The past few weeks have been busy when it comes to updating you all on The Journey. I’ve cataloged nearly none of my time in Myanmar and instead took a few weeks off to celebrate both Christmas and New Years. Well the Myanmar Chronicles will be coming soon this year, but first I need to give you a brief overview of my holiday celebrations. This one will be short, and in the coming week I’ll end up posting about Myanmar to get everyone caught up.
Some of you may know these two gentlebois, some of you may not, but they are two friends who came into my life sometime around 2013 when I went off to live in the mythical land of England, at Edge Hill University. Making friends there was easy, international students always stick together.
One evening I wandered into the Lyme Tiger and chated with a few of the students at the table. Many of the conversations to my left didn’t interest me but at one point someone mentioned a Brazilian at the right end of the table talking about Tolkien. I turned to see a man with his hands gesticulating, his eyes looking off far into the void of fantasy, and the most powerful words of admiration coming from his mouth. At the time I was really into Martin and his work. Once I and Gustav locked eyes, a strong friendship was formed. The following semester was spent discussing our ideas for stories we both work on to this day – and traveling around England of course.
Rory was heavily active in the International Student’s Society at the Uni. Desperately in need of friends, I opted to go there and try to make connections; it was before Gustav or the Brazilians and I met. Rory was there to try and bring newbies in, make friends, and help give them ideas for what to do during their semester. His main suggestions, as I recall, was Circus Skills Society – a club for juggling, acrobatics, or anything else you might find at the circus. Then the memories get a bit fuzzy. In my mind, me and Rory next met up at one of those society meetings along with several of the other Brazilians. In Rory’s mind we next met up at a pub around a week later. Whichever of the two it was the event spawned a strong friendship that involves weird videos, life pontification, and traveling to all corners of the globe – he and his girlfriend are the only people to have visited me in China in my three years there!
Sometime in the summer Rory sarcastically mentioned that I and Gustav could come spend Christmas with his family – it was something Gustav had done two years prior. Gustav, before I chimed in, suggested seriously that we could come spend New Years with him in Heidelberg afterward. Seeing an opportunity, I jumped at the chance! Plans were slow to solidify in the coming months but before I left on The Journey I knew where I would be for Christmas. During some of my time traveling I did happen to feel a bit unhappy about the prospect of going to Europe when SEA was so warm and cheap, but friendship has no price, and the friendship with these two is about as priceless as it gets.
The morning I arrived in London was a slow one. I was at Heathrow, Rory at home, Gustav at Stanstead; we all had a ways to go to meet. I was immediately hit by the price of things when I looked into a SIM card at the airport. £30 for the cheapest, while Myanmar’s was $3.50… In time we all met up, took the tube to Rory’s stop, then Gustav reminded me that Full English Breakfast exists! At £7.50 it was much more than I had paid for a breakfast in three months! But by god was it delicious. I had had no idea how much I missed Back Bacon, Hashbrowns, or Black Pudding…
I got there on the 23rd, we all left on the 28th. Those five days had a little bit of tourist activity. We stopped by Covent Garden and the pipe shop my parents bought me my first Churchwarden – and where I later took Gustav to buy his own as well. We went to Trafalgar Square. We watched Star Wars 9. We ate Greggs (so happy)! We had a cheeky Nando’s. We even stopped in at the British Museum even though we’ve all been there multiple times – the number of tourists was staggering, but Rory knew of a back way in! The real reason Gustav and me came to meet Rory in London, Christmas, was the primary activity.
Let me start of by saying the Giles Family knows how to celebrate Christmas, and they certainly know how to be stellar hosts. Rory’s mother, Izzy, made me feel as welcome at home as Rory. Her Sister, Cathy, made enough food to feed a small village. Rory’s girlfriend, Valentina, kept activities going with suggestions or new topics to keet us occupied. The children, SOs, cousins, whatever, they all knew how to make conversation flow and have fun during the holidays! Even I got a gift this year from all the way in America. See, I didn’t anticipate cold temperatures on this trip seeing as how I was around the equator for most of it. Mom sent me some heavier clothing and it arrived exactly at the beginning of Christmas Eve! Hurray for being warm.
We spent two days at Rory’s aunt Cathy’s house with her family. The first for Christmas itself, and the second for Boxing Day. Songs were sung, games were played, Christmas Crackers cracked! And more food than I ever thought possible filled my stomach. Starters, Mains, Dessert, Short Break, CHEESE! Next time I have Christmas in the states, I have to teach them a thing or two about courses. Discussion involved differences between American Christmas, British Christmas, and Brazilian Christmas. We also discussed traveling, language, family, religion. It was a fantastic time and I can’t possibly thank them enough for the hospitality they showed me.
The 28th we had a very slow start that involved leftovers from Christmas four days before – still delicious. In time we made our way to Stanstead via bus to meet Gustav’s friend Luis, also from Brazil. A short plane ride, followed by a friend driving us an hour from Frankfurt, and we’d arrived in Heidelberg, Germany! Now, Gustav has lived in this city for around 3 years now working on his Bachelors of Latin and German Philology – one more year to go! During that time he has gone on at length of how beautiful the city is, who his friends are, and how fun it is living in such a city. Having visited the city, walked around the old-town at length, and met many of his friends, I can clearly see why Gustav has spoken so highly of Heidelberg in these past several years.
It is truly a gorgeous city.
It’s also colder than London so I’ve felt a bit frozen during my stay. In the run-up to New Years, we sampled food at some of Gustav’s favorite restaurants, climbed to the top of the Philosopher’s Hill, strolled through the old-city nearly a dozen times to see this bar or that shop in passing, slapped a metallic Baboon’s butt for good luck, and just soaked up the Germanity the country and this place have to offer! Friends have been made, like Luis, Pablo, Timo, Manali and more! I’ve got plans to stay here for a few weeks to get a rest and figure out where The Journey will take me next and I’m not sure I could have chosen a more interesting place.
The video above is the yearly tradition here in Heidelberg. You see there is a walking bridge in the town that is a major tourist attraction. Around midnight, the entire town congregates on or near that bridge. Fireworks boom around you, sometimes far in the distance, sometimes merely feet away from you. Everyone brings their own. I couldn’t get a straight answer on whether that was legal or not but, hey, tradition trumps codes when we all agree on it. Everyone counts down together and at midnight the fireworks really start. The video is maybe 15 seconds long but we were there for a solid five minutes and the launching barely showed signs of slowing down. More than once did I feel the push of a rocket near my feet. It was a blast, and I spent it with Gustav, Rory, and tons of other new close friends I got to meet that night.
The New Year’s Eve party itself was insane. Like, so crazy I have barely any photos of the event and the photos I do have don’t have enough context to merit posting here for you all to see. To sum it up we went to a house party at a pseudo-frat that had a layout akin to a dance club on the ground floor with another dancefloor in the basement, two different kinds of music. We arrived sometime around 7:30pm and got home maybe 12 hours later. Beer was had. Friends were made. Someone’s hair briefly caught on fire (they’re 100% fine). Eye contacts were lost. The party banded together to evict interlopers. Everyone had a wild time that will go down in my personal history as one of the best shindigs I’ve ever attended. When we left, the party was still going. We were not tired. It took until the day I’ve posted this article to recover. Though there is one photo worth posting that we all had the clairvoyance to take in order to remind all our future selves how good the party was. It sums things up pretty nicely.
From left to right you have: Rory, Gustav, Luis (front), Chad (back), Timo, and Pablo. Friends for life. Here’s to the best end of the 2010s I could have asked for, and as sanguine a beginning to the 2020s as I could have gotten thanks to the kindness of friends.
