Distance Traveled: 35,195 kms (BNE-MEL-SYD-BKK-PKT-BKK-CNX-BKK-PP-SR-BB-PP-HCMC-NC-TH-HA-H-L-MR-AG-SV-TF-AC-LL-ML-CZ-TF-CZ)
Time Difference: -9 hours (from Brisbane)
Soundtrack: Just random stuff
Currently Inspired by: People who live "irregular" lives. I've been meeting a few lately
Words written: 59,631. Tried hard to break 60,000 but I wrote all the words from last week to this week in one sitting and it made me brain dead.
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| Yo, I'm a penguin |
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| Wheee! |
Loro Parque was fabulous.
It is a conservation park and has a large residence (hundreds) of varieties
of rare parrots in breeding programs to try to save them from extinction, as
well as a huge collection of sea creatures, scores of penguins, dolphins,
killer whales, sea lions, huge turtles and alligators as well as a variety of
chimps, marmosets and sloths. Sloths are
odd creatures, aren’t they? There were
also jaguars and tigers, although seeing a tiger from a distance can’t really
cut it after having been up close and personal with three of them! I watched a beautifully shot documentary on a
large movie screen in which it was stated that humans are currently killing off
100 -150 species of plant and animal per DAY, which is very worrying. They said by 2060 we could have about half
the number of species on the planet that we currently do. Does that upset anyone else? Believe what you like about climate change,
there will always be something to be said for trying to be more sustainable,
preserving our resources and making our environment less toxic. If everyone just makes a couple of little
insignificant lifestyle changes maybe we can save a few of those species! Anyway, it was a most impressive and
entertaining, although exhausting, day.
You can click here to see the photo album of Loro Parque, but I warn
you, it is a big album and it is all animals.
So if you don’t love them like I do, you may not be interested!
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| With the Bulgarian |
I met some people through Couch Surfing who in turn had met
other people through Couch Surfing who in turn... you get the picture, and
ended up going out that night with a group that resembled the United Nations;
particularly because we just stuffed around and didn’t accomplish anything
constructive. There were Finns,
Spaniards, Argentinians, Bulgarians, Paddies, Germans, Frogs and of course an
Aussie. They all spoke English too,
which was wonderful as we were all able to communicate easily, however I again
squirmed about my lack of a second (or third or fourth) language. I really need to choose one of the three I
have some basics in and do further study to become at least intermediate with
it. I prefer the sound of French or
Italian but I think Spanish would be most useful for travelling, even though it
sounds like you’re trying to speak with a mouthful of sweets. The night was basically a huge Latin American
dance party, with everyone costumed up. I didn’t have a costume but I bought a
flashing bow for my hair and stole someone’s Spidey glasses, so it wasn’t bad
for an impromptu effort. I was pretty
proud of my staying power; Nanna managed
to stay out until nearly 3am! Haven’t
seen that time for a while (Bart:
“There’s a four in the morning?”).
Even though my hotel was only a fifteen minute walk from the main stage,
it took me over forty minutes to get back, because I had to negotiate my way
through a drunken, predominantly transvestite crowd packed like a tin of
sardines (wait, I am getting to the sardine) who kept grabbing me and dance
kidnapping me. It was sweaty and
exhausting, and lots of fun! I also now
firmly believe that the majority of men secretly fantasise about dressing up as
women, and are always glad for the
opportunity. You can click here to see
the pictures from the first night out.
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| Mount Teide |
Mount Teide is the third largest volcano in the world, the
highest point in Spain, and it really is impressive. You can click here to read more about
it. Four of us drove as close as
you can get to it in a car (actually not that close) via a stunning and scenic
route called La Esperanza, and props have to go to Kevin from Ireland who drove
the hire car. I think I would be too nervous
to drive on the right hand side of the road!
You can hop off near the final turning point and have a walk through
some really extraordinary volcanic landscape, some of which is a remnant of a
giant caldera that collapsed in on itself, I don’t know how long ago, but for
the purpose of this blog let’s say, oh, ten thousand years. The only way up the mountain is via cable car
and foot, and to get to the actual summit of it, you require permission from
the local council, and only a certain number of permits are given out each year
in the interest of preservation. Again,
I don’t know how many, but let’s say... 20,000.
Of course it is freezing at the top and there is a building about 500
metres below the summit (god knows how they built it) which contains
accommodation. The idea is that you go
up in the afternoon, stay the night, and then get up early, climb to the peak
and watch the sunrise above the clouds.
It sounds extraordinary, but I was content with the experience that I
had (and the effort I put in to have it).
You can click here to see the pictures of Mount Teide.
After buying a wig, some glitter, long silver eyelashes and blue
lipstick, I felt more than ready to tackle the next evening, but when I turned
up at my friend Brendan’s place to have dinner with him and his brother Kevin and
then go out, they had decided that they were too tired. Again, props to Nanna for being ready to go
again when two boys in their late 20s were too soft (although I was secretly
relieved). We stayed in and ate pancakes for Pancake Tuesday and solved some of
the world’s problems. It was a good
night. The next night I got to do the
full dress up, although after about six unsuccessful attempts at putting the
eyelashes on I flung them across the room in a rage and went without. Flinging something as light as eyelashes is
really unsatisfying, just fyi. They
don’t break, or make a noise. They just kind
of gently float to the ground. I cleaned
up the glue that somehow managed to get all over my face and got to work on the
rest. The outfit didn’t require much,
just a dark top and a long black skirt to represent being in mourning. Why mourning?
Ok...
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| Yup |
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| The flammable sardine |
After many conversations about this topic (some
contradictory) this is my understanding and interpretation of the final, or
Sardine Parade on Ash Wednesday. Ash
Wednesday is the last day before Lent.
For non Catholics, Lent is a 40 day period where you are supposed to go
without something you love, like chocolate, or traditionally I believe it was
meat, to represent the 40 days and nights Jesus was in the desert (I think, I
haven’t had bizarre Catholic crap shoved down my throat for many years). During this period a lot of Catholics used to
eat fish, which is where I believe the idea of the sardine comes from. For the purposes of this particular carnival,
the paraders walk alongside both a hearse containing a large stuffed and
glittery sardine, and a car with a huge sardine on top of it, made of chicken
wire and flammable materials. The
paraders (predominantly men) are in black dresses, nun and priest robes,
dominatrix outfits and wedding dresses, frequently either holding or wearing
some kind of flashing dildo or whip or other sex toy. They wail and cry “why, why?” the whole way,
pretending to sob and grieve. Every now
and again one will fall down in a fit of hysterics and then the others run to
surround them and pick them up. The
commitment from them is extraordinary, considering they are just regular (?)
citizens and not actors. The idea is
that the death of the carnival (start of lent) = death of fun = death of sex
life, so they gather to mourn the Sardine, which represents those things. The parade ended down near the waterfront
where they set the flammable sardine alight with fireworks, and we watched it
burn. After the sardine had burnt they
put on a large and very impressive fireworks display, and that was that! The final parade. Spanish people are serious freaks, and I love
them for it. To see the pics from it,
click here.
I wish I had taken a photo of my hotel room the next
day. It looked like a clown had exploded
in it. There were feathers and wigs and glitter
and props and clothes and shoes strewn all over the floor. At a late lunch with Brendan one day we got
talking about the indestructibility of glitter and how you just use it once and
it ends up sticking around for the rest of eternity. We decided to amend the end of the world
prophecy that all that would remain after a nuclear blast would be cockroaches,
to all that would remain after a nuclear blast would be glitter and
cockroaches. Hence this particular blog
title. I don’t normally feel the need to
explain them, but I felt this one might be a little obscure! Ah, the kinds of important and life changing
discussions one has during parties. It
was good to be able to use my words. I
have ever so many. One thing I will not
miss about Tenerife is their Tintoreria, or professional laundry service, to
whom I gave my clothes the day before I left (they don’t really have
Laundromats here). I had to pick them up
and pack quickly in order to check out so I didn’t get much of a chance to look
at them, but I’ve never had problems previously so I kind of took for granted
that everything would be fine. On the
ferry back, I have realised that they have actually lost or stolen every pair
of knickers I gave them and one bra, leaving me with three pairs of
knickers. Now these were expensive and
relatively new pieces of lingerie I bought before I left, at least five pairs
but I think actually six or seven, some matched and now I don’t have all the proper
sets. They also returned only one sock
out of four pairs. ONE SOCK. Leaving me with one and a half pairs. Tut.
So I am going to have to do an emergency knicker and sock shop when I
get to Cadiz. In addition, the on / off
/ sleep / wake button on my phone has died after I dropped it, and the only way
I can wake it up after it sleeps or when I change sims is to plug it into the
charger :-/ And the list of destroyed or
missing objects grows! Not Happy
Jan. WHAT IS IT WITH ME AND STUFF?????
To sum up: I met some lovely Tenerife locals, some fun
tourists and had a wonderful time, apart from the day after the main parade
where I was bed ridden for most of the day with a cold and hangover. I tried some simple but tasty Canarian food
and drank my fill of sweetly delicious (decaf) Canarian coffee with cinnamon,
condensed milk and preserved lemon peel in it.
I was kind of sad to say goodbye to Tenerife. It really is both fun and relaxed and has
some stunning topography. I would go
back there if I was in that part of the world again. Although I would fly next time. Currently I am writing this blog into Word
whilst on the ferry on the way back to mainland Spain. When I arrive back I really wanted to check
out either Granada or Barcelona, however I only have three full days before
having to fly from Seville to London, and those places are both too far from
Cadiz for that to be practical. I can’t
believe I’ve been to Spain twice now, seen all these places, and never been to
Barcelona! It will have to stay on the
list, along with Granada and Valencia, and the million other places on the
planet I want to see. This time around,
thanks to my darling mother and her stubbor persistence, I upgraded to a
cabin on the ferry. The first trip
really was quite nightmarish and not feeling 100% is probably not the best time
to be getting broken and uncomfortable sleep.
So thank you Mumsy, for looking after me even though I’m so far
away! Even if I’m an argumentative
monster at the time. Love you :)
Til Next We Speak
*LOVE*
N
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| *Marius* |
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