The UK

Fortunately for me, after that traumatic and reluctant farewell, I was off to visit Alice in Ireland.  It was the best thing for me to go stay with a friend.  There is nothing better than being able to relax at a friend’s place, and she was a great listening ear and comforter as I debriefed (and shed many tears!) about leaving France and this crazy tension of love I have between two countries that couldn’t be further apart and more different!

Arriving in Belfast, Kathryn Clawson kindly picked me up at the airport and we went out for dinner and a drink in Belfast and checked out the city.

Friday I relaxed and unwound at Alice’s, and did errands and caught up on sleep.  In the afternoon we walked to her sister’s and picked up her nephew and walked along the point to another little bay and coffee in a cafe.  That night Alice was on rescue boat patrol for the social Friday night sailing group so it was out in the IRB on the cold Irish sea.  There was quite a lot of wind so we got a lot wetter than expected.  Then we finished with a quiet drink at the sailing club and meeting some of Alice’s friends.

The next day Alice had me enrolled in a sailing course she was taking, so I learnt how to sail a little bit and even had the joy of learning how to upright a capsized boat. Yes, this did mean capsizing the boat and going for a swim in the freezing Irish sea.  I don’t think I have ever been in water that cold and I had on a wet suit, rash shirt, two fleeces, dry top, boots and gloves and I was so cold I could barely move.  Fortunately, I did make it back into the boat and back onto land for a lovely hot shower.

Sunday, by chance, I ended up going on a tour with Julia Trim to the Northern part of Ireland, we saw cute little villages, castle ruins, the world’s oldest whiskey distillery, a swing-bridge thing and the giant’s causeway.  A great day.  Unfortunately, I think all the emotion and fatigue of the previous few weeks had caught up on me and I was sick Monday and was going nowhere, which meant I had to cancel plans to catch up with my friend Ian who I know from Eau Vive.  Fortunately, at least, he had come out for a surprise visit to Paris in December for our mini-Eau Vive reunion, so I at least got to see him then.  With being sick, again it was nice to be at a friend’s house rather than a hostel or something.  Another thing I noticed about Ireland, was I just felt like bread and cheese and I went off to the supermarket and reminded I wasn't in France anymore, sadly the bread and cheese just wasn't the same, and it was wierd walking down the road or going into shops and noone says Bonjour, or Merci, Au revoir, and not doing the Bises was different too.  I was reminded quickly about the things I'll be leaving behind.

The world's oldest whisky distillery

Giant's causeway

Tuesday I went via bus to Dublin later than planned, as I was still recuperating a bit.  I was pleased to have some French girls in my dorm room with whom I could speak French.   Wednesday I did a free walking tour of the city, which was great, and met a girl who was staying at the same hostel as me.  Then I went off to the Guinness Brewery tour as I had pre-booked tickets.  It was a really good tour and well set up.  I poured my pint of Guinness and got the certificate!! And then needed to drink it.  I’m not a big beer drinker, let alone a pint and of Guinness.  Heavy going.  I was wondering how long I’d be sitting there by myself drinking this drink when another lone traveller, a guy from the States, came and joined me.  So we chatted and drank our Guinness.  I ended up inviting this guy and the girl I’d met earlier for dinner that night.  So we went out for a great Irish pub meal in the Temple Bar area, followed by another Irish pub with traditional Irish music – lots of fun!!

Thursday was a quick visit to the Book of Kells to see some of the oldest manuscripts of the Bible, a very cool old library and the harp which is the national symbol of Ireland (and the Guinness logo – cool story around that).  Then it was off to the airport, next stop London and chez Janet!

That night it was dinner at a steakhouse with Leanne and Megan, it’s always great to catch up with those guys.  Friday was a cruisy day with jobs I had to do but I met up with Leanne for a quick visit of the British Museum, where we saw the Rosetta Stone (very cool – and sparkly!!) and a whole lot of Egyptian mummies – very cool.  I LOVE that kind of thing.  That night I went out for dinner with my friend from Eau Vive days, Pete, and finally got to meet his lovely wife Felicity and Mark (who came out with Pete to NZ for a visit in 2006).  It was the first time I’d seen Mark since his time in NZ.  So it was great to have a lovely night out with these guys.

Check out the price of these wines from the 'British Empire' - they must be good huh?!

Saturday Janet introduced me to the Borough Markets, where we bought the ingredients for our dinner that night.  It was a mushroom pasta dish and the guy on the mushroom stall let us try the mushrooms (so many different ones with so many different flavours), he gave us a recipe and we made it that night.  A total fungi taste explosion!! After dinner we felt we needed something sweet to finish off the meal so we went out to buy something, closed the door and realised neither of us had the key and all her flatmates were out and there was NO WAY to get back in the house.  So it was off to buy cheesecake (nothing stopped us doing that) and then a lovely walk around the Fulham Palace gardens until a flatmate rang to say she was on her way home and could let us back in the house!!

Sunday, more markets, this time Brick Lane – a great place and a real taste, smell experience.

Monday, I felt like a trip a bit further out of London so it was off to visit the Queen at her place.  Windsor Castle.  She was actually there when I was there which was cool.  It’s a really cool palace, especially because it is still a functioning one.  So, for example, one of the rooms was being set up with table and chairs etc for a private function that evening, and I saw the big state room where she has dinners for hundreds of people, and we saw a video of what it looks like when it is all set up.  Because this is a working castle there are about 2000 staff who live on site in little houses in the castle grounds.  While there I heard one of the employees say to some people to keep an eye on the flag around 2pm as it would change from the Queen’s standard to the Union Jack when she left the castle.  She was possibly going to Buckingham Palace (which is more like her office in town, whereas Windsor is where she lives).  So, in the cold and rain, I waited outside around 2pm to see if I could catch a glimpse of the Queen leaving (I’d earlier seen a van being filled with suitcases and clothes and then drive away, so I knew she was on the move).  I waited and waited and nothing.  I was quite wet and cold so I decided to go see the St George’s Chapel (where the Queen’s parents, Queen Mary, Henry VIII and others are all buried).  I just knew that while I was there she would probably leave and sure enough after only about 10 or 15 minutes I walked outside to see the flag that was flying was now the Union Jack!! Typical! Oh well, I didn’t get to see the Queen.

The Queen's standard - she's in the house.

That was the end of my time in the UK.  It was great to spend it with good friends, and it is true that time is a healer as the tears from leaving France had pretty much dried up by the end of that time.  Now it was off to Greece for fun in the sun or was it....?

Leaving L'Aigle

The last weekend of the school holidays I spent hanging out with my friends as much as possible.  Saturday we had dinner at a friend’s place and then I stayed the night there.  The next day after much chilling out (pain-au-chocolat for breakfast, coffee etc) we decided to brave the weather and go out for a run – a habit we had started.  The weather I might add that week had been atrocious with moments of sun, then cold, forceful showers filled with hail.  So we headed out for a run but before we got out of the car it poured down, so we went for a drive and then it cleared so we stopped in this gorgeous little village and went for a run in the countryside, which was beautiful at the time with its bright yellow fields of rape seed in bloom.  On our way home we passed a church that dates from the 12 century, so my friend pulled over his car and we had fun exploring the surroundings of the church.  It just blows my mind that in the middle of rural Normandy there are buildings that are hundreds of years older than my country and we would have driven past it and not even appreciated it.

This particular Sunday was the first round of the elections for the new French president so it was back to L’Aigle to vote.  My friend kindly and willingly, because he loves showing off this stuff to me, let me come with him and I was able to see how the system works, which is a bit different to NZ.  They go in and all the candidates names are printed out on bits of paper and you pick up either all of the bits of paper, if you want your vote to be secret, or just the paper of the person for whom you will vote.  Then you pick up an official blue envelope and you go to the booth, put in the paper of who you are voting for, go to the box, put the envelope in the box (keep the other bits of paper), sign your name off and leave.  I now have my own copy of the bits of paper and an envelope thanks to my friend – but funnily enough, one of the names is missing! Which one...?  Then it was off to another of our friend’s house to watch the results being announced on TV.

The last week of school went by quickly (as has this whole time!), I did pick up swimming in the last week and have discovered a new fantastic form of exercise, we also made the most of the sauna and the water slide – lots of fun!

A lot of socialising and late nights in the last week, making the most of last few moments left with my friends.  The last weekend was spent on the coast at Gouville. Where one of my friends had booked a gite for the weekend (it was a long weekend) for her 30^th birthday party.  It was a great night with a lot of laughs as someone had bought dress-up clothes and we proceeded to pick’n’mix and share the outfits – mostly wigs, while taking photos.  Very hilarious.  There was lots of dancing until the very small hours of the morning.  After that, even though it was a long weekend, most people headed home Sunday afternoon (some people did have work Monday).  I got a ride back with my friend and we ended up going past his parent’s place on the way.  After the usual yummy four course meal they seem to put on whenever I am there, we were rather too tired for another 3 hours of driving back to Mortagne so we stayed the night.  Monday we spent most of the day meandering back visiting little villages and Caen.  We also went past Coutances to see its famous cathedral and there happened to me a whole lot of priests outside in gowns for some sort of procession and we found out that there had been a ceremony to beatify someone – the step before they become a Saint.  There is so much Catholicism here, it’s very interesting for me to try and get me head around.

Back to Mortagne and the next day was May 1, the equivalent of Labour Day.  My friend and I were just about to head out for another run when he got a call from another friend saying he was off to take part in the Worker’s Parade in Alencon, so off we went.  It was mostly unionists and lefties (especially active with the upcoming second round of presidential elections) and quite an interesting experience (another uniquely French one).  My other friend is an art teacher and does photography and is currently into street photography, so we had fun taking photos. Here’s a link of what he does

http://philochrome.wordpress.com/2012/05/#jp-carousel-379

The black flag of anarchy - awesome!

Then it was my last day, I spent it running around doing all my errands and then had a ‘last supper’ with my French besties who have just been so kind, loving, accepting and generous.  I said a very hard good-bye to my running buddy (we had hung out a lot!!) and then stayed the night at another friend’s.  The next morning she dropped me off at the train station and it was one of the most difficult things ever saying good-bye.  We just sobbed and I waved goodbye through the train window and she stood on the platform and waved back and we cried and cried and cried.  It was awful.  It’s so crazy to believe that this part of my life is over and that I don’t live in L’Aigle anymore (that reality hit me when I had to fill in a form and had to put my NZ address instead of my French one) and that I won’t be living there again doing all my normal daily life stuff with these guys, zumba, running, Corto (the local bar), Chez Irene, the pool, my op-shop where I volunteered, LeClerc, Lycee Napolean, speaking French, being immersed in French, learning stuff all the time (about architecture, philosophy, art, language etc etc), the food ...

I just have to look at it as a chapter in my life that has now come to an end, but it was amazing and full of so many wonderful memories, and now is a new chapter.  I have no idea what is in store in the next chapter, it’s still to be written...

Berlin and Amsterdam - April School holidays

Hi,
Well, I haven't written for quite a while because it's been a pretty full on time.  I'm going to update a few entries here now, probably quite briefly.

So following on from Mt St Michel there were the school holidays.  We started them by having a farewell party for our friends in L'Aigle as everyone would be away for the two week holiday and we only had one week after the holidays left of our contracts and then Lucy would be leaving - so this was the only time to have our party. It was great to just spend more time with my dear friends.  They totally spoilt Lucy and I by pitching in and buying as each a bottle of Chanel perfume. Wow, so amazing.  These are some of the most accepting, generous and caring people I have ever met.

Then it was on the night train to Berlin.  I actually slept on this one this time so that was good.  I arrived in an amazing million dollar train station full of shops and trains coming in and out on different levels.  My hostel (which was pretty flash for a hostel) was right next to the station and everything was in walking distance.  I loved walking around, stumbling across remnants of the wall and learning all about the incredible history of the place.  I went on a walking tour which was so informative and the last day there I went to the Sachsenhausen Camp - the first experimental concentration camp set up by Hitler one month after he came to power in 1933.  After that very overwhelming day I ended it on a different note with a trip to the Pergamon museum to see one of the former seven wonders of the world - the gates of Babylon.

The Reichstag

The Berlin Wall

Checkpoint Charlie

Where Hitler used to give his famous speeches with his army infront of him.

Where the book burnings by the Nazi's took place

Where Hitler's bunker was.

Sachsenhausen Camp

The Gates of Babylon

Then it was off to Amsterdam to see my childhood friend Trina (Avon's sister).  We had a great time getting on our bikes and biking around the city.  The first day we discovered the city, went on a canal boat ride, I went to the Van Gogh museum (which was awesome and one of the best art galleries I've been to).  Then it was off to the Anne Frank museum, impressive to see the place I've read so much about, then out for dinner with exceptional food (mushroom and truffle risotto - miam miam).

On my bike in front of the Rijksmuseum

This is what happens to your bike when you lose it in the canal

Then we went to see some cheese markets where people buy the cheese to sell and headed off to see the tulips in the afternoon.

going to taste the cheese

transporting the cheese

Saturday we went out to this amazing national park where the former owners of the estate had an eccentric house and an amazing art collection.  We got free white bikes and biked around.  Then I went to see the reception venue for Trina's upcoming wedding.

Then it was back to L'Aigle for the second week of the holidays where I was running a English language course for a few students.  The rest of my time I made the most of my limited time left hanging with a friend in a near-by village called Mortagne-au-Perche.  Here's some pics of Mortagne a few months earlier during the winter and now with the spring flowers.