Waves on the beach & waves in London

Waves, waves and even more waves! This weekend was absolutely phenomenal, but I definitely tested the amount of energy that I could run on in the span of one weekend. Funny enough, I already had written this blog and completely filled up two pages, and of course my wifi crashed and I lost the entire blog. So this is my second attempt at this blog, so I am hoping that I can remember everything that happened.

The weekend began on Friday afternoon, when my program chartered a bus for the students taking the surfing class, to the beautiful beach of Sopelana. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and we were only able to sit in the surf shop and learn about the different types of waves. I felt a bit let down, because I was hoping to get in the water. So once class was finished, a few of us jumped into the water and yes it was cold, but nothing compared to the PNW (pacific northwest). After drying off, a few of us sat and chatted over lunch and I had fantastic nachos. Once I got home, I started packing for my flight to London, which was the next morning at 7:00am. Impulsively I decided that night to go out to the bars and play cards. Meaning I got home Friday night at about midnight. I managed to get 4 hours of sleep before I headed to the airport at about 5am. Payton (friend, and the other NAU student) and I managed to make our flight and arrived in London around 8am. I had chicken and waffles for breakfast and they put cotton candy on top. It was so bizarre to hear English all around me, but still felt out of place with the thick British accent.

For a clearer explanation; technically, we were only in London for about 24 hours, hence the waves of energy that I experienced. We had originally planned on staying until Monday, but a last minute test changed our plans and so we stayed from Saturday morning to Sunday morning.

London was an absolute dream, even thought it was expensive, it was worth every second. In the morning, Payton and I walked all over and ended up seeing more than we thought we would, We even got the chance to meet up with my other friend from NAU, who was taking her test in London. The 3 of us enjoyed fish and chips, and were even mistaken for high schoolers (which was very humbling). At the end of the trip we made a list of all of the places we went;

• Big Ben

• Bridge of London

• Picadilly circus

• Tower of London

• Buckingham palace

• china town

• British museum

• Buckingham palace gardens

• Kings cross

• And much more!

The weather was cold, but sunny and it made the experience so much better. However, there was an hour of rain, right at the time we were headed to see a musical. It was absolutely pouring, and we had to run for 25 minutes across town in order to make it in the front doors in time. The musical we saw was called Wicked, which I had already seen, but Payton had not. It was an absolutely fantastic musical with an amazing cast. Once the musical ended, we were so exhausted that we decided to get back on the train and head to the airport. Our flight was not until 8am the next day, but we had high hopes that we could sleep in the airport. This ended up happening, but not very comfortably. The airport was stinky and loud, so we put jackets over our heads and managed to get an hour of sleep. Finally, around 8am we made our flight and made it back to Bilbao at 11:30am. Funny enough, I was running on very little sleep and impulsively decided to attend the surfing class that day at 1pm.

Once we got off the bus in Bilbao, I sprinted back home and quickly changed into a swimsuit. We ran to the metro and made it to the beach in time. It was so worth the lack of sleep because the weather was beautiful and the waves were the perfect size for beginners. I managed to stand up on my board several times, and I felt so accomplished. The energy rush pushed me to keep going, and I didn't feel tired until we had finished surfing. Once we had finished, then I felt the 4 hours of sleep hit me and I headed home to sleep. I had the best McDonald meal of my life and slept from 6pm-9am.

Monday was calm and it was nice to have the class go by quickly. The original plan was to go home and sleep, but I got another text for a session for surfing and so I decided to surf for another day. Quite honestly, it was not amazing because it was pouring and the waves were happening so frequently that I kept getting slammed by waves. Unlike Sunday, I was only able to stand up a few times and so I felt a bit defeated, but the instructor did give me some great tips for how to improve.

Overall; the weekend was a 10/10 and the lack of sleep was worth the waves in the ocean and the waves of energy. London is one of my new favorite places and I hope that in the future I will have time to go back for longer. This coming weekend I am headed to Dublin for St. Patricks day! Please feel free to send me any recommendations and/or contact me via whatsapp or through this website!