Vivid Memories

On Vacation from my Vacation

2012-01-03T18:17:00.000-05:00

As you can see, I've been on blog vacation for quite a while now ... as in no blog posts. Oops. New Years resolution: update all backlogs and create a 31 list!! (and keep it up to date).

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!! I'm spending 10 days on the beach in Argentina and then off to Buenos Aires before flying home to reality. It's been an awesome 6 months :)

See you at the beach!!

Bolivia - Atacama Desert Crossing

2011-12-08T20:16:00.051-05:00

One Word - UNBELIEVABLE. Such an awesome experience.

We had so much fun on our Desert Crossing. I have to say that these were 3 of my favourite days in Bolivia.

We travelled from Uyuni, Bolivia to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile and we saw so many unique sights. Some highlights being the Salar de Uyuni, thousands of wild flamingos, blue, green and red lagoons, volcanos and geysers. It was like being in a science fiction movie.

I absolutely loved the Salar de Uyuni (Salt flats), definitely the highlight for me. So incredible to see, and it just doesn't make any sense to me; where did they come from? How is this possible?? White salt stretching for miles and miles, as far as the eye can see, my own personal dance floor. I was the happiest girl in the world.

We all had fun doing optical illusions with the flats and spent hours trying to get the perfect shot. That night we slept in a hotel made of salt and we danced and partied under millions of beeautiful stars until dawn. Perfect night.

The next two days were spent 4x4ing across the desert, through the mountains to thermally active lagoons and geysers. We saw thousands of wild flamingoes and many beautiful sights. What an experience. We ended our Desert crossing in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile ... which is a post for another day.

Some photos of this awesome experience.

Trains everywhere!

Group jump:

Oh no!!

Workers collecting salt:

Driving across the salt flats:

Playing with salt:

Salt patterns:

Fish Island:

Salt hotel:

Dance party in the Desert under a sky full of stars:

Millions of llamas; llamas for me!

Crossing the tracks:

Active volcano:

Lagoons galore and flamingos!!

Arbol de Piedra:

Exploding at the geysers!

Our jeep crew:

Goofing off in the jeep:

Reflecting on our journey at the turquoise lagoon:

Bolivia - La Paz, Sucre, Potosi, Uyuni

2011-11-28T16:08:00.008-05:00

After a 5 day break at home (to change up my gear) I flew in to La Paz, Bolivia. I had 12 days in this amazing country and it had both ups and down. Let’s start with the down … I somehow contracted food poisoning my first day here and so La Paz was pretty much a write off for me. I didn’t see much of the city other than the Witch Market (which was fascinating) and the cinema because I wasn’t feeling up to doing anything.

From La Paz I did take a full day trip to Lake Titicaca and Sun Island. This is a truly beautiful part of the Country and I’d really love to come back some day and spend more time here on the Lake. During this day trip I got to see the scenery change from big city life (in La Paz) to rural life and then finally island land. From Sun Island we had stunning views of Peru and the surrounding mountains in Bolivia and I got to enjoy some Cocoa Tea and learn about some of the local beliefs.

From La Paz I joined up with a G Adventures tour that will take me in to Chile over a span of 3 weeks. The tour took us from La Paz to Sucre to Potosi to Uyuni and finally on a 3 day excursion through the Salar D’Uyuni and the Atacama Desert Crossing. AMAZING.

Let’s start with Sucre – It’s a smaller town but it certainly does have a lot of charm and it’s quite beautiful with its white houses all built up into the hillside. I still wasn’t totally feeling myself in Sucre (however the antibiotics and Tequila shots were definitely helping – Mom don’t read that part!!) so I didn’t do any of the daytrips or excursions from here. I spent my time sleeping in and relaxing by day and hitting the Joyride Café for some dancing by night. I also did the city tour here which was quite interesting and included a visit to the Museum, Cathedral and Miraflor lookout (even though I was about ready to keel over and die by the end of it - due to illness … not tequila). As a group we went to see the Origenes Espacio Cultural; a dinner theatre that showcases traditional Bolivian music and dance. It was lots of fun!

Moving on to Potosi. Potosi is a mining city in Bolivia with a population of approximately 200,000 people. The city itself is quite charming with its red brick houses (most of which have an awesome pop of colour from a lovely door or window.) We spent some time walking through the city to the main square and through the various markets; however the highlight of Potosi was definitely our mine tour. Potosi is built at the base of Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain), a huge mountain rich in over 96 minerals. Miners have been extracting minerals from this mountain for almost 500 years. We had the opportunity to visit the Miners Market, put on the appropriate gear and make our way into the mine for a 2 hour visit to see what life in the mines is like as well as learn about how the miners work and the tools they use. This was a really interesting experience and I think everyone who did the tour was happy to have participated.

From Potosi we drove through the rolling, winding, half pavement and half dirt roads to Uyuni (and we saw hundreds of wild Llamas along the way. Llamas!!!) Uyuni is a much poorer town than the others we’ve visited. As we drove in to the city we were greeted with the very unique species of Uyuni desert flowers (garbage caught in the dried desert plants). There isn’t much to do in this town other than get ready for the 3 day desert crossing excursion and have the best pizzas in Bolivia, so that’s what we did.

I'll post our Desert Crossing adventures shortly!

View of La Paz from our hotel rooftop:

Local Bolivian Woman selling fruit in La Paz:

First view of Lake Titicaca:

Reed boat on Lake Titicaca:

Views of Lake Titicaca from Sun Island:

The bus driver fixing the emergency hatch that randomly blew off the bus(haha):

Llama!

Sucre City Tour:

View of Sucre:

Dancing in the street:

Lovely Potosi:

Potosi from the lookout tower:

Local women selling nuts on the street:

Mining supplies:

Playing with dynamite:

Getting ready to go in to the mine:

Pablo and I ... hard at work ;)

Driving through the Bolivian countryside to Uyuni:

Playing with Spanish stop signs:

Song of the Week - Hey, Soul Sister (Train)

2011-11-11T08:00:00.002-05:00

I'm in Bolivia! I didn't think I'd be back in South America so soon. I love exploring these countries and have some great adventures planned for the next two months.

This song always reminds me of good times had in South America last year and so thought it was fitting for today.

P.S. It's 11/11/11 today!

Looks like an angel, talks like an angel, the devil in disguise. - XOXO. Gossip Girl

Morocco

2011-11-01T16:14:00.000-04:00

My two weeks in Morocco has come and gone and it was AMAZING!

I'll get the posts up at a later date.

Morocco - Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes

2011-10-25T16:12:00.003-04:00

We spent two weeks in Morocco and let me tell you this country was AMAZING!!!

We started our travels in Casablanca, which in my opinion is a city that can be missed as there´s so much more to see and do in this country.

We spent two days in Casablanca, touring the city, visiting the beach and of course doing a tour of Hassan II Mosque. The third largest Mosque in the Middle East and the only Mosque in Morocco that allows Non-Muslims to enter (as part of a guided tour). This Mosque is really quite beautiful and there was alot of thought and effort put into the design. After our visit to the Mosque we spent some time enjoying the sun and watching the local young men jump from the pier into the huge waves.

Over the next few days we moved from Casablanca to Rabat to Meknes

Our time in Rabat was brief; we visited the Mausoleum of Mohammed V and the Oudaia Kasbah. The Mausoleum is quite lovely with it´s beautiful decor and it´s quite impressive to see the Hassan tower and the remainders of the pillars of the Mosque that was never built. It was well worth the stop in Rabat to see the Oudaia Kasbah with it´s beautiful blue and white washed walls. I loved walking through the narrow cobblestone streets and alleys.

Our next stop was Meknes where we spent a day touring this imperial city with visits to the small but impressive Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail, a visit to the gates of the Meknes Royal Palace and a tour through Moulay Ismail’s massive Heri es Souani which was his personal stable & granary for his 12,000 horses. Our evenings were spent outside the 18th century Bab Mansour, the ornamental gate to the imperial city of Meknes built by Sultan Moulay Ismail in Place el-Hadim. In the evenings this square come to life with local people selling their wares, story tellers, acrobats and many families enjoying the entertainment.

Hassan II Mosque:

Early morning beach in Casablanca:

Mausoleum of Mohammed V:

More photos to come eventually.

Song of The Week - Rock The Casbah (The Clash)

2011-10-21T08:00:00.002-04:00

We have been in Morocco since October 16 and we are fascinated by this country and culture.

Tomorrow we set off through the High Atlas Mountains to the Sahara, where we get to ride camels to our Sahara Desert Camp for the night. Woohoo!

What better song to play this week than:

|Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe” - Anatole France

Barcelona

2011-10-20T14:01:00.006-04:00

Barcelona ... our final stop in Spain.

This city is amazing; always SO alive, day or night. We had 4 days to explore and we spent every minute seeing and experiencing all this city has to offer.

We started by taking the metro to Camp Nou and ended up doing the Camp Nou Experience (which is a tour of the Stadium and Clubhouse). It is very apparent that the FCB is a much wealther club than Real Madrid, the stadium is beautiful! For non-soccer (football) fans we sure had fun on this tour!

We spent a great deal of time focused on Gaudi's Barcelona and toured Casa Battlo and La Pedrera as well as making a visit to Park Guell and the Sacrada Familia Church. Gaudi was a genius, what more can I say. You need to see and experience to truly understand how unbelievably beautiful these sights are.

Our explorations of the city brought us to La Barcelonetta (while on the hunt for the Fish), which resulted in us walking along the sand with the wind whiping our hair and the salty spray from the rollers ensuring that I spent the rest of the day looking like a chia pet. I warn you, don't go near the pier as you will see many naked elderly lady parts!

Other points of interest include the beautiful grounds of Montjuic, the Gothic Quartera and La Ribera, all of which are definitely worth exploring. If we'd had an extra day we would have made the day trip to Montserrat as well.

Our nights included a walk down Las Ramblas to find a delicious restaurant for dinner or to stop in to the Mercat de la Boqueria as well as drinks in El Born. Barcelona has very intereting night life.

Barcelona was fun but we're ready to move on to Morocco!

FC Barcelona @ Camp Nou:

Inside Camp Nou - The Camp Nou Experience:

La Pedrera:

Casa Battlo:

Walking around Las Ramblas:

I have many more fun photos to add ... we have wifi in Morocco but the connection is not fast enough to upload!!

Mallorca and Ibiza

2011-10-16T05:03:00.009-04:00

Our third week in Spain we flew from Granada to Palma de Mallorca and then to Ibiza and spent 4 days in the beautiful Balearic Islands. Ahhhhh, it was paradise.

In Mallorca we strolled the boardwalks in the evening and wandered the cobblestone streets during the days. There is a fair amount of Contemporary Art in this city and we had fun taking silly photos amongst it all. We also made a visit to the beautiful Cathedral which Gaudi was commissioned to re-build. We loved the gothic feel in here and we picked a perfect time of day to visit with the colourful stained glass windows reflecting off the arches. We really enjoyed Mallorca and would definitely return for a longer holiday.

Our time in Ibiza was very chill. It's off season in Ibiza and the Island was pretty dead, we had the whole beach to our self which was just fine with us! The weather was gorgeous, the water was warm and the sand was soft. It was a little piece of heaven and a much needed break in our hectic schedule. We would both like to return someday in the midst of Summer to experieince the "real Ibiza".

Mallorca

Ibiza

Granada and the Alhambra

2011-10-15T20:34:00.000-04:00

Our next destination was Granada, we had four days here and we stayed in a great centrally located apartment. It was so interesting to see how the further South we got in Spain, the more of a North African and Islamic influence and flair there is.

Granada was very interesting (to say the least). We were in a very uncomfortable situation in Sacromonte where two men were approaching us and clearly going to try and remove our belongings from us (I think we almost just got robbed!). Luckily, we hightailed it out of there ... or rather ran like hell to safety!!

Our time here was spent wandering through the many different neighbourhoods, alleyways and squares. We had several pitchers of Sangria and glass of wine - to keep hydrated ;) and because you get free tapas when you order a drink in Granada.

As far as sights to see, Granada isn't that exciting (in our opinion). It's the neighbourhoods you want to explore. Walking through the many neighbourhoods (such as Sacromonte and Albaycin) allows you to just take in Spanish culture, life and people. For example, during our wanderings we came across many lovely murals, some Flamenco caves, beautiful Spanish doors and a man in his speedo standing in the middle of a Plaza bahhhhing repeatedly to the sky. (It was certainly an experience.)

I celebrated my 30th Birthday in Granada. My travel buddy, A booked us in at the Banyos Arabs where we had a scrub massage and spent some relaxing hours in the hot, warm and cold baths. It was wonderful!!

Finally, a visit to Granada isn't complete without a tour of the Alhambra. The Alhambra was spectacular, it's something that you just cannot put in to words, so I will let the photos below do the talking for me. We enjoyed our time at the Alhambra and tried to see as much as possible. I have to admit that Granada looks quite beautiful from the Alhambra watchtower.

Granada

This is what backpacking looks like (waiting for the sweaty packed in like sardines bus from the bus station to our apartment):

Sangria and Mojitos:

Banyos Arabs (Happy Birthday to Me!):

Walking around Granada (Sacromonte, Carrera del Darro, Albaycin):

Should we be worried in this neighbourhood?

The Cathedral:

Get. In. My. Belly.

View of the Alhambra from Plaza S. Miguel Bajo:

Being serenaded in Plaza S. Miguel Bajo:

The Alhambra

The Alhambra ... will let the photos do the talking:

View of Plaza S. Miguel Bajo from the Alhambra (can you see all of the people taking photos of the Alhambra?):

Granada looks beautiful from up here!

Song of The Week - Beauty (The Shivers)

2011-10-14T08:00:00.009-04:00

Keeping track of Song of the Week while on the road has proved to be quite difficult. I'm a day late with this weeks song. My apologies ;)

We are in Barcelona and we're loving Gaudi and all his grandeur, tapas, sangria and this funky awesome city!!

"Color in certain places has the great value of making the outlines and structural planes seem more energetic." - Antonio Gaudi

Malaga and Ronda

2011-10-13T04:49:00.002-04:00

From Seville we took the train to Malaga, a lovely little beach town on the Costa del Sol. We had another three days to play with here, so again spent two in the city and one outside of Malaga on a day trip to the little town of Ronda.

Our time in Malaga was spent relaxing. We had a gorgeous little apartment across from the Cathedral, which was very central and perfect walking distance from everything we needed access to. We walked around the cobblestone streets stopping in many of the very cushy shops, we enjoyed good wine and food, we toured the Picasso Museum (I heart Picasso!), saw the Roman Amphitheatre and several other ruins and of course we went to the beach!!

We had beautiful weather and the water was warm. The beach is called Playas de la Malaguetas and it's a dark rock sand beach, so not the beautiful soft sand but still quite nice. We didn't have any complaints!!

Our day trip to Ronda was a fantastic experience as well. It's a majestic little city nestled in the hills of Andalucia and there's quite a bit to see! We started at Plaza de Toros which has a fantastic bull fighting museum (and is/was the first official bull fighting stadium in Spain).

It was a beautiful day so we decided to walk along the scenic boardwalk to take in the stunning views while we made our way over to the Old Town. We took the path from Plaza Maria Auxiliadora down to the bottom of Puente Nuevo (a huge bridge built between the cliffs of the Old Town and the New Town. It's really quite neat to see and doesn't really seem like it belongs in Andalucia.

We also spent some time getting "lost" in the Old Town, walking along the Old 18th Century Town Walls, through Puerta de la Exhijara and of course we made a visit to the ruins of the Old Arab Baths. The white washed houses reminded usa bit of Greece.

Ronda was a wonderful surprise, we both loved it here and thought to ourselves that if we were to plan this trip over again, we'd spend a night or two in this historic town.

Malaga

Outside the Plaza de Toros in Malaga:

Pablo hits the beach! (in Malaga):

Palace:

The Cathedral:

Roman Amphitheatre:

Ronda

Plaza de Toros:

The Matador and the Toro:

Walking the scenic boardwalk:

They have such beautiful doors ...

... and beautiful tiles!!

Puente Nuevo:

Feeling a little "zen":

Enjoying the view and a lovely glass of sangria:

Walking the walls of the Old Town (with a view of the New Town):

Arab Baths:

Seville and Cordoba

2011-10-12T18:34:00.000-04:00

After a busy three days in Madrid we took the train to Seville. We had three days to play with here so we spent two of them in Seville seeing the sights and we took a day trip (by train) to Cordoba for the third day.

Seville really impressed us both, it's such a charming little city. It was really easy to navigate through the lovely little alleys and we were always greeted with a little surprise in the form of urban art, Spanish doorways, murals or cute decor. We were very impressed with Plaza d'Espana, the Spanish architecture and tile benches are beautiful. While in Seville we also visited the Cathedral de Santa María de la Sede, the Reales Alcazares (Royal Palace) and we took in a Flamenco show at El Tablao Flamenco Los Gallos. All three attractions worth definitely worth the visit. Seville is a lovely little city to get lost in and A says that if she ever goes missing ... we'll find her there!

Our day trip to Cordoba was fantastic! We both absolutely loved the Mezquita and spent hours inside taking photos. It's a stunning building, the architecture and design is so detailed and the arches are beautiful. We found it really interesting to see both a Mosque and a Catholic church in one building. We also spent our time walking around the city, over the bridge and through the alleys and visiting the Medina Azahara Palace. Cordoba is a must-see visit in Spain, you cannot miss the Mezquita!!!

Seville

Cathedral de Santa María de la Sede:

Cute souvenir Flamenco costumes:

Lovely pottery souvenirs on display in a little alley:

The infamous legs of cured ham hanging from the ceiling of the tapas bar:

Beautiful Plaza d'Espana:

Reales Alcazares (Royal Palace):

Playing with tiles:

Palace Gardens:

Urban art in the alleys of Seville:

We saw a Flamenco show at El Tablao Flamenco Los Gallos (no photos allowed inside):

Night shot of Cathedral de Santa María de la Sede:

Reflection of us on the train to Malaga (our next destination):

Cordoba

Outside the walls of La Mezquita:

La Mezquita Clock Tower:

Inside La Mezquita, it's really quite lovely ... and the arches, oh my!!

Pablo made a visit too!

Walking the streets of Cordoba:

Medina Azahara Palace:

A cute couple taking a siesta in the gardens:

Madrid

2011-10-09T19:39:00.006-04:00

I arrived in Madrid from Oslo (quite tired as I had an early morning flight) and stopped in at the tourist information desk to get directions to my hostal. Armed with three maps, I got on the metro towards Sol. The metro here is quite extensive and I had to change subway lines three times before I was on the subway line that would bring me to the hostal. I found our hostal easily and A was already in the room as she had arrived from Canada earlier that day.

You might remember A from my travels here and here. We’ll be spending the next five weeks together traveling through Spain and then Morocco (woohoo!).

Madrid is BIG and there’s a lot to do here as far as Plazas, Historic Sights and Museums. We only had three days and wanted to do a mix of everything so we decided to go to the Prado Museum, take in a Real Madrid Soccer game, see the Palace Real, relax in Bueno Retiro Park and do a historic walking tour of Madrid (based on a walking tour found in Lonely Planet). All of these activities filled our days and boy were our feet tired of walking!!

Real Madrid was quite the experience. We found the stadium quite easily as it’s basically the first thing you see when you step outside of the metro stop. The area was all closed off with do not cross tape and there were hundreds of officers patrolling the area, as well as cruisers and ambulance ready and waiting. Little stands were set-up all around the stadium and they were full of munchies (nuts, sunflower seeds, popcorn, candy, soft drinks, etc) as well as Real Madrid merchandise. It turns out, you can bring your own food and drinks into the stadium. The game was fun, the crowd was going wild, singing and chanting and Real Madrid beat Amsterdam Ajax 3-0. We had a great night and a fun experience!

We also visited Plaza de Toros, the bull-fighting stadium in Madrid. It’s really a beautiful stadium, with red brick, colourful tiles and beautiful arches. We could have gone to see a bull-fight while here, however I didn’t want to. I think bull-fighting is barbaric and I don’t have the heart to watch a man kill an already battered and abused bull (who really has no chance of survival anyways). I understand it’s part of Spain’s history and culture, this doesn’t mean I need to support it.

Madrid was nice; however we were definitely ready to move on to Seville and Cordoba (post coming soon).

A and I in front of Estadio Santiago Bernabeu (where Real Madrid play):

In the Stadium with our tickets, waiting for the game to start!

Real Madrid vs. Amsterdam Ajax:

Fountain in Cibeles Square:

Almudena Cathedral (adjacent to Palacio Real):

Prado Museum:

I love the streets signs here!

Plaza de Villa:

Knocking on doors in Plaza de Villa:

Beautiful building covered in murals in Plaza de Mayor:

Close-up of the murals on the building above in Plaza de Mayor:

Hot chocolate dipped churros:

Palacio Real de Madrid:

Statues in Plaza de Oriente:

Some funky tile steps we found on our walk:

Sangria in Plaza de Mayor:

Love this newstand!

Madrid Bear and the Strawberry Tree in Puerta del Sol:

Pablo at Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas (Bull Fighting Stadium):

Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas:

Parque del Bueno Retiro:

Thirty, Flirty and Thriving

2011-10-06T03:00:00.003-04:00

Today, I'm celebrating 30 ... in Spain. Woohoo!

(Photograph care of Melanie Godecki Photography)

... and just for fun, here are 30 Random Facts about Moi:

1. I get bored very easily, which is why I'm constantly finding new things to keep L and I busy. Ok next fact.

2. I love the smell of an auto body. It’s very distinct; do you know the smell I mean? Well anyways, it reminds me of home. Sometimes I’ll walk by this auto body near work just to take a whiff.

3. I am a terrible parker. I will drive down to the last spot in the lot just to avoid backing in or out of a parking spot. Good driver, very bad parker (I’ve never hit anything while parking though!).

4. Colourful shoes and I have a kinetic attraction of sorts. They just call to me from wherever they are on display in the store and I go running like a gazelle. L has to literally pull me away from a hot pair of colourful pumps, size 8.

5. Call Me by Shinedown is possibly my favourite song ever. I hear it and immediately feel at peace. I will potentially fall in love with anyone who serenades me with this song. Good thing L has already swept me off my feet ;)

6. I'm a bit of a collector; always have been and likely always will be. I collect shot glasses and patches from every Country I visit, as well as guitar pins from the Hard Rock. I won't even start to tell you about what I used to collect as a kid. Trust me; we don't want to go there!

7. I love being on the water. I grew up on Lake Superior (as I'm sure you've read about in my previous blogs). One of the best feelings as a child was when my Dad would take me out in the boat and let me sit in the front as he went speeding over the waves. It was always so exhilarating.

8. Disney cartoons always bring me to tears. I know, I know ... what a sap. The Fox and the Hound is perhaps the most emotional of all the Disney Classics, it's just so darn sad that Tod and Copper can't be friends :( Dang you Disney and your powerful but awesome stories!

9. I often speak before I think and I always tell it how it is. My parents brought me up to be very independent and to think for myself. They always allowed me to have my own ideas. I truly appreciate them giving me the freedom to be ME.

10. I have some mad nostril flaring skills. Enough said.

11. I only need to hear the chorus or a verse of a song once for it to get stuck in my head for hours. Maybe I shouldn't have told you that because now you're going to walk by me and start singing Justin Bieber ... aren't you?!

12. Contrary to popular belief (L!!) there is still plenty of room in my walk in closet (I just need to figure out how to attach a clothing bar to my ceiling)

13. I have man hands. This abnormality was pointed out to me in high school by some silly boys ;) and it became a long running joke. However, the truth is, I totally have man hands (so don't look at them ... k?!)

You don't believe me? Look at my hand in this photo:

14. I love Quality Street Chocolates but I only eat three of the flavours; strawberry cream, orange cream and the caramel stick. L thinks it's crazy to pay so much for Quality Street only to eat three flavours. What can I say, I like what I like ... and I like fruit cream filled chocolate!

15. I'm a bit of a procrastinator. I always wait until the last minute to get ready to go out, to get ready for work, to pack for a 2 month backpacking trip, etc. It's my system and it works for me.

16. I LOVE 90's dance tunes. Well actually I love all dance tunes, but the 90's dance tunes are where it's at. Don't even try to tell me that when you hear "Baby Got Back", "Whoop, There It Is", "Informer", "Rhythm Is A Dancer", "I Like to Move It, Move It", "Hey, Fatboy", "Lick It" and the hundreds of other 90's tunes you don't want to immediately break out in a crazy dance. Because I won't believe you!

17. My favourite baseball player is Alex Rios and I'll tell you why. He has the cutest baseball butt I've ever seen ... and trust me; I've seen hundreds of baseball butts because L loves baseball!!

18. You know when there's one thing that is just so delicious you can't stop eating them even though they make your tongue sore. Well, I'm coming clean. I am addicted to seasoned flavoured Spitz and Sour Patch Kids. They burn so good.

19. I really love my family; we are crazy and quirky but I love "us" and wouldn't trade them in for any other family in the world. I miss them so much (even though we're only a 1.5 hour plane ride away).

20. I can still do a scorpion. I don't know about you but I think that's pretty impressive for an old gal like me ;) Haha. (Photo taken at the Heineken Experience in Amsterda, August 2011).

21. Oh, another confession. I am sort of obsessed with vampires. This obsession started long before Twilight and True Blood on HBO hit the scene. I started reading Charlaine Harris' books ages ago. There's something so dang mysterious about these creatures. (Please note my obsession is limited to books and television shows only, I don't slink around pretending I'm a vampire)

22. I do not like celery. It is disgusting. Please don't try and tell me that celery doesn't have a taste because it does and the taste is very distinct. Yech.

23. I met L seven years ago and prior to that time I was not aware of the magic of the snooze button. You're saying "really?". Really! I'd never used the snooze button before on my alarm clock. I now have a sick obsession with the snooze button.

24. I'm not at all a morning person. I would much rather stay in bed than get up and get a "good start to my day!". (Please refer to number 23 above "the snooze button"). I have recently been told that I am like a Cave Troll in the mornings, it's so true.

25. Many people tell me that I have inspired them to travel and see more of the world. This makes me SO, SO happy. Go. See. Do!!

26. I can no longer read in the car, I get motion sickness and have to lie down. This only started to happen about 5 years ago and I'm not sure why but I'd really like it to go away.

27. There are some days where cupcakes run my life; in that I will plan my entire day around a visit to a cupcake shop. What can I say? I LOVE Cupcakes!!

28. I'm in love with my best friend and I'm so lucky to have him in my life. He helped me write some of this list you know. I bet you can't guess which ones he came up with!

29. I do not like drive-thrus and avoid them at all costs. End of story.

30. I aspire to be like my Mother. She is the most AMAZING woman I know.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to write 30 random facts about yourself? Geez Louise!

(Photograph care of Melanie Godecki Photography)

Song of The Week

Now, I leave you with this awesome 90's classic: Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice (check out those sweet dance moves!)

Jenna: Wait, listen to me. I'm 13!
Lucy: Jenna, if you're gonna start lying about your age, I'd go with 27.
Quote borrowed from IMDb.com - Movie: 13 Going on 30

Hola from Spain!

2011-10-04T15:54:00.002-04:00

I've been in Spain with A since September 27 and we're having a great time!!

All of the actual posts are up for Europe 2011 and I'm slowly working on getting more pictures up.

A and I are just starting to get posts up for Norway Spain Morocco 2011.

(Click on the bold links above or scroll down for these posts)

We picked up a new friend during our travels here in Spain ... his name is Tonto the Torro.

Pablo likes him too!

Norway in a Nutshell – What I Learned

2011-10-03T20:18:00.001-04:00

There is so much to see in Norway!! So far I’ve been to the South and now to the North East. Hopefully my next visit will take me to the Fjords in the West of Norway.

As with my visit to Sweden, it was such a great experience to be with locals in Norway. S and T showed me all around Oslo but also took me out hiking, an awesome experience I probably wouldn’t have gotten if I’d just been touring some of Norway on my own.

Norway really reminds me of home (Northwestern Ontario), of course Ontario is flatter and we don’t have any stunning Fjords but we do have a very similar forest and many beautiful lakes and outdoor activities. I could definitely live in Norway and feel like I were at home (the only concern is that I don’t speak Norwegian!!).

I’ve discovered that Norwegians love hiking! Of course I knew that they love to be outdoors but I didn’t realize they are so passionate about hiking (even in the cooler fall months).

With respect to food we had a lot of tapas, some pasta dishes and of course hot dogs, sausages and cheese sandwiches (while hiking). We cooked at home because going out for dinner in Norway is extremely expensive. We did have a Norwegian delicacy, it’s called Salma Laks and it is fresh sushi grade salmon (packed 4 hours after it’s been caught from the sea and on store shelves within 1 to 2 days of packing). Absolutely delicious!

Lessons Learned:

• Norway is one of the most expensive countries in the world
• Norwegians are bananas (b-a-n-a-n-a-s) for hiking!
• There are several Stave Churches being actively used today (stunning structures)
• They really do have grass roofs on the homes in the North of Norway (so cool!)
• Much of Norway’s front line workforce are Swedes (they earn a better salary in Norway)
• The Norwegian, Swedish and Danish languages are similar (in that if you know one language you are pretty much good to go to communicate in the other 2 countries)
• When the wind blows out your single use grill, pop a frying pan on top to smoke your sausages (they’re still good!)
• When hiking with two women, bring a roll of toilet paper
• Ahhhh, so this is why my hiking pants open on both sides ;)
• Our headbands bring all the boys to the yard
• A drive through the Norwegian countryside will result in some of the most stunning scenery you’ve ever seen. EVER.

Salma Laks and tapas:

Goulash Soup and Hot Chocolate (it was a chilly day!):

Delicious Veggie pasta which works really well as a pasta salad the next day:

Late night pasta:

Lunch in Frogner Park:

#30 - Acquire a Taste for Wine

2011-10-01T20:00:00.004-04:00

I'm really not much of a wine drinker.

[Insert big collective gasp here]

I know, I know, everyone loves wine! Just not me.

2011 is going to be the year I acquire a taste for wine.

I admit, I'm starting challenge #30 from The 30 List a few months late in to this year but I'll make up for it over the next 6 months. Promise! I'm traveling to some of the finest wine countries: Argentina, Chile, Germany, Italy, Spain with some of my best friends. This challenge is going to be beat!

Stay tuned.

Single Glass count (as of October 2011): 10
Cork count (as of October 2011): 7
Single Glass count - Sangria (as of October 2011): 5
Pitcher count - Sangria (as of October 2011): 4

Enjoying some white wine at a lovely wedding in the Distillery:

Enjoying a bottle of Wine in Cinque Terre (although their wine isn't so delicious in my opinion):

A with our first pitcher of Sangria in Madrid, Spain (it was delicious!):

Sangria on a patio in Ronda, Spain:

Sangria and a Mojito in Granada, Spain

We're really working on this goal a lot in Spain!!

Song of the Week - Lights (Ellie Goulding)

2011-09-30T08:00:00.001-04:00

There's something magical about this song. I feel energized every time I hear it.

If you've not yet heard it, you must give it a listen!!

"You show the lights that stop me turn to stone
You shine it when I'm alone
And so I tell myself that I'll be strong
And dreaming when they're gone
Cause they're calling, calling, calling me home ..." - Lights

No matter where my travels take me, I'm always so happy to return home to my loved ones because I miss them!! Although in this case they're going to have to wait unitl January for my return ;)

Soothsayer: "Your story may not have such a happy beginning, but that doesn't make you who you are. It is the rest of your story, who you choose to be... So, who are you, Panda?"
Quote borrowed from IMDb.com - Movie: Kung Fu Panda 2

Jotunheimen National Park

2011-09-28T19:41:00.001-04:00

Over the weekend we took an overnight trip to Jotunheimen National Park which is 4 hours North of Oslo and a very popular spot for Norwegians to go hiking. The Park consists of several mountain ranges and many different hiking paths of various lengths and difficulties. I wasn’t really prepared for hiking (as far as clothing goes) but S and T had some extra gear to lend me so off we went!

The drive to Jotunheimen was so beautiful, the leaves are starting to change colours and we had a beautiful sunny (but crisp) day. As we were winding up into the mountains there were so many picture perfect views of the Norwegian farms nestled among the Norwegian forests reflecting on the various lakes. It’s really quite hard to describe so that readers know how stunning the views really are. We were very fortunate to stumble upon an active Stave Church and we stopped for some photos. The closer we got to Jotunheimen the more barren and harsh the landscape got (but still very beautiful) and the more houses we saw with grass roofs. One of the homes even had to spruce trees growing right off the top!

We arrived at our destination, Gjendesheim Lodge on the edge of Lake Gjende, a beautiful turquoise glacial lake within Jotunheimen National Park. The first day we arrived at about 5pm and we had pasta salad on the edge of the Lake (such a great moment). We decided to do a 2 hour hike before the sunset and made our way up the trail towards Besseggen. We did a little bit of off trail hiking and I discovered that my hiking shoes are NOT waterproof (damn!). Glad I found this out now though ... before I started hiking in Patagonia!! It was a nice hike and we had some great views of the sun setting over Lake Gjende. That night we had smoked sausages on the edge of Lake Gjende, we ate while looking up at the stairs. (It was quite nice but a bit cold!). S and I decided to put all of our wet gear in the drying room and go for a sauna to warm up!

The next morning we woke up to a lovely sunny day and decided to start hiking up Besseggen to the highest point we could go. We unfortunately could not do the entire hike as the ferry had stopped running (too late in the season) and it would take us far too long to get back to the Lodge as well as drive back to Oslo.

The hike was really good, lots of uphill work and a bit of climbing on the rocks. We had stunning views along the way from all angles. Once we got up to the top it was very windy and I was freezing my butt off, so T gave me some warmer clothes and gear to wear (and it was much better!). We had views of both Lake Gjende and Lake Bessvatnet, one is turquoise (glacial) and the other is a deeper bluish green … it’s really quite the contrast. On our way down we stopped for cheese sandwiches and a Takk for Turren! (chocolate bar that is exactly like a Kit Kat). After 6 hours of hiking, we were back at Gjendesheim Lodge and in the car back to Oslo.

Such an amazing experience, I’m a very lucky gal to have such great friends who love spending time outdoors. I’m definitely looking forward to more hiking in Norway with these two :)

The beautiful Stave Church we found on our drive up to Jotunheimen:

S and I at the Stave Church:

Can you see the rainbow?

Barren landscape in Jotunheimen:

A man fishing on Lake Gjende:

Lunch on the shore of Lake Gjende (it's so peaceful):

Hiking the trail to Besseggen at sunset with Lake Gjende behind us:

More photos to come!

Oslo

2011-09-27T20:00:00.014-04:00

I’ve just had a lovely visit in Norway visiting good friends … you can read about our previous adventures in Norway here. It was so nice to see them again, as it’s been almost a year and half since I’ve seen them last.

I had a long trip to Norway as I had a four hour layover in Frankfurt coming from Toronto. Of course my pack was the last off the belt in Oslo and I was slightly worried that it wouldn’t arrived, but then (insert chorus of angels) there it was! S met me at the airport with flowers, what a sweetheart she is.

We spent part of my visit in Oslo and part in the mountains of Jotunheimen National Park four hours North of Oslo, both of which were great experiences! It was definitely nice to get out of the city and see some more of this stunning Country.

While in Oslo we spent our days touring some of the city sights and neighbourhoods, including; City Hall, Aker Brygge, Bygdoy Island, Akershus, Hollmenkolen, Frognerparken and the Vikelend Sculpture Park, The Royal Palace, Karl Johans Gate, the Viking Ship Museum and the Norwegian Cultural Museum and our evenings catching up over a good dinner and drinks. We also had dinner with one of their friends S who I'd met previously during my last visit and at their wedding, and it was really nice to see him again!

I really enjoyed both the Viking Ship Museum and the Norwegian Cultural Museum, I learned so much about Norwegian History and Culture, saw my first Stave Church and saw authentic Viking Ships (so cool!!) I would also very much recommend a visit up to Hollmenkolen, where you’ll get fantastic views of Oslo and you’ll be able to walk around the ski centre as well.

One more must-see sight is Frogner Park. It’s a really beautiful park as far as parks go and there are lots of walking paths and benches for relaxing or taking a break. I was lucky to have a nice day for my walk and decided to have lunch in the park under the slowly falling leaves (the fall colours are beautiful in the park right now!). While you’re in Frogner Park you definitely need to take a walk through the Vikeland Sculpture Park. Trust me; it’s worth it to see these very interesting sculptures.

I found Oslo to be quite a nice City. Their metro system is extensive and easy to use, however if you enjoy walking you can easily walk around the city centre (and lots of people seem to do so!). There is a lot to see and do in Oslo, you can spend a week there and still have not seen everything. My next visit to Oslo, I'd definitely like to get to the Polar Ship Fram Museum, the Kon-Tiki Musuem and the Munch Museum. Hopefully I'll visit again soon because I love spending time with S & T and I miss them already!! I'm so lucky to have them as good friends and I really do need to thank them for such a great visit!!

Spain is next with my good friend A ... you can read about our previous travels here.

Oslo Urban Art (hehe, love it though!):

City Hall:

The lovely murals inside City Hall (really neat building!):

Viking Ship Museum (this is an actual Viking Ship that was buried in Oslo Fjord):

Hollmenkollen Ski Centre:

The sweetest elderly couple relaxing in Frognerpark:

Vikeland Sculpture Park:

More photos to come!!

Song of the Week - Help Is On The Way (Rise Against)

2011-09-23T08:00:00.001-04:00

Super excited to be in Norway visiting good friends.

Infuse your itunes with a little Rise Against.

How many times do I have to go all Courtney Love on your ass before you get the message? I don't want you here. – Blair Waldorf

Song of the Week - I've Got This Friend (The Civil Wars)

2011-09-16T08:00:00.014-04:00

Have you heard this song? Give it a listen, it's so fun and playful yet beautiful ... I smile like a buffoon everytime I hear it. Try and imagine that ;)

Oh and while you're at it listen to their cover of Billie Jean .... AMAZING!!

If you want to be happy, be. – Leo Tolstoy

Song of the Week - Roadhouses and Automobiles (Chris Jones)

2011-09-09T07:00:00.011-04:00

I'm home for two weeks to spend time with L and the furbabies but also to attend two fabulous Weddings (both this weekend). Very happy to be taking a much needed travel break and to have time with those I love.

Chris Jones is an artist who is very new to my itunes. His music is very bluegrass and so easy to just kick back and relax to. I can't stop listening to this song, hope you like it!

"Do you think that our love can create miracles?" - Allie (The Notebook)

Sweden in a Nutshell - What I Learned

2011-09-06T23:55:00.044-04:00

Sweden is awesome, I could definitely live a happy life here.

Traveling through Sweden with a local is a great experience; you really get to learn about the culture and they can take you to all kinds of places you wouldn’t normally know about. Of course it helps that they speak the local language! (Even though many Swedes do speak English as they learn it in School). I can’t even tell you how many people asked E while we were touring around if he had studied in America (because his English is perfect!).

Swedes are extremely friendly and very helpful; pretty much everyone I interacted with was more than happy to communicate with me.

All of the touristy things aside, this visit to Sweden was mainly to visit my friend and of course experience his town and his everyday life. I really enjoyed our visit and loved seeing his home, meeting his family and friends, learning more about his culture and having some great discussions over his delicious Swedish meals and a good bottle of wine.

What did we eat in Sweden? Well, let me tell you … I was spoiled with home cooking pretty much all week because E loves to cook. He made me some typical Swedish meals, such as chicken with root vegetables in a cream sauce, Oysters and mussels (to die for!) and Pan Beef (like Swedish meatballs but bigger). More photos of all the food we ate are posted below. Try not to drool.

So, what I learned in Sweden … here we go:

• The Swedish language is lovely, it sounds like they are singing instead of speaking
• Vikings really do exist!
• Rekorderlig Cider (Strawberry-Lime) is delicious.
• Trolls are strong enough to rip apart the earth (so don’t mess with them!)
• Swedes are some of the most welcoming people on earth
• Sailing through the Gota Canal is a typical Summer Holiday for Swedish families
• The Seafood is so fresh, I’m sort of drooling thinking about it right now
• If it starts to rain in the middle of the day, don’t fret … it will stop in 30 minutes
• Roundabout art is quite popular here
• Good luck trying to find a luggage locker in Stockholm’s Central Station
• The clouds are like cotton candy, you’ve never seen clouds like this before
• A day in the Djurgarden is a day well spent
• Beware of early morning cave trolls!
• Natural Beauty
• Stjart (it's Swedish)

Root vegetables, chicken and brown sauce (home-cooked by E):

Pasta carbonera:

Pork schnitzel:

Mussels with a light chili salsa - freaking amazing! (home-cooked by E):

Swedish Prinsesstarta (Princess Cake) and dammsugare cookies:

Delicious Swedish Meatballs and potatoes (these ones are larger than the average swedish meatball and they have a specific name which I can't remember at the moment):

Enebars Dricka (a Swedish soft drink ... it's pretty yummy):

Delicious gelato (Swedish cookie flavours):

More photos to come!!

Linkoping and Beyond!

2011-09-05T23:56:00.024-04:00

Hey Laget!

I’m closing this first leg of my travels with a visit to Sweden (woohooo!) I have a week to spend here with an awesome friend (maybe you remember him from here or here or here).

The majority of our time will be spent in Linkoping where E lives. We’ll also be spending some of our days visiting the surrounding towns and attractions as well as making a weekend visit to Stockholm (which you can read about here).

I flew in to Linkoping from Amsterdam on the KLM Cityhopper. I HEART KLM! Except they told me that my bag was overweight (apparently I don’t travel light). Oh well, I just jammed some stuff in to my carry on and all was well. I flew in very late on the Friday night and E met me at the airport; it was so nice to see him!! We spent that first night chatting and chatting and chatting as well as playing with his adorable cat L. Did you know that cats understand Swedish? She’s such a cutie, he talks to her and she always talks back!

Over the next few days we took various day trips to several smaller towns in the area. We also got to meet some of his family (which was awesome!). Everyone was so welcoming (especially his sweet Grandmother!) His Grandmother doesn’t speak English but we managed to communicate with some help from E as a translator. She was so happy to have us visit; we had tea in the pagoda her husband built for her in the garden. It was possibly my favourite day.

On to the tour of Linkoping and area … we spent some time walking around the City (and got cupcakes and coffee to warm up since we got stuck in the pouring rain), we visited the Old City of Linkoping which was a fantastic little place. I bought most of my souvenirs from here; such as homemade chocolate and candy, handmade wooden serving utensils, moose $hit paper, handmade soaps and handmade/designed jewellery. Definitely a place I’d like to visit again.

We made a day trip to Omberg. This place is beautiful and it reminded me of home (Northwestern Ontario). It was so nice to sit out on the rocks overlooking the Lake. E was telling me that Trolls still run rampant in these woods and that Lake Vattern was originally created when a Trolls Maiden left him for another man. The Troll was so angry that he picked up a huge chunk of land and threw it out in to the Sea off the Coast of Sweden. Then he filled the Lake with his tears. There is an Island off the coast that’s the same shape as the Lake. Pretty neat hunh?

Other day trips we took included a visit to Vadstena Castle (really interesting and such a cute little town!), several drives through the Swedish Countryside, a visit to Rokstone (Viking ruins), a visit to see the boats passing through the steps at Berg Slussar and a great afternoon spent walking along the pier and the Gota Canal in Borensberg (another one of my favourite days).

It was such a great visit to Sweden, E was a fantastic host and of course it’s always nice to spend time with friends you don’t get to see very often. I’m certainly looking forward to our next visit (hopefully he’ll come visit us in Canada soon!!).

At the Candy Shoppe in the Old City of Linkoping:

Playing around on hay bails (I've always wanted to do this!):

A lovely evening walk and chat:

More photos to come soon!

Nomad - Missing in Action

2011-09-05T09:11:00.002-04:00

I know, I know, I'm slacking!

We've just been having far too much fun to blog.

I've got all of my Nutshell posts up ... except for Sweden (as I'm there right now) and will get the more detailed city posts and photos up over the next two weeks.

Thanks for following along during this first leg of my travels!! and stay tuned for the second leg starting September 21.

Goofing off in the souvenir shops of Sweden. My goodness I look so attractive in that hat! Bahaha.

Stockholm

2011-09-04T19:51:00.001-04:00

We took the train to Stockholm for the weekend and stayed with K and R, two of E’s good friends. It was great to meet them and listen to the three of them chat in Swedish as well as watch them laugh and laugh as they tried to teach me useful Swedish words (like bum). Haha.

We only had a few days, so tried to pick some main sights to see. We decided on a visit to the Royal Palace (where the King and Queen still live), Stockholm’s Old City, The Vasa Museum and of course we spent a day exploring the Djurgarden (the Kings Royal Hunting Grounds).

Stockholm is a very big city but it’s got a lot of Swedish Charm, what I mean is that the city is still very beautiful but still very Swedish. It’s built around the Riddarfjärden and looks out towards the Baltic Sea, which means that there a hundreds of sailboats docked at the piers. The houses and buildings are almost all in line with the Swedish style home, which makes the city very unique and attractive.

I did enjoy our visit to the Royal Palace and the Old City, but I think my favourite day was spent biking around the Djurgarden (or for me, wobbling on my bike through the Djurgarden). It was such a beautiful day for biking and the gardens are stunning and full of people out just enjoying the weather. We had a nice break sitting by the water watching all of the boats go in and out of the city and we spent some time walking through the flower gardens. We also visited the Vasa Museum while in the area and it was so impressive. The Vasa is a huge ship that sank on her maiden voyage in Stockholm Harbour in 1628. It was underwater for over 300 years and then raised in 1961. The Baltic waters had preserved over 95 percent of the ship and 26,000 artifacts which makes it an incredible find. The Vasa Museum houses the actual raised ship (can you imagine!) and it’s really unbelievable to se;, another one of those sights that you just have to see to believe. Go there, you won’t regret it.

While in Stockholm we had really delicious meals. We went out for dinner one night to Melanders for seafood and the second night R and E cooked us a feast. At Melanders I was introduced to a Swedish appetizer (toast with shrimp salad) and my gosh it’s good! We also had fish with shrimp stew and potatoes. The second meal we had, home cooked by Chefs R and E was a 3 course feast which included spinach soup with poached quail egg (paired with a cider), Roast duck breast with orange sauce, green beans and potatoes gratin (paired with a red wine) and homemade blackberry ice cream (paired with a liquor). I think I died and went to food heaven that night. It was SO good.

For photos of these meals please see my Sweden in a Nutshell post. (Which I will put up shortly! I’m a little behind on my travel posts!!).

The Old City:

Beautiful Stockholm:

E and I at the Vasa Museum:

#18 - Cross off 20 Adventures from My Travel Bucket List

2011-09-03T23:00:00.001-04:00

I heart travel ... maybe you've noticed. I'm constantly dreaming of my next destination; planning how long my trip will be, what I need to see, where I want to stay, who I'm going to meet up with, what new foods I'm going to eat and of course finding the excuse I can use to get there. For example: A friend says "come visit me in Sweden, anytime" ... Alex says "sweet!! does September work for you? OR my dance partner in crime says "I really want to kiss the Blarney Stone on my 30th Birthday" ... Alex says: "I've always wanted to kiss the Blarney Stone, let's do it!!"

This year is going to be another good travel year and I can't wait to cross of 20 adventures from my Travel Bucket List and accomplish #18 on the The 30 List.

Count along with me now:

1.Vegas Baby! (USA)

2. Visit the Grand Canyon (USA)

3. Kiss the Blarney Stone (Ireland)

4. Twirl on the Cliffs of Moher (Ireland)

5. Down a pint of Guinness at the Guinness Storehouse (Ireland)

6. Enjoy afternoon tea at a teahouse (England)

7. Ride the London Eye (England)

8. Feast on Italian food and hike it off in Cinque Terre (Italy)

9. Sing Sound of Music in Salzburg (Austria)

10. See Europe’s history in Berlin (Germany)

11. Take a canal cruise in Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

12. Visit the Djurgarden in Stockholm (Sweden)

13. Barcelona, Granada, Madrid – Oh My! (Spain)
14. Visit Alhambra palace (Spain)
15. Party in Ibiza (Spain)
16. Explore Morocco (Morocco)
17. Ride a Camel in Morocco
18. Visit the Sahara (Africa)
19. Visit Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia)

Song of the Week - E's Choice

2011-09-02T08:00:00.048-04:00

I'm in Sweden visiting an awesome friend. You might recognize him from challenge #13 or remember him from challenge #26 of The 30 List.

I'm SO excited to be here exploring his country, meeting his friends, eating amazing food (he's a great cook!), laughing and just hanging out because we don't get to see each other very often.

I have two songs for you today, both chosen by E. He is a very talented singer and both of these songs mean something special to him. I hope you enjoy them :)

All At Sea - Jamie Callum

Brothers In Arms (covered by Club For Five)

Young Tod: Copper, you're my best friend.
Young Copper: And you're mine too, Tod.
Young Tod: And we'll always be friends forever. Won't we?
Young Copper: Yeah, forever.
*Quote borrowed from www.imdb.com (from the movie The Fox and The Hound)

The Netherlands in a Nutshell - What we Learned

2011-08-29T23:55:00.012-04:00

The Netherlands (Holland), now this is a place I need to come back to again. We spent all of our time in Amsterdam because of the rain. If the sun had been out we would have ventured out to some of the smaller towns and to the windmills!

The Dutch are lovely, very helpful and always smiling it seems. We did find that the people in Amsterdam tend to always be in a hurry (either on their bikes or while getting on and off the tram). Bicycles are the main method of transportation here, there are millions of them!!

With respect to food, we found that Amsterdam is a smorgasbord of every cuisine out there. I think we ate everything but traditional Dutch food. (Although we did have pancakes, speculaaspasta and stroopwaffles!). There are loads of restaurants to choose from all over the city centre.

What we learned - I Amsterdam style:

• Beware of the bike paths (you’ll cause an accident if you walk in them)
• The weather is completely unpredictable
• The Dutch make cheese that just melts in your mouth
• Bring an umbrella!!
• Majority of the shops are closed on Sunday
• What’s this … the shops don’t open until 1pm on Monday as well!
• “Coffeeshops” are not really coffee shops.
• Everything is so random!
• Speculaaspasta is like heaven in my mouth … yummmmm
• Buy your tickets for Anne Frank House online … you skip the (ridiculously long) queue
• House of Bols is fun, a must see while in Amsterdam (and their cocktails are delicious!)
• The Heineken Experience is excellent … do it!
• Flowers are SO cheap here!
• Cup a la Cake makes delicious cupcakes
• Good luck trying to get a good picture of the I amsterdam sign
• No trip to The Netherlands is complete without trying on a pair (or two!) of oversized clogs
• Never name your new umbrella “crappy”, it will get you back.

Ethiopian (lamb, chicken, beef, veggies, lentils, pancake):

Dutch sweets (we had the sugar donuts):

Cakepops from Cup A La Cake:

Chicken Raman:

Chicken Stir-fry:

Delicious Dutch cheese:

Leonidas Belgian chocolate:

Hot chocolate (trying to warm up!):

Indian (Chicken Chan Allo and Chicken Curry):

Tomato soup and gourmet cheese melts:

Delicious cocktails at the House of Bols:

Spaghetti Bolognese (was actually better than it looked!):

Freshly poured Heineken:

Dutch pancake with peaches, mandarins, ice cream and whipcream (amazing!!):

Dutch meatballs:

Only in Amsterdam

2011-08-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

We spent four nights in Amsterdam and it poured rain the entire time … lucky us! The rain didn’t stop us from exploring as much of this very interesting city as we could.

The city is a bit hectic at first; it takes a bit of getting used to the millions of cyclists and their bike lanes (that look the same as their sidewalks!). The canals are lovely and once you get your bearings you really don’t have any trouble navigating through the city.

We spent our days walking around Leidseplein, The Dam, along the canals and through the Flower Market and our nights eating good food in various neighbourhoods and of course walking the Red Light District (we had to see what all the fuss is about!). We visited many different sights and had all of the token tourist photos taken; with the Iamsterdam sign, sitting in a massive wooden clog, wearing oversized clogs, etc.

Some of our favourite attractions include; The Van Gogh Museum (definitely a must see, we learned so much about Van Gogh!), The Heineken Experience (we had lots of fun making our way through this place and we got personalized bottles of Heineken), the House of Bols (really interactive and delicious cocktails at the end of the tour!) and of course Anne Frank Museum (So. Amazing.)

One thing I was really looking forward to while we were in Amsterdam was a canal cruise. We did do a canal cruise but unfortunately were quite disappointed with it. There were so many people packed into the boat and we weren’t able to really see the views outside or get pictures. If we were to do it again, we’d hire a smaller boat to take us through the canals for a view of Amsterdam from the water.

Amsterdam really is a lovely city, the canals are so picturesque and it’s very easy to get around by bike or by tram. I look forward to returning some day (hopefully soon!).

Where's my bike?

Love all of the wooden clogs!

We love Amsterdam!

This is such a cycling city (it's a parkade for bikes!):

How do you like my new shoes?

Cloggin' it up with L:

Lots more photos to come!!

Germany in a Nutshell - What we Learned

2011-08-26T23:55:00.013-04:00

Germany, Germany. This is my second visit to Germany. The first was in 2007 and we spent our time in the Black Forest and Baden-Baden. Berlin was a much different experience.

There is a tremendous amount of history in Berlin; as a city they’ve experience and survived so much (good and bad). Our time in Berlin was fantastic and I would advise anyone who visits to take in as much as possible. We went to sleep at night with a new found understanding of the people who live here and with a true appreciation of our life in Canada.

We weren’t particularly impressed with the food in Berlin; especially the day I had German sausage (I was sick all night … yech). The beer however, was delicious … most notably the fruit flavoured beers.

Of course we made a list of ... what we learned!

• German sausage = BAD, Coloured beer = GOOD
• The train stations are high tech works of art
• Berlin has an awesome transit system
• The women here love to experiment with colour in their hair (rarely a good thing)
• Dunkin’ Donuts is the new Starbucks
• The Original Berlin Walking Tour is a must (Carlos was awesome!)
• The East Side Gallery will blow you away (and really makes you think)
• “How’s your wieners?” is a perfectly good way to start a conversation with the Bratwurst vendors
• The German aren’t very creative when naming monuments (i.e. Red Town Hall is exactly that a Town Hall that is red)
• Berlin is POOR but SEXY
• The Berlin Wall went up in 1961 and fell in 1989
• It’s a courtesy to pay 0.50 Euros to use the public toilets in Germany
• 90% of Berlin’s City Centre was destroyed through the wars
• While walking through Berlin you can still spot bullet and shrapnel holes from the wars.

German food ... unfortunately was not my favourite.

Berliner Kindl Weibe mit SchuB Waldmeister (green) and Himbeer (red) beer:

Curry sausage with fries:

Fried sausage with pickled sauerkraut and mashed potatoes:

German Chocolate layer cake (yum!):

Chocobosco and Waldeimester ice cream:

Chicken peanut satay skewers:

Beef noodles (cold):

Sushi:

Vegetarian maki:

Beef steak with fries:

Turkey steak with long grain and wild rice and bernaise sauce:

Blueberry donut from Dunkin' Donuts:

Almond crusted chicken with coconut curry milk and basmati rice:

Fantasy Island cupcake:

Sugar and Spice cupcake:

I Heart Berlin!

2011-08-26T10:00:00.000-04:00

I really loved our time in Berlin, this city just fascinates me. From its rich history to the hundreds of sites to see and learn about, Berlin is definitely a place I would like to go back to (aren't they all though?!).

In our three days here we saw as much of the city as possible. The transit system is extensive and very easy to use. They sure make it really easy to find your way, all of the transit stations are named based on the area you’re in or the sight you’re visiting. Once in the City Centre it’s really easy to walk from sight to sight and if you get tired you can just jump on transit to your next destination.

To get a better understanding of the city and its history we decided do the Original Berlin Walks Discover Berling tour. We really enjoyed it and would highly recommend them! Our guide Carlos was very informative and very funny, he kept our group on pace and we walked to an extensive amount of Berlins sights in just 4 hours including (but not limited to): the Lustgarten, Old Museum, Zeughaus (Royal Armoury), Unter den Linden and Friedrichstrausse, Bebelplatz, Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall, Holocaust Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and Gendarmenmarkt.

As we had a couple days here we decided to go back to visit some of the sights that really intrigued us and so we spent some time around Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate. It’s hard to imagine this square (which is booming with activity in this day and age) as a desolate, no access zone between the East and West sides of the Berlin Wall.

Of course we spent some time at Checkpoint Charlie and then we walked over to the Berlin Wall. There is only one piece of the original wall still left in the city centre and they have built a very informative memorial centre there.

We also made our way over to the East Side Gallery which is the longest standing stretch of the original wall left in Berlin. This piece of the wall is not in its original state, as a group of artists came together years ago and created many beautiful murals along this stretch of the wall. We really enjoyed walking along the East Side Gallery.

Another favourite for me was the Berliner Dom, which is the Berlin Cathedral. This Cathedral was built between 1895 and 1905 and was 90% destroyed during the wars and then rebuilt. From the outside it has impressive architecture, however it’s very tarnished and a bit shabby looking. Well let me tell you, you will be so surprised once you get inside, it’s stunning! We climbed to the top and walked around the outside of the dome for some spectacular views of the city.

There are so many more activities to do in Berlin and I’m looking forward to visiting again sometime in the future and of course seeing more of Germany … Oktoberfest anyone?!

Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate:

Old Berlin Wall (Original) in City Centre:

East Side Gallery (Berlin Wall)

Lots more photos to come!!

Song of the Week - Every Teardrop is a Waterfall (Coldplay)

2011-08-26T08:00:00.016-04:00

So, the last week we've been in Austria and Germany and now we're in The Netherlands. Our trip is coming to an end in a couple days when L goes home and I head off to Sweden to visit E (from this post). I can't wait to see him!

On to the musika.

Coldplay. I've listened to them for years, such easy but good listening. This song came out earlier this year and it's in several of my playlists. The happy beat just makes me smile.

"To find your own way is to follow your bliss. This involves analysis, watching yourself and seeing where real deep bliss is -- not the quick little excitement , but the real deep, life-filling bliss." - Joseph Campbell

Austria in a Nutshell - What we Learned

2011-08-23T23:55:00.007-04:00

More than meets the eye … that’s Austria for me. It was so much more than I expected. I knew there would be history and that there would be rolling hills but I didn’t expect it to be such a charming country. Everywhere you look there’s charm and sophistication and the countryside is stunning.

Austrians are so kind and helpful. I can’t begin to tell you how many times people saw us with our map and offered to help us find our way. The customer service in restaurants was superb, all of the staff who served us were extremely friendly and always willing to provide expertise on food and drink we should try.

The food in Austria was quite good; we particularly enjoyed the schnitzel and a traditional Austrian soup (photos posted below). We also noticed that Austrians love their sweets! There are pasty and gelato shops everywhere!!

I would love to come back and spend a couple weeks exploring every inch of this lovely country … and (of course) someday I will.

The listology continues with Austria. What we learned:

• Austria is freaking HOT! Felt like 40 degrees everyday.
• Buy the half price two ride fare tickets for the U (metro), much better value for your money.
• The U is an honour based system … seems to us like most people ride for free. (Pretty sure Toronto should adopt this system … haha).
• Austria does not believe in A/C … bring a fan.
• Food in Austria is delicious but really expensive!
• L says Austrian men are HOT! I would have to agree
• Everyone is SO friendly here.
• The Sound of Music is based on a true story (we didn’t know this!)
• Instruments galore … everyone and their dog plays a classical instrument
• Austrians sure love their sweets!
• Everything is supersized, chocolate, drinks, beer, etc
• Salzburg cannot be done in a day … definitely worth it to spend a night or two in this part of Austria
• The Sound of Music Tour was awesome … everyone should do it.
• Austrian countryside is beautiful
• Don’t forget to try a Mozart ball!

On to the food ... I know you're all waiting for it ;)

Viennese soup - homemade beef broth with semolina quenelles, sliced pancakes and liver dumplings. IT.WAS.DELICIOUS!

Veal Schnitzel with potatoes and salad:

Viennese pretzel (so good):

Spinach strudel with cucumber yogourt and salad:

Chicken with rice and mixed veggies:

Radler Citron (beer mixed with lemonade ... also delicious!):

Apple strudel with vanilla ice cream:

Mozart Balls! (Mozartkugel - they're chocolate):

Chocolate covered bananas ... hilarious, I know.

Salzburg and The Sound of Music

2011-08-23T22:55:00.036-04:00

Our visit to Salzburg was very quick.

We took the early train in to Salzburg and spent the morning walking around this darling city to several of the sites, including Schloss Mirabell Palace and Mozart’s Residence in Makart Platz. We walked across the bridge to the Old City which is actually much lovelier than the city centre of Salzburg. I really would have liked to have had more time to spend exploring the Old City but after taking some time for lunch (Pretzels, Weiner Schnitzel and Spinach Strudel) and taking a short walk we had to make our way back to the meeting point for our Sound of Music Tour!!!

Our tour started with viewing some of the locations in the City of Salzburg where The Sound of Music was filmed, such as Schloss Mirabell Palace (the fountain, the gardens, the gnome garden and the Do Re Mi Steps) as well as Residenzplatz (the fountain Maria splashes in before arriving at the Von Trapp house). We then made our way outside of the city to the location where the Lake scenes were filmed as well as the scenes at the back of the Von Trapp residence (filmed at Schloss Leopoldskron). They used two different houses to create the Von Trapp residence, the front (filmed at Hellbrunner Allee) and the back (filmed at Schloss Leopoldskron) yards were in different locations. Continuing on we went to the location where the "Sixteen going on Seventeen" scene was filmed and we got to see the Gazebo used for this scene. The Gazebo can now be found at Schloss Hellbrunn. It had to be moved because of fans trespassing on the original filming property. From there we went further outside of Salzburg through the rolling hills to this beautiful little town called St.Gilgen on Lake Wolfgang. We also saw Lake Fuschl (where scenery was filmed for the beginning of the movie) We had some beautiful views of the Austrian countryside!! I would love to just spend a week in one of these little lake-side towns. The tour ended in Mondsee where we explored the Mondsee Cathedral. This Cathedral is where the Wedding scene was filmed for the movie. We had a little break there and has some delicious apple strudel and ice cream and then made our way back to Salzburg. As there was a bit of driving involved our tour leader made it really interesting by playing scenes and songs from the movie which we could sing along to as well as asking us trivia questions. It was such a fun day!!

It was a really hot day in Salzburg and the air conditioning on the bus wasn’t as strong as we would have hoped for, however we both really enjoyed the tour and would advise it to anyone who loved the Sound of Music growing up.

With our guide on the Original Sound of Music Tour!

Schloss Leopoldskron (Used for filming the back of the Von Trapp residence and the lake scene, also the original locatino of the 16 going on 17 gazebo):

Do-Re-Mi steps in Schloss Mirabell Gardens (Von Trapp Residence Gardens):

More photos to come!!

Vienna

2011-08-23T21:55:00.033-04:00

Vienna is a very beautiful old city, the sights were easy to find, the metro was easy to navigate and we had beautiful views everywhere we turned. Despite the age of the city, the residents are quite posh and my goodness I wish I could have gone shopping there!!! The clothes are beautiful, I could have filled an entire suitcase (don't worry Mom, I didn't buy any new clothes!!)

We arrived in Vienna quite early in the morning on a really hot and sweaty overnight train from Italy. Even though we had a First Class cabin, the air conditioning was broken in the entire coach and so all of the passengers (including us) were sweating our butts off all night, sauna style. Lucky us. We were tired and all we wanted was a shower but our room wasn’t going to be ready until 2pm, so we freshened up and made our way out into the City Centre (wearing yesterday’s clothes and looking really attractive).

We made our way down to the centre of the old city and noticed that there were lots of horse drawn carriages carrying tourists through the cobblestone streets; we decided to just follow the route of the horses (along the Ring Boulevard) as we assumed this would bring us to many of the sights to see in this part of Vienna. We were right! We saw the Anchor clock chime and many, many sites along this Boulevard. We walked until we finally ended up at St. Stephen's Cathedral (which is so incredible; the pictures just don’t do it justice). We decided to stop for lunch at a little outdoor café and a local woman over heard us chatting about what to order and suggested a really good soup. It was homemade beef broth with semolinas quenelles, sliced pancakes and liver dumplings. My gosh this was good!!

From that point our time in Vienna only got better. Over the next few days we were sold on some Wien Classical Concert tickets by two real live Mozart’s, hee hee (and the concert was fantastic!). What’s better than listening to a live concert/opera with Austrian Dance in the musical capital of the world?

We climbed to the top of St. Stephen's Cathedral and had stunning views of the city, we rode the Prater Ferris wheel, took a tour of the Opera House, walked along the River Danube, visited the very ornate Schönbrunn Palace and the beautiful gardens and of course we ate Mozart Balls!!

We had a wonderful visit to Vienna (even though we were visiting in the middle of a heat wave and walked many many km’s in the blazing hot sun). I’m definitely looking forward to someday exploring more of Austria.

The Anchor Clock:

Horse drawn carriage on the Ring Boulevard:

Look it's Mozart!!

Lots more photos to come!!

#15 - Write Everyday

2011-08-22T13:00:00.001-04:00

One of my 29 things to do in my 29th year was to start journaling everyday. I pretty much failed at that challenge and decided to try it again for The 30 List

My journals for 2011:

I wasn't sure how to document this online because it's my personal journaling, my personal thoughts and I don't really want to share all that "stuff" with the world wide web. What I've decided to do is share some funny (to me anyways), interesting or memorable excerpts from my daily ramblings. Off we go:

December 1 - One of my 29 things to do in my 29th year was to start journaling … so here I am journaling in the last month of the year … clearly I have a problem with procrastination.

December 3 - I just like smiling, smiling is my favourite.

December 9 - These chocolate covered marshmallow trees are going to be the death of me!!!

December 14 - I just had Pineapple Lumps delivered to my desk. My colleague Ruth is the best! I’M SO EXCITED!!!!

December 15 - This morning was hilarious. Diesel had his head in a paper bag full of stuff that I had by the door. Something happened that startled him and he took off like a shot running full speed ahead down the hallway with the bag attached to his neck banging alongside him. He ran in to the bedroom, around and under the bed and over the water dishes until the bag ripped apart and the stuff inside flew all over the place. It seriously sounded like the entire bedroom was falling down. Poor Diesel was so scared that he went and hid under the futon and wouldn’t come out!

December 16 - Damn you ice cream, come to my mouth! How dare you disobey me! – Stewie Griffin

December 17 - BEST DAY EVER!!! ... ok, best day this month.

December 19 - I have a dance party every day when I get home from work ... until Lee comes home and he puts the kibosh on it.

December 20 - Weirdest thing I’ve heard today – “Do you know that they found life on Mars? No really, they did”. … um yeah, ok. Whatever.

January 5 - I suppose it’s time I started wearing socks. Brushing the snow off my car yesterday in bare feet and pumps was not that nice … then again, it wasn’t really that bad. Maybe no to socks.

January 6 - Note to self: Never again attempt to carry octagon of beer up to the apartment on your own. MUCH TOO HEAVY!

January 7 - Who’s up for some super loud repetitive music that hasn't changed since the mid-90's? (Quote from How I Met Your Mother). Especially awesome since the gals and I are heading out dancing tonight.

January 8 - WTH HAPPENED LAST NIGHT???? Spent all day on the couch … dying.

January 12 - My backpack has finally been unpacked. I got home from my trip December 1. Procrastinator extraordinaire!

January 17 - The Bachelor – why do I love this show? It’s so lame but so awesome.

January 18 - Ladies, don’t put half a Twix in your purse … it will result in a casualty (as learned by me when I found chocolate and caramel smeared all over the inside of my purse)

January 20 - When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way - Unknown

January 27 – Hmmm, well, it’s not been a great start to my day. I totally forgot the heater was on and started drying my hair which resulted in me blowing a fuse. Ugh! Then I stepped in a warm cat turd, YECH!!! and now I can’t find my lunch. I’m hoping it’s in my car, if it’s not it means I left it in the hallway at home.

January 30 - I was browsing in Forever21 today and I was making my way towards a really cute dress. All of a sudden a giggling 15 year old girl ran over to the dress, grabbed it, turned to her friend and said “OMG Must have!!!” Am I too old to be shopping in Forever21?

February 4 – I’m a sucker for colourful shoes

February 23 - My eye has been twitching for 3 days straight … that ought to be a good enough reason for a sick day … right? Seriously, how do you make an eye twitch go away?

March 1 - Day 1 of being a vegetarian: I miss meat.

March 2 - Put a smile on that kisser! - Lee

March 9 – It’s snowing. How does that make any sense? It rained all day yesterday and now it’s snowing. I didn’t wear boots today because I didn’t expect it to snow! I had to brush off my car while both feet were buried in cold slushy snow … because guess what, now it’s raining! Stupid mother nature!!

March 10 – Music is love in search of a word - Unknown

March 12 - Conversation between Lee and I today:
Lee: "This cupcake tastes like nothing" (referring to the Cookie Dough Cupcake)
Alex: "What do you mean it tastes like nothing? It has to taste like something"
Lee: "No, it tastes like nothing!"
Alex: "Lee … everything tastes like something, it must have some sort of taste"
Lee: (Gives me a "look")
Alex: "So you’re saying it tastes like air then?"
Lee: "Yup" (BIG SMILE) … "Air-cupcake"

March 17 – Lulu called me at lunch today so excited because she had found some vegan cupcakes and she bought them for us to try. I’m telling you this TO cupcake tour was the best idea ever!

March 18 - I'm developing a secret crush on Sylar ... I'm not sure that's a good thing.

March 21 – Tonight I need to book my flight to D.C, get our tickets for Cirque de Soleil in Vegas and get our tickets to Ghost Stories. So much to do.

Crap, I didn’t do any of those things.

March 22 - Lee to Alex: “You have clothes everywhere, and boots, and stuff. Mountains of them.”

March 25 - Lee to Alex – “You slammed that whole thing of hummus!? Yech, that’s a $hitload of chick peas!”

March 27 - Lee to Alex (while watching jeopardy .. category was pasta) – “You sure know your pasta shapes eh?”

March 28 - I brought my dry cleaning in today which included a shirt I wore out dancing with the girls. The woman looked at it and noticed all of these big stains on the front. She said “oh boy, what is this? Is this water” I said “Hmmm … I’m pretty sure that’s alcohol” she made a “tsk, tsk” and said “I can’t make any promises on this one”. I laughed and laughed. What can you do? It was just that kind of night.

March 30 - Lee claims he woke up this morning and my head was smooshed into his back. I don’t recall any of this.

March 31 - Last day of being a vegetarian today. It’s been an adventure but I want meat!!

April 2 - I bought a dress for the Bachelorette in Vegas and tried it on for Lee. His response: “What the hell is that … a towel?” Clearly that dress is being returned.

April 4 – I heart Dilbert.

**borrowed from http://www.dilbert.com/

April 6 –We’re off to Vegas tomorrow!!!

April 7 to 12 – Censored due to Vegas Shenanigans

Mac: But our shenanigans are cheeky and fun!
Thorny: [referring to Farva] Yeah, and his shenanigans are cruel and tragic.
Foster: [after a pause] Which... makes them not really shenanigans at all.
Mac: [in a silly voice] Evil shenanigans!
** borrowed from Super Troopers

April 13 - Someone googled “Crispy snakeskin fries” and was directed to the vegetarian stir-fry post on my blog. Hilarious.

April 14 – Holy F.

April 15 - Lulu and I went out dancing at ____ tonight. I love that place … and that DJ. We killed it on the dance floor!! By the end of the night I could barely move, my knees were broken!

April 16 – BEST. DAY. EVAH!! (our new king size bed arrived and it’s heaven)

April 17 - Is it healthy to eat an entire package of peeps in one sitting? I wonder if my insides are hot pink.

April 18 - I think I pulled a muscle in my back Friday night. Does that mean I’m getting old? Er … maybe it was just one “Put your back into it” too many, hehe :)

April 19 - Set-up my Skype account today, now I just need to figure out how to use the darn thing.

Smile in your liver – Eat Pray Love

April 20 - Seriously, NO MORE COFFEE at work!!! It makes my heart race and gives me the worst headache.

April 21 – I’m off to TBay tonight. Woohoo. My flight was delayed, Air Canada … no surprise there! I was supposed to get in to TBay at midnight and we didn’t arrive until 1:40am. Ugh. I was sitting beside a stinky bush man with a huge beard and bad B.O. Ugh. Happy to be home though!

April 23 – I woke up to snow!

May 1 – Lee: “I’m cupcake’d out”

May 3 - I woke up this morning and found the following items in our bed; Kitty (Diesel’s stuffed cat toy), a mouse toy missing it’s fur and an eye, a plastic fork and a plastic spoon. Clearly our little runt is very bored during the night. I told Lee and he responds with “She’s a hoarder!”

May 4 - Lee to Alex – “You speak before you think”. True dat.

May 5 - Journaling in the airport while waiting for my flight to D.C:

May 9 - Falling asleep at my desk. Can’t keep eyes open.

May 10 – “I’m pretty sure that’s you gas-o-saurus”

May 12 – Today's conversations:

Alex: “Dry shampoo is the best invention ever!”
Lee: “Yeah, but how do you dry shampoo your armpits?”
Alex: (gives Lee a “look”)
Lee: “What? … it’s a valid question!”

Alex: “Ugh … I can’t find my jewelery!”
Lee: (is silent)
Alex: turns to Lee (who is giving her a “look”) and Alex says:“you’re not surprised” (in a very sarcastic tone)
Lee: "Nope" Lee mimics Alex’s voice “I can’t find my coach bag, I can’t find my flats, I can’t find my jacket, I can’t find my keys, I can’t find my glasses, I can’t find my book, I can’t find my camera … here hold this big pile of clothes up so I can search for my belt”
Alex: (returns to looking for said jewelery, while silently agreeing that he’s 100% right)

May 14 - “Lee’s restaurant doesn’t deliver”

May 15 - “You’re not a ninja sweetie” – said to Alex by Lee after giving him a big “hi-ya!” (this pretty much happens daily.) I’m a Super Ninja … Shhhh, don’t tell

May 16 – I knit for three hours tonight to try and finish my homework for class tomorrow. My fingers ache.

Alex: “I think I have knitter’s elbow”
Lee laughs and says: “Well, that didn’t take very long!”

May 17 - My pedometer is bust-ass. It fell on the floor four times today and now it won’t turn on.

May 22 - If I was gluten-free, I would cry

May 28 - OMG, we met the 80 year old version of Lee at the ball game today! He was hilarious.

May 31 - I bought 33 cupcakes in May and ate 22 of them (Lee ate the other halves) … how am I not 20 pounds overweight?

June 2 - I have happy feet today

June 8 - "All I know is that your cat dropped a mean deuce in here" - Lee to Alex

June 15 – Junior Mints for breakfast was a very poor idea.

June 22 - It’s pretty sad when you can’t read your own hand writing (trying to read my interview notes from yesterday’s interviews)

UPDATE: September 26, 2011 - The journaling is still going strong, all of my travel journals are up to date so far.

Me journaling on the floor of the train station in Vienna (waiting for our night train to Berlin):

Italy in a Nutshell – What we Learned

2011-08-20T23:55:00.012-04:00

This was my fourth time in Italy and for some reason I always forget how stinking hot it is here!!! You step outside at 9am and you start sweating, it’s no wonder Italians are in need of a siesta by high noon. Luckily we found a Wash and Dry that was a 3 minute walk from our apartment so we could wash all of our stinky clothes from Ireland as well as our stinky hiking clothes.

The Amalfi Coast is stunning. There’s really not much else I can say about it. You definitely need to experience this part of Italy for yourself, you definitely won’t regret it!

Everything in Italy is slow. The trains are slow or delayed (or they are just cancelled all together), the service is slow (if you’re lucky enough to get any at all), and the people are slow (unless they want something). Give yourself lots of extra time in Italy because you’re going to need it!

We had some of our best meals here in Italy. We stuffed our faces and passed out in bed early every night with food comas. The pasta, the sauce, the pesto, the seafood, and the pizza; it’s all fresh and delicious. We had a mix of pasta with seafood, risotto with seafood and pasta with pesto pretty much every day. Yum, yum …. Delicious.

Gelato … who can forget my favourite dessert. I love Italian Gelato; I could eat it 5 times a day every day. Can’t get enough of this stuff. Yum. We enjoyed two gelato’s a day, typically with 2 or 3 different flavours per cup. We tried to hit up a different gelato shop every time and found them all to be different. I think I’m going to miss the gelato most!

Yet again, we came up with some random facts about our time spent in beautiful Eataly. We learned:

• Everyday you will go to bed with an Italian food baby
• The train times posted are not correct
• Servers in restaurants do not appear to like you if you don't speak Italian.
• Everyone wears a bikini regardless of age, size and shape
• Never take the train to Corniglia … stairs galore to get to the city!
• Italy moves at it’s own pace (a very slow one)
• Eating gelato twice a day is definitely good for you
• Don’t go hiking past noon (you will die from heat exhaustion)
• The ferry is definitely worth the money … take it for beautiful views and quick transportation!
• Stay in Monterosso, it’s got the best beach and atmosphere
• Bank cards do not work … bring credit!
• The trains are like saunas
• Fresh pesto is delicious
• When they offer you a taste of limoncello you will end up with a full shot (or more!)
• Food arrives to your table at random times
• You will not understand the nightly entertainment (so don’t even bother!)
• Bring water shoes! The beaches are rocky.
• Nobody eats dinner until 9pm
• There is no night life in Cinque Terre
• The best hiking views are between Vernazza and Corniglia (but it’s worth it to hike them all!)
• If you’re here with your lover make sure you bring a lock for the Lover’s Walk (and go hang it up at sunset!)
• Writing on plants is not cool

Lobster ravioli:

Spaghetti with pesto Genovese:

Lemon soda (yum!!):

Gelato:

Bruschetta:

Seafood Risotto:

Limoncello!

Seafood spaghetti:

Seafood salad:

Spaghetti with anchovies:

Pablo eating Gnocchi with Gorgonzola cheese:

The most amazing shrimp ravioli:

Our baked seabass ... soooo good:

Cinque Terre, Italy

2011-08-19T23:55:00.015-04:00

Ahhhhh … Three glorious days in Cinque Terre, Italy. Its like heaven on earth and in my belly. We flew from London to Genova and then took the train directly in to the town of Monterosso, a stunning little gem in the Italian Riviera. Go there, you will love it!!

We stayed in the old part of Monterosso (through the tunnel) where we rented an adorable little apartment from Claudia who owns i Coralli. It was perfect for us and we would recommend her apartments to anyone staying in this area. We decided to stay in Monterosso because it was the beach town and after visiting all five towns we feel it is the best of the 5 little towns that make up Cinque Terre: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.

The city of Monterosso comes alive at 7am when all of the shop keepers and restaurant owners start cleaning up from the previous night’s customers and start prepping for their day (and a slew of new customers). The beaches in Monterosso are full of brightly coloured umbrellas, beach towels, and various bikini/speedo sizes by 9am which means that if you want a prime spot on the beach you need to get up early! We were shocked at how many people come in to this little town to go to the beach, people just pour off the trains at the train station. There’s a huge stretch of beach here and they are rocky but the water is crystal clear and quite nice for swimming, we floated around forever after our mornings of hiking.

One of the reasons we selected Cinque Terre (aside from the gorgeous hot weather and the amazing Italian food) was for the beautiful scenery and the ability to hike Cinque Terre National park. There are four sections you can hike, a path between each city. We hiked three of the four paths as the section between Corniglia and Manarola was closed due to a landslide that occurred several months ago. Over two mornings we hiked Monterosso to Vernazza, Vernazza to Corniglia and Riomaggiore to Manarola which is called Lover’s Walk (of course I wished my lover was here to accompany me on this one). As we did the hikes over two days it was necessary for us to train or ferry back to Monterosso, I would advise doing both as the train is quick but the ferry ride is lovely!

The hikes between cities were relatively easy for me, there were a lot of stairs going up between Monterosso and Vernazza and Vernazza and Corniglia and some uneven footpaths but nothing too challenging. I did very much enjoy the scenery and was really happy to get some real exercise in a natural setting. I would definitely do these walks again.

Of course I have to mention that the food we had in Italy was fantastic and I will discuss this more in my Italy in a Nutshell post.

We definitely enjoyed our time here and I think we all left wishing we had one or two more days just to relax on the beach; however, L and I are on a train to our next destination and C is on her way home (sniff).

Monterosso:

Monterosso is the beach town (it's so beautiful here):

Typical Italian home in Monterosso ... with the laundry drying outside:

View of Monterosso from the path to Vernazza:

View of the cliffs along the Italian Riviera ... we'll be hiking all of them!

Look at all the birds!

We made it to Vernazza!

Vernazza is so beautiful from up here:

This man was serenading us as we walked in to the city (cute eh?):

Close-up of the cliffs in Vernazza:

The best gelato in Cinque Terre is supposedly from Il Porticciolo in Vernazza, of course we had to try some!

More photos to come!

Song of the Week - Promises, Promises (Incubus)

2011-08-19T08:00:00.017-04:00

Ciao! from Cinque Terre, Italy. We are spending our last day together as a threesome (sniff, sniff). This afternoon L and I are off to a new country and C is headed home. It's been such a fantastic experience for the three of us, I mentioned earlier that we always talked about doing a Euro-trip together.

Cinque Terre is paradise and I'm not sure we're quite ready to move on just yet, what with all of the amazing Italian food, the gorgeous weather, the wine and of course the numerous daily trips for gelato!!

Here's a new one from Incubus for your listening pleasure (well, new as of June 2011). I really love this song.

"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey!"

England in a Nutshell – What we Learned

2011-08-16T23:55:00.007-04:00

London is busy, busy, busy. We thought Toronto was busy, HA! Not even close to as busy as London. Everyone here is in a hurry and they want you to get out of there way! There are millions of tourists in this city, and they all want to see the same sites you do, take the same photos you do and get on the same buses and tube trains as you do. Fight your way in to the crowds or else you won’t see a thing.

I was in London once before (during my first ever trip to Europe in 1997) and although the city has changed the sights have not, they are still as remarkable as they were then.

It was really nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city for a day even though the train rides can be a touch long. The trains are clean and modern and they have wifi which was a great feature for me (I was able to get a blog post up while on the train). The English countryside is really lovely with hidden gems scattered through it (such as Wymondham Abbey) and you surely don’t want to miss them!

The food in London didn’t really impress us. We had fish and chips (as advised) but it was quite greasy so we didn’t enjoy it as much as we thought we would. We had Chinese (just like in the movies!) and we had Indian on Brick Lane.

Again, I asked the gals what they would take away with them about England and here’s what we came up with. We learned:

• The Mostyn Best Western is super high-tech and definitely worth the money!
• Buy a day pass for the tube (it’s so much cheaper than paying per ride)
• Don’t take a bus tour during a bicycle race … it will take you all day!
• We saw where Harry Potter went to school (Daniel Radcliffe)
• The Australian Embassy in London is Gringotts Wizarding Bank (in the HP movies)
• The best Indian food is found on Brick Lane
• Customer Service isn’t of high importance in London
• All pubs have the same menu and their kitchens close early
• Ride the London Eye … it’s worth it! (also watch the 4d movie experience, 8 minutes of your life well spent)
• The tube is awesome; you can access all of London from it.
• Look left!
• Platform 9 ¾ does exist!
• Primark is the new Penney’s

Fish and chips:

Roasted nuts from a street vendor:

Cream of parsnip soup:

Indian on Brick Lane - Chicken Masala and Lamb Curry:

London, England

2011-08-15T23:50:00.005-04:00

We’ve just spent the past three days in England; you will soon notice that this is going to be a whirlwind Euro-trip, with many shorter stops along the way. We stayed in Central London, right at the Marble Arches, which was in our opinion a prime location. If you are ever in need of a swanky hotel in downtown London, go to the Mostyn Best Western … the hotel is fabulous and their concierge Danny is awesome!

We weren’t originally staying at the Best Western. We had originally booked an apartment in Central London; however we arrived at said apartment and found it to be in poor unkempt condition (quite dirty and not really as secure as promised). We made the decision to find alternative safe, clean accommodations where we’d all feel comfortable.

I spent two days in the city and one day out of the city in Norwich visiting a friend who I met on a Girl Guide trip to Mexico in 2005. My days in London were full of shopping, souvenir seeking and of course sight seeing. We jumped on the Original Bus Tour one of the days and spent the other day getting around by tube (one of L’s friends S joined us to see some of the sights this day).

We saw all of the standard sights: Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Parliament, Big Ben, London Eye, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, etc. We also shopped on Grafton Street, walked a bit of Hyde Park, had tea on Compton Street, used a London Phone booth (seriously I did!), ate Indian on Brick Lane and had drinks at the Hard Rock with a friend I met on a trip to South America in 2010.

London was a lot of fun but 3 days wasn’t enough! We’ll be back again I’m sure.

Buckingham Palace:

Us at the gates of Buckingham Palace:

The Palace gates are stunning:

Palace Guards:

Memorial Walk for Princess Diana:

Big Ben!

Lovely view of the London Eye and Parliament:

Our bags all locked together in the sketchy apartment:

The Parliament building is beautiful:

Close-up of the London Eye

View of Parliament from the London Eye:

S, L and I on the London Eye:

Tower Bridge:

Driving under Tower Bridge:

London Underground:

Fish and Chips:

Phone Booth fun!

Trafalgar Square:

Lounging in the lions lap at Trafalgar Square:

Look Right!

Old school double decker bus:

Time for High Tea!

Platform 9 3/4:

Drinks at the Hard Rock with A (friend from London):

Norwich and Wymondham, England

2011-08-14T23:55:00.001-04:00

My day in Norwich started with a tube ride to Victoria Street Station and then a two hour train ride outside of the London to Norwich. I was meeting up with K who I hadn’t seen since 2005. It was easy to spot her in the train station; she looks the same as I remember! We had a lovely day together in this beautiful part of England. She showed me around Norwich Castle which is quite interactive, I really enjoyed it! We also spent some time by the River and walking through the town streets and market. It was a lovely day so we walked her dog Peg through the park and I found it so interesting how large and busy the parks are here. There was a bandstand in the centre with live music, a boat pond, a frog pond, a running track and all kinds of open fields with people flying kites and remote control planes. The English really seem to enjoy their family time!

We had a bit of extra time so we took a drive out to Wymondham to see Wymondham Abbey. The town of Wymondham is really charming with its cobblestone streets and tutor style houses. The Abbey is amazing! It’s a beautiful old sight surrounded by hills of green, sheep and tombstones. I could have walked around the grounds for hours looking at all of the little details of this structure. We finished our day off with a visit at K’s friends’ house for some English tea, homemade cheese straws and some Chinese food. I liked the cheese straws so much that her friend gave me an English recipe book so I can make them at home. Fantastic!

It was well worth the trip to Norwich, I had a really wonderful day with K. We got along really well even though we met just briefly for a couple weeks in 2005 at Our Cabana in Mexico. I’m hoping to see her again soon!

Norwich Castle:

Royal Arcade (shops in downtown Norwich):

Walking along the river in Norwich (so pretty!):

Wymondham Town Square:

Wymondham Abbey:

Sheep grazing in the fields around the Abbey:

K and I:

Ireland in a Nutshell – What we Learned

2011-08-13T23:00:00.008-04:00

After spending the past 8 days in Ireland, I can honestly say I’ll be back. There are so many great places there that I have yet to see; The Wicklow Mountains, Dingle Peninsula, The Giants Causeway, Belfast – just to name a few.

Driving on the left was easy for us to pick up (especially with me already having had experience) and we were very surprised to find that travel around Ireland took much less time than we had anticipated (coming from Canada we assumed traveling from city to city would take us much longer and that it would be much further distances). The Irish are very respectful drivers, they only use the passing lane for passing and we didn’t receive a single honk even though at times we were driving much slower than the posted 100km’s on the winding countryside roads (how anyone can drive 100km’s on these roads is beyond us!!).

We had excellent meals in Ireland. I have to admit we were really surprised by the food here … that it was all so good! Of course almost every meal came with potatoes, sometimes even several different varieties of potatoes. The seafood from the West Coast was amazing; it was so tasty and so fresh!!

The Irish people were all wonderful. Everywhere we went they were chatting with us and always willing to help us if we were a bit turned around or make suggestions as to where we should eat, what we should sea, etc. They seemed to always want to go above and beyond to help us.

I asked the gals to brainstorm what we learned during our stay and here’s what we came up with. We learned:

• Hair dryers don’t work in Ireland (even their own!)
• It rains every day, at least once a day but usually multiple times (your raincoat will be your best friend)
• The food portions are always bigger than you think they’re going to be
• Potatoes are served with everything
• Towns are always closer than you think they are
• Guinness tastes better at the Storehouse than anywhere else in the world … even in Dublin city
• Irish men think Canadian women are Brazilian (seriously we were asked 4 times!!)
• Irish men like to crazy dance (sometimes with each other)
• Irish women also like to crazy dance
• Everyone is ridiculously friendly (especially if you are a woman)
• Dress warm (even in the Summer!)
• Everything is bigger in Ireland!
• Lahinch has the best seafood chowder … go there!
• Ireland has lots of great food (anything to do with meat, seafood and potatoes)
• Penney’s is our best friend (cheap and stylish shopping!)
• Seaside villages are very charming (except when you’ve driven through 10 of them in the same day)
• Drive on the left!
• Just one pint of Guinness … that’s all it takes!
• Riverdance is hard work!!

To sum it up, we really LOVED Ireland!!

As far as photos I'll focus on food for the nutshell posts.

Chicken salad sandwich with crisps (the crisps here are delicious but we can't figure out the flavour!!):

Traditional lamb stew:

Pork Tenderloin with pear:

Traditional Irish breakfast:

Guinness Beef stew (so delicious!):

Shepherds Pie (Beef):

Sticky Toffee Pudding:

The best seafood chowder ever! and filo wrapped prawns:

Butternut squash cannelloni with goats cheese, spinach and figs:

Grilled cod with potato gnocchi and chive sauce:

Sweets from Griffin's Bakery in Galway:

Lamb bangers and mash:

Egg, spinach, potato, feta and butternut squash frittatas from The Queen of Tarts in Dublin:

Fresh oysters:

Yummy Mussels:

#20 - Take a Good Old Fashioned Road Trip

2011-08-13T17:00:00.002-04:00

Who doesn't love road trips?!

Ok, in all honesty I don't really love road trips. I would much rather fly than drive, however there are times when flying doesn't make sense and road trips are just more fun.

Two of my best friends and I have a little adventure planned in Europe this Summer. We've talked about seeing Ireland together since University and finally our dream will become a reality. We have a little car rented for a week (not yet sure how we're going to cram all of our luggage in to it!!) and we'll be cruising around the South of Ireland and crossing off #20 from The 30 List.

I can't wait to see these:

**Picture borrowed from: www.destination360.com

Drink some of this:

**Picture borrowed from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GuinnessPint.jpg - taken by: Matthew Trevithick

Kiss this:

**Picture borrowed from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Blarney_Stone.jpg

Visit with these two gals (on the left) who I met in Vietnam in 2009:

... and well we'll see where else the roads take us!

It's certainly going to be an adventure driving on the left through the rolling hills of Ireland. We're so looking forward to it!!

UPDATE

Our road trip is now complete and we had a fantastic time! Feel free to read more detailed posts about our time in Ireland here.

Our road trip schedule was as follows:

August 6 – Dublin to Cork
August 7 – Cork to Blarney to Cork
August 8 – Cork to Killarney via Kinsale and The Ring of Kerry
August 9 – Killarney to Liscannor via Killarney National Park and Lahinch
August 10 – Liscannor to Galway via The Burren (plans changed due to rain)
August 11 – Galway to The Cliffs of Moher (via The Burren) to Galway (had to backtrack due to rain)
August 12 – Galway to Dublin

Driving on the left was easy for us to pick up (especially with me already having had experience) and we were very surprised to find that travel around Ireland took much less time than we had anticipated (coming from Canada we assumed traveling from city to city would take us much longer and that it would be much further distances). The Irish are very respectful drivers, they only use the passing lane for passing and we didn’t receive a single honk even though at times we were driving much slower than the posted 100km’s on the winding countryside roads (how anyone can drive 100km’s on these roads is beyond us!!).

Getting driving instructions from our awesome taxi driver Freddie:

Driving on the left:

Watch out for cows!

Locking our bags up in the trunk (haha):

Goofing off in the car:

Dropping off our sweet ride in Dublin at the end of our adventure:

Song of the Week - The Elephant Love Medley (Moulin Rouge Soundtrack)

2011-08-12T08:00:00.026-04:00

Greetings from Ireland!!! We’re coming to the end of our time in this beautiful country, full of Guinness and with so many good memories. We’ve just completed #20 from The 30 List (which was quite the adventure!!) and we're off to a new destination tomorrow! I'll check in soon with some travel blog posts.

In the meantime here's a song from one of my favourite movies. Such a heart wrenching yet beautiful love story:

Memphis: Whatcha doin' there, boy?
Baby Mumble: [tap dancing] I'm happy, Pa!
Memphis: Whatcha doin' with your feet?
Baby Mumble: [looks down] They're happy, too!
*Quote borrowed from IMDb.com - Movie: Happy Feet

Galway, The Burren and The Cliffs of Moher

2011-08-11T23:55:00.005-04:00

Our time in Galway was fairly water-logged. We were originally supposed to drive to the Cliffs of Moher and through the Burren to Galway; however we woke up in the morning to find it overcast and pouring rain so we drove straight through to Galway with the hopes that the next day would be better weather for us.

We didn’t get to see a lot of Galway because of the rain, it’s a wonderful walking city but the sights are best viewed when dry. We spent our day in Galway shopping, walking Shop Street, taking a much needed tea and cupcake break at a fabulous little shop called Sweetie Pies, eating Irish food at Spanish Arch (so good we ate there both nights!) and enjoying pints at the local pubs.

We did take a day to drive through The Burren and over to the Cliffs of Moher even though it was overcast with scattered showers. The Burren is quite a unique landscape; there are thousands of large chunks of limestone rocks poking through the luscious vibrant green rolling hills. It’s really quite beautiful. We made a stop at Ailwee Cave which dates back to the ice age and was once used as a den for the now extinct brown bears. We also stopped at the Poulnabrone Dolmen which is a very old tomb in the middle of The Burren.

From The Burren we made our way over to the Cliffs of Moher and as we were driving the sun was trying so hard to poke itself through the cloud cover. We arrived at the Cliffs at a good time; it was definitely still overcast however the fog had lifted enough to give us a nice view of them. We spent about two hours walking along the cliffs with thousands of other tourists. It is a very beautiful yet eerie place and I was mesmerized watching the waves crash up against the sheer drop of cliffs. As we were leaving the Cliffs had completely fogged over almost as if they didn’t exist. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to walk along them without the barriers in the fog not knowing where the sheer drop started.

Cliffs of Moher are a definite must see for everyone visiting Ireland, they are magical … even in the rain!

Walking shop street in Galway (in the rain) ... a cool mural:

Walking shop street in Galway (in the rain) ... Irish culture is everywhere!

The Quays bar (it's really neat inside!)

A piece of the original Medieval wall surrounding Galway:

Banners in the main square of Galway:

Rainy days in Galway:

Tea Break at Sweetie Pies (to warm up!):

Driving back through Lisdoonvarna to The Burren and the Cliffs:

Views of The Burren:

Close-up of the Burren walls:

At the end of the Ailwee Caves tour (we are frozen!):

The Poulnabrone Dolmen (in the Burren):

The Burren (really found this place fascinating):

Look it's sunny in The Burren! (only for about 5 minutes though):

The Cliffs of Moher (eerily beautiful):

Hehe ... what sign?

O'Brien's Castle at the Cliffs:

Sweetie Pies - Galway, Ireland

2011-08-11T23:54:00.010-04:00

While walking down Shop Street in Galway in the pouring rain I saw a street sign for a little shop called Sweetie Pies. I figured why not check it out, so we walked down a side street (cobblestone of course) and found the sweetest little bake shop I’ve ever seen.

As soon as we walked in we were greeted with trays of brightly coloured funky looking cupcakes. Heaven!!

Sweetie Pies offers small and large cupcakes and 15 to 20 different cupcake flavours as well as other baked goods such as brownies, cookies, pastries etc. We all selected a cupcake and ordered some tea to help us warm up on this cold rainy day. Our tea and cupcakes were served to us quickly and on mismatched china … so sweet!

The cupcakes were delicious, we all had different flavours. I tried the Monster Cupcake which was Vanilla cupcake with strawberry frosting … the frosting was full of marshmallows! Delicious. L had the Red Velvet and C had the Chocolate Coconut. We also took two cupcakes home with us; Carmel and Carrot Cake. I would definitely recommend this adorable little shop, I’m craving a cupcake just writing this post!

Sweetie Pies store front:

Sweetie Pies decor:

Cupcake selection:

Our cupcakes (Red Velvet, Chocolate Coconut, Monster):

Tea and a cupcake, isn't the mismatched china cute?!

Cupcake Close-up (there's marshmallows in the frosting!):

Killarney and The Ring of Kerry

2011-08-10T23:55:00.012-04:00

From Cork we started our drive over to Killarney via the Ring of Kerry. As per the advice of our taxi driver in Dublin we took the scenic Coastal route which was full of one lane winding roads with a speed limit of 100km!!! How anyone can possibly drive 100km's on these roads is beyond us.

We drove through Kinsale, Ballinspittle, Timoleague, Clnakility, Ross Carbery, Skibereen, Bantry, Kenmare, Glancariff, Sneem, Casle Cove, Caherdanial, Ballybrack, Waterville, Cahirsiveen, Glenbeigh, Killorglin and finally ended in Killarney.

Aren't some of the names of these small cities funny? The drive was quite lovely with a mix of scenery from small coastal towns to luscious green rolling hills. We saw loads of cows, sheep and tractors along the way as well. the Ring of Kerry is quite a lovely drive, we did miss a small portion of it which we did the next day (because we decided to drive the ring backwards to avoid the traffic and the tour buses).

Killarney is a really nice Irish town. It’s the gateway to the Ring of Kerry and is therefore full of tourists. The town itself is quite small with the main street consisting of all kinds of cute little shops, Pubs and restaurants. After an excellent Irish dinner at Canagh, we spent our evening browsing through all of the little shops and enjoying a pint and some local Irish music. Killarney was the first place we encountered Penney’s which is a discount department store with the cutest clothing and accessories. I instantly fell in love. Ha.

The next morning we drove in to Killarney National Park to complete our sightseeing at the Ring of Kerry. We started at Ross Castle which was built for the Chieftains in the 15th Century. The Castle is quite nice and is in better shape than Blarney Castle. It was here that we were able to take an hour boat cruise on the lakes. It was really nice to get out on the water and see some of the rolling Irish hills up close.

From Ross Castle we moved on to Muckross House which is a beautiful old home with a stunning view of the lakes and mountains in the park and beautiful flower gardens. Finally we drove up the winding roads to Ladies View which is the highest point from which you can view the lakes of Killarney National Park. It’s quite nice and definitely worth the drive up there. We were very fortunate today to have good weather; it’s beautiful and sunny whereas the rest of our trip has been a bit overcast with scattered showers and quite chilly!

The rest of our time in this area was spent driving to Liscannor, we passed through Trawlee and took the ferry crossing over the River Shannon with a stop in Lahinch for some of the best seafood chowder I’ve ever had and an overnight pit stop in the lovely seaside down of Liscannor (which we didn’t see much of due to the pouring rain).

Pulling in to Kinsale, the start of our scenic drive:

Meeting up with random tractors on the winding country roads:

Stunning views of the Irish Countryside:

Cows grazing in the valleys:

Caution ... cow crossing:

Stunning views on the Coastal drive around the Ring of Kerry:

The gals at the Ring of Kerry:

More beautiful scenery:

Driving on the left!

Pub signs:

Stopping at the beach in Glenbeigh:

Sheep hugging in the Killarney giftshop:

Ross Castle:

The tiny doorways at Ross Castle:

Cruising the lakes of Killarney National Park:

Muckross House in Killarney National Park:

The view from Muckross House in Killarney National Park:

Beautiful roses in the garden at Muckross House:

Heehee:

Ladies View - Killarney National Park:

Us enjoying Ladies View:

Crossing the River Shannon:

Goofing off in the car on the ferry:

Surfers on the beach in Lahinch:

Getting rained on in Lahinch:

Kegs lined up ouside of a bar in Lahinch:

The ladies love Guinness:

Another cute sign:

The BEST seafood chowder every (in Lahinch ... go there!):

Bake - Killarney, Ireland

2011-08-10T23:54:00.002-04:00

While walking towards Tourist Information in Killarney we stumbled upon a little shop called Bake, my cupcake eagle eyes zoned in on the colourful cupcakes inside and I made a pit stop to pick one up.

The cupcakes are massive!!! They are wrapped in wax paper cones and are decorated with all kinds of funky icing patterns. They had 8 to 10 flavours to choose from and I decided to try an After Eight cupcake which was chocolate cupcake with an After Eight chocolate baked in to the center and green vanilla flavoured frosting. The cupcake was amazing!!! So fresh and flavourful and the frosting was nice and light with the perfect amount of sweetness. I’d like another one right now!!

I would definitely advise a visit to this shop if you’re in Killarney. Yum, yum.

Bake storefront:

Cute packaging:

My delicious After Eight cupcake:

Cork and Blarney

2011-08-07T23:55:00.007-04:00

From Dublin we started a 6 day road-trip around the South of Ireland. Our first stop was Cork and we spent two nights there at the River Lee Hotel (such a nice hotel!). We picked up the car from the airport and because I've driven on the left before in New Zealand I had the honour of driving us safely to Cork. It was easy peasy to pick it up again and we got on the Motorway straight away.

We made a stop in Cashel along the way. Cashel is an adorable little town and it is home to The Rock of Cashel. The Rock of Cashel dates back to the 12th and 13th centuries and was the Seat of the Kings of Munster. It's quite a nice spot and we enjoyed the narrated tour we took.

We arrived in Cork later that night and went out for dinner and then out to a local pub where we danced all night. We stayed at the lovely River Lee Hotel which was right on the River Lee and within walking distance of the City Centre. Cork is quite small and doesn’t have a big amount of attractions but it has really good restaurants and night life. We saw so many Bachelor and Hen parties out on the Saturday night and all of the restaurants and bars were packed! We've noticed that the Irish gals get really dressed up to go to the pub here and the Irish blokes love to crazy dance. We weren't expecting that!

The next day was L's Birthday and she wanted to kiss the Blarney Stone so we drove over to Blarney and toured Blarney Castle. The Castle is quite impressive and the grounds are amazing! There's lots of history in this little town, we walked all through the Castle, all over the grounds, through the Poison Garden and through the Rock Close including the Wishing Steps, The Dolmen and the Witch's Kitchen. Of course we kissed the Blarney Stone as well!

That night we went out for a really great dinner at Cornstore and out for a couple drinks. We gabbed all night, I think the Blarney stone worked!! Bahaha.

C and L getting instructions on our driving route for the next 6 days from Freddie, our awesome taxi driver:

View of the Rock of Cashel:

Tomb at the Rock of Cashel:

The grounds of the Rock of Cashel (there's something eerily beautiful about this place):

A view from inside The Rock of Cashel:

Gaelic road signs:

Irish Car Bombs for L's Birthday (they had no idea how to make these and the bartender even told us that it wouldn't be on him if we got sick from them! Haha):

Birthday celebrations and dancing:

Chilling in our awesome hotel room (look at our cute single beds!)

Blarney Castle:

In the dungeons of Blarney Castle:

Climbing the spiral staircase to the top of Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone:

Kissing the Blarney Stone:

Pablo did too!

Walking the grounds of Blarney Castle:

The Witch in the Rock Close at Blarney Castle:

A lovely view of the River Lee in Cork:

Bewley's Oriental Cafes Ltd - Dublin, Ireland

2011-08-06T23:55:00.001-04:00

We stumbled upon this cafe in Dublin while walking down Grafton Street. After a quick look inside we discovered that they had nicely decorated cupcakes! We decided that we would indeed have to try one.

We got the chocolate cupcake and found that the cake was a bit dry but the icing was quite delicious.

Bewley's Oriental Cafes Ltd. storefront:

Cupcakes on display:

Cupcake close-up:

#24 - Get My Dance On Regularly

2011-08-06T23:50:00.000-04:00

"I’ve got that glitter on my eyes
Stockings ripped all up the side
Looking sick and sexy-fied
So let’s go-o-o (Let’s go!)

Tonight we’re going hard
Just like the world is ours
We’re tearin’ it apart
You know we’re superstars
We R who we R!

We’re dancing like we’re dumb
Our bodies go numb
We’ll be forever young
You know we’re superstars
We R who we R!"

- We R Who We R - Ke$ha

I've always loved to dance; I hear music and I just want to move, even if I'm sitting at my desk or I'm in the middle of the grocery store ... my body just starts to groove. I danced competitively since the age of 3 and I loved every minute of it; getting up on stage in a fantastic (and sometimes not so fantastic, haha) costume with a huge smile on my face doing what I did best made me a very happy girl. Now that I no longer dance competitively, I have to find other ways to release my energy. Luckily I have a fabulous group of friends who love to hit up the dance floor almost as much as I do and we always dance like nobody is watching. In an effort to get us out on the dance floor more often I created challenge #24 from The 30 List which is to get my dance on regularly.

I'll let the photos do the talking ...

My dance partner in crime:

January 7 - Chez Gong hits the dance floor:

You know this is the sexiest dance move out there:

March 5 - Celebrating Em's Birthday (I wish this wasn't fuzzy!):

Clearly I love to sing while I dance!

April 5 - On the dance floor at TAO night club in Vegas:

The packed dance floor at TAO night club in Vegas ... we could hardly move!!

April 15 - Friday night out busting a move at our favourite dance spot:

May 20 - Hittin' the dance floor at our "spot" BUT our DJ wasn't there!! It was SO hot and sweaty in there!

July 2 - Dancing up a storm at a Wedding:

July 8 - Celebrating a friends Birthday:

August 7 - Celebrating L's Birthday in Cork, Ireland:

More photos to come as the nights of a$$ shaking occur ... all over the globe.

Words to live by:
"Some mornings - no matter how good you've been - it happens. You wake up on the wrong side of the brain and feel like caca. You can go back to bed or suffer your own evil mood all day - or you can do a self-intervention and dance yourself happy! Forget about your morning routine, crank some favourite dance tunes and slowly begin to wiggle. Then dance around the room until you feel your butt start to jiggle. Keep dancing for as long as it takes until you've got a big smile on your face and the boogie in your butt. It's your bad mood power point and it'll keep you charged throughout the day. And honey, shake it, don't break it." - Unknown

Dublin

2011-08-05T23:50:00.073-04:00

The first country on our whirlwind Euro-trip is Ireland; and we had 8 days to explore this beautiful country.

We started and ended our stay in Dublin because it made sense as far as our flights and because it would mean that we’d have two Friday nights in the big city.

While in Dublin we did a lot of walking. Our first stop was the Guinness Storehouse which was not as visible from the main street as we thought it would be. It’s sort of off the beaten path on a little side street. We did a full tour of the Storehouse climbing all levels and learning about how this particular beer was developed and how it’s made. We all really enjoyed the tour; the Storehouse itself is very cool. The middle of the building is the tallest pint glass in the world and the rest of the building is the original building from when the 9000 year lease was signed in 1759. While at the Storehouse we all took turns pouring the perfect pint of Guinness and then we chatted while drinking them. The gals both conquered that it’s the best pint of Guinness they’ve ever had and that it just tastes so fresh here. That is the first pint of Guinness I’ve ever had (and probably ever will have), so I’ve nothing to compare it to. I can’t say I particularly enjoyed it, but I downed it all and can now cross it off the list!

We spent some time walking through the gorgeous grounds of Trinity College and we all commented on how we couldn’t imagine going to school at a place with this kind of architecture and history. We also saw St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the statue of Molly Malone, walked down and around the Liffey River to take in the sights and spent some time walking Grafton Street. We experienced the Irish night life in Temple Bar, ate tarts at the Queen of Tarts yum!), went to see River Dance (which was fantastic!!) and we had some delicious Irish stew at O’Neill’s Pub (everyone should go there and have the Guinness Beef Stew, it’s amazing!!)

Dublin is just a beautiful city with many sights to see, it’s really easy to navigate and definitely a great walking city. We really enjoyed our time here.

Our last night in Ireland was spent in the city and we met up with two of my friends – L and M, who I met while traveling in Vietnam and Cambodia in 2009. They showed us a really great time in the Temple Bar District, the Guinness was flowing and the Irish Music was great! It was just lovely to see these two gals.

Some photos (in no particular order)

The ladies outside the Guinness Storehouse:

Guinness Storehouse:

Guinness Storehouse tour:

Pablo and Pascal at the Guinness Storehouse:

Attempintg the perfect pour (they say it only takes 119.5 seconds):

Official certificate (haha) for the perfect "pour" and our pints of Guinness:

Our empty pint glasses:

View of Dublin from the top of the Guinness Storehouse:

Beef Guinness Stew from O'Neill's Pub (amazing!)

Brown Bread and Honeycomb icecream from Murphy's:

Me and Molly Malone:

Trinity College:

One of the pubs at Temple Bar:

Walking along the Liffey River:

View of the Liffey River:

Goofing off in the souvenir shops:

St. Patrick's Cathedral:

There are little nuggets of history everywhere in this city!

The bridge at Christchurch Cathedral:

Hilarious souvenir t-shirt:

Riverdance:

Pub hopping Temple Bar with the gals:

Song of the Week - California Gurls (Katy Perry)

2011-08-05T08:00:00.014-04:00

We're in Europe ... woooohoooo!

I thought a little Katy Perry would be fitting for the occasion since we always have so much fun dancing to this one.

All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination. - Earl Nightingale

Europe Bound!

2011-08-04T21:47:00.000-04:00

.... and we're off!!

Will post some travel updates soon (I'm so behind on my 30 list blogs!!)

#14 - Spend a Week at Amethyst with My Family

2011-08-02T23:50:00.019-04:00

This is my paradise ... my favourite place.

I grew up here, spent 3 to 4 months of every year here, had so many good times; learned to swim, to love being outdoors, to play in the mud, to live carefree, to drive the quad, to sail, to kayak, to jump off cliffs, to fish, to do back flips on the trampoline, to explore the bush, and the list goes on and on.

I've lived away from home for 7 years now and much to my dismay I don't get much time out here anymore. When creating the The 30 List I made sure to plan an extended visit with my family so that I'd get to just relax out at camp.

Here's a couple pics from my quick visit home in April ... we just spent a couple hours at camp, although I could have sat there all day in the sun listening to the wind blow through the trees, the squirrels nattering, the birds singing ... you know, all of the lovely camp sounds.

It sure looks different in early Spring than in the photo above (taken last Summer) ... doesnt it?!

From July 23 to August 2 I spent 10 glorious days in my paradise with my family and so many awesome friends. We celebrated our camping community's 100th Anniversary and just enjoyed hanging out with each other (as many of us now live in different cities and even countries). It was a wonderful trip home and so nice to see everyone!

Camp fun:

#9 - Project 365 (Photo a Day)

2011-07-31T22:30:00.000-04:00

I love to take photos, maybe you've noticed? Hehe.

Last year I decided to challenge myself to document my life through photos ... and damn it was hard! Some days I didn't really do anything exciting so it was difficult to remember to take a photo or find something that was "worthy" enough to photograph. When I look back at my completed calendar from last year, I'm so happy I made it through all 365 days because there are so many little every day moments that I would have forgotten if I hadn't snapped a photo.

I had so much fun last year that I'm challenging myself again this year (#9 from The 30 List) is to document my life in photos and I'm using my Shuttercal page to help me do it.

Follow along at: Project 365 (Photo a day)

I'm going strong with this project, here's a few of my favourite photos:

January 1 - New Years "Family" portrait

January 15 - Yolo's with Karimo

February 15 - Dakota LOVES cheese buns

February 25 - Selfie

March 11 - It's a winter wonderland!

March 12 - Lee and his Barking Squirrel

March 16 - Has spring arrived?

March 19 - Heaven in my mouth - homemade bacon and chicken alfredo pizza ... ohm nom nom

March 27 - Lunch with the Biz Kidz for B-Chops' 30th

April 1 - Diesel Bear Snoozin' away

April 16 - Wooohoooo ... we got our new king size bed!!!

April 23 - Dance for Memories Flashmob dancers

April 24 - I love my family.

May 5 - Hanging out in the airport ... waiting, waiting, waiting.

May 14 - Beautiful roses ... 6 yrs.

May 19 - I got to meet Bob Woodruff tonight at our Gala. He's such an inspiration!

May 28 - My first Jays Game of the season ... Lee's 12th!

May 31 - Gorgeous night for a Jays game

June 18 - Meeting lovely little Sophia, what a cutie pie!!

July 23 - Skipping rocks on Lake Superior with LeeLee

July 25 - God I love this place. Sunset over Lake Superior

July 30 - Camp girls, home to celebrate Amethyst's 100th Anniversary

Song of the Week - The Golden Age (The Asteroids Galaxy Tour)

2011-07-29T08:00:00.029-04:00

I'm at home celebrating the 100th Anniversary of our amazing cottage community and crossing off #14 from The 30 List. It's going to be such a great weekend!

Sing it out loud and let yourself free ...

"Meet me at the bar in fifteen minutes -- and suit up!" - Barney Stinson, How I Met Your Mother

#10 - Bake 5 Desserts from Scratch

2011-07-26T20:30:00.000-04:00

Challenge #10 from The 30 List is to bake 5 desserts from scratch. Why desserts you ask? Well, we've made many different dinners over the past 6 years (and gotten fairly good at a few) but we rarely bake. I thought we needed to challenge ourselves in the kitchen and make some sweet treats.

Dessert #1
We made sugar cookies for Valentine's Day and they tasted great! (even though we had a bit of an icing explosion)

Ideal Sugar Cookies - Recipe c/o MarthaStewart.com

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons brandy, or milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Royal Icing for Sugar Cookies, optional

Directions
1.Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar; mix until light and fluffy. With mixer running, add egg, brandy, and vanilla; mix until well combined. With the mixer on low, slowly add reserved flour mixture. Mix until just combined.
2.Transfer dough to a work surface. Shape into 2 discs, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
3.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with nonstick baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.
4.On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes, and transfer to prepared baking sheets, leaving an inch in between. Leftover dough can be rolled and cut once more. Bake until lightly golden, about 10 minutes; do not allow to brown. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
5.Decorate with Royal Icing, optional.
(Makes 2 dozen)

Dessert #2
Wow, it's been a long time since we've baked! I found a recipe online for Pop Tarts and thought that would be a fun project for Lee and I. Turns out, the recipe was a little too advanced for us because we had a major baking FAIL!

Here's our Pop Tarts:

We used this recipe: Homemade Pop Tarts. It has lots of really good reviews saying how easy it is to make but we had the worst time with the dough, it was so sticky (like glue!). No matter how much flour we put down, we just couldn't get it to roll out. We're definitely not making these again.

A little conversation between Lee and I while baking these disasterous Pop Tarts:
Alex - (totally frustrated at this point) "I hate baking"
Lee - "Me too, look at the mess it makes". Pause. "Let's never bake again"
Alex - "Deal"

Ha, too bad we have three other recipes to make before the end of the year.

Dessert #3
I was home for a visit in July/August so mom and I baked chocolate chip cookies. It was a spur of the moment decision so we had to borrow the recipe (and the flour!) from a camp neighbour. I'm happy to report our cookies were a success (although not as good as mom's usual recipe!!)

Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies

2 cups all-purpose floor
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
¼ cup oil
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 375 F. Oil baking sheets well. Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Combine egg, water and vanilla. Set aside.
2. Blend brown sugar and oil in large bowl at low speed of electric mixer. Add egg mixture. Beat until smooth. Add flour mixture in three parts at lowest speed. Scrape bowl well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonful’s onto baking sheets. Bake at 375 F for 7 to 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute. Remove to cooling racks.

Baking has redeemed itself … for now.

Song of the Week - So She's Leaving (The Trews)

2011-07-22T08:00:00.008-04:00

A very fitting song indeed.

It's been a very big and a bit of an emotional day for me today. I submitted my notice two months ago; today was my last day working with an employer I very much respect and have truly enjoyed my time with. I gave 5.5 years of service to this organization, as well as many hours of volunteer service (and auction items!). I learned a great deal from my time with this organization and working here was like going "home" to my second family every day. I'm truly going to miss them.

It's just time for me to take a bit of a break in my life. I'm going to travel for a few months, relax, enjoy the rest of this year on my own terms and then come back refreshed and ready to move forward. I'm very excited!

In honour of this special day, for your listening pleasure may I present you with The Trews:

"She went out on a limb, had it break off behind her, and discovered she could fly" - Kobi Yamada