Basque Country, Spain

Hooray, our second trip to Espanna has arrived! On our last visit we spent a bit of time down south in Andalucia as well as Madrid and Barcelona. This time we were headed only to a small region in the north, known as Basque Country. Sadly my history and geography is not as strong as perhaps it should be so I know very little about the Basque people, other than they occupy space between France and Spain, they speak Basque and they don’t like to be referred to as Spanish (or French). What we did find, despite their hostility to Spain and France, we found them to be very friendly people!

We flew into Bilbao on the north coast, only an hour and a half from Stansted Airport (which is conveniently about an hour and a half from central London). The flight was uneventful however we met a lady on the bus to Bilbao from the airport, who was staying in the same hotel as us. The very exciting news is that when Christine mentioned she misses her puppy back home, she offered to have us around to meet her Beagle when we are back in London.

We ate some lunch in a small Spanish bar and then spent the afternoon wandering around the city. In case you haven’t heard the Soccer World Cup is on at the minute, and since the start we have been supporting Spain (and anyone playing Australia!). Our first night in Spain they were playing Chile which was an exciting win, as a loss would have meant their tournament would have been over. It was also the locals response to the soccer that gave us our first sight of the Basque attitude towards Spain. As one old guy told us “Fuck Spain! Tonight I Chile!”
The main (and arguably only) tourist attraction in Bilbao is the Guggenheim. Luckily this well and truly makes up for the lack of wax museums and gift shops found in bigger cities. The exterior is a big abstract building made out of titanium. There is a giant dog sculpture (Jeff Kooms) out the front that has small flowers planted all over it. Once inside we found out that we were just in time for one of the guided tours in English. The tour was a great introduction to the gallery and the architecture and then went into some detail in one exhibition. This happened to be the most interesting part of the whole gallery, an exhibition by Anish Kapoor. The guy has apparently been around for a while, and each room was completely different. These included a series of about a hundred sculptures 1-2m high made of concrete that looked like some form of alien ants nest, some very colourful piles of powder, a room of mirrors (not unlike the crazy mirrors at the show) and a room with a wax canon that fires at the wall on the hour.
The exhibition on the top floor was not as interesting, it was basically some guy had gone around for years collecting bits of rubbish (everything from street signs, kitchen sinks, bicycles and scrap metal) and welded it all together to make hundreds of junk piles. The rest of the museum had some nice paintings and sculptures including the Matter of Time room which are some huge iron sculptures that you can walk through. We had spent most of the day in the gallery with a short break for lunch in the park and a spot of shopping.


Our second day in Bilbao we took it fairly easy. We wandered through the main plaza and then down to the river where we found some sort of festival going on. This had some bands and dancers along the riverbank. After bit of a look we went for a walk up to a park on a hill that had great views back over the city. We spent the afternoon wandering through the old town, which is always the nicest part of Spanish cities. Narrow cobbled streets lined with Spanish bars and restaurants. We took it pretty easy, plenty of Pinchos (similar to tapas) and Cerveza. The next morning we checked out and jumped on a bus to a small village called Haro. It is only about an hour or so south from Bilbao. We checked into our hotel (Cuidad de Haro), which despite the name is bit of a hike from the city. After a swim in the hotel pool we wandered into town to find out what was happening the following day. We were in this town for a festival called the Battaglia del Vino (Battle of the Wine). We grabbed some groceries, mainly snack food, beer and wine, watched some bands in the main square, had a look around town and then headed back to our hotel.
29th June 2010 – San Pedro - Battaglia Del Vino
On reflection of the past year and a bit we have done a hell of a lot of awesome things and it is definitely hard to pick out favourites. That said today may well have been the highlight of the trip so far!

We were up early, in Haro’s main Plaza by 7am. The town was a mix of weary looking people like us in fresh white clothes and bleary eyed revelers still out from the night before. On the dot of 7am we joined a march around town (although we had no idea what was happening). After a procession led by a brass band around town, the Spanish emerging from their homes to join in as we passed, we finished back in the main Plaza.
Suddenly everyone began piling into what looked like an apartment block. Still unsure what was going on, we followed inside and found ourselves in some government office, being offered cakes and liquor. The main reason we were here was to pick up some cultural banners and a silver pole (about 8ft long), probably something to do with the church and San Pedro.
Back in the main square, it was time to set off on our journey. From the town square the procession walked out of town and about 6-7km into the hills to a church called San Felices. The walk was good fun, there would have been 2000-3000 people make the trip over the whole morning. Most of the time was spent chatting, joking and trying to understand the locals as well as coping the odd spray of red wine. As we approached the hill, we could hear the commotion above us getting louder. The last few hundred meters which was a fairly steep incline gave us an idea of what we were in for. Beside the road we were walking along was a river of red wine, draining from the plateau above us. As we approached the plateau the local winemakers had set up ambushes, towing tones of red wine up behind tractors. They were parked on the road side, with buckets awaiting. The site of anyone in clean white clothes excited them! Within about 30 seconds each of us were pelted with 5-6 buckets of wine, all over, in your hair, down your back, in your ears and eyes (which stung) all of which drained down into our shoes. It was all in good fun though, and Christine was helped by a local lady with tissues to clean her eyes, not knowing what to expect, she had not closed her eyes in time!
Past the initial onslaught was a plateau where the battle continued. This was not as brutal, people were running around with super-soakers and agricultural weed spray backpacks filled with vino. People were just cheering, singing and dancing under a rain of redwine. The whole mountain was a buzz with happy red wine stained faces!

Out of the mayhem below we took a short break to continue up the hill to the very top where the church was perched. It was a small old church where a traditional ceremony had been held prior to the start of the traditional wine battle. The church had amazing views of the town and surrounding region.

After a bit more partying on the plateau we joined hundreds of others on the trek back into town. Many of the locals who had driven some of the way and parked at the bottom of the hill had started cooking barbeque lunches in the carparks which smelt great. The walk home was a bit more of a struggle in wine soaked shoes and clothes. The cars on the road would often spray water or more wine at us as they drove past.

At midday there was a procession back into town (the last few hundred meters). As the crowd walks back into town the residents are ready on their balconies with hoses and buckets of water to clean of the crowd passing below. By this stage we had found some people from our hotel and were sitting in the main square enjoying a cold beer. The procession then continued through town to the bull ring. We followed them and got some seats in the Encerrio (bullring). It was all fun, the bulls were young (but still big if you ask me) and had corks on their horns. The ring had 4 guys who were quite professional and would do a series of tricks, jumps and flips as the bull charged them. There were also about 50 ‘would be bull fighters’ who would try and run as close to the bull as they could without getting slammed. Thankfully, for our entertainment, there were a few that got nailed by the bulls. After this we headed back to the hotel for a siesta and swim in the afternoon.

We spent the evening back in town, starting off in a bar watching the Spain and Portugal soccer match, complete with the Spanish flag painted on our face by the bar staff. We chatted to the locals, aussies from our hotel and a group of welsh. That has been the highlight of the day was the small crowds (about 6000 people in the town today) and the lack of tourists (probably only 5-10%). Spain won the game to the cheers of the crowd. We have also been drinking a Basque drink called Kali Mucho (not sure of the spelling). As bad as it sounds it’s actually really nice and refreshing. It is a mix of red wine and coke with a slice of lemon. The night continued as one big party in the plaza and surrounding alleys. There was bands and DJ’s, fireworks and at midnight there was the ‘running of the flaming bull’. This was hilarious, its basically a guy dressed in a bull suit with fireworks strapped to his back. He then runs around the main plaza chasing the terrified local kids. OMG… I want that guys job!

VIDEOS (just click play)

Wimbledon

I’ve had the week off as I was only available for three day due to appointments and our long weekend so the school I was at decided I might as well finish on the Thursday. It turns out his was quite lucky as it is always an ordeal trying to pack up all our possessions and hiding them around the hostel. Even though I didn’t work I was kept quite busy with socializing and getting ready for our trip to Spain.

Damien had organized dinner with one of the other Teaching Assistance from his school, Beata. She is a very nice Polish girl who has been living in London for around 6 years and knows where to get good food. This is vital information in London as there is so much bad food. We had a lovely Vietnamese meal after being harassed by children in a South East London park. Unlike Melbourne the South East is not a very nice part of the city.
Wimbledon has started so we decided this would be the only chance we would get to see it. Mel and I met Damien after work and were shocked to see the length of the line to get in. It was about 6pm when we arrived and the last games starts around that time. We were told we would be in line for about two to three hours. This made the decision to have a picnic and watch the local tennis courts much easier. This tennis was very entertaining but I’m sure in a very different way. When the sun had gone down, the entertainment had left and it was getting cold we headed home. We were interested to see the lines of tents being set up. These are for people who are very keen to get tickets for the following day, they camp over night, get woken at 5 or 6am ready to pack up their tents and to stand in line ready for when the gates open, crazy! When we got home we sung Damien happy birthday early and had his customary ice-cream birthday cake for dessert.
Summer in London is the time for picnics and seem to be just about all we eat for dinner. We had a meet and greet session with the tour company we will be working for in Spain but were unsure if food was provided so met up for a picnic in St James Park. This is one of the prettiest parks in central London and you are always guaranteed to see squirrels. From there after eating way too much we headed to the PP office where we discovered they expected us to eat, opps. After a couple of drinks we tried to get into the Walkabout to watch the Australia World Cup match. We couldn’t get in there but eventually managed to find a pub with the right match on with some space for us. After meeting the girls we are really looking forward to working in Spain but it is a bit of a worry that only 4 of us showed up. I wonder what the other 20 odd staff will be like.

Cornwall

One place we wanted to visit in England whilst living in London is the South West corner known as Cornwell. This area is probably the closest you can get to home in terms of beach culture, scenery and ‘warm’ weather. We were very lucky to actually experience some sunshine whilst spending a long weekend here with a couple of friends Amy and Mel.
It turned out to be a bit of an ordeal getting there as it corresponded with Summer Solstice which meant that all the hippies were heading to Stonehenge which was on the way. This caused traffic jams for pretty much 2-3 hours of our 4 hour drive which ended up being a whole lot longer.
One of our first stops was to Dartmoor National Park where we did a short walk to stretch our legs. It really made us appreciate the untouched beauty of the National Park at home. Whilst it was very pretty it was interspersed with pine forest plantations, towns and other signs of humanity.
We spent the first night in a hostel that was a converted railway station in the town of Okehampton. We arrived quite late so it was a matter of getting some food from the supermarket, watching the Soccer World cup on TV and heading to bed ready for an early start in the morning.

I am now one step closer to dying after visiting the Eden Project which is on my fictional list of things to do before I die. This was amazing! It is basically a huge environmental project that changed an old clay mine which was basically infertile into a massive garden center a bit like the ‘Australian Garden’ in Cranbourne. Within the garden there are some bio domes which house recreations of a Mediterranean environment and a tropical rainforest. These were amazing as the temperature rises dramatically as you enter and the humitity within rainforest was very realistic. It’s easy to imagine that this would be the closest many English people get to these environments.

From there we headed onto our accommodation in a beach town called Porthtowan. It was lovely to walk on the beach and search the rock pools for creatures. I had almost forgotten how good the beach smells. The hostel we are staying at is run by a very nice couple who’s sons have grown up and moved away. They have converted the house into a hostel and they live in a caravan out the front during summer due to the higher demand for beds. They have a cat and elderly dog so it was nice to get some fury cuddles. Steve the owner was also great as he sent us to a pub down the road for a really nice meal. It was interesting visiting a pub in a small town and seeing the number of children who come along with their parents. We had a couple of young brothers giving us tips on how to play pool, which I found quite annoying but Mel and Damien though was hilarious. Before we left it was almost as if there was an even number of kids and adults.
The next day we hit some of the scenic coast line and fulfilled Damien’s dream of eating Cornish Pasties in Cornwell. We had these in the very pretty town of St Ives. This is also home to a Tate Gallery and the studio of one of my favorite sculptors Barbra Hepworth. This is a very busy little town full of delicious food and interesting little galleries. Damien and I may head back for a weekend at some stage if we get a chance.
From St Ives we continued along the coast and stopped at whatever took our fancy. We had a look at some ruins and did a bit of a coastal walk. Lands End proved to be a bit of a disappointment as it has a fair ground built on the end. The English and Americans love their fair grounds in otherwise beautiful locations which just doesn’t make sense to me. After that it was back to the hostel, dinner sunset on the beach and eventually bed.
Our last day in Cornwell was a long one. First stop was a cider farm where we tried the whole range of produce. The lady who served us was quite generous with the pours and hardly let you clear the glass before she was pouring the next lot. I was feeling a bit light headed when we left. Next we went to an ice-cream factory and were a little disturbed by the chocolate ice-cream ozzing from a hose, but that didn’t stop me from sampling. We continued along the northern Cornish coast line to an interesting little lighthouse just before Newquay which had great views. Mel and Damien had a swim at a beach further around the coast whilst Amy and I enjoyed scones with jam and Cornish cream. This was made even better by the fact that there was a dog friendly hotel nearby so we made some new four legged friends.
Our last stop on the way back to London was Tintagel Castel where King Arthur liked to hang out. There is part of the castle on the mainland and part of it is on a island assessable by a bridge to an island. This was very cool to see but expensive to actually visit. We enjoyed free views from the top of a hill then moved on. Amy dropped us off at around 6pm to a station a short train ride from home. It was a lovely long weekend but we were all stuffed.

Life at Dean Court

After a Skype chat with Jacqu and Jay I’ve decided to do a blog about our life as a married couple in a hostel. It’s not really your conventional living arrangement but it’s not permanent so we are making the most of it. We spend a lot of time in the common area in the basement, which consists of a number of dining tables, chairs and a TV. This is where most of the socializing and the infamous DC parties take place. I think this is one reason I haven’t been too home sick. There are always people around to chat to when you get home. Some of the people who live here long term like ourselves, have become our good friends. It is referred to as our DC family and we sometimes to daggy things like family dinners. We don’t have favourites, but Mel is our favourite, and we often have dinner, picnics or short trips away with her. On nice days the family often heads to Meredith’s M-tree for a few drinks, a kick of the footy or an impromptu picnic.

There is also a 2nd floor balcony with a few chairs and tables on it that is nice in the warmer parts of the year. There is a kitchen attached to the common room that Damien and I have a habit of taking over to cook our dinner. We have found that the food we cook is often better than what you can buy at restaurants as well as being much cheaper. The only issue here, besides other people not cleaning up after themselves, is there is very little fridge space so we can’t really cook in large quantities as was my habit back home.

From the common room there is a hike of 72 steps up to our room. This is what makes these living arrangements possible, we have somewhere to escape to when we need some time alone. It’s not a big room and we do tend to fill it up very quickly with all our stuff but it is our space. It has the usual stuff, a bed, wardrobe and chest of draws but also a sink which is very handy considering the bathrooms are shared. We have bits and pieces that make it feel less like a hotel room and more like home, such as the Christmas decorations my mum made and Damien’s Saints posters. Recently I bought a window box for my herbs, I really miss the garden at home. I’ve had to improvise with a coat hanger to make sure the window box is secure as we are on the fourth floor so I really don’t want it to fall and kill anyone.

The bathrooms consist of four individual shower rooms and five toilets over the five levels. These all look pretty dodgy but are ‘cleaned’ regularly. There are always two girls who are employed here to do all the cleaning and manage the bookings. They are very nice but don’t clean things as toughly as I would and Damien gets annoyed when I do stuff because I don’t get paid for it. The grot drives me nuts and my need to get rid of it drives Damien nuts. One of the nice things about staying here is the girls change our sheets and towels once a week. I always get excited about clean sheets day!

I also get excited on Sunday because this is pancake day. Every other day of the week we could have bacon and eggs for breakfast but generally speaking I leave for work before 7:30am and breakfast starts at 7:45am. Saturdays are also pretty good as this is the one day I can take advantage of free bacon and eggs.

In our spare time we try to do some of the touristy and cultural things around London. We have done a few guided tours around the Tate Modern, done a couple of walking tours and been to a number of live performances. There is always things to do! There are also lots of good markets which usually have amazing food and lovely parks to explore.

The facilities we miss most about home are internet and the laundry. We take our washing to the laundry mat down the road once a week. Because there are no washing lines we have to put everything through the tumble drier, something I wouldn’t use at home. This is especially necessary in winter when it takes days for things to dry because it’s so cold. As for internet, we get free internet at the library, Starbucks and McDonalds if we’re desperate. Sometimes we can piggy back off the neighbors but this is never very fast. We should really stop being such tight asses and get an internet dongle but everything we save is being allocated for various trips.

An added bonus, and one thing that keeps us at Dean Court, is that when we go on a trip, we can clear out our room so someone else can use it. This means we are not paying rent whilst we are traveling. We could get a studio apartment or something for around the same price we are paying, but then we would have to pay a bond as well as rent whether we are there or not. This keeps our life flexible as we can up and go whenever we like.

Toast NZ

The next two weeks have absolutely flown by. We have been madly organizing our summer which is going to be one part London, two parts Europe and one part Africa (Egypt) over a four month period. School holidays have finished so we are both back ‘working’ at schools.
Earlier in the year we attended a travel expo where we booked our Sail Croatia and Egypt tours. We were also luck enough to win two tickets to a festival in Richmond (a nice suburb of London) called Toast NZ. It was a good day out at a Polo Club, with a Polo match between NZ and England. Lots of wine tastings and good food and a music stage which was headlined by an old school band called The Feelers. Christine was pleased to make a new friend on the way home too.

St Ishmaels, Wales

The next installment of our Welsh adventures with Brendan and Sarah was a weekend trip out to St Ishmaels, the small village in West Wales where Sarah grew up and her parents still live. Our journey was a long one by UK standards. We had booked some ridiculously cheap bus tickets to Cardiff which took about 3 hours, only a bit slower than the train. It was Friday night and we got to Cardiff at about 8.30pm where we were picked up in the car and driven further west for about 2 hours to Sarah’s parents place. After a beer and some toast for supper we called it a night and got some rest.

We had a brilliant day on Saturday, it was very cruisey. No rush we got up mid morning and had some breakfast. We then went for a walk around St Ishmaels and along the coast and mountains surrounding the town.

When we got back to the house we jumped in the car and went for a bit of a coastal drive, stopping for a walk on a beach, some rock pool rambles and lunch in a pub (The Castle) in some tiny fishing village. The afternoon was spent at the St Ishmaels cricket club watching the local team play and enjoying a few more pints of beer. The team won which was bit of a surprise to some I think as they haven’t been going so well apparently. Sarah’s family is quite involved with the club, her brother played, her dad prepares the pitch and her mum is the team manager and scorer. Between innings we were able to provide the half time entertainment with a display of Australian Football, complete with Brendans leather sherrin footy!
After all of the excitement we retreated back to the family home for a feast. Their backyard is beautiful with an alfresco eating area. We sat outside and had a BBQ, more beer and wines! Top Night!
Not to be outdone by last nights feed, brunch was an absolute cracker! Bacon, eggs, sausage, mushroom, tomatoes, beans, toast, coffee… just what the doctor ordered! After saying our goodbyes we headed back to Cardiff, taking the scenic route and seeing some more nice beaches. Even just driving through the countryside and some of the narrow rural roads was a highlight or us Londoners!