Just some random photos from Alicante and when we went to the F1 Grand Prix in Valencia! Also some random information... Did you know that Chupa Chups are Spanish? Chupa Chups is a Spanish lollipop company founded by Barcelona native employer Enric Bernat in 1958. The name comes from the Spanish verb chupar, meaning "to suck"!. Chupa Chups were also originally called just Chups and the plastic stick use to be wooden! I also just found out that when Katie told me her favourite wine was the Alicante Bouchet, I felt stupid because I didn't know about it thinking it was [View Full Entry]

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Jerez to Alicante When we left Poland, we flew to Girona, then caught the bus to Barcelona airport, then flew to Jerez. When we were in Jerez last, we bought a car, and so now had to go back to pick it up (thinking now that we had all the correct paperwork, but we still didn’t, it’s a long story but just another problem in our move here!). Anyway finally we got the car with help from our friend Sankofa and spent two days driving back to Alicante along the coast. First we passed Cordoba, then drove to the southernmost tip [View Full Entry]

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Mario and I had to fly to Poland in a bit of a hurray as the immigration office rang and wanted interviews with both of us (in order to get my Polish visa so I can stay in Europe). So we went, and we had the interviews separately and I had to get a translator. The guy at the office asked questions like where did we meet, how did Mario propose and what did he give me, names of his family members, and he wrote everything down! It was almost like something out of a movie, but all went ok [View Full Entry]

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Back in June, Mario and I were flown to the south of Spain, Seville, for his first bonsai workshop. Our friend and organisor of the bonsai workshop, Sankofa, picked us up from the airport around midnight. The temperature was around 32 degrees celcius! Very hot! The bonsai workshop was held in the cafeteria of a zoo! The were also a lot of bonsai at the zoo. One day the guy in charge of the zoo showed us around his second home. He touched the animals without any fear, even the puma and dingoes, and spoke to them as if they were [View Full Entry]

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Alicante Fire Festival We have not ventured into the city too many times at night as, even not during a festival, it is packed and difficult to park! Alicante is quite a touristy city; it almost feels like we are on a permanent holiday! On the main strip, there are lots of little stalls selling handmade knickknacks, cheap clothes and also lots of black men with copy everything, bags, sunglasses, t-shirts, watches, CDs, DVDs, neatly laid out on sheets on the ground. Something that I don’t remember from Europe before, is that here there are also black women on the streets [View Full Entry]

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There are two interesting things to talk about in this blog, the first involves, dogs, ex-druggies and bonsai....and the second, my grandma (oma) coming to visit us in a tiny village in Valencia! Mario and I have been lucky enough to get to travel together around Spain because of his work with Bonsai. We left Alicante for one week to go to Valencia. We were given an apartment in a tiny town called La Pobla Llarga close to the place where Mario would be working. We were very surprised when we were first taken to the huge complex. Not only did [View Full Entry]

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I spent another day in Madrid city, tired on my feet but then met Mario and we were treated to a Japanese lunch by his boss. This restaurant was 100% more authentic than the one we went to a few weeks before! Delicious! There are also pictures on this blog from a weekend we spent in Alicante! Now we have left Madrid and have moved to Alicante, living temporarily with our friend Patxi, his 2 dogs and dozens of bonsai trees! [View Full Entry]

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Madrid City Last weekend Patxi (who worked with Mario in Japan) came to visit us from Alicante. We spent the weekend like real Spaniards, eating a big late lunch, then going for coffee, then having dinner at 10pm! Very busy, but a great weekend and nice to be shown around by the locals! One day last week, Mario worked at the Madrid Botanical Gardens, so I got a ride in and spent the day walking around admiring the beautiful architecture and appreciating the sunny day! xxxm&m [View Full Entry]

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Another country, another new language, another experience! Alcobendas, Madrid Mario’s work with bonsai is what has brought us to Spain. We are currently living in a suburb (rather a small city) half an hour out of Madrid called Alcobendas. It is a really beautiful place and much more modern than I had expected. We have a very nice second floor apartment for the month. Exactly across the road is a big shopping centre! From our windows we can people watch for hours! We don’t have internet but there is a centre down the road where we can use it for free. [View Full Entry]

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After a VERY long trip, including 4 different planes, 5 different airports and almost 30 sleepless hours, we made it to Poland from Australia and were happily greeted by Mario’s parents. During our 10 day stay, we spent 2 days at Aneta and Mariusz’s (Mario’s sister and brother in law) house. From there we all went to the third biggest castle in Poland, Ksiaz (pronounced Kshonch), and stayed 2 nights. At the castle was a huge flower and plant expo which occurs once a year. The setting was beautiful! There was also a bonsai exhibition and Mario gave 2 lectures to [View Full Entry]

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