Oaks

Way-hey, I can ride a bike again. Sort of. My training for the Dirtworks 50km so far has involved on again off again rides mainly in the royal national park, and a whole lot of sleeping.

But not last weekend! I was determined. I emailed the gang, nominated the 9.20 train from glenbrook and what time it was due to arrive at woodford. I was determined to ride no matter what.

As I was driving up to Glenbrook (borderline late for the train), I remembered that the last ride I had done in RNP, B1 had had two flats, borrowed my spare tube, and left me with the super-busted-cannot-be-repaired one. *grrr*.

I lurked around glenbrook for a while, hoping for the old-bike-shop-now-outdoor-stuff shop to open. The clock ticked ominously. Decided to run the risk & ride without a spare and went off to meet Robin & Darren at the station. Turns out the train was already crowded (with bikes), and there were at least thirty more wanting to join the train. Uh oh. Donated our tickets to some likely riders, and ended up driving to the start of the trail.

We had two spare tubes between three bikes. I had had another sort of brain malfunction, and forgotten my bike shoes as well. Duh, doofus! Luckily, Robin had just changed his flat pedals to eggbeaters (ooh, hardcore!), so I could use those instead of sneakers of spd pedals.

And it was fun! I rode most of the downhill sections, except for the really really big one. I even made it up the enormous hill at the end. I'm not sure what the gradient was, but *wow* I'm so impressed. I've never made it past the first switchback before. It got to the point, as I was riding up, that I couldn't even look at the road ahead; all I could focus on was bit of bitumen just in front of my front wheel.

Total kudos to Darren - this was only the second time off road; he rode most of the downhill sections, but on a rigid frame, no suspension bike that was a little small for him.

Milkshakes were well deserved.

Haigh's Chocolate Indulgence

Morning coffee break with coffee buddy, in a week that I had decided to come off the coffee again "for as long as it took", so that it would become effective again*.

The Grace hotel had teamed with Haigh's Chocolates to present a chocaholics dream of brownies, biscuits and hot chocolate. So being a fan of the Lindt dark hot chocolate, we went to sample the fare at theGrace.

Choice: 'Normal' hot chocolate, Hot Chocolate Haigh's style, White hot chocolate.

Hot Chocolate Haigh's style came with two marshmallows and a small chocolate and macademia nut biscuit. There was no choice of dark or milk chocolate. Shaved chocolate on top, which melted in the time it took me to take a photo.

The hot chocolate was very sweet, and I think I prefer the Lindt version with the dark chocolate. The 10% discount voucher was put to immediate use - a packet of dark peppermint chocolate frogs, dark choc coated almonds, and milk choc coated macadamias. The nuts are having ashorter lifespan than the frogs, just so moreish.

* That said, when I walked into the coffeeshop this morning; The guy knew me immediately as 'flat white, no sugar", so I haven't been offthe stuff for long enough.

Ooh, I can do Arty Farty Again

Coffee Buddy alerted me to the fact that the art gallery is open on Wednesday evenings for the 'art after hours' event during the month of April. He went on 28 March to hear a comedian talk about the Archibald. So this Wednesday I went. Not to hear Margaret Throsby interview two finalists, but just for a chance to visit the art gallery not-on-a-weekend. Hmm. Those are usually called weekdays, yes? It's a bit too 'familiarity breeds contempt', because the last time I went to the art gallery was during primary school; and despite 'meaning' to see The Archibald Prize, or see artexpress every year, I never quite get off my backside to go.

There was a huge crowd there for the Margaret Throsby talk. Funny how I never really did art in Aus beforenow, and yet I went & visited quite a few art galleries whilst in Europe. I sidestepped the seating, and went 'round the back to artexpress.

I liked the 'minature thoughts' on postage stamps one (For where your Treasure is...., by Aimee Shao-Yi Yeo). Brown ink on a cream cardboard, grouped into three sets with different background colours. Did she handwrite each miniscule thought? Or was it printed in sepia ink, and shrunk down?

I also liked the wirework tableau (A Political Circus, by Madeleine Plocki), of Downer and Iemma playing Texas Hold 'Em Poker; Howard as a circus ringleader with Costello peeking hopefully through a curtain.

There were quite a few entries from International Grammar School. Why does that sitck in my mind? Because it is local, and I can relate to it, despite not having gone to school there.

Then it was downstairs, and into the Archibald, Sulman and Wynne prizes. Um, yeah. I can see why the painting of Take Two: Jack Thompson by Danelle Bergstrom won the packing room prize, I thought that was pretty cool. I guess I liked the stories behind the pictures more, because nothing here kind of grabbed me and made me go "oh, wow".

So what I liked (art critic that I'm not):
- The Hon. Bob Carr (Jasper Knight), because Knight was a finalist in artexpress a few years ago, Carr bought his artwork, and that they meet up every year to "catchup".
-Fink on the Phone (Paul Ryan), because it took Ryan two intense periods, and at least $800 worth of paint to get it to a stage he liked. Very textured.
-Tim (Esther Elridge). She tacked on an extra bit of canvas at the bottom of her portrait to emphasis Tim Rogers' lanky figure, and then 'spent a lot of time up a ladder'!

Ooh, Arty Farty Me

Saw Keating! earlier in March, and it was a hoot. I think it started at a Melbourne Comedy festival a few years ago (google says 2005), sold out, and came to Sydney fo two weeks at the opera house. Of course, it sold out again for that season. Hadn't heard anything about it until January this year when I think I saw a poster in passing. Grabbed the tickets when the box office opened, so finally after a year and a half of waiting, I got to go.

Fortified after work with a large mocha and a small bar of chocolate. The band was playing something upbeat to get the audience in the mood. Almost a full house and ~uh~ the clientele was a little bit older than I expected. I really only remember Keating as PM prior to Howard, but I was surprised that the majority of the audience that night were ofgrey-haired granny ilk.

And it was a lot of fun! It took me a while to get into it, and I'm not sure if it was because I didn't remember much of the references to the early part of his tenure, or if it was because I wasn't in the mood. Anyway, from about the Hewson 'fightback!' rap I was cheeringalong and grooving with everyone else.

Random Stuff

Coffee
How can I tell Uni has started again?

I can't get my coffee instantly, when I want it from the cheap place up the road, because all the uni students have discovered it.

General Posting
Finding it very hard to keep this thing updated. I can't email posts from work because of the stupid disclaimer messages that get tacked onto the end of emails. I am spendng disgusting amounts of time on flickr at work at the moment, probably more as a distraction from horrible work happenings. I think I will curl up into a little ball and die when the helpless desk work out that flickr isn't work related, and block it from the list of allowable sites.

MTB
For some reason life keeps interfering with the things I want to do. Like mountainbike ride - I signed up for the
dirtworks 50km bike race. I thoroughly enjoyed this one last year, and am keen on doing it again. Except that last time I went riding - RNP no less, a trail that I usually consider "easy", I found it far from easy. It was tough! Downhills that I had blithely zoomed down at speed in the
past (& yelled out 'go faster!' to my compatriots) I baulked at. *sigh*. I am getting *sensible*, how can that be?

And then this weekend - I had organised a trip to ride the Oaks Fire trail. Unlike RNP, where I can bail after 10km, this one forces you to ride 25km or so. Even if it is mostly downhill, it's going bush, right? Of course shittyrail organised some last minute trackwork, which wasn't advertised on their website, that I only noticed when driving up the day before I had planned to go riding. So friends couldn't join me, and it would involve a bit of extra logistical to-ing and fro-ing to do the trail. L, bless his cotton socks, was all worried about me going riding on my own along 25km of no-reception, and lent me his EPIRB. I didn't go in the end, and wentclimbing instead. I'm sure that was part of his cunning evil plan.

Adventurous Paddle

So! Yesterday I competed in the inaugural Adventure Paddle; down on the Georges River in the 'shire.

I actually wasn't much looking forward to the event beforehand. I had done all of one "training" session, a 3 hour stint on middle harbour. I haven't done anything really tp get fit apart from on & off turn ups at the Sydney Summer Series (which I then mainly walked). And lots and lots of PS2 guitar hero. I signed up mainly to do something with Sarah, which I know that she would be interested in, and I thoughy that some of my mad adventure racing pals would have signed up too. "No, I can't be bothered."

Bah, bollocks to them.

So having slept like a log for 6hours, the alarm went off at 5am. Dozy brekky of museli & fruitibix, then an iced coffee up & go in the car. Disadvantage of travelling across town on the motorways is that there is no convenient cafe with nice coffees en-route, or even a dodgy fast food place with caffienated sort-of-beverages when you're desperate. We ended up pulling into a servo & getting a milky hot water thing with a splash of brown stuff from a vending machine, and a can of Vfrom me.

The Georges River National Park was filled with seriously buff looking people in sponsered swift looking kayaks, matching uniforms for the pairs. Maybe about 100 people all up? A bit of fluffing about, since I hadn't done one of these things in over a year, what with contacting the map, the checkpoint list, working out our route & times with thetides.

0800 -bang, and we're off! Run to launch the kayak into the water, and paddle around the corner, to pick up the 'checkpoint value' list. Of course we just follow the crowd, and head up the bush track to checkpoint 19. When we come down, it was like 'oh, that checkpoint value thing'. We picked it up anyway, ignored it and kept going. The next closest checkpoint already had a flotilla of 10 or so kayak parters waiting in the kayaks whilst the faster runners headed up thecliffline & got their stamp off the leg of a transmission tower. We opted to head upstream & keep going.

So. All in all, we had a pretty fun time. We got all the checkpoints that we wanted to, and one extra, number '9', which supposedly was accessible only around high tide, but we managed to get it about 90mins after the high tide mark, and it was still really easy to get there. We dodged some idiot waterskiiers, and jetskis; had to cross the main channel of the Georges river a couple of times. The bit closest to Mickey's point & Alfords Point bridge was the hairiest - we pretty much just looked both ways, and then paddled like crazy to getacross the channel before being run over.

5 hours, 260points, 16km of paddling. Pretty good effort!

The best bit was stopping at a picnic area on the northern side of the river, eating a snack, and then having tiny transparent prawns swim over and around our dangling feet as they spawned downstream.

I am so sore today though! We stretched out afterwards, mainly upper body and arm stretches, and ate a 'healing' sausage sandwich. Pretty much the top 3/4 of my back is just sore (not helped by the fact that I also went climbing thursday night), and so are the bony bits of mysitting down muscles!

All Shopped out

I can't believe it. I'm all shopped out.

Had the car for a few more days, thought I might as well go shopping somewhere not easily public transportable. Wandered around DFO at homebush with little enthusiasm. It's not that big, and the stock really isn't that good. The range of CR skirts available in sizes 6 & 8 was about 5, all ugly. Could I really have over-shopped myself whilst travelling overseas, and my lightning cheer-myself-up-shoppingtrip to Melbourne when I returned?

Then I went IK-eaing, and there was a lot more enthusiasm for that. How on earth can I get excited by browsing at Ikea? The majority of hostel/backpacker places that I stayed at during my big europe trip were decorated top-to-toe in ikea, which I couldn't understand. The funkiest place had a blue plastic watering can turned into a lightshade. Very stylish! I think it's more the convenience of aone-stop-shop, because really, it ain't that cheap!

On the hunt for under-the-bed storage type ideas, despite me not liking plastic crates, I came *this close* to buying a set of Children's style crates. The adult versions were terribly ho-hum.
Funnily enough, although I really hated to white/beige options in offer in the home-storage section, and got excited by all the pretty colours you could get the children's shelving/crate/storage boxes in, it was the white ones that I had picked out!

How not to travel in Melbourne in Style

I started from Sydney's eastern suburbs, and hopped on a bus thinking that it would take me to the airport. The 400 goes to the airport -the 410 should as well, shouldn't it?

I ended up in Rockdale, on the *other* side of the airport. It was peak hour. My 10min float time of check-in time was rapidly disappearing. I stood on the Princes Highway, a main arterial route from the southern suburbs into the city/airport and could *not* see a single taxi. I guess because it is a main arterial route, the taxisdon't see much point in travelling it looking for fares.

After 5 traffic light cycles (and 15 minutes of panic), I finally got one. The fare cost me $20. At least my ticket was still valid, andthey hadn't sold it to a standby passenger. Phew!

10 ways to piss off your cousin

1. Decide at the last minute that you want to visit Hong Kong, but you are too cheap to pay for your accomodation.
2. Decide that you want to stay with your relatives.
3. This results in cousin being kicked out of his own room, and being relegated to the storage room to sleep in instead.
4. Be unable to speak coherently in Cantonese, at least not enough to hold a decent conversation with cousin. So not only have you kicked him out of his room, you don't even speak to him.
5. Monopolise the family dog.
6. Make an incredible amount of noise on your first night, so that he can't get to sleep before heading to work the next day.
7. Have his parents send him out to buy computer related things for you.
8. Complain that his computer is riddled with viruses, and that the Internet connection is too slow, despite being on broadbad.
9. Despite the computer being riddled with viruses already, somehow break it even more. The damn thing has a Trojan horse and has corrupted IE so that the net won't load because it gets blocked by antivirus software.
10. Break the back up computer.

Speaking Spanish badly helped my Chinese

I wouldn't have thought so, but travelling around Europe, and only knowing a few choices words of the country that I was (and usually getting confused with the one that I had just been in), has helped myChinese.

The following conversation took place yesterday. I was looking for some huge mosaic statues nearby.

Me: Uncle - what are those things called in a bathroom that are on the floor?
Uncle: Tiles.
Me: Ah okay. Tiles. Do you know a place where they got the -uhm- those things on the ground, and then they hit it so it broke into little bits, but has lots of colours?

Update 25/12/06: Went through the convo with my mum, in Chinese. Perhaps I wasn't as successful in communicating as I thought I was; she had *no* idea what I was talking about!

Paris - my food side

Paris, eh? I went a little overboard in 'a few of my favourite things'.

I tried my first raw mussel. My first raw scallop.

Surprisingly, the mussel tasted like a raw oyster.

Midway during my visit to the Lourve, I needed to take a break from so much religious art & culture, that we went to Angelina's, a patissierie on Rue de Rivoli. Angelinas is famed for their hot chocolates and for their 'Mont Blanc' cake, a 7cm high creation of meringue, whipped cream and 'chestnut cream. The recipe, the menuboasts, has remained a secret for over 100 years.

I broke my gelato rule of ordering one thing creamy & one thing not. We ordered two hot chocolates - one white, one milk; one Mont Blanc - because I can never resist when something is a house specialty, and a strawberry tart which looked yummy when we were standing in the queueby the door.

The hot chocolates came in two milk jugs, with a side of whiped cream. White chocolate whipped cream for the hot milk chocolate; and milk chocolate whipped cream for the hot white chocolate. The hot chocolates were incredibly rich - they tasted like they were made of half chocolate, half cream; a bit more diluted than how I would make a chocolate ganache. All I could taste in the white hot chocolate was sugar; and all I could taste in the milk hot chocolate was the cream.
This leaves the Lindt and Max Bremnar hot chocolates dead in terms of over-the-top richness.

Funnily enough, the strawberry tarte and the Mont Blanc reminded me a lot of cakes you can get in Chinese bakeries in Sydney. I'm sure I've tasted chestnut cream elsewhere. The strawberry tart had the clear glaze, and the shortcrust-y type pastry plus the custard. Very muchlike the 'fruit flan' type tarts you can buy too.

The only thing that got finished was the strawberry tart. Only a few spoonfuls of the Mont Blanc had been touched - just to try the different elements. I don't think that it was really my kind of thing.

I cannot believe that I got defeated by some hot chocolate.

So a few days later, whilst wandering around the St Paul/Marais area, when I eyespyed a 'Cocoa et Chocolate' shop, I decided to check if I really had had too much hot chocolate. I got a cup of spicy hot chocolate (with chilli, pepper, cardamon & something mysterious). Igot about 2/3 through when I had had *gasp* too-much-hot-chocolate.

I don't think that I had 'too much' bread. I didn't really reach the 'Oh my, I'm going to throw up' stage at any point. Bread is the carbohydrate staple of France, much like cous cous in Morocco, or potatoes in Ireland. I think though I tried to combine being healthy & the quest for the perfect baguette in one, and it didn't really work. Brown bread or multigrain flavour doesn't have a high turnover, so I was never going to get the just-baked crispy outside & the soft
inside. Unless I got up terribly early, and even then, my chances were slim.

I folded on my second last night as I revisited a bakery in St Paul. "Un baguette, s'il vous plait". 80 euro cents. I got it. It was warm to the touch. Somehow on my metro ride between St Paul and Montemarte,half the baguette went missing. It was delicious.

I haven't eaten mussels for about 5 years. Even since I went to the Belgium Beer Cafe in Cremorne with someone, and we ordered two pots of mussels. After that, I felt as though I would throw up if I even hadjust a taste of one. I think that I had reached mussel overload.

I thought that after this period of time, the gag reflex should have worn off by now. The steak of the guy next to me looked pretty woeful. So I got a pot of mussels, and managed to eat 3/4 of the plate. I stopped just short of repeating the effect from last time though. I think I'm not quite game enough to order another pot for awhile.

One person. 4 kinds of cheese. That's not too much for one week is it?

I went for the stock standard President brand camerbert from the supermarket (shhh!). If the guy next to you rolls up, checks them for ripeness and then walks off with 8 rounds of the stuff, there has to be a reason behind it, right? I also bought some chevre at the same supermarket to regain some of my street cred for wimping out on buyinga washed rind.

I chickened out several times at a fromagerie. The first time, I was hungry and tired from too much walking. If I had started sampling cheeses then, before you knew it, I would have eaten my weight in cheese and still not know what I had wanted to buy. The second time I just sort of squawked and ran away. Finally I couraged up and pointed out some likely contenders that I liked the look of, and they wereyummy!

A sheep's milk brie type thingy which was oozy round the outside near the rind, and almost curd like in the centre. A goat's milk other thingy which was very goaty & sort of stuck on the back of the tongue.Yum!

Paris - visiting the usual suspects

Luckily, whilst I had thought that we would be spending every day inParis in a mad rush, we haven't, so we have had time to savoureverything that we have done here.

Visited the Eiffel Tower just before sunset on Tuesday. The queue forthe lift was enormous, about a 90min wait, whilst the queue for taking the stairs up was nonexistant. So we took the stairs up to the firstplatform, did a quick walk through, and then went up hem two at a timeto reach the second level in time for sunset. I don't think I managedto grab any piccies of the tower itself before the tower was lit an eerie orange colour. The sunset was beautiful, although as the sunwent, a haze descended, and it was harder to see all the buildings indetail. If you want to make it to the top level (although the view from the second level is better), it is actually cheaper to take the stairs to the second level, and then get an additional lift pass from there upwards.

Received my first taste of waiter rudeness at a seafood restaurant inMontemarte. We saw another table ask about the composition of a dish, in English, and he didn't bother answering, just pulled out the English menu (they had only one), and chucked it at them. I'm sure that that there was heaps of stuff that was available that wasn'twritten down. The French table next to us each got a serve of fish, I think with just butter and lemon juice. The woman on the other sideordered a dozen oysters - and I swear they weren't on the menu either!

Wednesday was reserved for shopping. First up I visited a mainly freshfood market under a railway underpass at Barbes Rochechourt. At one end, we stopped to take a picture of the length of the markets, all the way up to the metro station. Some stallholders thought it would behighly amusing then to come up and demand that we take a picture ofthem, and then as we started walking back down along the market, started chanting out 'tourist! tourist!' along the way. Like that is in anyway going to endear you to people. I bought some pears, some ashis and some mandarins. Perhaps the reason for the currenttiredness was the lack of fruit.

Walked the Champs Elysees from the Concorde end up to the Arc deTriomphe. The original plan, when we flew in on the Sunday, was to head straight there & get a good view of the city, since entry is freeon the Sunday of the month. Of course, it had been really cold (and foggy) when we landed, so we had decided then not to go. The Avenue is really wide, and it would be really impressive, if it wasn't filledwith 8 smelly lanes of traffic. I think we chose the wrong side to walk up, we saw the cheap ready-to-wear shops, not the pricey hautecoutour names. Took piccies of the Arc. Saw that there was a modern day version, all reflective glass further down Avenue Charles DeGaulle. I think it was at La Defense, the CBD district of Paris.

Caught the metro down to the Petit Palais & visited the cafe. Entry to the Palais is free, but for headcount reasons, we still had to collect a ticket.

Then it was time for more shopping! We headed to the St Paul/Marais district for some homewares shopping. Despite not actually living in this country, or even on the same continent, we go homewares shopping. Found some reproductions of the old style biscuit tins, so we bought a few.

Visited the Lourve! We knew that we couldn't appreciate all of theLourve in one hit, so we tried to plan. A few days before going, we got the completely *useless* map, which didn't tell you much. In the end, having paid for our entry, we went to the souvenir bookshop,hunted through until we found a guidebook with 'The Lourve tour for those in a hurry', and copied their suggested route down. Afterstarting on the 2nd floor, we ended up backtracking and getting the audio guide.

Midway during our visit, decided that we needed a refreshing break. So we headed out to Angelina's, a patissierie shop on Rue de Rivoli. Just outside, I switched from thongs to ballet flats, just to look presentable enough to enter. You could tell where the locals were -all in the smoking section. The non-smoking section had all the tourists.

The order was for two hot chocolates (one white, one milk), a montblanc (they are famed for the last two), and a strawberry tart.

Having read the easyjet magazine on the flight over, we headed to DesCrepes et des Calles in the 13th arrondisement. After leaving themetro, we found a nicer set of markets than the ones in BarbesRochouart. There were less people, it was less pushy, it was a whole lot calmer. It was very nice!

The crepes were really nice too - we got dessert ones for starters, because dessert is the most important meal of the day. Lemon and honey, and banana and butter. Yummo! I was then game enough to try a gallete, a buckwheat crepe with filling. I triedegg & cheese. It filled in the bits between the crepe & didn't taste like Soba at all.

Walked up the hill to the Sacre Coeur, an enjoyed the view of Paris.This hill behind Montemarte (or perhaps it is what defines Montemarte)is the highest point within Paris. Unfortunately, couldn't see theeiffel tower from the hill,as it was just around the corner to theright.

Saturday - I went shopping again! I visited the horror that is the LesHalles area (bleurgh); found a fantastic second hand shop on RueEtienne Marcel. They had an enormous range of boots, but everytime I found one that I liked (cherry or mahogony red), it had been separatedfrom its brother.

Sunday - last full day in Paris. I went to the Flea Market at Porte deClingancourt. It was crap! Once you left the train station, and youwalked along the side where the markets where, you had a whole lot oftouts offering you handfuls of fake belts, bags, wallets. And what is more, they didn't get the message when you ignored one of them, orsidestepped them, they just kept coming up at you. Ugh. And then themarkets themselves were crap! The antique section I had a quick browse through, but I obviously couldn't buy anything or ship it back home.

So instead, I went to the Musee d'Orsay, which had been installed in an old train station. After queuing up for 40minutes on the reduced-rate Sunday, I finally got inside. I spent a lot of time inthere, a lot more than in the Lourve, it must've been because it wasmy last museum hurrah before leaving Europe.

The highlight for me in the Musee d'Orsay was definitely the Art Nouveau section. There was a lot of stuff by Hector Guinard here, the guy who designed the curly iconic patris metro signs and railings. I spent ages in here taking piccies of Guinard's stuff, as well as the other French Nouveau artists and architects of the time.

Finally, way after sunset, I wandered around the outside of George Pompidou Centre, but was a bit museumed out from the Musee d'Orsay to go in.

Museum-ed out in Madrid.

It has been raining for the past 4 days, ever since we visited Toledo. Despite me buying a whole shoe store worth of shoes, I don´t actually have any sensible shoes for wet weather, or snow (not that it has been snowing). So I have been walking around Madrid with my jeans rolled
up, and thongs on. When it is raining and the temp is 11 degrees, that is mighty, #mighty# cold!!!

The Madrid visit has been very ´cultural´, compared to everything else that we have done in Spain!

Thursday we were in Madrid, and it was bucketing down with rain. So we went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum. Apparently it is the largest collection of European Art in private hands. Thats where I first went walking in the rain with thongs on, and it was f-f-freezing! We spent
about 3 hours there. It got really tiring as well, I like art, but sometimes you need a break in the middle! Unfortunately you had to complete the visit in one go, or else buy another ticket if you wanted to re-enter the museum. At 6euros a go, it would be expensive as well.

Friday, was scheduled to visit the Palacio Real, this huge 2800 monstrosity that a king wanted to build to beat all the other palaces in Europe. We had until 130pm to visit, and apparently I am a slow poke, because my sister kept cracking the whip and saying that I would have to move faster to remain on schedule.

Some of the rooms were pretty cool - like the porcelain room, where the entire room was made of porcelain - the walls, ceiling, everything. And they had designed it such that the seams or joins were hidden behind leaves or features in the porcelain. It was a really ugly room, but just amazing in the detail. A lot of the rooms were incredibly ugly or over the top, but I suppose that when they were built, it was what was in fashion at the time. Similar to how shiny stainless steel appliances and glass backed kitchens are all the rage now.

Anyway, I felt as though it was a lightening fast visit, and I didn´t get to really look at the rooms (or appreciate their ugliness). It was almost as though it was a chore that I had to complete. I´d walk in, take a picture of the sign explaining about the room (not even read it), then take a picture of the room, maybe an element that the sign had just highlighted, and then walk back out again.

After lunch (reheated pasta leftover from last night), went down the road to visit the Museum de Sofia Reina, which has the largest collection of modern art in Spain. That was quite a large museum as well, but I enjoyed it a whole lot more than I enjoyed the Thyssen musem on Thursday. I think I like #some# modern art, with a bit of a tendency towards sculpture
(Classical sculpture I can take it or leave it).

I saw Picasso´s ¨´Guernica¨ artwork though, a huge 3.5 by 7m wide thing that he got commissioned to paint for some expo or exhibition in Paris in 1936, about the time that the Spanish Civil war broke out. That was #the# artwork that a lot of people had come to see, and there was a crowd about 5 deep around it. I have yet to see the Mona Lisa, but I think it will be worse!

What was even more interesting though, was a set of photos that someone had taken as he actually painted, and you could see the development of the painting, and how he had changed objects and people in it around, and how it suddenly meant a whole something else.

Finally on Sunday, I took advantage of the free day to visit the Prado Museum. This time we prioritised & noted down the artists that we wanted to see, and only went in to see those rooms. They had a fantastic temporary exhibition that ended that day, that used IR and reflectometry to work out how the artists had constructed the painted, underneath all those layers of paint. So some had used charcoal, and some had used a metal tipped object to score the wood underneath,
before painting 'within the lines'. Others must have drawn a sketch up beforehand, and then enlarged it using a grid system. You could also see the way they had originally planned the painting, and maybe even changed the direction that the subject was looking in, or hadn't
painted the dog in, in the end. Fascinating!

I am in Paris now, but will need a few days of non-museums to recover, before heading to the Lourve.

The Barcelona Experience?

Am writing this a while after my time in Barcelona, so a lot of it is from memory...

Arrived in Barcelona on the Monday, having taken a very nice fast train in from Valencia. Had an absolute panic attack when buying the train tickets in Valencia - I had said in my very best Spanish "Quisera dos bihlettes para Madrid de Manana, por favor". Then when he pointed at the screen and said "ferchardo, ferchado!", I panicked.

What? You mean the trains are closed tomorrow? After a few minutes of panicking, and trying to work out what was going on, he had someone wander over & tell us that it was actually the ticket booking system that was a bit broken at the moment. Phew.

Las Ramblas was long. We never had a chance to walk the entire length. It was oh so crowded! We walked from Catalunya Plaza to Placa Real. There were lots of street performers alongside, almost one every 10metres or so. There were two guys on stationary bikes all painted up in black and grey with two skeletons 'riding' sidecar. Once you dropped your money in the tin, they would start cycling, and so too would the two skeletons. There was another street performer that had a jumble of cloth and an upside down table as part of his act. It looked as though his two feet were sticking out from the underside of the upsidedown table. I didn't stay around long enough to witness his performance.

After checking in, we were taken via the metro to our shared apartment near Avenue de Parallel. We met some dirty dishes in the sink. Whilst finding our way back to Las Ramblas and the supermarket, we met the seedy red light district.

All the places we ate at in Barcelona were fantastic. Went to Candela Raval on L'Hospital twice, and liked the beef sirloin with a red wine reduced sauce so much, that I got it again the second time. Tried the degustation menu at Regina Raval as well. The food was good, and we
got to watch the makings of Howl's Moving Castle at the same time.

Went out and sampled the night life in Barca. Went to a club on their Erasamus night (international students night). I know that nightlife in Barca *doesn't* really start until after 1am, but this was pretty dead. It was free entry with a flyer, and I got a free drink out of it, so I won't complain too much. Some people in Barca dance in a way that suggests that they are on show, and hey, look at me.

Did lots and lots of Gaudi related visits.

Saw the outside of Casa Batlo, on the Block (Manzana) of Discord. The roof apparently represents the back of the slain dragon, and the chimney pot represents the victorious St George. I couldn't quite stomach the hour long wait or the 16.50 euro entry fee, so I bought my
own cardboard cut out copy, and have grand plans (amongst all my other projects), to build it when I get back.

Visited Parc Guell - which was amazing. Gaudi was commissioned to design this residential estate for the wealthy, but the project got pulled a few years down he track. What he did manage to build in that time was pretty specatular. The gatehouses, at the entrance to the Park look like fairy gingerbread cottages, the kind that got Hansel and Gretel into so much trouble. Unfortunately, didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked.

Visited Temple of La Sagrada Familia. Can't believe that this place is still under construction, but it is amazing. It would have to be some pretty open minded sort of priesty person who gets to run this place. We queued up for 40mins to get access to one of the towers on the passion facade, the newer side. The nativity facade is the one that Gaudi built, and is very ornate. Almost too much for me. I like the Passion Facade a lot better, which was designed by Josep Subirachs.

Walked past Palau Guell, but i was under renovation, so all I saw were some chimney pots that looked a bit like christmas trees. Went and had a look at the exterior of La Pedera (The Quarry), but didn't want to pay to enter. That one was 8euro, and also had an hour-long queue that went around the corner. Snuck a look in through the shop, there building wasn't solid as such, it had two lobbies with 'airwells' leading to the roof. Inside each airway was a winding staircase.

Went to my first proper 'football' game. It was FC Barcelona versus Huvela Recreativo. We were in side bits just off the goal (here I show my igorance), in the cheapest set of seats that we could get. There were soooo many people, and of course we were sitting in the local stand.

It was lots of fun. I can't believe how many people were there, they all stood up to sing the team song before the match. I haven't been to a Sydney FC match, so I don't know how it compares, but I don't think the SFS or the SCG have the capacity for 98 thousand.

Granada, Spain

Started our tour of Spain by catching a bus in from Faro, Southern
Portugal to Granada.

Except that you couldn´t catch a direct bus from Faro to Granada, and
we had to catch the bus to Sevilla first. Once we arrived in Sevilla,
we found that in order to get to Granada, we would have to head to
another smaller bus station before being able to catch a bus there.
Not having any guarantees of when, or if there even would a be a bus
available to go, we ended up catching the train to Grenada.

Dramas didn´t end there, also ended up walking 1.8km or so to the
backpackers hostel that we were staying it. It was raining. I wasn´t
particularily happy.

The backpackers hostel was situated in Albacyin, the muslim quarter of
Granada. Our walk into town involved walking down a twisting little
alleyway filled with brightly coloured morroccon inspired shops. Lots
of nepalese shoes, brightly coloured scarves and hookahs for smoking
the flavoured tobacco.

We booked to head to Alhambra (the red fortress) on the hill twice.
Didn´t realise that the tickets there would sell out so quickly. I
originally wanted an afternoon visit on the Friday. We ended up with a
night visit to the Palace Nazrid´s on the Friday night, and a late
afternoon visit on the Sunday afternoon. All tickets for Saturday for
purchasing over the internet had sold out completely.

I would definitely recommend the night visit. Even though it does cost
the same amount as a half day visit to the entire complex, the fact
that you don´t have enormous tour groups trooping throughout the place
behind and in front of you helps with th enjoyment of the place. I
wouldn´t call the night visit ´magical´as the Lonely Planet does.. but
it was way up there.

Evora, Spain

1 hour 45 minutes from Lisbon is Evora, a Unesco world heritage listed medieval walled city.

Skofia Loka is apparently Slovenia's 'best preserved' medieval city, so I was keen to seen how different it would be.

Evora was a lot larger than Skofia Loka, and because we weren't visiting on a Sunday, everything was open! We arrived around midday, and after visiting the tourist office where the person just circled the sites she thought would be worth visiting rather perfunctorily.

First stop, just before Siesta, was Capela dos Ossos at St Francis Church. Oh boy. Also known as the chapel of bones. Its a small 3 nave chapel, built entirely out of the bones of soldiers who have died fighting in wars. Not by anarchists, or someone who wanted to rebel against society, but by Franciscan monks. Not only that, they built it in secret to show that all men are equal in death. Of course when the general public found out about it, there was a huge outcry because they didn't know who was in there, or which bones belonged to which
body.

The windows and domed ceiling have archways of skulls, and the window boxes have smashed bits of skull set into the wall. The archways around the doorways are built from stacked up femurs. It is really bizzare, imagining these monks heading & robbing graveyards of their inhabitants.

Visited the temple of Diana. Passed on the Evora Cathedral, despite it being recommended by the blase tourist office and the Lonley Planet. Revisted the interior of St Francis Church (the non bony bit) after Siesta, and then it was time to head back to Lisbon and try on more shoes...

Milan in 1.5 days

I had meant to spend more of my time in Italy. Didn't quite pan out that way, and instead it turned into a transit stop.

So, arrive into Milano Centrale S about 1700. Switch using the confusing metro to Line 3, and get into Missori station. When we went out to actually eat though, we found that all the Metro stations had shut down - they had been on strike earlier in the day, and it looks like that they went back just for peak hour, so it was lucky for us that we arrived in peak hour.

So, I got to experience the Italian metro on strike.

Eat some okay pizza a few streets from the Duomo, just to avoid the Duomo-tourist-hiked prices. Gelato for dessert, Pistachio and Limone. Yummo, that was the good stuff, 2 euro.

On Saturday, visited the roof of the Duomo. Pretty amazing - cannot believe that it took 600 years to build. I mean it is enormous, so I can believe that it took a long time, rather I can't believe that the project didn't stall somewhere along the way during those years. If your family was a family of stone masons, or sculpturers, it would take 8 generations or so over those 600 years. Wow.

Walked up the road to Il Castello. The little v-shaped battlements meant that the family that owned the castle was loyal to the emperor, rather than the church. Saw the slightly inclined shallow steps that were built purposefully so that the King didn't have to get out of his horse and carriage to go upstairs. Now I thought *I* was lazy!

Having run out of sights to do, we then went shopping. After all Milan is supposed to be the shopping capital of Italy. Went all around the Duomo area, and down Vittorie Emmanual Street. Sister bought a pair of Diesel jeans, about half of the retail price in Australia. I got some bronze ballet flats from Zara.

Because everyone in Italy eats so late, you get hungry around 7pm, which is the time I would idealy eat dinner. So to solve this, you head out to get apertivo, before actually eating your main meal. Milan is the capital of apertivo, and based on several recommendations, we headed to the other side of the park from the castle, to Banghre Bar.

6pm-9pm is happy hour, where if you buy a drink for 6euro, you get an all you can eat buffet of pasta, rice and cous couse salads. Also pappadums, and some rich omlette kinds of things. I got an 'indian passion'. Can't remember all the ingredients, but passionfruit alcohol, passionfrut pulp, grapefruit juice and tonic water are what I can remember. Delicious!

Got Gelato. I like Pistachio. Browsed a set of aerial photos of Italy displayed along Via Dante. I think that was really my tour of Italy.

On our last day, got more gelato just before we left for the airport. Didn't get pistachio this time, although I think Pistachio & Chocolate Brasiliano would be a winning combo.

Spent 2 hours waiting at Malpensa Airport because the flight was delayed due to high winds at Naples.

Yay, Slovenia!

World-wide traveller of the well-worn Lonely Planet path in Slovenia
(TM), I have decided that Slovenia is my favourite country so far.

I *like* Slovenia. I like Ljubljana, with its flat and even
cobblestone streets based around the river. I like the river that runs
through Ljubljana. I like the fruit and vegetable markets that run
every Monday to Saturday, and I like the underground (well, mostly)
delis and butchers, fromagieres, bakers and olive sellers that lurk
nearby. I like the organic fruit and vegetable market that also turns
up nearby, and the guy who bakes fresh rolls in an oven on a trailer
in the square outside.

Bled, which I wasn't too sure about originally because of the ugliness
of its toursit hotels on the lake, I don't mind. Despite the
unfortunate name of its 5 star hotel on the water - Hotel Toplice.
When the mountain decide to unveil itself on our last day, I think
Bled won me over.

Bohinj Valley, the view was spectacular. It is the base area for all
those high adrenaline kind of activites that I like. It was incredibly
annoying then, that I had slammed my finger in the door of the
Ljblijana hostel, and I couldn't go mtb-ing, or canyoning or climbing.
ARGH.

I did have a bit of a clamber (soloing) on a bit of rock whilst
walking around Lake Bohinj, long fingernails, crushed finger and all.
But it wasn't quite the same.

Slovenia Rocks!

Bled, Bohinj Valley and the Julian Alps

I have been staying in Bled, which is about 30mins outside of Ljubljana. This is the area where the locals leave the city in droves every weekend, and come out to climb, canyon, paraglide, or adventure sport of some kind. I have to say - I like the Bohinj and Julian Alps area a lot more than I like Bled! I suppose Bled has more infrastructure, but the Alps *wow*.

(Of course, this morning, when I was about to leave Bled, the weather cleared, and the mountain behind the castle, which I have only ever been able to make out a faint bit of the slope turned on all its glory. I could actually see the summit. I like Bled now. I'm shallow like that.)

Went to Bohinj yesterday by bus, one of the accessways into the Julian Alps, and it was amazing. We were following the Lonely Planet guidebook, so from when the bus dropped us off, we walked up a local hill 'Peč', for what the book called a picture postcard view.

And the view was amazing, it was so beautiful; even the walk through a rainy damp forest was beautiful. Lots of limestone around, and little sinkholes in the ground. I think that kind of terrain is called 'Karst'?

So yesterday and the day before, I spent walking around lakes. Lake Bled two mornings ago, followed by a local speciality, a cream and custard slice - then to walk that one off, I walked up to the castle. There was a bit of a pergola there, so had lunch, then sat like a little old granny, with my pashmina wrapped around me and admired the view whilst listening to music.

So yesterday, I walked up Peč hill (about 2.5 hrs return), then around Lake Bohinj, with a pause to ride the cable car to the top, have lunch, and walk around. It cost 10 euro return, but the view up there was so amazing, I think it was worth it. Walked the pretty side of the lake after we came back down, and were walking really really fast near the end, because we were trying to make to 18.50 bus back to Bled. If we had missed that one, it would've meant an hour wait in the dark, and that would have sucked.

I want to come back to Vogel in the wintertime to ski! (I know, Japan is closer to Australia, and less of a time difference, but Japan doesn't have the Julian Alps!)

Of course, we ate off all the hard work of walking around the lakes, by having a big dinner at the end of it. I got the grilled trout 'trieste style' two nights ago, and it was so good, that I had it again last night. Plus a side dish of roast potatoes (so crunchy, I'm sure that there was some frying involved). Fantastic!

Dark Chocolate with Orange Pieces Index

I'm sure you've heard of The Economist's 'Big Mac index', where the cost of living between countries is compared by comparing the price of a homogenous product, that is pretty much prevalent everywhere.

So! I have a serious addiction to Lindt's 'intense orange' dark chocolate (100g), with crystalline orange bits, and almond slivers. About 55% Cocoa solids of heaven. Here is my chocolate tour of Europe...

Australia:
Lindt's 'intense orange' dark chocolate (100g), approx 4AUD. The bar has been set!

Norway:
Freia (made by Kraft), Dark Chocolate with Raspberry
(withdrawal symptoms hadn't set in yet, obviously). About 16 Kroner, I think the Orange version was 18 kroner. Div by 4, so equivalent to 4AUD. Chocolate was drier, less sugar (and less proper cacao?). Raspberry was so-so. Can't vouch for the orange one. Didn't seem to really melt in the hand.

Germany:
Lindt Espresso dark chocolate. I was dying for caffiene. Very melty with instant coffee granules. Dare I say, 'yum'?

Croatia:
1. Kras brand (Croatian), Dark Chocolate with Orange. The orange bits weren't crystalline, and there was no almond. Disappointing. 17 Kuna.
2. Lindt has been spotted! Admittedly in Rovinj, in a small supermarket near the bus station. 26 Kuna, so 6.50AUD. Ouch.
3. Swiss Delice, Limon with black pepper. Has the low body temp melting point (Cocoa solids of 50%). Tastes like dark chocolate with lemon wizz fizz, with a sometimes mild pepper aftertaste. 23 kuna, just short of 6AUD.

Slovenia:
1. Villars (Swiss) dark chocolate with coffee. Minimum 50% cocoa solids, with 8% coffee 'crispies', 14% of which is instant coffee. I'm awaiting the demise of the lemon wizz fizz before I start this one. (Later note: Chocolate isn't too bad. Reminds me of the Haigh's coffee block. Will be splurging the last of our tolar on a second block).
2. Lindt Intense Orange spotted in the largest supermarket in Ljubljana old town for 1.73 euro, 3.46AUD.

Italy (Milan):
Spotted some 70% dark chocolate for 1.37euro in the tiny supermarket near Missori.

Portugal:
1. Some dark chocolate in a Mini Preco near Caise Sodre, Lisbon, cocoa content unknown, spotted for 59 euro cents.
2. Dark chocolate, 76% cocoa fat, 1.49euro. Can't remember the brand. Me picking it up & putting it back on the shelf prompted someone to buy it. Oooh!