I’m A Joyful Girl

Five months abroad is coming to a close, and the place I’ve chosen to do it, London, is turning out to be a great choice.  As soon as I got here this city felt good.  I flew in to the airport farthest north, and had to get myself to a neighborhood fairly far south of london.  So I had a long train ride and soaked up the look of the houses and flats, lots of brick with 8 chimney coming out every which way.  What I loved most was the green.  Some cities had little bits of green here and there, but it just isn’t enough.  Most the days I’ve been here have been really nice sunny weather, which is good, but today was my favorite.  It had a bit of sunshine, but sprinkled for most the day.  It felt SO GOOD.  I cannot remember the last time I was cold!  My Seattle blood has been boiling in the heat of Spain, Morocco and elsewhere where temperatures reach way beyond what Seattle has ever seen.

So far in London I have taken in most the major sights.  London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guards, London Tower and Bridge, Bangers and Mash with a pint of Guiness near Picadilly Circus, Greenwich to stand over the Prime Meridian.  Check, check, and check.  And that is only in my first couple days.  I still have the weekend and I fly out on Tuesday.

The people have been delightful, everywhere I go the courtesy is outrageous.  In the supermarket I was standing practically within reach of the eggs.  I coudln’t find them, because I am an American tourist and we tend to be useless.  Some nice teenage boy was boxing things until I asked, “Where are the eggs?”  He said, follow me, and led me the 7 steps to the eggs.  I laughed at myself, but he was taking his job seriuosly and only asked if I needed anything else.  Remarkable.  And this keeps happening, we/I only pause and someone will come up and ask if we need directions.  Plus they have their proper English accents that make them sound even more refined and polite.

I think London is a place I could live, that is if I was filthy rich, or was able to work here.  This place is EXPENSIVE.  The number looks right, but when you go and do the exchange math of multiplying by two it starts to get painful.  To combat that I’ve just given myself a number to spend everyday.  And I try to stop doing the math and just stay under the total number.

It’s been a delight staying with Melissa’s (friend from the vb team) cousin and her husband.  Really great, kind people that have an adorable flat with a backyard.  We had a game night the other night and have just been enjoying each others company.

For some reason I have a strong affection to all things Portuguese.  So I thought I was going to love Lisbon.  I was right.  Although it has the same name, the Portuguese spoken here sounds completely different from teh Portuguese in Brazil, but I can still pick up about one word out of 20.  Not too bad.  I met a whole bunch of people the first day of being here so I´ve had some fun company to wander aroudn with.  I have shopped, visited a castle, been to the beach –great beaches here–visited a couple different neighborhoods, gone out to a fado house to hear the music of Portugal and eaten pasteis de nata which are delicious custard tarts.  I love Portugal because I started off with a great experience in Brazil, but also because theyºre just so Portuguese.  You can see a huge difference in the buildings and architecture from Spain and the rest of Europe, plus the language soudns completelly different and people here are NICE!! 

I had heard about the ever present train strikes, but really thought somehow I would escape their effects.  I was wrong.  I left Montpellier early morning on the 20th.  Rienus and I cabbed from his friends house to the airport where we had coffee and said goodbye since he´s heading back to work on a ship, coincidentally, that´s home port is in Seattle.  Then I got myself to the train station and waited around for my train.  It was going to be a long day with three train rides and the last one a night train.  I had reserved the first adn third train, but wasn´t able to reserve the middle one from France.  Not good.  I thought 10 hours between the trains would be long enough to buy a ticket on one of the 7 trains that would leave during that time.  But as I arrived at the window I needed to do this they pulled down the shade and put of the closed sign.  After a bit of asking they said they were on strike.  AWESOME.  Needless to say there was a lot of running around and frantic phone calls and being transferred to the woman that spoke english, who wasn´t ever there, etc.  By 4pm I knew I wasn´t going to get out so I wandered until I found a hostel.  I think I spent about 6 hours at the Barcelona Sants train station trying to figure it all out. 

I had a leisurely evening of calling a few friends who I haven´t talked to since I´ve been away from home, since now I won´t be talking much since Rienus left.  After a few hours on skype I went for a jog once it cooled down, around 9pm.  I love summer with it´s long long nights.  I had only run about 10 minutes when I got to the Plaza Espanya where there is a huge fountain and a million steps going up the hill to an art museum.  There were a MILLION people there so I thought soemthing was going on.  Turns out thats the usual turnout because the view is so gorgeous at sunset and you can see the whole city, plus the fountain puts on a show every half hour or so that´s pretty impressive with music and lights and all that.  So I watched the sunsent and sat with hundreds of other tourists enjoying the city.  As I was sitting there I realized that I´m completely alone for the next part of my journey (in Europe) and that is absolutely fabulous.  I was dreading the solitude, since I´ve been spoiled having the company of Rienus everyday and making decisions together and meeting people together and was thinking that I was going to be lonely, and those things are probably true and it´s going to take me a lot longer to figure out which way is south and I´m going to miss him terribly, but the freedom of traveling alone and the selfishness of being able to do exactly what I want whenever I want, really is unique.  I had had a bad day and was feeling bad for myself so it was a bit of a revelation at the time. 

Today I will be doing some walking, down Las RAmblas, the big touristy walking street, then wandering along the beach and soaking up the sun, then heading back to the station to catch my train. 

Here´s hoping for no more train strikes.

Montpellier was a trek to get to.  From La Spezia (Italy) we spent about 14 hours in transit.  And 3.5 of those hours were spent on the cold hard floor of a train station in nowhere Italy in the middle of the night.  But well worth it.  We got in on the morning of the last home game for the Montpellier rugby team.  Rienus’ friend from back in NZ plays for them so we got to go to the game and sit in the VIP seats with his girlfriend and some other players and family.  I loved it!  The game is so much more fun than American football because it keeps moving.  No stopping and starting every down.  They just bang each other up and keep on going.   I kept bugging everyone around me asking questions and figuring out all the rules.  After the game we sat around drinking wine and eating the nibbles until the players came up to visit families and wives.  Got to stand around with a whole bunch of BIG boys and listen to them joke and talk rugby.  Afterwards the four of us went down to a bar just below the stadium where the fans all hang out.  Mone, Rienus’ friend is quite the all star in Montpellier so it was fun to watch him get bombarded with fans and things to sign and people coming up and telling him how much they love him.  We danced around tot he live music, which was oddly ALL in English, stopped at McDonald’s on the way home and called it a night.

The last stop on my Italian trek was in La Spezia.  Although that wasnt the real destination.  id heard from a couple of travellers about Cinque Terre.  The five small villages on the cliffs of Liguria.  La Spezia turned out to be a great stop too.  I havent seen the water (other than dirty rivers) since leaving Venice so it was nice to be in another port town and stroll along the water and listen to the dirty Italian sailors.  The day after arrival we hopped on a 15 minute train to the first city, Riomaggiore, of the Cinque (5) Terre (Lands). We walked from Riomaggiore on the Via Dell’Amore until we reached Manarola.  Both were tiny places made up of a stazione (train station), tabacchi (place to buy cigarettes and tickets), and square pastel houses built right into the sides of cliffs.  The views were gorgeous and the water was clear.  We hiked on to the third village, Corniglia, then hiked down to the water from the cliffs.  Rienus decided to jump in but there were a bit too many sharp rocks and big waves for me.  By train we visited the most northern village of Monterosso, but were pretty tired from hiking and laying in the sun, so after a quick walk around we headed back to La Spezia.  It was a great way to end Italy.  We had good weather, got some exercise, but the couple days in La Spezia were really laid back.  Currently we’re killing time in Genova while waiting for our train(s)-we have three different connections to make–to Montpellier. 

I also have bought my flight back home.  Well sort of.  Flights to Seattle were all ridiculously expensive, but flying to Canada was much cheaper.  So I’ll be arriving in Vancouver, BC on August 5th in the evening.  I might stay a night or two if my friend is going to be around, but then catch the train to Seattle!  Home Sweet Home. 

Life is good:  I have been in Italy since May 14th and it has been fantastic:  Started in Venice; zhere is was gorgeous and stayed with so,e friends Id met working on ships:  (this keyboard has switched the w and the z so zhere you see z I mean w:  Also they switched m and , so adjust accordingly)  drank zine and had ,y first real italian piwwa:  then on to ro,e zhere ze did so,e ,assve sightseeing:  colosseo; ro,an foru, vatican city:  i had ,y first real italian capuccino; saz the pope live and saw so,e ro,an soldiers taking s,oke breaks:  next zas siena for a short stop:  ze rented a scooter and zent out to so,e vineyards and s,all castles in the tuscan countryside:  very cool:  i took a millin pictures of the gorgeous rolling hills:  then on to florence o see the uffuzi and mikeùs david:  all very impressive:  now in bologna zhere they love there food:  ze just had lunch of aweso,e bread and thinly sliced ,eats:  ze tried ,ortadello zhich they are knozn for zhich is just a type of sausage:  but bologna style: to,orroz ze are on to La Spezia zhich is right by th eplace I really zant to go zhich is Cinque Terra:  Five s,all cities right on th ecoast built ito the cliffs:

The zeather is fantastico noz after it has rained off and on:  finally feeling like su,,er:  happy june!

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Took a flight on April 29 to Xi’an, where the famous Terra Cotta Warriors are.  The  city is much bigger than I thought it would be.  Part of it is enclosed in a big city wall, about 10 miles all the way around.  We rode bikes along the top of the wall earlier this morning.  The hostel was amazing with a nice restaurant and bar and good common areas which makes it really easy to meet poeple.  The first night we went to a Chinese dance/instrument show with a dumpling dinner.  I ate sooooo many dumplings:  walnut, shrimp, ham, fish, pickled lotus, duck, red bean, etc.  They came in just about every flavor possible.  We met a group of Hawaiians who we spent the night hanging out with afterwards back at the hostel.  The show was entertaining and fun to see some Chinese tradiational entertainment.  The second day we went on a tour to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.  And they were awesome.  They were only discoveredin 1974 and since then they’ve built a museum up, over and around the warriors.  So much of it is still in the process of being escavated.  I’ve seen pictures and there are statues everywhere, but to see the actual size and scope of it was amazing.  It goes on FOREVER, and so much of it hasn’t even been dug up yet.  It was all for Emperor Qinshushuang who had 700,000 people (criminals, transients, poor, etc) who worked for 37 years to make his tomb and all the warriors.  Then once he died (early at age 51) he had all the workers building the tomb killed since they knew some of the secrets of it all and they were buried near him.  He also had his 600 concubines killed (hung with white silk scarves) and buried around his tomb. 

April 26. 2008

This morning we spent hours trying to buy an airline ticket to Xi’an (where the terra cotta warriors are).  Apparently the airlines don’t need the money since we tried 4 different airlines and weren’t able to make a purchase on any.  We finally got out the door by about noon and bused, then subwayed to Tianenmen Square.  The public transportation system is nowhere near as easy to use as Hong Kong, but with a little thought and effort (and willingness to walk a few blocks) you can get anywhere very cheaply.  The bus was 1Yuan and the subway 2Y (US$1 = 7Yuan).

 Tiananmen Square is massive!  Took a million pictures of people and flags and monuments.  We got into the Forbidden City and started strolling.  It’s over a million square meters, so that baby is big.  We looked at weapons and what they wore and read about the emperors and saw where he slept, but about 2/3 of the way, before we really hit all the buildings we were done and moseyed our way out.  We’re going to go back and do it the other direction so we can catch what we missed.  It’s an impressive place.

As we went through the introduction to our Hong Kong & Macau guidebook we patted ourlselves on the shoulder for successfully completing 90% of the Must See’s on the Top Must See’s List.  We made it to Macau and wandered through the old town with Portuguese architecture mixed with Chinese characters and the flashy casinos.  At the Wynn casino I had the most successful gambling venture I’ve ever undertaken.  I have little knowledge of any of the table games, and really don’t have any desire to learn, so if I want to gamble I head to the slots.  So Rienus handed me my allotment of cash: 100Yuan (or $13ish), which I thought was a bit too much, so I got some change and set myself off with 20Yuan to start.  I obviously picked the right machine because in less than 5 mintues I went from 20Y to some amount over 600Y.  I was tempted to keep going, but really there wasn’t even a pull down bar to make me feel like I actually had anything to do with the winnings.  So I cashed out and and walked away with winnings that 30 times what I put in.  Atta girl. 

We also made it to Lantau to see the “Big Buddha” - largest seated Bronze Buddha in the world at 34 meters. 

We mastered the MTR and spent time in all the main parts of HK-Central and Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island and Tsim Shai Tsui, Jordan and Mongkok on Kowloon.  Two weeks in HK was perfect and we were able to do pretty much everything we’d wanted to. 

 We flew to Beijing yesterday, the 24th and we were picked up by the Fijian 1st Secretary.  Rienus’ Uncle (sort of) is the Fijian Ambassador to China and we are staying with him at his residence.  Sweet.   Beats staying with the cockroaches at dirty hostels.