beccasharky

Our first Visit to London – Monday 14th April

Our first visit to London, Exciting! We got up at a reasonable hour and headed off to the train station for our 10am train. We didn’t have to catch an early train, as it is supposedly very busy in the morning, with all the commuters. We had to carry our bags around for two of the three days we were going to be there, so we had packed very small bags, with minimal stuff, so we wouldn’t have to lug the stuff around.

We hopped off the train at Victoria Station, and out into London. Almost got run over by a bus within a block, as I was staring simultaneously at the other red double decker buses, and the old stone buildings that were nestled amongst the newer, more modern ones.

A few blocks walk took us to Westminster Cathedral. Not the really big one, but still pretty big! We wandered around, checked out all the small chapels dedicated to different saints, and marveled at the sheer amount of pretty stone that was used in the building.

After that, we walked down to Westminster Abbey, which we didn’t go in to, as the line was out to the road, and halfway down the block. We did admire the outside. Walked down past the Houses of Parliament, and the House of Commons. Such a fancy building. We wandered through a park, and took in our first view of the Thames. A brownish, fast flowing river.

P1230931 — South Bank, and the London Eye

P1230960 — The London Eye. And a bunch of tourists.

We walked back up the road, and past Big Ben, who chimed 1pm for us. Headed over the bridge to South Bank. There were so, so many other tourists there with us.

We wandered past the London Eye, with a conscious decision not to go on it, like the hundreds of people lined up, waiting. It was near Easter, so there were carrots in the trees, and bunnies all around.

We took more subway, via Waterloo Station, with it’s pretty exterior, and ended up in Leicester Square (hey, these places are named just like in Monopoly!), where we sat for a few moments. There were some very cool, probably super old, knobbly trees, in amongst the rush of people and bustle of city.

P1240013 — Some of the escalators are pretty steep!

After our lunch in the park, we wandered an indirect way to Trafalgar Square. It was quite weird walking through near deserted streets for a few blocks, to come right smack into the middle of tourist central, hundreds of people, as we entered Trafalgar Square. We were greeted firstly by a big, blue cock, who stood out the most, on the fourth pedestal, that is reserved for changing art installments.

Trafalgar square was pretty, if you ignored all the people. Some lions, a couple of fountains, and surrounded by buildings. We had a quick look in the National Gallery, which was free. One of the paintings I saw was of Lady Jane Grey. She was Queen of England for just 9 days until she was removed from the throne, and sent to the Tower of London to be executed. I think she was only 16.

After the gallery, we subwayed to the Covent Garden Markets, which have been around for quite a while. It is quite an interesting place, back in the 1600’s was a developing area around a square, with an open air fruit and veg market. Over time it fell into disrepute, and for a while was a red light district, as taverns, brothels etc opened, and artists and poorer people moved in. They built the roof cover in the 1800’s, and was more organised after that. It has been various things, but is now more of a tourist destination, with cafes, shops, and a crafty market area. We ate at the Pie Shop, and at Creme de la Crepe, where I had an amazing, fantastic apple crumble crepe. Yum. Nearby was Punch and Judy Pub, which has been around since 1787, and is thought to be named after the puppet show that used to take place at the market.

A very old pub Covent Gardens Market — A very old pub
Covent Gardens Market

Lastly we headed to King’s Cross Station, to see the infamous Platform 9 and 3/4 (or the representation of). There was a very big line to get a picture taken there, which I didn’t want to stand in, so I have a picture of it, just not with me in it. Maybe one day we will go back when there are no people. There was a cute little shop where you could buy scarves, cups, wands etc.

We stayed with one of Dale’s friends from back in NZ, Jerome and Amy.

P1240048 — That is quite a long way down!

12th April – Bike ride, more Brighton meanderings

I spent a few runs along the water front, in various weathers, plenty of pretty views and chalk cliffs.

One weekend we biked out to the Smugglers Rest Inn, in Peacehaven, for lunch, with Henri and Alastair. They had good bikes. We had medium hire bikes. But it wasn’t too bad. Lovely ride along the South coast, chalk cliffs, a bit of a breeze, a non nudists beach, and chalk!

Smugglers Rest. Henrietta, Alastair, Myself and Dale

I realised that I could use the chalk walls to write with!

P1230847 — Fancy places to moor at the Marina

Various Brighton Things (and squirrels)

After arriving back from France, we didn’t get up to much. I was mostly just waiting around till our next travels, as I was going to New Zealand and the end of April, so not a lot of point looking for a job yet. We also wanted one of us to have a job ideally before getting a flat, so we weren’t really looking for that yet either. We had Sunday Lunch at some delishuz places, usually equipped with some great vegetarian option (like nut roast, and mushroom roly poly), roast veges, gravy, and Yorkshire puddings.

The most biggest omelette I've ever eaten. Well, didn't manage to eat it all — The most biggest omelette I’ve ever eaten. Well, didn’t manage to eat it all

Sunday Lunch, complete with Yorkshire pud

Lots of buildings around that are old and fancy stone, or ones that are all the same, a whole row of houses up the street, all like the others.

Henri's street, sameseys houses — Henri’s street, sameseys houses

The next weekend was cruisey, Henri and I went op shopping – lots of cool 2nd hand stores in Brighton and Hove. They are all quite small, but I think they have a high turnover of stock, and they seem to keep a lot of nice stock in. Some of the also seem to get donations (?) from department stores/bigger stores, so occasionally they have new stuff tags still on.

We wandered around town, and the Pavillion, where we met the local squirrels. Wandered the streets a bit, met a few showers (its a bit like a tap is turned on).

Moved to a friends house to stay for a while, whom had a spare room, and we were very appreciative of the opportunity to have our own space. One of the nights, we made Saag paneer from scratch, including the paneer, and it came out a lovely shade of virulent green. Way greener than any curry you get at a takeaways, and I think it is cause the spinach is so fresh.

Went bouldering with Alastair in Portslade, which was very fun. It is wall climbing, but without ropes, so you need to be a bit careful, rely on your skills and strength. It is not as high as a usual climbing wall, only 3-4 metres high.

Is this how I get back to Blackrock??? — Is this how I get back to Blackrock when my hearthstone is on cooldown???

Guy on the beach was sorting the pebbles

So many of these are painted all cool n stuff

In NZ it is "Streets"... not so much here — In NZ it is “Streets”… not so much here

Bordeaux Part 2

Monday dawned nice and sunny. We all piled in Curby (our vehicle, a 7 person carvan), and headed out into the local neighbourhood.

We had a bit of trouble finding our first location, and zoomed on to the second. A lot of the roads are quite small, and kinda crazy, zipping through them in a large car-van. We found the second location, but they were closing for lunch – most vineyards seem to close for a period over lunch, perhaps for napping? While waiting, we decided to go to the supermarket and stock up on cheese and bread! We spent the rest of the day trying, drinking and buying wine. It was very interesting, many of the people didn’t speak much English, and we didn’t speak much French, so there was plenty of extrapolation, hand waving and charades, but we enjoyed it, nonetheless.

Someone else's house — Someone else’s house

Our last day was spent in a town called Cadillac, where they had various interesting points. There was a church, Chappelle d’Epernon.

There was also an old castle – Chateau de Cadillac, that was used for various things. It is apparently a good example of French Architecture, and was quite amazing inside, with massive rooms and fireplace. Each one was elaborately carved in marble and stone, with huge tapestries.

The town even had a proper wall, town gate, towers with arrow slits. It was pretty, lots of spring flowers around. We ate lunch at a little bakery, where I had to go back and buy apple pastry things, and eclairs, a couple of times, as they were very yummy.

The day we flew out, we spent a fair amount of time packing, and headed into Bordeaux early so we sort out extra bags. I think a couple of extra bags were bought by people for transporting wine home. We stopped at a massive mall, that had the most amazing fancy toilets I have seen in a while. We also bought more macaroons, and ate them. 🙂 Plane ride back was uneventful.

Brighton, France, Saint Emilion, Wine, Cheese

The best thing so far about Brighton, is the vast array of vegetarian options! This is very exciting for me. Many places have 1/4-1/3 of the menu vegetarian and there are many places that are fully vegetarian. So delishuz. I have had pasties, pies, platters. We went to a cafe called Chockywockydodah (not sure of spelling), where they make amazing cakes and chocolate items, and the cafe has 4 items on the menu (liquicd chocolate hot chocolate, cake, shake, sundae. All great.

We went to see the new Captain America, which was very similar to seeing a movie in NZ, but they have either sweet or salty popcorn, or a mix of both.

The beach is all small stones, but I don’t mind that, cause I’m not that keen on sand anyway. There is an amusement park at the end of the pier, with small rollercoasters and things like that.

We spent the end of Friday night packing our bags – can only take carry on with the cheap tickets we have with Easy Jet, but there is no weightlimit on your carry on, you simply have to be able to fit it in the overhead compartment, and be able to get it up there and down again yourself.

We arrived in France to overcast skies, but a decent temperature. Bordeaux is definitely a winemaking area, even the airport is surrounded by vines. We are staying in a house in the countryside, 40mins from Bordeaux. Is it super cute. All the buildings are sandstone brick, again, it all seems so like it should be. A bit surreal. There is a vast amount of grass here, much more than we saw in Canada.

Trying to work out gps. Alastair only looks a little scared

We bought lots of food from the local supermarket – mostly bread, cheese, wine, and meats. Most meals are composed of this. In this area, most people speak French, and many of the shopkeepers have only a very small amount of English. It is very interesting, trying to badly speak french, enough to buy things. I know how to ask for cheese, wine, bread, and where is the toilet? Also, chocolate, candy.

The BEST crepe I have ever had - caramelised apple with apple sorbet, amazing! — The BEST crepe I have ever had – caramelised apple with apple sorbet, amazing!

Macaroons are delishus, I bought a few, and promptly ate them all. We spent today wandering around Saint Emilion, which was very pretty, old bell tower, old (but still current) wine cellars, massive amounts of vineyards. Tiny town is fully of cobbled streets stretching up and down the hills, tiny alleyways and side streets, with decidedly french people lounging on the corners, wine for sale in every second shop, and many macaroons!

Tiny, steep cobbled streets. Stacey, Zoe, Henri

P1230485 — The wine has been there so long…

Sunday we visited a lot of vineyards, and did a lot of wine tasting. Lots of reds. Got shown around a few wineries, and enjoyed the lovely weather. We headed back in the afternoon, to sit outside in the warm afternoon sun, and drink wine, cider, and eat things.

P1230565 — Keith and Alastair taking with their cameras

My favourite thing from France was eating Raclette for dinner. Melted cheese on everything. So. Good. Raclette I think is originally swiss, a type of firm cheese that is mostly used for melting, you hold it towards the fire until it starts melting, then scrape the melty part off, and eat it with potatoes. In modern times, we have tiny pans, that are set on an element, and slices of cheese are laid in them, and gently melted, until bubbling, then you slide it out onto your plate, and voila!

We totally ate veges too

My next favourite part was seeing all the tiny towns filled with cute little stone houses and terracotta roof slates. Tiny towns with tiny little cobbled roads.

Also, I thoroughly enjoyed anything that required us to reference the fact that we were in France.

Macaroons! The only picture I managed to get before I inhaled them all. There were more in the bag, only seconds earlier.

Leaving New York, Next Continent! Tues 25th

We woke at a reasonable hour, and packed EVERYTHING into our bags. We seem to have accumulated a large amount of stuff, and my bag is quite solidly packed: I literally can’t fit anything else in it and get it closed.

We stored our bags downstairs in the storage room, and headed off to the cafe for more waffles, as they were so yum, and we had totally missed the hostel breakfast. We stayed there for a bit, then retired to the hipster cafe, Swallow, near the hostel. It had about 15 people in it, and pretty much all of them had 14 inch macbooks, and were playing on them. We felt slightly out of place, as we had proper laptops.

Then, we headed back to the hostel, loaded up all our bags, and trotted off to the subway. Our transit passes unfortunately had expired the day before, and when we arrived at the subway entrance, we were a bit sad to realise there was no ticket booth. We left me in charge of our bags in a pile, and Dale went back to the hostel to find out the nearest entrance with a ticket booth, which was luckily only a block away. We successfully transferred trains until we made it to the airport and checked in. We found a seat with a power plug, and entertained ourselves until it was time to leave. We flew with Aer Lingus, which was fine, except for the supposed lack of vegetarian options in flight.

We left at 10.30pm, t was 6 hours across to Dublin, then 2 hr stopover, then another hour and a half to Brighton. We somehow managed to land in Brighton at 8.30am, with only having had an hour or two nap. Very tired.
Henri met us at the train station, and took us to her flat, where we showered and lay down on the couch for a 5 hour nap. Lovely.
The next few days were sleep, and Henri showing us the lovely food places and shops in Brighton.

It is a little surreal; we have never been here before, but it looks exactly like I think England should. The countryside is green rolling hills, with hedge lined roads, and a slight mist. Town is very bustling, people everywhere. Houses are cute little country houses. In Brighton, everyone speaks with some kind of British accent, and there are lanes and streets, and lines of houses that all look exactly the same. I understand that we are in a different country, but it is weirdly familiar, from all the TV shows and movies we have seen.

We have sorted out sim cards, a duvet, I bought a skirt (YAY), can’t get bank accounts because we don’t have a flat or a job. We are happy to be here, but can’t wait to get sorted with the new time zone. We are off to France (Excite!) on Saturday, for Henrietta’s birthday.

NYC Day 6: Empire State and the Met

Monday was a sunny, but very cold day. We ate breakfast at a brunch place in Brooklyn, with various types of waffles.

We went to the Empire state building for a look, clear and could see for miles. We did the audio tour, which was cool, made the visit a bit more informative. It was one of the nicer days of our visit, which was a nice change to have climbing a tall building to lookout in decent weather, rather than clouds and rain.

It's so hard, finding other tourists who can take good photos :< — It’s so hard, finding other tourists who can take good photos :<

We then made our way to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the afternoon. We only had a few hours, and barely got around any of it. That is the one place I wish I had more time at, it was very interesting. We checked out the greek statues and art, the American wing, and some of the weapons wing, where they had full suits of armour, including horse armour.

We decided to wait for the next train, this one seemed quite full.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Too big to fit in one photo

Almost got in trouble, the guard thought I was leaning on the 2300+ year old sarcophogus. I wasn't. Sarcophagus of Wennefer — Almost got in trouble, the guard thought I was leaning on the 2300+ year old sarcophogus. I wasn’t.
Sarcophagus of Wennefer

They erected a temple in the museum! The Temple of Dendur, 15BC — They erected a temple in the museum!
The Temple of Dendur, 15BC

A last walk through Central Park, then for dinner we went to Chelsea Market again. I found a vegan sushi place, where they had the most delishuz sushi… though I’m not sure if you can call it sushi when it has no seaweed or fish. It was very tasty, nonetheless. I also had tiny doughnuts again, with crazy flavoured sugar. I had cardamon, and apple flavoured sugars.

Soundshell in Central Park, with a few patches of snow

Our final stop was the Empire State Building again, this time in the dark. I definitely recommed it for anyone who goes to NYC, the view is amazing, with lights everywhere. Everywhere. All the buildings look so cool, and you can see the glow of Times Square. The crazy thing was we could see a line of lights in the distance, over the lower tip of Manhattan. It was a line of planes, we could see 7 of them, all in a row fading into the distance, and all, I assume, headed for JFK. The line kept moving, but was always there, a constant incoming of planes that were landing. This was about 9pm at night, and we must have seen at least 10 planes go past (it could have been more, I wasn’t counting). It was a bit ridiculous, just the sheer amount of planes that were landing.

Macy's and the Empire State Building — Macy’s and the Empire State Building

Flower display in Macy's — Flower display in Macy’s

There was a helicopter flying all around our hostel for ages. Maybe they were looking for someone. I couldn’t face packing, so we had all decided to go to bed, when we found out my brothers finacee has given birth to a cute tiny little baby (not actually tiny), so that was pretty exciting 🙂

Inside the foyer Empire State Building — Inside the foyer
Empire State Building

NYC Day 5: The post about SQUIRRELS. Central Park

Today we slept in, and eventually dressed, and went to Central Park. Via a hipster coffee shop, where we ate bagels. Then via Grand Central Station again, as I wanted another look. It was still huge.

Fancy wee drinking fountain. Grand Central Station — Fancy wee drinking fountain.
Grand Central Station

We walked around all of Central Park. I’m not kidding, we walked from one end to the other, with various trails and meanderings in between. We popped out at about 86th ave at about 3pm where we grabbed a bagel for lunch from another good bagel shop, then we were right back into it. That was all we did all day. Dale mapped it, About 12kms. Unfortunately most of this post is pictures. Or fortunately, if you like looking at pictures.

I think, a statue of General William Tecumseh Sherman

We chased squirrels, climbed over rocks, followed pretty trails, and towards the end of the day we came across a whole bunch of people marching and chanting. In Spanish, I think, and I believe it was some kind of church group.

Some of the statues and stuff we had to wait a while to get a clear picture – at the Alice in Wonderland statue, we had to wait for a couple of kids to get off the statue, just for a moment, so we could get a picture. They seemed to think everyone wanted some random kids in their pictures. I appreciate they’re kids, and want to play, but just because I’m an adult now, doesn’t mean I don’t like playing too, doesn’t mean I don’t want to climb on the statue and get a picture. I’ve felt this in a few places, that the adults have to stand back, while the kids run around and play on stuff and have fun.. why aren’t the adults allowed to do that too? Just because we’ve grown up, that doesn’t mean we have to sit back and be boring and bored and not climb and explore and blow bubbles and have fun. I still like tree climbing and flying foxes and dancing around, why shouldn’t I be allowed to do that?

My favourite part was when we were walking down a random trail, and something fell out of the tree beside us. My first thought was, omg, why is a bird falling out of a tree?!, but it turns out it was two squirrels fighting, who fell maybe 6m, landed on the ground with an audible thump, and then they both jumped up and ran off. They looked a little stunned. Silly squirrels!

We rode the carousel – there has been a carousel in the park since 1871, I think the current one is the 4th one in the park, and the longest lasting. The first was powered by a horse and a mule, walking around under the carousel, out of sight. The next two were powered by steam, and the current one has been around since 1908. All the bits are hand carvved.

I'm not sure of the context... — I’m not sure of the context…

Arthas (Actually Polish King Jagiello ) — Arthas
(Actually Polish King Jagiello )

Obelisk, with little crabs holding it up

Ducklings around the base of the goat. Maybe the goat was crazy coz he didn't like ducklings — Ducklings around the base of the goat. Maybe the goat was crazy coz he didn’t like ducklings

NYC Day 4: American Museum of Natural History

We awoke early again, subwayed into town, checking out some of the local street art on the way. It was another cool day, but I think rain was scheduled, so a good day to do inside stuff.

We headed straight up to the American Museum of Natural History. Then we spent all day there. It is Huge. 4 floors of massive displays. We didn’t get around it all. The dinosaurs were great, you only comprehend how big they actually are when standing next to the skeletons. Imagine a land where those things are wandering around. Crazy. Many of the intact skeletons they have there are from Alberta, in Canada, likely from near the badlands area.

The only time it is appropriate to "duck face" — The only time it is appropriate to “duck face”

P1220645 — A full skeleton, with a HUGE singluar arm/wing above it

So many of the displays were done well, like little windows into other parts of the world. The background is painted to blend in with the exhibit, they use the substrates that match – sand, dirt, bushes etc, they even make footprints and groom the ground to make it look natural.

The forest displays were pretty neat, as were the animals,….. The ocean displays were very cool, you entered a room with dim lighting, looking down from the upper tier, to the floor below. The roof has displays overhead, blue and ripply, like you are underwater. Hanging from the roof, diving into the room, is a massive model of a blue whale (life size, I assume). You wander around and check out the animals, my favourite of which was, in a dark corner, a sperm whale and a giant squid restling. Well, all that fits in the window is the head of the whale.

The day ended with us walking back through the Rockefeller Center and getting amazing Ben and Jerry’s icecream in a chocolate coated and chocolate hail dipped waffle cone.

NY Day 3: Miss Liberty, and a ton of people

The weather dawned bright and sunny, with a bit of a breeze. Our room is still stifiling hot – the central heating is all connected and stays the same temperature. We have had our window open constantly since we arrived, and it hasn’t cooled down. Outside is 2-3 degrees, inside must be over 20.

We did the usual getting ready and headed out on the subway. This time to the bottom of Manhattan, where we joined the masses going to Liberty Island. If you ever decide to go to NYC, and want to climb to the crown of the Miss Liberty, make sure you book it well in advance. Like three months. As soon as you know you’re going to NY. Currently it is booked out until the beginning of July.
We went through the serious security checks again, and had people telling us which line to get in. As if we can’t see. Take jackets, scarves, hats off, all bags through xray. Crazy. The island itself was patrolled by various army guys, armed with various large guns.

Instead of going to the crown, we wandered around the outside of the island, with the rest of the thousands of tourists. I was a little disappointed as we boarded the boat, but that is what you get for not planning far enough ahead. We’re doing pretty well so far, with our turn up on the day and see if it works way. I really did enjoy it, and all you would really get that is extra, is a view of the Manhattan skyline, for which there are many other buildings to climb anyway. The Statue of Liberty was lovely though, plenty of views of it, and they have an audio tour, which makes your walk much more interesting. Liberty is weathered green, and made of a thin copper sheeting, laid over a wrought iron frame. Mounted on a large stone pedestal, the money for the pedestal was entirely raised by the American Public.

Look at me, I'm a statue of liberty! — Look at me, I’m a statue of liberty!

After the tour, we stood shivering with the crowds until the boat came. We stopped over on Ellis Island for a bit, where the immigration museum is, had a brief look around, then took the boat back to Manhattan.

Back to our favourite subway again, and we headed uptown to Murray’s Bagels, where we ate some very delishuz bagels. I appreciated the customer service here too – many places aren’t rude, but arent exactly smiley or helpful either. Murray’s was smiley and helpful, and delishuz.

After eating all the bagels, subway-ed further uptown to a shoe shop, failed to buy shoes, and happened to go past Union Square, so we stopped for a look. It is apparently where everyone hangs out, just to sit, read, relax. It was bustling and cheerful, with squirrels in the trees, and some people filming something near one end, and a vege market going on down the other.

They were filming something in Union Square

The last stop of the day was Times Square. We hopped off the subway at Times Square and 40th, and emerged onto the street. We always find it hard to get bearings when we get out of the subway – who knows which way is which! After getting our bearings, we found Broadway, and headed up it. Into the seething mass of humanity. It was ridiculous. Masses of people walking everywhere. Billboards all over everything,, advertising clothes, broadway shows, doughnuts. Lots of people dressed up as Disney characters etc, that trick you into getting your photo taken with them, then expect a tip. (NB: Don’t get your photo with the Batman or the Elmo hanging out at Times Square, not unless you want to pay them!).

Times Square - Broadway signs — Times Square – Broadway signs

We wandered up to the red stands, where we sat for a bit, watching the masses of people, and the constant stream of cars, that were mostly taxis.

In Canada (everywhere else but Vancouver), we liked to play the game of Truck. You watch the vehicles going past, and say what kind they are (When I say truck here, I mean ute, still a personal vehicle but often with a tray on the back, and often quite huge). It was usually: “Truck, truck, suv, truck, suv, truck, truck, oooh, a car! truck, truck, suv, truck truck…” Most vehicles seemed to be large utes. In NYC, the game turns into: “Taxi, taxi, HONK, taxi, car, taxi, taxi, service vehicle, taxi, HONK HONK, taxi, car, taxi, taxi”. And they’re all yellow. It is just like in the movies.

Vending machine in Brooklyn offers bike repair parts

Lots of people trying to sell you stuff, especially tickets to comedy shows. I’m pretty sure there would be a catch though, like its booked out for the next week, or you could only go on off nights. We had no less than 4 different vendors try and sell us tickets. We didn’t buy any. Dale had to nom a burger from McD’s, then we headed home. Dinner was back near the hostel, in Brooklyn. Dale had scoped out some ideas he day before, so we headed to a place called Roberta’s, on Moore St. It doesn’t look like a restaurant. No signs, except for a the singular word “Roberta’s” hung above the door.

The door with the red sign over it: Roberta's — The door with the red sign over it: Roberta’s

It looks like any other cheapish housing building in the area, and no indication that it is anything much, except a small group of people hanging out near it. A door stands open, and you enter through a red curtain, to be greeted with another plain, wood door. Through that is like another world. Dark and vibrant, there are people seated at all the tables, a few waiting for take away meals, and the pizza making crew working busily and precisely in the corner. We ordered a classic, the margarita. It was excellent pizza.