The last weekend in January, I went to Granada to go skiing. I remember my host family telling me back in August, when I went to Granada for the first time, that you could ski in the Sierra Nevada. I never knew skiing in Spain was even a possibility! It was the first time all winter that I'd seen snow.
The weather was perfect the first day we went skiing. I hadn't been skiing for five years, but it definitely came back to me like riding a bike. I didn't fall, not even once! At the end of the first day on the slopes, I convinced my friend (who had never been skiing or snowboarding) to snowboard down the mountain rather than take the lift. Needless to say, we were making our way down the mountain very, very slowly. People were flying by us as we took our sweet time. Eventually we were the only ones left on the mountain. It was one of those moments when you feel so happy and so sad all at the same time because the beauty you're experiencing is staggering and you never want to let that go.
The next day the weather wasn't so great. It was so foggy I could barely see the skis on my feet! I went down the slopes a few times and called it a day, spending the rest of the day at the restaurant on the slopes. I was super impressed by my friends who stuck it out and were determined to make the most of day despite the fog. And honestly, I was so sore I don't think I would have lasted much longer even if the weather was nice!
There's an explanation for this picture, but it's an inside joke so I'd rather not explain it away.
Moving on, a few weeks later I went to London on Valentines Day. The last time I went to London was about three years ago with the family I nannied for. So I'd already done and seen all the must see and dos in London, such as the London Eye.
The only reason I decided to go back to London, obviously, was to go to Harry Potter Studios. I went with my friends James and Andi. James headed that way Thursday night after work and Andi and I flew out Friday night after work. It was supposed to be about a two hour flight. But as our flight began to prepare for landing, the pilot announced to expect turbulence due to 150mph winds!! I think it was the first time in my life that I seriously thought I was going to die in a plane accident. It felt like the airplane was a ping pong ball being tossed around in the air. Everyone on the airplane got sick from the turbulence and we ended up landing in Edinburgh, Scotland. In Edinburgh the pilot told us that we would refuel and return to London to try again. And as you might expect, most passengers wanted to get off the plane in Edinburgh. We ended up sitting in the plane for an hour as the flight crew tried to convince everyone to stay on board. Finally, Andi and I made it to London around 3 in the morning. Everyone applauded as the wheels touched the runway. We'd been through a lot together those last six hours. Since it was late, the train we would have taken to our hostel wasn't running. So we took a bus and another bus and then another bus after that to get to our hostel. We arrived around 6 in the morning. So I crashed for about 3 hours before I had to get up for the free breakfast at the hostel and then head to HP Studios. My exhaustion and sheer happiness to be alive and on the ground made my experience at HP Studios that much more dream-like.
It also happened to be animal actor week at the studio, so I was pretty jazzed.
I learned that the animals used in the movies are rescued and trained and then either fostered or adopted.
We spent Sunday doing a literary historical tour. I learned a lot about Virginia Wolfe and George Orwell.
And of course we stopped by King's Cross Station!
After James left, Andi and I headed to Camden Town. We ended up at this great jazz and BBQ joint called Blue's Kitchen.
I intended to say more on this post, but due to technical difficulties with my computer (it's freaking out!), and being months behind on writing about my travels, I'll just leave it at that.
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