After a whirlwind of clubs and plays in London with Justin's older brother Colin, sleeping on the beach of a tiny fishing village in the Algarve of Portugal, and another weekend with Colin again in London, I have finally arrived in Edinburgh. I'll do some summation of the last two weeks now.
London: We flew on Virgin Atlantic direct from LAX to London's Heathrow airport. We brought sleeping pills but I mostly watched movies and played Tetris the entire 10+ hour flight. The stewardess was clearly hired for her good skin and holier-than-thou attitude and not her dedication to service. I was worried that maybe this is how the English treat Americans in general sense, but everyone else was polite and companionable. When we arrived Colin had a cab waiting for us that took us to his office to say hello. In preparation for our arrival, he'd decided to get his floors converted to hardwood (they still aren't done) and thrown away all his furniture. So while he slept on the floor ("Like an immigrant," he said) we slept on the very comfortable sheets of MyHotel Chelsea. While he finished work we checked in, then went to dinner with him and finally to bed.
The next day we saw Coriolanus at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, an almost perfect reconstruction of the theatre that W.S. himself actually wrote and performed in. It's been replicated on the same site because the original was lost in a fire.
This was the fulfillment of a lifelong desire of mine - many thanks to Colin! The next day we met up with our friends Alice and Corey and went to Portobello Road. I'd only heard about Portobello Road from "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" so I was totally stoked to go. That night Justin and I went to a neighborhood called Islington and saw a contemporary play by Sarah Kane called "4.48 Psychosis." I'd read that play in a class last semester, so Colin bought us those tickets too. Afterwards we went to dinner and then clubbing with a group of investment bankers that Colin works with and without sleeping, came back to the hotel, packed, and left for the train to the airport.
Then we flew to Portugal.
Portugal: We stayed in a small fishing village and apart from one hike along the jagged desert cliffs (from one beach to another) we spent most of our time drinking and sleeping on the beach. I am now quite tan. The village we stayed in, Burgau, seemed mostly populated by British "pensioners" (their version of retirees) who were all a bright shade of red and very drunk. They also totally out-partyed Justin and me everyday. We'd go to sleep at 10pm and the rest of village stayed up until 3 or 4am. The food was mostly awful, very little vegetable matter, a lot of salty fish, tough meat, and cat food-reminiscent sardine pate. However, food is food and it wasn't too expensive.
Back in London: We went to the Tate Modern Museum and spent a long time drawing on the top floor and looking out over the Thames.
The Tate Modern was totally amazing. We only went through a few floors, then bought our train tickets for the next day, and then saw X-Men 3. X-Men 3 totally sucked, but we had a great dinner afterwards with Colin and his ex-girlfriend Marjorie.
The train ride to Edinburgh was gorgeous. The UK appears to be totally green and full of wildflowers. The nearer we got to Ediburgh the more beautiful it became until out the window all I saw was the darkest blue ocean with jagged green cliffs and small archaic villages lining the edge of sight.
My bosses are really smart, laidback, and nice. Right now they're making some coffee and bagels in the kitchen. Justin and I are sleeping in the flat above our office right now (free! whoohoo!) and today I'll be getting a mobile phone and looking at apartments. This week I'm going to Glasgow on both Wednesday and Thursday for New Media events after Justin leaves.
So yeah, it seems all is good on the Eastern front. Have fun reading this travel diary, I'll update it relatively often and at least once a week. Love to my family and friends!
PS: Miriam Harris is coming here on August 8th and flying out of London on August 20th, so my best friend will be here with me for my last two weeks in Scotland! Yay!
