Fog of Travel

The countdown till take off is now in single digits (if you want a postcard, the postcard challenge is still open). This weekend I'll be thinking of getting the last few checks on my to-do list: travel medical insurance, museum tickets (I'm thinking Reina Sofia in Madrid, Picasso museum in Barcelona, and Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam... thoughts? Recommendations?), exchanging my dollars into euros. But I can't help but feel I'm forgetting something...

I've felt that my thoughts at work these last couple weeks leading up to my vacation have been a bit foggy. I'm not sure if it's staring at a computer so long, or that I've got a lot of my mind, including general work and life stresses in the back of my mind. I've also been getting low-grade headaches. When I notice my brain getting on the fritz, I try to escape for a quick walk around the block. I'm hoping that this is just a sign that my vacation is much needed and that picnicking and lounging in parks and at the beach will be enough to reset me. A recently published study suggests that visiting parks allows the "deeper thinking part of the brain" to relax, something it doesn't get to do in an urban setting.

On Doing Long-Distance

Having dated a touring musician for over five years (!), one question I have frequently by people wondering how I am handling the time apart while he's on tour been asked is if I miss him. The short answer is yes; the long answer includes the explanation that it's really not so bad.

I'm not sure if people imagine that while he's off touring that I am sitting at home mopey. I promise, I'm not.

In university, I considered tours as blessings in disguise as they allowed me to focus on school. In my last year, he went on two six-week tours in the fall and spring; the latter allowed me to hibernate to finish and defend my thesis without feeling guilty about having to focus on school so much.

No longer having school to throw myself into, I have two other ways I typically cope with being apart. First, I follow the tour. I write the tour stops in my agenda so I can refer to them easily. I find comfort in knowing where he is ton a certain day. When I was in France, for example, it felt like with every tour stop he was getting ever so much closer to me. Second, Peter has for the most part always been in bands whose music I genuinely like. When I listen to his band's recordings on which he's played, I feel closer to him in a way, which in turn I again find comforting.


(Map pinning me in Vancouver and him in London)

Spain on the Brain

I woke this morning to grey skies over Vancouver. So I thought I would share some photos from my friend Stefan's 2008 trip to Barcelona:

Remember to participate in the postcard challenge if you want some Spanish (or Dutch) snail mail love from me.

(Photos: Stefan Brown)

Spain: The Undiscovered Country

I leave for my trip to Europe in just under three weeks now. Until recently, however, I was more excited about the Amsterdam leg of our trip, which felt a little strange to me. As I have already been, I looked forward to hanging out with Peter in Amsterdam, walking alongside the canals and picnicking in Vondelpark or Oosterpark.

Then I realized I had experienced this before. When Peter and I began planning our trip to Spain, we immediately thought of Madrid and Barcelona, and then my mind went more or less blank after that. The Eiffel Tower has come to symbolize not just Paris, but all of France; the Coliseum that of Rome; and Tower Bridge or Big Ben those of London. Yet when I think of Spain (or Germany, still), no one landmark comes to mind. Then, when I read the following passage, it all kind of made sense to me:

It's true that Spain'scapital doesn't have the immediate cachet of Rome, Paris or even that other city up the road, Barcelona. Its architecture is beautiful, but there's no Colosseum, no Eiffel Tower, no Gaudi-inspired zaniness to photograph and tell your friends back home, 'this is Madrid'. But this city is an idea, a way of living for the moment that can be hard to resist.

-- Anthony Ham, "Madrid Encounter," Lonely Planet, 7. 

Now, only a few weeks away, my excitement for Spain is building as I talk to friends who have been there and our plans for our trip come together. Ernest Hemingway had considered "The Undiscovered Country" before finally settling on "For Whom the Bell Tolls" as the title for his novel set during the Spanish Civil War.* I feel the former is an apt description for Spain.

***

Remember to participate in the postcard challenge if you want some Spanish (or Dutch) snail mail love from me.

*Allen Josephs, For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ernest Hemingway's Undiscovered Country, (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994), xix.

Postcard Challenge II

Peter left for Europe with Siskiyou today. If you're in Europe (or Ottawa or Montréal), you can check out their tour dates here. In only a little more than three weeks, I too, will make the trip across the pond.

While I lived in Europe, I loved sending and receiving snail mail, including my Where Am I? Trivia Postcard Challenge. So, if you'll indulge me, and want to play along, I'd love to reinvent it. I would scour for clues in books and on the internet. For each destination I travelled to, I would post between 3 and 5 clues. Sometimes each clue would have its own individual answer, but all were related to the specific country or city I was travelling to. Often, I would draw my inspiration for clues from a place's history, geography, or things the destination was well-known for (e.g. chocolate and beer for Belgium).This time, I thought I would reverse the roles.  

If you would like a postcard form Madrid, Barcelona, or Amsterdam, simply leave a comment with a trivia-esque fact about one of these cities (or Spain or the Netherlands more generally) before 6:00pm PDT June 8, 2012. 

This contest is open to all readers, so please be sure to leave an email address in your comment (so I can contact you for your mailing address). I will draw for winners the evening before I leave. Comments will be moderated so that the clues are not visible until after the contest has closed. This way, later commenters cannot simply recycle previous commenters' clues. If you get an error message when trying to post your comment, please email me and let me know as I have had trouble with moderated Blogger comments in the past.

Bonne chance! Or, buena suerte and veel succes!

The Train in Spain!

Rolls Mainly on the Plain

About a month ago Peter and I started seriously considering our transportation options between Madrid and Barcelona: train, plane, or automobile? We were priced out of the latter option, leaving us to choose between the train and plane.

We chose the train for a few reasons:

1. Though I will only have a suitcase and shoulder bag, Peter will be travelling with his bass, pedal board, and suitcase. It seemed easier to manage several pieces of luggage on the train, especially given the fragile nature of his bass. Discount airlines also charge for each checked pieces of luggage, so cost factored in when we weighed the two modes.
2. When we calculated the time between the two modes of transport, train won yet again. To take the plane we would have to arrive early to check our luggage, security, etc. The airport Ryan Air flies into in Barcelona is located outside the city, so there was the added time involved in getting into the city itself. The flight was also mid-day, so it would have cost us a day in either Madrid or Barcelona. The AVE train leaves from within the city of Madrid and pulls into Barcelona two-and-a-half hours later.
3. While I like the bird's-eye-view of the world below that a window seat on an air plane offers, I also like to watch the world going by the window of the train. I don't know what the view will be like, but the landscape between Lyon and Toulouse was one of my favourite to lose myself in. 

I was a bit unsure of myself in navigating the Renfe website. On the surface it seems less user friendly than the SNCF website. I found this Trip Advisor guide to buying Renfe tickets helpful and humourous. As the author writes:

The website is a bit surreal. It is like Alice in Wonderland, where nothing seems to be what it really is. Even if you are on the English page, you will find some items in Spanish. Sometimes the website will send you to a completely Spanish page! However if you persevere you may be able to save some money by getting the web discounts.

 But following the guide, and double checking those occasional Spanish words with Google Translate, it was really quite easy to buy the tickets online. I even scored them for almost €40 cheaper than when I looked into buying them in April!

The countdown to Europe is now less than one month! Stay tuned for an announcement on Wednesday.

Joyeuse fête des mères, maman!

In the week leading up to Mother's Day, the Globe & Mail featured pieces on various aspects of Mother's Day, including gift ideas, stories about motherhood, facing Mother's Day when struggling with infertility, and, to my shock and disgust, an article about how many mothers do not like the gifts their children give them.

Like many others, I'm sure, I tend to think that like Valentine's Day, Mother's and Father's Day are holidays manufactured by Hallmark. However, as a commenter on the Globe & Mail article wrote, what is so wrong about teaching children to celebrate and appreciate their parents? It's not about the gifts; it's about taking a moment to show gratitude for everything our mums do for us 365 days a year.

I was so excited that my mum was able to come visit me in Europe after I finished teaching in France, and to share her first trip to Europe. It was exhilarating to finish teaching and board a London-bound plane that same day to meet up with her.

Thank for everything mum! I hope we can go on more trips together soon!

Vancouver: Visitor's Eye View

After our weekend trip to Victoria, it was back to Vancouver, and back to work for me. I felt bad that I was leaving Jacky to visit my city mostly by herself; although when I visited my friend Dominic in last May, I didn't at all mind loitering around London by myself, and took the opportunity to check out some of that city's great museums.

Vancouver's weather did not care that I was hosting a guest and was its typical grey, rainy self during Jacky's first two days here. The first day, our mutual friend Josh gave her the compulsory tour of the city, and I met them for drinks after work.  Jacky had the Sea Wall slated for the next day, and ever the determined, she persisted despite the rain. On the third day, to my great relief, the sun rose so Jacky could see Vancouver at its best.

It was really neat to meet up with Jacky at the end of each day and hear about what she had seen and done. As her camera seemed to be on the fritz, I lent her mine. I thought I'd share some of the photos she snapped: 

View of Science World looking North across False Creek. 

Colourful boats on False Creek.
View of the Burrard Street Bridge looking West across False Creek.

This killer whale mural has existed for almost as long as I can remember. I would be so sad to ever see it go if the building it's painted on ever gets redeveloped.

It was so much fun having Jacky visit. By the end of the week, Jacky knew as much about Vancouver's idiosyncrasies as any life-long Vancouverite, and would have fit right in. I hope I get to play host again soon.

Raincity

Rain showers are not something that restrict themselves to April in Vancouver, or cease with the bloom of May flowers. Despite having had what seems like the driest autumn and winter I can recall--having grown up here--I worried about whether Jacky would get any sunshine during her visit. Vancouver's more than 1100mm average annual rainfall has earned the city the nickname Raincity. In springtime, it's wise to pack both your umbrella and sunglasses when heading out for the day.

On the subject umbrellas, I once overheard a girl talking about the unofficial "Umbrella System," whereby nobody actually buys umbrellas; instead, there exists an intricate system of using umbrellas one finds or acquires. This girl, however, found herself to be "inputting into this system a lot more often than receiving." I'm not sure if this system is unique to this very rainy city, but I feel it exists and that I've unconsciously been abiding by it nearly my entire life.

I can't recall how I acquired my favourite geometric umbrella, it seems to have simply appeared in my house.  After years of faithful service, I found and purchased another red/blue/cream geometric umbrella to take its place. In fact, I have an umbrella that I bought in Rome for 5 euros when we were washed out Christmas Eve that I'm trying to input into the system by organically losing it.

Victoria! Victoria!

The view from the ferry en route to Victoria.

After meeting Jacky at the airport in Bellingham and whisking her to Canada to spend her first evening in Vancouver, we set sail for Victoria (and saw a pod of orcas!).  Though we decided to go to Victoria because logistically it didn't work out to go to Seattle, Victoria is no consolation prize.  Victoria is a perfect weekend getaway from Vancouver. Anecdotally, I have even heard that visitors prefer it to Vancouver.

Victoria is smaller and has a distinctly different vibe than Vancouver.  We did the necessary Victoria things to do: walked to the legislature, passing by the Empress, and walked back along the inner harbour, before heading to the Bard & Banker for a bite, the special Phillips Scotch ale, and to catch the game.

The next day we met Kristen (who is now at law school at UVic) and Alex for brunch at Rebar, explored Fan Tan Alley and Chinatown, and browsed Victoria's many independent shops.

Not having been to Victoria in two years, it was nice to getaway for the weekend.  Geographically, Victoria is not all that far away, but the fact that you have take a ferry (or fly) to get there makes it seem (psychologically) that further away than you are and can slip into a vacation state of mind faster.