In March, while we were back home in Australia, we spent an afternoon with Mum, planning our trip around Spain and Portugal. Of course, we all had cities that were already on our personal agendas. Barcelona, Madrid, Cordoba, Granada, Seville were all instantly placed on the itinerary. To plan the rest of the route, we skimmed the guidebooks and looked at the places in between the must-dos. That's how Évora made the cut.

Below is the paragraph that tempted us to Évora:

"What draws the crowds though is the Capela dos Ossos, a mesmerising memento mori (reminder of death). A small room behind the altar has walls and columns lined with the bones and skulls of some 5000 people. ... There's a black humour to the way the bones and skulls have been carefully arranged in patterns, and the whole effect is strangely beautiful."

Chapel decorated with Bones! Gross!

The chapel was definitely an eerie place. Bones cover the walls and thousands of skulls feature in the decorating. This means a lot of empty eye sockets are staring at you as you walk through.

The monks who created the church thought that the chapel would be an ideal place to think about the fleeting nature of life and to help one reduce the focus on material possessions. Death is certainly something that is on your mind in a room full of bones. This message is emphasised by the greeting that welcomes you to the chapel... "We bones in here wait for yours to join us."



More photos on Flickr...

While on the topic of abandoned buildings, I thought I'd post some photos from our trip to Estonia at Easter this year. We were lucky enough to enjoy unseasonal weather for our trip. It snowed! It was very exciting to be exploring a new city in the snow. Everything is so beautiful when covered in a blanket of white.

Only half an hour's drive away from the capital Tallinn is Paldiski. It was once the largest submarine training centre in the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the base was decommissioned and abandoned. Now Paldiski is a small village and a network of crumbling buildings.

On the road out to the peninsula, you drive past rows and rows of deteriorating buildings. These were army barracks which once housed soviet soldiers. Out on the peninsula there is a wrecked bunker of stone and twisted metal. There also used to be nuclear reactors but they were removed in 1995. Apparently, a civilian died in 1994 after being exposed to radioactive material from the disused base (allegedly stolen.)

We drove down a side road and stopped off at one of the old army barracks for a closer view. The buildings are in a complete state of disrepair and are slowly being reclaimed by nature. Roofs have caved in, trees are growing inside rooms and paint is peeling off the walls. In one building, the lino floor had come away, leaving a sea of curling lino tiles.

It was a lonely place to visit and the snow just emphasised the feeling of isolation. It's worth a visit before there is nothing left to see.



More photos on Flickr...

After each game of proper ultimate, we usually play a mini silly game. After a very competitive game of ultimate, both teams can be a bit wound up. If we just walked away, it's possible that there could be bad feelings on either side.

We play a mini-game afterwards to relax, to have fun and to have a laugh together. It's a great way to make sure that everyone walks away from the game with a smile on their face. It's also a bit of inter-team bonding.

During Mixed Tour 3, we played some old favourites including Mix'n'Mingle and Guess Who. But our new favourite game is Handicapped Ultimate.

Like the name suggests, it's ultimate but everyone is handicapped in some way. Players have their hands tied together or become three-legged or blind-folded or on piggy back or have their shorts round their ankles. The aim of the game is still to catch the disc in the end zone. It's just a little bit harder than usual.

It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I thought I'd share the hilarity with you guys with this mini tutorial video: How to play Handicapped Ultimate.

Enjoy!

Strangely enough, our weekend centred on Jelly. On Friday evening we attended the Architectural Jelly Banquet. Part of the London Festival of Architecture, it was also a fund raiser for Architects for Aid. There was a jelly competition - jellies designed to look like famous English attractions; jelly dancers - girls with spoons; jelly-wrestling - a kiddie pool filled with strawberry jelly and jelly to eat of course.

Well, I think it was a fund raiser. There wasn't much talk about it being for charity. It's like a group of uni students got together and decided to run an event featuring jelly because they thought it would be "really cool!!!" Of course, the UCL website has a lot of fluff about the magnificent properties of jelly.

It was a fun event, although it did have a run by uni students feel to it.



More photos on Flickr...

We managed to fit in jelly on Saturday evening too. Jelly in the form of vodka jelly shots at Grant's house warming.

Grant hosted a BBQ at his newly renovated flat. It is the first real BBQ I've seen since coming to London. It was a properly sized (read enormous) gas BBQ on a balcony. We feasted on BBQed chicken wings, chicken skewers, beef and lamb burgers, and corn. After a proper BBQ it feels like summer has finally arrived.

Some photos on Flickr...

In Dingle, you can find the best idea for a pub ever. Foxy Johns is a pub combined with a hardware store. As you walk in the door, you can see a bar and bar stools on the left side and a counter with hammers and screw drivers on the right side.

You could nick off to the pub for a cheeky half and use the line "I'm just off to the hardware store to pick up a couple of things" in total innocence.