the austrlian look outs or miradores in spanish have a more clear name in chinese " place of viewing the beauty"

Multiple ways in which someone can fall, you slip, you fall down or the floor starts trembling under you....

Doraimon is guarding the house where im staying at

National Hamburger Day..may 28th lets take all note of that!

China

a

At Martas 2h before the flight and running late... my Estrella Damn I love festes de Sants Hat is traveling with me to China

Current destination.... CHINA! Im back in China, 10 years after my last visit, the visit that I thought was OK but which clearly did not make it to my top rankings of best trip ever. So here I am, my second Berlin visit made me change my mind...so will this one do so too?? I will try and do some updates, I dont know how often this will happend but here we go... This trip is to Shanghai (modern china) and to the rural parts of Sichuan and Guanxi.

The night pre China was Festes de Sants, which were just AMAZING. Festes de sants are the street parties of the neighourhood Sants in Barcelona. It doesnt stop to amaze me how life is in Spain, pepople will be in the streets having dinners with all the neighbours, concerts for the elderly, story tellers for the young, traditional songs... its a blast!! I left my luggage at Martas place as she lives right by pl.catalunya place where the bus departs to the airport ...went out partying. At 4am when I got back at Martas I ended up calling a friend who works on TV in one of those shows that predicts your future, he put me live on TV and the woman answered all my doubts of my life. So it seems that my life will be fine ....phew!! So be it I forgot to put an alarm clock to go to the airport!! Luckily I woke up! marta had put the alarmclock anyways for double saftey. I was running I got to the airport and flight delayed, more delyas, due to a major storm in my transfering airport Frankfurt. It al lmade sense when the plane was tumbling in the air over germany, claps came along when we landed. People were freaking out as many lost their connections, I had a never ending long wait in Europes hub so I just waited waited and waited. Recharged my phone as im using it as MP3 in mcdonalds and waited seeing the 747-400 being prepared for the following departures.

Anecdote 1: my luggage is only 10kilos, how did I manage? I think experience made me smarter!! :)
Anecdote 2: The moment Im putting in my stuff in the security tray the kid infront of me takes every object I leave out of the tray, I put it back in he puts it back up. Mom doesnt even care to look at what son is doing.

Tourists.... spain, the center of the universe.

What is this, sangria and frozen paella!!! This is shameful!!! And a bunch of restaurants have it. This city is flooded od spaniards who seem to believe spanish is the only language spoken in the entire peninsula. Its so embarassing, most are so disrespectful and loud!! So many people from the south of Spain!! Next time i come i want to see the portuguese lisbon and avoid the touristy part, but for now tourist area it is. This moring though i was able to hang aroung the alfama area and get lost in small streets with no tourists. Maybe it is because i left extremly early, but i really enjoyed it and tool some photos im looking forwards to see in my pc!!

Im not talking to any tourist has i dont feel the need to but im really getting irritated by a few catalan, spanish and french who talk believing no one understands them. Also, this italian guy wanted to stop a taxi but ended up stoping a police car.what a show, i couldnt stop laughing. Well neither could his family members!! Oh, these kids were singing in the train and the only reaction a spanish came up w was " loookkkk portueguese sevillanas" seriously...??!!!

Porto

The best way to end the day, a shower and porto wine! This hostel is great, very cozy,welcoming and clean. Time to relax after hours and hours of walking in belem, barrio alto and alfama

The commom area

In portugal!!

The flight was smooth and short. I suppose after such a long flight down under this one just seemed short despite it being 1.5h long and us leaving with a delay . When i arrived i stoped at the tourist information for a map and once that was done i headed to catch the local bus that took me to rossio, the center of the city. With my map i kept following where we were and i quickly realized were to get off. I arrived at the hostel that joao had recommended and wow. It did have a lot of awards at hostel world and great rankings and indeed the thing is just great!! So each room is decorated completly different, mine has a very intresting design with a bird cage as a lamp, and a hanging chain in which ppl hang their cloths. Ill post up pictures tommorrow. Most important is how clean it is and how clean the toilets are. You have your own locker,wifi, you get free breakfast a lamp for your bed, free porto wine a place to leave little things by bed etc.. The atmosphere looks just great and the cleanness outstanding. I met one of the guys in my room who is from brazil but i really couldnt bother talk.... And then it was time ti go explore the city!

I went to barrio alto in the search of cervejeria
trinidade that both joao and the guide recommended but when i got there it was packed and in addittion had 40 ppl waiting. The place was nice with tiles all around it! I will try it tommorrow and if not at least take a few pics. I went through the streets in search of some food and the first place that i saw had bacalau and arroz dolce i walked in. Had it and then went around chaido and rossio to digest all that i had eaten! Took a few pics but really missed the company of my slr friend ms. Irumtje!! I started to feel some ppl were following me so since it was dark and i was tiered i headed back to the hostel!

So far i like what i have seen, some very modern shops, some rather old decadent streets, a lighted castle, a big cristo (reminds me of rio). What i really like is the amount of fish around the restaurants and how it is displayed, reminds me of galicia! The city seems to have small allys and its all on hills, the trams are old but glamorous. So far, i like the stlyle, just wish i could speak portuguese!

.wonderfull weekend ahead!!!

Time for departure.
I love electronic tickets and online checkin. The world is progressing!

I Miss you.

There is a strange feeling everytime i come to this terminal, terminal 2 of barcelona airport. I dont understand why it is called terminal 2 if it is the first one which was build!! The more i travel in terminal 1 the more i like it and start accepting that terminal 2 is part of the past. I have departed so many times from the now called terminal 2, many memories are linked to it, our first trip to argentina, the returns to spain after years abroad, the good byes and the hellos. There is a specific spot my dad would always stand when waiting for me to arrive from schipol... I used to love this terminal with all the shops. The airport seemed crowded but i knew my way around very well. Having so many early flights to go back to holland and paris i had learned which cafe was the one i liked the best for its location,atmosphere and which shops had the free food to taste. Its sad to walk in terminal 2 and see it completly empty with all the bars and shops closed. Only a few remain open for the easy jet and ryanair flights. Hopefully one day Barcelona airport will be given the right to operate long haul international flights and this terminal will have the life that was stolen from it in june 2009.

Aerobus

Something is clearly wrong when you get on this bus, the aerobus, and you recognize the driver. This bus is getting more expensive every day but its the only way to get from the airport home at a normal speed. If compared to other countries the price is at least quite acceptable! I still think that the best thing is to be droped and picked up in any airport but well...

Im already surrounded by portuguese people, 5 guys that are hitting the window every time a woman walks by.... Giving me a great image of portuguese people! I just love the language, the accent sounds great!! Too bad its not a brazilian accent!!

Excited, neighbour country here i come!!

Australia Day!

26th of January - AUSTRALIA DAY

Australia day, everybody goes out, barbeque, picnics, beach,concerts,flags flags and more flags. Dad and I went up to the Harbour Bridge to see the boats ferry race on the BAY and took a few pictures. We later headed through the Rocks as a few bands were playing, got some free water and later had a hot dog at Hyde Park. We even saw the Qantas A380 flying around!! My dad got all excited and bought a flag which we walked around with and I was given some small plastic flags and tatoos with the Australian flag that I put on my arms and face :) All this took us almost 6 hours. Exhausted we came home. Later at around 7pm we headed to Darling Harbour to see the night and fireworks show!! Now just have to wait for 26th of January 2012 for the next Australia Day!

STOP!! Kangaroo on the Road!

I had not taken the car in about 5 years.... I decided to drive around 150 Kilometers...and in 7 occasions I had Kangaroos jump infront of the car! Luckily I was alert and on the watch for animals, so I was able to stop on time. My dad taped this as I drove.

You have to be extra carefull around 6-8am and between 6-8pm when the sun rises and the sun sets as kangaroos jump onto the road. During the day they are resting under the trees. We found a lot of dead Kangaroos by the road. Kangaroos dont always follow a straight path, and therefore you are adviced to keep driving straight as most accidents caused by kangaroos crossing the road are car frontal crashes. When you rent a car, some companies do not insure your car if you are driving at dawn in areas in which it is known kangaroos tend to be.

Hurray!! I’m sitting in the airplane direction Adelaide with my dad’s work laptop and typing this! Whenever I get some proper internet connection I will post it.Unlike during some other trips like the Northern Australia in 2009, this time I’m trying to record what goes on. Let’s face it, having a laptop also facilitates the task; pen and paper are becoming at fast pace too old fashion. No way to go back and delete or reededit and the worst, not possible to write what I’m thinking at a proper speed.

We are flying with Jet Star a low cost Australian airline. Jetstar and Virgin Blue are the Australian “vuelings/easyjets”. Im not too happy about being in a plane AGAIN, this is also my dads fifth plane of the week as he has had to fly to Melbourne a couple times this week for work and he isn’t too excited either. My travel sox helped a lot in my Barcelona to Sydney flight, and I arrived with minimal leg pain, but now I just want to arrive to Adelaide!!!

Something that I like to do at airports, whether I’m leaving myself or going to pick someone up is stare at the list of departing flights. Obviously the list changes radically depending on where in the world you are. So these are the flights that were leaving this morning from the domestic terminal of Sydney Airport. Ironically, if you fly domestic you can be taking a flight that is up to 5 hours, this is way longer than a Barcelona-Moscow flight! This obviously implies various time changes. Now flying to Adelaide, a “short flight” of only 1h45 minutes…so in other words as long as my Barcelona-London flight! There is also a zone change of 30 minutes between Adelaide and Sydney.

A rather strange thing in the airport is that we did the check in, went to baggage drop, passed the security check, got on the plane and nobody checked our ids. This has happened to me every time I take a domestic flight in this country. They never check that you are the person whose name is on the boarding ticket, somehow surreal in particular after all the security alarms there have been in the past years.Another thing that I really like to do in a foreign country is go to a local supermarket and stare at their products. I went to one yesterday and took a couple pics of products that I have not seen in Barcelona. I’m able to point out products which I would clearly not find in a local supermarket in Spain, but it’s hard for me to list what there is in Spain that is not here. I suppose Jamon Serrano would be one of the things. Due to the amount of mixed cultures that there is in the city the supermarket had a wide variety of Asian (from Japanese to Pakistani) food . Something which is found in the USA but also hard to find in Spain was Salad Dressings. In Spain and Italy we are way too used to using oil, vinegar salt and pepper for our salads , while here you can find any kind of salad dressing imaginable

Finally in Sydney!

5 pounds went for a set of sushi. Clearly not worth 5 pounds, but the best way to spend exactly those 5 without getting back change. Sat down ate it, ate tons of mandarins and walked around. Sat down again and kept staring at the screen for my gate to be announced. There were 4 different flights to Sydney! Mine via Bangkok, a Qantas one also leaving same time also via Bangkok, one via Singapore and one via Hong Kong. Seriously it is hard for me to understand why so many people would be traveling to Australia. The flight was packed. So think about it 4 747 flying to Australia via south east asia. That is around 400 persons per plane = 1600 persons…and those were only the flights leaving from my terminal, there also Lufthansa, Emirates, and other airlines heading to Australia. Id like to know the story behind all these people moving up and down the globe. . .

The wait in Heathrow became long, and it included a kid spitting on me. At the end, fed up of the child, his dipper smell which was getting mixed with the smell of fried food his dad got and his attempt to spit on me again I stood up and finally the gate was announced, gate 42, the furthest possible gate in the terminal. I remembered it when I saw it, I had been there before. So we got on the plane. Had a girl next to me which was good, she was quite didn’t seem to want to talk too much and wasn’t taking up any of my space. I luckily had an aisle sit so I stood up and down quite a few times. Got offered some chicken with coconout and lime which was delicious and I ate quite a few mandarins. I dosed on and off during the entire flight, which made it go pretty quick. We went through Turkmenistan, Delhi, Varanasi, Myanmar and finally we made it to Bangkok. Spend my time watching a couple few films, start the book and got a bit drunk with some Bacardi coke. I ordered one and they gave me two…so yeah J I saw they had music so I tried to listen to it, but it was mainly crap. I saw they had “sleeping songs for adults and kids” so I put that on and this song started … “twinkle twinkle little star…” I couldn’t believe it! I stopped and moved on…in the search of some proper music. I did not find the entertainment system of BA particularly good, but it kept me bussy for a while. The BA crew gave us the welcome on board by letting us know that they would leave in Bangkok and a new crew would join then, but that crew was not at as good looking as the one flying to Bangkok. Haha.

The airport in Bangkok is very new but its so big that its very exhausting to have to do a stop over there. They made us get off the plane so they could clean it, but what we had to do, as always is walk for about 20 minutes, pass a security check, walk another 20 minutes pass another security check and finally show our passports again and board. Each security check of course with its own queues… just never ending. I saw that at least in this airport you could get free internet. Only 15 minutes and you had to register your passport number and nationality but that was good. Finally was able to connect my laptop to let people know where I was…and then I boarded again… the plane ran and ran and ran through the runway and up we were again. 9 more hours of flight ahead…

The girls sitting next to me got off at Bangkok and this fat, smelly guy sat next to me for this part of the flight I did everything possible not to talk to him. He kept trying to chat and I seriously stopped myself. He was or seemed drunk and kept ordering beers…and his smell.. bleh :S I watched a film and we were still over Indonesia… I read a book and we were still not in Australia… Finally we reached northern Australia…but we still had 4 hours to go to Sydney. It seemed never ending. They gave me chicken again but it wasn’t that great so I finished up all my mandarins and finished the other half of my jamon baguette, which gave another opportunity for the drunk fat guy to talk to me. He was jealous of my sandwich, who wouldn’t have ;-)

I filled in the immigration form…they sprayed the cabin to prevent any pest of entering Australia...

We approached…

Finally the 20 minute to landing announcement

Finally 44 kilometers away from Sydney “ Crew take your sits for landing”

And finally …. Touchdown!

Grabbed my luggage which seemed to never come out, went through quarantine check and took a taxi “home”. I didn’t really know where my parents live since they have changed apartment twice since I last came here.

Finally homeeeeeeeeeeeee, woman in black was home!!!

A bit exhausted…but it was time for a shower and to go for a walk J Australia, its sunny, its warm and it feels great. There is such tranquility. I don’t know the neighborhood around although my parents live very near the center…so we went for a short walk with my mom around the area…ah … I love it!! Sydney seems to me like an American city, but there is this relaxed atmosphere to it. It’s hard to describe it, but I’ll do my best in the coming up posts.

Im taking a plane tomorrow again…. To Adelaide!

How to Survive

Yes! I have tricks to travel with the least pain possible.I can not sit too long in flights, my legs swell a lot.

Tip 1 To cure it I used to walk up and down the aisle. In fact I have just changed my seat to make sure I am sitting in the aisle and do not disturb anyone by standing up every hour. However even walking,drinking liquids after 8 hours im exhausted and in great pain. How then to survive 32 hours? The travel socks are one of my secrets. These socks help in blood circulation and therefore make your legs swell and hurt less. They prevent deep blood thrombosis which is rare but happends when people take long flights.



Tip 2 are natural tranquilizers like Valeriana. I have recently gotten on these ones, but it helps me sleep a bit, be less anxious and specially if the pilot sais it is predicted to fly over a turbulence zone over X country I take one.
Tip 3 learned from Miquel a rhum and coke or two will get you sleeping in no time.
Tip 4 take a night flight to properly sleep.
Tip 5 travel with someone you can lean over, put your legs over them etc. If not, take a pillow with you and hope for the best.

The truth is that if you are not traveling Business or First class, a 32 hour trip can be physically painful. Space between seats are not any bigger than in a normal 1 hour European trip. The only difference, the plane is wider so you have 3 seats, aisle, 4 seats,aisle and 3 seats again.

These are the seats in the new A380 in economy class of Qantas. As you see, this is anything from luxurious. What I feel has made travel more enjoyable and less painful is the entertainment system that planes have adopted in which even in economy you have your own tv with movies,games,shows and news to watch. This to me has been the best change to keep your mind bussy. Also, its hard to believe it, but when I was younger people would smoke on planes! Still sounds surreal to me!

24h for Departure!!

Skype Tijd!Dank je wel!

Whoever saw me this morning walking in Barcelona must have thought I was a total dumbass. My smile couldn't have been bigger as I crossed Rambla Catalunya and strolled down seeing the sun rise while my fingers danced to the rythm of the song that was playing on my phone. The first email I saw this morning at work stated "Gisela, don't bother sending us an email. We know it. YOU ARE GOING ON HOLIDAYS.Bitch". I knew it, last day of work and then 3 weeks of holidays!!!! Its ironic how happy I get now with 3 weeks of holidays when before I used to have never ending 3 months. In 2007 I spend 5 weeks in Australia as part of my around the world trip... and it flew by.These 3 weeks will simply run, but they exist, those 3 month holidays were the good times, something to look back and dream about.

This morning so many people seemed, irritated,tiered,bored and following their routine... but I had something to hope. Australia, Summer,Family. After 9 months its finally time for departure!!! It still sounds surreal to me and I know that I will only trully know Im there when I hear the magic words "ladies and gentlemen welcome to Sydney, were local time is 5 am. Please keep your seatbelt fasten until the plane has come to a complete stop. We thank you for flying British Airways and hope to see you onboard again soon." A sign that I will have survived a 32 hours trip.

I always have to hear the same repetitive speech from people: "you have traveled so much""you have seen the entire world""you cant get nervous". There is so much to see and discover that the words "so much" "the entire" are in my opinion completely out of place. I surely have traveled widely, part due to life circumstances but also and mainly to my interest and eagerness to do so.The magic about each trip is that even if you go to the same destination you were before, despite going to the town next to yours, you get to experience and see things that are completely different from eachother each time. The people you go have a great influence on what you live. Any opportunity to get out of our daily routine is a reason to get me nervous and excited. Today, I recieved an email when I had exactly 24hours until departure " less than a day before you start flying, We are looking forward to welcoming you onboard flight XXXX from Barcelona Terminal 1 on 19 January 2011". I dont like it when airlines remind you of flights, specially when its a return flight. However this mail put a big smile on my face..... and then:

5.00 Out of office message in the Office. Back on the 9th!
7.00 Grandmas Goodbye. Sweet
9.30 Skype ;-). Thanks.
9.50 Check in Online - Seat Selection
10.00 Booking Flights for Morrocco. Happy!
10.15 Gmail Chat. last detail plannings
11.15. Should maybe consider having dinner?
11.30 Tagging luggage
11.50 Hand luggage.
00.00 Should I have dinner?
00.01 Change alarm clock to make sure I dont wake up at 06.30 tommorrow
00.02 Take out work badge, leave it on the table. Not to be touched in weeks!
00.30 Clean the stair case of the house
00.42 Take out dishwasher
00.45 Should I have dinner? No, only some milk and cookies.
01.00 Clean part 1 of Kitchen.
01.15 Now. . . sleep? Dont feel tiered at all.

Strange. Grandma hasnt called today. Must do it myself tommorrow.

7 days to Australia - Queensland Flooded

Anything but excited about the current situation in Queensland, particularly the water raising in Brisbane. Seems like its geting from the outback into the city.

So much for day dreaming about Fraser Island, Noosa and Rainbow beach during my previous trips to Sydney. I now see how the waters are raising and electricity is being shut in the city to avoid electrocutions. So far my flights to Brisbane are booked but I've decided to wait for the bookings of my trip/hostel to Fraser. We will evaluate the situation later in the week and figure out what we do.

This reminds me a bit of the big /disaster that we lived on August 12th 2002 in Prague and eastern Europe when an unprecedented flood wave left parts of the city such as touristy Mala Strana underwater. Not to say waters rose quickly, aftermath was tremendous, borders closed and Prague had to go through a lot of renovation with no metro working for a while etc. However, once the water came down tourism was still functioning, so I think we will be fine. Fingers crossed.

13 days till Departure

Time is here. Holidays Again. After 21 months heading back to Australia. This time the flight is BCN-SYDNEY via London and Bangkok. Ill take this opportunity to visit two places that I have long wanted to see, Kangaroo Island (via Adelaide) and Fraser Island (via Sunshine Coast and Brisbane). Hope to keep you updated through the blog.

Welcome to Iran!

So at the end my travels have taken me through the cities that most of the tourist visit. I attach a map so that you see where I went geographically. Unfortunately as I previously said, I had to go up and down the country to be at different points at specific times. However each bus ride was an adventure, meeting someone new. In all I was in Masoule, Tehran,Kashan (between Esfahan and Tehran) Abyaneh (next to Kashan), Esfahan,Yazd and Shiraz (and Persepolis). In addittion other travelers tend to visit Kerman and Mashad, and if they have extra time the caspian cost. On arrival visas are for two weeks, but if you get it in th embassy it generally is for 30 days with one entry, but it can relatively easily be extended in the country. When traveling through the countries there are different kind of buses which are very cheap. However you can also take VIP buses, as I did from Shiraz to Tehran (13 hours) and you have a fully reclined seat.
These bus costed me 22 dollars for 1,000km and the non VIP one was 13 dollars. At the end of the day if you have a lonely planet you are keen to meet the few tourists that there are in the country in the same hostels. Amir Kabir in Esfahan and Silkroad in Yazd.

The meaning of Randomness

Once back home I will post the itineary that I have done. Due to the multiple times that I had to be at a place on a specific day I have been doing a lot of up and down of certain routes, but so far I have enjoyed myself and have bearly been alone. In fact I think the most time you can spend in Iran without talking to anyone is 8 hours (sleeping time).

As previously said the magic about this place is that you wake up without knowing who you will meet and what will happend. My last day in Esfahan before heading to Shiraz I was meant to meet Reihaneh, but unfortunately she was quite bussy. In the hope of not being followed I chose peak hour to go to the main square and buy my ticket to Shiraz. On the way there I met my roommate Albin in the internetcafe said hi and left. Took a walk around the square and while i was having my delicious icecream I saw Albin pass by again and we took a walk in the square. Then as I thought the day would be boring Zainab called as she had a friend of a friend who was going to reherse his typical iranian music with a group in his house and invited me to join the practice. A random girl called me to tell me the time and place his friend would pick me up. So Albin and I just headed over there. The music was spectacular, the appartment was very big full of carpets and it was simply great time. The hours of most heat we spend them in that house listening to some fantastic music. Albin made some MP3s which I hope to get one day and put them here. Later we headed for the tea shop with marvelous views of Immam Square and sat there for 2 hours drinking tea as he waited for someone to pick him up and I watied for Reihaneh. Since she didnt appear I headed back to the hotel to get my luggage and together with Julen Camila traveled to Shiraz in a quite unconfortable bus.

A quick update

Drinking tea the iranian way, Zainab

Hello,

I want to let you all know im doing great. I have met some amazing travelers in the past days, following the silkroad from europe to Asia, doing year long trips.Please check out one of the blogs of one of the personsI have met www.julica.com amazing! In the meanwhile, I have been left in the middle of a highway by a bus,checked out to check in 8 hours later on the same hotel,eaten some supposately sheep head which turned out to be fatty sheeps toes. Met a guy that knows the lonley planet writer and who travels during years and simply does some scubbadiving lessons 3 months in a year to earn money. And last but not least I have written my first Farsi sentences! Im proud! To add to it, I had some more Kebab and I went into the roof of a bazaar and many houses, to feel like in the movies. I promise descriptions and pictures soon. Some wonderful that are coming to an end soon. One of the best trips in my life.