Hello and welcome again to the second installment of: Alex Goes to England, the new hit series that Roger Ebert gives "two thumbs way up!"
First for a little story I feel compelled to share: I don't know how many of you are familiar with the greatest place on Earth, but it's called Chipotle, and they have delicious burritos. Every year, the Chipotle in Cleveland Circle (near Boston College, that is) has a "Free Burrito Day" which is pretty self-explanatory. The lines are usually quite long, but the burritos taste even better when you don't have to pay for them and can ask for guacamole without feeling guilty about paying the extra $1.75. Anyway, I was walking down Fleet Street back home from class on Friday when I happened upon the grand opening of Chilangos, which looks oddly like Chipotle. And guess what, they were handing out free burritos! My lucky day! I decided to wait and was glad that I did, because upon entering the store from the queue outside (that's 'line' in British) I was greeted by the most beautiful Corona Girls I've ever encountered. And they gave me a free Mexican beer, in addition to my free Chilango Burrito. And I must say, that was the best free burrito ever. Which brings me to my conclusion that Chilangos > Chipotle. What a nice way to end a hard day's work!
Moving on...
After having enjoyed my burrito + beer in the garden at St. Paul's Cathedral, which I must walk through to get home everyday, it was time to pack up my belongings and head on out for the English countryside. My friend Anna, another BC student at LSE, and I hopped on the next bus out of London to Bristol, where Mom's old college buddy Wayne picked us up and took us to his house. Wayne, funny enough, studied with Mom when she studied abroad in England way back in the stone ages (sorry Mom). Anyway, Wayne and his roomie Arek generously put us up for the weekend, and they are fabulous hosts. English breakfast for two mornings, delicious meals at night, and just a grand old time on the whole.
We arrived late Friday so they heated up some pizzas for us and then we chatted over a few drinks before hitting the hay. Saturday though, we woke up to find a delicious and filling English breakfast, with way too much of everything, waiting for us. Wayne's English breakfast consisted of eggs, sausage, ham, tomato, and freshly baked bread. And it was fantastic. We then got a guided tour around the city of Bristol for about an hour before coming back home to prepare for the long journey to Bath and the countryside. In Bath we had tea under an extremely old and beautiful bridge and go into the Roman Baths which were built literally millenia ago around a hot spring that still keeps the pools warm. The roofs have fallen down so the water is really disgusting, but it was still really cool to see stone carvings and pools that were created such a long time ago. Not to mention that from the upper level, as in the picture above, you can see so much of the city including the magnificent cathedral above my head.
Also there was a man juggling fire sticks and balancing a pick axe on his head. At the same time.
After Bath we were taken to an old English village in the country side that may as well have been a movie set. In fact, it is a movie set, but that's not its main purpose. It's called Castle Comb, and they filmed the old Dr. Doolittle there, but it was quite beautiful and quite old. The chapel has a monument/tomb inside of it to a Sir Walter de Dustanville, warrior in two crusades which dates back to 1270. Amazing. Following Bath we drove through Cheddar, which proudly advertises "The Only Cheddar Made in Cheddar," referring to the cheese of course, and saw some really 'lovely' rock formations and a lot of mountain goats.
Dinner was again fabulous, this time a homemade curry and rice. We then enjoyed some Little Britain, a show you may recognize from HBO in the states. Theirs has been running for a few years now though, and it's absolutely rediculous. Wayne's friend Bob came over and they talked about all the silly things they used to do when they were younger, and Anna and I just sat back and enjoyed the conversation - again all over drinks.
In all, I must say that Wayne and Arek's hospitality was unquestionably spectacular, they really made a fine weekend for us and we quite enjoyed ourselves and the parts of England that aren't anything like London. We also learned that 'cool' and 'awesome' are unacceptable parts of speech in England and should be replaced with 'lovely' or 'splendid,' a cot is something that babies sleep in, not to confuse 'pants' (underwear) with trousers, and that if you kick someone in the 'fannie,' well... I'm not at liberty to discuss.
Well I think that's all for now. I've got a busy week ahead of... writing essays, reading, going to the pubs, and figuring out how to cook food the right way. And now I'm off to discuss in 1500 words or less why Great Britain decided to abandon partition in Palestine following World War II! Don't they know people have written entire books on this?...
