Tuesday 3 November 09
It has been 5 months today since I first touched down in old London town. Crazy, no? Time has just flown. Can't believe I'm nearly 1/4 way through my overseas adventures...
So today was pretty eventful, and not just cos it's my anniversary (in fact I only realised that when I was on my way home from work). Interesting things that happened to me today:
1. I got asked for directions in the tube station and I could actually help! Am I becoming a local?!
2. I saw my first transexual in normal everyday life (ie not Carnival) - there I was, on the tube minding my own business (and by that I mean squooshed in a corner looking at people's shoes) when I noticed a very tall woman standing near me, with very unusual looking legs (knobbly knees, well defined calves, tiny ankles - looked like man's legs except they were in lovely silver tights with cute heels at the bottom) and very masculine looking hands. I glanced up (and up) and lo and behold, it was a man! Doing quite a good impression of a woman, but a man none-the-less, all dressed up in smart work attire. Interesting.
3. My boss shouted me lunch - it was also a talk about how I'm going etc, but it seems to be all good - I've pretty much passed my probation period (been there 2 months so far) so unless I completely screw up in the next month, I'll most probably be staying there for much of my time over here. By the way - work is Speirs and Major Associates - a lighting architect firm, and I'm PA for one of the directors and admin assistant. Keeps me busy!
4. I was in the tube station after work about to head home when I heard the Oxford St Christmas lights were being turned on for the first time, so I jumped on a different tube to go have a nosy. Unfortunately all the festivities were over by the time I got there, but the lights were all still on - so pretty! Pity I didn't have my camera with me. A bit scary to think Christmas is that close already!
That's it really. Now I'm home cooking myself some dinner, occasionally seeing a random firework and accompanying *bang!* out the kitchen window - it's Guy Fawkes night Thursday so I think some people are getting into the spirit already :)
Hopefully shall do more of these short little glimpses into my life over here more often - it's easier than the massive spiels I normally try to do!
'Til next time... xx
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Ireland!
Tuesday 15th September:
Henry (the new boy for those of you not yet in the know) & I headed off at the ungodly hour of 5.30am to catch the bus to catch the other bus to get to the airport. Made it there with oodles of time to spare, but we both would much rather sit around in an airport knowing we're there than rushing and stressing. So! Onto the plane we went. Ryanair - £2 tickets (return). Yeah baby! Even got seats together! (For the uninitiated into the ways of Ryanair, it's a mega-budget airline, you don't even get seats, it's first come, first serve (unless you want to pay extra) so there's always a mad rush when they announce boarding.)
Touched down just before lunchtime (after Henry'd slept most of the way - hrmph.) and caught the shuttle bus into Dublin. Decided to get some brunch before we checked into our hotel (seeing check-in wasn't for another hour or so anyway) so went to this lovely little restaurant & got an awesome big brekkie and the necessary accompanying coffee (boring filtered stuff but beggars can't be choosy). On the way we found a Henry St - very main shopping street it turns out. Hrmph again - no Karina
Streets in sight! Anyway, once the energy (ie coffee (for me anyway)) was back flowing through our veins we ventured out again and decided to check out a church nearby which was on our list of things to see. Got there pretty easily once we'd worked out we were going the wrong way & had turned around (nice navigating Henry - yep, I'm blaming it on you!). Church was pretty nice, but more impressive was the sculpture of the big hand on the opposite side of the road! Picture included for your curiosity :)
Found the hotel (Adams Trinity Hotel - quite nice), checked in etc and headed out again
, glad to be rid of the suitcases (esp Henry's which had a mind of it's own). Wandered in the direction of the Guinness Storehouse, our first touristy stop (we obviously had our priorities sorted), soaking up the sun (yes, SUN! in Ireland! It didn't rain once!!) as we went and happy snapping the lovely old buildings we passed on the way.
Managed to get into the Guinness Storehouse as a student (yay for people not checking ID properly!) and walked through the various information points, quite interesting for the most part. They go through an astronomical amount of water a day - can't remember the exact figure but it was a lot! Possibly made more poignant for me coming from dry dry Australia where every drop is sacred... Saw a lot of the old ads from back in the day too which was cool - especially liked one which depicted a kangaroo and a man - the kangaroo with the Guinness bottle in it's pouch and the man
with the joey in his hand - tee hee! And one with a turtle with a pint of Guinness on its back. Not sure why this appealed to me, but there you go. At the end of wandering through the Storehouse, after we had a small taste testing, we came to the point where you could pour your own pint if you wanted to, so Henry had a go. His tasted really nice (as far as Guinness goes - gotta say I'm not really a fan, much prefer the good old normal beer!) - surprisingly! Haha, jokes :) Then we just chilled sipping at the Guinness and looking at the lovely view out the window over Dublin - beautiful & sunny & lovely!
Discovered a bar on the top level where you could get another free pint but we'd had our fill so checked out the view for a bit and headed back down. Stopped in at Christchurch Cathedral on the way back to our hotel but didn't (couldn't) go in because a) the priest guarding the door (that's seriously what it looked like he was doing!) wouldn't let us (a service was about to start, so fair enough, but he didn't give the best impression. What if we wanted to go to the service?! That wasn't even an option!) and b) it was 4 Euros to get in and I don't believe in paying to get into churches on principle (plus we were on a budget!). The sun was out though so we sat in the grounds for a bit soaking it up - Henry fell asleep - damn his ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat!
Headed back to the hotel to regroup (ie watch a bit of tv) and get ready for the night ahead - Dylan Moran! But first things first - food. We headed into Temple Bar district (just across the road) which is supposed to have a good selection of restaurants. Found a nice Mexican place which was advertising some good specials.
Once we were chock full of enchiladas, we headed off to Vicar Lane where Dylan Moran's show was. Found it easy enough - just followed the horde of people headed in the same direction (what else would all those people be out in Dublin for on a Monday night?!). Once we'd found our way through the haze of smoke encircling the entrance way (from people smoking, it wasn't just some fancy gimmick) and I'd dug the tickets out of my bag (new and HUGE! (my bag not the tickets :P) Fits so much in. Very exciting for me - not so for Henry apparently...) we went in and found our seats. Because it was a kinda last minute thing we couldn't get seats next to each other, so I was one side of the room and Henry was the other side. Was a fairly small venue for such a well known (and loved, let's face it) comedian, much smaller than I was expecting, and very cabaret in its layout - the main floor was covered in small round tables with four seats surrounding each table. A good way to get to know people I suppose! And be seated comfortably with a drink, perhaps the main motive for the seating arrangements. We were in Ireland after all :) We were seated around the edge a bit elevated from the rest.
After a bit Dylan came out & did his thing. Yay! So funny. There was a bit of recycling of material from the Adelaide show I saw earlier this year, but it was nice to have a refresher anyway. And it was still side-splittingly funny. "She comes in, walking on the floor, breathing the air like it's hers to breathe..." haahhahhahah! Hm, maybe you had to be there :) After it'd finished and we were all laughed out, walked back to the hotel and crashed for the night. Zzzz...
Wednesday 16th September:
Woke up reasonably early with the lovely sun showing its face again! By the time we were both up and ready to go it had disappeared again though. We had decided to go out and see a bit of rural Ireland while we were here so headed for the train station and a train to Malahide, a coastal town which had a castle. We missed the train by 2 minutes or something ridiculous like that so decided to have a wander of the streets of Dublin while we waited for the next one. Went to the docks part of town, saw some cool graffiti and an even cooler bridge (shaped like the harp that is a symbol of Ireland & is the Guinness logo) and made it back to the train station with seconds to spare. Literally. If the train hadn't been late we would've missed it again.
Caught our breath on
the train (so unfit!!) and were in Malahide a half hour later. Found the castle no problems - had to walk through this really lovely forest to get there, everything was so incredibly lush and green! The amazing amount of green over here still gets me. Walked out through the trees and then - lo and behold - there the castle stood, half overgrown with ivy, standing stark and old against the gray sky - it was everything I imagined in an Irish castle. Went on the tour which was quite interesting and grabbed some lunch in the tearooms before heading back to the town to look around.
Wandered down to the moorings - very picturesque with all the boats and the sea and the s
un. Walked around to the beach - and it was surprisingly like a beach too: sand, seashells, water :P - I had a much different ideas of what beaches in the UK were like - but I guess Ireland technically isn't part of the UK anyway. It was beautiful in any case and the sun once again came out for us as we soaked in the view (it counteracted against the cold breeze as well to great effect!). Could've stayed there forever but unfortunately the train was a-calling us, so we trundled back to Dublin.
Once back we made our way to the Jameson Whiskey factory for some more alcohol testing! We just made the last tour so headed inside. Interesting fact - Guinness and whiskey aren't made all that differently, it's just the last bit of the process that's different! At the start of the tour they picked out five girls and five guys to take part in a tasting and I was one of the lucky five girls - twas quite funny actually, they asked for female volunteers and had people saying, oh, I suppose so, and just made up the five, and then they asked for the male volunteers and pretty much every male hand in the group went up! So poor Henry missed out. The tastings were quite interesting actually, we tried American whiskey (distilled once), Scottish whiskey (distilled twice) and Irish whiskey (distilled thrice), and you could really taste the difference between them! Not that I enjoyed it overly much - I'm not a fan of straight whiskey! But then we all got a glass of Irish Jameson whiskey at the end however we wanted, so I had it with good old coke :). Sacreligious to some, maybe, but that's how I like it.
Headed back to the hotel to chill for a couple hours before making our way to this naff American diner for some healthy *cough* dinner. Was pretty cool though - looked like the typical American diner you see in all the movies and TV shows, with the shiny vinyl booths and stools at the counter. They even had a mini jukebox on our table where you could choose a song (for a price) and it'd play over the sound system. I had the most enormous milkshake. We needed another rest after all the food! Back to the hotel...
Once we'd digested and dragged ourselves away from awesome movies like Clueless (haha!) we went to the pub across the road in the hope of finding some Irish dancing. Alas, they'd already finished, but there was some awesome traditional Irish music being played, and the violin player did at one point do a little jig, which almost counts... They were really good and very chatty - good show. Drinking our pints I noticed they had sport on a TV near the back of the pub - and not just any sport - AFL! But wait! Not just any AFL - highlights from the Collingwood - Adelaide semifinal I'd missed most of cos our Internet at home was playing up! I know it was a depressing game but hey - this was the first AFL I'd seen on a decent sized TV since leaving our fair country so I went and sat in front of it and proceeded to explain to Henry the rules of our awesome game (whether he wanted to hear or not). Even though it was a heart breaking game, I was glad I finally got to see it properly. I never thought it'd be in an Irish pub though! Great night.
Thursday 17th September:
Our last day :( We packed up and checked out and went in search of breakfast. Found this place nearby that had some of the most delicious looking scones ever made, so bought a selection (and a coffee for me) and went on our way. We decided to swing past St Patrick's Cathedral and have brekkie there - and what a great idea! The cathedral had the most beautiful grounds, all green lawn and bright colourful flowers... perfect way to start the day. And MAN the scones were good! Once devoured we headed round to the entrance to the cathedral but once again they were charging to get in - 5 euros! No thanks. Seems so wrong somehow...
Walked on, exploring the city. Found another lovely patch of garden on our way to Trinity College where we looked around the grounds a bit. Found this one sculpture thing of what looked to me an eaten away world, and we were wondering what it did / meant when lo and behold a tour group came up and the tour guide explained it all! Very interesting but also long and involved - can't be bothered writing it up. See me for more details (if I can still remember) :)
We were headed in the direction of this new development place where I'd read my new workplace (Speirs & Major Associates) had designed the lighting for a public square. Thought I should check it out, you know, while in Dublin... eventually found it - would've been more impressive at night (the red sticks have LED lights in the top half so they light up at night) but pretty cool nevertheless.
Back on the road, past the awesome harp bridge again, up some hills, down some hills, round the corner and down the lane and finally we were at the Dublin Writers Museum! Yes, my feet were sore and yes, I complained. :) Poor Henry. Was all worth it though - I really enjoyed the Writers Museum. I hadn't realised just how many of the famous writers were Irish! And they were censored so much during British reign, yet they persevered... was all very interesting.
Walked back to Temple Bar taking in some more of the city on the way and found a nice restaurant where they served Irish stew for our last meal in Ireland! Well, I had Irish stew, Henry had something without meat (he's vegetarian). Was quite yummy, nice and hearty tasting! Wrote a couple last minute postcards while we finished off our meals, then headed to Dublin Castle for the last bit of sightseeing on our list. Unfortunately, all the guided tours (which you had to go on to see the castle) were booked out for the rest of the day (seriously! As if that happens!) so we collected our luggage and headed for the airport instead, detouring past another lovely garden with a statue of Oscar Wilde and some really big chairs!
By the time we found the bus station, had got on and was stuck in peak hour traffic on the way to the airport I was stressing a little that we weren't going to make it on time. Henry meanwhile had fallen asleep on me, so wasn't much help alleviating the stress... But we made it in plenty of time in the end and then our flight was delayed by another 20 mins! Eventually got on the plane and bade farewell to Ireland (well, Dublin) til the next time we meet........
Henry (the new boy for those of you not yet in the know) & I headed off at the ungodly hour of 5.30am to catch the bus to catch the other bus to get to the airport. Made it there with oodles of time to spare, but we both would much rather sit around in an airport knowing we're there than rushing and stressing. So! Onto the plane we went. Ryanair - £2 tickets (return). Yeah baby! Even got seats together! (For the uninitiated into the ways of Ryanair, it's a mega-budget airline, you don't even get seats, it's first come, first serve (unless you want to pay extra) so there's always a mad rush when they announce boarding.)
Touched down just before lunchtime (after Henry'd slept most of the way - hrmph.) and caught the shuttle bus into Dublin. Decided to get some brunch before we checked into our hotel (seeing check-in wasn't for another hour or so anyway) so went to this lovely little restaurant & got an awesome big brekkie and the necessary accompanying coffee (boring filtered stuff but beggars can't be choosy). On the way we found a Henry St - very main shopping street it turns out. Hrmph again - no Karina
Streets in sight! Anyway, once the energy (ie coffee (for me anyway)) was back flowing through our veins we ventured out again and decided to check out a church nearby which was on our list of things to see. Got there pretty easily once we'd worked out we were going the wrong way & had turned around (nice navigating Henry - yep, I'm blaming it on you!). Church was pretty nice, but more impressive was the sculpture of the big hand on the opposite side of the road! Picture included for your curiosity :)Found the hotel (Adams Trinity Hotel - quite nice), checked in etc and headed out again
, glad to be rid of the suitcases (esp Henry's which had a mind of it's own). Wandered in the direction of the Guinness Storehouse, our first touristy stop (we obviously had our priorities sorted), soaking up the sun (yes, SUN! in Ireland! It didn't rain once!!) as we went and happy snapping the lovely old buildings we passed on the way.Managed to get into the Guinness Storehouse as a student (yay for people not checking ID properly!) and walked through the various information points, quite interesting for the most part. They go through an astronomical amount of water a day - can't remember the exact figure but it was a lot! Possibly made more poignant for me coming from dry dry Australia where every drop is sacred... Saw a lot of the old ads from back in the day too which was cool - especially liked one which depicted a kangaroo and a man - the kangaroo with the Guinness bottle in it's pouch and the man
with the joey in his hand - tee hee! And one with a turtle with a pint of Guinness on its back. Not sure why this appealed to me, but there you go. At the end of wandering through the Storehouse, after we had a small taste testing, we came to the point where you could pour your own pint if you wanted to, so Henry had a go. His tasted really nice (as far as Guinness goes - gotta say I'm not really a fan, much prefer the good old normal beer!) - surprisingly! Haha, jokes :) Then we just chilled sipping at the Guinness and looking at the lovely view out the window over Dublin - beautiful & sunny & lovely!Discovered a bar on the top level where you could get another free pint but we'd had our fill so checked out the view for a bit and headed back down. Stopped in at Christchurch Cathedral on the way back to our hotel but didn't (couldn't) go in because a) the priest guarding the door (that's seriously what it looked like he was doing!) wouldn't let us (a service was about to start, so fair enough, but he didn't give the best impression. What if we wanted to go to the service?! That wasn't even an option!) and b) it was 4 Euros to get in and I don't believe in paying to get into churches on principle (plus we were on a budget!). The sun was out though so we sat in the grounds for a bit soaking it up - Henry fell asleep - damn his ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat!
Headed back to the hotel to regroup (ie watch a bit of tv) and get ready for the night ahead - Dylan Moran! But first things first - food. We headed into Temple Bar district (just across the road) which is supposed to have a good selection of restaurants. Found a nice Mexican place which was advertising some good specials.
Once we were chock full of enchiladas, we headed off to Vicar Lane where Dylan Moran's show was. Found it easy enough - just followed the horde of people headed in the same direction (what else would all those people be out in Dublin for on a Monday night?!). Once we'd found our way through the haze of smoke encircling the entrance way (from people smoking, it wasn't just some fancy gimmick) and I'd dug the tickets out of my bag (new and HUGE! (my bag not the tickets :P) Fits so much in. Very exciting for me - not so for Henry apparently...) we went in and found our seats. Because it was a kinda last minute thing we couldn't get seats next to each other, so I was one side of the room and Henry was the other side. Was a fairly small venue for such a well known (and loved, let's face it) comedian, much smaller than I was expecting, and very cabaret in its layout - the main floor was covered in small round tables with four seats surrounding each table. A good way to get to know people I suppose! And be seated comfortably with a drink, perhaps the main motive for the seating arrangements. We were in Ireland after all :) We were seated around the edge a bit elevated from the rest.
After a bit Dylan came out & did his thing. Yay! So funny. There was a bit of recycling of material from the Adelaide show I saw earlier this year, but it was nice to have a refresher anyway. And it was still side-splittingly funny. "She comes in, walking on the floor, breathing the air like it's hers to breathe..." haahhahhahah! Hm, maybe you had to be there :) After it'd finished and we were all laughed out, walked back to the hotel and crashed for the night. Zzzz...
Wednesday 16th September:
Woke up reasonably early with the lovely sun showing its face again! By the time we were both up and ready to go it had disappeared again though. We had decided to go out and see a bit of rural Ireland while we were here so headed for the train station and a train to Malahide, a coastal town which had a castle. We missed the train by 2 minutes or something ridiculous like that so decided to have a wander of the streets of Dublin while we waited for the next one. Went to the docks part of town, saw some cool graffiti and an even cooler bridge (shaped like the harp that is a symbol of Ireland & is the Guinness logo) and made it back to the train station with seconds to spare. Literally. If the train hadn't been late we would've missed it again.
Caught our breath on
the train (so unfit!!) and were in Malahide a half hour later. Found the castle no problems - had to walk through this really lovely forest to get there, everything was so incredibly lush and green! The amazing amount of green over here still gets me. Walked out through the trees and then - lo and behold - there the castle stood, half overgrown with ivy, standing stark and old against the gray sky - it was everything I imagined in an Irish castle. Went on the tour which was quite interesting and grabbed some lunch in the tearooms before heading back to the town to look around.Wandered down to the moorings - very picturesque with all the boats and the sea and the s
un. Walked around to the beach - and it was surprisingly like a beach too: sand, seashells, water :P - I had a much different ideas of what beaches in the UK were like - but I guess Ireland technically isn't part of the UK anyway. It was beautiful in any case and the sun once again came out for us as we soaked in the view (it counteracted against the cold breeze as well to great effect!). Could've stayed there forever but unfortunately the train was a-calling us, so we trundled back to Dublin.Once back we made our way to the Jameson Whiskey factory for some more alcohol testing! We just made the last tour so headed inside. Interesting fact - Guinness and whiskey aren't made all that differently, it's just the last bit of the process that's different! At the start of the tour they picked out five girls and five guys to take part in a tasting and I was one of the lucky five girls - twas quite funny actually, they asked for female volunteers and had people saying, oh, I suppose so, and just made up the five, and then they asked for the male volunteers and pretty much every male hand in the group went up! So poor Henry missed out. The tastings were quite interesting actually, we tried American whiskey (distilled once), Scottish whiskey (distilled twice) and Irish whiskey (distilled thrice), and you could really taste the difference between them! Not that I enjoyed it overly much - I'm not a fan of straight whiskey! But then we all got a glass of Irish Jameson whiskey at the end however we wanted, so I had it with good old coke :). Sacreligious to some, maybe, but that's how I like it.
Headed back to the hotel to chill for a couple hours before making our way to this naff American diner for some healthy *cough* dinner. Was pretty cool though - looked like the typical American diner you see in all the movies and TV shows, with the shiny vinyl booths and stools at the counter. They even had a mini jukebox on our table where you could choose a song (for a price) and it'd play over the sound system. I had the most enormous milkshake. We needed another rest after all the food! Back to the hotel...
Once we'd digested and dragged ourselves away from awesome movies like Clueless (haha!) we went to the pub across the road in the hope of finding some Irish dancing. Alas, they'd already finished, but there was some awesome traditional Irish music being played, and the violin player did at one point do a little jig, which almost counts... They were really good and very chatty - good show. Drinking our pints I noticed they had sport on a TV near the back of the pub - and not just any sport - AFL! But wait! Not just any AFL - highlights from the Collingwood - Adelaide semifinal I'd missed most of cos our Internet at home was playing up! I know it was a depressing game but hey - this was the first AFL I'd seen on a decent sized TV since leaving our fair country so I went and sat in front of it and proceeded to explain to Henry the rules of our awesome game (whether he wanted to hear or not). Even though it was a heart breaking game, I was glad I finally got to see it properly. I never thought it'd be in an Irish pub though! Great night.
Thursday 17th September:
Our last day :( We packed up and checked out and went in search of breakfast. Found this place nearby that had some of the most delicious looking scones ever made, so bought a selection (and a coffee for me) and went on our way. We decided to swing past St Patrick's Cathedral and have brekkie there - and what a great idea! The cathedral had the most beautiful grounds, all green lawn and bright colourful flowers... perfect way to start the day. And MAN the scones were good! Once devoured we headed round to the entrance to the cathedral but once again they were charging to get in - 5 euros! No thanks. Seems so wrong somehow...
Walked on, exploring the city. Found another lovely patch of garden on our way to Trinity College where we looked around the grounds a bit. Found this one sculpture thing of what looked to me an eaten away world, and we were wondering what it did / meant when lo and behold a tour group came up and the tour guide explained it all! Very interesting but also long and involved - can't be bothered writing it up. See me for more details (if I can still remember) :)
We were headed in the direction of this new development place where I'd read my new workplace (Speirs & Major Associates) had designed the lighting for a public square. Thought I should check it out, you know, while in Dublin... eventually found it - would've been more impressive at night (the red sticks have LED lights in the top half so they light up at night) but pretty cool nevertheless.
Back on the road, past the awesome harp bridge again, up some hills, down some hills, round the corner and down the lane and finally we were at the Dublin Writers Museum! Yes, my feet were sore and yes, I complained. :) Poor Henry. Was all worth it though - I really enjoyed the Writers Museum. I hadn't realised just how many of the famous writers were Irish! And they were censored so much during British reign, yet they persevered... was all very interesting.
Walked back to Temple Bar taking in some more of the city on the way and found a nice restaurant where they served Irish stew for our last meal in Ireland! Well, I had Irish stew, Henry had something without meat (he's vegetarian). Was quite yummy, nice and hearty tasting! Wrote a couple last minute postcards while we finished off our meals, then headed to Dublin Castle for the last bit of sightseeing on our list. Unfortunately, all the guided tours (which you had to go on to see the castle) were booked out for the rest of the day (seriously! As if that happens!) so we collected our luggage and headed for the airport instead, detouring past another lovely garden with a statue of Oscar Wilde and some really big chairs!
By the time we found the bus station, had got on and was stuck in peak hour traffic on the way to the airport I was stressing a little that we weren't going to make it on time. Henry meanwhile had fallen asleep on me, so wasn't much help alleviating the stress... But we made it in plenty of time in the end and then our flight was delayed by another 20 mins! Eventually got on the plane and bade farewell to Ireland (well, Dublin) til the next time we meet........
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Who can? Moroccan!
argh really must finish this!! it's gonna be crazy big too... ok, here goes...
21/6/09
Morocco - a land of the unknown. Of a different culture, different smells, different sights... I decided to check it out for myself. So on Sunday 21st June I headed off, bright and early, for London Standsted airport. Had to get up about 3am - it was an interesting experience waiting for the bus with my backpack on as drunk people stumbled home after a Saturday night out around me. Managed to find the airport & get on my plane ok, and arrived in Casablanca around 11am.
Stepped off
the plane and - woah - the heat hit me. Especially after cold, rainy England. It was around 37 on Sunday, and I was wearing long pants (oops - trousers - one thing I've learnt about England, pants means something else over here...) & a cardi, as one must cover up in a Muslim country, which is what Morocco is. Ventured outside after getting through customs and tried to find a taxi. Eventually found a sign that said taxis 230Dh (10 Moroccan Dirhams = 1 Euro approximately) so I walked over in the direction the sign pointed and was surrounded by Moroccan guys, most of who the only English they spoke was quite broken. So I got in the back of a taxi with some apprehension and hoped they were legit and weren't going to kidnap me or anything! My apprehension was not alleviated by my taxi driver asking me numerous times if it was ok he was driving - "you comfortable with me?" - and then stopping at the taxi depot to pick up his friend - it could've been some elaborate scheme to kidnap me; if I resisted, they could just say, "but you said you were comfortable with it"... yes by this time my imagination was in full force.
It's funny how sight of the police didn't do anything to alleviate my nervousness either - maybe I'd heard too many stories about corrupt police forces in the middle east - and this was pretty close to middle east culture-wise (in my limited opinion). So when we stopped halfway to Casa to talk to the police I got a bit more worried - but oh, no, "no worries" the policeman my taxi driver stopped for was "my brother, you understand?". No, not really, but we were on our way again, after giving him some water from the boot and a wad of notes.
Eventually we got to Casa and they dropped me off at my hotel, which they informed me was in the dodgey part of town - great. They charged me 250Dh instead of the 230Dh which was on the sign, and which I tried to argue for a bit, but then figured I'd got there alive, why squabble over what amounted to about $3. My taxi driver then gave me his card and said to call him if I needed showing around the city later. Thanks...
Checked into the hotel and was pleasantly surprised at my room - it was
quite large with lovely big windows looking over the square the hotel was near. I dumped my stuff and decided to venture outside, see if I could find some markets or such. Walked out of the hotel and down the street to another little square where I stopped and promptly walked back to the hotel - in that short walk I felt so many pairs of male eyes watching me and got enough sleazy sounding comments to make me feel incredible unsafe, so I decided to wait it out in the hotel until Suzie (my Adelaidian housemate) & Phil (her boyfriend) arrived (they were coming on a train from Marrakesh, where Suzie's conference had been).
Got a pot of mint tea, which was complimentary, and I fell in love. With the mint tea, not the guy who brought it. Haha. It's soooo nice - ironic really when I don't like mint & I'm not the biggest fan of tea! But the combination - divine. It's basically green tea, mint leaves and sugar - simple, yet stunning. Anyway, enough of my love affair with mint tea...
Suzie & Phil eventually turned up - after the worst train ride in the history of the world (so they tell me) - 3.5 hrs, crowded as, +35 degrees, no air-con, bad toilets... you get the idea. Phil was feeling like shit so it was just Suzie and I who ventured out in search of food. We headed to one of the four listed 'Sights' for Casa in the Lonely Planet - the Blvd de la Corniche. Felt a lot safer being with someone else, but despite this, still g
ot at least 5 sleazy "bonjour"s and one "wassup" (I know! How long has it been since you last heard that!) just walking one way down the boulevard. We found a less-crowded cafe overlooking the ocean and decided to get some food there. Unfortunately they'd stopped serving most things already so we ended up getting cheese toasties and milkshakes - which when they came out were more like cream shakes - once we'd eaten the obligatory cream off the top there seemed to be no milkshake left! Oh well. We were regaled with a beautiful sunset in the meantime - the sky and sun seemed much redder than normal, and the sun was an oval shape instead of the usual circle.
Then home and to bed - sleepy after my early start. Heard the call to prayer while I was getting to sleep at 10pm and woke up to the 5am call too - despite wearing earplugs in anticipation. It seemed to go forever too - could still hear it even with my pillow over my head. Very annoying but not altogether unexpected.
MON 22/6: The next morning saw me all packed and ready by about 8am - went downstairs for our free brekkie and filled up. Then Suz & I headed off to the train station to buy tickets for Fes - 1st class so I didn't have to experience the crap they did yesterday - but there was something wrong with their computer system and it wasn't letting them specify classes, so we got 2nd and hoped we could upgrade later.
Then we t
rundled off to the Hassan II Mosque, one of the other 'sights' listed in the Lonely Planet (3rd largest Mosque in the world). We got there a bit after 9am, when the tour was scheduled (you couldn't go inside without being a part of a tour) but the guy who sold us our tickets (2 students please - can I see you cards? - pretend not to understand - gives us students :) ) said we could catch up. Followed a long line of people in and got told 'the English guide is over there' with a vague wave of the arm. So after taking our shoes off, we headed in the general direction he pointed and proceeded to wander around by ourselves, listening in on the various guides we passes, but not finding the English one. Once we'd seen everything we wanted to we joined up with some random group going downstairs into another section - and lo and behold, there was our English guide! We joined up for all of 5 minutes, when she went back outside and down to the gift shop - so we peeled off again. Good tour. :P
The Mosque itself though - wow. So beautiful, so intricate, so much gold!! Photos just don't do it justice. And it was HUGE too!
Caught a taxi back to the hotel, checked out and caught another taxi to the train station. Have I written about how crazy they all drive in Morocco? Oh well, if I have, you can hear it again. They're CRAZY! Lanes don't exist; the taxis just zip up the middle of the two lanes of cars - our taxi driver on the way to train station got me to fold his side mirror in so he could squeeze through. Lots of beeping and weaving in and out and there doesn't even seem to be a traffic light system at half the intersections, they just know when to go or something. I would never EVER want to drive there!
Anyway got to the train station in one piece and went to board the train. Got on 2nd class and it was quite nice - a LOT different to the train the others had caught yesterday. So we decided to stick with 2nd class. Had proper seats and even air con! More than adequate.
After 3 1/2 hrs on the train we got to Fes. Yay! Caught a taxi to some bus stop / pick up point Suz & Phil's accom had told them about and then tried to call them to come pick us up - and it proceeded to ring out. Numerous times. Meanwhile we had about 10 guys around us saying, you want to go somewhere? I can show you! Put luggage in cart, follow me! After ignoring them studiously they soon left us alone, and eventually the guy from the accom rang back - phew! He came to collect us and took us into the heart of the Medina, through many various winding alleys, eventually leading us to where Suz & Phil were staying (I was staying somewhere else). They unloaded and the guy gave us mint tea (bless him) and we sat around trying to get some energy back and working out how I was going to get to my accom. I thought from when I booked it it was just down the road, but I didn't factor in the Medina and it's confusing tiny little alleys. So I was stressing out a bit, thinking it was going to be so hard to meet up with each other every day, how the hell was it going to work out... Eventually we worked out worst case scenario I could just catch a taxi everyday to the bus stop and meet them there. Stess time over. So they walked me back out there & I found a taxi and went to my hotel, which I was very happy with. It was still slightly Moroccan feeling but with all the comforts of the west. Excellent. Once I was inside and settled, I realised once again I'd forgotton to have lunch so I should probably go get some food. Found a tiny little deli place where I bought a slab of bread stuff and a water for like 9DH - 90cents. Bargain! Then went back to my room and collapsed, watched Eurosports for a bit - arm wresting championships - hilarious viewing! Then to bed.
TUES 23/6: Ate as much as possible at the included breakfast :) and waited for Suzie & Phil
to show up. They came eventually with our guide for the day, Samira, who we'd booked the day before, and we taxied off to the first of our stops for the day - the King's Palace. General public aren't allowed inside, but the outside gates alone were worth it. Amazing detail, so big and lavishly decorated! An interesting fact - these gates are made from brass, which is unusual for Morocco - a sign of the wealth and importance of the king. All the intricate detail was hand carved too, which is just amazing when you consider the size of the gates, and how much of it contains symmetry!
Pushed on after we'd finish
ed marvelling to a lookout place overlooking all of Fes. Samira pointed out the different medinas (parts of the city) - ranging from 8th Century to 14th Century - soooo old!! - and various structures to us that she was going to take us to later. Was beautiful up there. Nice and hot though - was mid 30s I think and we were in our modest long pants (trousers for you English people) and t-shirts. Sweat ahoy!
We came down from the lookout and delved into the craziness of the medina. Went to so many different mosques and medersas (schools) I los
t count and they all kind of blurred into one - but I do remember the architecture in all of them was just amazing. Everything has significance. Samira explained all the symbolism in one medersa in particular which was specifically for people studying the Qur'an - there were 5 main types of architecture (5 is apparently an important number in Islam), and then those 5 types all have significance, for example, the patterns on the tiles that decorate the columns in the medersa only have 5 colours on them, and the patterns mean things - like one represents the balance needed in life between religion and general life, and another is a calligraphy mashed together version of verses in the Qur'an... it was all quite interesting.
Samira took us to various shops to show us the local crafts and traditional ways they still make them. Obviously they have some kind of deal where she would get some of the profits of whatever they sell to us, but that's ok. You expect these things :) It was worth it too, we probably wouldn't have seen the behind-the-scenes stuff we did otherwise. We went to a pottery/ceramic factory where we saw each stage of how they make tiles and pots and other things - really interesting. I swear one of the guys chipping the mosaic tiles had a crows guernsey on!! They of course showed us to a shop at the end of the tour and I of course bought some stuff - it was all so nice!! Next up was the tannery, which is where they use the traditional methods to dye the hi
des of animals and make it into leather goods. We went to a place overlooking it - very cool to look down on but MAN did it stink! Can only imagine what the men who work in the actual pots of dye smell like after a day's work... Bought a few more things there, including a beautiful bag and some shoes :) Then a traditional pharmacy type place where they sold a lot of natural products. Had a slightly overly friendly guy who went through everything with us and who convinced me to buy more than I wanted to (of course - damn persuasive nature). Also went to a place where they make scarves/turbans (didn't buy anything!) and a carpet maker (original Berber family - apparently they're the best at making carpets...), where I made up for not buying anything at the last place by buying four - yes, four - carpets. Hm. Still not quite sure how that happened! But they are all very beautiful and I think I did quite a good job of the haggling, got him down a fair bit!
After that we headed back to Suz & Phil's, feeling extremely tired and like we'd spent way too much! They dumped their purchases and Samira showed us the way to a restaurant place really close to my hotel, and in the process how we could all get from Suz & Phil's accommodation to mine quite easily which was such a relief - had been stressing about how we were going to work that. Ate a local version of a sandwich which was quite nice, good flavours, said seeya to Suz & Phil and stumbled back to my hotel and to bed. It was only about 8pm or something ridiculously early like that but I was so darn tired!
WED 24/6: I decided I could find my own way to Suzie & Phil's accommodation after been shown last night so I headed off - and found it no troubles! Yay! Felt so much safer walking around by myself than in Casa too - still got the occasional comment but it didn't feel so sleazy. Anyway, we decided to have a bit more of a look around the medina and maybe do a spot of shopping :) so headed to the main kind of alleyway. Discovered quite quickly that unless you're actually interested in buying something, don't look too closely at anything. I randomly picked up a silver dish and was hounded for the next few minutes until we managed t
o escape - and every time we went past the same shop he would remember us and say something. "My friend, come into my shop! Good price for me, good price for you..."
We walked right up the alleyway, passing through the more touristy parts with the handicrafts, into the local produce with stalls of fresh fruit and vegetables, into the meat part where they had live chickens all trussed up lying in front of the stalls and great big bones of meat being hacked up and out the city walls. Wandered around a bit then turned around and went back the way we came! It was funny walking back, the people we'd spoken to on the way through all remembered us and would say "hello Australians!" as we passed.
Headed back to Suz & Phil's accom where they got their stuff together that they wanted to post home to Australia and we caught a taxi out to the French sector where there was apparently a DHL. We didn't find one, but found a FedEx so stopped there to see what their prices were like. Turns out they were astronomical (AU$2000 to send 25kgs! That's just crazy, you could buy a plane ticket for that!) so we headed to the post office instead and they got their packages organised. Eventually got back to Suz & Phil's and Phil made us all some mint tea to relax - it was really good for a first try! Almost perfect ratios of mint - green tea - sugar :) Went up on their roof balcony thing to drink it and were joined by Ben & Julia, two Americans who were also staying there, so had a lovely chat to them. It was nice to just chill for a bit - even though in hindsight we really hadn't done all that much, we all felt totally exhausted! I guess being in a different culture and in the heat etc - takes it out of you.
Stayed up there til dusk when we decided to walk to the other lookout that is opposite the one we went to yesterday - turns out it was really close to where we were so we could walk, very handy! Sat up there while the sun set - was lovely watching the sky darken and the lights slowly come on in Fes. They'd put lights all around the city walls so they were all lit up too - beautiful. It was really windy up there too, we actually felt cold! Headed back towards my hotel, stopping for food on the way - went to this one place at the recommendation of a random lady who in hindsight we shouldn't have listened to. Oh well. I had a meat tangine which was really nice but Suzie & Phil had chicken tangines which were rubbish - no flavour and only half hot, like they'd just microwaved it and it didn't heat up properly. Ergh.
We parted ways again and I headed to my hotel. Asked the guy on reception what time check out was the next morning and he replied 7am. I actually believed him for a good minute until I realised he was just stirring me. Can't escape it even in Morocco! Damn gulibility... Quickly packed everything up and hit the sack ready for my last day in Fes. :(
THURS 25/6: Checked out of my hotel and met up with Suzie & Phil for some last minute Fes-ing. They left around midday so said goodbye (:_( last I'd see of them for a while, they were headed for more travel in Europe before going back to Australia) and went to do some last minute shopping before I had to leave. Didn't haggle very much - it's quite an exhausting exercise! But still got some bargains in my humble opinion. Once I'd spent most of the rest of my leftover dirhams I went back to the hotel to drop my purchases off and went to check out Musee Batha, a museum next door to my hotel. Unfortunately it was all in Arabic and French so I couldn't understand a lot of what the plaques next to items said, but it was still vaguely interesting. Wandered around for an hour or so and sat in the gardens that surrounded the museum for another half hour - it was nice to be around greenery again, Fes was quite a dusty place on the whole. Then headed back to the hotel to wait for my taxi to the airport and, ultimately, home. Ah, Fes - lovely, beautiful, charming, exotic, majestic Fes. Farewell.
21/6/09
Morocco - a land of the unknown. Of a different culture, different smells, different sights... I decided to check it out for myself. So on Sunday 21st June I headed off, bright and early, for London Standsted airport. Had to get up about 3am - it was an interesting experience waiting for the bus with my backpack on as drunk people stumbled home after a Saturday night out around me. Managed to find the airport & get on my plane ok, and arrived in Casablanca around 11am.
Stepped off
the plane and - woah - the heat hit me. Especially after cold, rainy England. It was around 37 on Sunday, and I was wearing long pants (oops - trousers - one thing I've learnt about England, pants means something else over here...) & a cardi, as one must cover up in a Muslim country, which is what Morocco is. Ventured outside after getting through customs and tried to find a taxi. Eventually found a sign that said taxis 230Dh (10 Moroccan Dirhams = 1 Euro approximately) so I walked over in the direction the sign pointed and was surrounded by Moroccan guys, most of who the only English they spoke was quite broken. So I got in the back of a taxi with some apprehension and hoped they were legit and weren't going to kidnap me or anything! My apprehension was not alleviated by my taxi driver asking me numerous times if it was ok he was driving - "you comfortable with me?" - and then stopping at the taxi depot to pick up his friend - it could've been some elaborate scheme to kidnap me; if I resisted, they could just say, "but you said you were comfortable with it"... yes by this time my imagination was in full force.It's funny how sight of the police didn't do anything to alleviate my nervousness either - maybe I'd heard too many stories about corrupt police forces in the middle east - and this was pretty close to middle east culture-wise (in my limited opinion). So when we stopped halfway to Casa to talk to the police I got a bit more worried - but oh, no, "no worries" the policeman my taxi driver stopped for was "my brother, you understand?". No, not really, but we were on our way again, after giving him some water from the boot and a wad of notes.
Eventually we got to Casa and they dropped me off at my hotel, which they informed me was in the dodgey part of town - great. They charged me 250Dh instead of the 230Dh which was on the sign, and which I tried to argue for a bit, but then figured I'd got there alive, why squabble over what amounted to about $3. My taxi driver then gave me his card and said to call him if I needed showing around the city later. Thanks...
Checked into the hotel and was pleasantly surprised at my room - it was
quite large with lovely big windows looking over the square the hotel was near. I dumped my stuff and decided to venture outside, see if I could find some markets or such. Walked out of the hotel and down the street to another little square where I stopped and promptly walked back to the hotel - in that short walk I felt so many pairs of male eyes watching me and got enough sleazy sounding comments to make me feel incredible unsafe, so I decided to wait it out in the hotel until Suzie (my Adelaidian housemate) & Phil (her boyfriend) arrived (they were coming on a train from Marrakesh, where Suzie's conference had been).Got a pot of mint tea, which was complimentary, and I fell in love. With the mint tea, not the guy who brought it. Haha. It's soooo nice - ironic really when I don't like mint & I'm not the biggest fan of tea! But the combination - divine. It's basically green tea, mint leaves and sugar - simple, yet stunning. Anyway, enough of my love affair with mint tea...
Suzie & Phil eventually turned up - after the worst train ride in the history of the world (so they tell me) - 3.5 hrs, crowded as, +35 degrees, no air-con, bad toilets... you get the idea. Phil was feeling like shit so it was just Suzie and I who ventured out in search of food. We headed to one of the four listed 'Sights' for Casa in the Lonely Planet - the Blvd de la Corniche. Felt a lot safer being with someone else, but despite this, still g
ot at least 5 sleazy "bonjour"s and one "wassup" (I know! How long has it been since you last heard that!) just walking one way down the boulevard. We found a less-crowded cafe overlooking the ocean and decided to get some food there. Unfortunately they'd stopped serving most things already so we ended up getting cheese toasties and milkshakes - which when they came out were more like cream shakes - once we'd eaten the obligatory cream off the top there seemed to be no milkshake left! Oh well. We were regaled with a beautiful sunset in the meantime - the sky and sun seemed much redder than normal, and the sun was an oval shape instead of the usual circle.Then home and to bed - sleepy after my early start. Heard the call to prayer while I was getting to sleep at 10pm and woke up to the 5am call too - despite wearing earplugs in anticipation. It seemed to go forever too - could still hear it even with my pillow over my head. Very annoying but not altogether unexpected.
MON 22/6: The next morning saw me all packed and ready by about 8am - went downstairs for our free brekkie and filled up. Then Suz & I headed off to the train station to buy tickets for Fes - 1st class so I didn't have to experience the crap they did yesterday - but there was something wrong with their computer system and it wasn't letting them specify classes, so we got 2nd and hoped we could upgrade later.
Then we t
rundled off to the Hassan II Mosque, one of the other 'sights' listed in the Lonely Planet (3rd largest Mosque in the world). We got there a bit after 9am, when the tour was scheduled (you couldn't go inside without being a part of a tour) but the guy who sold us our tickets (2 students please - can I see you cards? - pretend not to understand - gives us students :) ) said we could catch up. Followed a long line of people in and got told 'the English guide is over there' with a vague wave of the arm. So after taking our shoes off, we headed in the general direction he pointed and proceeded to wander around by ourselves, listening in on the various guides we passes, but not finding the English one. Once we'd seen everything we wanted to we joined up with some random group going downstairs into another section - and lo and behold, there was our English guide! We joined up for all of 5 minutes, when she went back outside and down to the gift shop - so we peeled off again. Good tour. :PThe Mosque itself though - wow. So beautiful, so intricate, so much gold!! Photos just don't do it justice. And it was HUGE too!
Caught a taxi back to the hotel, checked out and caught another taxi to the train station. Have I written about how crazy they all drive in Morocco? Oh well, if I have, you can hear it again. They're CRAZY! Lanes don't exist; the taxis just zip up the middle of the two lanes of cars - our taxi driver on the way to train station got me to fold his side mirror in so he could squeeze through. Lots of beeping and weaving in and out and there doesn't even seem to be a traffic light system at half the intersections, they just know when to go or something. I would never EVER want to drive there!
Anyway got to the train station in one piece and went to board the train. Got on 2nd class and it was quite nice - a LOT different to the train the others had caught yesterday. So we decided to stick with 2nd class. Had proper seats and even air con! More than adequate.
After 3 1/2 hrs on the train we got to Fes. Yay! Caught a taxi to some bus stop / pick up point Suz & Phil's accom had told them about and then tried to call them to come pick us up - and it proceeded to ring out. Numerous times. Meanwhile we had about 10 guys around us saying, you want to go somewhere? I can show you! Put luggage in cart, follow me! After ignoring them studiously they soon left us alone, and eventually the guy from the accom rang back - phew! He came to collect us and took us into the heart of the Medina, through many various winding alleys, eventually leading us to where Suz & Phil were staying (I was staying somewhere else). They unloaded and the guy gave us mint tea (bless him) and we sat around trying to get some energy back and working out how I was going to get to my accom. I thought from when I booked it it was just down the road, but I didn't factor in the Medina and it's confusing tiny little alleys. So I was stressing out a bit, thinking it was going to be so hard to meet up with each other every day, how the hell was it going to work out... Eventually we worked out worst case scenario I could just catch a taxi everyday to the bus stop and meet them there. Stess time over. So they walked me back out there & I found a taxi and went to my hotel, which I was very happy with. It was still slightly Moroccan feeling but with all the comforts of the west. Excellent. Once I was inside and settled, I realised once again I'd forgotton to have lunch so I should probably go get some food. Found a tiny little deli place where I bought a slab of bread stuff and a water for like 9DH - 90cents. Bargain! Then went back to my room and collapsed, watched Eurosports for a bit - arm wresting championships - hilarious viewing! Then to bed.
TUES 23/6: Ate as much as possible at the included breakfast :) and waited for Suzie & Phil
to show up. They came eventually with our guide for the day, Samira, who we'd booked the day before, and we taxied off to the first of our stops for the day - the King's Palace. General public aren't allowed inside, but the outside gates alone were worth it. Amazing detail, so big and lavishly decorated! An interesting fact - these gates are made from brass, which is unusual for Morocco - a sign of the wealth and importance of the king. All the intricate detail was hand carved too, which is just amazing when you consider the size of the gates, and how much of it contains symmetry!Pushed on after we'd finish
ed marvelling to a lookout place overlooking all of Fes. Samira pointed out the different medinas (parts of the city) - ranging from 8th Century to 14th Century - soooo old!! - and various structures to us that she was going to take us to later. Was beautiful up there. Nice and hot though - was mid 30s I think and we were in our modest long pants (trousers for you English people) and t-shirts. Sweat ahoy!We came down from the lookout and delved into the craziness of the medina. Went to so many different mosques and medersas (schools) I los
t count and they all kind of blurred into one - but I do remember the architecture in all of them was just amazing. Everything has significance. Samira explained all the symbolism in one medersa in particular which was specifically for people studying the Qur'an - there were 5 main types of architecture (5 is apparently an important number in Islam), and then those 5 types all have significance, for example, the patterns on the tiles that decorate the columns in the medersa only have 5 colours on them, and the patterns mean things - like one represents the balance needed in life between religion and general life, and another is a calligraphy mashed together version of verses in the Qur'an... it was all quite interesting.Samira took us to various shops to show us the local crafts and traditional ways they still make them. Obviously they have some kind of deal where she would get some of the profits of whatever they sell to us, but that's ok. You expect these things :) It was worth it too, we probably wouldn't have seen the behind-the-scenes stuff we did otherwise. We went to a pottery/ceramic factory where we saw each stage of how they make tiles and pots and other things - really interesting. I swear one of the guys chipping the mosaic tiles had a crows guernsey on!! They of course showed us to a shop at the end of the tour and I of course bought some stuff - it was all so nice!! Next up was the tannery, which is where they use the traditional methods to dye the hi
des of animals and make it into leather goods. We went to a place overlooking it - very cool to look down on but MAN did it stink! Can only imagine what the men who work in the actual pots of dye smell like after a day's work... Bought a few more things there, including a beautiful bag and some shoes :) Then a traditional pharmacy type place where they sold a lot of natural products. Had a slightly overly friendly guy who went through everything with us and who convinced me to buy more than I wanted to (of course - damn persuasive nature). Also went to a place where they make scarves/turbans (didn't buy anything!) and a carpet maker (original Berber family - apparently they're the best at making carpets...), where I made up for not buying anything at the last place by buying four - yes, four - carpets. Hm. Still not quite sure how that happened! But they are all very beautiful and I think I did quite a good job of the haggling, got him down a fair bit!After that we headed back to Suz & Phil's, feeling extremely tired and like we'd spent way too much! They dumped their purchases and Samira showed us the way to a restaurant place really close to my hotel, and in the process how we could all get from Suz & Phil's accommodation to mine quite easily which was such a relief - had been stressing about how we were going to work that. Ate a local version of a sandwich which was quite nice, good flavours, said seeya to Suz & Phil and stumbled back to my hotel and to bed. It was only about 8pm or something ridiculously early like that but I was so darn tired!
WED 24/6: I decided I could find my own way to Suzie & Phil's accommodation after been shown last night so I headed off - and found it no troubles! Yay! Felt so much safer walking around by myself than in Casa too - still got the occasional comment but it didn't feel so sleazy. Anyway, we decided to have a bit more of a look around the medina and maybe do a spot of shopping :) so headed to the main kind of alleyway. Discovered quite quickly that unless you're actually interested in buying something, don't look too closely at anything. I randomly picked up a silver dish and was hounded for the next few minutes until we managed t
o escape - and every time we went past the same shop he would remember us and say something. "My friend, come into my shop! Good price for me, good price for you..."We walked right up the alleyway, passing through the more touristy parts with the handicrafts, into the local produce with stalls of fresh fruit and vegetables, into the meat part where they had live chickens all trussed up lying in front of the stalls and great big bones of meat being hacked up and out the city walls. Wandered around a bit then turned around and went back the way we came! It was funny walking back, the people we'd spoken to on the way through all remembered us and would say "hello Australians!" as we passed.
Headed back to Suz & Phil's accom where they got their stuff together that they wanted to post home to Australia and we caught a taxi out to the French sector where there was apparently a DHL. We didn't find one, but found a FedEx so stopped there to see what their prices were like. Turns out they were astronomical (AU$2000 to send 25kgs! That's just crazy, you could buy a plane ticket for that!) so we headed to the post office instead and they got their packages organised. Eventually got back to Suz & Phil's and Phil made us all some mint tea to relax - it was really good for a first try! Almost perfect ratios of mint - green tea - sugar :) Went up on their roof balcony thing to drink it and were joined by Ben & Julia, two Americans who were also staying there, so had a lovely chat to them. It was nice to just chill for a bit - even though in hindsight we really hadn't done all that much, we all felt totally exhausted! I guess being in a different culture and in the heat etc - takes it out of you.
Stayed up there til dusk when we decided to walk to the other lookout that is opposite the one we went to yesterday - turns out it was really close to where we were so we could walk, very handy! Sat up there while the sun set - was lovely watching the sky darken and the lights slowly come on in Fes. They'd put lights all around the city walls so they were all lit up too - beautiful. It was really windy up there too, we actually felt cold! Headed back towards my hotel, stopping for food on the way - went to this one place at the recommendation of a random lady who in hindsight we shouldn't have listened to. Oh well. I had a meat tangine which was really nice but Suzie & Phil had chicken tangines which were rubbish - no flavour and only half hot, like they'd just microwaved it and it didn't heat up properly. Ergh.
We parted ways again and I headed to my hotel. Asked the guy on reception what time check out was the next morning and he replied 7am. I actually believed him for a good minute until I realised he was just stirring me. Can't escape it even in Morocco! Damn gulibility... Quickly packed everything up and hit the sack ready for my last day in Fes. :(
THURS 25/6: Checked out of my hotel and met up with Suzie & Phil for some last minute Fes-ing. They left around midday so said goodbye (:_( last I'd see of them for a while, they were headed for more travel in Europe before going back to Australia) and went to do some last minute shopping before I had to leave. Didn't haggle very much - it's quite an exhausting exercise! But still got some bargains in my humble opinion. Once I'd spent most of the rest of my leftover dirhams I went back to the hotel to drop my purchases off and went to check out Musee Batha, a museum next door to my hotel. Unfortunately it was all in Arabic and French so I couldn't understand a lot of what the plaques next to items said, but it was still vaguely interesting. Wandered around for an hour or so and sat in the gardens that surrounded the museum for another half hour - it was nice to be around greenery again, Fes was quite a dusty place on the whole. Then headed back to the hotel to wait for my taxi to the airport and, ultimately, home. Ah, Fes - lovely, beautiful, charming, exotic, majestic Fes. Farewell.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Hello Queen!
Saturday 13th was Trooping the Colour day - a celebration of the Queen's birthday where lots of g
uards and their horses do lots of parading up and down and generally entertaining the Queen. There's also a flyover by jets and what not. It only happens once a year so I thought I should go check it out.
Got down to Buckingham Palace around 10am; the trooping was supposed to start at 11am but there were already stacks of people about, armed with British flags and all sorts. They're kinda patriotic over here it seems! I got a possie sitting on a very uncomfortable fence thing, but it elevated me up a bit so I stayed there for all the guards' marching and the Queen's exit of Buckingham Palace and down the mall to this amphitheatre thing where most of the entertainment would take place. You could see that as well, but you had to buy tickets, most likely exhorbitantly priced. So I went for a walk instead, around the opposite side to where I was to see if I could get a better position. Had to push through a huge crowd in the proces
s (I hear there were around 20,000 people there) and climb over a fence! but eventually got through the main traffic.
The other side was less busy, and I could even see some of what was going on in the amphitheatre! True, it was mostly just red specks in the distance, but still. Better than nothing! Found a place which was right near a lot of guards on horses and saw the Q
ueen & co come out on the royal balcony and wave her little royal wave. Then she (and the others) left. I was quite happy with that but next thing I knew they'd opened the gate which was right in front of me & I got pushed through to the front of the Palace, where everyone was congregating about 3 meters back from the fence for some reason. Well, I'm not one to go against the crowd, so I stood there too, and lo and behold, the Queen came back out! And we were back far enough that the gate didn't obstruct the view - good old Londoners, they know what they're doing! The planes started doing their flyovers then - quite impressive - especially the last lot which let out the British colours as they went overhead. They got a clap for that.
All in all a good day - got some bonza photos of the royal family up there and then had another wander around the city - did a loop of the Palace, up past Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, across the Thames,
past the London Eye and back over the bridge to Trafalgar Square. Really helped me order the city's layout in my head. Was heaps busy everywhere though - the weather was a gorgeous 21 or 22 and sunny and the tourists were out in force! Lots of street performers by the London Eye, some better than others. And it seemed lots of them dressed up as various characters from movies for some reason - I saw Captain Jack Sparrow, Shrek and Charlie Chaplin to name a few. Random...
uards and their horses do lots of parading up and down and generally entertaining the Queen. There's also a flyover by jets and what not. It only happens once a year so I thought I should go check it out.Got down to Buckingham Palace around 10am; the trooping was supposed to start at 11am but there were already stacks of people about, armed with British flags and all sorts. They're kinda patriotic over here it seems! I got a possie sitting on a very uncomfortable fence thing, but it elevated me up a bit so I stayed there for all the guards' marching and the Queen's exit of Buckingham Palace and down the mall to this amphitheatre thing where most of the entertainment would take place. You could see that as well, but you had to buy tickets, most likely exhorbitantly priced. So I went for a walk instead, around the opposite side to where I was to see if I could get a better position. Had to push through a huge crowd in the proces
s (I hear there were around 20,000 people there) and climb over a fence! but eventually got through the main traffic.The other side was less busy, and I could even see some of what was going on in the amphitheatre! True, it was mostly just red specks in the distance, but still. Better than nothing! Found a place which was right near a lot of guards on horses and saw the Q
ueen & co come out on the royal balcony and wave her little royal wave. Then she (and the others) left. I was quite happy with that but next thing I knew they'd opened the gate which was right in front of me & I got pushed through to the front of the Palace, where everyone was congregating about 3 meters back from the fence for some reason. Well, I'm not one to go against the crowd, so I stood there too, and lo and behold, the Queen came back out! And we were back far enough that the gate didn't obstruct the view - good old Londoners, they know what they're doing! The planes started doing their flyovers then - quite impressive - especially the last lot which let out the British colours as they went overhead. They got a clap for that.All in all a good day - got some bonza photos of the royal family up there and then had another wander around the city - did a loop of the Palace, up past Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, across the Thames,
past the London Eye and back over the bridge to Trafalgar Square. Really helped me order the city's layout in my head. Was heaps busy everywhere though - the weather was a gorgeous 21 or 22 and sunny and the tourists were out in force! Lots of street performers by the London Eye, some better than others. And it seemed lots of them dressed up as various characters from movies for some reason - I saw Captain Jack Sparrow, Shrek and Charlie Chaplin to name a few. Random...
Sunday Shopping
After a very well earned sleeping day on Saturday, I met up with Suzie again on Sunday to go shopping and check out Notting Hill. Met up with her on Oxford St - street of all streets for shopping! Went into numerous shops and resisted buying many things (it's all so much more expensive when you convert everything back to AU$! Will be much better once I'm earning £'s). Suzie didn't resist quite so much and ended up with a few things - all pink to our amusement! But they were all really really lovely, so I don't blame her :)
Once we were all walked/shopped out (on Oxford St in any case) we caught the tube to Notting Hill and kept our eyes peeled for blue doors and the Portobello Markets. Turns out there are lots of blue doors in Notting Hill - not sure if they came before or after the movie? and a travel book shop like the one in the movie obviously set up for tourists (we saw a few people having a photo out the front but we resisted - it seemed kinda tacky...). Also turns out we don't read signs enough - after walking for what seemed an age in what we thought was the right direction for the markets we gave up and went back in the direction of the main road - only to then see a sign pointing in the direction of the markets - where we'd just come from! So we turned around and set out once again. Eventually found it, in a very round about way! By that time a lot of the shops were already closed up for the night, but there were still a fair few places open - so cool. I really like Notting Hill - it had a very cool vibe about it.
Walked back to the main road via all these cute little streets - one where George Orwell had once lived! Stumbled upon so many cute little shops with the most gorgeous dresses - I had to buy one, it was just so
lovely! Heaps of vintage shops too. Loved it. Made our way to Kensington Gardens and had a lovely stroll through said gardens. Very pretty, although it was turning very cold - very odd sort of day, was sunny and bright and hot for parts of the day and the next thing you knew it was raining and cold! Ah, good old London... Anyway, saw some squirrels in Kensington Gardens - cutest little critters! They're so bouncey, they don't just run, they bound! So cute. Looked like real tourists when we got the camera out and started clicking away!
Managed somehow to end up on the other side of the gardens coming out by this eno
rmous statue of Albert, across the road from Royal Albert Hall - looked very schmish. Went back via Kensington Palace and ended up in this quaint little Italian place for tea, where our 1/2 sized bottle of wine was the most expensive thing we ordered! Hmm... Got a pizza to share - man, those Italians sure know how to make pizza! Can't wait to go to Italy and try out the real thing in the real country! But we reckoned the pizza from an Italian restaurant in England should be better than an Italian restaurant in Australia, if only for the proximity to Italy... and I reckon we were right. It was very good pizza.
Headed back into the city with our bellies full and warmed by the wine, only to find the stop we wanted to get off at was closed for the night - grr! So had to get off at a different stop and walk. And walk and walk. We wanted to walk along the Thames at night... We eventually got there. And it was very pretty to see Westminster Abbey all lit up by lights, and Big Ben illuminated against the night sky, and the London Eye standing tall and stark on the other side of the river.
By this time it was way past my bedtime (still feeling very sickly and all) so we made our way to the nearest tube and caught the very last train for the night home! They close early on Sundays - it was only around 1/4 to 12. Said seeya to Suzie on the tube and just managed to make the connection for the last train to my stop - thank goodness, really didn't feel like any more walking!!
Once we were all walked/shopped out (on Oxford St in any case) we caught the tube to Notting Hill and kept our eyes peeled for blue doors and the Portobello Markets. Turns out there are lots of blue doors in Notting Hill - not sure if they came before or after the movie? and a travel book shop like the one in the movie obviously set up for tourists (we saw a few people having a photo out the front but we resisted - it seemed kinda tacky...). Also turns out we don't read signs enough - after walking for what seemed an age in what we thought was the right direction for the markets we gave up and went back in the direction of the main road - only to then see a sign pointing in the direction of the markets - where we'd just come from! So we turned around and set out once again. Eventually found it, in a very round about way! By that time a lot of the shops were already closed up for the night, but there were still a fair few places open - so cool. I really like Notting Hill - it had a very cool vibe about it.
Walked back to the main road via all these cute little streets - one where George Orwell had once lived! Stumbled upon so many cute little shops with the most gorgeous dresses - I had to buy one, it was just so
lovely! Heaps of vintage shops too. Loved it. Made our way to Kensington Gardens and had a lovely stroll through said gardens. Very pretty, although it was turning very cold - very odd sort of day, was sunny and bright and hot for parts of the day and the next thing you knew it was raining and cold! Ah, good old London... Anyway, saw some squirrels in Kensington Gardens - cutest little critters! They're so bouncey, they don't just run, they bound! So cute. Looked like real tourists when we got the camera out and started clicking away!Managed somehow to end up on the other side of the gardens coming out by this eno
rmous statue of Albert, across the road from Royal Albert Hall - looked very schmish. Went back via Kensington Palace and ended up in this quaint little Italian place for tea, where our 1/2 sized bottle of wine was the most expensive thing we ordered! Hmm... Got a pizza to share - man, those Italians sure know how to make pizza! Can't wait to go to Italy and try out the real thing in the real country! But we reckoned the pizza from an Italian restaurant in England should be better than an Italian restaurant in Australia, if only for the proximity to Italy... and I reckon we were right. It was very good pizza.
Headed back into the city with our bellies full and warmed by the wine, only to find the stop we wanted to get off at was closed for the night - grr! So had to get off at a different stop and walk. And walk and walk. We wanted to walk along the Thames at night... We eventually got there. And it was very pretty to see Westminster Abbey all lit up by lights, and Big Ben illuminated against the night sky, and the London Eye standing tall and stark on the other side of the river.
By this time it was way past my bedtime (still feeling very sickly and all) so we made our way to the nearest tube and caught the very last train for the night home! They close early on Sundays - it was only around 1/4 to 12. Said seeya to Suzie on the tube and just managed to make the connection for the last train to my stop - thank goodness, really didn't feel like any more walking!!
Monday, June 15, 2009
London sightseeing 5/6/09
Day 2 in London - woke up feeling so much better than the previous day thanks to the wonder that is cold & flu tablets. Caught the tube into town again - today Suzie & I were going to watch the changing of the guard! Picked up a £2 brekkie from Subway and headed down the mall towards Buckingham Palace. As we were walking we noticed a whole lot of police cars escorting a few normal cars down the road. We paused, thinking it was probably some form of royalty we wouldn't recognise and who should drive past but the Queen and Prince Phillip! Wearing a nice pink ensomble, if her hat was anything to go through. So that was kinda cool - in London all of 2 days and already seen the Queen!
Was all cold and windy as we continued, not a nice change from the beautiful warm sunny day at Stonehenge. Found a possie in front of the palace around 10.30 and settled in to wait for
the changing to start. There were a lot of people milling around, and a lot of umbrellas as it started to drizzle on us. Thank goodness Suzie had her brollie! We happened to pick a spot behind some other Aussie tourists from NSW - man they had Aussie accents! Suz & I sounded positively British next to them! Was good though, as they let us lean around them to get our photos later :) and they were good to chat to while we were waiting.
Around 11.30 a whole lot of guards wearing the black fluffy hats and the red coats with the shiny shoes came marching around, complete with band, but no horses unfortunately. They marched into the front of Buckingham Palace and then we settled in for the show. The band set up right in front of us practically, and then proceeded to play the randomest music - sounded like stuff we would've played in concert band in high school! Not at all what I expected them to play. And then there was confusion when they finished a piece - are we expected to clap?
They distracted me sufficiently to miss the actual changing. I looked over and the new guards were already stationed in the old guards places. Dang it! I did enjoy all the marching around looking important and shuffling of feet to get in line though. Good times.
Walked back into the city and headed to St Paul's Cathedral. Got in at student rat
es :) and was just getting the old camera out when I noticed the bevy of signs everywhere - no photography. :( Man it was beautiful in there - so I sneaked a couple. I couldn't not! So much detail and so much gold trimming! It positively glittered. So so so beautiful. We climbed up to the upper levels and to the outside lookout parts - we could take photos out 
there :) Gorgeous views across the whole city. Was still pretty overcast but not raining at least. Couldn't climb to the highest lookout part as it was closed indefinitely for renovations... but probably enough stairs to the first lookout! And very oddly positioned as well - they were hardly even steps they were so close together! And spiral too so got very dizzy by the end of it. Visited the gift shop and bought some postcards of the gorgeousness inside seeing we weren't allowed to take photos - all part of their sly plan I'm sure!
We then went off to find Harrods - after searching for it unsuccessfully earlier in the day. This time we had directions though! Found it no troubles. Man it's spiffy! And very expensive. I did buy some teddy bears from Harrods though - one guard teddy and one british cop teddy - they were just so cute, I couldn't resist! Had a wander through the other sections of Harrods - including the sections where you just don't want to touch anything cos it's all so expensive! Bags for over £1000, scarfes for £500... I did fall in love with a dress that didn't have a price on it
- I presume if you're (seriously) shopping in there you don't need to ask prices. Also saw some beautiful gloves that I may actually go back and buy one day once I'm earning money... so gorgeous.
Then - and this I think is one of the main reason I love London - Suzie and I decided to go see a theatre show that night. Just went to the ticket booth place that sells last minute tickets for cheap and got two tickets to Billy Elliot - pretty good seats, £38, you know, the usual. You'd never be able to do that in little Adelaide!! Was an utterly fantastic show. And wow - can the kid in the show dance! It was amazing! Great music, great show.
Great 2nd day in London town!
Was all cold and windy as we continued, not a nice change from the beautiful warm sunny day at Stonehenge. Found a possie in front of the palace around 10.30 and settled in to wait for
the changing to start. There were a lot of people milling around, and a lot of umbrellas as it started to drizzle on us. Thank goodness Suzie had her brollie! We happened to pick a spot behind some other Aussie tourists from NSW - man they had Aussie accents! Suz & I sounded positively British next to them! Was good though, as they let us lean around them to get our photos later :) and they were good to chat to while we were waiting.Around 11.30 a whole lot of guards wearing the black fluffy hats and the red coats with the shiny shoes came marching around, complete with band, but no horses unfortunately. They marched into the front of Buckingham Palace and then we settled in for the show. The band set up right in front of us practically, and then proceeded to play the randomest music - sounded like stuff we would've played in concert band in high school! Not at all what I expected them to play. And then there was confusion when they finished a piece - are we expected to clap?
They distracted me sufficiently to miss the actual changing. I looked over and the new guards were already stationed in the old guards places. Dang it! I did enjoy all the marching around looking important and shuffling of feet to get in line though. Good times.
Walked back into the city and headed to St Paul's Cathedral. Got in at student rat
es :) and was just getting the old camera out when I noticed the bevy of signs everywhere - no photography. :( Man it was beautiful in there - so I sneaked a couple. I couldn't not! So much detail and so much gold trimming! It positively glittered. So so so beautiful. We climbed up to the upper levels and to the outside lookout parts - we could take photos out 
there :) Gorgeous views across the whole city. Was still pretty overcast but not raining at least. Couldn't climb to the highest lookout part as it was closed indefinitely for renovations... but probably enough stairs to the first lookout! And very oddly positioned as well - they were hardly even steps they were so close together! And spiral too so got very dizzy by the end of it. Visited the gift shop and bought some postcards of the gorgeousness inside seeing we weren't allowed to take photos - all part of their sly plan I'm sure!We then went off to find Harrods - after searching for it unsuccessfully earlier in the day. This time we had directions though! Found it no troubles. Man it's spiffy! And very expensive. I did buy some teddy bears from Harrods though - one guard teddy and one british cop teddy - they were just so cute, I couldn't resist! Had a wander through the other sections of Harrods - including the sections where you just don't want to touch anything cos it's all so expensive! Bags for over £1000, scarfes for £500... I did fall in love with a dress that didn't have a price on it
- I presume if you're (seriously) shopping in there you don't need to ask prices. Also saw some beautiful gloves that I may actually go back and buy one day once I'm earning money... so gorgeous.Then - and this I think is one of the main reason I love London - Suzie and I decided to go see a theatre show that night. Just went to the ticket booth place that sells last minute tickets for cheap and got two tickets to Billy Elliot - pretty good seats, £38, you know, the usual. You'd never be able to do that in little Adelaide!! Was an utterly fantastic show. And wow - can the kid in the show dance! It was amazing! Great music, great show.
Great 2nd day in London town!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
First day in London 4/6/09
First day in London! I'd planned to meet up with Suzie (Adelaidian housemate) who had already been in London for week or so, so caught the tube into meet her. At the Kentish Town station (my local) I got asked directions by an American, Aldo, who was on holidays in London til Sunday. Kinda stoked I looked like I knew what I was doing! Anyway we got chatting, seeing we were both new & I gave him my number to catch up later that day for a drink or something. Unfortunately, I gave him my Australian number without any of the prefixes (+61 etc) so later that night when I was a bit miffed he never called I worked it out - he probably couldn't get through. Oops!! First mistake from living in a foreign country...
Anyway, I managed to change at the right station and get off at the right stop (Waterloo - makes me think of Abba everytime!) and everything! And found her without too many hassles too :) Got some brekkie and the much needed coffee and our tickets ready to see Stongehenge! We'd both heard not fabulous things about Stongehenge eg don't waste your time, but we both felt it really is one of those things you have to see. So we got on the train and prepared for the ride. It was about this time my body decided to react from all the travel/lack of sleep/rest and come down with a cold/flu so I was feeling a bit crap.
Nonetheless we pushed on and after going past all the gorgeous English countryside we got to Salisbury (nothing at all like the Adelaide suburb haha!) where we caught the Stongehenge tour bus. After a small detour through some of the small towns on the way (they were all so cute!) we
arrived at Stongehenge. Gotta say first impressions were not all that impressive. The stones didn't look that big and it was situated right next to the main road. Suzie and I agreed that it would've been much more impressive if you couldn't see it from the road, but had to walk through forest or something in order to reach it - and at the last moment it looms up in front of you, appearing out the mist... well, after listening to the audio guide (man did that thing dribble on about stuff I didn't really care about!! some interesting things - 'henge' apparently means 'hanging of' - but a lot of stuff I wasn't fussed with. And some interesting (read: strange) sound effects!) it sounded like that's how it was back in the day, before someone put the road there & started charging admission!
And admitedly after listening to the audio guide and finding out that 1/3 of the stones are actually under the ground, and how heavy all the stones are, it is a bit more impressive they managed to erect them all there when they did, without help from machinery etc. And clever how you can use it as a clock, and calendar, and the symmetry of it. Suzie & I went crazy with the camera, I think we got a photo from every single possible angle! Oh dear...
Once we'd finished circling Stonehenge & bought up on souvenirs (I got a pen that says "Stonehenge rocks!" - hilarious, I know!) we boarded the tour bus bound for Old Sarum, ruins of an old castle and town that used to stand just out of Salisbury. On the way though we got distracted by a pub on the side of the road, advertising cheap food. Mm, lunchtime! It was gorgeously sunny as well so we soaked it up while eating - almost fell asleep too. Dragged ourselves up and over to Old Sarum eventually. At the gift shop I got talked into joining English He
ritage - I got an annual pass that lets me into all sorts of castles, old houses & abbeys for free... now just to get to them all! Also bought a fantastic quill feather pen - a real one and everything so now I have to buy some ink, and then I can learn calligraphy - I decided that can be (one of) my London pastime - learn to write old school. :)
Looked around the ruins for a bit, marvelled at how they used to live, and the shitty jobs some of them had (literally - urgh). Pity none of it was left standing, it would've been a sight in the day! Unfortunately due to my lovely cold/flu thing I didn't really take a whole lot of the info in so can't tell you too much more about the place. But it was impressive & had an amazing view.
Caught a bus back to Salisbury and proceeded to walk around the town, marvelling at the beautiful old buildings (still can't get over that, and how they are now used for everyday mundane things like clothes shops and pharmacies...) and eventually making our way to Salisbury Cathedral - the cathedral with the highest spire in the UK. It really was massive - unfortunately, like a
lot of the old buildings over here, they were doing some reconstruction so there was a lot of scaffolding in the way of the beautiful old detailing.
We made our way inside and what do you know - there was a service about to start. We sure know how to time it! So we couldn't look around a whole lot, and parts were blocked off, but on the upside we got to hear all the little choirboys sing! Yes that's right Mum & Dad - jealous? Haha. It was really beautiful - the acoustics in there were brilliant.
Kept going after a bit, walked outside in this little courtyard area and man it was gorgeous! I think the way the sun was when we first walked out, combined with the greenery and the architecture - it just hit me - it felt like I was in some other time and I'd stumbled on some long lost ruins from eons ago...
After we'd soaked in the awesomeness of the place for a bit longer, we took our leave and walked back to the train station via more amazingly old and gorgeous streets. We even saw a pigeon lady - like in Mary Poppins, she was under this old structure (no steps unfortunatley) and she was feeding what seemed like multitudes of pigeons! She may have just been from the local bakery, getting rid of the day's leftovers, but I like to think of her as the pigeon lady nonetheless.
Perfect timing with our train back - was at the platform waiting for us when we got there, and left 1 minute after we'd got on - and headed back to town. I stopped in at a pharmacy in the train station when we got back - a guy who worked there asked if he could help me with anything, so I said I was looking for cold & flu tablets, and he proceeded to grill me about my symptoms, at which time I got scared he thought I had swine flu & he would report me & then the govt would deport me so I downplayed it all a bit... walked away triumphant with my tablets in the end though. :)
Suzie & I decided to go to the oldest pub in London, Ye Olde Cock Tavern, that she'd heard about on her bus tour of London so we found it ok down Flint St I think it was, and ordered a sausage platter & 2 beers - mm, healthy! Was a heaps cute quaint little place - the stairs down to the toilets were so narrow! Definitely still in original condition. Left not too late to stumble home on the tube. Day 1 done.
Anyway, I managed to change at the right station and get off at the right stop (Waterloo - makes me think of Abba everytime!) and everything! And found her without too many hassles too :) Got some brekkie and the much needed coffee and our tickets ready to see Stongehenge! We'd both heard not fabulous things about Stongehenge eg don't waste your time, but we both felt it really is one of those things you have to see. So we got on the train and prepared for the ride. It was about this time my body decided to react from all the travel/lack of sleep/rest and come down with a cold/flu so I was feeling a bit crap.
Nonetheless we pushed on and after going past all the gorgeous English countryside we got to Salisbury (nothing at all like the Adelaide suburb haha!) where we caught the Stongehenge tour bus. After a small detour through some of the small towns on the way (they were all so cute!) we
arrived at Stongehenge. Gotta say first impressions were not all that impressive. The stones didn't look that big and it was situated right next to the main road. Suzie and I agreed that it would've been much more impressive if you couldn't see it from the road, but had to walk through forest or something in order to reach it - and at the last moment it looms up in front of you, appearing out the mist... well, after listening to the audio guide (man did that thing dribble on about stuff I didn't really care about!! some interesting things - 'henge' apparently means 'hanging of' - but a lot of stuff I wasn't fussed with. And some interesting (read: strange) sound effects!) it sounded like that's how it was back in the day, before someone put the road there & started charging admission!
And admitedly after listening to the audio guide and finding out that 1/3 of the stones are actually under the ground, and how heavy all the stones are, it is a bit more impressive they managed to erect them all there when they did, without help from machinery etc. And clever how you can use it as a clock, and calendar, and the symmetry of it. Suzie & I went crazy with the camera, I think we got a photo from every single possible angle! Oh dear...Once we'd finished circling Stonehenge & bought up on souvenirs (I got a pen that says "Stonehenge rocks!" - hilarious, I know!) we boarded the tour bus bound for Old Sarum, ruins of an old castle and town that used to stand just out of Salisbury. On the way though we got distracted by a pub on the side of the road, advertising cheap food. Mm, lunchtime! It was gorgeously sunny as well so we soaked it up while eating - almost fell asleep too. Dragged ourselves up and over to Old Sarum eventually. At the gift shop I got talked into joining English He
ritage - I got an annual pass that lets me into all sorts of castles, old houses & abbeys for free... now just to get to them all! Also bought a fantastic quill feather pen - a real one and everything so now I have to buy some ink, and then I can learn calligraphy - I decided that can be (one of) my London pastime - learn to write old school. :)Looked around the ruins for a bit, marvelled at how they used to live, and the shitty jobs some of them had (literally - urgh). Pity none of it was left standing, it would've been a sight in the day! Unfortunately due to my lovely cold/flu thing I didn't really take a whole lot of the info in so can't tell you too much more about the place. But it was impressive & had an amazing view.
Caught a bus back to Salisbury and proceeded to walk around the town, marvelling at the beautiful old buildings (still can't get over that, and how they are now used for everyday mundane things like clothes shops and pharmacies...) and eventually making our way to Salisbury Cathedral - the cathedral with the highest spire in the UK. It really was massive - unfortunately, like a
lot of the old buildings over here, they were doing some reconstruction so there was a lot of scaffolding in the way of the beautiful old detailing.We made our way inside and what do you know - there was a service about to start. We sure know how to time it! So we couldn't look around a whole lot, and parts were blocked off, but on the upside we got to hear all the little choirboys sing! Yes that's right Mum & Dad - jealous? Haha. It was really beautiful - the acoustics in there were brilliant.
Kept going after a bit, walked outside in this little courtyard area and man it was gorgeous! I think the way the sun was when we first walked out, combined with the greenery and the architecture - it just hit me - it felt like I was in some other time and I'd stumbled on some long lost ruins from eons ago...After we'd soaked in the awesomeness of the place for a bit longer, we took our leave and walked back to the train station via more amazingly old and gorgeous streets. We even saw a pigeon lady - like in Mary Poppins, she was under this old structure (no steps unfortunatley) and she was feeding what seemed like multitudes of pigeons! She may have just been from the local bakery, getting rid of the day's leftovers, but I like to think of her as the pigeon lady nonetheless.
Perfect timing with our train back - was at the platform waiting for us when we got there, and left 1 minute after we'd got on - and headed back to town. I stopped in at a pharmacy in the train station when we got back - a guy who worked there asked if he could help me with anything, so I said I was looking for cold & flu tablets, and he proceeded to grill me about my symptoms, at which time I got scared he thought I had swine flu & he would report me & then the govt would deport me so I downplayed it all a bit... walked away triumphant with my tablets in the end though. :)
Suzie & I decided to go to the oldest pub in London, Ye Olde Cock Tavern, that she'd heard about on her bus tour of London so we found it ok down Flint St I think it was, and ordered a sausage platter & 2 beers - mm, healthy! Was a heaps cute quaint little place - the stairs down to the toilets were so narrow! Definitely still in original condition. Left not too late to stumble home on the tube. Day 1 done.
Goodbye Zürich, Hello London!
Wednesday 3/6/09 - my last day in Zürich. I was sad to contemplate leaving - I really like Zürich, it felt like a safe, clean, friendly place I could really picture myself living in, despite it being quite expensive. But London was calling...
While I was packing up I had the TV on and what should I stumble upon but McLeod's Daughters! Dubbed into German - twas hilarious! Managed to get all my stuff back into where it was - after only 2 days it somehow was strewn all about the room! Then popped out for some brekkie - found a cute little place near the Zürich See where I once again managed to order all in German and the guy behind the counter spoke back to me in German - not that I really understood what he meant, but not the point!
Checked out of my hotel and dragged my luggage back to the airport. Got there a bit early - only about four hours or so - and discovered they don't have free internet at Zürich airport. Boo. Lucky I brought some books :)
Got through customs no problems again although they made me take my boots off for the xray machine thing - very annoying! Then it was time to board - but I couldn't see a pl
ane anywhere around our gate; instead we boarded a bus which took us out to our plane - I guess I'm pretty new to the whole travelling thing, but that was the first time that had ever happened to me! Very bizarre. Had the whole row to myself, London's not a popular place to fly to? Haha. Had lovely last views of Zürich disappearing behind me... goodbye... Nice clear views of France all the way to the English Channel - then: clouds, clouds and more clouds. Welcome to England!
Got through immigration fine, and walked straight through customs, there wasn't even anyone there! Didn't really see a lot of Heathrow evidentally, because I thought it was really quite small! Nothing at all like in 'Love Actually' haha... must've just been my terminal. Quite a few people milling around still though, so followed them down to the Underground - my first go on the tube. Unfortunately my watch was still in Zürich time and I didn't realise it was peak hour, so caught the first tube out at 5.30 and proceeded to be on the busiest train I've ever been on, weighed down with my backpack & suitcase. Sigh. Still - I survived, even when I had to change at Kings Cross and there were no escalators - clunked my suitcase all the way down the stairs. And even when I got off at the wrong stop & had to get back on, nearly getting stuck in the thing that lets you through after you've scanned your ticket - not made for suitcases evidentally! Finally made it to Kentish Town, met by Melissa (my cousin). Yay!Followed her home, got the tour, ate some food and collapsed. Incredibly tired! Unpacking can wait :)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Day Trip to Mt Pilatus 2/6/09
Day 2 in Zürich and I'd booked a day trip to Mt Pilatus via Luzern (Lucerne), so up bright & early again (not quite so bright & early as the previous day thank goodness!). Woke up with a killer sore neck, not sure if I slept funnily or it was just a remnant of the previous day's lugging of the suitcase, c
os all my muscles were pretty sore too! In any case I sucked it up and managed to find where the buses left ok - and find a much needed coffee on the way as well :) Looked like it was going to be a beautiful day - I sat on the sunny side of the bus & was soon taking off all my layers!
Got underway around 9.30 and drove out of the city into the gorgeous picturesque Swiss countryside, adorned with typical Swiss houses & cows everywhere! Our guide was really good, very informative, not only about what we were passing but throwing in general facts about Switzerland as well. As we got closer to Luzern the mountains started appearing too - it really is something else to see snow-capped mountains looming up in the distance over green hills dotted with cows and farmhouses. Once we reached Luzern we checked out a Lion Memorial which commemorates all those who lost their lives in the world wars, and then had an hour or so free time to explore the old part of town ourselves. I wandered by myself up and down little alleyways, past market stalls, and criss-crossed across the originally-built river bridges that are still standing. Had a look at the Jesuitenkirche - absolutely beautiful inside & out. They really knew how to build and decorate churches in the day! So much detail... and gold trimmings :)
We met back at the bus and headed to the bottom of Mt Pilatus to catch a cable car to the top - I
was in one with Jim & Mary, an older American couple who seemed to have been everywhere, and Eric, from Montreal. Couldn't pick his accent for ages, it's different from a typical French accent... still cool though! The view going up on the cable car was amazing. We kept hearing this clanging noise as we were ascending as well, took me a while to realise it was the cows! They actually have bells on! I seriously thought that was just a stupid stereotype we held onto, but no, it's true! So quaint! Quite annoying after a bit though - I think I would go crazy if I was a cow in Switzerland!
About 3/4 of the way up the mountain we were consumed by cloud - no more view :( We got to the summit, where there is a restaurant and shop etc, and it was quite eerie - mostly all floating cloud, with just a glimpse of the view that lay beneath. I desperately wanted the cloud to clear... for the view & the warmth - being in the clouds was very windy and cold! In the meantime we had lunch up there - I opted for a bratwurst from the kiosk - the restaurant was incredibly expensive. I managed to order completely in German, and the girl who served me answered me in German which makes me think my accent/grammar can't have been too bad! Almost got through the whole transaction when I wanted to ask for a spoon and I couldn't for the life of me remember the word! Oh well. Close.
At the end of the lunch the cloud had moved somewhat and we were able to see the view, albeit somewhat fuzzy - there were still thick clouds hanging over our heads. I decided to climb to one of the lookouts in any case and by the time I got to the top it was almost completely clear! If I squinted I could just make out snow-capped mountains through the clouds. It was just breathtaking. Photo taking ensued (naturally!). I descended again and made my way over to another lookout which took you around the other side. You had to go through part of the mountain and when I came out the other side, the cloud had almost completely cleared, below and above us. With the sun shining on the mountains surrounding, glinting off snow... it was seriously indescribable. I don't think I've ever said 'wow' so much in my life. I was totally and completely in awe. Photo frenzy once again, although the camera never captures it as accurately as what you see.
After staring at the view for as long as possible, we eventually had to go back down the mountain - via the world's steepest cogwheel railway. Of course this took us past even more breathtaking views and click went the cameras! I was sitting at the front of the carriage and it was very interesting t
o see how they drove the cog train - there didn't seem to be a whole lot involved, although I guess a lot of it is just making sure it doesn't slip - when you're going down a 47 degree incline, you don't want anything to go wrong! There was an old school looking speedo that hovered at around 8km/hr most of the trip down.
Just an aside, apparently Mt Pilatus has a ton of secret pathways and tunnels throughout it, created during the world wars for military reasons and to help hide people. Pretty cool!
When we got to the bottom we made our way to a boat on the lake (lake of the four cantons (states) - it has kinda four different arms to it and it's called something different in each canton - but I think we mainly travelled on the Lake Luzern arm) and sailed gently back to Luzern, absorbing the scenery around us. There's something so European about a landscap
e with water (a lake etc) in the foreground, with beautifully green hills and typically Swiss looking houses and cows sitting on the edge of the lake, all framed by towering white covered mountains in the background. That was the view we got basically the whole way back to Luzern. Gorgeous. Also indulged in my first European beer, bought for me by Eric - called Ur Braü, just the local brew. Very easy drinking :)
Once back in Luzern we climbed back onto the bus and I for one tried to not fall asleep on the way back to Zürich. All that thin oxygen and climbing around really takes it out of you! Arrived back around 7.30 - I wandered down to the edge of the Zürich See to have some tea and watch the sunset (only goes down about 9.30 or so). Met two guys who I tried to talk to - their English wasn't great (only one of them spoke it slightly, although they could both speak 4 languages - it's just amazing, everyone is bi- or multi-lingual) and my German leaves much to be desired so it was a lot of simple sentences and sign language. They were originally from Tunisia and thought I said I was from Israel which caused confusion for a bit w
hen they tried to talk to me in Arabic!
Fun fact about Switzerland - the water everywhere is drinkable no matter where it is apparently - you can drink from any tap, any of the water fountains that dot the city, and people go swimming in the river in warm weather! That really freaked me out, coming from Adelaide and the Torrens! Very handy for refilling water bottles though.
Anyway twas a gorgeous sunset made the more beautiful by the clouds that had started to spit a little, so I decided to make my way (read: limp - I had walked way too much!) back to the hotel for the night. And zzz.
os all my muscles were pretty sore too! In any case I sucked it up and managed to find where the buses left ok - and find a much needed coffee on the way as well :) Looked like it was going to be a beautiful day - I sat on the sunny side of the bus & was soon taking off all my layers!Got underway around 9.30 and drove out of the city into the gorgeous picturesque Swiss countryside, adorned with typical Swiss houses & cows everywhere! Our guide was really good, very informative, not only about what we were passing but throwing in general facts about Switzerland as well. As we got closer to Luzern the mountains started appearing too - it really is something else to see snow-capped mountains looming up in the distance over green hills dotted with cows and farmhouses. Once we reached Luzern we checked out a Lion Memorial which commemorates all those who lost their lives in the world wars, and then had an hour or so free time to explore the old part of town ourselves. I wandered by myself up and down little alleyways, past market stalls, and criss-crossed across the originally-built river bridges that are still standing. Had a look at the Jesuitenkirche - absolutely beautiful inside & out. They really knew how to build and decorate churches in the day! So much detail... and gold trimmings :)
We met back at the bus and headed to the bottom of Mt Pilatus to catch a cable car to the top - I
was in one with Jim & Mary, an older American couple who seemed to have been everywhere, and Eric, from Montreal. Couldn't pick his accent for ages, it's different from a typical French accent... still cool though! The view going up on the cable car was amazing. We kept hearing this clanging noise as we were ascending as well, took me a while to realise it was the cows! They actually have bells on! I seriously thought that was just a stupid stereotype we held onto, but no, it's true! So quaint! Quite annoying after a bit though - I think I would go crazy if I was a cow in Switzerland!
About 3/4 of the way up the mountain we were consumed by cloud - no more view :( We got to the summit, where there is a restaurant and shop etc, and it was quite eerie - mostly all floating cloud, with just a glimpse of the view that lay beneath. I desperately wanted the cloud to clear... for the view & the warmth - being in the clouds was very windy and cold! In the meantime we had lunch up there - I opted for a bratwurst from the kiosk - the restaurant was incredibly expensive. I managed to order completely in German, and the girl who served me answered me in German which makes me think my accent/grammar can't have been too bad! Almost got through the whole transaction when I wanted to ask for a spoon and I couldn't for the life of me remember the word! Oh well. Close.At the end of the lunch the cloud had moved somewhat and we were able to see the view, albeit somewhat fuzzy - there were still thick clouds hanging over our heads. I decided to climb to one of the lookouts in any case and by the time I got to the top it was almost completely clear! If I squinted I could just make out snow-capped mountains through the clouds. It was just breathtaking. Photo taking ensued (naturally!). I descended again and made my way over to another lookout which took you around the other side. You had to go through part of the mountain and when I came out the other side, the cloud had almost completely cleared, below and above us. With the sun shining on the mountains surrounding, glinting off snow... it was seriously indescribable. I don't think I've ever said 'wow' so much in my life. I was totally and completely in awe. Photo frenzy once again, although the camera never captures it as accurately as what you see.
After staring at the view for as long as possible, we eventually had to go back down the mountain - via the world's steepest cogwheel railway. Of course this took us past even more breathtaking views and click went the cameras! I was sitting at the front of the carriage and it was very interesting t
o see how they drove the cog train - there didn't seem to be a whole lot involved, although I guess a lot of it is just making sure it doesn't slip - when you're going down a 47 degree incline, you don't want anything to go wrong! There was an old school looking speedo that hovered at around 8km/hr most of the trip down.Just an aside, apparently Mt Pilatus has a ton of secret pathways and tunnels throughout it, created during the world wars for military reasons and to help hide people. Pretty cool!
When we got to the bottom we made our way to a boat on the lake (lake of the four cantons (states) - it has kinda four different arms to it and it's called something different in each canton - but I think we mainly travelled on the Lake Luzern arm) and sailed gently back to Luzern, absorbing the scenery around us. There's something so European about a landscap
e with water (a lake etc) in the foreground, with beautifully green hills and typically Swiss looking houses and cows sitting on the edge of the lake, all framed by towering white covered mountains in the background. That was the view we got basically the whole way back to Luzern. Gorgeous. Also indulged in my first European beer, bought for me by Eric - called Ur Braü, just the local brew. Very easy drinking :)Once back in Luzern we climbed back onto the bus and I for one tried to not fall asleep on the way back to Zürich. All that thin oxygen and climbing around really takes it out of you! Arrived back around 7.30 - I wandered down to the edge of the Zürich See to have some tea and watch the sunset (only goes down about 9.30 or so). Met two guys who I tried to talk to - their English wasn't great (only one of them spoke it slightly, although they could both speak 4 languages - it's just amazing, everyone is bi- or multi-lingual) and my German leaves much to be desired so it was a lot of simple sentences and sign language. They were originally from Tunisia and thought I said I was from Israel which caused confusion for a bit w
hen they tried to talk to me in Arabic!Fun fact about Switzerland - the water everywhere is drinkable no matter where it is apparently - you can drink from any tap, any of the water fountains that dot the city, and people go swimming in the river in warm weather! That really freaked me out, coming from Adelaide and the Torrens! Very handy for refilling water bottles though.
Anyway twas a gorgeous sunset made the more beautiful by the clouds that had started to spit a little, so I decided to make my way (read: limp - I had walked way too much!) back to the hotel for the night. And zzz.
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