Spain

Yesterday I finished my time in Spain am and now in Portugal. I had a wonderful time there. I went to Madrid, Barcelona, Mallorca, Ibiza and Empuriabrava. It was very hot, around 35 degrees during the day and 29 at night time. I had beautiful blue skies the whole time, other than an amazing lightning storm at night in Mallorca.

In Madrid I saw the bull ring and had a tour. The tour guide explained what happens in a bull fight, in which the bull is killed by the matador by stabbing a sword down between its shoulder blades. I went to flamenco dancing, which was absolutely amazing. The dancers put all their energy and passion into the dance, which you can feel just from watching it. The Spanish guitar and singing at the flamenco also sent shivers down my spine. They are also very passionate about their music, even when they are just clapping to provide percussion. Of course I also had some delicious food and wine in Madrid, as in all of Spain. The best place was La Musa, a modern tapas restaurant/bar with wonderful food and drink.

In Barcelona I visited the Gaudi House, walked around some beautiful churches, walked down the Rambla, had drinks by the beach, checked out the chocolate museum, had a tour of the Torres Vineyard, and ate some more amazing food. One place I went to was a little restaurant, which was jam packed full of people, all standing at, and around the counter. It was a squeeze to get in, but the food was awesome. It was very simple, just rolls with meat and cheese (I had warm ham and Roquefort), sausages and meats, cold and freshly cooked, the chorizo was super delicious! All while they are constantly refilling your glass of cava (Spanish champagne)! I came out of there feeling like I was going to burst! The other delicious place was La Paradeta, which has queues out the door even on weeknights. At the counter is all the fresh seafood on ice, like you would see at a fish shop. You choose everything you want to eat, they weigh it all to figure out the price, then cook it all up for you, the freshest seafood you will ever get at a restaurant!

Next was Mallorca, I loved Mallorca so much, I didn't want to leave. It's a beautiful island off Spain riddled with super yachts, little coves with white sandy beaches, and crystal clear blue water. I think I could see about 10 metres underwater with no goggles on. The weather was beautiful and the water was warm. Palma de Mallorca, the main town where I stayed, was very clean and beautiful, with lots of secret little cobbled streets with little tapas bars and gelato shops... YUM. I went on a nice long bike ride along the shore in Palma, and proved my theory wrong that you can't get sunburnt in Europe.

Then was Ibiza. Wow, what an experience. Young drunk british people everywhere, partying all day and all night. I knew Ibiza was a party town, but I guess I just didn't realise quite what I was in for. On the first day I made my way from Ibiza town to San Antonio. Walked around the foreshore, went to the famous Café Del Mar for some cocktails at sunset, and then went to Eden, one of the many clubs. I danced for a couple of hours and then decided to call it quits. The next day I ventured out to Cala Bassa beach by boat. It was packed full of people and boats, but it was still very beautiful. White sandy beach and beautiful clear blue water. I'm sure all the topless women also added to the beauty in the eyes of the men. Once back at San Antonio, I had my feet nibbled at by little fish in the fish spa. It was very ticklish, but my feet came out silky smooth. That night was a beautiful dinner at Villa Mercedes, with live Cuban music. After a horrible sleep that night because the room next door decided they were going to throw their furniture around the room in the middle of the night, it was off to the airport early in the morning and back to Madrid.

From Madrid I caught the train out to Figueres, (after some nightmares with the metro in Madrid and missing my first train) to see my Dad's Auntie, Andree. After the drama with the train that day, it was very nice to see a familiar face. I had a wonderful stay with her, she is lovely and went out of her way to make sure I had an enjoyable time. She took me skydiving, took me flying at Windoor, the wind tunnel in Empuriabava, we went to the butterfly park, played mini golf with her and her friends, went the markets along the beachfront and had many delicious meals.

I am now in Portugal, staying with Dad's lovely cousin, Toin. I am here for another 2 days before I fly to the UK. Hopefully I can get my next blog out to you sooner!

Torres Vineyard near Barcelona

Swimming at Cala Bassa in Ibiza

Arriving at Cala Bassa

The bull ring in Madrid

Doris hanging out with a Matador

Meat and Cava in Barcelona

Gaudi House

La Paradetta, delicious seafood

A little cove in Mallorca near Cala D'Or

Biking around Palma de Mallorca

Running with the bulls - Pamplona

Wow, the festival of Sam Fermin in Pamplona is absolutely insane, I had so much fun I can't even explain. The usually quiet city comes alive during the festival. Most people staying up all day and all night. I watched my first bull run from inside the bull ring. A rocket is fired to announce the release of the bulls, a second rocket is fired when the last bull has left. The aim is to run with the bulls to the bull ring, not to get there before them. But if you get to the bull ring too late you will be shut out. We watched the people run with the bulls down the street on the large screen. Some of these bulls were over 600kg. All the people that arrived in the ring before the bulls were booed and had things thrown at them. All of a sudden, one person tripped in the entry to the bull ring. Everyone else behind them, then started tripping over them, creating a huge pile up of people, blocking the entry. Everyone in the bull ring was gasping, watching the bulls getting closer and closer on the screen. Then came the moment everyone had been dreading, the bulls got to the bull ring and rammed straight into all the people. They then continued to try and climb over the people, which in the end they were successful. Crushing people in the pile as they trampled over them. We saw medics pulling people out of the pile that were bleeding, and blue from head to toe. After the medics had pulled out all the injured people, 33 injured, 3 in a serious condition, they released the cows. The cows still have horns but they have stoppers on the end. People try to dodge the cow as it charges at people in the ring, often people who provoked it. Usually they release 6 cows, one at a time. But on this day, they only released 2 as they had no medics left to deal with any more injuries.

That night we partied in town, ate tapas and drink sangria. The next day was the final day, I decided to run. After watching one (even if it was one of the most dangerous ones in history) I was feeling confident about what to do... and what not to do. We went down to the start of the run. We had to wait about an hour, in which most people were crapping their pants. Then the police pushed everyone through, to go and find our starting position. I started just before dead mans corner, which is a sharp turn in the run where most of the bulls hit the wall. I heard the first rocket go off, some people started running, but I was waiting nervously until I could see the bulls. All of a sudden, a wave of people started running towards me, I knew it was time to start running. As I was running, people were standing in the way, just trying to push people backwards and be a pain in the ass. Other people running were tripping over in front of me. I just kept running and running while watching behind me. Then the bulls passed me, a group of about 4-6. I didn't know if that was all of them, if there were more to come, or if there was a rouge bull, which can be very dangerous. One or two more passed me, by then I was becoming very out of breath. When I finally got to the entrance to the bull ring, they had shut the gate and we had to wait to get in. Probably because one of the bulls had broken away from the group and instead of running strait through the ring and out the door on the other side, it was running around the ring. After about a minute they re opened the gate and let us all in. I had made it! I ran with the bulls down the streets of Pamplona! After a while of being on the ring, they released the first cow. I stayed around the side of the ring watching people getting flipped around by the cows for a while, then decided it was time to get out.

That night was the closing ceremony, which for the Spanish, isn't a party, but a sad event because San Fermin is over. They sing "Podere Mi" (poor me) and waved candles in the air. We all partied anyway and got covered in sangria.

Shelley and me before the first run.

The Spanish know how to party, but they don't seem to be immune to hangovers!

Name, weight and birth date was shown for each bull.

The stampede.

Once the entry was cleared and everyone else ran in.

The cow flips one of the people.

Ambulances outside the ring.

Billie and me in the streets of the run.

Party time!

Dead Mans Corner.

The entry where the bulls run into the ring.

Podere Mi and fireworks at the town hall, the starting point of the bull run.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a beautiful old city. It was nice to visit the place where my Opa grew up and where my grandparents met. I stayed with Marlous and Frits, who I can't thank enough for their wonderful hospitality. I was only there a short time but they made it absolutely wonderful. I visited Amsterdam city centre for lunch and a canal tour, went sailing, drove through Wassenaar where my Opa grew up, visited Scheveningen, a huge white sandy beach and had lunch on the beachfront, I tried a herring (which didn't go down too well with me!), went for a bike ride around Naarden, ate poffertjes and waffles and ate lots of delicious Dutch food! I hope I will be able to get back to Amsterdam sometime, 3 days wasn't enough to see everything in this beautiful city.

Amsterdam city centre

Music in the streets of Amsterdam...

One of the many canals which run through Amsterdam.

The marina with the castle behind.

Maurits and I, sailing.

Scheveningen

Eating a herring.

Me and Max.

Marlous and me on a bike ride.

Poffertjes and waffles!!!!!

The great Church of Naarden.

KL - Food, Caves and Monkeys

I had a great time in Kuala Lumpur, the food was my favourite part. I did a Malay cooking class with LaZat (translation = delicious) and learned how to make 4 Malaysian dishes, prawn fritters (YUM!!!!!) Beef Reading, spicy cucumber salad and for desert, coconut balls steamed in banana leaves. Saadiah was our wonderful teacher. I had so much fun and it was so delicious! That evening, I did a food tour with our awesome tour guide, Michelle. She knew all the best places to go, where all the locals eat. Places in the suburbs that you wouldn't find on your own. She kept driving us to new places and feeding us until we couldn't eat any more! Some of the things we tried were, Nasi Lemak, curry, chilli pan mee, durian (a spiky fruit known for being very smelly), curry with a variety of different roti and to finish, satay, including stomach satay, which had kind of a hard jelly like texture but actually tasted quite nice. My last day in KL I went to the Batu caves. It isn't very far from KL. Only 30 minutes by train. The cave is described as a huge cathedral like cave. It is a work out to get up all the steep steps to the top! And there are cheeky monkeys everywhere. Some had little babies clinging onto them too.

Cooking my beef rendang

My finished dish, beef rending and spicy cucumber salad

One of the backstreet eateries we ate at in the suburbs of KL

I can't remember the name of this delicious roti, it was thin, crisp and sweet! So Yum.

Durian, which I thought tasted quite nice actually

Curry and roti on our banana leaf plates, which we ate with our hands

The twin towers at night, Michelle took us to this perfect viewing spot

Doris at the Batu caves

The entry to the Batu Caves

A cheeky monkey on the walk up

The entry to the cave

Kuala Lumpur

I arrived in KL at 7am local time as the Sun was rising this morning, not that I could see it behind the cloud...or is it smog.....? Anyway, I ended up keeping myself very busy, visiting the Petronas Towers and the amazing mall beside it which has absolutely every store you could think of in there and then wandering around the markets. I am awesome at bartering now! The central market was inside and much nicer than the Petaling market, but not as cheap. And the vendors at Petaling were more into bartering. Tomorrow I am off to a Malaysian cooking class then a food tour with a guide who knows all the best places to eat.

inside the mall