Exploring Barcelona

Hey so I know I'm late... again, but I've been too busy doing stuff instead of writing them down, so I'll round up what I can but since I'm blogging in my phone there's possibly going to be more pictures than anything else.

I spent the bet part of last week catching up with my favourite Spanish family in Navarra and helping them out in the restaurant and with their hostel rooms. It was a really busy week for us but with two of us working in the kitchen it went pretty smoothly most days. I spent a little of my free time chilling out by the pool, playing with the dogs and catching up on some more reading. 

I also got to see the family friends I met there two years ago and finally speak some Spanish to  one of the family friends who is pretty much part of the furniture but who can't speak English. 

So all in all it was a great week and I'm already pondering over plans for my next visit. 

(Next leg of the journey- much longer on the bus)

On Friday afternoon I caught the bus down to Zaragoza then onto Barcelona before hoping straight on the airport bus to spend the night waiting for Courtney's arrival the following morning. 

After a long wait in the airport Courtney arrived a bit after 10am and we headed out to find our hostel.after arriving and depositing all our stuff in the room it was off to look for foot and explore the local area, we're based near the beach but in a quiet neighbourhood without many tourists which is perfect for working on our Spanish. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and finding a Local for the week. 

(Evening explorations)

Sunday dawned bright and warm so we sent off for some more serious exploration. We found the huge city park, the Arc de Triomph (Spanish version), and a few other impressive sites. We grabbed burgers (my first since arriving in Spain) in a great little place then went to explore the chocolate Museum. We planned on visiting the Picasso museum after since it's free on Sunday afternoons but the queue was about four blocks long so we're saving it for another day. After that we took a long, slow walk back to the hostel, covering at least 8 miles by the time we get back.

In the evening we got tapas from our Local we didn't really get what we ordered but our surprise tapas were still good.

(City park)

The weather seemed a bit undecided on Monday so we decided to head back to the city park and visit the zoo. They were actually in the process of rebuilding the enclosures a few at a time and while the old ones weren't too bad it was nice to see the new ones had more space and better suited environments for the different species. 

We ended up with another surprise meal when the risotto we ordered changed to black squid paella but the food was great so no complaints here!

(Tasted better than it looked)

Yesterday got off to a pretty wet start but once the rain stopped we headed across to Montjuic to go check out the castle and the gardens. We got a great view over the city and the gardens smelt amazing after all the rain. Although we took the cable car up there we walked down in search of the botanical gardens. Although they were closing as we arrived it did lead us to the National art museum of Catalunya which was an impressive site. We grabbed some not-so-great tapas while waiting fir the magic fountain show but found out later it wasn't on that night so instead took the bus back to the hostel and crashed out. 

(National Art Museum of Catalunya)

 Now I probably won't be writing my next blog until I get back to the UK in about 10-11 days because phone blogging isn't as fun as using an actual computer but then i can give you a full round up of the rest of my trip. 

So I'll speak to you all soon,

Ciao

Moving on again

Hi everyone,
I know I´m late....again but things have been pretty busy here! For those of you who don´t already know I´m down near Pamplona for the third summer in a row visiting my favourite Spanish family! Since it´s the hight of summer we´ve been fairly run off our feet so I´ve only just had time to write.

Last week was actually fairly easy in terms of work for a change. After waking up to find a message saying I could definitely head to Pamplona at the weekend I waited around until Isa´s sister got her out of bed early then set about helping her get sorted to go out. Her friends who had visited at the weekend wanted her to come over so she was out of the house by just after 10.30am so I spent my morning reading, watching some old episodes of House MD on my computer and thinking up some new knitting ideas for when I got home.
In the afternoon Marie appeared home reasonably early and we went off to find the new shoes I so desperately needed. We had to take Isa along which meant I knew we´d never manage to get the shoes sorted - and I was right - but it was a reasonable trip out at least. In the end I couldn´t find what I needed and settled for buying the (to me) slightly expensive shoes I´d seen after class the following day.

Wednesday Isa didn´t want to get up out of bed since she wanted to watch her cartoons and when I finally decided enough was enough she sulked and wouldn´t talk to me for over an hour leaving me to sit around and colour in the ´difficult´ pictures she wasn´t going to do. By that point the grandparents had arrived and it was almost lunch time so I got myself some food, checked my Spanish homework and headed out around 3.30pm to go to class. It wasn´t too bad for my final lesson. My normal teacher was still on holiday but the new one was talking a bit slower and I wasn´t already in a grump which helped. We got through a fair amount of work and after getting my shoes and going for a final wander through my favourite part of Bilbao I caught the metro back to the house.

guggenheim

As promised by Marie we went to the Guggenheim museum after we´d both finished work on Thursday. Isa had been at a friend´s again so I´d had a fairly easy day and after getting a quick bite to eat we set off. We had Isa with us which I wasn´t entirely sure about but she seemed fairly excited to go and see the ´flower puppy´ outside the entrance so off we went.

There was a great video exhibit by Kimsooja &Shahzia Sikander which had some really impressive imagery and the music was like a mix of sounds I´d heard in both India and Peru. We only got to stay for 10 minutes cause someone got bored but I´m definitely going to check them out online soon! There was an impressive steal instalment which took up half the building with maze like structures but we got in trouble cause Isa decided out run back out of one of the mazes and if she´d gone off in a different direction we might not have seen where she´d gone. 

The two main art exhibits were by Jeff Koons and Jean-Michel Basquait. I think the first appealed more to Isa with his metal ballon animals and refashioned old toys but I think I preferred the Basquait exhibit with his graffiti art and messages about colonialism, racisms, class struggles and things like that - it was also pretty cool to see the collection he did alongside Andy Warhol - someone I remember studying in school!

Unfortunately Isa thought it would be fun to break free from her mum and touch an exhibition piece which almost got us chucked out and then spent the last half hour deliberately messing around, making too much noise knowing she had to be quiet and generally trying to make us leave.

Friday was a pretty busy day. The grandparents showed up for a bit in the morning, and everyone was sitting with Isa watching TV so I used that time to get my back packed and ready to go. The parents arrived in the afternoon but no one seemed interested in getting their own things packed until the evening after dinner. They were off to China early in the morning so they had to get themselves organised too. We had a final family meal and after I was given the money back that I´d paid for my new shoes - the family wanted them to be a present from them which was really sweet!

on the road again

On saturday morning the housekeeper came and took me to the bus station since she´d offered the day before. I got the bus from Bilbao to Pamplona which was a nice trip although there seemed to be a lot of holiday traffic on the road. I grabbed a coffee and a pintxo in the bus station then caught the next bus down to Olite - the closest I could get to San Martin de Unx on the bus as far as I knew. 

Knowing it was lunch time and it would be really busy I decided I would just start walking and hitch to my friends hostel/restaurant instead of waiting to see if they could come and collect me. A nice couple who were here on holiday picked me up in no time and dropped me right at the door.

The afternoon was spent doing little jobs around the hostel and settling back into life in San Martin. 

Sunday was the busiest I´ve ever seen it here with every table full of families and groups wanting lunch. We spent most of the late afternoon recovering from such a busy session and chatted about the other people who´d come to stay, how their English course summer camp had gone and how our families were getting on before having an early night. 

gorgeous new dog

Yesterday I spent the morning out shopping with Pedro and his grandson which was an interesting experience - had to laugh at the fact he decided he wanted ice cream near the start of the trip and was still asking for it two hours later! We had quite a few people for lunch and there was less of us working in the kitchen but between me and Linda I think we actually worked through the orders and the service faster than we had the day before with more people! I guess it was just easier with less people getting under each others feet. 

This morning I helped clean the pool and prep some things for dinner then I set about writing this. We´ve got a couple of hours until people start coming for lunch but we have rooms to make up so I´m off to help with the laundry. 

I should be in Barcelona by the time I write my next piece but I don´t know how easy it will be for me to post off my tablet (now it´s getting old and slow) when I don´t have a computer or laptop to borrow!

Chat to you all again soon either way,

Ciao!

Animal Rescue

Hi everyone,
I know I´m late in posting but I didn´t get chance to get on the computer over the weekend to write. Think this will just be a short one since it´s been a busy day but I can tell you that I´ll be writing from somewhere different next time because my job ends on Friday. I´m planning on heading down towards the Pyrenees where it´s quieter and where I can do some walking anyway from the noisey towns and cities around here.

So after I finished writing on Sunday Adam (the older son) took me gokarting with his cousin and some friends. It´s not something I´ve actually done before so I was a little nervous to begin with but it was a lot of fun - even if I did get beat by a 12 year old,

DIdn´t crash too often

It was back to the usual routine on Monday with nothing particularly exciting happening although I did get to learn a little about the German health insurance system from my classmates which is always a handy thing to know a little something about.

After work on Tuesday I tried playing Paddleball with the dad but considering I´d only played tennis and badminton before and it was much hotter than I was used to I think I lost quite spectacularly.
After a quick shower I joined the mum in taking Isa and her visiting cousin to the fun fair in the next town. Luckily Isa managed to get her cousin to go on most rides with her cause she wouldn´t go herself and I certainly wasn´t going to get myself stuck in one of the kids rides - I did that years ago and have no intention of repeating it!

Animal rescue

On wednesday I got a bit of a surprise in the morning when I found a hedgehog in a box in the kitchen! It turned out the dogs had tried to get it in the night and Marie had rescued it so I could release it when Isa was awake. The release went well although Isa stayed inside cause it was raining.
 I got into Bilbao for class a little early and bumped into a fellow classmate but it turned out he was having to cut his trip short and the lesson that day would be his last.
It also turned out the other two girls who´d joined the class were finishing that day too so we spent half the class translating a song and got a couple of class photos at the end.

Thursday was just the standard - work followed by reading/studying/seista until dinner so nothing really exciting there.

On friday Marie´s sister arrived with her husband to spend some time here before taking her son (Isa´s visiting cousin) back home. We had a nice meal together before I headed off for an early night. As far as I´m aware there was no pintxos night so I stayed home.

Not a whole lot happened on saturday. I was supposed to go with Marie to get some new shoes sorted out after my ´prefect´email pair was the complete wrong size (supposed to be an 8, the shoes say they´re a 7 but they´re definitely no bigger than a 6). I´ve been stuck sewing up my old shoes in the meantime but now they have holes in the soles which I can´t really fix. Unfortunately we ended up not going to the shops - not too sure why - so as of this post I´m still stuck with holey boots.

Good as new....

Sunday was a gorgeous sunny day - if a bit windy - so I decided to get out and spend some time just sitting out in the sun with a good book. Working my way through Lord of the Rings so its some good reading.
Isa´s friends came round for lunch so we spent a good deal of time getting the kids to all eat their food and after such a tiring day (or  not) I spent most the the rest of the day holed up in my room out of the way.

On to today. It´s not been the best of days today with tantrums and violent outbursts from the niña all morning (broken up by periods of just refusing to talk/play with me), followed by a new teacher for my Spanish class. Now there´s nothign actually wrong with the new teacher and it´s always good to learn from different people however I can´t quite understand why you´d give a beginner class to someone who only speaks a little bit of English; all made more difficult because her accent (from SE Spain) was so strong I could hardly understand anything - even when I knew the words she was saying.
On top of all this I seem unable to find any HelpX projects for my free week between work and my holiday with Courtney. I know it´s late in the game to be asking but the stream of ´no´s´and no replies has been a bit disheartening.

Just before everyone left!

On that note I need to get on with planning something different for that week so I´d best finish and post this.
Talk to you all soon though,
Ciao!

The Rain in Spain...

Hi everyone,
I´m starting to think Sunday´s a good day for posting since I tend not to have too much else on so I´ll probably stick to this day to share my latest adventures with you - not that I´ve got that much longer left before I finish this job!

On Monday I had my normal work schedule followed by Spanish class. We had a couple of new students joining us including another German student and a lass from Japan - it´s great to get such a mix although it´s a little funny now hearing the Cypriats disscusing things in Greek on one side and the Germans on the other while the rest of us stick to English and Spanish.
After class I met up with the regular Friday night pintxos group for dinner since one of the girls was going back to the US. We had a nice evening and I had a good laugh watching most folk struggle through the giant burgers on offer at the bar we ate at - literally the burger was about the size of the dinner plate and stood a good five inches high! I kept to a plate of chips since there were no other veggies to share one of these giant sandwiches with but I was happy enough with that.

Waiting next to this guy outside the Guggenheim for the rest of our group

Not a whole lot happened on Tuesday as I spent the majority of my work time just trying to get Isa to speak/play with me but I got a good amount of studying done in the afternoon and spent some time getting a few more things organised for Uni this year. I also had to order a new pair of shoes since my 4 year old baseball boots decided to split right around the back of the heel - typical that they waited unitl I was away to do this,

It seems Isa decided she was happy playing on Wednesday and we spent a good part of the morning playing and blowing bubbles in the garden while the cats tried to catch them - it´s days like this when I really enjoy my summer job,
By early afternoon the weather had changed so it was a rather cool walk to the metro for class. It turned out the two Cypriat girls were finishing their lessons that day so we said our goodbyes at the end an extra interesting lesson where we got to look at some other Spanish speaking countries in South America.
In the evening I had a phone call from the other half which was great but as always left  me missing home a little more than usual.

Bubbles in the garden 

Rain and a cold wind on thursday meant swimming lessons weren´t an option but since it would have been the teacher´s last day before he went off to study in Chile he came by for a quick visit and to say goodbye which was pretty nice of him.
My afternoon was spent doing some online research and starting to plan things for getting work when I get back to the UK in just over a month.

Friday was still a bit cold and damp and it seemed Isa´s mood corresponded to the weather for most of the morning. My knees were also pretty stiff from the change in weather so it was pretty quiet on both sides.
I spent a fair bit of time in the afternoon trying to repair my shoes until the new ones arrive - sewing through the canvas was easy enough but stiching onto the rubber edging was something I´d want to do again anytime soon - stabbed by self with the needle far too many times - however it seems to be holding ok.
Later in the afternoon everyone piled in the car, Chinese teacher and her kid included, and went to get a meal out. As the teacher was heading off on holiday at the weekend it was sort of a ´have a nice summer´ meal which was a nice idea. Unfortunately the ´restaurant´ of choice was a rather well known American fast food chain which I won´t eat in so I sat and waited while the kids ate until it was time to go and meet my friends for pintxos.
We had a good night out and after spending some time with one of the new girls in my class and another new student from Norway I rejoined the usual group. Seeing a couple of lads who clearly weren´t Spanish standing nearby one of the lasses decided to bring them into the group and I had to laugh when we dicovered they were actually from Newcastle! They stuck with us for the rest of the evening but when everyone else decided to head off to a club in the same direction as my metro station myself and the two geordies were apparently walking too fast and ended up losing the rest of the group - oops. Instead I went home as planned and the two lads headed off for food.

Making paella - that pan´s about 2 foot wide!

On Saturday there was a big paella festival in Getxo that Emma was going to with her friends and I was invited to come along with them. It looked pretty grey once again and was apparently only 22 degrees so I went out with jeans and a shirt. Typically the weather had totally changed by the time I got there and although I had a vest top under the shirt I could wear I was stuck with the jeans.
Now, I assumed the festival would be a bit like a mini local fair and while the main focus would be the paella competition there would also be the Spanish equivelant of best jam and cake bakes - I was totally wrong. Instead it seemed that groups of people had pitches spreading all over the field where they would cook their paellas on campfires while loud, drunk fiesta-goers roamed around to the sound or various stereos blasting out the latest and greatest tunes from Spain, the UK and the USA - not a single jam jar or potted plant in sight.
We had a good time and although I still find it a little odd to be hanging out with 17 year old Spanish kids we had a good laugh and we all got a bit of launguage practice in too.
We ended up eating out with Emma and Adam´s dad instead of at the fiesta since Emma´s boyfriend was doing the first proper meet-the-dad-day. The food was great with prawns and salad and such, and allow I proved I´m still hopeless at fish it was a really good meal and a nice break away from the heat of the afternoon sun.
My friends from class had planned on meeting me at the fiesta in the afternoon but ended up not coming so after a little more time hanging out with Emma and her friends they split off to find the fluorescent paint everyone seemed to be covered in while I walked back to Sopelana. By this point I´d gotten a bit burnt, not having expected the change of weather but it was a nice walk back along the coastal path.
That evening I had a good long chat with my friend Courtney back home - talked a little about what we´d do when she came out to meet me in Barcelona and after that I had an early night.

Today´s been pretty quiet so far since I´ve mostly been studying and reading.

Well that seems to be all for now anyway - I´m off to read a little more of my book.
I´ll be writing again soon but in the meantime just a little reminder to check out my Facebook page where I sell all the knitwear I make back home. There´s a load of items still for sale and available while I¨m away and I´m taking orders for new items for when I get back to the UK in September. The page is:
 https://www.facebook.com/driftinggipsyswoolcraft

Some of the items I make over on my Drifting Gipsy page

Thanks guys.
Ciao for now!

Fiestas and Fieldtrips

Hi everyone,
So I´m little later than planned with this latest blog post but the back end of this week has been pretty busy!

I went to the pintxos night I mentioned in my last post and luckily some of the people who went last week were there again along with a few new faces. This week the food provided for us was a really tasty looking paella however I´m keeping to the veggie (pescatarian) food over here so instead I got some really good battered fish pieces with salad. After everyone had eaten we split into different groups to do a bit of exploring. Casco Viejo is the old part of Bilbao and has a lot of interesting bars with music and such. We explored and found the street I bought my super cheap hippy clothes from. Unfortunately one student had had a few too many and we had to cut the night short but we all had a good time and I think I´ve now started making a few friends here - guess that´s what happens when you actually get out and socialise!

After a late start on Saturday I ended up spending the majority of the day studying and getting some work done online. Sunday was much of the same. The family were down in Pamplona for San Fermin (watching the running with the bulls) so I was supposed to stay at home with the older daughter and help look after Isa. Funnily enough though the grandparents who´d stayed overnight never left and before I knew it the parents were home so I guess I wasn´t really needed after all.

Pre-class selfie showing off my dreads

There always seems to be one day a week were tantrums and tears are pretty much now stop - this week it was Monday. After refusing to talk to me for most of the morning and pretending to sleep instead of doing something fun, the serious tantrums started. After swimming I got Isa dressed and tried to put her shoes on. I tried unfastening her shoes to put them on - nope she wanted to keep them fastened and spent 5 minutes trying to do it herself. I tried to get her to put them on the right feet - refusal, tears and the rest of the day was spent with them on the wrong feet. Then she wanted her hair plaited - the problem being she told me in Spanish and didn´t know the English word while I didn´t know the Spanish word - she also wouldn´t mime like she often does in these situations. The crying and shouting ("TRENZA") began so I suggested we go speak to the housekeeper since I couldn´t understand and she would. This made it worse and as I tried to leave the room to find help I ended up with the door slammed repeatedly - sometimes while I was in the way - and almost ended up with a tear in my trousers as she tried to stop me leaving. Eventually I got out and got the housekeeper who sorted it out but what a carry on! She normally understands when I don´t know a word but not that day - however after lunch and some TV she settle and the Chinese teacher arrived so I could rush off to class.

Moving on - there are now four of us in my Spanish class - myself, two girls from Cyprus who are the same age, have the same name and same future work plans (cool coincidence!) and now we have a young German lad in class too. It´s sometimes a little complicated because to go from Spanish to English to German isn´t easy and I have to explain things to him again in clear English after the teacher has done so - her English is great but not always exact when it comes to explaining some things - at least helping teach is reiterating the facts for myself as I do it.

Tuesday was a pretty easy day since Isa was happy colouring her pictures or things I´d drawn for her for most of the morning. I got some studying done in the afternoon and in the evening Marie and I took Isa in her pushchair for a walk to the next town. The walk was about 10km there and back and some of it was pretty rough when we had to go round the steps but the views were pretty awesome and with the heat to contend with it was good exercise.

Great view walking back from Getxo

On Wednesday the swimming teacher was sick and after I made a comment to Marie about maybe taking Isa swimming myself if it was warm enough the housekeeper passed on the comment to Isa and I got stuck in the pool with her. I wouldn´t have minded except it definitely wasn´t warm enough but after it was mentioned to the lass I couldn´t exactly turn round and refuse - never mind.
I had class in the afternoon followed by a wine tasting lesson at the school. It was meant to be a reasonably serious lesson but we all had a good bit of fun and I was pretty happy to find I understood most of what was said considering it was all in Spanish and the guy spoke pretty fast. After the class one of the students said his friend´s band was playing a gig so a bunch of us tagged along much to the surprise and amusement of his friends. They´re called Hotzen and play Indie-Basque music and I think if they only changed their soundman they´d be awesome! Regardless of that though they still sounded great.

Hotzen playing on Wednesday

Thursday was fairly quiet with no swimming this time and after the Chinese teacher showed up in the afternoon I hung out in my room reading and studying before Marie, Isa and I went for another walk - to Sopelana centre this time. When we got back we woke Isa up for dinner but she wasn´t happy about getting up - the sulking and crying returned but after we left her to it I think she realised it wasn´t getting her anywhere so she settled, ate her dinner and went to bed properly.

The swimming teacher was well again by Friday so Isa had her normal lesson then and after lunch got a decent bit of studying done before heading out to the weekly Pintxos evening. This time it was tortilla on the menu (basically a thick omelete with either potato, meat or other ingrediants in it). once everyone had finished our group decided to head out of town to the fiestas in the nearby town of Santurtzi. Seemed like a good idea except it was on the opposite side of the river to where I stay and on a different metro line, however I was assured I could get across the transporter bridge at any time and walk to a station that joined with my metro line so off we went. There were a few complaints about how long it took but once we got there we met a couple of lasses who´d finished studying at the school and headed into the fiesta. There was some decent music in the beginning but then it changed to a young boyband who seemed very much like a rather annoying British one who´s name I´m sre will instantly spring to mind for a few of you and mostly as a band to avoid! A couple of other ones in the group had the same thoughts as me so I spent a good bit of time standing a little way off talking to them while the others danced and sung along when they knew the words. It´s how I got talking to a pretty cool Canadian guy called Sheldon who lived on the other side of the river too.
After a lot of partying from the majority and more spectating for a couple of us Sheldon and I finally gave up and headed home but after all the fuss with some of the group getting lost with another´s bag and people falling over and other people getting lost again I only got home around 6am - not something I have any intention of doing again any time soon. Since I´d really only had a couple of drinks I was pretty much dead on my feet while the others were fueled by drink and once I got home I only had about an hour to sleep.

Impressive old church tucked away in the corner

Saturday was the day I´d got bus tickets to go to San Sebastian! After a sleepy hour and a half on the bus I wandered around for a while trying to remember the sites I´d seen on my last brief visit. By 12.30 I was really hungry and found a great sandwhich shop in the old part of town so I could sit outside and eat looking out on the beach. In the afternoon I spent a little time with everyone else on the sand basking in the sun but it was pretty hot by this point and I decided to leave and find some shade instead. There was a pretty cool (apparently) Irish bar I found along the way and after a quick talk to the guy behind the bar - me in Spanish, him in English as is normal - I got some mint tea and a glass of ice so I could make iced tea. I chilled out there for a good part of the afternoon before wandering a little more and heading for the bus. I did think about walking up to either the viewing point on one side of the bay with the large Jesus statue or the one on the opposite side with the old fairground but at 32 degrees it was left for another time.  After helping a young Lithuanian lass get her ticket sorted and find her bus I caught my own and slept most of the way back.
In the evening I had a nap, then headed up for dinner before going back to sleep properly.

Hanging out at the beach

Today we´ve been out walking again. My normal shoes are almost completely dead so I was offered a pair of the older sisters trainers - unfortunately they were a bit too small and within 20 minutes on regular pavement I got the first blister I´ve had in I don´t know how many years! I finished the walk in flip flops in the finish even more determined to fix my converse!!

This afternoon I´ve mostly been reading and napping a little - think I´m still a little worn out from Friday´s galavanting!

Well that´s all I´ve got for you for now, time to add some pictures and get back to my book!
Ciao for now.

Pintxos

Hi everyone,
so I´m going to make sure I post every week but the day might vary depending on what´s going on - means I can´t be late too if I don´t have a specific writing day haha!

Well this week´s been reasonably busy with exploring and classes and working of course.
On Friday it was so hot most of the locals were suffering from the heat - meanwhile I was loving and spent a good amount of time after work in the morning chilling out and reading by the pool - it´s a hard life I know!
In the evening I went out to a Pintxos (similar to Tapas) night organised by the language school I go to. Couldn´t help but laugh when I got on the metro and ended up talking to a lass from Edinburgh who would be starting classes at the school the following week - what are the odds?? It was definitely an interesting night - there were almost 30 people present and I only knew 2 people, neither of whom could actually stay for the activity. After almost an hour we got a bit of food although since they didn´t expect so many people- well I think I´ll grab a quick snack before heading out to the one tonight! We sat and ate and drank for a while getting to know the other students and after a while everyone decided to move onto somewhere different. Myself and a girl I´d been talking to got swept up in the group but when we arrived and got drinks in a new place the rest of the group decided not to stay due to lack of atmosphere. Instead of rushing we stuck around and told them we´d catch up. Instead we had a good laugh and talked about things back in the UK (she was the only other person from the UK) and once we´d finished I had to get back since it takes me 40 minutes to get home on the metro and she left to find the others in the hope of convincing some of them to abandon kareoke and check out an indie-rock night in a different bar.

Good view from saturday´s hike

Saturday got off to a bit of a slow start with Marie and Jose tired from a long week at work but one of their friends arrived mid-morning and the four of us plus Isa sent off on a walk to the next town. We´d planned on arriving in the town and having something t eat and drink their before heading back, however we got a little lost on the way. Having been assured that they knew the way we took the cut through the forest and ended doing an extra 2km and got savaged by brambles and nettles in the process. By the time we got to the other side it was decided that we would just carry on with the circuit and head back home via the clifftop path. Isa slept in the buggy for that whole section while the rest of us admired the view and talked travel. We covered 16km in the end.
By the time we got back to the house we´d all earned a drink and we spent the afternoon sipping martini´s and eating shellfish by the pool - I´m concerned this is sounding a little like bragging but you guys are reading this to find out what I´m up to so I´m not going to lie.
I spent the evening enjoying my seista reading/napping before a small dinner and bed.

Little adventurer

No one really did anything on Sunday except chill out and enjoy the free day. I did consider going exploring for a bit but the weather wasn´t looking great so I stayed in.

It was back to work the following day following the usual routine followed by Spanish in the afternoon. After class I went and had a nosey about a new part of Bilbao and found an awesome street full of shops selling everything from band T-s and baggy hippy trousers to incense and Indian wall hangings. I ended up buying a new pair of baggy patterned trousers and a little printed skirt with elephants on it for a grand total of €6!! Pretty hapy with that!
After about an hour I decided to head back and got the metro back to the village and read through some of next years coursework before dinner.

Nothing particulary intresting to say about Tuesday - I had planned on spending the whole afternoon doing coursework but I ended up sleeping through half the afternoon so didn´t get a lot done.

On wednesday it was back to class except I was the only student there (normally there are three of us). It was pretty great really cause we got loads of work done and I managed a decent amount of conversational Spanish too which we don´t always get to work on.

wandering after class on Wednesday

On Thursday we had a bit of a blip when we couldn´t get the electrical cover off the pool so Isa couldn´t have her swimming she was seriously unimpressed by that one and spent a fair amount of time letting us know it. There was also a pretty long tantrum after I stopped her painted her dress by taking away the paintbrush - apparently she wasn´t happy with my decision and after a fair bit of scratching (followed by a 'you shouldn´t scratch´ talk) she decided not to talk to me for most of the rest of the day.

And finally today: well it´s been pretty unevenful really - the usual work in the morning, and Isa was whisked off to a birthday party around 2pm so I´ve had the afternoon to myself. I did thihnk about going to the beach but the gate for the house is one of those electronic ones and since I didn´t have a key and no one else was in I´ve been kind of stuck here. Least I got a good bit more studying done.

But now I´m off to grab a bit off food before getting sorted to go out to this pintxos night - see if I know anyone this time!
Ciao!!

North East Spain or North East England???

Hi everyone,
I´ve been here in Spain just over a week now and am starting to settle into a decent routine. In the mornings I work looking after the child here (not sure the family would be ok with me using names so I´ll write new ones because saying ´the child´all the time doesn´t seem great - I´ll call her Isa). For anyone who´s interested here´s a rough outline of our schedule. If youre not interested just skip this next bit!

7.30 - get myself ready, breakfast etc and reading until Isa gets up.
9.30 - (approx) Isa gets up, breakfast, TV.
10.15 - drawing/ colouring/ anything else to keep her occupied for the morning.
12.30 - swimming lesson at home.
13.15 - Isa´s lunch usually with cartoons followed by play
14.30 - (approx) everyone else´s lunch
15.00 - Isa´s Chinese lessons (play)
18.00 - Isa´s mum returns, family time
20.00 - Making use of the gym equipment in the house and the pool.
21.00 - dinner

So normally I actually finish working by 15.00 because when the Chinese teacher is here she watches her and only talks to her in Chinese, so my English would just be a distraction.
On Monday´s and Wednesday´s I also have Spanish classes in the afternoon in the city centre so I get the train into Bilbao and back from the village - 15 minutes walk, 40 minute train.

Anyway, so for those who haven´t seen my facebook posts I´ve had a reasonably busy week. Thursday evening was spent with the older daughter (new name: Emma), her boyfriend (he can be Manuel) and one of her friends to take Isa to the park then we went out on their scooters to place out of town to eat nachos).

Looking across the cliffs in Sopelana

On friday I went with Emma and some of her friends to the fiestas in the village. I wanted to stay and have a good time but it takes a surprising amount of effort to try and follow conversation when it´s in a language you only understand a little, when people are all talking at teh same time, and when there´s loud music going too. In the finish I decided to get back but apparently I couldn´t go alone so Emma called her brother (new name: Adam) and he took us both home. It turns out Emma isn´t meant to walk home alone because it might be dangerous - although it doesn´t seem it - but she is only 17 and has bad knees so I guess it´s a good precaution.

Saturday started a little late as I only got up around 8.30 but after a quiet start to the day we went shopping for a birthday party Isa was invited to and I spent the afternoon enjoying the sun and catching up on some reading.

On Sunday I went with the parents (lets call them Marie and Jose) and Isa along with their friends from the South of Spain to explore a couple of places nearby. We went to check out the Puente Vizcaya (which looks a bit like the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough) the ate tapas in a couple of bars around the village. There was a football match on so there were quite a few folk out and about which I think made it a little more interesting. After that we drove through some of Bilboa, passing the Guggenheim, and a bridge that looked an awful lot like a minature version of the Millenium Bridge in Newcastle (can anyone spot a common theme here - take the two bridges and the industrial works all along the river and it´s like arriving into a strangley warm version of the North East)!
Anyway after that we went for lunch at the Sociedad Bilbaina. Now as far as I knew we were going to a men´s club which was only open to women on weekends so I figured it might be a little formal and opted for suitable attire - in other words a skirt instead of shorts or jeans. However I didn´t expect the ´grande foyer, the coat taking or the super fancy dining room - good thing my skirt hid my scruffy converse!! After a 3 course meal (which I would have photographed if the place weren´t so formal) we wandered around some of old Bilbao and got coffee at óne of the best places in town´.

Puente Vizcaya

It was back to work as usual on monday following the routine above and in the afternoon Emma took me to Bilbao. Since it was my first trip on the train and first class she showed me what to do and how to get there. Unfortunately we left the house a little late and even on the moto we had to get a slightly later train than planned making me about 10 minutes late for class. However due to a lucky coincidence the Spanish teacher was also late.
There are only two other girls in my spanish classes (both from Cyprus) and we´re all about the same age - even the teacher is only a couple of years older, so it´s pretty relaxed though we  still learn a lot - probably more than if it were a whole class with a teacher just reciting from a book or something like that. So the class went well and on the way back Emma showed me the quickest way to walk to the train so I could go myself on Wednesday.

New book ^_^

Tuesday was more of the same and pretty uneventful although in the evening I went for a walk myself to get some quiet time - who knew one 3 year old could make so much noise - and to explore a little. I wandered along the cliff and got a pretty decent view of the beach and sea below - surfers included. I haven´t actually gotten to the beach myself yet but it´s only cause it always looks too busy for me!

Yesterday we had a bit of a tantrum regarding the TV. It was pretty funny all things considered but the screaming was pretty crazy at the time. Isa had watched an episode of her favourite program - Princess Sofia - and once it had finished she put the same episode on again. Half way through it was decided that she could only have 5 more minutes of TV before she did something else - no problem so far. After the 5 minutes I turned the TV off and chaos ensued - apparently she was really mad at me because she wanted to know how the episode ended and no matter how many times I pointed out that she´d just seen how it ended she wouldn´t stop screaming and crying. Luckily her dad was home at the time so he gave her a good talking to and dealt with it while I kind of just sat there opting to wait until she calmed down, but for a full half hour after she´d stopped crying she just sat in the middle of the floor silently sulking. Now apparently this is perfectly normal especially at her age but I have had literally no experience with toddlers so it´s all new to me.
On another note, while watching the same TV show I did see something pretty funny. There was an episode with some knights entering a competion - it´s in Spanish but I got the basic idea. Now one of the knight was quite clearly Irish (and it´s funny enough hearing Spanish spoken with an Irish accent) but the Irish knight had the Guiness harp on his shield!! Not even something slightly similar - it was the exact image! I had a good little giggle about it anyway.

After class - rainy view of the Teatro Arriaga

After all that carry on I had my second Spanish class in the afternoon. I made it there and back with no problems and explored the area a little before it started. I thought about doing the same after but it started raining so I headed straight back instead.


Ok so today hasn´t been too bad I´m still not getting a lot of English out of Isa. The thing is at her school they only speak English and she understands the language perfectly but we´re trying to get her to speak it and unless you´re asking something simple like "what colour´s the pen" it´s no use. It also means that if she wants to do/play with/find anything instead of telling me she´ll run straight to the house keeper for it - which is a bit frustrating since I´m then left standing around like a spare part with no idea what´s going on. However I´ve not been here long and I´m sure it´ll get better.

Anyway - I´m off to go practice my Spanish some more while it´s quite.
Hasta luego! (see you later)

Sand, Sea and Surf

Hi everyone,
I wasn´t sure if I was going to be blogging on this trip since I´m not going to be travelling to far while I´m working but you´ve all persuaded me - so if you don´t like it you only have yourselves to blame...just kidding.

As of today I´m working in a little village next to the city of Bilbao in northern Spain as an au pair. Now some of you will have heard tales from the last time I had an au pair job and might be wondering why I´m trying it again. I think I was just unfortunate with the family I worked with back in Milan but this family seems lovely and I´m looking forward to getting to know them better while I´m here.

I´ve actually been away from home a week already but I spent my time visiting two of my best friends in different parts of Scotland, celebrating my friend Rhona´s 21st birthday with a masquerade ball and then getting under my friend Courtney´s feet as I dosed on the sofa for a couple of days - luckily she doesn´t normally seem to mind me doing this!

So after staying with Courtney I flew out from Edinburgh first thing this morning and after a 1 hour drive from Santander airport we arrived in Sapelo - only a few kilometers from Bilbao. The village is right on the beach and the house is only a 5 minute walk from the shore. The house is beautiful and there´s a lovely garden with a swimming pool.
The family has a few different pets, including 3 dogs and a donkey - the third place I´ve stayed in Spain with a donkey - I guess it´s more normal than I thought!

Ok, so since I´ve only been here a matter of hours I should probably head off so I can experience some new things to write about, but I´ll blog fairly regularly and post it on my facebook and my Drifting Gipsy page for anyone who´s interested. Alternatively I think you can subscribe at the bottom of the page.

the view from my bedroom window!

Ok I´ll speak to you all again soon! Ciao.

Home sweet home

Hi everyone,
well I did warn you all that I'd probably be a little late with this post but finally here it is!
I arrived back in Scotland on Thursday and made it to Orkney, after a lot of faffing about, on Sunday.

However when I left you guys I was still in Cusco so I'd better start back there.
After writing my last post I pretty much returned to the hostel and stayed in for the rest of the day. The only exception was when me and the new lass in my room ventured out in the rain for Chinese food. When we got back we found someone elses stuff in the room and after a tiny bit of suspicious snooping I discovered it belonged to my friend Jimena, who reappearred an hour or so later.
We ended up talking late into the night about recent goings on at VC, what had changed what people had been up to, and then what I'd been doing since I'd left. It was really great to be able to catch up again after being away for some time.

The following morning I ventured out to do my present shopping. I'd intentionally left it until the last minute so I didn't have to carry extra stuff right round Peru, and ended up spending the entire morning bargaining down prices and making deals with the local store owners - I think I actually did quite well and was really glad I managed the whole thing without using English once!
I stopped back at the hostel after to drop everything off before Jimena and I went up to the Meeting Place - my favourite Cusco café - to meet up with our friend Mike, the frog researcher who had been at VC earlier on in my trip.
We hung out and talked for a few hours before parting ways. Jimena had a meeting to go to and Mike had to get across town too. So I walked back to the hostel but not before stopping by one of the many cobblers on the street and ordering a new pair of boots. It's actually pretty cool because you can pick the style, main colour and pattern colours to make up a new pair of shoes and they can have them ready within 24 hours!

My favourite café in Cusco

That evening Jimena returned and we decided to head out for a proper final dinner. We invited Carlos, VC's science co-ordinator who was in town, and surprisingly he invited all the other staff who'd been at the same meeting. We all went to La Bodega's - a really nice Italian place and split I think four big pizzas between the group of eleven. It was a nice evening and another good opportunity to work on my Spanish.

Tuesday dawned and the weather was looking pretty promising - considering the lightening the night before I'd been a bit concerned about my flights that day. I stopped by the internet café to print out my boarding passes and check in but for some reason it wouldn't let me. Instead I decided I would just get to the airport early and sort everything out there.
I made lunch out of some spare food in a 'leftovers' box at the hostel and my shoes arrived round the same time - they were a little brighter than expected but they look pretty cool.

New shoes - something a little different

Around 4pm I said my goodbyes and left for the airport. When I arrived the woman at check-in offered to put me on an earlier flight so I actually only had about an hour to wait for my flight to Lima - perfect! From there I had a few hours to wait before my overnight flight to Miami but I spent most of it sitting writing and people watching.
I arrived in Miami around 7am after an uneventful flight but sat around the airport for a couple of hours before deciding to venture outside. I managed to get a bus down to Miami Beach then walked along the shore all the way to South Beach where I hung out for a while making the most of the sun. I ate the rest of my breakfast Subway sandwich for lunch and grabbed an ice coffee before setting off on my main mission in Miami - to find Miami Ink tattoo studio. It took me some time but I did find it and with lack of a better reason, wandered it to ask for directions back to the bus stop. The studio looked awesome inside although I didn't see any of it's well known members of staff around - maybe 1pm was a little early for them to be out and about!
Next I caught another bus to downtown Miami but I couldn't really figure out where I was going so eventually gave up on that little excursion and caught the metro back to the airport - a nice little adventure anyway, and much better than hanging around in the airport for twelve hour!

sneaky pic of Miami Ink tattoo studio!

Around 8pm my flight left for Barcelona. I was a bit concerned since it left almost an hour late but luckily the pilot made up a lot of time and in the finish we were only ten minutes late. However it did mean quite a rush to get to my following flight as I had to change terminal by means of a ten minute bus ride, and I didn't have a very long layover in the first place. I arrived at the gate for my Edinburgh flight just as everyone was queuing up to board! Luckily that flight was a little late too.
Once in Edinburgh it was another made dash to try and see my friend Courtney before she had to get to uni. Fortunately I managed to convince her to have a friend record her lecture so she could hang out instead - I know, such a bad influence! We hung out at her flat for a couple of hours where she made me my first proper cup of tea in months and let me use her shower - what a lifesaver!!
It was absolutely freezing in Edinburgh and there was snow on the ground so we made sure to be doubly wrapped up warm before heading to the train station, though not before stopping by her local pub for an amazing veggie panini. The train to Aberdeen took around three hours but the other half was waiting on the platform for me which was great. After being away almost five months it was so good to see him again.
We got dinner in the food court of the main mall in Aberdeen before heading to our hotel for the night - apparently Aberdeen only has one hostel and it was almost the same price as a proper hotel room with all the trimmings!

food stop in Edinburgh - nom!

Friday was another big day as I was getting my new tattoo. We wandered down to the studio around 9am and spent the whole morning in there. It took about three hours and I still need to go back to get the shading and colouring done but it looks awesome so far!
The afternoon was mostly spent trying not to do too much, stocking up on some things from the shops and trying out a different place within the food court - one thing's for sure they have plenty of choice in there anyway.

New tattoo - in progress

On Saturday morning we got all our stuff together but as we were checking out we discovered that our boat back up to Orkney wasn't going to be stopping by Orkney at all - due to the weather it was going directly from Aberdeen up to Shetland - typical.
We decided we'd have to try and get up to Thurso to catch the short crossing ferry from there but it was too late to make the midday train. Instead we were stuck hanging around the centre with our bags until 3.30pm. Finally we got the train but had to change in Inverness and the Inverness to Thurso stretch took forever. It stopped off in every tiny little village so we didn't make it to Thurso until around 10.30pm. Luckily our friends had a spare room and put us up for a night and we successfully got the boat home on Sunday morning.

The final leg

So that's the trip at an end. I had the most amazing time, saw so many amazing sites, met some wonderful and inspiring people and learnt a great deal. Now though, despite the typical Scottish weather, it's just nice to be home.

Before I go here are some last minute tips if you find yourself travelling in Peru:

Do expect to wait an age for things like buses - Peruvian time is a very different concept to ours.

Don't take pictures with the 'traditional' women - unless you're happy paying for it.

Do eat the menu's in the local diners - it's good food and super cheap (not advised for veggies).

Don't  pay the first price for things in the market - bartering is a way of life in Peru.

Do go to Machu Picchu - despite the hype it's still one of the most amazing sights you can see!

Don't push yourself too hard when you first get to high altitude - it does have a serious effect.

Do work on your Spanish before you go - it's both necessary and worth it to be able to talk to the locals.

Peru - what an adventure!

Well I guess this will be my last post for a while but I already have some new travel plans in the pipeline so maybe it won't be too long until you here from me again on here. In the mean time I will be back to doing my knitting so if you want to keep hearing about what I'm up to check out my facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/driftinggipsyswoolcraft


In the mean time, if you're planning your own worldly adventure don't hesitate to contact me, maybe I can help out or give you some tips on how to make the most of your trip.
Until next time, Bye for now!

Back to square one

Hi everyone,
Shock, horror - I`m actually on time for the second week in a row!
Now as some of you already know I`m almost at the end of my trip - I`m now back in Cusco where my South American adventure first began and I`m waiting for my flight home in a couple of days. But before I go here`s a round up of the last week!

So after my last post I went out exploring with my latest travel buddie - an American guy on a short break from offshore work. We headed out to check out the market and had a traditional Peruvian breakfast - chinese rice for me and some sort of chicken rice dish for him - no joke, that`s a normal breakfast here and Chinese food is especially popular.

After pottering around at the hostel a bit longer and getting a quick nap to make up for the night bus we decided to walk up to a viewpoint across town we`d heard about. It took a while to find the path up to it but eventually we started our climb - which actually wasn`t too bad until the last stretch. At this point we`d also inadvertantly picked up a guide, a rather drunk old guy who insisted on showing us the way. We eventually got rid of him and made it up to the top of the hill with  a rather large white cross on top. There were some pretty awesome views from there right across the city but more amazingingly - the Cordillera Blanca - one of the biggest mountain ranges in the world. It was strange to think that just the day before we`d been in warm sunny Lima, with palm trees and surf beaches, and we were now looking across to beautiful snow capped mountains.
We hung out there a little while but very concious of the fact the clouds were coming down we headed off the hill and found a much nicer route down - a real road in fact...shame we hadn`t noticed it a few meters away on our way up the hill! We arrived back in the city centre just as the rain came on and ended up having to duck into a little local resturant for food and to wait out the worst of the rain. The rest of the evening - once we got back to the hostel was spent trying to stay warm and dry. We stayed in and watched a movie before calling it a night.

View from the viewpoint (mirador)

The following day we didn´t get up to a whole lot really, wandered around looking for somewhere to book a trip up onto the glacier, picked up some vegetables from the market and explored the town itself a little bit. Otherwise it was a pretty quiet day. The most interesting part of the day was probably trying to cook dinner that night. The hostel only had two rings on a gas stove or a BBQ which had been sitting in the rain. Eventually we succeeded in making our pasta but we decided not to try cooking there again - too much hassle and the`kitchen´ was outside and therefore pretty cold in the evening.

First thing next morning Josh set out to try and sort out something for us to do that day. It turned out we couldn`t get to the glacier due to protests nearby and we couldn`t go on an earlier tour since we had a friend from Lima expected to arrive on the bus at some point that morning.
He returned around 8.40am with our friend in tow since he`d found her at the bus station. He`d managed to set up a trip up onto the Cordillera Negra instead with a `guide`to leave at 10am so we grabbed some breakfast then waited for him to appear.
Now this guy wasn`t what you would expect as a guide - he smelled kinda bad, his clothes and shoes didn`t fit and he bought a bottle of beer to drink on the way but he did the job. We arrived to the bottom of the hill and started our 3 hour hike. It was pretty difficult being at such high altitude - around 4500m but the views from the top were spectacular.
Back at the bottom and after a quick bus back to the town Lena and I grabbed some tea while Josh got rid of the guide. We also went to try and find something to do together the following day since Josh was headed back to Lima but we had more issues with the guides and decided to try again later in the afternoon.
Eventually we managed to book a trip up to Laguna 69 for ourselves and two other girls from our hostel Elma and Nana.

hiking in the Cordillera Negra!

At 5am the following morning we were up and ready to go. Our bus collected us around 5.20am and set off for the national park. After a short breakfast stop we arrived to the start of our hike at around 8.30am and set off up the hill. Although the first big section was pretty flat the altitude made it feel like we were already heading straight up. It was a weird feeling, being out of breathe walking across the flat valley floor but it was so much worse once we started heading up! It took around 3 and a half hours to make the 7km hike up to he lake but it was worth it! We saw some spectacular views across to Peru´s biggest mountain and around the lake itself.
Although it snowed on and off on the way there it cleared in time for me and a couple of other stragglers to make it to the lake. We didn`t hang around long due to the weather turning again and instead headed back down the mountain - a considerably easier walk heading down!
We made it back to the hostel around 5 and after sorting out a few admin things such as my bus the following day we got some food and settled for an early night.

A large lake on our way to Laguna 69

On thursday morning I got a bus back to Lima. It left around 9.30am and was actually a fairly pleasant bus trip although the lack of air conditioning was a bit of an issue - a silly thing to complain about in South America I know but it was hot! We arrived in Lima around 5pm bus because of traffic it took me until almost 7pm to get backthe the Dragonfly hostel!
After a much needed shower, some food from the hostels BBQ and a beer I was feeling much better. The lads who work there were planning to go to a local indie-rock gig and invited me along. It ended up just being two of us going but the gig was really good. The bar felt more like a converted old house with the band area down in the basement. The music was great and it was nice to go somewhere a bit more local since the area the hostel is in is very much a touristy area!
After the gig we ended up back at the hostel for a couple more drinks and ended up staying up until somewhere round 6am hanging out and talking up on the roof. What a bad influence those lads are (joking - in case any of them read these haha).

Friday morning was very quiet and I spent most of it working through a few big mugs of coffee. Around lunch time I was off again and heading for my next bus - all the way to Cusco this time!
The bus journey took 22 hours although thankfully I`d thought ahead and booked one of the fancy seat in the downstairs part of the bus - the seats reclined to 160', each seat had it`s own private TV screen and headphones and for once there was plenty of leg room. I was also pretty lucky with the person sitting next to me - a nice trainee accountant from Ireland who didn`t snore and was decent to chat to.

At Laguna 69!

I arrived in Cusco around midday yesterday and after settling back into Estrellita - my go to Cusco hostel - I headed out to the Meeting Place - an American run cafe with great burgers, milkshakes and amazing waffles!!
Surprisingly while I was sat there my frined Rachel walked in! She`s an intern with the school for field studies and was supposed to be heading back to Villa Carmen except the road was blocked so she was back in Cusco for the day with her parents!
I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around with them and swapping news from the last month before heading back to my hostel.
There I found a couple who were offering up there extra rice pudding so I got a nice filling meal there and some tea before heading to bed in the otherwise empty dorm room!

Well I´d best get on - I haven´t really done anything else today and it`s half way through the afternoon!
I think I´m going to write one more post once I get home although it might be a couple of days late. But speak to you all again soon!!
Ciao