Monday 29 July 2013

no roses grow on a sailor's grave

 photo DSC_1970_zps092e2555.jpg

 photo DSC_1951_zps0da601f3.jpg

Typically, I've never been a fan of the themed party. You know, where everyone has to come as a super-hero, or their favourite My Little Pony, or whatever. Partly because it tends to be so competitive, and partly because I move a lot so I never have any stuff so I must either buy things or not participate. This summer I've had two themed parties however, and I may be a convert. The first was a midsummer's eve with wigs (my friend Amandine and I organized it, and we wanted an excuse to use our wigs from Carnaval again). And then there was the nautical-theme we chose for going to a music festival right next to the beach in Vilanova i la Geltru. Easy! Everyone already has striped clothes! (Which didn't stop my friend and I from going out and buying more for the occasion, but anyway).

Then we made tattoos.
 photo DSC_1957_zps5b821518.jpg

 photo DSC_1958_zps45fbbc8d.jpg

I honestly hardly remember the music portion. It was quite a random mix I think. I just danced because I was there and happy and because it was hilarious being in a group of ten equally stripey people (the official photographers didn't know what to make of us).

 photo DSC_1975_zps3537b0b3.jpg

 photo DSC_1992_zpsf484c0ff.jpg

 photo DSC_1965_zps3daea09e.jpg

We eventually left the enclosed area to dance on the beach, and swim in the sea at 4 am, and then I characteristically curled up in a ball on a towel and closed my eyes and when I woke up it was dawn.

 photo DSC_2012_zps5a8576e1.jpg

 photo DSC_2018_zpse55244b8.jpg

And we finally got a picture of those who were still standing. (Rosa was originally in stripes too, someone had taken a tumble into the water and needed a wardrobe contribution).
 photo DSC_2030_zps724987e9.jpg

And then I slept on the beach some more, until it was too hot to be believed, and then it was time for paella.
 photo DSC_2050_zps2c7f123d.jpg

Friday 26 July 2013

on the camino de santiago

 photo 995907_10152875015705596_943136026_n_zpsf97cb680.jpg

 photo 995796_10152875007490596_1392148136_n_zps7d795730.jpg

 photo 944331_10152875009200596_710802699_n_zps200795ae.jpg

This was a while ago now, but I thought it might be of interest to those considering doing the camino themselves. Back in May, my sister Morna and I spent 8 days walking through Galicia, North-western Spain, on part of the ancient pilgrimage the Camino de Santiago, which starts in Southern France and ends in Santiago de Compostela.

We started in the village of Sarria, calculating it would take us about a week to reach Santiago. Our calculations proved to be wrong (aka, we didn't actually read the itinerary, just printed it) and it only took us 4 1/2 days to get there... so we caught a bus out to a point along the Portuguese route and spent three days walking back. All told, we walked 170 kilometres in 8 days, or an average of about 23 km a day.

Along the way we suffered strained knees and ankles, blisters, colds, rain, underwhelming food, and occasionally our fellow "pilgrims" but it was an amazing experience nonetheless and has really whetted my appetite for doing more long hikes--maybe across the UK next year!


 photo 936046_10152875006280596_255706399_n_zps6684e287.jpg

 photo 971048_10152875006935596_1374346826_n_zps82acd1ea.jpg

 photo 580724_10152875017630596_1086615944_n_zps7a8bdb92.jpg

 photo 971805_10152875007420596_1447443073_n_zps0ee88afd.jpg

 photo 600498_10152875018695596_1374080248_n_zps657ebf6e.jpg

 photo 603005_10152875017965596_1771819703_n_zpsb1f1d3eb.jpg

 photo 992902_10152875015430596_1490018207_n_zps736df5a4.jpg

(Photos are maybe not quite up to usual standards as left the big camera at home... and then just stole these off my sisters facebook).

Things to keep in mind along the camino:

1. It's cheap but it gets more expensive and more crowded the closer you get to Santiago. It's apparently exceptionally crowded in the summer... May was probably pretty perfect. If I was doing it again I'd probably do an earlier chunk (not the beginning as it's in the Pyrenees and I can't be doing with climbing hills all day). The section between Burgos and León is apparently flat and boring, but I heard the parts going through the Basque Country were pretty. On the other hand, it was exciting to get to arrive in Santiago. I even went to mass, voluntarily.

2. Don't overpack. I'm really content with Mo's and my packing job. I think my bag weighed 6 or 7 kilos, and hers maybe a little more but we basically didn't bring anything we didn't use. I had two legging/tracksuit bottoms things, maybe 5 t-shirts, two cotton dresses and two warmer layers, various hiking socks, plus a blanket I stole from the train on the way over which proved invaluable for a scarf, a sleeping bag, a pair of flip-flops (thank GOD), toiletries, a travel towel a rain poncho and not much else. It wasn't a glamorous trip by any means, but I had everything I needed. I didn't spend much money preparing either. I bought new boots and a few cheap things but basically just took ratty old clothes. Next time I would bring a book though. That was silly.

3. Break in your boots PROPERLY before you go. This was dramatic for me. I bought my boots about two weeks before, wore them on a bunch of hikes in Yorkshire and they seemed fine. After two days, the very slight pressure of one of them on my ankle caused internal bruising to the extent that I could hardly walk. Without the boots, perfect, with boots, agony. I walked (and sadly this is no exaggeration) 27 km in flip-flops and hiking socks that day. My hiking socks still have cloved toes and my feet took a long time to forgive me.

 photo 942885_10152875018910596_399797601_n_zps3231c1e2.jpg
Toasting Morna with wine the waiter referred to as "the blood of Christ."

 photo 960048_10152875017740596_386513534_n_zps176163f2.jpg
Beautiful rural Galicia.

 photo 935516_10152875020210596_84012352_n_zps20e84c11.jpg
Wet rural Galicia.

 photo 996815_10152875018100596_303105982_n_zpse2e03a31.jpg
Friends encountered en route

 photo 972301_10152875008025596_1835200565_n_zps00b8db84.jpg

...and Santiago! Which incidentally is a lovely city, full of good food and pretty corners.

 photo 7041_10152875016410596_842961505_n_zps72948db3.jpg

Monday 22 July 2013

three years of ruby slipper journey-ing

 photo DSC_2190_zps4e286e8f.jpg

 photo DSC_2186_zps9362eb21.jpg

Well, Ruby Slipper Journeys turned 3 last week, and as always, it´s been interesting to look back. In fact, it´s interesting to read the last two years´ annual recaps and see the changes in how I choose to express myself. I began making personal style posts in 2010, and now the blog has developed to meld style with travel and lifestyle. Mostly I want to convey the excitement of living and travelling, from my perspective and place in the world.

This past year I´ve been less active in blogland, I suppose as a result of being more settled in my real life. I have a job I like, friends I like, and other hobbies (writing). I also made a conscious decision last year to diversify away from mostly doing outfit posts and focus on documenting moments in life. I still like clothes and dressing up, but I found that having it the main focus of my blog was making it disproportionately a main focus of my life. I think wearing the clothes we want allows us to see ourselves as the heroes and heroines of our own adventures, but I didn´t want the clothes to be the adventure itself.

It´s been a year of ups and downs, dizzying in their proportions, but I´m a lot more content with life than I was this time a year ago. I have a sense of having taken some kind of control, that things no longer simply happen to me. Which is a good way to feel… hopefully I´ll avoid the existential crisis that I was brewing up for my 30th birthday later this year.

 photo DSC_2189_zps812f0f02.jpg

To everyone who´s continued reading (especially in the patchy last few months of personal upheaval and computer comas) thank you so much as always, and see you for another year!

 photo DSC_2193_zps11e39e48.jpg

Friday 19 July 2013

borrowed flowers

 photo DSC_2147_zps052062f8.jpg

 photo DSC_2142_zps779095f6.jpg

Oh yesh... outfit posts! Sometimes I forget about them. :) This is a fairly typical thing that I wear to work and around town, and here I'm looking a bit sweaty and scruffy at the end of a long day. My Catalan office-mates love and laugh in equal parts that I wear these traditional Catalan dancing shoes, but they are ridiculously comfortable for schlepping about in (it's impossible to get anywhere in a hurry though). And here's one of the little floral dresses I seem to live in. I'm always trying to wear less floral, because, although I like it, I think it's nice to not be too repetitive, but somehow this year I seem to have ended up largely floral.
These photos were snapped mainly for the flowers, which we were taking to the inauguration of a new bookshop. I hung out under the air conditioning and drank all the free rosé, as you do, because it was cold.

 photo DSC_2139_zps29a425ab.jpg

 photo DSC_2150_zpsc8c82aff.jpg

Tuesday 2 July 2013

fez

 photo DSC_1246_zps8c1b8235.jpg

 photo DSC_1255_zpsd4dde360.jpg

 photo DSC_1266_zps126473e9.jpg

 photo DSC_1265_zps209d8088.jpg

 photo DSC_1247_zps168fd1bf.jpg

The two days in Fez were such a great vacation! It didn´t hurt that I went mid-week, so it felt like I barely worked that week at all. But also it just felt so exotic and different. I´ve travelled a fair few places, though in general I go and live somewhere and haven´t done the backpacking routes that a lot of people have, but I hadn´t been anywhere like Morocco before. The crazy tiny labyrintine streets of the old city, the chaotic market stalls, the cats, the donkeys (ok, Mexico had donkeys, but not on the same level, not delivering gas and water). The people who seem to speak any language you could think of, so long as it´s to sell you something. The smells, of leather tanning and mint, the coloured tiles, the exquisite woodwork, the mosques we couldn´t go in, the coffee shops, the street life and the tucked away courtyards where the noise of the street doesn´t penetrate. The Barcelona Football Club paraphernalia. The impossibility of reading street signs. The haggling the taxi down from $10 to $1 and knowing you´re still paying too much. The honey cookies.

I loved it!

 photo DSC_1132_zps5533484e.jpg

 photo DSC_1110_zpsed989007.jpg

 photo DSC_1094_zpsd3427dfb.jpg

 photo DSC_1158_zps7a355a4d.jpg

This was how narrow the street to get to the hotel/riad
 photo DSC_1200_zps2fcba703.jpg

 photo DSC_1073_zps0d1024ca.jpg

 photo DSC_1140_zpsd01117c9.jpg

 photo DSC_1125_zps66323076.jpg


 photo DSC_1113_zps687fec2c.jpg


 photo DSC_1015_zps18f5ccd8.jpg

 photo DSC_1250_zps273f54e8.jpg