Signs

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Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236

The final full day of the trip - up very early to catch a flight back to London; way too early, in hindsight. La Coruna's got a pretty small airport, so there was no need to allow for too much time beforehand, as security and customs were a breeze. However, the weather was not so cooperative - it was a chilly damp morning, and the sidewalks at the airport were actually icy, and I almost bailed as I jumped from the bus to the curb, a distance of at least a foot, slipping as I landed.

I quickly yelled back to Mary, warning about the ice, but figured she wouldn't try and jump the gap like I did, since it was a bit of a leap, even for me - wrong! Next thing I know, she's doing the splits like a member of the Chinese national gymnastics team and I'm pulling her off the ground! It's definitely been a dangerous trip for her - falling off one sidewalk, doing the splits here, being eaten alive by bugs, and narrowly escaping becoming another one of Hamou's harem girls in the Sahara.

We weren't sure if we'd make it to London today, as flights scheduled to depart before ours were being canceled or diverted to the nearby Santiago airport. It seemed like our flight would depart as scheduled, as we had gone to the gate and had our passports stamped - but only minutes later, the PA came on to inform us that our flight had also been diverted to Santiago, and that we would be sent by bus to catch our flight from there. We were told that further details would follow in 30 minutes. I took this as a sign that I'm supposed to return to Santiago to find the Spanish Tina Fey.

Almost two hours later, another announcement was made, saying that more information would be available in 30 minutes - OK ... inquiring at the airport's information desk, we were told that instead of sending us by bus, they were trying to send the plane back to La Coruna, as weather conditions had improved significantly. I took this as a sign that I'm not supposed to return to Santiago to find the Spanish Tina Fey. I took it as a sign that I need to one day return to La Coruna to see if the lady at Pension Las Rias has a single sister.

We finally boarded after having gone through customs one more time, since the officials had voided our last stamp when we were supposed to be re-routed through Santiago. While boarding, a cute little hippie Spanish senorita was having issues getting her carry-on up into the overhead compartment, asking for my assistance. As the gentleman that I am, I of course obliged, but was later troubled to see that she was traveling all by her little lonesome, sitting in a row all by herself. I was concerned - perhaps she needed someone to sit with her and keep her company? What if she got lonely? Or scared? Or needed to retrieve something from her suitcase? I become such an altruistic man when traveling through Spain ...

Though they boarded us very quickly, there were some mechanical issues that caused us to sit in the plane for almost an hour before departing. It seemed quite silly and pointless ... but perhaps they did so just to clear the backlog of passengers waiting in the terminal.

Finally - London! Clearing customs was lightning fast and we were soon on the tube, bound for central London. Having not had much of a chance to eat anything, we considered mugging a young guy on board, who sat down across from us with a large takeout container of chips. Hoping that he thought like Hamou, I offered Mary in exchange for the chips, but he declined 😞

We should have arrived by 10:40 AM and been checked in to the hostel and having lunch around noon, giving us lots of time to head down to Leicester Square to see which half-price tickets were available for tonight's shows, and walk around Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden. But with the delays, we didn't get to the hostel until almost 4 PM, scuttling that plan. London was cold, but not quite as bad as we had expected - there was a fair bit of snow and some ice on the sidewalks, making the walk to the hostel a bit of a pain.

Travel Joy Hostel - a bit of a risk booking here, as though it had a very good 91% rating on Hostelbookers, this was based only on seven reviews, so we had no idea if it would be any good. I figured that it couldn't be any worse than the Ace Hotel, which had declined significantly since the first time I stayed there, almost four years ago. I'd definitely say that the 91% rating is quite high, as any rating over 90% suggests a place is top notch. It's not that it was bad, it's just that there was nothing about it that stood out, and it certainly was no better than Ace, which was now rated at around 80%.

Quickly settling in, we bolted soon after, as we were to meet Katsiyarina for an early dinner, to accommodate the theatre plans we had originally wanted to make. We did have some time to walk from Trafalgar Square to the restaurant in Covent Garden, so we were able to see a bit of London tonight.

Sofra - I ate here only three weeks ago, but came back firstly because the food was good, but also because quickly putting together a plan for tonight meant picking something familiar, to make things easy. Despite having been to London numerous times before, I can't say I know the local restaurant scene at all.

I was dying to ask Katsiyarina one thing - given that she's from Belarus, she must have experienced brutal winters like those back in Canada. How do they compare to London winters? Both Mary and I were curious - is it really that cold here, or are we just wimps? Katsiyarina confirmed it - the damp weather makes it feel extremely cold, and that being able to withstand -30 C temperatures does not guarantee being able to adequately cope with the weather here.

It's always nice to meet up with a familiar face while traveling, even if you don't know them all that well - we had stayed at the same hostel in Barcelona for a few nights this past summer so really, we only knew the basics about each other. But that's the beauty of backpacking - you tend to meet types that are eager to talk with other travelers, and who are open to meeting up again with someone they hardly know.

We all walked back towards Trafalgar Square, which is where Katsiyarina preferred to catch the tube. For us, it didn't really matter where we left from, as our bus retraced the path back from Covent Garden to Trafalgar square - but this gave us the chance to walk a bit, and to also get a few restaurant recommendations from Katsiyarina, for future reference.

Back at the hostel - a Chilean couple was in the room, and it proved that it truly is a small world. Both were from Vina del Mar, where I happened to be last December, so that was a natural ice breaker (see blog entry entitled "Foiled - Ben's Kidnapping!!!" Http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pwong/7/1231037160/tpod.html#_)

Then they asked where we were from - they were quite interested as to which city, when we told them we were Canadian. When we said Calgary, they laughed - the guy was wearing a hoodie that said "U of C", and at first, I assumed it was referring to some other university, as why would a Chilean guy attend university in Calgary?

Well, turns out he spent a year there in 2009, and she one semester in 2006. Then the coincidences got a little weird - he was studying mechanical engineering. And ... the girl told us her name - Isabel! I chuckled a little on the inside hearing that, but then she went on to say that her full name was actually Maria Isabel - we all laughed when we told them Mary's name.

Even funnier - the guy's name was Fernando, the same name we dubbed that random security guard in Madrid a few years ago, as the man of Mary's dreams. Hmmm ... is this some sign from above? We named the security guard Fernando, because of Spanish history - if the girl I thought was the prettiest in all of Spain was named Isabel, it would stand to reason that the hottest guy in all of Spain, as Mary thought the security guard was, would have to be named Fernando. Queen Isabel and King Fernando were probably the most famous royal couple in Spanish history, after all!

Apparently this Fernando and Isabel get teased a lot about this fact by friends. I guess with two names like that, it was meant to for them to be! Perhaps it's a signal to Mary that she needs to go find this random security guard from Madrid.

I'm always on the lookout for "signs" from above telling me to return to Spain, always as more of a joke, than anything else. For me, returning to Spain is as inevitable as the return of Spring after a long, harsh Canadian winter. But these little signs I seemingly always encounter are a good way of making up some bizarre excuse for returning to my adopted homeland, yet again. But we've all got to admit how funny and strange tonight's encounter was ... perhaps one day moving to Spain really is in the stars?

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Photos

e
The last coffee in Spain is invariably salty, because of my tears that drizzle into it :( Lemon cake with nuts - not bad, but very pricey at almost 3 Euros. I thought it was only 1.70 like all the other pastries; had I known, I would not have gotten it, or instead gone with the slightly pricier offering of a sandwich, pastry, juice, and coffee that would only have cost a couple of Euros more than what I had paid.

f
Waiting around for our flight made me hungry - a Serrano baguette helped, the last bit of jamon for the trip. A great baguette, with decent Serrano. If only Spaniards would commonly stick a slice of cheese and tomato in with it!

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As we waited even longer for our flight - my last granola bar would have to tide me over until London.

a
Despite the earlier fog and frost, the day grew beautifully sunny - if only yesterday was like this!

h
Bizarre - at the baggage claim, a few pieces of wood taped together circulated around the belt. Why????

i
The young kid in the middle of the picture took the flight with us from La Coruna to London. Because of the mass confusion at the airport, we never really knew what was going on and kept a careful eye on him. This wasn't because we were concerned that he wouldn't make it safely to London, it was because as long as he was still in the La Coruna terminal, it meant that our flight hadn't left without us! He unknowingly served as our guide. And funny - I never noticed the pretty little senorita on the left until typing this!

j
No, Mary wasn't making herself a ghost costume for Halloween next year. Making our beds at the Travel Joy hostel - Mary couldn't quite figure out the sheets, getting all tangled up.

m
The hostel does lose some points for not having a lock on the en-suite bathroom door, and for locating most of the room's lockers inside. Are you supposed to ignore if somebody is showering inside, and just go on in to access your locker? I suppose there may be some benefit to a lock-less bathroom, as perhaps Mary and I could make some money off of it by charging people $5 to watch a Chinese-girl showering type of peepshow. We know that Hamou would definitely be interested in that! This hostel does score a ton of points however, for having a couple of space heaters inside the room - lifesavers, in the frigid London weather! And the guy working there is also a pretty decent chap.

n
Interesting book we found at the hostel's book exchange - I could write a similar book, but mine would only have three words "It's really good!!!"

b
The fountain at Trafalgar Square, frozen over.

k
Katsiyarina was coming straight over from work, so we had a few minutes before she showed up - it took all my willpower to stop from eating all the yummy Sofra hummus before she showed up!

l
The food was good, just like the two previous times.

c
Goodbye! Maybe we'll meet up again in Europe somewhere this summer.

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Maria, Fernando, and Maria Isabel.