Sweden & salsa

Hola!!!!

I hope that you are all well.

I have to say that I'm having one helluva fantastic time.

Last week and this week my salsa dancing has really taken off. I finally took a class last week which was nice and started dancing again - after about 1 month off. I'd been visiting a few Salsa clubs mid-week, but just watching and hanging about.

I'm frequenting two clubs: Ipanema and Bar Risa, both on Broad Street - the main dining, entertainment area in Brum (Birmingham). Ipanema is a very funky bar/restaurant with a large dance floor and outdoor terrace which all the dancers spill out into.

Being the night before a bank holiday (Good Friday) Ipanema was packed last night. In the past fortnight I've started being recognised, ie starting to know some of the other regulars too. Which is making me feel more comfortable and at home with the Salsa scene here. However, I don't have many different clothes to wear, so perhaps it's easier to identify me! :)

Last weekend I went to Stenungsund, Sweden. It's about 40 minutes north of Gothenburg. It was AWESOME. Firstly I'm quite lucky that I've not missed a train, plane bus or anything yet. I've been very lucky in that regard.

There were two others from London that were on the same flight. Both were instructors at teh congress and one was also one of the DJs for the Salsa party on Saturday night.

In queueing at the Gothenburg (goteburg) airport to get through passport control, this one guy was looking at me and finally said 'Salsa?'. To which I was much relieved to have found the two strangers I was meant to catch a ride with to the congress (rather they found me).

Passport control was strange. They are very particular in Sweden! They scanned my passport or something. Then continued to look back and forth between me and my passport several times. They were also checking details on the screen, obviously to check my history etc. It was very unnerving.

Just a little note about Goteburg City Airport - it's tiny. The other main airport is Landvetter, I'm assumning it's much bigger. This airport was a landing strip in the middle of some fields with the airport terminal as not much more than a tin shed. :)

It was -6 degress celcius when we arrived. A bit chilly. Last Friday (the day before I arrived in Sweden) was beautiful in England. The sun was out. It was warm (10-13 degrees). I went outdoors without a jacket it was that warm!!!!!!!!!

We didn't have much luck with the local swede who was meant to meet us and take us to the venue. Apparently he was there and did see us (he later admitted) but did not realise that we were his cargo. :) So he left after 1/2 hour. We were given no details of who was picking us up so had no idea who to look for. We waited 2 hours before I finally found the details of the hotel/venue and rang up. We got picked up by the brother in law of the organiser of the event.

He happened to be a swede who married a Bolivian woman and spends 6-8 months in Bolivia working and the other time in Sweden. He was a very interesting person adn I found out a lot more of Bolivia than I had ever known.

We finally arrived at our destination and it was beautiful. The drive up was lovely too. Mountains lined with pine like trees, graced with snow. Stenungsund is on near two islands that are very popular for summer vacation for the locals. So our hotel was set on a bay that led out to sea. It was pristine and beautiful. I could have spent the whole weekend looking out the window and enjoying the view.

Fortunately I managed to tear myself away from the view for about 1 hr at atime to attend the classes which had the picturesque view on one side of the chandelier lit rooms. The dancers I met were amazing.

I found the Salsa community amazing. I did not know a soul. However from emailing the leader of the group of instructors from London, I found that I had an instant group of friends. All the swedish people kept coming up and introducing themselves to me. Everyone made sure I was alright and I happened to meet a great number of very friendly an interesting people in a very safe environment. We all share the one passion of salsa dancing. It was wonderful. I met people from France, Scotland, London and of course Sweden.

The funny thing was that the majority of the 800 that attended were Swedish. So doing the classes some were 100% in swedish (strangely enough it was still easy to take the class & comprehend what was happening) but my fellow students (and those i danced with at the party) would instinctively talk to me in Swedish. Sometimes the encounters were so brief I'd just nod my head or what have you as sometimes it was easy to tell what they meant. But if they asked a question and were looking at me for an answer, that was the time I'd say 'Sorry I dont' speak Swedish'. They'd instantly convert to English and go through the whole spiel of 'where are you from and what are you doing here in Sweden?'.

So it was a little complicated to explain that I'm Australian (which was instantly like, oh you travelled all the way from there for this, as they always asked when I was leaving and when I arrived). Then I had to explain I was working in England just for 3months. Then the fact that I knew no one here, well other than those i had just met too. So I had quite a few repetitive conversations but it was more I couldnt' think of an easier way to explain my situation.

However i have almost the same difficulty with the local Brum dancers too. Everyone I have met dancing knows immediately that i'm not a local wherever I am because of the way I dance. :) But fortunately they all tell me that I dance well and ask me where I learnt to dance.

I did meet a fellow Aussie Salsa dancer from Sydney in Sweden. We had a great chat. She returns next month as well.

The London crew I met in Sweden I will most likely see again this weekend. There is a huge Salsa party in London due to the Bank holiday (that's what they call it!) on Monday. It starts 6pm Sunday night and goes to -6am Monday morning. They said it's a massive event with 000s attending. I'm very much lookign forward to it and meeting all the instructors/people I met in Sweden again. I'm already on this particular Salsa club's mailing list... :)
The Swedes I met were very friendly, one was a perfect stranger and drove me to the bus stop so I could get back to the Airport on Sunday as i had to catch an earlier flight than the other Londoners.

I ran into some luck when I arrived into Gothenburg, the airport bus only runs once, 2 hrs and 20 mins prior to departure of the flight. I arrived about 1 1/2 hours prior. An english speaking gentleman entered the travel centre as I just made that realisation (and starting to count how much money I had for a taxi) and was asking the customer service person when the buses go to the airport. He was on the same flight as me (there aren't that many obviously) so we caught a taxi out together and only cost about £10 ($24) each. It was quite good given that the bus is half the price, but runs so infrequently. It total it took me abotu 8 hours to travel back to Birmingham. Which in reflection is a lot of time. A lot of time I spent sleeping!!!

I think I have perfected the art of sleeping on public transport. As soon as it starts moving I'm out like a light. :) However, it might have something to do with the fact I was dancing until 3am in the morning the night before. :) But it's ok mum, the dance party was just on the floor below where I was staying in the hotel, so did not have far to walk to go to bed. :)

Thanks must go to my cousin Marcus who let me crash at his place Friday night before leaving at 4am to catch my 7am flight from Stansted (takes about 2 hours to travel there by public transport at that time of the morning and have to be there at the latest 40 minutes before take off to check in).

Oh the food. I got to taste Swedish food - I like it!!! We had buffet lunch, dinner, breakfast and lunch. It was different and very good. Tasty - I don't know half teh stuff I was eating, but it was good. :) The bread is very nice too. :)

Also going back about a month ago, when I went to Brugge, Belgium I must thank Tina for letting me stay at her place under similar circumstances. Only difference was i got to party with her big corporate friends in MAYFAIR!!!!! It was a very cool jazz/funk club (just suited to me) that one of the directors of her company paid £15 (AUD 40) each for us to enter the club and then someone was paying for bottles of Veuve Cliquot champagne (about £50/AUD 122 a bottle). I had half a glass as I could not be rude a refuse such expensive champagne! It was a very unexpected pleasant surprise. We arrived home about 4am before I had to leave at 5am to get to Waterloo for my 6:30am Eurostar/train to Belgium.

So this is how I manage to sleep on flights and all methods of transport.... :)

Oh. this week has been very good too. Being 4 days and all. Last night there was a work Pool comp. I got to meet a lot more people from the Birmingham and Wolverhampton office (about 45 mins north). I even played pool and lost badly. I won 1 game by default because my opponent sunk the black ball. It was very enjoyable evening and am glad to have met and socialised with more people from this office. It was another late night not as late as the others, the clubs/bars seem to be opened late to 2pm. We stayed at the one venue that was closed off for us. Again on Broad street just opposite the road from Ipanema. So I snuck across for an hour and had a glorious time dancing and meeting new people before coming back.

I actually got to drive for the first time last night. As I was the only one sober I drove Jo (my house mate's) new mini (about 2 months old) home. I even managed to navigate my way home without assistance (except the first bit getting out of the city). Not that it was particularly hard, but it was nice to be able to drive again. It was a very nice car to drive. :)

This weekend I will be heading down to London to go to the theatre with Tina and George (her house mate). Sunday I'll be going to that Salsa party. Monday will be going to Bath (famous roman spa town) with Tina and George.

In the upcoming weeks I'll be heading off to Paris next weekend. London the following as Sam (from Paris) will be coming across. The weekend after I plan to be in Birmingham - my only full weekend here!!!!. After that I'll be hopping across to Brussels for another Salsa congress. Then the following week will be the end of my secondment. I will spend that last weekend in London in another Salsa congress before skipping across to Paris and leaving from there back for Australia.

So more emails to come, but that's what you can look forward to reading about.

Week 5

Last weekend I spent in Budapest with my cousin Marcus. But before I go into Hungary, I will deviate for a short while to comment on my weekend with Marcus and Wan two weekends ago (ie prior to Brugge, Belgium).

For the first time I was able to explore Birmingham city – and what better company that two tourists as well!

I have picked up some colloquial language which I may use in this email:

Brum = Birmingham

More colloquisms that are difficult to get used to:

Hiya = common salutation

You right (?) – in a whiney tone = Common salutation, means hello.

After a photo shoot in front of my office, followed by one 5 metres later at Victoria square, then 50 metres in Chamerberlain square…. Just kidding. Well almost. I am rather impressed with the number of photos Marcus takes and the subjects.

As they were staying on Broad Street (the main restaurant/bar/dining area) in central Brum we wandered around Brindley Place – a commercial and dining complex by the canal. Modern and quaint.

Trivia: the length of the canals in Brum is longer than those of Venice itself.

We visited St Philips Cathedral – England’s smallest! It is very close to work and a common thoroughfare. In fact I had passed it many times but had not the opportunity to go in. Quite lovely.

We enjoyed a brief stroll down New Street (Brum’s High street aka main mall/shopping area) through the drizzingly rain towards The Bull Ring. We took in the sights of Victoria Square and Town Hall. It is quite charming and right next to work. I do enjoy walking through the area.

The Bull Ring is the major shopping mall in the city. It’s only about 1 1/2 years old and quite modern for England, especially Selfridge’s. We wandered around a bit. The Selfridge (major department store, like David Jones) there has a reknown architectural outside. I did not know it was reknown until Marcus quite excitedly told me about it. I had thought it to be a queer bit of architecture though.

Then we had a photo shoot back at my place before we headed back out for dinner at The Mailbox (a boutique complex of shopping and dining) which is located by the canal that leads to Brindley Place. We enjoyed good decent priced Indian in a very contemporary funky restaurant.
We tried out the clubs on Broad Street but found little luck in anything exciting or indeed open past 1am. Which is probably fortunate.

The next day after a rush for the train we arrived in Stratford Upon Avon to discover Shakespeare in his home town.

Much to our disappointment all the replica houses and exhibits plainly stated that the only facts about Shakespeare that is documented is that he was born, married and died. Everything else about his life is conjecture. There is even controversy as to whether he even wrote the grand plays and sonnets authored by him!

Stratford was a lovely quaint town with plenty of 16-17th century typical buildings and I learnt a fair bit about life in those times (or at least what the tourism board will have you believe). J
Alas the weekend ended too quickly and Marcus and Wan were off on a bus back to London.
I went home and proceeded to tell my housemates and visiting friends what a load of bollocks Shakespeare & Stratford is when they enquired as to my visit. As you can imagine I was greeted with a lot of disbelief and comments that I was speaking nonsense.

Budapest

Budapest is cheap, beautiful and interesting place to visit.

Marcus (my cousin) and I became tickless tourists for the weekend. Being armed with many maps, photocopies of lonely planet and print outs from the Hungarian tourist website, we hit the tourist sites.

Starting with the Opera House which was quite a magnificent structure inside and out. Paris Opera (Garnier) has always been my favourite, but what I could see of Budapest’s was quite impressive. As well as their modern flat screen monitor in the foyer where we could purchase tickets for that evening’s performance for 500 Forint = £2 = AUD $5. Very cheap in otherwords. The Opera was Lady Macbeth (…) so was something unusual. But we didn’t.
We then went to see the other Opera House which was more modern and very strange architecture. There were a great deal of very old buildings and very modern buildings intertwined with each other.

Well you may recall that last week I saw the alledged holy blood of Christ. This week I saw the hold right hand of St Stephen – first King of Budapest (c 1000AD) in none other that St Stephen’s Basilica. An amazing massive basilica constructed in the late 1800 completed early 1900s. It really gives the Vatican a run for it’s money in it opulent marble, gold and domed interior. And of course the eloquently decorated and secured right hand of St Stephen. It is apparently quite revered by the Hungarians.

We then ventured to the next amazingly large structure – Parliament. It is truly an impressive gothic styled building with steeples everywhere possible. Incredible.

After looking at a map for a few minutes and trying to figure out how to get to Buda (we were in Peste on the west side of the Danube River) I looked up and noticed we were directly across the road from the metro station we were so conscientiously looking for on the map. :)

We were well on the way to completing the lonely planet guide for a day tour in Budapest. Our next stop was Buda where Matthias Church (Gothic), the panoramic Fisherman’s Bastion and of course the Royal Palace/Buda Castle lay. The views were spectacular and the set up reminded me much of Edinburgh and the Royal Mile situated across from the city.

We also ventured into the Buda Labrinth. An elaborate underground labrinth that has been constructed from the remains of the tunnels and underground passages once used for the Castle as well as military operations in recent times. For theatrics they had eerie music playing which did nothing to abate my natural fear of dark spooky areas, which Marcus fortunately missed out on the opportunity to play on but indeed wanted to do so to me and perfect strangers!

Next we took a tram intending to get across to Capital Hill where a massive statue stood representing freedom. However, we had an interesting incident along the way.

Having arrived at the airport the night before I bought myself a tourist card entitling me to unlimited travel for 48 hours and allegedly many discounts and free entry into 60 museums. I would not recommend getting it as it was not worth the money, but was convenient for travel. However I was not explicitly told and did not sign and date the card as was required to be validated. Having caught a few trams and trains/metros and buses already, there did not appear to be anyone or machines checking the cards or a means to validate them for each trip.

Marcus had read up on the hefy fines imposed for not having a valid ticket, ironically he had mentioned it to me already You can guess where this is going.

So while minding our own business on the tram, two stops away from our destination a rather large/bulky young man in a tracksuit approached Marcus and muttered something. Which we both assumed meant drugs and we weren’t interested.

So then he said in English ‘tickets please’. Hurriedly we both produced our tourist cards. While he was inspecting Marcus’ card, I noticed he was wearing a velcro arm band with an ID badge. Possibly fake and I was highly suspecting that he was fake and going to try and mug us. He then turned to my card and quite clearly was indicating that mine was not valid and needed to be signed and dated. Marcus being the diplomat tried to reason with him and asked for a pen to fill in the details however he declined and said we had to hop off at the next stop.

At the next stop he was still holding my card and as we hopped off he waved over another large man in plain clothes and said something in Hungarian. At this point I really thought we were about to be mugged. I tried to get my card off him and leave quickly but he started flashing a wad of presumably fines with 6000 odd Forint at the top being the hefty fine. I still thought it could be replicas and he had taken off his velcro arm band.

Now 3 large men were ambling towards us. I panicked, tore the card from his hand said to Marcus that we were going. Marcus was bewildered, I got 3 paces away and the young large men stopped me I turned and was now backed against the railing by 4 large hungarian men, one waving some sort of ID authority card and my cousin.

I must have looked panic stricken and was thinking how to escape and which man to injure in the groin first. J One of the guys that came over was trying to be nice and speak english to me. I was not responding well and he just repeatedly said, ‘no date no good’ pointing at the card. So he finally dated the card and let us walk. Much to my relief, we walked away without having to pay a £25 fine (AUD $75). I didn’t even have that much cash on me.

So Marcus & I had a good chuckle about it afterwards, but it was a scary experience at the time. Very funny now. I think I live a charmed life.

We made it to Capital hill, saw even more breathtaking views of Budapest and the Danube river. Visited a war exhibit. Budapest held one of the longest and bloodiest sieges during WWII. The documentation in the exhibit was quite sobering and depressing. So I’ll not talk much of it. But the recovery the city has made in 50 years I think is amazing.

We dined and had traditional food at lunch and dinner. Paying only £6 or $15 for a meal and drink at decent restaurants. Dinner we even had dessert too.

On Sunday we comfortably enjoyed a promenade down Andrassy avenue to Heroes Square. Wandered the small castle there and saw the outside of the Spa/Baths there too. All quite lovely. We didn’t go to any spas although Budapest is reknown for them and medicinal thermal baths at that too. We also rode on Europe’s oldest metro line which had disney like tunes when annoucing the stations. There wasn’t much open so we were just enjoying Peste and a bit of Buda. Quite an enjoyable weekend. We lunched at a very funky restaurant that was again very cheap.

So Budapest was very interesting and pleasant to visit.

Last and this week I have been working about 10 miles outside Oxford and have been able to enjoy 2 hour commutes (each way) through the Cotswald hills. It is a very picturesque drive that I quite enjoy, except that the days are very long due to the commute.

This weekend I’m off to Gothenburg, Sweden for a Salsa weekend. I have finally been dancing this week in Brum. Met some lovely people and enjoying getting back into dancing after over a months break.

Glad to hear all your news. To all the families expecting babies in the next month – I hope that it all goes well – I’m sorry I haven’t written a personalised message yet.
Thanks again for reading (if you made it this far).

Oh the weather is still cool but manageable – I’m quite used to it! Budapest wasn’t as cold as expected but still ice and snow around the place. Not much in England.

Week 4

After 4 weeks of avoiding the inevitable, I have fallen ill with a cold. I have been eating well, keeping warm and not going out late. However the public transport ridden with bacteria has finally attacked me! Don't worry mum and dad I have already started on my antibiotics which I have purposefully kept in my handbag for such times as these.

I write this as I return to Birmingham on a nicely fitted out Virgin Train from London Euston. The virgin trains have sockets for mobiles and laptops, which is fortunate as my latop battery was dead and I forgot Belgium was in Europe, ie different socket. What does Belgium have to do with anything?

Well... This weekend i have been enjoying the romantic medieval Brugge, Belgium. It's an hour north west of Brussels (capital of Belgium). This was thanks to a recommendation from Terry (QT) that I'm very glad I took and to Eurostar have cheap tickets online. :) I didn't learn any Flemish except Dank u wel = thank you. However I did manage to speak a little french, it must have been obvious i wasn't french as most spoke English to me after a little bit. Everyone speaks English and are very friendly.

Here i delighted at the plethora of chocolate stores (I bought about 30 Euros worth of the most divine handmade chocolates I've ever seen - if I'm lucky I will bring some back to Brisbane with me), the picturesque settings, the romantic horse driven carriages roaming the city, the beautiful old gothic buildings found almost everywhere and even the grandma like lace stores that thrived as much as (and ususally next to) the chocolate stores.

Brugge was truly breathtaking. As soon as I exited the station and followed the pack of other tourists (who i hoped knew where they were going) into the old medieval town, I was in awe of the beautiful city. There was fresh snow about that added to the magic, but not cold as the sun was out. The first place I wandered into (I say wander as I had no idea where I was going and was relying on the frequently placed maps of the city on large boards that others seemed to use as well - I refused to buy a map) was the Church of Our Lady.

It was a beautiful gothic church with the 17th century typical high ceiling - the one with the criss cross peaked ceiling. Usual stained glass windows but it contained the only piece of michaelangelo's work outside of Italy - Madonna and child. It was a lovely marble statue. It had a huge, very detailed artistic wooden pulpit as well. The only time I had my mouth closed (ie it was jaw dropping awesome) was when I was looking at the statue and realised I couldn't see it properly if I kept breathing with my mouth open from the steam of my hot breath in the cold air (even inside the church). As i walked it got better and better.

I walked outside the church and around it, there was a quaint little footbridge i crossed and when I turned back the church looked beautiful with the snow around it. Everywhere was cobblestone as well. I walked all over the town.

The Markt is the central square which would be more beautiful in Spring with flowers as the postcards denoted. :) I wandered past the Markt and down somewhere else and stumbled across a little cafe. As it started to pour down rain and the menu seemed good I entered.

It was a good choice as they made fresh crepes on a hot plate that happened to be just behind my table. So everyone could see their crepes being made. It was awesome. NOthing like the food court crepes you might usually see. This was homemade batter and crepe belgium style. Big and reasonable price. I couldn't finish mine. I was already starting to feel sick so I wandered around some more in the direction of my hotel. Frequently stopping by the chocolate stores of course.

I ended up sleeping for a total of 12 hours while I was in Brugge just to rest up. I was disappointed that I could not have fondue for dinner (which Belgium is famous for) as it is always a minimum of 2 people. But I did have Flemish Rabbit. Tender, lovely and also too much. COuldn't finish my serving either.

I did see the beautiful Basilica of the Holy Blood and saw the vial too that apparently contains Jesus Christ's blood. I attended the Eucharist service too and all those venerating the Holy Blood. It was a very inspiring experience. However a little strange after reading Dan browns' the Da Vinci code. However I still had time to enjoy the city and buy chocolates. so I am very content.

I also had the most delicious hot chocolate. Well I couldn't taste much, so I added all the chocolate on the dish. :) It was a very welcome beverage after walking around for a few hours today (Sunday). The served hot milk with melted chocolate on a separte dish with a separate dish of fresh cream. Also on the side was a lovely assortment of chocolates (no extra charge, part of the service) - I could feel the texture and knew it was good chocolate. :)

The horsedrawn carriages where 35 euros for a 35 minute ride. It would have been more economical to do it with at least one other person - I didn't see any other single travellers. So I decided not to do it. :( But next time I will!!!! THe canal rides were cheaper but I didn't feel like jamming into a little boat with 20 other people to see everything I'd already walked around to see. :)

I had a wonderful weekend - now i'm in the office and sending this email. I am going to go home to rest. Tomorrow i head for Oxford (yes where the famous university is) for work. So i probably won't see much of it.

I think next weekend will be a quiet one in Birmingham resting up. Oh - last weekend was also awesome. Marcus my cousin came up to visit me with his friend Wan.

We saw most of the sights of Birmingham on Sat afternoon. It was raining and not very good, but Marcus seemed to enjoy what we could see. St Philips Cathedral, just opposite work and where I have passed on occasion is England's smallest cathedral. It was quaint. We dined out at the Mailbox - Birimingham's exclusive shopping mall and dining area. Had a great Indian meal and a very funky & chic restaurant.

We tried the clubs of Birmingham but found nothing to our liking before they closed at 1am.

Sunday we went to Straford Upon Avon. Unfortunately there are no plays on a Sunday and the ROyal Shakespeare Company is currently touring. We had a good time looking at all the replica houses (bar 1 which was 70% original) that all had numerous conjectures about Shakespeare's life but in reality there are only 3 real facts about this great 'man'. He was born, he married and he died. Everything else about his life is unknown.

Strange for someone so well known that not even one scrap of correspondence exists. Interesting, yet disappointing too to find out this truth. Stratford itself was very quaint. I revelled in the 15th -16th century buildings which was not so interesting to Marcus as they are all over London.

IN any case, I had a grand time and it was lovely to catch up with Marcus and Wan.