in such a world art | veg | academia | geekery

Bosnia is marked

While mystery surrounded Bosnia from the beginning of planning my journey (which may have something to do with the fact that my guidebook covers Western, not Central Europe), as I rode the bus from Croatia into my first stop, Mostar, I could see immediately that Bosnia would be a fascinating part of my trip. Everywhere, evidence of the recent Bosnian war (1992-1995) took the form of scarred walls of buildings, empty ruins filled with blossoming trees, and a certain unnameable “shook” feeling that struck me immediately. To my relief, Bosnians are friendly! Not surly, not pushy, but good ol’ fashioned friendly! Such a nice surprise.

My time in Bosnia looked like this:

• 1 day in Mostar
• 1 day in Medjugorje
• 5 days in Sarajevo

I haven’t had many one day stints, and I really don’t like travelling that way. I am a fan of slow travel, which involves at least 2 or 3 days per city. Mostar needed more, Medjugorje could have been skipped altogether, and Sarajevo time could have been shortened a bit. But that is the kind of learning you do while travelling!

Also: Bosnia is probably the least veg friendly place I have been to so far in my trip. At one point another vegetarian tried to order a pastry without meat and just kept ordering the wrong thing, at one point biting into an innocent looking croissant to get a piece of hot dog in his mouth! When I did eat out I stuck to Pizzerias where I could get cheeseless pizza or spaghetti milanese with tomato sauce. I was not even remotely tempted by their local specialties, which from what I could gather were generally pastries filled with pureed meat. Um, yeah. In Sarajevo I had one veg restaurant on my list, but after haunting the street a few times just could not seem to track it down. Luckily, while in Sarajevo I had the luxury of preparing some much needed healthy dishes for myself (brown rice with vegetable and tofu stir fry, spaghetti sauce with zucchini, swiss chard and kidney beans, etc etc). So at this point, Spain ranks at the top of the veg friendly list, while Bosnia is at the bottom.

Mostar

The most remarkable thing about Mostar for me, was the hostel I stayed in. Madja’s Rooms is essentially a family business. After I booked the hostel on Hostelworld.com, Madja herself emailed me almost immediately to offer to pick me up from the bus station if I email or call her to let her know when I will be arriving. Then after it slipped my mind, she emailed me the day before (I happened to be on the internet at the time) to ask me when I would arrive. As soon as I got off the bus she was there with her sign with my name and a few others on it. While staying there for one day I met her brother and mother, in the cozy hostel that really felt like a home. It was a completely different feeling than any other hostel I have stayed in, and I relished that little pocket of warmth.

I walked around Mostar on the first day I was there, stopping into the museum and an intriguing photo exhibition. Some sights:

Souvenir stands:

My favourite picture of the infamous bridge (and reconstructed after the war) Stari Most:

The next morning I got a ride to Medjugorje as part of a really fun tour that Madja’s brother runs. I got to see the first part of the tour, at the top of a tall hill overlooking Mostar, where a monument to the war (don’t forget) is in the shape of a large cross.

The tour guide and group overlooking the fantastic view:

The monument (and terrifying rickety van we drove up the narrow roads to get there):

MedjugorjeMedjugorje is the site of some controversial sightings of the virgin Mary. I chose to go here after speaking with Martine at the first farm in France, who was converted to Catholicism (from BUDDHISM, you heard me right) after a meaningful visit to this small town. Well, my time here was uneventful, except for hunting forever to find my hostel, which was frustrating. While the town seemed to teem with religious kitsch (plastic rosaries in every colour, among other things), I did find myself in my small, white featureless hostel room thinking about a lot of the serious religious questions that have come up. So maybe the place did have an effect on me, after all.

Sarajevo

After a chaotic settling in to Sarajevo (I was staying with the family member of a coworker. She gave me the wrong address, so I ended up on a 3-taxi adventure but finally ended up with a really sweet family for the week I was there), I settled into this interesting city with surprises at every turn, taking some time to really learn more about the Bosnian war that led to the extreme siege on the city of Sarajevo. I also took a great bus tour for only about 2.50 Euros. I found Sarajevo at times: strikingly beautiful, disorganized and chaotic, full of car fumes and honking horns, lots of cigarette smoking, and full of feeling.

It is hard to describe… but some shots to give you an idea:

At the covered market where (during the siege), a large group of people where bombed while they waited in line to get bread:

Outside the city there are lovely large canyons:

Latin bridge which marked the beginning of World War I, where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated:

There was art in public spaces to discover, my favourite part about the city. As I was walking along the river, I came across this death mask in plaster attached to a cement wall.

The approach:

Looking closer:

And in a bridge, a really fantastic and haunting sculpture… could not find an inscription anywhere naming the artist. The sculpture was interactive since it seemed to be created with the idea that children would clamber onto it:

And some details:

Oh yes, and a man getting a shoe shine:

And now, joy of joys, I am heading on a 12 hour train ride to get to Budapest, which I am very excited about (not the train ride part… I mean, what does one do in a 12 hour ride without going insane?). The final month of my trip will be filled with lots of couch surfing, veg friendly cities (yay Austria!), and a triumphant return home which I am looking forward to. I really miss home, but am still enjoying all of the discoveries of travel and continue to march forward.

Croatia, land of blistering heat and cool blue Adriatic beaches

Croatia was a blissful vacation from my vacation, the kind of place you would want to escape to in the dead of a Canadian winter (except that technically it would be colder at that time in Croatia). Evidently the week before I arrived it had been pouring a kind of smattering rain for about a week, so it was perfectly primed to be as hot as possible for my stay. So hot, in fact, it was too difficult to sight-see, but perfectly easy to swim every day in the bright blue water of the Adriatic sea on the Dalmatian coast. Croatia uses the currency called Kuna, which was confusing to switch to after being so used to the Euro. Luckily things were fairly cheap here.

My time in Croatia looked something like this:

• 3 days in Split (trips to Hvar and Brac islands)
• 4 days in Dubrovnik (trip to the Elaphite islands of Kolocep, Lopud and Sipan)

Taking the ferry to Split from the sketchy port town of Ancona in Italy, I met a really awesome girl named Rossana (an Italo-Canadian freelancer) who ended up transforming my stay in Split.

Coincidentally we ended up in the same hostel and decided to see the sights together. I really liked Split… beautiful monuments, bright white stone on the main stretch close to the ferries, and proximity to some beautiful islands.

Our first stop was Brac island, which evidently has one of the top ten beaches in the world, called Bol beach. We ended up on the island very late in the day, not a good idea in Croatia, which I found to be very confusing in terms of navigating the bus system. We had to take a bus to get to the other side of the island where the beach was. A not very helpful tourist information employee advised us to “come back tomorrow,” since at this rate we would only get an hour on the beach itself if we took the return bus at its scheduled time. But Rossana and I decided to be resourceful. While on the bus ride there, I introduced myself to two girls from Finland and asked them if they wanted to join us in a taxi ride home since we were in the same boat. They agreed, and soon another passenger (a British consultant named David) approached us and asked if he could join as well. Having now 2 or 3 hours on the beach, we all made the walk together and ended up having lots of fun as a group of 5.

It was the best beach I have ever swam on: soft pebbles underfoot (no gritty sand to deal with), deliciously inviting water, surrounded by mountains, and not too crowded. I soon learned that the Adriatic sea is wonderful to swim in, since it is so salty that the water seems to cradle you. No need for strenuous swimming or worries about depth, you can essentially relax and float in this water. And of course, the perfect temperature for a hot day.

Laura, Rossana, David and Terhi:

Later, we watched the Euro Football (soccer) match between Italy and Spain, sadly in the minority since most people were cheering for Spain:

The next day, we made our way to Hvar island - much more touristy since it is a new favourite haunt of celebrities. It was very beautiful indeed, and we walked around briefly, before heading on a taxi boat to a close small island with a great beach. Again, swimming is the thing to do at this time in Croatia if it is not early morning or late afternoon when the weather is bearable. We brought David along this time since in his love for Croatia he is a return visitor and knows a lot about Hvar.

Cute croc-wearing couple on the ferry to Hvar island:

View of Hvar:

This is what the shore looked like when we pulled up at the smaller island in the boat:

On this beach we found a swanky set-up of bar, restaurant cafe, and hammocks with some very groovy, relaxing music. It all has a very resort feeling, and we proceeded to have a relaxing afternoon.

Dessert section:

Restaurant section:

David and I, notice how relaxed I look!

Beach (we purchased the luxury of the shaded hut chaises):

Risotto primavera for lunch. It was pretty good, especially with the lentils and beans mixed in there:

The bus ride from Split to Dubrovnik was extremely beautiful, all along the coast and well worth the 2 or 3 hours it took. Here is one of the shots I managed to get through the window:

I don’t really have much to say about Dubrovnik. It was lovely and picturesque with its walled in old town…

My hostel was near the top of the city so every day I had an exhausting walk up in the scalding heat. Also, I unfortunately invested in a not-so-worth it tour of the Elaphite islands. Here is a photo of some blossoms on Kolocep island:

I ate a few times at a great vegetarian restaurant called Nishta… but overall I found that the beaches were less satisfying than in Split since I found them more dirty and polluted from the boats and larger tourist population.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Croatia, and find it surprising it is so unheard of in Canada. It is a well kept secret! Shhh…

Italy for art lovers in a pinch

My time in Italy was limited (for various reasons) to 11 days, which I carefully planned along the lines of a makeshift art history tour.  It enabled me to see many of the artworks I studied in person, and I made a special trip to Bologna for a somewhat-unknown sculpture that had knocked my socks off in my university Renaissance course.

• Venice (2 days)
• Bologna (1 day)
• Rome (5 days)
• Florence (3 days)

Observations about Italy in general after a short time:

• Not the best bread in the world (I miss Switzerland!) - what I could see was always white, and unforgivably hard.
• Gelato every 5 feet.  DELICIOUS vegan gelato flavours in pistachio, hazlenut, vanilla and chocolate.
• Not the most polite people I have met culturally… but then again I have met especially friendly Italians among the bunch.
• Very attractive men, and women (distinctively Roman noses, full lips, dark hair and complexion - who could go wrong?).
• Staring.  Lots of staring.  As one person I met put it, Italy has a culture of looking and being looked at.  (unfortunately, being stared at happens to be a pet peeve of mine).
• INSANE driving.  Way more scary than London ever could be.   At one point I was nearly run into by a motorcyclist (who passed within an inch of me), while correctly crossing the road.

Venice:  Until this point,  I was used to travelling with a lot of space around me, with very manageable breathing room.  Suddenly in Venice I was launched into the world of countless other tourists, who push and shove, butt in line, make loud noises and generally bustle.  Don’t get me wrong, I am also a tourist… but I loathe equally: being crowded, and the rudeness of butting in line and pushing without apologizing afterwards.  At any rate, Venice was also the hottest place I have been so far, and I was forced immediately to get used to the blazing sun of summer.

But let’s get to the positive bits.  Venice is an interesting city, full of random and surprising details.  No cars, but instead a myriad of boats with different functions.  I saw police boats, taxi boats, gondolas, supply carrying boats, vapporettos (bus boats), and even personal boats.  Getting lost in Venice is also inevitable…

a yummy falafel meal in the Jewish ghetto area:

a bird decides to join me!

people making a music video:

seriously, I ran into two friends from high school in the cabin room next to mine at my hostel!!

And I found myself drawn to the more subtle details.  How, I asked, do people really live in Venice?  I noticed the mail delivery man going from residence to residence, saw garbage bags outside ready for collection.  The city has very little green spaces for obvious reasons, so I also wondered about children and how they found spaces for play and oasis in the hot and crowded city.  I noticed that they often played in different piazzas, and saw lots of chalk drawings on the grey stones as I wove my way through to the various points of interest.

Feeding the pigeons:

A mass of pigeons! Kind of frightening:

I can’t really understand, on the other hand, why Venice is considered so romantic.  With the practical realities of 75 euro an hour gondola rides, tourist crowds, and inevitability of getting lost… I think you have to be floating on a really high and blinding cloud to coast through the city without a little unromantic frustration.

Bologna:  I made a beeline for Bologna on a sort of pilgramage to see a sculpture I had studied in my Renaissance art glass, relatively unknown but spectacular, it is called the Lamentation by Niccolo dell Arca.  It was worth the effort, and I enjoyed Bologna’s beautiful porticoes and open feeling.

Highlight here was a delicious and healthy meal I had in a restaurant/yoga centre in the city:

Rome:  I really loved Rome, in what little of it I could see in the 5 days I practically ran through the city.  There is SO much to see around every corner, that I must come back in the future to see the rest.  I especially loved the Collosseum and the Roman Forum.  The feeling in the city of new and old, and ruins surrounding one in the bustle of the intense traffic, is unforgettable.

Highlights:

• Taking a bike ride on a very comfortable bike around the large Villa Borghese park.
• This museum (Galleria Nazionale d’arte moderna):

• My four (really five) course vegan meal at Il Margutta restaurant. Especially this pasta dish with capers and black olives:

Also, the dessert I had the first time I came for lunch there:

UM, and the BEST pizza I have ever had, bar none, done Naples-style at a restaurant outside Rome:

Climbing the duomo of St Peter’s Basilica, and getting this view:

Seeing artworks by Caravaggio, Bernini, and others. This kind of thing:

Oh, and that kind of thing:

The Roman Forum:

The Ara Pacis:

And its beautiful architectural housing, in a light rain:

• Spontaneous street performances by very talented people.

The Pantheon:

And SO much more!

Florence:  What I remember of Florence will unfortunately always be - very narrow sidewalks, slow walking people, large tourist crowds, ridiculously long line-ups for galleries, and very expensive entrance fees… 

 BUT, Florence also had:

…Really lovely places along the water where the bridges were, case in point, a view of the Ponte Vecchio:

…I can’t forget the amazing art I saw there

(the David was well worth the hour and a half wait… unbelievable)

…and of course one of the best meals of my entire trip:

Tofu asparagus ravioli with a very fresh pesto (full of pieces of pine nuts and garlic):

Coffee/vanilla veg gelato with chocolate sauce:

So that, in ’short’, is my summary of Italy. And of course, many things remain unsaid, but I think this made for a more enjoyable visual spread of what I saw there.

Switzerland and the undescribable alps

I want to apologize for the recent series of dull and very didactic posts, where I mechanically describe my trip. Everything I experience is pretty much always “breathtaking,” “meaningful,” “extraordinary,” and especially “beautiful.” Not much to report on anything ugly or boring, so I tend to overuse these sorts of adjectives and end up gushing my way through the storytelling… makes for not all together great blogging, as you can see.  At any rate, I am going to try to quickly speed through entries on Switzerland, Italy and Croatia so I can blog more regularly as I travel, having the details fresh in my mind, and hopefully less pedantic.

Switzerland was a two week journey:

• Geneva (3 days)
• Bern (1 day)
• Lausanne (1 day)
• Lucerne (2 days) - with a day trip to Mt. Pilatus
• Interlaken (2 days) -  included a day trip to the Lauterbrunnen region, including Gimmewald and the Schilthorn summit
• Zurich (5 days) - with a day trip to Basel
• Lugano (2 days) - including visits to the regions of Morcote, Ascona, and Locarno

Observations about Switzerland:

• Culturally, Switzerland reminded me a lot of Canada. It felt, at times, so eerily familiar that I found myself relaxing into the small towns and relishing the chance to have a little lull at the halfway point in my trip.
• I loved the Swiss transporation system. Buses announce every stop, thus it is easy to take a bus and know exactly where it was going. Everything is ALWAYS on time. Since Switzerland is not a huge country, trains are frequent and connect every city across its expanse, and you can easily take a short train ride to get to the other side of the country. (Hence, my day trip to Basel from Zurich).
• Bread, bread, delicious bread every 10 feet in every city I was in. I love multigrain or whole grain breads, and they were always fresh baked and readily available. I miss that so much now that I have moved onto the white, crusty unsatisfying breads of Italy, Croatia and Bosnia.
• Lots of great grocery stores at visible and frequent intervals.
• I once paid 28 francs for a lunch (a special one), which would be unthinkable in Canada, needless to say.
• Cities were very green (lots of parks and green space), the air was very clean, and everyone was going crazy getting ready for Euro 2008 (part of which is being hosted in Switzerland).
• Switzerland, in case you didn’t know, has 4 languages: French, Italian, Swiss German, and rare Romansch (spoken by only 10% of the population).  Swiss German is the most dominant, and from observations and conversations I noticed that while most Swiss people know at least two languages, there is some resentment from Germans to learn French, and vice versa.  It is understandable since both are very difficult languages.  But not knowing German wasn’t a problem for me, since everyone I met also knew English.
• My favourite part of the trip was the experiences I had with the alps.  I am happy I chose to come to Switzerland and will never forget the mountains.

Geneva:  Geneva was full of very sharply dressed people in expensive clothing.  I immediately felt like a bum traveller for the first time on my trip.  Also, there were some extremely expensive drinks. The Swiss franc is close to the Canadian dollar, and I once saw a regular mixed drink on the menu for 26 francs.  I would hazard a guess that Geneva is the most expensive place in Switzerland.  The most remarkable experience I had was taking a tour of the UN international headquarters; I found it very inspiring.  I met a girl from the US (we were both trying to find the front entrance of the UN for the tour) who I ended up spending the rest of the day with.   Here is a shot of Geneva with the famous jet d’eau in the background:

This broken chair sculpture at the UN headquarters was made in honour of victims of land mines:

Bern:  A picturesque university town, I enjoyed my brief stay in Bern, taking long walks around the old town and tourist areas.  As with most other places where I couch surf, the time I spent there was coloured by my experience in spending time with my host, who was a lovely girl.  We took long walks along the river, went out for drinks with her (very Swiss German) friends, and even had a meal together that I prepared. 

Of course I had to buy some vegan Swiss Chocolate!

Lausanne:  I visited Lausanne for one thing: the Musee de l’art Brut, an art gallery consisting of selected works by mentally challenged, handicapped, or otherwise “outsider” artists who would normally not be selected for a traditional gallery space.  It was utterly fantastic, filled with plenty of artworks I wouldn’t mind seeing in regular galleries.  I made a mistake here, and that was to buy a wonderful poster and expect that I would be able to carry it around with me for the last month and a half of my trip.  I know, I know, but it was a really great poster showing a work by one of my favourite artists in the gallery.  It lasted until Lugano, the end of my Switzerland journey, where I promptly left it beside a bench at the Lugano train station.  So now I must find a way to order it again, since I am determined to get that poster mounted and on my wall!

Great Indian meal on brown rice I had from the Dhanyaa restaurant right behind the Lausanne train station:

Lucerne:  Ahh, good ol Lucerne.  A really beautiful town, with mountains on all sides.  This part of my trip is the terrifying climax you could say…  the height of my dangerous and adventurous risk taking. 

Well, originally I had planned to hike on Mt. Pilatus when I was in Lucerne.  On it, not IT.  When sending out couch surfing requests, a really nice female surgeon answered my request saying that early that morning she was going on a hike on Mt. Pilatus with fellow surgeons and their trainees, to show them the best alpine mountain in Lucerne.   What a coincidence!  I jumped at the chance to hike with a group, especially a group of doctors.  It could only happen in my strange destiny to climb my first mountain in the safest way possible, literally surrounded by doctors.  

Unbeknownst to me were were not just doing a short hike on the mountain, but actually climbing it completely.  It was 7000 FT or 2132 M, those numbers are burned into my brain.  It took about 6 hours, I think.  At first, it seemed very manageable.  I was climbing with tall, strong people who were accustomed to climbing mountains and so rambled around quickly and calmly.  After a while of regular hiking paths, we came to parts where you had to cross snow-filled ravines, diagonally, being careful to have at least three points of contact with the ground (or snow, in this case) so as not to fall.  Here is one of the first ones that was dangerous, melting. Trust me, it got worse than this:

Then, as we mounted closer and closer to the summit, the climbing became so steep that I had to force myself not to look down.  My host had to carry my bag for me since I was inexperienced and needed a lighter gait.  I had moments where I had to stop, catching my breath if my foot almost slipped on mud.  I admit it, I was terrified;  needing my host to coach me through the especially dangerous and ridiculously steep sections.  It was the first time I had ever felt so close to a couch surfing host.  I don’t know what I would have done if she wasn’t there.  After taking the greatest risk I ever have, I managed to make it to the top, with a heavy sense of relief.   Needless to say, I took the cable car down, not wanting to face the even more dangerous descent.  Looking back, I am happy that I had the experience but it was probably the most physically adventurous thing I will ever do, knowing how much it tested me to my personal limits.

The surgeons who helped guide me through the worst of the journey:

The team of strapping doctors!

Photography from different views at the summit:

And, to lighten my stories about Lucern, a tasty gourmet vegan meal I ate. Carrots, chickpeas, bulgur wheat, sweet mango sauce, raisins, and coconut slivers!

Interlaken (Lauterbrunnen):   I found Interlaken disturbingly touristy.  Case in point - they have a Hooters.  Yes, a Hooters, including the expected women in tight short orange shorts.   It was also ironic that I travelled to the adventure sport capital of Switzerland at the point where I was still jittery from climbing Mt. Pilatus and not ready for anything with an altitude of more than 5 feet.  Luckily, the close-by region of Lauterbrunnen had a harmless hike on asphalt close to a cable car ride up to some very interesting mountain regions.  It was an expensive cable car ride up to the top, but infinitely worth it.  I had befriended three tourists from Singapore the night before who I joined to visit the Trummelbach falls, where the melted water from the snow peaks of the three largest alpine mountains in the area collectively wash down inside a beautiful network of caves.

From inside the caves, taking the ride up on the spooky elevator:

Pure water that has known a great height and stillness…

In the summer, the melting from the mountains spews down rockwalls as a makeshift waterfall. I found it so fascinating to see these different falls all over as I made my way around Interlaken by bus:

My two favourite points of Lauterbrunnen, howerver, were Gimmelwald and the Schilthorn summit. Gimmewald was a quaint mountain village where one would wake up every day in awe at the sight of the large wall of mountain peaks. There were lots of alpine wildflowers.

On the summit at Schilthorn, you could see three other alpine peaks and a 360 degree view of the mountain ranges.  I cried when I got off the cable car, at this height and seeing the mountain peaks all around me.  It was very cold, high, and bright… mist swirled around the peaks, at times revealing and concealing.  I have never seen anything so beautiful. And as usual, the photos don’t even come close.

Zurich:  My time in Zurich was blissful, a delicious lull in the middle of my whirlwind journey where I stayed in a posh flat with two great girls in graduate school.  They were both amazing people I could really learn from, and we had a great time together.  Zurich itself reminded me so much of my hometown, with not tons to see but having a nice atmosphere and the usual green spaces I had become accustomed to in Switzerland.

An art school vernissage show that was held in an abandoned train station. Here, I met an interesting artist who was a friend of Katharina, and saw tons of rooms full of interesting, fresh artwork by students:

A strange sight: some soldiers stopping to listen to some bohemians play on the drums, made me laugh.

Delicious meal Katharina and Nora made me - spicy curry with quorn (some kind of tofu-like mushroom variety?) and coconut rice… yum!

We went out once for sushi! Here is the veg sushi platter:

And because you can easily get around Switzerland by train and I found out that the International art festival Art Basel was being held in Basel, I took a day trip there. The city is full of great galleries, I really enjoyed the Jean Tinguely museum (featuring an interesting exhibition on machinist art and also the collection of his great works), and Art Basel itself was a very overwhelming but great experience. It was full of hundreds of rooms of up and coming artists with some pieces for sale, art professionals and galleries were also represented throughout. Needless to say it was utterly exhausting, and I am certain that I left with much more to see, being thoroughly “arted out” with the many rooms I did manage to peruse.

Lugano (Locarno, Morcote, Ascona):  After Zurich, Katharina gave me several recommendations for places to see from my perch in the small town of Lugano in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland.  My hostel, blissfully, had a pool and was 5 minutes from the train station.  Seeing that Lugano could be seen easily in a few hours with some good walking shoes, I left quickly for Morcote by boat. The next day, I took the train to Locarno and explored it briefly before heading to Ascona on another boat ride.  Some highlights, since this post is quite lengthy already!

Room that I loved in a park in Morcote:

From the same park:

From the Madonna del Sasso church in Locarno:

View of Ascona:

Locarno:

WWOOFing on Farm #2: Maison La Source

Maison La Source was in the Rhone-Alpes area, close to Lyon; set in the mountains. It is not really a farm, but actually an ecological bed-and-breakfast. The vegetable and fruit gardens are thus maintained to feed its habitants organically and healthfully. It is run by Christine and Nicolas Molle.

The house was recently overhauled to ecologically incorporate elements such as rain water collection, wind mill, walls made of natural materials, etc etc.  Each of the rooms in the bed and breakfast is decorated to different themes like “Africa” and “Asia,” using lovely textiles and a keen eye for colour.

The air in this part of France at this time of year was fragrant, filled with the scent of a certain white blossom (as well as other blooming flowers):

The atmosphere at Maison la Source was completely different from Moulin de Braux. It being a quiet time of year, there were no guests and only Christine and a garden helper worked during the day, whereas Nicolas worked every day in Lyon to come home in the evenings. So when I did my work, which consisted of mostly weeding (cleaning up the different flower beds and vegetable plants), I worked by myself. I have to admit that was a big challenge for me. Time passed much more slowly without someone else to work with, and of course I was missing people at the other farm. But I did also some cleaning in the house for potential guests (who ended up not coming), and experimenting with recipes in the kitchen.  If you are considering WWOOF-ing yourself, please contact me personally and I can give you some advice about the process of choosing the right farm for you that I can’t get into in this public blog space.

My bedroom:

Some other companions on the farm I neglected to mention were Aladin the dog and Bounty the cat. Every day Aladin gives Bounty a “biting/kissing” massage that looks terrifying if you see it for the first time, he literally nibbles around her neck, grooming and massaging her. She loves it! Aladin was a lot of fun to play fetch with, and a very gentle and well behaved companion.

Food.

Whereas in Moulin de Braux Luc and Martine kept no real junk food around the house (no snack foods, chips … just a little bit of dark chocolate) - Christine and Nicolas love desserts and encouraged me early on to make some my yummy vegan desserts. Of course, I am only happy to oblige since I find it really fun to bake. Made my lemon date squares, chocolate peanut butter banana brownie cookies, and a chocolate cake. It was hard to get used to their oven and stove, which had different heat settings than the ones at home, so I tended to burn things more often! But never to the point where something wasn’t edible, ha. I think they were happy to see that vegan desserts were just as tasty.

Meals took the same shape as at Moulin de Braux: whole, organic foods with a good balance of vegetables, grains and legumes. Large salads, of course, but since La Source is not a normal farm, they maintain beautiful flowers (such as roses) around the garden. Many of these are edible, and so our salads are (dare I say) even more lovely than those at Braux.

While many of the fruit trees at la Source are still young, their strawberries ripened during my stay and the cherry tree yielded some delicious cherries. I am sorry I missed the raspberries!

With all of the plentiful roses, we were able to frequently go out into the garden and cut some bouquets for the house, which was a favourite activity of mine - the art of flower arranging. These flowers were often unbelievable apparitions:

Thinking about religion.

The strange thing during this month of farming was my sudden necessary inquiry into religion, something I haven’t thought about for years now. Martine at Moulin de Braux was a passionate Catholic, while Katie (another WOOFer at Braux) from the United States a devoted non-denominational Christian. Having discussions with them both led to me thinking again about religion and why I turned away from it; to consider how I really feel now, looking back.

Christine and Nicolas at Maison La Source, both practising Raja Yoga and regular meditators, presented yet another new perspective on religion.  They view things from a completely different perspective, and opened doors to possibilities of pursuing a similar path.  When I get home I am thinking about beginning a meditation practice (potentially in the Raja yogic tradition they follow), to experiment with how that experience feels for me and learn more about my spirituality.  A lot of their ideas really resonated with my point of view on the world, and what I have learned from my encounters with Christianity.

The hardest part of my trip by far is saying “goodbye.” I have met so many amazing people that have changed my life, nearly every day and more than I could write about in the blog, but it is always a process of exhilarating discovery and then the inevitable parting. And of course, living and working on farms led to connections to the land, the air, the beautiful food. It will be so difficult for me to return home to Canada and have to purchase my vegetables at the grocery store. It seems wrong to pay money for salad greens, when they had been so plentiful and luscious.  Of course, I have also been inspired to dream about a future possible garden of my own someday (where I think about growing flowers, spinach, herbs and onions).

While I am well into the second half of my travels now, I crave the healthy food it is difficult to prepare while on the road roaming from place to place.  I learned lots of new and delicious recipes and techniques while in France that will shape the way I cook for the rest of my life.  Of course, I have received much more than that out of the experience, and I am grateful.

WWOOFing on Farm #1: Moulin de Braux

Moulin de Braux was a very special experience for me, and one I will cherish. The farm is set in Braux which is close to Dijon in the Burgundy region of France. As I took the train into the area, I saw huge fields of luscious yellow flowers. Not dandelions as you see in Canada, but instead (as I learned later), these fields grow either mustard or canola flowers (for canola oil) both plants are from the same family, so look similar. Also, the French countryside is truly beautiful - with these fields of yellow flowers and vibrant green meadows in the hilly regions. Of course, spring is probably the best time of year to see this.

The Moulin de Braux farm is run by Luc and Martine.

As many other organic farms, I soon learned that it struggles financially to stay afloat. Not everyone in France wants to buy organic, and despite their size they get no support from the government. Thus is a constant fight to stay successful with all of the work that needs to be done in producing lots of vegetables organically. They produce lots of vegetables, including carrots, leeks, onions, and varieties of radishes. Greens include swiss chard and spinach. Every week they have a market in a local small town, and then bi-monthly they have a market in Paris.

What I liked about the farm was that there were a lot of people to work with. From Paul, the New Zealander who has a semi-permanent stay and usually works with preparing carrots and helping at mealtimes, to the various apprentices at different levels who learn by the experience of working with Luc on the farm. So at mealtimes we had up to eight people at the table. This was great for my learning French since the others were around my age and I was able to spend time with them after working by watching French films, visiting local towns for drinks, etc. A breakthrough for me was being able to hang out with the other farm hands and really feel like I could engage in debates and conversations fully in French, getting to know them as friends. I will miss them, it was hard to say goodbye. Overall, the social aspect of the farm was the most rich part of the experience of living and working at Moulin de Braux.

Coline and I:

Katie (who came from the United States to work for 3 months) and her hilarious t-shirt:

Oh and I can’t forget Canelle, the mischievious dog:

Daily life

Each day we met for breakfast at 8 am. After breakfast (usually at around 9) we began work. I worked in the fields until 11 am, at which point I returned to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Then I would work again after lunch (2 to 3 o’clock) and work for 2 more hours. So essentially I worked 4 hours in the field, and 2 hours in the kitchen. Normally WWOOF-ing is 4 hours, but I really wanted to help more since I believed in the farm.

Work in the fields consisted of activities such as: weeding, planting bulbs or seeds, watering seedlings or young plants, cutting/washing vegetables for market, and harvesting vegetables such as leeks or spinach (which was really fun to pick). I found it very satisfying to work outside doing these things, and then for lunch just going into the cold storage room to “shop” for the meal. The feeling that we were producing all of the things we ate was really amazing. At the end of the day, it never failed that I felt very fulfilled in the work that we did.

Here is a picture of the cold storage room where all of the vegetables were kept for the markets:

Here is my bedroom in an adjacent large house to the farm. I really loved it and especially the bed, since it was a joy to be comfortable and warm after a long day of hard work.

Food

I loved the mealtimes at the farm, and really learned a lot about French culture and how I would like to run my own household. I also did lots of cooking, and grew to love the roasted vegetables, grains, and hearty salads I prepared as staples for the family.

Every morning, the first person in the kitchen at 8 am would prepare tea for everyone, usually types of green tea like regular or green tea with mint. They would set out large bowls for this tea. Then they would cut the bread and start to toast some. Once everyone was sitting down and Martine would say her quick prayer, we began to eat. Toast with different types of nut butters (hazlenut, almond, sesame, etc) and jams. Everything we ate on the farm was organic, even the products purchased from stores.

Lunchtime was around 1:30 in the afternoon. I would come in from working at 11 am to start preparing it, since it took a long time to prepare the vegetables and greens for eating. Vegetables had to be cut and scrubbed, greens washed multiple times. We usually put things through some vinegar and water for one final cleaning before we ate them. I learned that with these organically grown vegetables, it is good to have the skin on them since it is good for you to eat. The typical vegetarian meal I would help prepare would consist of a hearty salad to start, then a grain (quinoa, brown rice) with a legume (lentils, split peas) and one or two types of cooked vegetables. These were usually roasted in Martine’s excellent crock pots with olive oil and sea salt. We ate quite a bit at this meal, which was the largest of the day. Dessert was usually cheese for those who ate cheese, which although I don’t eat it think it is a very balanced way to eat it since you treat it as a treat, not something you smother all over your meal.

Here is the typical salad we ate every day, and which I grew to love. The dressing is made from different types of oil, vinegar, and traditional mustard varieties that are locally produced in Dijon. The bread is organic, and produced by a local bakery. Something I noticed that I really liked in France on farms was that you usually knew the people who made your food, and had relationships for example with the bakers who baked your bread. It was yeast free, since Martine believes that is healthier for the body. Carrots (yellow and orange varieties) and types of radishes were grated in a food processor for putting on your salad. Also, Martine taught me a recipe for something called “gourmandise” I think, which is toasted sesame seeds, ground in a mortar and pestle with sea salt. It is a very tasty topping, that you could consider somewhat like parmesan in that it has fat and saltiness. I found out later that this is a common French recipe, and I even saw it packaged and being sold in a health food store.

Dinner was very small since we have such a big lunch. It is usually independent and self serve, but sometimes Paul would prepare a soup using whatever was leftover from lunch.

There was no alcohol really allowed on the farm, for reasons I won’t get into, but one time some of us went into the local town, Semur, to spend time at a bar and have some drinks. I tried a local specialty called Kir, which is essentially white wine mixed with blackberry syrup… delicious.

Exploring the area.

As I mentioned, small towns in the French countryside are truly lovely places to be. I visited Dijon, Semur-en-Auxois, Montbard, and Flavigny. I saw that small towns in this area of France are very clean and orderly, have beautiful stone houses with lots of heritage, and have lots of green spaces. Of course, this time of year has lots of luscious vegetation.

In this part of France, I saw small lizards like I had seen in Spain, lots of snails, and large birds such as hawks or herons. They were very timid and scared of people, and as I biked one time I could always hear the scurrying and rustling of hiding lizards as I passed. This is something I saw on my bike ride to Flavigny, along the Burgundy canal:

I will spare you more photos of my smaller trips around, but you can check out my Flickr albums for more. There is so much to relay about this experience, but some more details from my journal: it took getting used to being so dirty all of the time (I had purchased a good rain jacket and rubber boots in Barcelona luckily, which were needed), international calling was free on their landline which was a treat since I was able to call home fairly often, the internet was very limited since there was only one computer with slow internet that happened to be in a room occupied by lots of bees (and since I am a little scared of bees, I hardly ever wanted to be in that room, you can understand), people in France greet each other by one kiss on each cheek, and I really learned that French is much more complicated than they teach you in school (not just a simple translation from English as I was taught when I learned French).

My experience in learning French very interesting. In the first few days of being fully immersed on the farm I was very overwhelmed with the conversations at the dinner table where people spoke very quickly, and often when working in the field I would never know when someone was speaking to me if I was looking away, since sometimes I tuned out the streams of incomprehensible language. I did my best to speak well, and then one night we watched a film entirely in French. That night I tossed and turned, unable to sleep with my mind racing to attempt to deal with this sudden influx of continuous French. Then, miraculously, the next morning I woke up and could understand everything that people said at mealtimes… that was when my true French learning began.

Barcelona: avoiding theft, soaking up sun, and an ambitious two day coastal hiking trip.

This will be a more lengthy post than usual (saying a lot) since Barcelona was a very full and fun time on our trip. First, coming from Granada we had trouble finding full accommodation for the entire length of our stay. We ended up at two different couch surfing spots, plus a day or two at a hostel, and then having one day not covered at all, we decided to take a weekend trip to the coast for some ambitious hiking.

Barcelona felt like it had some of the qualities of every city we had seen thus far. Wide boulevards, historical neighbourhoods … but into the mix Barcelona brings the relaxed, coastal feeling as you approach the ocean pier. There is sun, and sand. I enjoyed all of the public sculpture and creatively designed buildings. And of course, the brilliant and fascinating architecture of Gaudi. We visited Casa Mila, Casa Batlo, the Sagrada Familia, and his home in the Parc Gaudi he designed. I will spare you too many pictures, the rest are available in my Flickr archive, but will select some of my favourites from the building that affected me the most, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia cathedral. He died before its completion, but using his designs Barcelona is attempting to complete its construction.

Exterior sculptures:

Inside:

Ceiling:

Barcelona is rumoured to be the city of theft; pickpocketers are said to abound and I have heard of several people having valuables stolen. Katie and I managed to have no incidents, watching our bags very carefully in the crowded areas such as the boulevard Las Ramblas.

We made a quick stop at Els Quatre Gats, the infamous coffee shop where the late greats such as Picasso interacted with fellow artists and thinkers:

Scattered across the city we explored, the health food store chain Veritas was a godsend. It is here that after days of searching in Spain, we finally found peanut butter! (the Spanish love their nutella and other chocolate spreads on toast)

Barcelona also happens to have a 100% vegan restaurant, called Juicy Jones, which was also very delicious. We ate there a few times, I think:

the colourful interior:

roasted vegetable sandwich with pesto and olive tapenade:

soba noodle salad with olives and tofu slices:

At Amaltea, with our amazing CS hosts, I had batter fried artichoke hearts with guacamole, hummus and pita:

At one point it was a twist of fate where Katie and I happened to be ravenous, hadn’t planned a restaurant but were searching around the local neighbourhood in vain. Finally Katie spotted some chairs outside a restaurant, where we discovered the best vegan foccaccia pizza slice known to man. We dreamed about it afterwards, it was so delicious:

and hanging from their windows they had lavender, rather than the ham shanks in typical Spanish restaurants:

Inspired by a recommendation from our CS hosts, we decided to embark on a hike on the East coast of Spain, a train distance away from Barcelona. Day one consisted of a hike along the coast from Llanca to Port de la Selva. Day two consisted of a hike in the mountains to the Saint Pere de Rhodes monastery, then a hike back to Llanca following a mountain trail.

A view of the coastal trail of day one:

In Llanca, starting out:

I have so many beautiful pictures (hard to go wrong with a coast like that):

Day one went well without a hitch. We settled in for the night in gorgeous Port de la Selva, then headed out bright and early the next morning into the mountains on a fairly steep hiking trail. The trail was marked with red and white stripes that became very comforting as we followed them towards the monastery.

Here is Katie, looking down at Port de la Selva:

When we reached the monastery, we stopped before entering to have our lunch - with the best view I have ever eaten in front of:

The monastery:

After the monastery I have less and less photos as we continued to hike towards Llanca, somewhat exhausted. We ended up getting lost, losing the trail that we were following without initially realizing it. Then, suddenly we had to hike down a very steep hill that caused me to stumble several times (very dangerous since we had no idea where we were and it would have been difficult to get help if I was seriously injured). Then we had no path to follow and knew we were very far from our initial easy path into the city of Llanca. But luckily with mountains, you usually know which direction you need to go in - up, or down. So we headed down, finally finding a passable trail to follow. We ended up in the countryside near a vineyard, about 3 or 4 km outside the town. So we walked alongside the highway until we reached the train station. What a crazy long journey.

All in all, Barcelona was a lot of fun. Good food, amazing architecture, great people encountered via couch surfing, and an exciting coastal trip to complete the journey.

Granada: A city unlike any other

Subconsciously knowing that we would really like Granada, we ended up giving it more breathing space in our itinerary. It is hard to describe just why Granada was a fantastic city to explore. First, there is actually something to explore… a complex network of alley ways and sudden apparitions of graffiti (not just any graffiti, but lively and created by a skilled hand). The city is not flat but has a steep incline to where we stayed in our luxurious hostel.

Some interesting corners of the city:

We really struck gold with our hostel in the Albacin area of Granada, which is the old Moorish neighbourhood of winding streets and beautiful detail that I think makes Granada really special. It was a separate, private building of the hostel where we had paid for a double room that was the same price of two separate beds in a normal hostel. But since the main office and internet were in the main hostel building, this one was very quiet and felt more like living in a house. Our room was on the main floor with the living room and kitchen right outside the door. Upstairs and downstairs were bathrooms and the other two rooms in the building. Really quite a treat, and we were able to prepare a few very tasty meals there. Since we were living in the most interesting neighbourhood of Granada, it was easy to explore.

Double bedroom:

Living and dining room:

Kitchen:

Our time in Granada coincided with my having to choose my graduate school for September in Communication studies, a very difficult decision that put a little bit of stress on me during that part of the trip. I ended up being torn between York University in Toronto and McGill University in Montreal (who accepted me at the last minute after being on the waiting list)… in the end, I chose McGill - but it was very close.

Ah, the illustrious Alhambra, palace complex of Moorish monarchs, masterpiece of Islamic architecture. It was truly fantastic. But our journey there, not so fantastic. On the way we got a bit lost and ended up in a strange alleyway. On the way out, realizing the true direction, I was distracted and accidentally stepped into a grate in the street, which was just broken enough to trap my foot. It was a scary moment, where my friend Katie thought I had twisted my foot and I took a quick moment to assess what had happened, with a gasp of fear as I sat/fell down. With the help of a kind passerby, I managed to get my foot out. He put a stone where the hole was, so future pedestrians wouldn’t make the same mistake. Made me catch my breath a bit, but really nothing serious.

The grate of doom:

The Alhambra was breathtaking… full of painstaking carved details of Arabic inscriptions and complex patterns. As in every great building, every angle was a refreshing new work of art.

Since Granada is so southerly, they had a lot of Moroccan items in tourist shops, and a Moroccan market as well.

The graffiti in Granada was really interesting. Two of my favourites:

At one point, after exploring the Albacin area more, we heard that if you went to the very stop, there was an area where gypsies lived in caves in the mountain. So of course, we had to check that out. At the top at first we found what seemed like a very wealthy part of Granada with new, clean and white homes with a beautiful view of the city. Then as we went further into the more natural part of the summit, we finally saw the best view, and as rumoured, the homes of gypsies. We were too shy and a bit nervous to take pictures of the caves really close up, but they were so fascinating with their glass windows. Also, as we passed we could hear the strains of guitar music and could see people outside.

View:

Settlement:

As was typical for our trip thus far, Granada was not luxuriously hot. In fact, it was so rainy and cold that Katie and I were excited to buy mittens that we found in the market. Mittens, in Spain. In April. One day after stubbornly walking around in the rain, we stepped in from the chill to a luxurious meal at Hicuri restaurant.

Delicious vegetable soup I hope that I can recreate:

Couscous with vegetables in a tasty asian sauce:

All in all, I can highly recommend Granada and would go back. It was my favourite Spanish city, and probably the most interesting place I have visited to this point.

Toledo, Cordoba, Sevilla … oh my! Still not warm enough.

I am starting to summarize Spain in fewer words so I can finally catch up to where I am now, Bern, Switzerland. After we finished exploring Madrid, we hiked out on the train system for a day trip to Toledo. What a picturesque town, barely any of my photos of the approach of the town turned out - we literally entered the town after approaching on a bridge with striking views.

Best picture of looking to the left of the bridge as we approached:

The entrance:

Toledo’s specialty, aside from some unique cuts of meat, is marzipan, a type of almond sugar mixture that is vegan! So we managed to track down some non dairy desserts to try. But for lunch, we picked up some strawberries, bananas, pumpkin seeds and pistachios.

One of my favourite pictures of my entire trip, a sudden flash of light in the gray:

We ate our lunch in the park to the strange sounds of 80s music blaring from a speaker nearby:

A view of the more modern part of Toledo:

Toledo (or at least the older, touristy sector) is composed of many narrow, winding streets. As you walk, at times it seems like no cars exist. Until one decides to drive through, and then you can see how difficult it is for pedestrians to press up against the sides of buildings to let them through. While I found Toledo equal parts lovely and interesting, the strong tourist culture and many cars made the city that much more uncomfortable to visit.

Here you can see how much of a tight squeeze it was:

Cordoba:

Cordoba was a sudden ray of sunshine on our thus far chilly trip. For the first afternoon that we were there, of course. It reminded me of Florida somehow with its palm trees and wide commercial boulevards. But the star of Cordoba is undoubtably La Mezquita, the Roman Catholic Cathedral and former Muslim mosque. If you ask me, its magnificence comes from its identity as the second largest mosque in the world, but Katie and I laughed as we read the very biased brochure emphasizing its Catholic nature. The lighting was unfortunate for any good pictures, and I have also learned that the more beautiful/amazing/interesting something is on my trip, the more impossible it will be to take the right picture.

The fountain outside with these children who were entranced by it:

The famous arches:

Sevilla:

Sevilla has been nicknamed the ‘frying pan of Spain’ since it is supposed to be the hottest point.  Of course with Katie and I’s Canadian winter curse (we brought the cold with us wherever we went, it seemed) and the effects of climate change, it was not too hot when we were there.

In Sevilla we visited yet another cathedral in our multitude of cathedrals, big and small. As you can tell, at this point I am a little tired of cathedrals (and many in Spain were very similar, causing them to blend together indistinguishably) … I am hoping this cathedral exhaustion will be gone by the time I get to Italy!

The most notable part was our thirty-something flight hike up to the bell tower, where we saw some amazing views of Sevilla:

Something about vegetarian/ecological restaurants really makes me happy.  I think just the fact that they exist, doing their best to serve ecological, healthy and nourishing food, means that the people running these establishments are usually a joy to meet.  In Sevilla we found one of these restaurants that feels kind of like a light in the darkness, I feel a strong connection to these places.  Inside, we found a really sweet man who spoke no English but through the power of gestures we were able to understand what to order, and randomnly choose foreign entrees in Spanish, hoping for something delicious.  This is where food on our trip gets much cheaper - here for lunch we had an appetizer, main meal, and dessert for about 10 euros.  And since they were celebrating their anniversary, free wine!

Above, Katie has a cold soup that was green with we think cucumber, and I had a warm vegetable soup with large croutons.  My main dish below was a plate of grilled vegetables, very delicious:

Katie had an eggplant curry on a bed of aromatic rice with full spices mixed in:

What was funny in Spain is that I had a fierce craving for pasta all the way through. I bought some rye pasta from an organic store but was unable to prepare it until we had a proper kitchen - which became the running joke, since I was lugging this pasta with me through all of Spain. So finally in Sevilla our hostel was equipped with a rather snazzy kitchen so I was able to enjoy the delicious pasta with a store bought spaghetti sauce (that tasted oddly like chef boyardee sauce, without the meat).

Arguably the best part of our trip to Sevilla was seeing traditional flamenco dancing.  In our guidebook we read that Sevilla was the place to see flamenco, where it is as its cheapest and most authentic.  Of course, no pictures until the end, and rather blurry ones at that.  We took our place among about 30 people in a small, intimate space.  The sounds of Spanish guitar and two dances, one by a female dancer (urged on by her seeming ‘challenger’ in black) and the other by a male dancer.  It was so fascinating, especially the social dynamics in the dance - the issuse of gender and relationships between the ‘challenger’-dancer and dancer-audience, as the sounds of clapping and tapping filled the air in the flurry of movement.  At the end of the dance, here the dancers show off for the cameras.

Madrid: the land of dangling ham shanks, ridiculous gallery security, and ironically delicious vegetarian food

If I never see another Iberian ham leg dangling in front of my face, I will be happy. In Spain, these delighfully cured pig legs (complete with a blackened hoof intact, mind you) are hanging in every grocery store, plenty of other smaller stores, and we even once found a store dedicated totally to their glory in a TRAIN STATION. I have spared you a photo of these, having decided to take none. My friend Katie and I nicknamed them “ham shanks,” and of course after the initial week of horror, you get used to it rather quickly. On the other hand, surprisingly, I have found Spain altogether more vegetarian-friendly than France.

I am currently working in one place for another week, a great bed and breakfast/organic garden close to Lyon, France. Since I am settled here temporarily for a bit of a breather before continuing the last 2 months of my trip, I am finally getting the chance to update the blog with the stages of the journey to date.  Looks like I may not have time to do the rest of Spain yet, but you will have to be content with Madrid for now.

My Spain itinerary, roughly:

• Madrid, 5 days
• Toledo, 1 day
• Cordoba, 1 day
• Sevilla, 2 days
• Granada, 4 days
• Barcelona, 7 days (2 days of which were spent on the east coast close to Barcelona)

I reached Madrid from London and whiled away a few days before Katie arrived to accompany me on the Spain leg of my journey. In Madrid we stayed with a German named Max and his daughter, in a small outskirt area called Pinto. Regrettably he suffering from a debilitating fever while we were there, so was not able to accompany us in our wanderings.

Overall, I am really glad we decided to come to Madrid. I had read several guides that said it was a boring city not worth seeing (in comparison to others), and after completeing our tour of 2 and a half weeks I have to say I disagree, and that it was a fun place to visit.

Observations about Madrid (and/or Spain in general):

• I soon came to learn that hardly anyone in Spain speaks English. Even where you would expect them to, such as information kiosks at bus or train stations. This forced us to use a basic, broken, guidebook-level Spanish which is of course a part of the growing pains of travel. In any case, I am now interested in learning it properly, since I thought it was a lovely language.
• Vegan desserts in Europe, are seriously lacking so far. Whatever happened to cakes, cookies, ice cream, etc; which can all be prepared deliciously sans dairy? Instead, every dessert so far has been … soy pudding. Gooey, gelatinous, totally unappealing. Sometimes they get creative and put a sprinkling of cinnamon on top, or maybe a few pine nuts. But, come on.
• Parks in Madrid were utterly beautiful. I never knew that cities could have such lovely parks - despite the fact that they are clearly manipulated by human hands, in a way it can be a sort of art. I had lots of fun getting lost in Madrid’s Park del Buen Retiro.
• Despite our visions of never-ending sunshine, Spain was surprisingly chilly until we reached Barcelona. In fact, in Granada we were so cold that we bought gloves! Of course this was amusing to J at home in Canada, who was enjoying his first game of tennis! At any rate, the heat finally came in Barcelona, coinciding with the beautiful coast.
• Since I have a Latin (French, Spanish, Italian) background (my father’s side is from France), this combined with my confident appearance to make me seem even more the local. I was asked many times for directions in Spanish, to which I responded, “Oh - Hablo Ingles, lo siento.”
• I have realized more and more how much impoliteness bothers me. In Spain, people can walk right into you, push and shove as they pass, as if you are an inanimate object and they never apologize. This really irked me.
• Agave plants (so that’s where agave syrup comes from), poppies (their floppy, pretty heads), little lizards, the “dry” visual feeling to the houses, equipped for the heat of Spain.

Museums:

The first museum I visited was before Katie arrived, the El Museo de arte Thyssen-Bornemisz.

There, I promptly fell in love with Emil Nolde’s paintings. While I had found his work intriguing when studying it in school, I have learned that there is nothing like seeing the real thing. It has been such a strange experience, to see all of the artworks I studied finally in person, full colour, texture and presence. Here is an image of his, Summer Clouds that I was transfixed by:

Here’s where we get into the really fun gallery security part of the trip. The next museum we visited together was the Museo del Prado. We decided to visit for the time the gallery is free, so we waited in an extra long line-up to get in.  The security was unbelievable - a bag scanner and a full body scan!  Everything went smoothly until they saw that we had fruit in our bags.  Specifically, we had a few bananas.  Fruit is specifically prohibited in the gallery, because we were, what - going to open up our bananas in the middle of the room and smear them on the paintings?  I guess it is possible!

Best experience here was finally seeing Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights altarpiece in person.  It was, well, breathtaking, as expected.

At the Reina Sofia, we saw a great retrospective of Picasso’s artistic career!  I learned a lot about his vision.  I also stumbled into a few other great contemporary artworks I really enjoyed… my favourite was a sculpture called Libros IV by Manuel Valdez - of course, no pictures allowed.

Food:

At a restaurant called Artemisia, I had the best meal of my trip so far - a delicious traditional paella made with not-so-traditional healthy ingredients such as brown rice and vegetables. Perfect blend of spices, an inexplicable taste that I will remember for a long time.

A favourite vegetarian fast food chain Katie and I discovered also in Barcelona.

Falafels! But not just ordinary falafel - these had an array of delicious toppings you could add. These falafels came with guacamole and hummus, to which we then added fried cauliflower, carrots, cous cous salad. It may not look pretty, and it is certainly greasy, but it beats McDonald’s hands down anyday! I hope this chain becomes international! Also, their fries were the best I have ever had - spookily so - Katie and I kept trying to figure out why they are so good and we decided that perhaps they have been cooked in olive oil, which is why they were so yellow.

And of course, no trip to Europe is complete without vegan gelato!

It really was as delicious as this photo looks.

At another veg restaurant, they served up a clever dish of brown rice mixed with curry flavouring, walnuts and raisins! I must try it at home. This restaurant was a great experience since of course no one spoke English, but we told one of the waiters that we were vegan and she sad down with us pointing out what we could and could not eat - it is amazing what you can understand in language through gestures, tone, intonation and eye contact.

Sights:

My top favourite experience in Madrid was El Escorial, a monastery in the mountains just outside of Madrid.

First, I visited the crown prince’s lodge in the royal residence of san lorenzo, close to the monastery.

Walking up the steep path towards the monastery, this is what I saw when I looked up:

Just entering the gardens from the interior. As I did the traditional monastery tour, I noticed that the architecture was structured so that in every room you had a gated view of these gorgeous gardens. It was so tantalizing that I could barely look at the medieval paintings hanging on the walls, I was so eager to get outside.

The Plaza Mayor:

Painting by a street vendor in the plaza:

On the metro a man suddenly breaks into song with his guitar… I think it is spontaneous but soon learn it is common for ‘taking donations’ from generous passengers. It was more beautiful when I thought it was innocent.

And there is so much more to say, stories to tell - how Katie and I ended up stranded outside the couch surfing house without a key, how I discovered the Palacio del Crystal (a gallery made of glass) in the park, etc etc. But alas, only so much space and so many more blog entries to write.