Is is spring anywhere?

Hmm, I haven't put any pictures up from Budapest, or from Paris for that matter, which was after Budapest. I've just updated Facebook with Tenerife pics, so I'll put some of those on here this week for those of you who avoid Facebook like the plague ;-)

Tenerife: We absolutely loved it. We had brilliant weather for the most part, in the 70s the whole time, which in the direct sun was actually quite hot so it was nice when the clouds rolled over to cool down a bit. There were some threatening-looking clouds that hung over the interior of the island the whole time and the Teide volcano, but it stayed dry and sunny along the beaches. The only time we didn't have sun was when we drove up to the tiny village of Masca, nestled on top of Los Gigantes cliffs. Talk about your terrifying drive! This road was only big enough for one car, but was meant for traffic in both directions, and it was built with the tightest hairpin turns humanly possible, one after another after another after another...for approximately half an hour. W and I both agreed it was the most dangerous drive either of us had ever been on, and would have been even if the road wasn't wet. Thank goodness I didn't run into any of the big tour buses while I was driving! Unfortunately, Masca, which has only been open to tourists for a few years now, did not have any shops selling t-shirts with the slogan, "I survived the drive to Masca." Anywho, everyone was so friendly and bent over backwards for us the whole time...we had a lovely waitress at a tapas restaurant tell us where the Canarian "rave" was going to be, a big party essentially that pops up several times a year on different parts of the island for lots of dancing and good music. With every meal when you paid the bill, you got a free shot. We really liked one restaurant in particular and when we came back a second night they welcomed us like family. And the biggest one of all: we booked a catamaran cruise to see whales and dolphins on our last day, but got ridiculously lost on our way to the port and arrived in time to see our catamaran sailing away. Our faces just dropped, so the guy took pity on us and offered to take us in the Zodiac to catch up with the catamaran. What a ride!!! Wickus had no idea what a Zodiac was, and was a little anxious about equipment getting wet (such as the video camera), but ended up loving the brief, extremely bumpy high speed trip to catch up. As we climbed on board, everyone had turned to watch and wanted to know how much extra it had cost us to have the Zodiac included. W announced in a rather loud voice much to my chagrin, "Nothing, you just have to be late!" We had a brilliant hotel at Playa la Arena, a black volcanic beach, which I loved but W thought looked dirty. It's funny the sand there was softer, so to speak, than the sand on the black volcanic beaches in Hawaii. I don't know if Teide is older and so the sand has been ground down more or what, but there was a definite difference. Incidentally, my souvenir from Tenerife is a classy pair of round volcanic stone earrings, outlined in silver (on sale for half price, Mom). Neither one of us wanted to leave, it truly was a little 5-day slice of heaven, and a break I desperately needed from the UK weather.

But I'm back now...and counting down the days (30) to Cape Town. I am gaining confidence as a hand therapist, and am seeing all my clients now on my own, although I have yet to find a cure for my sister.

Buda...Pest

Budapest was lovely, although freezing cold on Saturday, around -5 or -6 that night. We had an amazing hot and cold breakfast buffet at our hotel every morning, and certainly were not lacking for food at other times. We ate in several old cafes, one being the famous Gerbeaud Confectionary (coffee and cakehouse) that has been around for more than 100 years. It was beautiful with chandeliers and all. We went on a tour of the state opera house, where they were busily finishing the set for Carmen, which was to open that night. It was stunningly gorgeous! The Royal Opera House in London has nothing on Budapest! But then again, it is known as one of the most, if not The most, beautiful opera house in Europe. We explored a labyrinth underneath the castle complex by wandering around in the dark with an oil lamp...it was quite spooky in places, and lots of fun. We had an unbelievably delicious dinner Saturday night, where we also tasted the Takaji wines that are made in Hungary, and were serenaded with traditional music by a violinist and pianist. And finally, we spent a lot of time in the thermal baths attached to our hotel. Mmmm, talk about your relaxation therapy. Well, except for the plunge pool. There was a 36 and a 38 degree pool, a plunge pool, and a steam room, and then a big indoor heated swimming pool in another room. We also opted for a "medical massage" one of the days...a lot of people come to Budapest for the healing powers of the thermal baths, and therefore other services have grown around it, like doctors and rehab and dentistry and cosmetic surgery, etc.

So this is my last week on the acute stroke unit :-( And unfortunately, I have caught another bad head cold, so I am really struggling to get through it, rather than enjoying it. I don't understand, this is the second winter in a row where I get sick and then better only in time to get sick again. Or sometimes even catch one cold right after another. I guess I'm not used to the strains of germs they have over here, or something!, and am looking forward to the health benefits of moving back to the States end of October/November.

Happy Valentines!

Catching up

I've had some nice catch-up chats with people lately...Viv and Jo in particular. I was meant to see Kristy in person, as she came over to England for four days, and I was perfectly happy to go out to Oxford to see her. However, her sister (who lives in Oxford) surprised her with a trip to a cottage on the Scottish border, so I didn't get to see her at all, and she flew back home today.

I've also been busily working away, trying to tie up my caseload for the end of my rotation in a week and a half now, and finish off projects that my supervisor will need to see at my review on Monday. Put that together with a student who is finishing her placement at the same time as I finish my rotation, and a caseload with patients who need tons of social input, and you have a fairly stressed out bunny, as they would say here.

But tomorrow I'll take a break...W is taking me to the opera, so we are having our Valentine's night tomorrow. We are going to see Mozart's Magic Flute at the Royal Opera House. Hope I like opera, as it's 3.5 hours long!

And on Friday we take off for Budapest. Now that's some serious relaxation, as they are well known for their thermal baths ;-) We'll be staying at the Danubius Hotel Gellert, which includes free entrance to their thermal baths (among the most famous in the city). A little bit of trivia which I didn't know but some of you might-- the city is divided by the Danube river, so there are actually two parts, Buda and Pest.

Varekai

We went to see Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday. A friend of Wickus' had booked a box, we had to have someone let us in with a key and everything. Very posh. Although perhaps not so much as what I now know is coming up next week...for a special Valentines night, although it will be on Wednesday instead of Thursday, W has booked tickets for the Magic Flute at the Royal Opera House. Now, what does one wear to the opera??

View of St Vitus Cathedral, towering over Prague Castle Complex

Another castle entrance

Similar to Buckingham Palace guards, they aren't supposed to move or make sounds, but we heard coughing and laughing!

One of the entrances to Prague Castle

Franz Kafka museum

He was born into a Jewish family in Prague, and spoke and wrote in German. The story of his life is absolutely fascinating, and gives a fair amount of insight as to why he wrote the things he wrote.

The Astronomical Clock

Virtually impossible to read, it tells so many different kinds of time. Most of the guided walks of the town start here, so that you can have an explanation of what exactly the clock is telling you. Every hour on the hour, three small windows open up, and you see the 12 Apostles rotating through the windows, plus a golden cock that crows at the end. Not as exciting as it sounds actually.

St Nicholas Church, Old Town Square

The Men's Toilet...

In a small cafe on Old Town Square. Well, Prague does seem to have become a hot spot for stag do's. And no, I'm not the one who took this photo ;-)

Birthday Flowers

It's ridiculous how happy flowers can make me. Aren't they lovely?

Praha

We got home around 2am last night, so I'm absolutely exhausted and not capable of downloading, editing and publishing photos tonight. But we had an absolutely amazing weekend, in spite of the cold weather. We both fell in love with Prague, and did not have nearly enough time to even scratch the surface of explorations there. We have decided we are definitely going back for another weekend within the next few months. The bigger things that we did included a three and a half hour walking tour, the Franz Kafka museum, taking the funicular tram up to the Petrin tower, a mini-version of the Eiffel Tower, to look out over the city, went to a classical music concert in one of the old palaces, and went birthday gift hunting among the garnet stores. Our 5-star hotel was in the famous Nerudova street, and is a restored 14th century house...we were in a junior suite on the top floor, so we had triangular ceilings with gorgeous exposed wood beams. (I had booked an "executive room" at an unbelievable off-season price, but when we got there, they told me they don't actually have executive rooms, so we had been automatically upgraded.)

We've decided to go to Budapest for Valentines weekend, will have to go to Paris to update W's Shengen visa in late Feb/early March, still need to reschedule my Barcelona reunion with Kavitha, and have two weeks in Cape Town for W's brother's wedding in May to look forward to, but we will definitely get to Prague again in the near future! I'll have more to say about Prague with the photos, but it is just stunningly gorgeous, and chock full of culture and history to explore.

Oooh, and almost forgot, Kristy's coming over for a visit in two weeks or so, woohoo!!!

Buon Compleano

Haven't really had a night at home this week, aside from Monday, which Sheena and I spent catching up with Nicole (who had just returned from three weeks in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam). She's the color of a golden nut. I'm desperate to get to Thailand now. Hey Viv, what happened to our Philippines/Thailand adventure??

Last night I was out for my friend Chantale's leaving do...she is spending two and a half months traveling (Shanghai, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, San Diego, and I can't remember what all else). She'll then end up at home in Montreal. We were at this bar called Fuel in Covent Garden, which is pretty average as far as a Covent Garden bar goes, except for this one booth they have called "Fish Tank." It seats about 10 people, and is separated from the rest of the bar by 3 steps down. It's decorated in various shades of turqouise and blue (you'd love it, Jinny), and is bordered on the one end by, wait for it....a big salt-water fish tank. We had a lots of fun, I met up with some people I met over a year ago on a Halloween weekend in Kent with Backabush and I didn't realize they were friends with Chantale. It was sad as well though, because of course we were saying goodbye to Chantale. But I'll probably be the one she sees again first, as my plans for this year also include moving back home. So more like an "au revoir" than a real goodbye.

Had a good night for my bday on Saturday, got a massive, gorgeous bunch of flowers from W, and we had a fantastic meal at Home. I definitely want to go back there. It was the best steak people had ever had, the best duck people had ever had, and the crab tagliatelle was amazing as well. We then danced at the bar below the restaurant, and finished off in the wee hours of the following morning at a hotel bar. I don't have many pictures from that night-- actually none at all, the few we took are on Jules' camera-- but I still have more from Italy to put up. And the flight to Prague is tomorrow!!! I'm so excited, we have booked an absolutely amazing hotel, and I've been making all sorts of plans based on other people's recommendations, and a guide book I got at the library. It will be a great finish to my birthday week ;-)

Verona

Part of the town wall, at dusk.

L'Arena

in Verona. Unfortunately, most of the town was chiuso (closed) on New Year's Day, including the famous L'Arena (behind us), and even Giulietta's courtyard at the Capulet house (I've never seen it closed before, it's just a courtyard). Fortunately, there was some sort of festival going on, with lots of street performers and music :-)

One thing we had plenty of on this trip....

vino, vino and more vino!!! At all dinners, all lunches, and even one breakfast. Most of it was homemade wine from various members of Rita's family, but we did buy some at the Soave castle cantina (above), and Dad bought 3 bottles of amarone from the famous Tomasi family cantina. I did smuggle in one bottle of homemade sweet amarone, shhhh!

Olive oil!!

This is the little shop where they sell the olive oil that they make on site.

You've heard of wine tasting...

...this is olive oil tasting. Yes, you read that right. We tried their best quality olive oil, their best-selling olive oil, a sweet olive oil for fish, and unfiltered olive oil. Can you say "digestivo?"