Welcome to the UK. Why yes, we do have a Chipotle…
While we look forward to all of our trips because we get to see new things we especially looked forward to our trip to the UK for the exact opposite reason, we’ve been there before. It’s weird really but when you go somewhere new you have this pressure in the back of your mind that pushes you to try and see everything you can as fast as you can and sometimes you don’t get to sit and enjoy it. In this case, we’ve been to London before so we’ve already seen the touristy bits and instead we had a completely different mission going in ( autocorrect literally had me change “more touristy” to “touristier” and then autocorrected itself to “touristy.” see how annoying that is autocorrect? Yeah, you just remember that for next time. ). It seems that the further East you get from the Atlantic the less likely you are to find something the way it is back in the States (unless it’s pop culture stuff, that goes everywhere). Part of taking the opportunity to live in Italy is getting to experience just that, another culture. Still, you wind up missing and wanting things that remind you of home, and if you can’t make it yourself you’re not going to get it unless it comes to you (in someone’s suitcase) or you go to it. In this case, with the UK (and London in particular) just across the pond you have access to certain things that you just don’t in Italy, like Costco… and Chipotle.
Mmmmm Chipotle…
Sorry, where was I? Oh right. Now, this effect isn’t universal. The friends that we visited there deal with something we had never thought of. Some things are the same, like a Mexican food chain I won’t mention again so I don’t get off track, while others are…well…close. Sometimes they aren’t quite close enough though, and what you get instead of a nice comforting piece of home is what feels like the equivalent of a copy, of a copy, of a copy of something where even the original wasn’t quite right. Depending on what that is it can be maddening. However, to a couple of folks who often don’t get stuff at all, “close” will work in a pinch.
So this trip had two objectives, one was to spend a nice un-rushed day in London with friends, visit some sites, take in a musical, eat as much non-Italian food as we can, and then spend a day doing some shopping for as much as our suitcases can carry of stuff we can’t get in Italy. Oh, and get a haircut. Explaining what you want someone to do to your hair in your own language (well, sort of anyway) is soooo much simpler.
So the last time we visited the British Isle I was still working on my degree and it made for an interesting story going through Passport Control. The fellow that checked our passports was a funny guy, and probably in the best mood I’ve seen anybody in that particular job. As always they asked you the regular questions and he started with Amy. “Ah, I see here you’re an Engineer, who do you work for?” Boeing. “Here for business or holiday?” (said without the H of course). Holiday. Then the guy looks at my card….”Student….OH, kept man aye!?” Honestly, what do you say to that? The guy had us in stitches (especially some opinions concerning the French, we had just taken the “chunnel” from Paris). The only thing I could come up with on the spot was, “It’s good work if you can get it.” Hat tip to that guy, my first ever impression of the UK was a good one.
This time through was not nearly as funny, though it wasn’t bad. The worst part is filling out their little questionnaire. They needed a lot of info including the address and phone number of the people we were visiting… Funny that, the last time we had to do something similar was when we visited Russia. No offense to my British friends, I was just surprised.
We got in pretty late so we were picked up by our friends at the airport and got to spend the short ride to their house getting re-used to being on the wrong side of the road. I mean, it happens in Italy, you just don’t stay there long. Then there was dinner…and it wasn’t Italian food.
The next day was our outing into London. Our friends live outside the city, and ironically enough we had seen more of the big city than they had as they hadn’t been there too long and had been working like crazy. We took a train into the heart of London and headed for the London Eye, which is a ferris wheel on steroids that gives you a pretty breathtaking view of London. To top it off we even got blue skies with a few clouds in the middle of an English winter, not sure how that happened. After our little ride we headed in the direction of the Chipotle, which just happened to also be in the direction of a nice museum as well as our final destination for the night, Her Majesty’s Theatre. Along the way we took pictures of various sites. London, as you would imagine, is covered in history and it’s a bit of a mind bender to think about just how old the city really is and what has happened there over the years.
At last, one of the major highlights of the trip, we made it to Chipotle and it was everything I dreamed it would be. Mexican food is hard to come by in Italy, let alone Americanized Mexican food. I took a poll and my taste buds were pretty sure it was worth the price of the plane ticket, I started to argue with them but stuff like that just looks weird in public. Honestly, no one likes people hanging their tongue out and trying to talk, just ask Miley Cyrus.
After lunch we spent some time in a beautiful art museum that had the likes of Monet and Degas. Personally, I’m fan of impressionist art but I’m more than willing to admit that I’m really a bit of simpleton when it comes to art in general (no comments from the peanut gallery please). I can appreciate beautiful paintings, but it’s more of a thumbs up, thumbs down thing. Nice picture….next. Sorry folks, it’s just me. Right, wrong or indifferent I can go through an entire museum in about a quarter of the time that other people can.
After the museum we still had some time to kill and decided we would get something light to eat. Unfortunately it was also time for a big hockey game during the Olympics and a lot of the easy places where you can walk in and get an appetizer were filled to the brim with folks screaming at TV’s, not a seat to be had. There was, however, one place that was still pretty empty…it was an authentic Italian restaurant. So it was less a choice and more a lack of options, which at the time was pretty sinking hilarious. So something cold to drink and a dessert is all we got. To be fair, gelato is good just about anywhere.
After our failure to avoid Italian food we walked back to the theatre to take our seats and enjoy The Phantom of the Opera. I had never seen it before but knew the basic plot. This particular production was true to the era in which it was written, which was the 80’s. They were rocking that synth, brought back some memories. Strangely enough, while I’m not a huge museum guy, I’ve found that I like musicals. Granted a strict Opera would probably be a stretch for me. I’m not sure if it’s like this in all of them but the character of the Phantom in this production wasn’t painted so much as a disfigured guy in love with a beautiful woman so much as a psycho composer who needed her to sing for him, which the guy played really well. Sadly, photos were not allowed so we didn’t get any of the inside of the theatre. Afterwards we walked around a little more and made our way to Piccadilly Square (which is kind of like Time’s Square in New York). With pictures taken, and feet tired we made our way back to the train station and finally back to their house. The next day was going to be all shopping.
Everybody knows how shopping works so I’ll keep this part short but the next day we spent our time visiting Costco and a few other places to fill our bags to the weight limits with stuff that we can’t get here in Italy. It’s like being a kid in a candy store, only a little more pathetic. When you’ve uttered the phrase, “Oh, ZipLock Bags!” and it not been at all sarcastic you know you’ve reached bottom. Many thanks to our hosts who drove us around from place to place and helped us find the stuff we wanted and then helped us pack everything. You guys were awesome!
Note: There may be some duplicates in the pictures, sorry in advance…
