Road Trip : York, United Kingdom (day 1)

I have always enjoyed going on road trips. It gives you an excuse to drive dangerously fast, sing like a rock star, and pig out like there's no tomorrow. Driving is the ultimate form of independence. With your car, your license, and a tank full of gas, you can drive wherever you want, whenever you want. The minute you turn the ignition, you are in control. It is invigorating and relaxing at the same time. I love driving and I miss having that feeling of control and freedom. Back in college, I used to share a Toyota Vios with my sister, Mady and we called her Britney. She was a bright blue car, reliable, and was very fuel efficient. I loved her with all my heart.

So going back to my original story, my friend, Tanya, and I decided long ago that we are going to go on this road trip to York. Because among our fabulous group of friends, we are the only ones who didn't go on holiday for spring break. We thought we too deserve to go somewhere exciting and so Tanya had this brilliant idea that we will drive ourselves down to York to visit our friend Jeff and go to Fountains Abbey, a place she has always wanted to visit but never found the time to. I told her as long as it's going to be a cheap trip, I am all for it. So, she called the car rental company, booked us a car for the weekend, called Jeff, and we're all set!

When Friday finally came, we were off to a great start! (minus my killer hangover from the night before, but that's another story) We arrived in the car company, signed the necessary papers for insurance, and finally saw our car, a beautiful black Peugeot we named Pierre. We got in, I, the chief navigator ready with my directions and maps on the left, and Tanya, the amazing driver on the right. "Woohoo!", we screamed. I was so excited, I was practically jumping out of my seat.

Pierre, our baby

Now like any other road trip, ours had its share of bloopers. Edinburgh, being the charming little Scottish city that it is, is full of road works, closed streets, and blocked entries. And my favorite, small street signs that changed every 50 metres. And to add to that, the directions Tanya printed off the internet were crap as well so of course, we got a little lost trying to figure out how to get out of the city and onto the highway. After a few frustrated sighs and shrieks of omigod omigod, we found ourselves on the A1 highway and enjoying the scenic route towards York, England.

The second part of that adventure came when we reached our exit on A59 en route to York. We called Jeff, who doesn't know how to drive by the way, for directions. "Just exit on A59, go straight until you reach the city wall, then when you go inside, turn left." Okay, seems easy enough. But after about 10 miles, we didn't see a freakin wall. So I asked, "Jeff, is the city wall a proper wall?". "Yes", he replied. Right. So after long debates of what a city wall looks like, I called Jeff again and told him that we are not hanging up until we see his face. About 5.15pm, we finally reached his doorstep.

York's City Walls

After the "mandatory rest period" of 1 hour, Tanya and I explored the city and went on a ghost tour, which actually ended up being a comedy tour. Oh I loved our guide, I called him, Mr. Fancy Pants. He was fabulous. He took us around several spots in the city while trying to scare us with his ghost stories. But he did it in a sarcastic tone and he made fun of some of the people in the group so we ended up laughing instead of being creeped out and scared. He even convinced us to line up across an Italian restaurant, wave at the customers, and when we got their attention (some of them even waved back!), we all shuffled in front of the restaurant's windows and at the count of three, we made faces with our tongues sticking out at the customers, "Bleeeeeeeh!". It was the silliest thing I have ever done in my entire life and I loved it! After the ghost tour ended, Tanya and I decided to get pizza and ended up eating at the same restaurant we made fools of ourselves. This was proving to be a really fun trip and we are only at day one.

Me and Tanya exploring the city wall

Mr. Fancy Pants

Sunny Day in the Park

This is how a sunny day in Scotland looks like.

couple walking their baby

Bianca under the tree

a sculpture by a Filipino

And here I am, enjoying my view, while lying down with Bianca.

After an awful week of cold wind and fog, today reminded me that Edinburgh is live-able. Thank God the sun came out! I was beginning to think that Spring will never arrive.

Jinny Getting Married

My sister, Jennifer, got married yesterday. It is the first of the many weddings I will not be able to attend this year. With my family busy with the preparations, it was Paulo Cortes who updated me with what happened at the ceremony. Thankfully, I had to work so I did not have time to process what was going yet. At night though, when I talked to Atehan, then my mother, then Atejen, then Mady, the tears came as I laughed and listened to their stories. Everybody looked beautiful especially Atejen wearing her dress which is a creation by Boy Abad. She cried as she walked down the aisle, and Nolitz was beaming the entire time. At the reception, there were so many guests they had to set up tables in the garden. It's just a bit sad that Papa didn't go. He wasn't ready to let go of Atejen I suppose and so he had to deal with it in his own way. Later on, after the speeches and dinner, the party started. Mady was in rare form, they said. Pissed off her face, she took over the mic, (shared according to her), and did her own interpretation of the The Corrs' Breathless among others. My brother, Kito, had another dance showdown with bestfriend Ega and other cousin, Enyong. And everybody just danced to the "un-modern" songs played by the band of Msgr. Damayo with the gay vocalist. In short, I missed another epic Larrazabal wedding.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about my plans for the future. With just my dissertation to worry about, I have started to apply for acoustic jobs and have even considered doing an internship and possibly another diploma course on Acoustics. And with planning and replanning what I'm going to be doing in the next few months, I realized I might not be able to go home as soon as I thought. And though I know it is better for me to stay here, times like these always make me wonder if it is indeed worth it.

Oh Holy Week...

It's Easter Sunday today and although I have plans to cook dinner with a few friends tonight, I can't help but feel homesick. In my family, Holy week comes second to Christmas for the most important holiday to look forward to during the year. While other Catholics fast, reflect and pray during this time, my family likes to go to some remote beach paradise so we can bake in the sun and drink the night away while singing cheesy telenovela-inspired love songs with the karaoke machine.

This is not my first time to miss one of our annual island get-aways but I suppose being in a non-religious country during the event that practically inspired my faith just didn't feel right to me. And since being in this God forsaken country means never having to enjoy a warm day at the beach anyway, I decided to do a religious practice that I have not done in years. I messaged my Maltese friend Julienne and convinced her to do the Bisita Iglesia (7 visits to churches) with me on Good Friday. Julienne, who is also a Catholic, tells me that they do the same thing in Malta and since she was homesick as well, she said yes to my brilliant plan. The only problem is, can we find 7 Catholic churches in Edinburgh? With the power of Google earth, I had a list of 9 potential Catholic churches within minutes. But then, I found out that 3 of these churches are so far we would need to take a bus in order to go there. We don't have the time or money to do that. So, Julienne and I decided to just walk around in the hopes that maybe, we might just discover a "secret" church while going to the other 6.

And so began our mission to go to 7 churches around the city. We braved the Scottish wind, encountered homeless weirdos, tripped over the cobblestoned streets, and endured starvation (okay, LIE, Julienne was the only one who fasted, I couldn't last 5 hours of walking without food). The point is, we were the only idiots in the entire city who seemed to be doing the bisita iglesia. And that made me sad. There was even one church that was closed! On Good Friday! And they call themselves Catholic. Tsktsktsk. It was actually funny because we ended up praying outside the church door, using its cross carving as the well, altar cross and we couldn't stop laughing. We counted that church anyway.

Around 5 o'clock, we have already visited 5 churches and just needed 2 more. But it was too late to go anywhere else and the bus times have been changed due to the road works around the city. We decided to cheat and had tea at Starbucks instead. It was the best damn tea ever. Around 7pm now fully recharged, we walked to St. Mary's Cathedral where we joined the congregation for the Stations of the Cross completing our Bisita Iglesia. Well, minus one.