What we've been cooking

It came to the end of the season last year and my boss asked if anyone had photos of the meals they had been cooking. I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of my meals at all, which I think shows a mix of a lack of time and a lack of pride.

This season I made the aim to take a lot more pictures to prove to people at home that I am actually working, so far I'm doing pretty well with that aim. The first 2 weeks of this season I have been working at the Venice campsite. We have a menu there of two meals which rotate every other day. I didn't manage to take any pictures of the main meals that we serve as it was always too busy by the time we were plating them up. One night it is a Pumpkin and Radicchio Gnocchi with Amatriciana Pasta and with that we serve a pair of starters.

Antipasto Plates

 Salami, Coppa, Proscuitto, Olives, Sundried Tomatoes and Grissini sticks on a bed of rocket. At the same time on the table the caprese has a mix of tomatoes marinated in a tapenade then scattered with buffalo mozerella cheese and fresh basil.

Caprese Salads

 On the other day the main course is chicken marinated in a tomato and garlic pesto and served with a fresh potato salad mixed with oil, lemon, green beans, sun dried tomatoes and olives. For dessert we let the passengers act like children, providing them with all the trimmings for make your own sundaes.

 

Potato Salad

Make Your Own Sundaes

 Just a few quick pictures to show you what I've been up to. I'm in Rome now for another month or so now with a few days coming up soon. I plan to become a Rome expert!

Table Settings in Venice

Burano and Torcello

The islands of Murano and Burano have been on my 'to do' list of Venice for years now. Somehow I have never been organized enough to make it to them and stories of how long it took scared me off as well. However the realization at the end of last season that I had spent 10 weeks here and I STILL hadn't seen them kicked me into gear and I made it a priority to get out to them as soon as possible.

Burano

Tuesday loomed free and I did some research to make my trip in smooth. Lucky I did because Burano (the furthest out) took a few hours and several modes of transport to get to. It is in the north of the lagoon and is a tiny island famed for it's lace making and colourful houses (what I was there to see).

The grocery store in Burano

Colours of Burano

The weather here has been lovely and so the vaporetto ride across the lagoon was smooth and scenic. Stepping off the vaporetto I was hit straight away by the wafts of pastry coming from a bakery. There weren't so many streets to choose from like there are in Venice and so I followed the main one along and it was only a few houses before the bright paint began popping out and flowers were decorating window sills. They like to choose one colour and stick with it for decorating their entire house, shutters, doors, curtains and handles, all in varying shades of green, or orange or yellow or blue. The whole place was like a movie set it was so perfect. There were men selling vegetables out of boats on the canals and of course the delicate lace shops dotted around with old women inside sitting on high backed chairs making lace and chatting together. I bought one of the delicious smelling cakes and was in raptures of delight at the soft lemony custard that was inside it.

Lace in Burano

Just another picture perfect scene in Burano

I still had some time left and so I caught the vaporetto to the next island along called Torcello. Torcello had it's heyday back in the 10th century with around 10,000 people living on it (I don't know how, the island looked kinda small to me) and in the 12th century it went into a rapid decline due to it's surrounding lagoon becoming swampy and hard to navigate. It also became a dangerous place to be because of growing cases of malaria and the population fled to Burano, Murano and Venice. It now has a population of about 20 people.

The main street in Torcello

The path less travelled

The church at Torcello

The main sight on the island is a cluster of buildings including a cathedral built in 630 and a church built over the 11th and 12th centuries as well as two 14th century palaces, once the seat of the communal government. But what I loved most was the nature of the place! It was so quiet compared to Venice, it has one main pathway following a canal leading from the vaporetto stop to the old buildings which most of the tourists follow. I crossed a few bridges and took the path less travelled and found blossoms on trees, daisies in the lawn, butterflies in the air and everywhere a smell of freshly mown grass. It was beautiful and serene and I followed a few canals this way, spotting a few of the inhabited houses. There were a few restaurants I could have eaten at but instead I chose to take a seat under a tree and listen to the lone busker until I was out of time and had to begin my journey back to the campsite.

Inside the church in Torcello

Next time I will be visiting Murano to see what makes it different and maybe I can slot in Venic's cemetery island. If you go to Venice, don't miss either of these places, the outer islands are just as special as the main one!

Burano

 

Burano

 

Burano

 

Burano

 

Burano

 


Even the boats are colourful!

Drinking water in Burano

Burano, notice the rooftop balconies they add on?

The leaning tower of Burano

Glass animals for sale

Casa Blu

Torcello

Quiet canals, almost no boats were spotted here

Islands across the lagoon

Ruins in the lagoon

Torcello



A café in Torcello

Torcello

Torcello

Torcello

Torcello

Torcello, and the obligatory scaffolding in the background

Shopping in London

It took me three days of searching to realize what Laura had told me in the first few minutes. 'You are searching for a wallet that went out of fashion 3 years ago'.

 

I'm not a big shopper. I love a good browse but you will rarely find me with actual shopping bags in my hands. However when my trusty wallet (of 3 years of age if Laura is anything to go off) had split at the seams, it was necessary to do some serious searching. All I wanted was to buy the same one again, it held everything I needed, was small enough for my bag and looked good, was that so much to ask?

 

My search started on my first day in London when I walked the edge of Hyde Park, ducking up streets devoid of anything remotely helpful and dragging my little suitcase behind me the whole time. Hyde Park is LONG and I was regretting my chosen path by the time I reached its end and my blackening mood may have been why my shopping was so fruitless on Oxford St. Crammed with all the big names of women's, mid to low end shopping labels like Primark and River Island, I did think 'If what I want can't be found here, then it mustn't exist'. I took the tube home empty handed.

 

 

The next day was when I told Laura of my quest. We were meeting up for lunch in Russell Square before heading to see Alana (who was helping run a Spanish class trip) at the opposite end of Oxford St to where I had been the day before. To be fair I didn't do much browsing as I had friends to catch up with, but what browsing I did, again ended unsuccessfully. We walked back through Hyde Park, laughing at squirrels and making imaginary renovations to the Princess Diana Memorial.

 

Day three I decided that I needed a more individual touch in my potential wallet. I headed to Regent Street, (where I knew I wouldn't find anything I could afford) and dived in behind it to the maze of streets that make up Carnaby. The shops there were smaller, often dimly lit, scented by candles and staffed by people who made me feel like an intruder to their sanctuary of cool. I felt out of place so it made sense that my wallet would also be out of place and therefore, not there. I went to the National Gallery to feel more welcome.

 

 

All this fruitless searching had me tired so I had a day forgetting about any kind of wallets and went to the Harry Potter studios. Anyone that knows me can understand that I took this journey as seriously as a religious pilgrimage. It was probably best that I went alone , I spent 5 hours there and came out refreshed and inspired. Drinks in Clapham Junction that  night were with the people who's house I had been staying in and had us drinking out of boats whilst sitting under woven huts and looking out onto cold London streets.

 

 

Ben (who I was staying with) and I backed it up the next morning by going out in nearby Putney for a full English breakfast by the river. As we wandered the busy mixed streets of Putney, I tried to describe the wallet I was looking for. Ben was confused by my description and I said to him 'you would have seen it everywhere about 3 years ago!' We looked in boutiques and chain stores before I finally admitted defeat and bought a wallet that I had seen on my very first day of shopping on Oxford St. It keeps all my currencies separate, fits all my cards and my passport, it's not too big and it is super colourful and bright (something high on my list of must have's). However I have thought of a new tactic. From now on I am going to be ducking into vintage and antique stores all over, waiting until my ideal wallet becomes so old that it's finally cool again.

A quick trip to Ireland

The drive from Dublin to Clonmel is always one filled with tension for me. In the 4 hours that it takes I sit rigid in my seat, excitement building in the base of my throat. Music is my only distraction whilst I watch the sun go down and the landscape roll away in fading shades of mauve. Passing through Kilkenny I recognized and remembered exploring the castle and the bus can't go fast enough to be in Clonmel. This large (by Irish standards) town in Tipperary houses some of my fondest memories and I am so excited to be back to create some more.

 



Kathleen's birthday cake

Jeanette met me at the bus stop and we hugged and laughed before going home to Martin, Moya and Oisin and a night of catching up with the news of the last few months into the early hours of the morning before I had to apologise and go to bed, the tension of the day had hit me like a wave.

 

The girls go on a road trip

I was allowed to help Moya create a few baking masterpieces (with simple tasks like greasing the tray!) the next day, and had some quiet time hanging out with her and Oisin before the storm that is Kathleen O'Dwyer hit. I hadn't seen her for about a year and a half and as always, after an excited reunion, the years slid away and it was like we had just been together the other week. Kathleen had just been in Switzerland and Austria skiing and came back with her friend Glenn from New York who was fresh off a red-eye flight.

The night was again filled with friendly faces when Kathleen and Moya's Aunts and Uncle joined us for dinner and those cakes that Moya had been making. To quote from a song in my ears right now 'and if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing changed at all' Awww.

 

Lambs at the Cliffs of Moher

On Saturday we had a treat. The O'Dwyer's had organized a trip for us. All the girls piled in the car for a road trip out west. Over 7 hours we walked around King John's castle in Limerick, explored a river and waterfall in Ennistimon, shivered at a beach in Lahinch, Walked the cliffs of Moher and rescued some lambs whilst we were there. We were watching a storm rolling in towards us as we left and drove on to Doolin to look for a Dolphin from the safety of the car with cake and tea in our hands. We pulled up to our secret cottage getaway at the same time as Martin, who had also brought the dog Jasper. O'Dwyer's don't stay still long and a fire was lit as we claimed beds and dinner was cooked but once it was demolished we drove back into the town to watch the rugby match at the pub. Martin asked where we might find some music in the town and the bartender told us we would have to wait till later for it to begin so we went home to play a very intense card game that got our blood boiling and ready for some passionate Irish music. Unfortunately when we got back in to the pub it was not Irish music but a guy playing covers. Still we settled in to play a few more card games and finish the day with the perfect accompaniment, a glass of Baileys.

 

Kathleen, Glenn and Jasper curl up next to the fire

 

Martin at our cottage getaway

Fry Up

In the morning Moya and I did not want to rise from our warm bed but a mixture of Kathleen and Glenn jumping on us and the smell of a wonderful fry up prized us out into the cold. What a breakfast! Fit for a king with eggs and beans, bacon and toast, tomatoes, tea, juice and fruit. Could anything be more wonderful? The answer was yes and we discovered it at our next destination. We had thought that we should skip Loop Head and hurry on to a castle elsewhere but Martin insisted and as we pulled up to the peninsula and we ohhed and ahhed Jeanette instructed her girls to always listen when their father insisted on something. He wasn't wrong. The sky was extraordinarily clear and the walk around this grassy 'head' topped with a lighthouse was idyllic. We watched waves crash, seals surf and listened to the gull's cries bouncing off the tall cliffs. It was also a great place for Martin to play with his new camera, in fact we all took an incredible amount of photos because of the extraordinary scenes around us.

 

Loop Head

Loop Head

Back in the car we raced back to Tipperary to try and catch a Hurling match in Thurles. We made it for the second half and in time to watch a very tight match between Tipp and Cork which had us bighting our nails all the way to the final minute. The excitement in the crowed was infectious and we were rising from our seats to cheer on Tipp to their victory. We swarmed onto the field after the match with the rest of the crowed to get our photos with some of the exhausted, dirty (and quite attractive) Tipp players. What a fantastic day. And just when we thought it couldn't get any better, we were back in Clonmel and walking over to the McCabe's house for a night of charades, wine and magic tricks with Ais, Mary and Fian.

 

Tipp players signing for the fans

Now, after such a short time in Clonmel, I am on a bus down to Cork to stay with friends before my flight out tomorrow. Today was filled with tea and tea and tea and long talks with Ais and Glenn. We spoke about goodbyes and I said how I thought by now I should be better at them. Not that I ever say 'goodbye' to my friends in Ireland, there is always next time. But every time I make friends and talk and eat and play and think 'I could live like this, with these people, in this place' I leave and I leave behind 'what if's'.

 

The only thing is to move on to the next destination, the next friends I have been missing.

See you soon London.

 

Loop Head

Professional

I'm a travel professional, didn't you know? I do professional things, like in the last few days I have both a) placed my big suitcase in front of the doors of the train, sat down and filled my lap with random things to organize so that I was unable to jump up to grab it as it fell out the doors at the first station we arrived at, and b) just the next day lost my boarding pass for my flight somewhere after checking in. Travelling like a boss. Oh and I didn't check my visa properly so the UK immigration told me that if I didn't change my flight date back into the country I would be denied access and sent back to where I came from. Oops.

I am only 3 days into my trip. Positive start.

No, what actually makes me a travel professional (I feel like a jerk using that term, but it sounds good for the post :P) is that I don't panic when these things happen. As we can clearly see holidays don't always go to plan and you have to be able to go with the flow. Deep breaths, a sense of humor and a smile are your best assets here. And of course it helps if you don't have too much riding on the mishaps that happen. I used to stress but Topdeck has helped that. A mishap such as losing a bag of food out a door may not be a matter between life and death but it is a matter of being fed or not fed which is pretty close. And my mistakes affect a lot more people than just me. Topdeck taught me how to stay positive and work through things like this (as well as how not to make the mistakes in the first place). The first time something really went wrong was early into the training trip when in Barcelona (after one and a half hours sleep) I found that I did not have enough lunch for everyone. I was seven short. When I told the trainers, the dark looks and scathing words caused me to withdraw into a shell where I stayed for much of the day to come. I was scared of doing anything, of suggesting anything, incase that also was wrong. My review for that day was terrible, less so because of the lack of food and more because of how I handled it. Their words of warning made me realize how much of a problem this reaction was and made me assess how I could have dealt with it better. The next time something went wrong, on an actual trip when I realized that I hadn't bought anything for dessert that night for our 30 passengers, I just quietly talked to my other crew to let them know that the next few service stations we stopped into, they should look out for cakes for sale. And a very small crisis was averted. It might sound small but before the training trip, that situation would have caused some panic for me.

Luckily this time a kind stranger grabbed my bag as I tried to shuffle things off my lap, a smile and a sincere apology procured me a new boarding pass after a while, and I just have to shrug my shoulders and buy a new flight that suits my visa requirements. The other thing that helps is remembering where you are. Hostel wont check you in this early and you are just exhausted? Chin up, you're in London, find a pub, get cozy and enjoy a pint whilst listening to the cool new accents. Lost your train ticket and have to buy a new one? The train is going to Prague, I think it's worth it. Deep breaths and smiles, the best tools of a travel professional.

The Importance of Being Ernest

Before leaving home, I mentioned to mum that I felt like I should re-double my efforts this year when it came to communication with friends. I am pretty good at regularly skyping, emailing and texting some people and with others - nothing. It isn't through lack of wanting to talk to these people. It's a mixture of our times not meeting up, me being terrible with sending postcards and the like and both of us being busy. A big one is also that sometimes it feels hard to contact someone without writing out a saga of what you have been doing. A nice thing about contacting my parents is that both of them send me little snippets, sometimes just a link to an interesting website that makes our contact very casual and easy.

 

This is as far as I got on any postcards last year

So I said to mum that I would try to be better with postcards (something I have never been good at) that I would tee up more Skype dates on purpose instead of leaving it to chance, and send more personal emails. Her reply both relived me (because subliminally I knew I wouldn't be able to uphold these aims) and rang true. She reminded me how time after time I had said something similar to this and it had not come to pass, and that it didn't matter. I was away, I was busy and that was ok. Skype when I could and write on this blog to let people know what I was up to. Most importantly she said that I each time I did report on what I was doing, make it sincere. Her words were something like 'Not like some of those accounts on Facebook where you only see a one-sided perspective of who and how they are'.

That is the essence of communicating. Be sincere. When you are travelling it is so easy to spark jealousy in those at home and whilst that might be fine for a certain amount of time, It can become tiresome (unless that person REALLY loves you, or has to love you, like your parents). So tell them when you are having a hard time, homesick, stomach sick, stressed or tired. Don't complain, nobody likes that, but admit  when you are having a down day. 'I'm really loving all the markets in Barcelona, but I'm finding it hard to talk to people in the hostel, I haven't been going out in the evenings because I can't seem to make friends with any of them'. Let them know when they can help you 'I'm missing everyone, tell me what you did for the weekend'. And some advice I could actually use myself, when you think of them, let them know. It is very little effort to post a picture of something that reminded you of them on facebook and say 'hey this awesome kombi van made me think of the ones we always planned to buy!  what have you been up to?'

So although I may not be in constant communication whilst I am away,  I promise that when I am, I will be sincere. And no one should ever be shy about reaching out to me with a newsy message out of the blue, however long it's been since we have spoken. All my love from the very beginning of my journey (Beijing airport), Gemma Xxx