Planes, trains, and automobiles

And buses.

Hello, Dali. Spending our last day in Spain at the Dali Museum in Figueres was the perfect way to end our Spanish adventure. So crazy talented, this one. I loved it all, and was especially loving his rock works from 1978. I also couldn't get enough of "Gala naked watching the sea..."

Far away and close-up!

I am very proud of Heather and myself. We were awesome road trippers. Heather was an excellent navigator, and I was (mostly) confident behind the wheel - parking is not my forte. Rock solid tunes, cheese and baguette, a trip to remember. Clocked a solid 1645km on the road trip portion of our journey over five days - Barcelona to Santiago to Compostela. Stops included a night in Torla, at the base of the Pyrenees mountains - where the town, pop. 7, knew we had arrived as I had driven the too-narrow single climbing street in search of our hostel, only to have to back up because two cars needed to leave. This involved two Spanish men taking their turn at the wheel, as clearly, doing such a reverse on such tight and descending roads is not in my comfort zone, and these people had places to go. I was a stress case, and Heather, though supportive (thanks dear), had a good chuckle. I was able to smile once the whole ordeal was through. Getting there was our first stretch of driving, just over 300km, which involved leaving Barcelona (we successully got out of the bustling city) and winding mountain roads, in the dark. We came across a rare species, the geep shoat (shoat, as the locals call it), standing in the middle of the pitch black road. We had a good chuckle about that. And we had this middle-of-nowhere hostel to ourselves. It was so cosy and cabin-like, and provided us with a solid rest, before our three consecutive nights of sleeping in the car. The next day, en route to San Sebastian, we picnic-ed in Pamplona. Unfortunately, no bull sightings.

I could live in San Sebastian. It's the perfect combination of mountains and seaside, sun and surf. Big enough, but not too large. A diverse population of young and old, everyone happy to be out and about. Ahh.

We spent some time in Bilbao after San Sebastian. Perhaps it's all relative, but this wasn't so much our scene. Look at the circumstances though - we had just left San Sebastian, and we were going on our third day of sleeping in the car. The Guggenheim was a DEFINITE highlight though. There was a Frank Lloyd Weber exhibition, in addition to the other fabulous displays (favourites include Bird Effort - Pollock, Stables - Franz Marc, Newspaper and Fruit Dish and Houses in Paris - both Gris, and Landscape with Rolling Hills - Kandinsky), and the architecture and building itself. Such sensual curves - modelled after Frank Gehry's subconscious fascination with fish. The titanium (scales?) on the building's exterior was created just so, such that light reflects it a certain way. No detail goes unnoticed eh? "The Matter of Time" exhibit is such a psychological trip...messing with your perception and balance as you wander the curves and toruses and spheres and ellipses and spirals...the physics just boggles my mind.

Our biggest driving stretch was Bilbao to Carballo, about 700km or so. We did this starting around 4:30 one afternoon, driving well into the night. We couldn't resist stopping in a tiny town to dramatically run into the Bay of Biscay. Refreshing. The next morning we drove about another hour, to Fisterra, Costa de la Muerte, the coast of death and the end of the world. We hiked to the peak, with lighter and clothing in tow, with plans to perform the ceremonial burning and cleansing of the soul. It was really more a metaphorical cleansing of the soul for us in the end, as our concern for safety and the environment took over. Views and feelings that go on forever...and of course a stop to run into the Atlantic ocean was a must as well.

Sleeping in a car went something like this: night one - just outside San Sebastian. We found a small port village, and checked it out. We had pulled over at one point to check our map. The police did not like this, so we decided to leave that area. We ended up finding a parking lot just off of the highway. It was a nervous first night in the car, and both of us had nightmares. The second night we found an industrial area outside of Bilbao. There were other cars around, and it was a success. The third night we opted to check out another industrial area, just outside of Carballo. We had parked and were in our pjs, just shutting our eyes, when a car flashed it's headlights, signalling us to get out. I didn't even get a chance to put my shoes back on...we just beelined it out of there. Eesh! We drove around, so exhausted, trying to find an alternative. We settled on something obvious - a spot in a Carrefour/gas station lot. We figured we would look less troublesome since we weren't trying to hide. So we finally got to sleep by about 1am. Around 6am, we get a wake-up call, via headlights from a police car behind us. Correction, Heather gets a wake-up call and desparately tries to get me to come to. The next thing we know the cop is shining a flashlight into the car. Shoot. Heather frantically grabs our map and her translation dictionary, and opens the door with a heart-breaking "no comprende!". Of course, nothing has been said yet, and the officer smiles and says "Buenos dias?" Heather explains in purposely-broken Spanish complete with actions, just to ham it up as she had actually studied the language in Uni, that we had been driving for a very long time and were too tired to continue and had to pull over to sleep. He is very friendly and understanding, and points us to a place less than 100m from us, that it is legal for us to park. *PHEW!* So we relocate and get some more sleep.

Giving the car up in Santiago to Compostela was bittersweet. It provided such freedom, our own timeline for travel, our living space in the back seat, but all the one-way streets in our final city were enough to drive us bonkers, so it was a fond farewell in the end. With only a few minor directional hiccups (thank goodness for multiples goes around the roundabouts), it was a definite success. And Heather and I haven't killed each other!

Before our 3 helpings of paella, we had some time in Bristol and Bath in England (both of which I could easily live in as well). We arrived on virtually no sleep, as we hopped on an overnight bus out of Radom, right after work, on the Friday of our holidays. It took us to Wroclaw to fly to Bristol. Our ambitious sight-seeing plan got wiped and we ended up spending our first day at a pub, sampling the many wonderful local ciders. And eating pie and mash. Our second day was more productive, as we made our way to Bath, and got a tour of the surrounding area and Stonehenge. We made a stop in Lacock, and saw Harry Potter's house, and walked the streets of (Colin Firth's) Pride and Prejudice, and The Other Boleyn Girl. We saw Peter Gabriel's house on the way too.

Then we flew to Girona. (M-m-m-my Girona!) We stayed half a day wandering, then headed to Barcelona. Ah sunshine. Thank you Spain. Such a treat. We spent what felt like the better part of that day plotting how to get to oranges down from the trees...how juicy and perfect they looked. We jumped. We threw sticks. Heather climbed on my back. We looked for a ladder. Fail.

Barcelona's fabulous. It's vibrant, the market on La Rambla is awesome, there's water and palms. We weren't feeling the club-style nightlife however. Of course we ended up befriending some Scots and Irish and went out with them one night, but we stuck to the pub scene. Heather chopped her hair, we shopped unnecessarily, we ate, it was a good time.

Five flights later, I ended my winter break in Munich, to visit Kathleen (high school friend)! Of course the one time I miss one of my train connections is when I am meeting up with someone and the battery in my cell-phone has died. It all worked out though. I stayed with Kathleen in Bad Worishofen the first night, where she is the au-pere to a delightful family of four kids, who own an inn. We went out for dinner and caught up, and every so often would catch ourselves and say, "Oh my goodness. We're hanging out in Germany!" For lunch the next day, her host grandmother made kasespatzle...it was sooooooooooo good. Then Kath and I headed to Munich for a night out. We checked into our hostel, grabbed some dinner, grabbed some beer, hung out, then headed out to a club. It was a wonderful night for sure. Saturday we wandered, and enjoyed the city, until we had to part ways. I took an overnight train from Munich to Vienna, Vienna to Warsaw, and arrived back in Radom, just this morning. Felt like I was away for a long time. Very nice. Oh. And I read two books.

The Spanish are a lovely people - so friendly and happy and laid back. The German train system can't be beat. When I missed my second connection, I had to train further then backtrack. The conductor was so nice and told the train I had to catch that there was a mix-up (I had been travelling for about 24 hours at this point, on little sleep, and thought I only had one transfer, not two) and not to charge me another ticket. Polish rail, on the other hand (see stories in previous posts), will do ANYTHING to get more money from you.

Happy Valentine's day to all. Love. xo

Hola from the road!

Just thought I´d say a quick hello. In Bilbao and going to check out the Guggenheim tomorrow morning, before the final stretch of our road trip journey to Santiago de Compostela. The weather has been FABULOUS...SO much sunshine, 14 degrees; a real treat for February. Heather is a most amazing road trip navigator extraordinaire, with me behind the wheel. Everything from city driving (leaving Barcelona, Pamplona, San Sebastian, and Bilbao) to winding roads in the mountains, and coast and seaside. What a life eh?

San Sebastian has made it to my top 5 list...for SURE. The combination of beach and mountains, and active city life is beyond perfect. THERE ARE SURFERS, just hanging out and doing their thing on the beach amidst the city.

Warmth and hugs to all.

Supply and demand

Round two of substitute teaching ensued on Wednesday. Fortunately I didn't have to cancel any of my classes this time. They were of the quiet side of the spectrum - teenagers - but still happy to be involved.

I realized why I can survive as a supply teacher. I learn names...fast. In all five classes I stepped in for this week, I knew the students' names within five minutes. This allows me to include everyone - calling on students to participate. It also allows me to call out the names of those not-so on task. It makes people feel good too, when you know their name. Now when I see some of those students in the halls at the school, they wave or say hi or smile. Yes, I never noticed until now how handy my ability to learn names quite quickly could be. Not to toot my own horn or anything...

I have this one student in Koz on Fridays who always asks the most amusing questions - he clearly watches a lot of American films. He's asked the meaning behind such words and phrases as, "gonna", "wanna", "Hasta la vista, baby", and "hardcore". Attentive little 11-year-old he is. I always look forward to his inquiries.

I've gotten into a routine on Thursday with the secretary at the Radom school. I am the last teacher done, so when she closes up we take the bus together. (The other evenings I just walk home.) She lives in the same building as I do. Once her husband picked us up, and that was a real treat. This week, he picked us up twice!! SO EXCITING given the crazy-below zero temperatures we've been having. The little things make me smile.

It was a balmy -1 today. It's getting messy outside, after our regular -20 temperatures. It's supposed to get quite cold again though. Good thing Heather and I are LEAVING FOR SPAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TWO WEEK WINTER BREAK! WOOO!

We take an overnight bus tomorrow after work, to Wroclaw (pronounced Vroh-suave), where we catch a morning flight to Bristol. We're in Bristol overnight, then we fly to Girona Sunday. Then we'll head to Barcelona, and traverse the northern coast...as west as Santiago de Compostela. Ahhh...an adventure of hiking and outdoors! Weatherman is calling for about 12 degrees and sunshine, so fingers crossed!

I'm making a pitstop in Munich on my way back to Poland, to visit Kathleen!!!! It will be good to see someone from home!!

I may be slightly regretting my choice to live off of a homemade three-bean and chickpea salad over the passed few days, pre-planes, -trains, and -automobiles (Buses too.) It seemed like a good idea at the time...

Time to finish packing...! I'll be on hiatus while away. I'm sure I'll have lots to tell when I return! Sending warmth and sunshine to those who need it, and love always. xo

Substitute gig

Today I got to experience the role that is substitute teacher. I think I got a good glimpse of all the reactions - one group was quiet, well-behaved, pleasant, and willing to participate. Another group was very keen to participate, louder than the previous. The third group took advantage of the situation and spoke too much Polish, but they had a good time (some may call this noisy) and were happy to be involved. The last group was the timid, don't-know-what-to-say-because-I'm-nervous-around-a-new-teacher sort. It was alright though. All in all, a decent experience. I covered Irene's classes; bosses call. I haven't had to cancel any classes yet, so they cancelled my Monday routine. This would have been Irene's third or fourth cancelled Monday. Angry parents were involved. I missed my Koz classes today!

Had a most FABULOUS weekend in Warsaw. Really. Always fun catching up with Martin. Heather and I caught a train out of Radom Friday evening...the last one leaves at 9:26pm; we arrived at the station straight from our schools in Kozienice and Pionki. The teachers I drive with on Fridays were kind enough to pick Heather up on our way back to Radom, and drop us right at the train. We bought our ticket, and boarded when the train arrived. When the train attendant came around to collect tickets, she said ours was the wrong kind of ticket, and that we had to buy another on the train - twice the price of what we paid. With the help of the woman sitting with us and Heather's dictionary, we conveyed that it's not our fault - the woman at the train station sold us a ticket for the train! It arrived, and we got on! So the attendant goes and has a bit of a shouting match with someone more senior, I presume. So the second attendant comes, and is now telling us we must pay for a new ticket (and his price has gone up from the first attendant's). We can't pay the difference, we need a new ticket entirely. The train station will refund us our other ticket, he says. We stand strong and say it's not our fault. This goes on for a good twenty minutes. He finally walks away, after we hear the words police and passport. The woman sitting with us says that we must find him and pay. We decide that he can come to us. The woman is so apologetic, that we had to deal with that. We were the same, feeling bad that she had to get involved. Time passes, and we're approaching Warsaw. Hey, the train guy hasn't come back...! A few minutes before arriving though, he is back, ranting on in Polish (he should know by now we don't understand!) about (later translated by lady) this being his livelihood and his job...in the end though, he dropped the charge for the new ticket. GOOD!

We got to our hostel just after midnight, woke up Martin to say hello and goodnight, and drifted off to sleep. Saturday we spent having a leisurely breakfast (we packed food) at the hostel. Then we ventured out to the end of the street, to have coffee. After this we went to the movies - Sherlock Holmes SO GOOD - then went for an early dinner. We grabbed some drinks to take back to the hostel, and settled in to the common room to relax (because we had such a hard day)! Haha We put on "Four Weddings and a Funeral". The gal working at reception totally made popcorn for us! We headed out to our fave bar for the night, and drank too much. But boy did we have fun. Blame the Brits! *coughMARTINcough*

Sunday we made our way to the mall for our respective trains - back to Bonn for Martin, and Radom for us girls. We had intended on a relaxing weekend, indoors away from the FREEZING cold weather we've had. And that's just what we did. The return to Radom on Sundays gets sadder and sadder. Thank goodness the sun was beautiful.

Still here!

Hello!

Check Budapest, Vienna, and Bratislava posts again...pictures are up!! (They're Heather's.)

I can't believe it's been over a week since I've written! I've been thinking lots about my camera being stolen (I should really get over it, I know), but in the context of New Year's Eve. I've always heard that what you're doing NYE sets the stage for the year. Ok, so then last week I got to thinking that if my camera was stolen, perhaps it will be a year of things getting taken from me, captured from me. Perhaps it will be the year someone takes my heart. Yes, I said it. I'm still a hopeless romantic. Haha Of course the night I had this thought I dreamt that my wallet got stolen...although there wasn't much in it. So THERE, stealer person. Take that.

I was successful last weekend in Warsaw, in finding a new camera!

My belated birthday celebrations were fun. Nothing too crazy, just me, Heather and the dance floor. We tried some new places in Warsaw we had heard about, but returned to old faithful - it's called Krytyka. It's where we went for Heather's birthday. No stage this time, but a trumpet player instead! Alternative influenced jazz stuff. It was wonderful. The next day in the mall, I went insane briefly. I was making a clothing purchase, and the man at the cash had to remove that grey plastic tab thing that was on the item. Instantly I mimicked the sound once it was done. Why? WHY?? Heather was impressed with the accuracy of it. I saw the cashier smiling too. Then I lost all control and couldn't stop laughing. I was fighting back tears. This is what living in Poland has done to me.

Wednesday, Irene, Heather and I tried the new sushi restaurant in Radom. We were pleasantly surprised! IT WAS GOOD! (Although we all chose safe things - avoiding raw fish - but still!)

It's been the coldest week here so far, I believe. Thank goodness for my red winter coat. Heather and I have been busy planning the details of our Spain trip (we leave in a week!). We fly into Barcelona, and we're going to traverse the northern coast - we'll see the Pyrenees and do some hiking, and go as far west as Santiago de Compostela. SO EXCITED! In the mean time, we're heading to Warsaw again this weekend. Martin - who I met up with at Oktoberfest and met travelling summer 2008 - is meeting up with us. Yey!!

Sending love and good thoughts to all those who may need it. Thinking of you and love you.

"These boots are made for walking" is too predictable

The teenagers here are sensible. They're the ones walking around in flat-footed boots. It's the women and their mothers wearing heeled boots - braving the depths of the ice and snow, holding up the too-narrow and barely-there sidewalk remains (as shovelling is NO priority here), by shuffling ever-so-carefully in their less-than-perfect choice of foot attire. *phew* I fit in with the adolescent crowd.

There is a new guy at the gym. Not one of the regular faces, and I would know, as I am one of the regular faces. So I saw him at the gym on Sunday. He was there again yesterday. He came up to me, and in very good English says, "I hear you're from Canada. The others told me. What are you doing in Poland?" Long story short, he's here visiting his parents for three weeks, and has been living in Tennessee for five years. What a surprise! To hear English, at the small excuse of a gym in Radom, Poland! (Well, there are hellos and other basics from the guys there, and the front desk guy Heather and I have befriended speaks really well...but I'm still allowed to be taken aback!) We're going to (try and) meet up for coffee, as he wants to practice his speaking. Yey for new friends!

In one of my favourite (shhh) groups last Friday, in Kozienice, I kicked two students out of my class. They were being far too disruptive. I don't like having to be Miss Strict, but there's a time and place. I walked them to the secretary's office. When I came back to the class without them, the other students asked where they were. With an unflinching straight face, I told them that I sent the boys outside to stand in the cold and snow. Am I bad? I let them come back after five minutes. It was enough that they got the idea.

On Saturday, Heather introduced me to the perfect man, over Chinese takeout: Lloyd Dobler, John Cusack's irresistibly loveable character in Say Anything. Of course, Heather found him first and therefore gets dibs. We also watched The Cutting Edge. I'd be happy to take D.B. Sweeney's Doug Dorsey. Thank you, Heather, for increasing my man standards to a whole new level of unattainable. Oh. And of course after watching a movie about figure skating, we had to YouTube (yes, YouTube as a verb) videos of the great Kurt Browning. You know you love him, too.

There is a new sushi restaurant in Radom. Shocking, I know.

I underestimate Radom's quaintness at times. And for that, Radom, I apologise. All the snow really is lovely. Postcard-worthy, the way it hugs the trees. And the lights downtown still look magical, post-Christmas.

Warsaw this weekend for belated birthday (that's me!) celebrations!! Tata for now.