The Fragrant Flowers of Andalucia

[The orange trees in southern Espanya]

Andulucia...sweltering heat and absolutely stunning views of rolling hills and azure skies. We started off in Grenada and saw the Al-Hambra Palace, which was incredible. Beat Versailles anyday! It was built for Grenada´s muslim caliphs between the 13th and 15th centuries. The plaster work and intricate woodwork is breathtaking and pictures definitely didnt do it justice. It is an excellent example of the beauty of islamic architecture using perfect semmetry and a combination of tranquil pools of water with lotus flowers and an assortment of roses in full bloom. In its intricate design and sumptious inner quarters, we could not even begin to imagine what the Nasrid Palace (Palacio Nazaris) looked like in full color before the process of natural weathering.



Cordoba was our next stop and it was a cute little town. We were a stones throw from the Mesquita, which was an 11th century mosque that was turned into a cathedral when the Muslim empire fell in cordoba. After both Sevilla and Cordoba fell, the Muslims moved to Grenada, which is when the Al hHambra was built. It was crazy to see how the characteristic Islamic architecture was ¨Christianized¨... the delicate woodcarvings were stripped and worked over by embellished gold and the 8 point stars atop the domes were redorated with flowers. Lattice worked windows were converted to stained glass and crucifixes replaced the spaces under the characteristic arches. After seeing the Mesquita we walked in the sweltering heat and passed the famous Andulucia orange trees. It was beautiful! That night we went to the Festival Guitarra Cordoba and watched manuel Barrueco play the spanish guitar.



We got into Sevilla (pronounced Sev-ee-ya) yesterday morning and it is such a cute town. Beautiful old hispano-muslim architecture and horse and carriages everywhere! i wish i could get pictures on this thing! There are Rebajas (sales) everywhere but the stores were closed today (domingos-sunday), the only day we had to shop! maybe its a sign!!! The heat sucks the life right out of us and we are trying hard to stay hydrated. We went to the alcazaba today which had some more beautiful islamic architecture that was retained in some areas and christianized in others when the muslim empire fell. Then we saw the Sevilla Cathedral which was beautiful as well... we went to the top of the Giralda tower (which was a minueret of the mosque in the muslim days) and soaked in beautiful views of the city. Right now is siesta time...it is way too hot to walk around! Tonight we are going to see an authentic flamenco show and then go to a festival where there is food from around the world and awesome spanish music. On to Madrid tomorrow!

Hola...Siesta Time!

Currently in Barcelona -- and its actually not all what i expected it to be. I find that the city doesnt have much unique character...it could be any big city with lots of people and odd smells. I dont see much local culture, and there are a lot of random people on the streets.

The timings here work so differently...clubs dont start bumping until 2:00 am ... so what are people supposed to do until then? Its pretty crazy...so most people wake up really late, then go shopping or to the beach, then siesta time you eat and sleep and rest up...until around 10:00 when you go for a really late dinner, then a pub until the clubs open at 2:00, then party till 6:00 and start all over again. We haven´t done any of this yet because we end up getting sooo tired by 12:00...so lame!! But we have been waking up quite late and its more laid back and relaxed. Today we decided we are going to nap until about 12:00 am and then go out!! lets see if it actually works!!



I guess there is a bit to see here...we saw some very very random architecture by Gaudi...and tomorrow we might see some Picasso. Shopping season started on July 1st --we saw the prices change over night. Other than that i feel as though Barcelona is quite the dissapointment! I have 2 more days here...i´ll keep an open mind and hopefully my opinon will change.



As for trendspotting...Satin is in in in!! Longer leggings seem to be the new rather than the calf long ones and white skinnys are chic!!

There is a HUGE roach at this internet cafe! ewww!

i´m cutting my losses and leaving!!! EWWW

The Land of The Basques

Currently in San Sebastian --the Basque are absolutely beautiful people. They have a language that has no latin roots and they have no traceble lineage -- meaning that they are one of the oldest civilizations living here in Spain.

We got an absolutely amazing little hostel and are so upset that we just booked one night! The hostel is like a home -- not too many people so everyone becomes like family -- huge bathrooms like we are in someonés house &we can cook anytime we want in the little kitchen. We even have a dvd player!

Yesterday after getting into town we sat on the beach -- so nice to finally wear bikinis. Then we ate some amazing Pinchos (called Tapas everywhere else in Spain...basically like little appetizers served during siesta time). So we had cod, skewers of sizzling shrimp and sangria of course!!

This morning we did our first Spain shopping (make room in the shoe closet mummy!!). Although my bag is already quite heavy with the 4 articles of clothes i brought with me so i´m really going to try to limit myself.

Tonight we are off on a first class night train to Barcelona. Adios!

To view some pictures of the trip this far, click here!

Ju nu comprend pas Francais!

(as a warning -- the keyboard here is hard to type with so my punctuation is off!!)

J'arrive en Paris mon cheries!

We trained here from Amsterdam which was an interesting experience. It was quite comfortable and we shared a quartet section with a fascinating West African civil engineer turned sikh turned yogi master. We had such intellectually stiimulating conversations on religion, politics etc that the 5 hours flew right by. We are going to drop into one of his yoga classes today which should do loads for our backs and our mental state after all of this cold depressing weather! This is what i love most about backpacking -- often times its not the places you see but the people you meet that shape your experiences!

oh no! the rest of my blog got deleted :(
i don't remember what i wrote but probably just raved about the wine and the cheese. I feel like Carrie when she didn't back up her system!!! arg.

[yogi ram we met on the train - and the kundalini class we dropped into]

[cheese and bagette party we had in our hotel room]

[stopping in front of moulin rouge]

[mmm bagettes at lunchtime]

[Notre Dame cathedral]

[la'Tour Eiffel: Standard Pose]

[The Louvre]

Roxanne [you don't have to put on the red light]

I'm typing my heart away here at an internet cafe in Amsterdam. What an eclectic city this is! Canals pass through the city making it very hard to navigate, but its so quaint...even when we end up going in circles. The food is absolutely delectable, and there are tons of little shops (winkles) selling everythin from buttons to housewares to illicit goods. The streets are all darling but as you pass by you inevitabley smell marijuana wafting through your nostrils from the many "coffee shops". We havn't ventured into one and we likely won't but every other shop sells magic brownies and internet under the shroud of being a coffee shop. Thats why it took us so long to find a coffee shop that sells just plain coffee and internet.


Everyone rides bikes here - it is the most efficient form of transportation...the cobblestone is a bit hard on the feet so our plan was to get bikes today but things didnt really work out as planned! The locals are quite nice and it is really neat to get to know them. We made some friends in random shwarma places and cafes - mostly locals that give us a glimpse of the "real" Amsterdam - the one that has police everywhere even when you think they aren't there, the open-mindedness, and the friendly locals ready to give directions when you are stranded in the middle of a gracht (canal) and a curving stracht (street).

Yesterday evening after we got in we decided to do a bit of exploring. We went to the red light district - which was so crazy to see. So many women, standing in windows lit by dim red lights and flourescent black lights beckoning tourists and locals to give them a try. Prostitution is legal here but to see it displayed so freely was a bit odd as it is something pushed so underground in most other countries. In the end it is safer for the women this way, but it was a bit disturbing nonetheless.


We had our first bump along the road last night in our hostel, and we ended up sleeping on the couches in the common room!!! It was pretty fun though as it was a good story and we had a tv! We immediately got transferred to a hotel this morning though which is nice. We woke up and trekked across the city (doesn't take that long...Amsterdam is pretty small) to the new hotel, checked in and then went to the Van Gogh Museum. It contains some of his most famous works including many famous masterpeices. It showed the works in chronological order, which illustrated his growth as an artist and transitions of different periods of his life...how he was influenced by artists and other cultures, such as the Japanese.

Then we went to the Anne Frank House, who was a victim of holocaust and whose house has been set up as a memorial to show how her family hid from the Nazis during that time period. 8 people hid in the house during this time until they were betrayed and split up in different concentration camps.

After some yummy crepes we ended up here, a non magic brownie coffee shop! Tonight we are just going to relax and tomorrow we have our first Eurorail experience to Paris!

Still on Commonwealth Soil...

We just finished day one of our trip...its probably going to go by so fast from here. We got into London last night and trained it to our hostel which is right smack dab in the middle of Picadelly Circus. We were wide awake because it was barely 6:00 Toronto time but 11:00 London time. After dropping our bags off in our hostel, we decided to walk around for a bit outside and take oh-so-touristy pictures in those very picturesque red london telephone booths. Of course by the time we got home it was already 3:00 London time and we couldnt sleep because our clocks were still working Canadian.



We woke up this morning to a stereotypical London day - ominous clouds and a hint of humidity and chill. I saw a Mephisto store and of course took a picture in front of it! Then i proceeded to see if they were the same price in London as in Canada [Affirmative - phew!]. The Mephisto lady told us to buy umbrellas from Boots, the chemist down the way [read: a pharmacy similar to Shoppers Drug Mart]. So we strolled to Boots expecting to pay £5 for an umbrella...but to our shock and dismay they were priced at £22!! We felt sooo violated!! Of course, we opted to take the chance without one!

This city is beautiful but reminds me a lot of Melbourne...obviously very Victorian architecture. Walking around this morning i felt as though i was in a movie...the cars are all weirdly shaped. The bright red double decker buses are made by Mercedes and everything is the same price it would be in Canada - just multiplied by 2.2. Pents not cents. Must pay to use the bathroom. I'm glad i'm not here for too much longer! Although the people here do have an undeniable coolness...maybe its the accent?!? They also seem to have an uncanny way of making tourists feel like tourists with there blatant dry sarcasm. Obviously, we can't hide the fact that we are tourists since we look left before right when crossing the road and stop in the middle of crowds of people trying to re-navigate using crude tourist maps!


We spent the day being our own tour guides and bought a full day train pass to check out all the sites. We saw Buckingham Palace and the changing of the gaurds, Big Ben, West Minister Abby, the London Bridge, a huge ferris wheel (the London eye?) and fed some pigions in Trafalger Square. We also forked out a hefty sum to see Madam Tussauds Wax Museum...it was well worth it! Right when we walked in we saw a Bollywood exhibit with Amitabh, Sharukh and Ash! Being the fobs we are, we took pictures pretending we were the head heroines. Chaiya Chaiya was playing in the background...ahh these are the times of our lives! We then went on a quest to find some fish and chips...mission accomplished! The true London way - at a pub no less. After that we decided to jump on a random double decker bus and i had a little Harry Potter moment. Just call me Hermoine!

Tomorrow morning we leave for Amsterdam!

Merrells: My Nemesis

I've reached a roadblock. My images of Europe included me, a self-proclaimed fashionista, looking crisp and cool in the UK - the London look, if you will. In my mind's eye, i looked a Paris Chic - alluring and mysterious, with one of those scarves thrown haphazardly but still methodically around my neck. Visions of sashaying through the white powdered sands of the Mediterranean Sea in a flowy azure dress tantilized my senses...until...the issue of comfort came into play. Now, most people traveling Europe recommend "backpacking shoes" - as pictured above. Merrells, comfortable backpacking shoes - the bane of my existence. Now I know that every woman has to make the inevitable choice - comfort versus style. But why, may i ask the shoe gods, why can't a woman find a comfortable yet stylish shoe? I may be backpacking but i don't necessarily want to look like a backpacker! So here my dear friends starts the quest to find a pair of sexy comfortable shoes that will show off the flowers on my toe polish and allow me to feel oh so stylishly European....a girl can dream, can't she?


*Post NB: Mehphisto is the only thing that kept me stylish and comfy through my backpacking adventures - a bit of a splurge but a great investment and lots of styles to choose from!

Globetrotting

Wanderlust. The itch to travel. The nomadic gypsy life. Whatever you may call it, I just switched over my old blog (bye bye crocodiledundeena *sniff*) to this new one to more accurately represent my travels. I will also be updating my blog through my upcoming eurotrip...and the countdown begins...

Meena Nanji, B.A.Sc. (Waterloo ON)

My university world is in 5 medium sized identical UHAUL boxes traveling across the country right now...how dramatic. It's been a full week and now I have some time to reflect...it seems so unreal that its over. I guess its been finishing in phases....my closest friends left while i was in Australia so this goodbye wasn't as crazy as it could have been...which is a good thing. I've been saying my goodbyes every four months for five years now...i'm used to it...but i still wouldn't say I'm too good at it.

I had no idea what to do with my fishy Electra...so i decided to set him free in Columbia Lake. I know i probably aided in its death by depositing it into dirty (possibly man made) waters where it will likely be eaten alive by bigger and more ferocious lake dwelling fish...but i guess the first couple of minutes of his freedom felt incredible when he realized he wasn't looking out through those glass walls. Oh the visceral irony of it all...how i wish i could stay in that glass bowl for a bit longer. Not one part of me is ready to enter those murky waters of real life.

The day of my last exam i decided to go incognito on this side of the world and do a little uni documentation of all the spots that meant something to me these past 5 years. Here they are below...

311 - the venue for pre-bar, post-bar, and themed parties, chilled out conversations, tv marathons, lots of laughter, cooking mishaps, post bar conversations lasting till the wee hours of morning...always good friends, always a distraction whenever needed...i'll miss it.

Currently named FUBAR (stands for Fu*kd Up Beyond All Recognition) but will always be Loose Change Louies in my heart! How many Thursday nights did we spend here...a hell of a lot thats how many....until Ceaser's came along.

Our regular Thursday night venue this past year...good times were had by all. The bouncers, the walks to and from in the freezing snow with open toe shoes, the lineups, the late entry and slamming double fisted doubles...

What were Friday nights in loo without Revolution? Although it changed throughout the years...the boys got ghetto-er, the girls got younger...the music got worse, the bar got a makeover...i guess we just got older. Memories of Moet, Pre-drinking with Hyp, checkered floors and lockers in the bathroom...how happy would we be when our 75 cents actually worked?? thats when we knew it would be a great Rev night...

And what would Rev be without Gino's after?? Although now called Campus Pizza...(was it ever called Ginos when i was around??), a night was never complete without a cab ride to Ginos...veggie pizza with garlic sauce, shooting the sh*t outside for a bit, post rev chilling session at our place...then sleeping through Saturday and S&TC on Saturday nights...then dc on sundays...that was the reg.

The walk to engineering...

My most favoritest bubble tea place ever! What great energy! I will miss their small chilled milk honeydew mango bubble tea with tapioca pearls :(

Ahhh Phat Cat gyros...and the gyro nazi...he was absolutely crazy but i still ate them for lunch at least 2wice a week...i dont know why i never just paid for the extra topping!!

Mel's was never our spot - but good milkshakes and rubbery eggs. Sugar mountain when we were in need of a sugar rush. And for all the sushi i ate here this term, i should have been called Mrs. Sushi.

DWE - the chem eng's home. Sitting in the same classrooms for hours on end while the non english speaking profs came in and out, stumbling over their words and offering brutal assignments as consolation...

The suffocating halls of DWE...


Ah, the pleasant smells of the 4th year room...the computers that were always locked and the mad rush to copy/finish assingments...my how our morale dropped as the years progressed...

Well, there it is folks. My university career in a nutshell...I'll miss my little fishbowl. Now onto the murky waters of real life...