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Some mates of ours have a couple of places out in Spain, so we popped out to visit them for a few days. We were in a little place called Playa de Flamenco, which is just outside of both Alicante and Murcia. I can’t say we saw that many Spanish people in the area. It seems to be a place that the Brits have a lot of holiday homes or have relocated to to live in another Britain with sun.  All the pubs seem to have English beers, and you can always seem to get steak and chips.  We prefer the local tapas though, which seem to take a bit more finding…

The first day the rain bucketed down (not that it bothered us at all while we sat inside eating tapa’s and drinking beer), and caused lots of local floods.

But on the second day we woke up to clear blue sky – fantastic.

What did we do – nothing really. Caught up on some sleep, had a few pints, watched some sport, had a walk on the beach, wandered through the extremely busy market, and, oh we ate some tapa’s. And the food highlight for Bec was having lobster one night for dinner.

Yes, I think we can almost talk about it. Though it still brings back some bad feelings!

At the same time we got the tickets to the first All Blacks game of the world cup, we took a punt (if you’ll pardon the pun) and got ourselves tickets to the quarter final game for the AB pool. We figured that it was highly likely that we’d win the pool and if not we could always sell them on anyway. Not that we had any doubts at all though. Honest!

The tickets were the easy bit though. Right up until the week before we went we had no idea whether we had anywhere to stay as there seemed to be no accommodation left in town. All sorts of schemes were being discussed, from driving up and back in a day, or sleeping in a car, etc. But in the end we managed to score a flat for the night within reasonable walking distance from the stadium. Whew! That meant we could take the easy option of a train there and back.

So we got there, got settled, went to the pub to watch the Aussie v England game… With all the other Kiwi’s in town. Who were all cheering on England, rather than our cousins across the pond. Go figure! Presumably because at the time we thought that would be best for us in the long run. The token 2 Aussies at the pub were getting a bit of a hard time, as you can imagine.

Then off down the road for a pie and another pint before the game.

I don’t really want to talk about the the game. So I won’t.

But I will talk about after the game. Back at the pub. With everyone else looking glum and commiserating with each other. Along with some France supporters. All getting along fine.

The reason I mention that is that some people asked me at work what it was like after the game and were really surprised to hear that there was no trouble or bad feeling or anything. They’re so used to football crowds that get ugly that it’s hard for them to comprehend a rugby crowd. No need to separate supporters in the stadium, no need for police on horseback, no bottles being thrown, nothing. Just a good natured crowd where supporters of both teams can talk to each other about the game afterwards over a beer.

It’s all good, regardless of the result.

Off the plane from returning from NZ one day and then straight on a plane to Marseilles, France the next. What a way to finish a holiday! But it was really good to finish up in the bright sun. We must confess that the NZ weather treated us really well while we were there, what with it being the end of winter (we may have even picked up some colour in sunny central). But the South of France had beautiful weather, well over 30 odd degrees… And for watching rugby in a full stadium that’s just really hot!! I pity the poor guys having to play in it.

But it was worth getting off one plane and pretty much straight back on another to watch the All Blacks play Italy. The game was pretty one sided, but at least the Italian’s got some points. Not like the English the other day! (Have to say that here, as I can’t say it at work!!) Heaps and heaps of Kiwi’s there and in the town before and after the game.

It was nice to see another bit of France that wasn’t Paris. We stayed in Aix en Provence rather than Marseilles. A nice town from what we saw of it, with some nice chatty French guys at the pub to keep us there for just one more pint… But Marseilles had gone all out for the rugby. Big wicker figures doing the Haka on the waterfront, and signs and things everywhere.

Go the All Blacks, let’s just make it to and then through the final!

The only time we normally looking at all our photos lately is when we’re sitting at the PCs. So it seemed a bit strange to be looking at a huge pile of printed photos for a change. 264 to be exact.

We decided to get the good photos of the Egypt trips printed so we could put them in an album for a change so we could have something to entertain guests with now and then if conversation ever gets boring. (If we got all the photos printed, people would get very, very bored! There are still over 1,200 in the full set.) It has been a long term plan to do this. We even bought some camel-skin albums when we were there to put them in. But now, faced with the job of trying to work out if the order is right and actually get them in the little pockets, I’m a little loathe to finish the job. Maybe on Friday night in front of boring TV or something

And the biggest unsolved problem is that we’ll have no idea what they are any more as the names aren’t on them! Bugger! But then I guess we can just make it up and see if anyone can tell.

Update: Someone got pretty keen, and they were all finished tonight!  Guess that means we’ve the weekend free after all!

After last year’s history tour of Egypt, our holiday there last weekish was a lot more sedate. As we’d pretty much had our fill of pyramids, and tombs we decided that sitting on our butts on a nice warm beach sounded pretty appealing.

We just about didn’t make it though! When we turned up at the airport we were told that they’d overbooked the flight, and we’d be pretty lucky to get on. Would we like £450 each instead and maybe be able to catch a flight tomorrow. As we were on a pretty tight schedule to meet up with our friends in Cairo before heading out to the beach we weren’t happy! Luckily we managed to get the last 2 seats and get there as planned in the end. Phew!

A night in Cairo to catch up with and pick up the guys there, and then an extremely early flight from there to Sharm el Sheik. What does one say about a beach holiday?! It’s pretty much sun, sleep, beach, food, drink, snorkelling (where we saw some pretty colourful fish) and then more sun.

We did it eat some pretty good places though, Indian at Tandoori, pizza/seafood at Pomodoro, Japanese at Little Budha (the waitress was scary). Oh yeah and then the not so good fish restaurant at the hotel, we were the 2nd group in the restaurant and watched everyone else being served before us, it took an hour to get our food, only to be told that it had not been a long time waiting. I think we all knew what a long time was. Apparently there was a problem in the kitchen that we could not be told about – bad luck there goes your tip buddy!

I’d have to say other than that the resort we stayed in could not be faulted, so if you’re thinking of going, look up the Hilton Fayrouz, it’s made up of a lot of bungalows and has it’s on private beach.

The staff are very helpful and the cleaners make a different pattern or scupture out of your bed linen each day. We had a lot of great laughs and I nearly forgot we did actually do something other than just lazing…… We all went quad biking in the desert for about 3 hours, which was great fun, and the head scarfs are a great idea to keep not only the sun but the sand out of your face.

Then back to Cairo for the last 3 days, to do a bit of shopping – you can pick up some great bargains there on nic-nac type things. The rest of the time was just spent lazing round the pool. Next year maybe we’ll head to Dahab and perhaps learn how to dive!

When the days start getting a bit longer, and the temperature starts to rise a bit, we think about travelling a bit to break out of the winter blues. This time it was a weekend break to Budapest. Why Budapest? No real reason, except that it’s there, I guess!

To be honest, out of all the cities that we’ve visited before, this trip was so far the one we’ve been least prepared for. We had no maps, no guide book, no memories of any friends telling us of things to see, no time on the internet beforehand to have a look… Nothing!

Which actually ended up being not a bad way to see the place. In fact, if there are sites that we didn’t see, we don’t know about them, and so we’ll not be missing them. And to be honest, a lot of what we did see we’ve really got not much of a clue what it was as the map got a bit tatty in places, and there is even less hope of trying to remember anything like the spelling to be able to look it up!

So what did we do there? A lot of walking around and taking photos, eating, drinking, and more walking… That sums it up really, I think! And our overall impressions of the place? A really nice town. Made even nicer by noticing all the time how clean the city was in general, especially the really cute metro stations. And we couldn’t help but notice and enjoy how quiet it was. Like really quiet! Hardly anyone around on both days. All we had to do was wait 5 minutes once or twice until a bus tour left the vicinity, and then we felt pretty much like we had the place to ourselves. Superb!

Everyone seemes to think that it should have been really cold too, but it was about 10-14C both days, with a bit of rain that we sat out in a pub on Saturday, but lots of sunshine (with a bit of Wellington type wind thrown in, I’ll admit) on the Sunday. Great walking weather.

Our recomendations for anyone else going there are:

• Write things down on a map as you find them! Things seemed to have a habit of not being anywhere near where you think they are, and the streets can all look the same when it’s raining.
• If you’re looking for a good meal, the Vegetarium restaurant on Cukor U. was great, and has a massive menu. It’s a vege place, if you didn’t work that out yourselves…
• Up on the castle hill is a great little cafe/winebar/restaurant called Miro. Good, cheap wine (great Pinot Noir), and we loved the cheese platter so much we had it 2 days in a row.
• Use the funicular to get up the hill. It’s fun, saves you walking, and you get to say the word “funicular”. Not many places you can do that.
• Have a beer in what must be about the smallest bar in the world. Pub Sorozo, again up the hill by the castle. All you can fit inside is about 8 people around 2 tables, and 4 standing at the side. But a great little place. Friendly barman who kept bringing over bits of cheese and really nice pumpkin seeds etc.
• Check the map carefully, or you may end up at the city cemetry thinking it’s a big park. No, we didn’t do that, but it was pretty close! The wee crosses all over it on the map should maybe have been a bit of a giveaway, but we were walking while reading the map most of the time.
• Check the excahnge rate before you go, and if possible print off a small table so you don’t get as confused as we did trying to translate from the Forint, through the Euro, to Pounds, and it gets pretty boring pretty quickly! I did mention that we were pretty unprepared this trip, didn’t I?!
• Grow a big Hungarian mostache. You know you want to!

Did I mention that the cheese was really yummy wherever we went for some reason?!

We couldn’t let Mum leave this part of the world having only been to London and environs, and nan had told me to “make sure she gets to Paris. She’s always wanted to go to Paris”, so that’s where we went for a fun filled, action packed long weekend.

Getting there is always easy from here. Just a few short tube stops, and then jump on the Eurostar for a couple of hours or so, then you’re right in the centre of a brand new town.

As we left London early in the morning on the Friday (well, not that early, but a bit early) we still had plenty of time left in the day after we’d checked into the hotel, so it was off to see the sites during what we though was the best weather forecast for the weekend.

Not that we had to go too far to see one. Our hotel was about 100m from the Arc de Triomphe, so that was the first one ticked off, but only to stare at from the outside of the chaos that is the traffic around there. (Though it was nowhere near as bad as we’ve seen it before on other trips.) More on that sight later.

Then off down the road to try to find a snack for lunch. That was harder than it should have been, but we finally braved a shop to grab a baguette. And then a leisurely stroll (if that can ever be said of Bec’s walking style) down to the Seine and the Eiffel Tower. Took a few of the obligatory shots of the tower from the Trocadero, and then wandered across with a mind to go up the tower for a high rise view of town. Which we didn’t do. The queues to go up there were huge! Massive! Unbelievable! So we thought we’d go back another day.

Having given that up as a bad idea, we wandered along the gardens to the Hotel des Invalides for a look. Flagged going inside, but had a good wander around the outside and through the courtyard. And around the outside. And then back through the courtyard again… Yes, we had go ourselves a bit lost! We won’t mention exactly who it was that had control of the map at that time to spare the guilty.

And then a wander back to the hotel for a bit of a sit down and recover for dinner. Being brave, we thought we’d go French for the night, and were recommended a nearby place called P’tit Bouchon Gourmand (something to do with corks, apparently). Good food, good value. Recommend it.

Saturday we seemed to do a huge amount of walking! Starting with a wander down the length of the Champs Elysees to find a patteserie for a bite of breakfast, and then straight on to the Louvre. Not much of a queue. Yay! Spent about 3 1/2 hours wandering around there until we were all pretty much overwhelmed by it all and couldn’t take much more in. Still didn’t see anything like the whole of the place, but more than enough.

After a bite to eat, and a much needed sit down, a wander down the river to Notre Dame for a look there. Not much of a queue. Yay again! An interesting building to gawk around in for a while, and best of all, free!

Then a leisurely wander though the Latin quarter, and all the small streets there, and on to the Pont Alexandre III (bridge) where you apparently get good views. By that time I think we were all a bit vacant, and didn’t quite take them in. And on back to the hotel for another sit down and recovery. All up I think we walked for at least 7 hours. Probably a bit longer. Our feet hurt. And our legs. And possibly our backs too!

Having done all that walking, on Sunday we decided to just get a day travel card for the Metro, and do things the easy way. First stop (after a long wander trying to find some breakfast) was back to the Eiffel tower. And no queues this time! Horray! Up there for a look, using the elevators this time – Bec and I have already walked up there once, and we’re not likely to do it again – and a few piccies of Paris from on high.

Next stop, the Musee d’Orsay for a bit more culture. And as a bonus, it was free! First Sunday of every month the museums are free. Nice buildings, interesting pictures and sculptures, but I think we’d got a bit over-cultured by then, as well as having sore legs still, so we cut that tour a bit short and went to find some lunch back in the Latin quarter.

Onwards to Montmatre to see Sacre Coeur. Problem is that it sits on the top of a big hill. The biggest in Paris, I think, and there is no Metro stop at the top. And the funicular that I’d been particulary looking forward to riding up there wasn’t working either. So with a lot of grumbling (from me), it was stair climbing for us. But a more leisurely stroll down through the back streets.

As Monday was our last day, and a travel day in the late afternoon, we didn’t go too far from the hotel. But far enough to get to the Arc de Triomphe for a proper look. And what did we find there? A lot of bloody stairs! Just what I felt like. Groan. But the view from the top was worth it!

And then another last stroll through a few of the parks and gardens at the end of the Champs, and then back to get our stuff and catch the train back home again. A nice relaxing way to finish up.

A good quick break from London, and we hope Mum enjoyed it too! (She did)

Not that I normally get a bad case of it, but somehow after this last trip to the States for a couple of weeks (of which there will be a report soon, promise) I seem to have contracted my first real dose.

First night back, no problems. So tired after the flight that we had an hours nap in the afternoon and went to bed normal time and slept like a log right through.

Last night? A bit tired after working again (dammit) and so went to bed about the normal time… And then woke up after about an hour long heavy doze, just like a nice afternoon nap, and then that was it. No more sleep was to be had all night. Grrrrrr.

I suppose on the plus side it did allow me to be slightly educated by the late night documentaries that they have on. I learnt why the pilgrims left for the States, how the monarchy changed between about 1700 and 1850, and how photography influenced public opinion of WWI and as a sideline story to that one, how that impacted on women getting the vote. All stuff that everyone should know.

Made for an interesting day at work, with so much to do, including preparing for a training course I had to take in the afternoon in the morning, and delivering said course. They said I did make sense, but I’m not so sure. I think they were just being nice. Thankfully!

Somehow coming back from NZ has never been like this. I guess by the time you’ve travelled about 26-30 hours in one hit you’re just so mucked up that as long as you time your first sleep right, you can get straight back into a normal pattern.

Tonight better be better, or I’ll cry!!