I've forgotten what green vegetables look like

Days 3 to 6 of the grand tour were spend in a hot chocolate and tapas induced haze – as the weather was beginning to turn to spring, we were able to picnic in the park and sit out in some of the lovely squares until 10 or 11 eating and drinking, and watching the amazing streetlife. Madrid is far more cosmopolitan that Barcelona, and very elegant, and I felt it was a city that I would find it very comfortable to live in.

The highlight of this part of the trip was a visit to a 3 story salsa club in an old palace. Firstly it was amusing to be getting ready for a night out in the bathrooms of our hostel – as per normal with Liorah and Nomes the glitter flowed freely, much to the shocked fascination of Bobbie Brown-cloned American college students who were preparing to go to a bar at the same time. Later at the club we wandered around the labyrinth of ornately decorated rooms all playing different music and watched the older couples leaving us in their dust as they burned up the dance floor, before finally braving the chance of embarrassment and the clutches of the over-eager short Ecuadorian gentlemen - which was most certainly ‘not OK’. This new catchphrase was inspired by a sign we saw on the subway in Madrid, and was used to describe a number of situations we came across on the rest of the trip!

We also made a trip to a local flamenco club near our hostel to see the show – spectacular dancing, although it was very staged, and left me feeling hungry for something a little more raw and unpolished – hopefully we will see a little more of this in Seville. Next stop Granada, 5 hours south-east by train.

Barcelona, it was the first time that we met...

Casa Batllo
Originally uploaded by nerissa_atkinson.

Not each other ( I am travelling with my sister Liorah, and her best friend Naomi) but our backpacks. Having not really considered what carrying up to 20 extra kilos around on our backs might actually feel like, after a while of negotiating the subterranean sewer (I mean subway) of Barcelona in an attempt to get to our hotel, I was beginning to be challenged with upright walking, and from behind Liorah was beginning to look suspiciously like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Luckily, we emerged into the sunlight and ice creams, and once we found our hotel (complete with resident cat), we were ready to enjoy the good life. This in Barcelona, as in the rest of Spain involves copious amounts of food and alcohol, although a suspicious lack of vegetables, although that may have been because of the chocolaterias and tapas bars we tended to frequent.

Other than the food, the main attraction of Barcelona is probably the Gaudi architechture – which is basically everywhere, fine if you like it, but if you didn’t, like Naomi, you had to be content with people watching. I was expecting Barcelona to be very arty and stylish, but I got the impression that it’s far more a small fishing village made big in terms of the way people dress and look. Nomes promises us far more style when we hit Madrid.

After 3 days in Barcelona we are taking the train 5 hours south-west to Madrid. In order to sustain ourselves on the journey, we each took it in turn to race around the amazing Mercat de la Boqueria in order to buy train scroggin – bread, cheese, pistachios, olives, ripe strawberries, mangoes, chocolate covered glace oranges… We were quite the envy of our train compartment, the other occupants of which had to be content with a dry cheese roll from Renfe.

The clock strikes 12 for Cinderella

Midnight at Big Ben, on one of my last evenings in London, perfect timing as the cab cruised down the Embankment on a lovely mild spring night. I guess that means my time is almost up here, and soon I will turn into a pumpkin (probably due to too much tapas in Spain!)

Packing it all in

Both literally and figuratively - as on Monday Liorah, Naomi and I head off for Spain and Morocco on holiday, and it only occured to me last week that I was basically not coming back! So Easter was spent trying to pack acquired odds and ends tardis-like into a 3cu foot box for shipment to Australia, with hopes that the rest of my belongings will fit back into the suitacase and pack that I came over here with. Luckily my flatmate has agreed to suitcase-sit while I am travelling, so I am officially moving out of the flat on Monday too - I will be homeless! (cue violins and dramatic sighing).

I have been really busy the past few weeks travelling and catching up with people, and I should really have blogged more - I might try to do some about my trips to Wiltshire, Northumbria, Rome and Krakow in Poland, but in the meantime there are photos posted on my flikr site which will give a bit of a flavour of what I have been seeing and doing.

I have been talking to people here about what is left as a must-see that I haven't done; there's the touristy stuff like the London Eye etc, but perhaps I will avoid that for the reasons I have avoided it so far - that's not the real London, and not the bits I have become fond of. Instead, I think I will make one last visit to Borough Market, a trip to Konditor and Cook for amazing cake(with Liorah and Nomes obviously), a run around the Thames Path to burn the cake off and see the rowers, and will spend some time wandering through the grubby charming streets of Soho. There is a rumour that a new Kiwi run cafe called 'Flat White' has opened up near me (you can't get a flat white anywhere in London, or good coffee at all for that matter, other than at Bar Italia - if you want a £4 latte!), and I am looking forward to tracking it down, being told to find a 'pozzie' and that they will be with me in a 'tic'.

Well, so Nomes arrives Saturday evening, Liorah on Sunday morning, and I still haven't begun packing, must get around to this shortly!

Waiter, there's something in my tea

Image008.jpg
Originally uploaded by nerissa_atkinson.

My jasmine tea at Ping Pong, with real flowers!