London--Days 5 and 6

Sunday was the most perfect of Sundays. It reminded me of a Sunday back in high school after my friends and I had gotten out of church and had a Plain Jane spud at Jason's Deli, and we would all go over to someone's house to hang out, go to the park to play football or mess around, watch a football game later on in the afternoon, and just be lazy together. Now Sundays feel like the day to pack in everything that I couldn't manage to do during the week. When I think about an average Sunday this past semester at UNC, I can't even believe how I got up for it in the morning. I worked at Franklin Street Yoga at 7am, took the 9am class, came back to ADPi to plan out my group fitness class for that night and choreograph the stuff I had to teach later that day, go to dance at 3 and teach the choreography, go to the library to print off my Butts, Guts, and Thighs class I made up to teach that night, teach the class at 6, make the trek back to ADPi to shower and have a makeshift dinner since there are no meals at the house on the weekends, and then and only then did I begin to catch up on work from the week. And that's all before the actual week had started! This past Sunday was much more to my liking:

Started the morning off by grabbing sandwiches at Fernando's cafe (it was a pesto panini, y'all, I was in heaven.) Then as we leisurely strolled toward Hyde Park via Buckingham Palace, we realized we had arrived just at the time of the changing of the guards. Pretty good timing if we do say so ourselves.

It was pretty cold, but there was a fair amount of sunshine in the afternoon, so I'm not sure why we had almost the whole park to ourselves but I'm not complaining. Hyde Park is huge and there's no way we could've covered it all, but did walk for at least 3 hours around the lakes, the open fields, towards Kensington Gardens, and all the way up to Speakers' Corner.

Only slightly bigger than the geese at freedom park, I'd say

Took a little detour out of the park to go to Harrod's, like Nordstrom on steroids. The bottom floor had this amazing confectionery filled with things I would have loved to throw into my Easter basket. It's probably a good thing I only had the one bookbag with me and such strict packing restrictions for the flight home or else I could have done some serious damage...

...like any number of the chocolate covered everythings...

...or this 250 GBP solid chocolate Easter bunny...

Settled on this modest (but not modestly priced) box of assorted delicacies

After leaving Hyde Park, we started walking but realized how far away it was we were headed and decided to hop on the underground to go to Camden Market- more of a market for those who like a crazy atmosphere, are into punk rock t shirts or tie-dye blankets, and can bargain.

The food section of the market is located on a lock. Loved the views from the top porch of some of the restaurants

Our newly purchased (and bargained-down) headphones

Dinner was the Real Food market again. We got there around 5:30 as it was beginning to close down and vendors were shouting out "1 pound for the bruschetta! Pastries! 2 for 1 pound!" I was eating it up (literally). I got a red cabbage pastry and a pumpkin and cream cheese pastry, as well as polish sausage with french onions, covered in roasted potatoes and french cheese. Stephen got curry chicken and bruschetta to split.

So see what I mean? Who wouldn't love to have a Sunday like this? I didn't want it to end! What a perfect close to a perfect weekend. 

Monday I woke up early, hopped on the underground for the last time to Liverpool street, took the bus back to London Stansted, went through security (where MC's cookie butter was confiscated...so sad to see such a beautiful thing be thrown away), waited for the flight to Zaragoza, Spain, where we had a 4 hour layover (and were the only ones in the airport for at least 3 of those hours), and then took the last flight back home to Sevilla where we caught the airport bus back to Prado de San Bernardo. Home again, home again, jiggity jog. In a way it felt like we had just left that very bus stop, how could it have been that we were already back? But on the other hand, after looking through all my pictures and writing these little entries, I'm reminded how full my time was. I loved every minute, and the traveling was as smooth as it could've been and worth every leg of the trip. 

Lonely little us in the 4-gate Zaragoza airport. The only cafe in the joint (back right) wasn't even open.

The plane ride home from any trip is always 100 times sadder than the first plane ride just a few days before. You're sitting in the same kind of seat, you end up right back at the same airport, you get back into the same car that you got out of when you left to go back home, but all that anticipation of what's to come and all your wonders about what the place will be like and what experiences you'll have, all that was up in the air a few days prior has happened, all your questions have been answered. Usually when I come home from a really great trip I wish I could just rewind and have those new experiences again. But as I was on the last leg of this trip, and as MC and I were swapping stories and pictures, I was just so content. It was such a fulfilling weekend (or rather, a week) that I didn't want to rewind any of it. I love all the memories I have just the way I have them. Maybe its because there are so many more trips in the future, but I think I just am learning to appreciate the small things. I appreciate my bookbag holding everything I needed for a week. It was so simple to only keep track of that much stuff and I'm so glad I am learning to pack lightly. I appreciate my little accomplishments of figuring out the tube and how to find the right bus and how to navigate a city by myself. I appreciate being able to visit friends who already know the inside scoop about the place and could take me to some things I never would have found on my own (aka secret doughnut shops). I appreciate the travel time because it is well worth it, and it gives me time to sit, and learn to be okay with just sitting- listening to music, reading, studying, whatever- but not needing to check and double check the flight number/status every other second. It's a great way to practice quieting your mind when the chaos of traveling can easily consume you. Also, I appreciate indoor heating because it makes the cold 100% more bearable.

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What I need to turn my attention to now: the history of metaphysics (in Spanish) and my trusty Spanish dictionary app.