Backpacking

Tres apologetique for the laxness with the email updates of late Aside from the trip from a fortnight ago, there hasn't been all that much going on aside from work.

The job is going quite well and i'm enjoying the challenges of managing a small caseload of kiddies, and hanging out drinking coffee with the girls and guys at work. Ok, so I don't want to make it sound too cruisy, because it certainly is not. However, the amount of time the Irish spend on 'breaks' proportionate to the amount of time they spend actually working is insane! No wonder the economy is sliding back down after the Celtic boom of more recent years. My working day runs from 9 to 5, with an official 15min coffee break and 1hr15mins for lunch!! crazy.....they are also very flexible with the hours. You can rock up at 10 if you like, and finish a little later, or dock some time off lunch break and have an even shorter day! Still, I'm flat out all day seeing clients, doing admin etc. I'm certain the stress levels in this country are about half that of Oz.

Things are generally chilled out here...plodding even...You see the plodding effect when you hit the shops or a restaurant. If you want to go clothes shopping, you will spend 10mins waiting to be served, even if there is only one person in queue in front of you! And this is after you've already queued for 10 mins to get into the change room!

I'm still living at the youth hostel in town, but may be moving out with some South Africans (Saffas) I met at the hostel next week. It's a little less central than where I am now but a good deal cheaper. For the most part, the hostel is a lot of fun as you're always meeting new people and there's always something to do. Though it can get expensive and tiring as you end up going out at least 5 nights a week and getting an average of 6hrs sleep a night. And until last week I had to share a room with a girl with foot odour problem. My goodness, you'd think the poor lass' mother would have told her. I'd walk in at night, and walk back out again it was so bad. She actually manages to clear the whole tv room with her smelly feet. Seriously gross stuff. I've moved rooms now thank goodness!

A couple of weekends ago, I went with a group of a half dozen Aussies to see the peculiar Gaelic sport of hurling - not of the technicolour yawning kind either!! Hurling was an early version and blend of hockey and lacrosse. You have 2 fifteen-a side teams, and the sport is played on a rectangular field. The objective of the tame is to try and hit a baseball sized ball with the 'caman' (hurley stick), over the crossbar (goalposts) or into the net below. Players can whack the ball along the ground, hit it it through the air or balance it on the broad mit of the stick. They also seem to be quite fond of giving each other a good belt. It's a fast and furious game, and we had a great time. We actually got tix for the quarter finals so the level of play was pretty awesome even though it's kinda hard to follow what's going on all the time cause it's sooooooo fast.

I spent last weekend driving round Northern Ireland with two Aussies I met at the hostel. We had planned to catch a train up to Belfast for the weekend and spend the whole time there but at the last minute decided the flexibility of having a car would be much better so wound up hiring a VW Golf for the weekend and not actually making it to Belfast, aside from the skirting around the edge of the city we did on our way to the North coast.

On the way to the north, we stopped to have a look at Newgrange, home to one of the most significant Stone Age sites in Europe. Unfortunately the place was crawling with package tourists, and us travellers were told we couldn't possible do the 'tour' for another 3-4 hours!! Grrr, disappointed, we kept driving north til we spotted the ruins of a castle tower in someone's paddock beside the motorway. So of course we snuck in to have a look, first running and jumping on the huge rolled up hay bales scattered across the field, and then climbing the tower for a nice view over the countryside, and of course the rest of the property in case the farmer came a-running with his pitchfork!

We had the impression that the border crossing would involve some sort of police check, and there'd be some scary looking military dudes with their AK-47s, so we strategically poised the camera to film any shenanigans that would arise. Sadly, we didn't even realize when he had crossed the border as there's not even a sign to let you know!! The only way of really knowing is by looking at the roadsigns which are no longer printed bilingually in Gaelic and English.

As you get a few k's into N Ireland, it becomes a little more obvious you're in another country due to the vast number of flags and painted road-curbs proclaiming individual's loyalties to the Union (Brits) or the Republic. You drive through one town, to see it plastered with the Union Jack, flag of England, and red, white and blue stripes on the curbs. And then the next town has the Orange, green and white of the Irish Republic flag. Other towns have a good mixture, but typically the territories are clearly demarcated.

Upon hitting the north coast we hiked along the cliffs of Fair Head, from where you can see across to bonny Scotland. Along the cliffs here which in some points drop straight into the sea, are cahrming wildflower meadows, and paddocks of sheep, cows and the odd bull. After the long walk out to the headland we decided it would be easier to cut through the fields, and had fun rounding up the sheep in the paddock, and running away from the bulls when they got a little grumpy (don't think they like purple coats so much!). We then drove around to Ballycastle, at the mouth of the glens of Glenshesk and Geltaisie, and stopped for a while at Ballintoy harbour, where a lot of artists hang out to paint the "dark rock-strewn strand" which contrasts peculiarly with the pale-stone breakwater. We finished off the evening with a hearty meal of fish 'n' "chippies" (as they insist on calling them regardless of age/sex/status). We wound up camping somewhere along the coast for free because we checked in too late to register, and drove off in the wee hours of the morning so we could make the most of our day

We hit Carrick-a-rede (meaning "rock in the road") the next morning where you get to walk across an 80ft above-the-sea rope plank bridge. The bridge connects the mainland with a small island which used to be home to a salmon fishery. The views from here were really lovely, and the bridge, potentially scary when the wind picks up a bit. On the day we were there, however, the water was glassy enough for water skiing so the fear factor was a little absent. Still, nice place.

Next we made our pilgrimage to the Giant's Causeway, where the three of us blew £20 on a top-notch breakfast at a posh hotel (hey we got free parking out of it!). The causeway is pretty impressive and definitely worth the efforts to get up there if you're ever over in Ireland. If you haven't seen pics before in national geographic or on the discovery channel, it's has quite a lunar feel to it, and as W Thackeray said, 'When the world was moulded and fashioned out of formless chaos, this must have been the bit over - a remnant of chaos.'. It is thought that the causeway was formed over time through volcanic eruptions, and the subsequent cooling of the lava into basalt hexagonal stepping stones which cascade down into the ocean. There are estimated to be some 40,000 of these stone columns stackd in together. According to ancient Gaelic legends, the causeway was obviously built by the giants, under the guidance of Finn McCool (they named a Maccas burger after him!!), the warrior and commander of the king of Ireland's armies. "Finn could pick thorns out of his heels while running and was capable of amazing feats of strength. Once, during a fight with a Scottish giant, he scooped up a huge clod of earth and flung it at his fleeing rival. The clod fell into the sea and turned into the Isle of Man".

After the causeway we cruised along the scenic coast to the surfing beaches of Portstewart and Portrush - a little too cold for a dip though. Nice place to sleep for a bit though as the sun was shining briliiantly that afternoon. Must have hit 24! The locals were going nuts, sweating like pigs and wiping their brows etc..... Then we continued along to the beaches and cliffs at Benone beach, from where you have spectacular views out to the Inishowen peninsula of county Donegal (part of the republic), and where you can drive your car for 12km along the beach! Good fun though we almost took the car swimming at one point - male drivers, i dunno!!

From there we stopped at the 18th century estate of Downhill, where we visited the Mussenden Temple (sitting directly at the edge of a cliff overlooking a beach - stunning views), and ruins of the Downhill palace. Really really nice joint they used to have there and incredible scenery.

We stopped in Derry (or if you're a Pom, Londonderry) for the night. The drive into town was kinda fun. As we hit the town periphery, we saw the usual flag propaganda, but to add to that, the military were doing a police check, oversized guns and all. They were clearing out some cars looking for dodgy people and weapons etc..... Anthony (one of my Aussie mates) took the Steve Irwin approach by putting on his most ocker Queensland accent and "G'day"-ing them. Worked a treat as they just waved us on through.

Apparently things are pretty calm now in Derry, although all the guidebooks warn firmly about parking your car in the wrong place, perchance some Brit-mad local notices your licence plates and decides to do in your windows with a golfstick. No probs though - car was in good nick when we went to drive off the next day.

We spent the morning walking about the 17th century old walls and touring the "Bloody Sunday" sites. Derry is the only remaining completely walled off city in Ireland and has provided the barricade to numerous sieges over the years between the Irish and the Brits. More than thirty years after the Bloody Sunday massacre (30 Jan 1972), the guys responsible for the deaths of the 17 victims (most of them very young with no previous major political associations) have not been brought to justice. Tony Blair reopened the inquiry into the massacre a few years ago, so it is hoped that the families of the victims will be delivered some sort of justice, but why exactly it still hasn't happened is unfathomable. There are several interesting murals painted on the walls around town exemplifying the brutalities and injustices of the massacre, and flags flying all over town proclaiming allegiances. Not far from the massacre site, there are even Palestinian flags flying high above the buildings, indicative of their empathy for the Palestinian cause. In other parts of town, the allegiance to the British empire is obvious with red white and blue stripes on the street curbs, flags flying etc.

After the main sightseeing, we decided to do some shopping (as you do) and found that you could buy BB guns (i think that's their name, anyway the rubber bullet ones?) in several shops around town. we went in and checked some of the places out;. apparently it is considered perfectly normal to sell them to 7 year olds wearing dog collars and with blue mohawks on the tops of their heads. We even got some footage of em running about town shooting at each other with these bullets. Crazy crazy stuff going on in this world! noone else seemed to bat and eyelid though!

Ok, so i never finished this off last week.....update.....

Spent all this last week at the hostel. Same old same, hanging out with the foreign legion etc. Have decided to move into the Saffas as they have promised to cook me braii every night (a Saffa BBQ) Was also spurred on by a break-in to my room at the hostel the other night. Some jerk jumped in through the skylight and did a little damage to the room. As far as i know, nothing of mine was touched but he stole one of the girls' video cameras. Ill probably discover 2mths down the track that something or other is gone..... All my friends are getting motivated and moving out too so the social side of things isn't the same anymore.

I flew into London this evening for the weekend. Have planned for tomorrow to check out Wimbledon and Lords, have lunch with leighton cantrill (friend from Sydney), visit the Tate gallery in the arvo, and meet up with Suz and Zelda for dinner. Hoping to see some more friends on Sat but need to do some organizing between now and then.

Anyway, hope you're all in good shape, enjoying life (wherever you are) and keeping out of trouble - especially you pink ladies at the San!! hehe

Ciao

Love Belinda

P.S. I finally have an address for mailing. Any belated birthday presents can be sent here

Flat 72, 35 Mountjoy Square
Dublin 1
Ireland.

Hello from Sunny Dublin (and yeah that is borderline oxymoronic -but true).

Out of the 5 days I've been in town, about 3 have been moderately sunny so it was a pleasant welcome to this rainy city. Though the presence of the sunshine doesn't exactly equate to warmth. Summer began here just over a week ago and the locals are lapping it up. When I arrived on Wednesday, the thermometer must have hit about 20. So everyone seems to be cruising round in shorts and t-shirts like it's 40 degrees! Meanwhile, Belinda is shivering away in a jumper and jeans. Having come from a month in Asia, the weather was a bit of a shock - especially when you have in mind that it is SUMMER!

Dublin is really a very attractive city, and contrary to popular notions that it is packed with drunken yobbos, I haven't found it all that bad - so far. But then I've been going to bed pretty early. Well as early as humanly possible considering it is still light outside at 10.30 at night!!! And then the sun peeks its way out at around 4am. It's very disconcerting. I have no concept of what the time is here - aside from what my tummy tells me. Considering how expensive the food is here, my tummy tries not to tell me too much at all at the moment, but hey you gotta eat! If you use the McEconomic scale, Dublin is on par with the whole of Switzerland and London. One large Big Mac meal will set you back EUR5.90!!! Basically that's the same for everything here. Same price as in Aussie dollars but it's Euro. So a cup of coffee is EUR2.50, and a sandwich is at least €3 etc. The only cheap thing I've found so far is internet access at 60c an hour if you go early enough!

Something peculiar to Dublin is the overly peroxided ladies that hang about on the street corners of the inner city suburbs selling fruit from prams! I would never have thought to set up shop from the back of a pram, but it's not such a bad idea. Considering the number of young ladies with babies
here, I guess it makes sense. Whereas the chicky babes at home with small babies would tend to be in their early 30s, there are many girls who can't be more than early 20s carting their bubs around in prams. Must be the long cold winters!

So what have I been up to......not a lot. Aside from orienting myself (I have a shocking sense of direction as some of you will know - I get lost walking back to my hotel in the middle of the night in pretty much every place I go to), and finding all the good places to eat and shop (got a new
handbag, now need some new shoes), I've been searching for a place to live. At the moment I'm staying with Jill, a friend from uni in town, but will need to find something permanent before I start work, hopefully next week if everything goes to plans. I still have some paperwork to do that
I wasn't told about before I left home so it may be 2 weeks before I start working to teach these Irish folk how to speak properly!!!

I've heard people go on and on about the Irish accent and had expected to have far more difficulties but so far haven 't had too many problems. But then, I'm in the centre of town. I suspect that when I start working, I'll have an interesting time. Where I'll be working is meant to have a pretty thick accent...so we'll see how it goes.

I spent yesterday in Kilkenny, purported to be the most beautiful medieval town in Ireland. It is definately a lovely place to spend a day, and I enjoyed visiting the Kilkenny Castle (nice but "same same" as all the other jolly ones I've been to!), St Canice's Cathedral and tower, Domincan Black
Abbey, Rothe House etc etc.....but best of all, found a delightful creperie, which has divine bruschetta and the ONLY Spanish Hot Chocolate in Ireland!!! Apparently the locals aren't big fans but it really is divine. I'm definitely going back to Kilkenny just to eat at this place! Any of you folks who make it over here.....we'll do lunch here. Really top stuff.

My last few days in Thailand were really great - though a tad on the lazy side. I met up with the American-Israeli guys I met snorkelling on Ko Phi Phi and spent the time with them - eating, shopping, eating (hey last chance for good banana smoothies), and more shopping - oh and running away from persistent tuk-tuk drivers and food vendors ("I'll get fat" seems to work). Phuket wasn't such a bad place either. I'd never seen myself going there because of its rep as a glitzy getaway for honeymooners and fat German tourists (not to forget those grotesque middle-aged men salivating over 14 yr old local girls). All of that is there...but being the off-season and with people staying at home because of SARs/terrorism, it was a little on the quiet side. Instead of having the beach chocker-block with portly
half-naked people sunning themselves on deckchairs, you had a beach of half-empty deckchairs - and not so many half-naked people. Plenty of beach vendors were still in force however trying to sell sarongs, ice-creams, drinks, fruit etc etc. Burying your face in whatever book you are reading when you see them coming seems to work though - even if you are very obvious about it!!

Not much planned for the next few days. I need to do the house-hunting thing, and might even squeeze in a bit of sightseeing too - considering i'm in a rather groovy city and all that....When going out for dinner the other night, I walked kinda straight past Trinity College without even batting an
eyelid - hey I was tired after flying and waiting for nearly 24hrs!! Shame shame....

Anyway, it is very nice to be in a big city again with hot water (forgotten how nice a hot shower was), flushing toilets and a relatively organised public transport system...at least I hope so! Though I will definitely miss the steamy Asian weather, beautiful beaches, cheap tasty food, hassle and groovy people I met along the way.

Gotta go - more house hunting to do.

Ciao

Love Belinda

27 Jan 2002

Hola.....

Back in beautiful Madrid! (actually I seem to be saying that about a lot of places but there are truly many beautiful places here and we have visited many).

I left Paris on Wed morning after 6 fantastic days........Our last day there was mostly looking for postcards and souvenirs etc.... We also visited the Pere Lechaise Cemetary where you get to see the graves of folks like Jim Morrison (complete with lots of flowers and love poems written to him), Edith Piaf, Balzac, Chopin, Pisarro, and many others. Almost got locked in too as we arrived about 45 mins before closing time and the security guards came chasing us out the gates with stern warnings! In the evening we headed down to the non-existant Bastille, did some meandering around the Marais district (the centre of both Paris´ Jewish community and the its gay life - interesting combo!) and went to our favourite little Chinese restaurant just around the corner from the hotel. I tried to persuade Denise to try some escargots but she shuddered at the thought. I can´t say I blame her - for me it was absolutely a once off thing....maybe frog´s legs one day though.

Anyway, Denise had to fly out of Madrid yesterday so she came straight back down from Paris while I headed to San Sebastian (Donostia) in the heart of Basque country. This place is (wait for it...) extremely beautiful.....there is the old town with lots of great shops, bars and cafes, three impeccable beaches with REAL sand, and two mountains up each end of the beach strips which offer fantastic views over the beaches and the Bay of Biscay. I didn´t actually do much in San Seb but sit on the beach and squirm my toes in the sand whilst reading a travel guide, wander about the old town, eat some Tapas at this nice little bar we found opposite the main beach and scale the (smallish) mountain on the side near the hostel. There were a couple of Aussies at the hostel and we contemplated going for a swim out to the little island that is 500m out or so from the beaches, but the water was seriously icy - much colder than in winter back home. One of the girls from the hostel and I (she was actually from Sydney which is cool because no Aussies I have met thus far have been from anywhere but Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth!)..... caught a bus out to Bilbao (a dump) to see the Guggenheim collection. It houses a great collection of modern art and an exhibition of Frank Gehry´s architectural models and furniture. He also designed the museum which is in itself, a fantastic site! Outside the museum is a ginormous puppy dog statue (Jeff Koons designed it) which is covered in flowers and is quite fun.....Julia (Sydney girl) said it actually was in Sydney a couple of years back so maybe some of you saw it then....

Unfortunately no big riots or explosions when we were in San Seb - not that I really wanted one but it does sound a bit more exciting when you talk about your holiday. We did come across some tiny protest of about 60 people outside (presumably) some government official´s workplace.....the cops were there with those riot shields and batons and machine guns (serious!) but nothing eventuated as far as I know. I was a bit disappointed to not even hear a smidgen of Basque being spoken by the locals either.....Spanish everywhere......

Anyway......back in Madrid...I am staying at the hostel which is right up the other end of town from where we stayed before. Not sure what the place is like yet as I dumped my stuff off and headed into town. I was hoping to meet up with some Aussies for Australia day but the only guy I met at the hostel was a Pom! Then again, it was mid afternoon and everyone is out sightseeing etc as they should be. Tomorrow I am going to visit the Prado (last gallery for the trip!) as it is Sunday (free day), go to the bullring and walk around the Parc del Buen Retiro (a gorgeous park with an amazing fountain, some statues and lots of chi-chi mamas with their poodles!

I´m thinking about heading out to Salamanca on Monday but it is a three hour ride one way and I am going to be doing a heck of a lot of sitting between Tuesday and Thursday (on the plane) so that may not yet happen.....Avila is much closer and so maybe I will go there instead.

OK Well this is it for me........I have had a fantasitic 9 and a bit weeks but it will be sooooooooo nice to get home to some normal food, TV in English (although it is fun to try and translate), my family and friends (most of you anyway), and of course my cat! The poor little bugger won´t remember me!
Hasta luego!
Bel x

22 Jan

I am back in beautiful Paris _ co,plete with strange keyboard configurations!

We decided on a whim to come here from Madrid on an overnight bus......sure; it got us here, but 16 hours on a bus qlmost completely full of skanky and smelly (or are the two mutually inexclusive?) men is not recommended.

Flicking through my trave guide we found a place on Rue de Rivoli, which is where the Louvre is; and connects onto the Champs Elysées and Arc de Triomphe. It is about as central you can get and is super value. We can see the Hotel de Ville from the window to our room. There is also a gorgeous carousel there and an ice_skating rink. Lots of streetside vendors selling crepes too....banana and nutella heaven. The night we got here we visited Centre Pompidou, a zanily designed building equipped with colourful pipes, a brilliant modern art museum and shops and restaurants.

Next day we visited the catacombs where some 6 million Parisiens were buried after the cemeteries became overcrowded. It is truly bizarre walking through corridor after corridor of bones and skulls! Also visited Saint Chapelle, an incredibly beautiful stained glass window rooved church. wandered up past Louvre; onto Champs Elysees; Notre Dame, and the island on which it is situated and visited the Australia shop where they sell vegemite and cherry ripe bars.

Spent Saturday in Brussels - contrary to what i had been told, it is auite a beautiful city but it rained most of the day which was a pain in the butt!

Sunday I was back in Paris....visited Hotel des Invalides which houses the French army museum and is adjoined to the over the top tomb of Napoleon in the Eglise de Dome. We came across the sewer museum but it was closed!

Today we went up to a huge big market place just north of Monmartre. It was full of interesting clothes and a fantastic antiques section but it is in one of the seedier parts of town and was pretty shabby. This qfternoon I wandered through the passages of the Right Bank - all the old 19th century shopping arcqdes with vintqge clothes; antique shops, old postcards and Toulouse-Lautrec posters, and lots of sweet little cafes. ALso wandered about Royal Palace gardens and saw the room where the revolutionary plans were born.

Running out of time.

Tomorrow is more sightseeing; then on Wed I am off to Basque country to have fun with the ETA separatists.

CIao

Love Belinda

Hola...

Still in Madrid but we have had a sudden change of plans. We are heading up to Paris for about 5 days. Because I have been able to change my flight and it was too difficult to manoeuvre the Lisbon-Santiago de Compostelo trek, I have some extra time, and also several days on my rail pass with which to play around.

Anyway, we have had a great past 5 days here. I think Madrid is a fantastic city - definately in my top three favourite European capitals - the city is beautiful, there is great food around the place (especially if you are a fan of ham, as there are Museu del Jamon [Museum of ham], on every street corner), there are fantastic galleries and parks and lots of great shops!

My last couple of emails, have been a little truncated...but anyway...had a nice time in Lisbon. We stayed in a superb pensao (2 star hotel) right in the centre of Lisbon. We had a view of Plaça de Figura from our window where there is a statue of some most important dude (of which there are many many all over Lisbon) in the centre, and lots of shops, patisseries and bars. The first day we had there was a little drab as we had caught an overnight train (with lousy air-conditioning) and were most fatigued upon arrival....we also went looking for one of the apparently most important churches in Lisbon, but wound up in a decidedly seedy part of town and decided to hang out in the hotel for a couple hours before venturing out again to look at shops!

A lot of Lisbon is quite seedy....there seem to be packs of half a dozen to a dozen seedbags huddled around every 5-10 metres, for apparently no reason. Then there is the spitting....it seems that ´real men´ in Portugal (also in Spain and France) must be competent in the art of forming big boluses of saliva in their mouths and projecting them at tremendous velocities towards the ground. I actually saw a chick do this last night to my horror!

Anyway, we had a much better day the next day for Denise´s B´day (i think this is a rehash but bear with me)...went up to the district of Belem.....a lot of the lead up to it was just the shabby seaport, but then beyond that we saw the monastery of St Jeronimo, Tower of Belem and the beautiful Discoveries Monument.....also got my first look ever at the Atlantic Ocean (from a distance)......it looked much the same as the Pacific Ocean but it was smellier and the sun was in the wrong spot!

Spent the day after that in Sintra...it was quite beautiful and lots to see there but the city is very hilly and the points of interest are all over the place i.e. from the Pena Palace (which is great) to one of the monasteries ( it is 4km), and then there is some other stuff another 5 km in the other direction grrrrr.... Also went to this Moorish castle which has all but disintegrated but you can wander through all the old parts of the castle, and scale the walls for a panoramic view of Sintra and out to the sea. We caught a bus from here out to the Cabo de Roca which is the Point most "Occidental" (westerly) in europe.....that was pretty cool.....the coastline is extremely rugged and the sun in Portugal is tremendously glary....really beautiful there.

Day after in Cascais.....a charming seaside resort town. Lots of wandering around the town centre, and we walked up to the Boca del Inferno (mouth of fire) which is essentially a blowhole. Caught a bus back to Lisbon and went to this ginormous shopping centre...the biggest on the Iberian Peninsula...we found a Morgan de Toi shop with a discount bin (last season´s stock) and got some bloody good deals.

Back in Lisbon for another day.....I already said all this stuff though.

Arrived in Madrid on the 12th (am) - wandered up to Puerta del Sol and hit the shops. Also visited the Reina Sofia (Queen of Spain) Museum....

13th - took a bus out to the Valley of the Fallen (where there is a huge basilica and statue in tribute to General Franciso Franco - even though everyone hated him they still built this huge monument for him) and to the Monastery San Lorenzo del Escorial - there is a vault here where about a zillion princes and princesses and kings and queens have been buried.....room after room of it. Also a brilliant display of ancient maps - it is fun to try and work out where the hell some of these places are as they all have different names and their orientations are not always as usual.

14th - back in Madrid today.....some more shopping, and not much else.

15th - caught a train to Segovia for the day.......it is an extremely beautiful city but it was sooooooo cold there. It is at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, and it was bitterly cold and raining for much of the day. We visited the incredible Alcazar, the Cathedral, wandered about the Aqueduct and found the most amazing hot chocolate in Spain. I am totally converted.....no more of this watery hot chocolate with milk....this stuff is divine!

16th.....today! Went to Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza (an overly wealthy Hungarian art collector) where I saw some Italian stuff, a lot of Flemish and Dutch paintings, a stack of Impressionist paintings, and some post-impressionist, fauve, avant-garde, pop art and surrealist works. Also did a circuit of the city and wandered down Gran Via (one of main streets), saw outside of Royal Palace, San Miguel Meat Market, the Palace of COmmunications (which is the post office but looks like a palace), lots of statues, the town hall, and I found the Chocalateria of Saint Gines...I think it is the oldest one in Madrid. I´m definately going there when I get back here next week! Weather here is nice.....I am down to a t-shirt, jumper and jeans! But Paris will be colder I´m sure

Off this evening to Paris.....I shall write from there.

See ya

Love Belinda