Sarahs Voyage Update
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