October

It has been almost a month since I last updated this blog. After Europe, I have had very little money to go anywhere or do anything, so I have spent quite a bit of time at home or exploring around my community on foot. Even more importantly, we cancelled the BT pay-as-you-go phone/internet package that my housemate Anne had on September 18, and after more than four weeks, my provider Sky has still not managed to reconnect us. It has been an eye-opening experience. In Canada, there is an attitude that the customer is always right, and usually businesses try very hard to look after their customers. Here there is no such attitude...rather, they only answer the questions you ask, and if you are not aware enough to know what questions to ask, they won't volunteer any extra information to you. The onus is very much on the consumer/client to do all the legwork, to make sure they get looked after. While in Europe this summer, we noticed a much more relaxed attitude towards being out of things as well. If a restaurant was out of the first three things you tried to order, you just had to keep going until you found something that they did have...and no apologies for it either.

I have found good friends in my housemates and the house of teachers just down the road. Jessica (the other house) and I have attended the Baptist church in Chase Cross several times, which is very friendly. We have had several invites to dinner already. I just joined a choir in Hornchurch too. It gives me an opportunity to exercise my voice and my piano skills, as the only pianist is the conductor, who is usually not there for the first 15-20 minutes, and who was unable to make it last week.

My keyboard is being stupid and not writing m's, I have to copy and paste them in (and apostrophes and colons have disappeared altogether...sigh...two-year old Toshiba laptops suck), so I think Ill cut it short here.

Ciao!

Hardship Ahead for Education in Britain

Hello again. The kids returned to school two-and-a-half weeks ago now, but things have been really quiet for those of us on supply. My housemate Jen got one day of work last week when she went in for a PPA (prep teacher) trial day, which instead of the interview and time spent getting to know the school a bit she expected, turned out to be merely a "fill-the-hole" supply day. I got one day of work on Monday this week, supplying in a Yr 5 class in Barking, thankfully at a school I was familiar with. I had a good day, nice kids. However, other than those experiences, neither Jen nor I has had any other work yet, despite calling in at 7 am every morning.

I have spent the time at home walking around my area, getting to know Collier Row, Havering-atte-Bower, Chase Cross, and Romford better. I've also spent a lot of time on the phone with Sky, as we have been trying to cancel my housemate Anne's media package and get mine established at the house. Every person I talk to seems to have a different message, but the latest message seems to be that we have to wait 14 days after the BT broadband is cancelled to set up my Sky broadband. Not sure about the phone. So we are currently phoneless (well, landline-less) and internet-less until that transfer happens. We're watching more TV as my Sky TV could be transferred immediately, since there was no cable TV in the house when I arrived.

As well, we're getting to know our new neighbours, Jessica and Chelsea, two Canadians who are living just down the street from us. We get along well...Jen is out with them today in London doing some touristy stuff...I decided to stay in Romford and get some things accomplished here instead. We're planning a birthday party for Jen on Sunday night with them.

I had dinner with Peter and Muriel, a retired headteacher and his teacher wife--both from Chase Cross Baptist, which I've been attending the last few weeks--last night. We had a lovely time and it was very interesting to get their perspective on the education system currently. They were talking about how schools are doing their best to avoid using supply teachers and paying the agency fees by calling back retired teachers and by moving teachers around internally within the school. Muriel, for instance is a resource teacher, and she gets moved into supply cover if someone is away. I've also heard of EAs being charged (even for several weeks at a time) with teaching a class when the teacher is away, doing all the work of a teacher without the qualifications or remunerative pay (EAs earn approximately half what teachers make). All of these strategies are becoming increasingly common now as schools are under intense pressure to cut costs. Peter's comment was that he is quite happy to be retired now, as it's anyone's guess how things are going to shape up as the budget cuts become more clear. I have heard that government departments are going to be cut an average of 25% with certain departments facing cuts potentially as high as 40%.

Then I asked Anne this morning what she thought the chances of Jen and I getting work this week were, and she indicated "Not good." She said schools have to cut £1, 000, 000.00 from their budget this year, a figure I hadn't heard before. I wondered aloud what work there was going to be for agency teachers this year, and her response was that schools like taking on agency teachers for short-term contracts because they don't have to pay benefits or holidays and they can fire with short notice.

I'm not sure what all of this means for me. For the moment, I'm on guaranteed supply, which means TimePlan has to pay me for 8/10 days every fortnight, but of course it will not be sustainable for them to maintain that for very long if I (and every other guaranteed teacher) is only working 2/10 days. So I shall wait and see what develops.

Lisbon-Home

Our second-last full day of the trip...we got up around 8 and I ate my fruit skewer as Karen packed. Then we caught an airport bus, arriving at Barcelona Airport around 9:30. We ate our pastries from La Mie Calime as we waited for our departure on TAP flight at 11 am.

I was tired when we arrived in Lisbon, so had a nap in our very comfortable hostel room, as Karen went out to explore. We found some lovely things (scarves, earrings, etc) for sale and I found a doll for my young friends Rosie and Dieunnie--a bit too small for them yet, but their mother can hold onto it for them until they're old enough. Then we walked along the waterfront, through a slightly sketchy area towards the restaurant we wanted to eat at. After much wandering and map-reading, we found it, but discovered that it was not open until 8:30 (we had arrived at 7:15). So we walked down the path we had walked up, bought some drinks, and found the metro station. We had considered the bus, but a friendly local told us not to take it--"You'll never get there!" We took a few photos down by the waterfront and then retraced our steps up the slippery cobbled stairs to the fado restaurant.

It was a lovely meal. To begin, we had a deep-fried fish/vegetable snack with bread and butter. Then I had 5 pieces (!) of pork loin with potatoes, onions, and flavoured rice with sausage in it. Karen had medium steak with fried egg and chipped potatoes. As I had way too much food, and Karen wasn't wild about her steak, we traded meals halfway through. As to the music, fado is a type of music that is typically mournful and is frequently characterized by themes about the life of the poor or the sea. There was a guitarist and a Portuguese guitarist (I had to look it up to find out what this other stringed instrument was) as well as two female singers who alternated singing. So there were about 20 minute sets in which everyone put their forks and knives down and listened to the music in between which they'd turn the lights up and resume serving. Karen and I appeared to be the only people there who didn't speak Portuguese, and frequently most of the gathered assembly would join in for the chorus of a familiar song. It was neat to be part of, though it was also the greatest language barrier we faced during the whole trip as we didn't speak Portuguese and they didn't speak English.

The next morning, we had breakfast at Lisbon Story Guesthouse. It really was a lovely place to stay, with an inviting common room with lots of cushions to sit on--just so long as you're young enough to get back up again! The staff were really helpful and even let me print something off without charging for it.

After breakfast, we headed to the Santa Justa Lift, a tower that enabled us to get a nice view of Lisbon. Then we met Ali, a Senegalese man who had friends in Montreal. He was delighted to talk to us, and offered us necklaces--valued at 15 euros each (Karen got an amber one, I got one with a blue stone whose name I don't remember) --within ten minutes of meeting us. We reluctantly took them and turned to say goodbye. As we walked away, he asked us if we could give him some money to help him feed his family. We offered the necklaces back but he was absolutely insistent that we take them, even if we didn't give him anything in return. So I dug 6 euros out of my change purse and we said goodbye. We took Tram 28, an old heritage tram with wood-pannelled walls inside through the hills of Lisbon, the old town. I loved seeing all the Portuguese tiles decorating the outside--and inside--of buildings. Here's a sampling.

After lunch, we walked toward the harbour for a boat ride. We asked an information person where we could go on a short boat ride and she suggested St. Charles Islands. However, when we got to the station, there was no St. Charles listed anywhere. No schedule was printed anywhere and the agents spoke no English. So we finally got on a boat going to Barreiro, that was supposed to be a half-hour ride. We got to a harbour that said San Bento after about 20 minutes and proceeded to sit there for about ten minutes. We finally decided that if it was going to take so long to get to Barreiro, we'd better just jump off here, wherever we were, and have a look around before finding a boat back to our hostel. So we got off the boat and then discovered that the Barreiro train station was just behind the boat station. As it turned out there wasn't much of anything at Barreiro except a train station, we quickly returned to the boat area and picked up the next boat back to Lisbon.

After a quick supper close to our hostel, I grabbed my things to go to the airport. (Karen was leaving the following morning at 8 am. ) We went down to the street so I could catch the airport bus and it arrived almost as soon as we did. Since they took cash only, I paid, gave Karen my remaining euros (she was running low on cash) and quickly said goodbye.

One minute down the road, I realized that I didn't have one bag...Karen had thoughtfully carried it for me and when we hurriedly said goodbye, I forgot to take it from her. I thought about what was in it--a few souvenirs, a bit of food, some books for the plane, my trip journal, and my airline ticket and Gatwick Express ticket (for returning home to London late that night) and quickly decided that it wasn't worth it to me to go back. I knew from previous experience that I could fly just by showing my passport, and I had my reservation number for the train ticket stored on my mobile phone. And since neither of us had enough cash left to take another bus/taxi to the airport without withdrawing more cash if I got off the bus now, I thought I'd just let Karen take my bag home with her.

So I got to the airport, and suddenly thought that given my late flight--I was scheduled to land at Gatwick at 11:30-- and the fact that I no longer had my carry-on bag--that it would be quicker if I just took my knapsack as a carry-on. So I went through security and had my jam from Avignon confiscated--no, I hadn't thought about that being a liquid--and proceeded to look for a crossword book to replace the one I had left with Karen. Just as I was returning to my lounge to await takeoff, I had a call from my mother saying that Karen had come to the airport with my bag and was waiting for me near Gates 37-43. This was around 8:25, and my plane had originally been slated to depart at 9:00, but now it was delayed an hour. So I tried to get back out of security, and had problems with the staff, who didn't want to let me back out and who also made me dump out my bag several times to show them the toothpaste in my bag that kept setting off the alarm system. When I was feeling absolutely frustrated and ready to give up and forget the stupid bag, I finally ran into an agent who helped me. He asked me to describe Karen and then found her. He took me through a staff-only passageway so that I could--without leaving security--accept the bag from Karen. She was standing on one side of a wall that was a bit higher than waist-level and I was standing on the other side. She handed over the bag and I said goodbye again and went on to my gate.

The flight was more than an hour delayed, so it was about 12:40 by the time we got into Gatwick. Knowing that the last train from Gatwick was at 12:30 and that the Tube shuts down at 1:00 am, I knew that I had two choices...pay a fistful of money for a taxi home, or sit on night buses for a six-hour journey home. I chose the painful option of 106 pounds for a taxi. I guess at that time of night, there are only the large van taxis available, no cheaper minicabs, and where I'm living now is out in Zone 6, rather than Zone 4 as Barking was. So we drove to Romford, but because the cab driver wasn't familiar with Chase Cross and the GPS wasn't registering my address since it's a new residential area, he finally dropped me off in Romford. So I caught another cab home for another 10 pounds.

Thankfully when I got to my new house, the key worked and I found all my things waiting for me. To bed about 2:30. So I had an exciting/stressful end to a very memorable trip around Europe.

Avignon and Barcelona

I'm hoping to have steady work this week, so want to finish off my Europe blogs now, before I lose the motivation to do so. On Aug 26, we we got up at 9 and left our luggage at the hotel while we wandered around Avignon. After a breakfast of French pastries (eaten as we walked), we got some pictures of the Palais des Papes, from the days in the late-fourteenth/early fifteenth centuries when Avignon was the seat of a rival pope to Rome. Then we walked on to the Pont St. Benezet, more popularly known as the Pont D'Avignon. Built in the twelfth centry, the original wooden structure was partially destroyed by a siege. Rebuilt as a Gothic stone bridge during the Middle Ages, regular flooding by the Rhone River took their toll on the bridge and after successive attempts at repair, when much of the bridge was washed away during the seventeenth century, it was abandoned. Today 4 of the original 22 arches remain. We took the tour of the St Nicholas Chapel (on the bridge) and walked out to the end of the bridge, partway across the river. For more information or photos of the bridge see the below websites:

http://www.palais-des-papes.com/anglais/ponthistoire.html

http://www.avignon-et-provence.com/avignon-tourism/monuments/avignon-bridge.htm

After picking up some yummy pastries at La Mie Calime, we got on the train again for our second-longest travel day. We caught the 1:27 pm train from Avignon to Montpellier St. Roch, arriving at 2:40. We were told upon arrival that the 3:09 direct train to Barcelona was full so we must take the 5:15 train to Port Bou (Spain) and transfer there to another train arriving in Barcelona at 10:39. For the record, that's 9 hours on 3 trains this day, or 21 hours on 10 train in two days. We found our hostel in Barcelona without difficulty. It was beautifully decorated and had some nice hangout spots. I went to bed, while Karen went out to get some proper dinner.

The next morning, Karen and I split up after breakfast and I went on a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, while Karen went to the beach. My tour was scheduled from 11-1 so Karen and I planned to meet up at 1. Our English (as in, British) tour guide told us a bit about the history of Catalan, which is different than Spain. Wilfred the Hairy is an important figure for Catalan nationalists, "the de facto founder of the House of Barcelona" (according to Wikipedia. He was a count who, according to legend, was awarded a coat of arms by King Charles the Bald for his bravery in fighting (either the Moors or the Normans, we're not sure which). When the king slid Willy's blood-stained fingers over his copper shield the new flag of the Catalans was born, as seen below.

We walked by the impressive Palau de la Musica Catalanya with busts of Wagner and Beethoven outside.

fWe saw a church that bore bullet pockmarks a visible reminder of the mass executions carried out during the Spanish Civil War. We also saw La Seu Cathedral, and beside it, a wall which was built from pieces of Jewish gravestones. I've forgotten exactly why, but in my diary I have note about anti-Jewish sentiment by the Christians during the time of the plague. Our guide connected the dots for me, in noting that since the Muslims and Jews both had regular washing rituals embedded in their religious lives, they were less susceptible to the plague than were Christians who had no such rituals nor any understanding of the importance of proper hygiene. Barcelona's most famous sons include Picasso and Gaudi and Salvador Dali. We saw evidence of Gaudi in much of the architecture we saw around the city, and a sketch of Picasso's was represented on the front facade of the Architectural School. We walked through the former Red Light District, where our guide told us that Picasso's "Ladies of Avignon" probably refers to Baixa Avinyo, the territory of the prostitutes, which Picasso himself was known to visit. It was a very interesting tour, but we didn't start until 11:20 and didn't get back until 2, rather later than the 1 pm that Karen and I had arranged to meet. I sat at the travel bar (our meeting spot) and had a drink with the other walkers, and when I hadn't seen Karen by 2:30, went out to get some lunch. As it turned out, Karen and I both made a few trips to the travel bar but always missed each other. So we both decided to do our own thing. She spent the afternoon at the beach, while I bought some postcards, walked around La Rambla (a broad pedestrian path, filled with outdoor market stands) for a bit (and picked up some lovely fruit skewers for breakfast) before returning to our hostel to read and relax.

Karen got back about 7 pm and we went out for dinner. On the way home, we got some more pastries at La Mie Calime (Karen's favourite bakery!) for the plane the next day.

Long Day...

Now I'll blog about the longest day of the whole adventure. We got up at 5:30 on Aug 25 to catch the 6:07 train to Monterosso (the fifth village in Cinque Terre, north of Vernazza). We waited in Monterosso until 6:55 to catch the train from Monterosso to Genoa. Upon arriving in Genoa at 8:20, we picked up some breakfast in the train station before catching a train to Ventimiglia (silent g in Ventimiglia) at 8:45. We arrived in Ventimiglia just after 11 am and waited for our next train to leave Ventimiglia for Montecarlo (in France) at 11:31. We arrived in Montecarlo at noon and jumped off one train onto another (fortunately on the next platform), this time heading for Nice, pm. at 12:08. We arrived in Nice finally at 12:36, where we wandered around the harbourfront watching parachutists fly into the air behind a boat. Then we meandered back through the Old Town, where we picked up lunch at a little cafe. We saw lots of palm trees and sand in Nice. After two-and-a-half hours, there we headed back towards the train station for our 4:28 train ride to Marseille. We arrived in Marseille around 7 pm where we needed to wait for our 8:45 departure to Avignon. I sat with the luggage, while Karen got up and took pictures around the station and surrounding vicinity. We got to Avignon at 10:15 pm rather tired. We found our hotel at 10:25, but the hotel had no record of our reservation...so we got the smallest, least desirable room in the place--or maybe they were all that bad...I don't know. It was a hot, airless room with only a small fan, and the bed wasn't a proper double. You get what you pay for!

Cinque Terre

We left Rome at 2:10 pm for La Spezia, just south of the Cinque Terre. If you can't find it, find Genoa and then follow the coast slightly southeast. We arrived in La Spezia at 6:30 pm. We tried to reserve our next train from Cinque Terre to Nice but had a poor experience with a ticket agent who spoke no English and refused to show us his computer screen or write anything legible. We arrived in Vernazza in 7:30.

Vernazza is one of five villages perched on these cliffs overlooking the Ligurian Sea. Coming from the south (La Spezia), they are in order: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. The train went under the mountain for much of the time, but every so often you'd come out along the coast and see beautiful sparkling water with mountains in the background. My first impression of Vernazza (after getting out of the tunnel into which we stepped...there's a very short platform in Vernazza) was that it was a hive of activity. We saw tall, narrow houses all stacked together very compactly. Tourists in bathing suits mingled with locals at cafes...though the former seemed to be the larger group.

We stayed at Martina's Rooms. There were 5 flights of stairs to climb, but we had a nice view from the top, as our room looked out on the square just down by the harbour. We had dinner at a restaurant just below our room. Karen had pesto pasta (pesto originated here)while I had baked anchovies (another local specialty). During our dinner, Karen took a video of a man playing panpipes as he beat his drum with a shaker and marched around the square.

The next morning, I got up just before 8 and headed out to do a couple loads of laundry. After finishing that and getting some breakfast, we headed out to Monterosso around 11 for a hike through the five villages that make up Cinque Terre. We had been advised by a travel book to hike from Monterosso to Riomaggiore in order to do the hardest part of the hike first. It was a long, steep, strenuous climb toward Vernazza. We stopped for lunch and a swim in Vernazza. Vernazza to Corniglia was also quite steep, with lots of narrow mountain paths which made passing others difficult. We stopped for gelato in Corniglia and then carried on towards Manarola, which proved to be a much easier hike. The walk from Manarola to Riomaggiore was on the Via Dell'amore, or Path of Love. This paved, level path had been forged between the two villages in the 1920s to facilitate the meeting and marrying of young people between them. It's easy to see how isolated the villages would have been before the train was built linking them. Anyway, this part of the hike was MUCH easier. In Karen's words, "This isn't even a hike anymore." We had hoped to take the boat back to Vernazza, but we were too late by more than an hour, so we hopped on the train back to Vernazza. We shared a large pesto pizza for dinner, down by the water on the rocks. Note: In Italy you have to pay to sit down in a restaurant, so it's cheaper if you buy takeout and then find your own (free) "chair" elsewhere. After dinner, we wandered into a little shop and bought some limoncino (an alcoholic lemon drink that is from the area) and some liqueur chocolates.

The next day, we started with a delicious breakfast at Il Pirato restaurant, found by walking up the hill past the train station to the very top of the town. I had a strawberry slushie with a vanilla-filled pastry garnished with strawberries, while Karen had a very thick hot chocolate with whipped cream on the side, and a chocolate pastry. We were well-impressed with both the food and the friendliness of the Sicilian twins who run the place and resolved to return for dinner.

We took the boat to Manarola to see the olive press museum, only to find out that it was closed. It is only open for a few months in the fall at harvest time. So we thought we would take the boat to Monterosso and spend some time at the beach...only it's now 12:40 and the boat doesn't come again until 2:55. So we thought, what the heck, we'll hang out at the beach at Manarola (which is rocky rather than sandy) for a few hours. There were some young people (mostly young men) who were jumping or diving off some very tall rocks into the water near the shore. As far as we know, no one was paralyzed by so doing, though it's not something I would remotely consider doing. Karen did some sunbathing on the rocks and swimming, while I read a novel for awhile.

We eventually got to Monterosso, where we found out it cost 15 euros to make use of two beach chairs and an umbrella at the beach (it turned out it was a private beach and even to use it at all cost 15 euros). So we spent a few hours there, and then I went to an internet cafe while Karen stayed at the beach a bit longer. We took the train back to Vernazza and went to Il Pirato where I had pesto lasagna and Karen had pesto gnocchi for diner. I also ordered another strawberry slushie--they were SO GOOD! We met a Canadian couple who were holidaying there on his leave from duty in Kandahar and chatted with them for the evening, finishing off with a fruit pana cotta (like creme brulee with fruit) we shared. Divine...

Rome

So on August 20, we packed our bags and headed out after breakfast to Ferrovia (the train station) on foot to catch our 10:30 train. We arrived at 2 pm in Rome, where we immediately reserved our next train and bought a Roma Pass (good for three days travel and free entrance to two museums--without standing in line--and with discounts at other musuems).

On getting out into the sunshine, we were blasted with muggy 35 degree heat. We made our way to our hostel--Colours--on foot. It was a beautiful spot, with kitchen set up for use as well as one computer terminal free for use. Our room included a fairly spacious shower, TV, safe, fridge (complete with about six different beverage choices) and air conditioning. We refreshed ourselves a bit...I had tiramisu gelato--the best gelato of the entire trip...and then headed to the Vatican. We saw the beautiful Basilica San Pietro. The altar at the front was rather forbidding....an underlighted black structure that didn't seem all that worshipful to me. The rest of the church was gorgeous though. To get in, I had to get rid of my Swiss Army knife that I had foolishly kept in my fanny pack. I hid it in an empty garbage can in the hopes of finding it upon return...I never did. Live and learn. We had hoped to see the Vatican Musuems (Sistine Chapel) that day too, but by the time we arrived (at 6:30), it was too late as last entrances were at 4 pm.

So we walked to Campo di Fiori for dinner. Karen's guidebook had given us several ideas of places to go eat...one was closed and another we never found. We found out that during the month of August, many Romans escape the oppressive heat and humidity of Rome and close up shop for several weeks while on vacation. We finally found a nice place to get drinks and aperatifs for 8 euros. They had little paper trays filled with little nibbles...cheese and jam, BBQ veggies on a skewer, rice salad, pasta salad, cucumber/feta/olive, tomato/feta/basil, fruit salad on a skewer...best value dinner we ever had.

After dinner, we walked past the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument, built to honour the first king of a united Italy in the nineteenth century, on our way to the Trevi Fountain a gorgeous fountain that is always crowded with tourists. Neptune is pictured at the front and the side statues represent the health and abundance that water has always given Rome. By 9:30 pm, I was dead on my feet from the heat. To bed in our air conditioned room...

The next day, we had a breakfast of filled croissants, pastries, cereal, yogurt and toast before heading off to the Colosseum around 10. It was interesting to stand in the amphitheatre and imagine the games that took place there some 1500-2000 years ago. They had exhibits about the different types of gladiators: the retiarius is the only one I can remember, who was armed with a net and a trident (a three-pronged spear).

We grabbed lunch outside the Colosseum around 1 pm (panini) before proceeding on to the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum is the ruins of Ancient Rome and includes temples to the various gods, and other buildings that have survived. It was incredibly hot walking through the (unshaded) remains and we were glad to have brought water and iced tea with us. We also wanted to get to the Vatican Museums before 4 pm. I enjoyed seeing all the paintings on the ceilings in the galleries. We got into the Sistine Chapel--which was nice to see, after having completed a jigsaw of it several years ago, a s well as the Pinacoteca (art gallery).

We went out for dinner to a place we found near our hostel: Pizzeria Napoli2. I had pizza with mozzerella cheese, smoked salmon, rocket lettuce, and sweet corn on it. Karen had pasta la carbonara: with ham, egg, and cheese...very salty, but good. Then back to our hostel for the night.

The next morning, we were up at 8 am and after breakfast, set off for the Spanish Steps, the longest and widest staircase in Europe, built in the 18th century with bequest funds from a French diplomat. We got some pictures there, and appreciated some of the beautiful paintings on display by various artists...I think Karen bought one, if I recall correctly. Then we walked to the Trevi Fountain again, because I wanted to get some good pictures in daylight as my camera doesn't take very good night pictures. We stopped at the San Loyola church for a few minutes and then carried on toward the Pantheon. The Pantheon has a large hole in the centre of the roof, but the floor is sloped slightly towards the edges so that any rain that comes in drains away at the edges. When we visited, it was under renovation, so there was lots of scaffolding on the outside of the building. We had gelato in Piazza Novona before returning to our hostel. Karen's raspberry was better than my mint.