When a tour agency says "basic", they mean basic. And that´s precisely what led to having to spoon with the random Argentinian guy in my Jeep for the second night of my tour. It was that cold.
Having left the salt flatty area of the salt flats, we woke early to drive to the pretty lagoons famed for their pink flamingos (although most of these flamingos had flown to warmer waters in Chile), and enjoyed the changing scenery of the desert, its snow-capped mountains and natural rock formations. It really is breathtaking the desert out there, but it was getting increasingly colder as the day wore on.
We had grabbed a few bottles of wine in anticipation of the coldness to come at night, wanting anything to warm us (and basically we are drunks, at the end of it all) and not particularly looking forward to anything involving 6 blankets and/or a sleeping bag (the latter which I do not travel with).
With the wind whipping wildly around us, and the temperature dropping with every rising breath, we pulled into the "basic" hotel. Thin walls. Cracked window in the bedroom. Stinky bathroom. Definitely no hot water. In fact, hardly any water at all in the taps. But thankfully a small furnace in the main eating area (the corridor). Oh, how I crave the simple things in life now.
We polished off the 5 bottles of wine we had with dinner without blinking, and by this stage it was an open invitation to I, the Argo, to join blankets and beds for the evening. The rest of the group thought it was pretty funny, but for me it was a matter of survival. And hey, if I can borrow a cute Buenos Aires boy (how rare they are) for the evening, I most certainly will.
He was a good cucharita (spoon). However, as good as he was, I was still tossing n turning all night... various things getting in my way, such as another girl in my tour group vomiting from what I assume was altitude sickness (the food seemed fine) and me running around trying to help while also freezing to death. I wonder how much sleep the Argo got next to me. What a shit bed partner I am.
Showing posts with label freezing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freezing. Show all posts
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Rock solid cold
The cold weather has well n truly returned, this time bringing with it an icecold wind to really dig deep into my warm layers of clothing. Fun times. I have conveniently misplaced my scarf and warm beanie hat so I just had to shrug my shoulder deeper into my jacket and pull my hoodie around my neck.
The water has gone back to freezing in the horses' boxes so that's more work for me, making sure they have enuf to drink. But I can't leave the hose out because that too freezes up and I can't fill up the water bucket. The ground has also turned rock solid underfoot, so while it's not so slippery, riding is harder on the horses' hooves and the camels - already lazy - are even less inclined to move their asses when I try to exercise them.
Today I had the "help" of one of the younger students, who is a nice Austrian girl of about 13 but actually, when it comes down to it, pretty useless at moving the camels. So while I was relying on her to help keep things in check, I soon realised I would have to do it myself. Oh well, luckily G didn't make us try for too long. I would like to keep my voice intact, for now.
There are 10 more days until this British bird apparently comes to help at the farm for a month. It will be nice having someone younger to hang out with and also the help! But with me here alone I don't get asked to do too much in between the stable work, so it's pretty chilled. Maybe with another person G will start amping up the workload again. Urgh!!
Though, to be fair, I do enjoy working for G because she appreciates the work I do and tries to thank me often for it. I don't feel she overworks me and I know if it's too much I can just tell her, and she'll organise someone to come and help me or do a shift instead of me for a day or two. She consistently says she is glad I stayed, and I am glad too, but I feel a little bad that I had to be paid to stay. But it was the only way. I'd be heading to the brats in Bratislava if it'd gone any other way.
The water has gone back to freezing in the horses' boxes so that's more work for me, making sure they have enuf to drink. But I can't leave the hose out because that too freezes up and I can't fill up the water bucket. The ground has also turned rock solid underfoot, so while it's not so slippery, riding is harder on the horses' hooves and the camels - already lazy - are even less inclined to move their asses when I try to exercise them.
Today I had the "help" of one of the younger students, who is a nice Austrian girl of about 13 but actually, when it comes down to it, pretty useless at moving the camels. So while I was relying on her to help keep things in check, I soon realised I would have to do it myself. Oh well, luckily G didn't make us try for too long. I would like to keep my voice intact, for now.
There are 10 more days until this British bird apparently comes to help at the farm for a month. It will be nice having someone younger to hang out with and also the help! But with me here alone I don't get asked to do too much in between the stable work, so it's pretty chilled. Maybe with another person G will start amping up the workload again. Urgh!!
Though, to be fair, I do enjoy working for G because she appreciates the work I do and tries to thank me often for it. I don't feel she overworks me and I know if it's too much I can just tell her, and she'll organise someone to come and help me or do a shift instead of me for a day or two. She consistently says she is glad I stayed, and I am glad too, but I feel a little bad that I had to be paid to stay. But it was the only way. I'd be heading to the brats in Bratislava if it'd gone any other way.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Farewell Pomoissel and your beautiful snow
Well, the weather really kicked me in the guts today as my special little farewell present. When I went to feed in the morning I was FREEZING!! It was one of those days where everything was snowy but there was no cloud - the worst. This means there is only freezing to come. I'm serious. The horses' water was all frozen so I got another bucket, but by the time I'd finished cleaning the paddock it had already started to freeze as well. Poor things, wonder if they got a good drink in all day.
The air was icy to my face and my hands got so cold I actually didn't know if I had fingers anymore or not. Oh, and goody, I just looked at the forecast and tomorrow max temp is -4. Wooooot!! I heard there were delays at the train station I am using tomorrow morning, so I hope that's sorted before I have to go. Don't particularly want to be waiting around freezing my tits off at 6:30am. Brrr... Frozen peas just thinking about it.
Did the chrissie present exchange today, which was very sweet. G gave me snowflake shaped lights to hang up and L gave me a cute little wallet and earrings which I totally would've chosen had I been asked. I gave them some candles and candle holders, quite pretty actually, and wrote a poem for L which I have copied in as a post so I hope you enjoy that. J, J and daughter M also got some candles which they liked.
I have really enjoyed staying here and having this amazing winter experience, this property has such a positive energy to it and it has been quite restful for me. I am not going to miss getting up to feed early though, but I suspect it will be expected of me all over again in Austria. Oh well, I'll just have to make the most of now before it happens again.
So it's an early start tomoz, then to Hannover by train and a lift from there to Munich. The guy seems nice so hopefully it will be a good ride. Maybe not 220km an hour though... fingers crossed. I bet I'll just sleep anyway. Speaking of which.... toodle-oo!!
The air was icy to my face and my hands got so cold I actually didn't know if I had fingers anymore or not. Oh, and goody, I just looked at the forecast and tomorrow max temp is -4. Wooooot!! I heard there were delays at the train station I am using tomorrow morning, so I hope that's sorted before I have to go. Don't particularly want to be waiting around freezing my tits off at 6:30am. Brrr... Frozen peas just thinking about it.
Did the chrissie present exchange today, which was very sweet. G gave me snowflake shaped lights to hang up and L gave me a cute little wallet and earrings which I totally would've chosen had I been asked. I gave them some candles and candle holders, quite pretty actually, and wrote a poem for L which I have copied in as a post so I hope you enjoy that. J, J and daughter M also got some candles which they liked.
I have really enjoyed staying here and having this amazing winter experience, this property has such a positive energy to it and it has been quite restful for me. I am not going to miss getting up to feed early though, but I suspect it will be expected of me all over again in Austria. Oh well, I'll just have to make the most of now before it happens again.
So it's an early start tomoz, then to Hannover by train and a lift from there to Munich. The guy seems nice so hopefully it will be a good ride. Maybe not 220km an hour though... fingers crossed. I bet I'll just sleep anyway. Speaking of which.... toodle-oo!!
Friday, 3 December 2010
First snow ride!!
So I had my first horseriding experience in the pouring snow yesterday and it was something else. One one hand, it was surreal because the snow had turned the place into a virtual ghost town, everything was white and I was rding bareback with just a sheepskin blanket to prevent the icicles on the horse´s fur from freezing my ass off.
On the other hand... the sensation of the ice-cold snow cutting into my face meant that at one point I could barely move my mouth to talk to G´s daughter L, I had stupidly forgotten to wear another layer under my jodphurs so my legs were also now frozen and my horse June couldn´t keep up with the Icelandic ponies´ brisk walk so we were constantly jogging - not a good idea given the fluffy sweet-as-pie snow actually masked a layer of slippery ice underneath. So we fell. Numerous times. Once to the knees. I stayed on but every fall made the young one even more nervous so that was a great feeling. Imagine the horse bolting into pure whiteness, no idea what´s underneath... eek.
Anyway, I am glad I did but I am not rushing out to do it every day - at least next time I will wear more clothes on the bottom half. I already look like a sumo wrestler up top. But fuck it, I´d rather have a fat suit on than freeze my tits off. Those things are valuable ;)
On the other hand... the sensation of the ice-cold snow cutting into my face meant that at one point I could barely move my mouth to talk to G´s daughter L, I had stupidly forgotten to wear another layer under my jodphurs so my legs were also now frozen and my horse June couldn´t keep up with the Icelandic ponies´ brisk walk so we were constantly jogging - not a good idea given the fluffy sweet-as-pie snow actually masked a layer of slippery ice underneath. So we fell. Numerous times. Once to the knees. I stayed on but every fall made the young one even more nervous so that was a great feeling. Imagine the horse bolting into pure whiteness, no idea what´s underneath... eek.
Anyway, I am glad I did but I am not rushing out to do it every day - at least next time I will wear more clothes on the bottom half. I already look like a sumo wrestler up top. But fuck it, I´d rather have a fat suit on than freeze my tits off. Those things are valuable ;)
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
-10 and counting...
Today is officially the coldest day I have ever experienced in my life. I had to wake up by 8am to feed the horses and by golly gosh, I have never felt so cold. The poor horses' water was frozen, they have icicles hanging off their whiskers and even their shit was frozen into the ground when I tried to clean it up. But, on the plus side, I did get to see a real snowflake close up when they landed on the horses... I'm talking a real fairytale lookin' crystalised snowflake. Breathtaking.
Apparently it's down to -10 in the daytime here, pleasant enuf if you're an eskimo, and they promise more snow to come in the next couple of days. After that, apparently, it's going to "warm up". Hmph. We'll see what that means.
I am still trawling the internet for the best way to get to Bratislava - it ain't easy! The train fares are not that cheap and the longer I wait the worse it's going to get. AND this morning I woke to a confusing msg from my English teaching boss asking me if I wanted to stay longer. Stay longer where? I asked. Urgh, it's hard enuf organising all this without more complications. Just wish I didn't need the money so bad.
G invited me to Christmas here at her house, which is SO lovely and I would so much like to but I just think with the timing of T's wedding just before Christmas I will be resigned to spending it with strangers either in a hostel in Prague or still in Munich. Or, if I'm lucky, a nice new Couchsurfing friend. Sigh.
Apparently it's down to -10 in the daytime here, pleasant enuf if you're an eskimo, and they promise more snow to come in the next couple of days. After that, apparently, it's going to "warm up". Hmph. We'll see what that means.
I am still trawling the internet for the best way to get to Bratislava - it ain't easy! The train fares are not that cheap and the longer I wait the worse it's going to get. AND this morning I woke to a confusing msg from my English teaching boss asking me if I wanted to stay longer. Stay longer where? I asked. Urgh, it's hard enuf organising all this without more complications. Just wish I didn't need the money so bad.
G invited me to Christmas here at her house, which is SO lovely and I would so much like to but I just think with the timing of T's wedding just before Christmas I will be resigned to spending it with strangers either in a hostel in Prague or still in Munich. Or, if I'm lucky, a nice new Couchsurfing friend. Sigh.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
German folk songs and spiritual ceremonies
Being allowed a sleep-in on my first day at the new property, I felt a little more rested and ready to prove I was worth the effort it took me to get there! Also feeling a little like I have let them down going to Bratislava after just one week but I need the cash...
I learnt the ropes for how to feed the horses etc, met the lady I will be staying with next door (actually the landlady to the original couple I met) and moved my things over. After a pretty chilled out day catching up on my internet things, J suggested we could ride over to her daughter's kindergarten for a special ceremony they have around Christmas time. So we hopped onto an Icelandic pony each and rode bareback (she doesn't own saddles) to the school.
The ceremony was really sweet, some kind of ritual where they place a spiral shaped wreath-type object in the middle that eventually leads to a candle on a stand. Each little Arian child takes their own unlit candle stuck in an apple and walks through the spiral maze until they get to the candle, they light their own candle and proceed back through the spiral until they find their spot on the wreath to put their candle. When they do this, they get a big gold star from the wreath which was laying where they put the candle. J tells me this is symbolic for going into yourself, then coming out of yourself. All the while the parents and other kids sit on chairs around the outside of the wreath and sing German folk songs, which I tried to sing too but reading German isn´t something I´m too skilled at just yet.
When we rode back in the freezing cold darkness, I was a little nervous because I didn´t know the horse or the road but I survived. At home, I met G´s daughter who also lives where I am staying. They are all lovely and can speak English, but I feel so ignorant not knowing any other languages. These people can all speak several! Oh well, I´ll just keep plugging along...
I learnt the ropes for how to feed the horses etc, met the lady I will be staying with next door (actually the landlady to the original couple I met) and moved my things over. After a pretty chilled out day catching up on my internet things, J suggested we could ride over to her daughter's kindergarten for a special ceremony they have around Christmas time. So we hopped onto an Icelandic pony each and rode bareback (she doesn't own saddles) to the school.
The ceremony was really sweet, some kind of ritual where they place a spiral shaped wreath-type object in the middle that eventually leads to a candle on a stand. Each little Arian child takes their own unlit candle stuck in an apple and walks through the spiral maze until they get to the candle, they light their own candle and proceed back through the spiral until they find their spot on the wreath to put their candle. When they do this, they get a big gold star from the wreath which was laying where they put the candle. J tells me this is symbolic for going into yourself, then coming out of yourself. All the while the parents and other kids sit on chairs around the outside of the wreath and sing German folk songs, which I tried to sing too but reading German isn´t something I´m too skilled at just yet.
When we rode back in the freezing cold darkness, I was a little nervous because I didn´t know the horse or the road but I survived. At home, I met G´s daughter who also lives where I am staying. They are all lovely and can speak English, but I feel so ignorant not knowing any other languages. These people can all speak several! Oh well, I´ll just keep plugging along...
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