Winter Hibernation

It's Winter, so we're claiming this as our excuse for minimal blog updates.

A quick update is on the cards, covering October through December in one post, yep, that's how riveting our lives have been.

From Paris, we took a Eurolines bus to Amsterdam, and stayed in a hostel. After a few nights, they had separate boys and girls rooms... hello, we are married? And freaked out when the hotel prices in Amsterdam no less than doubled over the weekend. We rang kiwi friends Nick and Karen in desperation, please can we crash for the weekend? Long story short we never left...

October

Rick was super awesome and landed a job within 2 ish weeks, full time Chef at the Majestic restaurant on Dam square. Along with part time photography jobs, he's a busy boy.

I was less awesome and landed a job within a month, part time shop lady at River Island on Kalverstraat. To make up the other two days I had free, I scored an internship with uber talented Dutch designer Conny Groenewegen. Even though I've done my dash as an intern, I'm keen as to learn anything I can from a successful small business, and Conny's incredible knitting creations.

November

Working and trying to find a house, we did the maths that around half our income would be spent on rent alone, never mind travel to work, food, water, power and all those other luxuries.

Nick and Karen offered for us to stay in their spare room and board with them. We humbly agreed, they have been life savers!
Also we celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary! Wooo! Rick organised the night, we biked into town and had a progressive dinner. Starting at Feijoa bar on Muntplein, only to our dismay they didn't have any feijoa's OR feijoa vodka. Then dinner and a jug of Sangria at Rose's Cantina (Mexican), and finished at the Mint hotel, with dessert and another glass of Red with a view of Amsterdam 11 stories up. Basically we just love food, so it was our perfect night!

December

Nick and Karen left for NZ, and my hours picked up to full time over the silly season. We both worked late on Christmas Eve and got home to Skype family until 4am. Christmas was strange... We opened some presents, the best one being the care package from Rick's Mum, Milo, Cadbury, Starbursts and all the other NZ deliciousness. Our American friend Katy came around for an eggs bene brunch. Rick had to work Christmas 3pm until midnight, so I was all by myself that night. I cooked dinner and had a few wines and watched House episodes... Christmas 2012 will have to be a big one!

Below is a pic from Dam Square, with the huge Christmas tree that was a gift to the Netherlands, love from Norway. And the one below is one of the many Christmas stalls at Leidseplein and us getting in on the Rookworsty goodness. These Europeans sure do have class.

Xx Jaz

Dam Square Christmas Tree

Leidseplein Rookworst stall

The beginnings of Spain

From the peaceful Avignon, we headed to Barcelona. A city of grand energy, and zest. Once we found our hostel, we headed straight to the nearest Tapa’s bar, to get our hands on some Sangria! As for the sites, we headed to the Sagrada Familia, built by Gaudi with construction beginning in 1882. Basically this guy is insane, and the church definitely reflects that. It’s absolutely extraordinary, Rick and I just stared at the building, so long, our reactions sometimes a laugh, a snort, or a shake of our heads. So crazy.

From Barcelona we headed down the coast, through Valencia and made our way to Altea. We stayed in a remote little village, Altea la Vella. We had a 20 minute walk through the bush into the town to pick up groceries and to catch a bus into Altea itself. We had an amazing 10 days, in the most beautiful apartment, and made the most of the pool within the apartment complex... absolute luxury after spending 3 months in various hostels and dodgy hotels.

In Altea we bought some snorkelling gear, and went snorkelling at the beach. Not exactly a comparison to scuba diving in Koh Tao, but fun nevertheless. We also took a walk up to the top of the village, and I had tears running down my face, the streets were so incredibly beautiful. White buildings with electric blue doors and window shutters, black gates and pink flower baskets every where. The smells were divine, along with the flowers were all the bakeries, the tapa’s bars, oranges and the salty sea air. This is one of those ‘this is why I quit my job’ days. Photo’s to follow, and more on our facebook!

From Altea we made our way up to Madrid, to begin our courses with VaughanSystems, a volunteer program, teaching English to Spaniards. We managed to spend s few days in Madrid beforehand and explored what has become one of my favourite cities ever.  A few highlights include San Miguel Mercardo, the upmarket-market. Basically a market style building, but incredibly beautiful and gourmet food counters, along with wine and sangria. Did I mention that everyone is immaculately dressed? These Spaniards sure know style. After being in Europe and expecting more in regards to fashion, I finally found what I was looking for in Madrid, the women have an impeccable style which is truly personal.

We also checked out the sites, with my favourite ever church, the Almudena Cathedral which faces the Royal Palace and surrounded by immaculate gardens. 

VaughanSystems was a great program, we were taken out with the other Spaniards on a bus to Barco de Avila and for a 6 days we taught the Spaniards, through immersion and purely conversational.  The program is from 9am until 10.30pm, but most people stay up later and talk. You have all our meals with two English speaking participants, and two Spaniards, along with a bottle of wine at lunch and dinner, we had some interesting conversations. After a week, you see the Spaniards relax, and English flows much better, it’s great to know you’ve helped them. After the Gredos program we headed up for another week of VaughanTown with a fresh batch of Spaniards, to an abandoned Spanish town Valdelavilla which was the original ‘VaughanTown’. We met some incredible people, and made some great friendships and contacts. And absolutely fallen in love with Spain in the process, the food, the people and culture, the routine and the wine! How could I forget, Rick's obsession with the Jamon Serano!
Xx Jaz