Spiced up household
With Kai's departure to London at the end of last month, Mario's arrival couldn't have been timelier. Mario? Who's Mario? Well let's jump back in time some nine years to summer of 1998. At the time, I went over to sunny Mexico for a month and stayed in a family - Mario's family to be precise.
And now, nearly a decade later, it's my turn to welcome Mario into my «family», i.e. my fellow German roommates. Goodbye kartofen, hello hello pimiento! Guten tag y comó estás?
Mario landed on Saturday in London after a tiresome ten-hour flight from Mexico DF (Federal District) and had to struggle his way through Immigration as her Majesty's subjects were not so keen on letting a pulque-drinking, tortilla devouring man on British soil. To be fair with the Immigration officers, Mario had forgotten my details back home and couldn't provide. A fifteen-minute interview between a charming lady and myself soon resolved the issue and moments later, a few minutes shy of 3PM, Mario came strolling through the opaque automatic glass doors into the airport arrivals hall.
From there on, we kick-started a wild tourism chase through London, its parks and monuments scorning the rain, taxis and wild bus drivers.We eventually ended up a few yards away from Nelson Square, in a British pub, where Mario enjoyed his first pie (chicken 'n bacon) along a pintful of cold refreshing French beer. French beer? Well yes, French beer. Ale will have to wait for its own turn. And a pint of Nelson's Revenge might have been quite a shocker after a nearly sleepless night.
To be continued...
