Amster-dam that´s good times!

Well, in 4 days I went from having been to 7 European countries, to having been to 9 European countries. How cool am I? (the answer is way cool). My Amsterdam flight was very early in the morning, and I had to wake up very, very early to get a ride from Corinne (bless her little heart for driving me) to the airport in Basel, about an hour and a half away from Zurich. Once it got to about midnight I decided the best course of action was to stay up all night rather than sleep for only a few hours. At 4am we left Corinne´s, drove to the airport, and I got myself all organised and checked in. Waiting for the plane was torture because I started to realise how tired I was, but the flight was pleasant and I got the unique pleasure of seeing the sun-rise over Holland from above Holland. Very cool. The Amsterdam airport is insane! It´s huge and it was packed, and when I went to the info desk to find out where my hostel is I found out there were 2 hostels with the same name and I didn´t know which one Nikki was reserved at! Eep! I took a stab and went to the downtown one, which wasapparently the right one because Nikki was in the lobby! Yay! Now our Amsterdam Christmas adventure could really begin!
Now follows the censored version of our Amsterdam adventure:
Amsterdam was nice. We went to the Anne Frank museum and the Van Gogh museum. I had a good Christmas.

Now follows the uncensored version of our Amsterdam adventure (read at your own risk):
Amsterdam is tits!!! After getting checked in we imediately found a coffee shop near the hostel and (get this) ordered weed off a menu! No matter how many times I heard people say they did this in Amsterdam, it did not prepare me for the incredible awesomeness of doing it in real life! Off a menu! Fantastic! We got baked and did a bunch of walking around the red-light district, then around the china-town area, eventually leading us to get some really tasty asian food. After that there was more walking around the red light district. Nikki was nervous about walking through the main red light streets with all the hookers because ti was now dark out, but I was like "dude, this is a tourist city!" there was a gift shop sandwiched between two hooker windows. How much more tame can you get? What was really interesting was the looks on hte different hookers´faces in the windows. Some looked really excited to be there, some bored, some impassive, some challenging. It was very crazy ans surreal. Afterwards we went back to the hostel for more weed, dinner, and then ventured out one more time to go to the highly graphic "Sex Museum". It had a collection of pornography, ancient sex symbols and statues, mannequinns, cartoons, erotic novelties, and lots of paintings and pictures of naked people. A good way to spend an hour in Amsterdam if there ever was one! Next we returned to the hostel again for our horrible collapse of tiredness at around 11pm. We both were running on little (or in my case no) sleep.
The next morning was Christmas eve day, and we decided to pakc in the majority of our sightseeing because we figured nothing would be open on xmas day. We started the day sober (gasp I know!) in order to go to the Ann Frank museum. It was really incredible to see the apartment they hid in, the original diary, and a ton of other stuff from the family, including video footage of her father after the war (heart-breaking). After a few hours in hte museum, we were feeling pretty heavy, so we decided that the best plan was to commence the hostel´s reccommended "coffee shop tour" and get baked. We went to a coffee shop called the "rock café", which had a really bitchy girl working there. After getting high and playing cards for a bit, we continued with the tour, which took us from North to South Amsterdam through many of the busy roads, including hte posh shopping area. The best suprprise of the walk was when we passed over a bridge and saw a man on a small motor-boat, decked out in ribbons, playing a peddle-powered organ with a foot-pedal, and accompanying himself on hte french horn then trumpet, all whilst boating around in circles. We watched him for many minutes and could discern no reason for him doing it, other than accute awesomeness. It was incredible!
We veered off the tour in search of the Van Gogh museum (a must-see if you´re in Amsterdam and even remotely like art). It turns out that they advertise the off-site museum gift-shop with several signs in giant, red, block letters. You can see the gift shop from a block away. The museum itself is across the park from the gift shop, behind a large building, and with the world´s smallest and saddest sign ever! Because of this and the fact that we were still high, it took us about half an hour to find the museum, even though we asked for directions 3 times. What a terrible system! The Van Gogh museum is really amazing. There are 3 floors of art and one floor with info and toilets, etc. The top floor is all Van Gogh paintings, hung beside info panels with snippets about his life. All the paitings are in chronogloical order, so you can really see his progression as an artist. Favourite painting? Toss up between the sunflower painting (holy friggin wow) and a painting he did of a skeleton smoking a cigarette (that´s just hilarious). The next floor down is paintings from throughout his career juxtaposed with paintings by artists of his time that worked with him or otherwise inspired him. The best thing about this floor was that you could directly see which of his paintings were inspired by whom in his early career, also they had a ton of Gaugin´s work and I friggin LOVE Gaugin! There was also tons of info panels here. The bottom floor was random art that had nothing to do with Van Gogh, but is cool anyway, only by the time we got here the museum was closing, so we had to rush through.
After this it was getting to be late-ish and we were cold and hungry, so we took a tram back to the hostel to make dinner. Before dinner we chilled out in the smoking room of the hostel (it used to be you could smoke weed anywhere, but due to recent laws, there has to be a smoking section in a residential-type building... guess which room was the most popular?). In there we met a boisterous Edinburgh lad and American girl, who told us that there was a Christmas Eve pub crawl happening that night and that we would be fools not to go. Damn fools even! I could not possibly resist the hilarious novelty of going on a pub crawl on Christmas Eve in Amsterdam, so we rushed dinner and then went out of the town. The deal was that you pay 15 euros and get free admission into every bar, a free drink at each bar, free all-you-can-drink shots at the first bar, and shots upon entering most bars. I was excited for the free liquor, because poorness means that I couldn´t afford to buy any drinks at the bars. Unfortunately the shots were really watered down and sugary, and the free drinks were small, so it took forever to actually get drunk. I did, however, fully abuse the free shots rule at the first bar.
We were supposed to be in the first pub for an outrageous amount of time, because the crawl leaders wanted to wait for stragglers to show up. So after our free drinks were done and the shots ran out, Nikki, the Scotsman, an adorable asian named Shumpei, and an Indian guy whose name I forget, and I, decided to deek out of the pub and head to a nearby coffee shop to kill some time. We wound up going to the first ever coffee shop in Amsterdam (the Bulldog), buying 4 pre-rolled joints, and smoking on of them. In a much better mood we returned to the pub crawl. The crawl was awesome and included much drinking and dancing, meeting lots of cool people, and smoking the otehr 3 joints. The 2 coolest things in the night, was when it turned midnight and officially Christmas, white snow-like confetti exploded on everyone from the ceiling. The other amazing thing was at one pub they had fire breathers! The bartenders were just working away, making drinks, then suddenly each of them picked up a torch and a big liquor bottle and blew back-and-forth fire balls for about 10 minutes. It was insanely cool! At the end of the night we followed a brother and sister from Montreal home to our hostel, after getting thouroughly lost first, and crawled into bed.
Christmas morning we accidentally slept through breakfast and weren´t allowed in the kitchen to make coffee because of after-breakfast clean-up, so I read in the smoking room while Nikki stayed in bed nursing a hangover (ah the Christmas hangover, a classic!). Eventually she got up, we got coffee and a healthy breakfast of cookies, and recorded our Christmas video in the lounge area before getting stoned (not that you could tell from the video). The whole Christmas day was spent in between the smoking room and the lounge area, getting high, watching movies, looking up internet comics, meetings Australians, and eating junk food. Also, I spent the whole of Christmas wearing a santa hat and my batgirl t-shirt (happy batmas). We went outside only once, to go to a coffee shop called "Ben" and get chips with garlic sauce (way better than ketchup!). The night culminated in a back-to-back viewing of the Big Lebowski and Yellow Submarine (guess which one I brought). All in all it was a great Christmas, and I was really glad to spend it with Nikki because she is a dear friend of many years past.
Frig that was a lot of writing! Well, we´re all updated until Christmas and I´ll write the rest later.

One week in Switzerland! I´ve had a great time staying with Corinne and her boyfriend Sebastian. They´re both cooks and they´ve made really delicious food for me every day; I´m now officially crazy-ass spoiled! I´ve gone to the little mountain near Zurich, and today I went with Corinne and Sebastian to the Alps a few hours away. The Swiss alps! Switzerland is so incredibly beautiful and ADORABLE!!! I really love it here. There are many things that I´ve come to love about this country during my stgay here, and I will briefly list them now.
1) No war, that´s just good times! However, I already knew that about Switzerland, so I will now only list things that I have newly discovered about the country I now love
2) Or real 1) They sell Glüwein at stands on almost every street and it´s so delicious!
New 2) All the houses are short and have big, pointy roofs- even the apartments and hotels are house-shaped with big, pointy roofs
3) They have big, coloured steeples with pointy roofs and clocks on all the churches
4) They sell liquor and porn almost everwhere
5) The country officially has 3 languages- how cool is that? German, French, and Italian
6) The chocolate and cheese is awesome beyond all reason!
7) There are tons of Chirstmas markets everwhere
There are probably more things, but that´s enough for now.
Corinne and her best friend Danica took me to the capital city Bern a few days ago. It is so incredibly cute!!! All the shops are teeny tiny and prefaced by beautiful arches. Most of the streets have really cute below-ground shops that open with cellar doors, and you have to walk down through the entranceway to get into the shops. There´s a really cute clock-work tower in the middle of the town with lots of amazing little fountains everywhere (one has a bear dressed in a knight costume- precious!), and every single street is made of cobblestone and is very narrow! We drove to the city in the evening and we found a market that sold glüwein, but it was crazy busy, so we walked around for a bit and found another outdoor market (of Switzerland is awesome) that was in a square in front of one of the parliment buildings and the church. We bought some glüwein and drank it in front of the parliment building, and then in front of the church. It was great! Afterwards we met up with two of Danica´s friends at a local Sheesha bar. I smoked my first ever hit of sheesha, followed by my first feeling like death from sheesha (god I hate tobacco), and so I´m never doing that again, even if it is cool and exotic and from a giant hookah. Anyway, after that we went to a drum and bass party in a town next to Bern. The DJ was insane, but the party was kind of lame because hardly anyone (excluding us of course) was dancing. How can you not dance to electronic music? After we left and dropped off the girls Corinne and I got back after 5am. I think I did the nation´s capital proud!
Another crazy, cool thing that´s happened in the last week is the other night I went with Corinne to her staff Christmas party. We weren´t told where we were going or what we were doing, we were just told the town that we were taking the train to. On the train her coworkers busted out the plastic cups and wine and we spent the long train ride drinking and talking. Drinking legally in public is awesome! Her coworkers are incredibly nice, but most of the night people were talking German, so it was a little hard to be fully in the festivites. Everyone was very accomodating, though. We arrived in the town and were brought to the house of the friend of Corinne´s boss where we all had a fondue party with tons of wine in a cool off-house room with a fireplace and big, glass doors. Very Swiss-rustic! We spent hours in the room eating the world´s most delicious fondue and drinking, and eventually poured ourselves back into the train and stumbled back to Corinne´s house.
I also had fondue a few nights before-hand at Corinne´s friend´s house. I am so friggin loving this Swiss fondue! It´s so creamy and delicious and traditional! Happy Kendall! It´s been great to try a bunch of traditional Swiss food while I´m here, especially since most of the food has been cooked for me by my Swiss hosts. Man, I love being spoiled! Anyway, that´s a pretty good overview of what my last week has entailed. Tomorrow morning in Amsterdam!

Tag, Zurich!!!

So... I´m in another country...
Apparently I´ve been a very lazy bitch and haven´t written my blog in awhile, whilst so much has happened! When I last wrote I was just about to leave the house with Cesare and get some southern Italian pizza and wine. The rumour has it that Southern Italy has the best pizza in all of Italy, and I completely agree! Holy crap, yum!!! That night was spent eating pizza, drinking wine, and listening to music. The next morning I got up very early and spent another of my way-too-common full days of traveling. I took a train from Salerno to Roma, which was of course late, because of this I missed my connecting train to Firenze (Florence) where I was heading. Perhaps you will recall, oh devoted reader, that I was already in Florence for a day when I was staying in Pistoia. This is true, unfortunately my day in Florence was spent in the merciless grip of a flu-induced delerium, and the only thing that I remember clearly is seeing the David and feeling like death. So because of this I decided to do Firenze right- plus it was conveniently more or less on my way to Venizzia (Venice). Anyway, I missed my train, but I managed to find one leaving a few hours later, and arrived in Firenze more or less within the scope of reason.
In Firenze I spent the weekend with a delightful couple named Leornardo and Elisa. Leonardo picked me up at the train station and took me to their beautiful house in the burbs of Firenze. That night, when Leonardo had a soccer match, Elisa and I walked around Firenze at night, got some delicious Italian pizza, and the best friggin Italian coffee I´ve ever had (and I´ve had LOTS of coffee since arriving). Then we went to the Michelangelo point, which is a beautiful piazza with many statues and an amazing view of all of Firenze. After that we picked up Leonardo, went out for a drink, and headed back to their place. However, on the way home I was given a special treat, unique to Firenze. We stopped at an all-night pastry factory, where they make delicious pizzas and pastries. You could watch the two bakers making all the amaying Italian pastries, and then order the freshly made pastries for incredibly cheap. It was like food heaven! What an experience!!!
The next day I got up early and took a train into the centre of Firenze. I spent the entire day walking around the beautiful city. I´m so glad that I came back to Firenze! The city is amazing, with so many statues, churches, piazzas, and shops. I´m still pissed that they charge so much for all the churches and museums, but luckily there is so much art around the city that you can get a full cultural experience just walking around for free. That evening I went back to Elisa and Leonardo´s, and Elisa cooked a delicious risotto dinner, with an apple cake dessert, and many bottles of wine. I got to try a really fancy wine from the town beside Venizzia (Venice) and boy was it ever good! I´m going to have some big issues leaving Italian food and wine behind! Leonardo and Elisa invited a few of their friends over and we had a wonderful little party with drinks, music, and pleasant converstaion. So very Italian classy!
The next morning I was suppoed to take an 8:42 am bus to Venizzia, and I was woken up at about 8:15 by Elisa. Hungover and tired as hell from almost no sleep I rush-packed and got dropped off at the train station, with about 2 minutes to spare. I took a train to Bologna, then transfered to a train to Venizzia. I dropped my bags off at the outrageously expensive baggage storage and walked out of the station to see my first Venician canals! Yay! Man, Venizzia is beautiful beyond all reason. There are so many gorgeous canals, boats, gondolas, pizzerias, churches, and teeny tiny little roads. The only sad thing about Venezzia is that it´s barely a real city anymore, and has become almost exclusively a tourists destination. After walking around all the once grand streets that are now just rows and rows of shops it got a little weary after a while. The city is magical though; I really loved walking around and staring at all the amaying canals. There has been record-high rainfalls in Italy this year, so many of the Venician streets were flooded. It was hilarious to see really posh Italians wearing fancy clothes and wellies! Heehee. Also, there were lots of shop-keeps that would sweep the water away from the front of their shops with brooms. Only in Venizzia!
I took a 5pm train to Bologna, arriving at 8pm and having to wait until 11:30 for my overnight train to Zurich. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, I stored my bags again and did a speed-tour of some of Bologna´s famous sights. It´s a beautiful city, covered in archways and fairy lights. I´m glad I got the chance to see it before leaving Italy. I got on the night train, exhausted beyond all reason, and was happy to find out I had my sleeper cabin to myself! I had washed my clothes the day before in Firenze, and some of them were still wet (and had been in my bag wet all day) so I pulled out the contents of my pack and spread them around the cabin, then went to bed. It´s very hard to sleep on a night train, especially if you´re a former insomniac, and once I finally got used to the noise of the other passengers and the train I found I would wake up every time the train stopped (which was often) or if the train made a sudden lurch (also often). So my night passed with me frequently waking up, and every time with the irrational fear that I would miss my stop in Zurich! Ah! I woke up in the morning and saw that we were stopped at a large, brightly lit station. I freaked out, thinking it was Zurich, speed-packed, and further freaked when the train started moving once I had finished packing. It wasn´t until we passed the sign saying "Bern" that I realized we still had a while to go. I found a porter and found out it was only 7am, and I had woken up at about 6:30 am with still 2 hours left to go in the trip. My freaking out had woken me up enough to not get back to sleep, so I sat up in my cabin drinking the complimentary coffee and watching the sun rise over Swiss alps and villages. What a sight! Switzerland is so cute, it looks like the inside of a snow-globe.
We arrived in Zurich at 8:40 am, meaning that in 24 hours (almost to the minute) I went from Firenze, to Venezzia, to Bologna, to Zurich, Switzerland. Wow! In Zurich I´m staying with my friend Corinne, but she had to work until 2:30, so I stored my bags at the station and went to the tourist office to get maps and info. The tourist board gives out maps with a recommended walking tour, so I spent my time doing the tour and exploring the centre-ville of Zurich. Zurich is a very busy little city, with many tall church-towers, a beautiful lake and river, and the second most expensive street in all of Europe! Wow! It´s true what they say about Switzerland, it´s expensive as hell! I´m very lucky to have a friend here. At about 3pm I met up with Corinne, went back to her place (very cute apartment with the hilarious eccentricity of having its shower in the kitchen!) and had my first shower in two days. Finally! Corinne cooked us a delicious pasta dinner (she´s a chef, lucky me!!!) and bought me my first bar of Swiss chocolate, which I actually just ate now. Holy crap it was so good! If Italy didn´t make me fat, Switzerland will.
After dinner we went to the train station where they have a Christmas market and got some Glühwein (which is the same thing as the Italian Vin Brule) with a couple of Corinne´s friends. Then we went to a bar for a traditional Swiss drink that´s like a mix between beer and lemonade, and not too shabby at all. After that we went to a Swiss club. It was really nice, but at this point I was on the brink of zombie-ness with almost no sleep in 3 days and so much traveling. We came back and I promptly passed out and slept forever. Today I woke up late, ate delicious pasta leftovers, watched a movie, and ate that amazing chocolate bar. A nice relaxing antidote to all my whilrwind traveling!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog...

Ciao everyone! Well, it's almost that time of year, the christmas time. My plans are fully settled on going to Amsterdam for three days with my dear, old OSSSA friend Nikki. It should be jolly holidays for all, although I will desperately miss my family. Once again I need to remind everyone that under no circumstance is anyone allowed to buy me a present. The only material thing that I need in this world is a new camera (or my old one back, sigh). However, if anyone wants to give me money for the holidays, I'm way too broke-ass to feign indifference in this matter, and would welcome that gladly.
No one is in any way required to send me anything, but if you want to send me xmas money, you can send it c/o my Daddy, who is in charge of depositing my xmas cheques. His address is below:
(address removed)
And happy holidays!

The good, the bad, and the goddam depressing

Okay, terrible news must come first, because I can't stop thinking about it anyway, so I should bring it up, up front. My camera has been lost from me. I don't know if it was stolen (likely, because Napoli is a hot-bed of pickpocketing) or if it just fell out of my bag somehow (I was going through my bag on the train, so this could also happen) but I didn't even friggin notice until this morning that it was gone. I had it right up until the evening yesterday, when I took a picture in a cafe, and after that I didn't think to look for it until I was packing for Pompei today. I feel like there's a lump in my throat that can't dissappate, and whenever I think about all the photos I've lost my stomach ties in knots and I feel like I'm going to hurl. So yeah...
My first night in Salerno (2 days ago) was really nice. The weather was still beautiful, so my host Cesare took me on a walking tour of the city after dinner, showing me the many sights and telling me all about the rich history of the place. He's lived here most of his life and knows the city inside and out, so I learned a lot about it. At the end of the walk, we went and sat by the sea and ate gelatto. It was very peaceful and lovely.
The next day I got up early, and was going to take a train to Napoli, but there was a problem with the regional trains between Salerno and Napoli (trenitalia seems to have many problems) so I took a bus instead. I first took a wrong road and instead of walking through the touristy part of town, I was immediately thrust into the shipping yards part of town, which was filthy and a little sketchy. It was really interesting, though, and I walked around there for a bit before heading back towards a main street. The rest of the day consisted of three things over and over: me getting lost, me figuring out where I was, and me looking for a warm pair of boots to buy. I got lost and found through a good half of the city and saw many beautiful suqares, statues, an amazing church with a carved-rose ceiling, and a castle! Unfortunately it was both rainey and windy as hell, so I was combatting the weather with my flimsy umbrella for the betterpart of the day, but I still saw a lot of great stuff, and I finally found a pair of decent boots, yay! The shopkeep assured me that the boots are both waterproof and snowproof, and they have infinitely better treads than my old, crap boots, so I'm very glad to have them. At the end of a long, tiring day, I was meant to take the 6:42 train back to Salerno, but the trains were still having issues, so I had to take a bus half-way, then a train. Both were majorly delayed and I didn't get back to Cesare's until about 10pm. I was pretty much dead to the world by the time I got back, so the rest of my night consisted of pasta, a foo fighters dvd, and trying to learn a note on the guitar (Cesare is a guitarist).
This morning I got up early, realised the devastating news about my camera, and instead of going right to Pompei as I had originally planned, I spent hours with the police and the train customer care people in a vain attempt to track my camera down. Of course nothing turned up, but I feel good that I've at least tried my best (including scouring the flat, the neighbourhood, the train station, and several trains). After that ordeal I finally took the train to Pompei and was greeted by horrible, terrible rain that lasted the rest of the day. Despite the rain, and thanks to my new boots, I still had a great time walking around the huge and beautiful ruins of Pompei. The place felt incredibly holy, and had a huge energy all around it. This was amplified by the fact that there were almost no tourists, so I was alone in the petrified city for most of the afternoon. Sadly the undertow of my sadness about my camera kept threatening to pull me emotionally under my sorrow and away from the beautiful town I was walking through. I think I did okay, all things considered, and I saw many beautiful ruins. I had to keep reminding myself that these things survived a volcano, because some things were incredibly well preserved.
After Pompei I took a train back to Salerno, checked in with the police and customer care again (no dice) and came back toCesare's, where he is playing 60s california beats on electric guitar, and I am writing this blog entry.

All roads lead from Rome

Ciao from Salerno! I am now in the south of Italy, and man is it ever beautiful here! I'm snugly sandwiched between the mountains and the sea in this beautiful little city. The night before last, after I last wrote my blog, I took place in the most dleightful social custom: an Italian dinner party. Giovanni had a dinner party for about 8 of his friends, and I was of course welcome to join them. We had pasta, frittata, carrot salad, a traditional vin brulé (from Milan) where you heat wine and prepare it like cider, a traditional fruit-cake type dessert (also from Milan) and chocolate. My goodness, will Italy ever make me fat! Dinner was delicious, and Giovanni's friends were really nice (a different group of friends from the night before), and they all made an effort to speak to me in English (thankless English pig that I am, not knowing their language). After dinner, wine, Italian martini (a drink made from wine, sugar water, and something awful), and dessert, we all sat around for a while talking, then played a big game of clue. I now know the Italian word for revolver, very useful! Anyway, it was a wonderful night.
Yesterday I left Giovanni's pretty early, dropped my stuff at Antonio's, and set off on my own for some more Roman sightseeing. I started at that fountain again, because I wanted to see it in the proper daylight. I also finally found out the name- Fontana di Trevi, and I spent awhile juststanding and absorbing its beauty. After that I really rocked Roma, walking to the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona, the Palazzo di Giustizia, the Castel S. Angelo, over the Ponte S. Angelo, and finally back to San Pietro square, where I actually went inside the church this time! Words cannot possibly describe the lucious, dripping decadence of the church, so I will just say gurble, gurble, gurble. That is the sound of me being reduced to a stumbling, drooling idiot from absolute beauty overload. This is by far the most opulent church I've ever seen, and it knocked me flat.
After all the sightseeing I fed into my horrible gelatto addiction, and walked down some random roads eating my gelatto and being one with the city.
That evening I returned to Antonio's, and we were supposed to go see a one man concert show, but when we got there all the tickets were sold out. So instead we walked over to the University area, and went to a bar there. It was a cool atmosphere, and they played great music. Afterwards we were hungry, so we went and got pizza, then gelatto. I have a serious gelatto problem, and I refuse to seek help! This morning I had to wake up pretty early because Antonio was heading to morning work. I took a train to Napoli (Naples) then transferred to a train for Salerno, about an hour south-ish of Napoli, and very, very beautiful. I met up with my new host Cesare, and I'm at his place now, about to make some pasta dinner. The train ride wasamazing, because it was a beautiful sunny day, and I got loads of mountain, sea, farm, and orchard views on my ride.

Look out Pope, here I come!

Ciao from Roma! So, I completely underdescribed my hideous round two with the flu, because at the time I was still sick and I didn't want to sadden/horrify my loved ones until I knew for sure I'd be better. I was really, really sick. At one point I was shaking all over for over an hour, and at another point my temperature was like, 104 or something. It sucked even worse than Stephen Harper's medicare policy (oh yes I went there) but I'm better now, yay!
I spent another day clinging to life in Pistoia, and then the day before yesterday I was good to go, and so I did. I took a train to Firenze and transfered to another train to Roma (Rome) and got here insanely late. I'm doing a bit of couchsurfing host-hopping right now. That night I stayed with an incredibly nice Italian bloke named Antonio, and for the next two nights I'm staying with a different Italian named Giovanni, then on Monday I'm staying one more night with Antonio. The reasons for this are complicated, but they do make sense. Anyway, after crashing at Antonio's, yesterday morning (first day of sun since I've arrived in Italy) Antonio and I went to the local market to get vegetables and pasta, then back to his place where he cooked me a really yummy pasta lunch. I honestly can't get over how flavourful and delicious the olive oil is here! The olive oil in Canada is like motor oil in comparison. Right, so after lunch we did a little sight-seeing. I saw the city gates, the famous fountain of something, something, the famous statue of something, something, loads of statues actually, the old Rome-home of our good pal Muessolini (sp?), and the very famous Roman Collasseum. Holy wow! It's so big and beautiful and fairly well preserved! We got 3-flavour gellato and ate it in front of the collasseum. Pure bliss!
Then afterwards I met up with Giovanni and went the his place. He lives with 2 roommates in this giant, mansion-style flat with marble-style floors and huge gorgeousness everywhere. Giovanni drives the world's cutest car! It's this teeny Italian number from the 70s and I'm in love with it! We got in his cute little car and drove to a pizzeria to meet some of his friends for dinner. Here's how the Italian dinner breaks down. We got there around 9, but had to wait for everyone to get there until about 9:30. Then at 10 everyone was ready to order, but they won't take your dinner order until after you've eaten your appetizer (if you're getting them, which we were) so we only ordered apps first. After that, we all got our pizzas ordered by about 10:30, and we didn't finish eating and talking until well after 11. Then everyone ordered dessert, so dinner wasn't actually finished until after midnight. Then we all left the restaurant together and it was another 10 minutes so everyone could kiss everyone else goodbye on the cheeks before we all went our seperate ways. As you can imagine, this is a very, very different experience for a Canadian. To us, dinner is more like a race than a meal. After all that time eating, it wasn't long before I was ready for bed.
Today Giovanni walked around the city with me and was my own little guide for sightseeing. He studied the classics in school, so he knows loads of history, and I got to hear about all the statues, arches, monuments, and ruins we saw. We went to the collasseum, because I wanted to see it in daylight, and luckily today there was sun again. For lunch we went and got fallafels in the Jewish district of Rome. After that Giovanni had to split, and I took a bus to St. Peter's square. Now that's one heck of a square! The church is huge, and the surrounding buildings have about a million statues. Unfortunately the cue for the church was huge, so I didn't get into the church, but I did get to see the outside. More unfortunately, they charge an absolutely outrageous price for the Vatican Museum, so I'm debating whether or not to go. Although I woukld like to see the Sistine Chapel. Hm, we'll see...

Tuscany

Ciao! Greetings from the beautiful and famous Tuscany region of Italy! Since I last wrote many things have happened (as usual). The last time I wrote was Friday, and that night my host Maria Jose (MaJo) and I went to the local grocery store to get food and wine and made some very delicious Italian-style pasta, then sat around eating, drinking, and talking. The next day MaJo called a French friend of hers and the three of us went to a local weekend market where they sell tons of fruit, vegetables, cheeses, and olives that are both insanely delicious and very cheap. We loaded up on tons of food and then made our way back to the flat for lunch and to unburden ourselves of the bags we had accumulated. After lunch we went to the yearly international arts and crafts fair. Although, I soon discovered that it was more like the international sell everything fair. They were selling clothes, furniture, art, food, appliances, jewlerry, everything! I got to look at lots of pretty things and I tried my first real Italian gellatto- so delicious! After a bit the enormously huge building absolutely crammed with vendors became a little overwhleming, so we only stayed for a few hours. MaJo's french friend went home, and we went back to the flat. Hanging with the two girls was hilarious because I would speak to her french friend in french, I'd speak to MaJo in enlgish, and the two girls would speak to each other in Italian! It was like a little language festival. Same with MaJo's roommate, who is also french.
After cooking another delicious pasta dinner, we grabbed some wine, and got ourselves all fancied up to go to one of Milano's famous and ultra-swanky disco clubs. The place was completely packed! Everyone was all dressed up and absolutely trashed! it was a cool experience, but not really my scene, although it's very Milanese, so of course I had to experience it!
The next day my plan was to take a train to Venice for the day, but sadly I missed my train, and it was freezing outside, so I spent the day indoors with MaJo, cooking, reading, and talking. I can't get enough of this Italian food! I now understand why it's so famous. It's not the recepies, but the indredients! The food is all so fresh and delicious that you can throw anything together and it will taste amazing. I have a fear that Italy will make me very, very fat!
On the next day (Monday) my plan had been to take a 3 hour train-ride (changing trains once on the way there) to Pistoia, a beautiful city in the Tuscany region of Italy, near Firenze (Florence). However, after about an hour or so, the train broke down in some little town and we had to wait for TWO AND A HALF HOURS for them to bring a new engine so we could continue on our way. At first I had no idea what was going on, because the man in my compartment who spoke English left, and at one point most of the people got off the train after they made some announcement. I finally found a very nice german girl named Maria, who spoke English and informed me that all the passengers going to only Florence were allowed to take another train, while everyone else waited. Lucky for me Maria was really nice and cool, and I kept myself much occuppied by talking to her while we waited. Unluckily for me, I had no way of getting a hold of my new host Manuel to tell him I'd be very, very late.
I eventually got to Pistoia, got a hold of Manuel, and made it to his house. That night he took me to a climbing gym where he often goes and I did my first ever real wall-climbing! It was very exciting, but boy was I ever sore the next day! I think I will need lots of practise if I want to make a habit of climbing. Yesterday I got up very early when Manuel had to go to work, and took a train to Firenze to wlak around for the day. Firenze is incredibly beautiful, with loads of churches, museums, and statues. Unfortunately they have the audacity to charge a lot for every attraction, including the churches! So I mostly walked around and looked at the outsides of all the famous buildings. I did, however, pay to get into the Gallery of the Academia, an art gallery that holds many of Michelangelo's famous statues, including the statue of David. Wow, just wow. That statue is so incredibly amazing! It definitely deserves its renown. It's really, really big, and perfectly preserved. I stood there, mouth agape, for quite awhile basking in its excellence. After the gallery I went to a restaurant and had a fabulous lunch of real Italian pizza. So good! Sadly, though, the whole day was (weather-wise) miserable and rainy, and I was once again walking around for hours in wet boots with cold, wet feet. Apparently in the last week Italy has experienced more rain than it ever gets this time of year. I took the evening train back to Pistoia a little early so that I could walk around Pistoia for a bit, which is also very beautiful with loads of churches. I then met up with Manuel and he walked me around some of the most famous churches in Pistoia. It's so great staying with people who really know the area you're going to! However, after being in wet boots all day I was feeling really, really sick (lame) and we went back to Manuel's where I could drink tea under many blankets. Wanting me to still get a good Italian experience, Manuel showed me an old, famous movie from Italy, which was really hilarious.
This morning when I woke up I felt like absolute death, so I opted to stay inside for the day. I will probably do the same tomorrow just in case, because if I'm traveling to Rome (where I'm heading next) I want to be healthy enough to lug my huge bags around. I really need to get waterproof boots or something, because this being sick nonsense is absolute crap. Luckily, though, Manuel has a record player and the complete disc-ology of the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Bob Dylan, so the day wasn't at all a waste since I was listening to amazing music on vynel. Now I just need to make a speedy recovery and continue my travels.

Pizza and Prada

Buongiorno from Milan! Now what the hell am I doing in Italy, you might ask.  Well, I was looking into taking a bus back up to Barcelona, when I realised through my genius that I could get a flight from Granada to Milan for the same price as a bus from Granada to Barcelona. What a crazy world!

Anyway, backtracking to where I last left off.  That night (5 days ago) after I wrote was the most music-filled night probably of life!  After the internet cafe, we went for a dinner and show of amazingly expert Flamenco! It was totally exhilerating to see these Flamenco professionals weave intricate beats of guitar, clapping, and loud tap-style dancing with a Spanish flourish.  After the show (regretably) finished, we went to Paul´s friends´house to see what they were up to.  It so happened that they were going to a jazz club for the weekly Sunday night jazz show. We went along and saw a few different jazz bands, an amazing Brazilian-style percussion group, and a hilarious Spanish reggae group (hearing someone speak Spanish with a Jamaican accent is beyond funny).

I´m honestly having trouble distinguishing Monday through Wednesday from each other, so I´ll just bunch them in one mega-day. So, on mega-day I awoke generally early, although maybe late, got up and had a breakfast outside the cave, looking out at the mountains.  Did yoga, or not, in the morning, then went on with my day.  All three days I cooked yummy and healthy meals with the amazing fresh Spanish fruit and vegetables.  Most notably, I was eating at least one mango a day because they´re so fresh and huge and delicious in Spain.  I also ate the fruit from the cacti that grow around the cave, which was mild but tasty, not to mention free!  I climbed neighbouring mountains and got to see a lot more incredible views.  I saw another jazz concert, this one a quartet of skilled and really humourous musicians who clearly lived and breathed for music.  I explored the more city-like part of Granada, which was nice, but not really impressive because it was a lot like the other Spanish cities I´d been to.  I definitely prefer the old Morroccan city.  I also spent an amazing afternoon touring around the ancient Arabbic castles of the Alhambra.  It´s a beautiful place with several impressive buildings, giant gardens that had flowers and orange trees in bloom even in November, and a rich and interesting history.  My favourite thing about the place is that, when it was first built, Jews, Muslims, and Christians all lived happily and peacefully together there.

My last night in the cave was spent the same way as my first, with Paul and I sharing wine, stories, and a cave-cooked meal.  My final day in Granada I walked around the Morroccan part of the city for the final time before coming back to the cave for lunch, saying my goodbyes to Paul, and lugging my pack down the mountain to take a shuttle to the airport.  My plane ride was a decent flight, and I landed in the airport outside Milan in the late evening.  I then took a shuttle to the train station, and a metro into the city, where I was met by my new host Maria, a girl from Ecuador studying fashion in Milan for a year.  We didn´t have too much time to talk before bed because I arrived late, but we chatted for a bit and she helped my plan out what I´d do today.

Today I woke up early and left with Maria.  As she went to school, I walked to the Duomo, the most famous church in Milan.  It´s huge and beautiful, with a ridiculously detailed gothic outside, and a more reserved inside containing tall stained glass windows, statues, and a really neat floor with flower patterns made of different kinds of marble and rock.  I would have enjoyed myself more if it was FREEZING outside! It´s not that cold, but all day it´s been doing that stupid slush-snow-rain combination that spells out early death for me.  My boots soaked through in a matter of minutes and I spent just over 8 hours with cold, wet feet before Maria was done school and I could change into dry socks.  Not one to be defeated by weather, I managed to have a day filled with equal parts cowering inside and sight-seeing.  I went around the insanely famous fashion district and openly gawked at all the gorgeous clothing that I will never afford.  It was impressive! I also went to an Italian Villa that was once lived in by Napolean and is now a museum of itself as well as an art gallery.  There was a lot of amazing paintings and sculptures, and I was really jazzed to see a wall of Toulouse-Lautrec paintings.  The coolest thing, though, was a contemporary art exhibit by Tino Sehgal taking place, that used live actors as its medium, and had them singing, getting in people´s faces, dancing, or doing weird contorted movements throughout the villa.  It was really wierd, disquieting, and brilliant.  I ate my first real Italian pizza and foccaccia (both delicious).  I loaded up with maps and planners at the tourist office so I can properly use and abuse this city in the next few days while I´m here.  And tonight? Who knows!

Granada, de nada

¡Hola mi amigos! ¿Esta bien? Look at me I´m Spanish! And thus concludes two of the ten or so phrases I know in Spanish. Oh well, it´s a start.
¨So Kendall, tell us, where oh where are you staying in Granada?¨
Funny you should ask! I took the 5 hour bus ride to Granada on Thursday, and after some getting lost near the bus station I met up with my new host Paul (by far the coolest host yet!) and he walked me up to his cave. Oh yes, his cave. I am staying in one of the old, established, and insanely cool caves that are scattered in the mountains beside Granada. It´s a gypsy cave and is pretty much the best thing I´ve ever seen in my life. On the mountain there are the gypsy caves, the hippie caves, the punk rock caves, and the squatter caves. From Paul´s cave we have a view of the entire city and the mountains surrounding it. So happy.
The night I arrived we just hung out in the cave, cooked dinner, drank wine, got to know each other. Then we did a bit of night-time mountain adventuring and walked around the mountain. The next morning we sat on Paul´s yoga mat and looked at the landscape, while eating for breakfast the biggest mango I´ve ever seen in my life. I´m crazy obsessed with the mangos here and their giant deliciousness! After that we walked down to the local market, I met lots of Paul´s friends (people here are friendly beyond belief). The market has the most amazing selction of fresh fruits and vegetables, and I have been eating like a very healthy vegetarian king since I arrived. After returning to the cave for lunch we walked up to this giant old morroccan wall and climbed up to it to sit and watch the sunset over Granada. It was mind-blowingly beautiful, and made it easy to understand why sunsets are treated like a daily national holiday in this part os Spain. On our way back to the cave we heard accordian music and tracked it to the source: a group of hippies having a random jam-session outside their cave. In Granada all you need to do to join strangers in their activites is walk over to them, so we were made welcome and sat around listening to flamenco guitar and accordian for a while. That night we drank a bunch of wine and then met up with Paul´s friends to go out for my first time to the famous Granada Tapas bars. The bars are crazy cheap and every drink you order comes with a little appetizer. Yay!
Yesterday we went walking through one of the neighbouring mountains to this little mountain-side tea shop, where this cool old hippie man makes amazing loose leaf tea for cheap. I am so spellbound with this place it´s ridiculous! After that we went walking around the city part of Granada for a bit and went to another tapas bar and a bar where Paul´s friend works, before retiring to the cave for late dinner and an early night. Today we started the day drinking green tea and doing yoga in view of all the mountains around us. It was glorious and left em with a deep sense of bodily contentment and spiritual satisfaction. Then we went and climbed this 1000 metre-or-so mountain (rough work, that!) and were awarded with yet another delicious view. The landscape changes so much depending on which mountain you´re on, it´s a real treat. After a hearty dinner we walked down to the city and I´m now at an internet cafe trying to recap all the glorious adventures I´ve had so far. Paul´s agreed to let me stay for a full week here instead of my original 3 day plan, but I want to stay forever, because I´ve found hippie heaven!

Back on Track

Hola! I've completely rocked Madrid since last writing and I have much news. When I last wrote I had just emerged from my hole of sick/death/flu. To celebrate my return to the land of the living, Richard and I went and saw a documentary film about climate change and Exxon mogul's role in it. The film was being screened for free at the Zaragoza historic centre as a part of the Zaragoza film festival (that I was apparently there for and missed, damn you flu!). The film was amazing and powerful and made me really, really angry as such films are wont to do. So quick side note, can everyone please stop using Esso (owned by Exxon) gas? They're definitely the most evil of the oil corporations, and they're the only one that refuses to even glimpse at alternative fuels or drilling practises. Disgusting.
Anyway, the next day I took a leisurely mid-afternoon bus from Zaragoza to Madrid. The bus ride was amazing! We delved through the hills, up and down along all the gorgeous Spanish scenery. I finally saw my first Spanish red rocks. The scenery was delightfully schizophrenic, going from palm trees to evergreens, from rocky expanse of red and yellow to lush green grass and tree-covered slopes. I arrived in Madrid and was met at the bus station by my Madrid couchsurfing host, Evan. I came back to his place and met his lovely roommates, both very nice. That night we all went out to a bar where they have live music. Three diferent people with guitars got up one at a time and played. It was really great, because I've been jonesing for live music lately, and it was a cozy little bar with a good atmosphere. That night Evan and I started what has become a routine of staying up until ridiculous-oclock in the morning having long talks about whatever.
This brings us to two days ago, my first official full day in Madrid. I spent the morning (well, afternoon by the time I woke up) walking around the neighbourhood where I'm staying. Then Evan took me to his flameco guitar class so I could get a real taste of Spanish culture. It was amazing! There were four guys who were all expert at Flamenco and for the first hour it was them jamming together, then the second hour they brought in a singer/clapper and a dancer. Everyone performed beautifully, and I loved sitting to the side and getting this private Flamenco show. The music is enchanting and the dance is really exciting to watch. Afterwards I met up with my friend Javier (who I met in Ireland) and we spent hours walking around downtown Madrid. Javier's lived here his whole life, so he gave me a really in-depth tour of the city's core. We also went out for some traditional Spanish food, although there's a limited selection for me because most of it contains meat. Then it was back to the apartment for more talking all night.
Yesterday I met Javier in the afternoon to walk around a bit. When he had to jet for class I continued walking and explored the fashion district and the gaybourhood of Madrid. Afterwards I went and spent some time in the Museo del Prado art museum, where they have free entry after 6pm, woo! I came back to the flat for quick dinner, then bounced back downtown to meet up with Ozan, my would-be couchsurfing host who couldn't host me because his family is visiting, but wanted to hang out anyway. He took me to this amazing little cave-like bar where on Tuesday nights they have a wailing blues band. We had some nice half-shouted conversation while the band rocked the tiny bar. It was the perfect follow-up to my reading Kerouac, and I swayed and clapped along for hours. The band was absolutely bumping, and because it was such a small bar it was completely packed and the energy was throbbing. Glorious! I caught the last metro back to the flat, then more night-talking.
Today I walked around dowtown a bit more (there's so much to see downtown Madrid, it's crazy!) and then spent hours inside the Reine Sophia modern art museum. The museum holds a huge art collection, including tons of Picasso's paitings, sculptures, and sketches. I got to realise a big dream of mine and see Picasso's Guernica in real life. Seeing that amazing, huge, powerful painting was absolutely mind-blowing. I stood motionless in front of it for what must have been at least 20 minutes with tears welling in my eyes. Unlike the Mona Lisa, that's one piece of art that is definitely not over-hyped. After I recovered from my death-by-art I sought out this cool coffee shop where they sell used books i English, and I stocked up for my long bus ride tomorrow. Tonight I'll probably just hang with the crew in the flat and then tomorrow I take a bus to Granada in the south of Spain, ole!

Hullabaflu

Well, anyone who´s ever read a travel book or seen a travel movie knows that thre will, against all high-flying odds, be at some point an idescribably low point. A point so low it will have the adventurer huddled over in the fetal position wishing for his or her Mommy. Alas, I hit that low. In the last two days two major changes happened: one, not wanting to over-burden Isaac and wanting to stay in Zaragoza a few more days before figuring out where the hell I´m going, I switched couchsurfing locations. My new host is an indescribably nice Mexican fellow who has only a fleeting grasp on the English and French languages, forcing us to communicate through a hilarious combination of English, French, and various gestures. Second, I came down with a mind-numbing, soul-crushing case of the flu. This is the first time I´ve left the apartment in over a day, and the first time I put on something other than pyjamas in two days. Egads!
For his part, Richard (my host) has been incredibly good to me, peppering me with liquids, fresh fruits, and other niceties. Also, lucky for me I had a nice new book to read, which staved off the insanity and cabin fever I would have otherwise had. The last few days have been a blurr of high fever, various liquids, reading my book, and much sleep. Amidst it all I´ve been trying, in broken English, to relate to Richard that I´m usually fun. Today I finally felt alive enough to seek out an internet cafe and contact my peeps. I emerged from the apartment thinking, "oh, right, Spain" and feeling generally out of sorts. I believe that I am now on the mend, though, and hope to proceed with rocking this country to the best of my ability.

Spain, olé!

Walk through a half/closed but very fancy mini-mall with two restaurants, clothing shops, and a store completely dedicated to things that glow. Take the first exit you see, past men wheeling large boxes to somewhere, and you find yourself in an incredibly small alley, filled with book shops, antique stores, and sex shops, that is dense with cigar smoke. It's one pm and all the stores are closing their doors for the next three hours to honour the traditional siesta and the streets are near empty. Welcome to Spain.
I took a train from Toulouse to a small town on the outline on France. It was an afternoon train that pulled in at dusk and everything reminded me of a movie where everyone dies quickly, only somehow safe. The train station was away from any real "town" although houses sat around it like stubble on a chin and everything was cradled by huge French mountains. The place was almost deserted and my eight minute wait wound up being an hour and a half for my next train. All was well though and I rolled into Barcelona not even being sure where the heck I was because the train turns into another subway when you arrive in the city and I had to guess at which stop to get off at to get to the real subway. By the time I actually found my way to the hostel it was about 10pm and I was tired, embarrassed by my lack of Spanish, and looking for a party. I inserted myself into the liveliest looking group of kids, made quick friends, and was introduced to a game where you roll dice, call out a number, a person, and a dare, and if you get that number that person is bound to the dare. I bounced out to get something to drink (a litre and a half of sangria for less than two euros, thank you very much) and came back to join the revelry.
The hostel gang and I got good and rowdy and then took off to find a club. The metro in Barcelona is open all night on Saturday, what a great city! Instead of a club we went to an outdoor and free psycho-trance party. I was introduced to a different kind of sangria made with white wine and pineapple juice, and good times were had by all.
The next morning I forced myself to get up in time for the free hostel breakfast and then quickly got ready and jammed at least a few days worth of sightseeing into a few hours. I had a lot of things to see and a 6pm bus to catch. I saw Barcelona's most famous building, Sagrada Familla, a huge and looming gothic building hundreds of years old and still unfinished and under contruction. I saw the olympic stadium, city hall, the famous fountain, the biggest museum, the famous palatial parks, and then went ot a random section of the downtown and walked around. Barcelona is brimming with street performers and musicians. I saw some of the most amazing and chaotic live music and many living statues. I was drunk off music and beauty and fast-tracking across the city. I took the metro back to my hostel and walked over to the mediterrenean sea and the palm-tree laden beach. I then had a quick dinner in the hostel and rushed over to the bus station to take my bus to Zaragoza. I arrived in Zaragoza around 10pm, met my couchsurfing host, a nice computer programmer named Isaac, got to know him a bit, and then passed the hell out. Today I woke up early so Isaac could show me where the grocery store and his work was on his way to work. Zaragoza is a fair sized city but small enough to walk in and with loads of personality. I lost the grocery store, bought a baguette, came back to Isaac's flat to (finally) do laundry, and while it washed I got hard and heavy into "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. I played jazz records and read a good third of the book. I then put down the book and got into some NIA-style improv dance around the flat to the tune of wailing jazz. I went back to Isaac's work to go for late lunch with him and his work buddies and got him to show me on the map where the grocery store is. I found the grocery store, bought groceries, came back to the flat, a bit more reading, then wandering around the "old city" for awhile before meeting Isaac again to go to the theatre.
We saw a dutch show called "Angel" a one-man and one-puppet experimental theatre piece involving puppetry, monologues, and modern dance. It was fantastic, even if I didn't understand the parts where he was talking in spanish. I would get so excited whenever he said a word I understood during his monologues that I would almost lead out of my seat. After that Isaac, myself, and a fellow Canadian now living in Zaragoza named Yohanna, all went out for drinks. This morning I got up, fed my now rampant addiction to "On the Road", then went walking in a part of the city I haven't been to yet. I saw an ancient Roman gateway, the University, and Zaragoza's biggest park, simply called Parque Grande. I absolutely loved the park for its diverse trees, cool graffiti, and amazing fountains. I read in the park under a tree before doing some wanderings around the city. I came back to the flat and cooked up a small tempest (food's cheap here so I've been eating like a king) and then Isaac, Yohanna, and I watched a delightful little documentary on Frank Gehry. Whew! That was a lot of updating.

Quelque-fois tu gagnes et quelque-fois Toulouse!

This will be a quick one, because I'm using a French keyboard and they're incredibly hard to write with... I can't possibly explain how much joy it brings me to come up with puns for the titles of my blog pages. I definitely blame my father's influence for that! So as you may have guessed, I'm now in Toulouse, France. Toulouse isn't super touristy, but I have no idea why because it's an absolutely gorgeous city with loads of canals, trees, and gardens. After being in Paris, Toulouse seems incredibly green and quaint; I really love it!
I arrived two days ago on the train, having very little idea as to what my host couple looked like because I only had a small photo to go off of. The couple is Marion and Thom, and they're very quirky, hip, and of the quintessential French nature. Marion met me at the train station and took me back to their flat, where I met Thom. They cooked a nice dinner for me and we spent the rest of the night chilling out and getting to know each other.
The next morning Marion went to school early and when I got up Thom gave me a map of the city and showed me some points of interest as well as telling me how to get around. I took the métro to just east of the centre-ville and began walking around. There weren't any sights I specifically wanted to see, I just wanted to get a feel for the city more than anything; and let me tell you, I felt this city up! I walked along the pont-neuf, which is the oldest bridge in Toulouse and goes over the huge river in the middle of the city. From there I found a few gorgeous little canals and spent at least an hour just following the canals and falling in love with the beauty of it all. I then found a petit café where I sat drinking café and eating a croissant. It was my second croissant of the day because between Marion's flat and the métro station I pass FOUR bakeries. Man is this place ever going to make me fat! After that I just walked all around the city and saw plenty of sites. Toulouse is a mix between quaint domestiles, large old buildings, lots of trees and greenery, and large roads. Unfortunately it kept raining on and off all day, occasionally in a huge storm, so I had to hide out from the rain a few times. So much for the gorgeous south-of-France weather- it's been raining since I got here! I bought some food for my stay here and eventually made my way back for another night of cooking and hanging out.
Then today I experienced much the same kind of day, only with less rain. I found the gorgeous city gardens and walked around them for quite awhile. I also went to another supermarché and got train-snacks for tomorrow, because on my train ride over here I was starving and had nothing to eat. (note, train seat cushions do NOT taste good, nor are they nutritious). I'm now spending another quaint evening inside. My visit so far has been incredibly lovely, and I've really enjoyed the hospitality of Marion and Thom. Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to take a train from Toulouse, France, to Barcelona, Spain, and then a whole new adventure begins!

The Lyon's roar

Salut de Lyon, France! Allow me to catch you, my devoted readers, up on what's been going on. I left off on my way out to Montramarte. What a day! I walked around for at least 6 hours with Guy. We found the flea market we were looking for, but it didn't have vintage clothes (which was what we wanted) so we got directions from a shop-keep to an area that has some vintage stores. It was only a few metro stations away so we decided to walk to it. We found the area, or something close to it pretty easily. We saw tons of cool stores in this incredibly busy and vibrant markety area. I think it was more like the ghetto of Paris, but still classy because it's Paris. We decided it would be a good plan to get lost so we just started making random turns and walking down whatever street looked interesting. We turned a random corner and found.... Sacre Coeur! The gorgeous and famous church on a huge hill in Montramarte. Quel coincidence! We ascended the million or so steps an were greeted with a spectacular view of most of Paris at dusk. It was breathtaking, and not just because we'd climbed a bunch of stairs! I was beginning to feel pretty Paris-beauty-drunk when we started walking downhill and trying to find a restaurant. We walked onto this road where there was an open-air restaurant filled with trendy Parisian couples eating dinner and being serenaded by an old man playing "La Vie En Rose" on an accordian. Absolute magic!
After that we decided due to the ocst of restaurants to go home and make food. Everyone met up at the apartment for dinner and drinking and then we managed to actually get Markus to come out with us for a night. We grabbed a few bottles of wine and took the metro back to Montramarte to drink in front of the Moulin Rouge. It was awesome! I've now drank wine in front of some of Paris' biggest tourist attractions! Go me!
For our last day in the gorgeous Parisian flat, I got up and spent awhile just walking all around our neighbouring area. I really wanted to soak up as much of our area as I could. It was magical and I saw so many adorable streets and building and markets and cafes and all that French goodness. I then spent awhile chilling in the apartment before heading to the cemetary with Guy and Markus where Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried and being 8 minutes to late to get in!!! ARGH! That night we all hung out in the apartment drinking wine and beer (although I didn't drink the beer) until very late. Guy and I were real champs, though, and we stayed up until 4am, and then when Guy went to bed I was still up until almost 5am- I just didn't want my last night in the apartment to end.
The next morning we got up at 9-ish and cleaned for a few hours before we had to check out at 11am. We then lugged our bags to the hostel we'd stayed at before to see if we could scam the use of their luggage room until our trains left. That was a no-go as their was an incredibly mean woman working the counter. We lugged our luggage to the other end of the city in a vain attempt to find Jim Morrison's grave. Apparently in Paris "graveyard" means "maze from which there is no escape" because we walked around for ever and had to leave before seeing Jim's grave because I had a train to catch. I did see Oscar Wilde's grave, though, and as is the custom I donned my red lipstick and lay a big smooch on it. Sad about missing Jim's grave, but what can you do?
The boys saw me off at the train station and I took a train to Lyon, France. Since travelling a lot of my travel buddies have been telling me about couchsurfing.com where you basically do a half-exchange with people and stay at their house for a few days while they show you around the city and such. I decided to give it a go since I'm poor and it's a fantastic way to really experience the culture. I'm currently staying with a fantastic couple in Lyon named Sofia and Mikael. They came and got me at the train station and before taking me to their charming flat we ascended this hill to a look-out station with the most spectacular view of Lyon at night. They fed me amazing dinner and then let me use their internet (which I'm also doing right now) to check emails and such.
Today Mikael was at work and Sofia walked around Lyon with me and showed me the major sights. I saw a beautiful church and the same look-out but with a day-time view. My favourite thing today was this huge Roman collasseum built into a hill. It's amazing! After walking around all day we came back here for more delicious homemade French food (I'm getting spoiled) and then spent the evening in the flat. I've also been (finally) uploading all my photos and wishing I didn't have so many!
Tomorrow I'm taking the train to Toulouse in the South of France, and I'm very excited!

Art-attack!

So much art, so little time.  Two days ago after what has now become a 2 or 3 hour morning routine of waking up, putting on music, eating baguettes, drinking coffee, doing yoga, sketching or journaling, and sitting around talking in our gorgeous flat, I went with the boys to Notre Dame.  Words cannot describe the pure architectural decadence that is that church!  Every inch of the outside of the building has a statue or carving or gorgeous stained glass covering it.  I saw it several times from the outside on our walks around the latin quarter (the trendy artsy student area of Paris), but this was my first time going inside the church.  First off, let's just say that any description I can come up with for the beauty of this church is going to probably be the equivalent of a black and white photocopy of it at best.  As soon as you enter the door you're completely surrounded by archways upon archways, all at least 3 stories high and beautifully carved.  There quiet French choir music playing all around you and huge groupings of flickering candles about every 20 feet or so.  Oh yeah, and there's about a million tourists taking photos, but what can you do?  There are hundreds of statues and paintings and enormous stained glass windows, the most famous of which is the giant and beautiful rose window that you can see from the bridge over the seine.  By the way the seine is also beautiful, especially at night, but it is sadly hideously polluted.  We walked around the building in awe for at least an hour.   Afterwards we decided that we had enough time and a hankering for more art, so we took the metro to the Montramarte district (the district in the north of the city with the Moulin Rouge and all the belle epoche stuff) and went to the Salvador Dali exhibition.  It was kind of tricky finding the right street, but I immensely enjoyed the walk (despite the rain) because it took us up cute little cobblestone roads and through courtyards to the top of a large hill where we got a rockin' view of the city.  The actual exhibition was amazing and contained sketches, prints, sculptures, videos, quotes, and really cool holographic images (they're doing a special limited time holographic Dali show right now).  It was amazing and we spent quite a lot of time wandering around the exhibition.  Afterwards we came back to our flat for our average night of drinking wine, cooking, listening to music, watching films, talking about art, and sketching or journaling.

Then yesterday, after an exceptionally long morning of our usual goodness, Matt and Markus went and explored the Jewish quarter, and Guy and I went to the Louvre.  The Louvre is free for cats under 26 on Friday nights, so we were keen to take advantage of that.  The Louvre is another marvel that I've walked around many times but was going in for the first time. The Louvre is somewhere I've always wanted to go and finally got to see.  It certainly did not disappoint!  The artwork was amazing, and the museum itself is a work of art.  I saw the classics, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Sphinx, etc.  I was most blown away by the dripping decadence of the Naopolean III apartments.  I was rendered speechless by their beauty.  The Louvre is perfectly laid out so that every area reflects in it's structure and design the art that it contains.  After spending hours stumbling around the Louvre I felt literally drunk off art.  I had trouble walking and talking and thinking because I was in a complete sensory overload.  Everyone stop what you're doing right now and come to Paris! You must go to the Louvre! You must!  That night because it was Halloween we got all decked-out and tried to find a good club.  Unfortunately there are pretty much no clubs in our area and the one that we found was at capacity by the time we got there.  It sucks that we couldn't go clubbing on Halloween, but it was a good adventure either way.  Now I'm off to find a flea market then explore Montramarte!

Mon Appartement en Paris

Allow me to explain... So the day that I spent wandering around with the Aussies and the Texan we were searching online for cheaper hostels, because the Aloha hostel was bleeding us dry, and we discovered that it's actually cheaper to get a short-term apartment if you have enough people.  We have enough people.  We searched online for a bunch of places, secured our payment, went down to the building to get our keys and pretty much had a 4 person heart-attack-joygasm because our apartment is so goddam beautiful!!!  We have two, count 'em, two courtyards, a beautifully decorated 1 bedroom with kitchenette and bathroom Parisian artist flat.  It's breathtaking!  The first day we got here we pretty much spent the whole day listening to music (our flat comes with a stereo), drinking red wine (I have finally cultivated a taste, which is great because is crazy cheap here!), cooking good food (for once), I did some sketching, we opened all the drawers and cupboards and explored the entire flat, and we wandered the neighbourhood.  It was a magical day!

Since arriving in Paris I've done some sight-seeing and walking around, I did half a walking tour, but we had to bail early because it was raining that cold-stinging rain and it was killing me dead!  I've drank under the eiffel tower twice, and on the eiffel tower once, I've met tons of travelers and a few locals, I've practiced my French (really hard when you're drunk), I've cooked a bunch, I've drank tons of coffee and wine, eaten a bunch on baguettes and croissants and crepes, and just generally rocked out in our beautiful, magical flat! So happy!  We have the place for 8 days, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to leave.  I love it so much! Happy, happy, happy

Salutations de Paris!

Je suis en Paris!!!  I took a bus from London to Dover 2 days ago, then I took a ferry from Dover to Calais.  The ferry ride was absolutely amazing; I felt so cultured and European cruising from country to country while having a snack in the dining room and gazing at the ocean.  I arrived in Calais in the early evening with no real plans, but I managed to find a hostel.  The hostel was fab because I slept on a non-bunk-bed for the first time in forever!! Also it was only 2 people to a room- lovely! My roommate was a charming middle-aged school teacher from Australia.  We wound up spending the next day together checking out the sights in Calais.  Calais is gorgeous and I got up super early to walk around for many hours before taking a train to Lille.  In Calais I had my first french cafe, french baguette, and french crepe whilst in France; it was delightful!  I also saw parks, gardens, statues, and got to practice my French some more.  I'm glad because my French has degraded really badly in the last 6 years and I really need to immerse myself to get it back up to snuff.

Lille is also gorgeous.  The train ride was amazing because I got to see a bunch of the French countryside.  Sadly when I got to Lille I found out that the only two hostels in town were all booked up (blast this having no regular internet access!).  I walked around the centre-ville of Lille for a few hours and then took a train to Paris.  I arrived in Paris in the late evening and had somehow lost the number and address of the hostel I wanted to stay at.  I got the information ladies to look up the number in the phone book for me, but it wound up being the wrong number!  I was looking despondent by the pay-phones when a hunchback man came up to me and offered to show me to an internet cafe where I could look up the phone number.  We got to the cafe just as it was closing, but I managed to convince them to let me dash in and look up the number.  I got the number, called the hostel and got directions.  I finally got to the hostel at least an hour after arriving in Paris and managed to check in sans-problem.

The adventures of my crazy day didn't end there, though.  In the hostel kitchen I met two Aussie blokes (Matt and Guy) who call me Muppet because of my hair (or mupples, or muppie, or mup-tup, etc) and we decided since we were all new to Paris we had to get some wine and go find the Eiffel Tower.  We got 3 bottles of wine, walked over to the tower, and managed to sneak past security and climb onto the cement base to where the steel beams actually start.  We lay on the cement base looking up at the tower for hours just in awe of the fact that we were in Paris drinking wine on the eiffel tower and that life could not possibly get any better.  Today I had to get up super early for breakfast and then spent many hours wandering the city with the Aussies and a guy from Texas that I met this morning.  I'm back at the hostel now watching Lord Of the Rings, of all things, and not sure if I'm going out or not tonight.  Yesterday pretty much counts as 5 days, so I'm thoroughly exhausted.

Uh, er, off to France?

So depending on how you think of it my trip has either degraded (or upgraded) to randomly stumbling into a town and being like, "Okay, what now?" Explanation to come...
First, Liverpool. Oh god I love Liverpool. I arrived in the early evening, found y hostel, walked around the city. It's a beautiful city with a rich (Beatles and non-Beatles) history. I saw China town, the two giant cathedrals, and my first ever real-life Banksey spotting (amazing graffiti artist) yay! I had dinner in a cute little cafe and came to the realization that Liverpool is way cheap compared to the rest of England. The next day I arose bright and early and devoted my day to Beatles related goodness. I walked dowtown to the tourist office and took the "Magical Mystery Tour" seeing many Beatles sights, including all 4 childhood houses, woo! Sadly I couldn't get into any of the houses, or even near them, so no wall licking for me.
Okay, I didn't want to write about this until I got it properly dealt with, but I broke my tooth (back upper molar) on my last night in London. I managed to contact a dentist Monday morning before my touring around and got an appointment for that afternoon. All is well ad fixed now, and thanks forever to Dad for getting me traveler's medical insurance!
Back to apples (OSSSA expression): After the tour I went to the brand new "Beatles Story" all Beatles museum. It was totally amazing, and I bought a bunch of souvenirs there, and wish I had been able to spend more time there. I had to rush though because I had an impending dentist appointment. I did, however, have time to run to the Cavern Club (site of the Beatles first performance) and the bartender there let me hop behind the bar for a photo, yippee!! After that I got my tooth fixed, then went to the grocery store and then back to the hostel. In the hostel kitchen I met 2 Irish lads and an Irish lass that were really cool, so I spent the rest of the night with them. We went to the Cavern Pub (across the street from the Cavern Club, which closes at 6pm on non-concert nights) and watched a man who looked suspiciously like a rotund Paul McCartney who covered Beatles songs. Oh man, a place covered in Beatles memorabelia and listening to live Beatles songs; I can't even describe my elation.
The next morning I took a very long bus to Stratford. Here's where my trip gets muddled because I didn't actually have anything in the way of a plan when I arrived in Stratford. I went to the tourism office that pointed me to a store called "The Old Barn" where the store luggage. I happened upon the nicest people in life who not only helped me get a hostel room, but drove me to my hostel after they closed the store! Yay life! It was too late for sight-seeing so I spent my night chilling in the gorgeous but expensive hostel. The next day I got up early, dropped my stuff at the store again, and immersed myself in Shakespeare. I saw his first house and birthplace (original house still standing, genius! Sadly no photo allowed) where I totally licked the wall oustide his birth-room, the sight of New Place where his last house was and is now a garden, and the house next door owned by his eldest daughter Susannah and her husband, the house where Susannah and husband lived and where he oft visited, and Shakespeare's grave. Seeing the grave was intense! I picked a rose from New Place and tossed it on his grave (which I wasn't allowed very close too, blast!) and spoke to the grave of my immense love for his work. I also strolled along the Avon river, saw a brass-rubbing take place, wandered around the town, monologued in the garden at New Place (Heavenly), and read Othello. Needless to say, I had an amazing day full of adventures.
That evening I wasn't sure what to do with myself so I took a bus back to London. I found a convenient and good but expensive hostel, where I am also staying tonight. Today I went around the city with Nikki and checked out Fleet street, hell yeah! Tomorrow I'm taking a bus to Dover then taking a ferry to France, then who knows? ADVENTURE!!!

Liverpool can be a lonely place on a Saturday night

That's a quote from Yellow Submarine, I'm not actually lonely. I am, however, in Liverpool aka Beatles mecca aka friggin heaven! I love it here! Everyone has the best ever accents, they're all friendly, and there's Beatles stuff EVERYWHERE!!! Screw Disneyland, this is the happiest place on earth.
So since the last time I updated I've had some more London adventures. I met up with Doreen and had a lovely visit with her. I was going to go and stay with her for a few days, but due to an operation she's been scheduled for we couldn't work that out. I then met up with the guys and went and saw Abbey Road! It was awesome. We spent about 2 hours in this 3 block radius. We signed the gate at Abbey Road studios and took photos with the sign, and because there were 4 of us (Cassie, Chris, Nikki and I) we did the 4 person Beatles-esque crossing of the road, much to the chagrin of local motorists. Unfortunately we couldn't get a photo of us all crossing at once because the road is insanely busy, but we did photos of two of us at a time and will photoshop them together at a later date. Either way it was amazing! This all took place on Friday.
Then on Saturday I went with Chris and his cousin and cousin's lady to see Wicked!!! Oh my god, seeing a musical in London, the heart of all musical theatre, was friggin phenominal! Now, I didn't want to write about it until I got it dealt with so no one freaks out, but I somehow magically broke a back molar tooth whilst eating a pastry of all things before the play. I finally managed to get all my insurance stuff in order and get it fixed yesterday, so all is well now, but it was pretty lame.
So, anyway, on Sunday I took a bus to Liverpool (yay) to stalk all the Beatles related sites. I will write more about my Liverpool experiences later, but this is the slowest and most expensive internet ever, so I have to jet because I'm still not sure where the heck I'm heading after this!

London Bridge is ugly

I'm in London! Huzzah! I didn't manage to get a hold of Symon and I felt the travel-itch to get moving on, so on Tuesday night I took an over-night bus from Glasgow to London, England. The bus arrived at about 8am in London, at which point I found my hostel and chucked my bags into the luggage storage room, and then met up with my Aussie friend Chris that I had met in Edinburgh. I must say, I'm quite proud of my sightseeing abilities, because on Wednesday we rocked London! Chris and I walked a total of about 23 kilometres and saw the following things:
The National Gallery
Buckingham Palace
The Palace Gardens (they have black swans!)
The Princess Di Memorial Walkway
Trafalgar Square
Big Ben
London Bridge (which is actually really friggin ugly)
Tower Bridge
London Tower
The London Eye
Maggie Blake's Cause (a famous hooker street)
Tons of old buildings, street performers, proper cops, mounted police, and whatever else we passed on the way. It was the world's longest day of walking and sightseeing but it was so, so very fun and at the end of the day I was more tired that I possibly have ever been! The absolute best thing that we saw, and the thing that completely rocked my life, is the Globe Theatre! Now I'm trying as hard as I can to be frugal, but I had to pay for a tour of the Globe, because to me that was like a Catholic going to rome. It was amazing, and so beautiful, and so historically accurate, and so filled with amazing theatre vibes! I was in heaven! And as I told many a friend I would, I licked the wall! Bwah ha ha!
After walking from after 8am to about 8pm, I came to the Hostel, actually checked, had a much needed shower, and spent the rest of the night playing scrabble as a drinking game (somehow) with Chris, until he had to take the tube back to his Cousin's place, and I full-force crashed.
Yesterday wasn't quite as eventful as Wednesday, but I met up with Chris again, who is now my official London travel buddy, and we went and saw this big parade-thing in Trafalgar Square for the Olympic Athletes from GB. It was okay, but we were really far back. After that we went to Lester square, Camden market, horribly failed trying to find Greenwich market, and then met up with my friend Nikki. Nikki is an OSSSA high school friend of mine who just happens to be in the process of moving to London and literally arrived days before I did! Heck ya! The three of us went to the Museum of London and spent hours walking around that enormous space, then we went to Tesco (my favourite GB grocery store) to get some fixings for a good ol' hostel ghetto-dinner. After that we walked around for awhile, then Nikki went home, Chris and I watched Venture Bros in the lounge, then Chris went home and I read Twelfth Night before tucking in. Reading Shakespeare in London- so cool!!!
So far today I've just come over to Chris' cousin's to use their internet for free, haha, and worked on booking a different hostel for tonight, because my hostel is way too expensive. The plan for today is to meet up with Nikki and our friend Cassie and then go to Abbey Road, yay!

You take the Highlands...

Wow. That's just all there is to it: wow. After spending two days in Edinburgh seeing the sights and partying it up with the kids from the High Street hostel I did a two day "MacBackpacker" guided bus tour through the Scottish Highlands. Please excuse the following swearing but holy fucking shit is it ever goddam beautiful!!! We went through the mountains, to Loch Ness (no monster though, damn), walked in magical forests where faeries are supposed to live, climbed the hill that part of the Macbeth play takes place on, saw the town where golf was invented, saw the ocean, saw the largest river in all of Britain, and lots, lots more. It was two whirlwind, mind-boggling days of amazing Scottish beauty. All the while we were being guided by a delightful Scotsman named Neil. He told us jokes, stories, and lots of History lessons. Also, I fed a big, red Scottish bull named Hamish some potatoes. It was really cool!
On the trip I made friends with a little punkrocker from Colarado named Cliff and he and I pretty much hung out for the whole adventure. One really lovely happening was that the hostel we stayed at during the trip has this huge, stuffed shark. Cliff works at the High Street hostel in Edinburgh and apparently the shark keeps getting lifted back and forth between the tow hostels. So on the morning we left the highlands hostel Cliff chucked the shark out the window to me on the street below, and we took it back to Edinburgh. Good times! So now I can add "Shark theif" to my very impressive adventuring resume.
One of the coolest things we saw on the Highlands trip was this amazing ancient celtic ritual ground. It was very small and tucked in beside a creek and some gorgeous forestry. Their were these celtic carvings on the rock and a ceremonial bath-type thing. Sadly the History of that place is lost and we don't know the significance of any of it. What we do know, however, is that to this day people believe that faeries hang out in that area. All the trees were covered in beads and ribbons and pretty things that people have left as presents for the faeries. I took off one of the necklaces I was wearing and hung it on a tree for the faeries. It was an amazing place with a very surreal energy about it.
After the bus trip returned to Edingurgh I marched over to the bus station and hopped a bus back to Glasgow and spent the night at Pal and Lorenzo's place. Unfortunately Lorenzo's friend from Italy is coming to stay with the boys for a few days, so tonight I have to stay at a hostel. Depending on whether or not Symon and Susie are coming home sometime soon I might take off for England tomorrow, but if they're coming back soon then I'll wait because I'd like to see them again. Either way I have plenty of time to figure things out. Now I'm off to hunt down this amazing vegan restaurant that I've heard all about.

Edinbburgh makes Glasgow looked like an old hooker!

I really like Glasgow. I think it's beautiful and fun and I've enjoyed staying there. But Edinburgh totally makes Glasgow look like a discarded hooker in comparisson. I couldn't believe it when the bus rolled into town and I was confronted by the awesome power of the beauty of Edinburgh. It's amazing! No wonder the Queen's official Scottish residence is in Edinburgh. I can't believe she ever leaves this place! There are gorgeous mountains, a castle and a palace, dozens of statues, beautiful cobblestone streets, and about a hundred ghosts! Edingurgh is one of the most haunted cities in all of Europe. Tonight I'm going to go on a ghost walk; I can't wait!!!
Since I last wrote I've spent my last few days hanging with the boys in Glasgow, which is always a good time, although I fear they may give me alchohol poisoning. Then yesterday I took an early afternoon bus to Edinburgh. I really love it here! I found my hostel (the world's coolest hostel, and it's entirely run on green energy with no carbon footprint- woo!) and spent most of my day walking aroudn the "royal mile" which is a very steep street in Edinburgh that has the castle on one end and the palace on the other. I didn't go into the castle because it was WAY too expensive, but I found a couple free museums, which was cool.
Then I spent my evening and night going on a free pub crawl hosted by the hostel. It was really fun and I met a ton of cool people. Pub crawls are totally the best way to make friends. Yay! I met these two awesome girls from Sarnia, Ontario and I've spent my day touring around Edinburgh with them. The city is beautiful and we did a tour-bus thing so we got to hear all about the history. I freaking love history and culture, so even though it was expensive I'm realy glad we did it. Then at 10pm tonight we're going on a ghost walk that boasts the most famous poltergeist in Scotland: the MacKenzie ghost. I'm absolutely consumed by excitement for this tour, so it better be grand of I'll be a very sad panda.

Where there's a Will...

So just this morning I went with Will to the airport and saw him off, back to Canada. I'm really going to miss that kid! Hanging out with him all week has been great, and we've had some pretty amazing adventures. I'm not too bummed though, because he had a great 5 month trip, and my trip is just starting really. I'm still staying in the apartment with Lorenzo (from Italy) and Pal (pronounced Paul, from Norway) in the flat they just got. Their the friends of Will's that I was staying with the other night, and they've been really awesome and hospitable. However they have eaten all my food! Haha
The weather here has been very bi-polar lately, varying from extreme wet-cold-disgustingness to beautiful sunny-gorgeousness; it's weird. Yesterday was really beautiful, though, and Will, Pal, Lorenzo, and I all went to this huge park nearby and sat on the grass for hours. We then wandered over to the skate-park and watched all the little punks on their boards. I was hoping to see some epic wiping-out, but we only saw one kid fall. Stupid, boring skaters; not taking enough risks! Then for Will's last night in Glasgow we went to a couple different bars, and I found out that a bar called BOX near here does 1 pound 50 cocktails for ladies only, all night every night but Saturday. Hello new favourite bar!
Other than Will leaving and me switching locations, there isn't too much news to report. I'm starting to get really into this weird Indian-poutine thing called "chips cheese and currie". The name says it all! It's no poutine, but it's really good.
My birthday's tomorrow and I'm excited! Although I think I've decided not to age.

Shameless self promotion

Just so everyone knows, my birthday is in 4 days (October 7th). Not sure what I'll be doing for it yet, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. Now if anyone, as I'm sure many of you lovely people are, is planning on getting me a birthday present I must insist nay. Nay I say! If there's one thing I've realised in moving my stuff into storage it's that I have WAY too much stuff. I really, really don't need to ever get more stuff ever again. However, if anyone still feels the absolute need to shower me with gifts then you can send cards via my dad to:
(address removed)
If you want to include a cheque, that's the only gift I could accept, but I in no way need anything else.

In other news, I've been spending a lovely week in Glasgow. Most of my time has been spent walking around the city with Will. I'm really glad that I came to Glasgow early enough to see him before he flew back to Canada, because I haven't seen this kid in 6 years! It's so crazy that we had to both be in another country to see each other. A lot of time is also being spent chilling in the flat with Symon and Susan and their cute little cat Wall-E. I'm not doing as much touristy stuff in Glasgow as I did in Dublin, but it's really cool because I feel like I'm really experiencing the city. I've been to the bars and the clubs and walked around for hours and hours and hours. It's been a lovely week so far.
Tomorrow Symon and Susan are going sailing with Su's parents, so I'm going to stay in the West-end with Will and his friends. Haven't figured out my plans after that, but I'm working on it. Either way, ADVENTURE!!!

Scotland: The search for the Glasgow Pirate

Country number two: Scotland

Well on Friday night I stuck to my plan and actually stayed in for the night. I spent most of my time packing and reading (I finally finished Will in the World- my Shakespeare book). I also got to meet my roommates for the night, two boys from Germany who were also planning on going to Cork the next day! Quelle coincidence! So being the very nice German boys that they are (whose names I unfortunately forget), they offered me a ride to Cork.
So on Saturday I got up, had breakie, hauled my (heavy) bags into their car, then we did some mailings before heading off to Cork. Once in Cork we got pretty lost wandering dowtown trying to find hte tourism office (the boys are actually- gasp- worse at directions than I am! Ha). Once we got maps and directions we headed back to the car to drive to the neighbouring town of Blarney to see, you guessed it, the Blarney stone!
Blarney castle is this neat old castle with tons of gothic little stoen rooms and huge, huge grounds. We walked around the area for at least an hour, then went up to the castle to see the view and kiss the stone. Tart that I am, I kissed it twice! Now I definitely have the gift of gab (as if I didn't already!). Afer that I checked in at my hostel, said farwell to the German boys, and walked aroun Cork for a bit. Cork's a lovely city, really similar to Dublin. I had an early flight the next day so I tried to get to bed early, but in an 8 person room sleeping is quite hard.
Then on Sunday I got up bright and early, took the airport shuttle bus to the Cork airport and took a surprisingly quick plane from Ireland to Scotland. I arrived at the Prestwick ariport, just outside of Glasgow. Symon met me at the airport and we bussed it into the city. On the way in we passed farms and lots of sheep! Yay! Glasgow is a BEAUTIFUL city with tons of old buildings, some neat modern ones, and lots of sculptures and art galleries and such. We walked around the downtown core for a little bit, then went to Symon's place to drop off my stuff and meet his live-in girlfriend Susan, who I absolutely love and has the same freaking colour of hair as me!!! (Fushia). Also, when I was talking to Symon about the sights to be seen he told me about this cool pirate ship in Glasgow, and apparently there's a lad who dresses up in full pirate regalia and walks around the city! I MUST find this pirate man! Find him, and then become him. Yar!!
After that we took a train to the west-end of the city to meet up with one of Symon's friends. We walked around a bit of the west-end, hung out in his friend James' apartment, and had dinner at this amazing restaurant called "Loft" that's built in an old theatre, so cool! I also tried Scotland's own homemade and ridiculously over-sweet national soft drink: IRN BRU (aagghh!). Symon also made me get an IRN BRU and whiskey just to be really Scottish and also because he's a masocist!!! The absolute best part of the night though was after we came back from James' place very late after drinking, we went to this amazing old gothic cemetary called the "Necropolis" (like the book from Evil Dead) near Symon's place and walked around. It was so spooky and beautiful and amazing. I need to go there in the daylight though and scope out the tall, elaborate graves again.
Today's been spent mostly unpacking, grocery shopping, and drinking tea. But I hope to go buy a cell phone now because I really need to get one.