Tapas Tuesday and Wednesday and probably Thursday...

Cathedral in the Centre

Sorry for not blogging recently, however much I'd love to say it's because I was working really hard this would sadly be a lie and I've become very much Spanish in my sleeping, drinking, eating and occasionally working routine. 

This weekend I made the most of the warm (20 degrees in January kind of warm) weather and took my camera into the centre to take some photos of Oviedo and explore the centre. I now feel like I more or less know my way around the city at least! 

Fine selection of statues

I trudged all the way to the international office in the rain on Monday to find it closed for a 'fiesta' oh the spanish! But I did finally manage to register for uni on Tuesday, get a folder full of bus timetables and maps and a very fetching looking student card, and be on my merry way. I still didn't have my timetable but I had the name of the supervisor of the department on a piece of paper that I need to find to sign yet another piece of paper. It's become a bit of a wild goose chase. I have however found my timetable online and will start my classes on Monday! Hoorah! 

In between playing real life where's wally at uni and walking back and forth from the International office I've been to 2 tapas nights and eaten lots and lots of wonderful food!

Tomorrow I fly to Paris for the weekend and try to switch languages for the weekend...

What goes better with cider than more cider?!

Hold onto your hats and fasten your seatbelts* as this is a bumper edition blog as I think I'm kind of leading a bit of a bumper edition life.

So after an evening of watching figure skating and badly dubbed English films on TV I slept like a baby on Wednesday night and the majority of Thursday so my plan to go and register at uni was somewhat flawed when I woke just before the office closed at 2 because they're Spanish**.

A rather large barrel of cider

Thursday evening we went to Tierra Astur which is a Cider brewery, ciders pretty famous in Asturias, so we hopped on the free bus there for all the food you could eat and all the cider you could drink for 17 euros which was, let me tell you, wonderful. We then went out to B12 which to Hullians is a bit like Pozition, post-first year...but they give away free cocktails like they're water so you know, can't complain. 

Tierra Astur

Needless to say the next morning I didn't feel quite so wonderful as the night before, but I dragged my hungover self to a meeting at uni which mainly consisted of informing us of what to do upon arrival, okay so the whole hour and a half was basically 'you need to register at the International office' and a video of people having stereotypical Spanish fun. The irony being, the meeting ran on so long that by the time it had finished the International Office had closed and I still couldn't register. However I did walk up to the International office, courtesy of guidance from Aisling and saw the centre of town in all it's fountain and jetwashed pavement wonder. At this point I feel I should reveal the fact that Oviedo is the cleanest city in Europe according to some 'clean city award giving board'. This is because despite the fact it rains around 94% of the time, they still hose the streets every morning at about 3am. OH SPAIN.

Yesterday evening we went for a few farewell drinks on Ruta de los vinos*** before going to socially unacceptably wave at the bus station to Marcel who headed off back to Germany in the early hours of this morning. 

Today we ventured to el cine to see Frozen. It was wonderful and I managed to follow it in Spanish, the woman sat in front of us doing Audio Description to her child really helped...****

And that's the wild few days I've had, lot's of alcohol, a fair bit of Spanish and very little Uni. Wonderful.

*Once again, if you're reading this in the car, I commend you, however safety first and not while driving...
**standard excuse for most things including weird opening times.
***Yup, wine street.
****NB: sarcasm

Tierra Astur

Not much sleep but plenty of supermercados and sangria

So this has hands down, probably been one of the most bizarre, emotional and tiring 24 hours of my life. But it's been fantastic.

I woke up in the Premier Inn at 5am, which was horrifically painful and I'd just had a dream that I had cancelled my year abroad in Spain, so I was a little confused as to whether to actually get up and get on the flight or roll back over and sleep. Luckily I realised the cancellation was merely a dream and dragged myself out of bed, got dressed and got onto the 5:45 bus to the airport. 

I made it to the airport, through security and rewarded myself with a Wetherspoon's breakfast. My tired brain then decided that gates opened 30 mins before departure so I leisurely wandered towards Gate 14, to hear 'final call for the 7:15 easyjet flight to Asturias' Yup, that was my flight. I did however make it and boarded the plane hence forcing everyone who was already seated on my row to stand up for me whilst muttering 'sorry, excuse me, sorry, thanks'. Once the engineers had been the fix the slight problem of the cabin door that wouldn't close, we were off. 

Landed in Oviedo without any problems, my next challenge was to find the infamous bus that would take me from the airport to Oviedo station. I wandered around for a bit before joining a group of luggage bearing people in what resembled a bus stop. I then unwillingly became a public information service for anyone joining the queue, I managed to persuade them that I did know where I was going, when the bus was coming and where it would stop. Thankfully my bullshitting paid off and I looked like I actually knew what I was talking about. 

After been greeted by Ruby at the station and getting a taxi back to the flat, we did a tour of the supermarkets in Oviedo to get food for tea and food for the housewarming party we were holding. 

I then had a very critical decision to make, to nap, and potentially risk needing to sleep for the rest of the night or to drink a strong cup of coffee and power on through. I chose the latter.

The housewarming party was a sangria fueled success and somehow we all ended up out in Oviedo, then in Mcdonalds then after not knowing the way home originally and acquiring the help of Gaston* we made it back to the flat. And slept.

Quite a day. 

*didn't at all resemble Gaston from the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast

Things I've learnt so far...mixing Sangria with nasty wine does not make the wine any less nasty.

It starts...

So here I am, Premier Inn Stansted airport, no sign of Lenny Henry but hey, I made it!

So after a long day of packing, worrying about stuff I hadn't packed, packing some more, trying to work out whether the dog on the street was stray or belonged to the window cleaner/ wondering if I should phone the RSPCA* and packing some more I finally set off. 2 suitcases and a hand luggage in tow, from the new swanky Wakefield station. After an awkward goodbye to my Mum hanging out of the train door as the conductor was trying to close it in a very 'railway children-esque' fashion I was on my way. Train 1 was relatively uneventful, I finished a book and worried about not making my connection for the majority of it. When I came to Peterborough which I'd like to point out beats Doncaster for coldest station in the world, I regretted my double suitcase choice as it was causing me a few logistical issues. However, I made it onto the very empty and much more relaxed train to Stansted. I was confronted by a man sat opposite me without any shoes on, thankfully he re-shoed after the first stop and all was well on the train again. 

After passing through March, Ely and some other places I'd never heard of I made it to Stansted airport and having perfected the double luggage swag I made my way to the jolly looking Premier Inn shuttle bus, and here I am. 

Now I have to leave the hotel at 5:45 tomorrow morning. This will be a challenge and I know I should sleep now to ease the pain in 7 hours but I'm in a hotel and they're full of such magical things like mini soaps and kettles and there is just so much to explore, I feel I should get my moneys worth. I am setting 20 alarms and putting them across the room, I will make my flight. 

Next stop, Spain.

*It was the window cleaners, fear not.

And the countdown starts again...

That's right, another adventure, another blog. 

It's now 5 days until I officially fly to my new home in Spain and 4 days until I have to spend a night in a hotel panicking that I'll miss my flight the next morning. The last time I had to get a flight on my own, I woke up in bed in Wakefield at the moment that my flight was leaving the runway in Manchester airport, so I think my worrying is valid.

As usual* I'm very unprepared and equally panicky. I should probably let you know where I'm going as it's not in my 'true but not that informative' blog title. This part of my year abroad I'll be in Oviedo in North Western Spain and contrary to common belief/musical numbers, the rain in Spain falls mainly in Oviedo which suits a redhead like me perfectly. Also if anyone is wanting to visit (no pressure) it's not the easiest of places to get to and flights are only from Stanstead. I think I probably just dissuaded any potential visitors but I'll be there, waiting. 

I guess having already been away for 3 months I am less worried than I was before Paris, but I am still sad to be leaving again however if the last 3 months are anything to go by, I'm sure it's gunna fly by. Hopefully now I carted a case as heavy as 2 of me, half full of things I didn't really need to Paris, I will pack more sensibly. I say this, yet I know as soon as I open an empty suitcase I think of a thousand useless things that I might wake up one day and spontaneously need and suddenly my case is full. 

These past 2 weeks have mainly been spent catching up with people, walking my dog, watching re-runs of Come Dine With Me** and not getting prepared in any way, so I should probably at least think about getting ready, maybe tomorrow. 

Moving away again is scary, but the amount of support I had when I was in Paris was awesome and as long as you don't all do a runner whilst I'm in Spain I'm sure I'm going to have an equally amazing time and I'll be sure to keep you up to date on all my clumsy goings on and the awkward situations I get myself into. 

Happy Thursday :)

*yeah I'm a regular jet-setter now
**other bitchy cookery based programs are available