Temples, shrines and neon lights

After two rather busy days in Tokyo, it was time to leave the urban jungle and explore the Japanese countryside a bit… Our first destination was Nikko, where Matsuoka had kindly offered to show us around (he had a day off since it was the Emperor’s birthday). Joining us for the trip was also Andy, and the son of a friend of Matsuoka’s (some Japanese history and English lessons in store for the young lad…).

After a brisk walk from the hotel, we caught the train from Asakusa to our destination; Nikko. Nikko is one of the holiest places in Japan, with an impressive collection of temples and shrines in a very nice setting. The place dates back all the way to the 8th century, when it became an important Buddhist teaching centre. Its importance faded during the coming centuries, but once more became famous (or notorious?) when the mausoleum of Ieyasu Tokugawa was built here. Tokugawa was a great, but unscrupulous (he apparently had his wife and son killed for political reasons) warlord, who united Japan and started a dynasty that was to rule Japan for two and a half centuries.

The place is certainly impressive. An energetic half-hour walk took us to the temple area, which is very nicely located on an idyllic forested hill; which thanks to the chilly weather was snow-covered (made it all very photogenic – many opportunities to try out my new camera ;-). Having admired the three golden Buddha statues at the historic Rinno-ji temple (it’s over 1200 years old), we made our way to the most famous sight at Nikko – Toshu-gu – the mausoleum of Ieyasu Tokugawa. After an hour or so of gaping at the temple buildings (my favourite sight, apart from the mausoleum itself, were the monkey carvings at the “holy stables”), one more magnificent than the other, we continued our tour.

Our next stop was Taiyuin-jinja, which is the mausoleum of Ieyasu’s grandson, Iemitsu Tokugawa. This collection of temples was perhaps somewhat less imposing than that of Toshu-gu, but on the other hand it feels like a more peaceful and intimate place, located as it is on a small hill-top, surrounded by a lush, snow-covered forest. I had the impression there were also fewer tourists here, perhaps some people were discouraged by the walk up to the temple.

By now we felt we’d had our share of temples & shrines for the day, and decided to have a nourishing lunch of hot noodle soup. We then headed back into Nikko town, very content with our visit. The plan was to try out one of the local onsens (onsens are “hot springs spas”; which cover the Japanese volcanic islands). Unfortunately the taxi driver took us to a normal spa, not the “real thing”, so Matsuoka (who takes his onsens very seriously decided it would be better head back into town instead for some cake & coffee in a cosy-looking café by the train station (we fully supported his decision here).

Our stomachs well-filled, we jumped on the train back to Tokyo (which left on time, as always seems to be the case in Japan…). After arriving in Asakusa, we crossed Tokyo on the metro, to Roppongi, where we had dinner booked for 7. The restaurant Andy and Satoko had kindly booked for us is a rather famous place; called Gonpachi. The place is VERY special for a movie fanatic like myself, since apparently Quentin Tarantino used the restaurant as inspiration for the famous fight scene at “the House of Blue Leaves” in Kill Bill: Vol I. Much to my shame, it took me a while to actually come up with the Movie Connection, when asked on the spot… Anyways, in addition to the movie connection; the food, beer and sake was also excellent, so one can safely say we had a brilliant time there!

After the meal, Matsuoka, his friend’s son and Satoko left us at this point (Satoko actually went back to the office to do some more work – I can’t recall having ever committed an act of such devotion to my employer…). We continued our “Roppongi by night” tour with Andy by a visit to the top of the 54-floor Mori Tower at the Roppongi hills property complex, from where we were greeted by some amazing views over Tokyo (I also had my first experience with the amazingly high-tech Japanese toilets, which come fully equipped with seat heating, sound system, and even a water jet for “cleaning up afterwards”). After checking out the impressive Christmas lights at the Midtown shopping centre, we ended up at “the sports bar” (ousted there by an Australian tout who insisted the place “would change our lives”) for a last drink, before catching the train to Denenchofu, a leafy suburb where Andy and Satoko live.

The next day, more temples were on the cards; the plan was to head to Kamakura this time. Again, getting to Kamakura was a breeze thanks to the amazing Japanese rail network (still trying to catch at least one train leaving even one minute too late, no luck so far…).

Kamakura was the capital of Japan between 1185 and 1335, so it has played a very important role in the history of Japan. Temples and shrines is once more what it’s all about – there are 65 and 19 respectively of them here. We started off by Engaku-ji, a Buddhist temple located near the train station. It’s a nice enough place; surrounded by nature, and relatively unfrequented by tourists (compared to Nikko). After a quick noodle soup lunch (we were once again surprised about how cheaply you can eat for in Japan…), we carried on our exploration of Kamakura. Our tour took us along a footpath towards one of the main attractions of Kamakura, the Big Buddha. Along the way, there are a couple of interesting temples and shrines to visit – I especially liked the place where you “launder your money”. Basically you wash your money (notes) in the holy water, and then let it dry on its own. Apparently this money will bring you good luck. We shall see… ;-)

After this brisk bit of exercise, we finally arrived at the Daibutsu, or Big Buddha. It is very impressive bronze statue indeed, measuring 13 meters and weighing no less than 93 tons. The Buddha was originally housed in a temple, but the temple building was washed away by a tsunami in the 15th century. Having gaped at the Buddha for a while, we made our way to downtown Kamakura, to visit the most important shintoist shrine in town, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū (a bit of a mouthful, that…). Being a rather busy and “urban temple”, it’s quite different from the smaller and more peaceful temples and shrines we’d visited earlier.

That was enough temples and shrines for one day, we figured (one can quite easily get temple overdose in Japan, wonderful though they may be), so decided to head further south to Yokohama. Yokohama is actually the second biggest city in Japan after Tokyo, with a population of nearly 4 million. It’s not a very touristy place, since most of the city was devastated by allied bombings during World War 2. But we liked it. It’s certainly a very lively place; with loads of people out and about, and plenty of bars and restaurants. What’s nice about Japan is that the cities are really lively during the evenings/nights, unlike a lot of European cities. The neon lights bring the skyscraper-dotted modern Japanese cities a certain aesthetic as well…

The main draw of Yokohama is its Chinatown, the biggest of its kind in Japan (being a port city, Yokohama is a pretty cosmopolitan city, with a large population of Chinese). We spent a good hour walking around there, looking for a suitable restaurant. We eventually found a simple, reasonably priced place, where we dined. Content, with filled stomachs, we headed back to catch the train to Denenchofu (and yep, all the trains were on time again).

Arrival in Tokyo

So finally, the long-awaited departure date for our trip to Japan was here. For once, we had planned a rather detailed itinerary for our trip, assisted by our dear friends we were meeting up with in the land of the rising sun.

I had even planned out a brilliant strategy for minimising the impact of jet lag, which involved sleeping as little as possible before the flight (so that we would sleep towards the end of the flight, and hence wake up fresh and rested upon arriving in Japan in the morning.

Things didn’t start very well, as we found out our flight to Frankfurt (from where we had a connecting flight to Tokyo) was cancelled (due to the snowfall that seems to have brought most of Europe to a standstill). Well, at least that let us sleep for a couple of hours more (hmm, just what we wanted to avoid, right?). We eventually got under way, and arrived in Frankfurt not too much delayed. Still, thankfully our connecting flight was also delayed, otherwise we’d have missed it for sure. The flight itself was all right, although of course my “minimise jet lag strategy” failed miserably due to the fact that hardly got any sleep on the flight. In the end, we arrived at Narita airport about 2 hours late. And found out our luggage was not on the flight, unfortunately… (thankfully we got it later that evening though)

Filled with excitement, we jumped on the fast train from the airport to Ueno station in Tokyo, from where a short walk took us to our hotel. Finding ones way in Tokyo is not that straight forward, since only the main street names are written in Latin letters (and in spite of my Japanese lessons before the trip, I have to admit my Japanese reading skills still left rather a lot to be desired…). Anyway, we eventually made it, and checked into our small but very functional (and surprisingly reasonably priced) room.

After a quick shower we decided to hit the road and do a bit of sightseeing. After a nourishing bowl of noodles for lunch, we walked down to nearby Asakusa, which is what could be considered “the old part of Tokyo”, apparently. It is a sort of calm place, with no skyscrapers in sight, so a “soft start” to a Tokyo tour, I suppose. We immediately headed for the main sight in Asakusa; which is the Senso-ji temple. Our walk took us up the Nakamise-dori, which is apparently a street which houses plenty of traditional artisans (we must’ve missed those amongst all the tourist shops…). Senso-ji itself was pretty interesting, even though it has quite a modern feel to it (it has been reconstructed several times in its history, the last time being in 1950).

From there, we headed back past our hotel to Ueno park, one of the most well-known places in Tokyo for experiencing Hanami (the Cherry blossom season), and also sadly known for its homeless people (which have recently become a reality in Japan, also). We did have a nice walk around the park, in spite of the fact that it got dark pretty quickly.

We then headed back to Ueno station for our rendez-vous with Matsuoka-san, who was our designated guide for the evening. Matsuoka is a good friend who worked for a few months with me in Southwood; whom we also met up with a couple of years ago in the French Alps. He took us down to central Tokyo and and showed us the Imperial Palace (which actually cannot be visited) as well as an impressive ligtht show of lanterns (perhaps in the honour of the emperor’s birthday, which was two days later?).

After this quick bit of sightseeing, we sped back to Asakusa where we were supposed to meet a friend of his in a traditional Yakitori bar. Yakitori means “grilled chicken” in Japanese, it’s basically a bar where they serve various forms of meats on skewers. It was a very nice place, traditionally Japanese in a non-fussy way (we had to take our shoes off, and were dining sat on a tatami mat). Plenty of sake and beer was had during the very pleasant evening. A great start to our Japan trip, all in all, then!

The next morning we got up bright ‘n early (after a good night’s sleep – so perhaps my cunning strategy did help after all?), in order to be able to visit the famous Tsukiji fish market (need to get there early, the action is all finished by about 9 AM). Unfortunately we missed the famous tuna market (which is now closed to tourists), but the place was still very fascinating. I must say I’ve never seen so many different types of fish in one place before (not surprising considering it’s the biggest fish market in the world), and the pace of the place is rather impressive as well. We finished off our visit with a sushi breakfast just outside the market, an absolute culinary delight (although I was a bit sceptical about having raw fish for brekkie).

From Tsukiji, we headed onwards to nearby Ginza, a part of Tokyo known for its big depatos (department stores). Visiting a Japanese department store is quite an experience, expecially the food departments were most impressive (I suppose Harrods’s puts up a good fight, but sorry Stockmann, there’s a bit of catching up to do). The constant declarations of ”irasshaimase” (a phrase used by all employees to welcome customers) are almost overwhelming in the beginning, but one gets used to it quickly.

After checking out the Alsatian Christmas market at the Tokyo International Forum, we headed towards the Imperial Palace district again. Only the gardens can be visited, and I suppose they aren’t at their best this time of the year, but the stroll amongst the greenery made a nice change from the urban jungle the rest of Tokyo can feel like. We ended up at the Yasukuni-jinja, a somewhat controversial memorial to the 2.4 million Japanese dead in combat since 1853. The controversy apparently comes from the fact that the monument honours certain Japanese commanders known for various atrocities and war crimes. It’s also a popular place with Japanese ultra-nationalists – I think we even saw a mini-bus load of them.

We had a rendez-vous with my friend Andy and his girlfriend Satoko in Shibyua in the evening, so we decided to head back towards the hotel to freshen up at this point (after a very reasonably priced lunch – or how does 3 euros for a generous bowl of noodle soup sound?); with a short stop at Akihabara first. Akihabara is the place in Tokyo to go for electronics – a place any self-respecting geek/nerd (such as myself) simply must visit. I had a purpose for the visit as well – I wanted to purchase a new camera. A bit of shopping, comparisons, internet browsing, I came away with a Cannon DS450 SLR camera (not the latest model, but should do the trick for an aspiring amateur photographer such as myself).

We made it to Shibuya nearly on time, for our rendez-vous by the Hachiko dog statue (the story of which pretty much matches that of Greyfriar’s Bobby in Edinburgh, funnily enough). Shibyua is mostly known for its famous pedestrian crossing, where an ocean of humanity crosses the 4-lane road when the traffic lights turn green. A nearly overwhelming experience, honest.

Andy is an old friend I used to share a flat with during my studies in Edinburgh, who relocated to Japan a couple of years ago with his Japanese girlfriend Satoko. Great to see him again, must’ve been 7 or 8 years since the last time we met? Anyways, we struggled a bit to find a place to dine, so ended up in a karaoke bar in the end. Oh well, another Japanese experience ticked off the list, then ;-) It was great fun, and at least I only had to humiliate myself in front of three other people (in Japan, Karaoke is done in private rooms, typically, unlike in Europe).

It was then time to head back to catch some well-needed sleep before our trip to Nikko the next day.

A bit of theatre and Christmas drinks

The weekend kicked off with a theatre play in Mouans-Sartoux, a village located near Valbonne, where Mathilde works. We had been invited to this festive event by Myriam, who was actually playing one of the main roles in the play! We actually recognised a fair few faces; mostly belonging to people we’d met at Myriam’s recent birthday party. The play, a modern take on the classic Cinderella story (the play was called “Cindy”), was an absolute hoot. I guess it was more accessible to a “barely fluent” French speaker such as myself, than the last play we saw in Grasse. I loved every minute of it, and I can honestly say Myriam was brilliant in her role. So if you read this, Myriam, thanks for a very pleasant evening!

Saturday started, as always for me these days, with a sailing session (the last one of this year, though). My trusty partner Hannu was in Paris, so I teamed up with one of the ladies of the group instead. The results were rather positive actually, as our boat seemed to move with an unforeseen rapidity. I suppose the reduction in total weight may have had something to do with it – well having said that we experienced the strongest winds so far, as well. Since the weather was also perfect (blue skies, sunshine, you get the picture), it was pretty much a perfect way to spend a Saturday morning…

For the evening, the plan was to meet up with Youcef and Ismael, as well as some others, for Christmas drinks in Nice. We did take advantage of the occasion to squeeze in a bit of last-minute Christmas shopping before, though. The centre of Nice was surprisingly peaceful, actually, considering it’s just two weeks before Christmas. Perhaps people are still keeping a tight belt, what with the crisis ‘n all…

The venue for the night’s festivities was Bar Karr, naturally located on Rue Alphonse Karr, near the pedestrian part of Nice. It was a nice enough bar, with a modern and trendy look (and prices to match). Not the sort of place we go to very often, so it made a nice change for us, actually. We were soon joined by Ismael (who’d been working like mad, as usual), as well as his lovely Irish lady Sarah, whom we finally had the honour to meet. Funnily enough, she did her studies at DIT Mountjoy Square in Dublin, where I also spent 5 months “studying” (=drinking Guinness). Ah, the fond memories I have of that place…


We were also joined by another Irish lady, as well as Ismael’s boss: Naim (a Londoner, who actually used to work both at Guildford and Farnborough – it’s a small world indeed). And eventually Youcef showed up as well… All in all, it was a great evening. Good fun catching up with everybody, and meeting a few new faces. And the bill didn’t even turn out to be too bad, in the end (especially considering I had a nice plate of foie gras for dinner – all in honour of Christmas, of course).

A rainy and grey Sunday with rather little activity on our part, brought and end to a great weekend – the last one before our upcoming trip to Japan!

Christmas spirit on the Cote d'Azur

Christmas is approaching… Not very obvious here in the warm south, on Saturday morning the sun was shining as usual, as I headed for my weekly sailing session. We had a really great day of sailing, in perfect conditions. As I said before, the sun was shining, which is always a nice thing. But additionally, the winds were more favourable than on previous weeks. As Marie (our patient instructor) had said, this should favour myself and Hannu, due to our, hrmm, body mass. And true enough, we even overtook some boats this time, probably a first one for us… So a great session then, altogether. Sadly, the winds subsided around 11, and we returned to port quite early…

Having unrigged (?) our boats, it was time for the sailing club Christmas lunch. My contribution was slightly more impressive than during our picnic a few weeks back (which isn’t really saying that much). In addition to my reindeer pate straight from Lapland, I had some quality salmon from Casino, as well as a Corsican bottle of white wine. Oh, and a baguette. Still, it felt less than impressive compared to the marinated BBQ meat, home-made pate, salads, tiramisus, etc. the other ones had prepared. Still, I enjoyed it, eating for 2 persons at least! Unfortunately the reindeer pate wasn’t a great success (actually it looked and tasted a bit like normal Finnish “maksamakkara”, so who can blame ‘em?), and neither was the white wine. But everybody had a good time; and we all got to know each others that little bit better. But with the sun shining and everybody in t-shirts (or maybe it was just me?) the xmas spirits seemed somehow far away. It was more like a BBQ during the Finnish summer, actually…

After some last minute (is there any other kind?) xmas shopping, I sped back home to prepare a dinner for my parents (a kind of farewell dinner, as they were heading back to Finland for xmas a few days later), who were coming over. For starters, I prepared some Mozzarella & Parma ham balls (which I had already prepared, with limited success, for my birthday party this year), whilst Mathilde concentrated on the lasagne. Predictably, the mozzarella & Parma ham balls turned out into a bit of a disaster, again (the Parma ham just wouldn’t stick to the mozzarella, dammit), whereas the lasagne was a stunning success. The fondant au chocolate, which I prepared the paste for, was a bit more successful (I suppose since it was one of those half-ready deserts which just required mixing a powder with eggs & melted butter). Except that it wasn’t really fondant, more like a muffin. But at least the taste was all right ;-) The meal itself was nice; with my parents entertaining us with their latest escapades (including their wine tasting trip to Provence). As often, we got the impression they have a busier social life than us ;-).

The next day, it was time for the 11th traditional Cagnes-sur-Mer Christmas swim, which I had foolishly promised myself to participate in. So there I was, at 10:45, wearing nothing but my swimming trunks and a Christmas hat at the beach at Cros de Cagnes (in fact, just by the sailing club where I’d had lunch just the day before), surrounded other fools (most of them considerably older than me). After various safety demonstrations (there were like 5 or 6 rescue boats, canoes and 6 rescue dogs for f**k’s sake) and speeches, we finally got underway. Much to my surprise, the water didn’t feel too cold at all (I heard it was 16.5 degrees Celsius). So it was actually a very pleasant swim in the end, especially when the sun revealed itself towards the end. Afterwards, we were rewarded with hot drinks and biscuits. And by a diploma, eventually… The organisers insisted on calling everybody up one-by-one (or at least family-by-family), and in alphabetical order, unfortunately… And of course they mispronounced my name about as much as one could (it sounded like Jeeby Turmellata or something along those lines) – but worst of all – they called me a Swede!

Well, all in all, it was a good laugh!

Another week on my favourite (?) island

Barely had I had time to get back home from our rather hectic weekend in Spain, when it was already time to travel back to that rainy, misty island nation, which is so dear to my heart…

The flight to Heathrow was rather trouble-free, apart from the typical 40-minute delay (ominously enough, due to bad weather…). And true enough, I was greeted by big winds and rain upon arrival… But I had expected worse, after Facebook comments about gale-strength winds and flooding…

After a short-ish day of work, I headed out for a curry with (one of the obligatory experiences on a visit to the UK) some colleagues from my team; Steve, Tasha, Samy and Mohammed to be precise. Instead of a Fleet venue that we normally go for, we opted for the Zaffron in Farnborough this time. It was a decent enough curry, and it was nice to catch up on the latest gossip… Afterwards, Mohammed was kind enough to take me back to my hotel; perhaps the worst-value-for-money hotel I’ve stayed at in England (and that’s saying a lot!). Not sure what I paid 120 euros for, really (and that was the company price!); since the rooms are iffy, the location honestly nothing to write home about (I mean, it’s in North camp…). Perhaps it’s considered a historic building, or something?

Tuesday was quite a relaxed day at work, since I was attending a training course (although the breaks were rather busy)… I was planning to spend the next couple of nights at Guilford, at Frank’s place (who’s working in Southwood for a few months). Handily enough, that also meant I could hitch a free ride with him (rather than doing the normal “shuttle bus/train/walk across all of Guildford to Phil’s place” routine). After a quick beer at Frank’s place, and some catching up with him and his lady friend; Mathilde, it was time to hit the pub. We were meeting up with Manue, Phil, Safak and Klaus at the Drummond (change of venue instead of the normal Stoke or Guildford Tup), It was good catching up with everybody again, and to hear about the big changes that have taken place in Guildford (apparently the construction of the casino is on the cards again – not sure whether that’s such a good thing though…). A nice sirloin steak, and a couple of pints (local draft beer from the Hogsback brewery, of course) later, we decided to hit the road (since Frank wanted to leave at 7 to be at work bright ‘n early). Well, we got sidetracked; unfortunately, since we spotted a new bar on the way back (the Piano Bar). But, a drink later, accompanied by philosophical chatting, we eventually made it back.

We did, amazingly, manage to start off at 7 o’clock… Thankfully, Wednesday was my second day of training, so my brain faculties were not required to function optimally. Nonetheless, we decided to head back to Guildford at the humane time of 5PM, rather than the originally planned 7PM. This time, we opted for a quite night in, with a nice pasta dinner (not even accompanied by wine…).

This meant I was on top form for a proper day of hard work on Thursday. The plan for the evening was to meet up in London. After a bit of last-minute-ish planning, we even managed to come up with a simple but effective game plan, which involved meeting up at the Match bar near Oxford circus, and then have a meal in a nearby Turkish restaurant called Efes. Thanks to Sinhung’s help, I was even able to handle the pre-London logistics (check into the Holiday inn again, drop off my luggage, and still make it on time for the 5 o’clock train).

So I made it on time for the 6 o’clock rendezvous at the Match bar (having taken in the Oxford Street Xmas decoration), where Adrian was waiting, on time as always. We were later joined by Samy and Emilie. It was entertaining listening to Adrian’s stories about his hard life at university (apparently he’s even stopped drinking to better concentrate on his studies – I’m sure it’s only temporary). It was also great to see Emilie again (for the first time in about 5 years I think?); she’s a friend of Mathilde’s who used to live in the North of France, when we first met (so we used to meet quite frequently for dinner parties and the like); and now she lives in London. It’s a small world we live in, eh?

We were then also joined by Louis, Kate, Sinhung, Frank and Matilda, and headed down to the Turkish restaurant, for a meal of typically generous proportions (although somewhat less generous than for example the Grand Bazaar). Great fun, again, catching up with the old gang. I think it’s what I miss most from our life in England; the cosmopolitan social life London can offer… (I suppose one could say the Cote d’Azur is cosmopolitan as well, but most of the non-French living are pensioners, so it ain’t quite the same thing…). After a very filling meal and a great deal of merry-making, it was time to head back to Waterloo to catch the train back to good ol’ Farnborough; although we did of course have time to squeeze in one more beer at the “panoramic” train station bar (it offers unparalleled views over WH Smith, Burger King, and a lot of drunkards…). The trip back to Farnborough was rather entertaining as we were trying to figure out what the contents of Kate’s mysterious parcel were… I had the great idea of walking home from the train station to clear my head – so had quite a short night’s sleep…

All in all, a very nice visit to the old island, great to catch up with all the old friends again. And in the end, the weather wasn’t that bad either… ;-)

Franco-Hispanic wedding in Albacete

During her studies in Perugia, Mathilde made a great many friends, and the great thing is that this group of friends has kept contact over the years. Once a year or so, one of the girls conveniently get married, which is a great excuse to meet up ;-). Two years ago, Katerina and Alessandros tied the knot in northern Greece, last spring Paula and Peppe did the same in Madrid. And this weekend, it was the turn of Ines and Sebastien, in Albacete.

Since Albacete doesn’t have its own airport, the easiest option for us was to get a flight to Madrid, and drive there by rental car. So up we got, at an ungodly early Saturday morning, and headed down to the airport. We were a bit nervous about the flight, since our first and last names were mixed up (so Mathilde’s boarding card just said “L. Mathilde”), but thankfully everything went OK. Once in Madrid, we also struggled a bit to find the car rental agency (Peppecar – their office was not located together with the big international firms…). Thankfully, we found the office eventually, and eventually even managed to get the car (not the easiest task either since the guy spoke no English whatsoever; thankfully Mathilde’s Spanish is a lot better than mine ;-).

So, finally we were able to hit the road. We were again struck by how different Spain is compared to even the South of France. Such flat, arid and empty scenery; yet beautiful in its own way. The land of Don Quixote, indeed… Eventually, after just one erroneous exit from the motorway, we arrived, about 2 ½ hours later.

Just in time to join Katerina, Alessandros, Paula and Peppe for lunch, as it turned out :-) Paula, well-organised as always, had already found a couple of restaurant options for us. And had a nice surprise for all of us – looks like herself and Peppe will be mum & dad soon! The lunch was the kind I like, tasty, simple and very copious :-). There was everything from prawns, olives, Spanish ham to lamb chop. And all in very authentic surroundings. Not quite what we had in mind when we asked for a “light lunch”, but I minded perhaps less than some of the others ;-). The bill was rather steep, but I reckon it was worth every cent of it!

After a short siesta (we needed it!), it was time to shower and get ready for the big event. We had bus transport conveniently organised to the nearby village, where the church ceremony was taking place. On the bus, we caught up with the rest of the group (Maria & Aitor, Aurina, Ana, as well as Milene and Kamel). For some reason, we didn’t follow the rest of the wedding guests to the church, but rather had a bit of a “walking tour” of the town first. The difficulty with Spanish towns is that you can’t just ask “where is the church” - since there are inevitably at least three even in a small town. Turns out third time lucky, this time… Well, at least we were on time!

After the church ceremony, it was time to head back to Albacete for the wedding party – which was taking place in the Grand Hotel, no less… And as Spanish wedding parties always seem to be, this was just great. Delicious food, great drink, great company, dancing… All the usual ingredients for a successful wedding. Great to see that the Erasmus group chemistry is still great, and that the Erasmus Boyfriends (well, more like Erasmus husbands these days) get along great. I learnt much this weekend: about building motorways in Greece (not easy, apparently), the fact that one must NEVER, EVER eat Bolognese sauce with Spaghetti (which comes from Rome – Bolognese obviously coming from Bologna where the local pasta of choice is Tortellini) and the fact that I apparently look like Brad Pitt (they must’ve had too much to drink)??

We really had a great time, and were very reluctant to go back to the hotel, but figured we ought to eventually, since we had to get up relatively early for our drive back to Madrid. Vague promises were made about Baptisms in Naples, Easter in Rioja, a summer weekend in Finland… I really hope something can be worked out soon, since these reunions are such great fun…

A day of wine tasting

One of the big annual events in Cagnes-sur-Mer is the annual gastronomy fair, which takes place for a few days at the famous hippodrome. We’ve missed the last two editions of this glorious event, so I figured I’d give it a go this time. Conveniently, Hannu (a regular visitor), had a spare ticket I could use… So I decided to join them on their way to the fair Sunday evening.

The focus of the fair is definitely on wines. Never have I seen so many wine producers cramped in one place before in my life… The name of the game is (at least to a Finn such as myself): buy a glass for 1 Euro 50 cents, and taste as many wines as you can (and if possible, try to avoid buying a bottle at every stand, which is actually a bit difficult…). So true to this principle, we toured around the tent, trying wine, champagne, Armagnac and other beverages from the various regions in France (we ticket off at least Bourgogne, Languedoc, Anjou, Armagnac, Champagne, Bordeaux, Corsica and Provence…).

It was all kind of good fun, chatting away with the producers, and trying to pretend I actually know something about wines. Even Hannu’s kids seemed to be enjoying themselves, even though they obviously had to contend with soft drinks and water. Actually, the wines themselves aren’t that cheap, but one sort of feels obliged to buy at least one bottle at each stand one does tasting… But in the end, I managed to keep my spending in check (5 bottles for about 40 euros, that’s all right I reckon…).

So all in all, it was a pleasant enough way to spend a Sunday evening – especially since the weather wasn’t all that great. And I suppose might’ve even I learnt a thing or two about wines…