Hi there team! Apologies for the long delay between posts! But as you know, I've been fairly transient for the past six weeks or so, so it's been a little bit difficult to set aside dedicated blogging time. Not to worry! I'm in Edinburgh now - that's right, in Edinburgh - and I'm slowly gluing the scattered bits of my existence into the semblance of a life.
I've been in the city for just about 2 weeks now and after a bit of a scramble, I have an apartment, a job and a friend! Actually, I don't quite have an apartment yet... I've found one and I've signed on the dotted line. I'm just not allowed into it until July 8. It's really nice to have the stress of searching for one relieved, but I really want to be able to move me and my trusty backpack in. Mostly I just don't want to have to pack up my clothes every single night and then tear my poor packing cubes to shreds again every morning. But it's a nice flat (that's United Kingdomish for "apartment"), it's in a solid location and it's CHEAP. Yey! Apartment-hunting is actually a bit of a bloodsport here. They show each flat to multiple potential tenants at the same time, so it's a race to call the letting agency before the other bastards do - even if you don't really like the place, you're tempted to take it just because you don't want anyone else to get it. And you don't know when the next will come up. Fun! Plus, back home, we generally rent directly from the landlord so there's more room for negotiation on things like move-in date, decoration, furnishings, humanity, etc. Not so here. Every flat is rented through a letting agency and they are not flexible. The last two apartments I had in Ottawa were promised to me before I was even in the province. That would not fly here. You MUST see the apartment before you can rent it, you need to provide every piece of ID you've ever had and you need proof of employment or a UK guarantor (and if you're a sketchy foreigner like me, you need both). Now, obviously I don't have a UK guarantor - I don't know any grown-ups who live here. How they expect immigrants to get a UK guarantor is beyond me. Fortunately, I have my aforementioned friend. Her name is Rachel. She's great. She's from Manchester. She has parents who are UK grown-ups who will be our guarantors. Rachel is fun and cheerful and mischievous and you will no doubt be hearing more of our shenanigans.
My job is classic traveller - bartending/receptionist in a hostel. But the bar is hip, the coworkers seem cool and it's right in the city centre, so it makes life easy. And it will give me cash dollahs, which are not in serious abundance for me right now. Who knew that a month of travelling through Europe followed by setting up a new life from scratch could be expensive?
Now, my plan for a while has been to write a brief(ish) post about each stop of my trip in Europe. I'm still intending on doing that, but it might take a little while to complete all of the instalments. So here's what I'm gonna do: I've taken notes of key events and ideas from each section of the trip and I'm going to publish the notes here for you now. Spoiler Alert! Actually, they probably won't make much sense at the moment, but fear not - all will be revealed......eventually.......
Mickie's Trip Notes - May 2014:
Barcelona:
-Sangria galore
-Pan con tomate (chasing the tapas dragon)
-Marg's Burn
-Sagrada Familia
-Scots on a beach (Keith BeachSquat Fireboobs)
Madrid:
-The hostel impossibility/train issues
-Claudio, Martin and Luis
-Culture at Prado
Dublin:
-Street names (Harcourt)
-Really cool apartment
-Guinness
-Dad begrudgingly has fun
-Marg eats a wad of meat at the market
-The best Italian in Ireland
Paris:
-3 for 10 berets
-Catacombs
-Eiffel Tower Dinner
-The crazy wine guy/Canadian whiskey/so much nougat
-I've got to go to the Louvre
-Versaille's been invaded a.k.a. Opulence - I has it
Lisbon:
-The golden tram
-Riding the rails
-The High School Party
-Cod Chug
-Belem and the Kicky German
-Cork and Tiles
-The search for the pink street
- Can the Can
Madrid Part 2:
-Row your boat
-Tuesday night fever; Or, "why I shouldn't have put that guy in an arm lock"
-All the pasta in the world
Barcelona Airport:
-The fond farewells
London:
-The Sweltering Central Line
-The Harcourt problem, take two: Shepherd's Bush
-The Belushi gang; or, "Dammit Australia"
-Arranging accounts; or, "What looked like the hard part but turned out to be the easy part"
-That one walking tour
-More goodbyes
-Toot toot to the North
Edinburgh:
-Avenue Q
-Film Festival
-Roomie Rachel
-The Great Flat Hunt
-Job Job no Job
-"Foggy" Scotland
That's all for now, me lovelies! Await my updates with bated breath!
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