A Quick Trip to Amsterdam

The lovely Grace and I booked a very expensive weekend to Amsterdam at the last minute after she found out she was leaving grey old England to return to the motherland for sunshine and medical school. I shall miss her! You all will too – there will no longer be a steady stream of photos going up on Facebook!

We stayed in a less-than-luxurious hostel by the Van Gogh museum (very cool, go early in the morning to beat the crowds) and within walking distance of the city centre. Lesson learnt – book as far in advance as possible, and try to go during the week – hostel prices were around 30-40 pounds a night! We spent hours walking the city, getting lost, eating my bodyweight in waffles and pancakes, and generally giggling our heads off the whole time. It was very cold, the Dutch have fabulous hot chocolate, and we drank a lot of gluvein(sp?) (mulled wine) and ducking into little cute design shops that are everywhere, because they’re so hip and coooool. We visited the zoo, tried to avoid being killed crossing the street but paying attention to trams, bicycles and cars (all which seem to be on different sides of the street in different directions,) went to the Anne Frank house for a more sobering side of the weekend. We seemed to be one of the few groups of girls visiting, mainly because of the massive numbers of stag-do groups that were on our flight I think.

There’s not a lot I really want to write about except that it is a fantastic city, and I’m glad I went – it actually was never on my list of places to visit, but maybe that meant I had no expectations. And I’m going to get a bike now!

       

The above right is a strange Dutch Christmas tradition which I am yet to be enlightened about.

It's not so golden anymore

In fact London is turning rather grey. And very very foggy.

Autumn turns England golden

          

Ohhhh so pretty! I love Hampstead Heath and it’s been particularly beautiful over the last week with the cold clear days, and all the tree’s leaves turning shades of yellow, orange and red. But the night is creeping in earlier and earlier, and London is turning grey. I’ve started pulling out the winter and wet weather gear. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here almost a year!

Happy Halloweeeeeeen

It’s a bigger deal here than NZ. There were loads of people out and about and dressed up on the weekend, and all the clubs were charging entry fees for Halloween parties. We got into the spirit.

     

NEW ZEALAND WON THE WORLD CUP

Bet you already knew that. I knew as soon as it happened. Yeeeeeeah, cos I got up at 8am to watch it in a pub in Putney, South London, with a bunch of mad NZers. See?

  

I don’t actually know who anyone is in any of these pictures except for Richie Macaw, myself and Grace….

Madrid: take two - going to be a lot of writing

I know this has been a long time coming but I was waiting on photos (my camera battery died on karaoke night and I didn’t take ANY of the city at all!) But, still only some photos of me in front of the palace so I will plough through and maybe add some in later.

So I housesat for Reg in La Latina for two weeks, and had the quietest holiday EVER until she came back with her sister, best friends and Susi from their roadtrip to Portugal. I spent everyday wandering the city, eating tapas and drinking huge amounts of coffee, and visiting every art gallery under the sun. There are MILLIONS in Madrid, and they are amazing. I love Madrid so much, I think I told you that last time, but have decided it is not the best city in the world to be alone. Or maybe I’m just not very good at not having people around, I don’t know. The language barrier was intimidating, but ok, and I kept trying to speak French (I guess in reaction to “this is not English.”) Almost two weeks was quite a challenge since I actually am a wee bit shy. It’s funny how different places let you travel alone. Kathmandu was easy, and London will let you dissolve into the city, but Spain is so lively and everything is centred around the social – Madrid isn’t built for an observer.

The weather was FANTASTIC the whole time, and I came back with a lovely tan that London summer had declined to give me. I read a dozen books, and lay in the sun in the stunning Parque de Retiro.

El Rastro Flea Market is on every Sunday until 3pm just round the corner from Reg’s and I’d heard it was one to tick off the list. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to go to be honest – it was mainly imported cheap junk from China, some fearsome looking knife displays and then a handful of leather stalls selling beautiful bags and sandals, but which can be found all over the city on any given day. Maybe London’s markets have spoilt me, or maybe flea market doesn’t quite translate, but it’s fairly average and absolutely heaving.

The Thyssen was amaaaaaaazing, huge art collection ranging from 6th century to post-modernist pieces. I was really hoping to see Antonio Lopez’s temporary oil exhibition but alas, it was sold out until the end of its run.

The Reina Sofia is housed in a fantastic building – an old 18th century hospital. Huge vaulted ceilings and smooth flagstones on the floors.The collection is impressive to say the least. All the temporary exhibitions were closed for some reason, but the extensive Spanish art collection was open, including a great deal of Spanish civil war works. And best of all, I got in free! Madrid is great for student discounts and under-25 concessions. I spent hours wandering the four floors admiring or ignoring Picasso, Miro, and Man Ray. (I think I offended someone who asked me what I thought of Guernica… note: don’t shrug.) The fourth floor was my favourite – a veritable maze of 20th century artwork from a collection of international and Spanish artists. Other pieces that took my fancy – Benjamin Palencia’s collages, Man Ray’s Indestructible Object, Lumiere’s film The Serpentine Dance, and Lygia Pape’s Magnetised Space.

I actually skipped the Prado this time. I went last time and spent hoooours there. I went a couple of times to get tickets then changed my mind due to the vast braindump the other galleries had performed on me.

Everyone returned for my last weekend in Madrid, and Beth moved from London too! Beth and I checked into a hostel for the weekend – Cat’s (a great, big, friendlyish but slick outfit.) It was all go – straight to the jamon shop for cheese, ham and cava, via the bar for a quick beer (3 euro for a a bucket of 5.) Then on to tapas bars in La Latina for a quick bite and wine, and karaoke – the most unlikely of Spanish evenings. Saturday morning spent quietly reflecting on the joys of alcohol and hostel awakenings. Beth moved into her hostel for the next few weeks, mad jealous Fabrizzio Guesthouse overlooking Plaza Mayor. Definitely my next hostel if I can’t crash at friends in Madrid!

Sunday brought amaaaaaaaaazing paella at Costa Blanca in Quevedo, and last but not least, a bull fight.

I have lots to write on the bull fighting. Will leave it for another day so you aren’t actually reading a novel. I promise to put lots of photos in my next posts to make up for this one!

La vida loca, besos!

Alex

AAAAAAARGH I’VE DONE SOMETHING SILLY TO MY BLOG

Though I’m sure you’ve noticed. I get bored and play with things I don’t understand, like SETTINGS, and have lost my original template, which is fine, change is good etc, but it’s made all my old posts a bit discombobulated. So I guess I either go back through and change all the photo arrangements, or just have a brief growl and forget about it for a rainy day. Stooooooooopid programme. I blame the fact the I don’t actually use the website to actually post anything and just use the blog writer on my computer. Or something.

London Changes

So there’s been a wee bit of upheaval in my life recently. I finished housesitting for friends in North London, and that very day received a call asking if I needed somewhere to live! Having made no plans whatsoever except another trip to Madrid the following week I happily accepted an offer of lodging in a wonderful, busy, grand old house next to Hampstead Heath! I’m lodging with Eva and her overly-energetic pup Alfie, who I go for long walks with everyday, and look after when Eva goes away.

So now I’m a North London gal! And very happy to be – it’s very green and feels COMPLETELY different from East London (though I’m still down there every week:))

Aaaand, secondly – I finished up at MetaBroadcast last month! No plans as of yet, I’ve started flicking my CV out again, making enquiries around the world and generally looking to see what’s about. I’m pretty happy to plod along and see what happens. I had originally thought I was heading for Australia and warmer winds but as the year marched on so fast I’ve suddenly found myself less and less ready to leave London. I’m very aware that this is possibly the last opportunity to do this visa wise, and London is the place to do anything under the sun you might wish to. (Actually, blatant lie – no sun, and I’ve discovered forestry workers are a bit out of luck here too.) So! Watch this space! I’m going to be a tourist for a few weeks and go do all those things in London that people who live here never do. Can’t wait!

I’ll try write up a Madrid blog post sooooon, but the weather came back to London with me (the weather reporter did make me looool – “A scorcher of a heatwave, highs of 27 degrees!”) and I’ve been making the most of it knowing it’ll turn to crap next week.

Love from me, will try to reply to all your emails, sorry for being slack.

x

Sweden: The Land of the Beautiful People

Sweden! Apparently every Swede is 6 foot tall, blonde and impeccably dressed. Can you imagine how Beth and I felt?

Like this. This was us the whole weekend.

For this months excursion I headed to the fair city of Stockholm to visit the darling Katie who has a paid internship at the hospital. And Beth came with me! We had a 6am Ryanair flight from Gatwick so did the sensible thing and didn’t go to sleep the night before.

    

So Stockholm is this incredibly beautiful, efficient, Scandinavian wonderland where there are lots of bikes and islands in fresh, salt and brackish water. Where the coffee is good, the people are happy and everything is SO FREAKING EXPENSIVE. Good golly Miss Molly. Food, transport, hostels, LIFE. Though apparently they earn a higher minimum wage, and if you live there you get all these amazing state perks like – free education! :o And you get to be Swedish, and eat fika everyday. (I’ve probably spelt that wrong but it’s pronounced fee-kah.) Just don’t expect to drink alcohol. Probably the driest weekend holiday I’ve ever had. But still lots of fun! Because look! Gay Pride was on! The Swedish are so cool and liberal and tolerant and open-minded. There were rainbow flags EVERYwhere.

 

We did a lot of walking, as per usual, and explored the old town of Gamla Stan, stayed on Sodermalm, drank lots of coffee, and went to this AWESOME photography gallery – Fotografiska. The weather wasn’t great, but we were determined to get out to the archipelego on a ferry and visit one of the 10,000 islands. We chose a bigger one with the intention of cycling/kayaking/swimming and siteseeing, but the weather was awful (much like London) and we ended up hiding in the cutest little cafe ever on one side of Waxholm where a huge table with every Swedish cake in the world was laid out. And free refills for your filter coffee. Mmmm. It actually reminded me of NZ a little, in terms of the wooden houses everywhere. Katie said that a lot of Swedes have a summer house, hence why Stockholm was so quiet. Everyone heads on holiday.

    

So in my mind, after our brief encounter with Stockholm and very little sleep – Sweden is now associated with rain, amazing photography, cute/practical/sailing-style knitwear, Katie O’Brien, awesome clubs where all the Swedish wear beautiful dresses and scummy old chucks, and islands with the potential for long hot summer days, swimming, cycling, fishing, sailing and other things we saw in brochures. :D

Oh, and H&M. There were five or six H&M stores within two minutes walk of one another. Really weird.

Hi! London is no longer burning

  

So I’m sure you all heard about the four days of rioting in London where the world seemed to have gone a little mad, and 16,000 police were directed to the streets to contain a weird, mainly dysfunctional, under-organised populace from wanton acts of arson and violence and fairly direct acts of looting.

Other than being massively surreal, it didn’t really affect most of London in person. The media coverage was huge and the discourse and debate that it instigated was intense, interesting, mundane, and sometimes completely clueless, but on the whole it just seemed a real mess. The main thing that struck me (other than the fact that the rioters themselves didn’t know what they were rioting for) was how much finger pointing was going on, and how fast the blame game began. It was parent’s faults for not controlling kids, it was society’s fault for marketing/branding, it’s black culture, white culture, it’s people on the dole, it’s kids, it was the recession, it’s the government, it’s police, it’s about respect, money, power, boredom, control, it’s footballers’/celebrities/your mama’s fault. But it was EVERYONE. The judicial system is heaving with the number of people being sent to prison, but the figure show that there was not one certain group – black, white, rich, poor, employed, unemployed. The latest is it was London gangs. I don’t really feel like passing judgement because London doesn’t feel like anywhere else I’ve been in the world. Or maybe it feel’s like everywhere else I’ve been, all in one. The most affluent suburbs are bordered by council estates and desperate people. Employment isn’t exactly spirally upwards, and the government is cutting public spending ‘for the recession’ while a large portion of the population is still angry at last year’s MP spending fiasco, and the bank-bail outs.

I don’t think there was any excuse for the way people behaved. Over 170 police were injured, a few dozen civilians, and 5 people were killed. People lost their homes and livelihoods because a bunch of hooligans were bored.

I just need to point out that the picture of Beth was from our way home Monday night where we were trying to get a taxi, and driving through Camden I snapped some photos while we were waiting for the group of 14-20 year olds to be chased away by riot police. Beth went to the supermarket in Crouch End while I was at work the next day wearing a hoodie and got stopped by police! I guess people were really on edge.

I was never worried, but I could hear sirens all night and Tottenham is just round the corner. I meant to say something a while back but never quite got round to it! I actually wanted to do it after the second Athens’ post but I never managed to find my photos of all the police in Greece. Stay tuned for Venice (I promise) more Athens and Sweden when I get round to it! Long weekend coming up so maybe I’ll get some time :)

Revolt in peace and happiness!

Alex

London

So when we got back from our epic trip, my darling friend Sophia had arrived. She's been here for a month after teaching in a school in Thailand. We wandered around London and entertained couchsurfers. She did a London bus tour and saw all of the tourist sites that I am yet to see(!) and a Jack the Ripper Tour (in the area I live in) and generally made me feel like a bad London visitor! But a very good Londoner...

So I started thinking about all the things that I want to do, and associate London with, and should do while I'm here. TimeOut is a GREAT place to start, because they have a list! I use TimeOut to find out about gigs and restaurants mainly, but it is my favourite London resource. So, while I don't want to do all 101 Things to do in London - Ultimate Guide; I am very willing to get through a fair bit.

I took a long weekend for Sophie's final days here which instigated the making of this The-Tourist-Things-In-London-I-Should-Do.

Museums, Galleries and Exhibits

• British Museum – this might take a day, and it has most of the Acropolis and other countries historical artefacts in, but still amazing things too see.
• British Library
• Charles Dickens Museum – CHARLES DICKENS!
• London's secret galleries – I think I like the idea of this mainly 
• The Tate Britain and Tate Modern  - The Tate modern is my favouritist EVER. Well, maybe not ever, but it is insanely cool on a Friday night when no one is there. (I’m so cool, that’s how I spend MY Friday nights…)
• Natural History Museum – This has real life dinosaur bones.
• Grant Museum of Zoology
• Pollock's Toy Museum – This looks creepy because of all the dolls.
• Saatchi Gallery – Enuff said.
• London's public sculptures – Another Time Out thing
• Wellcome Collection
• London Dungeon – I went to this with Sophie. I think you need to be less hungover than we to fully appreciate this. And possibly less sober.

Historical Places

• Tower of London – I pass this everyday without thinking ‘there is a castle with a moat in the middle of the city, and it holds the crown jewels.’
• Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guards
• Royal Observatory – so cool! I haven’t been in but it’s in Greenwich which is looooovely, and I like observatories a lot, so will do this at some point.
• Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
• Big Ben and Westminster

Markets and locals

• Camden Market – famous.
• Greenwich – the whole area is pretty, and park filled, and doesn’t feel like London, and has a market with awesome food.
• Portobello Market – LOVE! Huge, amazing food, antiques, and vintage clothes to spend hours trying on. Almost made me want to live in West London. Maybe when I’m rich.
• Regent's Canal
• London Zoo
• London City Farms – there are farms in London. This is only slightly less weird than the fact that there is a castle in the middle.
• Hampstead Heath and the Lidos – outdoor pools!
• Hyde Park
• Columbia Road Flower Market – my Sunday local.

Other

• Cabaret – I get sent an email from Time Out about cabaret all the time. So I guess this is something I should do.
• Barclay's Bikes – London has this great automated bike hire scheme where you borrow a bike from the side of the road and take it to the next parking spot to drop it off, and it it free for 30 mins, and some amount of money for after.
• Go to the West End to see a musical
• London Eye
• Eat Brick Lane Bagels, Bad British fish and chips, drink pints of warm beer and eat jellied eels from Tubby Isaacs little street cart.
• Have the best Indian meals EVER! Or Pakistani, because Tayyabs rocks my world.

Some of these I may not do, cause I don’t actually care that much about the changing of the guard, or Big Ben, and I really don’t want to eat a jellied eel. Some of these things I do on a regular basis anyway (the other food-related goods, the markets, walking the canal, and others I’ve been there, done that, but figure I’ll make a good big list for all of you who decide to visit me!)

I’m moving North

For a month! I’m housesitting for family friends, and am super excited for a change of scenery. And a garden! And greeeeeeeeeeenery! Eek! Anyway, this means that I have suddenyl become aware of how much crap I’ve managed to accumulate. And shoes. How did I end up with so many shoes?! They do look pretty lining my wall though…
So I’m storing some stuff here at my wonderful flat (I’ve sublet my room) and am wondering what on earth I will do when I leave the UK. Anyone got any good tips on sending a box or two of stuff overseas for a reasonable cost?
But I have found lots of little things from Nepal – postcards, letters from the children, and little notes on paper I’d made. I’m looking forward to going back next year hopefully, and further travel in the greater region. Where else would I you see the following?

I don’t remember making this, but I always carry a notebook and when I was making regular blogposts I would jot things down. Actually, I still carry it, and make notes but now they say things like ‘more milk, ring bank, take library books back.’