centre of Spain, which is under construction because Madrid are tendering for the 2016 Olympics. Further along is Plaza de Mayor a major square in the city. There is an artist wrapping toilet paper above the subway vent, so it flies in the breeze, street performers and even a flamenco dancer. The square is surrounded by restaurants but we know that they are over priced, purely because of their location. Dinner instead was a pizza and a pasta from a local Italian restaurant. Not very Spanish, but it was a good way to end the day.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
To the centre of Spain (27th August)
With La Tomatina over with it was time to say goodbye to our hotel. Not before filling up on a
scrummy breakfast of croissants and orange juice provided for us. Plus check out was at 12noon
which gave us heaps of time to pack and spend a little over an hour on the phone to Shona's family. Tomorrow is Shona's sister Emma's birthday and they were having a birthday dinner to celebrate. It was good to be able to talk to (almost) everyone and to tell Emma that we were thinking of her. We had an hour to kill before catching a taxi to the Busabout pick up point which worked out perfectly as we spent it chatting to Vaughn and Shannon our new Aussie / South African friends. As we imagined Busabout was chaos, there were 3 bus loads (52 seats in a bus) of people to take from Valencia to Madrid. But we all get sorted and on the bus. The drive is 6 hours and we settle in for the trip. Luckily the movie is The Bourne Ultimatum which helps to pass the time. After checking in we head out to to check out the Madrid by night. We find Sol the 
centre of Spain, which is under construction because Madrid are tendering for the 2016 Olympics. Further along is Plaza de Mayor a major square in the city. There is an artist wrapping toilet paper above the subway vent, so it flies in the breeze, street performers and even a flamenco dancer. The square is surrounded by restaurants but we know that they are over priced, purely because of their location. Dinner instead was a pizza and a pasta from a local Italian restaurant. Not very Spanish, but it was a good way to end the day.
centre of Spain, which is under construction because Madrid are tendering for the 2016 Olympics. Further along is Plaza de Mayor a major square in the city. There is an artist wrapping toilet paper above the subway vent, so it flies in the breeze, street performers and even a flamenco dancer. The square is surrounded by restaurants but we know that they are over priced, purely because of their location. Dinner instead was a pizza and a pasta from a local Italian restaurant. Not very Spanish, but it was a good way to end the day.
You say tomato, we say Tomatina! (26th August)
It's an early start at 6am this morning. Today we are heading to a 'little' festival called La Tomatina. It is the only festival in Spain that does not have a religious or political meaning. (75% of Spanish people are catholic). The origins of the festival are not known and there are
various stories... but what happens is that some 30,000 people gather in a little town called Bunol (just under an hour out of Valencia) and throw tomatoes at each other.
Our bus departs at 7:15am and we arrive in Bunol an hour later. The timing is perfect because we get to walk into the main street and through the 'square' which is where the action happens. Not that it isn't really a square, rather the street widens from 6 metres to about 18 metres for a short distance before narrowing back again. The atmosphere is amazing as everyone is getting excited for the up coming fight. We pass people trying to tie string on their jandals to hold them on their feet (we have been told numerous times that jandals are not going to stay on and it's a stupid idea to wear them). There's a group of people sitting in the middle of the square playing cards (while they still have space to).
Meanwhile most of the buildings which are 3-4 stories high are covered or in the process of being covered in massive tarpaulins to protect them from tomatoes. Some buildings have balconies and the tarps are more like see through mesh as the locals are up on the balconies watching the action below. One section even has locals on the roof with the garden hose ready to squirt/drench unsuspecting tourists as they walk below.
We find out which way the trucks are coming through and then head down a back street to bypass the now bulging square to get round to the beginning and avoiding being in the 'thick of it'. Thanks Kim for your advice! It's a great position because we are near the edge of the square and can see the greased pole with the ham on top, plus we get whole tomatoes when the trucks come past and have some space to move around.
Greased pole we hear you say? Well before the tomato fight can start the ham needs to be retrieved from the top of a greased pole. Imagine a 10m wooden pole covered in grease (lard) 5cm thick, with a ham on a bone in a bag hung on the top. At 9am the pole goes up and then people proceed to climb up it to try and retrieve the ham. Any time someone makes progress up the pole the crowd goes wild with cheers and chants of "ole ole ole ole".
Getting the ham is a matter of pride. The young local guys want to be the town hero, so they are climbing up trying to get the ham. Lots of tourists want to get the ham so they are all having a go too. It is a rough and sometimes violent sport as people stand on each other, pull each other down and basically all fight to be the one person to get the ham.
It's a good lesson in how selfish the human race is. If they all worked together to form a human tower then the ham would have been retrieved in minutes. However the scramble goes on for two hours as they work their way to remove the grease and climb higher and higher up the pole.
While we wait for the ham some locals open up the man hole to the local water supply a few metres away from us. They've bought buckets or are using beer cups or whatever they can find to collect the water in to throw on people. So before the tomato fight has even begun a water fight is taking place. Eventually a cop comes down and orders the lid to be put back on. After what feels like half an hour (we haven't got watches on because they'd get ruined) he walks away and they resume the fight. It's unfortunate as we had remained discreetly against the wall and somehow managed to stay dry. But then some guy spots us and we end up with a whole bucket of water thrown at us! Oh well at least it's only water and our clothes are only going to be covered in tomatoes soon anyway.
We soon learn that regardless of whether the ham is retrieved the tomato trucks roll down the
street at 11am. So the cannon fires a shot, the crowd goes wild chanting 'tomata tomata' as we can see the trucks heading towards us. They are tooting their horns loudly to move people out of their way. We squish ourselves against the tarped houses to let the trucks through. They have people on top throwing tomatoes out at us. Occasionally they also stop and tip their load onto the street for a few seconds to allow lots of tomatoes to come rolling out. Some of these off loaders are throwing tomatoes really hard at people.
Shona's strategy is to back into the wall, keep her head down to make sure it is 
protected. Lots of tomatoes have gathered around our ankles and once the truck has past we use the tomatoes we've picked up, squish them (as you must never throw a non squished tomato at someone) and start throwing. Aunty Yvonne's funeral was held overnight in Auckland. Aunty Yvonne didn't like tomatoes so Shona was thinking of her as she threw tomatoes at people. Mainly guys, because she knew they could handle the pelting more.
Mike's strategy is to line up targets and aim for them. Usually a guy standing out in the crowd but there are two memorable moments to point out. Remember the locals on the balconies, well Mike aimed for one guy on what we think was 
the forth floor and hit him on the shoulder. He was so amazed at being hit that he started to look at other balcony's to see who had thrown the tomato! The second was on one of the guys offloading on the truck. Mike saw him lined him up and got him right in the head. Then he threw a second one and got him again! At this point the guy knew it was Mike so he jumped down into the truck to hide while he was in distance to be a target. His knuckles were holding onto the truck and when Mike saw them grip to pull himself back up, he launched a 3rd tomato and got the guy smack in the middle of the forehead. This time he stayed right down until the truck had moved well past! (years of practicing his throwing with his brothers and especially Brendon obviously paid off!) Unfortunately being tall was a downside today - as being a head above the crowd also meant he copped a lot of direct hits as well!
After the first truck went past and we had exhausted our tomatoes as they were now a salsa/soup on the road the people that we were next to all agreed that it was fun. This pause gave us time to wipe our hands clean on the inside of our shirts (because there was no point using the outside) and clear our eyes. It was to be the only break in the whole hour of throwing as the next trucks rolled through pretty quickly behind one another.
All in all there were five massive trucks with tomatoes. The throwing lasted exactly 
one hour
until another canon went off to signal the end of the fight. Once the canon has gone, you are not allowed to throw any more tomatoes. That didn't matter as there were none left because it was all a soup on the ground. Some people even dived into it to have a little swim (it was halfway up our calves in some places). We made our way back down the side street we had come up, because getting through the square was not an option. The tomatoes were gushing down it (as it had a slope) but we made it safely down without landing on our butts.
The next task is to find somewhere to clean up. You are not allowed back on any bus or train with any trace of tomato on you. Good thing is the locals literally stand outside their houses on the street or on their balconies with their hoses and wash water over you. We both stripped off our shirts and had a first rinse. Eventually Shona took out her hair to try and clean it (it had become one big tomato dreadlock) and threw away her socks. Mike's boardies were also going in the bin as were his 10 euro shoes. Well there weren't many bins, so people left their shirts on the side of the streets for cleaners to collect.
After passing through 4 different hoses we were finally clean enough to head back to our bus to collect our change of clean clothes. Thanks again Kim for the suggestion of the sarong. Mike looked particularly sexy with it wrapped around him as we changed on the side of the road. We felt heaps cleaner now, but desperately needed the toilet. There was a distinct lack of any toilets anywhere. Luckily we'd past a pub on the way to the coach so we went back for a pit stop and to purchase a lemonade to refresh us. Perfect drinking material in the hot Spanish sun. We waited until 2pm when our coach left to take us back to the hotel. Overall a totally amazing experience.
Would we do it again - absolutely! That said, we've done it once so don't feel a huge need to come back again.
What happened to the ham? We don't know. At one point during the fight a group of people
attempted the human tower. That is three guys got on each others shoulders topped by a forth girl (interestingly dressed in just a once white bikini). She grabbed onto the ham bag but couldn't get it off the hook. The guys fell down and she was swinging off it, but it did not fall down - she did. The ham was still swinging when we left, so we are not sure if anyone did climb up and get it down. Apparently this is quite common.
Back at the hotel our shower ran for 1.5 hours as we cleaned ourselves of tomato. It was in our ears, in our eyes, up our noses and in our hair. Kinda interesting to watch the water run a shade of red when we put our hair under. Shona washed her hair 3 times and conditioned it twice just to get it back to blonde! It felt great to be clean!
As you can imagine all this exercise and excitement worked up an appetite so we were becoming
hangry marvins. Over the road from the hotel was a shopping centre with a great shop called Pan & co. They are kinda like McD's where you choose what you want and a combo comes with fries and drink, but instead of burgers they are subway type sandwiches. Interestingly both our sandwiches had sliced tomato in them which we were still ok to eat!
Back at the hotel we were going to attempt an afternoon swim in the pool or at the beach, but first Shona needed a nap. By the time we got going again it was 7pm and so we headed to the 
beach. We'd heard that some of the beaches in Valencia were the most beautiful in the world. It WAS amazing and we kicked ourselves for not going in the afternoon and napping on the beach. Beautiful white sand and blue ocean with small, but not too small waves breaking on the shore. It didn't stop us swimming as we had a sunset swim in the Mediterranean frolicking in the waves. Mike was paranoid about leaving a bag on the shore, but we watched it the whole time and it was completely safe. Shona would like to come back to Valencia for a week to just lie on the beach!
We had taxied to the beach and opted to walk the 40 minute walk back to our hotel. This meant we got to walk past the America's cup base (where there were no boats in the water) and past the stands set up for last week's V8 street race (think Hamilton V8's to know what we mean). Dinner was a kebab from the kebab shop in the mall. We ate it on the side of the road and it was a great end to a fantastic day. Tomatina is definitely in consideration for at least Mike's Top 5!
We'd like to note that the quality of the photos are not as good as we would like. We took two disposable cameras with us rather than risking our good camera being covered in tomato. They use old school film so we've had them developed and then taken digital photos of them for you.
Greased pole we hear you say? Well before the tomato fight can start the ham needs to be retrieved from the top of a greased pole. Imagine a 10m wooden pole covered in grease (lard) 5cm thick, with a ham on a bone in a bag hung on the top. At 9am the pole goes up and then people proceed to climb up it to try and retrieve the ham. Any time someone makes progress up the pole the crowd goes wild with cheers and chants of "ole ole ole ole".
Getting the ham is a matter of pride. The young local guys want to be the town hero, so they are climbing up trying to get the ham. Lots of tourists want to get the ham so they are all having a go too. It is a rough and sometimes violent sport as people stand on each other, pull each other down and basically all fight to be the one person to get the ham.
It's a good lesson in how selfish the human race is. If they all worked together to form a human tower then the ham would have been retrieved in minutes. However the scramble goes on for two hours as they work their way to remove the grease and climb higher and higher up the pole.
While we wait for the ham some locals open up the man hole to the local water supply a few metres away from us. They've bought buckets or are using beer cups or whatever they can find to collect the water in to throw on people. So before the tomato fight has even begun a water fight is taking place. Eventually a cop comes down and orders the lid to be put back on. After what feels like half an hour (we haven't got watches on because they'd get ruined) he walks away and they resume the fight. It's unfortunate as we had remained discreetly against the wall and somehow managed to stay dry. But then some guy spots us and we end up with a whole bucket of water thrown at us! Oh well at least it's only water and our clothes are only going to be covered in tomatoes soon anyway.
We soon learn that regardless of whether the ham is retrieved the tomato trucks roll down the
street at 11am. So the cannon fires a shot, the crowd goes wild chanting 'tomata tomata' as we can see the trucks heading towards us. They are tooting their horns loudly to move people out of their way. We squish ourselves against the tarped houses to let the trucks through. They have people on top throwing tomatoes out at us. Occasionally they also stop and tip their load onto the street for a few seconds to allow lots of tomatoes to come rolling out. Some of these off loaders are throwing tomatoes really hard at people.
Shona's strategy is to back into the wall, keep her head down to make sure it is 
protected. Lots of tomatoes have gathered around our ankles and once the truck has past we use the tomatoes we've picked up, squish them (as you must never throw a non squished tomato at someone) and start throwing. Aunty Yvonne's funeral was held overnight in Auckland. Aunty Yvonne didn't like tomatoes so Shona was thinking of her as she threw tomatoes at people. Mainly guys, because she knew they could handle the pelting more.
Mike's strategy is to line up targets and aim for them. Usually a guy standing out in the crowd but there are two memorable moments to point out. Remember the locals on the balconies, well Mike aimed for one guy on what we think was 
the forth floor and hit him on the shoulder. He was so amazed at being hit that he started to look at other balcony's to see who had thrown the tomato! The second was on one of the guys offloading on the truck. Mike saw him lined him up and got him right in the head. Then he threw a second one and got him again! At this point the guy knew it was Mike so he jumped down into the truck to hide while he was in distance to be a target. His knuckles were holding onto the truck and when Mike saw them grip to pull himself back up, he launched a 3rd tomato and got the guy smack in the middle of the forehead. This time he stayed right down until the truck had moved well past! (years of practicing his throwing with his brothers and especially Brendon obviously paid off!) Unfortunately being tall was a downside today - as being a head above the crowd also meant he copped a lot of direct hits as well!
After the first truck went past and we had exhausted our tomatoes as they were now a salsa/soup on the road the people that we were next to all agreed that it was fun. This pause gave us time to wipe our hands clean on the inside of our shirts (because there was no point using the outside) and clear our eyes. It was to be the only break in the whole hour of throwing as the next trucks rolled through pretty quickly behind one another.
All in all there were five massive trucks with tomatoes. The throwing lasted exactly 
one hour
until another canon went off to signal the end of the fight. Once the canon has gone, you are not allowed to throw any more tomatoes. That didn't matter as there were none left because it was all a soup on the ground. Some people even dived into it to have a little swim (it was halfway up our calves in some places). We made our way back down the side street we had come up, because getting through the square was not an option. The tomatoes were gushing down it (as it had a slope) but we made it safely down without landing on our butts.
The next task is to find somewhere to clean up. You are not allowed back on any bus or train with any trace of tomato on you. Good thing is the locals literally stand outside their houses on the street or on their balconies with their hoses and wash water over you. We both stripped off our shirts and had a first rinse. Eventually Shona took out her hair to try and clean it (it had become one big tomato dreadlock) and threw away her socks. Mike's boardies were also going in the bin as were his 10 euro shoes. Well there weren't many bins, so people left their shirts on the side of the streets for cleaners to collect.
After passing through 4 different hoses we were finally clean enough to head back to our bus to collect our change of clean clothes. Thanks again Kim for the suggestion of the sarong. Mike looked particularly sexy with it wrapped around him as we changed on the side of the road. We felt heaps cleaner now, but desperately needed the toilet. There was a distinct lack of any toilets anywhere. Luckily we'd past a pub on the way to the coach so we went back for a pit stop and to purchase a lemonade to refresh us. Perfect drinking material in the hot Spanish sun. We waited until 2pm when our coach left to take us back to the hotel. Overall a totally amazing experience.
Would we do it again - absolutely! That said, we've done it once so don't feel a huge need to come back again.
What happened to the ham? We don't know. At one point during the fight a group of people
attempted the human tower. That is three guys got on each others shoulders topped by a forth girl (interestingly dressed in just a once white bikini). She grabbed onto the ham bag but couldn't get it off the hook. The guys fell down and she was swinging off it, but it did not fall down - she did. The ham was still swinging when we left, so we are not sure if anyone did climb up and get it down. Apparently this is quite common.
Back at the hotel our shower ran for 1.5 hours as we cleaned ourselves of tomato. It was in our ears, in our eyes, up our noses and in our hair. Kinda interesting to watch the water run a shade of red when we put our hair under. Shona washed her hair 3 times and conditioned it twice just to get it back to blonde! It felt great to be clean!
As you can imagine all this exercise and excitement worked up an appetite so we were becoming
hangry marvins. Over the road from the hotel was a shopping centre with a great shop called Pan & co. They are kinda like McD's where you choose what you want and a combo comes with fries and drink, but instead of burgers they are subway type sandwiches. Interestingly both our sandwiches had sliced tomato in them which we were still ok to eat!
Back at the hotel we were going to attempt an afternoon swim in the pool or at the beach, but first Shona needed a nap. By the time we got going again it was 7pm and so we headed to the 
beach. We'd heard that some of the beaches in Valencia were the most beautiful in the world. It WAS amazing and we kicked ourselves for not going in the afternoon and napping on the beach. Beautiful white sand and blue ocean with small, but not too small waves breaking on the shore. It didn't stop us swimming as we had a sunset swim in the Mediterranean frolicking in the waves. Mike was paranoid about leaving a bag on the shore, but we watched it the whole time and it was completely safe. Shona would like to come back to Valencia for a week to just lie on the beach!
We had taxied to the beach and opted to walk the 40 minute walk back to our hotel. This meant we got to walk past the America's cup base (where there were no boats in the water) and past the stands set up for last week's V8 street race (think Hamilton V8's to know what we mean). Dinner was a kebab from the kebab shop in the mall. We ate it on the side of the road and it was a great end to a fantastic day. Tomatina is definitely in consideration for at least Mike's Top 5!
We'd like to note that the quality of the photos are not as good as we would like. We took two disposable cameras with us rather than risking our good camera being covered in tomato. They use old school film so we've had them developed and then taken digital photos of them for you.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Off to the Spanish home of Swiss sailing (25th August)
Ok so this morning is a bit of a mad rush as we have to be up and going, have breakfast, shower, get our gear organised (while others in the room sleep off hangovers) and be out ready for the buses before 8am. Today is even more chaotic than normal because there are extra buses to get the swarms of people down south in time for a little festival thing that we'll tell you about tomorrow. Turns out that we don't get rolling till almost 9am which is ok because it gives Shona a chance to zip off and get some water and some more euros. The drive down to Valencia is kinda boring, but gets us into town in plenty of time to taxi to our hotel, register for the tour and then explore a bit of the city. The hotel is really nice and a welcome change from the hostels, plus it's located very close to a load of funky new buildings (
and a shopping centre). The river used to run through the city, then during the 50s it flooded, killing some thousand people. They then diverted the river to the outskirts and held a local competition to see what they should do with the prime land in the river bed. It isn't all completed, but the science museum, the opera house, the aquarium and the observatory are all pretty spectacular works of architecture/art. As you can tell from the photos, it's a slightly different style than that which Gaudi used, but is impressive none the less! It's a nice little walk and we find a pretty cool sandwich place that rivals Pret in England. A lot of 
the 360 people on our tour then met at the three various hotels and combine at a club for a 'disco night' that has been put on for us. It never quite gets going as a disco because people are more interested in meeting people and not having too big a night... but it's great fun nevertheless and even our 2 complimentary drinks are very generously free poured! Highlight of the night was getting the holographic photo taken with our crazy hair and new friends Vaughn and Shannon, sadly you'll have to see that in person when we get back to get 
the full effect. The McDonalds rule was broken on Vaughn's request, but at this point we just wanted to finish the night and get home for some needed sleep before the big day tomorrow. Travel hint; a New Zealand drivers license (or any card that shape) works just as well as a hotel room key in the switch that would normally turn off the air conditioning and lights when you leave the room! p.s. there's a chance that the NZ news on the 27th will show some of tomorrow's activities...
and a shopping centre). The river used to run through the city, then during the 50s it flooded, killing some thousand people. They then diverted the river to the outskirts and held a local competition to see what they should do with the prime land in the river bed. It isn't all completed, but the science museum, the opera house, the aquarium and the observatory are all pretty spectacular works of architecture/art. As you can tell from the photos, it's a slightly different style than that which Gaudi used, but is impressive none the less! It's a nice little walk and we find a pretty cool sandwich place that rivals Pret in England. A lot of 
the 360 people on our tour then met at the three various hotels and combine at a club for a 'disco night' that has been put on for us. It never quite gets going as a disco because people are more interested in meeting people and not having too big a night... but it's great fun nevertheless and even our 2 complimentary drinks are very generously free poured! Highlight of the night was getting the holographic photo taken with our crazy hair and new friends Vaughn and Shannon, sadly you'll have to see that in person when we get back to get 
the full effect. The McDonalds rule was broken on Vaughn's request, but at this point we just wanted to finish the night and get home for some needed sleep before the big day tomorrow. Travel hint; a New Zealand drivers license (or any card that shape) works just as well as a hotel room key in the switch that would normally turn off the air conditioning and lights when you leave the room! p.s. there's a chance that the NZ news on the 27th will show some of tomorrow's activities...On top of Columbus's Column (24th August)
There was a little bit of deja voo today when we started by going to see some of Gaudi's work, the difference was that today we were off to see the most famous (half) buil
ding in Barcelona -Sagrada Familia. Gaudi worked on this cathedral between 1883 and when he died in 1926... it's still being built today and the official website says it "could be finished some time in the first third of the 21st century". When you see the detail on every inch of it you understand as to why it is taking so long. It is being built entirely by donations, plus presumably the 11 euro admission price from many of the millions of visitors every year help as well! We decided not to go inside because apparently most of the interior is under scaffolding at the moment, we were just thankful that the majority of the scaffolding on the outside had been taken down a few weeks ago. The height and attention to detail is stunning, but you then have to realise that the main spire hasn't even been built yet! A truly incredible work of design, 
art and engineering. Shona's cousin Callum has just returned to architecture school and we were definitely thinking of him and maybe one day he'll design something this amazing (although hopefully he'd be alive to see it completed!) As per normal we stop at pretty much every souvenir shop in the surrounding area, then make our way back into the Metro to head down to the Picasso Museum. A note about Barcelona, apparently it's a reasonably safe city from a violent crime point of view, however it's one of the least safe cities in the world when it comes to pickpocketing. We were told all the horror stories on the bus, then we heard a few more first hand from people over the last couple of days that had had things stolen or almost stolen. Getting onto or off the Metro is a prime time to be hit -so we were even more overly paranoid when doing that! We get to the museum to find that it's shut because it's a Monday, which isn't the end of the world because Mike really wasn't interested and Shona was only passingly interested in any event (you may have noticed by now that art galleries don't feature prominently in our travels!). We use the afternoon to suss out the post shop and get 6kgs of our scrap booking stuff sent home.... because that's right, we'll be doing various scrapbooks as well as this blog! Hopefully it got sent ok, the language barrier was pretty thick at the post shop and we won't know for a month or two if we got it onto the right ship! We then spent an hour or so on the beach... sorry Janine, Shona didn't feel brave enough to join the topless on this beach -so once again no pictures to post for you :op We were also pretty nervous about our bag, even though we took minimal stuff with us we weren't prepared to leave it on the beach while we swam. So we sadly had to take turns which kinda took some of the fun out of it. There were heaps of people offering a range of options on the beach from beer, coke and water to massages and tattoos. On the way home we went past the world's tallest Christopher Columbus statue, situated near where he supposedly 
returned from America. We didn't realise when we first passed it on the way into the city that you can actually go UP this very skinny column... but it once again ticked the "climb something high in the city" box and also brought Mike's vertigo well and truly back into the fore. The views were pretty good, although it's a little bit of a squeeze to get around the viewing platform and back down the elevator! We make it back it the hostel in time to get a shower and make it to the Travel Bar to use our complimentary voucher (without which you have to pay 1 whole euro!) for a meal. You'd expect a 1 euro meal to be rubbish, but this flavoured rice and vegetable dish wasn't actually too bad and it achieved the goal of getting us in and buying a couple of drinks... which still made for a good value night! Back again to the hostel to do a small load of washing, although we get distracted with our 500 card game and talking to the others in the room and forget to get it back before the 11pm laundry locking! Doesn't turn out to be a big deal as the hostel staff are very helpful -but it does mean that after packing etc we aren't exactly in bed early before tomorrow...
ding in Barcelona -Sagrada Familia. Gaudi worked on this cathedral between 1883 and when he died in 1926... it's still being built today and the official website says it "could be finished some time in the first third of the 21st century". When you see the detail on every inch of it you understand as to why it is taking so long. It is being built entirely by donations, plus presumably the 11 euro admission price from many of the millions of visitors every year help as well! We decided not to go inside because apparently most of the interior is under scaffolding at the moment, we were just thankful that the majority of the scaffolding on the outside had been taken down a few weeks ago. The height and attention to detail is stunning, but you then have to realise that the main spire hasn't even been built yet! A truly incredible work of design, 
art and engineering. Shona's cousin Callum has just returned to architecture school and we were definitely thinking of him and maybe one day he'll design something this amazing (although hopefully he'd be alive to see it completed!) As per normal we stop at pretty much every souvenir shop in the surrounding area, then make our way back into the Metro to head down to the Picasso Museum. A note about Barcelona, apparently it's a reasonably safe city from a violent crime point of view, however it's one of the least safe cities in the world when it comes to pickpocketing. We were told all the horror stories on the bus, then we heard a few more first hand from people over the last couple of days that had had things stolen or almost stolen. Getting onto or off the Metro is a prime time to be hit -so we were even more overly paranoid when doing that! We get to the museum to find that it's shut because it's a Monday, which isn't the end of the world because Mike really wasn't interested and Shona was only passingly interested in any event (you may have noticed by now that art galleries don't feature prominently in our travels!). We use the afternoon to suss out the post shop and get 6kgs of our scrap booking stuff sent home.... because that's right, we'll be doing various scrapbooks as well as this blog! Hopefully it got sent ok, the language barrier was pretty thick at the post shop and we won't know for a month or two if we got it onto the right ship! We then spent an hour or so on the beach... sorry Janine, Shona didn't feel brave enough to join the topless on this beach -so once again no pictures to post for you :op We were also pretty nervous about our bag, even though we took minimal stuff with us we weren't prepared to leave it on the beach while we swam. So we sadly had to take turns which kinda took some of the fun out of it. There were heaps of people offering a range of options on the beach from beer, coke and water to massages and tattoos. On the way home we went past the world's tallest Christopher Columbus statue, situated near where he supposedly 
returned from America. We didn't realise when we first passed it on the way into the city that you can actually go UP this very skinny column... but it once again ticked the "climb something high in the city" box and also brought Mike's vertigo well and truly back into the fore. The views were pretty good, although it's a little bit of a squeeze to get around the viewing platform and back down the elevator! We make it back it the hostel in time to get a shower and make it to the Travel Bar to use our complimentary voucher (without which you have to pay 1 whole euro!) for a meal. You'd expect a 1 euro meal to be rubbish, but this flavoured rice and vegetable dish wasn't actually too bad and it achieved the goal of getting us in and buying a couple of drinks... which still made for a good value night! Back again to the hostel to do a small load of washing, although we get distracted with our 500 card game and talking to the others in the room and forget to get it back before the 11pm laundry locking! Doesn't turn out to be a big deal as the hostel staff are very helpful -but it does mean that after packing etc we aren't exactly in bed early before tomorrow...
Gaudi's Gothic Guell (23rd August)
As mentioned in the previous post, this morning started with the very sad news of the passing of Shona's Aunty Yvonne. For this reason it was decided to have a very relaxed day, enjoying some of the sights of Bathelona (not technically how it's spelt... but how it sho
uld be pronounced) I'd have said 'the sights and smells' except we haven't been enjoying the smells of this place -Jeremy asked the "Smelliest place?" question a day or two early as we now have a very clear winner! We caught the bus for a 45 minute ride up to Park Guell, which is a very large park. The land was originally bought by Palau Guell to be a subdivision for the elite. He commissioned his friend eccentric architect Antoni Gaudi to design it, but ultimately it failed as only 2 lots of 60 something where bought. The land was then bought by the city and is now a great place to walk through to see a view of the city as well as seeing an large number of Gaudi's works. 'Eccentric' probably doesn't go anywhere near far enough to describe Gaudi - he definitely took his passion for gothic design and ran a long long way from normal with it! It was another hot hot day so we took it at a pretty slow 
pace and stopped to enjoy a drink or an ice cream whenever the chance presented itself. Back on the bus in time to clean up and head out to a cooking class that we'd booked through the Busabout network. We met up at a local bar and headed over to where the class was taking place, the 40+ people that turned up for the 30 seats a sign that this is a popular daily event! It was a bit of torture being sat in front of some tapas ingredients, but when the lady showed us how to make them (and more importantly how to make sangria) it was all hands on deck to get amongst it. She then produced a HUGE paella pan, which is like a massive wok except it has a flat bottom to go on the flames. She went through the process of maki
ng a seafood paella, then dished it up to the waiting masses! Was much much nicer than the paella the previous night and definitely brought Spanish cooking back into a favourable light with us! She explained that Salamana used to do a good paella, but now they have become too big and too commercial and aren't doing it anywhere near as good, hence our experience the previous night. We stayed at the bar for a while and had drinks with some of the girls in our dorm room, meeting interesting people is definitely one of the biggest highlights of staying in shared accommodation!
uld be pronounced) I'd have said 'the sights and smells' except we haven't been enjoying the smells of this place -Jeremy asked the "Smelliest place?" question a day or two early as we now have a very clear winner! We caught the bus for a 45 minute ride up to Park Guell, which is a very large park. The land was originally bought by Palau Guell to be a subdivision for the elite. He commissioned his friend eccentric architect Antoni Gaudi to design it, but ultimately it failed as only 2 lots of 60 something where bought. The land was then bought by the city and is now a great place to walk through to see a view of the city as well as seeing an large number of Gaudi's works. 'Eccentric' probably doesn't go anywhere near far enough to describe Gaudi - he definitely took his passion for gothic design and ran a long long way from normal with it! It was another hot hot day so we took it at a pretty slow 
pace and stopped to enjoy a drink or an ice cream whenever the chance presented itself. Back on the bus in time to clean up and head out to a cooking class that we'd booked through the Busabout network. We met up at a local bar and headed over to where the class was taking place, the 40+ people that turned up for the 30 seats a sign that this is a popular daily event! It was a bit of torture being sat in front of some tapas ingredients, but when the lady showed us how to make them (and more importantly how to make sangria) it was all hands on deck to get amongst it. She then produced a HUGE paella pan, which is like a massive wok except it has a flat bottom to go on the flames. She went through the process of maki
ng a seafood paella, then dished it up to the waiting masses! Was much much nicer than the paella the previous night and definitely brought Spanish cooking back into a favourable light with us! She explained that Salamana used to do a good paella, but now they have become too big and too commercial and aren't doing it anywhere near as good, hence our experience the previous night. We stayed at the bar for a while and had drinks with some of the girls in our dorm room, meeting interesting people is definitely one of the biggest highlights of staying in shared accommodation!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
A tribute to Aunty Yvonne (23rd August)
Today started with sad news. Mum emailed me with news that Aunty Yvonne passed away at 1am on Sunday 23rd August. Aunty Yvonne was one of my Great Aunts or Faded Aunts as they were known to us. The youngest of four girls, my Nana's baby sister. She had been in hospital for heart surgery and due to complications was recovering slowly.
She was a wonderful Aunty who was very good to my sisters and me. When we were young we would always look forward to heading out to Te Atatu to visit her. She would make us delicious scones which we would heap jam and cream or in Emma's case golden syrup and cream over. Her scones were the best and no one has ever been able to match them!
After our feast we would have a swim in the pool yelling and screaming with delight. I was also extremely jealous of Aunty Yvonne because she had feijoa trees amongst the many fruit trees in her garden. Feijoas are one of my favourites. When they were in season I had to be told to stop eating them because I would have to sit on the toilet later in the day... it didn't stop me trying to shake the trees so that more fruit would fall on the ground.
Late in the day we would sit in her hallway right between the lounge and the kitchen reading the complete collection of Dr Seuss books that she had. On the way home I would look out at fairyland (all the lights of Auckland) and remember what a wonderful day we had, hoping to do it again soon.
Aunty Yvonne was very good at crafts. Each year we looked forward to receiving her birthday cards which she handmade especially for us. I also have a cross stitched S at home, which she made for me. It has me hanging upside down off the S because I did gymnastics when I was young and is the colour pink, which matched my room at the time.
Aunty Yvonne didn't always have an easy life. But she was great, great aunty to me. She was always happy to see me, even in recent times when visits were in hospital and I'd do her nails. It was wonderful to have her a part of my life and I'm pleased to have known her. I am really sad that she has passed away, but glad that she can now be at peace and can be with Uncle Sonny whom she loved very very much.
I'm thinking of you Uncle Jeff, Aunty Nettie, Uncle Tony and Uncle Greg and the rest of the Adams family.
Much love
Shona
Uneventful (22nd August)
Ok so today was easily the most uneventful so far. We checked out (and possibly got ripped off by paying extra 'tax' than was advertised) and had our usual breakfast in the park of croissants and baguettes. While we ate we watched a pair of girls have a heated argument in French, then appear to make up, before starting the argument again. It took a few minutes and a couple of repetitions for us to come to the conclusion that they were most likely rehearsing lines for a play! Randomly Liz (who Shona knows from netball in Auckland) was also waiting for the same Busabout bus, so it was weird and cool to catch up on gossip from her. The drive is a total of 7:30 hours and gets us into Barcelona, Spain in time for us to head out and get some food. We go to Salamanca near the beach based on Kathryn Kirkpatrick's recommendation... but are sadly pretty disappointed in the paella that Shona has been looking forward to for AGES! It had heaps of bland peas and chicken chunks with bone fragments through it. Oh well... these things happen. We note that it's pretty funny to go a whole day with not a single photo, but to pad out this post we'll answer the questions that Jeremy asked us a couple of days ago. (1) Most annoying tourist nationality? = Australian... they aren't individually annoying, it's just annoying that half of Australia seems to be here! (2) Worst smelling place? = streets with pee on them... or the Barcelona kitchen after a curry storm (3) What was the sight that was so much bigger than you expected? = M Lauterbrunnen Valley, S Theatre in Orange (4) The item of food that you wish was sold in NZ? = easily Irn Bru a Scottish fizzy drink (5) What is the CD/Song that is the anthem of your trip so far? = definitely MJ.. and specifically "Don't stop till you get enough" seems to have been played to us all over the place! We've only used our iPods a few times... as most of the time there's been too much else to do :o)
Saturday, August 22, 2009
The key to the castle (21st August)
After two early starts we were due a bit of a lie in... plus today wasn't as hectic an itinerary as the last couple. We were out just before the cleaner came through -which made leaving the hostel a bit of a last minute panic. But we had our standard Avignon breakfast of croissants and jambon (ham) rolls so that cheered us on the way to the rail station. The train didn't do the 
'change platforms at the last minute' trick that had almost left us stranded in Nimes, so we made it to Arles reasonably easily. There's a two hour wait before the next leg of our amazing race -so we spend it exploring the sights of Arles. Turns out that one hour would have been ample as Arles is very small and doesn't have the omph of some of the surrounding French cities. For example the arena and the theatre do not compare to Nimes or Ora
nge, so the highlight of any visit would have to be the garden that van Gogh painted in the hospital where he lived. Perhaps if we were huge art lovers we'd have enjoyed more of the exhibits around the town, however the actual highlight HAD to be the 1L tub of strawberry ice cream we had for lunch! Road side stalls are OK, but 1L for 3 euro cools you down way better than 2 scoops for 3 euro! The bus featured a father son combination (luckily the 10 year old was collecting money while the dad drove) that took us to one of the historic landmarks of the area -Chateau des Baux de Provence. Built in the middle ages as a fortress, it is now a kickass ruined castle with a quaint village to browse through. There were fencing demonstrations, trebuchet firing, ridiculous views, the obligatory audio guide (which we have had at every major monument so far) and cold air mist machines! We didn't have endless time there -because of the timing of the bus departures... but we had a real taste of the place and thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon exploring the ruins. Castles are very very cool after all! Just a 
quick comment about public transport in Provence by the way... we knew it was going to be bad -but it's not just bad -it's also randomly expensive as well! Some short bus or train rides are 1 or 2 euro... while others are more like 7 or 8! We can't expect the timing to be as Swiss as the Swiss, but it's frustrating when a bus is scheduled to arrive at 6:35pm at a train station -and the train is scheduled to leave at 6:32pm! During the wait to the next train (7:55pm) we realised that we didn't have our room key. After turning out the bag and even checking a rubbish
bin to see if it was in our breakfast rubbish (don't freak out Mum, the bin had a clear plastic bag, so we could easily see it was clean) all to no avail. Needless to say we had a very stressful couple of hours as we imagined worst case scenarios of stolen passports and all of our photos. We shouldn't have worried, turns out the key was left in the hotel courtyard in our haste to leave, so it was found and returned to reception! This honesty was probably because we aren't at a Busabout hostel so there no Aussies here Janine *winks*. We calmed our nerves with a well earned kebab and malibu drink... and met some other cool hostellers on their travels.
'change platforms at the last minute' trick that had almost left us stranded in Nimes, so we made it to Arles reasonably easily. There's a two hour wait before the next leg of our amazing race -so we spend it exploring the sights of Arles. Turns out that one hour would have been ample as Arles is very small and doesn't have the omph of some of the surrounding French cities. For example the arena and the theatre do not compare to Nimes or Ora
nge, so the highlight of any visit would have to be the garden that van Gogh painted in the hospital where he lived. Perhaps if we were huge art lovers we'd have enjoyed more of the exhibits around the town, however the actual highlight HAD to be the 1L tub of strawberry ice cream we had for lunch! Road side stalls are OK, but 1L for 3 euro cools you down way better than 2 scoops for 3 euro! The bus featured a father son combination (luckily the 10 year old was collecting money while the dad drove) that took us to one of the historic landmarks of the area -Chateau des Baux de Provence. Built in the middle ages as a fortress, it is now a kickass ruined castle with a quaint village to browse through. There were fencing demonstrations, trebuchet firing, ridiculous views, the obligatory audio guide (which we have had at every major monument so far) and cold air mist machines! We didn't have endless time there -because of the timing of the bus departures... but we had a real taste of the place and thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon exploring the ruins. Castles are very very cool after all! Just a 
quick comment about public transport in Provence by the way... we knew it was going to be bad -but it's not just bad -it's also randomly expensive as well! Some short bus or train rides are 1 or 2 euro... while others are more like 7 or 8! We can't expect the timing to be as Swiss as the Swiss, but it's frustrating when a bus is scheduled to arrive at 6:35pm at a train station -and the train is scheduled to leave at 6:32pm! During the wait to the next train (7:55pm) we realised that we didn't have our room key. After turning out the bag and even checking a rubbish
bin to see if it was in our breakfast rubbish (don't freak out Mum, the bin had a clear plastic bag, so we could easily see it was clean) all to no avail. Needless to say we had a very stressful couple of hours as we imagined worst case scenarios of stolen passports and all of our photos. We shouldn't have worried, turns out the key was left in the hotel courtyard in our haste to leave, so it was found and returned to reception! This honesty was probably because we aren't at a Busabout hostel so there no Aussies here Janine *winks*. We calmed our nerves with a well earned kebab and malibu drink... and met some other cool hostellers on their travels.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Chocolat and Orange (20th August)
5:40am is a crazy time to get up but the lure of chocolate had us motivated and salivating at the same time. The train dropped us 
off at Sourges at 7:36am... but sadly the chocolate factory was on the road to Chateauneuf du Pape and this meant a 5km walk along the country roads of Provence. Thank goodness it was early as this meant the sun was not too hot! We arrived at our destination at 8:30am well before the workers arrived to open up 
at 9am. We saw a video on how chocolate is made, right from the planting of the trees in Ghana. It is a major industry for the country and a very labour intensive process. We sampled some truffles and checked out the small museum and shop. Sadly UPS had broken the hot chocolate machine and instead we had hot chocolate by buying some and eating it throughout the day in the sun. Unfortunately we can't bring any home because it is so hot over here we had to eat all of it... made for a yummy lunch! Shane - it is amazing and better than cadbury and does not contain palm oil! We walked back to the Sourges train station and caught the 11:53am train to Orange. Orange is a small city in Provence 
that went all out to prove that they were Roman. It contains the only remaining amphitheatre in Europe (and one of three left in the world). It is magnificent to say the least. The stage wall is 37 metres high, 103 metres wide and there are seats for 10,000 people. At the height of the Roman empire it was used for performances more than 100 days in a year -until the Christians deemed stage shows to be 'indulgent' and called an end to performances on this magnificent stage, as part of the fall of the Roman lifestyle. It was then later sacked, burnt, lived in, used as barracks, then as a jail -
before finally being protected and restored in the 19th century. The visit lasted longer than perhaps strictly required -because we spent extended periods absorbing the magnificence of it from the safety of the shade. Do you like the 
photo of Shona and her new glasses bought in Orange? We then made a quick visit to the museum across the road which features the remains of the Roman cadastre (BCL -you would really really struggle to read these old records!) before heading over to the Arc de Triomphe as suggested. Sadly it was completely covered by scaffolding which kinda ruined the experience -however it was interesting to watch the 
experts working on it's preservation. More cold drinks were bought, more fountains were splashed over our feet and necks -and Mike bought his orange in Orange. The train back home was speedy and we finally managed to connect to the internet to touch base with the outside world. By the way -we thought that the thermometer on the pharmacy was broken because it always read 35 degrees regardless of what time we looked at it. We came home today and it read 38 degrees... so it's not broken -this place is just melting!
off at Sourges at 7:36am... but sadly the chocolate factory was on the road to Chateauneuf du Pape and this meant a 5km walk along the country roads of Provence. Thank goodness it was early as this meant the sun was not too hot! We arrived at our destination at 8:30am well before the workers arrived to open up 
at 9am. We saw a video on how chocolate is made, right from the planting of the trees in Ghana. It is a major industry for the country and a very labour intensive process. We sampled some truffles and checked out the small museum and shop. Sadly UPS had broken the hot chocolate machine and instead we had hot chocolate by buying some and eating it throughout the day in the sun. Unfortunately we can't bring any home because it is so hot over here we had to eat all of it... made for a yummy lunch! Shane - it is amazing and better than cadbury and does not contain palm oil! We walked back to the Sourges train station and caught the 11:53am train to Orange. Orange is a small city in Provence 
that went all out to prove that they were Roman. It contains the only remaining amphitheatre in Europe (and one of three left in the world). It is magnificent to say the least. The stage wall is 37 metres high, 103 metres wide and there are seats for 10,000 people. At the height of the Roman empire it was used for performances more than 100 days in a year -until the Christians deemed stage shows to be 'indulgent' and called an end to performances on this magnificent stage, as part of the fall of the Roman lifestyle. It was then later sacked, burnt, lived in, used as barracks, then as a jail -
before finally being protected and restored in the 19th century. The visit lasted longer than perhaps strictly required -because we spent extended periods absorbing the magnificence of it from the safety of the shade. Do you like the 
photo of Shona and her new glasses bought in Orange? We then made a quick visit to the museum across the road which features the remains of the Roman cadastre (BCL -you would really really struggle to read these old records!) before heading over to the Arc de Triomphe as suggested. Sadly it was completely covered by scaffolding which kinda ruined the experience -however it was interesting to watch the 
experts working on it's preservation. More cold drinks were bought, more fountains were splashed over our feet and necks -and Mike bought his orange in Orange. The train back home was speedy and we finally managed to connect to the internet to touch base with the outside world. By the way -we thought that the thermometer on the pharmacy was broken because it always read 35 degrees regardless of what time we looked at it. We came home today and it read 38 degrees... so it's not broken -this place is just melting!
Romans were awesome! (19th August)
Public transport around Provence is not as frequent and cheap as other places we have been too. So it was an early 6:30am start to 
catch the 7:45am bus (at a price of 7.40 euros per person) to take us on a 45 minute journey to Pont du Gard. The interesting thing about this trip is that the bus followed a route into some little side towns and it was cool to see these houses along the way. Pont du Gard is an AMAZING aqu
educt that the Romans built 2000 years ago to transport clean water from Uzes to the city of Nimes. Get your head around this: the water fell a total of 12 metres over the 50,000 metres in length. It is insane and would have required a seriously clever surveyor! The Romans pioneered clean water and waste water and all things water. Thanks to them Shona is able to have at least one shower every day. The bridge is incredible and is free to visit, but for 10 euros we got to walk 
through the top level where the water flowed and visit the museum. Totally worth it, even though the tour was in French (Shona did a good job of smiling and nodding and pretending to understand). We wished we had taken our togs to have a swim in the river as it was already super hot and the water so refreshing. Next time! We caught the 11:32 bus to Nimes in order to check out more Roman ingenuity. Nimes has the most intact arena in the world. When we say arena, think Colosseum, but smaller. It was really interesting to learn about the differen
t types of gladiators who fought and their tactics. Contrary to Hollywood's portrayal, they did not fight to the death. Mainly because if they died, the games master would have to pay the gladiators owner for the loss of his investment in the gladiator. They also had a referee to keep control of the match - so imagine boxing 2000 years ago. When the Romans conqueror a new empire they wanted to infiltrate the Roman 
way of life into the already established society. They did this by building identical arenas, theatres and forums in every city so as to remove patriotism and maintain uniformity. The arena is still used for gigs and as such there was a stage and scaffolding all around which meant our photos aren't quite as good as we wanted them to be. Nimes is also home to the Maison Caree (aptly called the square 
building) where we watched a 3D movie about the history of the citizens of Nimes throughout the ages. Lastly we climbed to the top of Tour Magne which ticked the box of a tour thing overlooking the city. This however is an old Roman ruin, which was part of the defence when it was a walled city. Funny fact is that Mike can sing a song from his school French lessons titled "I'm a little green frog (but in french). On the way up to Tour Magne we saw a pool with green frogs in it. So it's true they do have green frogs in France. We haven't eaten
any legs yet! To get home we missed two trains waiting in the queue to get tickets. Luckily we could make the last train, plus bought tickets for the next day and managed to eat very delicious pizzas while we waited. Did we mention it is still really hot at 9:30pm - 34 degrees says the sign. Cold showers again...
catch the 7:45am bus (at a price of 7.40 euros per person) to take us on a 45 minute journey to Pont du Gard. The interesting thing about this trip is that the bus followed a route into some little side towns and it was cool to see these houses along the way. Pont du Gard is an AMAZING aqu
educt that the Romans built 2000 years ago to transport clean water from Uzes to the city of Nimes. Get your head around this: the water fell a total of 12 metres over the 50,000 metres in length. It is insane and would have required a seriously clever surveyor! The Romans pioneered clean water and waste water and all things water. Thanks to them Shona is able to have at least one shower every day. The bridge is incredible and is free to visit, but for 10 euros we got to walk 
through the top level where the water flowed and visit the museum. Totally worth it, even though the tour was in French (Shona did a good job of smiling and nodding and pretending to understand). We wished we had taken our togs to have a swim in the river as it was already super hot and the water so refreshing. Next time! We caught the 11:32 bus to Nimes in order to check out more Roman ingenuity. Nimes has the most intact arena in the world. When we say arena, think Colosseum, but smaller. It was really interesting to learn about the differen
t types of gladiators who fought and their tactics. Contrary to Hollywood's portrayal, they did not fight to the death. Mainly because if they died, the games master would have to pay the gladiators owner for the loss of his investment in the gladiator. They also had a referee to keep control of the match - so imagine boxing 2000 years ago. When the Romans conqueror a new empire they wanted to infiltrate the Roman 
way of life into the already established society. They did this by building identical arenas, theatres and forums in every city so as to remove patriotism and maintain uniformity. The arena is still used for gigs and as such there was a stage and scaffolding all around which meant our photos aren't quite as good as we wanted them to be. Nimes is also home to the Maison Caree (aptly called the square 
building) where we watched a 3D movie about the history of the citizens of Nimes throughout the ages. Lastly we climbed to the top of Tour Magne which ticked the box of a tour thing overlooking the city. This however is an old Roman ruin, which was part of the defence when it was a walled city. Funny fact is that Mike can sing a song from his school French lessons titled "I'm a little green frog (but in french). On the way up to Tour Magne we saw a pool with green frogs in it. So it's true they do have green frogs in France. We haven't eaten
any legs yet! To get home we missed two trains waiting in the queue to get tickets. Luckily we could make the last train, plus bought tickets for the next day and managed to eat very delicious pizzas while we waited. Did we mention it is still really hot at 9:30pm - 34 degrees says the sign. Cold showers again...
On the road to Avignon (18 August)
Today's journey starts extremely early. We had been staying a 4 bed dorm with a Spanish couple. They are not on Busabout, but have been doing their own thing. We needed to be up at 6am to be ready for the 7:45am bus, so after dinner last night we completely packed our bags and left out the necessary clothes for today. After our walk and downloading emails to read on the bus we get to bed about midnight. The couple were already in bed. At 4:30am they wake up, and start packing all their gear into their bags. Needless to say they were less than quiet waking us up much much earlier than needed. By the time they left at 5:30am there was not much point in trying to sleep. We are interested to see what Spaniards in Spain will be like. In Stockholm we saw three Spanish couples arguing at each other at the top of their voices, while walking in the street. Another Spanish lady physically pushed past Shona to get off the boat quicker. So with this rude experience of Spaniards outside of Spain it will be a great experience to see what they are like in Spain. Watch this space and we'll keep you informed! The other frustration this morning is that the water bottle we left cooling in the mini fridge/freezer located in the stair well had disappeared between our morning shower and leaving. This doesn't sound like a big deal -but when the temperatures sit at over 30 degrees all day -it's Nice to have a cool refreshment! Our Red Bull also got stolen the day before -and I guess you can expect this sort of criminal behaviour when you're staying in a hostel full of Australians! Right Janine? We make it to the bus with plenty of time and just as well because there are three buses all leaving at the same time. La Tomatina is next week and lots of people are heading to Valencia to be part of the chaos. The bus ride is reasonably uneventful, so we catch up on reading emails (thanks everyone) and watching the French scenery whizz by. Avignon is 
on the bank of the Rhone river and right beside the city there is a small island where the bus stops to let the busabout people stay at the campground. We get off as well and then cross a bridge and go into the walled city itself to where we are staying right near the center of town. The bridge we cross is not the Pont d'Avignon (aka Pont St Benezet) which is the most famous monument in the city. That bridge was built after Benezet was instructed by God to join the Papal city to the other side of the river. He lifted a big rock to convince people he wasn't crazy, rather that there was divine intervention, so they all helped him build it. Over the next few hundred years around 20 floods (acts of God??) smashed the bridg
e down repeatedly... and after a while they got sick of rebuilding it and now only 4 of the 22 arches remain. We first off go on a wander around the city and do a tour of the Palace d'Papes -which is kinda underwhelming and a little bit boring... not helped by the fact that it gets very hot in this old (un-airconditioned) building. When there were troubles in Rome, the pope fled to Avignon and built a palace where eventually a total of 6 popes resided before it was safe to go back to Rome. Interesting factoid -Rome is actually where the pope is... for this reason Avignon was actually Rome for this period of time! Apparently it is the best Gothic palace left in Europe... however the highlight was probably 
the view from the roof while we ate our very cold ice blocks. We got the combination ticket to Pont d'Avignon -so it was pretty cool to have a look along that and see the views from the bridge/listen to the French song that keeps it famous. Dinner was in a resturant in the middle of the town square, omlette for Shona, steak (not so good) for Mike. A cold shower was well earned and sleep consisted of lying on the sheets because it was too hot to have them over us.
on the bank of the Rhone river and right beside the city there is a small island where the bus stops to let the busabout people stay at the campground. We get off as well and then cross a bridge and go into the walled city itself to where we are staying right near the center of town. The bridge we cross is not the Pont d'Avignon (aka Pont St Benezet) which is the most famous monument in the city. That bridge was built after Benezet was instructed by God to join the Papal city to the other side of the river. He lifted a big rock to convince people he wasn't crazy, rather that there was divine intervention, so they all helped him build it. Over the next few hundred years around 20 floods (acts of God??) smashed the bridg
e down repeatedly... and after a while they got sick of rebuilding it and now only 4 of the 22 arches remain. We first off go on a wander around the city and do a tour of the Palace d'Papes -which is kinda underwhelming and a little bit boring... not helped by the fact that it gets very hot in this old (un-airconditioned) building. When there were troubles in Rome, the pope fled to Avignon and built a palace where eventually a total of 6 popes resided before it was safe to go back to Rome. Interesting factoid -Rome is actually where the pope is... for this reason Avignon was actually Rome for this period of time! Apparently it is the best Gothic palace left in Europe... however the highlight was probably 
the view from the roof while we ate our very cold ice blocks. We got the combination ticket to Pont d'Avignon -so it was pretty cool to have a look along that and see the views from the bridge/listen to the French song that keeps it famous. Dinner was in a resturant in the middle of the town square, omlette for Shona, steak (not so good) for Mike. A cold shower was well earned and sleep consisted of lying on the sheets because it was too hot to have them over us.Smelly Grasse (17th August)
This was a pretty relaxing morning around the hostel, getting food from the Monoprix and finding out information about the bus network. Today we head to the centre of the perfume universe for the last two hundred years - Grasse. Part of the reason for going is that the original Fragonard perfumery factory is there - which is open to the public and provides a background to the art and the history of perfume making. Although there is a closer factory shop in 
Eze, it's definitely worth the 1 euro for the 1.5 hour bus trip out to this quaint little town. It's not the most beautiful village, but it's pretty cool... literally because the buildings are built so close together meaning the narrow roads are protected from the heat of the sun. The contrast between the heat of the sun and being in the shade is massive on a 35 degree day like today! Fragonard is an impressive operation - it's wonderful to be able to have a guided tour of the factory, especially because you can wait for a tour in English! Did you know that a 'nose' (a perfume developer) can differentiate between 250 scents after their first 3 years of study - and will increase this to over 2500 by the end of their 10 years of training? It was also interesting that the reason men have a smaller percentage of 'essence' in their aftershave is that their skin reacts differently and would give off more smell than female skin. The tour (not surprisingly) ends in the factory shop - where all of the 
perfumes, soap, body washes etc etc are for sale... Shona was surprisingly restrained. We then went to the Musee Internationale Perfumery which has some really interesting displays on the place of personal odour throughout history. Interestingly, bathing in the late 1800s French society saw bathing as unhygienic and as such never showered. On a nicer note the museum has a room where you let 'your senses guide you'... including sights, sound and of course smell (sadly no taste - as the melon scene had us salivating!) The randomly 
placed scent machines around the place were fun as well - we think we were able to pick most of them! All in all it was a very fun, pretty cheap, extremely relaxing and brilliantly smelly day out. The only down side is that we weren't able to make it over to Monaco for the changing of the guard - but that's just something that will have to wait for some other time in the riviera! We'd seen a quaint little creperie in Grasse, but at 6pm Shona wasn't hungry for dinner. Then when got back into Nice we searched for what seemed like forever (remember the 1.5 hour drive in between) for one in town. We gave up and had something else... but then of course found one when we went for a walk along the waterfront! So we got our crepe experience and also stumbled across a restaurant called Le Maori... it's amazing what you find in foreign countries!
Eze, it's definitely worth the 1 euro for the 1.5 hour bus trip out to this quaint little town. It's not the most beautiful village, but it's pretty cool... literally because the buildings are built so close together meaning the narrow roads are protected from the heat of the sun. The contrast between the heat of the sun and being in the shade is massive on a 35 degree day like today! Fragonard is an impressive operation - it's wonderful to be able to have a guided tour of the factory, especially because you can wait for a tour in English! Did you know that a 'nose' (a perfume developer) can differentiate between 250 scents after their first 3 years of study - and will increase this to over 2500 by the end of their 10 years of training? It was also interesting that the reason men have a smaller percentage of 'essence' in their aftershave is that their skin reacts differently and would give off more smell than female skin. The tour (not surprisingly) ends in the factory shop - where all of the 
perfumes, soap, body washes etc etc are for sale... Shona was surprisingly restrained. We then went to the Musee Internationale Perfumery which has some really interesting displays on the place of personal odour throughout history. Interestingly, bathing in the late 1800s French society saw bathing as unhygienic and as such never showered. On a nicer note the museum has a room where you let 'your senses guide you'... including sights, sound and of course smell (sadly no taste - as the melon scene had us salivating!) The randomly 
placed scent machines around the place were fun as well - we think we were able to pick most of them! All in all it was a very fun, pretty cheap, extremely relaxing and brilliantly smelly day out. The only down side is that we weren't able to make it over to Monaco for the changing of the guard - but that's just something that will have to wait for some other time in the riviera! We'd seen a quaint little creperie in Grasse, but at 6pm Shona wasn't hungry for dinner. Then when got back into Nice we searched for what seemed like forever (remember the 1.5 hour drive in between) for one in town. We gave up and had something else... but then of course found one when we went for a walk along the waterfront! So we got our crepe experience and also stumbled across a restaurant called Le Maori... it's amazing what you find in foreign countries!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
A very Nice day (16th August)
Like last night -it's fricken hot today so we decide not to do anything too too energetic until our bodies acclimatise from Switzerland to the 30 degrees of the French Riviera. 
First up we scare ourselves by thinking we have lost 250 euros. After the initial stress we realise we haven't lost it, we've just spent it! Our first stop is at Monoprix, a department store, for an 8GB USB port to back up our expanding photo collection plus breakfast and lunch. Chocolate croissants, baguette, ham and brie cheese is all we need in Nice. It is hot and sticky as we slowly make our way up castle hill. It used to be a castle, but now is a lovely park with awesome views across the Riviera and a pleasant waterfall to cool us down. At 2pm we head down to the beach and find ourselves a spot on 
the pebbles with all the other revellers. There were a few people making their way along the boardwalk, but most people were lying on the beach baking in the sun. A pebbled beach is surprisingly comfortable to lie on, you just have to rearrange the hot stones a little. When in France do as the French do, so Shona sunbathed topless front up for part of the day! We alternate between sunbathing and swimming in the 22 degree water. It's lovely and refreshing. After 2.5 hours we head back for a cold shower at the hostel. We then realise that once again Mike's pasty skin sizzles far 
faster than normal people, but no where near as bad as in NZ (at least he was smart enough to protect his face and neck). Hopefully the after sun we packed will work it's magic. It's washing time again and check our emails while we wait. As you've realised food is a big 
part of travelling and tonight we dined on cheese royal burgers, pomme fritz with mayo washed down with beer, courtesy of the local restaurant McDonald's. We allowed ourselves to have McD's in France because of the scene from Pulp Fiction, plus the ability to have beer. Mike said it tastes so much better with a Kronenburg!
First up we scare ourselves by thinking we have lost 250 euros. After the initial stress we realise we haven't lost it, we've just spent it! Our first stop is at Monoprix, a department store, for an 8GB USB port to back up our expanding photo collection plus breakfast and lunch. Chocolate croissants, baguette, ham and brie cheese is all we need in Nice. It is hot and sticky as we slowly make our way up castle hill. It used to be a castle, but now is a lovely park with awesome views across the Riviera and a pleasant waterfall to cool us down. At 2pm we head down to the beach and find ourselves a spot on 
the pebbles with all the other revellers. There were a few people making their way along the boardwalk, but most people were lying on the beach baking in the sun. A pebbled beach is surprisingly comfortable to lie on, you just have to rearrange the hot stones a little. When in France do as the French do, so Shona sunbathed topless front up for part of the day! We alternate between sunbathing and swimming in the 22 degree water. It's lovely and refreshing. After 2.5 hours we head back for a cold shower at the hostel. We then realise that once again Mike's pasty skin sizzles far 
faster than normal people, but no where near as bad as in NZ (at least he was smart enough to protect his face and neck). Hopefully the after sun we packed will work it's magic. It's washing time again and check our emails while we wait. As you've realised food is a big 
part of travelling and tonight we dined on cheese royal burgers, pomme fritz with mayo washed down with beer, courtesy of the local restaurant McDonald's. We allowed ourselves to have McD's in France because of the scene from Pulp Fiction, plus the ability to have beer. Mike said it tastes so much better with a Kronenburg!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Three countries -one day (15th August)
It's goodbye to Switzerland this morning as we start the Busabout portion of our holiday. The big blue bus takes off at 8am and after the initial paperwork (which includes getting o
ur "Traveller's Handbook" -a couple of days too late to take advantage of the Lauterbrunnen discounts!) we set sail for the southern boarder. The dvds aren't working on the bus, but the scenery more than makes up for that as Switzerland continues to impress. We're probably going to get well and truly sick of buses by the end of trip -but it's definitely nice to be on one as empty as this. We go through the 17km long St. Gotthard tunnel before crossing the border into Italy with "That's Amore" playing over the sound system. The detour into Italy is not just because it's the easiest way down to our next destination -it's also because Busabout has an optional stopover destination at Lake 
Como. It's a lovely lakeside city, but we agree that a quick photo stop and the view from the road is enough of a taste, rather than staying for two full days. The next few hours we have a taste of Tuscany... although it's a pretty random taste and isn't always the picture postcard country that you think of when you think of northern Italy. Some of the wooded valleys with little villages are very cute, but the motorway also goes past a LOT of built up areas with reasonably low quality apartment buildings and industrial areas. I guess this is ultimately a good reminder that although there is a lot of great scenery and culture in Europe -there's also a massive number of people in what is not a particularly large area. Don't worry -we won't hold I
taly accountable for the pizza we had at the roadside diner during our service break... and we fully expect to do a lot lot better when we return to this country next month. There's about a one and a half hour traffic delay caused by the French border, which our Slovakian driver blames on the number of Spanish holiday makers that we see. So we end up rolling into Nice a little bit late, but that's really not a problem because we're on holiday time anyway. The Busabout company has organised an optional 3 course dinner at a pub in the old town, which we decide to go to. The other 30 or so Busabouters are almost exclusively Australian -which makes us wonder if Busabout is the 21st century "Walkabout" that Aussie tend to go on. It's a bit weird being in an Irish pub full of Aussies in France, but the super rich mousse which Mike scores two of, makes up for that. After dinner we head to a pub called Wayne's World (again not exactly authentic) with a good live band, but call it quits at around midnight. It's amazing how busy the streets are at that time of the night, seems like dinners and socialising happen quite late over here as even children seem to be out a lot later than back home.
ur "Traveller's Handbook" -a couple of days too late to take advantage of the Lauterbrunnen discounts!) we set sail for the southern boarder. The dvds aren't working on the bus, but the scenery more than makes up for that as Switzerland continues to impress. We're probably going to get well and truly sick of buses by the end of trip -but it's definitely nice to be on one as empty as this. We go through the 17km long St. Gotthard tunnel before crossing the border into Italy with "That's Amore" playing over the sound system. The detour into Italy is not just because it's the easiest way down to our next destination -it's also because Busabout has an optional stopover destination at Lake 
Como. It's a lovely lakeside city, but we agree that a quick photo stop and the view from the road is enough of a taste, rather than staying for two full days. The next few hours we have a taste of Tuscany... although it's a pretty random taste and isn't always the picture postcard country that you think of when you think of northern Italy. Some of the wooded valleys with little villages are very cute, but the motorway also goes past a LOT of built up areas with reasonably low quality apartment buildings and industrial areas. I guess this is ultimately a good reminder that although there is a lot of great scenery and culture in Europe -there's also a massive number of people in what is not a particularly large area. Don't worry -we won't hold I
taly accountable for the pizza we had at the roadside diner during our service break... and we fully expect to do a lot lot better when we return to this country next month. There's about a one and a half hour traffic delay caused by the French border, which our Slovakian driver blames on the number of Spanish holiday makers that we see. So we end up rolling into Nice a little bit late, but that's really not a problem because we're on holiday time anyway. The Busabout company has organised an optional 3 course dinner at a pub in the old town, which we decide to go to. The other 30 or so Busabouters are almost exclusively Australian -which makes us wonder if Busabout is the 21st century "Walkabout" that Aussie tend to go on. It's a bit weird being in an Irish pub full of Aussies in France, but the super rich mousse which Mike scores two of, makes up for that. After dinner we head to a pub called Wayne's World (again not exactly authentic) with a good live band, but call it quits at around midnight. It's amazing how busy the streets are at that time of the night, seems like dinners and socialising happen quite late over here as even children seem to be out a lot later than back home.
What goes up must come down (14th August)
So there was no crazy early morning start today thank goodness, the trip we'd booked was very flexible regarding timing as it's not the tourist merry-go-round that Top of Europe is (by the way - it was funny to see on a map that there is actually
a peak slightly higher... but that one isn't supplied by a Bollywood so doesn't get the official recognition!). We catch a lunchtime cable car up the hill to Grutschalp and notice with interest that there's only one car running up and down on the same line. You might think that this is detrimental to the capacity, but the car holds HEAPS of people and the ride is pretty fast - so even in mid winter they can presumably get a lot of skiers up the hill each morning. There's nothing much at Grutschalpe other than the end of the 
cable car - so we transfer onto the waiting train that takes us to Murren. This is a picture perfect ride parallel to the valley floor... except at the top of the massive massive cliff that the cable car took us to the top of. It's pretty cool because it's the other side of the valley than where we were yesterday -and from here we can basically see where we walked down. Murren is a much more substantial but still quaint mountain village (except of course for the tourist aspect of it). The views are once again ridiculous and we spend a couple hours looking around the place, checking out the sports centre (where over the summer the ice skating rink has portable mini golf holes on it), the little shops, having an icecream and basically just soaking it in. The next leg of t
he trip is another cable car at around 4pm for a short distance to Gimmelwald... which again doesn't seem to have anything much too it other than what appears to be the world's most insane swing bridge. We see it from the cable car - but it doesn't seem to be a public access (rather just for some nutty locals) so instead we connect straight away for one of the world's most insane cable cars. Mike refers to it as a "cable elevator" because it goes so ridiculously steeply down the cliff face. There is really no poles supporting it up, except for the one a the top of the hill and the bottom. Fiona & John - you both would have HATED it!! There's a bit of a wait at the bottom before our bus comes (bang on time -don't forget the Swiss timing) and the only reason for the delay was because the cable ride was 
unscheduled... otherwise the Swiss transport is beautifully set up so that you arrive at a destination just in time to make any reasonable connection. Anyway -the bus takes us to the Trummelbach Falls which just might be the best CHF 11 you could ever spend. There is a series of 10 cascades for this waterfall which drains 3 glaciers we saw from Jungfraujoch. An elevator inside the mountain takes us (and a tour group of about 40 Indians) about half the way up - from where we walk up through a series of tunnels to see the highest of the internal cascades. We can't get our head around the fact that the admission is so reasonable - considering the about of work that must have gone into digging the tunnels, constructing the viewing platforms and running the elevator. The waterfalls are incredible -and just as much so when the cascades continue into the more open air. It's hard to imagine just how much water must come down here when there's also been heavy rain in the last couple of days! The ticket we'd purchased for the day included a bus back to Lauterbrunnen -however we opt to walk the 30 mins we were told it would take. This turns out to be a wonderful option because although Shona is hurting from the day before, the views up the valley are amazing and we have a pleasant surprise along the way. Shona spots a man above us with a parachute that seems to have appeared out out nowhere, when we go past his landing spot we talk to him (and a guy taking photos who speaks better English) who informs us that he'd just base jumped from one side of the valley. Base jumping is parachuting but instead of out of a helicopter you jump off a cliff or building. We're told 3 m
ore guys are about to jump from the other side at a jump spot called the nose!! We can't make them out at the top of the cliff but when they jump we see 3 little black star shapes plummet downwards... one falling slightly slower because he has a drag device attached to his suit. Can you spot him in the photo Shona took?? (click on the photo to enlarge). Apparently it was their forth jump of the day - crazy! Dinner tonight is at the campground restaurant because Shona wants to try the rosti - which is a traditional Swiss potato dish. It's grated potato, fried with bacon, onion and melted cheese, topped with a fried egg. It's very similar to the one Mike had on the archipelago except the potato is grated not cubed and there is a generous helping of Swiss cheese mixed through. Because everything is better with cheese -the Swiss version wins. It's quieter tonight because there isn't a Contiki fluro party happening... we're already glad we have chosen Busabout and we go to sleep excited to be starting the next chapter of our travels tomorrow.
a peak slightly higher... but that one isn't supplied by a Bollywood so doesn't get the official recognition!). We catch a lunchtime cable car up the hill to Grutschalp and notice with interest that there's only one car running up and down on the same line. You might think that this is detrimental to the capacity, but the car holds HEAPS of people and the ride is pretty fast - so even in mid winter they can presumably get a lot of skiers up the hill each morning. There's nothing much at Grutschalpe other than the end of the 
cable car - so we transfer onto the waiting train that takes us to Murren. This is a picture perfect ride parallel to the valley floor... except at the top of the massive massive cliff that the cable car took us to the top of. It's pretty cool because it's the other side of the valley than where we were yesterday -and from here we can basically see where we walked down. Murren is a much more substantial but still quaint mountain village (except of course for the tourist aspect of it). The views are once again ridiculous and we spend a couple hours looking around the place, checking out the sports centre (where over the summer the ice skating rink has portable mini golf holes on it), the little shops, having an icecream and basically just soaking it in. The next leg of t
he trip is another cable car at around 4pm for a short distance to Gimmelwald... which again doesn't seem to have anything much too it other than what appears to be the world's most insane swing bridge. We see it from the cable car - but it doesn't seem to be a public access (rather just for some nutty locals) so instead we connect straight away for one of the world's most insane cable cars. Mike refers to it as a "cable elevator" because it goes so ridiculously steeply down the cliff face. There is really no poles supporting it up, except for the one a the top of the hill and the bottom. Fiona & John - you both would have HATED it!! There's a bit of a wait at the bottom before our bus comes (bang on time -don't forget the Swiss timing) and the only reason for the delay was because the cable ride was 
unscheduled... otherwise the Swiss transport is beautifully set up so that you arrive at a destination just in time to make any reasonable connection. Anyway -the bus takes us to the Trummelbach Falls which just might be the best CHF 11 you could ever spend. There is a series of 10 cascades for this waterfall which drains 3 glaciers we saw from Jungfraujoch. An elevator inside the mountain takes us (and a tour group of about 40 Indians) about half the way up - from where we walk up through a series of tunnels to see the highest of the internal cascades. We can't get our head around the fact that the admission is so reasonable - considering the about of work that must have gone into digging the tunnels, constructing the viewing platforms and running the elevator. The waterfalls are incredible -and just as much so when the cascades continue into the more open air. It's hard to imagine just how much water must come down here when there's also been heavy rain in the last couple of days! The ticket we'd purchased for the day included a bus back to Lauterbrunnen -however we opt to walk the 30 mins we were told it would take. This turns out to be a wonderful option because although Shona is hurting from the day before, the views up the valley are amazing and we have a pleasant surprise along the way. Shona spots a man above us with a parachute that seems to have appeared out out nowhere, when we go past his landing spot we talk to him (and a guy taking photos who speaks better English) who informs us that he'd just base jumped from one side of the valley. Base jumping is parachuting but instead of out of a helicopter you jump off a cliff or building. We're told 3 m
ore guys are about to jump from the other side at a jump spot called the nose!! We can't make them out at the top of the cliff but when they jump we see 3 little black star shapes plummet downwards... one falling slightly slower because he has a drag device attached to his suit. Can you spot him in the photo Shona took?? (click on the photo to enlarge). Apparently it was their forth jump of the day - crazy! Dinner tonight is at the campground restaurant because Shona wants to try the rosti - which is a traditional Swiss potato dish. It's grated potato, fried with bacon, onion and melted cheese, topped with a fried egg. It's very similar to the one Mike had on the archipelago except the potato is grated not cubed and there is a generous helping of Swiss cheese mixed through. Because everything is better with cheese -the Swiss version wins. It's quieter tonight because there isn't a Contiki fluro party happening... we're already glad we have chosen Busabout and we go to sleep excited to be starting the next chapter of our travels tomorrow.
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