Where have you been?

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I know I have posted this before, but I've been to more places now! Sorry (again) for being a rubbish blogger. I have spent about 3 weeks living sleeping dreaming Brownie Holiday which is very dull for anyone who isn't a) a Brownie Guider or b) a HUGE fan of the Mr Men...

I have signed up to run 10k in July for Action for M.E. If you're feeling generous, my fundraising page is here. Help to inspire me to run!!

Soon I will post soon! But in the meantime, where have you been??

Budapest: should be in a Bond film...

I realised that I actually never wrote about my trip to Budapest. Phil and I went for three nights and had a brilliant time. I've been before, I went in August 2003 as part of a Guide project, and I was surprised at how much of the layout/geography I remembered. It was great to visit some places that I'd been before and discover new ones.

Some notable memories:
Getting on the blue metro line at the terminus, in the wrong direction. Sat in a siding for a while wondering what on earth we were going to do...thankfully the train went back into the platform after about 5 minutes...
Phil ordering a "tea". Te in Hungarian means...Milk. So he ordered half a pint of milk...The waitress was incredibly confused.
The meal in La Fontaine. A very very nice restaurant. Unfortuantely it was also VERY expensive. Phil's face when the bill arrived was a picture!
And many more which escape me at the moment!! Photos will be up on flickr soon!

A short post about a long holiday

I don't want to bore you with the ins and outs of my recent trip abroad, but here are some of the highlights...

• Swimming with penguins on Christmas Day
• Cape Town - amazing city, loved it lots.
• Feeding an elephant at the Knysna Elephant Park
• Seeing the sunrise (and set) whilst on safari
• Seeing a whole herd of elephants (including a 2 month old) in the wild
• Getting out of the jeep and walking towards wild cheetahs.
• Swimming in the shallows in Mauritius and seeing baby fish (only 1cm long!)
• My youngest brother telling me that "he has just the right amount of brothers and sisters".
• Coming into a hotel room when feeling ill to find beautifully soft linen and pillows to welcome you.
• Wearing a sari
• Eating dinner with our safari guide and learning about his life as a ranger
• The thrill of spending 4 hours looking for elephants and then to find them
• Going to Robben Island and feeling guilty for being there, but also grateful that there are no more prisoners there.
  

It was all pretty cool (except the being ill part) and amazing. Strange to be away in a hot country for Christmas, and I missed mum and Phil, but it was still an amazing experience! Photos are up on my flickr page since Blogger seems to have eaten my button...

Where have you been?

I've borrowed this from Pete. I thought it was cool, I hope you enjoy it too! Click on the link below, and map which countries you have visited...Looks like I've got a few to go!



create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Back!

"If adventures will not befall a lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad"

- Jane Austen -

And abroad I have been seeking them...

A quick run down here, as the full details can be found here.

Flew to Milan, spent a day and a night in Bergamo Alta.

Spent the morning in Milan before catching the train to Lake Como.

Two days in Lake Como (and one enormous thunderstorm).

Train to Florence (got caught without a reservation...oops)

Three nights in Florence, including a day trip to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Very weird!

Then to Rome (with a reservation this time) for 3 nights.

Lots of touristing, and being hawked at and flirted at by waiters.

Train to Bari, and then the ferry to Igoumenitsa (on the deck, in a storm, over night. Two words: NEVER AGAIN!)

Local ferry to Corfu, picked up by a nice man, and taken to the hostel where we slept for five hours before going to the beach. Where we spent the next two days! (With sunsets like this, can you blame us?)

Bus to Athens, three nights in a blissfully air conditioned room, with a bit of sightseeing thrown in too...

Home!

Crazy, but fun....

What exactly has been going on?

Well it's been sometime.
In short I have been:

Ill
Working
On holiday in Madeira (see photos)
Ill
Having puppies born in my living room
Watching the tennis
Ill
Trying not to watch the football
Sleeping
Ill
and panicking and planning intermittently my festival entry....

Not very exciting, so hence, no blog. Sorry guys!

Paris 2006

Paris 2006
Originally uploaded by clareybella.

A happy shot from last week in Paris :-) (Shame that my bag is touching the tower, ruins the effect of the perspective somewhat!)

Decisions, decisions

Right. I've spent the last 4 days trying to make a decision. People who know me know that I'm not very good at this. Maybe that's why its taken me four days to not really make my mind up. Maybe I should start at the beginning.

I am booked to go to Kenya from 4th August to 2nd September. I booked this last August, when I was incredibly bored of work etc. It sounded fun, 4 weeks teaching English, and I get a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate thrown in. Then I had a few bad patches, which sort of turned into one big bad patch. Then I went to Japan, on my own, for two weeks. Whilst I had fun, I was incredibly lonely. I had forgotten that when I'm left alone here, I tend to over think, and so I did the same in Japan. I came back and talked nineteen to the dozen for about a week, just to rid my brain of all my thoughts.

This got me to thinking about Kenya. I am potentially on my own for four weeks, in a completely strange and different environment. It would either me the best experience for me, ever, or it'll be horrible; it's a make or break situation.

There is also the money factor (isn't it always a factor?). I am off to UCL next year to do an MSc, which there is no funding for. So I am liable to pay full fees, of around £3000, plus rent, food, and general living costs (books etc). UCL, in their finance information, have estimated that I should budget around £9000 for the year (!?!?) Thus, it's going to be £12k for the year. This is money I do not have. It is possible that I can get a graduate loan, but I don't really want to get into more debt. It is also possible that I could live with Dad in Forest Hill, or with my mum at home, but I don't really want to do either of these things. They are last resorts.

Kenya is costing me £2000, ish. If I cancel, I lose my deposit (£150) and the cost of the TEFL course (£195). I also have to cancel my flights, and thus far am not sure how much I lose there (the stupid thing being that I've only just booked them). The balance is due on 6th June, and I don't have it at the moment. I recently paid off my overdraft and yet still seem to be dipping into it, and the balance will knock me right back to where I started.

And so the decision is thus: to go to Kenya or not? The way I'm looking at it at the moment, Kenya will still be there next year, when I've done my MSc, and hopefully sorted out my head a little more. My MSc, whilst horrendously bankruptable, should hopefully help me in the future. But I feel like I'm being stupid for passing up this opportunity, just cos I'm scared (and I could use the money). And I also think I'll go mad if I'm working from now until September. There is a possibility of doing a little bit of light travelling with Anne Marie in Europe, which would keep me sane at least. And there is the fact that I'm supposed to be doing this play for Ottershaw, and should probably keep August free for some rehearsals at some point!

Oh, I don't know what to do.

I love Paris in the springtime

Yes, I've spent the last week in Paris. I was there from last Tuesday til Friday, it was amazing. I think we saw the whole of Paris in about 48 hours. On the Tuesday evening we had an aborted trip to the Musee d'Orsay (it was closed) and then a wander throught the Jardin de Tuilieries in the rain. Wednesday was still glum so we had a museum day, although we started at Notre Dame. We wandered around the church dodging tourists left right and centre, and proved my theory that its almost impossible to take a photo of Notre Dame without it being wonky, I don't know why!
Then we had a very French street cafe lunch, and then queued for ages at the Musee d'Orsay. I actually prefer this museum to the Louvre, but maybe that's cos I know more of the pictures and I'm a sucker for a Degas. After a quick Orangina in the cafe, we wandered through the Tuilierie again, stopping to be old people by the pond, before "doing" the Louvre. We followed the DK Top 10 Paris Guide, and managed the whole top 10 in an hour and a half! Thoroughly shattered we then wandered back to Gare de L'Est, after taking some beautiful sunset photos of the Pyramid and the Arc de Triopmhe du Carousel (see my flickr album).
Wednesday the weather was amazing. We started at the Arc de Triomphe, and then got my favourite metro journey across the Seine with a view of the Eiffel Tower. We joined the queue and 3 hours later (!) and quite sun burned we made it to the top. Unfortunatley it was quite hazy, but we still got some great photos. Back on terra firma we went back to the hotel for a quick shower, change of camera battery and sleep in my case, and then headed off to Monmatre. I'd not been before and was quite overwhelmed by Sacre Couer. It was a beautiful building, and stunning in the bright sunshine. We climbed the dome (look at how brave I was, all this height climbing!) and took more photos of Paris from above. We then wandered round Monmatre and managed not to get our pictures done by one of the many artists! Off then to the Dali museum, where we were told "you must be quick". No problem for us, the speed museumers!
At 6.30 we decided we should try to find somewhere to eat. By 9.30, we'd not found anywhere to eat!! But then we fell upon Chartier, which was an amazing restaurant in the Opera quarter, in a 1900s listed building, and yet suprisingly cheap! Then we ran to the Trocadero to watch the Eiffel Tower doing its hourly sparkly thing. We missed it by about 2 mins but stayed until midnight to see it. It was very pretty, and there are lots of nice photos....
And then, on Friday it was time to go home! Literally a whirlwind tour, but some amazing photos, and even better memories...Very loved up now!