Adventures in Barcelona

As you enter this city there is no denying the electric feel that touches your skin. Its people like its blood flowing freely through the streets, giving life to it, making it move in constant unexpected ways. Surprises lie around every corner, and the eyes are constantly filled and satisfied by its beauty and diversity.

I had a very near miss at Nice Airport, I boarded a pretty bumpy flight and finally touched down late at night to a busy terminal. After a bus ride to a separate terminal and a slight panic thinking I had flown to the wrong city to meet Tom, we set off on the €5 bus to the city centre.

We stayed at Hotel Grums, which was pleasant enough but given the choice again I would consider one closer to the centre, especially if the only transport you possess are your Jesus wheels and you don’t intend on spending your weight in gold being taken around in circles by local taxi drivers.

What Tom looks like after a loooong day of walking

Anyway after a good night’s rest we were ready to hit the town nice and early the next day. Before we’d set out, we had each picked a surprise activity for the other and mine was the……drrrrrrrrumm rrrrrolll…..Barcelona Zoo!! So big, people ride golf carts around it, and so beautiful it was like something out of a fairy tale book. We walked and walked, saw everything from the mighty Tiger, to a pygmy Hippo and many things I have never even come across before and my favourite of course, the meerkat.

We were also fortunate to catch the dolphin show in which a baby dolphin ignored all the commands and ate all the fish. He was definitely my favourite. We also came across two aardvarks wrestling (?) and the lion pride roaring and after lunch and an ice-cream, we had already reached late afternoon.

We strolled up La Rambla which was buzzing with its markets and teeming with foreigners offering parties and drugs, and Tom, a natural GPS, managed to guide us back through the maze of curious and ever changing alley’s.

The Magic Fountain

Even if I do say so myself, we cleaned up quite nicely in collared shirt and LBD onto our next surprise. We jumped in a taxi and found ourselves just in time for the Magic Fountain (that’s what it is actually called, I didn’t make it up I swear). It is directly in front of the National Museum of Art Catalunya which makes a spectacular backdrop to the crowds gathering to see this extravagant combination of lights, music and water display that smoulders and sprays and will definitely not hurt in helping you get some if you know what I mean ;)

We couldn’t stay too long, however because it was time for my surprise next….

I got this idea from the movie, ‘Its About Time’ and thought when in Barca?

Tom and I freezing our asses off at the Ice Bar

It’s a little place called Dans Le Noir which literally means “in the dark”, on Passeo Picasso.

It’s a restaurant which operates on the theory that if you take one sense away, others will be heightened and a seemingly ordinary act can be turned into an oddly exciting experience.

You are served your choice of a two, three or four course meal in complete darkness by either blind or visually impaired waiters. There is no need for cutlery, although it is provided, and a great need for liquid courage which is why we chose the four-course with champagne to start and a glass of wine with each course. The menu is only revealed afterwards so I ended up gobbling down beef carpaccio, which I thought was salmon and Tom devoured a kiwi salsa…even though he doesn’t eat kiwi? I smashed my champagne glass and poked Tom in the eye but we managed to keep our clothes free of food and ended up getting quite sauced up. All-in-all it was highly successful and a definite recommendation for everyone, everyone.

Feeling very merry we decided to head to the beachfront and as if it wasn’t cold enough, the Ice Bar. -9 degree’s in temperature and glasses made of ice, it was a definite experience but in my tiny dress we decided not to hang around and instead headed to Opium for some hubbly, or as the English call it, Shisha. Before long it was time to call it a night.

CDLC

Sunday morning started with a hunt for breakfast, some starbucks lattes and a very successful Christmas jumper find. We then decided that walking was too much effort and jumped onto rental bicycles. La Sagrada Familia seemed like a pretty appropriate place to go on a Sunday but after cycling there, seeing the ridiculous line and trying a very unsuccessful online ticket purchase we decided to head for some lunch instead.

We found ourselves back at the beachfront and this time headed down to the CDLC – Carpe Diem Lounge Club. This eclectic restaurant served everything from Lamb to Sushi and only of the utmost quality, which naturally led to food envy for me so I will definitely be returning to try all the delights they have to offer. If you go, go hungry!

Sadly the weekend had to come to an end and it was a sad goodbye but it was masked by the amazing things that Barcelona had to offer. This city is definitely one of my favourites and will not be forgotten anytime soon.

'Tis The Season

My apologies once again for my absolute disregard for my blog. You see, it has been a very busy, VERY long summer. And whilst others are celebrating the end/taking a short break/preparing for the Caribbean season, we are still trudging away with weekend trips, waiting for the weather to turn, which in Greece is annoyingly only mid to end of October. There are perks however. Due to guest cancellations we have been getting more than enough time off to explore Athens. But I will need a whole other entry to write about that.

Season summary:
Number of personal meltdowns: 2 - One when my hair was dyed and did not look the way I wanted it to and one when I lost my precious iPhone 5. Very substantial reasons to hate one's life in my opinion. #firstworldproblems
Kilo's lost then gained back after a post-season indulgence celebration: 5
Number of seasick moments followed directly by a pandemic of diarrhea affecting the whole boat: 1
Number of Ameretto's and "stress relief" cigarettes consumed: Countless

This summer, however, has been far less tiring than my first and a lot more organised than my last. But that doesnt mean it was any easier.
Being told when you have to get up, when you may get a cup of tea, when you may go to sleep, having zero personal space and spending every waking moment with the same people does take its toll. Not to mention being at the beck & call of guests 24/7 and dealing with all their weird and wonderful requests.
Thats why I have made a list of summer survival tools:
1) Chocolate. Its a classic really, need I say more? I never feel guilty at the disgusting amount I consume during season because I always manage to find some or other way to justify it. My favourite being: "I just NEED it, ok?!"
2)  A 'dont talk to me' day. I know it sounds a bit anti-social but its my way of getting peace and quite a little personal space when the actual stuff is impossible to come by. So laundry day it is for me, and after a little bit of a shouty explanation, everyone knows to steer clear. Thier co-operation is much appreciated.
3) Humour. If you cant take a joke, you will end up killing everyone and yourself. Lorna Cowan and I think we are the funniest people (Im sure the rest of the crew think we/re manic), but we dont care. We laugh at anything and everything possible to keep our spirits up. When this fails we resort to number 1.
4) Rewards. Again this can take the form of number 1 (any excuse really), but sometimes it comes in the form of lots of alcohol, pretty things/massages/near-death jet ski rides/kite surfing lessons.
5)A thick outer skin. You are, at some point, going to be criticized, yelled at - either for fucking up, mis-directed anger or just plain martyrdom - and there are going to people you dont get along with so let it slide, get on with it and stop feeling sorry for yourself.
6) Communication with the outside world. Its important not to let weeks go by without contacting family and friends, for your own sanity as well as to prevent freak outs from your mom whose posted very public facebook messages asking if anyone has heard from you.
Last but not least:
7) An epic playlist. Not only does it get you through the day but it will remind you of the summer forever. Our top one is (like a million others) Avicci - Wake me up. Others include most Alt J songs, John Newman - Will you love me again any Rudimental songs and Tiger - Rack city.

Hope you've all enjoyed your summer! And I hope this list helps for the next one! Peace Ombre's. x

Dionysus Pub Crawl

The boys sitting below the egg chandelier

After trying to explore Athens on a Tuesday night, the most awkward nights of the week in terms of partying, we decided we could do with some professional help. So on instruction of our captain to “get drunk, get laid, & don’t leave your teaspoon in the sink, we don’t live on a farm”, we decided to all wash and put our teaspoons away and go on a pub crawl.

The Girls

Me, Adam, Jamie, Stevo, Alec, Lorna & Rach, met Thomas, our pub guide, at his father’s restaurant for a pre-match kebab and some beer and wine to ease us into the night. As per usual we got ahead of ourselves and tried to order more alcohol but were told it was time to move on. We wound our way through the maze of Athens, passing quaint little streets & about 20 stray cats and found ourselves at what we like to call, The Chicken Place.

At first I thought it might be the real-life version of Angry Birds. There were chickens hanging from the roof and a chandelier made out of their eggs. We sat down at magnificent rustic oak tables, with chess sets dotted all along them. Daisy described it as “just like London” and I thought it looked a lot like something you’d find on Long Street in Cape Town. So basically it was a pretty cool place. After our shot and a quick down-down, we were ushered out and onto the next bar.

Next to a live heavy rock concert and art gallery lay Six Dogs. Not much to go by on the outside but inside it was magical (the alcohol might have started taking effect right about now). We walked in and felt sand beneath our feet, looked up and saw the stars and fairy lights bouncing in the tree’s and people were dotted all over the many tiers of beach that wrapped around the bar.

Enjoying some shisha

I ordered a round for the girls and in my attempt to pick all the drinks up, I spilt one- again the alcohol might have been involved - and it was replaced for free! Despite being in a huge recession, the Greeks are genuinely extremely generous and friendly, it really is amazing to see. We even got a discount at the pharmacy, which we didn’t even ask for! We were also given some collagen to drink, which we didn’t ask for, which also made me want to buy anti-wrinkle cream – now that I think about it, maybe it was actually a marketing ploy…those clever bastards!

Anyway, once seated, we got chatting to two artists, a sculptor who had lived in New York for 20 years and an abstract painter, both trying to make a living in Athens now. Meeting new and interesting people is definitely high up on the positives of a travellers life.  But just as we had made our new friends, Thomas the tank engine whisked us off. We took a peak into the rock concert and ventured into the gallery, where Jamie so tactfully said: “Who would buy this?!”, right in front of the artist….so smooth. We were asked where we wanted to go and we all agreed that it was time for Dionysos (the god of inebriation and ecstatic dancing) to make an appearance, so a short taxi ride later we found ourselves in Gazi – not the Gaza strip like Adam tried to tell me – at a club called Soho. At this point I’m not sure any of us remember much but I do remember coming out feeling pretty chuffed with our pub crawl organising skills.

Astiri Beach

The next day Daisy and I headed off for our first kite surfing lesson. Can you say bad idea? Once we were out in the open flying our kite, trying our best not to be sick whilst and impatient instructor, Angel,  told us in vein to “think” as he bombarded us with questions about the wind and sea, our hangovers started to take full effect.

Daisy had to take 5 and sit down in the car and drink the poor man’s water while I pretended to carry on listening by nodding and saying “yeah, yip, uh huh” a lot. I’m not sure he bought it. After an hour and a half of running up and down, picking the kite up and trying to fly it in practically no wind, the lesson finally came to an end. Relief.

 Or so we thought. We hadn’t arrange any way of getting back from the lesson so we asked to be directed to the nearest taxi rank. Angel pointed to the horizon and said to take the bridge over by the airport. Despite there being no bridge in sight we headed in that general direction.

A 20 minute walk later, past a hospital and down the side of a 3 lane highway in our beach gear, we arrived at the taxi station and eventually made it to Astiri beach aka paradise, where Rach, Jamie and Lorna joined us. Sea so blue, it hurts the eyes, sun so bright it does the same. Beach bed service and a TGI Fridays a step away made for a great recovery. We swam in the crystal clear water and lay out on the pontoon, drank Fredicchino’s and lay in the hammock admiring the surreal view. It’s a definite must visit beach and also has wakeboarding for the adventurous types.

So ended another day in paradise and I must say that I do love my life.

Hammock time

Land of the Gods

So when I heard that the boat spent 4-5 months of the year in Greece, I must admit, I wasn’t too chuffed – bad economy, lamb slaughtering, fat sweaty men & worst of all, I wouldn’t be able to read/understand anything (I understand a little bit of French ok?!). When I got here, however, it was a whole different story.

We left Monaco with the longest goodbye on the 16^th June. On our way over, we were lucky enough to get to use the Jacuzzi, in the middle of the sea, at night. Just us, the Jacuzzi light and the stars. Its amazing how small you feel when you are in the middle of nowhere, with no land, lights or people around.  You realise how precious life is and, how easy it is to throw someone overboard and make it look like an accident, c’mon, it has  all crossed your minds yachties! It was truly an amazing experience.

When we got here we thought it would be work, work, work. And it was. Except when we got our 1 day a week off. We have now changed the saying to TIGW – Thank God Its Wednesday. Our couple of days off were spent frying on the beach because Daisy felt that her change of ethnicity from Caucasian to coloured her transformation occurred on the trip over was still not enough and she wanted to be Black. So off we went, armed with cancer inducing oil to so soak up some sun and catch up on some much needed rest.

Naturally we grew hungry so we ventured into the city with a crew member that was “in the know” about places to go. We sat down at a table set on a terrace with the hint of a view of the acropolis in Athens old town. We  watched the Asian tourists, drank wine and ouzo and smashed about 6 bowls of chips before moving on to dinner.  At this point we were ravenous, and unlike other normal girls, the stews on our boat  could devour a horse any time of the day so you can imagine the moods that eating at 10pm put the four of us in.

We headed further into town and walked along another quaint little street and found a spot. Davo was in charge and it all kicked off: tzatsiki, flatbread, normal bread, fried aubergines, wine etc. When we were all groaning from too-full-tummies, the meat platter arrived. If Dave was trying to kill us with food, it worked. So we munched and drank our way into gluttony and we were has happy as -excuse my crudeness – pigs in s***. After not really drinking for a whole week that wine went to my head so Rach and I headed back to the boat while the others ventured on to Old Fashioned which was the old crews’ local. The next day I heard tales of some excitable dancing from Alec … continuing with the bar name the music was from the 50’s and Alec was producing some crazy twists and jumps with two local women who looked aged 19 from behind however could have easily been born in the Before Christ era when face to face.

Lamp Street

We’ve also managed to find time to join a gym to avoid  the dreaded ‘stewardess bum’ and have taken to the yoga class where Lorna keeps thinking the woman is saying “Ishmael” when really she is saying “inhale” and “exhale” in Greek and she wont believe me that Ishmael is actually an Arabic boys name.  We have also learnt how to say “cheers”. In greek it is yammas, and our waiter, Yannis, taught us. Yannis means John so between yammasing, yannis and john, when we toast our Freddichino’s – some delicious coffee/chocolate sensation -  we now just say John, its so much easier. So John to Greece! Its going to be one hell of a season!

The Crew 2013

Antibes Antics

Antibes is like a hazy hub where all walks of life, from doosh bag to hero, come together to discuss yachts until their tongues fall off and drink until their stomachs explode. Its magical. No for real, you don’t get better than Antibes and Juan Les Pins during the summer where the sun is shining, people are smiling and there is an adventure around every corner. Although take caution because this time of year also seems to attracted quite a lot of retards and fools.

However, when you’re in the town with your friends something crazy always seems to happen and this was definitely the case when Daisy, Rach and I rocked up to visit Ilz Ilz!

Ilze and I had booked a hotel room, for 2, because we knew this was the logical thing to do. Rach, for some unknown reason, actually thought she was going to catch the last train back to Monaco – at 11pm….um yeah, that never happens because the Hop Store sucks you in, spits you out and then in your confused drunken state you hear the falsely sweet luring whisper of L’Ekinox. You go, and when you come stumbling out at 4am, you have no idea what happened but you know it was epic.

Daisy was sorted with accom at another friend so it seemed all good.

So the night starts off with us getting caught sneaking a bottle of rose into Hop. Pretty standard. Fast forward through dozens more drinks, abdominal workouts and more chatting than my ears could handle, we found ourselves inevitably stumbling into Ekinox.

The Hop Store

More drinks, dancing and more laughing later, we decided it was time to go home. So Daisy, Rach and Ilze armed with some fresh meat headed back to our – 2 sleeper – hotel room, while I walked another friend home.

The alluring sign of L'Ekinox

When eventually I got back to the hotel room I found said fresh meat in the double bed, Ilze K.O. and Daisy and Rach on the floor. I then got told by Rach that I need to :”Turn off the light because people are sleeping”. Well that got me. “EXCUSE ME, but I actually paid for this room you squatters and I will turn on whichever light I please!!”. At this point the fresh meat was smart enough to take his exit.

After things calmed down, we all passed out again. And when we awoke, we realised we had a huge problem. And when I say “we”, I actually mean “I”, because you see, Ilze had snuck out very early to get back to work so I was left with Daisy and Rach, the two stragglers. I decided to have a shower and they left for breakfast – clearly still dressed in their clothes from the night before - which left me with the issue of explaining to the concierge why, in a hotel room booked for 2, 3 people had emerged.

Daisy, Rach and me

I came down and the woman at the desk commented: “Ah zere were srhee of you in zee rhoom zis morning, no?”

“Um yes, we uh, had a very early um…..business meeting?” I replied.

“VERY early.” She said with a smile playing around her lips and a knowing glint in her eye.

“Yes lots to do!” I said already halfway out the door, cringing. A business meeting? Seriously? Why I let Rach put these idea’s in my head I will never know!

After I told the girls, they howled with laughter of course. But our adventure didn’t end there. Due to past experience and our hangovers we couldn’t be bothered to buy a train ticket so off we hop on the TGV and settle into a carriage. As soon as we sat down, still chatting of course, a woman to our right immediately began to sush us. Granted we might have been a tad bit leery in our state but it was the middle of the day and no-one was sleeping in the carriage, a point that Rach brought up after the lady told us to have some respect and that “this is France, not a rubbish bag” (?).

This conversation all happened in French of course so I had no idea what was going on when the girls got up to move and I just followed obediently. It was in our new seats when we caught a glimpse of the train ticket guy one carriage away. So instead of playing it cool, in which case we might have gotten away with it, we all stare at him wide eyed, jump up and literally run for the bathroom, where we shut ourselves in, giggling hysterically and whispering about what we were going to do.

Two seconds later (he must have actually sprinted after us), we hear knocking on the door and we all freeze. “Madams, please come out, madams, I need to see your tickets please.” We all freeze and start gliggling and whispering frantically again while I try and press the right pedal to flush the toilet saying: “Just a minute” (obviously trying to make it seem legitimate that 3 grown woman were all squashed into a tiny toilet together). After incessant knocking, Daisy  and I emerge and inform the man that Rach is getting ill and we were merely looking after her – a fact that she is not aware of- when she emerges yelling “Alright alright man, we don’t have any friggin tickets, gosh!”. We then had to pay a €35 fine each, which was also tedious because we tried to pretend we didn’t have any money for ages until we were threatened with jail.

So when we eventually got back we were nothing less than exhausted but couldn’t stop laughing at everything that had happened in such a short space of time. It just goes to show, you never know what to expect and Antibes is always full of surprises ;)

Sunset 

WINTERS END

April 2013

Hibernation is coming to an end after 5 long months and I must say, Im pretty pleased to see the sun again. Although don’t get me wrong, it has been an AMAZING first European winter.

I learned how to snowboard, found a new job, spent Christmas and New Year in the back country of Ireland where I held a lamb and learned to drive a tractor, drove 7 hours to the middle of France, made tons of new friends, but the cherry on top has to be my last ski weekend in Val d’isere.

A couple of weeks ago I took a trip with Brandon, Courtney and Gilo to a place called Clermont Ferrand which is literally in the middle of France. That’s when I first met JB. Picture a surfer guy, now picture a French surfer guy sense of humour, now picture a French surfer guy who is engaged but had a thing for lady-boys, now picture a French surfer guy who can’t actually surf and that’s JB. Seriously a character if I ever met one, invited us to stay in his home town and have a tour of the surrounding ski slopes. He took us around the slopes, we drank at the local bars, ate out at an amazing beef restaurant and ate biscuits for breakfast.

So after we all hit it off with JB, he invited us to stay in a chalet in Val d’isere 2 weeks later and of course all of our calendars were wide open.

View from the room

Friday after work we pack the car and off we go. Countless farts (from the boys) and 4 hours later we reached the snowy end of a very isolated road. Upon further inspection we found that the road was closed and quickly got the eff out of there because it was starting to feel like a horror movie with wolves howling and abandoned buildings. So we stopped for a meal and directions and found out the road was only open for the summer and we had an extra 3 hours to drive, ahhhhhhh!

So EVENTUALLY we get there at 1am and get a tour of the chalet. I was quite sleepy at that stage but walking into this place woke me up chop chop. We walk into the entrance and were facing an indoor pool, Jacuzzi and steam room in front of which are 2 buddahs imported from a monastery that cost who knows how many euro’s. Not only that but the pool in lined with gold plated tiles and the walls are

decorated by Christian Lacriox. To the left is a lounge filled with the fluffiest couches I have ever seen and the most kitted out cocktail bar you could imagine.

Its so fluffy Im gonna die!!

We were then led up the stairs to our beautiful rooms with balconies looking out onto picturesque views. We then headed up to the top floor where there was a private kitchen, dining room, lounge and another bar. Finally we got into the lift – yes there was actually a lift – to the ground floor, where there was a gym, a games room and a SPA with waterbed massagers, eeeee! We were in heaven.

We had a glass (or 2) of delicious Rose and then went to rest up for the next day. We hit up a great breakfast and then headed off to the slopes. The conditions were perfect, powder off-piste and the sun was beating down. We had an expert on the back slopes take us all around the off-piste tracks until our legs were aching. When we couldn’t take it anymore we went to the famous La Folie Douce which is basically a club, in the middle of the day and in the middle of the slopes.  The music was pumping and people were going off, it was amazing. We partied for a couple of hours and then headed back to the chalet.

La Folie Douce

From the snow to bikinis and boxers we jumped in the pool for a swim while watching the snow falling outside, then it was time to hit the Jacuzzi. By the stage the chalet crew had joined us and Mojito’s and finger food were on the way. Before we knew it, it had turned into a full on pool party. Drinks were flowing, champagne was popping, we were snow bathing and steam rooming, it was like a dream. We then went out to Dicks bar and got silly.

The next day was sadly, our final ski day. After scrambled eggs and toast (cooked by the private chef) we headed out to yet another perfect day. Hours of boarding, a lost ski and a lunch at La Folie Douce made up the day. JB, Jeremy and Antoine were endless entertaining and as usual the conversation turned to lady-boys and threesomes (?). When we could ski no more we headed back to the chalet, dropped off our stuff and hit the shops. Afterwards we had one more pool and Spa session, ordered pizza, watched a movie and went to bed at 10 to prep for our early start.

Activites ensued and we chilled with a pizza and a movie. Off to bed at 10 o clock preparing for an early morning start.

12:40 we woke up and took to the road. Driving like beasts for 6 hours I got to Cannes train station just in time for the train back to Monaco and the rest headed back to St Tropez. Thanks to demon driving we all made it to work on time albeit a little worse for wear but it was totally worth it for the craziest weekend in the snow.

A special mention has to go to Brandon Rowe who made this all happen, you are a legend!