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Boo...
I'm not really in a blogging mood but I want to write about this before I forget too much. So here goes:
I took the train to Rennes the day after Christmas, changing trains at Redon. I was a little worried because I only had six minutes but I had no problems. It was a small station. I had to wait a few minutes when I arrived but I recognised Marion instantly when I was her. We looked around Rennes for an hour or so then went back to her place. She is house-sitting with her boyfriend for a friend of the family who is in India for two years. It's a large house out in the country, just gorgeous and improved hugly by their young cat, Piwi. He's so cute! Also a troublemaker. But I love cats.
We had lunch then played the weirdest rabbit game on the Wii for a while, then headed over to Marion's parents place for a boxing day christmas family dinner. There were about 20 people, it was a good afternoon. We ate more delicious food and played Cranium Black, which my team won! Yay. We played it at christmas last year in my family. I felt at home, although my french is still quite wobbly. We later played The Game of the Wolves, one I've played with the italians in spanish, in french. I hope one day to play it in english!
It was good to see them again. Marie and Patrice, the parents, were friendly enough, and Helene, the middle sister hadn't changed much, but I didn't recognise the younger one, Alice. I'm glad I didn't ask her her name!

The next day we had croissants for breakfast (yum), played some more Wii, then jumped in the car for St Malo. We also went there 5 years ago, I had a good time there going back. There were some people having a short prade of drums and things in the street, they were really good, all perfectly in time. I got a video.

Then it was back to Rennes and onto the train. It was a short visit but I enjoyed catching up with Marion and I'll definitely visit again sometime.

In other news, we went to see Avatar in 3D. It was good, although I didn't enjoy the 3D effects as much as I thought I would. It hurt my eyes so I took the glasses off from time to time. Although the 3D forest was very, very impressive. My main reaction to the movie was shame of human beings. Also revulsion at the mindlessness of the armed forces. You have brains!!! USE THEM!!!

Ok, rant over. I'd like to see it again in english, because I did miss a bit. And I can't wait until 3D technology improves! It's gonna be amazing!!

New year's tomorrow. Ana bought a bumblebee costume. I bought a shiny red wig. I'll let you know how it goes!

"Jingle Bells, Christmas Smells, Good at Ana's House..."

So, Ana's family. Mum and Dad are Nadine and Robert, then there's Morvan, 31, his wife Claire, and their little boy Mazen, 1 and a few months old. Next comes Gaela, 26, and finally Ana, the baby ( well, not any more thanks to Mazen) of the family at 21. They have all been so kind to me, I even got a few christmas presents, which I was not expecting! Ana gave me a necklace with a replaceable dreamstone, Morvan and Claire gave me a cute wooden bracelet from Brazil (they bought it in Europe), and Nadine and Robert gave me some perfume. Thankyou!!
I can see why Ana fitted in so well with my family. We have played a board game pretty much every night after dinner... We've played some pretty interesting stuff actually. I have had a few issues with the language (although my french is slowly returning!) but my biggest issue was different thought processes...especially when we played a game where you have to represent movie titles with random object like a peg and a ballooon.

Christmas was fun. We went to a catholic service on Christmas eve before having the main christmas meal, lasting until 2am including a break for unwrapping presents/digesting. I called my family after this, it was great to hear their voices. Ana had a chat to them too. Then I went to bed. Cristmas day we got up late, went for a walk in a park, ate christmas cake (it was close enough) and had dinner. Soooo much food! It was sooo good! I loved the Foie Gras.

The christmas decorations were awesome too. There were these little houses that light up from the inside; soo cute! Also stickers on all the windows...and these little men made of wood, hollowed out, with space for some incense inside. They had pipes so when you lit the incense it looked like they were smoking. Cool!

The house is great too, a wooden staircase with landing that overlooks part of the lowzer floor, nice wooden decor, they've got several potplants, large ones, so it all feels very natureish. I like it!

Ok. I'm tired so that's all for now. I'll write more tomorrow about my trip to Rennes to visit my host family from five years ago.
Byee!

Snow, I love you, But...

HELLO!!! It's been a while since I last wrote so first of all, I'm sorry for neglecting you. I hope you've all had a wonderful christmas and that you're managing to relax a little. Here's looking at you, Dad :-).

As you might have guessed, this post is about SNOW!!! One day during the last couple of weeks of uni (I've forgotten which one) I walked out the door and it was about ten times colder than normal, and there was all this white stuff everywhere. You would probabl have worked it out faster than me, but in my defence my room looks out into a well in the middle of the building and I couldn't see anything before I left my flat. Anyway, it wasn't just snow on the tops of the cars, it was actually snowING, and it was the most peaceful weather I've ever experienced. Maybe not the most comfortable (athough I'll take it any day over 30+ degrees), but it was very tranquil. It never settled on the ground but the roofs of cars and rubbish bins, trees, the church looked lovely... I enjoyed it once I warmed up walking to uni. It snowed all morning, stopping around 4 or 5pm I think. I didn't have my camera and I didn't feel like venturing out twice so I didn't take any photos, but there's lots on Faceboo that I can steal from other people. Keep an eye out!

So I finished uni, with some very decent grades (I am most proud of my 9/10 in Arabic (yay!), I was a little worried about that), packed my bag, and headed to Madrid. I had an early flight to Milan then on to Nantes, so I went to Madrid the night before and had dinner with a uni friend (Yasmin) and her husband and their friend, who were in Madrid that night too. They were very good to me actually, they took me to dinner and then dropped me off at the airport which is quite a drive. I was going to take the metro but that stops running about 1am, and dinner took a while. Thanks guys!!

So I spent the night dozing in the airport. I later wished I'd made more of an effort to sleep properly, but I'll get to that. When I tried to check in, the girl at the desk looked at my visa, which had expired, then my residency card, which had also expired, then my letter confirming that I'd applied to renew my card and saying it would take several months, then turned me down saying the letter didn't count. Madrid had never looked at the residency card before. I had a minor panic attack, and went to the customer information desk where they told me I only needed a valid passport and stamped my boarding pass, then it was bag to check-in to drop off my bag. She accepted me with a little bad grace, and I headed to security. I got on the plane ok, but it was not a good start to the day. I was worried that in Milan for the next flight they'd refuse me too, as last time I was in Italy they checked the visa, but that turned out to be redundant.
It was snowing when we boarded the plane, and it was deep enough to close the airport. We sat on the runway so long that it became clear that I was going to miss my connecting flight from Milan, so I asked the Stewardess, who said that if I wanted to get off the plane they could arrange that, but since the delay wasn't Ryanair's fault I would get little in the way of assistance from them. So I had a choice. Go to Milan, and hope to find a flight to Nantes from there, or abandon the plane and look for a direct flight to Nantes from Madrid. With no information available, other than that there were no other RyanAir flights to Nantes from Milan that day, I felt a bit stuck. What to do? In the end I left the plane at Madrid, as Madrid is a bigger airport ad therefore I figured that it would be more likely to have flights to Nantes, and also, if I was going to be stranded anywhere I'd much rather it be Madrid, where I can have a decent crack at the language and I know there's food available 24 hours a day!
I got lucky; in that there was ONE flight to Nantes that day, at 9:30pm. It was with Iberia, so I went to enquire. This was the point where I wished I'd got more sleep, as I stood in line for an hour. This was actually my shortest wait of the day (apart from food) as the snow had stranded lots of people and it was CHAOS. Anyway, the guy who I finally spoke too taught me the value of a smile, as with so many frustrated passengers I'm sure it was a day from hell for him to. So I smiled and asked politely if he spoke english (people hate it when you just assume they do!) and he gave me a REALLY good deal: 361 euros for a return ticket. It was 900 one-way! But he gave me a deal that closed two months ago. THANKYOU!!!!!!!!!

The rest of the day was spent sleeping on the ground in a corner and wondering if a) the airport would be open that late at night (I thought ice might ground the planes again) and b) the airport at Nantes would be open, as even once Madrid was going again there were lots of flights cancelled due to bad weather all over europe. However, all the waiting paid off, and after the almost two hour wait to check in I finally headed through security in the new terminal, Terminal 4. I'd never taken off from there before, and I have to say it is impressive. It's like a shopping mall, and the gates area has pillars painted in the colours of the rainbow, red fading all the way throught to purple down the other end. Purty.
Then guess what? My 9:30 flight was delayed...til at least 11, I suspect because the plane was delayed at another airport. I headed off for a cup of tea, and 20 mins later got a boarding call. I guess they found another plane. I didn't believe it until we were actually in the air but we finally landed in Nantes at pretty much midnight. I was beyond exhausted. Waiting I can do, and worrying I can handle, but doing both all day was something I'd never done before.

And then ANA MET ME!!!!! I have never been so glad to see anybody in my life. Especially not a family member I haven't seen for three and a half years. She and her boyfriend, Harold, picked me up and we went back to their flat in the centre of Nantes. It's gorgeous, yellow walls, pretty furniture from ikea, one bedroom so I have the couch but it's actually pretty comfortable. They have a goldfish called Bob.

See the next post for family and xmas talk!
xox
Katie

Pros and Cons of Spain

Hi everyone! With less than two months to go I have been thinking about my return to NZ, and I have made a mental list of what I'm looking forward to. Of course, it's only fair that I say what I'll miss too, so here goes.

Things I'll Miss About Spain:
1. The friendly smiles in the hallway.
In a big apartment block I see quite a lot of people entering and leaving the building, and 95% percent of the time they'll smile and say "Hello!" or "Good Day!" to me. EVERYone does it, old people, teenagers, harried mothers with prams and ten billion shopping bags... in New Zealand it is not the custom to talk to someone you don't have to interact with. Spaniards are so much more... open.

2. The window blinds.
Every window in every apartment block has the same kind of blind, and they're great. They're vertical (not venetian) blinds that you control from inside so you don't even have to open the window, and if you let them all the way down they block the light completely. Perfect for siestas and sleeping late.

3. The bread.
The bread in europe is divine. Infinitely superior to New Zealand. Baguettes, sliced loaves, specialty bread, even the cheapest stuff is soft and fluffy on the inside and just the right level of crunchiness on the outside.

4. The apartment blocks.
I am the sort of person who can freak myself out without any horror movies. Occasionally I get scared when I'm home alone at night, so to live in a flat, sandwiched between other flats and other apartment blocks, provides a sense of security just not present in the separate houses of NZ. I'm not saying that I would trade the lack of space permanently but it has been something I've appreciated this year!
Also, they're a lot warmer, partly because the spanish actually heat them, and partly because there's very few outside walls for the heat to escape through.

5. The laid-back attitude.
The italians are more notable for this, but it's the way of life here in Spain too. "I'll meet you for coffee at 10:30" means see you at ten to eleven at the earliest. "I'll come over for dinner at 9" (usual dinner time here) means you'll maybe see them at 10. Unbelieveable. It's great though, especially not having to worry about being late to class. No-one cares if you walk in ten minutes after class has started, some students have two classes back to back and take a 15-min cigarette break in between.

6. The long lunch break.
Uni starts classes at 8:30, it's true, but the shops don't open til 10. Then at 2 everything closes and people go home for lunch. Some shops open again at 5:30-8 (and the big american chain stores don't close for lunch) but mostly between 2:30 and 5 the streets are fairly empty. It's a very relaxed life, but it doesn't include a lot of time for extra activities (eg band practice), especially if you take a siesta.

7. Fashion.
Everyone here looks so nice! I don't know about anorexia/peer pressure issues etc but dressing well is very important. It is quite pleasant actually. Although I have to say, I have noticed that people don't tend to shower as often. Greasy hair with product in it is still greasy hair.




Things I Can't Wait To Get Back To In NZ!
1. The water, and the milk.
The tap water here is DISGUSTING!! So is the milk actually. Yes you can buy water at the supermarket, but it costs quite a lot if you only drink bottled water and it's very heavy to carry home. The milk is worse, it's impossible to find fresh milk at all pretty much. In NZ I hated the taste of plain milk, I'd always have it with cereal or tea, but after trying the milk on offer here I would drink a whole bottle on NZ milk straight without complaining. The water is pretty-much self-explanatory I think.

2. The doorbells.
The doorbells here in Spain are so annoying. To start with, we have two, one for the door onto the street and one for the door into the flat (yes that means two keys as well), and they sound EXACTLY alike. I hear it and go to the telephone to let someone in, and I'll be like "hello, hello?' and then I'll hear a tap on the door. So the next time I go to open the flat door, and the person standing on the street gets impatient and pushes the button several times in succession to tell me to HURRY UP COZ IT'S COLD! And to make it worse, is the sound is a very demanding LET ME IN!!!! I HATE IT!! You wanna come in? Ask me nicely! The worst times are when my flatmate can't be bothered to use her keys and expects me to drop what I'm doing and open the door for her. I'm busy! Take your rude doorbell and f&%k off!!

Ok. Rant over.

3. How people speak.
Over here, I often think people are having a huge fight, whereas they're actually just having a minor disagreement. People speak very harshly, and I admit, sometimes I do speak more harshly than I mean to, and it's nice that they don't take offence, but I do resent being told to do things instead of asked.

4. Apartment blocks vs houses.
More space!! Can't wait!

5. Greenery.
Theres lots of redery and yellowery here (read: dirt. Parking lots etc) , but also lots of concrete. Nothing wrong with grass, people! Also no-one will walk diagonally across a lawn. They all walk along the side and stay on the path. It won't hurt you, promise.

6. Smoking, or less of it.
Smoking is a huge thing here. Almost everybody does it, and the spanish attitude to the law prohibiting smoking inside bars/pubs (passed several years ago) is that it doesn't exist. I. Hate. It. There is NO excuse for harming yourself, your friends and family, and costing your country god-knows-how-much in healthcare, littering (cigarette butts EVERYWHERE) and the smell! Sometimes I don't go out because I don't want to have to wash the stink out of my hair the next day. Smoking is foul. This is one of my strongest beliefs.

7. Trash on the street.
I'm not talking about litter/broken bottles left behind by drunkards - both countries have this. But I have seen spanish people screw up a piece of paper and throw it onto the ground, and keep on walking. McDonald's wrappers, coke cans...here, every morning, you can see street cleaners at work. They have trollies like in mall food courts, and they use brooms with twigs (yes exactly like witch stories) to clean up the streets. There are plenty of rubbish bins too!

8. Windows, and light in the mornings.
A good percentage of windows look into 'wells' in the middle of buildings, and as such there is no view apart from other people's washing or the window opposite. To get any privacy you have to close the blind, which blocks all the light. I'm looking forward to waking up to sunlight streaming through the curtains again.

9. Fashion.
Here it's much less acceptable to venture outside in less-than-fashionable clothes. I'm looking forward to not having people look sideways at trackpants.

10. Personal space.
Standing in line at the bank/supermarket. Overtaking someone walking on the sidewalk. Gaaaah! Get away from me! Move over! Make room! If it's obvious that I'm going to walk past you when you're standing there gossiping with your friend and blocking the whole footpath, MOVE!
I know, I know, it's just a cultural difference. I've gotten used to it. But I have to remind myself that it's not that that guy is being a dickhead on purpose, it's just that for a spanish person, there IS enough room for them to pass.
Old ladies behind you in a queue are the worst.


That's all I've got at the moment! I dare say I'll think of a few more to add.
Have a good day :-)

Two Trips in One Week

First Italy, then Granada...it's been amazing! I think that those are the last trips I'll take until I finish the term here though. I might do a day trip but the time spent organising and travelling and co-ordinating is, to be frank, exhausting. I get more stressed than I thought possible booking flights online, always freaking out about 'is this the best [timing and price] flight' and 'what if I miss it' and gaaah...

So, Italy. I flew to Bologna last sunday afternoon and was met at the airport by Giulia and her Dad, Franco. It was so good to see her again! I lived with Giulia last term and we became good friends. I have now visited her twice in Italy and her family is just so welcoming...they are all invited to visit me in New Zealand when they can make it over. It's a different culture, Giulia has just turned 23 and still lives at home (apart from the 5 months she spent in Spain), and her 28-year-old brother has moved out...into the flat across the hall. I do envy her a little bit sometimes. But it's so worth it to spend this much time in Europe.

We hung out with a few of her friends that night, some I already knew, and had Pizza for dinner (what else!). Yum. Northern Italian Pizza is second only to Southern Italian Pizza. Anyway, we went to a cafe called Cafe Concerto in Modena which is a gorgeous brick building, before heading home to bed about midnight. We had to get up at 6:30 or so the next day to get the train to Bologna, to get the train to... Venice!!!

Venice is a lot smaller than I imagined, considering the size of it's reputation. However, it is packed with interesting things to do. We only had the one day there so we didn't really cover it but we walked around the streets and bridges, and visited the island where they do most of the (beautiful) glasswork. I got a few souvenirs.
It is also frighteningly expensive. We spent more on travel around the city than we did on travel to and from it. I'm glad we didn't stay there in the end, although the Carnaval (held each February) would be really something to see! I bought a little porcelain mask.
It was foggy the whole day, which while a little depressing, was very picturesque and a nice break from the incessant blue skies of central Spain. Please see facebook for pictures, they do a much better job of showing the city than I can here!

Monday night we travelled back to Bologna, and home to Giulia's, where her Mum had made a regional specialty of some pasta - giant tortellini filled with blue cheese. DELICIOUS!! They have never let me help with the dishes yet, which makes me feel a bit guilty watching her mum slaving away and knowing she has to get up at 5am to go to work. Maybe one day I'll convince them! Her mum doesn't seem to resent it though, she is lovely.

The next day it was time for me to head back to Spain. Giulia said if I wanted to stay longer I could, but my ticket was non-refundable and I had classes to catch up on before going to Granada. I look forward to going back some time, although it might not be for several years.
Thankyou Giulia & family!

So I had two and a half days to catch up with stuff here before it was time to get up early (again!!) and get to the bus stop. For you information, 'early' now means any time I have to set an alarm clock. Even if it's for 10:30am! Anyway, the bus left about half past nine and we pulled into Granada shortly after 1pm. I took my guitar which proved very popular on the bus and during down time at the hotel.
We went to the Alhambra that afternoon which was lovely, although in my opinion it would have been better to go the next day when we would have had more time. We only had a couple of hours which is definitely not enough to look round the gardens and the palace! But it was still amazing. I would love to go back one day, it is truly beautiful. I don't wish I lived there (that's more the castles in Scotland!!) but it was fascinating.
The city of Granda is great too. It's kinda touristy but it's fun and the views of the hills are spectacular. I miss hills. I like hills.

We went to a flamenco performance Saturday night, and it was ok but I'm glad we got a heavily reduced price. Flamenco doesn't really capture me to be honest, and the clapping of the dancers when they're not dancing (percussion really) is unbelievably and unbearably loud. So unnecessary! We stopped off at a lookout on the way back, and took photos of the Alhambra at night time. It looked even better with the trees all lit from the river below.

The next day we went back to the lookout for something to do, and had a good time wandering the alleyways of the older part of town trying to find it. We did, eventually. The mountains behind it are the perfect backdrop. Then we had to hurry back to the hotel to pick up our bags and jump on the bus. There is so much more to see in Granada and I'd love to go back one day. NOT in summer though. The heat was about right in November.

It was hard to get up on Monday morning.

So that's me! Now it's head down and nose to the grindstone to see what credits I can get before a final sojourn to France for Christmas. I can't believe how fast the time is going but I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing everyone on New Zealand again! Miss you guys!

'sta luego :-)

Doo de Doo de Doo...

Hi everyone! I haven't got an awful lot to say about the past couple of weeks, only that I've had a good time. There have been quite a few fiestas, one of note is the reggae party hosted by some italians in a nightclub. So. Much. Fun!!! I also spent this past weekend at the country house of a friend who works in the international office at the uni.

It was her birthday last week so she had a barbecue to celebrate. It was so good! I haven't had steak for so long! The people who turned up to party were great too, although my favourite has to be the little dog. He was one of those handbag-sized dogs and is called Toy. Yes, in english. WHAT AN AWESOME NAME!!!

We also saw a flock of sheep, which is not in itself unusual, except for the fact that I haven't seen sheep for months and one had (as in gave birth to) a lamb about 20m from the gates while we were watching. It's so out of season but who cares? So cute! I love lambs! It was also interesting for me to watch the sheepdogs, as we don't have dogs at home. The farmer was talking on a cellphone and the dogs knew exactly what to do without instructions. They kept the sheep from wandering onto the road until the farmer was ready to move on. Fascinating.

Oooh, I got a letter from Natalie yesterday!!! Just sayin'.

The next couple of weeks are going to be amazing. This Sunday I am going to Italy for two days to visit Giulia, with whom I lived last semester. We will spend a day either in Venice or Milan. I am hoping for Venice but if it rains the water can get quite high, and seriously a day in Milan is not something to turn your nose up at! Then, at the end of next week there is a trip for international students to Granada! I signed up as soon as I heard about it. Included in the price is transport, accommodation, breakfast, and entry to the Alhambra. Two nights. Not bad for 75 euros!! I am looking forward to meeting people from the other three campuses too.

Also I have FINALLY sorted out what I'm doing for Christmas! I'm going to France!!!!!!! Some of you may remember Ana (Anaelle), who lived with us for a year in NZ? I left home to go to uni halfway through her stay. Anyway, I get to spend Christmas with her and her family in Nantes and I'm so excited. Also relieved, because I was very lonely the only other time I've spent Christmas in Europe.

So. That's me. I'll write a better blog entry once I've done all that traveling. See you in a couple of weeks!

22!! And it's all downhill from here!!

Or perhaps a better way of looking at it is "With Age Comes Wisdom" (sometimes, anyway :P). It is kind of strange though, you spend your whole childhood looking forward to your 18th, then 21st, then suddenly they're gone and you have no more significant birthdays. Oh well.

I had an awesome weekend though. Wednesday night I went with Carmen (from the ORI) to Inma's house (also from the ORI) and spent the night there. Inma lives about an hours drive away so we just came back to Ciudad Real with her in the morning. It was wonderful, to be in a house, with a family, (not that the student life is that bad but sometimes...) They even gave me a birthday present, a homemade, warm, fluffy scarf. Thankyou!!

Thursday I wanted to meet up with some friends and have a few quiet drinks in the main square. It was fun although not many people came, sort of reminiscent of the pancake party that didn't happen. I don't think I'll bother organising anything else. But we went back to a friend's place where some turkish people were making turkish food to share, then ended up going out to Botellon (essentially drinking in the street). It was a good night. Two Lithuanian girls got me a present too - an alarm clock! I'll never be late to arabic again! Seriously though, it's got a cat on it, and it's nice to have a clock again. I quite like the ticking sound, I find it calming. Thanks girls!

Friday was a huge party organised by the university for students from all four campuses (in different towns) to meet. There was a concert too with lots of different bands, which was pretty cool (especially when I got close enough to the stage to watch the bass players...), after we left we went to the nightclub district and ended up playing an italian card game in one of the bars. Best. Birthday. Party. Ever.

And last night, Saturday, I went out again. First to the flat of a few french students, then we had a few drinks in town and ended up at a salsa bar. I would like to learn one day I think, although I will stick with Swing for a bit.

So it was a long weekend and is now Sunday afternoon. I need to do some study so I shall do that now, before I get too tired, because it is guaranteed that I will crash tonight.

Random Roadtrip to Toledo and Madrid!

Ciao!!

So, I received an email on facebook on friday detailing a planned day trip to Toledo. I was going to the house of the organiser that night anyway, as it was a mutual friend's birthday party, and when he asked me about it I said "Sure, I'll come along". We were going to take the bus, but when we got to the bus station the next morning we had such a large group (40 or so) that there wasn't enough room, so we had to rent a couple of cars as well. I ended up with the car-rental group.
We drove up to Toledo, meeting up with some (but not all, I have no idea where everyone else went) of the others once we got there, and spent the day looking around and having lunch (several hours on the lunch part). There is a guy from England here this semester, James, and while I enjoyed hanging out with the other kiwis last semester they weren't people I'd usually be good friends with. James has much the same sense of humour as me and it was a real pleasure to talk to him. Now, before you start thinking "ooooh" he has a girlfriend, and I have a not-boyfriend, so it's nothing like that. Anyway it was an awesome day and after the bus-group hopped on the last bus home the car group met up and thought about what to do next. We didn't have to return the cars until 10am the next day, sooo....we went to Madrid!! It was a little chaotic, the two cars got separated in the city centre and we all ended up at various fast food places to eat (we were pretty hungry - I had KFC) before wandering around for a while, as most people hadn't seen it before having only just arrived in Spain. We were all italians except me and a polish guy at this point, and he'd spent a few years in italy so his italian was pretty good.

Finding Madrid is easy, to be honest. It's pretty big. However, leaving it is not quite the same deal! We started walking back to the cars at midnight, found them and got them out of the garages by 1am (we walked slowly), and it took us an hour of following motorway signs for Valencia (!!!) before we were on our way home. I was exhausted so I removed my contacts and went to sleep, only to be woken up god-knows-how-long later by torches and voices calling "over here". The police had pulled us over.
In Italy, it is not compulsory to wear a seatbelt in the back seat. So when we first got the cars, one being more like a minivan with the back two rows of seats removed, and four or five italians jumped in the back and stretched out on the floor, I wondered briefly if that was legal but didn't make a fuss. Turns out it's not :-(. Legal, that is. So, after giving the driver a hard time about alcohol (none of us had been drinking) one police officer got very excited about the fact that we had ten people in a six-seater car, and another one ordered us out of the vehicle. I had just woken up, couldn't see/focus properly coz I'd taken my contacts out, and it was a bit cold so I was shivering. I'm pretty sure that's the reason one officer shone his torch in my face, then asked me to empty my bag. And of course then they had to search everyone else's bags as well. They let us get back in the car after that though, which was good because I was starting to shiver quite violently.
Then the cops had to go. I have no idea why, but maybe there was some kind of emergency somewhere. They rang the local police in Ciudad Real and told them to detain us if the van arrived with more than six people in it, and we waited for the other rental car to return before finally (!) setting off home. We were only about 15mins away. We filled the cars up with petrol before dropping people home, and I got to bed about 6am.

So it was ok in the end. Although I didn't really believe that I personally was liable for anything illegal (had my seatbelt on and everything) I wasn't sure and I thought they might arrest the driver or something. In retrospect we were a bit stupid but I guess there are far worse things you can do. I believe they did the right thing. Give us a scare then let us go. The polish guy asked the police to take some people back (they talked about calling a taxi before the other car was mentioned) which was clearly not an option. "The police are for the people". Some are truly brainless!!!

It was an adventure!!!!! I made some wonderufl new friends though and had a great time. I really quite like Toledo. It's cute. Very quaint.

El Gregor Fiddle School Rocks The Casa!

Hi! Don't you love this post title? Thankyou Anne-Marie (and americans) for coming up with such an awesome name. With a name like that Gregor will be turning down applicants by the dozen!

Anyway, it was an absolute blast. I took the train to Madrid on Friday lunchtime, the metro to the airport (*ugh* - not a fan) and went through security with an hour to spare. There, I had the worst airport sandwich I've ever had (which is saying something), and felt so sad I bought some oreos to cheer me up. They were very nice :-).
The hour-long flight to Alicante was uneventful, the day was so hot there was a haze at ground level and I got some good photos of the clouds. I landed ok but it took a few minutes to catch up with Gregor's wife, Steph, who very kindly picked me up from the airport. She had their two little boys with her too. I'm not really a little-kids kind of person but these two are gorgeous.

So, we drove out to the Casa, which is actually about an hour north of Alicante, near Bellus, in Valencia. It was awesome to see some kiwis again! Anne-Marie, Wayne and Shelley...I think I was supposed to know a couple of other people too but I didn't recognise them. I did remember Lorraine though. We had Kiwi Paella (think rice risotto but DON'T call it that!) for dinner and had a chat around the table.

During the days, when the others had their fiddle lessons, Shelley and I did some exploring. The first day Wayne drove us out to some little town about 45mins away, and he had planned to go back but decided to stay with us and do some walking. It was called Bocairent, and has old muslim caves, and the twelve stages of the cross on a path leading up a hill to a church. It was a nice day, and a lovely walk. Shelley commented that it was her 'open-air walk', which got me thinking 'what's a closed-air walk??'. Apparently that is a walk in a town. Oh well :S.

We stopped off at the bullring and the supermarket before leaving and I decided to introduce these kiwis to Tinto de Verano (think red wine+fizzy water), and most people tried some that night, before we went out for dinner. It was a cute little restaurant, but the prize for the most notable part of the evening has to go to the dying, later dead, snake on the pedestrian crossing outside. I have a photo of me with it! About a metre away from it, actually, but you get the point.

During the evening Lorraine said jokingly to Steph, Greg's wife, "so we'll pay for your dinner and you'll cook us lunch tomorrow, right?". It turned out that Steph doesn't really get the kiwi sense of humour, and was up at 8 preparing vegetables for 12 people the next morning. Oops :S. Shelley and I were heading out on a bike ride when Gregor announced that lunch was at his place in a nearby village, so Shelley and I biked over and met them there. It was about a 45 minute bike ride, quite pleasant except for the heat. We went past a fireworks factory and a solar farm (they grow solar panels :D), as well as a stinky piggery.
After their class the rest of the group joined us in the main square drinking Sangria (they'd never heard of it!!) before we went over to Gregor's house to eat. It was delicious!!!!! Thanks Steph!

After biking back, which we really didn't feel like but was ok when we got going, Shelley and I lay around by the slightly green pool (we'd done that the day before too - very pleasant) and when class finished I asked Gregor about the bass he'd brought. It was a bass guitar, not a double bass, but I didn't mind because IT WAS SO AWESOME!! I enjoy playing the guitar but the bass guitar is something I'd really like to get into.
That night was the last night of the camp. I listened to Anne-Marie and some scottish guy playing a few tunes with Gregor on the bass, I got a video, I'll try to post it online somewhere. Then Gregor handed me the bass but I didn't do so great with the scottish music :S. Practice!! I was sad when he had to pack it away though. I have since gazed longingly at the bass guitars in the windows of the music shops here in my town. One has one on sale for 320 euro. Birthday present, anyone??

Anyway, the next day we headed out to Alicante in groups, co-ordinated by rental car requirements and plane check in times. My train didn't leave until 5 so I hung out with Lorraine until her train left (thanks Lorraine, you have some incredible tales about Africa) then walked down to the waterfront. I contemplated going to the beach but I only had a couple of hours and it wasn't that close, plus it was quite hot, so I settled for some photos of all the yachts in the marina. I was pretty tired by the time I got on the train so it was pleasant to watch the countryside flash by.
I did hear some tunes but this camp wasn't as focussed as SHISSF - it was much more relaxed. Gregor turned up to lessons 20 mins late...but that is the spanish way I suppose. It was a lot of fun. I also got rather more sleep than I was expecting which was good considering how active we were during the day, and that I had to get up for 8:30am lectures in the two days immediately afterwards.
I got the obligatory postcards too, and am now back into uni. Monday is a national holiday, because in 1492 (!!) they discovered America. Whoop whoop. I am taking the opportunity to organise a pancake breakfast though. Yay!!!

That's pretty much it for now! Write to me?
:D

Things Are Finally Happening!!

Finally!! Uni has started...that's the main one. I turned up last week because I'd read that classes started on the 14th September. And I was right...about the chemistry ones. Mine didn't start until this week.
So I turned up on Monday morning at 8:30 and...the professor didn't show. Neither did many students but I figured that they were not bothering with the first class. They all seem to take several days to get into anything meaty.
It turned out that all first year students have some kind of presentation to attend their first day and as this was a first year class it was cancelled. Hmph. Tuesday morning we spent an hour going through the course description. I can read!!! Classes are at 8:30 on a Tuesday morning! You don't need to tell me too! In fact, I'm more likely to understand written instructions.
So it wasn't until Wednesday morning that I FINALLY learnt some Arabic. We did the first four letters of the alphabet, and they have different positions depending on their position in the word. So that's sixteen new symbols. It's not that bad actually. The reason for all the pretty lines is that Arabic is a cursive script, and in order to make it look good if a letter is at the end of the word it's 'finished off' nicely...and so on. To make things a little more complicated though is some letters don't 'join up' so not every word is a continuous line. It is really interesting though! And my flatmate's boyfriend is from Syria, he can help if I get stuck.

My next class is the History of the English Language. It is a fourth year course, taught in english (yay) and rather than being history, it's lingustics. Not having studied linguistics before I don't really have any advantage. Still. Did you know that english is descended from *ProtoGermanic in the same way that french/spanish etc are descended from Latin? And that both *ProtoGermanic and Latin are descended from *IndoEuropean? The * means that it is a reconstructed language, ie the only resources we have are written texts, there is no way to know how it sounded.

And lastly, but not leastly, Italian!! I was a little worried when the professor walked into our first class and hardly spoke a word in spanish the whole hour but to be honest it wasn't that bad. We didn't learn much, just went through the course description again (which is entirely in Italian - thanks), and the next day we did some basic geography. IE fill in the blanks on a map with what the teacher tells you to put there. Next week we're required to turn up with a textbook (I'll buy it tomorrow) so hopefully we'll get stuck into it.

There are lots of international students in my classes. Arabic there is Johana, french, and Kristin, german. English history there are two Lithuanian girls, and Italian three more french girls, one of whom is called Julie. I don't remember the other two names. Also in italian is a spanish girl called Aldara, who has bright orange (dyed!) hair. She's very interesting..very friendly too! So...

Also, I have finished term one of my scrapbook, found a new favourite band, done lots of guitar playing, written a couple of songs (yay), covered a wall of my room with postcards...and updated facebook way too much. Oh, and today I put my name down for badminton.

Write me something!!

Around and About

Well, I'm still in Ciudad Real, surprise surprise. I have got my scrapbook going, my guitar un-cased, and my blog to update, and all I've done the past couple of days is read. The library is so close, just across the park, and it's air-conditioned, so I've spent a lot of time there. I've been re-reading the Hobbit/LOTR, and just started the final book today. It's been sooo hot!

I cooked an NZ dinner for my flatmate and some friends on sunday. I wasn't too sure of the pavlova so I made a mini-one Saturday, which actually worked out quite well, and the one for Sunday was just gorgeous! I am a Pavlova Queen. Despite the fact that I had to make them by hand, as we don't have a food processor. It was very tiring. Tip for anyone who wants an arm workout: make a pav!
I also made way too much cold potato salad, we're still eating the rest of it, but it is very good so I don't mind. Tomatoes and pesto were a hit, and macaroni cheese went down well. But the most-liked part was BBQ'd sausages with bread and butter and onion. I enjoyed eating them again too!
They seemed very impressed that I'd cooked it all myself, although it wasn't that much work, and one of the comments when they left was 'now you're ready for marriage'. Ha! Ha! I think the days where cooking was a pre-requisite for marriage are long gone! It was nice of them to 'compliment' me though. Lol.

Yesterday I went to the Extranjeria, Immigration essentially, to renew my residency card (it's only valid until the end of september). I had an appointment but I still had to wait an extra half an hour even though it was right at the start of the day, although I suppose it could have been worse. I have grown to detest the waiting corridor though, it is a horrible place and it must be so much worse if you are wondering whether you're going to be kicked out of the country you've made your home in. I feel sorry for migrants everywhere.

After I left I sat by a fountain and read my book for a while, and some lady came and sat next to me, and started talking to the sparrows. Then she pulled a tame one out from under her shirt and chattered at it nonstop, while she threw a few breadcrumbs to the wild ones. It was very strange and a little un-nerving. I can usually read through just about anything but this was hard to ignore so I got up and left. There's one in every village!

That's pretty much it. I am kinda bored and I can't wait til uni starts, but I've got a few things to do I guess. But now it's dinner time! We tend to eat together and both of my flatmates are good cooks, one even works as a chef, so I haven't had to do much (except for sunday). I try to wash the dishes though!

See you :)

Relaxing in Ciudad Real

Hi everyone. Well, I found a flat and moved in the same day, so now I'm quite settled. My flatmates are Ester and Alba, both spanish and I think both will study at the uni when it starts again. I'm not quite sure though, they speak so fast. Lol.

We went out for, well it was essentially Tapas, last night, and I got to meet some of their friends. It was good although I didn't want to be a pain so I didn't ask them to explain constantly what they were talking about, so I just listened for a bit. Eventually the conversation turned to something I did understand and some of their friends seemed surprised I could speak spanish...lol. I'm going to cook a NZ dinner on sunday night, for my flatmates, Alba's boyfriend (from Syria, speaks decent english) will probably come along, and Carmen and Julio, with whom I stayed until I found the flat. I'm a little nervous about this as my cooking, while usually edible, is sometimes a little hit and miss and I haven't made what I'm planning to cook before.

Esther is quite a cook though, and I have asked her to teach me how to make some traditional spanish fare. Tortilla, Arroz con leche...mmmm. I'll also make them pancakes one morning. Though maybe not this week.

I have been to the library (which is now right across the square from my building) and have borrowed A.I., which I just watched in spanish, and The Hobbit (book) in english. It's fun to read it again!

I have also made a start on my scrapbook. I'm very excited. I bought a fancy notebook with curly gold designs on the front and beautiful cream coloured pages. I printed out my blog entries on creamy paper and a few photos, about 1/4 size of normal printed ones, so they all fit easily. I have boarding passes and tickets to add where appropriate too. It's coming together quite nicely.

My guitar and I are rapidly becoming reaquainted too. No-one else plays much but I wouldn't mind if they did. I'm looking forward to uni starting, because 1)it's a little boring although it's nice to relax, 2) I'm going to learn italian!, and 3) I'll meet some other international students. The overseas community here is great, although I'll try to make a few spanish friends too but with my flatmates (who I'm sure will be good friends in time) it's not so urgent.

So, I'm going to stop writing now and book some tickets to Alicante! Some people from NZ are coming over to play scottish fiddle and I'm going to join them for a few days! I'M SO EXCITED!!!
I'll get to visit Alicante and see Gregor too. Yay!

Have a wonderful day :)

When in Rome...

...carry AT LEAST two drink bottles!! It is stinking, horribly, unbelieveably hot. In August, anyway. It was sooooo worth it though. Rome is the most beautiful city I have ever seen. Just gorgeous. I don't care where else you go in europe, GO TO ROME!!!!!!

We took the train down from Modena, a town near Giulia's village. It was a quiet journey, but I got a photo of Firenze (even if it was only the train station!) and the scenery was very pretty, which is what I've come to expect of Italy. When we got to Rome we dropped off our bags (we were staying in a monastery RIGHT in the middle, only 75 euro for two people for a night - thanks to Giulia's dad :), and headed out to the Spanish steps. The Spanish embassy is just down the road. They were great, we had lunch there, then continued on to the Piazza de Popolo, and walked along the river to the Castel and the Vatican. It was a very short queue to get inside, only about 20mins (in the hot hot sun - bearable and certainly worth it). Inside we climbed up to the cupola on top of St Peter's Basilica. The view was amazing. After that we went for coffee (I heart espresso - the energy boost has never been more needed than after a day walking around Rome in August), went back to our room, changed, and headed out for dinner.
I had pasta which my guidebook said was typical of Rome but wasn't really that different, still good though, and Giulia had a 'Forest' pizza (mushrooms and wild boar sausage or something), I tried a little and it was very tasty. Did you know in italy they serve pizza whole, you order it as a meal and you have to cut it yourself? I had one in Naples (more on that later) and could only finish half. After dinner we walked around, Rome at night is even better, see my photos...indescribable, especially the Trevi Fountain. Some italian guy there started talking to us and asked me questions that were a little too personal and I was too tired to deal with it so I walked off. Giulia was a little annoyed, apparently in italy it's normal to ask such questions, but I didn't care if I was rude to him. I did apologise to Giulia for embarrassing her though.

The next day we met up with some more italians who had been in Spain too, who live near Napoli. We spent the day in Rome together - Pantheon, Colosseum, dinner by the river, yay! It was awesome to see them again. That night we drove back to Naples. The next day we walked around - it is a lovely place! Especially because it has a waterfront! It's been a while since I've seen the open ocean!
We were near a castle and one of my italian friends, a very flamboyantly gay one, told some spanish people not to buy a street vendor's imitation designer handbags. Now, this vendor was a tall, well-built black man - NOT someone I would want to mess with, and he (understandably) got quite upset that he'd potentially lost a sale. We had to walk past him again a few minutes later and he got very aggressive, pushing my italian friend around a little, and I was a bit scared that he would hit him. His mates pulled him away though. But Giulia was quite shaken.

That night we had a bit of a party, the guy whose house we were staying at is coming back to Spain (yay!) and some more of his friends will come this time too, I met a couple of them. They seemed nice, although everybody talked in italian and after a couple of days of this I was a little bored, because I don't speak much italian. It is a nice language to listen to though.

Then the next day they dropped me off at the airport at 8am, and I flew back to Madrid. Now I'm back in the town where I'm studying and it's good to be back, even if it is 40 degrees today. Tomorrow I begin the search for a flat.
Wish me luck!

Music Music Munich... Bologna

Hi!! We've done lots more stuff since I last wrote! It's been a very exciting few days.

So, Friday-Sunday was the music festival in Domazlice. On Thursday I went to a learn-to-play-the-czech-bagpipes workshop, and there was one other beginner there. An American girl by the name of Stephanie. We got on very well, even though the workshop was a bit of a disaster(!!), and so I ended up hanging out with her and her tour group quite a bit. She'd won a Miss Czech-Slovak pageant and was sponsored to go on a tour for people with Czech ancestry as part of her prize. The americans were a lot of fun, actually! We went out for a few drinks and some dancing (normal nightclub type stuff) every night until I left. Note: If you ever go to Domzlice I can reccomend a bar with a mean Pina Colada. And now I have people to go and visit in Wisconsin and Phoenix!

The music festival itself was interesting, it was czech folk spiced up with a bit of modern rhythm and bass. Kinda cool! There were also some pipers from Scotland there (soem of the Royal Dragoon Guards I believe) and a scottish country dance group who did all sorts of scottish folk. they were from America though. The first night in the pub some of the scottish pipers turned up, heard american accents and asked if we were the dance group. They were good fun to chat to! One is going to Afghanistan in a couple of months, because he wants to fight for what he believes in. Very noble.

I also hung out with the daughter of one of Mike's friends, a czech girl called Elicka (Elishka) and some of her friends. She bought me a beer, (lovely girl) so the drinking age must be lower as she's 16. I hope she comes to NZ one day.

Anyway, after the festival (so much food! and drink! and sweets! I heart bratwurst..), or rather on Sunday morning, I took a couple of trains to Munich. It was a long hot day, but luckily my hostel in Munich was as close as they'd said and even though my booking hadn't registered properly they checked me in in time for me to go meet Mel (an old school friend) for 'coffee', which turned out to be a brief tour of the city centre, then a trip on the subway to see her apartment and a couple of beers in the beer garden near her place with her and her husband. It was a wonderful afternoon, the weather was perfect (read:sweltering) and I felt like I was dreaming after sitting on trains all day.

The trains in europe are quite good actually.

So, the next day (after a late night catching up on facebook in a very comfortable hostel) I jumped on another train to ITALY!!!! I'm there now, staying with a former flatmate from Spain. Her family is wonderful, they've made me so welcome. It was a bit unfortunate when I arrived thugh, as she went to the airport instead of the train station and I had forgotten to put her Italian cellphone number into my phone, so in the end I took a bus into town (with all my stuff lol) and looked her number up on facebook. When I finally rang her, two and a half hours after I arrived, they'd given up on the airport and had just arrived at the train station which I'd left half an hour before. Sigh! It was so hot and I was exhausted but these things happen and it was really good to see her again. And I got to see a bit of Bologna, as she lives about 30 mins drive away.

We did return to Bologna this morning, by train this time, to have a proper look around. It is so pretty! All these arches everywhere, and it's pretty empty. In august everybody goes to the beach I think, and September is the main shopping month. I can understand why. You sweat just standing still.
So we walked around for about three hours I think, we went into the main cathedral and as Giulia and I were both wearing sleeveless tops we had to put this stupid coatlike but very light gauze thing over our shoulders. I am not used to dress codes in churches, I felt very disgruntled, because despite being made of gauze they were uncomfortably hot.

And today for lunch we had Tortellini! Which originated in this area. It was sooo nice...Italian pasta in Italy. We'll eat pizza at some point too!

So that's me. Tomorrow we're off to Rome for a couple of days, then two nights in Naples, then I'm going back to Spain. I can't wait to get a flat and get my own room and not be travelling, but I'm not enjoying the heat! I do have a friend in Spain with a pool though. :)
Ciao!!

Trip to Bavaria

Monday I didn't do much, wandered around and bought a few things. Mike's friend Martina wants to practice english so she came over for a couple of hours. I did some Eupho practice...
And Tuesday we went to her place, in a village about 15 minutes drive away, and she cooked us lunch! It was sooo nice...hollowed out zucchini filled with a stir-fried mixture of mushrooms, salami, onions, and paprika, baked in the oven for a bit...eaten with tartare sauce. Not something I'd think of but man it was good! After that we crossed the border into Germany, Bavaria actually, to look at train tickets for my trip to Munich. I got a good deal - 22 euro which is apparently quite cheap for a three hour train journey. We were in Furth im Wald, by the way. So we looked around a bit (they have the nicest apple doughnuts!!) and checked out the stage all set for the big dragon-hunting show next week.
Wednesday was awesome. We got up early, left the house at 6:30am, and drove for a couple of hours to a master Violin-maker's place. Mike picked up a violin, I don't know if it was in for repair or what, but anyway it was really interesting and he let us have a go at carving out the piece of wood for one he was in the process of maing. He also showed us the raw materials - plankes of wood- and he is going to start making a double bass! It looked pretty cool.
There are lots of instrument factories in the area only they were closed for the summer break so we just looked in the windows of the outlet store. Then it was across the border to Germany (again), Saxony this time, where we went to a musical instrument museum. It was ok, but there's only so many instruments you can look at before they start blending in to one another. I'd rather play them...Although this one had lots of string instruments with really pretty carvings. And a removable pianola. You line it up, sit in front and push the pedals. They used to use it in bars when the pianist left, so the public could 'play'. I wanted to move it one note up or down and see what it sounded like.

In the same town, is the factory where they make York Brass Instruments. For those who don't know, York sponsors a couple of top bands in England and their instruments are top-of-the-line. So we turned up, said 'we play brass, we're interested in the factory, do you have a showroom?" And they come back with one of the founders of York (long story involving take overs of other names and things, but he was one of the idea guys) and he says "I'll give you a tour of the factory, then you can try an instrument. What do you play?" SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The tour was interesting, did you know that to bend the pipes they freeze them to -200 degees celsius? Or that a cornet takes four hours to assemble, but a tuba takes three days? I felt a little uncomfortable actually, the factory floor was full of guys who obviously weren't used to seeing a young girl in bright pink jeans and jandals wander through, but I had to laugh when we got through to the packing/shipping office - it was full of women.
They make clarinets there too, and we got to see the black tubes of wood before they're treated and shaped, then they make the holes, then they attach little silver pins to secure the keys to.. there were people soldering keys and things together. It looked like quite a job but when you're making 40,000 clarinets a year I guess you haev to have a lot of keys. I also saw a woman carrying a flute but we didn't see where they made those. We did see the plating plant though, they have huge tanks because obviously, you need a large tank for a tuba.
Then the only thing left to do was try the instruments. Upstairs in the final check room there was a guy whose job it was to look over and play every single instrument - not for long I'd imagine but still. What an awesome job! The Tenor Horn they gave me to try was drool-material, although I've been playing the eupho here a bit because Mike's got one and I sort of wish I could have played one of those instead. But it had been so long since I'd even seen a tenor horn!

To be honest, when we left I felt a little uncomfortable. They were very friendly but I didn't think we deserved that sort of attention. I don't pretend to be an expert in brass, but I guess they're just trying to sell instruments.

Anyway, after that it was pretty much straight back to Domazlice. We stopped in at a camp where the guy who owns the house where we're staying was cooking, just to say hi, then hit the road again as some other music pal of Mike's had invited him to come hear a choir, rehearsing for the music festival here.

That's pretty much it for now. I'll write more when we've done more stuff!!

More of the Czech Republic..and Austria :)

Blog:

Wednesday evening Mike invited some friends over and we had a fire, on which we cooked sausages (you cut the ends so they 'flower' when they cook), toast which you then rub with garlic (reccommended!), and then potatoes cooked in the embers. I cooked some mushrooms and onion so it was sort of a czech-kiwi bbq-fire. The guests were a couple of guys who each brought their kids, we ended up playing badminton and soccer, and then Mike pulled out his euphonium..I had a go too. Apparently not many women play brass in the czech republic.

Thursday we went to Austria! We stopped by one of the guy's houses first though because Mike's house has...little in the way of a bathroom. Ie no shower. So it was nice to feel clean again! That particular house is awesome...they have several clarinets (he plays-very well, actually), a viola da gamba, a reed organ/harmonium thingy (that was fun actually), and a double bass!! And a piano. And SEVEN cats, four of them kittens. HEAVEN!!

On our way to Austria we drove past the Budweiser brewery. I don't remember the name of the town but it was similar to Budweiserville so I'll call it that. We stopped at the main square and had a look round, also visited a music shop where Mike bought an old flugel-type horn thingy for about NZ$50. It's really cool.

Then it was over the border. That was the first time I've crossed a border by land.. in NZ you can't drive across any borders, obviously, and here in Europe I've always flown before. I was disappointed actually. There was no passport control at all, we just drove through. The Austrian countryside seemed a bit more hilly than the Czech but maybe that was just me looking for any kind of difference. So we drove through to Kremsmunster, where Mike's friend Rudolph lives, and we had a couple of hours to spare so we went to a musical instrument museum. I was a bit blase about this but it was SO AWESOME!! The first bit was a huge room FULL of brass instruments. Sigh. There was some really interesting stuff there, actually, some of them looked like mutants. You know, "I'll just grow an extra valve here, that'd look cool", or "I know! I need another bell!"
Then there was an exhibition on Schubert, which I couldn't read because it was all in German, and after that there were TWO rooms chock-a-block with Pianos, some from as early as 1812 and a good number of them YOU ARE ALLOWED TO PLAY!! I played one from America from 1899 (even the strings were from that time), and one from Vienna from 1820 or thereabouts I think..I also got to play some of the normally unplayable ones because the lady who was on reception was kind enough to give us a brief tour. I also think she was a little bored. But I was buzzing when we left.

Rudolph's place was cute, we spent one night there in a sleepout out the back. There were four guys talking Czech bagpipes in a mixture of Czech, English, and German, so I listened for a while, then one pulled out a fiddle too. The music had overtones of Scottish tunes but it was quite different. Still, it was interesting. They made us a traditional dish of dumplings and mushrooms for dinner, which was REALLY good. They were very kind to us.

Friday morning we visited the Monastery before leaving Kremsmunster. The church there I rank among the most beautiful I've ever seen. I haven't seen the whole world but most of the places we've gone to we've visited some kind of church or cathedral, and this one's special. It was more the atmosphere than the decorations to be honest, although maybe I just enjoyed the absence of graphic sculptures showing people's faces twisted in pain. It was more focussed on paintings.

Back in the Czech Republic (still no passport control :()we stopped at another Monastery, only the attraction here was the Museum of the Post Office. It was very interesting, because they had the displays in english too!! I was very happy. Did you know the post was originally set up to carry official messages only? And that private correspondence was only permitted from the 1700's? Or that postmasters used to collate the news received and produce leaflets, which were the forerunners of modern newspapers? Which is why so many papers contain the word 'Post' in their title? Or, my favourite fact, the Posthorn was used to warn the station that was being approached, of how many horses they needed to prepare and how much mail they had to handle?

That night there was a rehearsal for some kind of folk performance the next day. Mike plays bagpipes in this group. I went along out of interest, also to the performance the next day. There was dancing and singing too. I recognised some of the dancing stuff but some was little strange. Like when the guys got these metre-long stiff plaits and 'whipped' the women as part of the dance. It was kind of disturbing actually.
The performance was for a reunion in a nearby village. People who used to live there came back for a day and yeah, village reunion.

Saturday we hung out with some neighbours for a bit and they gave us this gorgeous cake...so I asked how to make it, and was pleasantly surprised when they invited me back that evening to bake it with them as they needed to make some more anyway. It was a sort of sponge-but-not-really with pieces of fruit pressed onto the surface, then topped with a butter-sugar-flour crumble...yummy...

Then we went back to the village reunion, after it had cooled down a bit (it was so hot!) to see what was going on. Mike went to the local pub (which is only open Fridays and Saturdays!) for a drink before we left so I drove there. It was strange, driving on the right. But the roads were back-country, empty...so we didn't see many other cars. And no huge farm vehicles either for which I was grateful. Those roads are quite narrow.

Sunday we stopped by Peter and Katagina's place for a shower again before hitting the road for Domaszlice. The trip was mostly uneventful, except for when it started raining so hard we could barely see the road right in front of us, so we had to pull over and wait for a few minutes. It was hailing too.
So here I am! We're staying in another friend's place, they have a 'guest' part of the house with it's own kitchen and bathroom so it's quite a nice setup. When we got here a posthorn Mike had ordered had arrived, so now we have eight? musical intruments. Tuba, Eupho, Baritone, Flugelthing, Posthorn, Piano, bagpipes, violin...And a Swedish Shepherd's Horn is waiting at the post office :P.

Prague and the Czech Republic

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Leaving Herrang I was very sad. We had a meeting which I had to leave early to get to my bus, so I didn't have time to go around and say goodbye to people. I felt like I just packed up and left abruptly. So the next day, when I was tired, a little sick, travelling, and spending the night in a train station, was not so enjoyable. Luckily I had company, a polish girl called Anna (pronounced Ana) was going to the same airport for a flight that left at the same time as mine, so it was infinitely more bearable. Still, when I landed in Prague I was pretty worn out, and I had the best (and biggest) Chai Latte I've ever had while waiting for Mike.

It was good to see Mike. Another familiar face. I have met soo many people over the last six months and it's been very exciting, but it's a relief to see someone I already kinda know. It was the same when Amanda (another kiwi - dancing this time) turned up at the dance camp. We stayed at a monastery on the outskirts of Prague but we couldn't get in until 6pm so we went to a park to see what was behind the wall which had a gate that Mike had never seen open before. Turns out it's a park and (very small) palace, which now houses a museum. It was all very simple and elegant, understated. Nice.

That killed a couple of hours but I was dead on my feet so we went to the monastery and slept on the grass outside for a while. It was a lovely day and nice to not do anything. After picking up some stuff from a supermarket for breakfast we grabbed some dinner at a little pub thing (eggs and mustard = good), then it was time to go move in. And wow!! It was GORgeous!! Think summer school (for all you scder's) but relatively empty, long hallways filled with light and high ceilings... see my photos. Oh man.

That night we went for a wander, took the tram and saw the castle etc, I was wearing new jandals and I didn't realise how non-grippy they were, so I fell over..I was ok, but my camera wasn't :(. I broke the battery case, the camera still works but you have to hold it closed really tightly and it's old anyway, and...yeah. I bought another one the next day. Shiney...ooh...

Monday, after exchanging money (I had three different currencies in my wallet :P) and buying the camera, oh and I also bought a gingerbread house...coz it was sooo cute, we went to the Music Museum in Prague. It was sooo cool!! I'm not usually a museum-all-day person but I could have spent a week there, especially if they unlocked the brass instrument cases. Although the pianos were pretty cool too. They had one that was played by Lizst. And also one that was played by...Mozart!! I was like *worship**worship**worship**...so I went and paid my 40 crowns (2 euros) so I could take a photo. And then I could take photos of everything else too. Seriously, go check them out. Even if you've never looked at any of my photos before, this is one album worth seeing.

Then we walked around the centre for a bit. I saw the new town and old town squares, the pub where rutherford met up with some friends once(!!), the theatre where the premiere of Don Giovanni was held...need I go on? Oh, and after a beer (because I had no voice and was feeling the heat, and Mike was too I think) we went to the opera. It was Don Giovanni (lol), it was held in an attic, and the actors were marionettes!! They used recorded singing and oh it was hilarious! For the overture they had some musicians painted on the front and their arms and instruments moved, so they could sort of be controlled. So when the trumpets had a fanfare they would lift their trumpets to their mouths, then drop them immediately..while the note was still going. And the Flautist stayed permamnently in the playing position, but when he had a melody he would lurch to the side occasionally! Just for fun you know.
The puppets were even better. There was one part of the set, used for garden scenes, which had a swing, and when a puppet was swinging they were all over the show, kicking Don Giovanni in the face when he tried to look up her dress.. Of course, being puppets the people had limited control so when a slap in the face didn't work, the next option was a bodyslam. Haha!!

I went back after that, as I was getting a headache and I was really tired. I still am a bit sick actually, I haven't been able to talk properly for three days. :(. But I think I'm getting better now..I hope. This mornig we left at about 11am, and went to a couple of castles, the first one was more like a big house really, but the second was quite impressive. After that we drove for a bit, I fell asleep actually, and got to Mike's house in the South about 6:30. It is a cute little village here, and the house is old/being refurbished so we don't have a shower, but it's awesome and when he's done it'll be really nice. He's planning on turning one part of it into a recital room/music space. *Big Grin*.

The bread things here are different too, they're very big on poppy seeds as fillings, and damper. Yummy!!
So tonight we went to a chinese restaurant in the next town, (it was very good), came back and I had some poppyseed bread (think jam in the middle of a cream bun except not jam and no cream)..and I had a go on the bagpipes that I'm going to learn to play. They're different actually, I never thought I'd see someone piping and singing at the same time..these ones have bellows though! So it is actually possible. I'll get photos, and there were also some in the museum in Prague.

It's my bedtime now. I have been sleeping 8 hours a night and I slept part of the day in the car today, and I'm still tired. So yes. Have a good day!!

Sweden - An Overview

I spent five weeks in Sweden, and there's so much stuff I can't remember it all, and I don't want to remember it all! Five weeks of working, a little dancing, not so much sleeping..now I'm in Prague and a little sick.

Herrang Dance Camp had it's ups and downs but overall it was great and I met some awesome people! I have made so many friends and I have so many couches to go crash on...I hope that people will come and visit NZ too, although I can understand if they can't. Sweden is a bit like NZ, more so than Spain anyway, in terms of greenness, although the countryside doesn't really change much. You're driving along and you fall asleep and when you wake up it looks like you've moved about 5m down the road..but maybe that's just me!

For those who have no clue what I'm talking about, Herrang Dance Camp is a swing dancing school that runs for four weeks every summer. It is 'portable' in a sense, in that the buildings we use are the school and community centre, so it's all packed up during the year. I was there for five weeks because I helped with setup week too.

The Ice Cream Parlour, located in the school gym kitchen, makes the BEST banana bread ever..which is a bit like banana cake but also not, with walnuts and stuff. I'd go to get ice cream (which was delicious there too) and walk away with banana bread. Being staff, I was given free meals and accommodation and the chefs at the volunteer kitchen (the kitchen dedicated to camp workers) were great...they were also Spanish. They could dance. And they could play jazz...one had a guitar and the other a (double) bass!! Seriously, I was kinda annoyed. I mean I spend five months living in Spain and I have to come to SWEDEN to find spanish guys with similar interests. They were also from Barcelona, I guess that had something to do with it.

Anyway, on the subject of guys, I did find someone...for all you gossipmongers to chat about. I got on very well with one of the Swedish guys, only he's off to China in a couple of weeks until December so I don't know what will happen. And that's all I'm saying here!

I also managed to learn some Swedish. Yo (I don't know how to spell it but that's what it sounds like) is Yes, Nej (nay) is no, Tack (tahck) is thanks, Hej is hi and Hej-hej is bye..and I have the numbers one through twenty written down too. There are some similarities with Czech, and Polish...in Polish, Tack is yes (I believe) and in Czech it is 'so', as in soooo......what to do now?

Goal for next year: Learn to tap dance. I wanted to before, and now after watching classes and teachers..oh man!! Teach me too!!

There was lots of crazy stuff going on. We dressed up as Mosquitos, interrupted classes with a trumpet, had people strip down to their underwear and run through the camp...we had a camp pillow fight, I organised a couple of scavenger hunts, some air mattress racing on the lake (HUGE fun by the way!!)...also here's part of an email I wrote to Dad:

The cat at the place where I'm staying is so funny! It loves water!! He (called Nalle - Nah-leh) [which means teddy bear] spent the night on the bathroom floor and when I came in to have a shower he stayed just outside the curtains and, you know how Clover [one of our cats] used to hide under Natalie's bed? And then attack your ankles? He kinda did that to the water. Last night I turned the shower on to drip for about a minute for him, and he chased the water towards the drain. Crazy cat...

I also have to write about Prague so I'll stop here. The bad parts of the camp were mostly a problem due to lack of sleep so overall it was pretty good! Photos are on facebook. Some, anyway.

Hej-hej!!

Scotland the Brave

I wish I was still there. Seriously.

So, we flew into Edinburgh on Tuesday night, and got the bus into the middle of town. From there we had a 15 min walk to our B&B, although it felt longer as we didn't know the way and it was dark! Thank goodness it was all downhill...our hostess was just lovely, I think she was surprised that we were so young but it was great. Nice comfy beds, piping hot porridge served for breakfast...yummmmm!!! I had it every day - aren't you jealous, Dad? :P

Wednesday was our first day. We headed up to the castle, which was amazing, and on the way we walked past a sign advertising tours of the surrounding regions. The castle has an amazing view of the city and while we were there the army fired a 1-gun salute, although the sign said 21-gun. The National War Memorial is located in the castle, so as well as guards at the gate they had guards inside too. They all wore kilts!! They looked very dashing. Haha. Lisa had me take a photo of her and three of them who were just standing around. I'm sure they get that a lot but they looked quite pleased.
In the castle there was the oldest building in the city, a little Chapel, and the suite of rooms where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her son James IV, (I learned some history!!)and the Honours, or Crown Jewels, of Scotland. Those things have quite a history, from being hidden under a flagstone in a church during some war to being locked away in a chest for 100 years! It got to the point that nobody knew for certain where they were. There was also a display on Prisoners of War which was cool. You can learn a lot from graffiti...

So, after booking a tour (for the next day) we were handed a flyer advertising 'The Birthplace of Harry Potter'. We were looking for somewhere to eat so we checked it out. It turned out to be 'The Elephant House Cafe', where apparently J.K. Rowling used to sit in the back area looking onto the castle, and write. It was a really good cafe actually! After that we wandered down the Royal Mile, stopping at various giftstores, and had a look at the new Scottish Parliament Building. It looked very...modern. Interesting.

Thursday we had the tour! We drove through Glasgow, had a cruise on Loch Lomond, stopped for lunch in Aberfoyle, and passed through the Trossachs on our way to Stirling Castle. The driver was great, he told us a lot of stuff, including the story of the Modern Art on the Edinburgh-Glasgow Highway. This road was voted "The Most Boring Road in Scotland" (lol!), so the local councils decided to commission some artworks to spice it up a little. The first, and my favourite, was some earth in a farmer's paddock by the road sculpted into pyramids. It wasn't that new so the grass had grown all over it and they were kinda hard to see, just looked like some funny-shaped hills. But apparently, sometimes the farmer dyes his sheep pink and blue before putting them out to graze there!! Just to get into the spirit of things, you know. Hahaha!!!!!!!!

The second one was a giant metal horn, designed to play music to people driving. When it was pointed out that they likely wouldn't hear it, and cars have stereos, they decided to play music to the sheep, to improve the wool quality by calming them down. That too was shouted down, so now it's just a 120,000 pound metal horn thing. Umm....great!

The other two were kinda boring, piles of pipes arranged to look like faces and a metal wire outline of a Clydesdale. But Glasgow looked amazing, I'm definitely going to go back and look around. We didn't have time to stop on the tour unfortunately.

It was so cool to see Loch Lomond, after all the times Dad's sung that song to me. The driver explained the meaning of the lyrics, and they're actually rather depressing, but still. The cruise was a wee bit chilly but the scenery was beautiful, and we saw a couple more castles on the shores. The island in the middle is home to Scotland's oldest Nude Colony, but apparently the youngest member's in his/her eighties!
Lunch in Aberfoyle was enjoyable, we stopped outside a tourist centre offering Sheepdog shows, although the dog was actually herding geese. Haha! They all waddled across the little bridge and went through the little tunnel, and it was..yeah, I liked it. Unfortunately the little girl on the tour got a bit carsick and threw up on the back seats of the (mini)bus, so our poor driver had to spend half his lunch-45mins cleaning it up. I felt sorry for him so I gave him the rest of my guinness-flavoured chocolate (that I'd bought in Ireland). I think that was why he waited for me when I was a few minutes late getting back...

The Trossachs were stunning, but my favourite part was when we stopped to take photos of some Highland Cattle. They are soooo cool!! Whenever Mum goes to Scotland she brings me back a stuffed toy 'Hielan' Coo', and I can see why. Gorgeous! I even found a postcard with a picture of a cow and her calf. Cuuuute!!!

Stirling Castle was our last stop for the day. It is said that if you control Stirling Castle, you control all of Scotland, it it lived up to it's position. I think that out of all the castles we saw, this was my favourite. It had the best views ever, a gorgeous courtyard, and out the back they were working on tapestries to decorate the Main Palace. They are currently in the middle of renovating this, so unfortunately we couldn't have a look, but the other buildings were fascinating. One was a museum of a Scottish Regiment, and wow Scotland's had a lot of fighting.

The trip home was quiet, I fell asleep. All that fresh air!! And climbing up spiral staircases in castles. When we got back we hung out in town, then Lisa went back to the B&B and I headed off to check out some Scottish Fiddle Music. A friend from Scotland had reccommended a pub so I went there, and while the music was music that I knew it wasn't very enthusiastic. I was a little disappointed but I had a good chat with some locals before taking a bus back to our B&B. I got back just after 11pm and the sun hadn't even set!

Friday was our last day in Edinburgh. We went down to the waterfront, which was mostly industrial ( :( ), and checked out the mall there. It was ok, nothing special. The Royal Yacht Britannia is moored there but we didn't go on board, it was kinda expensive and we weren't that keen. I did get a photo though.
So we headed back to town, looked around a bit, then spent an hour and a half sitting in Subway, because it was warm there and we were tired. After walking around a bit more we went back 'home'.

On Saturday we took the bus up to Inverness! I loved the scenery, Scotland is just gorgeous. Some of it looks just like NZ but other parts are completely different. We made it to our hostel to catch the hostess in time, but it was a close one because they'd been expecting us an hour earlier :(. Oh well. that afternoon we walked around a bit, and on our way back stopped by the castle (EVERYthing bigger than a group of shacks has a castle) and took some photos, and that night we went in search of more fiddle music. The group on stage was good, but the crowd wasn't. They just sat there. Sottish Fiddle Music, well, if you're not tapping your toes AT LEAST then you shouldn't be there. After a few minutes of this, the musicians announced that they were going to play "a song", which was fair enough, but I couldn't believe my ears when they launched into "You Are My Sunshine".
Oh. My. God. I did NOT come from HALFWAY around the WORLD to hear "You Are My #%$^&*** Sunshine". GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!
So Lisa and I headed upstairs, to where a local band was playing. Think along the lines of Hello Sailor (if you don't know who they are, you should. Go check them out. They're great!). This band was called The Galipaygos, don't ask me what it means, and I really enjoyed listening to them. They even had a trumpet! I was sold as soon as I saw that trumpet. They had a CD for sale, 5 pounds, so I bought one, and now I can't stop listening to it.

Sunday I had porridge for breakfast again, (gotta love Scotland!), and then we went to Culloden Battelfield. It was...sobering. Really interesting. The only thing they needed were the strains of a lone piper echoing off the hills. Then I would call it haunting. They put flags along the government and Jacobite front lines, and could tell where certain parts of the battle took place from archeological excavations. You have to go there, I can't describe it.

For lunch we took the bus to Urquhart Castle, on the shores of Loch Ness. The sun had come out by then so we had the best picnic site EVER! We didn't see the Loch Ness Monster sadly, although I did buy a stuffed one because I thought it was cute. The castle is only a ruin these days but they have little signs around saying what various parts used to be used for, and some stunning views of the loch and scenery. I got photos! Yay!

That night we hung out at our B&B, which happened to have...a piano!! Lisa played around a bit, she used to play the clarinet so she can read a bit of music, then I had a go. It was great, I really have missed having a piano. The next morning we got up, packed (after breakfast - guess what I had!) and took our bags down to the bus station. Our bus didn't leave til 3 so we had some time. I had a chat to our hostess just before we left, turns out she's done some swing dancing too...they're everywhere!! Oh, and on the bus to Loch Ness I ran into Kirsty! (Someone I know from dancing in NZ). Random, huh?

The bus trip back to Edinburgh Airport was fun, we took a bit of a detour so we saw some more countryside, although the road got kinda narrow in places so when another bus or a logging truck came along things got interesting! We had an hour or so at the airport so we spent our last few pennies on a couple of glasses of wine, before jumping on the plane back to Dublin. We went via Dublin as Edinburgh to Madrid is horrendous. We had to go through customs again, and when the officer asked me "How long are you staying in Ireland?" I said "Oh, about six hours." He looked a little bemused but glanced at my stamp from our previous admittance and waved me through.

So we dozed off on the couches in Starbucks until it was time to check-in for our flight home. By that time we were definitely ready to stop travelling, I was looking forward to the washing machine...but Scotland has captured me and I would love to go back. Maybe when I'm done with uni I'll get a working visa and go live there for a bit. Teach the scottish to appreciate their own music!! Lol.

Photos, as always, are on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=130686&id=585155585&l=04bf9855a2

I'm off to Sweden (yay dancing camp!) tomorrow so I'll write something more soon I expect!!
Byeeee

Katie

The Emerald Isle

Well, it took us about a day but we're finally back! Ireland was awesome, and Scotland, well, I didn't want to leave. But it is good to have access to a washing machine again.

So, Ireland. We got up early and got the train to Madrid, the Metro to the airport, and the plane to Dublin, arriving at about 1pm Saturday. It was an uneventful journey, and the Irish customs officer was great. In fact, pretty much all the Irish seemed very friendly! I'd like to think that's what NZ is like to foreigners. Flying in, too, it was immediately obvious why it's called the Emerald Isle. It was so green! And so pretty!
We took the bus to our hostel, which was basic but clean and tidy, and walked about 15 mins through the pouring rain (yes, it was raining...) so it was nice to put on some dry socks. After trekking to a supermarket and back, we took a bit of time out before finding a bar. Lisa (the American girl I was travelling with) wasn't 100% healthy so we took our time, and while I'm sure we could have squeezed more in it was nice to not be rushing round. The bar was great, they had some musicians, a guitar, banjo, and of course, a fiddler. The music was exactly what I was hoping to see too! They played some traditional stuff, a few Irish songs, then broke out some Johnny Cash - with Irish Fiddle Solos. I'll put a video on Facebook. It was Awesome!!!!!!

Oh yeah, I had a guinness. Mmmm.

Sunday we spent a bit of time Sightseeing. We went to Trinity College, which was gorgeous, Christ Church Cathedral, which was closed for a service when we turned up (although the outside looked pretty good), and on our way back we found a cute little cafe. Back at the hostel we had a chat to some Czech guys who were actually living nearby and just looking after the hostel while the boss was out. Lisa had something that looked like bug bites round her knees so we ended up moving rooms, although it was worse the next day so that didn't help much. I was fine so it may have been an allergic reaction, although I felt sorry for the owner. I think we were jinxed there, there were several other things that went wrong too, like door handles falling off etc!

Anyway, Monday we wandered along the river 'Liffey' before visiting a few green spaces. I thought St Stephens Green was my favourite, although it's true we didn't get to the much bigger park (with a zoo!) called Phoenix Park. But that's ok. By that evening Lisa was worn out so I went out to a pub with Irish music and dancing, as I didn't want to spend out last night in Dublin sitting around in the hostel! I didn't mind being out alone actually, I didn't stay out late and I got to chat to some locals. And the dancing was inspiring. They did some a cappella dancing too, 5 of them, all in perfect time, which must have been doubly hard with half the audience clapping out of time! I'd love to learn..

We had a flight to Edinburgh Tuesday night so we had some time during the day to look around. We spent this at the Guinness Storehouse, which is on the brewery site and is essentially a museum. It was interesting, actually, although my favourite part was the free pint of Guinness at the end! And the guinness-flavoured dark chocolate I bought at the gift store. From there we walked past the old jail on our way back, and jumped on a bus to the Airport.

Tune in tomorrow to hear about Edinburgh!!

France is so cool...literally!!

France...that land of dreams. What little kid doesn't dream of falling in love in/with Paris? I know I did...so this trip north to see Aimee (an old school friend) was a little on the dreamy side of life. Yes, Paris is not perfect, but I haven't ever stayed there long enough to become disillusioned!! In other words I am still not sick of the pastries. I can honestly say that up to now, the best pastries I have ever tasted are in France. I even found a custard square!! I was very excited. They are non-existent in Spain.

So, it got off to a bad start to be honest. I had one of 'those days' where everything seems to go wrong just coz it can, and I missed my flight. It was completely my fault and my own stupid mistake, I fully acknowledge that, but it wasn't a good omen. However I think I used up all my bad luck that day as the rest of the trip was, relatively, flawless. So I finally landed at Charles de Gaulle at 11:40pm, and we got a cab to Montparnasse (a train station halfway across the city), and the taxi driver was incredible. We were cutting it very fine with timing and we made the last train with 30 seconds to spare after the cab driver gunned it across the city in the thunderstorm. It was GREAT!!!

Aimee is staying in the gounds of a Chateau that has been converted into a language school, which is where she works, teaching english. Some students there are international ones taking intensive french courses too. It was soo pretty, it was kinda like a school camp in some ways (especially the showers, haha) but it was nice to have some green around. France is greener than Spain. It also has sane temperatures, like 18-20 degrees C instead of the 30 that welcomed me back to Ciudad Real!

So Tuesday we had breakfast at a cafe (I had a REAL french croissant...mmmmmm....) and spent some time in Paris. We wanted to go to the catacombs but we got there at the last entrance and there was a line around the corner and halfway down the street, so we gave that up as a bad job and went to the shops. Yay! Aimee's boyfriend Gareth, from Ireland, met up with us later on, and we had hot chocolate at a gourmet icecream shop (Haagen-Dasz). I think Aimee and I bored him a bit with all the school talk but he was a sweet guy, he didn't seem to mind.

Wednesday we got up late, and went to...Versailles!! It was AMAZING. Probably the most touristy thing I did. It is 12 mins away from Aimee's village, and just incredible. The palace gardens are HUGE, and free to the public, so there were lots of people there jogging and stuff. And the palace was one of the most ornately decorated things ever. The outside is pretty cool (although they're renovating, and the gold leaf will look tacky till it fades a bit), and the inside is just covered in carving and..wow. I honestly cannot do it justice. You have to visit. The hall of mirrors was probably my favourite, it streches the length of the central part that overlooks the gardens, and was just full of light. They have free audioguides so I picked one up, which told me interesting things about the rooms and stuff. Apparently Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights were the equivalent of 'happy hour' when the courtiers could socialise. Something that did interest me though was that there were lots and lots of smaller rooms, and the bigger ones were a little less common. Although there were plenty of long corridors.

Thursday, Aimee and I travelled to Madrid, where we spent a night and a day looking round, because Aimee wanted to see it. However, we were on different flights (long story) so I had a bit more time to look around Paris in the morning while Aimee flew to Spain and had a couple of hours there before I arrived. So, I went to the catacombs! I was one of the first ones there and I got there about half an hour before they opened, so I wandered over the street to the bakery there (I thought it must be good as it had a long line of french people outside it) and had a Pecan and Cranberry Tart (at least, that's what I think it was) for breakfast. Just divine.

The catacombs were sooo cool. They weren't too cold, it was colder outside because of the wind to be honest. The start was a string of passages under the city, which included some sculptures of buildings in Menorca made by prisoners of war held underground in Paris sometime. They were pretty impressive actually. The entrance to where they put the bones was painted in black and white with an inscription warning against entering the empire of the dead. It was awesome! The bones were all stacked in alcoves, and most had a sign saying where they were from and when they were moved there. Like, "The Children's Hospital" or "Montparnasse Graveyard" then "moved here in 1834" or whatever. Imagine moving all the bones in a graveyard and stacking them underground. What a job. They were mostly from the 1800's but there were a few from the 1700's too, and they were noticeably lighter and more crumbly. Not that I touched them! They seemed to be only skulls and thigh bones, (never any ribcages or anything, I guess they're a bit more delicate) and they were stacked like Jenga towers with the skulls forming shapes on the front, perhaps a cross, or some arches. In some places you could see where a bone was missing, I guess they fell out, otherwise someone somewhere has a rather grisly souvenir! They checked our bags on the way out though. Like I'd want to take one!! But some people are strange like that...

And then it was time to go! I had a bit more free time once I found the bus station so I bought a sandwich on the Champs-Elysees for lunch, (and a custard square :P) and jumped on the bus for the hour ride to the airport. It kinda sucks that it's so far out but it was great to see some of the countryside, and the airport was small and the people there were lovely! Not the usual grumpy airport staff at all. I agreed to fill out a survey and told them to keep it up. Yay!

So se spent some time in Madrid. We went out for tapas and visited a flamenco bar, where the wine was expensive but there was no door charge to see the dancing, so it was worth it (and really awesome by the way!!). And Friday we went to the Real Madrid store and the Palacio Real Gardens, before having paella for lunch. Mmm...then Aimee had to get back to the airport.

It was an awesome week! Not many photos sorry but there are some of the catacombs here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126160&id=585155585&l=aa478efb38

Byeeee!!

Madrid, Baby!!

Madrid...is pretty cool. Lisa and I had an awesome time wandering around, looking at shops, taking photos, and enjoying the sunshine. Highlights were the cute wine bar with a hot bartender and 1.20 euro glasses of wine, Manolo Blahnik (designer shoe store), and the beautiful Park in the middle of the city. Oh, and the Haagen-Dasz ice cream (vanilla-caramel brownie flavoured). And the starbucks. I miss starbucks and their specialty coffees! I had a dark berry mocha frappuccino. Yum!!

We went up on the Friday and came back saturday night. It was the Fiesta de San Isidro on friday, who is the patron saint of madrid and his day also marks the start of the bullfighting season. We didn't go to see a bullfight, mostly because we hadn't booked, but also I'm not psyched up enough yet. The ones on telly look so...brutal.

So Friday night we went out to see what we could find. There was a free operetta on in the main square but we didn't stay too long, mostly because we couldn't understand what the %^&* was going on. The singing was good though. I enjoyed the songs. So as we were wandering through the older twisty streets we kept coming across all these little restaurants tucked away in corners and stuff. They were so cute. We'd already had dinner at a mexican restaurant sadly (after being told off by the guy behind the desk at the hostel when we asked him where one was, as he thought we should eat spanish food in Spain. We had to explain that we had in fact eaten plenty of spanish food as we live a little under an hour away from Madrid :D). But I'm sure I'll be back!

Something else we did on Friday was have a look around the Parque del Buen Retiro, which is similar to Hagley park I guess, only without the sports fields. And being in madrid and all. It was kinda big...we found a mexican group busking, with one guy singing, about six guitars, and a trumpet. It was sooo cool!!! Also, the guide book said that there's a statue of Lucifer, the Fallen Angel, and that it's one of the world's few statues to the Devil. I thought that was pretty cool so there's a photo on facebook for your viewing pleasure :)

Saturday was not a public holiday, so that was our shopping day. We went to 'The American Store', where I discovered Dr Pepper (it is soooo good), and Manolo Blahnik, where we tried on thousands of euros worth of shoes. I reckon between Lisa and I we covered NZ$20,000. They were a real mixture, some pretty standard, some outrageous designs of hideousness, and some real gems.

When we got back Saturday night I was exhausted so I just crashed. Photos, as per usual, are here on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123411&id=585155585&l=3dcf1ecf00

:)

Katie