Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Travelling

Man, how much I like travelling! But the strange thing about me is that the thing I enjoy most about it is the trip itself. I've been to a couple of places already (no, I haven't been to Italy, if you're wondering :) Why is it that they pose that question on every English language workbook?), but I'm afraid they're too few for my liking. Last summer I went to the Canary Islands with my wife, and we enjoyed a lot driving around and across Tenerife, visiting the island's many interesting places. But never have I enjoyed travelling so much as on my honeymoon trip: we did a small tour of Europe by car, but not venturing further than Austria.

"Do you like driving?" goes the BMW TV commercial in Spain. In my case, yes, I do. I don't have a BMW but I enjoy lots driving around with my trusty Seat León. That's why we decided to travel by car. We departed from Castellón and headed straight towards France. It's worth mentioning here that Catalonian highways were the most expensive we found in the whole trip. Some people complain about Switzerland's highway tax, which you have to pay if you intend to enter the country with a vehicle, regardless of the length of your stay. But it entitles you to free use of Swiss highways for the rest of the year, and it costs just about 25 euro. I would sign for that in Spain without hesitating; just going from Castellón to Barcelone costs more than that.

In France we visited an impressive cave called La Grotte des Demoiselles, which I found breathtaking. Never before had I seen anything this enormous and magnificent many metres underground. Highly recommendable. From there we moved on to Lyon, where we strolled through its ancient streets and visited a couple of buildings, one of them the cathedral. I like these buildings, but I think I should include only one of them on each trip, otherwise I'm overwhelmed. On another trip through Castilla y León we visited several of them and ended up a bit tired of them: too much of a good thing :) And anyway, once you've visited Burgos Cathedral the rest of them don't seem half as great... Here come to mind the words of a friend of mine, who calls cathedrals, churches and the like "stones with shapes" :)

Before leaving France we visited another town, Belfort. The main feature of this place was a gigantic stone lion that protruded from the ancient city walls at the very top of the town. It looked impressive, and from there you could enjoy a great view of the whole of Belfort. There's something about stone lions that always attracts my attention; whenever there's one around I have to go and see it (this wasn't an easy task in London: they were everywhere!).

We crossed the border and entered Germany. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland is where I enjoyed the driving most: the landscapes were highly agreeable and sometimes truly arresting, especially in the Black Forest and the Alps. The area known as The Black Forest in Germany is full of woods, vast expanses of green grass (and cows) and lush vegetation. A real pleasure to drive through. The villages were nice and cute, and everything was perfectly clean and lovingly cared of. What the hell do these people give to their plants? They had them bursting with colour! The hotels and guesthouses were covered in geraniums in full bloom, a sight to be remembered. We visited a couple of nice towns, like Konstanz, Füssen and Wassen, as well as the famous castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. The latter reminded me of Cinderella Castle at Disneyland. The view of Neuschwanstein castle from a hanging bridge near by is one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. Don't miss it if you happen to visit the south of Germany.

Then we crossed into Austria. We didn't visit any town there, but enjoyed lots with the landscapes. This must be a great place for walking! Some day we'll return there and spend a week or two ambling around. The next country was Liechtenstein, if you can call it a country. We visited it just out of curiosity: a place so small and still a country! Well, in fact it's just a "principality", but worth a visit anyway; maybe a bit too modern, though.

And from there on to Switzerland. We visited Zürich, which we hated, and Luzern, which we loved. And guess what we found in Luzern? A stone lion! :) Actually, we had gone to Luzern in search of that lion, about which I had read a lot previously. I adored it. It had been carved in the early 1800s in a sandstone cliff above the city centre, and the setting was just perfect, with a small lake in between. We spent a long while sitting there and gazing at the sculpture, and I found curious, if not amazing, how little time visiting tourists were allowed to appreciate the monument. They came in big groups, the guide told them the story behind the sculpture, and after five or ten minutes they were gone. That's why I prefer to travel on my own!

In Switzerland we got the chance to drive through the Alps, and it was great! We won't easily forget such breathtaking sceneries, with snow-covered mountains, winding roads and meandering rivers. When we were on the top, it snowed! It was just magical... Without leaving the Alps we crossed into France again, where we admired the magnificent Mont Blanc.

After that, we returned to Spain, a bit weary after so many kilometres on the road, but utterly happy for having made this trip. We hope to repeat the experience some time again; there are so many countries there awaiting to be discovered!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Bye bye 2009

We're in January again, and another year has gone by. 2009 has been an interesting year for me. Not a particularly good one, but not too bad either.

I started the year working at a tile factory (something not too surprising in Castellón), driving a forklift truck, preparing tile orders and loading them on lorries. The economic crisis had begun already, but I wasn't too worried about it; after all, I still had a job and I did it the best I could. In fact, I bet I did it much better than many people around me did. I could see that we got fewer lorries to load, but we had more or less the same amount of work: no matter if you order two boxes or twenty-eight, you still have to handle those boxes. Actually, I would say that the fewer boxes the order consists of, the more you have to work: a whole pallet of tiles means hardly any amount of work, as you only have to move it around with the forklift truck.

But the crisis was there and it also arrived at my workplace. The company considered that too many people were employed, so they decided to lay off a dozen or two of them. And I was in the list. I was outraged. I had done my best but still I had got the sack. The reason was that I was cheaper to sack than other people, regardless of each one's capabilities. After three years working at the same place and doing the same kind of things, I had grown accustomed to this routine, and I found it very hard to stop it all of a sudden. Well, at least now I could devote all the time I wanted to studying for my Official School of Languages' exams... I think I did quite well, so it was all worth it after all :)

It was time to face the future. It was April, I was entitled to twelve months of unemployment benefit, and, given the economic crisis, I wasn't going to find a job anyway. Since I quitted University back in 1997 I had had the feeling that I should resume my studies before it was too late, so, why not now? It was the perfect situation: during the first year (the hardest for me, as I'm no longer used to studying in a serious way), I could rely on the unemployment money, and after that I would find a way to combine work with studying. So, I decided to go for it. I had always wanted to study Translation and Interpreting, but when I tried those many years ago, I couldn't (my English wasn't good enough for Granada University). This time I would try in Castellón. I couldn't enrol straight away: first, they put my name down on a waiting list, and afterwards I was told to attend a big meeting where they would assign the vacancies left to be filled. I was lucky enough to get a vacancy! I was so happy! I could fulfil my dreams at last!

Summer came to an end, September arrived, and with it, the beginning of classes. Back to school, at 35! Oh my God. It felt weird to be once again in this environment, but this time surrounded by people much younger than me... Never mind, I'm here to study Translation and Heaven knows I'm going to do it. But I have to admit that it's proving hard to carry out. There's soooooo much to do! Every teacher has an impressive amount of homework for you and there's just not enough time for it! I mean, if you devote hundred percent of your time, of course you can do it, but, aren't we supposed to have a life? Maybe it's just me; anyway, I'll do my best to succeed in this new challenge. But I'm afraid I miss terribly my working days; there were so stress-free... I long for my dear old forklift truck :)

I hope 2010 will be a better year for everyone; especially for me ;) I just can't wait to see this bloody financial crisis go away; I want to see everybody happy again, with plenty of jobs available, with new businesses sprouting everywhere, with plenty of opportunities for the future. Last but not least, I want to pass all my University exams :)

Happy New Year everyone!!!!