Va Piano Paris | A tasty end to a long day

My mum is working in Paris this week, and so I have decided to take full advantage of this and tag along with her to cram in some more sightseeing of Europe before carrying on my way to Sicily, ready to start the second half of my year abroad.

We have had a pretty long day, starting at around 3 this morning for me. The journey to Manchester airport took us a shocking 3 hours due to a car on fire closing parts of the motorway we were on, which eventually just led to a complete and utter standstill. When we finally got to the airport we actually had to run all the way from the carpark like madwomen to the bag drop desk, dragging 4 rather heavy cases behind us, and we just managed to make our first flight by the skin of our teeth.

After a 35 minute flight down to London, we had a couple hours wait in Heathrow before carrying on to Paris (where I was randomly upgraded to business class for free - cheers BA!) 

We arrived into Paris around 3pm local time and took a taxi straight from the airport to our hotel in La Defense, where I managed to cram in an hours power nap before getting ready to go out for dinner at a place across the square, called Va Piano. 

Va Piano is a fun little Italian chain, where your food is prepared fresh in front of you by the chefs. When you enter the restaurant you are given a small card, like a credit card, which is then used to keep a tally of everything you order.

There are three separate stations: Salads & Antipasti, Pizza and Pasta, each one with a different menu to choose from. You decide what you want at each station, place your order with the chef and then scan your card on a little machine and your order is added to your tab. At the end of your meal you simply take your card to the till by the door and settle the bill there. It saves time paying at the table and gives you way more freedom in ordering your food.

Me and my mum started off at the Salad and Antipasti bar - me with some bruschetta and her with a small caesars salad.

We ate and chatted, and the beauty in being able to take your little card up to the station and order what you want there is that you don't feel rushed into ordering anything by a waiter who is juggling another 10 tables of hungry/indecisive customers. Not being able to decide what I want and ordering the wrong thing are regular occurrences in my dining-out-life, and so the ordering system at Va Piano suited me perfectly! You decide what you want to eat, when you want to eat, and can see it being prepared from scratch in front of you. You can also talk to the chef about making adjustments to your dish, and on the table there is olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and various herbs to add to your meal. You also take your card up to the separate bar whenever you like for drinks and it is all settled at the end when you go to leave.

For our mains, me and my mum shared a ham & mushroom pizza and a bowl of tagliatelle with pesto and pine nuts. Both were delicious, though I think the pizza was the winner hands down as it somehow managed to be sloppy but still quite fresh and light - perfection!

To be honest I'm in love with the concept and all the food we had was delicious. The atmosphere was very relaxed and you felt like you could really take your time with your meal, there was no rush to leave once you had finished eating, or move onto the next course immediately. I'm told they have restaurants in London and Manchester, and will definitely be keeping an eye out for them next year!

Segovia

So it's my last week here in Madrid. I'm not sure how I got here so fast, but it has certainly been a roller coaster of a term. When I arrived I made a list of things I wanted to do and see whilst here and have been slowly ticking them off ever since. On Monday night I went for a few drinks and some tapas to say goodbye to my friend who left Madrid yesterday and, whilst chatting about our time here, we both said the exact same thing - that when we arrived we thought we had all the time in the world, but it went by so fast.

If there was one thing I could say to every student who is lucky enough to study abroad, it's to do the things that you want to do, don't put them off. Yes it feels like you have all the time in the world to do them, but you really don't. Get them in, don't wait. I'm not saying you need to be booking coaches and trains straight off the plane, but if there is something you really want to do, see or experience, make sure you actually go and do it, even if that means doing it alone. Sometimes life unexpectedly gets in the way, the year may not count but the workload and exams will stress you out and when you think about it properly, twelve weeks to fully immerse yourself into a new culture and learn everything about it is nowhere near enough time.

Life and its strange turns kind of got in the way of things a bit for me this term, and so when I came back to Madrid for my exams, I vowed to make the most of what little time I had left here. There were a few "to-dos" and some places to see left on my Madrid bucket list, so Monday evening, before I went for drinks, I booked a coach to Segovia and yesterday morning I went on my way.

Segovia is a city to the north-west of Madrid, in the autonomous region of Castilla y León. It is probably most known for its impressive aquaduct (el acueducto de Segovia).

 

I walked up to the top level of the acueducto and then made my way through the little streets in search of the alcazar, which I had read online was part of the inspiration for Walt Disney's Cinderella Castle - cue embarrassing levels of excitement, and me eventually convincing myself that Cinderella (the fictional disney character) had actually lived there. (I definitely found myself thinking things like, "Wow I can't believe I'm actually in Cinderellas house" as I walked around...)

 

 

Something I really love about Spain is how you can be walking through tiny cobbled streets, and out of nowhere something as magnificent and grand as this just pops up:

This is the Segovia Cathedral, also known as 'la dama de las catedrales', and it sits overlooking the Plaza Mayor. It is apparently the last gothic cathedral to be built in Spain, and was completed in 1768. It's pretty amazing to look at, and it can be seen peeping out from various different points in the city (and is therefore quite handy for finding your way around, allowing you to understand where you are in relation to the Plaza Mayor)

I carried on walking past the cathedral, down some more cobbled streets, and eventually I arrived at the gate of the alcazar.

I'd read online that students get in for 3euros, but when I asked the man at the ticket desk he told me that if I had an EU passport or English driving license I could get in free!

The walk round the alcazar doesn't take long, but its quite beautiful inside. 

 

All along the castle are these big arched windows, which let in lots of natural light and give you an incredible view over Segovia

they're not entirely sure who laid the foundations of this place, and they're not ashamed to admit it...

After leaving the alcazar I wanted to get a photo of the castle from below, as it sort of sticks out of the hillside like the bow of a ship. To do this I had to go on a trek and a half, round the city walls and down the hillside, and it all started by going down these steps of certain death...

(I can hear my mum gasping all the way from Spain)

and then I walked, and I walked, and I walked. I felt safe at all times on the journey down...

Once past the scary, makeshift pathway carved into the city wall and onto a wider, and more stable, path the walk was actually really enjoyable. It was extremely quiet, pretty much silent at times, and very peaceful. The whole route was surrounded by trees and it was raining lightly, giving the area that amazing earthy smell.

 

And then I finally made it to the bottom, to see the castle sitting on the hillside in all its glory. Excuse the rain on my lens, the battery sign had just flashed up warning me my camera was to die at any moment, and I hadn't come all this way down not to get this shot!

It was really beautiful to see and I'm so glad I did! It did however dawn on me at that point that I had come all this way down and it had taken me quite a while....and now the only way was back up. I certainly earned myself that (amazing) hot chocolate on the way home. I walked past the castle, alongside the river, and all the way back up to the alcazar. Then I made my way to the Plaza Mayor, through the city streets, stopping for a look in a few shops, and eventually ended back up at the acueducto. 

 It was around 5.30pm at this point and I knew there was a coach back to Madrid at 6pm so I headed back to the station and hopped on. The drive home only took around an hour and 5 minutes, and the coach stopped off in Moncloa, dropping me practically outside my front door which was just perfect. 

It was lovely day out and I'm really glad I went and did it. One more thing ticked off my bucket list!

San Pedro Lexington: Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, my best friend Carolyn came to visit me in Madrid for a few days. She arrived Monday evening (11th November) and we spent the next few days being as touristy as possible in between my lectures, that I really couldn't miss that week as I had an exam on the Friday. I spent the Thursday before having various meltdowns over this exam as I literally didn't understand a single thing about it, and we were meant to go for tapas Thursday night before Carolyn left on the Friday morning, but I was having such a meltdown about it all we decided to cook dinner in the apartment instead so that I could carry on cramming/crying/sighing about it all afterwards.  So we left the apartment to go to the nearest supermarket around half 9, and we were halfway there when we heard a tiny meow coming from a car parked at the side of the road. So we stopped and listened, and we heard it again. So I got down on my knees and looked underneath the car, and saw two big, terrified eyes staring back at me. (I like to bang on about fate to my friends and family, but if there was ever a time to say it, it was right then.)

It was, what we thought at the time, a tiny grey tabby kitten. Tucked under the car, next to the wheel, was a discarded, dirty white jacket, sort of bundled up, and an open can of tuna, and on the car was a note saying "Hey mate, there's a cat under your car, check your engine before you turn it on" in Spanish. So we assumed this poor kitty had been dumped in this jacket with a can of pretty rank tuna, that looked like it had been open for a day or two.

With Carolyn being one very crazy cat lady already and me well on my way we obviously couldn't just leave this kitten here, and so all plans went out the window and we suddenly found ourselves led on the floor, rank tuna in hand trying to entice this beautiful little thing out from under the car. But there was no way in hell he (or she as we thought at the time) was going to budge. So we spent the next half an hour trying to get it to the edge of the car so we could grab it, failing, and then having to run around the other side of the car to stop it running out there. It was absolutely terrified, and so kept disappearing up into the engine of the car, to hide out of reach. We had Carolyn's iPhone torch shining under trying to see exactly where he was, and I was taking photos on my phone with the flash trying to get a better idea. He was meowing constantly and very loudly at this point, but kept making himself completely out of reach, no matter how far we wedged ourselves under that car.

The looks we were getting as people walked past and saw two girls, bums most definitely on show, led on the ground, half their bodies wedged under a car, filthy tuna, leaves and mud in their hair and all over their clothes and faces... there was definite pointing. A few people stopped to ask us what we were doing, before carrying on their way. Two lovely, elderly ladies actually stopped quite near to the end and tried to help by offering us a laser pen to try and see and tempt the cat out, and offering us one of their crutches to try scoop him out with (I'd dug a long, plastic, god knows what out of a nearby skip at this point to try and poke and prod him out of the engine). Finally, he left his hiding place and sat curled up underneath the car, so with Carolyn blocking one side of the car I used the stick to sort of push him towards the pavement, and the one and only time he actually emerged from under the car onto the street we grabbed him, wrapped him in our coats and quickly marched him back to my apartment, but not before thanking those two lovely ladies of course. 

He was completely covered in motor oil, cold, hungry and absolutely terrified when we got him home. Carolyn told me we needed to get the oil off him as soon as possible as it was toxic to ingest, and she was worried once he felt safer and more relaxed he would start to clean himself. So I filled a tub with some warm water whilst Carolyn rubbed baby shampoo all over him, and then we tried to rinse it all off. The water was absolutely filthy, but after two lots of shampoo, lots of rubbing with damp flannels, a couple of full body dunks (not appreciated by the kitty), and the kitten now resembling a drowned rat, we were pretty satisfied we had got most of it off. And that's also when we realised that he was not a grey kitty, but a brown and white one!

"SHTAAAAP CLEANING ME!"

After a towel drying, he had a little explore of my room/tried to get as far away as possible from the flannels and people using them, whilst we facetimed and skyped our parents to tell them of the new addition to the family. Note the slightly grey paws still (and please excuse the state of the floor, it had been a testing week of dropping and breaking a horrifying amount of compact powders.)

A couple of days before, we had visited the Gatateca in Madrid - a cat library where you can go and read, chill and have a drink whilst rescued cats wander about/snooze around you. So our first thought was to contact this place to see if they could take in this kitten and look after him until someone hopefully adopted him, as they take in strays off the street and care for them. I also said I would contact every shelter I could find in Madrid and was pretty hopeful that one of them would take him in for us the next day. Who could say no to this cheeky little face...

We fed him some turkey slices - the only thing the late-night, nearby Chinese bazaar had on offer - and gave him some water, and that night he found his favourite place to sleep was, in fact, on my face, though every so often he would slip off and get lost in my hair.

I also realised on my way to the shop that during all the chaos trying to get him out from under the car, I had lost the big, jewelled decoration off one of my (favourite) shoes... (I was forced to just rip it off the other shoe when getting ready for uni the next day. Definitely worth it.)

The next day Carolyn had to leave early to catch her flight, and I had to go face the exam of doom (which I thought went a lot better than it could have done, but still a little bit horrendously) and on my way back I picked up some essentials like food, and stuff to make a temporary litter tray. When I opened my door to my room  I saw Pedro (originally named Lexi after the Spanish lexicon exam I had almost certainly just failed) was snoozing on my bed, but as soon as he saw the door open he jumped up and buried underneath the covers and didn't move until I picked him out. It was  one of the cutest but slightly saddest things I've ever seen in my life - a scared kitten hiding under the covers...

I then spent the afternoon and evening having rather amazing cuddles with Pedro and emailing every single shelter I could find in Madrid and the surrounding areas telling them the situation and asking them for any help they could offer in finding Pedro somewhere to stay. I also spent the whole next day doing this. However, many places were coming back to me saying that they were already full and bursting at the seams with unwanted cats, especially at this time of year, and by later that night I was getting rather panicky that this beautiful bundle of fluff had nowhere to go and I was supposed to be on a flight back home in a couple of days, for the best part of a week. It was at this point that I began researching just what it would cost to bring him home to England. Blind panic had taken over by this point, and so I convinced myself that if no shelter in Madrid could have him, then someone in England would surely help me out. As you can see, all logic had gone out of the window, but how could it not when faced with the possibility of this tiny baby ending up back on the streets, where he would absolutely not survive even a couple of days in the Madrid cold (not even sure I can survive the cold right now!)

It turns out the laws concerning animals entering in to the UK changed in January 2012. Before, any animal entering in to the UK had to have a rabies vaccination and then had to be put into quarantine for 6 months. However, since the change, any cat entering in to the UK from an EU country only needs to be micro-chipped, to have had a rabies vaccination and a pet passport filled in and stamped by an officially approved veterinarian. 21 days after their rabies jab they are free to enter the UK through a number of government approved routes. If coming from a non-EU or non-listed country there is a separate blood test that has to be done 30 days after the rabies vaccination and then you must wait for 3 calendar months before you can enter the UK with your pet, but seeing as we are coming from Spain, we are not required to have the blood test.

So armed with this information, I began to bombard my parents with photos like this:

Now I knew I had my mum on board, but it was my dad that needed convincing. Our house has been pet free for nearly 6 years, and although dad likes it that way, me and mum spend hours online looking at kittens and tiny fluffy dogs we wish we had running around whilst dad sighs and rolls his eyes at us. Luckily growing up in a house with 3 other girls, I think my dad has learned that once we all gang up together (sister was well on board at this point) it is going to make life a lot easier to just give in to what we are asking for - sorry Papa D! And so a few glasses of rum later, along with me firing numbers at them with every picture highlighting how it wouldn't cost THAT much to save this little kittys life (playing on the heartstrings as much as possible) Dad caved and Pedro was officially about to become part of the family!

Pedro is EXTREMELY happy about this, and says thanks mum and dad! (He actually says Gracias, because he speaks Spanish. Mum and Dad, you should probably get started on those Spanish lessons...)