| Back from holiday |
[Sep. 24th, 2007|03:55 pm] |
I came back from holiday on Saturday, with the usual trundle up to home the day after. I feel glad to be back to my flat after spending so much time with my parents.
After being in Poland, we headed out to a town called Ossiach in Austria, situated on a lake of the same name, where we spent two nights basking in the warm that had been lacking in Szczawnica and also relaxing because there was very little to do, which did us all a lot of good.
After that, we headed out for four nights to Lake Garda in Italy. We stayed in a camping on the outskirts of a town called Peschiera. Lake Garda is very big. The first time I saw it, misted the other side and it was just like looking at the sea. Except that this is seaside with swans and ducks, which really spoils the effect :) We visited two towns: Peschiera and Sirmione, both of which were beautiful in the typical Italian way and both of which were founded on some fairly unique geographical features. For example, Peschiera is founded on some islands at the point where Lake Garda is drained by a river. Sirmione is founded on a spit of land protruding at right angles from the lake shore in the south.
After Italy, we headed out to Switzerland where we stayed for two nights in Lautenbrunen, which was one valley over from Grindelwald where I went with the Oxford Millennium Orchestra and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kht some four years ago. Lautenbrunen is a much steeper valley and hence we didn't actually see any sunlight while we were there, because the mountains blocked it out in the mornings and evenings, when we were there. And that made the place bitterly cold. We were staying in rented caravan accommodation, much like we had at Lake Garda. While the warm days in Lake Garda made the caravan extremely bearable (except at night), in Lautenbrunen it was not and all of us tried to cope with nights where the temperature dipped below freezing outside and was probably not much warmer in caravan. It was an experience.
The highlight of the trip came in Switzerland, when we took the Jungfraujoch railway from Lautenbrunen (~800m) to the Jungfraujoch (~3400m). The Jungfrau is the highest mountain in the region and the joch is the pass between in and the next mountain over (the Eiger). Although the trip was amazingly expensive (the three of us paid £200), it was worth every penny and was amazing experience which I thoroughly recommend if you are ever in that part of the world. The whole thing needs a post of its own.
After that we headed up to Brussels, where we stayed at a friend of my mother's. I found out just how amazingly poor sleep and cold can sap you one I woke up the next morning feeling so much more refreshed than I had the night before. Yet the night before, I would have sworn that I was fine. Both members of the family that we visited work for the EU and so we had some interesting discussions about what was happening around us.
After that it was home via the Chunnel, which is only really exciting when you think about what you're passing through. Already at the Chunnel entrance it was back to good old British food and service, namely we ate some crap fast food and were served by people who couldn't care less in surroundings that were appalling compared to the lovely places we'd eaten in. It really was a shock. |
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| In Poland |
[Sep. 11th, 2007|12:29 pm] |
My family bitches about travelling by air but this trip reminded me all the bad things about doing that level of mileage by car: severe lack of sleep and chronic pain in the bum that after 24 hours no amount of shifting can alleviate. We've been here a few days now and I'm just beginning to fell that I've caught up on the sleep I missed. The journey itself was relatively uneventful. We only got lost once in the dead of night around a complicated junction mainly thanks to the fact that my parents forgot to bring any of the up to date maps we had (I swear they have too much faith in my map-reading ability that they forget that it's not magic and needs things like, say, maps) and the lack of attention that lack of sleep brings as dad continually sails serenely past all the exits we're meant to take and I serenely fail to plot alternative routes.
We're in a small town called Szczawnica in the Pieniny. The town isn't particularly nice or unice but the view of the mountains outside of my window is cool.
On Sunday we went for a walk along the Homole Canyon which was very pretty and a suitable short walk to ease one back into walking. I'd forgotten how nice walking is, I want to do more. I think if I can persuade my parents to go on a longer walk tomorrow, that would be good. We then ate a huge meal and then went to sleep. We then woke up and spent until 4am awake. We have no sleeping pattern.
On Monday we went into Nowy Sacz and put the car in for a service. We used the time we waited to do shopping. It's not particularly worth buying electronic goods in Poland as they're about as expensive as in England, sometimes more. However, being a bit more chilled makes it easier to shop and I bought myself a usb wifi stick because it turns out my work laptop doesn't come with wifi and also I bought a 1Gb mp3 player because if I hear any one of our car CDs one more time I will kill. We can make that work with the car radio thanks to one of those FM broadcasters dad owns. Also, we twisted my mother's arm and got her to buy herself walking shoes. In the past mum always used to be the least prepared for walking and used to both suffer the most and hold us back. Dad solved this by buying her a proper gore-tex jacket which, despite her objections, gets regular use and means we are all on a par for surviveability. So it was amusing to hear her try to justify not needing boots given that anytime she uses her coat is an occasion she will use her boots.
Today we went to see a property mum has her eye on buying in this region. We're not very decided about what to do. What we can agree is that investing in this region is a very good idea seeing as the Polish tourist trade (particularly skiing) is under-developed. The question is very much how. Also, our sleeping patterns seem to have just about realigned and we just about seem to have shaken the post travel tiredness.
We're staying in a hotel that is a Sanitorium. I'm sorry, I mean health spa. This is because there was no where else available. It's an old communist building and it's very cool (in the communist-is-cool-because-it's-history-and-I-don't-have-to-live-with-it way). Mum rented an apartment rather than a hotel room and it looks like the apartment was for the old communist important people. It is set up to be luxurious in this way that is like someone had only academically heard what luxury was like and tried to emulate it but actually missed the spirit completely. We have gold-plated taps and doornobs, a huge bath, lots of space and the beds are comfortable but it lacks all the actual final touches that would make it a comfortable place to be. Clearly you are meant to impressed and happy at how important having gold-platted taps makes you. Fortunately, we're not going to be here long enough for that to affect us. |
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| Off on holiday |
[Sep. 16th, 2006|01:47 pm] |
I'm off to Italy for two weeks where I'm not planning to have any internet access (but if I have time and find an internet cafe, I might).
*waves farewell to friendlist* |
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| Holiday |
[Aug. 25th, 2005|01:06 am] |
My holiday in Costa Rica continues.
The day after I arrived was a rest day and allowed me to recuperate a little and get well after being ill from the journey. The next day is where things started.
We went to visit the Turialba volcano. Together with Irazu, these two volcanos (really one single volcanic ridge) dominate the surrounding area, although no where near as much as Mt Rainer or Mt St Helens dominate the local landscape in Washington State, USA (went there when I was 21). The two old craters of Turialba were available to walk around although the third active crater is off-limits. The second crater had an interesting lake which was yellowy green (Sulphur) and the smell at some points was pretty impressive. The wind channelled the smell up various impressive ravines: igneous rock seeems to be easily erodible. The weather carried on being a little annoying in that there was fog on the mountain. Well, actually, I think it was clouds forming. It was very surreal to stand there and watch the ghostly tedrils of water vapour creep past. Both volcanos are below the initial cloud layer and wreathed in clouds most of the time such that yesterday was the first real time I saw them from Bettina's house.
The day after that was another rest day and was really the time my stomacch has been settling down so it was nice to eat heavier things. Bettina's mother is a really, really good cook. I have been apprecciating this... All in all, though, I'm getting on much better with Bettina's parents. In the beginning I felt pathetic, awkward and worried because, well, I miss Bettina loads and I haven't seen her in a while and that meant I was quite absorbed by Bettina's presence. However, increasing my reserves of energy, overcoming all illnesses and resting stopped the patheticness, the awkwardness stopped yesterday when we went shopping and all of us loosened up and the last has been remedied by several days of Bettina, joy! Anyway, apparently I am approved of officially, which is good :)
Yesterday involved shopping in San Jose for various stuff but of the American driving to destinations for things you know you want shopping rather than European wondering around the city centre and seeing what's there style shopping which happens tomorrow when we grab the bus. Anyway, I now have two pairs of jeans that were insanely cheap and are very comfortable and are a cut I like, although they're not in any exact colours or textures I like. I also have smelly essences along with some Almond oil bought jointly with Bettina, the idea being you mix up you're own massage oil. We have six essences, of which three relax, two deal with menstrual pain, three stimulate and two are aphrodisiacs (apparently). Anyway, will be seeing how they all pan out.
Apart from that, I've been up to various stuff and i will write about stuff eventually if I think it's interesting (not sure how mucch this is, but hey, it's my journal and I have such a poor associative memory that unless I write down the hooks, I'll loose the memories). |
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