Rick and Jas Amsterdam Video

Short and sweet video for your viewing pleasure, as we were waiting for the Bus home the other night. Enjoy.

Winter Hibernation

It's Winter, so we're claiming this as our excuse for minimal blog updates.

A quick update is on the cards, covering October through December in one post, yep, that's how riveting our lives have been.

From Paris, we took a Eurolines bus to Amsterdam, and stayed in a hostel. After a few nights, they had separate boys and girls rooms... hello, we are married? And freaked out when the hotel prices in Amsterdam no less than doubled over the weekend. We rang kiwi friends Nick and Karen in desperation, please can we crash for the weekend? Long story short we never left...

October

Rick was super awesome and landed a job within 2 ish weeks, full time Chef at the Majestic restaurant on Dam square. Along with part time photography jobs, he's a busy boy.

I was less awesome and landed a job within a month, part time shop lady at River Island on Kalverstraat. To make up the other two days I had free, I scored an internship with uber talented Dutch designer Conny Groenewegen. Even though I've done my dash as an intern, I'm keen as to learn anything I can from a successful small business, and Conny's incredible knitting creations.

November

Working and trying to find a house, we did the maths that around half our income would be spent on rent alone, never mind travel to work, food, water, power and all those other luxuries.

Nick and Karen offered for us to stay in their spare room and board with them. We humbly agreed, they have been life savers!
Also we celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary! Wooo! Rick organised the night, we biked into town and had a progressive dinner. Starting at Feijoa bar on Muntplein, only to our dismay they didn't have any feijoa's OR feijoa vodka. Then dinner and a jug of Sangria at Rose's Cantina (Mexican), and finished at the Mint hotel, with dessert and another glass of Red with a view of Amsterdam 11 stories up. Basically we just love food, so it was our perfect night!

December

Nick and Karen left for NZ, and my hours picked up to full time over the silly season. We both worked late on Christmas Eve and got home to Skype family until 4am. Christmas was strange... We opened some presents, the best one being the care package from Rick's Mum, Milo, Cadbury, Starbursts and all the other NZ deliciousness. Our American friend Katy came around for an eggs bene brunch. Rick had to work Christmas 3pm until midnight, so I was all by myself that night. I cooked dinner and had a few wines and watched House episodes... Christmas 2012 will have to be a big one!

Below is a pic from Dam Square, with the huge Christmas tree that was a gift to the Netherlands, love from Norway. And the one below is one of the many Christmas stalls at Leidseplein and us getting in on the Rookworsty goodness. These Europeans sure do have class.

Xx Jaz

Dam Square Christmas Tree

Leidseplein Rookworst stall

All the Parisian shiny things

A thick line of traffic welcomed us to the outskirts of Paris. We crawled our way into the central city and marvelled as we drove by Notre Dame, Place de le Bastille, Arc de Tromphe and the beautiful sparkling Eiffel Tower. No matter how overrated I thought Paris would be, the Eiffel Tower took my breath away.

We checked into the best hostel we stayed in, St. Christopher's and grabbed a cider and a bite to eat. We had an early check out in the morning, and walked to our next hostel which was this strange hippie hostel/ bar run by a guy stuck in the 90's. 

Paris called for typical tourism, so we headed for Notre Dame and met up with two Aussies we'd met in San Sebastian. They were headed for Notre Dame too and thus joined in on our renditions of Quasimodo and other cliches. We passed on the ludicrous cue to get to the viewing deck of Notre Dame and headed for the Latin Quarter for lunch, stumbling accross a gorgeous quirky little kebab cafe.

Once refueled we walked via the "Sex and the City" bridge to the Louvre, we hung out there for a few hours mocking all the people taking the typical Louvre photos (yes, I can totally believe you are holding that enormous glass pyramid between your thumb and forefinger, no I have never seen anyone do that before. No offense.) and bombed a few tour groups for information.

The next day we strolled through one of the many markets and then went to the Catacombs, one of the few things we did line up for an hour for and treaded through the creepy underground mass grave. Incredible what they made of it, and how old the remains are! 

After downing some delicious overpriced coffee we headed for the Arc de Triomphe. Unfortunately I got a bit snap happy in the Catacombs and used all my battery from the flash on my camera and it died after I took one photo of the Arc de Triomphe. Nevertheless it was awesome, and we spent ages drinking in the engravings and such.

Then it was time... by day, once again the Eiffel Tower was the taker of our breath. 

Astounded by how cool it was we slowly made our way from Esplanade du Trocadero through the gardens and across Pont d'lena (bridge) to finally stand underneath the Eiffel Tower. As the sun went down we had a rest in Champ de Mars gardens and casually gazed at the tower, ahhh so cool. We took the time to process what we had experienced in Paris and talked about what we were expecting of the next season of travelling (settling in the Netherlands). We called it a day and headed back for our hostel to pack everything up to head to Amsterdam. Thankfully nothing went wrong at the dodgy hostel and at the end of it we left with all our gear and organs.

Paris was incredible, I am sure we will be back to revisit some of the sites, and to explore some of the sites we didn't get to enjoy. All the ado about Paris is present for a reason.

Xx Jaz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

French indulgence and door curtains.

Leaving Spain was really difficult, after spending a good 5 weeks, covering not even a third of the country, we did not want to leave! Adding salt to our wounds, we had to go back to those French jerks. Basically, we had really low expectations and so we were pleasantly surprised by the power house town that is Bordeaux, France.

We spent a few nights there, and went on a rainy day trip to St. Emelion with a few fellow travellers we had met on the bus trip over. The journey out there was a beautiful winding road that took us through some small French towns, amazing to see the architecture incomparison to a bigger city. My favourite thing was spotting all the curtains that they put on the outside of their front doors, still can't figure out what purpose it served, but it kept me amused the full hour journey! Once in St Emelion, we indulged in some wine tastings, a few sneaky macaroons and crepes so delicious we were almost in tears. 

The next morning we prepared for Paris, oh the anticipation!

Xx Jaz

Dream cellar much!

 

Bilbao, Guggenheim, San Seb and other strange nouns

We left central Spain to travel north, we were lucky enough to be given a lift up to Bilbao with our friend Pedro, who we met at our second VaughanTown. He was incredibly generous and took the scenic route to his favourite place in Spain; Parque Natural de la Sierra de Cebollera. Serisously, it was like we had gone through a wormhole into Canada. I never thought Spain could be so incredibly Alpine. 

I will always remember it, just being so astounded by the raw beauty of that national park. Not something that is on the tourist radar either, it takes a local to bring you there! 

Pedro then drove us on to his home town of Bilbao, and took us to dinner at an amazing seafood restaurant. Slightly awkward that I (Jaz), don't have much of a palate for seafood. However tried and liked my first meal of crab, complete with the hammer and prying tool! We also had some squid and a beautiful super fresh fish, like swimming in a tank next to the table. After dinner Pedro escorted us to our hostel, where we indulged in some much needed sleep. The following day we met up with Jon, whom we also met at VaughanTown, and he took us on a guided tour of Bilbao including the incredible Guggenheim Museum and also for coffee, drinks, dinner, and more drinks. We can't get over the hospitality of the Spaniards, so accomodating, generous and genuine. The culture and people are addictive, we have fallen head over heels in love with all things Spain.

Bilbao through San Sebastian by train was a great scenic route, following the coast. San Sebastian was a much needed rest for us,after a few months travelling, we spent a lot of time catching up on emails, trying to get our resume's in order and sorting out 'real life' things again, such as jobs and housing for our arrival into Amsterdam in about 3 weeks time. Had the weather been better, and invested into a less scummy hostel and not have been so exhausted, I think San Seb would have been far more of a hit. We still had a great time, enjoying the San Sebastian film festival, and relishing the last days of summer and the last time our toes will touch the sand until next summer... when and whereever that may be!

Xx Jaz

The beginnings of Spain

From the peaceful Avignon, we headed to Barcelona. A city of grand energy, and zest. Once we found our hostel, we headed straight to the nearest Tapa’s bar, to get our hands on some Sangria! As for the sites, we headed to the Sagrada Familia, built by Gaudi with construction beginning in 1882. Basically this guy is insane, and the church definitely reflects that. It’s absolutely extraordinary, Rick and I just stared at the building, so long, our reactions sometimes a laugh, a snort, or a shake of our heads. So crazy.

From Barcelona we headed down the coast, through Valencia and made our way to Altea. We stayed in a remote little village, Altea la Vella. We had a 20 minute walk through the bush into the town to pick up groceries and to catch a bus into Altea itself. We had an amazing 10 days, in the most beautiful apartment, and made the most of the pool within the apartment complex... absolute luxury after spending 3 months in various hostels and dodgy hotels.

In Altea we bought some snorkelling gear, and went snorkelling at the beach. Not exactly a comparison to scuba diving in Koh Tao, but fun nevertheless. We also took a walk up to the top of the village, and I had tears running down my face, the streets were so incredibly beautiful. White buildings with electric blue doors and window shutters, black gates and pink flower baskets every where. The smells were divine, along with the flowers were all the bakeries, the tapa’s bars, oranges and the salty sea air. This is one of those ‘this is why I quit my job’ days. Photo’s to follow, and more on our facebook!

From Altea we made our way up to Madrid, to begin our courses with VaughanSystems, a volunteer program, teaching English to Spaniards. We managed to spend s few days in Madrid beforehand and explored what has become one of my favourite cities ever.  A few highlights include San Miguel Mercardo, the upmarket-market. Basically a market style building, but incredibly beautiful and gourmet food counters, along with wine and sangria. Did I mention that everyone is immaculately dressed? These Spaniards sure know style. After being in Europe and expecting more in regards to fashion, I finally found what I was looking for in Madrid, the women have an impeccable style which is truly personal.

We also checked out the sites, with my favourite ever church, the Almudena Cathedral which faces the Royal Palace and surrounded by immaculate gardens. 

VaughanSystems was a great program, we were taken out with the other Spaniards on a bus to Barco de Avila and for a 6 days we taught the Spaniards, through immersion and purely conversational.  The program is from 9am until 10.30pm, but most people stay up later and talk. You have all our meals with two English speaking participants, and two Spaniards, along with a bottle of wine at lunch and dinner, we had some interesting conversations. After a week, you see the Spaniards relax, and English flows much better, it’s great to know you’ve helped them. After the Gredos program we headed up for another week of VaughanTown with a fresh batch of Spaniards, to an abandoned Spanish town Valdelavilla which was the original ‘VaughanTown’. We met some incredible people, and made some great friendships and contacts. And absolutely fallen in love with Spain in the process, the food, the people and culture, the routine and the wine! How could I forget, Rick's obsession with the Jamon Serano!
Xx Jaz

Avignon, Food and Jazz

An early morning start leaving Nice meant that we arrived in Avignon around lunchtime. We endured the tedious process of checking into our hostel with the lady that refused to speak English. We eventually found our rooms, which were separate male and female dorms. I questioned her after our check in and pointed to my ring finger and Rick’s ring finger. She shook her head furiously and walked away.  Definitely why we got married, so we could stay in separate dorms, right?

So, we grabbed lunch and headed down by the Rhone River to eat lunch in the shade of a tree, along with two young lads playing some incredible guitar.  We read our books and had a lazy afternoon and were serenaded to sleep by the two guitarists.

That evening, after the intense heat had subsided, we ventured into the walled city of Avignon, a UNESCO world heritage site, with some serious charm and character. We wandered the streets, and did away with the map and stumbled upon the most typically French area, untouched by the swarms of tourists and Irish pubs. We couldn’t really negotiate the menu’s at the restaurants, so we decided it was the perfect place to eat.

We sat down and ordered, Rick the Beouf Tartare and the Chevre Quiche for myself. Well I was just beside myself; with tears overflowing and my eyes tightly shut I was sure that I had just tasted heaven… incredible flavours, and the most perfect combination of ingredients. All the while the owner/ operator is having a ciggie with the owner of the restaurant next door.

When we left, Rick spied a sign next door with “live Jazz”, we made plans to return the following night. The girls in my dorm came with us the next night and we went to the same restaurant. All of us were melting with the delicious food that was served to us. Post dinner we went to see the jazz band who had set up on the curb, and we downed a few ‘desperado’s’. The perfect night and one of the highlights of our trip, Avignon will always have a special place in our heart.

Oh and for the record, Rick never had any room mates, so they put a married couple in separate dorms, even though one dorm was completely empty? Needless to say I sneaked in on the last night!

Xx Jaz