Barcelona, Cadiz, Madrid

Anyone who was at Bayfield in 1992 will know the familiar strains of “Barcelona” (a la Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Cabelle). It was the theme song of the Olympic Games that year, the year Danyon Loader, in 7th form, won silver at said games.

Well, I knew absolutely nothing about Barcelona except for that theme song (and I really only knew one word of that… “Barcelona”).

It’s a really cool city. Loads of those little windy streets where you think you’ve gone one way, but really, you’ve actually gone the other. I arrived in Barcelona mid-afternoon, just in time to take a free walking tour of the city. Well, I would have had I not got lost in those little windy streets where you think you’ve gone one way, but really, you’ve actually gone the other. So I just kept wandering through the little windy streets, checking out the city.

The main street, La Ramblas has a pedestrian walkway down the middle where there are magazine and newspaper stands, flower stalls, pet stalls (I kid you not, you could buy a hamster or a canary right off the pavement). There were also some great street performers busking. Mostly the ones who turn themselves into statues, but some others just wandering around wearing odd costumes.

Barcelona to Cadiz. Cadiz is in the south of Spain, again with little windy streets where you don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Because it’s in the south it has quite a humid climate. Again, a lovely city – I could have spent more time there – but unfortunately on my second day there it rained. And if I thought the rain in Montpellier was bad, well – I was wrong. It rained so hard the power was cut off in the afternoon (and the internet for a while too). So I did what every self-respecting traveller does – gives up and headed back to the hostel. It’s actually very nice once on a while to just sit down with a good book (“Twilight” – so good!), a cup of peppermint tea and Facebook Chat.

Then, to Madrid. I arrived about half an hour before the free walking tour was due to start, so I chucked down my bags, and raced down to the meeting point. Thankfully, the town planners of Madrid actually took me into account, and I found the meeting point no problem. After the tour, my mission was to find a copy of the second book in the Twilight series in English. Most bookshops here do have English sections, but unfortunately, they either had just Twilight or none of the books in the series. But multiple copies in Spanish. I assumed that the author actually used more than the 4 words I can speak in Spanish, so abandoned my quest and settled for the last Harry Potter book instead.

Lisbon

I’m in Lisbon, Portugal now. I arrived at 8am local time, after taking the overnight train from Madrid. Lisbon seems nice, but more faded and poor than I thought it would be.

I went to a museum on the recommendation of someone in the hostel – great for three reasons. Firstly, being Sunday, it’s free entry. Secondly, there was a free concert that had just started. It was a group of about 9 performers with 2 singers, 2 recorder players (one of whom double on baroque oboe), a bass player (who also played a cello-type instrument, a bass viol…or something…), a percussionist, a violinist, and two guitar type thingys. One played a lute and a sitar looking thing and the other played little guitary things. If you want proper definitions of these, go ask a music teacher. I haven’t a clue. But they were amazing. They played a bizarre combination of Portuguese/Brazilian/Cuban/Baroque music, which was just wonderful. There was a huge crowd there too, from toddlers to oldies. And third - they had a whole bunch of Rodin sculptures!!

I’m staying in Lisbon for a couple of days, then travelling to Paris via overnight train, to London for a night, then off to Amsterdam to stay with a friend. Apparently on my first night there we’re going to some musicy event at a Greek restaurant. Will keep you posted…

Before I go (and hopefully you haven’t gotten totally bored yet…) here’s one final thought:

What’s weird about being in countries where you don’t speak the language (well, for me anyway), is that any little scrap of information that you’ve ever heard about a place suddenly comes to the forefront of your mind. In France, I constantly had “Faux du fafa” by Flight of the Conchords going round my head (see above) and in Spain, it’s been little bits I’ve remembered from Sesame Street (gracias Maria y Luis) and one line in the song “Pretty Fly For A White Guy” by The Offspring where they count to 6 in Spanish. So I can now count to 6 in Spanish really easily, then after that…

However, I have discovered that you can get by knowing how to say “hello”, “goodbye”, “yes”, “no”, “please”, “thank you”, “can you speak English?” and “I can’t speak [inset language here]”. That is the extent of my Spanish. My Portuguese is limited to “hello”, “goodbye” “yes”, “no”. My French is considerably better than that. In French I can also ask for a ticket, and buy food (thank you FOTC). My German is better than all of these. I don’t know if I’ll be able to have a conversation in German, but I do know a lot more. Remember: LEARN A LANGUAGE. Doesn’t matter which one. Just learn it. Believe me, no matter what you think, you WILL travel one day, and actually being able to actually ask for a chicken sandwich is SO much better than any kind of sign language you can invent. Trust me – I speak from experience.

Scotland

Hamish (I swear, that was his name)

Monday 02 February

Okay, so it’s been a couple of weeks since I updated this…I’m writing this on the train from Montpellier (in the south of France) to Barcelona, Spain. I managed to survive France with my limited (read: “absolutely rubbish”) command of the French language, and in fact, I bought the ticket for this trip using only French. Trust me – that was a miracle!

From Newcastle I went to Edinburgh, Scotland – the Dunedin of the North. The name “Edinburgh” means Eiden’s (Edin) Town (burgh). Just as Dunedin means town/hill (Dun) of Eiden (edin). So, there you go. Edinburgh’s an awesome city. I really liked it. All the streets are named after streets in Dunedin (or is it the other way around?), so it’s bizarre walking down Princes Street, Hanover Street, etc.

As I arrived at my hostel they were just about to go on a free walking tour, and who am I to turn down anything free. It was actually a really good way to get to know the layout of the city.

On my second day in Edinburgh I went on a day long bus tour up through the Scottish highlands and Glencoe (where some of Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed – but you’ve already seen the pics of Doune Castle). We went up to Urquhart castle (a ruin) which is on the shores of Loch Ness. Try as I might, I didn’t see the Loch Ness monster. Maybe next time…

Urquhart Castle with Loch Ness in background

Third day in Edinburgh was spent at the Edinburgh Castle (to be honest, it’s way cooler than Larnach’s Castle), at Holyrood Palace, which is the Queen’s official residence when she’s in Scotland. Some of the furniture had belonged to Charles II, so it was pretty old. The best part was the Great Gallery where the Queen holds official receptions. It’s a massive corridor, about 58 feet long – it would take you a couple of minutes to cartwheel down that. Very tempting…

From Edinburgh I went up to Inverness, with a quick stop off at Stirling and Doune. Inverness was FREEZING – snow on the ground. I know you’re having 30 + degree heat…well, I had snow. I took some video footage on my camera which I’ll try to upload…we’ll see how that goes!

One of the days in Inverness I went over to the Isle of Skye, which is on the west coast of Scotland. The busses weren’t running according to the timetable I had, so I couldn’t get to the main town, Portree, so I just had a wander around Kyleakin.

Castle Moir on the Isle of Skye

Then to Glasgow. Again, another very cool city. As I was wandering the streets, having a look, I could hear some music. In Dunedin we’re all very familiar with the sound of the bagpipes. I could hear a bagpipe being played, but as I’d heard no bagpipe being played before. It was playing a very funky tune with all sorts of slides and bends, almost jazz bagpipes. As I got closer, I could also hear some kind of drum beat playing along. I finally found the source of the sound – two guys busking, one on a set of bagpipes he had modified to play jazz and the other sitting on a cabinet, playing it like a drum. I went up and started talking to them, asking if they had a CD that I could buy, or download any of their music. The drummer said that they didn’t have a CD of them, but he had just released a CD. I said I host a world music radio show and that I’d be keen to play their music on it. The drummer gave me his business card, wrote a note on the back of it and told me to take it to a particular CD shop and they’d give me a free copy of his CD!!!

They also told me of a gig that was happening that night as part of this Celtic music festival that was happening. The show was fantastic. To open there was a group from Sweden called Baskery – three sisters. One played guitar, one played double bass and the other played banjo, harmonica, and drums (just with her feet) all at the same time. Google them.

The other band, the main drawcard, was a Glaswegian band called Shooglinifty. The leader of the band, who played violin, looked a little like a skinny Billy Connolly. They did a solo set then were joined by a traditional music group from Kabul. I had to leave just before this, because that’s when the last bus left, but apparently that was an awesome set.

From Glasgow I went back to London, then on to France. Updates on that later.

Oh…umm…there was another music shop in Glasgow that sold cheap sheet music…

Doune Castle - aka Swamp Castle and Camelot etc

Not many words this time - just pics. This is Doune Castle, in Scotland, just out of Stirling. It's the castle where they filmed Monty Python and the Holy Grail in 1975!!

Swamp Castle

- One day son, this will be yours

- What, the curtains?

Steps where Galahd runs to rescue Herbert

Stratford to Newcastle

Thursday 15 January

Here’s what’s happening at the end of week three. I’m writing this from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on my way up to Edinburgh – the Dunedin of the North. Since the last update (Bath), I’ve been to Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Cardiff, Liverpool (that’ll get an update all of its own…), York and now Newcastle.

Oxford was fantastic! I arrived in the afternoon and had to leave the next morning, but it’s somewhere I’d love to go back to. No factual information for you, but it’s an incredibly old town, based around the university. I REALLY want to go back to university there. It was cold when I was there, and because the sun sets at about 3:30pm it gets dark very quickly, but a lovely town. And the guy who runs the hostel I stayed at is from Dunedin!!

From Oxford I went to Stratford-upon-Avon, went to Shakespeare’s house (he wasn’t in), and went to a production of “Romeo and Juliet” performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Absolutely brilliant. I could have kept on watching it. The cast were superb and it was nice to see Juliet played by an actress of Indian descent. I don’t want to spoil the ending for any of you, but it was very sad.

Shakespeare's house (he wasn't home when I called)

Poster for Romeo and Juliet

Cardiff was ok. It wasn’t my most favourite place to visit, but it was nice to step into Wales, even if only to say I’ve been there. Actually, the best thing about Cardiff was the two music shops I discovered. Sheet music is so cheap over here. More about that later. What I also discovered in Cardiff was “The Kiss” by Rodin. “The Kiss” is a sculpture, many copies of which exist, one in Cardiff. The Cardiff Kiss is a bronze and is now officially my favourite piece of art in the world. I could have stayed there for hours. In fact, if I could, I’d have taken it with me. (Imagine that…coming into my studio…and there’s a bigger than life-sized statue…)

Then Liverpool. For those of you who weren’t sure, I’m a HUGE Beatles fan. Totally my favourite band in the whole entire world, so Liverpool = Beatles’ heaven! The Beatles stuff I’ll talk about in a separate blog, but for now I’ll talk about the non-Beatle-y things. I went to the Liverpool Tate (art gallery). Some wonderful, wonderful works here: Picasso’s “Weeping Woman”, Degas’ “Woman in a Tub” and…a marble Rodin Kiss. I also found another music shop…

To York, where, more than anything, I got lost. No wonder it was such a strong fort. The enemies would have wandered around for days trying to get into the city. Eventually I found my way in. York is one of those English cities with cobbled streets, narrow, windy roads and loads of old stuff. I didn’t really get a good look around at any of the attractions as (a) I only had an afternoon there and (b) I had no idea where I was. The hostel there is on the outskirts of the town and there is a path that meanders alongside the river, then through miles of grass. I went for a walk in the morning, with the fog, the dew and images of “Wuthering Heights”. Very Heathcliff and Cathy.

I’m in Newcastle now. I arrived just after lunch and spent most of the afternoon in a music shop…and very nearly bought a new flute. I had to leave for a couple of hours and think about it, but was very tempted. (Warning: TFSA – Technical Flute-y Stuff Ahead) It was a silver Pearl with a gold lip plate, B foot, open hole, off-set G and…a C# gizmo, which I’d never come across before, but helps with the high C# trill, making them more in tune and easier to execute. It played beautifully and spoke very easily, especially the low register. And the best bit was that it was on sale for only $NZ3000, which is still a lot of money, but for what it was, is a brilliant price. I was very, very tempted. They also had some awesome ukuleles…sparkly ones, Spongebob ones, freaky ones…

But, you flute-y people…I hope you’re practicing because when I get back, there’s a whole lot of new repertoire you’re getting. Sheet music is so much cheaper here, particularly when I find things in the sale bin for only ₤1 ($3). Things like the Taffanel Andante Pastorale and the Monti Czardas (the best piece of classical music in the whole entire world). I’ve got some new chamber music too – the Martinu trio for flute, violin and piano, a duet for flute and bassoon, a Terence Greaves flute quartet (a lot of you have played the trio of his I have “Dance”, “Romp”, “Bourree”, “Gigue”). I’ve also got a whole load of new studies (ha ha ha ha ha – more technical work for you) and lots more.

I’m heading up to Edinburgh tomorrow and will stay there for a few days but until then…here’s the Beatles!!

Liverpool - THE BEATLES

George Harrison's first guitar

Thursday 15 January – THE BEATLES

It was 20 years ago today… Actually it wasn’t twenty years ago, but rather 2 nights ago – I was in Liverpool. There’s a Beatles’ exhibition, which took me a bit to find, and in fact I found the gift shop at the end of the exhibition before I found the exhibition itself. But I did get some Beatle-y memorabilia – some stickers which are now attached to the laptop, a badge and a gift bag.

The exhibition was a bit disappointing to be honest. It didn’t really give me any new insight to the Fab Four or their music. It just rehashed their story and didn’t really put it into any kind of context, either of the time or of Liverpool. There was an audio guide that you listened to as you went around, but they kept playing music within the exhibition so that half the time you couldn’t hear the guide. In the end I just gave up.

The best bit was at the end when they dedicated one corner of a big room to each of the Beatles. Paul’s corner was like a movie theatre, and a video display played excerpts of interviews with him talking about his involvement with writing for film, composing classical works and his patronage of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

John’s corner was set up like a bed where the video display focussed on his activism.

In Ringo’s corner you sat on drum stools and the video was about his work in films and Thomas the Tank Engine.

But George’s was the best (anyway – he’s my favourite Beatle by a million miles). You sat on cushions and the video display played “My Sweet Lord” while there was a still of George on the screen, then it played a skit he did for Eric Idle (Monty Python) on his show Rutland Weekend Television – singing about how he wants to be a pirate. You should check it out on YouTube!

In the afternoon I did a very touristy, very tacky thing, which I still can’t believe I did – I went on a bus trip called a “Magical Mystery Tour” that spent 2 hours driving around Liverpool looking at all the famous Beatle sites – the houses where they lived, the sign that says “Penny Lane”, the gates to Strawberry Field etc. Very tacky, but also…very good. The tour guide was brilliant – he had met Paul McCartney a number of times, he had played John Lennon in a film about Lennon’s early life, and he knew so much about the Beatles (like how John wanted Ringo in the band, not just because of his drumming skills – which I will defend until the day I die – but also because he saw how good Ringo was with the ladies and figured that if they let Ringo in the band then they’d get more girls too…).

It was a bit stalker-y but well worth it!

So there you go. I’m even more obsessed than when I began (if that’s possible)!

The house where John Lennon grew up with his aunt Mimi

Yours truly by Penny Lane

The house where Ringo Starr grew up

Strawberry Field

London to Bath

Brighton Pavilion

Stonehenge

3 Savile Row, London - the Beatles' Apple office and the site of the rooftop gig

me outside Paul McCartney's London office

Tuesday 6 January

Hi Everyone,

It’s been just over a week, so here’s my first update.

Firstly, some of you have heard about my mid-air medical mayhem, but for those of you who haven’t, here goes.

The flight from NZ to Australia was fine, but from Aus to Korea I fainted twice on the plane, then spent the next five hours throwing up. Not fun. Still, nothing that 4 hours in a Korean hospital couldn’t fix. I’m fine now, but I was a bit wobbly for a couple of days afterwards.

It didn’t help that jet-lag then kicked in! I would wake up at 2am and not get back to sleep. The next night I deliberately stayed up late, and then slept in til 1:30 the next afternoon!

I spent a few days in London, staying at my sister’s flat in Acton (west London), and from there started exploring London. I still haven’t finished with London, but here’s a few pictures I took. Of course I hit the galleries and museums – I saw Van Gogh’s sunflowers, Picasso’s Child with Dove, Monets, Manets, Klimts, Raphaels, and millions of other famous paintings.

London’s such a huge city, and to be honest, I’m not a huge fan. I love all the inside stuff – the galleries, the museums, the history – but I hate being surrounded by people all the time like that. People shove and push and there’s no personal space. It’s like being at the Regent 24 hour Book Sale at 8pm on the Friday night – crazy.

But what I do love about London is the theatre. Later on in March Kenneth Branagh will be directing Jude Law in Hamlet, Rowan Atkinson is starring as Fagin in Oliver, Derek Jacobi is in Twelfth Night and Sanjeev from the Kumars at No. 42 is King Arthur in Monty Python’s Spamalot. Kate (sister) and I went to see Spamalot – very funny. Not quite as good as the film, and it goes off in some weird tangents, e.g. instead of having to get a second shrubbery, they have to produce a West End musical, so Sir Robin goes into this big and song and dance number about needing Jews in the musical????? Oh, and Lancelot is gay and ends up going out with Herbert (“huge tracts of land”). It was a very odd adaptation, but with some great moments (King Arthur speaking Hindi???!!!).

I left for Brighton on Monday. The main attraction for me was the Pavilion, created by The Prince Regent (later King George IV, or Hugh Laurie in Blackadder). It was absolutely amazing. He built it in the 1820s a getaway palace down by the sea. For any of you who have read Regency Buck (Georgette Heyer) the Pavilion is where Judith Tavener fainted in the Prince’s company when he showed her one of his new statues (although, I wasn’t sure which room this was).

The Pavilion is decorated incredibly lavishly, in the “Chinese” style that was popular at the time. The music room (far out, if only I had one…) is massive. It’s about the same size as the Glenroy Auditorium. There’s an organ at one end. You can see the pipes, but the keyboard is hidden behind a secret door. Rossini performed here in 1823(?).
I went through Salisbury (pronounced: Sauls-bry), which is where Stonehenge is. The stones are impressive, but it was so bitterly cold I didn’t stay long. The stones come from Wales, and no one knows how they came to Salisbury, or why.

In 2000 a team of people tried to bring a stone similar in size from Wales to England as a special project to mark the millennium. They failed. The stone sank at the first river crossing. Yet, somehow, 3000 years ago, all these stones were transported by human labour alone.

I’m writing this from Bath (and I will stop soon, I promise!). For me, Bath is all about Georgette Heyer. Several of her books were set here and it’s really cool (well, really cool for a book nerd like me) to go around the streets and see the streets and places she talks about. I didn’t arrive til late, so I haven’t really had a chance to look around. That’ll be tomorrow until lunchtime, when I have to catch a train to Oxford (yes, more nerdy book stuff).

I hope you’re all enjoying the lovely weather back in NZ. I heard it’s been up around 30 degrees :P

See you in the next instalment. Remember you can email me at justinepierre@hotmail.com or I’m on facebook.

Justine