TravelStream™ news feed for member helenmilla on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/helenmilla en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 16 May 2008 09:41:33 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1210962600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1210962600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1210962600/tpod.html Fri, 16 May 2008 09:41:33 -0400 My BIG O.E. to little Bergerac! ...will i survive nine months on the other side of the world, armed with 18 kilos of luggage, a food science degree, and my endless sarcasm?!

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Bergerac, Aquitaine, France

Although hard to believe, since i work all of 10 hours a week, ive had an action-packed last two months. In fact of the entire last semester, i spent only the last weekend in Bergerac .... was too busy rushing off to other villages to see people and explore since now the south of France has opened for business...

- visited the prehistoric cave paintings one wednesday afternoon at Font-de-Gaume.
- visited the Chateau de Beynac near Sarlat...loved that it used to fight its enemy castle on the other side of the river except in winter cos it was too cold
- went to Brive....mostly helens fault at reading timetables, but it turned out that just catching the next available train was a great plan!
- spent easter in Pgx
- spent another weekend in Pgx for the Eikiden team race, and to see the Carnivale.... of course this lead to helen taking the aptly named 'pendulum of death'.....

Back to the holiday....

Friday 18th April. Managed to swing the last day of term off so i could catch the cheap flight to Istanbul, Turkey. Luckily Lynn came with me, and it turned out that when we were met off the flight and taken on a crazy high-speed weaving ride thru to the city, we didn't bat an eyelid... so blaze to crazy forms of travel now...

The next morning Lynn and I woke to warm sunshine, and the inevitable bastards who pack up all their stuff in the hostel bedroom rather than taking it outside into the corridor... We had breakfast upstairs with the ocean view, and wandered up the road past the palace to the Aya Sofia and The Blue Mosque and the tulip gardens between them. It felt good to be back in a country with an Arabian Nights feel... and luckily this time, Lynn and I felt like experts on the culture. Spent the morning wandering the Grand Bazaar, sourced out the cheap deal on where to buy scarves, and started learning our basic turkish. We also met a good proportion of the male population of Istanbul, always ready to introduce themselves, ask 'where do you come from?', direct you when your lost, and sell you something. Damn, they even knew NZers were kiwis and Australians were Aussies.
Sarah arrived early that afternoon (obviously had had the same driver from the airport) and we wandered the aromatic and turkish streets that afternoon, relaxing in the city and enjoying the sun and culture. Went into The Blue Mosque that evening, and went out to dinner to test out the cuisine.

Sunday morning, despite Sarah's jet-lag, we saw into the Aya Sofia (enormous, 1400years old?...definately old!), caught a ferry to a nearby island (were never guna make it out to Prince's Island... it turned out Istanbul was enormous!) and returned in time to see the Whirling Dervish display at the train station that evening.

On monday, we wandered thru the gardens next to the palace, also filled with perfect tulips in bloom, wandered across the bridge where Sarah managed to pick up a stalker, and up to the Tower of Galata. It was another lazy day wandering, but the city was so different to everything else i'd seen i got a lot out of it. That evening we caught a flight to Cappodocia (well should say we almost missed our flight to cappodocia...there was a fair bit of stress in that minivan) and then had a one hour drive to Kose Pension in Goreme. Wandering out for food that night, Sarah managed to make friends with the locals who pulled up beside her on a motorbike, and within the hour we had dinner, our tour sorted for the next day and were drinking beer with the turkish guys at the local bar 'Pasha' (what would we do without connections?!) ....real turkish people, another chance to practise learning!

Cappodocia aka Bedrock.
Tuesday Denis guided us through the underground cities... apparently 40 cities exist but the caves connecting them all haven't been found. They were definately built for 'shelter and storage' ....and my memories for the day guide me to believe mostly storage of wine. The kapi christians made their mark too. You can last 3 days in the underground caves before you run out of air, and they were pretty cold, hence you live above land unless you're under attack. Good rule. Easy. And where Morocco treasured its dolphins, Turkey valued its pigeons.... 'for communication and building'.... just to clarify - they're homing pigeons, rather than my immediate 'how did they tell the pigeons where to fly?' idea... no surprises that day that Denis kept writing my stupidity off due to the fact i was a 'kiwi....sleepy kiwi...only make very slow small movements then have to sleep again'. And that evening we met up with Andy who had been on the tour with us that day, a Tasmanian travel agent. Not surprisingly we ended up meeting up with the turkish guys again and dancing in the bar, im thinking they drive round town keeping everyone up-to-date with who is where...

Wednesday we dragged ourselves round the open-air museum under the scorching sun, and rewarded ourselves with a swim that afternoon before we left Lynn and took a 14 hour bus ride to Fethiye. So not fun.

In Fethiye, we swam in the pool, became regulars at a restaurant by the harbour, took a 12 island cruise with a stop-off on yassica island (lunch, swimming, jumping off the boat, sunbathing, taking in the amazing view and the turquoise colour of the water...not a bad way to spend anzac day), and made it along to the Blue Lagoon for a final swim and sunbathe.

Saturday afternoon was spent on another bus to Kusadasi, beautiful landscape and value for money, but im pretty over long bus rides.Spent the night in the hostel, caught a ferry to Samos the next morning and ran straight into disaster: Greek orthodox easter... wtf, who knew Greece had easter a month late?! So, of course no ferries running, and i had 2 days to get out to Santorini, for a ferry to Crete and flight to Brussels. Shit. And so we learned the wise lesson:

the credit card will buy you out of disaster.

And quick as a flash (2hrs later) we flew into Athens, put the bags in storage at the airport, bused into the city, i gave sarah a guided tour of the sights, thru the closed gates, and next thing i know i hear 'Helen' from a cafe.... LYNN?!?!?! ... turns out also hit by the disaster that is greek orthodox easter, and ended up in Athens. Laughter was the only answer.

That evening sarah and i set up camp on the floor in the airport, me without sleeping bag... that polished concrete floor was comfy, and the stench from the nearby rubbish bin was a real treat. And at 5am we flew out to Santorini where we slept the morning away and hired quad bikes for the next 24 hours to explore the island. Fira and Ia were picture perfect, the island was covered in vineyards of little grape vine bushes, the buildings were on the cliff sides, all white with blue domes, and the black volcanic powdery and grainy cliff rock contrasted strikingly with the deep blue of the water and white of the builidings. No surprise to say we stayed on the cheaper side of the island, at Perissa beach!

Tuesday the 29th, I bid Sarah farewell and bonne voyage, and caught a ferry to Crete. (business class doesn't save u from 2 hours of babies crying and everyone around you vomiting...just slightly bigger seats) and the next morning i flew to Brussels.

Brussels: obviously the hostel was unbelievably tricky to find, the street name didn't correspond with that on my directions, and it was raining. However, it was clear i was back in Europe. Wandered the city centre that afternoon/evening, got myself a scary tunisian stalker at the hostel, and met a girl (spanish assistant from near paris) who I spent the next day with, visiting the Centre Belge de Bande Desinee (go the smurfs!) and eating what we assumed was totally Belgium-ish. Of course, being the 1st of may, half the city was closed for jour ferie.

Friday morning i caught a train to Luxembourg, met up with Michelle (it had been ages!) and explored the most beautiful little city in Europe.... the sun was shining, the streets were clean, the park in the valley was unmanicured but beautiful, the blossoms were out, and the people were clean and so nicely dressed! We picked up our race packs and had our free pasta too.... I know how to work the system....

Saturday we walked thru the park and shopped and wore ourselves out, so that saturday evening we had to drug up with panadol to get rid of the aching legs and headaches, in order to run the half-marathon... what a crazy event!

- more people watching than running.... many of whom were beautifully dressed and sipping champagne on the sidelines
- samba bands dotted along the course
- ran thru a tent of people eating dinner... hello, dont they think that was rather cruel on the 8000 runners?!
- finished in the arena with smoke machines and torches of fire, and a medal...my first!

michelle and i then went home, tried to settle our stomachs that were close to vomiting, and headed back to the after-party, .... of course our bodies lasted about 20mins before we had to go back home to bed. next time i plan not to run, but just turn up for the party after..

Sunday morning was lazy, saw the palace, and then i caught a train home for work the next morning.

Definately a whirlwind holiday. Did the washing at home, worked two days, then the following weekend was a long weekend so i went to Perpignan and Collioure with Molly and Lucy. Saw the spanish castle at Perpignan, caught a bus to the beach 'Canet plage' and spend a day in the beautiful seaside town of collioure where the fauvist painters like Matisse and Derain painted. Beautiful!

This week, Sarah came by to stay for a few days, and her having left a few hours ago, ive got 2 hours to get ready for my weekend away in ile de Re, near la Rochelle.

Having a wicked time... thank god Europe woke up out of its sleepy winter!!!!!!!!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1205600940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1205600940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1205600940/tpod.html Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:31:30 -0400 My BIG O.E. to little Bergerac! ...will i survive nine months on the other side of the world, armed with 18 kilos of luggage, a food science degree, and my endless sarcasm?!

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Casablanca, Morocco

How the great winter holiday unfolded...

To start, let me clarify, that i had booked the holiday soon after my return from my christmas holiday, and so, annoyed people endlessly for seven weeks by reminding them that i was off to warmer weather, and providing them with a daily-updated countdown of 'how many days to go?!' ....am sure a good proportion of Bergerac (both its natives and etrangeres) were pleased when i finally did pack up and go!

Managed to score a free ride up from Bergerac to Perigueux, and then on to Orly airport. Lynn (an american assistant in Perigueux) and I flew into Casablanca on saturday night, 22nd feb, got to the hotel at 3 in the morning after the unsurprising problems with ATM machines and taxi drivers..

23 feb - Casablanca - met the tour guide, Jamal from the Atlas mountains, and spent the afternoon exploring this unimpressive city and its far more impressive beach at Ain Diab. Met our driver that night (Bougmaar, or 'bouge-ma' as we came to call him) and Lynn and I had our first lesson in the Arabic language that night as we went back out to the airport to pick up Rachel from Montpon (actually English).

The next day we swung past Temple Hassan II (super pretty, and some part of it is apparently submerged) and headed over to Rabat (the capital city). Rabat was a heck of a lot cleaner than Casa, easily explained by the presence of King Mohammed VI's palace. It was here where one tour group member (Jill, English, travelling with her husband Martin) learned the valuable lesson of which way to face when using a hole-in-the-ground toilet (or twoi-let as Jamal would say). Face away from the wall Jill, away from the wall! We then stopped off at Chella - the ruins of a walled arabic city, oddly enough also home to many storks... yeah i mean the birds. Every which way u looked seemed the perfect snapshot... We continued on to Meknes where we showed off our arabic to the restaurant workers, and Lynn managed to get the restaurant owner to take off his guns and berber knives off the wall for her to try... sorry Lynn, your pocket knives may impress us, but they're nothing on the berber ones!

As usual, an early rise tuesday, in order to visit Volubilis, the ruins of an ancient roman city. Our local tour guide here was a crack up... im pretty sure he knew 10 phrases in english, and took us around pointing things out:
mosaics: 'dolphin: the symbol of the protection of the family'
crack in concrete 'earthquake line'
Houses: 'atrium' was always followed by 'solarium', and we quickly got the hang of what parts were in fact 'original' and 'restored'. He even gave us a demo of how one squated in the room that he called the 'latrine' ...Jill, take notes, he faced away from the wall... in fact, to top it off, when Lynn explained to him that she had a bit of an urgence (needed the loo), he sent her off to relieve herself where ever she pleased amongst the roman ruins (lucky the guide had given that demo on how to squat!)
Popped into Moulay Idriss or whatever the nearby town is called, where I had the fantastic chance of riding a donkey thru the village... geez, if i didn't at all stand out as a foreigner before hand, the donkey ride sure did the trick. although i excitedly shouted donkey everytime we had seen one on the trip to-date, the donkey ride sealed the deal... i loved donkeys.
That afternoon, a few urgences, snacks and donkey-sightings later, we got the tour of Meknes, by none other than the ex-translator to the king who divorced his second wife and was looking for his 9th. We saw the worlds biggest silo (i can see that a king with 12000 horses would need to store hay), he told us the arabs invented the concept of the arch (sorry Lynn, your art history studies were clearly wrong, arabs are smarter than romans) and made us smell some dudes hashish in a temple. Also helped me with my potential donkey purchase from Jamal. I loved the donkeys, couldn't see enough of them... with trailers, without trailers, tied to trees, with people on their backs, brown ones, white-grey ones... i was developing strong arguement for having a donkey in Bergerac as my main mode of transportation... just had to sort out a few details involving where i'd keep it, and what size trailer i'd need for him. Luckily our journey continued onto Fez that afternoon so i could mull it all over. That evening we had another lavish 5 course meal, but a show aswell.. belly dancers, magicians (tigga tigga tigga!), drumplayers and dudes that played shearing scissors, a dude that breakdanced with a mint tea glass on his hand, and then Rachel and I were dressed up as 'wifes' of some other audience member, and spun in a circle in the air on a table thing... bizzare...

Thursday we had a day-long tour of Fez with our guide Abdullah... from the tile and mosaics factory, to the jewish quarter, to the medina. 'Balak' was the word of the day... meaning get out of the way, im coming thru with a donkey loaded up with cargo. The medina was amazing... a maze with metalworks sections, textiles, food, knife sharpening sections, leather tanneries.. and by the end of the day we still didn't feel like we'd seen it all. But i did manage to score an extra macaroon at lunch from the dude who poured tea and guarded the metal container of cookies! Lynn managed narrowly to avoid purchasing a carpet, while Jill and Martin got a great deal on some leather goods, thanks to their 'daughter' Rachel getting them a 'student discount'.

The friday was a super long drive down to Marakesh, stopping to see monkeys on the way, and subsequently running away from the monkeys when they turned on us! A quiet day of donkey sighting, urgences, and snacks, and of course, repeating lines like 'earthquake line' 'original' 'restored'...whether it was me getting sick or Lynn's incredible alarm going off at 530am, i didn't feel quite on top... of course, just to check it off the list, i was sick during the night, so missed the guided tour of Marakesh the next morning, and the planned trip to the hamam. But in the afternoon the girls gave me a guided tour, and i bargained for two beautiful cactus silk scarves (red of marakesh of course).

Saturday was our final day... and we opted to add on a trip out to the village where our tour guide was born, passing Richard Bransons marocan hang-out along the way. The Imlil market was an eye-opener... twisting necks of chickens to break them, people walking about with great whopping chunks of animals over their shoulder (did i really have to shake his hand?!), bizzarely a tupperware style section, and my favorite part... a donkey-park instead of a carpark! We lazed about in the sun, with the most amazing backdrop of the atlas mountains, and the immediate countryside, we ate (pasta.. damn i was greatful for something other than couscous vegetarien and tagine vegetarien) got sunburned, and rode Jamal's mule. wandered thru the countryside thru villages, and bought myself a rosewater bottle.

Unforgetable. Headed over to Madrid that evening, where we met up with Sarah, a Bergerac assistant, and once again, found that i looked like the people around me... i no longer stuck out like a sore thumb!

We went out to Toledo the sunday, and enjoyed the sun as we relaxed and dawdled about Toledo, admiring the mix of arab, catholic, and jewish influences. On monday we thought we better see Madrid city itself... and gave paella a go aswell.. Madrid had some fantastic shopping, although i had nothing to spend, and i must admit that although i appreciated the subtle differences in architecture, I just felt like i was back in another european city.. damn it, where were all the donkeys?! At the end of the day, we found a great public garden with lake... it made madrid worthwhile. Tuesday morning i visited the Prado Museum... determined to become cultured whilst im surrounded by all this art! Several hours of admiring later, i can say i loved one painting in the whole museum: 'Maria Luisa y Mariano en el salon japones' by the painter Mariano Fortuny.

Took the bus to Granada that night, and after getting wrong directions, and falling over in the middle of an alleyway, we found the hostel (Oasis Hostel... totally reccomend). Next day we saw Alhambra.. despite the biting wind we explored the palace and its surroundings.. the best palace ive ever seen... the ceilings were stalagtitic, fountains and orange trees, beautiful gardens, mosaics.... and the alleyways thru granada were inviting... Lynn and I felt like we were back in Morrocco... all was well again.

Took an overnight train to Barcelona that evening and arrived there thursday morning at the paraiso hostel (also a fantasic hostel, right next door to the Bocaria market, just off the main street La Ramblas). Wandered Barcelona that day, and saw the fantastic Sagrada Familia Cathedral, by Gaudi... absolutely worth its 5 euros. Saw another assistant that evening, Drew, and went to the Dow Jones Bar, where the prices of drinks change as customers buy them...

Friday, our last day, we saw Guell Park, Casa Mila, swung by Barceloneta beach, Lynn and I managed to get lost on a hill afterdark until we found our fountain light-music display and finished the evening with the most amazing tapas and a jug of sangria. Saturday we trained back to Bordeaux, and sunday morning i got back to Bergerac, just in time to do the washing and get ready for school the next day.

FANTASTIC!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1203482460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1203482460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1203482460/tpod.html Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:47:44 -0500 My BIG O.E. to little Bergerac! ...will i survive nine months on the other side of the world, armed with 18 kilos of luggage, a food science degree, and my endless sarcasm?!

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Bergerac, France

Check out my new ammonia free hair.

Have been banned from ammonia, and in four months time, if ive looked after my hair with everday 'shampooing' with proper shampoo, my Bergeracois hairdresser may consider putting some highlights back in. Hair is serious business here...

All i wanted was the blonde roots dyed blonde... he refused. said my hair was dead, apart from the healthy regrowth part! said my hair had a green tinge to it.... aparently ive been abusing my hair for too many years. I spent 3 hours in the salon... my head was wrapped in tinfoil, and hot towels... the hairdresser also mentioned that i wasn't obliged to get my hair cut if i liked it long... it wasn't like he was guna get rid of the split ends to expose the healthy part of the hair, since the whole head of hair was dead.

a definitely cool cultural experience. and im off to get proper shampoo tomorrow as he's threatened not to do anything next time i come in if ive not looked after it... maybe that's why the french always look after their hair..they're petrified their hairdresser will drop them?!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1202155380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1202155380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1202155380/tpod.html Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:06:52 -0500 My BIG O.E. to little Bergerac! ...will i survive nine months on the other side of the world, armed with 18 kilos of luggage, a food science degree, and my endless sarcasm?!

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Bergerac, France

"Je ne suis pas habituee"....these are the words that spring to mind, when i think of how poor I am (financially speaking!), and how poor i have been since the start of january after i spent up large on my xmas holiday. Over january I....

1. tried to spend as little money as possible, involving staying in Bergerac, with an odd trip to Perigueux to shake things up a little

2. went into overdraft for the first time in my life...

3. discovered the amazing-heavenly-delicious caramel buns available 10minutes walk from my house...hmmm, dangerous!

4. did a cross-country run near Sarlat, at a place called Tamnies. Hard.

5. started to learn to ride a horse: currently i feel that i like sitting on a horse while it walks, however when it starts trotting i suddenly feel terrified!

6. cycled out to the chateau of Monbazillac, which is on a hill about 7km from Bergerac, and you can look back down on the village. the weather can be super-warm (between 15-20 degrees in the afternoons, after the 2 degree mornings, and the sun comes out, and the village is beautiful, like way back in september...)

7. planned my next adventure: morocco and spain. only three weeks away!!!

i have also avoided the 'soldes' .... my pauvre bank account just won't run to it....hehehe.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1199300640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1199300640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1199300640/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:48:29 -0500 My BIG O.E. to little Bergerac! ...will i survive nine months on the other side of the world, armed with 18 kilos of luggage, a food science degree, and my endless sarcasm?!

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Paris, Strasbourg and Grenoble, France

Well, restricted by a lack of carte de sejour (long stay visa), christmas and new year was definately guna be in France... on account of not being able to re-enter the country if i left. So on the 23rd of dec, i left 'the Berge' and headed up to Paris (yes... fifth trip to paris... just getting ridiculous how many times i've been there..) to an appartment on rue st Denis, just off rue de Rivoli, 1ere arrondissement, 5mins walk in either direction to Pompidou centre, Hotel de ville, and Le Louvre - damn right i can do christmas in style!

Spent three nights with michelle sergeant, her sister, and two other kiwis from london.

That first night, i showed off my iceskating skills on the rink in front of hotel de ville. Christmas eve involved being the greatest paris tour guide ever (basically dragging the others right around the highlights of paris all day...past le louvre, up the champs elysees, went up the arc de triomphe - which i hadn't done before, back to st michel - found a great falafel place there, then over to montmartre for champagne in the sunset on the steps of the sacre coeur). That night checked out the Notre Dame as it glowed with lights for the christmas mass service, and then made a quick run up to and around the pantheon.

Started christmas day with real champagne (yay!), and a shit load of chocolate, kicked off a traditional 4 course lunch at Restaurant Chartier with Kir Royals, then scaled the Tour Eiffel by foot!

Boxing day i headed by TGV to Strasbourg (homeless people snuck onto the train and took the seats behind me!...they were superexcited about going to strasbourg i think), and arrived in a town with white stuff all over the pavement...turns out it was snow...lucky the canadian assistant helped me clarify that one!

Next day, Stu, Erinne and me checked out the capital city of christmas (strasbourg!), and it turns out im not cut out for a maximum of zero degrees...seven layers of clothing, two pairs of gloves...still bloody freezing, ended up drinking mulled wine at 11am to try warming up..unsuccessful unfortunately. but the city was totally christmasy, snow covered roofs on houses, pain d'epices, marches de noel...way cool. the next day we went for a tour of the kronenbour beer factory. then the day after we by mistake (my crap navigating) passed by the european parliament as we narrowly missed driving into germany, on our way to grenoble!

Drove thru the Jura mountains, shaved past but not into Geneva, on the N83, officially the best drive ive done ever, and arrived in Grenoble late that night, only to find our hotel was less than central...rather in a nearby town called Vorreppe.

On the 30th, we checked out Grenoble, went up the longest cable car in the world to the fort de la Bastille, then thru a grotto, and thru a hole in a fence and up thru the alpine forest to to top of the mountain! Last day of 2007, we drove up to the Chamrousse ski field, and i snowboarded my little heart out, falling face first into the snow multiple times!

Had fondue that evening, and hit the bars and clubs of Grenoble to welcome in 2008. Woke up on the first in time to pack our bags and make the big journey home to bed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1197135300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1197135300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1197135300/tpod.html Sat, 08 Dec 2007 12:54:51 -0500 My BIG O.E. to little Bergerac! ...will i survive nine months on the other side of the world, armed with 18 kilos of luggage, a food science degree, and my endless sarcasm?!

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Bergerac, France

Only two weeks of school left before the christmas holidays!

Apart from trips to Perigueux to the Prefecture to start my carte de sejour application, and a trip to BDX for a medical appt (did i bring my most recent chest xray with me to the appt? ...hell no, if i'd had room to pack a chest xray when i moved to France, i might have packed other important shit!) ive been hanging out in little old Berge. Been doing the whole teaching routine.....apart from when france went on strike (im talking like the whole of france...trains, post, police officer, hospital workers, teachers, students, ...even the damned library) and i got the day off work, but nothing was open, so i stayed home and did not a thing. While we're talking routine, im still going to my italian lessons, and to jogging club and am now running an english conversation class for old women. i am a great citizen of bergerac.

Celebrated the big 24th bday in the berge too: taught in the morning, then had three cheese pizza for lunch, followed by italian class, jogging club (they gave me a big boquet of flowers...i love jogging club...they are super friendly and nice!) and then had fake champagne with flavoured syrups and chocolate fondue for dinner!....i thought the old bday could have been lame, but it was great. and i now have a jar of vegemite in the cupboard...i love presents.

I have cousin Emma (je te presente ma cousine australienne Emma) with me at the present... a super surprise, since she called me wed nite and came down from london on thursday. ...i had a whole staffroom full of teachers freaking out as i told them i had a text from emma saying she was lost in montparnasse station in paris. so with the aid of text messages with useful words such as 'TGV' and 'SNCF' she miraculously managed to get a train to BDX where i met her. as she caused me to have no prep for my friday teaching, she became my show-and-tell item, as she stood in front of four consecutive classes of children as they asked her questions such as 'do you have chameleons in australia?' and 'do you have those little toy sized motor bikes in australia that are actually meant for adults?' ....good times. Afternoon tour of berge followed, and another evening of choc fondue at mariana's house (my new actual french friend who runs a scarf fashion business and gave us each our own very first french scarf!!!). today we pasted by the market in berge, picked up and caught a train to St Emilion, where we drank Montbazillac wine, and ate baguette with camembert (and emma ate saussicson...im forcing culture on the girl). explored the village in the rain and taste-tested canelles and macaroons. home again now to watch miss france on tv tonight...its pretty popular and a very big event here. will let u know how it goes!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1194470760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1194470760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1194470760/tpod.html Sat, 17 Nov 2007 10:39:40 -0500 My BIG O.E. to little Bergerac! ...will i survive nine months on the other side of the world, armed with 18 kilos of luggage, a food science degree, and my endless sarcasm?!

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London, United Kingdom

Okey dokey.

School holidays meant i had 10 days free!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, went to LONDON! Stayed with michelle and her sis in Greenwich for the weekend (after a 12 hour journey to get there from berge), walked thru greenwich park to the observatory, ate cupcakes at the market...but most exciting: they have take-away coffee's in london. and they're bigger than a demi-tasse cup thing! ...oh the pleasantness of keeping your hands warm while walking along the street with a hot chocolate or coffee.

did the old walk about town thing, and went shopping along kensington on sunday...way less drama than hazarding my chances on oxford st!

on monday i headed to my next lot of accomodation - mehmet and nektars!
and spent monday and tuesday checking out V&A museum, harrods (kinda goes without saying), tower of london (suppose this could have been impressive to some people...maybe if i knew/cared about britains history...), museum of old medical/surgical stuff (not overly impressive either...) and the tate modern (big thumbs up on this one...who knew i was able to appreciate the 'material collection' i.e. picasso - couldn't see the bloody candlestick that the title suggests was in the picture, pollock - actually i expected more from this guy...people talk him up. and other famous dudes.)

anyways, didn't quite get round to buying up cheddar cheese to take back to berge, nor did i manage to get a loaf of multigrain bread. life is tough!

Back to Berge to work!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1193602620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1193602620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/helenmilla/bergerac07-08/1193602620/tpod.html Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:06:50 -0400 My BIG O.E. to little Bergerac! ...will i survive nine months on the other side of the world, armed with 18 kilos of luggage, a food science degree, and my endless sarcasm?!

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Bordeaux, France

It's 'La Toussaint'... so ive got 12 days holiday from teaching. (yeah, so we've only done 2 weeks of teaching, but we all feel we've earned our holiday). yesterday catherine, erinne, lizzie, charlotte and I headed on the train to nearby Castillon la Bataille (where the hundred years war took place...im yet to google what this was), to meet Raf.

He took us to St Emillion where we spent the sunny afternoon wandering the rue's and alleyways, up and down the paths in the village. Whilst totally touristique, it definitely had the 'quaint' factor, and if i was rich, i would have bought wine...it just seems appropriate.

Check out:

Then we took the train on to BDX. I was actually overwhelmed at all the people..i felt like a country hick arriving in the big smoke. BDX is way cool...we hung out at a motown bar (hmmm...i was keen to move on after 5mins...diana ross only does so much for me), then stumbled upon a Haitian music concert in place de la Victoire.

Spent the night in the hostel, and today we wandered all day - saw the 'mirror' water/mist square which is a thin layer of water on a paved area that gives a mirror image of all the buildings behind it, then pumps out a mist every 20mins so u can walk thru the fog and get lost in it.

To further explain:



saw a brocante at st michel, obviously wandered past a couple of other churches, walked rue st catherine, went thru musee d'Aquitaine - i actually wrote notes..it was interesting...im now totally up to date on homo habilis versus neanderthals versus cro-magnons. This afternoon me and charlotte found 'la fete du nouveau vin' which was on cours de la notre dame...its a fete which occurs halfway thru the grape fermentation...so everyone drinks the 'nouveau vin' ...its half grape juice and half wine... of course we had to ask what the cloudy lemon juice liquid everyone was drinking actually was to find this out. its sweet and delicious!

caught the train home tonight... off to london on friday...
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