New Zealand - first impressions

We arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand yesterday morning, dead tired from the flights. The only place further away from home we could possibly travel to would be Fiji. This is far enough!

We are staying at a hostel just outside the city center and instead of taking a bus from the airport we splurged on a taxi. My first impression of Christchurch and New Zealand - this is what California SHOULD be like. Lovely weather, clean streets, beautiful gardens everywhere, broad streets without a hole in the pavement anywhere. People are friendly. Prices are reasonable. California has the climate and natural resources to rival any in the world, but it's all gone to hell with people only planning and living for the short term. Don't get me started!

Anyway, our first story to tell from this trip:
We were walking back to the hostel from the city after having some dinner. The sun was just starting to go down. The streets were quiet in this residential area. Then on the right side of the road we walked up to an elderly man who had just pulled up on his motorcycle and still had his helmet on. He was trying to swing his right leg over the bike to dismount the thing. But he couldn't quite make it. His shakey old leg just wouldn't lift high enough to clear the seat. DB said "Do you need some help?" The old guy answered "I just had 3 strokes and just got my bike license back!" Dol took hold of his right foot and gently eased it over the seat behind and helped him steady himself on the ground. He was shaking like a leaf. I don't know what he would have done if we hadn't walked up! He asked where we were from and thanked us for our help. We walked away shaking out heads and laughing with black humor at the situation. That man is surely going to kill himself with that machine!

Beating Jetlag the Easy Way

Here I am in (not so sunny) California for the annual feast of Thanksgiving. It's 5:40 in the morning and I've been up for 2 hours. Ahhhh jet lag.

But I've found the remedy! It's simple.

Just don't fight it. If you wake up at 3am, just wake up, get up, make some coffee and read your email, or read a book or anything quiet so as not to wake the rest of the family. Then when Dad turns on something really horrible on the TV at 8:00 in the evening you can yawn and say you're jet lagged and simply head off to bed. This method is great for getting some quiet personal time and also not getting used to a different time zone completely which makes re-entry into CET much easier.

That's my plan anyway. We'll see how it works once the rest of the family descends on us this afternoon.

'Tis the Season

The U.S. is like a strange new country to me sometimes. I haven't lived here for 14 years and visiting California these days is more and more a curious event.

I notice now all the things Europeans say about Americans: they're all fat, everyone eats fast food all the time, shops are open all hours so no one gets much time off, they all complain about the cost of everything but compared to the rest of the world the U.S. is a bargain bazaar.

I come here to see my family and to shop. I have to admit that with such a short visit (10 days) I spend an equal time with both (and feel guilty all the while). The pre-Thanksgiving sales have started and I'm IN THERE. For someone living in Europe, you really can't comprehend the sales and the cost of things and it's just impossible not to buy buy buy just because it's so much cheaper than at home. I only came with one suitcase. Silly me, I should know better.

I've bought: an orange hoodie for 10 euros (great for Queen's Day), Levi's 501's for 25 euros, a 4-in-1 fleece lined ski jacket for 40 euros, and t-shirts and pants and that's only the start. I haven't yet bought the iPod or the running shoes. And I promised myself I wouldn't buy much this trip. I always promise myself this. And I always fail. And this time it's worse because it's Thanksgiving and prices are SLASHED and the newspaper arrives in the morning with 100 pages of advertisements calling on you to BUY and the TV ads are louder than the TV programs and nag you to BUY and I love Target and Penney's and Circuit City and everyone takes credit cards and really I'm shopping for the year and for DB also and I'm saving so much money!!!

Sigh. Today I promise I won't shop. Really. Unless suitcases are on sale.....

London in a weekend

This photo was taken from inside the Tate Modern museum, up against a window. People are streaming over the Millenium Bridge. St. Paul's cathedral is in the background. The photo was taken on 15 October at about 3 in the afternoon. The sun had just started to come out through the clouds turning the grey day a little bit brighter. You can see my other London photos here.

We spent the weekend in London, sightseeing and walking walking walking. Tate Modern was the highlight of the weekend. There is currently a special show by Swiss artists Fischli and Weiss. This show is worth the entire trip to the Tate. I tried to find a good link to give a feeling of their body of work, but couldn't find anything useful. They have done everything from photography, to sculpture, to video art. They have a wonderful sense of humor that made us laugh out loud, and a view of the world that is interesting and accessable at the same time. If you live anywhere near London, even if you have to fly, head to the Tate Modern. There is also currently an installation exhibit of tube slides of various lengths that kids and adults stood in long lines to have the chance to slide down. As it was Sunday, the place was packed with kids, so we were very happy they had these slides to keep them occupied!

I have two other impressions of London besides the wonderful Tate - the crowds and the cost of eating. London is so very crowded and busy it can make your head ache. Amsterdam seems like a provincial village in comparison. Only on Sunday afternoon walking in the backstreets of The City did we feel a little bit of breathing space from the crowds.

The cost of eating in London is truly amazing. In Amsterdam you can find cheap places to eat and still have reasonable food. Just head to any "Eet cafe" and you'll be fed well for 10 euros. Try to do this in London and you'll be set back double that. Sunday evening we had a pub dinner, dessert and 2 pints of beer each and the total bill came to about 50 POUNDS! Eating out 3 times a day, even at cheap-ish restaurants was quite a shock to the travel budget. Luckily DB's work paid for our hotel as he was at a conference Monday and Tuesday.

Another surprise was Saturday evening when we tried to get into a movie. We took the tube to Notting Hill Gate since there are a lot of movie theaters in that area. Every one we went to was sold out, some for days in advance. It seems that spontaneous movie going is just not done. Never mind trying to get into a West End show at short notice. A colleague of mine was trying to get tickets to a show and found out they were sold out til MARCH!

Lasting impression of London - a great place to visit, but bring lots of money and be prepared for the crowds, and plan ahead. Start early in the day if you want to try to beat the tourist crowds. In other words, the same advice as visiting any major city!

New photos on Flickr - Valladolid and Segovia

Seems a long time since I wrote something here but actually it's been about two weeks. Two busy weeks.
I have some new photos on flickr of our weekend in Spain (1-3 Sept). We went to Rutger and Esther's wedding in Valladolid. Unfortunately my camera battery was dead for the wedding itself (stupid me for not checking it beforehand) but you can see some nice photos of P's on his flickr pages. It was a nice weekend in a lovely Spanish city. It was especially nice to go to a Spanish city that has few tourists and doesn't cater to them. We saw how people really live, and I have to say, they live well. The food was tasty, people were friendly, the weather was perfect, the streets are clean and the air seemed so too. What more do you want?