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!!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
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
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
Saturday, May 9, 2009
The Middle of Nowhere in Spain
Haha that title can be read a couple of different ways...
Anyway, our two-day trip to Cuenca wasn't actually anywhere near Cuenca at all... My flatmate Giulia (she came along too) said that when she asked people where we were she got a different answer every time! So I looked it up on Google Earth when we got home. We went to a place called Cijara which is pretty much all about the huge dam there. It's not even a village. The trip was free because the local government wants open-minded people (ie international students) to learn about this river project and how we can Build a Brighter Spain or something. They're trying to connect this river with some others so it'll flow all across something or something. I wasn't paying too much attention because I was dying from the heat.
So we met up at a plaza in the middle of Ciudad Real to leave at 9am. The buses turned up about 9:10, and we finally got on the road shortly after 9:30. At ten to ten we turned around and headed back because some people had been given the wrong time by the international office! Sigh... So we finally got there at 12:30, sorted cabins out and headed to the main area for a briefing. This was where they told us about the river project and we walked over to the dam which was right beside the camp, and they gave us caps which was great because I hadn't gotten around to buying a sunhat!
We had lunch at two and it was incredible. Tables set up in a marquee with the sides open to let in the breeze and table service with metal cutlery! They brought out all this tapas, which is esssentially finger food, and when I was totally full they handed out the nicest chickpea and meat soup I've ever had. I couldn't finish it but wow it was certainly not the sort of camp lunch we get in NZ!!
Then we had some activities, which turned out to be an orienteering course! Well, more like a mini-rogaine as they could be done in any order. There were the usual orienteering flags but they had marked the activites on the map too and you got extra points for completing them. There was kayaking, abseiling (down the dam, actually!), mountain biking (to collect more flags/controls), rockclimbing, and archery. It was a really good time. It's been so long since I've done any orienteering! The map wasn't so great though, they'd marked the power lines on it (it took me a while to figure out what they were!!) and the fences around the camp weren't marked at all. And the start was in the wrong place. And they didn't differentiate between open fields and bush with knee-high grass. It was a mess. I mentioned it to the guy when we got back and he didn't seem to care. But it was still a lot of fun! We had two and a half hours to do the activities and find the controls, and they were very good at creating the atmosphere, they played music the whole time and it was quite loud, you could hear it from the top of the dam. It felt very friendly.
One thing I did find strange was that when we pulled into the camp there was a police car and several policemen standing round. (Spain has three different police forces, more in some regions. This was the Guardia Civil, which is an army-based sort of force.) It sorta seemed like a deportation camp! But when I asked what they were there for I was told that 'we were in the middle of the bush' and they were there to make us feel safe. The most I ever saw them doing was making sure we weren't run over where the orienteering crossed the road. We weren't in the middle of the bush at all. If you could even call that bush! It seemed like overkill to me. Amanda (the other Kiwi) said 'they'd probably have kittens if they saw what we do in NZ'!
Anyway, dinner wasn't quite the same, I always forget that lunch is bigger than dinner over here, but it was still really good. More finger food and some rolls. We headed back to our cabin quite early, at 11:30, but some people were up til 3 at least. Maybe it was the free wine...
So the next day breakfast was at 9. This was definitely no school camp! Some people didn't make it til 9:30. And we were supposed to leave at 10, but we didn't get away til almost half past. I knew it was coming, but sometimes this spanish time thing really gets annoying. We drove for about an hour, went for a half an hour wander up a hill, visited a garden nursery, then had lunch. Lunch was pretty similar except it was at a cafe, not from a catering van in the camp, and they had icecreams which were free too. It was all free!! Amazing. I had a kit-kat cone, I don't know if they're available in NZ but I'd never seen them before. It was good, although they also had lemon sorbet packaged in actual hollowed-out lemons! They gave us beer and sangria (pretty much sweet red wine) and between that and the sun, and the fact that I drink very little over here (my tolerance has nose-dived! I spose that's a good thing.. :S), it only took about three glasses before I was feeling the alcohol!
And all too soon it was time to get back on the bus. It was a couple of hours back and they put on the film 'White Chicks', it was good entertainment I suppose. There were groups there from the other campuses of UCLM too so we met lots more italians, some people from Turkey, there was even a girl from Australia there, she'd grown up in Venezuela and her family emigrated to Brisbane a few years ago. Lots of interesting people!
So I'll put some photos up on Facebook and post a link to them as a comment. I hope everyone in NZ's going well!
Hasta luego..
Anyway, our two-day trip to Cuenca wasn't actually anywhere near Cuenca at all... My flatmate Giulia (she came along too) said that when she asked people where we were she got a different answer every time! So I looked it up on Google Earth when we got home. We went to a place called Cijara which is pretty much all about the huge dam there. It's not even a village. The trip was free because the local government wants open-minded people (ie international students) to learn about this river project and how we can Build a Brighter Spain or something. They're trying to connect this river with some others so it'll flow all across something or something. I wasn't paying too much attention because I was dying from the heat.
So we met up at a plaza in the middle of Ciudad Real to leave at 9am. The buses turned up about 9:10, and we finally got on the road shortly after 9:30. At ten to ten we turned around and headed back because some people had been given the wrong time by the international office! Sigh... So we finally got there at 12:30, sorted cabins out and headed to the main area for a briefing. This was where they told us about the river project and we walked over to the dam which was right beside the camp, and they gave us caps which was great because I hadn't gotten around to buying a sunhat!
We had lunch at two and it was incredible. Tables set up in a marquee with the sides open to let in the breeze and table service with metal cutlery! They brought out all this tapas, which is esssentially finger food, and when I was totally full they handed out the nicest chickpea and meat soup I've ever had. I couldn't finish it but wow it was certainly not the sort of camp lunch we get in NZ!!
Then we had some activities, which turned out to be an orienteering course! Well, more like a mini-rogaine as they could be done in any order. There were the usual orienteering flags but they had marked the activites on the map too and you got extra points for completing them. There was kayaking, abseiling (down the dam, actually!), mountain biking (to collect more flags/controls), rockclimbing, and archery. It was a really good time. It's been so long since I've done any orienteering! The map wasn't so great though, they'd marked the power lines on it (it took me a while to figure out what they were!!) and the fences around the camp weren't marked at all. And the start was in the wrong place. And they didn't differentiate between open fields and bush with knee-high grass. It was a mess. I mentioned it to the guy when we got back and he didn't seem to care. But it was still a lot of fun! We had two and a half hours to do the activities and find the controls, and they were very good at creating the atmosphere, they played music the whole time and it was quite loud, you could hear it from the top of the dam. It felt very friendly.
One thing I did find strange was that when we pulled into the camp there was a police car and several policemen standing round. (Spain has three different police forces, more in some regions. This was the Guardia Civil, which is an army-based sort of force.) It sorta seemed like a deportation camp! But when I asked what they were there for I was told that 'we were in the middle of the bush' and they were there to make us feel safe. The most I ever saw them doing was making sure we weren't run over where the orienteering crossed the road. We weren't in the middle of the bush at all. If you could even call that bush! It seemed like overkill to me. Amanda (the other Kiwi) said 'they'd probably have kittens if they saw what we do in NZ'!
Anyway, dinner wasn't quite the same, I always forget that lunch is bigger than dinner over here, but it was still really good. More finger food and some rolls. We headed back to our cabin quite early, at 11:30, but some people were up til 3 at least. Maybe it was the free wine...
So the next day breakfast was at 9. This was definitely no school camp! Some people didn't make it til 9:30. And we were supposed to leave at 10, but we didn't get away til almost half past. I knew it was coming, but sometimes this spanish time thing really gets annoying. We drove for about an hour, went for a half an hour wander up a hill, visited a garden nursery, then had lunch. Lunch was pretty similar except it was at a cafe, not from a catering van in the camp, and they had icecreams which were free too. It was all free!! Amazing. I had a kit-kat cone, I don't know if they're available in NZ but I'd never seen them before. It was good, although they also had lemon sorbet packaged in actual hollowed-out lemons! They gave us beer and sangria (pretty much sweet red wine) and between that and the sun, and the fact that I drink very little over here (my tolerance has nose-dived! I spose that's a good thing.. :S), it only took about three glasses before I was feeling the alcohol!
And all too soon it was time to get back on the bus. It was a couple of hours back and they put on the film 'White Chicks', it was good entertainment I suppose. There were groups there from the other campuses of UCLM too so we met lots more italians, some people from Turkey, there was even a girl from Australia there, she'd grown up in Venezuela and her family emigrated to Brisbane a few years ago. Lots of interesting people!
So I'll put some photos up on Facebook and post a link to them as a comment. I hope everyone in NZ's going well!
Hasta luego..
Friday, May 1, 2009
Poppies and Things
The first of May! Today is Labour Day in Spain, or so I gather. I'm not 100% sure but at any rate, it's a public holiday, so everything is closed all day instead of half the day. *Sigh...* Well, I guess it's good for the blog. But I'm almost out of milk.
Anyway, I went for a wander through the park yesterday. It was about 9pm and the sun was setting, which was kinda pretty, only there were some clouds around that made the whole atmosphere very..um..well, it felt like Something Was Going To Happen. Obviously nothing did, except for me having toast instead of cereal for breakfast this morning, but it was exciting. Also the park borders on some fields, open fields with tracks that are popular with dog-walkers and joggers. I didn't go far because it was kinda chilly, but right at the edge of the park there's some uneven ground with a bit of debris and stuff and lots of wild grass, and when I went there last night I hadn't been for a while, and there were all these poppies blooming! So pretty! It wasn't exactly Flander's Fields but it reminded me of that a bit.
So, I didn't get to Gallipoli. I had been considering it but then I had some issues with the bank and it was going to be pretty pricey and I ended up giving up. I'm sure I'll get there someday though.
Next week the ORI (international office at uni) is organising a completely FREE trip to Cuenca or somewhere near there. I didn't know about this but Amanda (the other kiwi girl here) kindly signed me up so we're going to see some vultures at Cuenca! It's overnight too plus we get fed so it's a REALLY good deal. My sleeping bag will finally come in handy as something other than a duvet! Haha.
Last night (just before going to the park) I was watching the cars in the street below when a cop car pulled up outside our building (two cops proceeded to talk to a couple of young guys hanging round in the mini-park across the street). This made me revise my idea of the Spanish Rules of Parking. Here you are:
1. If you need to park, you may do so wherever there is space. Including the median areas in the middle of intersections.
2. If you have your hazard lights on, you can park wherever there's about half enough space, eg, half on the sidewalk, almost running over pedestrians in the process. :S
3. If you're a cop car, you can park anywhere you damn well like. Say, the middle of the road!??
It's nuts. NUTS!!
So I'm going to take some photos of the park (as I didn't have my camera with me last night) and I'll throw them on facebook for you. Plus for those who don't have facebook I'll put a link to them so you can see them too.
Have an awesome day!
Katie
Photos: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3017500&l=125e3fa829&id=585155585
Anyway, I went for a wander through the park yesterday. It was about 9pm and the sun was setting, which was kinda pretty, only there were some clouds around that made the whole atmosphere very..um..well, it felt like Something Was Going To Happen. Obviously nothing did, except for me having toast instead of cereal for breakfast this morning, but it was exciting. Also the park borders on some fields, open fields with tracks that are popular with dog-walkers and joggers. I didn't go far because it was kinda chilly, but right at the edge of the park there's some uneven ground with a bit of debris and stuff and lots of wild grass, and when I went there last night I hadn't been for a while, and there were all these poppies blooming! So pretty! It wasn't exactly Flander's Fields but it reminded me of that a bit.
So, I didn't get to Gallipoli. I had been considering it but then I had some issues with the bank and it was going to be pretty pricey and I ended up giving up. I'm sure I'll get there someday though.
Next week the ORI (international office at uni) is organising a completely FREE trip to Cuenca or somewhere near there. I didn't know about this but Amanda (the other kiwi girl here) kindly signed me up so we're going to see some vultures at Cuenca! It's overnight too plus we get fed so it's a REALLY good deal. My sleeping bag will finally come in handy as something other than a duvet! Haha.
Last night (just before going to the park) I was watching the cars in the street below when a cop car pulled up outside our building (two cops proceeded to talk to a couple of young guys hanging round in the mini-park across the street). This made me revise my idea of the Spanish Rules of Parking. Here you are:
1. If you need to park, you may do so wherever there is space. Including the median areas in the middle of intersections.
2. If you have your hazard lights on, you can park wherever there's about half enough space, eg, half on the sidewalk, almost running over pedestrians in the process. :S
3. If you're a cop car, you can park anywhere you damn well like. Say, the middle of the road!??
It's nuts. NUTS!!
So I'm going to take some photos of the park (as I didn't have my camera with me last night) and I'll throw them on facebook for you. Plus for those who don't have facebook I'll put a link to them so you can see them too.
Have an awesome day!
Katie
Photos: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3017500&l=125e3fa829&id=585155585
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