Christmas Hijinks, vols. 1 & 2

Vol. 1 is just below, Vol. 2 is in the “more” section.

I had a wonderful time during my Christmas vacation to England; well, for the most part I had a wonderful time.  That last week, when I was trying to replace the passport I lost and battling the flu, were less fun, although the trouble was mostly made up for by staying with one of my mom’s wonderful friends just outside of London.  But more on all that later.

I left for England on December 20th, and arrived at Liverpool airport in the evening, in the midst of blowing, pouring rain.  Sarah’s parents picked us up and drove us down to Newport, the little town in which they live.  (Sarah is another English assistant here in France, who I made friends with during our training session in Amiens in September.) Newport is in Shropshire county, near the towns of Shrewsbury, Ironbridge and Telford.  The town is wonderful – tiny, friendly, with several little pubs, a single bookstore, a couple of nice tearooms, a Boots and some of the friendliest inhabitants that it has ever been my pleasure to meet.  Sarah’s family is wonderful – she has two brothers, Michael and Andrew, and a sister, Karen, all of them nice, and two fantastic parents who treated me like I was just another daughter and took care of me when I got into the trouble of my lost passport.  I had my own room in their house, vacated by one of the brothers, although they both came back for the vacations.

During the first few days, we didn’t really do much, which was wonderful.  We ate good food (Yorkshire pudding, mince pies and parsnips are all very good, btw), dropped by the Phez (short for the Pheasant Inn, the family’s favorite pub) of an evening, went to Shrewsbury, Ironbridge and Stafford and saw “The Return of the King.” On Christmas Eve the whole family plus Michael’s girlfriend and Karen’s fiancé and another couple of friends (and me) went to a really nice dinner at a place nearby called “The Countess’ Arms.” Christmas Day started out with breakfast, then presents, then Christmas dinner at about 2 p.m.  I made a pecan pie and Cornwallis yams (a sweet potato casserole of sorts) to contribute to the dinner, and both were hits.  We watched the Queen’s Christmas Address at 3 p.m., I called Mom, Graham, Pop and Aunt Suse at about 4, at 5 we played Outburst and a long game of Trivial Pursuit, interrupted on my part by phone calls with Dad and Paul, and then we had “tea,” the English word for supper/dinner.

Boxing Day started with a walk into town to see the Hunt off – I forgot my camera!  Argh!  It was so… so… English.  It was really neat, seeing all the riders in their smart gear on their extremely varied horses, and then to see all the hounds come yelping up and start winding around the legs of the horses and the spectators, and then to see them all ride off.  I don’t know that they actually chase and kill a fox – I’m a bit confused, because Cathy and Trevor (Sarah’s parents) told me that the actual hunting itself has been outlawed, but I heard elsewhere that there are only motions in government to ban it.  Regardless, it was neat to see the beginning.

Boxing night was interesting.  Sarah and I went over to a friend of hers’ house at about 7 for a little pre-partying party, and although I only drank water, it was clear then and throughout the course of the evening that the main activity of Boxing Day is drinking.  After a couple of hours at her friend’s, we went to the Phez, where it was packed.  It was also karaoke night.  Interesting combination, drinking and karaoke.  :-) At about midnight, we headed over to the only nightclub in town, which is called “Main Street” by everyone (since that was it’s old name), even though it’s actually named something else.  We didn’t want to wait in the long queue, so Sarah scanned the line until she saw a couple of friends that we could cut in with.  One of them, Nick, lived in the house that Sarah now lives in before she moved there – his parents owned it before hers.  Nick and I started talking and didn’t start until very early in the morning, which was okay since Sarah was having a lot of fun with her friends.

The next day, Sarah and I caught a train to Edinburgh very early in the morning.  Okay, it wasn’t really all that early – 9:30 – but after staying up until 4 a.m., 9:30 seems very early, especially since we had to leave the house at 8 to catch the bus to catch the train.  And Sarah wasn’t in very good shape.  Neither was I, even though I had stayed sober the night before.  She and I slept for most of the trip to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh was marvelous!  I love it, and I can’t wait to go back again!  (Fortunately, Mom and I are going to visit it during our trip around England and Scotland at the end of April.) The few minutes that I was awake on the train, I was flabbergasted by the beauty of Scotland.  Now I can see why Paul became so taken with it when he went there a couple of summers ago!  :-)

While in Edinburgh, Sarah and I stayed with our friend Lauren’s mom and her partner.  (Lauren is another assistant; she works in the same town as Sarah.) They were so nice, and treated Sarah and me like another pair of daughters.  I was fine understanding them most of the time, although Bill, Georgie’s (Lauren’s mom) partner, is from further north and had a strong enough accent that I did have a few problems.  Fortunately, we all just laughed at my problems.  The location of their house is amazing – a five minute walk from Arthur’s Seat, and with a panoramic view of the Firth of Forth.  (Such a fun name!)

The afternoon that we arrived in Edinburgh, after dropping our bags off at her mom’s Lauren, Sarah and I headed into the heart of Edinburgh.  We walked along the Royal Mile up to the castle, although we didn’t go into the castle itself, not wanting to pay the rather steep entrance fee.  Then we just wandered around for a little while, got some hot chocolate (in my case) at a nice little place called “Chocolate Soup,” and went back to her mom’s at about 7 p.m. for tea and a quiet evening in the house, capped off by an early bedtime.

The next day we started with breakfast and a climb up Arthur’s Seat, a huge hill that looks over Edinburgh and the Forth.  It wasn’t that tough of a climb, although it was fairly cold and very breezy.  Once we got to the top, we had breathtaking views all around, but we also had a punishingly hard and cold wind.  I didn’t truly understand how wind could “take your breath away” until the top of Arthur’s Seat.  I honestly had to hold my hand perpendicularly to my mouth on its windward side just so that I could break the wind enough to feel like I caught a full breath.  It was incredible – if I had been wearing bigger clothes, I feel sure that I could have stretched my arms out and sailed on the wind the two or so miles to the Forth!

Later on that morning, Lauren came and picked Sarah and I up and drove us to see the Forth Bridge and to visit the town where she lives – Musselburgh.  We had ice cream at a shop there (the name escapes me) which is renowned for its ice cream.  And for good reason.  Then we drove back into Edinburgh and walked along Prince’s Street, poking in stores with tantalizing after-Christmas sales on.  That evening, we three got dressed up (me in borrowed finery, since I hadn’t brought anything other than sweaters and jeans) and went out for an evening on the town with Lauren’s friends.  We went to an “American” bar first (it had license plates on the walls, as well as pictures of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean – that sort of thing), and then on to another pub and finally to this fantastic pub/club place called “Espionage.” This place was really cool.  It had four floors, but you entered, at street level, the top floor.  Each floor had a theme, and while the top two floors were solely bars, the bottom two floors also had dance floors.  We danced until about 2:30 in the morning.  It was so much fun – Lauren’s friends were really nice and we all mocked the music and the dancing when we weren’t actually capable of dancing to it.  (The DJ on the floor that we danced on wasn’t very good – he didn’t really know how to transition from one song to the next, and he kept letting songs with really boring beats last for about five minutes longer than they ought have, but it was still a lot of fun.)

On Monday morning, Sarah and I caught the bus into town and went to all the touristy shops along the Royal Mile.  I felt the need for an Edinburgh sheep (I collect, or rather, have had collected for me, stuffed sheep from all over the world), and I also wanted to get a few other things.  After we had had more than our fill of tartan and bagpipes, we met Lauren for lunch and then at 3 p.m. caught the train back to England.

I really love Scotland and Edinburgh.  I think that Edinburgh is probably my second-favorite non-American city.  (Who out there knows my favorite?) It’s a lively city, but laid-back in its liveliness.  The architecture is beautiful, but is treated matter-of-factly; I mean that in an endearing way, rather than the annoying way which Parisians seem determined not to notice the beauty of their city.  Everyone I met was so nice, although varyingly comprehensible, and everyone seemed so happy.  I know that I probably got a skewed view, since I visited during the Christmas holidays and right before the joys of Hogamany, but I don’t think things would change much even if it weren’t the holiday season.  :-) I can’t wait to go back!