Sunday, November 30, 2014

Parisian streets

My trip was nearly finished, but I had a little bit of extra time in Paris before heading home.
The streets of Paris are exceptionally beautiful, and I find it enjoyable to just walk around.  Maya wanted to go to some markets in the city to buy some groceries, so I followed,  We bought a whole range of different vegetables, saucisson, pates.  All of the things you would expect to buy in a nice Parisian market.
Before we left, Maya wanted to get some dessert for dinner.  She took me to a patisserie called "Aux Merveilleux de Fred".  The patisseries specialised in merveilleux cakes, delicate little meringue cakes that were covered in cream.  We bought a box home for after dinner that night.
The weather was cold outside and as we left, we also decided to buy a loaf of chocolate brioche that had just come of the oven.  I sat in the car as Maya drove home with the warm loaf in my lap, slowly pulling out pieces to eat.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Nordic Christmas

It was definitely feeling more and more like Christmas was just around the corner.  Everywhere Phil and I went, there were more decorations and more and more people were dressed for the "festive season".  We decided we wanted to join in with some of the fun, so we made a reservation at a specialty restaurant that was doing "Julebord", which is pretty much just the Christmas version of a Swedish smorgasbord.  We wandered off to a bizarre former prison island, got lost, then eventually found the Julebord restaurant.  Inside, the place was filled with Swedes wearing Christmas sweaters, enjoying one another's company whilst politely eating their fill of the limitless food.  We were surprised by how polite and well mannered they all were given the nature of the meal.  Phil and I clearly didn't have the patience or the class of these Swedes as we attacked the food.  Our old boarding school mentality was still with us and having "unlimited food" in front of us seemed to trigger a response to test the limits of that claim.  The food itself didn't seem to be anything special.  There was a Scandinavian tilt towards it all and I've definitely never seen so much herring in one place at one time.  Still for the price of it all, I didn't think it was worth it other than to add to the list of experiences I've had.

We spent the rest of our time in Stockholm walking around and exploring.
Outside of the old town of Gamla Stan, Stockholm is a mix of historic old buildings and newer buildings that are probably best described as "modern brutalist".  There's a lot of concrete and a lot of steel.  Even some of the public walkways displayed this sleek and abrupt form of architecture.
As much as that look may appeal to some people, it was definitely the older style that I found nicer to look at.
The Christmas decorations definitely added to the atmosphere.  I felt the Christmas mood everywhere I went.  I've always loved Christmas, so this was very welcome to me.  The streets weren't yet covered in snow, but it was already more than cold enough for us to start enjoying some of the festive activities.
In the centre of town, a small Christmas market had been constructed.  We gathered around small fires, we ate the cakes, drank the glug and wandered through the shops looking at the strange traditional Swedish toys that were synonymous with Christmas and the region.  I often think of Christmas as being a fairly generic holiday for all, but the reality is that to this day, even in our globalised world, there are still many traditions for Christmas which are unique to different regions.  Here in Sweden, during Christmas they celebrate with little "Christmas trolls", which are bizarre little troll dolls which only appear during Christmas.  I'm sure there's a deeper meaning to them, but it was completely lost on me.
In the middle of everything was a large ice skating rink.
Kids dashed around with a confidence that neither of us had.  It made me wonder how different we would have been if we had been brought up in this environment instead of in Australia.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

The Wasa

I remember reading about the Wasa (or Vasa) when I was a kid.  I had to prepare an assignment and I found the sinking of the Wasa to be a fascinating topic.  It gave me a particular joy to be able to visit the actual ship now that I was in Stockholm.
Even after hundreds of years under the water, the ship was still impressive.  It was meant to be the flagship of the Swedish fleet during the height of Sweden's military power over the whole of Europe, so it was only fitting that it would have the most impressive new warship of the era.  Sadly for Sweden, the Wasa was a poorly designed ship and it sank on its maiden voyage as it was leaving the harbour.  According to reports, a wind slightly stronger than a breeze was enough to tip the ship, such were the issues with its balance.
Amazingly, the wreckage of the ship was rediscovered and refloated in the 60s.  Now, it has it's own climate controlled museum to house it.
I had sadly mistimed the trip a little bit.  My old friend Pete used to work on the restoration work relating to the Wasa and he was the still friends with the head of the archaeological work being done on this beautiful ship.  Unfortunately he was away at the very time I was in Stockholm, otherwise I would have been given the rare opportunity of actually boarding the ship itself.
Even without the opportunity to board the ship, being up close to the ship was a special experience.  It's one thing to look at pictures and videos, it's another thing entirely to be able to see the intricate details and to understand just how large the vessel is.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Old Stockholm

I arrived early in the evening in Stockholm.  It was already pitch black when I landed at Arlanda Airport.  I grabbed my bags and took the shuttle bus into the city.  The trip was fast, but there was nothing to see.  Along the road into Stockholm there was nothing but forests and the occasional strip mall.  There was something "desolate" about it all even though there were trees everywhere.  I didn't do much the first evening other than explore the area around Adam's apartment (which he was kindly letting me stay in).  I felt exhausted so I went to sleep. 

The next day Phil arrived from Norway. 

We took the time to walk around the old town of Stockholm, Gamla Stan, as much as we could.  It sits on an island in the middle of Stockholm and is filled with historic old buildings.
It "almost" feels like a theme park at times, but thankfully it doesn't quite reach those levels.  Instead, it remains a well manicured and idealised view into the past.  I don't in anyway think that these places used to look so good when they were full of the trash and garbage of people living here, but it's still a nice image to see.
We walked around town as much as we could.  It was hard to describe Stockholm with words other than "nice" or "clean".  Everywhere we went had that classy European vibe.  The people definitely added to this as well, as it probably had one of the most attractive populations I had seen anywhere.  Everyone was tall, slim and blonde.  Outdoor life and fitness continue to play an important part in Swedish life, and this showed with the people.
We got closer to the water and felt the chill of winds blowing in from over the sea.  It probably wasn't the most ideal of times to be in Stockholm.  It felt like everyone was hibernating a bit.  There wasn't much of a liveliness anywhere.  We found a warm cafe to sit down for some "Fika".  Inside the warmth of the cafe, with a hot cup of coffee and a slice of cake, people seemed to smile more and be happier.
At least everything looked incredibly pretty.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Suburbs of Paris

I always enjoy visiting Maya and Adam.  They don't live in the centre of Paris, but instead in the southern suburbs of the city closer to where Adam works.  I find that I'm able to get a very different experience staying with them than what other tourists see.  It's a more genuine experience of life in Paris and it's always relaxing and extremely pleasant.

One of my favourite things to do when visiting them is to go to Parc du Sceaux.
I've mentioned this park many times before, but it really deserves as much attention as possible.  It is one of my favourite parks in the entire world.  It's beautifully landscaped, and offers so much space for people to enjoy.  People flock to "famous" parks and gardens in Paris like the Tuileries and Versailles, but I think that Parc du Sceaux is better than both of them.
The size of the park is what impresses me every time.  To be able to maintain such an enormous park to such a high degree of quality would cost a fortune.  The pictures I take only capture a small portion of the entire park which also includes vast areas of forests and enormous man made lakes.
Maya had decided to go for our walk that day wearing a pair of flip flops.  It was a cold day and Adam and I had both put on heavier jackets.  Within the hour, she was complaining about how cold her feet were and so Adam kindly gave her his socks.

We walked up to the chateau which looked like it had some construction on it.  Instead of looking at construction work, we found ourselves in front of the set of some filming.  Turns out that Parc du Sceaux was being used as the filming location for a new drama called "Versailles" which would be coming out soon.  With it's grand architecture and vast expanse of gardens, this seemed like the perfect location for Versailles to be recreated.
The rest of our time was spent just walking around town.  We went to the markets, had lunch in the cafes.  It was just a nice and comfortable time without any particular rushing around.
On one evening, Maya and Adam got a babysitter and we all went out for dinner at a restaurant they had discovered.
It was located in an old French barn that had been converted into a fine dining restaurant.
The food was rich and traditionally French.  I ordered a grilled piece of foie gras for my entree and then followed it up with pan seared calves liver for my main.  I was feeling extremely full, but still decided that I wanted dessert and so I ordered the creme de marron for dessert.  It would all prove to be too much for me later, but it was a good dinner.  We sat by candlelight as we ate our fill and drank the wines on offer.  I hadn't been to any of the famous sights at all on this trip to Paris, and I didn't care about that at all.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Christmas approaching

Christmas was approaching fast.  Europe changes quite a bit over Christmas as people get ready for the festivities.  In Germany, the Christmas markets are a wonder to behold, with food and activities for everyone.

In France, the Christmas markets are a bit more muted.

I was in Paris to visit Maya and Adam and they suggested we go and look at some of the Christmas preparations.  We hopped in their car and they told me that we'd be heading to Le Defense.... that seemed very strange to me.  Le Defense is probably the least French place in all of France.  It is outside of the limits of "Paris", and is probably the main business district for Paris.  It's where all the big companies are headquartered and there really isn't all that much to the place.
It turns out that every year, there's a big Christmas market that gets set up at La Defense.
It's not as a good as the epic German ones I've seen, but living in Australia meant that I was starved of any of these events more generally.
It was still very early in the "Christmas season" so the market turned out to be relatively empty.  Thankfully the stores were all already open so I was able to get my fill of the food and random sights.
The all of the cooked cheese was particularly enticing.  I stared down the wheels of raclette being grilled before I settled on a big plate of tartiflette.
I'm fairly sure I can get most of these foods in Australia, but it really isn't the same without the cold weather.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Spanish art

Phil was on a real winning streak with our choice of accommodation.  He had found us a great little apartment in Madrid that was in the middle of a triangle of galleries and a short walk from the famous Puerta del Sol.

We spent much of our days walking through these incredible museums and galleries that Madrid had.  The quality of the exhibitions and displays were very good, mixing the traditional art you would expect to see in any large European gallery with more contemporary pieces.
Our favourite gallery was definitely the Reina Sofia.
The building itself was a blend of new and old.  A classic old European structure that had been encased with modern elements.
It was like much of Madrid.  The old elements were all there and they were well maintained.  Yet the modern was also blended into the city.  It felt natural, like it had developed according to a pre-determined plan.
A few days wasn't enough and we wished we had more time.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Madrid

After a few days of partying in Barcelona, Phil and I boarded the fast train for Madrid.

It was convenient, comfortable and actually went incredibly fast.  Australia has been mulling the development of a fast train network for decades, but it's hard to appreciate what we're missing until you actually ride one.  The process of getting to and from the station is so much quicker and you don't have the same hassle of having to go through the usual pre-boarding routine.  It's also nice to be able to just go to a train station in the middle of town and not have to schlep out to an airport on the far outskirts.

Phil had found us another great apartment in the middle of town.  It was in fact right in the middle of a triangle of museums and galleries which would prove handy.

The Barcelona and Madrid divide is famous around the world.  Geographically, they aren't far apart, but there's a huge gap culturally and politically.  You could see it quite quickly from the moment you arrived.  Madrid just looks different.  Barcelona has the look of a Mediterranean city, it's relaxed and the buildings have the "look" of a Mediterranean city.  Madrid on the other hand is classically European.  It has the grand and traditional style of architecture you would expect when visiting Europe.  Even the people seem more serious. 
I quickly liked Madrid.  I liked it a lot.  The city was full of parks and monuments, incredible museums and beautiful galleries.  At night the city was just as lively as Barcelona, with bars and restaurants everywhere.  As much as I enjoyed my time in Barcelona, I think I enjoyed myself more in Madrid.  The bar culture was one of the best I had ever seen and the food at each place was fantastic.  For an inland city, I was surprised by how seafood focused all the bar snacks were.  We ate calamari sandwiches, mussels, baby eels, cod croquettes, gambas.  All of it delicious, but not what I expected at all.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Gaudi's Spain

The city of Barcelona really does belong to Gaudi.  Culturally, aesthetically, architecturally.  He left his stamp on this city and whenever people think of it, they generally think of his style.  Everywhere in the city, you can see imitations of his style and his masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia dominates the Barcelona skyline.

No first time visitor to Barcelona can avoid his works and so Phil and I both lined up to pay homage to this famed architect.  

My initial impressions weren't positive.

Standing in front of the cathedral, you feel overawed by its size.  It's a huge structure, but that being said, there have been other cathedrals I've stood in front of which have felt more imposing.  Looking at the detail, I also didn't quite get it.  There was no doubt that the design was incredibly unique and it was nothing like any other cathedral I had seen before.  As much as a looked at it though, I didn't really see the beauty in it.  It looked like it had been made from sand and I didn't like the shape of it at all.  Even in its state of ongoing construction, there was something very unfinished about the structure, even the parts that were meant to be complete.  It felt like blasphemy to have these thoughts, but when I looked over at Phil he seemed to be equally unimpressed.
The line to get in moved slowly.  Thankfully we had arrived early, the number of people in the line behind us continued to grow well past where had started.  At last, we got to go inside.

My attitudes switched completely when I was inside the cathedral.
I found the inside of the Sagrada Familia to be worthy of being described as breath taking.  It was a bright and open space, with thin white pillars that seemed almost alien in their design.  They reached high into the ceiling like some otherworldly trees, with branches spreading out to hold up the roof.  The intricacies which I found to be a bit strange and unattractive on the outside of the building were stunningly beautiful on the inside.  Every other cathedral I had ever been to was generally quite dark on the inside.  There would be certain sections which were a bit more lit up, but in general they weren't places that shone with natural light.  The Sagrada Familia on the other hand welcomes the light in.  The stained glass windows are unsurprisingly enormous and lovely, but when combined with the whiteness of the stone they seemed to give the entire interior a lovely glow.
I couldn't help but think about all of the sci-fi movies and space operas I had watched over the years.  The interior of this cathedral felt like something from one of those movies, like it was a monument built by some advanced civilisation who had skills and engineering far exceeding what we had now.  I thought about it a bit more and realised that my thinking was probably back to front.  This cathedral wasn't like those movies, it was those movies that were in fact like this cathedral!  This cathedral was itself the inspiration to all of those other artists, writers and directors and not vice-versa.

We had bought tickets which would let us go to the top.  That's one thing about my travels I've always done, I've always tried to get to the top if at all possible.  Most European cities are quite low, so the top of the cathedrals often offer the best vantage spot to see the entire city.  The Sagrada Familia was no different.  When we reached the top, we could see far out into the distance of Barcelona.
We left the Sagrada Familia and continued our "Gaudi tour".  We caught the suburb a bit further out to have a look at Park Guell.
The entire park was built and designed by Gaudi, so everything had his unique style and look.  From a location perspective, it was also a great place to see Barcelona as it's set on a hill looking across Barcelona all the way to the ocean.  Everything building, staircase, monument and statue was "Gaudi".  There were no hard lines or corners, everything was curved and flowing.  There were also lots of examples of the mosaics that Gaudi loved to apply to his works.  I still wasn't sure if I really liked it all that much, but I was definitely starting to appreciate it more.  Like the Sagrada Familia, it was just such a unique approach to design.  It all felt and looked more natural, it looked like the structures belonged to the landscape and had grown from their surroundings rather than merely being imposed into nature.  It again made me think of some sci-fi movies I had watched and I really did wonder how much of an inspiration he had been for many of their writers.
By this stage in the day we were tired.  Well... I was tired.  I always prided myself in my ability to walk non-stop when traveling, but Phil more than had my measure.  We were in Spain, so eventually I had to say "no mas".  I needed food.  We walked down from the park and wandered into the first churreria we saw.  It seemed legitimate enough and when we checked on our phones, it turned out to be one of the most highly regarded churrerias in the city.  We were the only people in the shop and the man behind the counter made our orders fresh.  We picked up the still hot churros and when we bit into them they still had a satisfying crunch.  Combined with the small cup of hot and thick chocolate, it was pick me up I needed to keep walking.
We managed to walk most of the way back to the Gothic Quarter.  It was a long walk, but it gave us a chance to see the city.  Once you leave the main areas, everything clears out significantly and it starts to feel like any other city, albeit with prettier architecture.  We had been given a strong recommendation to go and visit a restaurant near our apartment called "Cal Pep", so we went back to the apartment to change before heading over.

Cal Pep itself is a bit strange, it's half restaurant and half bar.  The most famous part is probably the open bar area where you sit and see the food being prepared in front of you.  There isn't really a fixed menu and you are served the seafood that the chefs considered to be the best choices out of the market that day.  We waited in line to get a seat at the bar.  The line was long, but everyone was quite happy to sit along the back wall and experience the laughter and banter from the chefs and waiters in front.  They were loud and they were enjoying themselves.  Even as we waited, we weren't ignored and we were able to order bottles of wine to help with the wait.  It's probably the only time I've ever enjoyed lining up.

After we finished our bottle, we reached the front of the line and we were seated at the bar.  The long wait is probably one of the best methods for Cal Pep to drive its business, as watching a variety of different dishes being served to those in front of us meant that we were ravenous.  Our friendly waiter brought us another bottle of wine and asked us what we wanted.  "Chef's choice" was our response, imitating what most others seemed to also chose.  My only requirement was that I wanted one of the plates to be razor clams (though I think they're actually called jackknife clams).  The waiter seemed more than happy with our choice.
The food was as advertised.  Everything was as fresh as I had hoped and just as well cooked.  Each dish was an example of the best that the region's sea had to offer.  I got my clams, we had langoustines, calamari, fish .... all of it cooked to push the fresh flavour of the ingredient.  The waiter was great and continued to joke with us throughout the meal.  The one time he was more serious was when he brought out my razor clams (jackknife clams?), he changed into an instructor and told us that we weren't to use our knives.  He motioned to eat each of the whole clams in one go.  We obeyed his commands, pulled each clam out of its shell by hand and ate them in one mouthful.  His guidance had been right.  After everything arrived and was devoured, Phil looked at me and asked "one more dish?"  Seemed like a good idea.  We asked for one more plate and the waiter arranged it all with a smile.
We hadn't yet reached the point of too much of a good thing, so pushing it a bit further seemed to be the way to go.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Barcelona

Switzerland was a lot of fun.  Seeing all my old friends was alone worth the trip.  However, it was time to move on to the next location.

I had arranged to catch up with Phil and we both decided to go spend a week in Spain.  I hadn't seen Phil for a while, and it had been years since I had been to Spain.  The first time I went, I only spent time in the south of Spain as well, so I was looking forward to the opportunity to go to some of the more famous locations.  I arrived in Barcelona not too long before Phil's flight from Norway.  We made our way into Barcelona together where Phil had arranged our accommodation.  He had found us an amazing little apartment in the Gothic Quarter on a lane just off to the side of the famous La Rambla.  We walked up a few stories and found ourselves a simple and bare apartment.  It didn't have any special comforts or luxuries, but it did have a small balcony that looked out onto the lane.
After we settled, we went for a walk around the city.
La Rambla has a reputation as one of the loveliest pedestrian malls in the world.  Within a few minutes of walking around, it was clear to us that it was a well deserved reputation.  The Spanish poet Frederico Garcia Lorca apparently once said of La Rambla that it was "the only street in the world which I wish would never end."
It wasn't hard to understand the thinking.  The street has a combination of architecture, restaurants, markets and a general atmosphere that come together to make it incredibly lively in an exceptionally beautiful setting.  The paths are so wide that even when you have thousands of people walking along the street, there still seems to be space for everyone.
We went looking for a bar within the Gothic Quarter.  Walking down the narrow side streets, we walked past various restaurants and bars full of people.  We walked past some ladies who tried their very best to solicit our business, when we declined they began to blow raspberries at us... hilarious...  We eventually found a very old looking bar off one of the side streets.  We ordered some gins and then moved onto some absinthe.  The bars in the area all seemed to be museum pieces themselves.  They weren't all in the best condition, but there was something about their worn down facades that made everything seem more genuine and real.

Friday, November 14, 2014

The Alps

It was still very early in the ski season, but since I had the opportunity, I thought I would try and ski.  I wouldn't be going just anywhere to do this either, I would go to ski in the Swiss Alps!

Living in Australia has always made skiing an expensive and difficult hobby to maintain.  It's been even harder with the knee injury and subsequent surgery.  The recent attempt at skiing in Dubai had been a nice test of the knee since the surgery.  It had been successful, so it seemed like it was now the time to increase the intensity of the testing.

It had been great staying with Zubi and his family in Bern.  He dropped me off at the train station and I started heading towards the Alps.  Of all the different ski resorts close to Bern, one of the closest happened to be Zermatt.  I had read about this place since I was a kid and most people are familiar with the unique profile of the Matterhorn (anyone who has ever eaten a Toblerone should be familiar with its shape).  I had been on a lot of incredible train rides recently, but the train ride up to Zermatt was probably the best I had ever been on in my life.  It was a slow and scenic train with big windows that covered half the roof of the carriages.  Sitting back, you could look up and see high into the mountains.
I arrived in Zermatt late in the afternoon.  The sun was setting and there was a chill in the air.  The two itself was quiet.  It was again, the very beginning of the ski season, and so the town was largely still in set up mode.  I didn't know it until I arrived, but Zermatt doesn't allow cars, so walking around the town is a relaxing activity free of any need to be careful.
It was too late in the day to go skiing, so I just wandered around the town.  It had been a while since I had experienced any real cold weather, so I was enjoying being able to breath the cold air and the chill on my skin.
The next day I headed straight up the mountain.  I was surrounded by skiers and boarders who were all chatting about how terrible the snow was, but none of this really mattered for me.  Being able to ski again after all these years was what was important to me.  I skied for most of the day and I was nothing short of terrible.  All those years away meant that my technique was gone and even basic carving was something I needed to relearn.  I didn't care at all though.  I had a great time!  Every now and again, I heard other skiers talking about how few runs were open.  It amazed me that they could complain about this.  Even with the limited runs, it was still possible for me to ski on runs that were 6 or 7 kilometres long.  These bad conditions were still twice as long as even the very best runs in perfect conditions in Australia.
As I carefully navigated myself down the slopes, every now and again I would stop and look back towards the Matterhorn.  It felt surreal to be skiing in its shadow, to be able to enjoy this experience of skiing in one of the world's great alpine locations with a backdrop this beautiful.  As I finished my day skiing, I sat in a restaurant looking out of a window at the Matterhorn.  I ordered a rosti with egg and bacon, which seemed to be the appropriate meal for the occasion.  I thought about whether to go and ski more, but before I could make the decision a huge storm started to roll in over the mountains.  The clear skies disappeared and the lifts were closed.  The skiing was over, but it had been a good day.