Well hello everyone!
I have been swept up in the middle of a very rushed, but wonderful trip. Although Brian got a chance to post the other day, I was falling asleep at that point and had to go to bed.
So here I am now, in Florence, but Iàm going to back up to the city of lights...
Paris was simply: everything I ever imagined it might be in terms of wonder, beauty etc, except multiplied by at least 10. I caught a glimpse of it in a Mariah CArey video yesterday and couldnt believe I had been there. The first day included a trek up the Eiffel tower in the sweltering heat to overlook the city, visiting Trocadero and the Champs Elysees and feeling very grubby in my backpacker clothes amongst Louis Vuitton, LaCoste et al (but still wandering around Sephora for at least an hour, sampling everything), wandering around the city itself, a night carnival with lemon slushies, checking out Montparnasse, and then finding our way back to the Eiffel tower just before midnight. There were hundreds of people drinking wine and chilling at the base of the tower until, at exactly midnight, the sprinkler systems went off and soaked us all. It was very, very refreshing.
The second day we visited the Louvre (again in the HEAT) and saw all the obligitoires and all my art history faves. We wandered for most of the day, taking in more sights than my mind could handle, ate dinner at a cheap but amazing restaurant in the Latin quarter, then got a bottle of wine and sat by the Seine just by Notre Dame, beside some French girls singing along to their iPods.
The third day started with an excursion to Versailles (just the gardens, the line was too big for inside), where we looked at a million fountains and were serenaded by period music coming from somewhere...? Later on we took the Metro to Montmarte and I reveled in the artsiness. After seeing the gleaming white glory of Sacre coeur (and me almost crying when I saw the overview of Paris, it was embarassing), we walked down the hill and looked at Moulin Rouge. There was no way in hell to go in, as tickets cost about $200. Another day, perhaps? At night we had another simple French meal (mine was not that great, to be honest, just greasy chicken leg...ew) and then walked back to the hostel. It was indescribably awesome.
A quick stop in Bruxelles on the way to Amsterdam, which basically entailed eating waffles smothered in chocolate (I have already realized this trip is essentially based on food)and then continued on to Amsterdam.
It was a cool experience, but not really my scene. The red light district was novel, but I was pretty much the only girl crusing the canal sides. The place is a trap for people with munchies, and the food is accordingly gross. But I did try absinthe, although Iàm not certain if it was real. It was cool, and aesthetically pleasing, but tasted like burning, flaming green hell when I drank it. We also saw the Anne Frank House, which in my opinion was the most interesting part of this city. Basically we just avoided our hostel full of weirdos for as long as possible.
When we arrived in Munich, the fun really began. At night we had a great time going out with some Californians we met, to the oldest Bier haus in the world and drinking 1 litre beers, and then to an Irish pub. In the day we visited English Park and let ourselves be hurtled down a raging river. It was a near death experience, yes, but how exhilirating! We eventually took a slower river that was much more relaxing, except one had to watch out for the many nude bathers standing in the middle of the stream. Didnt want to float backwards after I almost had a collision.
Bern, Switzerland also had a river, though this one was much water and more majestic. It was a surreal and amazing moment to float down that gorgeous river, just like a fish.
More to come soon. Switzerland was beautiful, and Italy...well, that is for the next post. Hope you are all wee
31 July 2006
20 July 2006
good craic
Well it's been a while since we left the rugged landscapes and accents of Scotland, to arrive on the Emerald isle. Let me start by saying...
Kate Daley knows how to show people a good time! She's been living and working in Dublin since May, and was the best hostess one could hope for. After living with strangers for the past few weeks, it was a really nice change to be welcomed into someone's home for a while. The first day here, while Kate and her roommates were at work, Brian and I set out to explore the city.
Upon first observation, it reminded me a lot of home. The Dublin accent is not too strong, and it actually resembles the Canadian accent a fair bit. The streets were packed with locals, 'non-nationals' ie many immigrants, and tourists galore. We escaped the masses by grabbing a pint of Guinness at a place called McGruders. And let me add that it was delicious! The old black stuff tasted NOTHING like it does at home (read: Molasses and tree bark). It was smooth, creamy and rich. There have been many more to follow, including a free one from the Guinness storehouse tour that Kate's roomate got us into for free.
Kate and her roommates took us out 'The Barge Bar' which was huge, full of werid-looking men trying to dance with us, and blaring Dance Mix '93 tracks. I ended up embarassing myself by telling more than one Irish person how it had always been my 'dream' to come here bla bla bla. I also quizzed people on Dublin history. Never read historical fiction before visiting somewhere if you plan to drink any Guinness.
The next day Kate took us to a fishing village called Howth to check out a festival. We ate lots of junk food, watched a seal feeding, laughed at a person on stilts and caught some awesome Irish dancing. I wish i could post pictures to show you, but it's just not possible here :(
After another night of fun, we decided it was time to see some more of ireland, and took a bus to Galway, 'Ireland's cultural capital'. There, we were met with things wonderful and awful. The best parts included watching the sun go down on Galway bay (just like one of my favourite folk songs), Taking a day trip to see the awe-striking cliffs of Moher and the Burren (a rocky landscape full of caves, and rich with history), and finding a beautiful Claddagh ring from the original makers.
On the other hand, we were unfortunate enough to have to share our room with many, many buskers, who smelled so bad it was like they baked their BO in the sun for the month, then added a dash or two of sewage and more sweat. It wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't closed the windows to incubate the smell, and then puke and leave the bathroom door and window open to waft yet another smell in, and then refuse to wear anything but tight black briefs and pace in front of me (mumbling to themselves), with their paunch at my eye level. Alas, that was how it unfolded, and it was very, very unpleasant.
But anyways, we found another hostel that was much quieter, and smelled a fair sight better too. Galway is a great place, especially during the arts festival. We watched short movies in the park on a projector, ate ice cream to temper the heat, and drank white wine among many other revellers by the seaside. We also checked out a really tight cover band in a 500-year-old pub that was really, really cool.
We eventually made our way back to Dublin to visit Kate once again, and had a lovely night at a bar called Zanzibar. It was strange for me to take in the arabian decor with so many memories of the real place, but a cool novelty nonetheless. We had many laughs and a lot of fun with Kate, and hopefully she will have as much fun on her backpacking adventures as we've been having.
So today is our last day in Ireland, or in any English-speaking country for that matter. Today we fly to London, and sleep at the airport (where I shall spend hours in the makeup stores)and then we fly to Paris tomorrow morning. I'll try to post a little more regularly once we're on the continent, lest I forget any part of this intense trip.
Kate Daley knows how to show people a good time! She's been living and working in Dublin since May, and was the best hostess one could hope for. After living with strangers for the past few weeks, it was a really nice change to be welcomed into someone's home for a while. The first day here, while Kate and her roommates were at work, Brian and I set out to explore the city.
Upon first observation, it reminded me a lot of home. The Dublin accent is not too strong, and it actually resembles the Canadian accent a fair bit. The streets were packed with locals, 'non-nationals' ie many immigrants, and tourists galore. We escaped the masses by grabbing a pint of Guinness at a place called McGruders. And let me add that it was delicious! The old black stuff tasted NOTHING like it does at home (read: Molasses and tree bark). It was smooth, creamy and rich. There have been many more to follow, including a free one from the Guinness storehouse tour that Kate's roomate got us into for free.
Kate and her roommates took us out 'The Barge Bar' which was huge, full of werid-looking men trying to dance with us, and blaring Dance Mix '93 tracks. I ended up embarassing myself by telling more than one Irish person how it had always been my 'dream' to come here bla bla bla. I also quizzed people on Dublin history. Never read historical fiction before visiting somewhere if you plan to drink any Guinness.
The next day Kate took us to a fishing village called Howth to check out a festival. We ate lots of junk food, watched a seal feeding, laughed at a person on stilts and caught some awesome Irish dancing. I wish i could post pictures to show you, but it's just not possible here :(
After another night of fun, we decided it was time to see some more of ireland, and took a bus to Galway, 'Ireland's cultural capital'. There, we were met with things wonderful and awful. The best parts included watching the sun go down on Galway bay (just like one of my favourite folk songs), Taking a day trip to see the awe-striking cliffs of Moher and the Burren (a rocky landscape full of caves, and rich with history), and finding a beautiful Claddagh ring from the original makers.
On the other hand, we were unfortunate enough to have to share our room with many, many buskers, who smelled so bad it was like they baked their BO in the sun for the month, then added a dash or two of sewage and more sweat. It wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't closed the windows to incubate the smell, and then puke and leave the bathroom door and window open to waft yet another smell in, and then refuse to wear anything but tight black briefs and pace in front of me (mumbling to themselves), with their paunch at my eye level. Alas, that was how it unfolded, and it was very, very unpleasant.
But anyways, we found another hostel that was much quieter, and smelled a fair sight better too. Galway is a great place, especially during the arts festival. We watched short movies in the park on a projector, ate ice cream to temper the heat, and drank white wine among many other revellers by the seaside. We also checked out a really tight cover band in a 500-year-old pub that was really, really cool.
We eventually made our way back to Dublin to visit Kate once again, and had a lovely night at a bar called Zanzibar. It was strange for me to take in the arabian decor with so many memories of the real place, but a cool novelty nonetheless. We had many laughs and a lot of fun with Kate, and hopefully she will have as much fun on her backpacking adventures as we've been having.
So today is our last day in Ireland, or in any English-speaking country for that matter. Today we fly to London, and sleep at the airport (where I shall spend hours in the makeup stores)and then we fly to Paris tomorrow morning. I'll try to post a little more regularly once we're on the continent, lest I forget any part of this intense trip.
10 July 2006
the real scotland
So right now i’m at the public library in Stirling, Scotland, and typing as fast as I can to get a quick update done.
This is the home and haunt of William Wallace, aka Braveheart. We should learn much more about him in the next couple days, as we’ll be doing a bit of touring and our hostel even bears his name.
The next two days just about wrap up our rather impromtu tour of Scotland. Taking the advice of the jolly Scottish guys we met, we headed straight for the highlands. We started in St Andrews, which is the famous home of golf. Usually it’s a university town, but with all the students gone we were left with mostly middle-aged golf fanatics for company. Our hostel was pretty, but full of families and crying babies. Not exactly party central, but quaint. St Andrews is right on the ocean though, which gave us a great chance to take in some sea air.
However, our hostel full of familes and crying babies deterred us from staying another night, so we caught another bus and headed further north.
Next stop was Inverness, the capital of the highlands. There we stayed in a cozy, small place where 2 of the 4 employees were Canadians from out west who had both developed annoying fake scottish accents and furiously towel-whipped eachother on all occasions. The hostel was a great hub for meeting travellers, and they put on lots of activities for us. We went to a Ceilidh (a night of traditional song and dance) at a local pub, where Brian was definitely the most graceful dancer in our group of overweight, bearded tourists.
The town was great for live music and general scenery, but we decided to take a little day trip...to the infamous Loch Ness. Although the sand of crushed sea shells makes the lake shine gold, and the water is refreshing, this 25 mile long lake had no slimy beasts in sight. At least not for us, which was a little disappointing :(
Inverness is also home to the Ness Islands, which is a small group of bridged islands in the middle of the River Ness. It makes for a perfect place to drink a bottle of wine with the two of us and an australian (who was cool enough until he taked about putting glo-sticks in bulfrogs and throwing them into the night sky...maybe our aussie dave is not so bad compared to some of his countrymen).
After a few days we had to start heading south again, and we thought we were going to Oban, a town on the west coast, but actually got stranded in a small town called Fort William. It is nestled in the middle of Scotland's highest mountains, and wraps around a huge loch, but it was packed with other travellers. The only hostel left was called 'Chase the Wild Goose', and chase it we did. Although it was about an hours walk from town, the dismal map we were given sucked to the point that it stretched our backpack'd hike into 2+ hours in the pouring rain through fields of sheep droppings. When we arrived we were met by a strange man with the voice of Mr. Bean and the look of Peter Pettigrew from the Harry Potter films. Turns out we had found ourselves at a Christian monastery-esque place. The 10 commandments of the hostel were even written on our entrance passes. I passed a decent's night's sleep, only to be awoken by a mostly naked Italian woman changing right in front of my bunk while unzipping bags and scrunching plastic bags for at least 40 minutes at 5:30 am.
We got out of there pretty fast.
And then it was down to Stirling, Scotland at Willy Wallace hostel. Both the town and the hostel were recommended by Jennie, and we were happy with both. Although it was rainy and cold, and the streets filled up with swaggering drunks at night, it was a really cool, historical town. I'll let Brian talk about all the William Wallace stuff, but highlights for me were:
- watching highland dancers in front of stirling Castle at sunset
- Burger King ice cream for 99p
- watching Pirates of the Caribbean II and realizing almost all the pirates in it have Scottish accents ( and then hearing Scottish audience members laugh at these accents)
- Playing Kings/International Peace Treaty with an interesting cast of characters: one witty kiwi girl, two south africans who bragged about holding their drink and then did not, One long-haired American guy who hunts stone cirlces and constantly gets embararassed by his fellow americans, including another American guy who started the game, raved about the wonders of blue cheese, then passed out cold after 4 beers, one Polish guy who looked about 14, learned his english from the Cartoon Network and mocked passed-out American constantly.
- Discovering how tough Scottish Women are after seeing them tell of many, many men and yell and scream at anyone who messes with them.
It was quite a night.
So now we're back in Edinburgh, enjoying out last night in this fair country.
And Roz, I've seen 2 different tartans that claim to the Burns tartan. One is grey, black and white, and the other had blue and green in it. Which one is it?
Tomorrow we're off to Dublin to visit Kate and explore the emerald isle for 7 days. yay!
This is the home and haunt of William Wallace, aka Braveheart. We should learn much more about him in the next couple days, as we’ll be doing a bit of touring and our hostel even bears his name.
The next two days just about wrap up our rather impromtu tour of Scotland. Taking the advice of the jolly Scottish guys we met, we headed straight for the highlands. We started in St Andrews, which is the famous home of golf. Usually it’s a university town, but with all the students gone we were left with mostly middle-aged golf fanatics for company. Our hostel was pretty, but full of families and crying babies. Not exactly party central, but quaint. St Andrews is right on the ocean though, which gave us a great chance to take in some sea air.
However, our hostel full of familes and crying babies deterred us from staying another night, so we caught another bus and headed further north.
Next stop was Inverness, the capital of the highlands. There we stayed in a cozy, small place where 2 of the 4 employees were Canadians from out west who had both developed annoying fake scottish accents and furiously towel-whipped eachother on all occasions. The hostel was a great hub for meeting travellers, and they put on lots of activities for us. We went to a Ceilidh (a night of traditional song and dance) at a local pub, where Brian was definitely the most graceful dancer in our group of overweight, bearded tourists.
The town was great for live music and general scenery, but we decided to take a little day trip...to the infamous Loch Ness. Although the sand of crushed sea shells makes the lake shine gold, and the water is refreshing, this 25 mile long lake had no slimy beasts in sight. At least not for us, which was a little disappointing :(
Inverness is also home to the Ness Islands, which is a small group of bridged islands in the middle of the River Ness. It makes for a perfect place to drink a bottle of wine with the two of us and an australian (who was cool enough until he taked about putting glo-sticks in bulfrogs and throwing them into the night sky...maybe our aussie dave is not so bad compared to some of his countrymen).
After a few days we had to start heading south again, and we thought we were going to Oban, a town on the west coast, but actually got stranded in a small town called Fort William. It is nestled in the middle of Scotland's highest mountains, and wraps around a huge loch, but it was packed with other travellers. The only hostel left was called 'Chase the Wild Goose', and chase it we did. Although it was about an hours walk from town, the dismal map we were given sucked to the point that it stretched our backpack'd hike into 2+ hours in the pouring rain through fields of sheep droppings. When we arrived we were met by a strange man with the voice of Mr. Bean and the look of Peter Pettigrew from the Harry Potter films. Turns out we had found ourselves at a Christian monastery-esque place. The 10 commandments of the hostel were even written on our entrance passes. I passed a decent's night's sleep, only to be awoken by a mostly naked Italian woman changing right in front of my bunk while unzipping bags and scrunching plastic bags for at least 40 minutes at 5:30 am.
We got out of there pretty fast.
And then it was down to Stirling, Scotland at Willy Wallace hostel. Both the town and the hostel were recommended by Jennie, and we were happy with both. Although it was rainy and cold, and the streets filled up with swaggering drunks at night, it was a really cool, historical town. I'll let Brian talk about all the William Wallace stuff, but highlights for me were:
- watching highland dancers in front of stirling Castle at sunset
- Burger King ice cream for 99p
- watching Pirates of the Caribbean II and realizing almost all the pirates in it have Scottish accents ( and then hearing Scottish audience members laugh at these accents)
- Playing Kings/International Peace Treaty with an interesting cast of characters: one witty kiwi girl, two south africans who bragged about holding their drink and then did not, One long-haired American guy who hunts stone cirlces and constantly gets embararassed by his fellow americans, including another American guy who started the game, raved about the wonders of blue cheese, then passed out cold after 4 beers, one Polish guy who looked about 14, learned his english from the Cartoon Network and mocked passed-out American constantly.
- Discovering how tough Scottish Women are after seeing them tell of many, many men and yell and scream at anyone who messes with them.
It was quite a night.
So now we're back in Edinburgh, enjoying out last night in this fair country.
And Roz, I've seen 2 different tartans that claim to the Burns tartan. One is grey, black and white, and the other had blue and green in it. Which one is it?
Tomorrow we're off to Dublin to visit Kate and explore the emerald isle for 7 days. yay!
04 July 2006
the spendthrift scottish life
Well it appears that although the internet was inconsistent in tanzania, it is damn expensive here, I must say!
As I mentioned before, I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland's proud capital. The town is divided into 2 parts, old town and new town (the former dating back to the 11th century and the latter to the 17th). Our hostel is called Castle Rock hostel and it's right beside Edinburgh Castle, which is truly awe-striking in the way it looms over the city and seems to be carved out of volcanic rock.
We've been eating well and for low costs. I'm convinced the people who complain about food being outlandishly expensive in the UK who wasted all their allowance money as children. Just hit a groceryt story and it's not so bad. In fact, today I found an amazing salad bar full of every great fruit and veggie imaginable for only 2 pounds! Beat that!
So we've been here for 5 days or so, after a quick visit with Ryan in London. He was a great host, showing us everything from the terrible late-night tv gambling shows, to the lay of the land, to Abbey Road and Piccadilly Circus. We'll be back in London at the end of the trip, but he certainly gave us a good intro. More on London next time we visit.
But Edinburgh is a city to fall in love with. It feels very safe to say the least, and completely welcoming to describe it best. Yes the crowds of tourists and the constant sound of bagpipes can get to you, but how can you find a complaint in the world when you're trekking through pre-medieval streets. In fact, the streets we walk on now are built on TOP of the original city, which is still partially accessible underneath. It's haunted as hell though, and quite spooky to visit.
This is my first time being a true backpacker, and it's pretty liberating. For once I only have a small amount of items with me (instead of my usual 90 million), and I hope this means I'm more organized now. Hostel life is pretty chill. There's free tea and only the odd arrogant spoiled brat traveller to contend with, or seventeen-year old whipping things around the room, or other seventeen-year-olds making out in the computer room when you want to send an email. But such is the life.
I keep thinking of my good friend Roz, especially today, when we took a free walking tour with a very jolly man named Ewan McLeod from Dundee. I also thought of her when we were planning out our scottish journeys in a pub to be helped out by some very friendly scottish men. They bought us a pint of Tennyson, and we listened intently as they gave us advice as to how to see the 'real' scotland. We also listened intently to understand their thick, thick yet merry accents.
It appears we're heading up to the highlands tomorrow, to pursue the 'real' scotland that they spoke so highly of. This first half of the trip is all about livin on the cheap, my friends. So it's half-price backpacker deals pub food, £6 bus rides to other towns, not drinking as often as one would think in a country brimming with ale and whiskey, and visiting free museums instead of pricy ones.
We're learning a lot already. Man, our tour guide was so jolly. He reminded me of my uncle, except his obsession was with history instead of Porsches.
Anyways, I suppose this is rambling, and I'm nearly out of time. Please see Brian's blog for an undoubtedly more straightforward of what we've been doing.
Lot's of love
As I mentioned before, I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland's proud capital. The town is divided into 2 parts, old town and new town (the former dating back to the 11th century and the latter to the 17th). Our hostel is called Castle Rock hostel and it's right beside Edinburgh Castle, which is truly awe-striking in the way it looms over the city and seems to be carved out of volcanic rock.
We've been eating well and for low costs. I'm convinced the people who complain about food being outlandishly expensive in the UK who wasted all their allowance money as children. Just hit a groceryt story and it's not so bad. In fact, today I found an amazing salad bar full of every great fruit and veggie imaginable for only 2 pounds! Beat that!
So we've been here for 5 days or so, after a quick visit with Ryan in London. He was a great host, showing us everything from the terrible late-night tv gambling shows, to the lay of the land, to Abbey Road and Piccadilly Circus. We'll be back in London at the end of the trip, but he certainly gave us a good intro. More on London next time we visit.
But Edinburgh is a city to fall in love with. It feels very safe to say the least, and completely welcoming to describe it best. Yes the crowds of tourists and the constant sound of bagpipes can get to you, but how can you find a complaint in the world when you're trekking through pre-medieval streets. In fact, the streets we walk on now are built on TOP of the original city, which is still partially accessible underneath. It's haunted as hell though, and quite spooky to visit.
This is my first time being a true backpacker, and it's pretty liberating. For once I only have a small amount of items with me (instead of my usual 90 million), and I hope this means I'm more organized now. Hostel life is pretty chill. There's free tea and only the odd arrogant spoiled brat traveller to contend with, or seventeen-year old whipping things around the room, or other seventeen-year-olds making out in the computer room when you want to send an email. But such is the life.
I keep thinking of my good friend Roz, especially today, when we took a free walking tour with a very jolly man named Ewan McLeod from Dundee. I also thought of her when we were planning out our scottish journeys in a pub to be helped out by some very friendly scottish men. They bought us a pint of Tennyson, and we listened intently as they gave us advice as to how to see the 'real' scotland. We also listened intently to understand their thick, thick yet merry accents.
It appears we're heading up to the highlands tomorrow, to pursue the 'real' scotland that they spoke so highly of. This first half of the trip is all about livin on the cheap, my friends. So it's half-price backpacker deals pub food, £6 bus rides to other towns, not drinking as often as one would think in a country brimming with ale and whiskey, and visiting free museums instead of pricy ones.
We're learning a lot already. Man, our tour guide was so jolly. He reminded me of my uncle, except his obsession was with history instead of Porsches.
Anyways, I suppose this is rambling, and I'm nearly out of time. Please see Brian's blog for an undoubtedly more straightforward of what we've been doing.
Lot's of love
01 July 2006
safe
we've arrived in Edinburgh and world cup fever is in the streets. Just had a good sandwich etc. will update very very soon!
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