Corrina's Travels..

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Todo Bien in Bruxelles, France and Spain.... OLE!

OK so the bed bugs have faded to scabby scars that only seem to itch nocturnally, i have bid adieu to my long term travel compadre Simone and now, three months since jetting out of Melbourne, have started what I have been mentally referring to as stage two of my travels for months; ENTER JAMES. after three long months of seperation we were emotionally reunited in Bruxelles. Soooo the original plan of meeting in Paris atop the Eiffel Tower (hey it´s a big land mark and its hard NOT to find someone ontop of a tower, surely..) turned to meeting at the Quick burger joint at the previously ill-fatedBruxelles train station. Not quite romance ala Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, but still plenty of drama and happy tears nontheless.. anyway i wont bore you with our joyous reunion but James and I spent a lovely couple of days in his friend Sebastian´s apartment. I was in heaven. For the first time in motnhs i actually had a home, an address that didnt involve a bunkbed number and my very own kitchen to play with!! i happily took to cooking up a solid spag bol infused with lots of celebratory red vino of course, (of course!) and Sebastian his girlfriend Gloria James and I all sat down to my first homecooked meal pretty much since leaving home. It was soooo nice to be so graciously welocmed into a home and looked after - thank you Sebastian!!!- was great to have a better peek at Bruxelles from a more local view point, and of course all the better to be doing so on the end of my long lost beau´s arm.. We saw the sights, tried a good fraction of Bruxelles thousand and one different brews of beer - i loved the cherry beer- so delicious!! Ate the very necessary quota of Waffles and potatoe frites with mayonnaise and then it was sadly time to go..

SO onto Paris we went!! I had a good feeeling about Paris. I had heard the rave reviews, seen the movies, the countless classic photographs but nothing really prepares you for being there. the first night was magic. Sure there was a few hectic moments running around avec backpacks trying to find accomodation (i am used to turning up to 40 bed dorms, not trying to get a double room at a hotel) we finally found a home for a night at an irresistably quaint hotel right in the midst of the city, complete with little balcony, five flights of creaky carpeted spiral staircases (tres sportif!) and plenty of Parisian traffic. Volia! We strolled down to the Seine river, walked the canals, happened across the beautifully lit Notre Damme and fell madly in love with the city that is impossible to resist, mais oui! Contrary to the very popular belief that French people are rude and unhelpful I found them to be by far the friendliest Europeans i have enountered on my travels thus far. The french are lovely passionate completely charming people, not once did we encounter so much as a grumpy busdriver! even they give way to you smiling and waving you through happily (sacre bleu!) OK so they make terrible coffee and the croissants are actually suspiciously better in spain, but in a little town Called Bayonne they make this biscuity custardy ridiculously delicious thing which makes even bad coffee forgiveable. It had me raving like a madwoman and hatching plans of abducting the chef back to australia. Anyway. we drank a lot of excellent very cheap local wine, ate more baguettes than you could poke.. well, poke a baguette at, pate, fromaige, croissants, yes we ate for Australia and somewhere in between managed to see all the sights as well. loved and adored france and cant wait for to go back in about a weeks time.. anway better cut onto spain as i am rambling and time is ticking..

Spain has been a surprising mix, we have eaten a lot of excellent tapas, a lot more red wine, i have fallen in love with Sangria and their version of the tortilla (it is eggy and kiche style thing filled wiht potatoe and egg and cheese and oooh yum drool) the spanish are a little grumpy, my spanish is as dodgy as ever but with lots of Por favor! and Los sSeintos! thrown in (i have a terrible habit of explainging to various locas that i dont pablo the espanola - ablo Corrina, ABLO) but we seem to be getting understood and james is doing expecptionally well with making reservations over the phone and even dropping in the odd bit of slang (por supesto!) to make us seem that little less cringo.. saw a flamenco show ¡last night that knocked our socks off, it was stunning and yet another thing to add to my 'i wish i could do that, must take classes when get back even though there is no chance in hell that with all the classes in the world i could ever move like that' list. we are currently in very lively very funky little spanish town of Granada, it stopped raining on us today FINALLY while france was gorgeous spain has been seen under the tiny shelter of my one red brolly betweent he two of us, and tomorrow we will explore granada further before catching over ngiht train to Barcelona.

So jsut to be completely out of order and recap in the same manner- we went to paris, onto a few smaller little towns on the way to spain, Bayonne, Biarritz, Tours.. then landed in San Sebastian where the weather was so lush we actually went for a swim!! then it was onto to Madrid, Cordoba (huge disappointment, touristy, rained whole time, there was boogers hanging off our hotel curtains and poo stuck on the outside of the toilet bowl wthat would have involved a feat of human acrobatics to get it there) Seville, and now Granada. i am very excited about prospect of spending a week in barcelona and then back into provencial france hopefully armed with my brazilian visa which we have to apply for in barcelona.

ok better go, sorry it has been so long between drinks (but i can assure you noone has been goin thristy over here!!! i am yet to have an alcohol free day, the best intentions somehow always end in bartenders mixing us up their own special version of sangrias which involves freepouring copious amounts of booze into a jug and adding fruit, and who are we to say no.. Ole!) i tried to post some piccies but this computer cant cope and after all my boozing, afternoon siesta snoozing and olympic eating efforts i think it best you remember me the way i was, before the nights of oh yes i will have another fifty portions of those fried fatty tasty little tapas things, muchas gracias.

hope you are happy and healthy mi amigos, buenos nochas, asta lueago!!! xxx


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