(written January 9th, 2019)
Over winter break, I travelled with my friend Hailey to London, Paris and Barcelona, and for the remainder of the trip I solo-travelled to Madrid, Granada, and Sevilla in Spain (solo-travelling has become my absolute new obsession!). As I sit in a lounge (for my traveler friends out there, get Chase Sapphire Reserve, and you can stay at beautiful lounges for free!) at Gatwick Airport in England waiting for my flight to Singapore, I look back on my three week Europe trip and realize that I’ve had quite a few heart-attack moments throughout my travels, both good and bad of course!
- Gatwick Airport Closes; Flight Cancelled
The night before I had read about an unknown drone in Gatwick’s flying zone and found it somewhat comical. Woke up in the morning and casually checked phone and BAM, an email from our airline noting that our flight has been cancelled. Not so comical anymore. Ended up getting our flight changed to the next day out of Luton Airport and received accommodation. However, the airline booked us a hotel outside of Gatwick Airport, which was literally in the exact opposite direction. Called and asked for a hotel change in the morning, and the customer representative said we would receive an email with our new hotel’s address and information. Well, many hours went by and the sun had fallen, but still no email. Called again, waited for like an hour to reach a rep and he told me that I never called. You could imagine my rage. He basically said there was nothing he could do, and I asked to speak with his manager. After a long discussion, I ended up negotiating us a five star hotel and compensation for both ground transport and food. Buddies, you gotta fight for yourself.
Sippin’ on my complementary lychee cocktail at dat 5 star Japanese-styled hotel!!
- First time getting stolen
I swear, every other person I spoke with along the trip who had gone to Barcelona got pick pocketed in Barcelona. Hailey and I stayed at a hostel for two days and decided to join the walking tour with that hostel. Got on a bus that gradually got more and more crowded. Then there was a guy in a green sweater who kept squeezing Hailey and I, I thought the bus was crowded but didn’t think he needed to get that close to us. But I was also distracted by his strong body odor. His armpit was also directly facing Hailey and I saw Hailey desperately trying to face away from his armpit and burying her face into her scarf (it was a really funny scene hehehe). But when the bus stopped, I felt my crossbody bag moving, looked down, and my bag was opened. The guy and a girl who stood next to him got off the bus, I opened my bag and realized my money was gone. I’m telling ya, these pick pocketers would’ve made great psychologists, what a waste of talent!
Posin’ and cheesin’ right after I got robbed. And yes guys, they stole my money right out of that beautiful white cross body bag.
- Ran into a high school classmate in Granada
I took a walking tour my first day in Granada, which was by the way, my favorite city out of the six that I visited (London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Granada). Despite its tiny size, Granada houses the intersection of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism and the North African and Western European cultures. The Alhambra was absolutely stunning, the sheer detail of the arabesques was mind-blowing, thank god to Isabel and Ferdinand, who after reconquering Granada in the 1490s, decided to add some Christian touches and labels and Renaissance gardens to the castle rather than destroying it.
Anyway, going back to my story, I was walking up to the Mirador with the tour group and suddenly noticed a girl walking down who looked exactly like my high school classmate. But I thought I must’ve misjudged, so I kept walking. That evening, I texted her and asked, and turns out she was travelling in Granada with her uncle!! Grabbed tapas the next evening and had a great time catching up! Funny how we never really spoke in high school and then suddenly three years after graduation, we were in Granada, drinking and eating tapas and chatting for hours. Life really gives you the most unexpected moments, and new years resolution is to cherish the precious moments and people around me more (along with working out more and getting more fit, although that’s been my new years resolution since 2010, nothing much has changed though, yikes!)
Cool gal Jordan on the left and her uncle on the right.
- Ran into a fellow IUP-er at my hostel in Sevilla
Last spring I studied abroad on a professional and academic Chinese program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Well, I was participating the paella cooking class in my hostel and spoke with an American guy from Missouri. Besides me were two Taiwanese girls so I spoke with them in Chinese, I turned back to him and apologized for leaving him out, but then he noted that he had studied abroad in Beijing for a year. And so the conversation went:
“omg, where did you study??”
“I studied at Peking University for a year and then a summer at Tsinghua.”
“omg, was it a Chinese program at Tsinghua?”
“yeah, it was called IUP.”
“OMGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WUT!!?!?!?!? ME TOOOOOOO!!!!!”
And of course we went on talking about the teachers we had and our experiences in the big city. Wow, the world is only so “big”. 世界真的只有那么“大”
With my fellow IUP-er after our paella meal! Did you know that a Spanish princess held a cooking contest and whichever man could cook the best would be selected as her marriage partner. That’s why paella is actually short for “por ella”, which is “for her” in Spanish.
feifeiadventures 