Isn't that a dramatic title for this post?
You know, I haven't been sick for a long, long time now - so it's quite a shock to have this sore throat and achey body - thinking I was going to die at first was possibly a slight over-reaction.
I stayed with Amanda and Jayson at their place in Sevenoaks, Kent, last week. The weekend before last was a great time of not doing much at all and recuperating. I played the part of the lazy housewife for the next week - doing office work, trip planning and trip research writing on my laptop whilst neglecting to feed the children or clean the pets' mess up. Luckily, there were no children or pets living with us at the time. A good choice of time for Amanda and Jayson to have me stay with them, really.
I popped into London on Tuesday night and enjoyed my slightly-lost-but-heading-in-the-general-right-direction walk from London Bridge station to Brick Lane. I walked past monument for the first time - which is KICK ARSE - such a hidden treasure. I've probably transferred tube stops there a half dozen times or something. I walked past the gherkin and some cool old churches, past Petticoat Lane when it wasn't raining and windy (that was eventful, the last time), but those great old markets that are posh and full of 'suits'...got slightly lost, and then met my mate, Richard, at Vibe Bar at the Old Truman Brewery.
It was super sweet meeting up with Richard, who i first kinda met in Siem Reap, Cambodia, at the hostel I was staying at, then i properly became friends with when I rocked up to a random dorm room at a hostel on Phi Phi Island, Thailand - and there he was ago. It was such a nice coincidence, we decided to get a beer. That beer (actually, maybe we just had a juice first of all) steamrolled into another beer with some girls we just met, and then suddenly there was 12 of us getting dinner together, drinking and then dancing like penguins on the beach whilst jumping through fire rings. Ahh, Richard got sick from something at dinner, so he missed out on the penguin dancing etc....and I'm pretty sure he didn't really enjoy the drinks after dinner either.
Back in London, present day, and Richard IS enjoying his beer as we chat about what's been happening in our lives since south-east Asia. Brick Lane - fun - curry - not bad! We went to The Macbeth in Shoreditch and got our heads blasted off by electronica heavy bands, Sleigh Bells from NYC closing out the very fun night out in London.
I just spent a long time on that one little anecdote, hey? Well, after getting a whole bunch of travel in, for me it felt really nice to not travel, do something on just one day of the week - and that definitely made the experience richer. Like when you don't have a beer all week - that first one on Friday night tastes so much sweeter.
SATURDAY, i hit up London again - and what's this - it was hot??? No, of course not - it doesn't get hot in London, but for Londoners, relatively speaking - it was a scorcher! I still wore jeans and had no worries doing so. I met my old buddy, Giulia near London Bridge and we went and had a simple picnic lunch at Hampstead Heath and caught up. I went and met Craig (who I met at a super-fun-times youth hostel in St Petersburg) and his old-uni mates at another part of Hampstead Heath - the place is huge and it took us an hour of mainly-me getting lost to meet up. I had a great time at picnic (round two) and drinksies (rounds 1 through 5). Have I just been super lucky to meet such great English folk so far...or is Britain just a super friendly place? I lean towards "they're jolly good". Finished the evening with Amanda and her friends at a bar near Mayfair. Had a laff, pretty much lost my voice and headed with Amanda back to Sevenoaks.
The next day, my brother Davo, and sister-in-law, Lion, picked me up and now I'm staying with them. This is when I got sick. Ugh, just one morning I woke up with a really acute pain in my throat. So I slowed down my office work a little, struggled through, tried to be disciplined and eat and drink better, but eventually just gave in and had a number of beers whilst we watched a movie last night. Still a little bit of a pain, but it's not too bad.
Off to have dinner at Amanda and Jayson's tonight (all of us) and might head back to Brick Lane for the curry festival tomorrow. It's kinda nice to be heading back to some visited places that I like!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Being stationary is GREAT
Hey everybody! (a tribute to my soon to be sister-in-law, Dr Nic)
Phew. To say the last three weeks have been busy is a bit of an understatement. To my memory, this last dash granted me the most severe dose of travel fatigue that I've had to date - and it just gradually creeped up on me.
Interlaken was amazing - I know I've talked about this already, but I met just such great people, the place is extraordinarily beautiful, and there's just lots of fun outdoorsy things to do - very me. Fresh on the road, I felt fairly good and full of energy.
My first time in Munich was brilliant - I thought it would be just the Oktoberfest drunken party destination, but the city is gorgeous and fascinating. In a limited time, I crammed in some tours, checked out some hotels for work and managed to then duck down to the last hour of 'Spring Fest' on Friday night and grab myself a beer. I started to be a little tired from this point though.
Kyiv was big and beautiful, and although a little tired on arrival, I went straight out to Independence Square for May day celebrations - although the atmosphere wasn't electric, there was a nice excited buzz amongst the Ukrainian population who came out in mass. Over the next couple of days, I squeezed into the Lavra, added somewhat to my Munich sun-burn, lined up for a long time for the caves, checked out the massive 'Mother Motherland' statue and tanks, rocket and guns at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, went to the Pyrohovo Open-Air museum... and then flew to Lviv.
By Lviv I was quite sluggish. The Pharmacy Museum immediately perked me up - fascinating displays and rooms. The guided tour was super enlightening and although in a slightly zombie-like-state, the city through its inherent European beauty managed to continually boost my energy levels. The airport was hilarious by the way - runway of pot-holes, it was one of the scariest and roughest landings from Kyiv (and then you lift your own suitcase out of the wooden wagon) and the check-in counter at the terminal on exiting - it's basically at the gate. I dragged my checked bag to the steps up to the plane until they took it from me. Lviv has great coffee and pastries, a beautiful old town and is a charming walking-city. Well worth a look!
It was my second time in Warsaw as I'd flown there from St Petersburg last year. Compared to Moscow and St Petersburg, Warsaw does not have nearly the same level of amazement, awe and sophistication - but the underground sub-culture is a nice shining light. I saw an amazing documentary on the history of Warsaw - before the war and then the massive obliteration, and then the almost unbelievable clean-up. The devastation would've just been heartbreaking, and it is to the people's credit that they worked so hard and rebuilt a city that no longer existed. The Royal Castle was charming, Chopin's museum, sadly was sold-out (it had recently opened during this year, his 200th birthday), the palace gardens were gorgeous, the university roof-top garden was uber cool...the weather was PERFECT. I can't remember more perfect weather, in-fact, so a waffle in the park was just bliss. The tribute to the recent plane crash and deaths of the president and associated executive was very sad, sobering, noble and important to recognize. I connected via Skype for staff-training in Philadelphia for those two days also...so it was a super hectic weekend, and then I flew to Gdansk.
Gdask, in northern Poland on the Baltic Sea, is the old-city tourist town of a tricity area including Gdynia and Sopot. I researched the area at tourist agents, scoped some hotels, loved exploring the old-city, caught a bus to Sobieszewo Island and walked the half hour forest path to the Baltic Sea. I was exhausted, but the simple joy of spending thirty minutes hunting for amber amongst the shells and driftwood washed up on shore - it was just super fun and energizing again. The search for the small handful of amber that I collected was the fun and rewarding part. I'll aim to hold onto the amber til i see mum again, and then I'll give it to her.
Probably the last day of touring was the most hard work! A train to Gdynia, then eventually I worked out (through hand gestures and rudimentary communication) the correct train to catch to Wieżyca, from where I would walk 3 miles to my destination of Symbark. Well, the tourism staff member got it a little wrong - the sign posts were not clear and my 3 mile walk turned into probably about 5 miles or more and I eventually arrived. The tour of the educational site (the highlight being a house built upside down to represent life under communism) was good...and then I rushed back in thirty minutes to make the last train for the next two hours.
So now I'm in Sevenoaks, Kent, and very, very much enjoying a weekend-off being in the one place. In fact, I'm quickly feeling refreshed...and will probably be ready and excited to travel again next weekend! Although I'm not going to travel...except maybe just to London.
Phew. To say the last three weeks have been busy is a bit of an understatement. To my memory, this last dash granted me the most severe dose of travel fatigue that I've had to date - and it just gradually creeped up on me.
Interlaken was amazing - I know I've talked about this already, but I met just such great people, the place is extraordinarily beautiful, and there's just lots of fun outdoorsy things to do - very me. Fresh on the road, I felt fairly good and full of energy.
My first time in Munich was brilliant - I thought it would be just the Oktoberfest drunken party destination, but the city is gorgeous and fascinating. In a limited time, I crammed in some tours, checked out some hotels for work and managed to then duck down to the last hour of 'Spring Fest' on Friday night and grab myself a beer. I started to be a little tired from this point though.
Kyiv was big and beautiful, and although a little tired on arrival, I went straight out to Independence Square for May day celebrations - although the atmosphere wasn't electric, there was a nice excited buzz amongst the Ukrainian population who came out in mass. Over the next couple of days, I squeezed into the Lavra, added somewhat to my Munich sun-burn, lined up for a long time for the caves, checked out the massive 'Mother Motherland' statue and tanks, rocket and guns at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, went to the Pyrohovo Open-Air museum... and then flew to Lviv.
By Lviv I was quite sluggish. The Pharmacy Museum immediately perked me up - fascinating displays and rooms. The guided tour was super enlightening and although in a slightly zombie-like-state, the city through its inherent European beauty managed to continually boost my energy levels. The airport was hilarious by the way - runway of pot-holes, it was one of the scariest and roughest landings from Kyiv (and then you lift your own suitcase out of the wooden wagon) and the check-in counter at the terminal on exiting - it's basically at the gate. I dragged my checked bag to the steps up to the plane until they took it from me. Lviv has great coffee and pastries, a beautiful old town and is a charming walking-city. Well worth a look!
It was my second time in Warsaw as I'd flown there from St Petersburg last year. Compared to Moscow and St Petersburg, Warsaw does not have nearly the same level of amazement, awe and sophistication - but the underground sub-culture is a nice shining light. I saw an amazing documentary on the history of Warsaw - before the war and then the massive obliteration, and then the almost unbelievable clean-up. The devastation would've just been heartbreaking, and it is to the people's credit that they worked so hard and rebuilt a city that no longer existed. The Royal Castle was charming, Chopin's museum, sadly was sold-out (it had recently opened during this year, his 200th birthday), the palace gardens were gorgeous, the university roof-top garden was uber cool...the weather was PERFECT. I can't remember more perfect weather, in-fact, so a waffle in the park was just bliss. The tribute to the recent plane crash and deaths of the president and associated executive was very sad, sobering, noble and important to recognize. I connected via Skype for staff-training in Philadelphia for those two days also...so it was a super hectic weekend, and then I flew to Gdansk.
Gdask, in northern Poland on the Baltic Sea, is the old-city tourist town of a tricity area including Gdynia and Sopot. I researched the area at tourist agents, scoped some hotels, loved exploring the old-city, caught a bus to Sobieszewo Island and walked the half hour forest path to the Baltic Sea. I was exhausted, but the simple joy of spending thirty minutes hunting for amber amongst the shells and driftwood washed up on shore - it was just super fun and energizing again. The search for the small handful of amber that I collected was the fun and rewarding part. I'll aim to hold onto the amber til i see mum again, and then I'll give it to her.
Probably the last day of touring was the most hard work! A train to Gdynia, then eventually I worked out (through hand gestures and rudimentary communication) the correct train to catch to Wieżyca, from where I would walk 3 miles to my destination of Symbark. Well, the tourism staff member got it a little wrong - the sign posts were not clear and my 3 mile walk turned into probably about 5 miles or more and I eventually arrived. The tour of the educational site (the highlight being a house built upside down to represent life under communism) was good...and then I rushed back in thirty minutes to make the last train for the next two hours.
So now I'm in Sevenoaks, Kent, and very, very much enjoying a weekend-off being in the one place. In fact, I'm quickly feeling refreshed...and will probably be ready and excited to travel again next weekend! Although I'm not going to travel...except maybe just to London.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Mistakes are funny
So, after the GREAT school trip in Paris, I hung out with my now great mate, Mathieu de Chalvron at his place in Paris. Lots of preparation work for the research I was about to take part on - so it was far from a relaxing time. However, the family retreat in Normandy - bloody amazing!
I honestly cannot remember the last time I had a weekend off to...just...relax - and this house in Normandy had no internet - which was perfect. Armed with Nelson Mandela's autobiography and a body and mind prepared to help do a lot of handy-man work (it was a fix-it-up weekend), it turned out the Chalvron family knew how to have a productive yet simultaneously relaxing weekend - just amazing. We cleaned a lot of rooms out, stacked and re-stacked a wood pile, we swept, we organized equipment - but they were easy 5 hour work days, broken up with a long lunch - very tasty and finished nicely with aperitifs of tasty baguettes (the best in France from the local town boulangerie) and cheese (i fell in love with unpasteurized Epoisses). We played board games, I read my novel, took photos of sunset on the Seine, lit a fire in the huge fireplace - just a really good time - thanks Chalvrons!!
My first stop on my research trip for work was Interlaken, Switzerland. AMAZING! Just a really brilliant time of chocolating, high-ropes coursing (a really good course - actually, I've never done a high-ropes course before and I had so much fun being quite challenged), canyoning, hiking - the place and the surrounding towns are just gorgeous. I went at probably the quietest time of the year, which had its good and bad points, but one of the good points was hanging out with the owner and staff of a massive hotel (think the hotel from The Shining) and having a couple of quiet drinks - and then getting up for breakfast the next morning - only an old lady behind the desk, I walk down a massive corridor and enter a massive dining room - there's no-one else around. The old lady enters and indicates toward the breakfast buffet:"Enjoy - it's all for you!"
Munich was the next stop. I discovered that it's a really cool city too! A lot of beer everywhere - and some very cool gardens. Dachau concentration camp was sobering, whilst Dachau palace gardens was rather enchanting. Both the walking and bike tours I did were ultra fun and enlightening - and I got to go to the last hour and a half of a night of mini-Oktoberfest (aka Spring Fest). Most fun - apart from the drunk sixteen year-old kid who was looking for a fight - and almost got one courtesy of my fun Czech Republic room-mates slash new kick-boxer friends.
So this is where I elaborate on the title of this blog post - the mistakes started happening in Kiev. Actually, on the way to Kiev I realised I had left my belt on the security x-ray in Munich airport (I don't think it came out...hmm).
After withdrawing some hryvnias from a local ATM, I found myself stuck between the glass door I had entered, and the glass door to the main part of the bank - which was shut. Switzerland and German are easy places to navigate - a lot of English is spoken, and the systems they have in place for directions, public transport and facilities are just so clear and simple to understand. Kiev is not so easy. On the one hand, I wasn't as shocked by Cyrillic being everywhere as I'd been to Moscow and St Petersburg before. On the other hand, things just aren't as easy and straightforward as what the German speakers manage. And barely anyone speaks English.
So here I am, stuck in this glass door box, with just an ATM and instructions in Cyrillic. Honestly - the doors weren't opening, and there was no clear button or function to make them open. Eventually, I gain some construction workers' attention (in the bank) and the security guard gruffily screams at me and points. Seeing no other button, I press the small white button that in English reads "EMERGENCY" and the door opens. I think that one got a little lost in translation.
I bought a pizza at a local restaurant - but I had no idea what toppings I was ordering. Ended up being very tasty - that wasn't a mistake. I had a successful shopping experience - bottles of water, cereal, milk, some pastries and some chocolate. All for less than 7 Euro. It's also nice paying 17 euro cents for a ride on the metro.
Next morning, when pouring my 'milk' onto my cereal - i discovered it was thicker than I thought milk should be. The bottle looks like a milk bottle - 1 litre, typical milk bottle shape, white, with a cow on the front. Turns out it was sour cream. Having my lunch of borsch and cheese pancakes later that day - i noticed the huge dobs of sour cream included with both of my dishes, and everything made more sense again.
Oh, and I wrote a blog the other day for my work website about Interlaken - this fascinating, brilliant, mysterious creature that I stumbled across in the middle of the night after a couple of drinks - I had NO IDEA what it was - so I asked for help in my blog. Apparently, it was a plain old hedgehog. Umm...whoops. Maybe I could have guessed that one. It was the first hedgehog I'd ever seen, me thinks, but you'd think I could have been a little bit more wiser on the uptake. The good thing was that I was completely enamored with this animal - being ignorant can sometimes be the icing on the cake of a brilliant day.
I honestly cannot remember the last time I had a weekend off to...just...relax - and this house in Normandy had no internet - which was perfect. Armed with Nelson Mandela's autobiography and a body and mind prepared to help do a lot of handy-man work (it was a fix-it-up weekend), it turned out the Chalvron family knew how to have a productive yet simultaneously relaxing weekend - just amazing. We cleaned a lot of rooms out, stacked and re-stacked a wood pile, we swept, we organized equipment - but they were easy 5 hour work days, broken up with a long lunch - very tasty and finished nicely with aperitifs of tasty baguettes (the best in France from the local town boulangerie) and cheese (i fell in love with unpasteurized Epoisses). We played board games, I read my novel, took photos of sunset on the Seine, lit a fire in the huge fireplace - just a really good time - thanks Chalvrons!!
My first stop on my research trip for work was Interlaken, Switzerland. AMAZING! Just a really brilliant time of chocolating, high-ropes coursing (a really good course - actually, I've never done a high-ropes course before and I had so much fun being quite challenged), canyoning, hiking - the place and the surrounding towns are just gorgeous. I went at probably the quietest time of the year, which had its good and bad points, but one of the good points was hanging out with the owner and staff of a massive hotel (think the hotel from The Shining) and having a couple of quiet drinks - and then getting up for breakfast the next morning - only an old lady behind the desk, I walk down a massive corridor and enter a massive dining room - there's no-one else around. The old lady enters and indicates toward the breakfast buffet:"Enjoy - it's all for you!"
Munich was the next stop. I discovered that it's a really cool city too! A lot of beer everywhere - and some very cool gardens. Dachau concentration camp was sobering, whilst Dachau palace gardens was rather enchanting. Both the walking and bike tours I did were ultra fun and enlightening - and I got to go to the last hour and a half of a night of mini-Oktoberfest (aka Spring Fest). Most fun - apart from the drunk sixteen year-old kid who was looking for a fight - and almost got one courtesy of my fun Czech Republic room-mates slash new kick-boxer friends.
So this is where I elaborate on the title of this blog post - the mistakes started happening in Kiev. Actually, on the way to Kiev I realised I had left my belt on the security x-ray in Munich airport (I don't think it came out...hmm).
After withdrawing some hryvnias from a local ATM, I found myself stuck between the glass door I had entered, and the glass door to the main part of the bank - which was shut. Switzerland and German are easy places to navigate - a lot of English is spoken, and the systems they have in place for directions, public transport and facilities are just so clear and simple to understand. Kiev is not so easy. On the one hand, I wasn't as shocked by Cyrillic being everywhere as I'd been to Moscow and St Petersburg before. On the other hand, things just aren't as easy and straightforward as what the German speakers manage. And barely anyone speaks English.
So here I am, stuck in this glass door box, with just an ATM and instructions in Cyrillic. Honestly - the doors weren't opening, and there was no clear button or function to make them open. Eventually, I gain some construction workers' attention (in the bank) and the security guard gruffily screams at me and points. Seeing no other button, I press the small white button that in English reads "EMERGENCY" and the door opens. I think that one got a little lost in translation.
I bought a pizza at a local restaurant - but I had no idea what toppings I was ordering. Ended up being very tasty - that wasn't a mistake. I had a successful shopping experience - bottles of water, cereal, milk, some pastries and some chocolate. All for less than 7 Euro. It's also nice paying 17 euro cents for a ride on the metro.
Next morning, when pouring my 'milk' onto my cereal - i discovered it was thicker than I thought milk should be. The bottle looks like a milk bottle - 1 litre, typical milk bottle shape, white, with a cow on the front. Turns out it was sour cream. Having my lunch of borsch and cheese pancakes later that day - i noticed the huge dobs of sour cream included with both of my dishes, and everything made more sense again.
Oh, and I wrote a blog the other day for my work website about Interlaken - this fascinating, brilliant, mysterious creature that I stumbled across in the middle of the night after a couple of drinks - I had NO IDEA what it was - so I asked for help in my blog. Apparently, it was a plain old hedgehog. Umm...whoops. Maybe I could have guessed that one. It was the first hedgehog I'd ever seen, me thinks, but you'd think I could have been a little bit more wiser on the uptake. The good thing was that I was completely enamored with this animal - being ignorant can sometimes be the icing on the cake of a brilliant day.
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