Toulon

We got to Toulon at 7AM in the morning, way tooo early for me!!! And started making our way to our hotel, which was fairly easy - walk along the sea until the main road turns left and then continue on left until you're at the hotel, not too hard right, and shouldn't take long (normally 5-10 minutes). Have a guess how long we struggled on it? How many times Mr. Special thought we were lost and turned his mobile data on to have a look (payed for it + the stupid map showed that we were in a different street than we actually were so what's the use of that?). We need a car, no question about that anymore.

So about an hours after disembarking the ferry we were at the hotel... Left all our bags there and went to town, so relieved to be rid of our bags for a day :D Found tourism information at the station and decided we must take the cable car up on the mountain where there is a reproduction centre (zoo) for big cats. A perfect place for me since I love kitties. Now had to wait for about half an hour because the cable car started running at 10 AM and it wouldn't operate at all on windy days so we decided to wait til then to make sure it is running before making our way there. We could've gotten a pass that'll give us access to the cable car and public transport, or a pass for the cable car + zoo. Since we would've had to walk to the other tourism information near the port and alltogether pay about 18 euros each for everything we decided to walk up to the cable car ourselves (15-20 mins) and get a pass from there for the zoo too for 14 euros. The cable car is quite scary when it's rocking back and forth... not the perfect place for people who have a fear of heights.

Up on mont Faron we had ham and cheese crepes to fill us up and made our way to the zoo, which was 800m walk away. On the way there we noticed loads of old vintage cars coming up the hill and parking there. An added bonus :) Never have I ever taken that many photos of cars in my life :P The zoo was my favourite part of the day because the animals were so close to you! It felt like if I just stretch my hand a bit I could pet the tiger sleeping in front of me! Wow. It was a small zoo and on the internet people were breaking their hearts about the sizes of the cages etc. but you have to be real about this... you can't build a proper jungle for every animal as much as they do need and deserve one. The fact is a lot of these animals would be or soon will be extinct without zoos because it isn't safe for them in the wild. Here they could interact with each other at least. (Read somewhere that they take in abandoned and abused animals - big cats that is - so it's the last hope the animal has). Apart from jaguars, panthers, lions, tigers, smaller wild cats etc they had wolves, raccoons and monkeys as well. Mostly a pair of animals together.

On our way back we took a leisurely stroll around the car park where all the owners of the vintage cars had set up their picnic tables and were enjoying themselves while other people took pictures of their cars :D

Back at the hotel we napped for a couple of hours and then went for a walk to town, it's a nice town, a bit shabby and full of graffity but the vibe is good in my opinion. Tomorrow we'll do some shopping :D Ha, add even more weight for us to carry. I need to get some proper looking shirts for work.... :D 

The promenade with luxury yachts parked there is a sight to see :) and the air was so nice and warm :) What more could you ask for? :)

Jazzz...

Ttyl ;)

Bye Bye Corsica

Leaving you was one of the hardest things I've ever done (physically :D).

Got almost everything packed so you can only imagine the weight of the suitcases + keep in mind that Mr. Special's suitcase handle was broke (things like this always happen to him) so he couldn't walk with it like a normal person but had to crouch down to wheel it behind him.... not fun...

As you can guess no car for us, because it's a special weekend and all the cars are rented out... even in Toulon, where we're headed... Of course Mr. Special was a bit happy that we'll be train'ing it to Paris and he wouldn't have to worry about driving in France. That mood changed quickly because for some reason he thought that getting to Paris with all my stuff would be like a walk in the park... Far from it....

So my plans to see the south of Corsica flew right out of the window :( A bit disappointed I must say... because there is no stupid train or bus to make a daytrip... god sort it out - you're supposed to be a tourist island! So went to L'ile Rousse instead, which is a little (emphasize that word) town up north. Lovely beach but the sea was still too cold and the wind blew the sand everywhere. Didn't stay there long :D Literally three streets of that old town vibe for tourists to see and that's it :D So just basically sat there to catch the train back (~2.5h journey -.-). Not impressed... Although it would be a nice couple hour (only!!!!) visit :).

We were gonna take the 9PM ferry and decided to leave my room at 4PM. Got everything cleaned and packed and dumped all the pots and pans and cleaning products someone might use in the corrisor (you're not supposed to do that technically...) and went down to see if I can hand in my key to anyone... The office was closed!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I told you I want to leave at 4 and I have my train 10 to 5???? What the??? Luckily the repairman was there and he went for a search of someone who could say that my room is fine and I can leave in peace. After about 15 of searching gave up and came to look at it himself. Then of course out of nowhere the lady with the paper to tick storms in, finally!!!!!!!!!! Both of them asked me if the stuff in the corridor is mine - no......................... :D ;) Signed the paper, gave her my keys and took the laundry down. Off we were to a gruelling journey to the train station (normally about 5 minutes away).

When we finally got there everyone was there waiting for the stupid train!!! Literally everyone! I knew straight away we didn't have a chance to get a place to sit so instructed Mr. Special to dump the suitcases next to the door, where are foldable seats and plenty of room for suitcases and as I predicted, Mr. Special had to stand up for the whole entire (~2h) journey from Corte to Ajaccio. At the first stop he had a little freakout because he smelt his aftershave quite strongly and felt something wet on his thigh for a minute, so frantically went through the rucksack that had our laptops in... not the easiest job in a train full of people. Luckily nothing was broken or spilt.

After the train a worse journey to the terminal station took place... (again, normally 5 minutes) We spent about 30 minutes walking that route I think :D But we made it :) :) then a little breather and we got on the ferry :) Yay finally some rest :) :) :) 

Needless to say Mr. Special now agreed with me that renting a car isn't that bad of an idea after all ;) The only problem now is are we going to get one, because tomorrow is a stupid bank holiday in France and everythings closed, but we'll be spending the night in Toulon so there's a chance that maybe the next morning we'll get one, or in Lyon the day after, or in Dijon the day after.... :D Or not at all then... Who knows... :D

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Change of plans

Yesterday when the landlady from the first ridiculously expensive and small studio e-mailed me the contract and what insurance documents and proof of address and god knows what else she wants I was a bit like omg, why why why. I understand that she wants to be sure that we'll actually pay her but still, french bureaucracy is killing me. Read through the contract that said that it's basically a basement room in her house... sounds charming right... So we'd be living in the basement, in someone elses house, would be sharing the front door and corridor with them, we wouldn't be allowed to have friends over without asking first and the kitchen corner was just a fridge with a little hotplate on it + a sink and a tiny worktop... sounds charming right? Dream come true... well that was all we had because no one else had answered the e-mails we sent.

Then a miracle happened :D!!!!!! First someone in really broken french said that their studio would be available and it was a lot cheaper and looked a bit nicer though we only could see a picture of the bed :D but already that looked better :D Yay a ray of hope. Then an even better thing happened!! Remember in the last post I whined about a better studio that we didn't get? She wrote to me apologizing for not having the internet for a while and said we could have it!!!!!! Hallelujah!!!! It's so much better and bigger, omg I love it and I'm now so glad we had that trouble with airbnb in paying for the first stupid studio, because otherwise we probably wouldn't get our money back... I'm so happy right now :) :):):):):):):) Now I just have to write to the first landlady soz, suck it :D lol no, because she seemed really nice, and I kinda feel bad cancelling but hey, the other one has the same rent and is closer - an hour walk away from my work, so a win for us :)

PS! all my clothes and shoes are now packed so it doesn't look as gloomy as it did thinking about it earlier :D we might look like two mountains of luggage but at least we'll get to Paris by Sunday with most of my stuff :)

Happy days :)

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Catching up

So I thought yesterday that I should probably post something, but bad blogger as I am, I couldn't even remember the password to log in. So firstly massive word search from me and Jazz's conversations to find the password. Well, took me a long time, since it did not come up with the words I thought it would and some searches got like 180 results :D. Anyway, finally got the password, logged myself in, opened the blog and can't find the place to click on to create a new post. Like whaaat? In the end, I had other things to do and I finally figured it out today.

My real reason for posting was however finishing uni. Like everything is done. So nice, although I don't have any idea what to do with my life now. My dissertation writing was kinda living on the edge, as I started later than I should. But it was done on time, but then Liz suggested that she could read it through for me. Ok, sent it to her, while being in the comp room, ready to print it off and take to binding. An hour passes by, she is still reading, the printer in the comp room had broken by the time she had finished. Can't really remember exactly, but I think it took her 2-3 hours in the end to read it. But then I had to look through her comments and read my own work again, but the time was ticking. I comforted myself with the fact that, I can always take it to binding first thing in the morning and it will be ready. Around 4.30 gave up, as I thought that the binding places closes 5 or so. And I still needed to print it out somewhere. But Liz reminded me about the self binding in the library. Was hesitating at first, because wasn't sure if it is as good as the binding service, but in the end, when I had read my diss through and it was 7 or so I walked up the hill. Printed the stuff out, printers never work, so half the time was looking for a working printer, unbelievable. Then went to this binding machine, measured my pages, then bought the spine and covers, and guess what, it was 70p altogether. Haha, people paid like close to 5 pounds in that binding place for cheapest option. Took me like 10 minutes and it was done. No nerve-wracking waiting and I did all myself, so proud. Shame really that uni makes people panic about the binding, if it can be done so easily by yourself and it's much cheaper.

Then I had 2 exams in a row, after 3 days of working. Could have gone better, but one can always do better, right? I'm still happy they are done. After those went out with Liz, sad times, that she left yesterday. But weird thing with going out in this small town is that, at least for me, as I haven't been out for ages, people are used to seeing me in my work uniform. And when you make an effort and go out then they look you like you are someone else, not the same person, who serves them at work.

Had something else to write about, but can't remember anymore :D next time then.


Ems

A bump on the road

Why can't everything just be easy and go according to plan? argh I'm so stressed out.

According to the initial plan Mr. Special should be here already with his car and holiday should've started already. Instead he's still back at aber waiting for the DVLA to send back his car registration papers. Because you can't drive without them in France... But as always in the UK everything has made uncomfortable for people :D In december they closed all the local offices that provided you with a temporary registration for 3 pounds. Now you can't even go to the main office to pick up your OWN papers. It has to come by post! WHY? What if it gets lost in post???????????????????? What is it with UK and the post? I'd understand if it was a top-notch reliable service but it isn't!!!!! And the best thing about it is that it could come any day now, or not... god only knows. So we are waiting til tomorrow and if they haven't come, he'll fly to nice and hire a car from there... Hopefully it won't be the case...

The second thing that went haywire yesterday was the attempt to book a stupid ridiculously expensive tiny studio far away from my work place... Sounds charming right. But we don't have another option really. The time is ticking. I asked some of my friends in Paris and got offered a room, but it was further away and the same price so... We'll take the stupid studio... Not so easy as you'd think. We'd tried to go through the airbnb page. Should be easy and straightforward but something went wrong... who knows what. Did one reservation, the landlady said I'd picked the more expensive offer (atleast she's nice and isn't trying to get all the money she can from us) ok, she declined that. But the stupid page already took the money out of the bank for safe-keeping!!!! OMG what a stupid system how can I make another booking now? I don't have any money left in my bank! They should take the money out of the bank when the host has accepted the reservation... would make more sense right? Mr. Special is still waiting for his money back for the far more prettier and bigger studio, but what was declined as well :( and it was closer. I really thought we'd had it! Still wanting it :D But someone else has booked it already :( But where the hell is the Money?????? Give it back!!!!!!!!!!! NOW!!!!!!

Not looking forward to packing either -.-

Not so happy days...

A little after writing this post I decided I'll have a look how to get from our studio (it should be ours now :D) to my workplace. I wish I hadn't. First of all, every website, there are about three, show different routes. How, why, how and I have to go through Paris, so checked if I could get the train that goes to Paris and just get out before, so I could walk (about half an hour) to my work, but oh no no no. The train only goes 6AM or after that 9AM. I'm pretty sure I have to be at work by 9 and I don't fancy taking the 6 o'clock either... there goes my brilliant idea. Why am I stressed out? It takes at least an hour to get to work and that's not the worst part... If it would be an easy bus or train or metro journey it would be fine no problems. But it's all that!!!!!! In one go!!!! First take the bus, then train, then metro, then the bus again.... Paris do you want to kill me????? Finally on the third website found a fairly simple route, two metro trains, one to Paris and the other one back out from Paris. At least it's easy and I don't have to run around looking for the right stop or god knows what... According to the website the cost for this is 5.60 full fare. That makes freaking 12 euros a day to get to work and back!!!!!!! Jesus christ... why oh why couldn't we get the first room we wanted that was sooooo much closer???? I probably could've walked from there!!!! So yeah, I'll try looking into if I can get a student discount card or something...

Ttyl :(
Jazzz...

End of part 2

Of my year abroad.

Done all my exams now and all that's left is to sign the attendance sheet, which I'll let them do as late as possible because the longer I'm here the more money I get :D

In the past 2 days I've had three exams. Two translations and Corsican exam. Didn't really revise or study for them. You can't really revise for a translation exam - what are you gonna do - learn the entire dictionary? Ummm... no thanks. The first one was a bit hard, the french to english one was doable, about airline tickets and why they differ for one flight. The english to french one wasn't too bad either - I was actually surprised how much I could translate it :D (the grammar etc was probably awful - but at least I wrote something). That was about Renault cars locking their drivers in and not letting them stop :D And for the love of me I couldn't translate disengage the clutch. I don't even drive!!!!!!! 

Halfway through another exam started and loads of people came in. People from my corsican lecture and for a moment I thought I heard someone say three people are still doing their corsican oral. What???? The corsican exam is defo tomorrow!!! (Plus we don't have an oral part of it). When I got back home checked just in case and turns out they had the french exam that I should've taken as well... If I'd gone to any lectures :D But that would've clashed with my two other exams.

The tourism translation was right after the first translation. The room was packed so I got to sit next to a girl (I am certain that she's foreign - well her name is Tatiana or something - but she was hardly at the class and always sitting there quietly, so I couldn't really approach her, hey who are you, can we be friends?) :D Anyway that exam was way easier. We had to choose if we want to do a french-english or an english-french translation. Guess which one I picked? Obviously french to english :D I had a quick read through the other one and I think it was way harder, it had the word cork in it etc. I wouldn't know how to translate that into french :D Luckily the second one wasn't that specific with words and if I struggled for a bit i could just peek over at my neighbours work - she chose the same one as me :D and see what she put there :D I only did it twice when I wasn't sure how to word something and just had a look for inspiration.

The corsican exam was nothing she had warned us about before!!!! I was so pissed, it was much easier that she made out it to be but I wasn't prepared. First we had to introduce ourselves in Corsican, ok not too hard, got that done (I wrote my own name there though :/ You shouldn't really write your name or sign your copy anywhere where it can be seen, but she shouldn't have had that assignment then!). Then it had questions about a story we had to learn by heart - about a month ago now! I had no idea that that would come up like that! Omg recalled some of the story and answered 4 questions out of 5 (hopefully right) because for the life of me I couldn't remember what the outcome of the story was in corsican. i remember the story but can't tell it in corsican!!! Then you had to translate a poem that they'd done before I even joined the group (ok it was my fault that I didn't go to the first 3-4 lectures but still) and it wasn't easy at all! I only understood the first line - so translated that... pretty pathetic but maybe I'll get half a point or something :D And then the last question was the one I thought would make up most of the exam. The main caracteristics of an island territory. Because that's what she based the whole course on. It was boring and I didn't really understand much and thought I wanted to learn corsican, not that they were farmers and collective work was important etc. I don't know that's kinda obvious. So wrote as much as I could remember... Shouldn't be too bad since the poem was worth only 4 points out of 20...

Keep ya fingaz crossed that I'll get good marks :D

I can't really believe that this academic year is over. It's gone soooo quickly... and I do have my fare share of regrets starting with wishing that I had been more active in socialising and actually learning how to speak french (I am now terrified that I'll be the person who is behind everyone else next year) and ending with doing more classes like I should've done, especially in second semester where I was too lazy to wake up 9AM and go to my lectures... :( but hopefully aber won't be too mad at me because I didn't just sit on my arse I do have something to show for this year :D + now I enrolled in distance learners short french course :D The Estonian French institute does it. It's only 14 euros and I thought what the hell, can't hurt right. But I'm too scared to let them know I've been living in Corsica for nearly a year :D So as far as they know I'm in Wales doing tourism :D I'd be too ashamed otherwise I guess. The good thing about the course is that I'll meet with the teacher via Skype once a week for an hour, so at least I've got that practice of talking going for me :D

I'm not going to do a full recap of the year because I think I've covered all the happenings in this blog. Sometimes I do wish I had chosen a bigger place (Montpellier) to be but I do like it here and it's so warm now here as well :) I'm glad I got this opportunity :)

A bigger adventure now awaits me :P

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

All's well that ends well!

Aber has agreed to sign my convention de stage!!!!!!!! After nearly a month of sending e-mails to different people, them telling me to ask someone else finally a good soul put her hands up and said FINE I'll sign your bloody thingy!!! :D

Am I really the only one wanting to do an internship after the compulsory year abroad? Not this year because one other girl wanted too, but what about previous years?

So the main issue why my department can't sign it - it is not part of my compulsory year abroad, because I've already done it (2 semesters of Erasmus) so basically none of their business what I do during the summer. You're on your own B!!!! Suck it!!!! :D Luckily my tutor was kind enough to contact the careers office on my part.

The main issue why the careers office can't sign it - it's in French and the person who should sign it can't understand what it says... Although they have a French national working there... Told me to turn to the Academic record office.

The main issue why the Academic office won't sign it - none of their business!!!!! Glad you got the opportunity but meh, we'll give you a paper that says that you're a student here... well thanks... I don't need that, I need a signature for the convention the stage!

Finally I got fed up, sent a rather angry letter (kind of regretted it straight after) saying that why can't anyone just freaking sign it. It isn't some new document I produced with my little hands! It's a document that my department uses regularly for year abroad students who work instead of Erasmus, so approved by uni! Nothing dodgy! Why is it so hard.

So now I got a signature but no stamp :D Although my employer wanted a stamp too, and on the convention de stage there is a special place for the stamp... It's in the post now and let's hope a signature will suffice :)

So I sent a massive thank you letter to the person who signed it :D

Now have to find where to live in freaking Paris!!!!!!!!!!!! Can I just live in the subway? Or under a tree or something? :D

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Left at an airport

So tonight/ this morning I had a dream. Very livid :D I don't usually see dreams when I'm sleeping and since now, three hours later I'm still thinking about it I thought I'd write it down :D

I was a part of a group on their way back from some kind of a trip. We had our guide/airport assistant saying his goobyes when I realized that I still had packing to do - someone gave me back pieces to swap my simcard from two phones, so a lot of little pieces in my hand I noticed that someone had brought the tickets (more like booking references) to the plane and left a huge pile of them on the bench. Everyone got theirs and made their way to the departure lounge. I took a bit more time to get all my stuff together and when I went to find my ticket it wasn't there?!?! There was a bunch of papers, random stuff, but not my ticket and all the supervisors who were supposed to make sure everyone were ok, had already left (note to self never go on a holiday with them again :D).

Luckily the guide (or whoever he was) was still standing near the gates so I ran to him shouting I don't have my ticket!?!?!?! He told me not to worry, called someone, I went back to sorting my stuff out :D From the corner of my eye I saw the Spanish Erasmus guy come back with my ticket but he didn't come past the gates where the guide was standing. I saw him but for some reason didn't make my way to him to get my ticket... so he left :D When I finally got all my things into my bag the guide at the gate said I could just walk through (others flashed the barcode of their tickets there). So I did and ended up at the departure lounge trying to figure out where everyone else was (Note: there was no security?!?). Looked at the board - my flight was from gate 40  (the other gates looked like in a train station :S) (I think I was going to London Heathrow but not sure, because the last episode of the Amazing Race I watched had that destination, my mind might be mixing those two up...). So after running around in the airport I finally found gate 40.

Passport control before I could enter!!!! And obviously I needed to show them my ticket too. Oh hell, things were just getting better. I knew everyone was there, but I couldn't see them. I switched on my phone and got a load of texts, who are you sitting next to? etc. No one wondered where the hell I was :D Then I saw Vendela (a girl from my highschool who I had barely spoken a word to ever) in the queue and she promised to let everyone know that I STILL don't have my ticket and can't get through. I was so impatient that I couldn't wait there for someone to come and help (like a normal person would do).

I found myself outside the airport. How, why did I get here?!?! Started making my way back, but to get to the airport you had to show the ticket again (which I didn't have), so when the security guards weren't looking ran past them. Opened the first door I could and I was in some kind of a weird corridor hospital. Wtfudge?!?! So asked the first doctor where the airport was. He didn't know. The second guy, knew something about the airport and told me to go downstairs and then open the first door on the right. I did. Behind the door was the creepiest old corridor you could imagine - dark, full of spider webs and construction materials (you know the wooden plates or whatever, don't know the english word for it now...). Obviously thought hell to the NO! And closed the door. When closing it I kinda saw some grey cat-like creature sitting there and looking at me - or maybe it was my imagination (my dreamself thought about it). Then I found the exit and was outside again. And that's it.

Crazy right, but so detailed and long :D So I decided I'll look up what it means and found the site dreammoods. Didn't really help me :D because I've never tried to interpret (how do you spell that word????) my dreams so looked for airport and abandonment from their dictionary. Basically a new beginning, leaving everyone behind etc. Gave up on that :D But on the site I noticed an ad that had live psychics answering your questions. So asked about my dream :D LOL and she said - it was live that she doesn't interpret dreams. What use are you???? But that's a freaking interesting site I found :D Went on different peoples live feed (videos) and heard them talking to people - normal users ask their questions by typing it in and the psychics then answer live and everyone can see it. But since I was not a registered user my session timed out :D

OMG I just googled to see which one is grammatically correct left at or in an airport and the second result was this blog?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! this post!!!!! Plus i still don't know which is right so I hereby apologize for all the grammar mistakes I've ever done and will do in the future :D

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...

Soooo hot!!!!

I'm officially jealous!!! Only because Jerez de la Frontera is a bigger city than my little Corte and there are lots of festivals and things to do there! AAAAAnd it's sooooooo cheap!!!! Not fair at all :D But it's too warm for me to live there and go about my everyday business... And the heat will get worse during the summer! Omg how do people not melt?? And Tapas!!! I never understood what they were and therefore didn't know what the big deal was but omg!!!! Why doesn't every country do tapas like that????? It would go down so well, especially in student towns (like Aber khm khm khm).

There is a place that does little sandwiches for a euro, 1 euro!!!!!!!!!! (on Sundays and Wednesdays), normally they are about 1.20, Mondays special offer is 2 for 1!!!!!!! can you imagine that???? If I had that near me I'd go there to eat every day! Probably good that I don't have it anywhere near me :D You have a choice of over a 100 different sandwiches and usually 3 will give you a full tummy + with every order you'll get a free helping of crisps!!!! Drinks are a euro as well, so 4 euros is all you need to get a "meal". Expand to other countries!!!!!!!!

Jerez is a Sherry town and obviously we had to go to a tour and tasting. We wanted to go to the one right behind Rebeccas flat, checked the visiting times the day before and got there about 5 minutes early but the gates were closed, the sign was still up saying that it should be open... :( Instead we went to a shushi place then, 6.50 for loads of food, 8 shushi pieces (some rice cubes with stuff in them and some rice with salmon on it - I don't know how theyre called, makis), a big plate of noodles (it was just spaghetti there but :D we couldn't eat it anyway - too full) and a drink (verano tinto - red wine with lemonade). 6.50 for all of it!!! Am I in paradise?

After the big lunch we had to rush through town to another sherry factory - Sandeman - and for 7 euros I think we got to know the history of the company (founded by a British bloke (Scottish to be more exact I think)), how sherry is made and got to taste 3 different sherrys. There was an option of tasting with tapas too but we were too full and cheap to pay extra for it. Nevertheless we got crisps and olives for free anyway :D 

A Sherry ghost showed us around :D

The hat is Spanish and the cape is Portuguese because the company has a factory in Portugal as well.

Two visits to the beach and now I've swam in the ocean two times already! :) + I have a nice tan ;)

It's only the beginning of May and everyone's already on the beach

That's about it of my holiday... It was too hot though already :D If it was a tad chillier it would be a perfect place to live!!!! :P Oooh  they have cheap huge chinese stores for everything! Paradise? :D

2 things I forgot:

• The first morning we had breakfast (mmmm... smoked Estonian sausage with black bread omg, heaven) and when finished went back to Rebeccas room - suddenly she started screaming - what had happened???? Turns out a bird - a pigeon had gotten into her room. On a closer inspection we noticed that the window was in the vent position not fully open. So how the hell did he get in in the first place!?!?!?! It couldn't have been by accident he must've pushed himself through the tiny space... And now it was stuck :( We peeked through the door and saw him trying to get out. Basically flying against the window, then falling down, then trying again, omg so sad. We were too scared to go in and open the window. Finally Rebecca found a blanket. Put that over her - sooo funny and charged in, opened the window as quick as possible and ran back out. By that time the pigeon was already too dizzy and just sitting on the bed. C'mon fly out! You can now!!!!!! Nothing... poor thing. So we got a big broom and started gently pushing him to make it fly out, and finally it worked! yay :) How did he get in was still beyond me though :S 
• One day we had to take cash out but the cash machine was a bit weird - I thought it was way too slow and Rebecca thought the green thing on it was suspicious. I said the bank put the green thing on it themselves to protect the card, because I'd seen them loads before. She on the other hand thought nothing of the slowness of the machine. So we both kinda soothed each other, no it's nothing, we're freaking out over two totally different things, so it must be fine. Back home, did some googling and the next days whenever we passed an atm checked if they had the green thingy. So far no ones stolen our money so it's all good. But at first we truly were a pair of paranoid parrots :D

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Eurovision

Thought I'd record my opinions on the songs this year  :) But don't expect a full analysis lol :D 

Unfortunately Estonia didn't make it to the final this year :'( I'm a bit surprised because I kinda liked the song and thought it was decent enough...

Also I missed the first semi-final because exactly for that 2 hours on Tuesday I was on a flight and had to get the bad news later... And going in to this final I've only heard the songs of the second semi-final. So it's all (half) new for me too and I don't really have favourites, although I do like the Polish song (on Thursday I finally learned what the song is actually about - because Estonia has subtitles under songs :)) and am a bit sad that they changed half of it to English :((((( it sounds so much better in Polish!!!!

It's starting!!!! :)

Have they always introduced performers in the beginning like this?

The little clips before each country are very creative, me likey :)

Ukraine - A very eurovision song in my opinion, the hamster wheel was an interesting touch.

Oh no, my site crashed :(:(:(:(:( can't watch it anymore with Markos comments because it says that it's only viewable in Estonia!!!!! PORQEEEEEE?????? I love Markos sarcastic comments!!!! Now I have to find another site! The other Estonian commentators talk too much so i can't really hear the songs :( Official eurovision page it is then... now I have to install something to watch it -.- but it works

Belarus - well I've missed most of it but it's alright, a mediocre song in my opinion, nothing special...

Azerbaijan - wow their flag recreation was awesome! A nice beautiful ballad, maybe a bit too boring for my taste though...

meh no funny/interesting comments about the performers now :(

Iceland - Reminds me a bit of 80s eurovision style (not that I'd remember it) but has a nice beat from the start, not a winning song. Haha just found a french live-blog about it and it said: alert the fashion police: the teletubbies are amongst us :D and they already made a gif :D Oooh I love the frenchies :D

Norway - the pretty ballad, not boring :) I quite like it :)

Omg looking at the france 3 page blog and it has a question there: how many kilometres did the hamster-man run :D :D 2,4 or 7 :D

Romania - I recognized them!!!!! They've been here before :D Although I don't really understand the round piano - it would be awesome if someone would play it!!! Right now it looks like he just pretends to play it for two seconds or is he playing it for real????. meh song.

awww hell I don't have song subtitles any more as well :(:(:(:( Why can't I watch my beloved Estonian version in France??????

Armenia - He looks like he's in pain :/ Wow this got interesting now, pretty good :)

Montenegro - not as good as Norway but still a nice ballad, the skater is something different, is she skating on the led-screen stage? or is there actually a layer of ice?????

Poland :) - even the quality of the video suddenly went 100x better :D I like the traditional sounds mixed into this :) oh no the English version started :( I think if it was entirely in english I wouldn't like it :(

Greece - I quite like this as well but they should have more lyrics, the rap in the beginning isn't very good either. Rise up!!!! But it's still a fun song and I think I'd download it later... although too much Rise up, rise up, rise up, rise up, rise up, to the Greeks now any other english words? :D ;) I predict a high place for it. (Your flow isn't that freaky, I wish it was but it isn't). One of my favourites :)

Austria - one of the predicted winners, not a bad song but I think if she/he didn't have a beard then no one would notice this song, I think it's quite mediocre.

Germany - Is that food that they're making?!?! retro-style, pretty good though I think that it's boring...

Sweden - The other favourite of the show tonight. Pretty song, better than Wurst. Keeps getting better :) 

France - dude looks like Andy Samberg :D after a slight what is this moment it isn't that bad, then the chorus comes and wtf? moment is back :D But it's fun you can't deny that :D  c'est comme ci c'est comme ca. Greece is better :D I just think they're a bit similar style :D You need some fun songs in this contest :)

Russia - The girl on the right has crazy-eyes at times but not a bad song, oooh awing :) Crazy-eyes is back :D Who is that man? A creepy stalker? nope, just the guy to produce the huge fan... Can't remember the song anymore, so not very effective. The frenchie blog says that they share everything, even their hair + have a gif of them :D

Italy - mozzarella :) mmm :) The mic wasn't working when she shouted something come on europe???? Pretty good :) better than the last one :) The frenchie blog says under a gif where she makes the searching move that she's looking for the emigrated italians to vote for her :D 

Slovenia - this is one of my favourites I think and I hope it wins. Yeap the best so far :) Blog: Alerte Fashion Princesse : "Salagadou, la menchikabou, la Bibidi Bobidi Bou" :D :D :D :D

Finland - meh, nje rõba nje mjäsa - meaning nothing remarkable but not bad either.

Spain - better than their usual entries :) but I don't really care about this song at all

Switzerland - now this is a feel-good song :) me likey, especially the whistling :) to be honest I think it reminds me a bit of one of the estonian eurovision selection songs that was my favourite but didn't win this year: Traffic - Für Elise, same vibe I think

Hungary - meh, heard better ballads, half crazy-eyes/ in pain. Wow where'd he run??? :D don't think anyones ever ran that fast there :D :D Totally unexpected. Obviously the blog had a gif and comment about it too :D : he left the scene because he thought he'd won already :D

Malta - Another feel-good song, though not as fun and good than Switzerland

Denmark - Awww I love you too ;) This is really good :)

The Netherlands - A good song but not my cup of tea... :/

San Marino - they have been here for three years (after a looong break) and had the same singer each time, so did that singer decide three years ago that she wants to go to the eurovision and made the country participate again? Aren't there any other singers? :D Not a bad song, the chorus is good, the start of it reminds me of some Bond song (I maybe wrong). Talking? :D seems a bit odd...

UK - Awesome flag! This is also a good song :) I expect a high place. Unusual for the UK though :D They don't usually send good songs here. Power to the People! The frenchie blog has a tweet from the queen: Elizabeth Windsor @Queen_UK

Suivre

If she doesn't win, she's not coming back in. #Eurovision

and that's it with the songs!!!!! Start voting (I never vote), I like the recap of all the songs!!! :) Wait has the voting started already???? Are they wasting precious time???? Oh voting starts now and finally my loved recap :)

Yeah Slovenia is my ultimate favourite this year! Second Switzerland, then Poland and Greece and UK I think... wait... didnät Turkey participate this year? :( There's definitely some familiar tune in San Marinos song, but I can't pinpoint the song...

Sweden but on  a better show last year introducing all the Swedish traditions and customs and meatballls!!! :D The hosts 12 song is pretty good though. What's with China? Are they loving the uerovision as much as the Australians???  Yeah my opinions exactly - he keeps going on and on about China, is he done already? :D Lol these aren't from China but from South-Korea :D :D Well this was a boring show during the voting :/ Sweden was defo better last year! The eurovision museum clip is witty!

Found this gem: :D True story bro

Is the flute player naked???? How deep is that water? A couple jumped in there and disappeared under the water? :S

The most interesting part of the evening, the results now :) I wonder if Ukraine gives Russia 12 points as ususal? Why did Greece give Russia 10 points????? Ooooooh Poland gave 0 points to Russia :D :D :D yay finally points to Slovenia! :) Is that boos I here for Russia from the audience???? Yeah that's not clapping :D :D :D Haha, tension in the air :D What did Malta say? We welcome you to Eurovision 2014 in November??? What?  Haha the hosts don't understand a thing the Frenchie is saying lol Why does everyone love the bearded-lady? I love the singing people :) Only 4 points from Ukraine to Russia. Why is Austria winning?? And Slovenia is second to last?????? :( But hey, at least Austrias song isn't the worst one :P

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...

Why do these things happen to me?!?

Since I got to Pisa at 7 PM and my flight was 5PM the next day (it should've been earlier in the day but about a week after booking it RyanAir sent a message saying that the times have changed :( More time alone in Pisa and less time/ no time at all now in Sevilla with Rebecca). So I got a hotel, it's weird beeeeeing in a hotel all  by yourself, especiiiallly at breakfast when everyone else is either with their friends or family and you're just munching quietly your croissant and drinking your coffee... ( I don't even like coffee :S).

After the slowest walk in Pisa Hight street, popping into some shops, buying a shirt and pants, sitting in front of the Leaning tower forever alone it was (no it wasn't yet) time to go to the airport, by foot. Never walked to the airport by foot before, it's weird... Airports are usually out of town and you HAVE to go there by bus, train or car, no other option. Pisa airport is quite small but packed with people so there isn't really any room to move.

About 2 hourrs before my flight I went through security and noticed that my gate has been annnounced - that's eaaarly, usually they do it at the very last minute and everyone runs for it :D made my way to the gate and what do yu know, a huge queue?!?!! Already???? but it wasn't my flight but the one before, so luckily for me no waiting in the queue for 2 hours :P

The flight went by quickly, one girl's hand luggage was too big for the hold but I didn't understand what was said because they were talking in Italian :( I hate the allocated seating! I'm always near the aisle and not next to the window. Usually when flying between UK and Estonia no one really cares about the trumpets or whatever their signature landing sound is but this time people were so happy, hands in the air half dancing, welcome to the south where everyone's happy lol.

I was so surprised at how warm it was, I had been told to expect 30 degrees but in my own head I thought it was going to be like in Corsica. Quite chilly at times so I packed a couple of light jackets and obviously thought I'd be wearing my sneakers all the time. Just like in Corsica... but oh no, from the first warm breese I felt at 8PM I knew I should've brought my sandals and left the jackets at home...

At Sevilla I found my way to the bus quite quickly, though I wonder if I haven't spent ages in the toilet queue would I have made the first bus because when I got there, the queue was enormous and when I joined it I thought and hoped it was the queue for the bus and luckily it was - would be so like me to stand in the wrong queue though. So the first bus came in about 5 minutes or so and half the people in the queue got on. About 20 people still in front of me though :( Another 20 minute wait and on the bus I was. Now Rebecca had told me it takes about 15-20 minutes to get to the train station, a lot of people with suitcases will get off there and the stop is on the side of the station building. Ok, seems easy right?

About 10 minutes of being on the bus one person went of at the second stop, I could kinda see a big building with writing and an F on it, but it didn't say Santa Justa (the train station) so thought nothing of it (only one person went off and Rebecca had said that the bus makes loads of stops if people want to get off). Then I noticed that the TV showed the stops and we'd just passed Santa Justa.... okou, but it's not unusual that what it says on the bus is completely wrong so I asked the lady next to me and she said yeah I think we passed it. OMG what you mean you 'think' we did or we didn't????????? Made my way to my suitcase (the bus was still packed with people), asked someone next to tthe door and by that time Santa Justa was 2 stops ago... Oh hell, I had to catch the last train to Jerez in 30 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now the longest time between stops! Just my luck, finally when I got off I decided that I couldn't walk back - I wouldn't make it in time of my train soooooo.... went to the people in that bus stop "Santa Justa!?!?!!" - they indicated that I have to cross the road, ok so I did, several bus stops there: "Santa Justa!?!?!?!" they told me (in Spanish because no one seaks English apparently) to go to the last stop and the bus should come in 2 minutes... about 10 minutes passed when the bus finally came, just to be completely sure another panicked "Santa Justa!?!?!?!" to the driver, tried to get on without paying :D had to  pay another 1.40 for the bus and on my way I was, patiently waited for 3 stops to pass - now it was a normal bus line so made a stop freaking everywhere and people got on ever so slowly.... god I'm in a hurry - about 10 mins before my LAST train!!!!!!!

After the third stop I asked the people on the bus "Santa Justa?????" they said that It'll come soon. By that time I thought that I'll definitely miss my train and will have to stay at a hostel in Sevilla, why do these things happen to me???? After another 2 stops the man indicated that I should go left and there it is, ok, thanked him and started getting off, half the bus shouted NO not yet!!!! :D it was so funny. The man meant that the bus will now turn left and then I can get off! :D

Luckily now the bus stop was directly in front of the station and after a quick sprint across a huge parking lot - thought I'd get run over - got in the station and as Rebecca said went to the machines to buy a ticket instead of the counter. Argh machines are so slow! Finally found Jerez on the list, but it didn't show the last train?!?! What????? But I need to get on that... Hell with the machine, ran to the counter, luckily no queue that late at night, and basically screamed Jerez de la Frontera at the ticket lady :D I still had 10 minutes so she told me to relax I have time, no worries (in Spanish so I guess that's what she said). Got my ticket and found my train :) I told Rebecca I'll make it ;) although it was a close one.

What an adrenaline rush that is! :P

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

On the road again

It feels weird going somewhere without Mr. Special now, because that means that I am wholly in charge of getting myself there and that is a scary prospect after nearly a year of letting him do all the planning and worrying about finding the way. It hit me a day before my journey - oh wait! how am I going to get from the ferry station to the bus stop, then to the train station and to my hotel. All on me!!!! And no one to shout at when anything goes wrong. The last time I was in Livorno going to Pisa I completely relied on Mr. Special, obviously I kinda knew where I had to go but not fully, so studied the map and thought I'll be fine -  spoiler alert - I usually am when it comes to navigating :)

Btw another weird thing about this trip - my suitcase - hand luggage - is only half full, because I didn't have anything do bring with me...  that's a first, usually it's full of clothes and random crap that I don't even touch during my trip... but this time I'm only going for a short while - 3 days I think to warm sunny Spain, so and outfit for every day - meaning jeans, shorts, skirt and 3 shirts is more than enough... I didn't take into consideration that in the real world it sometimes rains too but since I don't actually own a raincoat it doesn't matter anyway a jacket and a scarf over my head will suffice.

The first part of my journey went well until it started pouring down :( I was sitting on a bench in Bastias main square writing a letter to my grandma (a letter that should've been written a month ago!!!!) when it started raining a little. I was sat under a tree so continued writing as if nothing had happened, I still had more than an hour before my ferry. When the letter was written it started raining harder and I was forced to move to find a postbox to post my letter and then quickly to the port. I managed to have an awkward encounter with a girl I know from Corte but I only saw her briefly and so pretended that I hadn't seen her and walked on :D

When I entered the port building I was soaked through and everyone there looked at me - well excuse me for walking here in the rain ok? A huge group of either swedish or norwegian tourists made up the majority of people there and when it was time to go to the ferry I soon realised that they all had one ticket and there was no point in me trying to go between them so I waited patiently when everyone with just a passport in their hands went past me and then noticed another queue was formed behind me - people who weren't in the group, I don't know just felt I needed to share this :D

On the ferry my usual behaviour is to find a seat next to the window and stay there until it's time to embark 4 hours later. I wanted to get some crepes but seeing that the people waited forever for them decided against it and promised that on my return I'll get some. Time to go and oh look it isn't the same place where the ferry dropped us off the last time but a different side  to the long long long long port so I was very confused and all my preparations on how to find the bus stop flew out the window... On top of it all when  disembarking I found myself in  the middle of that huge tourist group that was heading to their own bus... great where is the exit to all the other foot passengers? Went and asked the attendant who showed the cars where to go Exit?Exit? He told me to go right so I did, the next minute he was running after me asking if I'm on foot. Well duh, obviously... turns out the exit for foot passengers is on the other side. So made my way to town not knowing where the hell i was... but luckily for me everything ended up well, I was much closer to the bus stop as I initially had thought and all I had to do was walk straight and voila familiar square :)

The bus came as soon as I got there. The big writing in english on the bus said that the ticket is 1.70, I had my money ready but for some reason I didn't ask the driver the ticket :D A minute later an english couple wanted to buy tickets and the driver just said no no no... :D  soooooo no tickets :D yay a free ride :) I could've gotten a free train to Pisa too because no one checked the ticket on the train, but I didn't want to take that chance.

Thats it for part one of my journey from Corsica to Jerez de La Frontera, if anything interesting happens on the second day I'll be sure to write it down :)

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...