When I decided to start blogging our travels I had such grand intentions of regular contributions. Alas, here we are, months later yet again.
And what a busy few months it has been...
To pick up where we left off, we arrived back from Prague only to find April a bit of lull as far as work in London went. We found ourselves here, there and everywhere piecing together weeks of work. It was really interesting and we saw all sorts of places within London - the cultural diversity between areas was really eye-opening. Throughout late March, April and May I worked in all sorts of socioeconomic environments - extremely poor area with a heavy Somalian and Portuguese population, a working class/poor area of Anglo-Saxon English, an area heavily populated by Jews and a very affluent (mixed race) area of London, just to name a few. Obviously financial limitations (or lack there of) changed the services able to be offered to some extent, but the most amazing thing was to see how people congregate around people of their own race. I spent a lot of time thinking about that and it was really intriguing to see the cultural separation, dare I say segregation, that happens fairly naturally within a city space. It's no different to hearing about all of the Aussies in Shepherd's Bush or Clapham Junction, or the South Africans in Wimbledon. So despite being so culturally diverse for so many cultures within its limits, London seemed far from a 'melting pot' where people from different races and cultures automatically mix and integrate. It definitely broadened my mind to the mentality of different people and cultures go about their daily lives and it was absolutely wonderful to meet people from those different backgrounds, which added an aspect to work which I hadn't forseen at all.
Because of the afore mentioned shortage in work available, we had a bit of time on our hands we hadn't expected. We had always said that we would use whatever spare time we ended up with in London to see the city and explore which worked out perfectly. We had a fantastic week or so with Joe and Meika including seeing Stonehenge and trooping around the city a bit. In addition to that, we booked a shotgun week to Portugal! We managed to jag some cheap flights so we headed over there, bought a tent and hired a car and spent the week driving from Porto in the north to Faro in the south, camping along the way. It was a great little trip! We had plenty of strange looks in the northern areas, particularly in the countryside, where apparently thongs have never been before - they couldn't take their eyes off our feet! We then headed down to Lisbon for a couple of nights. We had a great little campsite on the beach south of the city and spent a day in the city and a day in nearby Sintra. Sintra is like a little fairytale town with fantasy-like castle dominating the hillsides which we took a tour through and a drive around. From Lisbon we headed moreorless straight to Faro. It's no wonder Faro/Lagos is such a popular holiday area - nice big sandy beaches, lots of sun and water. We didn't like it as much as, not for the first time, we found ourselves surrounded by stag's and hen's nights but it was a nice little break from chilly London and topped off a great week camping.
We only had a couple of weeks back in London then, which we stayed in Notting Hill for with Tish's mate Dan. We had a great time catching up with him and the housemates and picked up a bit of work too. Tish got over to Amsterdam for a long weekend too which was good. We also got to day 3 of the Test Match between NZ and England at Lords, which wil probably go down as one of NZ's worst collapses. My cousin Anna had organised some awesome seats, we had a cracking day and were all set for a relaxing day... should've known the Kiwis would crumble. Of course, saying that now, mid-Ashes series, is a game move given Australia's form so far. Luckily Clarkey has just notched up a tonne at Old Trafford so I can maintain some confidence for now!
After a raucous day at Twickenham for the Rugby 7's we headed off on our much awaited week in Krakow and Berlin. Krakow was an absolutely beautiful city and one that I could've happily spent more time in. Having said that, it was an extremely intense tour given the time revolving around the Holocaust. We travelled out to Auschwitz/Birkenau for a day and also visited Oskar Schindler's factory which made for fascinating but appalling experiences. Whilst Auschwitz is amazing and breathtaking in it's history and tragedy, Birkenhau was just another level. To see such planned and deliberate organisation of destruction was overwhelming and whilst it would have to be one the most sombre places on Earth, it was well worth the visit to experience. The stories are told without judgement and with absolute dignity which is an absolute credit to the survivors and others who have worked on it.
Much to Tish's disgust, I organised a train from Krakow to Berlin (we now have an ongoing understanding that I love train rides and would book them just for the ride itself, whilst Tish would probably rather walk). We had a nice Spring afternoon to watch the Polish countryside go by and it was really enjoyable... for me. So onto Berlin...
Probably the, or one of my most favourite cities in Europe so far. You hear different people rant and rave about different places all the time - Berlin is a pretty consistently rated city and it's no wonder. There's a really enoyable feel about it which I really struggle to put into words. It's pretty hipster I guess, where wearing normal clothes makes you the odd one out, but it is just a cool place to be. And while the Holocaust survivors have done such a great job with telling their story, I was really impressed with the humility and respect with which Berlin - the hub of the Holocaust - remembered the tragedy of WWII and all that it meant, and continues to mean, for the people they oppressed. The memorials were elegant and moving but equally they have moved on and developed an entity for themselves which is absolutely addictive.
We stayed in a really funky hostel ('The Cat's Pajamas Hostel' if you're wondering) which I booked based purrrrely - pardon the pun - for Tish based on its name. It was in an awesome location and was really chilled and funky which was fun. We managed to troop around a lot of the city with the Holocaust museum, the Reichstag (German Parliament) a city walking tour (awesome) and the infamous Wall. If you're ever in Europe, I would put Berlin down as an absolute must! We also lucked upon an Festival of International Cultures which made for a couple of nights of awesome street food, music, markets and performances which topped off an amazing week!
Continuing on with our hectic month of May, we had just a day back in London before heading off to Aberdeen to see my Aunt Suse and Al. We had a very warm and welcoming week seeing family and some of the area around Turriff and Forres which was really nice, especially to show Tish. We visited Gran's old house which was unexpectedly moving and revisisted some of the places that I spent time in during our visit in 2006 as well as the year we spent in the UK in 1990. It was so nice to see family and spend time with Suse and Al - repeat trips are a must before we head home! One of the funniest days was Uncle Al taking us to the Glendronach Distillery for a tour and some sampling. Having taken the tour, we sat down to try a few drams. Uncle Al declined the 'warm up' shots on account of driving and thought he'd save his for the best drops at the end. So Tish and I worked our way through about 4 whiskeys before Al joined in. Tish wasn't all that much a fan so I was the beneficiary of some pretty good extras! By the time we arrived home to Suse at 11am, we had Uncle Al with a big smile on his face and Tish and I fairly well gone!
From Scotland we headed home to Australia for a fortnight - typing this all out makes me remember just how crazy it all was - to see Chloe and to go to Vicky and Matt's wedding (Brissy mates of Tish's). It was a great fortnight with catchups with friends, Tish's family and my own and best of all having some time with Chloe, who was in fine form in all her toothless glory! We had a day out at Narromine on the farm, a few swims and a great time all round seeing everyone.
So then, finally back to Southport, UK where I am writing from today. We've been in work about 6 weeks now and it's been great. We have had a fantastic month of weather so far and plenty going on around work. We are working together for a practice that has two clinics, both of which are generally extremely busy. There's a really good caseload and the staff are awesome so it's a pretty good gig, with a nice little town house for accommodation. On our weekends so far we've also been able to travel a bit. We've had a weekend in the Lakes District, which we are going to head to again this weekend coming. It's a beautiful area and lives up to all of its reputation. We're looking forward to some more hiking in a couple of days and I'm going to test out our new backpacking tent!
We also travelled to Snowdonia in north Wales for a weekend with my cousin Anna and her partner Ryan and we all climbed Snowden there together. We had a magnificent weekend of weather, drove around Anglesy as well and the climb to the top and the views were spectacular! We spent the next weekend at T in the Park, a music festival in south Scotland where I fulfilled by dream of the past 5 years of seeing Mumford and Sons, amongst a host of other great bands. We even watched Rhianna perform there but she was pretty ordinary so we left for another band. Massive surprise ;)
Tish's mum Jenny arrived a couple of weeks ago and will be spending a month with us in total. We dragged her straight up to York a day after she arrived and had a weekend up there. York is great! It had a completely different feel about it than any other British town/city I've been to and the history is amazing - it's seen Roman occupancy, Viking conquest and then, up until now, Anglo-Saxon occupation. There are footings from Roman Walls from 300AD - all these things that constantly remind us how young white occupation in Australia is.
So we've just had a weekend on call and for the next two weekends coming will be heading to the Lakes District and then to Edinburgh. The Lakes will be awesome as will Edinburgh - the Fringe Festival is on for all of August and we also got tickets to the Military Tattoo there so it's all very exciting at the moment. We only have two weekends after that - one to see off Jen and one on call - before we head off on our much-anticipated trip around Europe!
We haven't booked a whole lot at the moment but plan on spending most of our time backpacking through Italy, France and Spain. We have a slight detour through Munich for a few quiet steins at Oktoberfest but otherwise we have the luxury of 11 weeks of open planning which is overwhelmingly exciting!!!
Hasta la vista!
