Blind Date

Finally home in Lyon :) Sorry for slacking on the blog posts lately. I spent the past 9 days in England, in the tiny, relaxing, Petalumaish (red brick buildings on a river) town of Reading, where I took full advantage of relaxation time (hence the blog slacking).

Though my family was celebrating Christmas 5,000 miles away in California, I was fortunate enough to spend the holiday with Nick and his family in England, where his dad will be working for the next month. Thank you, Benavides family! :-)

In this quaint town, we discovered the hole-in-the-wall-ishness of the Hobgoblin, a very cozy pub that's been around practically since Medieval times like everything else in this gray country, and also like most every place else in this gray country, it serves lots of good, local beer. 4,000 different types of beer to date, in fact. Think old, stained wooden tables. Corners with fireplaces. Lots of drunk middle-aged Englanders singing bad 80s songs to ring in the New Year. (see photo)

We took a couple days to do the usual sightseeing in London, as well: Westminister Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral...

But, the highlight of the trip quite possibly was a day at Warwick Castle, the best preserved medieval castle you can find (it was never attacked). We took a tour of the dungeons and torture chambers, where I happily had my innards extracted behind a curtain for our tour group :) After, Nick's Dad's work 'mate,' Sean, treated us to a fantastic Indian food dinner in Leamington Spa.

The flight home was fun. Six weeks prior to my trip, I apparently thought it a grand idea to book a 6:30 a.m. flight out of London Gatwick; it was the cheapest flight they had. What I didn't realize is that transportation from Reading at this time in the morning is impossible. Nick and I ended up paying for a hostel in London the night before and skipping sleep to take the 3:30 a.m. airport shuttle. Though Nick was flying out of Heathrow for California at 11 a.m., he came with me to Gatwick to spend a bit more time together. Of course, we had to split up on the bus to get seats, Nick stuck in a crowd of over-caffeinated Portuguese discussing something in loud voices around him, both of us drifting in and out of consciousness...

Lyon feels much smaller now that I've traveled. 'Went for a walk today, crossing the rivers and eating a panini in this French town I now strangely call my home. Everything is as I left it, though something seems to be missing. Returning "home," to a foreign country, alone, I realize how much I enjoyed introducing Nick to Europe and Europe to Nick. As far as I can tell, it's one of the best blind dates he's ever been on.