I finished up with the Wilsons at the beginning of July after going on holidays with them to London for a Wimbledon weekend, then to Hampshire, near Windsor Castle for a week. It was so lovely for me getting to spend time with the family and really become close to them all and stay in really really nice hotels, only to have to say goodbye to them so soon. It was hard to say goodbye since I had been made to feel so part of the family, but exciting to move on too. They dropped me off in Oxford on their way back to Scotland, but after taking one look at how packed Oxford was, I knew I wasn´t gong to get any accomodation there. It worked out I couldn´t get any accomodation ANYWHERE close to Oxford, so I decided to catch a train north to Liverpool where I found a bed at a hostel. It wasn´t much of a hostel, it was quite smelly and it was hard to go there after spending the last week in a Four Seasons, five star luxury hotel. But I did meet some great people there and Liverpool is great for its night life. There wasn´t heaps to see there since the whole city is a buildng site in preparation for its title of ´European Capital of Culture, 2008´, ´Woo hoo´!! It was a lot of fun though. I then spent a couple of days in the Lake District even further north, but wasn´t getting much out of it cause the weather was crap, but hey, such is life in the UK!!! Instead, I rang Naomi, whom I met in Israel a year and a half ago, who is from Sweden originally, and asked if I could come stay with her in Stockholm. So I did for five wonderful days, and I was really well looked after by her and her family. Stockholm is very beautiful. It´s spread out over a number of islands, with really pretty, colourful architecture that is best appreciated in nice weather, which turned up for me finally!! I have felt I have been living in a perpetual winter over here, so it was really nice to finally get into shorts, skirts and singlets! The hi-lighs of Stockholm were probably Swedish ice-cream, Skansen- with its Scandinavian animals, and the Vasa museum- about a ship that sank in the 17th century 20 minutes after it was launched and was dragged up off the bottom of Stockholm harbour and restored between the 1950s and 1990s. It was pretty remarkable.
From Stockhom, I went to London for a couple of days and met up with Australian friends I worked with in France as well as checking out the British museum and getting some new lenses for my camera to play with. The last day I was in London, there was flooding everywhere. Liverpool Street Station was constantly being mopped up and still I was practically wading across the tiled station floor to get tickets and a couple of times nearly landed right on my backside.
So now I´m in Spain. I met Susan at Stansted airport (London)- it was so great to see her. Almost like being home when you´re around old friends! We flew out to Bilbao in the north of Spain and spent a day there, walked around the Guggenheim museum, but sadly didn´t have enough time to go in, then jumped on a bus to San Sebastian which is where I am now. We are staying in a little B&B overlooking a typical Spanish Square with Tapas bars and cafes. This morning at breakfast, there was a group of musicians playing what are versions of a flute (I suppose) serenading us as we ate our toast and coffee. The beach is a very lovely 5 minute walk through cobbled streets, which is where we were this morning, and while it was challenging to find a place to squeeze in our towels between the thousands already packed on this beach, the water was nice, weather good and our tans are improving.
