Christmas in Cornwall

I had hoped to be able to spend Christmas with the family in St Agnes, and, for once, it wasn't me disorganisation, but rather not knowing whether I had to work after christmas that stopped me booking travel a reasonable time in advance when it wouldn't've been ridiculously expensive. When I finally convinced the boss to tell me that he didn't want me to work over the break, I went online to look for transport as quickly as I could.. then I baulked at the price.., then I thought about the cost of airfares from NZ, and not knowing when I'll next be in the uk and have a chance to see them, I decided that it was worth it. After too much fear of missing my flight, and the resultant long period of hanging around in the airport waiting for the flight, I arrived in Newquay at about 6pm, and found Ian and Jenny waiting for me. Half an hour later, We showed up at The Croft, where a glass of G'n'T appeared in my hand, and shortly later I was sitting at the table enjoying a delicous meal (prepared by means of argument between Rob and Richard)... and the wonderful company of 16 relatives.., (of varying distance)

After a night of fun, drinking too much, games (articulate) and catching up, I crawled off to bed for a good night's sleep, ready to explore an abandoned mine the next morning... morning came and went, and by mid afternoon, we were walking along to road to a location I probably shouldn't name, which was renamed to “another name I probably shouldn't mention” during the course of our exploration. Unfortunately, before leaving, I was warned that I would return caked in mud so I left my camera behind.., The mine was quite an experience... far more expansive than anything I've had the opportunity to explore in New Zealand. Lots of branching tunnels, some short drives with dead ends, and large caverns in other places where seems of Ore had been found. Pockets of foul smelling (and sometimes dizzying) air, clayey cave-ins, old propping and shoring, some of it intact, and some quite definitely collapsed.

After about 4 hours of wandering around underground, we climbed about 35m of steel ladders (some recent work had been carried out in the 90's) and emerged in the yard behind a factory, lights were turned off and stealthy progress made to the driveway, followed by ducking through a hole under the wire fence, and a scramble down the hill. After a couple of quiets at the local pub, we headed back to a hungry and slightly impatient crew at The Croft. We ate, drank, and headed into the village for a few more drinks at the pub before midnight mass at the church, across the road. High Church (or “bells and smells” as I fondly know it) is quite an experience to have whilst rather tipsy and carrying an over-inflated bladder.

Christmas Day started around 10am.., with a glass of Buck's fizz (bubbly mixed with orange juice), breakfast, and a quick trip to the beach for the local Christmas traditional swim... keeping up the Doble tradition of arriving pretty much when everyone else is getting out of the water. ...............

Boxing day saw us heading out to Gwethian to fly kites...trivial pursuit

the 27th was a bit of a detox day with less drinking and 3 hours of walking along the cliffs, althoguh we didn't make it as far as porthowan before, stopping for a picnic lunch, then returning via the beacon.

Sunday the 28th was my last day, and luckily I managed to squeeze in a quick bit of kiting before catching the coach from newquay to London at 3pm.

Edinburgh.., the lead up to Christmas.

After a few more weeks of blogging silence, I figure it's about time to post again. Things have been relatively busy.., possibly not especially interesting, but exciting none the less. Work's been a little slow coming into Christmas, although we did spend a couple of days delivering Christmas trees 35 one day and 46 the next.., ranging in height from 6 feet to 12. It's amazing to see the look of joy on the faces of a hall full of school kids when you bring their tree in, set it up, and cut the wrapping so it unfolds dramatically in front of them. Although, surprisingly, the looks of joy aren't too dissimilar to those on the faces of receptionists in offices and hotels.

Because Work's been slow, I have been able to spend quite a bit of time at the church/building site in Georgie. It's kinda surreal during the week, there's mess, painting, wiring, sawdust everywhere, but come Sunday morning, you'd never know, and it looks almost like a complete building. In the last couple of weeks, we've managed to transform an unpainted room with no running water, a few kitchen appliances and some bench space in it, into a relatively functional kitchen... (there's still work to be done as always seems to be the way, but we feel a lot closer to completion).., we've installed a pretty flash PA system, and continued the ongoing task of patching up all the holes here and there. The fact that the place has been able to function whilst still being built, is due to a lot of hard work by many parties., but in particular, Brian and Anne, he makes mess., (and we all help with this endevour) and she is the unsung hero who somehow manages to ensure that the place is spotless.

So, apart from swinging from scaffolding, knocking holes in walls, running round ceilings with reels of cable, and other such enjoyable pastimes, I've been enjoying the beautiful spectacle that Edinburgh becomes during winter. Because it's so dark for so long, people have a good chance to see the lights strung up in trees.., so, a lot of effort has been put into putting lights in trees. A walk down Princes St at night time is a pretty beautiful sight... if you can avoid the crowds in the winter wonderland..., (the whole of princes st gardens has been turned into a fairground, with an open air ice skating rink, ferris wheel, and other amusement rides, along with lots of stalls selling various foods, mulled wine, and I even spotted a fortune teller last time I was around there.

Chloe (from AURAC) dropped into Edinburgh for a couple of weeks, but I'm ashamed to say, I failed in responsibility to go climbing with her. We tried., and if it hadn't been for a terribly delayed bus, we would have managed a Sunday afternoon at ratho, but alas, it wasn't to be. we did, however manage to share a couple of good nights at the pub, and a great sunset atop Arthur's seat.., (the hill that overlooks the centre of town)

I've been trying (and failing) to climb once a week.., bouldering at alien rock 2 is pretty good, and easy to reach...., Ratho, on the other hand is unfortunately some distance out of town, and pretty hard to access without a car. but it is amazingly huge!!!, I think it's the bigest indoor wall in the world.., and they've just opened a new tilting wall, so the place now has a wee bit of real roof climbing.., (I didn't particularly like the routes on it, but that may be simply due to the fact that I've been eating too much, cycling rather a bit and not climbing nearly enough.

home, sweet home (for a couple of months anyway)

I've been in edinburgh for a wee while now, (over a month, I think).., until now I've been staying in a hostel.., a nice enough place, across the road from Haymarket Station... with a crazy Slovakian guy we called Adam, and a variety of other guests, each one there for a different length of time.., some semi-permanent residents.., who became like family, and others who came and went over weekends. Last night I moved into a flat in the north side of town.., Julie, a friend from church.. (a kiwi with a mohawk) has a house, and was looking for a quality flatmate, but didn't want to let just anyone into her lovely house.., so I showed up, and now I'm no longer sharing a hostel with alcoholics, kleptomaniacs, and crazy foreigners.

I came back to Edinburgh because I felt it was about time I stopped wandering around aimlessly spending money..., of course, I'm still spending too much money, and took my time getting a job... but now I'm driving a van, doing furniture & whiteware deliveries for a company who contract to a Christian trust involved in helping people get set up in houses. The pay's pretty light, but the hours are good, and the work's pretty easy.., (and better still, they gave me a bike!.., an early model Specialised Rockhopper... It's a similar vintage, and style to my first ever decent bike (any of you who have known me for a while, and ever mentioned bikes will, no doubt remember a rant about how dearly I loved that Marin before it was stolen) The bike I've got here is the wrong colour..., a subtle grey, not a gawdy bright orange, and the gear on it is a little basic and worn out..., (gripshift, anyone??)... but it's a nice light chromo frame, with rigid forks, and pretty quick, twitchy handling.

So, I'm currently enjoying a slightly quieter pace of life, not having too many adventures that will make exciting blog posts, but I am getting to know the city through the course of my job, and intend to continue having fun, exploring and writing about it when I get the chance, I haven't been taking any photos since I've been here, as I left my beloved camera at Reg's place rather than risk leaving it in the hostel, but now I'm flatting, I'll pick it up and try to snap a few more shots..., after all I am living in a pretty impressive, scenic and beautiful city.

Oh, and there are a couple of posts from europe I've still to put up, so look forward to those... and one day, hopefully photos from Verdon and Ceuse will make their way onto facebook...

Heidlburg

The Train from Zürich to Heidelberg didn't find its way to Zurich, so, instead, we caught a regional train for a couple of stations, then transferred to our “ICE” (the inter city express trains are Germany's answer to France's TGV, fast, streamlined, with a really sexy looking tapered front). The train we got was a local commuter-style train, which left us somewhat concerned about how long it would take to get to our destination... but they squeezed every bit of speed they could out of the overladen railcar, and by the time we reached the actual ICE they had waiting for us, we were only 20 minutes late, time which we easily caught up on on the high speed rails on the way into Heidelberg.

When we arrived, late in the evening, we headed to Jurgen and Manu's place, grabbed a bite to eat, and crawled off to sleep. The next morning, we slept in a little, and David showed me to the centre of town, with a little introduction to German bakeries, he then headed to the university, while I went to the laundromat. 2 hours of internet and a pile of clean laundry later, I was exploring a beautiful town, walking up toward its castle, walking along the banks of the Neckar river and taking a minute to check out the old weirs and not-quite-so-old run of river power stations under them. The day came to a brilliant end, watching the sun set from one of the bridges, where I was lucky enough to meet someone who had exactly the same idea as me, and the same camera.., she even had tried to take the same photos as me, (but of course mine looked better :P)

With various promises of rather exciting beverages such as the Varma Aple, (which translates into English as Warm Drake), I was somewhat nervous about how my evenings in Heidelberg would finish, but in the end, I only experienced some rather nice beer, and new wine.., an exciting seasonal beverage, fermented only for a short time, yeasty, slightly fizzy, and very sweet, making it very easy to drink far too much.

On the second day in Heidelberg, we got an early start, David gave me a whirlwind tour of a bit of mountain and showed me where he used to live, before he headed off to the university. I then wandered around a little more, stopping to watch a sand barge pass through the lochs at the end of town, and to take photos of a seagull looking a little confused while stranding on a piece of wood caught in one of the inlet vorticies of the power station. I then headed up the hill to check out the ruins of an old monestry, and the not-so ruined ampitheatre built for propaganda rallies during Nazi times.

Later that afternoon, I went into the KIP, (Kirchoff institute of physics), where David managed to find me a computer to spend my afternoon replying to emails, and I had a chance to meet some of his former colleagues... who all seem to hold him in high regard. with comments like “I was trying for three weeks to fix this problem, 1 hour with David and it's working.

That night we went to a pub where I tried the local specialty >>>>>>..., once again, completely saturated with cheese, (I love European food!!) and, of course, being in Germany, I had to try a couple of local beers.

My last day in town was somewhat less exciting, sitting in an internet cafe for most of the day, booking a ridiculously high priced train ticket, then joining David and the Physicists for a barbecue in the evening..... mmmm new wine...,

Switzerland in a day (and half a day's train ride)

now.., as anyone reading this is probably well aware, I'm terrible with names.., and equally terrible at getting round to doing things. I'd intended asking David to remind me of the missing names in this post, but I didn't get around to it.., by now I figure that If I don't publish this partly complete post, I'll probably never get around to it anyway.

Two of David's friends live in Switzerland, .... who did her postgrad diploma in Heidelberg with David and Simone, who was once an exchange student in NZ, and a keen member of the tramping club. The train from Rome to Zurich left at 8:30 from the main station, and crossed the border at the town of c...... the views through the snowy mountains were nothing short of spectacular, interrupted occasionally by a tunnel. (they are just in the process of digging a tunnel that will pass directly through the mountains for 10s of km, shortening the journey, but removing some of the most scenic traveling that I have ever done.
We arrived in Zurich having enjoyed a lunch of potato chips and chocolate and headed straight for ...'s place where we left our bags, and headed into town for a dinner of >>>>>>. a local speciality make of grated potato, fried and covered liberally with cheese. and of course, some local beer. Then cam a mission through town to find a beer for everyone else, and a hot chocolate for me. the beer proced easy to find, but the hot chocolate was a lttle more elusive. Eventually we found it, and not long after, we were crawling off to bed. The next day, we enjoyed a sleep in and a relaxed breakfast with .... and ...... leaving their house in time for a short walk around town

before meeting Simone at the train station at 1:30. where we decided to catch a train up >>>>> the closest mountain to town, complete with amazing mountain bike tracks (but I had no bike)) a viweing tower, amazing views across the alps and lots of other siteseers.

A refreshing walk down the hill, and various gossip with Simone about what's become of many of the old trampers, and we were at the other train station, ready to catch a train back into town, grab a hof chocolate at a cafe with cool playing card-like menus, bid farewell to Simone and head back to ...v and ...'s place for lunch/dinner before catching the train to Heidelberg at 7:30.

Rome

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do”..., When we were in Rome, we did as the tourists do.

Upon arriving at the train station, and walking through the crowd of people telling us that they worked for the tourism office and could find us a hostel, down the road and into the real tourism office where we got directions to the camping ground in Ostia.

Ostia is a quiet seaside suburb of Rome, (formerly the port city serving rome) we were well out of town, at a spot that appeared as though it would be packed with drunken, sunburnt tourists during the peak months of the year, but all the resorts were empty in Autumn. The camping ground was pleasant, not too expensive, and not at all busy, unfortunately the bus from the train station only came every 45mins, so we caught it once, and made the 25min journey by foot every other time. By the time we found the camping ground, pitched the tent, and left again, it was 5:00, so we caught the train into the centre of Ostia, where we found a supermarket, bought the essentials; bread, cheese, beer, chips, and more bread, we took a brief look around town, and found that the beach was fenced off by various resorts, one of which had a small soccer field in a net. Of course, the beaches were empty, and all the locals were sitting on the pier, the closest one could get to the water without paying.

On our first full day in Rome, we went to Ostia antica (the ruins of the port town of roman empire times.) Entry to the city, (which is still an active archeology site, with ruins being exposed and preserved continually) cost about half what we would later pay to go to the ruins in the centre of Rome. The old city is fascinating, and while the buildings are smaller than those preserved in the centre of Rome, they were, mostly more intact, you could see the streets as they used to be, and know what the purpose of each building was. Of particualr note, (and engineering interest) were the baths, with underfloor heating and beautiful tiled mosaics on the floors, and the various temples and theatres.

After many hours of exploring the ruins, and almost passing out in the heat.., (whilst enjoying our lunch of potato chips) we decided that we would pass out if we stayed any longer, so we ventured into Rome. This seems to be a good moment to mention the tradition we established for our time in Italy..., one home made gelato or icecream every day. It may have been expensive, but hey.., when in Rome..., After our mid afternoon pick-me up, we went on to see a lot of the sights from the outside, get a feeling for the place, and realised that it is actually relatively small. We were getting hungry, so found a lovely restaurant, where we had a three course meal of pasta, chicken and dessert. The pasta was delicious, why does no one in NZ understand “al dente” the chicken was disappointing, being a re-constituted crumbed “fillet” but the cheesecake dessert made up for it. Shortly after we finished our meal and left the restaurant, we saw further evidence that Rome is rather small... my couchette buddies from the journey to Florence... In their somewhat inebriated state, they convinced us that we should follow them to the spanish steps, a walk that took us around the block twice and resulted in one of the girls buying a bag that she later didn't remember buying, We finally arrived at the spanish steps and found them plastered with tourists waiting to go on “the legendary spanish steps pub crawls”.., it's funny how if you call them legendary, people will go. We soaked up some of the night views of the city and agreed to meet the girls in the morning, to see the Jewish ghetto. When we met them in the morning, the girls were a little the worse for wear, so after a couple of hours of wandering around aimlessly we parted company, and headed into town to see the Colosseum, and other ancient ruins. starting with the other ancient ruins, we saw a lot of history, money and slavery sitting around us, but couldn't really get much of a feeling of what the place would have been like in its day. Unfortunately, we left after it was too late to use the other half of our ticket and go to the Colosseum. After a walk across the river, a chance to see the most streamlined island I've ever laid eyes on, and more gelato, we headed back to camp via Ostia to collect some ingredients for dinner. Which turned out to be Gnocchi with a tomato, courgette, Aubergine, and mushroom sauce, covered liberally with parmesan cheese. A little experimenting after dinner and I discovered a delicoious new way to prepare gnocchi. I'm not going to share my secrets online, but if you ask me nicely, I may just be inclined to cook it for you.

Our final day in Rome saw us head to the Vatican, where we

skippet looking at St Paul's (?) and headed for the Sistine chapel and museum. The museum was amazing, and the various small chapels we passed through on the way to the sistine were also beautifully decorated, but I was sad to say thtat the sistine chaple was a disappointment from being packed with tourists who wouldn't shut up... despite the signs banning talking, and took flash photos, despite the bans on any photography.

Rome is full of shops offering pizza, cut to length to order, delicious, and at a reasonable price, this was also true of the place we found in the vatican.

Our last meal in rome wis pizza from the camping ground, and we got up early the next day to catch our train to zurich with great expectations of cheap and tasty swiss chocolate.

Florence.

After my amazing time climbing in Spain and France, (and a great night at B's birthday party..., involving Scotch Whisky and a lot of climbers, but sadly no climbing) I headed off to meet my brother, David, in Florence, Italy.

The journey started with a short trip from Lyon to Dijon, followed by an hour of wandering around town, (the part of town that is within 1 km of the railway station anyway), buying some snacks for the 9 hour train trip I had ahead of me, and sampling the delicacies at one of the local kebab shops. Dijon appeared to be a nice city, but unfortunately I really wasn't in any position to judge it.

The train pulled in to the station, and when it stopped, a couple of American girls popped out the door for a smoke. I was in no rush to get on, so stopped for a chat, and it turned out that I'd be sharing a couchette, (or sleeping compartment) with them and another friend, along with a middle aged French couple). after much enlightening conversation, cheap French wine, and filthy humour (which I'm sure the French couple understood far more of than the girls thought they did) we eventually got to sleep, following some (admittedly deserved) comments about the odour of my feet.

We arrived in Florence over half an hour late (on time for Italian trains), I bid farewell to my couchette companions who were continuing directly on to Rome, and found David waiting patiently on the platform. I was tired after a less-than-peaceful night's sleep, and David was feeling a little sick, so neither of us had much energy. Wanting breakfast, we obviously walked into the wrong bakery, and ended up walking out with a small baguette, and 2 chocolate chip buns, 8 euro poorer. We then climbed up the hill (surprisingly steep when you're carrying 25kg on your back (David had kindly removed 6kg from my front), to the camping ground where David had already spent the previous 3 nights. A nice warm shower was a welcome relief, and we headed back into town without our packs.

Florence turned out to be a rather beautiful city, with some beautiful (and clearly expensive) churches and a lot of statues... a small taste of what was to come in Rome. After a day of siteseeing, offering the local beggars some of the bread we were eating, and being frowned at, and then trying the pasta at one of the shops in the market, we headed slowly back to the camping ground and dined on their delicious pizza before creeping off to sleep. The following morning we caught the train to Rome.

It was great to see David again, It had been over 4 months since I had las seen him, and apparently I actually missed him.