10.13.09
Posted in Hollidays, Friends, Route du Vin at 8:58 pm by tesstess
Same procedure as last year? Same procedure as every year, James!
Just after the wine guide “Guide Hachette” came out in the shops Anthony read it in detail, together with another guide “Gault Millau” and some older versions of guides, and then composed a schedule for our yearly wine trip.
This year the selected regions were Jura and Alsace. We met up Philippe and Gaelle in the train station in Lyon where they arrived with the train from Paris, Friday noon, and then we warmed up with a first wine producer in the afternoon. In the evening Elodie, a friend living in Geneve, met up to spend the weekend in Jura with us.
Jura is a beautiful region, we didn’t know it before so it was a true pleasure to discover it together.
The previous years I have enjoyed our wine trips (Bourgogne, Bourgogne, Bourdeaux), but it’s first now that I really can start to enjoy and understand more the wines. So, what’s special then for the wines of Jura. First of all, they have a specific variety of grapes called Savagnin. With these raisins they make white dry wine a with smell of nuts (valnöt). They have several different ways to make the wine, giving different kinds of wine.
The most spectacular preparation is for the ‘Vin Jaune’, the yellow wine, which is kept in wooden barrels for 6 years and 3 months and they don’t add any wine to compensate for the evaporation. When the wine is ready to drink it rests 62% of the original volume (we know that because they chose the size of the bottle to represent what’s left of one liter). What keeps the wine from oxidation is a kind of mushroom which forms a layer on top, this also gives the yellow wine a very special taste and smell. Not everyone likes it. We found it all five quite difficult to like in the beginning, but then after some days one after the other started to get used to it and some started to even like it a lot.
They also do ‘vin de paille’: ‘Straw Wine’ where the grapes are dried to concentrate the juice. The result is a very sweet wine. miam miam.
For the red wines of Jura the specific types are Pulsar and Trosseau. Light wines in both color and taste. I didn’t find them exceptional, but it’s always interesting to try new things.
The two first nights we stayed in a bed&breakfast in a farm. An enormous building, built up from scratch, new and fresh inside. The old house had burnt down, but they kept a bit the style with the big roof, sometimes nearly bigger than the house itself. We got a room with a mezzanine, and above the bed it’s 7 meters up to the ceiling. Saturday evening we ate at the farm with the owners and some other guests. They had prepared a famous dish called ‘poulet au vin jaune’, it’s chicken cooked with the yellow wine.
Sunday we had a day off, moving from Jura to Alsace. The weatherforcast for each day was showing bad weather coming up, but even if there was some drops of rain some days, all days turned out to be really nice and we could even have a picnic in the grass.
Specialities from Jura. Of course we opened a bottle of wine as well!
Vacation!
We moved on to Alsace and spent the following three nights in a bed&breakfast close to Kaysersberg. The nights there was a engagement present from Anthonys parents and a more charming house is hard to find. Decorated to perfection.
Relaxing in front of the house with view on the hills and forests.
I rarley slept in a room as beautiful as this one. The sheets were ‘Lin du Voges’ and so
soft that I didn’t want to leave the bed in the morning.
Even common room and kitchen followed the same standard. The paintings were real, and
the table decoration were different each of the three mornings we ate there.
After the restaurants in the evenings we stopped on the way home in the forest or on a
hill to feel the nature and the moonlight.
Have a look at those pictures taken in almost complete darkness. Amazing that the camera rebuilt the green of the grass and the blue in the sky!
One afternoon Sophie made us company, a childhood friend of Anthony and Vincent, her boyfriend.
We visited 7 wine producers in Alsace. I think I’ll skip the details here, I can just say that there was so much good wine there! Two of the producers who will stay most in my memory was Mr Pierre Frick, using biodynamism, planning the harvest after the moon, and using no additions to the wine other than a very restricted quantity of sulfur for the white wine. It’s a bit in to produce ecological wine, but this man did not follow any trends, he’s been doing it for 15 years.
The second place I’ll remember is the one on the photo above. The owner who also made the degustation for us opened bottels for us to taste for nearly 200 euros! They will use them also for other groups, but it’s a good thing to be there when the bottle is just opened. At some places we tasted wine opened four days ago, and it changes it’s smell and taste a lot in that time. Anthony said that the wines he tasted in this place were some of the best wines he’s ever tasted in his life!
I’ll finish off my story with some pictures with a true alsacian feeling:
05.15.09
Posted in Climbing, Hollidays at 10:12 am by tesstess
Corte
What is better than having 10 days of vacation in front of you, staying at a horse farm (knowing how much I love horses) and climbing in the wild and beautiful nature?
We started our vacation in Corte, a small village in the middle of Corsica. From Nice we took the boat with the car, 6 hours to reach Bastia. And then about an hour to Corte.
The first morning was nice, the discovery of the mountains and the nature, and with horses everywhere.
Just next to Corte lays ‘la vallee de la Restonica’, where we climbed the first three days.
Two new things found: mountain of granit and wild cyklamen.
First day I was still having a bit of a cold and wasn’t in the best climbing shape, we stayed on a normal climbing site and felt for the first time this new kind of rock.
After the climbing we went back to the farm and went on a horse ride. And I forgot to bring my camera! 45 min up on a mountain, beautiful view, and 45 min down. Wonderful horses, arabs, as made for the difficult terrain. Then we ate at the place we’re staying. It’s a special atmosphere among people staying at bed&breakfast, everyone talks and tells stories, not as in a resturant where it’s almost taboo to talk to the neighbour. It surprised us this first evening, when we came and sat down at the long table and 15 people asked us what we had done during the day, where we came from and where we were going.
The second day we went to climb a summit called Sorbello, a 180 meter long route, divided in 4 parts, most of them 6a. But first we had to get there, this is what blocked our way:
First goats on the road, in corsica they let all animals just go free everywhere: goats, pigs, cows, dogs, and even horses in one place. Then, everytime we wanted to find the beginning of a route, it took us 45 minutes of searching for the path. Anthony had shorts and his legs was full of scratches after. The bushes are nice to look at with flowers and all, but there are lots of evil things with torns in there as well.
This rock has so funny shapes! They were wonderful to climb in. And often they made perfect wholes for the ‘breakpoints’.
Off towards heaven. Here I’m climbing the last section, it’s a 6a.
This is how I look just before I go climbing in first, full with roaps, and quickdraws, and a smile which says ‘look at me, I’m so good and I’ll climb in first’. Or something like that. Always as nice to be up on the top and make the mandatory summit photo. In my photos page there are some more photos of the climbing itself if you want to see. I’ll only write about a selection.
The third day we went to a normal climbing site (not a mountain to reach the summit). I was in a good mood and managed to climb a beautiful 6a+ in first, and a 6b in second.
Anthony climbed the 6b in first on the second try.
Bavella
We said good bye to the horses, Corte and Restoinica and drove 2 hours down to Bavella, the mountains in the south.
Found on the way:
Beautiful views. Pigs on the road. Anthony went and touched them, me I was a bit sceptic.
The climbing of the day was ended after the first step because it started to rain. To bad. On the photos you see the 6a+ we climbed. It’s flat, more flat even than you can see. And nothing to hold on to. You put your hands flat on the rock and hope the degree of leaning of the wall is big enough for you to not slide down. Very particular style. And then just after you have those big ‘tafoni’, as the formations are called in the corsica language. Where you can climb roofs without problems, the wholes for hands and feet are big and confortable.
We stayed in a small village called Quenza, in a, from the outside quite ugly bed&breakfast, and from the inside, one of the most beautifully decorated houses I’ve been in.
Our room with mezzanine and Vietnam style.
Here are the rooms for apperitif and dinner.
A bit left of the middle of the photo you see a ’smooth’ mountain. It’s a very famous route going there, called ‘the back of the elephant’. It’s mentioned in the book of over the most beautiful routes of the world, one of the easiest routes in that book, but still a very, very hard one. And of course the dream of Anthony to climb this one with me…
But first we had to warm up.
The meteo announced the worst weather of all this week for the second day in Bavella. Sun in the morning but thunder and rain in the afternoon. I think initially we had planned to do normal climbing but since it’s much more beautiful to climb up to a top we decided to try a long route, but short to be long, only 130m. It should be only 30 min walk to get there, but in fact the guide counted the walk from a refuge, to which Anthony calculated with the map that it should be another 30 min, so I was ok to try it thinking that it was ok to be a bit wet on the return walk, and if it started raining during the climb we would just go down like yesterday.
Well, it turned out that what was quite short on the map in reality was very steep paths - it was a 2 hour walk just to get to the refuge. The path was in the forest, so beautiful and calm. The sun shining and the temperature perfect for walking. We were following the very famous path named GR20, so no risk to take the wrong path, just to follow the small red and white marks.
In our plan was also that there would be a gardien in the refuge and that we would stop by there to eat lunch on the way back but it’s still to early in the season and the gardien had not yet moved out.
When beginning to climb we could see the clouds over Bavella, but on top of us only blue sky and a warm sun. After the first lenght of four we saw that the clouds had grown bigger, we felt some drops, but we thought still that they would stay over there. In the third lenght it started to rain, quite a lot even when it was my turn to climb, and we even heard the thunder far away. The relai was not too good to use for going down on so we decided to have a look at the last lenght. First it we had to walk 20 meters to find the start of it, it stopped raining but everything was wet. It’s very slippery to climb when wet…
Luckily the last lenght was climbing using a crack, so Anthony could put ‘friends’ (his own points) in several places between the real points. It was a 6a and quite hard even in dry weather. Next to the crack was simply a flat wall, leaning, but without anything for the hands. Anthony managed at last to reach the summit, and I managed on my turn to climb completely without using the rope or points, I was proud when at the top, as can be seen on the picture above, it’s when I’m just coming up on the top.
The name of the route has a connection to a woman that suicided there a long time ago, the name is ‘La fille qui m’accompagne’, meaning approximately ‘the girl who keeps me company’. It’s said that when climbing you can still hear the woman cry. On the summit we heard something, I thought first it was someone in the forest on the bottom who had opened a tap with water, but it was strange that it was moving from one place to another. Anthony were thinking of the woman. Then we understood that it was the thunder making these sounds, it’s like when you stand over high voltage ‘ledningar’. I wanted to go down. Quick. We found the good place to go down and in two times we reached the ground. It started to rain again. We went to get our shoes and bags, good to put the feet in real and dry shoes. And then it was just to start walking, with 2,5 hours of rain and mostly uphill infront of us.
In the middle of the bad luck with the weather we got to see those salamanders, only coming out in wet weather. Crazy how these ‘wet’ animals can live in a forest normally so dry all summer.
Two other wet animals. Anthony didn’t even have a rain coat and was wet all through.
We had found one package of cookies in anthonys sack, he gave me 3 and ate 1 himself just before starting climbing. When starting to walk back at 4pm we were already so hungry, and when reaching the car almost dead. Anthony was weat all through, but me I had my jacket so only the legs and feet wet.
Here is the view of ‘our’ mountain taken on the way back when the sun finally won over the rain.
I think we’re the first and only guests in the cafee in Zenza where stoped on the way back who bought and ate an ice cream and a hot chocolate at the same time. I can say it is very tasty after such an adventure.
Even more tasty was the dinner back at the bed and breakfast. Echines de porc avec pruno and tagliatelle. Super this ‘restaurant’ they have!
The last day in Bavella we climbed a route of 230m, very beautiful. After the day before I was too tired and had to dissapoint Anthony by saying I had not enough energy to try ‘the back of the elephant’.
It’s high. And here, when having to climb a bit sideways, if falling I would swing in a bow, which is worse than just falling straight down, much more risk to hurt yourself on the mountain, well, here the wall is flat, so I couldn’t really break anything. Flat also means: nothing to hold on to. Very technical and interesting climbing!
One of the middle points were like this, you secure yourself on the point, and then you ’sit’ over the emptyness, 150m up on the cliff. Stunning views.
Happy ending of the 6 days climbing.
Porto
The vacation went on to a softer mode, and we went up the west cost of Corsica as real tourists. Anthony took thousands of wonderful photos. I’m longing to have a new house so I have more place to put them up on the walls.
Anthony showed me this nice beach where he spent lots of summers as kid, fishing under water with his dad. When putting the feet in the water we never thought it was possible to swim, but then after some minutes it got better and when finally in, it was really nice!
A small village with lots of flowers, mostly geranium/perlagoner and roses, and two churches, one grec and one french.
How life is nice!
After this crazy beautiful day we finally reached Porto, where we stayed in a small cottage on a camping.
Porto with it’s big beach of small round stones.
The next day we followed a small river and stayed several hours on the small beach just under one of the bridges built on the time where Corsica belonged to Genova.
The water was freezing, just melted snow…
But who can resist so clear water?
The bravest one of us.
In the afternoon we took a walk to ‘Cappo Rosso’, a tower also built by the people from Genova.
A silent and beautiful day.
The last day of the vacation we rented a small boat.
But it’s not because no license is need that it doesn’t go fast… 9 horsepowers.
We visited the small village where the closest road is a 2 hours walk away, and most communication to the outside world is done by boat.
We saw mountains in all kinds of shapes, and we also saw several eagels!
We went in a small cave where the water was crystal clear and looked at all the small ‘aquarium’ fishes.
In the afternoon we took the smallest and most turning road I’ve never seen, along the coast between Porto and Calvi, to stay there over the night and take the boat to Nice the morning after.
We found a field full of flowers.
I’m so much recommending to go to this crazy beautiful island, especially in May. It was my first time, but far from the last!
04.16.09
Posted in Etzling, Hollidays, Family at 9:59 pm by tesstess
We made a long weekend of the already long easter-weekend, went upp to Anthonys parents in Lorraine (close to Forbach). Thursday morning we started with bying me a new car. My first new car, completely red, a Twingo, serie Rip Curl (means red details inside and some other small things). I cannot show you it on picture because it’ll be finished in july… I’m longing to have it. Specially since my old car decided to stop working the day before. It could have been just a strike, but since it’s not a french car we think it’s more serious. Happened when I was in antibes at lunch, when I wanted to go back to work it just didn’t start. Luckily I was parked on a free parking because the same evening we were going to the airport, so no chance to move it. We got it yesterday lunch with anthonys car and a rope, interesting trip from Antibes to Valbonne through roundabouts and all.
Then the rest of the vacation we ate, drank good wine, talked with the family and most of all, spent the time on the fields with fruit trees. The trees were abandoned for many years, some already dead. We started this work last time we were up, and this time we cut down four, planted six new and cleaned many others. I spent several hours on the lawn mower tractor cutting the grass, funny!
Choupie running with spring energy!
We managed to forget almost all the pictures on a usb stick in his parents house, I’ll try to add them later. Among the other pictures I have one showing how Choupie was spending most of the time while we were working with the trees.
11.11.08
Posted in Hollidays, Madagascar at 1:29 pm by tesstess
Tuesday the 11 November
Day of return to Tana. Early in the morning we took a taxi, which was not a taxi but a family going to Diego in their old 4×4. Almost arrived in Diego the car broke down, the cooling liquid ran out on the ground under the car. We felt sorry for the guy and his family. Luckily for us there came a yellow taxi just after us and we could go with it to the airport.
Everything went fine. We managed (hm, no, Anthony managed) to negotiate the price of the taxi from the airport to Tana from 40 000 to 25 000, and on top we got the most modern car of all our stay on Mada.
The hotel had nice personel and the room, on the third and top floor was charming. They also had kittens which lay in my knee when eating breakfast = happy Tess.
In the evening we ate in a nice, quite cheap restaurant. It took about 10-15 minutes to walk there from our hotel. I was scared all the way. Compared to the place we stayed in at the arrival to Mada this area of Tana was really calm, on the way to the restaurant we didn’t see a single person, which is scary in another way than when surrounded by strange people.
Wednesday the 12 November
The big market day. And also last day on Madagascar, at least that’s what we thought… in fact, late in the evening Anthony ade the reflection that if our flight left at midday, there would be no change to get the flight Paris-Nice at ten in the evening which we had planned. So, we double checked the AF tickets and – indeed they were on Friday, not Thursday. What a miss! The hotel had internet so we verified the Corsair flights and saw that the one we had initially planned to take was Friday (there are no dates on the GP tickets). Suddenly we had one more day of vacation!
We spent all morning in the biggest market in Tana, just looking around, then ate lunch and planned to do all the shopping of souvenirs in the afternoon. The weather didn’t want to play our game but decided to rain so our shopping was quite hectic. When we bought vanilla we got surrounded by ten people, all trying to sell us their vanilla, showing us why this or that one would be better. We had the hands full and got a bit stressed. How to know what is good quality and not? We had read they should be long, dark, a little bit towards red but not brown. And not too dry. It took Anthony half an hour to negotiate the good vanilla and price.
The last evening, which was not the last evening, we had decided to eat in a more expensive restaurant. It had a décor in warm red colors and servers everywhere. The first menu we got was only for aperitifs We ordered a drink each. After finishing the drink we both wanted more, and since it was the last evening… hm, anyways, we bought another one. When I had trunk one third of my new cocktail I was starting to get drunk. The food arrived but I couldn’t eat. Anthony told me after I had gone all white in the face. I had probably not drunk enough water during the day. Then I was happy we had one more evening so that our vacation didn’t end with a failed restaurant visit.
Thursday the 13 November
What would we do with this extra day? In fact I didn’t managed to buy all the day before, being so stressed by the rain and the sellers. We decided to visit another market. The sun was with us and we found lots of funny things. The market itself was an attraction, there were everything to be found, from furniture, to hats and jewelry, to animals, dead or alive.
In the afternoon we made a walk in Tana that the guide book had recommended. It went up on the highest hill, to the palace of the queen. From there we had a great view in all directions. We took a guide who explained us a bit of the history of the kings and queens. The palace itself what not a lot to see, it burnt down ten years ago and now they tried to rebuild it. The history were starting 700 years earlier, we saw drawings of kings with palaces more like huts, very different from our own history.
In the afternoon there was a thunder storm, it was the beginning of the rain season. And in the evening we returned to our very first restaurant. The musicians were there again. We were the only guests this night and the owner took well care of us. We ordered gabons and got four mega shrimps each. It was a memorable evening, and a good ending of our vacation.
11.05.08
Posted in Hollidays, Madagascar at 5:25 pm by tesstess
Wednesday the 5 November
Luckily this night it didn’t rain. It was time to leave the nature and go to Diego.
On the way we visited the Tzingy Rouges, having a private taxi, the famous Roger. (på franska uttalas det rocheeer). He was the only one driving a 4L on the tracks between the road and the Tzingy Rouges, he even had made his own track in a place where the normal path was too slippery and bad. I’m sure he would be successful if he tried to compete in rallies, I’ve never seen such a skilled driver! And I’ve rarely been so worried to get stuck in the nowhere.
The ‘road’ was in so bad shape that the car was leaning to one side, then to the other, I almost thought it would fall. And to not get stuck in the uphills he had to go fast. The car sounded like it would break any moment.
We made small stops along the way and Roger told us some history of the villages, mountains, rivers and seas.
The tzingys were beautiful, very special. A bit rounded, formed by the rain, staying up because of the clay, but they’re mostly consisting of sand. Roger told us that they change each time it rains, the ones closest to the river melts, and new are formed next to the canyon wall.
We saw another car, a 4×4, with tourists, they were slightly before us. When we came back to the real road and got our bags back (we had left them there to not be too heavy in the car), the tourists took photos of us and the yellow 4L, their driver had told them stories about this famous Roger.
On the way to Diego we stopped to buy mangos, Roger bought us a whole bag full, about 20 mangos. They cost 50Ar each.
Thursday the 6 november
A middle day, we didn’t do much. Walked around in Diego, an ok city, not very beautiful, but not too bad either. We ate lunch in a nicer restaurant with sea view, then wrote the post cards.
For dinner we ate mangos. The hotel was nice but a bit boring without windows.
Anthonys cold didn’t want to leave, even with the antibiotics. Sad, it removed quite a lot of the fun for him, even though it didn’t stop us from doing things.
Friday the 7 November
Today we went with Roger to visit Montagne d’Ambre. (Ambre = koda eller sav). We made a five hour walk with a guide who showed us lots of funny animals and plants. On the way there was a couple of waterfalls and a lake.
The nature differed in different places of the forest.
Lemurians of another species.
A very touristic photo. And a Fikus Etrangler.
Do you see them? We never would if the guide didn’t point them out for us. Click on the photos to see them bigger.
These will rest my favourites. So cute! And they will not get bigger!
Incredible this cameliont! Very funny way of walking.
We then moved to Ramena (pronounced Ramenn), a small fishing village just at the sea. The sea on the other side this time, the Indian Ocean.
We saw these Baobabs on the way between Diego and Ramena.
The streets in the village were of sand. In the evening some friends of Roger helped us to find a restaurant. It was located in a small house a bit aside from the main street, we would never have found our way there ourselves. When we came there was no lights on, but when the owner saw us she turned them on. We were a bit sceptic at first, strange to be all alone in a restaurant, but it turned out to be the best restaurant of the village. The woman went down to the center to buy fresh fish, then fried it, and served it with rice cooked in coconut milk. Delicious.
Saturday the 8 November
Contrary to the restaurant the night before, the hotel was really crap! We panicked with hundreds of mosquitoes, especially in the toilet. The neighbors of the hotel put super loud party music (dunkadunka) on up to nine in the evening, starting again seven in the morning. And then all the flies at breakfast. We simply couldn’t stand it.
We visited three other hotels in Ramena before finding one with a free room. Seems like a very popular village.
The new room was more expensive than any up to now, but also the far best one. Clean, no mosquitoes (protection on the windows), big private bathroom with hot shower and a normal amount of water in the shower instead of ¼ speed that we’d had up to now, calm, not a single noise around, and then the best of all – right at the beach. 10 to 20 steps in white sand to reach the water (depending on the tide).
These photos are taken ten steps from the door of our hotel room. We spend the whole day at the beach and in the hotel room. And, do you know what!? They even had four lemurs in a tree close to the hotel! Free, traveling around in the trees in the neighborhood. We were counting the money left, realizing it was not a lot, hardly enough for the days to come at Ramena. We already took out money with my visa card once in Diego, I’m a bit afraid that will cost…
More Madagaskisk Daggecko.
Sunday the 9 November
From Ramena there is a known walk to do, called ‘les trois baies’ = ‘The three bays’. We discussed a lot with different people to know if we could do this walk alone, without guide. Most of the people told us it was preferable to have a guide. After all the people here are very poor, not always secure for tourists to be alone. This is a trend just starting in the north, some areas being less safe than before, but it’s still far from as in Tana.
Since we had already gone over our travel budget we decided to go alone.
The first small bay was an old military zone. Abandoned huts everywhere, and a beautiful beach. The only military in view was at the road at the entering of this area, taking an entry fee, we guess specially put there because there are tourists that pass.
A black dog followed us from Ramena and kept with us like if she belonged to us.
At the first bay we stoped to swim a bit. The dog lay down close to our bags, like if to guard them. So, somehow we got a guide anyways. A bit later we crossed a couple of houses and a woman grilling prawns, and here our dog decided to stay, hoping to get some rests.
Between the bays we were completely alone. At one point Anthony saw a man behind us and we got worried to be attacked. We walked faster, and even missed the second bay. The third bay, Sakalava, also known for surfing, were very big. We ate our lunch and took a swim.
We took the road (which of course could hardly be called a road) back. It was a long and hot walk. We hoped that we would get home before the dark. When getting out on the bigger road between Diego and Ramena we bought some beautiful shells in a small stand. A small truck came by and offered us a lift. It was a truck with the two seats in the same direction as the road, like an old military truck. It was a funny.
This day we had an uncomfortable story with langousts (also called spiny lobster, or rock lobster). Madagascar is a bit famous for it’s langousts, we had spoken to several tourists who told us how good it had been. Already at Nosy Komba we wanted try it out but they told us it was not allowed to catch them at the moment, since it was reproduction time. On the path along the three bays the met a fishermen who had caught two langousts and wanted to sell them to us, and after a long discussion we agreed on meeting him in the evening at our hotel, where we pay and ask the hotel to cook them for us. However, when the fishermen came by in the evening and we talked to the hotel owner we understood there was a problem. The fishermen had left the langousts there in the morning, apparently this hotel have a deal with this fisherman and since the owner didn’t want to make the fisherman or us angry they had accepted to the langousts and put them in the freezer. But they didn’t want to cook them for us since it was not allowed. Everyone was a bit pissed off. The owner, who was French and drunk every evening, decided in the end to pay the fisherman for the langousts, to not loose his confidence. We felt really stupid.
Monday the 10 November
Last day on the beaches of Madagascar. Three fishermen came in the morning with their boat just infront of our hotel and brought us on the expedition to ‘La mer d’Emeraude’. There were some clouds but at midday it cleared up.
The color of this lagoon is crazy, so beautiful! We saw some flat fish swim next to the boat, about one meter wide!
We stayed all afternoon at a beautiful beach where there were some huts to eat in. The everyday life of the fishermen of Ramena is to fish early in the morning, and the rest of the day bringing tourists over the lagoon to this beautiful beach. It’s the day where we saw most tourists on the same time.
We did some snorkeling and some relaxing in the shadow of a palm tree. The fishermen prepared a nice lunch with crab and grilled fish.
11.03.08
Posted in Hollidays, Madagascar at 4:41 pm by tesstess
Monday the 3 November
Alarm on 4.30. Tired. Fast do the packing. At 5.30 one of the guys from the blue boat came to help us with the bags. They let us on first, then they filled the rest of the boat with local people. The boat left at 5.50, ten minutes before time. Sometimes they surprise us. Everywhere we seem to be the only tourists! Well, on Nosy Komba we saw around then other tourists. Maybe two older couples, otherwise only white, fat men around 50, only there for the beautiful young malgash girls. They made me angry.
At Nosy Be we made sure to carry our bags ourselves to the big harbor. Along the way a guy tried to convince us to go with a boat, and then he presented us to a taxi brousse driver who would take us directly at the depart to the nature reserve of Ankarana. The price was a bit expensive, but the driver said we would be only three on each row in the bus, to not have it too crowded. Anthony managed to get the price down from 30 to 25 for boat + bus. The driver wanted us to pay him half before the boat left but Anthony refused and we paid 15 before leaving. Anthony didn’t feel secure with the guy and was worried for our bags, he was surprised to see the driver on the boat, he thought he had fooled us completely and wouldn’t come.
The boat was completely crowded of people. We were sitting in the front, like VIP with 20 other people who I think paid more than the ones who were very crowded outside.
Getting of the boat I followed one of our bags carried away by a big guy. Five other guys also wanted to carry it and they started fighting. Someone stepped on the shoe of the big guy so that it broke, he was really angry. I was happy the bag didn’t break and that we didn’t have anything fragile inside. In the end he found our bus and the bags were put on the roof. We went to eat some bananas and a café (in a place where we could still keep an eye on the bags).
When getting into the bus we understood that the driver was not they guy who we had paid, our guy was just a middle hand finding clients early and taking money in between. They put a small girl between me and Anthony. First I tried to refuse, we were already three on the row, but Anthony told me it was ok. Then they took her out and wanted to put a man in her place. Here I had enough and said clearly NO. They didn’t agree and tried again to push in the man in the bus. I was getting panic and screamed so I scared everyone, including Anthony. Anthony tried to calm me. I felt like I needed to throw up. We put the man next to the window and me between him and Anthony on top of the 10 cm wide hole between the two seats. We were all swimming in sweat. It took four hours.
The bungalow in the park was ok, clean sheets and mosquito protection. Common but fresh shower and toilets.
The guy helping us with the bags turned out to be a guide and we decided to take a smaller walk already the same evening.
It turned out later that the guide was not a real guide but a “pisteur”, the step before becoming a guide. His French was not very good and resulting in quite a few misunderstandings. However he was nice and knew all the latin names of plants and animals. Just that we would have been more interested in pedagogic explanations and French names…
We saw a view point and a cave with bats and skeleton. It was impressive and we were happy we decided to make this evening tour. On the way back it was completely dark and we could see night living lemurians in the trees, or at least a couple of eyes.
Tuesday the 4 November
The big excursion day. We had decided to make the ‘grand tour’ to the green lake. We also wanted to include the smaller side tracks on the way which normally was the ‘medium tour’. Our guide had a funny way of calculating the total price, he added the cost of the big and the medium tours together, even if the medium tours was just twenty minutes side tracks from the path of the ‘grand tour’. Anthony managed to negotiate this to something a bit more reasonable. In total this day we walked 26km.
During the night it had rained. The mice had eaten on the palm leaves on the roof, leaving small holes for the rain to come in through. It’s kind of hard to sleep when it’s dropping on your legs.
However, the dropping at night was nothing compared to how drenched we were some hours later. Walking in the rain forest under tropical rain doesn’t leave a centimeter of your clothes dry. I kept thinking about Karin and Andreas who would have loved the rain, and I managed to find it amusing. I held out my hands and felt the big warm drops.
We saw trees, birds, lizards and cameleonts. Not a lot of birds, maybe because it was still kind of winter. There were only one kind of perot, a dark grey one making lots of noise and different sounds.
This bird is just swallowing a lizard, tail still outside. It stayed on the branch and didn’t let himself be disturbed by us during his meal.
The rain finally ceased and we could take out the camera. At the lake we took a one hour, well needed pause. The guide put banana on the trees to attract the lemurians that usually arrives in ten minutes when smelling the bananas, but this day none came. They had probably went down deeper in the forest to get more protection from the rain.
On the way back we got to see several groups of lemurians. So cute, especially the mother with the child on the back.
We saw beautiful tzingy with a newly built path and even a hanging over a small canyon. This was one of the most spectacular nature views we saw, but the battery of the camera was dead. The grey sharp rock, contrasted with the fresh light green leaves on the cactus trees.
When we got back at six it was just getting dark. Ten hours of walking.
10.29.08
Posted in Hollidays, Madagascar at 2:18 pm by tesstess
Wednesday the 29 October – Nosy be and Nosy Komba
We arrived at seven in the morning in Ambilobe where we had to change taxibrousee.
School taxi and banana shop.
Between Tana and Majunga the weather had changed from cold to hot. This time, on one night it was the natures turn to change - from brown and try to green and humid.
We took a boat out to nosy be. In Hell-Ville all prices are at least twice as expensive than we’ve seen before. We ate lunch in a restaurant, it was nice to relax after so many hours of bus, change of bus, and then the boat, not to forget the super-heavy bags we had with us. Full with climbing shoes, tent and sleeping bags… which in the end we didn’t use.We soon learnt that there were no boats out to Nosy Komba after lunch (our selected island which should be a bit less touristic than Nosy Be), because then the waves were becoming higher. We hurried down and found a small boat. It took us half an hour to negotiate a reasonable price. Only people and bags on this one, no furniture. Anthony was a bit worried when the waves got higher, but I felt safe. Once I got a wave up on my back and was all wet but what does that matter when the water is 27 degrees? We discussed with a student who knew both French and English, who came from the island.
Finally we arrived to our paradise island. White sand, turquoise water, pirogues along the village beach, smiling people, broderies hanging for sale, moving in the wind. And, the best of all – no cars, no electricity, no noise.
I guarded the bags on the beach while Anthony walked around in the village and watched the different rooms available. Unfortunately we didn’t find one with both see view and private duch/wc, so in the end we took a room in the middle of the village, it was the most fresh one.
Slowly a new feeling filled me. A feeling of calm. After 24 hours of traveling we were finally installed. We found a restaurant with sea view and one tourist in which we ate with and discussed all the evening. He had been traveling a lot in his life and had lots of stories to tell. We ate shrimps and fried vegetables. Delicious. And much less expensive. At lunch they had had 60 people eating (compared us three in the evening), it’s because the tourists comes out to the island from Nosy Be in the morning and returns in the afternoon. We actually saw them and their flashy plastic motor boats just leaving when we came in.
The house in the corner is our favourite restaurant and to the right is our favourite food shop. What do you need more than fruits and rum?
During the night I had problems to sleep, even though I was so tired. First it was the mice eating on the roof, then the fact of being so far from the civilization, surrounded by people and a culture you don’t know, and then a then a tropical thunderstorm with enormous amounts of rain.
Thursday the 30 October
A day in relax mode. Walking around in the village, eating some fruits, swimming a bit.
Nosy Komba is famous for it’s broderies, there were women sitting everywhere making those cloths.
Friday the 31 october – mountain trip on Nosy Komba
Yvonne is an old woman specialized in guiding the tourists up through the jungle to the top of the island, 600 in altitude. When asking someone in the village who to take as guide, everyone talks about Yvonne.
We had appointment 7.30 but we had put the alarm wrongly and left an hour later. Even in the morning it was killing hot outside. Imagine then the big mountain shoes, long pants and long sleeved shirt. We walked very slowly.
Every ten meters Yvonne stopped to show us a new plant and each one had different medical powers. She gave us a leave of this, a leave of that, some seeds and then lots of flowers in all possible colors. Our pockets and hands were completely full.
Every 100 meters she told us how high we were. Sometimes a breath of fresh air came, but most of the time it was only this heavy air.
Funny to think of Anthony going up so many thousands of meters on Alaska and here it was so hard to go up 600. In the end I was so tired and hungry that I could hardly walk or listen to the explanations.
Finally we reached a village, one of the cutest ones we’ve seen. There were chickens in all sizes, ducks and a cat walking around, all in a good health. We sat down at t table in the shadow and watched the whole village preparing us a meal.
No half fabricate here, no, all was from scratch: we saw them bring away one of the hens, then prepare it, take of feathers etc. They dipped the hen in boiling hot water to make the feathers etc.
An hour later the most fantastic meal was served, just for us two. The guide and the people of the village ate after us, next to the houses. For dessert they came with a whole ananas (that Yvonne had bought from a girl on the way up) and it was full of flowers in it’s ‘hat’. Taking of the hat it was an ‘ananas-papaye-soup’ inside. They had taken all the ananas out, prepared it and put it back again. It was very sweet, we thought they had added a lot of sugare but a day after, when tasting an ananas we opened ourselves we understood that they really are that sweet. Anthony was surprised I could eat so much of it, about two thirds. Mjam.
Then we started the way down. This time with more speed since we had started late in the morning. Yvonne still stopped often to explain things but right after she said ‘on avance’ and we had to go on.
Jackfruit (Jaquier in french and Jackfrukt in swedish), like chewing gum to eat. Ananas on his plant. It produces one ananas, then it dies.
Pepper and Vanilla.
Cacao trees.
Clove, (Girofle in french, Kryddnejlika in swedish).
Traveller’s Tree (Arbre a Voyageur, De Resandes Träd). There is always water inside, and from the leaves you can make a roof to protect you from weather and wind. The plant is originally from Madagascar and the latin name is Ravenala Madagascariensis. It’s often used to build roofs.
In a small shed, Yvonne called in a bell and two girls came to show us how they make syrup from sugar plants. We got to taste both the plant itself and the syrup. Very sweet, of course.
Further down we passed a village where they were preparing coffe and insects.
Down at the sea again we saw a nice school house. We tasted one of the funny big fruits. It was too dark to take a picture of the inside of it. It was like a chewing gum in taste and consistency, but quite good. We also saw our first lemurian.
The last part from the small village to our own village was with a boat with oars. There were no paths along the coast of this island, only up on the top and down from there to the different villages. The people took the boat like we in france take the car.
Tiering day, full of impressions. We ate crab for dinner.
Saturday the 1 November – Nosy Tanikile
Today we wanted to go around the island but Raymond-Papa was already taken. We started to ask for someone that could take us to Tanikile and at once there was a guy who took us across the village to another guy who proposed us to go with him and his boat for 60 000 Ar.
So peaceful and beautiful to be on the sea. Just before starting we bought a beach bag. In the shop I managed to be eaten five times on the legs by mosquitoes, didn’t expect to find them like that in the morning. They left big marks on my legs, very itching. We put cream on. Then when putting sun cream I avoided the bites to not remove the other cream – resulting in funny sun burns after…
It took maybe one hour with the boat. On the island we put our towel under a palm and went into the water with mask and feet. It was like an aquarium, full of fish and coral. We saw several sea turtles. One big bläckfisk. There were so many things to look at! The guide told us the fish hade been really tame before, eating bread directly from the hand but now there were people who were fishing illegally at night, so they went more wild.
We stayed all day, which is up to two, because then the waves get higher. We ate ananas and mango for lunch. The guide had brought a plate and he cut and prepared the fruit for us without asking, I found that nice.
Sunday the 2 November
We went on the blue plastic boat around the island. The first stop was not on a beach, but I and Anthony wanted to snorkel a bit from the boat. There were some coral but not a lot and not so many fishes.
We swam into a small, beautiful and completely empty beach, sat down for some minutes, then went back to the boat.
The second stop was on a big beach, here they told us we would eat. We went for a walk and visited the hotel “Jardin Vanille” which is also in the guide with a very good note. Guide says 65eur for half pension, but the price was 80eur in reality. Per person. Seemed like a really nice place and the view was magnifique.
Then we went snorkeling and found a really beautiful coral reef. Not as many fishes. There was a current sideways that went stronger later on in the day, so the next time we went in the water we only could swim in one direction. Didn’t feel dangerous though, we could always easily swim into land.
The tree guys we had with us didn’t talk much, I think they were young and shy, and not enough good in French. However they knew what they were doing when cooking. The meal they served us under a big tree was consisting of a salad carrot/mange/cucumber as starter, then rice cooked in coconut milk with prawns in sauce – which Anthony found as one of the best made things we’ve eaten in all our time on Mada. I agree with him that it was very tasty. And then they grilled fresh fish, also really good. Mini-bananas for desert.
We made some more snorkeling after having eaten, but this time we didn’t find the coral reef, it was gone, very strange. I think we were fooled by the tide and the current was so strong that we decided to stop searching. In the end Anthony held on to a ‘boy’ and me in Anthony and we were ‘flying’ like a flag… hm, not the clearest explanation there.
We stopped in a small village on the way back where they were constructing pirogues. Fun to see them from the very early steps, to half finished and finished boats.
10.23.08
Posted in Hollidays, Madagascar at 1:49 pm by tesstess
The vacation of this year was our trip to Madagascar. Three weeeks of adventure. I’ll split the story here in five parts: Tana/Majunga, Nosy Komba, Ankarana, Diego Suarez and then again Tana.
I kept a diary each day, it’s pretty detailed so you’re not obliged to read it all, it’s more for me and Anthony to remember our trip. But look at all the photos, they’re put on my photo site with start here.
Only the first day is in swedish, then the rest is in english. Probably with quite a lot of spelling misstakes since I was writing fast and here I’ve only copied what I wrote in my notebook along the way.
Torsdagen den 23 October
Det är tidig morgon, vi är på planet till Madagaskar. Si och så med sömnen när man sitter upp. Oj, nu kom en röd sol upp vid horisonten. Vi är förväntansfulla, speciellt jag, det är ju första gången jag besöker en så helt annorlunda kultur, fattig, afrikansk, vänliga vad jag hört. De malgasker vi sett på flygplatsen verkade i alla fall trevliga, öppna och glada.
Så himla kul igår på jobbet att säga hejdå, vi ses om tre veckor. Det är min första riktiga semester. När vi kommer tillbaks har Xavier lämnat teamet och Vincent är där istället, tredje teamleadern på ett år. Verkligen trist att mista Xavier, jag hade så mycket kvar att lära av honom, men Vincent är bra, det tvekar jag inte det minsta på.
Jag har med mig kapitel 3 till 7 av java certificate boken. Hoppas jag kan få mig till att läsa dem. Det första jag gjorde på flygplatsen i paris, mina första timmar av semestern var att göra en ritning på ett hus, det är att vara ledig, då har man inget viktigare att göra för stunden. Det blev ett sluttningshus med först ett plan, och sen två, och högt till tak i mitten med en liten bro mellan två delar på övervåningen. Anthony tyckte det var bättre att ha barnens rum på övervåningen så jag får nog göra om lite, ha föräldrarnas suite på entree-planet. Jag som hade löst det så bra med toaletter och badrum, som alltid är så vårt – Anthony vill ha föräldra-badrum med toa och dush, barnen ska ha sitt badrum, och sen då, gör man en tredje toa till gäster, och nära ytterdörren så man kan gå in med skor?
Nu är solen helt uppe, fullt av moln och vi ska snart landa.
Friday the 24 October
First day on Madagascar. The impression from the plane before landing was that the ground was brown, there were no trees and all was dry. How disappointing, we were expecting to see rainforest.
The visa was more expensive than we expected, and then the plane to Diego was full. But here we are, ready for the adventure! We fast changed the plan, instead of going by plane to Diego, the most northern city and slowly move down the west coast to Nosy Be, we would go the other way around, start by going by taxi brousse upwards, then taking the plane back down.
There were taxi drivers everywhere, trying to convince us to go with them. It was hard for us since we didn’t know how much was normal to pay.
A taxi took us to three hotels in our guide but all were full, at last we agreed on being brought to a hotel he knew (where he of course would get money for bringing us…). The street was dirty and we didn’t like the look of the people on it. The room was ugly and simple, but clean.
We spent the day walking around in Tana, sometimes taking a taxi.
Getting a taxi brousse for going to Majunga was a bit of an adventure, or more “cultural chock”. We took a taxi and said we wanted a taxi brousse for Manunga. He asked if we wanted to go through a collectif or not, we didn’t know… When arriving on the big taxibrousse street a man started running next to the car, put his head in the open window and then opening the door and jumping in, all without the car stopping. We thought it was someone crazy, but he discussed with the driver and we stopped. Then he begun dealing with us for taxibrousse, and first then we understood that he was actually a seller. We were confused but managed to get an ok price and then made him mark our names with pen in his bus plan (if not he can book many people on the same seats). The taxi took us back to the center.
All day we felt a bit uneasy with our deal, and when reading again the guide we saw names of more secure cooperatives, that would be safe and give you the three seats in the bus you paid for.
We decided to go back in the afternoon to find a better taxi. Also we wanted to travel daytime, we had heard there could be attacks on taxibrousses at night were all luggage could be stolen.
We found Vatsy, one of the cooperatives from the book and bought new tickets. Apparently all of them go at night so there we didn’t have a choice, but at least we felt more secure to have the three seats so we could lay down a bit.
In the evening we took a taxi to a restaurant from the guide (Guide du routard) and was very happy. The decoration was really nice, lots of colors, there was a live band playing traditional music. I bought a cd from them in the end. Me, I ate zebu steack rolled with foi gras inside. We took a taxi home direct to outside the hotel door, it didn’t feel safe to walk even five meters on that street, which was also confirmed by the taxi driver and the hotel receptionist.
Saturday the 25 October
We walked around in Tana. Discussed with a French man in a café who had been many times on Madagascar. Good to have some advice.
We found a small market and bought a watch (which we used a lot until Anthony swam with it two weeks later and the “waterproof” watch got filled with water and stopped). Other than that, the market was not very interesting, and on top it was starting to rain.
The taxibroussse travel took 10 hours, starting at 6 pm. At 8 it stopped so we could eat in a small road-restaurant. Lots of rice and chicken for 2500 per person – one euro.
I found it hard to sleep, I was so worried we would be attacked. Each time the bus slowed down or stopped I listened and expected to hear men shouting. Of course nothing happened. Anthony had also problems to sleep, but more because of lack of space, and because of the heat. It got more and more hot, the closer we came to the coast.
Sunday the 26 October
We arrived 4 am, and stayed to sleep a bit in the bus until the city began to wake up. Then we took a taxi to one of the hotels in the guide, some minutes outside the city center, which luckily had free rooms. We spent the day in a very relaxed mode, walking around in the city and sending some emails to say we survived so far.
A strange city, all empty. We called it a ghost city.
In the afternoon we took a taxi to a beach, about half an hour from Majunga. The firsta five minutes on a real road, then the rest on a dust road in very bad shape. For the driver and the taxi all afternoon we payed 33 000 Ar, about 15 eur.
When it was close to sunset we took a walk to the “cirque rouge” which was marked in the guide as something to see at sunset. We arrived a bit late but saw a bit of the warm colors. I didn’t find it that spectacular though.
Monday the 27 Majunga
A day full of impressions. We’re tired. Very happy to be back at hotel and take a shower (especially for the feet, but I’ll tell you about that later).
We started early. Crazy idea we thought when the alarm went off at six o’clock and we just wanted to sleep three more hours. It was after all the first night of this vacation in a place with slower pace than in Tana – a place more for relaxing (but not as Nosy Be of course).
Anyways. We went up, ate a ‘continental breakfast’: baguette (not very good, a bit dry), butter, mango ‘sauce’, and honey to put on bread, a small glass of good juice (abricot?) and hot chocolat/coffe. Ah, I have to not forgot to mention the sea view. Nice (but not exceptional).
We both thought that by going down on the bigger road we would directly find a taxi, there have up to now been taxis asking us if we want to go somewhere at any moment, so we didn’t ask the hotel to call for one. Misstake. Empty road and we started walking. It’s not very far to town, maybe a quarter, but then the boat-station is on the other side… luckily we found a taxi close to the baobab. We reached the boat station 7.35, boat should leave 7.30, boat gone. One of the ten men gathering around us explained it had left 7.15. Ok, seems people here are on time. Since there are only 2 boats a day we were disappointed. Hm, in fact I didn’t say yet what we wanted to do. Plan was to cross the channel to come to Katsepy, spend the day there and go back with the boat in the afternoon. The guide said there would be a nice walk to do to a light house and that one of the best restaurants in this region would be there. There would also be beaches, even if one of the guide books says it was not recommended to swim (because of the red water I think).
People around us suggested us to go with this or that small boat, for this or that price, special boat for us or boat that would leave when full. It seemed really expensive for a while, until we finally got a “vingt cinq mille ariar” from someone and everyone pointed towards a small boat and said we had to hurry. The boat was filled with people, bags, chairs and a table, just in some minutes. We got all a life vest each, and then we left. We were surprised but happy. In the end much more fun to do what the locals do, and in fact, there were only locals on the boat.
45 minutes later the boat touched the beach on the other side, before the big boat had arrived. We were waiting for people to get of so we could go off, but in fact they were so fast to change that the new ones were already in place. We walked in the water up on the sand, then on into the village. Difficult place to describe, don’t think I took it in picture since it was quite ugly. Small houses with openings where people sold small things, food etc. It was dirty, I didn’t see any fridges. Two minutes of walk and we were out of the village on the only road leading away from there, most people and cars on the big boat went this way directly towards other villages further away.
We asked an old man how far it was to the light house, he estimated it to 8 km. Pah, a bit long. We turned around and went along the beach instead, hoping it would be shorter.
The sea was red from the beach and ten meters out so we didn’t felt so invited to swim. It was getting hot. We found a tree under which we ate our two mangos. We saw a tiny bird, black I think with a bent beak, funny with animals that you never saw before.
We passed two women picking mussles, Anthony went to talk to them, to see what they were doing but I don’t think they spoke French because they just looked down shyly and continued. So we continued as well. It started to get really hot and we wondered how far it would be still…
A lady came with a basket with two fishes and two big langoustes, so beautiful with lots of colors. She didn’t speak many words French, she wanted to sell the langousts to us and we wanted to have them. Anthony tried to make a meeting with her at midday in Katsepy, one hour from then, but the only thing she said was “trop tard” and “madame chabeau”, which is the restaurant.
We continued. There were some houses next to the beach, well houses I don’t know, rather leave huts… we asked a woman how far it was to the light house, she didn’t speak French at all, but she made us follow her in a fast walk away from the beach, in the direction of the light house. It showed out to be still very far, and we showed her that it was to far, that we were hungry and wanted to go to Katsepy. She showed us where the path were, we gave her some money and started walking.
The light house can be seen on the first picture, tiny and close to the horizon.
The path led away from the sea. We were worried we would get lost but calculated that we would sooner or later end up on the bigger road to the light house. Which we did. We drank the last drops of water and walked as fast as we could back.
We were almost dead when we arrived. We met actually the lady with langoustes again, but she couldn’t communicate how to do, where to cook them, so we went to Madame Chabeau and ate. Clean, good looking place. Very calm. Only one other couple eating there, and only one man in the kitchen. The fish he made us was delicious, with algae, haricot verts and rice. And grean fresh pepper on top! We drank a big bottle of coca cola and one of water, and slowly we came back into life.
Anthony took pictures of flowers and lizards. Since there seemed to be nothing else to see or do in this village we stayed there reading our guidebooks for some hours.
On the way back we took a pirogue. It was a wonderful experience. Very funny boat! The wind in the big sail made it go fast, we were back in 30 min. We payed 15000Ar = 7 eur.
Just when we thought the adventure was over for this day we saw that the guys of course had to park the boat on a beach – that is, not in the harbour… the beach was in a zone of poor people. Me, not being very clever took a picture of the boat. Not clever to show these people we have a big camera. There came a man with a ’skalbagge’ on his hand, he said it was rare and that we could sell it expensive in france. We said no, and went after the guys from the boat to have some company out of the zone. Suddenly there was water on the road. Dirty water. Not only red, filled with all what a household doesn’t want. When the sea is high it goes in there. So it was only to keep the shoes on (no chance we’d walk barefoot in there) and keep walking. After several sections of the road like this, 15 meters each and half a meter deep, we came out on normal roads again. I’ve never felt so dirty in my life. But we survived.
After, we took a ‘pousse pousse’ to a toursit agency to ask the price to go down the river in boat. Far too expensive. We decided to skip it. We took a taxi to the bus station, decided to go to Nosy Be instead of first going to Diego, and then same taxi back to the hotel.
And here I am, writing, hungry.
Tuesday the 28 – market and taxi brousse
This was meant to be a market day since there is a lot of nice artisanal in Majunga. We had heard about beautiful jewelry, semi-precisous stones etc.
We slept late, ate breakfast, packed and planned a bit, then we left to the bus station to pay. Hungry, time for lunch. Hot. We stayed long in the shadow of the small restaurant.
Only an hour left for shopping, but we found some nice things (but no jewelry).
In the bus station the bags got up directly on the roof of a mini bus. While waiting we talked to a guy and he wanted to try our sudoko. He had a funny tactic, only matching one square of nine at a time. We showed him how to do it with the right rules and some techniques. He was happy, we gave him a page with sudoko to solve from our book.
In the bus we had three places, next to the last row, just like last time. Less places for the legs though, Anthony could not have them straight forward.
Behind us were four people of which one was an old and very sick man, and one had an infant. In the row infront of us there were three adults and two children.
In the beginning of the journey there was a long section without asphalt and the bus had to go slow, impossible to sleep, but after that we managed to sleep quite well (one on the top of the other).
We ate around eight in a strange but cheap restaurant. When asking for the toilet they show you the ditch outside of the house.
We understand now why they go by night, it should be too hot daytime.
10.05.08
Posted in Hollidays, Friends, Route du Vin at 10:05 pm by tesstess
This year it was time to get to know Bordeaux. Me and Anthony took one week vacation, borrowed the car of Sebastien and set out on a loong drive, friday after work, all the way to Cahors where we stayed two nights. We visited some producers around there, very good wine, not too expensive. And very nice people, me and Anthony really loved this region, we want to move there, it’s just that there are no jobs for us.
It’s hard not to fall in love with this place.
This is how to appriciate good wine!
Anthony, picking chestnuts directly from the tree. All this region is completely full of these trees, just like olive trees back where we live.
We went swimming in the river, extremely cold, but very funny. It wasn’t planned so we went in completely naked. Believing that noone could see us.
We went on a walk to see the roads next to the river where the animals were dragging the boats some hundred years ago, until they built the railway. An artist had made sculptures in the wall.
We took the car on to one of the most sweet villages we’ve ever seen: “St Circque La Pauppie”. Medieveal village without cars, and with this splendid view:
They even had binoculars up there on the cliff. With which you got a good view on the river. And one of the places you could see… was our beach where we had gone in swimming… Imagine the children seeing us, calling out to their parents “mama, mama, look, there are people in the water, and they are naked!”.
Here is Cahors, a village surrounded by the river.
We visited the famous market, bought some fruits, tea and newbaked bread. We would give a lot to live close enough to this market to be able to buy our vegetables there each week. Then we went up on the hill next to the village and ate a picknick in the sun with the crazy beautiful view of the village.
The comming days we spent without wine where we visited the region. One of Anthonys best freinds, Philippe, and his girlfriend Gaelle came down from Paris on the monday to visit with us.
We visited medieval villages, ate good food and had a really nice time together.
Three nights we stayed in this wonderful farm. They produce their own products, we ate one evening there and it was delicious. In the morning you see them take out the birds. We took a morning swim in the covered swimming pool, what a feeling.
Cayaking down the Dordogne. So calm, a little bit of current so that the paddeling itself was easy, five impressive castles along the shores, and then a nice picnick with wine from Cahors, cheese from Roccamadour and terrine from the farm where we stayed.
The second part of the week we went on to Bordeaux. Here we catched Seb, coming with the train from Antibes.
Five happy wine-lovers.
We visited the three wine areas of Bordeaux: Le Medoc, Le Libournais and Les Graves.
In the middle we changed bed & breakfast, charging Sebs car with all the wine and five people. It was completely full, we had wine everywhere and we had to go slowly. It was funny to see the face of the owners in the new place. We asked if we could put our wine somewhere (to not carry it up the stairs to our rooms), and he said yes, no problem, but when he saw the quantity… their hallway was almost blocked by wine.
I’ll finish with some food pictures. It’s really one of the best things with this region, the food. A lot of food, cheap compared to where we live, and so delicious. The best one I ate is ont the top left. It’s not the best looking one though. It’s fish with crumble of hazel nutts on top, and then foi gras (gåslever) and potatoes at the side.
That’s it for this year. Our both wine fridges are overfull, the economy below zero and us already looking forward to the ‘route du vin’ of next year. We think it will be Alsace.
05.08.08
Posted in Hollidays, Beach, Friends at 8:29 am by tesstess
Now this was over a month ago, but it’s time to get up to date with the blog again.
Two weeks after Barcelona I drove to Montpellier, it took just a bit more than 3 hours to get there. On the way I managed to miss the exit for Ikea in Toulon where I wanted to exchange a lamp, but that’s another story.
My first impression of the city was a big flowery tram. I had stopped for red light under a bridge when suddenly the big flower-power worm crosses the road just infront of me, I had to laugh out loud!
We spent the weekend in a very relaxed mode, first visiting the center on saturday, and we went to Ikea to eat a luxurious swedish dinner, and to change my lamp. Finally.
We enjoyed the sun and the beach all sunday.
(Kat and Vera)
And then of course lots of girl talk the night in between!
05.25.07
Posted in Climbing, Hollidays at 12:36 pm by tesstess
For two weeks we’ve been out on adventure with car and tent. First we went to Bandol, and found a nice camping where we stayed three nights. From here we went climbing at different sites and we really liked the place. On the picture above we’re doing a long route called something with “wind” in the name. Very good name: it was increddible how windy it was!
We have funny video clips from this one, ask next time you’re here and I’ll show you!
This time I have 96 pictures to show which is far to much to copy in to one blog post, so please go to my photo page and look at the album there to see all.
Cassis et les Calanques
Second camping was in Cassis, a small city just before Marseille. From this sweet city by the coast we took the boat (on the picture) to go in les Calonques. It was wonderful to come out at sea again, I missed it. Too sad we don’t know anyone in our region with a boat!
From the boat we saw climbers doing a travers along the water. If they fall, it’s direcly down in the sea!
The callanques are truly beautiful.
The boat takes tourists out to see the clifs and back, but there is possibility to go off at the clifs and then catch a later boat back, which we did two days in a row. The first day we were a bit late there, and just had some hours before the boat back. During this time we climbed the peak (below) in the middle of the beach, had our lunch at the top, and when back down again we took a swim in the turquoise water. 16 degrees = very cold. But fantastic once in.
The second day we had a clear goal: to climb one of the sides of this calanque. It’s 130 meters high! And divided into four routes. The start is just to the left of the beach.
This time we have helmets on. Not that I think they would save us if the ropes broke, but in this kind of routs there are sometimes stones falling down. And once, I didn’t look where I was climbing and hit my head in the rock above, and was very happy there was a helmet in between. As you can see we’re having two ropes, so it felt pretty safe.
The last route was a 6a, meaning the hardest level I’m doing on normal walls. Here it was so high that my brain didn’t remember how to climb, it just said “no, no, no, this is not possible to do”, and I had to use the rope to help me up.
Not a picture for mums.
We walked over the cliff and looked down in the calonque on the other side. The walls were really going straight down 130 meters into the sea! Impressing!
In the evening we were so happy to be back to the tent and I must say that after this kind of experience, you’re appreciating all small things much more. Like eating pasta and tomatoe sauce on a blanket.
Marseilles
After two nights in Cassis we went to Paul and Odile in Marseille. They bought an house half a year ago and are in the middle of doing big renovations. The kitchen was from Ikea, of course 
and it was very fun to see their plans. I instantly began longing for my own house to renovate.
To my great pleassure Odile loves pearls and she showed me her jewelry: bracelets and earrings, almost all done with swarovsky. She promised me to teach me how to do one of the bracelets that I really fell in love with so the next day we went to the local pearl shop to buy the “ingredients”. Oh, yes, on the way there, I must tell you, we passed infront of Ikea and me and Odile began talking about it. I told her about a small chair (one for standing on) that I wanted for a long time and couldn’t find. Odile said she had seen it in this Ikea and together we convinced the men to go in fast to buy it. Well there me and Anthony also found a small garden table and chairs, really cheap, just the kind we wanted for our garden at home. And, as Anthony said, why not buy them now so we can use them in the camping next week! After this the car which was full before, was really full.
In the afternoon we went touristing in Marseille. Along the coast it’s a nice city, but for me the city is too big, to dirty, and too many buildings in bad condition, especially in the outer parts of Marseilles.
We took a walk to a small harbor and ate sallad at a small restaurant.
We also visited the church on the top of a mountain in the middle of the city.
The next day we took the car and went one and a half hour up from Marseille to do a hike up on a mountain. A small mountain this time, and easy walking on a well used path. It was a very nice day.
Camargue
So, after Marseille, the natural place to visit was Camargue with it’s white horses.
This place is flat. Very flat. We went out with the car on those small roads in the middle of nowhere. And when we had been driving for a looong time. The road ended, blocked, and we had to turn around. At one place there was some hourses and caravans. Very ugly place, but we wanted to see.
Only problem was that the road was under water. Scary. But we went in anyways.
At last we found some horses, and pink flamingos. It was a nice day. But the car, the poor car, so muddy!
Cousins
Unfortunately the weather put a stop for our plans to continue to Tarn. The weather forcast told rain for one week. So we went earlier than planned to the cousins of Anthony and stayed there three nights. They just had their first baby, a couple of weeks earlier. So sweet!
From here we also could go climbing and we found the perfect climbing site. What this region really is known for is the wind. It’s allways windy. But this climbing site was protected from wind and had a view of the sea. The level of the routes were easier than usual, so I did 5b an 5c in first position without problems. I was so proud! Then I tried a 6a in first and also this one went well. It was harder of course, it’s my first 6a in first and I was so happy when I reached the top! We have started to enter all the routs we do on a website called www.8a.nu and it gives me more fighting spirit to put up goals for me there and to see the results after. At the end of the day I was very tired, but Anthony just climbed a 6b, and I thought that why not try it, to work hard with my muscles and if I fall nothing happens so it’s really nothing to loose. This route was harder, a lot harder. But, guess what! I did it! I was surprised all evening, repeating to myself “I did it, I did it”.
(picture from outside Bandol)
Home Sweet Home
We finished our hollidays by returning home earlier than planned. On the highway the first part it was so windy that it felt like the car would lift, but some hours closer to Nice it had calmed down, and when finally back at home it was hot, sunny and just a small warm breeze in the air. In swedish there is a way of speaking “Borta bra men hemma bäst”, meaning it’s good to be away, but home is the best place, and now it was really true. We were so happy to just be in our garden.
I began oiling the table and chairs from ikea and painting the bedroom windows and Anthony finished the flower bed border around the raspberries.
04.15.07
Posted in Etzling, Hollidays at 9:06 am by tesstess
Last week we spent a wonderful easter holliday with Anthony’s parents. I made a
link to google maps so you can se where Etzling is.
The weather was fantastic with sun all the time, I got more color (hm, read red)
than I did down here in the south.
The first day we stayed in the flat near Mulhouse where Johnny, Anthony’s dad, works and the next morning we went out on tourist expedition in Alsace.
First we went to the Ecomuseum, a constructed village with old, traditional houses from Alsace.
Anthony, me and Johnny.
There were lots of storkar on the roofs and we came just in the time of this funny dance they’re doing when they clap their beeks and throw their heads back to impress on the partner. Very funny to see.
As you can see, we aslso found other more or less sweet animals
After the Ecomuseum we drove through lots of small villages/towns in Alsace. It is a rich region, known for its wine. We stopped at a couple of towns to look around and feel the atmosphere.
Almost all windows had easter decoration
Here we were. And on the left is a speciallity, a super-thin pizza with cheese. I thought I would get hungry after half an hour eating only this, but I stayed full for many hours, very surprising.
And everywhere those for the region caracteristic houses.
I borrowed the digital system camera from Fabienne, so funny to take pictures with a real camera, and Anthony was the obvious motif for most of my pictures.
Our next to last stop was to taste and buy wine from a famous producer.
In the evening Johnny invited us to a one star resturang. This is an extremely luxury resturant, to get a picture I can tell that we counted the three star resturants in France and they are between 20 or 30 of them!
This is my starter, it is shells in the middle (one muscle of one shell devided into two or three slices), on the left is tomatoes and on the left a string of curry-mayonaise with dill.
In between each meal there was a tiny thing to eat, and everything was so nicely laid out on the plates. My main dish was liver (not of cow, don’t remember now from which animal) and it was very very good.
Here is my me and my desert, a creme brulé, do I need to say it was the best one I ever ate? And below is the starter and dessert of Anthony.
Then we came home to Etzling, and from that day I only wanted to stay in this beautiful garden! Take a look at some of the flowers!
This is the most beautiful garden I have ever seen and it was a luxury to have the opportunity to spend almost one week in it. I got lots of inspiration to go home and do gardening in our own garden.
This is a Magnolia.
One of the days we went mushroom hunting. But this is a secret, so don’t tell anyone!
The forest was full, not of mushrooms, but of blue flowers. And later we also found Anemone (vitsippor), wich made me so happy because a spring is not a spring for me without them. In total we found five small, but apparently very good, mushrooms. Anthony was the one who found all of them, they are very hard to spot. He tried to teach me how to find them so when he found one he told me in which square meter it was and asked me to search, and it took me several minutes to find it!
The guys were very happy to be able to drive Johnny’s fancy sports car for the mushroom picking
Most of the time we rested and read magazines. I found out that Fabienne has tons of decoration and home magazines so I was very buzy reading them. I got so much inspiration and began to long for a work so I will get money to buy things, for example to decorate a table beautifully for a dinner.
It was so warm, we had lunch on the terasse almost all days! The lunch on the pictures is a sallad with small bits of fried meet. I think it is some kind of stomach, but I tried not to think of that while eating, it was a delicious meal. And of corse wine was served to the lunch, and to the dinner. All days. We’re having a week without alcohol now when we’re back home.
We had time to visit both sets of grandparents, for a dinner at each place.
Here is at the place of meme and pepe (mormor och morfar).
I told them about snapsvisor and they proved they had this in France too, and everyone sang. One of them had a refrain “glup glup glup glup…” and this is the one I’m doing on the picture. Everyone sings to one person at at time who has to stand up, and put the glas where the song tells you: on the front, on the nose on the stomach etc, and then comes the glup glup and you have to empty your glas. I sang “Helan går” for them and they tried the best they could to sing with me.
The last evening we went to mami and papi (farmor och farfar), and to our surprise the brother of Johnny and his wife were there too.
We got an easter-rabbit
03.27.07
Posted in Hollidays, Sweden at 9:46 am by tesstess
I går var det måndagsdans och jag var och dansade. Underbart att träffa så många härliga människor och få så många varma och glada kramar. Jag hade så kul när jag dansade, framför allt med Christian. Nu på morgonen låg jag och funderade på det här med dansen i mitt liv och kom på att det kanske kommer funka att lära ut Lindy där nere i alla fall. Jag kan ju försöka hålla en nybörjarkurs på Amadeus i höst, antingen på lunchtid eller efter jobbet. Antingen får jag hitta en tjej som jag kan lära att dansa tjej, eller en kille som kan i alla fall traska runt i grundsteg, och så kan jag hålla i allt pratandet. Nog borde jag väl kunna få Anthony att göra de enklaste grundturerna? Om han gick en grundkurs på Herräng, en av helgerna kanske, han behöver ju inte stanna hela veckan, men jag skulle så gärna vilja visa honom Herräng och dess stämning. Och kursen jag skulle hålla på Amadeus, jag behöver ju inte ta så mycket betalt första gången, det skulle ju bli som ett prov om jag fixar det, och mest för att ha roligt. Jag saknar verkligen att stå i mitten och vara glad.
Igår var jag först hemma här i Skogstorp, det var underbar sol och riktigt vårvarmt i luften. Vid fyratiden åkte jag ut till Volvo Tuve och träffade Monica för att lämna tillbaks mina securitaskläder och min bricka. Det var lite konstigt att se henne och stället igen, Lasse satt där fortfarande fast han borde ha varit pensionerad för säkert fem år sen, och allt var helt som vanligt, men mitt liv har förändrats så otroligt mycket!
Sen åkte jag till Inet och köpte ett RAM-minne till min laptop. Idag ska vi sätta i det och jag har stora förhoppningar om att datorn kommer bli mycket trevligare att jobba med. Då kanske det inte tar en minut att öppna ett explorer-fönster längre…
Och sen åkte jag till Pärlehuset. Det är Ellens sista vecka där, och framtiden är oviss för dem. Ellen vill ju köpa företaget men hon som säljer vill ha för mycket betalt. Ska bli spännande att följa fortsättningen på den historien. Jag köpte ett par pärlpåsar och sen åkte vi hem till Ellen och hon lagade en jättegod pastasås med dadlar i. Har aldrig sett det i mat, men det var fantastiskt gott
Jag berättade för henne att jag försökt få en tid för klippning hos Emilia på den salong hon jobbar på i Kungsbacka men att hon idag ringde och sa att de var fullbokade hela veckan. Jag förklarade hur Emilia hade sagt att hon skulle kunna klippa mig och Ellen lös upp och plockade fram skvallertidningar med just en sån frisyr. Hon sa att den kunde hon säkert klippa och då frågade jag om hon kunde göra det nu med en gång. Usch vad läskigt det var att höra saxen i nacken! Så kort har jag aldrig blivit klippt innan. Ellen var nöjd när hon klippte och sa saker som “åh det här blir bra” och “vilken volym håret får här bak alldeles av sig självt”, så det lugnade mig. Och efteråt var det jätteroligt att kolla i spegeln och se att en ny Tess är född. En lite mer mogen look och lite mer tuff.
Vi åkte upp till Forum och dansade och jag fick flera kommentarer om fin frisyr. Himla roligt. Längtar efter att visa Anthony nu. (han lovade att inte kolla bloggen förrän jag kommit hem och visat i verkligheten om en vecka)
03.26.07
Posted in Hollidays, Skiing at 12:50 pm by tesstess
Between the 9th and the 18th of Mars me and Anthony went for skiing holliday in the south/middle alps.
We left on Friday afternoon from Valbonne, where there was such a wonderful warm weather that we were asking ourselves why at all we were going somewhere else. We wondered even more when we reached Valloir, our first place to stay, and there were no stnow at all. In fact we were really worried! What is a skiing vacation without snow?
Fortunately when we woke up the next morning we saw that even if there were no snow in the village itself it was snow up on the higher mountains. We started our first day in the skii station in Valloir and had a great day.
On the Sunday we went out in the wild for the first time. We rented hiking skiis for me and had asked the man in the shop where to go and about the risks of avalanche.
The beginning of the day was beautiful and we took it slow. Since it was a Sunday we were far from alone on this mountain and Anthony was a little bit dissapointed for this but for me it felt safe to meet other people now and then. We didn’t go very early since we had to rent my skiis in the morning. When doing hiking skiing it is important to start early, because later in the afternoon it can either become cloudy or the sun can melt the snow so it becomes more hard to skii or even dangerous. I was slow this day, not used to this kind of sport and my feet ached.
After some hours clouds were beginning to show up behind some mountains. Anthony decided that we would stop before reaching the summit and have lunch and then turn back home. I was greateful for this decision since I now was aching a lot in my legs. We had a nice lunch sheltered by some rocks and the sun stayed with us since the clouds decided to stay over the other mountains and not come our way at all.
We decided to do another hiking skiing trip the following day, and so we rented the skiis the evening before to be able to start really early. At least at eight.
The weather was perfect and the snow on the mountains looked like mareng.
Not all was perfect on the way up. At one point it was steep and the snow was hard and a bit icy. My skiis started to slide backwards and I fell in the snow, I didn’t manage to get up at first which made me a bit panicked and I was crying for some time before I managed to continue. But after this passage everything felt easier and I was happy to be there out in the wild with Anthony. He is really a safe and good guide
This time we reached the summit and here we are, at the top! A stunning view and a perfect weather. This was my first summit on hiking skiis.
Here is our summit camp. Anthony digged a hole in the snow so we could sit and have our lunch without the wind. It was so warm in the sun!
From the summit we could see “Les aiguilles d’Arves” which is three very carachteristique mountain tops. The other days we were out and even when we went to Briancon, we could still see those summits which was allways fun.
On the way down we made these traces in the snow. The round and more beautiful ones are of course Anthony’s and the ones going form one side of the picture to the other are mine. Not so used yet to turn in deep snow.
The view from our window in Valloir. The town is beautiful and has much more charm than other skii resorts where the houses usually are bigger and less personal.
Here is the street and the white house on the left side is where we stayed. The room was not very good looking but it was cheep which was important for me now when I don’t have a job.
The old church in the middle of Valloir.
We found this small cheese store where we bought the most delicious cheese. On the first picture you can see Anthony standing inside, waiting to be served.
And here I am in front of our favourite resturant. It had a genuin charm and every thing they made were homemade as they made it long ago. The first evening in Valloir we wanted to eat there but they were completely full, so we had to go back another day to book a table. We ate fondu there: boiling cheese with wine in where you dip try bread. Very tasty, and a speciallity from the region. Another day when we went there we just took the and I had hot chocolate. Delicious hot chockolate. The best one I EVER tasted! Antony told me it is made from real chockolate, not from powder. I had also sweet whipped cream on top. We had to go back another day to drink it again. That time we also took a creps with chestnut cream and some toasts with homemade bluberry jam. Mjamjam.
The following days we stayed in the station and I became much better at skiing. In the beginning of the week I only did blue slopes but now I did read without to much troubles.
On Wednesday evening we took the car to Briancon, the highest situated city in Europe. Our bed and breakfast was situated in a village not so far from the town.
Here we are, eating bluberry tarte during our lunch in the new skii station.
And here are me and Antony at the highest point of the skii station, where it was a great veiw.
Friday was our last skiing day since we decided to go touristing in Briancon on the Saturday. We went hiking skiing and again, the weather was totally perfect. I can’t believe we were this lucky with the weather all week! If we would have gone the week after it would have been snow storm almost all days.
The first part of the hike was in the forest, first not so steep, and then very very steep. I was wondering how on earth I would manage to get down from there again!
Sun and great veiws, again.
The end was tough and I was tired, but I was surprised I had not hurt myself in the whole week and my feet was hurting, but not too bad. It seemed like my muscles also got used to the skiing after some days and it was not so hard anymore.
But I must confess I was complaining a bit on they way up. Not least here where it was to little snow to bring the skiis and we had to take them off and walk the last half an hour to the summit.
And we reached it! The second summit of my life on hiking skiis!
Anthony making advertisement for sports clothes Isn’t he the most good-looking private mountain guide on earth!?
Did I mention I also took a trip on the moon?
I was getting better and better at skiing and this day I had the highest quality there is on hiking skiis. On the way down we made those beautiful traces, mine is on the left.
Then came the forrest we had to pass to get down to the car… I found it funny to skee among the trees, didn’t seem so steep when going down as it had looked on the way up.
I managed to turn even at some tricky places. But then there was one place, where it was quite a long way to the nearest tree, but it was steep, very steep. I turned, but the skiis didn’t and I fell forward…
I slided on my stomach and saw this small tree on the picture coming closer quite quickly until I hit it, felt my back bend backwards (not very comfortable), and my skiis went in different directions. I lost my breath, and was hurting a bit in my breast and back, but just some minutes later I was in good shape again and could continue. Good to know where my limits are.
Here is the house we were staying at. It was initially built in 1896.
Just imagine to wake up and have this view from the bed!
Our charming room.
We spent Saturday morning on the grass outside the house, playing with Vicky, the dog.
In here is where we ate breakfast each morning. The came down and it was a view up on a mountain. Both of us felt that this glass thing on a house will be a must-have on our future home.
All in all, we really had a lovely week, and we also celebrated our first six months together Bye bye!
02.19.07
Posted in Hollidays, Valbonne, Visitors at 5:48 pm by tesstess
My mum has been with me for a week and we had a great time together.
The first night we ate a french speciality with cheese.
The cheese is called a b… something… and is put on top of layers of potatis with bacon. Anthony told us it is often eaten in winter, since it such a heavy meal, and often when skiing. I can tell that it was really good. I love cheese! And my mum bought with her a cheese home and made it for my family who also appreciated it
When she arrived the daffodills had not come out yet, but when she left one week later they were opening. See the difference!
All photos are on the photo page.
« Previous entries ·