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Friday, January 9th, 2009
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5:52 pm - Australia the movie.
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I'd heard some less than flattering reviews of Australia before I went to see it last night so my expectations weren't high.
The movie however was surprisingly entertaining and visually beautiful.
Yes it was to long. Towards the last third of the movie there a several times where you think 'ok, that's the end of the movie, wait, no, its still going *keep watching*, ah, ok That's the end of the movie, nooooo, still going . . .' almost as if the director couldn't bear to end it without every last detail being wrapped up and contrasting the vast vistas of the Australian outback with impressive images of Darwin being blow up.
I've read reviews that criticise the movie for trying and failing to grapple with the issue of the stole generation but I think that's to harsh. It is a highly entertaining epic romance with a some interesting information about the stolen generation in a very palatable format. Its not trying to be a hard hitting historical account.
Yes it made me homesick. Having been away from Aus for three years now I know the only way to deal with it is to just not think about it. Seeing a movie drenched with images of vast open spaces, starry filled skies, scorching red earth and endless trees of the outback reminds me that when its all said and done, I really do still call Australia home.
A final note on the eye candy front: all I can say is if all the guys in back home looked like Hugh Jackman I would Not be over here right now. Trust me girls its well worth seeing on this count alone!
*wave*
S.
current mood:  entertained
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(comment on this)
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| Sunday, November 30th, 2008
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10:20 pm - Amazing, Awsome Africa
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I don't know how to do the shortened link thing so appolgies if I've just sucked up everyone's friends site for pages and pages . ..
Written on Sunday 23rd Nov and over the following week:
Greetings everyone. It’s the day after I got back from three glorious weeks in Africa. I simply can’t believe how fast it’s gone. This time last week I was wandering around the world heritage listed Stone Town on the beautiful Zanzibar Island off the coast of Tanzania. Today I’m sitting in my room in London and its snowed last night.
So in order to prolong the memories and pretend I’m still there I’m doing my Africa write up now. I hope you enjoy it, and that it gives you some of a sense of the awesome and amazing trip I’ve been on.
Sat 1st November, 2008
The journey from London is largely uneventful. As the plain circles Nairobi before landing I see a thunder storm from above the clouds in the fading darkness. The lighting flashes and I feel the faint rumble of thunder through my seat. Forks of light illuminate the billowing clouds in the inky darkness. I watch for several enthralled mins, my face glued to the window before the plan turns around and we prepare for landing.
My first notable experience in Africa is just after I’ve arrived at Nairobi airport and am following my driver to the car. I am jet lagged, feeling highly paranoid and there is one heart stopping moment when I think I’ve had my purse stolen, only to find it seconds later in another pocket. It’s dark, hot and humid as we drive to the hotel and the back of the taxi smells like musty old socks. The road is so bad we keep having to slow down for ruts in the road and huge pot holes, but is none the less lined with huge, brightly light bill boards advertising every thing from mobile phones to plasma TVs. These bill boards would become a regular feature on my trip through Africa, at times the most modern and clean thing next to a sea of shanty towns with muddy alley ways and no running water.
More than anywhere else I have been to in the world so far, Africa is a land of immense contrasts. The natural beauty, stunning scenery and amazing wild life simply takes your breath away. The sense of wonder and amazement is matched only by the heart wrenching, gut wrenching, simply appalling conditions and poverty that most of the human population appear to live in. Endless shanty towns of tiny wooden shacks with tin roofs and without basic sanitation lining narrow, muddy alleyways, painted with advertisements for mobile phone companies and Coca-Cola as far as the eye can see…
My first night in the hotel is uneventful and the following morning I’m driven down to Kembu campsite in the Mau Escarpment overlooking the Rift valley, about half a days drive from Nairobi, to meet the Absolute Africa truck and the rest of my group. The views of the Rift Valley on the way down a beautiful, but my anti malaria’s aren’t agreeing with me and I spend much of the drive feeling seedy and trying not get stressed out by the culture shock of seeing the sea of shanty towns we keep driving past. In a moment of perverse coincidence I see my old housemate Dan from Hammersmith as I walk over the group to introduce myself and realise we’re on the same truck. It’s very surreal in a slightly freaky way, but nice to have someone one else in the group I already know. With me and the other guy I drove down with there are now eighteen of us on the truck. It’s made up of the usual mix of mostly Aussies with a generous handful of kiwi’s and a scattering of Europeans. The group is made up of a mix of people joining the truck for different periods of time. I’m only on a three week trip but there are a few others who joined at the start of the trip a few weeks ago and are staying on for the whole seventy two days till just before new years. The truck is named Pumba and is huge and yellow with Absolute Africa splashed along the side, storage underneath for food, the tents and our packs and the cabin where we sit high above the ground on top. The tents are quite roomy three person dome tents with two of us in each tent.
Mon 3rd Nov
After packing up camp we pile onto the truck and drive to Lake Nakuru National Park for a game drive. The others read or sleep or play cards, but journey is still novel to me and I spend the morning gazing out at the beautiful sunny scenery sliding by with a smile on my face.
Lake Nakuru is large, salty and fringed with flocks of colourful pink flamingos. The afternoon’s game drive is remarkable and I rapidly start ticking things off my list of wildlife I wanted to see in Africa. We see families of zebra’s grazing together and herds of water buffalos, impalas and other gazelle. We see fat wart hogs with cute piglets trotting away and families of black and white colobos monkeys scampering through trees. Despite their Disney reputation (think Pumba in the Lion King) in real life wart hogs are incredibly ugly, but look really cute when they are trotting along with their legs pumping and their tails held high in the air.
We are lucky enough to see a black rhino browsing in amongst the bushes. Black rhinos are much more elusive than their more common white relatives and are part of ‘the big five’. The major distinguishing feature between the two is the shape of the mouth. Black rhinos browse in scrubby areas on bushes and have a narrow, beak shaped mouth. In contrast white rhinos graze in open grasslands and have a much wider mouth. At the time of colonisation the European’s misinterpreted ‘wide rhino’ as ‘white rhino’, leading to the naming of black versus white rhinos which confusingly has little to do with colour. The big five is made up of the black rhino, elephant, water buffalo, lion and leopard. Back in the good old days these five animals were considered the hardest and most dangerous to hunt and many a white hunter ventured into the African bush to prove their prowess by shooting the big five. These days shooting the big five is a tourist term referring to capturing the big five on camera. The big five misses out on several of the animals I wanted to see in Africa and I instead put together a list of Sarah’s special seven or so, which also includes hippos, giraffes, zebras, cheetahs, flamingos and monkeys.
That night we wild camped in the park with nothing but a fire and thin tent walls to keep the animals at bay.
The following morning it’s up early for another game drive. I get see my first giraffes which are even more impressive in real life than any picture in a book can do justice to. They are immense creatures that remind me of some vast, mammalian diplodocus with their long necks stretching though the tree tops. We see a large family of around eight individuals feeding close by and are thrilled when they walk up to truck and cross the road not five metres in front of us. They are so tall they would have to stoop their heads to look into the high windows of truck. A short while later a water buffalo takes issues with the truck and charges us. Impact is avoided by pothole that throw’s him off course, narrowing avoiding a collusion much to the disappointment of everyone poised with cameras as he started charging. There are pairs of white rhinos grazing in the open and a large individual lying close to the truck who obligingly sits still for photos. As we drive back into the trees everyone is looking intently for leopards and we see groups of baboons in the distance. That morning we see our first lions on the trip, about forty meters away from the truck. It’s a small family group with a female on top of a large dead tree trunk with a couple of youngsters on the broken, leaning trunk and a couple of other females lying low in the grass.
In the afternoon we drive to our campsite on Lake Narivasha. After a night’s bush camping I am desperate for a shower and brave the cold water to wash my hair. I have only been on safari for a few days and have already gotten used to flushing toilets and hot showers being a luxury rather than the norm. It’s amazing how quickly the truck starts to feel like your whole world. You spend the day driving around in the truck and doing stuff with the group, before arriving in the evening and setting up camp. Pitch tents, make dinner if you’re on dinner duty or maybe clean the truck before sitting around on camp stools in a circle eating dinner with the group. Have a few drinks and chat to people before going to bed and waking up the next day, packing up camp, getting back in the truck and doing it all over again.
Despite feeling poorly the next morning I am determined to see the hippos and take a fist full of drugs and make it to today’s excursion out to the lake. As we don life vests and the boast sinks lower into the water I begin to wonder about the wiseness of brining my good camera, but it’s to late now as we push off and head off to a large island in the lake with a crater lake in the centre. On the boat ride out we see our first hippos much to my delight. They sit low in the water and all you can see of their vast bulk is the top of their heads and their eyes and ears peaking above the water line. On the island we go on a walking safari and are able to get within meters of giraffes, zebras and gazelle. It’s a totally different experience being at ground level with these creatures, gazing up at the long necks of the giraffes and being at eye level of zebras, rather than peering out at them from the safety of the truck windows. There is nothing between us by air and the graceful nature of these remarkable animals. The walk up and over the edge of crater is hot but worth it as we descend into a lush green oasis with a small village of thatched buildings on the edge of the lake. The main building turns out to be a bar and we sit and catch our breath looking out over the small lake, drinking cold beers and soda. Coke, Sprit and Fanta is every where here and comes in tall glass bottles that are recycled and refilled over and over again.
I am photographing some small, brightly coloured birds splashing in a near by bird bath when one of the bar guys starts chatting to me. He asks if I’ve seen the black and white colobos monkeys that live in the area and offers to show them to me when I admit I haven’t seen any that day. With a quick ‘I’m off to see the monkeys’ thrown over my shoulder I follow the guy out of the bar and up a path around the side. Other guy joins us and the two of them talk in Swahili up ahead of me. The second guy is carrying a large jungle knife and I begin to wonder if it was a good idea to go off on my own like this. We turn off the steps onto a narrow path in the bushes and the second guy continues up the steps. I breath a private sigh of relief but decide if the guy with the knife comes up behind me I’ll make up an excuse to go back to the others. After a few mins walking we suddenly come across a family of colobos monkeys not five meters above us in the trees. I look around and the guy points out a mother with a young baby less than two meters above me in on a branch, almost close enough to reach out a touch. My camera is in full swing and I get an excellent shot of the mother looking straight at me as I stare up at them in delighted fascination.
On the boat ride back to camp we stop to pick up fish from some local fishermen to entice the fish eagles living around the lake. The fishermen are waste to neck deep in the water with wild hippos wallowing close by. They are throwing nets into the water and their ebony skill gleams and glistens with water from the lake. In a moment of surealness I see one of them has a mobile phone carefully wrapped up in a plastic bag hanging from the back of his baseball cap just above the water line. . .
Thursday 6th November
After a days driving through the rain we arrive at the second highest town in Kenya and end up camping on the grounds of a hotel because the campsite we were going to go to is to wet. Upgrades are available but a very expensive because the hotel is allegedly ‘high end’ accommodation despite the large numbers of hookers in the bar that evening and everyone elects to pitch tents on the wet ground. I thought it was meant to be the end of the dry season before I left but our guide and cook have said it’s the beginning of rainy season. This is reinforced by the frequent deluges at a night when you lay their in the tent thinking the rain will never end and convincing yourself you don’t need to go to the bathroom.
Our next game drive is at Sweetwater Reserve, a private reserve located below Mount Kenya with a large chimpanzee sanctuary. For this drive we are picked up by a smaller vehicle better able to handle the wet conditions. The truck is a more traditional safari vehicle with open sides, dusty bucket seats, rusty window sills, see through pvc windows that roll up to allow better viewing and sits lower to the ground that our huge yellow Absolute Africa truck. Not long after starting our drive we see our first elephants of the trip, a family group with a gorgeous baby elephant amongst them. As with giraffes, pictures in books or even seeing them in zoo’s simply doesn’t do justice to seeing these vast animals roaming in the wild with their large leathery grey hides, huge feet, prehensile trunks and white tusks gleaming in the sunshine wandering through the near by bushes. Next we saw what for me was one of the highlights of my trip. Near by the track up head was a male and female lion. As the truck approached they got up and moved off a short distance, before sitting themselves down again in the near by bushes in almost full view not five meters away from the truck. We spent five or ten incredible minutes watching and eyeballing and taking photos of the two lions watching us and looking at us. I was hoping to at least see some lions while on this trip, but to sit their practically eye to eye with a male and female and have them looking straight at me what more than I could have hoped for. Simply amazing.
The days entertainment was far from over however as the chimp sanctuary was next. The sanctuary includes a number of rescued individuals and covers a sizable area with two groups of chimps. It’s surrounded by a high, electrified wire fence for both their and our protection. Chimps are natural entertainers and some individuals were obviously happy to have an audience. One in particular ran along fence line a number of times grabbing handfuls of mud and flinging it at a group of us huddled beneath the viewing platform during a downpour, much to the delighted screams and peels of laughter from everyone. As he approached we would all try to hide behind one another then peer over everyone’s shoulders at the people left standing at the front who would frequently cope a handful of wet mud! The chimps were simply fascinating to watch and I got the distinct impression they found us just as interesting. The sanctuary covers a large area and the chimps could easily disappear into the bushes rather than sitting and walking near the viewing area where we were.
Sat 8th November
The day of my 30th Birthday we packed up camp early and where on the road by 5am. We needed to reach Sheldrick’s Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi in time for the morning feeding session. After a long drive during which we passed the second largest shanty town in Africa on the outskirts of Nairobi we arrived at the orphanage. The baby elephants have all been rescued from the wild and are in process of being rehabilitated. The babies were lead out to a roped off areas with their keepers and feed with huge bottles the size of soft drink bottles. The really young ones are less than a year old, barely come up to my waste and are incredibly cute! They are unsteady on their feet and slip and side in the thick, gluey red mud and are covered in blankets to keep them warm. Some of the babies walk over to us and much to my delight I’m able to pat some of them. Their skin is think, leathery, dimpled and surprisingly warm. Next was the slightly older babies, a bit bigger but still cute and very entertaining!
Next we were off to a giraffe reserve. We’d already seen loads of wild giraffes by the point and weren’t to impressed by the idea of seeing captive ones. What they didn’t tell us was at this reserve you actually got to feed and pat the giraffes. So after a morning spent watching and patting baby elephants on my 30th Birthday I then got to feed and pat a number of giraffes and I have the photos to prove it! Patting the baby elephants and feeding and patting the giraffes was defiantly another highlight of my trip. Giraffes are lovely creatures with long blue tongues and surprisingly sticky spit!
At camp that afternoon everyone upgraded to rooms or dorms and I elected to treat myself to my own room with a big bed for my birthday. The room was basic, but the bed was comfortable enough and was defiantly better than sleeping in a damp tent!
For dinner that night we went to a place called Carnivores of all places, allegedly one of the top 50 restaurants in the world (yes I laughed as well). As everyone else ate their way through half the Serengeti plan I sat there with a piece of fish and amused myself by trying all the different meat sauces on my fish. For desert the waiters brought out a birthday cake with Happy Birthday Sarah on it and sang Happy Birthday to me in Swahili :). Not a bad way to start my 30’s I have to say.
Sunday morning and it was up early again to pick up another ten people from the Heron Hotel. The truck is now full and there are no spare seats. We settle in for a days driving as we head out of Kenya and into Tanzania. I stare out the window as the landscape slid by, trying to read my book and taking photos of the odd rainbow out the window as the rain came down. After a long day we arrived in Arusha and camp site called Snake Pit.
Mon 10th Nov
Today we split up into smaller 4WD’s for a three day trip to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater. There is some selective packing as everyone tries to cram cloths, camera’s and water for three days into small day packs to take with us.
There’s about eight of us in a truck and I’m in with a bunch of new people who’ve just joined the group. It’s nice to be in a smaller vehicle for a bit – it doesn’t fell like we’re being carted around with all 28 of us for once. On the way out we stop at a small town for water and to try the local specialty, red bananas. As a tourist in Africa you really stick out like a sore thumb and there are places where we were practically mobbed as we got off the truck by people trying to sell us jewellery, hats, post cards, food, sunglasses and just about anything else you can think of. After some quick negotiations with the local street sellers we have a small bunch of red bananas. Red bananas are stubbier and sweeter than there yellow counter parts, but equally delicious.
As we get closer to the Serengeti and drive up and over hills surrounding Ngorongoro Crater the roads deteriorate and become increasingly bumpy. I give up trying to read my book and peer out the window through the curtain of rain that’s pouring down. I wonder where on earth we’ll sleep tonight if the rain doesn’t ease up or how much wildlife we’ll see, but by the time we reach the entrance to the park the rain has cleared and we begin our first game drive though the Serengeti.
The Serengeti is one of the most stunning landscapes I’ve ever had the privilege of experiencing. After living in London for so long the immense landscape, sense of space and endless horizon is simply breath taking. You finally feel like you have room to breath again. Like you can stretch and exhale and expand and sink right into the landscape. Coupled with this sense of wonder and space was my delight at seeing wild animal I’d only ever seen in books or zoo’s. We were incredibly lucky and saw heaps of animals including two leopards lazing in trees, three cheetahs slinking through the tall grass, pools of wallowing hippo and countless lions. It got to the point with the lions where it was like ‘that lion’s just lying the grass not doing anything interesting, I’m not even going to bother taking a photo. . .’.
There are times you feel like you’re in a real life version of The Lion King which was based on the Serengeti plain. Rocky out crops rise from endless grassy plains with prides of sleepy lions lazing on top. Wart hogs trot through the tall grass. Large herds of wilder beast keep a watchful eye on passers by. Zebras, impala and gazelle graze in the distance. Fat hippos wallow in muddy rivers, their vast bulk barely concealed by the murky water.
That night we wild camped in a basic but beautiful site deep in the Serengeti. As the fire burnt down to glowing embers, we are told not to use the bathrooms on the other side of the camp. Just before bed I pop behind the tent and look out into the surrounding bush with my head torch. I am greeted by three sets of eye shine, blinking and bobbing the middle distance. In the morning we find hyena prints not half a meter outside our tent and lion prints less than two metres away . . .
Another game drive in the morning. A pride of female lions who approach and pass between the trucks just meters away, then onto some near by trees where two individuals rather unsuccessfully try to climb trees, much to our amusement. Two cheetahs on grassy mounds, their tails flicking and their sleek heads peering at us above the tall grass, before slinking off into the distance. Large groups of baboons scampering towards the truck and along the road, small babies clinging to mums, adolescence play fighting and a large, dominate male keeping a watchful eye on both us and the group. Leopards lazing in tall acacia trees, their paws hanging down and the occasional flick of a spotted tail the only sign of life, a fresh kill wedged in a near by tree fork.
After a long days game driving we visit a Maasai village, possibly one of the most contrived travel experiences I’ve ever had. We are shepherded off the truck and into a clearing outside the village. After ten minutes during which the chief, wrapped in brightly coloured blanket, walks around counting and recounting and making dam sure everyone has paid their 10,000 Tanzanian Shillings (about $10 USD), they rest of the village come out and do a ‘dance’ for us. We are told we can take photos and everyone starts snapping away. We are led inside the prickly outer walls and shown a display of traditional jumping. The guys are invited to join in and some of the girls are handed colourful beaded necklaces and encouraged to take part in the surrounding shoulder bouncing. I know we have been given permission to take photos, that we’ve even paid for the privilege to do so, but I still feel weird shoving my camera in people’s faces. As the others are shown how to throw a spear, I stand back, use my zoom to try and get some more candid shoots. The worst by far was the ‘school’, a small hut full of village children who then ‘count’ and ‘read’ from a blackboard that’s obviously not been re-written in weeks, if not longer. Some of the others from the truck try to get the kids to smile for photos but I’m feeling deeply uncomfortable about what feels like the village parading their kids for the rich western tourists. After we are shown inside the small mud huts we are strongly encouraged to buy some of the multitude of hand made jewellery displayed around the centre of the village in a long, continuous circle.
I tell myself this is the only way I would have been able to experience anything resembling an African village. That the money we paid is going towards positive things like cows and food and maybe vaccinations for the kids. That it’s a way of the village earning an income and they are just responding to demand. At the same time however much of the experience felt like a disneyfied, caricatured, clichéd show for the tourists. I couldn’t help wondering if there was a more ‘real’ village somewhere in the area with goats and chickens running around and where you were not pressured to buy something from craft market. I wanted to go off on my own with a car and find one of Those villages. But then I guess that’s what everyone wants. Everyone wants to have a unique and ‘authentic’ encounter with the local culture or indigenous people of a country. No one wants to feel they are getting a contrived, made for tourists experience to feel like a cash cow. As a traveller though I am probably one of tens, hundreds or even thousands of other travellers seeking a more ‘authentic’ experience. Is it right that each and everyone of us should go out and find a new village with which to have our own authentic experience, bringing with us the trappings of the modern world and paving the way for others to follow? Or is it better to take us all to a village like they did and at least contain the effects of well meaning but essentially voyeuristic travellers to a few small villages and leave the rest in peace? Is it possible for travellers to get off the beaten track and discover new places without paving the way for more and more travellers, and thus the potential for modern, ugly, inappropriate tourist infrastructure that mushrooms like a fungus and destroys what ever tranquil and authentic qualities the place had in the first place?
But I digress, back to Africa . . .
The night is spent at a campsite on top of the crater which gets considerably colder that the previous evening on the Serengeti plain. We are under strict instructions not to leave any food in our tents as it will attract the wild boar and they will break into our tents if they smell food inside. The following morning its back into the trucks for a drive into the crater. There is less wildlife but the landscape is one again stunning, surrounded on all sides by the vast walls of the crater. We see a lake fringed with flamingos, and a pool full of hippos with babies I was mesmerised by and could have sat their watching all day. There are lots of hyenas and a few more wart hogs. The baby hyenas are cute by the adults are scraggily looking and move in an ungainly way. I take a few photos but after two days of wild camping I am trying to save my battery power for elephants. I am soon rewarded by some huge bull elephants who walk up to trucks and cross track in front of us, their huge ears flapping in breeze and gleaming long white tusks glinting in the sunlight.
Not packing up the tents in the morning turns out to be a bad idea as it’s absolutely bucketing when we get back. Almost everything and everyone gets soaked as we dash around packing up in the monsoonal deluge. As we drive up to park entrance a few hours later rain has fortunately stopped and we all scrabble to find dry cloths for drive back to Arusha. Back to the Snake Pit campsite and there’s no choice other than to pitch the soaking wet tents. To everyone’s relive the rain holds off and we are able to dry out our tents tent before night falls.
Thursday 13th November
When we leave Snake Pit campsite we have two driving days ahead of us to reach Dar Es Salaam. The novelty of the truck is wearing off and I’m very glade I brought a sports bra with me. I decided it’s my turn to sit up the back for a bit where it’s know to be more bumpy and by the end of the day I’m defiantly shaken, not stirred. At some points it’s to bumpy to even read my book, let alone contemplate writing in my travel journal. When we stop for lunch I decide I’m sick of crackers and cheese from supermarkets and opt for ready made food. I wonder away from the others and find a modern café which serves me up possibly the best sandwich I’ve had in ages, a toasted affair with avocado, mayo and tuna. Delicious.
We make camp at a half way point somewhere along the road. The camp site has a slightly green looking pool, bright red soil, lush green grass and an army of crickets and other creepy crawlies. The air is hotter and more humid and we’re told to put plenty of deet on because of the mozzies. Up early and another day’s driving. It’s my last day on the truck so I sit up front and curl up to try and catch up on some sleep.
After another long days drive we finally arrive at Silver Sands camp site located right on the beach outside Dar Es Salaam. We’re all exhausted from two days in the truck so after pitching the tents we hit the beach for a swim and a well earned rest. I finally get to break in my new swimmers from New York that have been languishing in my wardrobe in London since Easter. It’s only the second time I’ve swam in the Indian Ocean (the first was off the coast of Western Australia some years ago). The water is so warm it’s like walking into a vast, salty bath tub. The moon is full and we build a big bonfire on the beach and sit around chatting and watching the moon sparkling over the inky ocean.
Fri 14th Nov
It’s with a tinge of regret that I gather up my things from the truck and prepare to leave it behind. The last two weeks have been amazing and the truck and the people on it have been the centre of my world. As our packs are hefted up and we board the ferry I take one last lingering look at the mainland before turning my eyes towards the open ocean and Zanzibar Island beyond.
Our first port of call on Zanzibar is Stone Town, a world heritage listed site with a distinctly Arabic feel. Zanzibar Island was the major port for the Arab slave traders back in the day and the vast majority of the slaves exported out of east Africa would have come through here. The island still maintains is Arabic roots with most the population being Muslim. The town is reminiscent of Marrakesh, with its ornately carved wooded doors and bustling, narrow market streets. In addition to slaves the island was, and still is, know for spices which account for about 70% of the agriculture grown on the island. We are taken on a fascinating tour of a local spice farm and shown and get to taste all manor of fresh spices including pepper corns, cardamom, nutmeg, almonds, lemon grass and my personal favourites ginger, cinnamon and cloves. The taste of the freshly picked spices is incomparable to the standard supermarket brought ones I’m used to. Like watching black and white TV and suddenly switching to bright, lurid technicolour. The flavours are fresh and intense and the aromas waft through your senses and inspire you to cook something. The freshly dug ginger was just amazing, its spicy, pungent flavour tingling the tongue and warming your insides and the coconut juice from a freshly picked coconut sweet and refreshing.
Before the spice tour we have lunch at our temporary tour leader’s house, a local guide with a cockney London accent of all things. His English teacher is from London and has taught him to speak v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and c-l-e-a-r-l-y and to use cockney slag of all things. His English is very good but he keeps pausing in weird places and you find yourself holding your breath and waiting for him to continue. We are driven up in our mini bus then get out too walk the rest of the way. The narrow alleys between the houses are lined with sand and lush green vegetation fringes the concrete brick houses. There are chickens scratching in the sand and local kids running between houses playing games. The quality of life of the local people here defiantly seems better than much of the rest of Africa, where the endless shanty towns and muddy streets have almost made me feel sick to my stomach.
Lunch is served by our guide’s wife and family on large rug in his back yard. We are handed mismatched plates and cutlery to eat off and served a simple but delicious home cooked meal of salad, rice with cloves and potatoes and some sort of meat (for the others), all washed down with yummy orange and pineapple juice. A little girl from the house, cute as a button with braded hair and henna tattoos wanders over to say hello and the household cat keeps a watchful, lazy eye on us. I’m sure our guide and his family are getting paid well for this but all in all it feels like a much more genuine experience and I feel I have had a rare opportunity to glimpse into the everyday lives of the locals living on the island.
For my stay on Zanzibar I have paid extra for my own room for the last part of my trip. I am expecting a small room with a single bed and am amazed and delighted when I open the door to my room in Stone Town and find a huge bed that’s bigger than the tent I was staying in And my own bathroom. Heaven and bliss.
In the evening it’s off to the night market, a much talked up spectacle that turns out to be a single street with mostly food stalls. I’m expecting something to rival the night markets I’ve been to in Melbourne or the Northern Territory and am slightly disappointed by the small size of it. The food is excellent however and I chow down on a ‘pizza’, a delicious pastry type thing with cheese, egg and vegetables whisked up in front of you then grilled on a sizzling, flat wok type thing. I sip on a cane sugar drink with fresh ginger, a local specialty, before heading to a Reggie bar with the others to dance the night away.
Sat 15th Nov
A few hours for some last min market shopping the next morning and it’s off to Kendwa Beach to the North of the Island for several sun filled days of swimming, lying in the sun, reading books and diving. There’s some confusion when we arrive and my rooms not ready. I’m hot and sweaty and just want to hit the beach and our tour leader Kenyo kindly offers me his room. The bed is a lovely wooded four poster affair that’s actually bigger than the one in my room in Stone Town, quite and achievement under the circumstances and I have my own bathroom again, this time with hot water. I put down my heavy pack and flop down diagonally on the massive bed for a few mins before changing into my swimmers and hitting the beach.
Kendwa beach it like paradise. It has beautiful, clean beaches of fine white sand fringed with palm trees, sparkling turquoise water and small, thatched shady huts dotted along the beach. The rooms are just a few mins walk from the beach and all our meals are eaten in one of the bars and restaurants on the beach front, often with our toes wriggling in the sand, munching on amazing fresh local seafood or sipping a cool beer after a long days relaxing or diving. There are local women with huts on the beach who offer hour long full body massages for a little as $8 US and I find myself availing myself of their services on an almost daily basis.
The diving my school next to our accommodation is excellent and with a few minor setbacks due being a bit poorly from my anti malarias I finish my course and am now a fully qualified PADI open water diver. On the first few dives I’m mostly concentrating on my equipment; mask clearing, buoyancy, equalising, where the hell is my bloody BCD air release, have I lost my buddy, remember to breath continuously etc. By the end of second dive I’m feeling more comfortable and on the third and fourth dives I am starting to really enjoy myself. I see a bunch of turtles, garden eels and shawls of brightly coloured fish. If the Serengeti plan was like being in The Lion King, diving off Zanzibar is like being in Finding Nemo with cute clown fish, brightly stripped dory, chilling turtles and intricate coral.
Tuesday night comes way too soon and it’s the last night on the island for everyone else on the truck. We have one last meal together then spend the night dancing away to a local DJ. The next morning I wake up early to see everyone off and wave good bye to my friends. It’s a bit strange being by myself a first but there’s plenty to distract me and I make friends with the other divers and end up having dinner with them the next two nights.
Fri 21st Nov
My last day on the island. I have lunch on the beach and go for one last swim before catching my taxi to the airport. There’s some confusion when I arrive as my later flights been cancelled and they shove me on earlier flight leaving immediately. A six hour stop in Nairobi, another long plan journey and I’m back in London where is sun is just rising. I am pleasantly surprised my backpack has made it back safely with me and with practiced ease I have my harness out, my backpacks on, then on the tube and home.
Its weird being back in London and I can’t believe I was gone for three weeks and it’s over already. This morning when I woke up it snowed last night. Three days ago I was lying on a beach in Zanzibar, hanging out in my swimmers and a sarong and eating my meals sitting on a beach front restaurant with my toes in the sand.
London feels big, crowed, dirty, dark and cold. I’m sure I’ll settle back in soon but right now I just wanna be back in Africa and the sunshine. I’m very, very glade I have Russia to look forward to for Christmas.
Cheers
S.
current mood:  accomplished
current music: Live, Lighting Crashes
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| Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
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11:42 pm - 4 Sleeps to go!
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London is COLD. So cold in fact that it SNOWED tonight. Actual snow, right outside my bedroom windown. And it was dark by 5pm. In October. This would all be very, very depressing at the moment if it weren't for the small fact on Saturday, just 4 little sleeps away, I'm going to be winging my way to sunnier shores in Africa.
Bring on the sunshine. 24 degrees in Nairobi. 33 degrees on Zanzibar. And it can't come soon enough.
Almost finished packing. Don't think I'll be needing my jeans. Gotta make sure all my camera batteries are juiced up and start taking my anti malaria's on Friday.
Just gotta survive the last of the october school break and then I'm outta here!
current mood:  cold
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| Monday, October 20th, 2008
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10:50 pm - 12 sleeps to go . . .
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And counting.
Went to boots and spent lots of money. Practically taking my own pharmacy.
Got most of the rest of the stuff on my list. Almost ready. Almost.
I hope I'm some where amazing on my actual birthday and not broken down on the side of the road some where.
current mood:  excited
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| Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
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12:35 am - Quote-a-rific
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In no particular order, a collection of travel quotes found recently on the web when searching for something cool for Katie's 30th birthday card. Enjoy :)
“What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do - especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” - William Least Heat Moon
“People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” - Dagobert D. Runes
“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” - Lin Yutang
“All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” - Samuel Johnson
“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” - Robert Louis Stevenson
“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” - Freya Stark
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain
“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” - Bill Bryson
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by.” - Robert Frost
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” - Lao Tzu
“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” - Tim Cahill
"May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks." J. R. R. Tolkien
“Not all those who wander are lost.” - J. R. R. Tolkien
“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” - Benjamin Disraeli
"We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us..."
"To travel is to live" Hans Christian Andersen
"I think that it is indeed more worthwhile taking the road less traveled. You are sure to suffer, hurt, curse and get frustrated. But in the end you'll always come out the other end with more than a tale. You'll have spot in your memory that will always take your breath away every time you revisit it."
Rob Thomson
"Of the gladdest moments in human life, me thinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands.
Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the slavery of Home, one feels more happy.
The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood...
A journey, in fact, appeals to Imagination, to Memory, to Hope - the three sister graces of our moral being." Sir Richard Francis Burton, 1856
"Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of food, your closet full of clothes - with all this taken away you are forced into direct experience. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience. That's not always comfortable but it is always invigorating." Michael Crichton
"The journey is the reward." ~Taoist saying
"More lands to travel to, more places and people to see. To talk with, to eat with, to drink with, to laugh with, to share being with them, being with me."
I have not been everywhere, but it is on my list! (sontag)
"Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country." Anais Nin
I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine. ~Caskie Stinnett
"life is more fun if you get a bit dirty"
"The knack of learning how to fly is to learn how to throw yourself at the ground and miss" ~ Douglas Adams
"My favourit thing is to go where I have never gone before! Diane Arbus
"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey" Babs Hoffman
"Only those who will risk going to far can possibly find out how far one can go" T.S.Elliot
current mood: amused
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| Monday, January 28th, 2008
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9:26 pm - Sarahs Voyage Update
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Hi Everyone,
Ok so its been a long time coming, but what with Christmas and New
Years and all I've finally got round to writing the next instalment of
Sarahs Voyage, rounding off my 6 month travelling odyssey last year.
In our last exciting episode I had just left Venice in Italy, and was
heading back Spain. We rejoin my voyage in Barcelona, which remains
one of my fav cities in Europe, but is also now under hot completion
from Sans Sebastian as you'll see. Get yourself a cuppa and read on .
. .
Barcelona:
Ah Barcelona, city of Gaudi, tapas and tourists :) Barcelona this
time was made a wee bit more challenging by the fact I came down with
a killer head cold in Venice and was feeling some what like death
warmed up most of the time. Despite this I some how found the energy
to solder on and show Katie some of my fav sites in Barcelona,
including Park Guell (Gaudi's Park) and La Sagrada Familia. The
building work on La Sagrada Familia has slowly progressed since I was
there over a year ago. One or two stained glass windows are now
finished and looking suitably stunning with golden sunlight streaming
through, creating colourful motives of dappled green, gold and blue on
the walls. I couldn't face the walk up the hill to Park Guell this
time so we caught the bus and at one point I sent Katie off up the
hill whist I sat and recovered in the warm sunshine. Friday night was
spent at a Flamenco show and bar hopping. The flamenco was good, if a
little short. (the best flamenco I've seen was actually at the
Edinburgh Festival in Aug last year). The first bar was a rather good
Irish Pub with cosy, cavernous bar down stairs, live music and a
suitably Irish owner, a bit weird after getting used to almost total
immersion in Mediterranean accents. The last bar was this horrid
modern meat market with curved white plastic decor, flashing pink
lights, girls in skimpy metallic tops and car thumping dance music.
Ok to some of you that might sound great, but to Katie and I it was
our own private Hell. All we could do was stand there looking at each
other and laugh :) Needless to say we downed our free shot and
hastily made our excuses and escaped to the hostel to fall gratefully
into bed.
Sans Sebastian:
Within hours of arriving Sans Sebastian had quickly become one of my
fav cities in Europe. For starters the hostel we stayed in was
lovely. Smaller rooms with less people and comfy beds, proper
bathrooms with bathmats and shower gel and a good kitchen stocked with
cooking staples. Each room had a TV and DVD player and we spent
several happy hours watching trashy movies whilst propped up
comfortably in bed eating microwave popcorn. It felt more like
staying at someone's place for a few days rather than a hostel. Sans
Sebastian itself is a manageable size with a wide sweeping promenade
flanked by a golden sandy beaches on one side and several pretty, old
worldly mid rise buildings on the other. Much of the time overcast
skies wrapped the city in a blanket of hazy, misty fog, obscuring the
hills and brining the tang of sea and salt to our hostel window. In
between watching DVDs we donned coats and umbrellas and went for
strolls along the promenade, breathing in the sea spray and watching
gulls soar above.
On our final night we went on our own pinchos tour of the old town
with a lovely south American woman from the hostel. Pinchos are the
Basque version of tapas and both the region and Sans Sebastian are
know for their pinchos gastronomic delights. Unlike the rest of Spain
where you order tapas individually, in the Basque country platters of
tasty pinchos are laid out on the bar like a colourful, mouth watering
buffet. You and your party walk along the street, peering into bars
until you find one where the pinchos looks good and/or the place looks
crowded. Having made the difficult decision of what to have, you then
choose perhaps one or two different pinchos and a drink, maybe a small
beer or wine and stand around munching and chatting, before walking
along the street and choosing the next place. The evening is thus
spent nibbling on a range of miniature gastronomic delights, drinking
and mingling in atmospheric bars with the sound of chattering Spanish
in the back ground. I think we made it to about 4 or 5 different bars
before strolling home, full and content.
Paris:
Why is it every time I go to Paris it rains? One day I will have to
go back when the daily temperature is above freezing. I love Paris,
but it does have its moments. This time we were staying in a more
touristy part of town and ended up accidentally eating in touristy
places serving bad and very over priced coffee more often than I'd
have liked. In Paris we did the usual things, Muse d'Lourve, Muse
D'Orsay, Arc De Triomphe, Champs Elysee and Eiffel Tower. Paris is a
very walkable city and we spent a lot of time just strolling around
the city, stopping for lunch or coffee or to take pictures of another
stunning view. It was interesting going back to some of these places
and remembering what I saw and liked last time. I still didn't make
it to the Rodin Sculpture garden, but there's always next time. One
of these days I'm going to have to go somewhere in France other than
Paris, maybe checkout some of the French country side. Oh and we
caught up with my friend Vero which was lovely, a woman who I stayed
with through Couch Surfing last time I was there.
Versailles (French Royal Palace):
The French Royal Palace in Versailles is a stunning example of what
can be achieved when three successive rulers starve their population
and spend the proceeds on building a grand palace and expansive
grounds instead. The palace is massive, with volumous, opulent rooms
with high ornate ceilings, filled with gilded furniture and art works
from the finest French and international artists at the time. The
amount of gold thread used in the Kings Bed Chamber is almost blinding
and you wonder how anyone could sleep under the weight of so many
metallic threads. Marie Anne's Bed Chamber is of a similar style in
slightly less dazzling white, with crowns of delicate feathers
adorning the bed posts. Apparently at the time the Queen had to give
birth in public (or at least have 'representatives' of the public
present, usually nobles who wouldn't know a member of the public if
they came up and slapped them) in order to prove the legitimacy of the
heirs. How they made sure of the legitimacy of the heirs at the other
end of the process is beyond me, perhaps they didn't think of that.
The Hall of Mirrors is particularly impressive, a long room with
seemingly endless glass chandeliers above, huge, floor to ceiling
windows down one side and equally volumous mirrors down the other,
reflecting the sunlight and making it feel like you are almost walking
amongst the gardens reflected outside. A the time it was built glass
and mirrors were expensive, and the room acted as a status symbol for
the King, in addition to letting in light.
The palace gardens are a triumph in and of themselves and rival the
palace for sheer scale and grandeur. The particular favourite of mine
was the dragon and Neptune fountains. The Neptune fountain was
surrounded with sculptures of weird mythological sea creatures with
Neptune in pride of place in the centre surrounded by sea nymphs
riding monsters from the deep. The grounds abound with grand,
sweeping gardens, wide tree lined avenues with views across the palace
grounds, neatly trimmed hedges and raked gravel paths. The gardens
are full of secret paths and grand statues peaking around from every
corner. I was rather taken as well by the Marie Anne's gardens with
its whimsical cottages, hidden fountains and winding secret pathways -
an escape from the court which she disliked so much for her and her
children.
The heavy taxing by last 3 kings of France of course cumulated in
famous French revolution and beheading of entire royal family. All of
the royal family including the king, Marie Anne and her three young
children were beheaded, plus anyone with enough blue blood or court
connections to make a viable bid for the thrown. The palace was
ransacked following the revolution, but the palace has now been
loveling restored, and stands as a reminder of how the other half used
to live. Every once and a while someone pops up claiming to be the
last true heir to the French thrown, but from what I understand the
guillotines men did a very thorough job at the time.
Edinburgh via Glasgow:
Although the plan was to stay in Glasgow and check out its famed night
life, in the end we skipped Glasgow and headed straight to Edinburgh.
I caught a glimpse of the city as we passed through on way to train
station. It was weird to be back in the UK in a native English
speaking country after being away for several months. I'd gotten so
used not understanding the majority of what was said around me and
ignoring street signs and advertising as they were usually
meaningless. The Scottish country side between Glasgow and Edinburgh
is green and pretty, lots of woolly sheep farms in expansive, virulent
green fiends along the tracks.
It was great to see my friend Katherine who I worked with in Italy and
reminisce about our time in Tuscany. Katie and I spent a few happy
days wandering around Edinburgh sitting in my fav pubs & cafés
drinking tea and Scottish ale and hanging out with Katherine and at
night. I almost had to physically restrain Katie in the Scottish
Whisky experience shop, then ended up indulging in a bottle of 18 yr
old Glenfidich myself. I'd like to have a rule I don't drink jail
bait whisky (i.e. nothing under 18 years old) but I don't know if my
bank balance can handle that :) A bit of shopping was in order as my
only pair of boots and jeans both died in Paris (discovered this one
day we stood in line for the Lourve when it was raining and I got wet
feet).
London:
I spent most of the week we had in London running around organising
somewhere to live when I got back, but it did have the advantage I was
able to move straight in when I got back from Aus. Katie and I spent
the first few nights sleeping at my old place. Almost everyone had
moved out because the place has been sold, and the landlord has gone
around removing anything of value like door locks etc, so the place
was a bit creepy. After 6 glorious months away I found myself
suddenly back in my old room and my old bed. It just made me want to
pack my backpack and walk out the door, get on a plane or a train or
anything going anywhere, just as long at it was away again, back on
the road and moving forward, not stuck in what felt like a time warp
sliding backwards.
Stonehenge once again absolutely Freezing. There's something about
that wind on the Salisbury Plan that makes it pick up speed and slice
through how ever many layers of clothing wear (at least now I can
remember the difference between Salisbury the place and Sainsbury the
supermarket . . .). On my Birthday we had lunch at Fifteen, Jamie
Oliver's famous restaurant eating till we almost exploded. The
restaurant is quite nice buy kinda in the middle of no where in an
industrial part of East London. We started with cocktails while we
waited for our table, followed by an antipasto of warm roast veggies,
creamy ricotta cheese with fresh mint and chilli, parsnips roasted in
rosemary and garlic, earthy beetroot and fat salty green olives (and
some meaty stuff Katie said was very tasty). For my main I tucked
into a slice of crispy baked fish on a bed of red lentils, a drizzle
of lemon aioli and a glass of good Italian Prosceo, topped off with
pear and almond cake and coffee. Delicious. All in all very nice and
not tooo pricy, but not sure if I'd make the effort for anything other
than a special occasion, given the isolated location . . . After lunch
we rolled ourselves to the Tower Bridge. I've seen pictures of well
to do parties held on top two walkways but never been up there myself.
They had an interesting display of the history of the bridge with old
black and white photographs showing the bridge crowed with horse and
carts in the old days. The glass along the walkways had a number of
little portholes you could open and blast yourself with freezing cold
air in order to take a clear photo :) Our plans to see a movie were
somewhat waylaid by getting caught in torrential down pour on the way
to the tube. I think we would have gotten less wet if we'd waded
through the Thames. The evening was capped off with Birthday drinks
with friends at the pub.
Australia:
Going back to Aus was very surreal, to say the least. Some things had
changed, but for the most place things were as I remember them. I was
worried before going back that I won't fit into Australia anymore.
That I had evolved into a different shape and some how wouldn't be
able to just step back in again. Nothing could be further from the
truth. It was almost like someone had just hit the pause button on my
life when I left Australia, then hit play again when I got back (which
is how I always imaged it when I first arrived in the UK). I remember
getting off the plan, jetlagged as hell and be surprised by all the
very, very Australia accents around me - I'm just not used to it
anymore! Everyone sounded soooo Australian, it was weird. Driving
around Melbourne in a borrowed car was like one big trip down memory
lane. Like blowing off the dust and the cobwebs off an internal map
and remembering where I used to go and what I used to do and how I got
there.
The jetlag back to Aus was rather a killer and after 3 or 4 days Katie
and I finally emerged just in time for her and Gav's engagement party
on the Fri. At my belated birthday/welcome home party on Sat I sat
on a blanket in my friends back yard with a margarita in my hand
surrounded by a sea of familiar faces. Every once and a while I would
balance my drink against a cushion to jump up an hug someone who'd
just arrived who I hadn't seen in 2 years.
Someone had ordered the sunshine for my return and it was blissfully
warm and sunny most days I was back. One day it was even hot enough
for our usual evening of beach, swimming and picnic in the park. In
my heaven or after life I going to do this almost everyday. Warm sun,
cool clear water, salty fish and chips and cold aussie beer,
surrounded by friends, watching the sun set over the bay.
Clubbing the following Friday was interesting. Back in the day I was
a semi regular at these kinda places, but this time I sat there
surrounded by unfamiliar faces and unfamiliar music thinking to myself
gee I'm just not part of this scene anymore. I believe my club music
taste has been described by a friend as 'Old School'. I'm just not up
with what the newbies are listening to these days!
After not nearly enough sleep I then dragged myself out of bed for the
family Christmas in November party. I finally got to meet my new
nephew Ryan, who's about 6 mths old now, born since I've been OS and
cute as a button. My other nephew Liam is about 2 1/2 and is a real
little person in miniature and not a baby anymore. According to Ryan
the wrapping paper around the present is much more interesting than
the actual present itself :)
All in all I had a fabulous time. If I didn't have a job and a flat
to go back to in London I must admit I might have been tempted to
stay. Now that I'm back I'm glade I got back on the plane (most of
the time!). I still have things I want to see and do over here, and
of course South America always whispers to me some where in the
future.
When I left Australia it was 28C and sunny, when I got back to the UK
it was cold, dark and pouring with rain and I swear I very nearly
turned around and got on a plane back to Aus! After spending the
night at a friends place to shake off the worst of my jetlag I moved
into the new place that weekend. It's a shared house in Shepards
Bush. The living areas and kitchen are a wee bit 'cosy', but I've got
a lovely big room, friendly housemates and internet at home, which is
brilliant. Will see how I go and if I decide to look for something
else when the lease comes up. Its really a bit far away from the tube
than I'd like, but on the other hand I know I could do a lot worse in
London for the price I'm paying.
So that brings us up-to-date with last years 6 month travelling epic.
I've just about finished sorting though my photos and will sent around
one or two choice ones soon. Still need to write up both Christmas
spent in Denmark and New Years in London. Have already made my travel
and London list for 2008 and have just booked flights to New York for
Easter :)
Cheers
Sarah
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
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6:19 pm - Belated Eastern Europe and Western Europe updates
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OK, so I've been a wee bit slack about posting these to both my LJ as well as emailing them around lately. This is the latest update on eastern europe et al, written around 27th Oct - make you're self comfey as its another long one (when do I ever write anything else?)
Hiya Everyone,
Yes I know its been a while since my last update, but rest assured I´m still alive and well and enjoying my travels :)
In my last installment I believe I was just leaving Budapest and was about to arrive in Belgrade, Serbia. I can´t remember how many days ago that was, but off the top of my head that was 3 or 4 countries ago :) So, in summary of the last 4 countries (although you might wanna get a cuppa anyway and my ´summaries´ always seam to end up as epics . . .).
Belgrade, Serbia:
Belgrade is not a pretty city, but then again, I wasn´t expecting it to be. The things that spring to mind when I think of Belgrade are potholes, pollution, and rain that turns said pot holes into puddles the size of small swimming pools. Belgrade isn´t the prettiest city to begin with - lots of multi story, grey concrete communist style buildings, made more dreary by grey sky's and endless drizzle . . . The city Does have positive points - there are some interesting museums etc. The ethnography museum with examples of traditional costumes from the country side and rural life was pretty dam cool - I recon you could team one of those silver belt buckles and one of the beautifully embroidered shirts with jeans and some funky shoes and you would have a cool outfit :). Apart from that I meet some lovely Serbia people - the woman I was couch surfing with was just lovely and totally looked after me. It was interesting hearing her take on the war and then marrying that with what I heard from people in Bosnia later on, but I think that's a discussion for another time!
I did manage a day trip to Novi Sad, which was cleaner and prettier, but also apparently the place that got bombed more than Belgrade as it was and for that matter still is the head quarters of the extreme right in Serbia, or so I heard ...
Sarajevo and Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina:
First up, Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of The most beautiful countries I've been to. A large part of it is mountains covered in trees with stunning blue lakes in between. On the bus from Belgrade the trees were just starting to get their Autumn colours, and the deep green forests were interspersed with drifts of golden green, vibrant oranges and rusty reds . . . Sarajevo just had an amazing feel to it. The people have been through So much, and could have a massive chip on their shoulder, but instead they chose to be friendly and spend time with their friends and family and enjoy their lives as if each day might be their last, because during the seage it very likely was going to be. You can still visit places like the tunnel museum and sniper ally and see the bullet holes in the buildings, and see the surrounding hills that seams to enfold the city with their beautiful greenery, but were once ideal sentinel points for the invading army to pick people off from ... I found Sarajevo to be amazing and heart wrenching, much more so that other stories I have head of wars through out history. The guy who is running the hostel I was staying in was a child during the siege - the hostel is now build in on the top floor of his family home that was shelled and destroyed and has since been rebuilt. He took us on a tour of the city and gave a very personal account of what is was like for him living through that. And yet despite all he's been through he's a great host running a great hostel and wants to encourage people to come to Bosnia as tourism is one of the few ways the local people can make a better life for them selves (Bosnia and Herzegovina dosn´t have any real major industries of is own as far as I know). The city itself is smallish, interesting, friendly and cheep. One of those places were you don´t mind eating out lots 'cause you know its helping support the local economy and its so cheep you can afford to eat out lots anyway . . .
From Sarajevo it was onto Mostar, a cute little town in the south west (I think) that was almost totally flattened during one of the wars (I believe it was Croatia that time). The old town has mostly been restored, and the famous bridge is suitable beautiful and spans a deep river that's almost to blue and pure to be true :) There's a few blocks of unrestored buildings - I got to a point where I had to ask myself how many more photos I needed of shelled, falling apart buildings simply Riddled with bullet holes, so much so you wonder how the buildings are still standing . . . The only time I ever felt unsafe in Bosnia was when I stood in the door way of one of these buildings and the phrase 'un exploded land mine' drifted through my brain, and I didn´t want to go in any further ...
I could continue raving about Bosnia and Herzegovina but I think I´ll stop there. I don´t think I've fully taken in all I saw there yet, and I think it'll be even longer before I realize the just how going there has effected me and how I think about the world - I know it has, but I just can´t see exactly how yet. I know that going somewhere like that just makes me feel very, very luckily that I grew up in Australia.
Croatia:
Due to the fact I spent a bit of extra time in Bosnia and Herzegovina I only had two nights in Croatia, one in Dubrovnik and one in Split. Of the two I preferred Dubrovnik, with its cute walled old town and beautiful coast line and more churches than a town of that size would appear to warrant :) You can walk all around the town on the city walls and the views over the roof tops of the town and surrounding coast line in the evening light is rather gorgeous I have to say :) The old town is all cobble lined streets and cute squares and fountains - not a hell of a lot of locals around, but then again Croatia has a lot more tourist glitz than the rest of Eastern Europe, even in September. Split was also kinda cute, but as its the primary ferry port its just got that much more touristyness due to the sheer number of people to pass through on their way into or out of Croatia . . . In the end the only way to get back to Italy was to catch the overnight ferry from Split back to Anconna in Italy. Rather than crashing on the floor in deck class again (I did that in Greece last year) this time I shelled out the extra euros and got a bed in a cabin and I swear it was nicer than a bunch of hostels I´ve stayed in! I had a clean, comfy bunk bed with crisp white sheets, comfy pillow and fluffy blue blanket And there was a wash basin and Tiny en suite with a shower and loo squeezed into a space about the size of your average broom cupboard, and a fluffy white towel provided :). So I actually got some Sleep and arrived in Italy relatively refreshed, esp after a shower in the morning :) (OK, so maybe that disqualifies me from being a hard core traveler and I don´t care! sometimes you just need a few home comforts for the night).
Italy:
Ah Italy, how I adore thee. Back in the land of some of the worlds best coffee, gelato and guys who spend more time in the bathroom than I do :) Rome was pretty dam fantastic. Katie arrived safe and sound and I manged to find the correct arrivals gate about 30 seconds before she walked through it :) Rome is a city that wears its ancient history with ease, where you can get blessed by the pope in the morning, wander through several hundred year old ancient roman ruins in the afternoon, and then party late into the night (or go home and fall asleep early after a long days sight seeing as we did :) ). The Colosseum was impressive, but was in a very sorry state of repare, mostly due to the fact various generations have pilfered all the usable marble etc and building supplies for other buildings through out the city. Similarly most of the marble from ruins of Palatine Hill can now be seen on the walls and floors of the Vatican city :) We did a brilliant walking tour of the Hill, which is just as well as there are not explanations around, and without them it just looks like a buch of old, falling apart walls . . . The Roman Forum was similarly in ruins, although required less imagination to picture the ancient gradure of the fallen Roman Empire :) After 2 or 3 sites you do get a bit ruined out - there are only so many falling apart walls and column tops you can look at before it all starts to look a bit samey . . .
The Pantheon was the one exception to this, probably because its not actually a ruin. The original structure was built as a temple to various 'pagan' gods I believe, and was later appropriated as a church, which I understand is why the barbarians left it alone and its still standing today, more or less as it has for the last 2000ish years . . . Just amazing, especially when you think it was all build way before handy things such as cranes and jacks and even electricity was invented :) The Vatican was interesting - the basilica was stunning but the museum was unfortunately one of the most confusing and worst sign posted I have ever been to. There are virtually no explanations on anything, so a lot of the time you're seeing some amazing stuff and you don´t even know it. And about the only section that's sign posted is the Sistine chapel which Is amazing, but somewhat hard to appreciate when you're packed in with about 200 other people and the guards keep telling you to shh . . . It kinda made me a bit cross, actually ´cause they must be making a Mint outta that place, the lest they could do is spend a bit of money on providing some floor plans and some signs and explanations . . .
Florence was, well, suitably amazing. I´ve been to Florence several times before, but this time finally went into the 2 major galleries - the Uffizi and the Academia. I think I'm going to add Botticelli to my list of favoured painters :) The Birth of Venus is just beautiful and so much more impressive in really life than in pictures, as is usually the case with amazing paintings :) The Academia was a much smaller gallery and the major thing to see was Michelangelo's David, which I have to say is simply Stunning (the phrase ´it is wrong to lust after a 5m high marble statue?' springs to mind, I could go on at this point, but you know, my grandmother and work colleagues read these posts . . . :) ). We just sat there for about 20 - 30 mins taking it all in from various angles . . .
Venice was suitably Venetian, all canals and bridges and still rather a lot of tourists. Made it into the Basilica this time, which was pretty, although but this point in the trip I have to say I´m getting a little churched out. The Doge Palace next door was quite impressive, with its ancient gradure and interesting explanaints of where the various ruling councils used to site and stories of the one of the great ports of old :) Ok I know that explanations dosn´t nearly do justice to it, but its rather late and I´m tired :)
The update on Spain I feel will have to wait for another day, but at least I´m now up to the country I´m currently In, although am heading off to Paris on an early train tomorrow morning :)
Hope everyone back in the UK, Australia and everyone else in between is having a good Autumn/spring.
A quick note to my London friends, Katie and I will probably be getting to London around Friday 2nd Nov next week, so if anyone could possibly put us up for a few nights it would be most apreciated! (we flight out again to Australia on Sat 10th Nov). I'll be organising a catch up and maybe drinks or something for my birthday on Thursday 8th Nov anyway :)
Cheers
S
current mood:  guilty
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| Friday, September 28th, 2007
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11:38 pm - The latest update from Eastern Europe :) (written a few days ago in Hungary)
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Anyway I left Casole and sunny Italy a week ago now (I finished up the job in Italy a few weeks early). Was completely the right decision, am having an awesome time in Eastern Europe.
First I took the train from Casole to Lucca on Sun 16th Sept, a little walled city north of Pisa. The walls of Lucca were never really used to defend the city, and are now planted with lots of lovely trees and are a delightfully, shady place to stroll and relax. Lucca its self is a wee bit fashionable (a few to many wanky fashion stores for my liking) but otherwise very nice. In Lucca I meet Elizabeth from Barcelona and spent my nights in Lucca drinking red wine then eating gelato (remember its and, not or). Oh and I made her try Vegemite, and I have to say the look on her face when she tried it was Priceless :). I had to try her gelato to make up for it.
From Lucca I caught 3 different trains to get to Ljubjana in Slovenia on Tue 18th Sept. All the the trains were running late, making for some stressful connections and it BUCKETED with rain the whole time, However, I did meet a simply lovely woman called Natalija on the train from Venice to Ljubljana, and spent the whole 4 hour journey chatting to her. After nearly 2 years traveling I still find catching plans and trying to make connections stressful, however I simply love meeting new people and making new friends totally randomly when you"re least expecting it :)
In Ljubjana I couch surfed with Katja, who has a gorgeous apartment about 20mins walk from the centre of town. Ljubljana is notionally associated with the Jason and the Argonauts legend of old, so there are lots of dragon symbols around the place and a big bridge with four big, beautiful dragons at the corners. Ljubljana is a small, pretty, manageable size. The buildings are old and pretty, the coffee is good and cheep and the people are friendly and speak perfect English (and they use euros).
From Ljubljana there was time for a day trip to Bled, a picture perfect lake near the Juliann alps. The lake has a small man made island with a tiny church, and having caught the tourist train around the lake, I then sat on a goldea and got rowed to the island (well I*d spend the day before walking All around Ljubljana and my feet were tired. I*ve got 2 months of traveling ahead of me and I have to pace myself . . .).
Then on the forth night I went and stayed with Natalija who*s not in CS, but has heard about it. She lives in a cute little town in the East of Slovenia called Ptju, and picked me up from the station and feed me and I generally had a brilliant time . . . :)
Yesterday I caught the train from Ljubljana to Budapest in Hungary (about 7 hours). I*m in the hostel for 2 nights, then I*m couch surfing with a local woman for the next 2, and probably off to Belgrade in Serbia via train on Wednesday (probably surfing again). Last night I went out clubbing with some people from the hostel sampling some of Budepest*s infamous nightlife (the first bar we went to had swings at the bar to sit on and red paint with black stencils of fat boy slim in angel wings etc). The second bar/club was awesome with a big out door area and paper lanterns everyone, a big dance floor and good music. I didn*t drink That much, but at the second club I did dance an awful lot and didn*t drink any water, so I*m having a quiet one day. If I have the energy I Might take myself off to one of the thermal baths for the rest of the afternoon, then think about doing some sight seeing tomorrow . . .
Cheers
Sarah
current mood:  tired
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| Sunday, August 5th, 2007
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1:41 pm - La Dolce Vita
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As was the first time, Tuscany is a multi-sensory experience.
The work is not exactly scintillating, I'm basically a waitress/ kitchen hand. But even when I'm on breakfast shift I get to set the table looking out over that amazing view of the Tuscan hills. On the mornings I work I put on a couple of pots of fresh coffee to brew before popping up the to the bakery and walking back with an arm full of hot, freshly baked bread with the morning sun warming my back.
For the lunch shift I mostly help with food prep. I don't have to shop or decide what I'm going to eat or cook or make any decisions. The cook just says 'chop this, peel this, dice that'. I am surrounded by luscious food smells and sights - plump red, juicy tomatoes, fresh fragrant green sweet basil, round ripe nectarines that are such luscious reds and yellows I just want to paint them before I eat them. At lunch time we eat colourful buffets of fresh salads, crusty bread and olive oil and at night a three course meal consisting of pasta and home made pesto or tangy cold gazpacho soup followed by warming chickpea curry or creamy spinach and ricotta lasagna (I could go on), all rounded off with dessert of fresh fruit, or baked apples or lemon tart or . . . and a couple of glasses of cold, crisp white wine.
After work I usually head up to the local bar with the other kitchen helpers and sit out side and people watch and play cards and eat gelato or drink prosecco (a light, bubbly Italian white wine). When I get home I open my bed room windows and spend several minutes gazing up at the starry night sky and twinkling lights of distant villages, listening to the cicadas chirp and watch the soft shadows of feeding bats flit past my window, and breath in the cool, clean evening air (where's my mobile phone with a bat detector!).
Since getting back to Tuscany I am taking life at a slower, more relaxed pace. What is there to rush for? The sun is usually shinning and warm, the food delicious and plentiful and views of the surrounding country side continually stunning.
I am taking the time to enjoying the simple things in life. Sheets dried in the warm sun shine for example smell different from ones dried inside over radiators. Sun dried sheets somehow smell fresher and cleaner, like the sunshine has infused into them. One of life's small pleasures is having a nice cool shower, putting on clean PJ's and getting into a lovely clean, freshly made up bed with fresh smelling sun dried sheets :)
Ciao
Sarah
current mood:  content
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| Saturday, July 7th, 2007
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5:00 pm - Mannic Marrakesh, Mon 25th - Sat 30th June 07
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Argh, brain running out of writing power, but still have almost an hour of internet time let and fell I should make use of internet time whilst its available.
Marrakesh was amazing and interesting and very different from any where else I've been and did take a bit of getting used to :)
The first indication of this was my shinny British Passport was well scrutinised, and I actually got my first stamp in it! I don't think we're in the EU anymore toto :) Our flight was delayed, but fortunately our driver was still waiting at the airport to pick us up. We climbed into the back of the old BMW a bit tired and travel weary. The journey to the Riad (guest house Morocco) was our first culture shock. Driving along a shared road where indicating and staying in one lane appears to be an optional extra, with motor bikes and scooters going by with up to four people on them. We sat and stared in a bit of amazement, until the driver got to the old town and parked when the car could go no further, an which point we had to get out and Walk through the madness. By this point it was dark, and the Medina in the old town was a maze of narrow dirt allies with scooters and people and donkeys and carts and horses and mooter bikes and strange smells and sounds and a general crush of people, even at 9.30 at night. I walked along trying not to lose sight of the driver walking in front of me or Jen behind me, clutching my unlocked day pack with my passport etc in the top front pocket. I am so very, very glade we got an airport transfer, other wise we would have Never found the place. One you know where you are its fine, but otherwise its down a street and an ally way and around a corner and an unmarked, unlabeled door . . .
Inside the Riad was a world of loveliness and calm from the hustle and bustle of the Medina. Breakfast included, air conditioned room with our own bathroom, a pool to cool off in and friendly housekeepers happy to make you freshly squeezed OJ or mint tea when requested, or who come to your room and give you an extra bottle of water without being asked when you arrive back at the Riad after a long, hot day.
After a day or two we were fine - got our bearings of where the Riad was and were strolling around barley battering a eye lid about all the hustle and busle around us. As a couple of solo females without a guy with us we did receive quite a lot of attention, however after a few days we realised about 9 out of 10 people were being genuinely friendly and weren't trying to pick us up or sell us anything. We did get called 'Gazelle' a few times, and there were a few passing comments about 'beautiful' or 'beautiful eyes' etc however these were easy to ignore, somewhat akin to being wolf whistled at by a builder and never seamed to be delivered with any maliciousness or intent.
Of an evening the main square in the Old Town of the Median is like nothing you've ever seen before. Total madness. Snake charmers and guys with monkeys and women doing henna and market stalls and juice stalls and acrobats and drummers and dancers and story tellers and grillades sending the enticing, wafting smell of food and drifts of smoke over the whole lot :) A couple of nights we ate at restaurants over looking the square and were able to watch it all from afar. Having said that we did have dinner there one night, and went for a walk through the madness. Loads of people, but again felt very safe and not threatended in anyway (occasionally just a bit tired of kids trying to sell me those creepy wooded snakes). The people from the grillaids in the middle are a laugh. We did the circuit and they all came over with their menus, asking us were we were from, promising their food was the best. They seamed to know a bit about every country - things that have apparently filtered through to Marrakesh from Australia are kangaroos, in a while crocodile, and dingo ate my baby. We ended up eating at a place with the guy who made us laugh the most by claiming to be Jamie Oliver's son :) We did think about trying to eat where the locals were, however they all seamed to be sitting around the one's with skinned sheep's heads on display (ew, although maybe this was a ruse to keep the tourists like us away, and they then got out the real food from somewhere else. It worked on us in any case and we ate else were . . .).
The souks or covered markets were an experience in and of them selves. I found haggling to be surprisingly easy and dare I say even fun. In each shop you would have a 10 - 15 min chat, being showed different items, admiring colors etc before you even got to asking the price, which is where the haggling begins. They would come out with some very high figure like 600 Dh, and you'd counter offer with maybe 200. After a few mins you've generally reached a price somewhere in the middle, maybe a bit less if you're a hard bargainer like me :)When you're haggling in the local currently its also easy to forget the conversion rate, and that in hind site it was probably not worth haggling down the last 25 Dh or so (about £1.50.) 1000 Dirhams or Dh is only about £60ish or €100 or $100 Aus - so much mental converting over the week!. I didn't go toooo over board, and only ended up getting a few bits - a lovely, big, blue star shaped lantern, a big shimmery, stripy blue bed spread type thing, a couple of cute bracelets and a gorgeous hand carved box covered with Moorish patters and my name in Arabic on the inside lid :) Needless to say with the exception of one bracelet all these items have now been put into storage at my friends place and will not be going to Italy with me :)
What else, what else? Did some of the usual tourist stuff like a couple of royal palaces, some tombs with cute feral kittens and a bunch of places who's names escape me right down. The YSL gardens was nice (you know, the big fashion guy), all lovely cool shady bits and pretty plats framed with bright blue buildings and fluro yellow pots and a ponds filled with lazy, fat, bright orange goldfish(sounds weird, but it really worked). The Moorish architecture was gorgeous, as always, lots more beautifully carved roofs etc, although I think we did get to the point where we were like, yup, another stunning example of beautifully carved wooden ceilings and archways, next! A few places of note were the central square in the Musee de Marrakesh with its three fountains and stunning but slightly odd big carved wooded thing hanging from a complected canvas awning\covering in the centre and the main palace, not the second one we went to that was meant to be a 'museum' but looked like a bunch of old stuff stuffed into a few cupboards to me . . .
Oh and trying to cross a proper road felt like taking your life into your own hands. There were pedestrian crossings, which the cars appeared to stop at if they felt like it, and mooter bikes and scooters etc almost never stopped at. Craziness. We'd be looking at the map going 'oh bugger does that mean we have to cross Another main road if we go that way?). Although having said this Jen is an Awesome navigator and I don't think we got lost once, even in the Median, quite a achievement in my opinion.
So that was Marrakesh. Crazy, manic, different, intriguing and yet some how strangely alluring all at the same time. Was a bit sad to be going at the end, but looking forward to Italy and the next adventure.
Cheers
S.
current mood: enthralled
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| Monday, July 2nd, 2007
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5:27 pm - Best laid plans and all that . . .
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Surprise! I'm still in London. Last night I got a text from BA saying my flight today had been cancelled, probably due to the recent security alerts in London atm. So last night I was on the phone to them at 12.30, speaking to a lovely American sounding guy who was very helpful and very apologetic. The up shot is they've booked me into the flight leaving at the same time/place tomorrow.
I remember about a week ago I was saying to a few people how I wish I had booked my flight to Italy a day later, as I had some errands I really needed to be in London for during business hours. Well I guess I got my wish :) Provided the flight goes OK tomorrow it should all be good (touch wood). Means I've been able to go to the bank, post office etc.
Anyway I'm now sitting here trying to get write ups of everything done whilst I have access to a property english keyboard, Arabic keyboards are whole new world of pain, and I though the Spanish ones were bad! *shudder*.
The next update will *hopefully* be from Italy talking about the summer job, unless I get the Morocco one finnished in the next 23 mins :)
Cheers
S.
current mood: accomplished
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4:56 pm - Mad Madrid - Thurs 21st - Mon 25th June.
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Madrid was interesting, but not somewhere I fell in love with in the same was as say, Barcelona or Seville. We did some of the usual touristy stuff like the Royal Palace, a walk along Gran Via (the main street), a stroll through some of the gardens and checked out a museum or two. The royal palace was certainly very impressive, but not really my thing. Lots of somewhat over the top decorated rooms with sparkling chandlers and golden tapestries. I thought the most interesting bit was actually the armoury, with row after row of shiny knights armour and big displays of horse armour with knights atop :) I'm not sure how you convince a horse to Wear that type of armour, let alone let then let a fully kited out knight sit on top, but I guess they managed it somehow. Also had an example of a little 'doggy coat' armour, which was cute :).
Madrid also had lots of lovely fountains and several gardens, many of which were light up a night. We stayed with our friends parents who live outside Madrid, who spoke very little English and were just lovely and fed us and looked after us, including making us proper paella on our last day for lunch and not letting us pay for dinner, despite our best efforts! (there may have bit a wee bit of wresting over the bill). Much eating and drinking and chatting and swimming in the pool in the backyard :)
Sat night we went out in Madrid and danced until the wee hours of the morning. An interesting mix of Spanish and English language songs, to the point where Jen and I were going 'we are in Madrid in Spain, right? 'cause we just about could be in a club in Melbourne right now' . . . We didn't Quite make it to El Rastro, the big market in Madrid on Sunday, and instead spend the day wandering from place to place refueling :).
After that it was off to Marrakesh, but that's defiantly anther story.
Cheers
S.
current mood: busy
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4:35 pm - Spanish Sunshine - Tue 19th - Fri 22nd June 07
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So having finished up in Granada, we hoped on a train to Almeria for a few days of Spanish sunshine by the cost. We were hoping to stay in San Jose, a lovely sounding little seaside town in the Cabo de Gata, a nature park famed for its remoteness and stark beauty. After some stuffing around we decided to stay in nearby Almeria instead. We knew there Were buses from there to San Jose, however we couldn't find what time they were for love nore money, nore could we get hold of the alleged hostel in San Jose to sort out accommodation, plus our train to Madrid was leaving Almeria at 7.15 in the morning, so we probably would have had to spend the night in Almeria anyway ...
San Jose was lovely, just what I was hoping for. Almeria was, well, not. On the plus side, the hotel was lovely. We had our own room with air con, our own big bathroom with a bath mat, big white fluffy towels and even a bath tub! Its amazing what'll impress you after you've been roughing it a bit in hostels for a few days :)
We basically saw everything there was to see in Almeria in like, an afternoon. The palace on the hill was pretty but still mostly a ruin, although the view of the town and coast was fantastic, even if you had to hold on tight to avoid being swept off the parapets! (argh, heights and strong winds, not a good combination as far as I'm concerned). And there was some animal park with lots of deer etc which was saw from the walls of the aforementioned palace. Plus the guide book had a few warning about 'don't go here, don't go here alone, don't go here with valuables' etc . . .
The upshot of all this is we decided to head to Madrid a day early, any only spend two nights in Almeria instead of 3. After rather a tasty breakfast on the beach we caught a bus to San Jose, which was everything I was hoping for, minus the black sand :) A cute, relaxed seaside town with lots of sunshine, a pretty quite beach and several places to get ice-cream and food :) One weird thing was the sand, which is black and yellow, giving it a strange grayish tinge. After a day on the beach having sand blown in your hair it really Does look like you've been rolling in the dirt (ew). I was picking grit out of my ears for about the next three days. We did have some of the Best seafood of the whole trip for dinner that night. Trying to find a place that would feed us as 6.30 was a bit challenging (yes I know the Spanish don't usually start thinking about dinner till at least 8pm, however we had to be on the last bus at 8 . . .), and ended up at a touristy italianesq place and had some fantastic calamari - sweet and tender and delicious!
The 7 hour train to Madrid the following day was surprisingly OK. We slept for the first couple of hours and trains in Spain are by and largely fast, efficient and clean. There was even some tv screens showing a couple of movies and free headphone, which weren't much good to us at they were English language films dubbed in Spanish :) (he he, in the hotel in Almeria we were watching Jerry Maguire and old episodes of Desperate House wives dubbed in Spanish, mostly for a laugh as much as anything else. Oh and did you know you can get one litre cartons of Sangria from the supermarket for only 65cents (euros). Bargain! Tastes much better than it sounds I assure you :) ).
Where was I? Oh yes, train to Madrid. A good way of seeing the country side, which largely consisted of endless, endless fiends and hill sides of gnarled, grayish green olive trees as far as the eye could see. Still now sight of the water source supplying all those fountains in the south, but I guess they must be some where. A few games of Flux, some chatting, a picnic of baguette, juicy sliced tomatoes and tasty liquid Camembert dip (delicious! and unfortunately not available outside Spain) and we were in Madrid b4 we knew it :)
Almeria's not somewhere I really want to go back to, but if you were looking for some where quite for some sunshine I'd recommend San Jose - I think easy jet fly to Almeria and you can get a bus from the Train Station to San Jose (the time table is available from the Almeria tourist information office).
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| Friday, June 22nd, 2007
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10:31 am - Help Needed! Does anyone have an old mob they're happy to pass on?
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Hi Everyone,
OK for various reasons I have only just discovered that my mob phone, a Nokia 1100, does not work with my new sim card and number. I realy don´t want to change my sim again as this one is cheep while I´m in Italy, and therefore need a different phone!
Does anyone have a mob they are not using and are happy to donate? I don´t care what features it has, so long as it works and has the charger.
It needs to NOT be a phone from the following list, as these phones do NOT work with my sim card (notice the Nokia 1100 is on the list . . .)
All Sony Ericsson ‘K’ Series
All Nokia ‘N’ Series
Motorola C115
Siemens S55
Nokia 2600
Nokia 2100
Nokia 1100
LG 8120
If anyone could help that would be fantastic. Happy to pay postage costs (it may need to be sent to Italy as might not make it to London before next weekend).
Many thanks in advance
Cheers
S
current mood:  anxious
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| Thursday, June 21st, 2007
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11:03 pm - Crazy Cordoba and Grand(ish) Granada
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So having soaking up the loveliness of Seville for a few days, we decided to head to Cordoba for a day trip before moving on to Granada.
Cordoba is an interesting mix of old town, currently being rebuilt and rearranged town, and modern new town :). Cordoba´s primary attraction is the Mezquita, a old Moorish building with a beautiful Mihrab or prayer area.
In the courtyard is a lovely grove of orange trees, watered by a series of shallow, inter connected trenches from the fountain. This is the area where the devout would wash their feet and hands before going it pray way back when.
The inside is a myriad of beautiful arches in striped white and orange, with carved wooden ceiling panels in between. Sounds strange, but when you´re standing inside surrounded by a few hundred its very beautiful and impressive! The Mihrab, an area where prays were read (if I have that right) is particularly stunning, with an amazingly intricate arch way and small alcove with beautifully detailed carvings and patterns, of a similar style to those I´ve seen before, but more colourful and with more use of shimmery metallic colours. This is then proceeded by a series of equally beautiful and ornate, although less colourful arches, that progressively get smaller until the Mihrab is framed at one end. I just stood there fore several mins admiring the beauty of it.
By contrast, the cathedral built inside the Mezquita buy knocking a bit down during the reconquest was impressive yes, but not beautiful in my opinion. The whole thing just made my skin creep to be honest, and I left that area pretty quickly to admire the pretty Moorish stuff again :)
The rest of Cordoba is a bit of a contrast. We ran out of time to look inside the Alcazar de los Reyas Cristianos, noteworthy because this is apparently where the Spanish Inquisition was based back in the day (I dread to think how many witch burning were ordered or condoned from within that building).
What else, what else? The old Roman bridge near the river is currently covered with construction material, and the river banks and frontage area appear to be a ´work in progress´, a bit like several bits of the rest of the old town, where building are being knocked down and moved around. Cordoba had a strange vibe to it, the beggars were more frequent and obvious, and the number of tourist shops selling tourist tat much higher. Cordoba appears to be one of those places that receives loads of day trippers, and is becoming more a tourist town because if it, and not in a good way. I hope that the apparently thriving new town is self sufficient enough to sustain a life of its own, but I fee it will go the same way as San Giminano in Tuscany did, and become a tourist husk with no life blood of its own.
Following Cordoba we returned to Seville for the night, then caught a train east to Granada.
The big draw card of Granada is of course the famous Alhambra and gardens at Generalife next door. After it was built up so much by everyone else, I was expecting to be blown a way - a bigger and better version of the Moorish stuff I´d already seen . . . .
Bigger is certainly an apt description, but I´m not convinced that better applies . . . Perhaps if we hadn´t already seen some impressive examples in Seville and Cordoba it would have made more of an impact. It was certainly big, many more rooms, to the point of almost getting lost in the place, but its was all of a similar style to what we'd seen before, if anything less ornate. The famoned Patio de los Leones was under reservation, with the lions on holiday whilst they got all fixed up :) I´ve got the post card anyway so I don´t need to see the real thing, right? :) The Salon de Embajodors, or thrown room was large an impressive, but again similar to previous examples we´d seen. Don't get me wrong it was beautiful, but it just didn't floor me like I was expecting it to, possibly because I had such high expectations from what other people had said.
The adjoining Generalife is basically a series of inter-connected garden areas with a series of lovely fountains. The majority of these were well looked after, and Jen and I spent sometime sitting in the shade of carved archways, cooling off in the breeze and listing to the splashing of the many fountains. The gardens area extensive, and around every corner is another lovely area with flowers and hedges and its own lovely trickily (or often gushing) fountain! I don´t know where they get there water from, but they do seen to use a Lot and its all so lovely a cool (I know this because there are several fountains where you can stick you hands, or in our case our arms in up to our elbows and cool off. Most excellent when you've been walking all day in the sunshine).
Come to think of it Seville and Granada also had Heaps of lovely fountains, sometimes moving massive volumes of water. I have no idea where it comes from, given the dryness of the surrounding countryside. Maybe its ground water or something . . .
The rest of Granada was interesting. Its much higher up than Seville and a bit drier. There's a university and an old Gypsy area up the hill that gives Granada a distinctly studenty vibe, with a far number of ferals and their dogs to boot :) The street along side the Cathedral was particularly annoying for beggars and I snapped at one woman one day when she tried to foist bits of plant at me (do not annoy the hungry Sarah who has been walking all day and is in need of coffee if you know whats good for you :P ).
The view from roof top terrace at the hostel was Stunning, with a fantastic view of Sierra Nevada in the distance and Granada laid out below, but apart from this the hostel was a bit of a disappointment. The staff were lovely, but the hostel itself rather cramped and grotty around the edges . . .
Seville is defiantly somewhere I´d be happy to go back to and just hang out for a bit, but I don´t really feel the need to go back to Granada, and one day was defiantly enough in Cordoba (am quite glad we didn´t stop overnight there).
Am currently Madrid a day early after two nights in Almeria, but I think that´s a topic for another post, which I may or may not be bothered to do tonight! Its late and I wanna have enough brain power to appreciate the royal palace and perhaps a museum or to in Madrid tomorrow.
Cheers
S.
current mood: tired
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4:23 pm - Best Laid Plans . . . .
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A quick update, we've just spend two nights in Almeria, including a day trip to San Jose to spend the afternoon at the beach, and I have the sunburn to prove it. Almeria was an 'adventure' and by that I mean we saw everything there was to see in more or less one afternoon, then decided to split to Madrid a day early. Caught the train from Almeria at 7.15 this moring and arrived at the hostel around 3. Journey was long, but we spent the first two hours sleeping and the sceanery was pretty. Currently nursing sunburn and using free internet, but going to go for a walk around Madrid Real Soon Now :)
Tomorrow we're going to see some stuff in Madrid, before meeting our friend at the airport where her parents are going to pick us all up and stay at their place for the weekend, then on Monday we flight to Morocco :)
I also have to decide what I can ditch from my backpack Before I get to Italy ´cause its Heavy and I´m sick of lugging it around :)
current mood:  sunburnt
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| Monday, June 18th, 2007
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11:36 pm - Seville, the Epic version :)
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Today I thought 'I'll just make a list of all the places we've been to so far in case I miss anything' and ended up with a Long list, taking in Seville, Cordoba and Granada. Usually I try to write an longer, interesting post, telling a story of where I've been and what my personal impressions of a place were, partly 'cause it helps me to remember, but also 'cause I figure its a hell of a lot more interesting to read then 'and then we did this, and then we did this, oh and then we went here' :)
However in Summary, here's a list of every where we've been so far, and a few brief notes on each which I may update if time and brain power permit :)
Seville:
General Impressions:
Seville is lovely, the kind of place I could go back to and work or study and just hang out in. Despite the heat, its filled with lots of parks and gardens and fountains. The streets are very walkable and are still safe for a couple of lone females late into the evening :) Away from the tourist areas there are cute little tapis bars, beautiful churches and a local atmosphere. The area, especially Triana where we stayed, is known for its title manufacture, partly a throw back to the times of Moorish occupation, and many of the street signs are beautifully painted white and colored tiles.
Triana, where our hostel was located:
A lovely, quieter area across the river from the Torre del Oro and 'main' part of town. Its more local and less touristy, more's the better because of it :) Up until the 19th century there was no bridge between Triana and the main area of Seville, so the area still retains sense of inderpendence and less touristy vibe than 'the main land' . . . The area's church, Iglesia de Santa Ana is very pretty, with titled pictures of Mary on the outside and impressive, ornate silver figures and religious scenes on the inside.
Across the river on 'the main land':
Are some simply Stunning examples of Moorish architecture that leaves the Christian stuff for dead :). My favorite has to be the Casa de Pilatos or 'Pilots House'. Not the biggest of places, but gorgeous none the less :) The main square nearly took my breath away. Words don't really do it justice, but here goes - the central court yard has a large, multi teared fountain with crystal clear, cool water flowing down it. The walls of the courtyard and covered with the most beautiful and amazing array of patterned, colored tiles up to nearly head hight, with different patterns and colors covering different sections. Above this, delicately and intricately carved arches in white dazzle the eye, with their maze of fabulous criss crossing patterns. At each corner both on the ground and above it are roman statues, that provide an interesting and yet complementary contrast to the stunning Moorish patterns. Leading off the courtyard are a number of symmetrical square rooms, each entered through a archway of intricately carved arches, and filled with different arrays of the same beautifully pattern tiles, with their own small, trickling fountain in the centre and to top it all off celling of dark, beautifully carved wood with golden highlights . . .
Through the windows looking outside is a series of lovely, lush, good green leafy gardens with sweet smelling roses and climbers and cool, trickling fountains . . .
Suffice to say if I was ruler of Spain I would kick all these pesky commoners out of the place and keep it and all its loveliness all to myself. If I was feeling generous I Might let them in once a month, on Tuesday afternoon when I'm not there :).
The same day we went to Seville Cathedral and La Giralda, the big bell tower. The cathedral is nice enough, Big and has lots of impressive, amazingly carved religious scenes and pretty stone carved arches. La Grialda is currently winning as my favorite bell tower because instead of stairs is has a series of not too steep ramps going round and round. Apparently it was designed this way so the ruler of the time could ride his horse up the top of the tower. Why on earth any one would Want to ride a horse all the way up there is beyond me, however it does make for a much, much easier climb if you´re a tired tourist that's been walking all day :) We were also up there when the bells started ringing, which were rather loud and are all mechanized now. I had this mental image of these beautiful old bells being controlled by a modern laptop stilling in the basement of the cathedral somewhere . . .
The following day we went to Real Alcazares or Royal Palance. The tiles, fountains and gardens are of a similar style to the Casa de Pilatos, however obviously on a much, much larger scale! The archways and celling of the central thrown rooms are even more beautiful and ornate, with triple arches simply covered with more intricate, colored patterns and carvings all the way up to the tall, wooden, carved celling above. Some of the pools are a bit more greenish, and fish appear occasionally from the murky depths. The gardens are extensive, with each section laid out in it own separate area that you discover as you walk around another hedge or avenue of trees. You'd think you'd get tired of beautiful, trickling tiled fountains after the umteenth one, but you really don't :)
On our final day we sauntered though Parque Maria Lusia and near by Plaza de Espana. The park is a green oasis with lots of lovely mature trees, but didn't really live up to its reputation in the guide book. Many of the fountains are chipped, broken, or other wise graffitied or not working, and several ponds and fountains contain rather skanky looking, bright green water with scummy bits floating on top. Top this all off with a small sprinkling of some of the less desirable characters from around Seville skulking around begging off the odd tourist and its not the kind of place I would want to be alone of an evening. There are apparently plans to rejuvenate the park, and is its currently obviously used by lots of locals running and the like, but I think it'll be a while before its restored to its former glory . . . The adjoining Plaza de Espana has recently undergone restoration works and was rather lovely in the afternoon light. Originally created for the huge Spanish Expo in 1920 something, it formed a centre piece to show Spain off to the rest of the world. How well this worked maybe still be disputed, however the Plaza itself it still a lovely place, although its hard to see what function it currently serves, other than being a pretty thing. In the center is a large, ornate fountain, surrounded by large, beautiful spiraling patterns in swaths of black and white pebbles. The building around the edge are double story and ornate, with tiles depicting scenes and maps of each region of Spain, set off by the large pointed towers at each corner.
See, all I needed was a list and a little inspiration to write another Epic (I can hear you all groaning now - that wasn't a quick summary! I was going just spend a few mins scanning this on my lunch break and now my coffee's gone cold! Jibbed I tell you, jibbed! (*giggle*).
And now its nearly 1am and I need to go to bed 'cause Jen and I are catching the 10am train to Almeria tomorrow. At some point in the not to distant future I'll do a write up of Cordoba and Granada, although I think this will be the last free internet I have access to for a while . . .
Cheers
S.
current mood: (and tired, bed time for me)
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| Sunday, June 17th, 2007
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6:49 pm
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Splendid Seville and Grand Granada
Hola!
I can not believe I've been in Spain for I've been for a whole week already. I´m not really missing London yet, and I'm definantly not missing work! (not offense team if anyone's reading this).
After a rather frantic last week in London, Jen and I arrive in sunny Seville last Monday morning. Despite its location in souther Spain, Seville is still largely cool and inviting, probably partly due to its many parks, gardens and fountains. Its amazing how quickly I've become used to the Spanish life style, having two hours for lunch followed by a nap, then going out for tapis and dinner at 10.30pm . . .
The backpackers we stayed at in Seville was in Triana, a much less touristy area across the river. The hostel was lovely, with pretty tiled walls, comfy communal area and free internet :) Seville has some splendid examples of moorish architecture, relects of the cities moorish occupation for several hundred years before the christians took back the city.
Places like Caso de Pilatos and the Real Alcazar (royal palace) are enough to take your breath away, even for seasoned traveler like me :) I found the Caso de Pilatos particularly beautiful, with its beautifully tilled court yard, trickling moorish fountains, delicately, intricately carved arches and lush, cool green gardens. If I was ruler of Spain I think I kick all these pesky commoners out of the place and keep it and all its loveliness all to myself.
The Real Alcazar was similar, although on a much grander scale. The gardens in particular were simply lovely - you´d think you´ed get sick of cute little fountains after the umpteenth time but I didn't :) So much greener. And in such a dry city! I don't know where they get their water from but it must be coming from somewhere . . .
The cathedral was suitable stunning, although I am rapily getting to the point where I'm all churched out. There are usually several in each city I visit, and after the 4th or 5th they all start blurring into each other . . .
We also did a day trip to Cordoba and are currently in Granada, but there's a line for the internet so I better do a write up about that another day!
Cheers
S
current mood:  (and tired! so much walking!)
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| Wednesday, June 13th, 2007
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10:38 pm - An Update
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OK, so I´m actually currently in Seville, Spain, but this is the update I wrote a few days before I left and quite frankly its dinner time and I´m hungry and I can´t be bothered editing it :)
Itineary at the bottom if any one´s interested . . .
Well, after several months of stuffing around, its finally happening. I've taken the job in Tuscany and at the beginning of July I'm off to seek sunshine and adventure in far away lands (again) :)
Before I go, my dear friend Jen is coming over from Australia for a visit. We'll be spending 2 weeks travelling around southern Spain and Madrid, thence to Morocco to soak up the culture in Marrakech for a week. After that we'll be flying back to London for a day or two before Jen heads back to Aus and I head off to Italy at the beginning of July, were I'll working at the art centre in Tuscany till around the end of September. In early October my dear friend Katie, also from Australia, is coming over for a visit and we'll be spending 5 or 6 weeks doing a whirlwind tour of Western Europe, before Katie heads home I eventually get back to London in mid November (just in time for the English winter!)
I am very lucky in that my work is allowing me the time off as leave without pay and to return to my job when I get back in November.
I'll be giving notice on my flat, putting some stuff into storage and looking for a new room when I get back to London (to all my London friends I may ask to crash on your couch for a few days when I get back :) ).
A big thank-you to everyone in the UK, Australia and everywhere else in between for your friendship and support over the last 18 months. I know I'm not always the best at keeping in touch, but I hope by now everyone realises that doesn't mean you are far from my thoughts, where ever I happen to be in the world a the time :)
On a practical note, my personal email address will be staying the same, but I'll be changing my mob number from Sun 10th June to one that works while I'm on the continent. A friend of mine has kindly agreed to receive my post in the UK for me while I'm away, and of course I'll try to post to my LJ (
Below is a more detailed intermarry for anyone who's interested.
Cheers
S.
Sarah's Itinerary from June - November 2007
Friday 8th June - My last day of work at council
Sat 9th June - Jen arrives from Australia (yyyyaaaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!!!)
Mon 11th June - Jen and I fly to Seville in southern Spain for 4 days, possibly do a day trip to Cordoba.
Fri 15th June - Travel by train to Granada for 4 days.
Tue 19th June - Head to Costa d' Almera on the Spanish coast, probably stay in the little town of San Jose by the beach for a few days and soak up some Spanish sunshine.
Fri 22nd June - Travel by train to Madrid and spend the weekend with our friend and her family.
Mon 25th June - Fly to Marrakech in Morocco for 5 days.
Sat 30th June - Jen and I fly back to London. My leaving drinks in London on Sat night - last chance to see my London friends b4 I'm off for the summer!
Sun 1st July - Jen flies back to Australia
Mon 2nd July - I fly to Pisa then travel to Casole d' Elsa in Tuscany to work, paint and lye in the Tuscan sun at the Verrocchio Art Centre (
www.verrocchio.co.uk) for three months.
Early October - Katie arrives from Australia (yyyyaaaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!!!). Spend 5 or 6 weeks travelling around Western Europe.
Early to Mid November - Back to London.
Mon 12th Nov - First day back at work for council in London.
current mood:  hungry
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| Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
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6:41 pm - Vivacious Venice - Sat 28th April - Tue 1st May 2007
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Ah Venice, city of Romance, Gondolas, Carnival, Canals, Cameras, Churches and sooooo many tourists :)
Actually to be honest I think Venice's reputation as one of the most romantic cities in the world is over rated. And gondola's are creepy! They're all black and silent and stealthy and they creep up on you when you're sitting by a canal and make you jump (then again this might have had something to do with the fact by this stage I'd been up since half one in the morning to catch our flight and my espresso levels were getting dangerously low . . .).
It really is like no where else I've been to. At first I thought it was a bit like a cross between Amsterdam and Tuscany, but I quickly came to the conclusion Venice really is like no where else on earth. For a start there's no car's, which is lovely, all the streets are lined with big, smooth cobblestones. Then there's the canals to contend with, which are great, but can make getting around a bit challenging when you find your way constantly blocked by river of water and have to go hunting for the nearest bridge. There's an interesting contrast between the natural open water and the reflected sunlight glinting off the buildings, and this very humanised, old worldly urban landscape. There's no nature strips or anything, just some trees around the squares. At odd spots there are these secrete gardens, lovely looking cool, shady places glimpsed from the canal and walled and gated from everyone else. There's a public park at either end of the island, but you're more likely to find some shade on the steps of an big, beautiful old church if you need a rest :)
As you cruise along the Grand Canal on a Vaparetto (Venice's answer to public transport al-la-water bus style) you get a sense of the slightly faded grandeur of the city. The buildings tilt and list at odd places, straight lines warp where one part has sunk more than the next. Intricate balconies and beautiful arched windows combined with warm red and orange hues of some buildings give the city a decidedly middle eastern flavour in parts. On the main streets the press of tourists in constant, and Saint Marcs Square at lunch time is a trial of patience and crowd endurance. The Basilica in the square is Stunning, like something out of a grand fairy tale or the top of a intricate wedding cake. The line to get Into the Basilica was equally awe inspiring, and my friend and I decided admiring from afar was better than waiting in line for 2 hours in the sun.
Everywhere you go you get this sense of faded grandeur. Of a city that retains its relics and style from yesteryear, be it a apartment, a gondola or gilded furniture, pass down from generation to generation (even if it is a bit shabby around the edges now and none of it quite matches anymore). Away from the crush of tourists and shops selling tourist tat, Venice retains a lovely sense of place with locals doing their shopping, chatting in the street and stopping at the local coffee bar for a quick espresso - all you need do is turn off the main street to enter into a more real, more relaxed Venice.
Glass, Carnival and Masks are three of Venice's biggest tourist exports and they are available almost Everywhere in various shades of hideousness. The genuine articles are harder to find, although having been into about 3/4 of the glass shops on Venice I believe me and my friend Elaine had a dam good crack at it. Pendants, rings, bracelets and earrings abound, from the gilded and garish to the rarer, sleeker and subtle. The Island of Murano in particular is know for its glass making. Back in the day this Island was the one of the few places in the world that made glass, and was the only place that knew how to make glass mirrors. Glass making was a high profile, highly skilled and secretive profession but it came at a price. Fearful of their precious secretes being shared with the rest of the world, the rulers of Venice deemed glass makers were only allowed to live in the Island of Murano, and were never allowed to leave to live somewhere else. I'm not sure what these grand old masters would think of modern day Murano, with it's avenues of touristy glass shops and 'ample' Venetians giving glass blowing demonstrations to rooms full of enthralled tourists (although having said that watching the guy make a swan out of blob of molten glass was rather cool, especially the bit at the end when the put a piece of paper on it and it burst into flame to prove the temperature of the solidifying glass really does reach 1000 degrees C +).
The Venetian's certainly seam to be a breed of their own, but still retain their Italian flare. Elaine and I spent many a time stopping for a quick espresso or cappuccino Italian style, standing at the bar for a coffee and cake hit (a cheaper and more authentic experience than sitting down. The concept of take - away coffee in Italy is somewhat unknown - why would you get a take away when you can stand and the bar for 5 mins for a quick coffee and be on your way? And Italian coffee, partially espresso is Devine, and I fully intent to become completely addicted while I'm in Tuscany this summer :)).
I don't personally think Venice its any more romantic than any where else I've been, nor is its reputation for a somewhat odorous city deserved (there was only one or two places in the back streets where the 'marine' smell was noticeable). I dread to think what Venice would be like in August in the height of the tourist season, but for a weekend in April it was lovely. It certainly has charm and character in spades, and I hope the inevitably increasing crush of tourists doesn’t diminish this engaging, oldworldy and charming city.
Ciao
Sarah
current mood: cheerful
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