Last Week

I guess it is that time of the year. My brothers are all back to school – or work term, and my slightly skewed European schedule has given me this month free. But it can’t last forever and I have recently finalized my plans to head back to Spain for my final project. I am in no way looking forward to writing this dissertation, but I plan to make a good show of it and I suspect that the end results will be satisfying for myself and hopefully for whomever is charged with evaluating it. What I am looking forward to is to return to Spain and see some of my friends again after a couple of months away. Unfortunately, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, not everyone is returning to Spain this term – most staying to do their project here in the UK.

However, because of the UK hand luggage restrictions and as a chance to visit one of my friends, I am taking a circuitous route back via Brussels. I am taking the Eurostar train from here in London to Brussels, where I will spend a couple of nights visiting my friend Ken. Then it is another inconvenient flight on Ryanair into Valladolid from the Charleroi Airport near Brussels. They always seem to win me over with their skimpy prices even this close to the departure date. So I need to take a bus ride to get to Madrid once I’m in Spain, that is no different from the commute from most airports to civilized locations.

With tickets finally booked for this trip back, I am feeling a little bit better about it. It also finalizes the fact that this is the last week I will be in the UK. I leave for Belgium this Sunday and then my flight to Spain is two days later on Tuesday. My only hope is that it isn’t as hot in Leganés this time around. It would be a new experience to have a warmer winter.