spending Saturday evening alone in the flat and, actually, unable to operate the Digibox, having a good time so far (after all, there's BBC iPlayer). Went for Korean in Soho last night with some members of the ECU-crew plus lovely gfriends, so nice and such awesome food (place called Nara). Today I bonded with Peppi and hit the shops a bit in town before exploring the local area. I was doing my usual 'do I love London, do I hate London, do I want to move here, do I want to stay in Sweden' mental rant until I realized the fairly obvious: until I stop hating myself I'm never going to be happy anywhere. So there! (not that this actually solves the problem of where I'm going next, but at least I know it won't matter so much where the physical location is - I'm fucked either way).

Philosophical ramblings aside, I've also been cured of my Starbucks addiction. Since my presumable fucked-up thyroid induced stomach acid problems I just cannot drink coffee, and Starbucks decaf tastes like... milk maybe? Certainly not coffee. Trying to remember what the place is at CPH whose decaf I actually like, I'm sure it's a chain, pretty sure it's Costa Coffee. Will try that next time.
But why why why do they not have water mixers in the sinks? Would you like ice cold or scolding when you remove your make-up? Gaah! Also, I want a Jack Russell. Or at least a tiny dog. So neat! Like babies, except they never talk back, can be alone for several hours and making them happy is fairly easy. And what's with all the tiny teenagers blocking central London? A few of them had EF handlers but I'm sure many of them where just drifting along being obnoxious without supervision. Still, awesome people watching can be had here.

I spy with my little eye... Chamonix? St Anton? No, St Moritz, claro!!

OK, so I didn't ask for wine. I got the apple juice again... But I had a hangover!! The only one during the whole week, despite drinking moderate to copious amounts of red wine almost every day (usually just a big glass is enough to leave me feeling a bit off the next day, like bag-lettuce on day 3 - you can eat it but it's not going to be a gourmet meal. OK this analogy got out of hand, will.stop.now).

On my last evening we catched the fountain show at Plaza Espanya (just barely though!) and then headed off to Guru where I proceeded to have three drinks (one mai tai and two passion mojitos) and the cheese platter of my life, semicurado with honey on, mmm!! (am going to try and recreate, there's a cheese store in my city centre I haven't tried which is apparently very good)

Anyway, I was drowsy and tired in a sort of pleasant way on Sunday when I flew home which allowed me to snooze a bit on the flights. The transfer was nothing to worry about, we landed on time (again!!) and my arrival and departure gates were only 2 gates apart... Whoever manages that airport runs a tight ship. Eh. So to speak.

So! It was a lovely week, I felt well rested on my return. I've still got several items I bought that I haven't worn so that's quite exciting as well and prolongs the vacation feel in a way. I'm definitely not less two-faced and inconsistent than any other human being - I was (and still am) outraged about WHSmith, the British book/magazine retailer having acquired two outlets at CPH (see brief rant in previous post). However, I was in 7th heaven when I stumbled upon River Island (British clothes retailer) in Raval, the old town in Barcelona. Hy-po-crite. WHSmith is boring and ugly, River Island has for example lovely pink tailored skirts on sale (one is now living in Sweden, incidentally).

Some snaps :)

Fountain show!! SO grand.

Inept sibling photography

The alps!! I spent at least half an hour glued to the window spotting ski resorts - easier than you might think actually! (though none available on this pic... or are there??)

Amazing mai tai and bit of oddly shiny leg

Bloody A-M-A-Z-I-N-G cheese platter. Sigh.

la comida esta muy bien, el tiempo so-so

So. Tengo vacacciones en Barcelona, where the weather is a bit shite. But as it was gray and prone to rain last week and also will be next week I'm not that bothered. It was quite sunny Sunday and Monday and I even managed to burn my 'haven't seen the sun in 5 months' neck. It's finally stopped itching!

Flight here was long but didn't feel that long as I found a new Marian Keyes in the WHSmith at CPH (otherwise horrendous place, exact copy of UK chain but in Denmark complete with British speaker system 'please go to cashier five'. Why? WHY??). Her novels are always so good and serious and dealing with heavy stuff, this one had so much angst and death and was soo good and at 800 pages I didn't finish until today (am quite sad about that, going to have to distract myself with new book shortly).

Anyway. I flew through Vienna and bloody hell that's got to be the most rundown and boring apirport I've ever been to. And with security checks at each gate. What's up with that? Boarding takes forever! However, all that faded into background noise once I found my faux-Kneipe with the kindest and nicest waiter/manager ever and actual hot vegetarian food on the menu. And I mean that literally! See?

"Vegetarian food" haha I love it! According to leo.org Laib means 'loaf' but the actual meaning would be patty I think.

Another tempting dish on the menu:

"Dumplings in a napkin". Doesn't it just sound delicious? (not quite as disastrous/hilarious as China-town menu translations, but very sweet all the same)

Anyway, my meal of vegetarian mini-loaf was delicious. I even had a beer! (I can only stand beer when it's very warm - I had to travel with my boots on because they wouldn't fit in my bag so I was sweating like a pig. Hence I also had the season's first ice-latte at CPH...)

Anyway. I flew Austrian Air and I was very impressed when we started taxiing out of the gate several minutes before the set departure time on both flights. I usually fly SAS, I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least 20 minutes delayed. Also; we got free snacks! Coffee! Apparently even the wine is free - I'm so getting that instead of apple juice on the way back!