Our Few Weeks Apart

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“A month in Spain” by Chris xo

After I said a tearful goodbye to Shane at the airport and headed through security I pulled myself together (very efficiently) and headed to my departure gate. After a long wait the flight finally boarded and I found myself sitting next to a man, who was to become the most annoying person ever to sit next to on a flight. He drove me crazy for the entire 10 hours and prevented me from getting a wink of sleep. Before the flight had even left he had already taken his shoes and socks off and started scratching away madly at his feet. He also made a throaty noise every 30 seconds, picked his nose, wore intoxicatingly bad cologne and constantly leant on me and stretched his feet into my area. To make matters worse my headset didn’t work so I couldn’t even tune out and watch a movie.

I finally arrived in London and caught the tube to the suburb of Bermondsey, where one of my best friend’s, Yolanda, is currently living. Yol was at work but she kindly left me a map and some instructions on where to shop whilst in London. Although I was extremely tired my retail urges won over and I headed to Oxford Street for some much needed retail therapy. After being in Whistler for so long, I felt so crowded in Oxford Street, there were people everywhere. I shopped for a few hours but managed not to buy anything… After you nearly triple the price of things to get the Aussie dollar equivalent, the pair of heels I had my eye on just didn’t seem so appealing.

That night Yol arrived home from work and it was great to see her after so long. We headed to a local pub near her house for some dinner and chatted away before getting an early night, as we were headed for Spain early the next day.

The next morning we missed our flight to Palma, Mallorca (Easy Jet really are very strict on their 40 minute check in policy) but we managed to fly to Valencia and then catch another flight to Palma. It was an expensive mistake and I made a mental note to forget to tell Shane about the plane dramas as I knew I would cop an earful. Yol and I headed to her Aunty (Pilarina) and Uncle’s (Jesus) house that night. They were so nice and welcoming and really looked after me for the time I stayed with them. They have a lovely house overlooking the water close to Palma and Pilarina fed us constantly even when we tried to insist we weren’t hungry.

The next day Yol and I visited the Cathedral and the Arab Baths and we explored the Old Town whilst we waited to hear from Becky, our other best friend. Palma is gorgeous, and the Old Town is a maze of narrow cobbled streets with loads of shops and cafes and churches. Later that day we went to meet Becky who had just returned that morning from a trip to Scotland with her boyfriend. She was riding her crazy blue bike named “Happy BH” and said she had to rush back to her bike because the gypsy’s might take it. It was really nice to see the girls again and catch up on everything they have been doing whilst gallivanting around Europe.

I stayed with Becky for the next two weeks and she and Steve very kindly put up with me being the third wheel everywhere they went. Becky had some time off work and she was a great tour guide and a wonderful host.

Mallorca is a really beautiful island and I was very relieved to see sunshine and the water again and the best part was there was not a flake of snow in sight! During my time on Mallorca I went camping with Becky and Steve and some of their friends in Steve’s “beasty” Land Rover, Becky and I caught the train to a little town caller Soller on the other side of the island, we went to the beach and to markets and had a few great nights out. After two weeks were up it was time for Becky to return to work and for me to head to Barcelona.

I flew into Barcelona on a Monday morning and made my way to my hostel in the city centre. I stayed in an 8 bed dorm whilst I was there for 16 Euro per night. The hostel was noisy but clean with no cooking facilities and showers that turned themselves off every 10 seconds. It was a really big hostel and didn’t really have any “personality” but the price and the location were right.

I spent the next 9 days in Barcelona, although the large majority of my time was spent talking to Shane on Skype at the Internet Café. I was very excited when he said he was coming to Europe early and planned to make my way to London to meet him when he arrived. When I wasn’t talking to Shane I went shopping.

Barcelona was an amazing city although I did find it a little daunting by myself at times. I visited Las Ramblas, a pedestrian street filled with flower shops, pet stalls and street artists. It was touristy but very entertaining. Off Las Ramblas was my favorite thing in Barcelona, La Boqueria. La Boqueria is the largest food market in Spain and I walked around for hours and visited everyday as it was really close to my hostel and sold fresh fruit which I had for breakfast. The markets are filled with fruit and veggie stalls, bakeries, fish shops, loads of butchers, chocolatiers, egg and nut stalls, tapas eateries and even one store for the tourists selling canned insects.

I also visited two of Gaudi’s masterpieces, La Pedrera and Sagrada Familia. La Pedrera (The Spanish Wave) is a huge building with an amazing roof top, providing great views of the surrounding area. I did an audio tour and there was a museum dedicated to the work of Gaudi throughout Barcelona. Sagrada Familia is a huge Church which Gaudi dedicated a huge portion of his career to. It was amazing but I found it hard to appreciate due to all the construction work that is being done to finish the Church.

Whilst in Barcelona I did a Gourmet Walking Tour of the city and also a Catalan cooking class. Both were highly enjoyable and I learnt a lot about the traditional Spanish diet and tasted a lot of local specialties.

I flew to Luton, London the day before Shane arrived, all prepared with a new outfit to meet him at the airport. I really enjoyed the small amount of what I saw of Spain but was craving vegetables badly and definitely missing Shane’s company a lot.

We will try and update our blog more regularly whilst we travel through Europe. We hope everyone is happy and healthy and we will chat with everyone soon. XO

Shane and his final few weeks in Whistler

Well with Chris not being there to cook extravagant dinners from now on, I realized that I would have to fend for myself. It started out great guns but eventually turned into a matter of what is in the fridge and what is the easiest thing to make seeing as though it was just for me. The plan at this stage after organizing flights was to meet Chris in London on the 30th March after working for another 4 weeks and 2 weeks boarding. So the plan began and then a few changes were made. After less than 2 weeks I realized that I missed Chris too much and wanted to leave earlier, so the email was sent and the flights were changed. After which I spoke with my boss and who was very understanding and allowed me to finish work on Friday March 2nd. With my flight booked for Wednesday March 14th this left me a number of days to be able to board before leaving the cold… or I thought I was leaving the cold.
In my final few days of work I also managed to book a celebrity into Whistler!

I had a farewell at The Furniture Warehouse on Sunday March 4th where aside from sitting next to a snowcat inside the bar and avoiding to slip on the nuts all over the floor, I managed to get hit in the head by a beer can that was thrown from a bartender to a staff member sitting near me (gee the professionalism was amazing). This was followed by a number of apologies and a complimentary beer and Jager shot…

I spent most of the time during the day before leaving boarding with what was known as the Wednesday crew (Andrea, Tash, Manny and Stef). One of my final days on the mountain being Friday March 9th with Andrea and Tash where we managed to get fresh powder and possibly the best runs of our season… will be forever known Doooooooom and Gloooooom. The remaining days up the mountain saw the conditions deteriorating as the freezing level dropped and rose and the mountain iced over. Regardless through the season I managed to get in 44 days of boarding which is more than double what I had done before traveling to Whistler.

The night before I left I went out for dinner with my housemates (Ben, Carolyn, Laura, Laura’s brother Dave and also Carolyn’s friend Majorie) and had a few drinks before meeting up with Manny, Stef, Andrea and Tash for a few final drinks in Whistler.

On Wednesday March 14th I was picked up early by a mate Manny and his girlfriend Stef who so generously offered to drive me to the airport (and a few other places). On the way we headed to a shipping company to drop off some (actually a lot of - 76kgs to be precise) gear to send home. Afterwards we headed to downtown Vancouver to a few shops, and the Australian Consulate (for me to vote for the upcoming election) and to a Greek Restaurant for lunch.

Manny and Stef dropped me off at Vancouver Airport later that day and after a sad farewell to Manny, Stef and also my favourite part of the trip - Vancouver/Whistler, I was on my way to meet Chris at Heathrow Airport, London in 9 hours time.

Overall Whistler was a great part of the trip for me. I had an amazing time boarding for the 4 months that I got to and meet some great people that I know I will keep in contact with and hopefully they will make it to Sydney for a visit some day. Thanks to everyone for the great times during work and play and I hope the rest of your season is as good as the start was.

Look for another update very soon, gee we are a little behind.... sorry about the lack of pics, minor computer error but hopefully should get lots on next time.

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