We spent our last night in England on a small, 300 year old farm in the countryside. It is no longer a working farm, but the owners still keep farm animals such as a few sheep, a horse, rabbits, and a Shetland Pony (which at first, I thought was a giant donkey with a very swollen stomach). They also had about 10 eggs in an incubator, ready to hatch on Easter- how quaint! I became fast friends with the resident dog, a border collie named Poppy, and spent quite a while searching for the infamous Thomas, the fat, white house cat. Doug and Marie (the owners) speculated that Thomas was out "mousing" and that I'd have better luck finding him in the morning. At first I thought they were bragging, but indeed, I saw a complete mouse skeleton in the grass on the walk over to the pub for dinner (this was a short walk as the pub is next door). Our dinner was more entertaining than satisfying. The 400 year old pub was filled with local old men trying to one-up each other with tidbits of foreign knowledge (ex: "Did you know it is illegal to drive your kid to school in the states? It's true. They are required to take the yellow school bus."). We sat next to a giant painting of George Harrison titled "The George" and tried to enjoy our gigantic portions of fish and chips, but were a little worn out on greasy pub food at that point. Cuisine was definitely not a highlight of England. Fashion on the other hand, was!
1/3 of the Londoners we saw echoed the same "hipster" fashion we're used to in the US (tight black pants, messy hair, rebellious leather jackets and Ray-Ban sunglasses). For this, I was grateful because a few of the days were very warm and leggings were completely appropriate (Bill's favorite, I know). I would describe the next third as a black cloud, boring and basic. And the last third, my favorite, included the expected "Euro-terrible chic" ensembles that are at least ten years behind and often, monochromatic in color from head to toe. This last group encompassed all ages, ethnicities (including gypsies!) and color schemes: head to toe pink, green, orange, and yes, even yellow. Pictures of these will definitely follow.
We're going to go explore Madrid now and worry about uploading pictures later. So far our time here has been spent listening to excellent musicians in the metro station, getting lost for well over 2 hours followed by a mini-tantrum, and finding an excellent, cheap place to eat called "Istanbul."
Adios.
