The final blog ... 2010 in closing...

Just in time for the end of 2010 I'm closing this blog as I plant my feet back in East Africa for a different adventure and challenge. 2010 has been a roller coaster year of emotions, adventures, challenges, new experience and new beginnings. People travel for different reasons and this year was about me exploring all those things I never got the chance to do – I still unfortunately have not done them all but it seems to me that once a gypsy always a gypsy and you are never satisfied, always looking for the next challenge. South America, NYC, Laos and more of Asia are still on my hit list of places to be exlpored but Im grateful for the year (the year that just flew) that allowed me to see and experience so many things that many people in this world will never experience or undestand – from ashrams to temples, to rivers, to gutters, to slums, to palaces and travelling using planes, cars, trains, ferries, piki piki's, buses, trucks, camels, donkeys, feet and kites – I'm grateful for the adventure that has been so far.

The highlights of the journey this year are as follows (in no particular order):
*Teaching English in a slum school in Inida
*Visiting the Taj Mahal - AGAIN
*Spending a day in silence at the Golden Temple, Amritsar, Nth India
*Studying dance in Pushkar, India
*Attending the 1st ever Bellydance festival in Istanbul, Turkey
*Attending the Hilldrez Gypsy Festival in Istanbul, Turkey
*Roaming photography on the streets of Istanbul
*Becoming Godmother to my favourite cousins child in Greece
*Attending the Sacred World Music Festival in Fez, Morrocco
*Seeing Ait Ben Haddou Unesco Heritage Site outside Marrakesh
*San Juan Festival, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands
*Being in Barcelona for the World Cup & Spain getting into the final
*Dancing in the rain at a street festival in Madrid
*Driving at night in London
*Studying and performing Tanzanian dance in Arusha
*Meeting my Indian sponsor child
*Meeting my St Jude's Tanzania sponsor child and seeing her everyday!
*Teaching my St Jude's standard 6 students dance routines
*Being in Stonetown, Zanizibar for Ramadan
*Seeing my shit-eater cousin from Italy after so many years
*My first ever safari on a school bus with St Jude's kids
*Attending Holi festival in India
*Attending the elephant festival before Holi in Jaipur India
*Attending my first ever real Indian wedding
*Travelling Spain with my Mum
*Seeing my first ever Masai

The list could go on and on but these are the one's that I remember most this year. Meeting my sponsor child from India was very emotional for me and living in Africa heart breaking.

In 2011 I wont be travelling as much but it's my intention to start travelling East Africa while I'm here to tick some more countries of my list. Thank you to everyone who has followed me on this journey in 2010. Sometimes when I havent written I've received emails asking what's wrong and that's when I realise Im not alone on this journey – you've all been sharing the experieence with me it's just that Im the one suffering the stomach bugs and empty bank account! :)

I hope you enjoyed and stay tuned for more madness in 2011. Have a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

Granada, Spain - Oct 2010 OLE!

Ah Granada! A friend from the Canary Islands told me that he thought Granada was a place that I would love since I'm into the whole Middle Eastern thing. Well during the first couple of hours being in the city – that being trapped on a full bus in the worst traffic I've experienced this year with a suitcase and road works as far as the eye could see – I was questioning what on earth he was talking about. For the first time in a while since I started travelling I felt like I really had lost my sense of direction and couldn't nut my way around even with maps here. This was freaking me out as I usually am little miss navigator. Eventually after much broken Spanish – ok 1 or 2 words like Donde Esta – we found our hotel and I started laughing thinking it looked way too grand to be what I booked on the internet. Thankfully I was wrong and we had a completely refurbished hotel complete with flatscreen tv, AC and funky décor – it was a brilliant change to our initial intro to the city. So me being determined that I cant be lost in this city, we set off to explore the town on foot and for me to do a little photography. What a gorgeous city and easy to navigate after you have something to eat ha ha.

We decided to take yet another tacky open deck bus tour which was a brilliant idea yet again, as I got my bearings where all the main sights were. The main reason for me to come to Granada was the architecture of the building from the Arab influence, the World Heritage listed Alhambra, the gypsy villages and the Flamenco dancing in caves.

OK so I found heaven and that first night in town I seriously considered cancelling the rest of my plans and staying in Granada to study Spanish and Flamenco from the original gypsy families. This is still an option down the track but for now I decided to continue on the Africa path until further notice. So for the first night we booked a brilliant night out through our hotel. A bus load of us we greeted by a gorgeous Moroccan girl who much to my pain could speak 5 languages fluently – kill me now!

So first up we visited the gypsy village area – up a steep hillside district with cobblestone streets, lampost lined streets and pretty little terrace style homes. It was hard to believe this was once a undesirable area to live and now the gypsies live on goldmines! We walked about the area and made our way up to a look out that had beautiful night views over Granada and across to the Alhambra. I really felt like I was in my father's village in Greece up there overlooking the town below. As some stupid tourists complained that they had to walk the pretty cobblestone streets in their high heels – Take them off princess! - we continued our way down the hill and back on the bus to the highlight of the night a evening in the gypsy caves.

I knew I was in heaven as we walked up the stairs to the caves, I could hear the thumping of the Flamenco shoes on the wooden floors, the husky voices and classic guitar pouring out the door, into my ears and through my veins. Yes dramatical but you had to be there! Did I mention I rushed in and got the best seat in the house – the exact seat that Michelle Obama had when she was there – if it's good enough for her its damn well good enough for me!

Oh I couldnt stop smiling as they stomped away on the timber floor, sipping my sangria amidst taking photos and video of the excitement. The whole cave setting just rocked my world!

The other most amazing and almost I missed the whole thing – the Alhambra – F*k me what an amazing place – sorry its the only way I can describe it. The UNESCO heritage listed site is brilliant with its Arabic architecture. They only let in so many people per day – I think it was 2000. The first day we completely missed it so we thought lets arrive early the next morning and catch the morning sessions (you can enter the grounds during the morning, afternoon or evening session) thing is that morning we were kind of lazy and slept in so we missed the morning session and when we arrived at what I thought was 2 hours early for the afternoon session, they had already sold out of the afternoon tickets! I was in shock as that was our last day in town and that was really why I was there! After queuing for 30 minutes I walked back to mum all teary eyed like a kid who missed out on ice cream. I cracked it – mental meltdown moment (MMM) and then realised there was a night session so I had to qeue up again – this time for another 30min and just as Im at the front of the qeue they make an announcement that they are nearly sold out of night tickets – I was peaking and desperately wanted to pull everyone out of my way as this was my last chance – I got to the booth after nearly stranggling some girls in front who wanted to buy all of Spain – when I finally get served I get told Im buying the last two tickets – thank god!

So we had both garden tickets and evening tickets – talk about complicated ticketing system. We decided to spend a couple of hours and see what this garden was all about – brilliant!! It took us hours and hours to get through those gardens not to mention that it decided to torrential rain on us with no umbrellas or raincoats but we continued and I was determined to take photos with my SLR in a plastic bag with a hole in it for the lens! We were shivering and it became ridiculous but mum really understood how important it was for me to see this place in its entirety and if we didnt do it now we wouldnt have time at night.

After thawing out back at the hotel and eating it was time to get on the bus back again to the Alhambra for the night session – after much jostling in the line for prime position we were let in and can I say it was so worth all the drama!

I have never seen architecture at any site in the world as amazing as this! Not the Taj Mahal (only my favourite Wonder of the World so far) not Angkor, not the Pyramids – just amazing. I couldnt stop taking photos of the beautiful patterns. Actually a lot of the architecture reminded me of Morocco in particular some of the old buildings I saw in Fez – but certainly more extravagent.

That night when we left the Alhambra there was no taxis about and someone had told us we could walk into town in about 20min, we were a little worried about security but then I spotted on of the guides walking in that direction and when I asked him which way was town he said “Follow me”and we did and it was a beautiful walk all down hill through beautiful greenery that we would have gotten lost if we didnt keep up our brisk pace to keep him in sight. As we got nearer to town we knew it straight away as the streets became alive with everyone out eating dinner, socialising – al the things that everyone does in Spain post 11pm. Granada was pretty – we had a sketchy introduction but it was so much more when you scratched beneath the surface. I forgot to mention I found a whole suburb of vintage stores with 2nd hand clothes – one in particular full of 2nds leather jackets so I was in heaven. I will be back to Granada and perhaps even for a 2-3mth stint to learn the language and the dance.

Next blog... Bye Bye Barca

Cordoba, Spain Oct 2010

You know sometimes when you just cant be bothered and wonder why you are making yourself go to all the effort. Well this was an example of how I was feeling on this particular morning in Sevilla. I had read my trusty Lonely Planet and decided that I was up for the challenge to nut out a day trip to Cordoba as it was only a couple of hours away. But it's the transport dramas that really makes me not want to bother – getting up early is another reason too! So we manage to get up at the crack of dawn, skip breakfast, catch a bus to the train station – where we stocked up the most delicious crossaints and freshly squeezed orange juice.

The train was smooth, fast and showcased beautiful scenery. Just the day before I had a run-in with the vending machine that took my coins when I was craving a chocolate but never gave me the chocolate! I started to push and kick the machine whilst keeping an eye out for security guards – mum to the rescue put in more coins and got me 2 chocolate bars – phew! Well this same drama happened again on the train (yes there are vending machines on trains in Spain) only this time it didnt give me my water! I came back to my seat with a long face only to tell my story to mum and have her burst into fits of laughter – what do you call vending machine anxiety???

So after a short and beautiful trip out to Cordoba we arrive at a new station and within moments find the tourist information centre who advise that we can catch the bus right outside the station door – all true and he dropped us right in town. I found a gorgeous old bridge with a statue of Mary on it. As it was only around 8am when we arrived I got some great shots with the sun in the background and it looked brilliant behind her!

We went into the most amazing mosque now converted into a church – the Arab style archways were amazing. The detail that the church architects went to just to ensure that they could outshine the beauty of the mosque – fail in my opinion. I loved it there. Then we decided to roam the narrow streets of the town and found many little gift stores selling handicrafts from leather.

There was a beautiful old nights castle that we also visited and rested in the most amazing gardens, whilst enjoying gorgeous views over the town. Of course I had another tapas and Spanish beer craving so we ended up in yet another bar drinking beer with just enough time to giggle and stumble up to the main road and somehow fluke our way onto a bus back to the train station for the trip back to Sevilla. Its a beautiful town and definitely worth the day trip!

Next blog.... Granada

Sevilla - Oct 2010

The very first time that I came to Spain as a 19 year old, Sevilla (Seville) was a city which I visited but only by night – a very drunken sangria one which had me dancing like a stupid tourist on stage with the live Flamenco performers (cringe). Thankfully now that I am many years wiser, I managed to restrain myself from such foolishness and the closest stage I came to climbing was the train platform :). I really didn't recall Sevilla being so big! Nor do I remember our partying Contiki tour passing through the HUGE cathedral – lets leave this subject all together shall we?

The cathedral really was amazing and I loved it even more because of the still standing tower and courtyard from the original mosque that they built over. At 70 years (by only 2 weeks) I managed to make my poor mother walk up 34 ramps of this minaret that once has horses walk to the very top everyday. It was completely claustrophobic as it just went round and round forever! Another thing I didn't remember about Sevilla is the gorgeous horse-drawn carriages – they are brilliant and I have no shortage of photos to prove it. The owners on the other hand are grumpy men who threaten tourists with the horse whip if they take photos of the horses and not purchase a ride! I saw it with my own eyes – thank goodness the police just turned up!

Sevilla is also the city with gorgeous hand painted tiled for street names and a lovely square to stroll in. The tram also services the university and until this trip, I really didn’t realise that its a University city! Aside from seeing the uni campuses, I learnt this fact first hand, as mum and I did happy laps on the city circle bus lines, where on a Thursday evening you scratch your head as to why there are so many Gen X students carrying plastic bags on the bus – its called carrying your alcohol, munchies and Marijuana for Thursday university night! Just like in Australia! I have never seen so many drunk uni students anywhere!

We went on a tour of the bull ring in Sevilla and by the end of the tour, I knew enough information to realise that if I actually went along to a bull fighting tournament, I would probably leave in tears!

I found an amazing store with vintage Flamenco posters from the 1950's and 60's that promoted upcoming Flamenco Fiestas and bull fighting tournaments. I lost my mind and bought two posters and a million postcards – which are all now proudly displayed on my bedroom wall!

We also found a little riad (Moroccan style home) that showcased a different Flamenco dancer, singer and guitarist each night for a small crowd. It was amazing and shat all over the Flamenco Opera in Madrid. On our way back to the hotel that night again we were shocked to see the streets buzzing with activity and the BEST EVER selection of tapas bars that I have experienced to date in Spain! I cant wait to go back there just for the selection. We ended up being addicted to a tapas pub that had the most delicious tapas and cheapest price ever. Suddenly I realised that I LOVE Spanish beer – and for a none beer drinker from Australia, this was a true miracle. I was craving beer like Homer Simpson for the whole day! Mum on the other hand got her “nut” fix – I grew up listening about her stories and love of chestnuts – you should have seen her face when we saw the chestnut guy roasting them. I soon learnt that perhaps my temper is not only from my father, but also my mother as she got angry that the bottom of her newspaper cone filled with warm chestnuts, in fact had 3 burnt one's. She was eyeing the guy off the whole time we sat nearby eating them, and continued to drive me “nuts”saying she should go over there and tell him she wants replacements! Needless to say I ensured that we bought more chestnuts or Castanya for mum over the next two weeks in Spain!

Next blog... Cordoba

Barcelona Riots - Oct 2010

When Mum and I were leaving Athens to fly to Spain, we had been told by cousins that the very next day there were to be union strikes on transport across the EU, so we were very lucky we were booked on flights that day before! People had suggested riots etc but I really didn't pay much attention. So that second day in Barcelona we decided to walk from our hotel into the city (20 min walk) and soak up the lovely scenery on the streets of Barca – in particular the gorgeous building facades. We arrived in town and Las Rambalas was a ghost town. It seemed everyone knew the metro, taxi and buses were not working today so spent the day lazing in their hotel room. There were a few stores open but all had security guards that were not normally out the front.

The golden rule when you need to use the bathroom when travelling – you can always rely on the golden arches (Mc Donalds). But even they had their roller doors half down at 10.30am. The word on the street and we had seen it on the news that morning (albeit in Spanish but we got the jist of what they were saying). So everyone was avoiding Las Ramblas fearing a riot would break out. It seemed all peaceful but with only a couple of shops opened we headed down to the beach for a stroll. A couple of my friends live in Barca and were expecting to have a baby any day whilst we were there. We arranged to meet them that evening in Las Ramblas at the Zurich building cafe shop, which apparently is the meeting point for most locals. A few hours before we were due to meet I received a text message from my friend advising that it would be safer to come to her apartment near Station de Sants as the riot was expected to commence at our agreed meeting time.

So we agreed and slowly walked back up to Las Ramblas – the scenes that we were greeted with was crazy. We realised that something wasn't quiet right when we saw the huge bins they have on the roadside for residents to use – tipped over in the middle of the main street which was now very empty. There were police absolutely everywhere! Some were trying to pull the bins off the road and back into an upright position – the rubbish spilling all over the roads was disgusting.

People were picking up the pace with their walk and getting where they needed to go fast. The closer we get to the centre of town the more damage we see. It wasn't just the rubbish bins blocking streets, but smashed shop front windows and an awful lot of graffiti across shop windows criticising capitalism and corporate greed. Shop window after shop window the paint cans had sprayed their messages loud and clear for all to see. I was turning into a journalist as I was madly taking photos -
I couldn't believe my beloved Barca had turned into the early stages of a war zone!

By the time we got to the top of Las Rambalas we met the riot police and there was an overhead police helicopter watching the crowd. Somehow mum and I were right at the front of the group of police in riot gear armed with tear gas, rubber bullets, shields, helmets and batons and there is me and a little 70 year old! I couldn't help myself and took a heap of photos just in-case they attacked the crowd when no-one was actually moving. You could actually see in the crowd the young trouble makers who were just there so they can be violent and a nuisance. I decided it was not safe for us there and that it was time to head home, so we weaved our way back through the crowd and continued down the street to our hotel. The destruction was everywhere and by now all stores were open before were quickly shutting down after hearing that the protesters had gathered nearby.

Things calmed down that night but watching the news we discovered that whilst we were strolling down at the beach, revellers had set alight a police car – it was very chaotic and we seemed to be just behind the excitement all the way. It was certainly a side to Barcelona that I never imagined possible – my mum got to see European passions flare and got to experience Barcelona with no shopping :(

Next blog... Madrid

Madrid - Sept 2010

Madrid...as a true Spanard one should say “Mathrid”. What can I say but the city blew me away. I really wasn’t expecting much but WOW if I got this excited about a concrete jungle, then I really do need to get me to NYC! Perhaps it was that I miss the buzz of the streets at night in Arusha or the lack of live entertainment options? Whatever it was I loved it. We booked a Hostal on the main drag not far from Sol. I wasn't sure what our accommodation would be like, but we were pleasantly surprised as we arrived into the foyer of a gorgeous art deco building with one of those old cage lifts. The owner or “Signora”of the home welcomed us in only Spanish. She looked at mum and I and decided we must be Spanish, so off she went a hundred miles an hour. Mum understood what she was on about and I managed to throw in the very multi-lingual “si” when she breathed so we could talk. Firstly and importantly I want to get to one of the many live Flamenco shows, so that night off we went to the live Flamenco ballet – it was different and I couldn't concentrate as there was a Spanish Deuce Bigalow dancing up on stage! I much prefer true Flamenco than the fusion we saw – actually it was Flamenco Opera. Definitely you need to see it once but perhaps I would choose live Flamenco first if you can only afford one.

As I said the streets of Madrid at night were alive with street performers, couples walking hand-in-hand, a huge gay scene, streets lined with fashion houses and of course tapas bars. Like much of Europe, no-one was really out eating dinner until 11pm at night which still continues to kill me!

One evening we found a delicious tapas bar across the street from our hotel and ate a delicious Spanish omelette and tomatoe salad. I eyed off the opposite tables Paella feast and decided that the next night it would be in my belly too!

Like Barcelona, Madrid is another city where you walk way too many kilometres in one day! Thank goodness for comfy flat walking shoes! On our first night after the Flamenco Opera we walked and I followed my internal compass to take us back to the hotel. Somehow we managed to walk to the majority of the major tourist attractions so that when we did one of those open-deck bus tours the next day, we found ourselves repeatedly saying, Öh we saw that last night!” We couldn’t believe just how far we walked in one evening and also how much of a circle we made without even realising.

The parks in Madrid really are the most romantic parks I've been too (with my mum!) Just so big, green and perfect places to watch the world go by and fall madly in love (with my mum!). The main park, really is the local central park, with its very own lake and row boats that you can hire. There's a glass palace – which inside is a real waste of space, but very pretty from the outside. The gorgeous swans are also a great attraction and not to mention the two old guys banging out Buena Vista Social Club style tunes in the late afternoon in the park – you couldn't wipe that smile off my face!

There's a million art galleries in Madrid and pathetically we didn’t end up in one – it's just not our thing, I'd rather people watch all day. We tried a heap of different tapas bars and I really lucked out one day when I thought I would be smart and choose a heap of random tapas from the menu that I was sure sounded exotic – ended up being bland and pretty damn terrible!

The metro is of course brilliant, but sometimes I was so tired I'd forget we had to change lines, then would drive myself crazy as to why I couldn't find the station I was looking for. My poor mother in-tow watching me snap it at myself on more that one occasion! One evening I was coming out of the metro station wondering why there were so many people everywhere and loud music. When I made it up onto the main street I saw the best street festival ever! It was starting to rain but I decided you live once and I didn’t care that I was alone, I was going to dance with that crowd.
They played my song of the European summer for 2010 – Al ors Danse – Oh how much I love love love this song and when I heard it that night, it was no exception. Amongst a crowd of young drunken Spaniards I’m dancing in the pouring rain in my jacket with crap leaking hood and just making friends with the crowd. David Guetta tunes kept pumping so much that I had to look properly to see if perhaps he was there on the stage! It was the best free street party I have ever been to, and the rain just added to the atmosphere. Everyone was jumping up and down, madly pumping their fists in the air whilst gulping their Spanish beers. Oh it was up there with San Joan festival back in June – why does Spain know how to throw a party! Make me love you all more!! It turned out the guy in the crowd next to me was American and also alone that night as he assumed I was friends with the people I had been dancing with. He asked if I wanted company to go out to a club once the festival had finished, but I told him I already had a date – with my mum ha ha!

So Madrid I really loved you – my only complaint is that you have no beach!!! So for that reason Barcelona still wins but maybe one day I'll give you a chance and call you home x

Next blog... Sevilla

Barcelona again...

Apologies its been a while since I last wrote but I have been trying to catch up with the last few months of life. Here we go again... more travels....

Back in early October my Mum and I decided to make a side trip to Spain thanks to the el cheapo fares on offer with Vueling airlines (love you guys!). First stop as usual... Barcelona!

After finding my way through the airport for a 2nd time in 3 months it was back on the Aero bus and on our way to town. A couple of stops before we hopped off as per our accommodations instructions we found ourselves standing outside what looked like and old warehouse. To my regret at that moment I see that there is in fact a doorbell which reads “Barcelona Rooms” I'm kicking myself for booking a hostel thinking we were about to walk into a rat infested building.

We are greeted by a lovely Asian lady who is also fluent in Spanish (im jealous of this fact). She checks us in at a temporary table (no office) and up we go a few flight of stairs to our level. We are pleasantly surprised at the sight of a clean entrance, smiling faces and a surprisingly quiet and non “backpacker y” looking place. As I mentioned it's in a old warehouse looking building and the owner has taken one whole floor which looked like an apartment before (a typical huge Catalonian one) and sliced the rooms to private accommodation. We booked a private double with our own shower and toilet – I didn’t think mum really needed to share bathrooms at her age.

Our room was at the end of the hall way and so cute! Inside a double bed, flat screen TV, side tables, clothing rack, electronic safe, our own private balcony and the coolest jet hydro shower!!! Mum absolutely loved sitting out on the balcony which over-looked the neighbourhood – she felt like she was back home being able to spy on the neighbours – ha ha – but in this case we looked into everyone’s balcony within the neighbourhood block.

By the time we settled in it was late afternoon with only enough time to take mum for a walk to las Ramblas to find dinner. I was on a mission for paella and sangria – embarrisnly they bring us 1 litre pints full of sangria with these huge ass straws - mum posed well for a pic with this. Of course no visit to Barcelona in my opinion is complete without a trip to my fav. Gelato store with the guy who works in there comicly known as my boyfriend between my friend and I who became locals in there for a few weeks – hey it meant we got served faster! Ha ha

We only had a couple of days in Barca then and again at the end of our trip but mum agreed its beautiful. My favourite was definitely strolling down to the beach with mum, sitting on the board walk and resting our tired feet in the sand while we watched the world go by, ate more gelato and had a great mum and daughter DM about life. A special moment that I wont ever forget.

Next blog Barcelona Riots.....