Hard at work in the Spanish sun

Hello from the sunny Spanish pyrenees.  Since I last wrote, Nick and I have left London and now find ourselves in the Northern-Spanish village of Perarrua, where we are working for Nick's cousin Jochum in his holiday business, Chill Outdoor.

Leaving London

Our last days in London were full of hectically tying up loose ends (damn you Barclays Bank, sending everything three times in super-secret code in the actual mail...) and dashing to H&M for clothing appropriate for our distant memories of summer.  Amidst the preparations, I did manage to squeeze in a few final 'farewell London' treats:

Henry V at the Globe was completely spectacular, actual tears of excitement...  

Thought it a waste not to go to the Royal Albert Hall as it's next to work! Verdi's Requiem was a good choice.

Take-away dins from Ottolenghi in South Kensington - I have both cookbooks and wanted to check out the real deal, totes looked like a crazy fan-girl with my camera out all over the show...

Nick guarding the afghans at our morning kiwi coffee spot in Putney

My final afternoon in London was spent in what had become a place of refuge and a solid friend - the Victoria and Albert Museum.  The V&A was my lunchtime 'lucky 8 ball' - with my sense of direction, I never managed to take the same route twice - which meant I saw something new and marvellous every time.  On my last day of work I took a stroll and was entranced by children's fashion from the regency period, an entire baroque bedroom complete with chinoiserie accessories, and a 100% accurate reproduction of Kylie Minogue's touring dressing room - featuring toy kangaroos pronouncing 'you're a knockout!'.  Thank you, V&A.  And farewell, London!

South Bank looking cross-Thames to St Paul's, post-Henry V

Spanse Pyreneeen

Since arriving here in Perrarua - a tiny village in the Spanish Pyrenees with about 50 houses and no shop, we have been hard at work learning how the place runs and how we can best help Jochum and Judith at the busiest point of their season.  Last night Nick and I cooked dinner for 29 hungry dutchfolk - no mean feat!  Thank you, Jamie Oliver ("traditional Spanish recipe"...)

The old school - now rented from the council as the kitchen/bar/HQ of Chill Outdoor

Jochum and his partner Judith organise holidays for Dutch families visiting the little village of Perarrua, in the Spanish pyrenees - hooking them up with a room at a pension in the village, organising canyoning/rafting etc, and feeding them every day.  

Nick and I are here for six weeks, and are helping each day with breakfast and dinner preparations/running the bar, in return for a bunk and some seriously good kai.  We're mostly making Spanish-syle dinners (paella, chickpeas and chorizo, tapas, regional specialty Longaniza sausage...), although I've also busted out a couple of kiwi classics with great success - NZ women's weekly brownie and an Alexa Johnson sponge pudding from the ODT both went down well, which stirred some strange baking-related patriotic sentiment as I ranted to Dutch families about the merits of NZ tucker.

One of the village pensions, where J&J's guests can take a room

Amidst the hubbub of visiting Dutch families and Spanish visitors/old dudes from up the road I'm learning a tiny, tiny amount of Spanish and a little Dutch, which is at times fun and at times highly embarrassing!!  My vocabulary consists mostly of the names of kitchen ingredients, the language of ordering food, and the names of the prize vegetables which the village old-timers present for admiration on their way back from their vegetable gardens most days.

Jochum, Lotte and Nick behind the bar

The village ladies playing cards over tapas and coffee at our cafe

In between shifts we've managed to get out and explore some of the local area.  The hills behind the village are topped by an old castle and an abandoned church - complete with bell tower and frescos of the bleeding heart.  There are also a few abandoned villages in the hills, surrounded by olive trees and old stone walls - insanely picturesque.

Heading into the hills in the crazy heat

View of the valley from the castle above the village

We set out for a bike ride to a Buddhist monastery nearby.  A wrong turn took us instead to this charming way-side chapel (up a not-so-charming vertical dirt track...)

Swimming has also become a bit of a fave, as temperatures are often  mid-30s in the shade... crazy hot. Luckily the local river has some pretty good spots -  the first shot in this post being one of them.  Nick has also been tagging along with the guest families on their canyoning and hiking expeditions.  I'm pretty keen to go on the next hiking adventure, after Nick brought back this shot:

Hiking in Aragon, Spanish Pyrenees - near the French border.  I can basically hear the cow bells.

Tomorrow though is our first whole day off from the business of helping out 'round Chill Outdoor.  A friend asked whether we've seen any of le Tour - a quick search shows that co-incidentally, there is an alpine stage a couple of hours drive from us TOMORROW - so, we're going brave two language barriers, a diesel-powered Saab and complicated Spanish/French alpine roads to try and make it - wish us luck!

Lots and lots of love,

Sarah

An offering wrought amidst the maelstrom of London life

With Nick At Brighton Pier

Well, Nick and I have been in London for about 2 1/2 months now - and it has flown.  We're here for just two more weeks, before the Spanish Pyrenees become our home for another 6.

What's been happening? Weekends away, catching up with old friends, a friend's wedding, numerous trips to the V&A and to Liberty's... I'll start at the beginning (and, as alway, strive to be concise!)

For our first month in London we stayed with Nick's relatives Marie and Clive at their home in Crouch End (also the 'burb of choice for food god Nigel Slater, just incidentally).  

It was lovely to be in a family home, with all the comfort and the feeling of permanence that a whanau home has - lunch boxes, coat hooks, tea pots and a linen cupboard - bliss and sophistication!  Clive and Marie are the parents of Nick's cousins Leo and Joseph, and it's been fun getting to know them better and at the same time gaining a new respect for the work of parents!

Joseph's birthday party

Reading in the Crouch End sun with family cat Stella

Joseph (front) and Leo at the zoo

Clive's family are culturally Jewish, and are part of a very liberal group of families in the neighbourhood who've banded together and hired a rabbi, to do their traditions and religion 'their way'.  For them, this means observing major holidays in a way that educates their kids about their history, whilst at the same time considering the modern, wider meaning of traditional stories and values.  It was fascinating talking to them about how they're making their inheritance work for them now.  We also went along to their pesach celebration, which was a lot of fun and involved a lot of very good food.

Work

Nick got a job pretty quickly at an engineering company in town, and I followed suit a couple of weeks later with a temp job at Imperial College London.  Apparently a pretty swank university; more importantly, Hyde Park is at the end of the road, with the V&A parked conveniently opposite my work - happy!

London life

On coming to London, Nick and I promised each other we wouldn't fall down the rabbit hole of London life - not getting out of town, spending all our fresh-minted pounds on British ales and hanging out exclusively with kiwis.  Well, we've mostly held to that.  But a word in our defence - London is crazy!!  

Soggy trip to Portobello markets 

I hadn't anticipated just how big it is - how long it takes to get from one place to another.  I'm heading to Camden market this afternoon (it's Sunday here) - and that'll be my one activity for the day.  So, I've had to acknowledge that and get very 'be here now' about how long it takes to get from A to B.  Adventures have been mostly confined to weekends, with social outings dictated by the convenience of tube stops and the level of madness on the roads.

This has had the effect of enforcing strict prioritisation of the things we do fit in - which isn't all bad; we've fitted in some pretty fun stuff:

Weekend with Rose:  Brighton, Eastbourne and the South Downs

Brighton beach

Boat sheds, Brighton

Fish & chips with mushy peas on Brighton beach

Walking with Rose in the South Downs

Nick on the cliffs of the South Downs

Tessa and Paul's wedding, Delly End - Oxfordshire

My friends Tess and Paul were married in the local green

Daily life

Bike ride just outside of London - Princes Risborough to Great Misenden (not even making these names up...)

Chelsea FC won two major European football competitions and celebrated in the common next to our house

The V&A

At Kew Gardens

Happy as can be, with old high-school friends Andy and Jess

lunchtime walks in the neighbourhood around work

lunchtime walks in the neighbourhood around work

Dunx at Zoo Lates - Ellie works at London Zoo and got us tickets to their grown-ups-only late-night festival

Zoo lates

Zoo lates

Day trip to St Albans Abbey 

The Cathedral/Abbey - longest sustained place of worship in England (3rd Century) - a fabulous mash-up of architectural styles and fascinating histories.

Painted ceiling in the Norman tower of St Albans

Altar cloth in the Lady Chapel at St Albans

What to make of London?  I think after about three months I'm just starting to get into the groove.  The key seems to be not stressing about what to see, but going with the flow and letting things unfold.  This seems obvious and it's not as if it's the first time this has occurred to me - it's just really hard in practice!!

Here you can rest assured that whatever you choose to do, it will be pretty fabulous. The Royal Albert Hall is next door to work, and I've just booked myself a ticket to The Royal Choral Society's 140th anniversary performance - Verdi's requiem - next week.  This weekend, Nick and Rose and I have 5quid standing tickets to Henry V at The Globe - you can't really argue with that!

Maybe my frustration has been that, amidst all the fabulosity and the bustle, I can't really hear myself think.  And I have been trying to use this time overseas as a kind of soul-searching/figuring-shit-out chapter.  But, for everything a season - it seems that London is a place not to be introspective and meaning-of-lifey, but to stop asking questions and just get out amongst it (I've said it before, I'm a slow learner...)

So for the rest of our time here I'm embracing this and wading into the London tide.   Starting  with Camden market.  'Till next time, 

Sarah xx

Relaxing with friends in Belgium and the Netherlands

Touch-down in London

The next leg of the journey saw me shake hands with London briefly before heading to the Netherlands and Belgium to visit friends and whanau, and to reunite with my beloved ski-fanatic (some of you may have been following Nick's own journey - if not, check out the blog of his silk road ski adventures here).

The plan was to meet Nick in Amsterdam after a week in London solo - however, sneaky Nick decided to surprise me in London... which I promptly ruined by missing my flight from New York. It went like this: wake up for another relaxing day in New York to an e-mail saying "surprise! I'm at Heathrow - um, where are you?" Shit.

Hours after arriving in London - good laughs with old friends.  A wonderful feeling after weeks of the unfamiliar.

I hadn't been to London before. Having been in the states for just over five weeks, the feeling of cultural familiarity was overwhelming - and welcome.  Seeing sights that I'd read and heard about all my life induced an astounding feeling of belonging that was very moving.

I know that as a post-colonial/post-modern New Zealand citizen it is not fashionable to go mushy over the 'motherland' - and for good reason.  But I'm down with acknowledging the whakapapa.

After a happy week of exploring, it was time to visit Nick's Dutch whanau, and meet up with some of our friends in Amsterdam and Belgium.

The Netherlands

Our time in Amsterdam was spent staying with friends.  Catching up with such familiar faces was surreal and wonderful, and Rob and Will proved great hosts.  

Beers on the rooftop at Rob's

At the speedway with a bunch of kiwis at Zaandvoort, on the coast near Amsterdam

We managed to visit the Rijksmuseum to pay homage to the Dutch paintings I love so much, as well as Rembrandt's house and studio, and still have time to admire the Dutch street fashion:

detail of C17 Dutch still life, Rijksmuseum

Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam

Sexy Dutch high-street fashion,  Amsterdam (yip, that's a dude's bald patch at the top - ultimate accessory...)

It was springtime in the Netherlands, and people were excited. Displays of blossom, feathers, eggs and bunnies popped up on windowsills, shop counters and gardens everywhere.  

Bloemenmarkt, Amsterdam

I was surprised to see 'Easter' decorations out so early - but of course, what we know as Easter was superimposed over traditional, Pagan celebrations of spring.  I felt I was witnessing something very ancient to be a part of such a whole-hearted, enthusiastic celebration of nature.  And of course, any celebration that has its own cakes has my heart:

Easter brioches, Amsterdam

In contrast to the American talk-and-talk-and-talk, the Dutch seemed rather reserved and, well, Dutch in that they were very matter-of-fact.  One thing that I'd heard about was that the Dutch don't tend to use curtains - a minor cultural detail, but when you're walking through the streets at night and looking directly into people's apartments as they make dinner and watch TV, it seemed a very strange phenomenon!

Amsterdam at night

House-boat, Amsterdam

As well as visiting Amsterdam, Nick and I also headed up north to Beilen, Drenthe, to visit Nick's grandfather, Rob.  

Nick and Rob cycling, Beilen

After a week in the Netherlands and enough grandpa-stories to keep us going for a while, we set out for Belgium for a seriously chilled-out week before heading back to London.

Belgium

Our time in Belgium was pretty chilled, so I won't drive you nuts with 'there was a canal... and a castle...' stories.  Mostly we kicked back at a friend's friend's apartment in Ghent - a central, medieval city which was stunning in its own right and proved a great base for exploring Brussels and Antwerp.

Student bar, Ghent

We were kindly set up in the Ghent apartment by a wonderful Belgian couple I met whilst in Iran in 2009.  We figured out halfway through the week that David had basically called his friend in Ghent and asked him to stay with his girlfriend, as he had visitors coming that needed the place!!  

Needless to say we were overwhelmed with the generosity of this man who didn't know us from a bar of soap clearing out so we could make ourselves at home.  The bunch of flowers and bottle of wine we left seemed a rather token gesture in the face of such a gift.

Frites in bread for lunch - cliche for a reason.  Amazing.

The obligatory waffle - Nick promptly had a coughing fit from the icing sugar.

The highlights of the Belgian trip (other than the obligatory frites, chocolate, beer (delicious!) and waffles - this wasn't a weight-loss holiday...) had to be the antique furniture stores.  The vintage clothing pickings were disappointing (perhaps I was spoiled from my Portland adventures), but the antique and salvage shops were where Belgium really shone.

Some seriously fit, real-deal mid-century leather deliciousness.  Stores like this often also sold first-rate paintings as well as fabulous oddities like ancient, hand-embroidered banners and clergy robes.

Weekend market in Brussels - so many treasures!

Ghent noses - the official sweet of the city of Ghent

As well as seriously over-doing the frites, we were treated to a traditional Belgian meal at the home of our friends in Antwerp.  It was lovely to re-unite with people I'd enjoyed meeting so long ago, and on their own turf - and when rabbit and plums stewed in brown ale was thrown into the mix, I was a pretty happy camper.


Marie also showed Nick and I her painting studio, in an industrial building in central Antwerp, whilst David gave us a hands-on run-down of local craft beers. Once more, I was humbled by the generosity we received, and look forward to being able to extend the same to other travellers once we're back home.


But after two weeks in Belgium and the Netherlands, capping off a full-on stint of travel for both of us, Nick and I were ready to head to London, unpack our bags and put down some roots.  Staying in one place for more than a fortnight was what I wanted most.

Train en-route to the ferry to Dover.  Nackered.