Christmas in Birmingham

Hi Everyone! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great Christmas and start to 2009.

Here are some photos from my own Christmas here in Birmingham:

There was a Frankfurt Christmas Market in Birmingham which I went to three times. The first time, I went with my friend Elise, who was visiting from Chesterfield. Unfortunately, she was on some crazy detox diet at the time, so I felt a little guilty eating and ended up only having one sausage and a cup of mulled wine. I also bought some stollen which I took to work to share.

The next time, I went with Claire, a locum vet who I had worked with in August. Claire likes food as much as what I do, so we had a great time eating frankfurt sausages, cheesy garlic bread, baby pancakes and crepes. We also had some great German beer, jaegermeister, mulled wine and hot chocolate. I also bought some stollen which I took to work to share.

The third time I went on my own. I had a bratwurst sausage, some garlic sauteed potatoes and mushrooms and baby pancakes and some mulled apple cider. I also bought some stollen which I took to work to share!
Early in December, I caught up with Nicky Reid and Wes in Oxford. They stayed in London for a couple of days before heading back to Australia from their overseas working holiday.
Our work dinner was held at Birmingham Botanical Gardens one Saturday night. We had a nice three course dinner, and did some dancing afterwards.

Sair and Rachel dancing

Sair and Jen dancing

Teresa and Sarah having a quiet drink and chat

Janet and Ruth having a quiet drink and chat

Me, Sair and Jen at the dinner table

Hasty the Christmas Elf-Dog.

Hasty, Teresa's Christmas Elf-Dog

On Christmas Eve, I went out with Sarah and her boyfriend Jono and their mates, and then stayed at Sarah and Jono's place.

Sair and Jono opening their presents on Christmas morning

Lola playing in the Christmas paper and Sair playing with an electric-shock giving toy gun at Jono's parents house

Alfie, the Metrosexual Christmas Schnauzer

Me and Sair at her parent's house for Christmas Dinner

Jono and Sair

We had lots of great food for Christmas Dinner. Sarah's brother's father-in-law had made some great soup for starters. I had the minty pea soup, it was delicious! Of course, we had roast turkey and pork and all the trimmings for main course. Also delicious! And for dessert we had Christmas pudding and brandy sauce. I had also made some pears poached in red wine.

Sair (with her dog Toby) after her Christmas Dinner and a few Christmas drinks!

So despite spending Christmas away from my own family, I still had a great time! Unfortunately it wasn't a white Christmas, but you can't have everything!

So, my plans for the near future: I finish work at the end of this month, then I spend 3 days in Prague, before flying to Norway and spending 3 weeks there. I then fly to Rome at the end of February and am going to travel to Florence for a weekend of shopping! Unfortunately, the pound is really struggling against the Euro at the moment, so my weekend of shopping may end up being a weekend of window shopping.

I have also booked my flight home, and I'm flying from London on the 3rd of March, arriving in Melbourne on the 5th of March!

That's it for now,
Love,
Lis x.

Spain! Part IV

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to my fourth, and what I hope will be my last, blog on Spain! It has been nearly 2 months now since I returned to the UK, so my memory of the trip is starting to fade somewhat. Here is what I do remember though...

We left Valencia by train and travelled to Barcelona. Barcelona is now one of my favourite European cities. It has everything: art, architecture, food, culture and shopping!

We had some lunch, then embarked on our final orientation walk for the trip. Actually, it was two orientation walks, broken up by a coffee break in between. I have to say that I had been quite disappointed in the laziness of some of the group on this trip. I guess that after witnessing David and Elsie (the couple in their 70's who were on my Italy trip), complete all the orientation walks with no problems and no complaints, I expected that able- bodied 20 and 30 year olds would have been able to do the same!

On our first orientation walk, we visited the old, Gothic quarter of the city, passing the cathedral, and walking down the twisting, narrow streets.
On our second walk, we ambled down The Rambla, the main street in Barcelona, down the centre of which, is a wide footpath where people sell flowers and pocket pets and there are many street-perfomers. We stopped at the famous Mercat de la Boqueria on our way to Port Vell. The market sells lots of great stuff such as chocolate and fresh fruit and veges and freshly squeezed juices. They also sell fresh meat products including bull testicles and sheep heads.

Some of the meat products available at the Mercat de Boqueria

At Port Vell, we stopped and had a few more drinks, and Krisztina phoned ahead to book a restaurant for dinner. We had a couple of hours before we had to be there, so we had a few more sangrias, then set off on foot in search of the restaurant. Unfortunately, someone had given Krisztina some slightly wrong directions (or there were some language difficulties) and instead of turning left down a street, we turned right. We walked and walked along the beach in search of the restaurant before we came to the end of the street and realised that we were in the wrong spot. When we finally got to the restaurant, tempers were starting to get a little frayed, bladders were a little full, and stomachs were empty, so that when the waiter firmly told us to wait at the door to be seated, Nathalie and Richard stormed off saying that they weren't going to eat where the staff were so rude! A bit of an over-reaction I think, but they decided to go back into the centre of the city and eat at a tapas bar. The rest of us decided to stick it out at the restaurant. It turned out to be a very tasty meal.

The next morning, Andrew, Nathalie and I visited Park Güell, the park designed by Gaudi. It was a bit like something out of Dr Seus! It was so colourful and featured lots of ceramics and houses which looked like they were made of gingerbread.

Me at Park Güell

A fountain at Park Güell

Columns at Park Güell

Gingerbread houses?

Park Güell

View of the city from Park Güell

Me, still at Park Güell

Ceramics at Park Güell

Andrew and I then walked a few blocks down the street to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's amazing Cathedral which is still under construction and expected to be completed in another 50 years or so. It is an amazing sight and, as with many of Gaudi's works, reflects the beauty of nature. We were going to go inside the cathedral and have a look, but the queue's were very long, and we thought it would take a good few hours to get the most out of the visit and we had to meet the others at 4:30, so we decided we would return another day to visit.

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

We got some lunch at a tapas bar near our hotel, which had pintxos, little pieces of bread with a variety of toppings on them. They are sold at most tapas bars in Barcelona, and are very cheap and tasty.

At 4:30, we met up with Krisztina, Matt, Lenore, Nathalie, Margaret, Lilian and Jess down near the port. We walked around to the cable car ticket office, and were planing on riding the cable car up to the top of Montjuïc, unfortunately all the tickets for the last trip of the day had been sold, so we missed out! Instead, we caught a bus to the metro station, then caught the funicular. The funicular took us half way up, then we caught a different cable car to the top. Here we walked around the Castell de Montjuïc, and had a great view over the harbour and the city.

Castell de Montjuïc

We caught a bus down to Placa Espanya, where we watched the Magic Fountain show, then headed back to the Gothic quarter, where Krisztina had booked a restaurant for our farewell dinner for the tour. We met up with Richard and Yithette and Zar-Zar at the restaurant.

The Magic Fountain

The Magic Fountain

We had a beautiful meal. I had French Onion soup for starters, Salmon stuffed with gorgonzola and served with poached pear for main, and lemon meringue pie for dessert.

My main course: Salmon stuffed with gorgonzola and served with poached pair

After dinner, Krisztina took us to the Quatre Chats restaurant to have a look where Picasso used to hang out, and where his work was first exhibited.

The next day, I went to the Picasso Museum. It was quite interesting to see some of Picasso's work from before his cubism work. I used to think that much of Picasso's work was so simple that I could paint it. In fact, that any five year old could paint it. But after seeing some of his earlier work, I can see that in fact he could paint realistic paintings, just as well as he could paint abstract. In fact, I actually wonder if he was having a bit of a joke with some of his later stuff, some of which are practically just smiley faces, just to see how much people would pay for a few dollops of paint on paper (or corrugated cardboard, as one painting was painted on).

That afternoon, I had a bit of a wander around the streets, did a bit of window shopping, and visited the market again.

The next morning, I went back to Sagrada Familia to look at the inside. I also went up one of the towers in the elevator.

Inside Sagrada Familia

View from one of the towers of Sagrada Familia

View from one of the towers of Sagrada Familia

The stained glass windows of Sagrada Familia

I actually had a bit of a Gaudi day that day. After visiting the cathedral, I went down the street to La Pedrera, another one of Gaudi's works, and home of a museum which gives an overview of all of Gaudi's works. The roof top terrace is a special feature of this building, as it is in a wave formation and has strange shaped chimneys. A lower floor of the building is furnished in the style it would have been in the early 1900's, which was also very interesting.

View of the inside of La Pedrera

The rooftop terrace of La Pedrera

La Pedrera from the outside

I was a bit "Gaudi'd out" after looking in La Pedrera, so I only passed the outside of Casa Battlo, and didn't go inside.

Casa Battlo

I walked back down The Ramblas in the afternoon (visiting the market again on my way) and stumbled across a street market. I also stumbled across a stall which sold fresh crepes with chocolate sauce, down by the port, and couldn't resist one for afternoon tea!

Mirador de Colon, down by Port Vell

Port Vell

Mercat de Boqueria

That night, Margaret, Lilian and I went to an Opera and Flamenco Performance. It was quite good, but I actually enjoyed the music more than the dancing, and I didn't think the Flamenco was as good as the one we'd seen in Sevilla. Unfortunately, the male dancer reminded me of a long-haired Tom Cruise, and he just seemed to be too poncey and in love with himself, for me to believe that he was actually in love with the female flamenco dancer!

The next day was my last full day in Barcelona, and I spent it shopping! I had a great time, however after coming back to the UK and seeing what was in the shops over here, I actually wish that I'd bought more whilst I was over there!

And that was my trip to Spain. The day I left Barcelona, it was actually raining a little, and I thought that it wasn't so disappointing to be leaving in that weather. I though that, until I got back to Birmingham that evening where it had been SNOWING!

That's all for now!

Love,
Lis x.

Spain! Part III

We left Sevilla at a decent hour on the Thursday morning, and caught a bus to La Linea, then walked across the border to Gibralta. Here, we were transported to Britain! Well, sort of. The street signs were the same as those in England, there were English pubs everywhere, and even a Marks and Spencers. It was still warm though, and there were palm trees everywhere.

We had lunch at a pub, then caught the cable car up to the top of the rock. This was a bit like visiting The Planet of the Apes. There were monkeys EVERYWHERE!

The Rock

The view from the top of The Rock!

Barbary Apes

The Rock

The view of The Rock from La Linea

Some of the group caught the cable car back down to the bottom, whilst Nathalie, Margaret and I decided to walk. We got down to the bottom, which was separated from the road back to the town by a gate. Unfortunately, the gate was locked, but there was a sign pointing us back up the road 100 meters to a set of steps, at the bottom of which we were to turn left, then exit out the gate at the end of the path. Unfortunately, when we got to that gate we found it was also locked. So we turned back, and took another path which led to a patio, which was cordoned off by tape. This was much easier to jump than the spikey fence, however, so we crossed it and trespassed into the casino's yard and managed to get back onto the road and back into town. On our way, we passed the Trafalgar Cemetery, where many of those who died in The Battle of Trafalgar are buried.

That night, we caught a bus to Tarifa, a town on the coast, where the wind blows just about everyday of the year, making it a great spot for windsurfing and kitesurfing. We did our orientation walk in the dark, then had some dinner at a restaurant in the old town.

Andrew, Lilian, Margaret, Zar-Zar, Jess, Nathalie, Lenore, Matt, Yithette, Richard and Krisztina at Dinner in Tarifa

The next morning, we had the opportunity to catch a ferry over to Tangier in Morocco. Andrew, Margaret and Lillian decided to take up the offer, whilst the rest of us decided to spend the day checking out Tarifa. It was a very relaxing day. I had a bit of a sleep in, then after a late breakfast, went for a stroll along the beach and into the town. I met up with Nathalie and Richard and had a drink with them, then continued wandering around the streets, poking about in the shops. The three of us met up with Lenore and Matt for lunch, before we all went our separate ways again. I had a bit of a siesta, then had another bit of a shop in the afternoon, before heading down to the beach with Jess, Matt and Lenore in the evening. We watched the kitesurfers and had beer (non-alcoholic apple flavoured, very weird) and icecream, then Matt and I had a quick swim, just to say that we'd been swimming in Spain (it was very refreshing!).

That night, we all had cocktails at a bar which had happy hour, then Jess, Nathalie, Lenore, Matt and I had dinner at a hippy-type vegetarian restaurant, and the others had dinner at a Moroccan restaurant on the other side of town. I had the vegetarian lasagne, and it was one of the best meals I had in Spain.

A church in Tarifa

A plaza in Tarifa (during siesta time!).

The next morning, we caught a bus and then a train to Rhonda. This is one of the "White Towns", where whitewashed buildings line the gorge which divides the town in two. One of the main features is the large Roman Bridge which spans the gap.

Adam and Eve, on the facade of a mansion in Rhonda

The group on our orientation walk in Rhonda

Me, with the Roman Bridge in the background

The Bullring in Rhonda

The next day, we caught the train to Granada. Granada is the home of the Alhambra, which we all visited on our second day in Granada. The Alhambra is the well preserved, palace fortress of the Nasrid Sultans, the rulers of the last Spanish Moorish kingdom.

Statue of Queen Isabella and Christopher Columbus in Granada

Street in the Albaicín

During our orientation walk, we visited the Albaicín, Spain's largest Moorish barrio. Margaret, Andrew, Krisztina and I were the only ones who walked there, the others were too lazy, and decided to catch the bus there instead. There were great views of the Alhambra from that side of town.

View of The Alhambra from The Abaicín

View of The Alhambra from the Albaicín.

View over Granada from the Alcazaba in The Alhambra

A water feature in Generalife, the gardens where the Royal family used to spend their summers.

Another water feature in the Generalife

A pond in the Palacios Nazaries, in the Alhambra

Unfortunately, the Patio of the Lions was undergoing restoration, so I didn't get to see it in all it's glory.

Columns in The Palacios Nazaries in The Alhambra

Inside the Palacios Nazaries in The Alhambra (again)

We spent two nights in Granada, and on the second morning we went out for Chocolate con churros, a rich, thick hot chocolate drink which tasted a bit like hot chocolate custard. The churros are long Spanish doughnuts which are dipped into the chocolate and eaten. It is a traditional breakfast in Spain which is eaten after a night out, before stumbling home!

Serving suggestion?

It was Nathalie's birthday that day, and we had to fill in time before catching the overnight train to Valencia at about 10pm. Granada is also famous for it's tapas bars, which serve FREE tapas with every drink! It is a fantastic idea, I reckon, so Nathalie, Richard, Andrew and I spent the afternoon and evening drinking and eating free tapas! It certainly helped to sleep on the overnight train!

It was a very early start the next morning, as we pulled into the station in Valencia at 6:00. We were there before anywhere was open, even the famous market. We were on the doorstep of the market when it did eventually open, and we were able to collect some supplies for breakfast.

The Market

The Market

The water fountain outside the Cathedral.

After refuelling, we went on a very early morning orientation walk of Valencia. At the end of our walk, we went inside the cathedral, where we saw what is supposedly The Holy Grail.

The Holy Grail?

Afterwards, we had the rest of the day free. Margaret and I climbed to the top of the bell tower of the cathedral where we saw all the blue domes of Valencia, and also the funny shaped modern buildings that house the aquarium and Imax cinema.

Some of the blue domes of Valencia, as seen from the bell tower of the cathedral.

We then went to a sandwich bar for lunch, where you place ticks next to all the sandwiches you want on the menu, hand it in, pay, then wait for your name to be called and collect your lunch. It was a very easy way to dine, as you don't have to worry about trying to understand the language (apart from what you want, obviously, although sometimes it's good to get a surprise!). It was also very cheap, as sandwiches were just 1Euro each! After lunch, we went to Museo de Belles Artes, and saw some great Spanish paintings including some by Velazquez, Goya and El Greco as well as some Valencian artists. We then checked out the Ceramics Museum, then La Lonja, a UNESCO listed building which used to be a silk exchange and stock exchange.

The Kitchen in the Ceramics Museum

The hall in La Lonja

That night, Margaret, Lilian, Jess, Krisztina and I went to a restaurant which is famous for it's paella. Paella is a Valencian speciality, so we all ordered it. It was definitely the best paella I had in Spain!

The Seafood Paella

Me and my traditional paella with chicken and rabbit