Hey Prague; Czech Me Out!

We were back at it again first thing Tuesday morning. We caught the train which thankfully was only about 5 hours this time and arrived in Prague, Czech Republic around 1ish. It was quite the treck to our hostel actually, but we met two English guys were on their way as well, so that worked perfectly. We had to take the metro, then the tram and finally walk a couple minutes. Surprisingly, as shocking as this sounds, our hostel was conveniently close to old town square and was perfect for seeing all the great things.

Our hostel turned out to be absolutely gorgeous. Apparently St.Christopher’s opened up less than 2 months ago, and seemed more like a 5 star hotel than a hostel. We had our own private bathroom for each room which had the most sensational shower. We were in heaven. Hard wood floors, everything was gorgeous. And for the wonderful price of 20 Euros a night we were happy campers.

Once we checked in we decided to start venturing around the city. With some tips from our receptionist we were on our way: our goal was to venture to old town square. What we determined was about a 10-15 minute walk, we walked for about 3 hours, shopping, looking at other sites around us and evidently asking for directions. Ah well, that’s part of travelling eh. We saw something cool and just went for it. The best part. We had a plan though and eventually ended up in old town hall which was gorgeous. Prague is one of the most beautiful cities I have had the privilege of seeing. The history surrounding you was so overwhelming, you kind of stand there is awe at the buildings. It was stunning.

Then came the challenge of taking out money. I had transferred money to my French account, except that in France, the bank closes at around 2pm, so when I needed money that afternoon, it was again the wonderful world of VISA that saved the day.

The old town square features the very famous astronomical clock. So cool to see and we even saw one of the hourly shows that happen where a man was playing his trumpet from the very top. How cool! Tons of people were around the clock as well, clearly demonstrating this is a popular tourist stop. In the square as well was the Church of Lady Tyn. I believe there are three churches in that square, but she remains to be the most well known I believe.



We had walked around city for the whole afternoon and when we headed back to the hostel we decided to take advantage of their very entertaining 6 hour happy hour. I know right? Let me explain. From 6-8pm was 2 for 1 beer, 8-10pm were 2 for 1 cocktails and 10-12am was 2 for 1 spirits. We, not surprisingly were present for all three rounds of this happy hour. There were so many people in the hostel bar that we were meeting people from all over the world. We had an Aussie couple beside us, then we met some Americans, a bunch of people from England and well; we had a blast. How can you not right?

This was also the night that Petey and I made our infamous list: we discovered that we have travelled to 13 countries, and 27 cities. Holy crap batman. It was so cool to list all of the places and see it on paper what we have been able to do in the past 7 months. We even made a list of the places that we would like to visit our next time around to Europe: we called it the reunion tour list. Ha. Appropriate right?

So in total in 222 days, I will have done 13 countries and 27 cities. I am thrilled. I knew I would travel, but you can’t ever guess you would do something like that.



Talk about a great sleep; those beds were excellent. We were a) out cold instantly and b) slept through the entire night even without ear plugs (which I forgot and have now come to be life savers in hostels). Our roommates were great and even coming back at 6am I didn’t hear them. Petey informed me, but still, excellent beds.

The next morning we got up early since our walking tour was at 11, and we met the guys in the lobby for breakfast as well. Probably the best breakfast we had in a while, I’m telling you this hostel was to die for. Scrambled eggs, fruit, toasts, sandwiches, coffee/tea and even orange juice. The works eh. Yumm.

We set off again to find old town square where our tour was leaving from and since we had been the day before it really wasn’t bad at all. We made it just in time and with over 103 people standing for the free walking tours, we were obviously split into smaller groups. We were put with Aiofe from Ireland. What a cool name eh? 4 out of the 5 letters are vowels….anyways. She was fantastic! She was loud, entertaining, and made the three hour walking tour that much more enjoyable. The main general tour covered the Jewish community again, and we mainly concentrated on the right side of the river: Westeyan square, Powder Gate, the churches, the astronomical clock, and the Jewish quarter. It was once again, boiling hot outside so we stuck to a ton of shady spots. Of course, being the neon white colour I am I was destined to burn. And I left the sunscreen in the hostel. A++ Sarah.



On this tour I even met some girls from Waterloo, Ontario where I go to school. Small world eh? They were touring for about 3 months in total and were maybe half way through the trip. Turns out the next tour would be even more packed with Canadians.

The three hours flew by and it was a great start to the day. We had signed up and paid for the second tour that followed directly after at 2pm which was called the Castle tour. We would be going over to the other side of the river and I couldn’t wait. Our tour started about a half hour later than planned at 2:30, and lasted an amazing 4 hours. 7 hours of walking tours. Can you imagine? Props to Petey with her gimp foot with stitches. Poor girl was quite the trooper.
But the second tour was awesome: Mike was our tour guide and was a total gem. He was German; who lived in England so sounded English, but is dating a girl from Czech and now lives there. He called himself a confused European. Ha. Brilliant eh.

We ventured through the Wallenstein garden and saw the insanely cool Grotto wall. It in fact is man-made and you can tell this because there are faces that are dispersed throughout the wall. Some are devils, some tongues, snakes and apparently a pixie which our tour guide loved.
When we finally got up to the castle it was gorgeous. The thing that we had come to see and it did not let down. Super cool and we even went inside the church of Prague Castle. It was so cool to see and honestly, enormous. It is presently where the President of the Czech Republic works and the day we visited showed the flag letting us know he was in office that day.



When our tour ended we were left with a gorgeous view of the city. Understatement really. It was stunning. Prague really is gorgeous. Love at first sight that’s for sure. You could spend hours upon hours walking through the city and not have no concept of time.

On our way back home we were determined to find the Lennon wall. A wall that is constantly changing with the paintings of artists. I’m not sure how often they re-paint it, but they will repaint it all white and let artists come and take over again. It reminded me a lot of the east side gallery in Berlin. Really funky stuff. Although not very big, a definite good spot to stop.
Then the part that I was really looking forward to: Charles Bridge. We kept seeing it at a distance from both tours, but had never walked across and I couldn’t wait. The timing of day was gorgeous, it was after 7, sun still out, tons of boats on the water and the bridge covered with tourists and artists. I love that ambience. Busy, yet captivating. Artists were everywhere showing their paintings, jewelry and souvenirs. Just a really gorgeous spot. Postcard worthy for sure. Without a doubt.

We dubbed the bridge the perfect first date. When you ask someone at home to go on a date and he said “want to go for a walk”, you are either walking in a suburb or with boring scenery. Even downtown is cool, but you know what I mean? Imagine going for a walk and hanging out on Charles Bridge with a view like that. A hell of a first date folks. Romantic is the understatement of the year.



We took our time walking home and kept our path along the water. Smelled like a lake actually which was cool, reminded me of home and being at the cottage you know? But what a great day; packed with walking tours, good food, amazing sights and we were in the mood for a beer. The hostel was perfect for this low key evening. We were exhausted (since it was like ten billion degrees again…in fact it was 36 to be precise). But either way, we had some beers and just took it easy sorting our things out to pack up to Berlin the next morning.

We had another early morning where we got up and actually ventured one last time through the streets before catching our 10:30am train. It was so cool just walking through the streets and after a couple days, you actually know where you are going. You feel almost local, in a strange sort of way, even though we couldn’t be further from a local. Anyways, it was wonderful, another beautiful day and we were in great moods.

For once our train arrived on time and we arrived home to Berlin about 10 minutes early as well. This was a shocking revelation seeing as all our trains have been hours late. But it was neat, we had a Harry Potter type cabin where we met the sweetest couple. He was born in NYC, but is an orchestra conductor and his now wife, is from the Netherlands and is an opera singer. I guess he was conducting and he saw her from across the room and dubbed her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen (gasp – they were adorable by the way). And since he didn’t speak Dutch he had no idea how he was going to introduce himself. Turns out she spoke English and the rest was history. She now works for the Berlin Opera and they have lived in Berlin for 21 years. Love, love, love. It was a fantastic story.



We were back in Berlin and yet would not be staying long at all. We arrived Thursday afternoon and are leaving now tonight, Friday, for Interlaken, Switzerland to go skydiving.

Never any sleep ladies and gents, there is just over 2 weeks left on my European adventure and we have no time to rest.

Up next: Interlaken, Switzerland for skydiving. Hold your breath. And maybe cross your fingers too.

Budapest & Vienna: Turning 22 in Style!

Since we had booked our ticket so last minute, aka 12 hours before our departure time, we quickly packed that night and were on the train by 6:30am. Unfortunately the train was supposed to be 12 hours, but of course, it was more like 14. Not only that, but there was no air conditioning and I’m pretty sure the decoration of the car was from the 1950’s. So stylish, the itchy orange/yellow patterned seats thrilled us with matching blinds. FML. Since the train had been ridiculously long, we got a kebab ASAP upon arriving and wow was it ever good. Funny story though: their money is amazing. 1 Euro is about 280 Forint. Not prime for math, however, when you see things costing thousands of Forint it’s pretty neat. Slash holding 5,000 forint bills is pretty sweet too.

We got into Budapest around 8pm and were now on the treck to find our hostel. No problem; we were on track. Checked in and then what? We met a couple of guys in the hostel who invited us with some other friends to a jazz fest. Cool, why not? So off we go and turns out it wasn’t so much a jazz event, but a club underneath a pool and everyone just kinda chills on the grass. I’m not painting the greatest picture, but just picture a huge lawn, a pool in the middle and everyone drinking and hanging out. We met some more friends, such as Amy from the USA whom you will hear more about later.

We pretty much spent the night there which suited us just fine, it was relaxing, a gorgeous night out and well, drinking on the lawn in the middle of Budapest seemed a very natural thing to do. Wonderful.

The next morning I awoke to a pretty cool day; cough cough, my birthday. I was pretty excited that I was going to be able to spend it in Budapest and we had planned a ton of cool stuff, so off we went early. We searched for a breakfast joint, but unless you are feeling a kebab for breakfast there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot. We found a subway which offered pretty sweet breakfast. This is where Petey presented me with the amazing gift that was my jagger suspenders. Green overall suspenders with place for 3 shots on either side. AMAZING. These would be put to good use that night. I was also put in charge of the beer goggles (the ones we got Petey for her birthday) and we knew the day would be interesting to say the least.



Our walking tour started at 11 with a cute girl named Suzie who was excited and super stoaked to take us everywhere. It was 2.5 hours on apparently the hottest day of the summer in Budapest. Ha. We would pick that day to do our walking tours. So the first one took us around the city showing us the river, the sites, and it was actually really interesting learning about Hungarian culture. We saw the Budapest Castle and learned the differences between the Buda and the Pest side and how over time they came together. Luckily, Budapest is filled to the brim with water so there are free taps all over the place and in fountains which was pretty sweet. Cheaper yes, but nice, fresh, clean cold water. Refreshing to say the least. Our tour ended around 1:30 and we had opted to do the second free tour again at 3:30. Why not right? Mine as well get the most out of the day. The tour had ended in front of the Fisherman’s Bastion (which the Disney castles are based after by the way) and the tour guide invited us to join her for lunch at a local cantine she liked. She said it was cheap and the best Hungarian food; we were in. Slash we were starving. Turns out we would never have found it without her, but it was really cool inside. I opted for the sausage with tomato sauce and pasta. Although the pasta was more like rice, it was delicious. Hot food on a hot day wasn’t the most cooling idea, however, really neat just the same.



We had a couple hours to kill and in this time did a little shopping, walking around the squares and I treated myself to a little birthday present as well: my red blazer.

Time for the second walking tour and this time it was called the Jewish Community Tour & Pubs. Brilliant. We are getting the introduction when our friend Amy comes over. She joined us for the tour too which was perfect. So we get going and were able to see the four synagogues and even enter one. It was so interesting to see the Jewish district and the contrast between the architecture before and after the time of Hitler. Really cool area though. She recommended us a kosher pizza place which smelled like heaven and we had taken a couple breaks at local pubs which were all make-shift and artsy. I loved the look of them. They used beer crates for seats, they had art all over the walls and they were primarily all run down, abandoned buildings. Really, really neat spots. We ended at a place called Szimpla; another artsy local pub and this was the place we had agreed to come to later that night for my birthday festivities.

After the tour, Petey and I went back to the kosher pizza joint for dinner and baby was it ever good. Wow. Hand made by such an old woman in the back, Hungarian to the core, but the smallest little joint. There were two wooden tables and about 6 chairs. Small is an understatement. But when that pizza came out, it was well worth the wait. We had ordered one pizza with onions and tomatoes and the other with mushrooms. Yumm.

We had just enough time to kill before meeting Amy at Szimpla at 9, so we headed back to town, got ourselves some souvenirs and then dropped our stuff back off at the hostel. Pretty sure it was ten million degrees outside, but we were having a blast. We were so thrilled that we did both walking tours (even on Petey’s stitched up toe) and I was psyched to go back to this outdoor pub to have some drinks with the girls.



We get there and we had seen prices for 200 florint sangria, which clearly caught my eye, which turns out to be under a euro by the way. Ridiculously cheap. We started with sangria, then switched over to beer in which time Amy joined us. The jagger belt had come out to play of course and Petey and I were well into our shots. We had a blast with Amy and chatted with a group of guys who had just moved there. They came and went but we stayed at the same table all night. The beers kept flowing and Amy bought me a round for my birthday. It was turning out to be a killer good night. How could it not right?

We were chatting and all of a sudden we turn around and at the table behind us was one of the assistant tour guides from our tour before with another friend of his. How fantastic. Clearly they joined our party and we all drank and chatted some more.

Now the deal was to have a shot of absinthe for my birthday and since each shot was 800 florint, so not even 3 Euros, we decided to go for it with five minutes left in my birthday. I mean we had had been at this place for almost 3 hours with no intentions of leaving anytime soon. The shot came up and let me just say that I was full of nervous giggles.

So you burn the sugar cube over the shot, drop it and drink it. It’s like a flaming ball of mint in your mouth and actually pretty damn good, minus the gasoline after taste in your mouth. We came, we saw, we conquered.

What a damn good night. We had some serious laughs, met a ton of great people and the guys were nice enough to walk us back to our hostel. Probably a good idea, but hey, life was good. Happy 22nd birthday to me eh? I loved it all.

The next morning we woke up and had to catch the train at 830 to go to Vienna. Petey was hung-over…well that’s the understatement of the year. Pretty sure the alcohol was still in my system in the shower, and I was in a damn good mood. We boarded the next train still drunk, no lies and were well on our way. Petey semi looked like death since the alcohol and well, facing the wrong way on the train didn’t help her much, so she may have tossed her cookies a couple times on that trip. I was still feeling good. I was happy to see that my 22 year old body still didn’t get hung-over like my 21 year old body. Excellent. I’m waiting for my 30th birthday when all the years of never getting hung-over come toppling down on me like a freight train. Until that day, I will enjoy every evening out since the next morning is still a joke.

We arrived around 1ish and had another hour or so to kill before checking in so we grabbed some maps and went off on our way. It was a gorgeous city and talk about nice weather, it was hot as well. We went and visited the imperial Palace and the Sisi museum, in addition to the Museum Quartier which was gorgeous. We kept our own walking tour going and saw the civic centre which had been decorated to the nines for the Life Ball 2010 formal for AIDS. They had wrapped a large red ribbon over the entire vertical front of the building and were having a huge concert type of thing the 17th. We made a mental note to come back for that.

Talking about gorgeous monuments we saw the St.Stevens cathedral and decided to sit for a bit and enjoy the view. There was a fountain but we weren’t sure if we could drink the water. I said we could since there were no signs advising me not too, and turns out once I went for it, another couple people followed me. Ha. Waiting to see if I collapsed first I’m sure. Nah, it was totally good drinking water.



We decided to take a little break and have a beer down by the water. What a great choice. A cute little spot and the beer was cold and there was some shade. Excellent idea. On such a nice day, it was a great call just admiring the water, and with a beer and some laughs, it’s hard to go wrong. We had been touring the city for almost 5 hours and we decided we should probably check in. First we stopped for some good (Chinese) and I purchased some sun screen since I felt like my skin would be more lobster esk after a couple days in 40 degree weather. We got back and got to our room no problem at all which was quite nice. No air conditioning which unfortunately had become the new story of my life, but hey, we had managed in Berlin and Budapest and we would manage her in Vienna as well.

After checking in we did a little internet time and that’s where we met Naomi and Josh: two Americans who were travelling for a couple weeks post graduation. They wanted to grab something to eat, but since we already ate we said we would get a drink with them. We ended up walking around in search of a certain spot they had heard of but with the Life Ball going on, it was closed off. So we searched around and came across a great Austrian spot outside that was lit up. Really pretty actually. They ate; we had some beers and just chatted.

The topic of a nightclub had come up but none of us were sure if we wanted to do that. I was in the mood for just chatting and having some beers, bur dancing in such hot weather? Not the most appealing image. We were off to search for a bar called Flex which was right by the water and when we finally found it that is where we decided to stay. Super cool, right along the water and just a ton of picnic tables, beers everywhere and clearly a local spot. Perfect.

We had been trying to figure out the metro plan and when it closed, so I asked a group of what seemed/sounded like local guys behind us and they were super helpful. Really nice guys actually, so much so that we joined them for the rest of the night. What a great time just chatting, we all compared some travel stories and they were really sweet. Chilling with the locals was a great night and we finally got back to our hostel at around 3:30am. An early night eh? Never. Petey and I always say that: we’ll just go out for a drink, and what happens? Not that . Love it.

The next morning we awoke to an overcast day. Are you joking? I had just bought sunscreen and clearly there was no need for it today. Rain was on the forecast. Hmm. Our room was pretty empty upon waking up minus another guy in our room: Sven the German. We invited him along for the day and turns out that was a great choice. Super easy going, since we didn’t have any major plans and had luckily seen a ton the day before.

We had planned to see Praterstern, which really the name makes no sense to me, and there is a Ferris wheel there called Prata I think. Anyways, we wanted to see this infamous ferris wheel and when we got there we realized it was more like an amusement park. Awesome! We got in, walked around, and finally decided to take the Ferris wheel up and around for a spin to see the city. Great call. It was about to rain, but still great weather to see the view. Got some great pictures of that one for sure.



Another thing on our list was the high acclaimed Naschmarkt: in English, that would be Market. Ha. So we were off and just as we get there…it starts raining. Are you kidding? Of course this would happen. We took shelter in a pub across the street and enjoyed a beer and some food for lunch. Mine as well make the most of it eh? I had goulash with butterspaetzle. Aka some damn good goulash with buttered noodles. A great afternoon well spent, and it was nice to just sit outside on the couches of the restaurant listening to the rain. Once the rain settled we headed back to the market (which was across the street) and finally were able to walk around. Really neat.

We opted to do another free museum: the modern art museum which Naomi had said was excellent. Air conditioned, free, and art, nothing to lose. Now side story: my eyelids were on fire itchy. I know that sounds ridiculous, but c’mon it was really annoying. I am not allergic to anything; however I was tempted to just rip them out. We had gone on a serious hunt for a pharmacy and I was finally able to get some cortizone with anti-biotics in it. Maybe it was the heat and a mix of eyeliner? No idea. My body loves heat right…not. Ridiculous.

So now that I was celebrating regular eyelids we grabbed a beer and headed for the museum. There we saw probably one of the world’s most beautiful children. She should have been a baby GAP model, but hey. She was hilarious. She was not a fan of her dress and as such was trying to take it off. She pulled it up over her head but it got stuck and you just see her drop her arms and do the silent “I don’t know what to do” sob. We were in tears laughing in addition to her mum as well, but man oh man this girl was cute. For the record: Vienna has some of the most beautiful children I have ever seen. Babies, toddlers, you name it. Everywhere and all freakishly adorable.

Museum time. We headed in and had the pleasure of touring 8 different floors each with its own exhibit. Probably one of my favorite museums of all time. Really, really cool. One of the artists: Brigitte Kowanz uses light and Morse code in her art work and it was so interesting to see. We loved it. It was all modern art, but gosh it was cool to see. Especially since none of us three were huge art know-it-alls, we didn’t always know what we were looking at, but being abstract, it was really interesting. Bright colours, light, it was hard to go wrong. Certainly eye catching to say the least.

Afterwards we headed back to the hostel where we split ways with Sven and Petey and I headed to the movie theatre. Now don’t judge, but we saw Twilight. I know, I know. But hey, I’m a fan, what can I say? Anyways, the show was at 6:30, and since it doesn’t get dark until about 10pm, we still had tons of time afterwards to see the city at night. The movie was great of course; although I’m pretty sure Petey lost 10,000+ brain cells watching it. Great fan for coming along though. I owe her huge to say the least. We got a bite to eat afterwards and just enjoyed walking around the city a bit more. Everything was closing, but we went into a bunch of shops and just really enjoyed the people watching. Great atmosphere for that.

We got back to the hostel later where surprisingly everyone in our 8 person room was actually present. We met 2 Mexicans, 1 guy from Denmark, a guy from Korea, and included Petey: 3 Germans. Woo. It was one of the rare times where we just kinda chilled and all chatted talking about travels and such. Doesn’t happen very often where everyone is in the room at the same time. Actually…I don’t think that has ever happened before in all our travels.

That night was epically the worst sleep of all time. There was a HUGE thunderstorm outside, so it was raining = wonderful. It would be cool for sleeping. So we fixed the windows open and tied the strings to the lockers so they would stay that way. Except that one of my windows was well….not functioning. Turns out when the wind came it slammed against my top bunk and woke me up. Around 4am I was ready to kill someone and jumped off my bunk and closed the window. I apologized if anyone died of heat but if not, I would kill one of them anyways. We didn’t have a very long sleep since we had to be up around 8ish for our train at 9. Lovely sleep. Not. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

Turns out the Mexicans were on our train the next morning so the four of us headed off for out train only to discover that it was in fact 2 hours delayed. Wonderful. How did we celebrate? We got a beer. I mean we were not overly thrilled, not at all, since the guys were going to Prague and we were on the train for 10 hours heading back to Berlin, but hey. What can you do? Have a beer, that’s what.

We finally boarded the train around 11 and discovered that since there was flooding in Austria, that our reserved seats that we bought no longer applied. It was a free for all seating wise. Are you joking? Absolutely not. Crap. We got on and well…the dining car was left. No joke. These were little chairs, and there was no way in hell I was sitting in one of those for 10 hours. Not a chance friend. So we scrounged and finally tracked down a car that had four seats (not together obviously) but proper seats to sit in.

We finally arrived back to our apartment at 9:30pm that night; it had been a long day but we were finally ‘home’. Oh boy oh boy. We were thrilled.

It had been another wonderfully successful trip filled with hot weather, absinthe, laughs and a ton of new friends. Life was pretty damn good. Our next stop was Prague. We could not wait. We got back from Vienna Sunday night and were leaving Tuesday morning. Home, unpack, pack and off again.

The story of our lives. No complaints here.

Are you sure I'm not German?

I arrived to Berlin on July 2nd at 6:30am, to Petey greeting me. Wonderful. Now getting my stuff back to Petey’s apartment was another ridiculous adventure. Basically, she hated my guts but we made it. At this one point we had a huge flight of stairs to go down, and since I had a huge lack of sleep (seeing as the girl beside me on the bus enjoyed marathon cellphone chats) I was not in the mood to pick up my back and carry it. Even after being advised not to pull my bag down the stairs, I did, and needless to say, my handles are now at a lovely 45 degree angle to the bag. Crap. Good thing it’s the bag I’m sending home that is already broken. Luck had me there.

I arrived, we went grocery shopping, showered and we were instantly greeted by Heike, had a beer or two and were off to fanmeile for the Germany vs Argentina game. Ah! So I had heard great things about this so called fanmeile, but I hadn’t seen it yet. Just pictures. We arrived to a place that held 350,000 people. You could bring in one bottle per person, either water or beer. We chose beer. Great choice eh? Needless to say, it was the most ridiculous thing I have ever experienced. It was like 40 degrees Celsius, we had beer, and there was this huge water ‘shower’ thing that was set up and thank goodness for that or we would have melted.



Talk about cool though, tons of people, jerseys everywhere, face paint, horns, beer, and a hell of a good time. It was so cool to be around so many people who lived and breathed Germany. Needless to say the game was fantastic and the crowd went absolutely wild when they won. So damn cool.



It was also so cool for Heike to be there as well; Heike is Petey’s mum and absolutely hilarious. We did a day trip to a town called Potsdam and it was so neat. We walked around a ton, saw the sights and saw the Dutch district as well. So much fun. We had a blast of course. One of our first stops was a Versaille type castle called “Schloss Sans Souci”. Umm absolutely gorgeous. It was so cool to walk around the property and just picture back in the day when it would have been such a lively place.



So Potsdam was a super cool place to do a day trip and Berlin of course was sensational. We did the sights of course: the TV Tower, Check point Charlie, the East Side Gallery of the Berlin wall and so much more. It was fantastic. Tons of pictures needless to say but just a blast overall.




On the Tuesday, July 6th we did a faux-Petey’s birthday party. We had made a chocolate cake (you know I love her when I actually put the melted chocolate on top – yuckkkk) and I even decorated it with smarties! Turns out to be a damn cute cake after all. So Heike and I had gone shopping that day and made the most educated purchase of all: beer goggles. So fantastic. We had planned to do a boat cruise on the Spree river from 630-930pm. Wonderful. We had grabbed a late dinner (mcds unfortunately) which we then were advised we were not permitted to eat on board…shit. So we resorted to drinking green and red Berliner Weisse: delicious berry and apple-ish flavored beer that you can only get in Berlin. Cool eh? Cool and delicious. It was a fantastic night, and good weather actually as well. We laughed a ton and made nice with the guys that worked on the boat. Another successful evening.

Of course, Germany played Spain on the 7th and that was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. How do you cheer for both right? Unreal. Of course we had a huge pre drink in front of the government buildings with Heike and just got ready to give it our all at the game. Not shocking at all, it was silence when Germany lost. However, such a good time at fanmeile again.
We took Heike to the airport the morning she left, surprised her actually and gosh was she thrilled. It was the least we could do considering we had had a blast with her touring around Berlin and such. The perfect way to start my Berlin time.

While Petey finished up her last day of interning Toby and I took to the town to tour some more. We made sure to stop at the Holocaust memorial and Brandenburger Gate. I even snapped a photo with the Berlin Bear mascot! Too funny.

Talk about timing the third place game was on Petey’s birthday and Germany would be playing Uruguay. Wow, wow, wow. A friend of Petey’s, Toby, had come up for a couple days and would be there to help us celebrate. Celebrate is the understatement of the year.

We got up, started drinking, jagger to be precise, and then some beers on the way. It was the day of all days and a hot one at that. It was hot, hot, hot and we were melting. And then there from the corner of our eye we spotted a water sprinkler. Heck yes. How wonderful! We darted over and started frolicking through the waters. Then all of a sudden Petey sorta screamed my name and said her toe killed. I ran over and well….a pool of blood to say the least. We took some pictures (priorities people) and then dashed into Mcds (yes, that’s where the sprinkler was) and we got some gauze. I did her foot back up and off we went. We stopped at a kebab place, and had some dinner, more drinks and I re-did the gauze again. It was a deep cut, but she said we would wait before anything else. It was hard to gage stitches wise and anyways, turns out next morning I made the call that stitches could totally be possible and we were off to the hospital. Thankfully Germany won the game, so it wasn’t a totally ridiculous evening, although ridiculous is our middle names.

How do we attract such stupidity eh? The two of us, our relationship is based on hospital bills. Ha. Me breaking a collarbone, then her breaking a toe, and now her needing stitches.

The brave girl got 2 stitches and was ‘out of commission’ for 2 weeks (aka no sand, no water). Under such strict orders we planned to go to: Budapest, Vienna and Prague. Ha.

The stories continue. Her birthday was hilarious, although ridiculous, and apart from the stitches the birthday was a total success. Beer goggles saved the night.

But honestly…when do beer goggles not make the night?

We had one game left: the Spain vs Netherlands game and baby was that ever intense. We ended up at some Irish pub, which suited us fine. Got some food and perfect seats for the game. Talk about intense? Everyone was screaming and yelling at the screen and then at the last 2 minutes of the game…the screen turns off. The freaking screen at the bar shuts off. The crowd went wild alright. Luckily, they got things under control and asap put the game back on. Unreal. Way to save the day, but a good night just the same. I was rooting for Spain, of course, and then Petey was dressed in orange for Netherlands. Fantastic.

The walk home was a good one, bitter since Germans bleed soccer and are still uber bitter, but what a cool experience. The phone call from Spain was wild as well: talk about an excited country to say the least!

Berlin has treated me exceptionally well and we’re having a blast. We booked last minute tickets to Budapest, Vienna and Prague.

Up next: Eastern Europe.

A little old; A little new!

After a second wonderful all nighter at the Charleroi airport (not too bad again actually) I managed to get back to Lille safely and passed out. However, I didn’t sleep for long because a friend texted me!

Speaking of familiar faces I had the absolute privilege of another dear friend of mine visiting Lille. Brianna is a close friend I literally grew up with and our families are very close. Of course over the past couple years, we talk here and there but haven’t found the time to meet up. Go figure since we both live in Ottawa. Anyways, when I heard that Bri was going to be studying in France as well we knew we HAD to meet up at some point.

Turns out Brianna has a friend that lives in Lille as well, and she came the every end of June! Fantastic! Lucky for me, we were able to meet up the day I got back when I finally got it together, woke up and got ready. We met at the Opera; how fantastic. We grabbed a beer and it was so nice catching up. She needed a place to stay so of course I offered her my apartment (seeing as all of my roommates were moved out by now – weird). So Bri stayed 2 nights and we just took over the town a bit. We hung out, chatted, walked around town and of course drank some wine and managed to make 2 killer good dinners. The first was a medley of a ton of veggies, pesto and an eggplant sauce. Yumm. Second night were killer good sandwiches packed with sandwich meat and good cheese. Love it.

How lucky am I to have been able to see so many friends? I loved it.



Then I had the idiotic task of packing up the past 6 months into two suitcases. Yeah. No dice. There was no way in hell that was even going to happen. In the end I had two red suitcases, Big Blue, my backpack and my computer bag. Holyyyyy

I was in big trouble. Big, big trouble: a) I was taking a bus, thank god, but you can only have 2 bags and b) I mentally said to myself that all would be okay because once in Germany, I can toss a ton of things, like blankets, toiletries, that sorta thing before heading back to Canada.
So I was lucky enough to have help getting my bags to the station but I was so worried that he wouldn’t let me get all my stuff on. I mean, I only had the right to 2 bags, and I had 3 and they were huge. Petey had had to pay 10 EUR for her bags being too ‘heavy’ but she had the right amount, so I had no idea how much I had to pay. Petey was guessing like 30 to 40. I had no guess.

Finally we got there and of course, in good timing fashion, it was almost 2 hours late. I had had so much crap that every time we moved closer to the bus (that we thought each bus pulling in would be our bus) these two guys helped me out. Thank goodness they were so nice, but it was now judgment time. The polish man looked at me and said “how many bags? Three?” and I am trying to get up the courage I had practiced all day (aka fighting the man to let on my third bag) and I said yes. He looked at me and said “10 Euros”. ARE YOU JOKING!? YES YES YES!

I paid the man and brought my bags around to the other side. The guys loading the bus looked at me as if to say no effing way are you putting all those bags on my bus. So I said I paid and he didn’t believe me because he had to go double check. When he came back around he was probably pretty pissed but sucked it up and threw all my bags on board. I was now in for a 13 hour bus ride to Berlin.

And the adventures begin. Here we go ladies and gents.

Zaragoza; you had me at "hola"

My epic return to Zaragoza five years after first visiting…well needless to say I was thoroughly excited. I had been able to see Pabs and his dad in Brussels, but I would be able to see Zaragoza for 8 days on this trip and I couldn’t wait.

To star things off, I had to bloody make the flight in the first place. Now it is common knowledge that Sundays, Europe shuts down. Super. Duh, we all knew this because on Sundays nothing was open in Lille. However, once school is done, you are not working…the days sort of blend together and you don’t really have a clue what day of the week it is, only the number of the day. Brilliant and useless all at the same time. Now pulling my first all nighter at the airport I realized that I would be travelling to Zaragoza on a Sunday. Shit.

This means that trains leave Lille later to get to the train station, and buses to the actual airport leave at incredibly awkward times. Working this plan backwards: my flight was leaving at 11, meaning that latest I could check-in with Ryanair was 10:10, it was a 20ish minute bus ride from the station, meaning I had to leave at 9:50, and my train was arriving at 9:39 from Lille (which left at 8). Yeah…except that the only buses going to the airport left at 9:35 and then 10:35…right. I miss the bus by 4 minutes and I didn’t have time to wait around for the next one. Superb. I got in at 9:39 and like clockwork I ran and got a taxi to the airport. I was perfectly on time. Insane really. My flight ended up being delayed about 40 minutes or so, but still, it was a close call. All my fingers had crossed and the taxi driver was a dream who practically flew me there in record time and was quite chatty as a bonus.

Arriving in Zaragoza was the most brilliant feeling. It had been 5 years since I had been here and yet all the memories came rushing back. It was the best 2 week trip I had had, and I couldn’t wait to add to it with another 8 days.

I didn’t really have a game plan of what to do, since it wasn’t so much a touring trip, but Pabs worked during the day so his younger sister Julia (who I was paired with when our school came 5 years ago), we would be together. She had been 14 and was now 19. Way to make me feel old for once.

The schedule actually worked out spectacularly, their dad worked, Pabs worked and while I was there Julia started a new job so I would wake up in the morning, make some ‘coffee’ aka espresso and sit outside in the Spanish sun and read. Perfection. And for someone as neon white as I am, surprisingly the Spanish sun loves me. No burn. How wonderful and rare. I couldn’t get over it. Reason number 56,383 to love Spain right?



I was lucky enough during the week to meet up with two friends that were part of the original exchange program 5 years ago. Borja and Ana had come to Canada in September and we had gone over in March, 2005. So the three of us met up one afternoon for drinks and gosh was that ever a blast from the past. It was so cool catching up and seeing where they were now and just how different and yet exactly the same we all were. I loved it.

The week essentially flew by between reading, tanning, venturing around town, shopping, and then going out for gelatos, beers and tapas at night. Delightful sounding? Oh yes.



My fav place was one little joint I had the privilege of going five years ago. So just outside of the main downtown, little streets and you see this open restaurant. I wouldn’t’ even call it a restaurant. It’s a room, the floor covered with hundreds of napkins, and a bar. Maybe 2 high top tables and no chairs. This is not a place you come to sit and eat, you grab a beer, and the tapas they offer: one thing on the menu and you leave. But baby is that one thing on the menu heaven. It’s a piece of baguette, two large garlic and butter sautéed soaked mushrooms and a small shrimp on top stuck with a toothpick. Sitting there, the butter and garlic soaks into the bread creating the most mouth watering experience of a lifetime. If I lived there, I think I would go every damn day of my life.

Another great place we went was an all seafood spot. Holy crap batman, they had it all. Same type of place, except some places to sit, but you choose it and they bring it. We got shrimps with lemon and you realize how something so simple can be so good. It was unreal. Makes you wonder why we don’t eat like this every day. Calories. Right. Yeah well, Europe has kind of sacked that idea from my brain and left me with 100% good food in front of me. No regrets there.

The weekend was already here? How did that happen? I couldn’t believe how fast time flew while I was there. It had been just so relaxing catching up with Julia, Pabs and their dad that I almost felt like I had been there for weeks. So Friday night was a world cup game against Chile which Spain thankfully won 2-1. It was mental. We went over to a friend of Pabs named Nacho and with a room full of guys I felt like one of them instantly. We drank a ridiculous amount of beer and ate a ton of munchies before heading over to a local club/bar. Needless to say it was not an early night. This is the kind of place you order sangria and they hand you a 1L plastic cup and ask only 4EUR. Pardon? 1L for 4 Euros….absolutely. We danced, chatted and basically laughed our heads off all night. The guys were hilarious together and like I said, it was a fabulously long night ending at an appropriate Spanish time of 6am.

Saturday we were off to Madrid for another friend’s graduation party. Yay, I couldn’t wait. So we had debated between trains and driving, and ended up with the latter. Driving would be a hell of a lot easier getting from place to place. I was advised to get dolled up I my dress and heels before heading on our 4 hour road trip, and although I thought that was ridiculous (driving 4 hours in a dress?) I did it and thankfully so, since we arrived just after 9.

Now our commencement ceremonies in Canada start at around 10am because they are well killer long. Well here in Spain it started at about 9:30 and was all said and done in less than 2 hours. Brilliant. We should learn from this. I have my commencement in October and well I always hear such amazing things, not, I mean it is commencement and super cool, but why does it have to be so boring and long? Anyways, enough about that and back to Madrid.

His buddy that was graduating also plays in a band and had a bar they were playing in that night. We got our drink on waiting for them to play and just rocked the night away. It was a blast a) they were playing English and Spanish music b) they were actually really good and c) great drink menu. Of course, in grand Spanish style the night did not end there. We went to a club around 5am, and stayed there until close. What a blast. The night ended somewhere around 9am where everyone met up for churros and chocolate. Churros and passed on the chocolate however, a killer good night.

It was one of those weekends where you barely sleep and yet you are wide awake cause you had a blast. We drove to Madrid City to actually tour a bit around before heading back to Zaragoza and boy was it gorgeous. I loved everything about it. We walked a ton looking at all the sites and somehow managed to stop at this gorgeous palace of sorts. It was breathtaking. We sat there for a while and a man on the violin was playing not far off in the distance. One of those moments you won’t forget.

Leaving was such a surreal event. I felt like I had been there for weeks, and yet leaving I knew I would have to come back again one more time if I could help it. I loved Spain and Spain treated me pretty damn well right back.

It has officially been added to the top of the list of places visited thus far. Te quiero Espana.

A Ray of Hope comes to France

This was it! I was going to be seeing another one of my girls! Sensational! Nothing was better than being able to see a familiar face and share everything from around you. I was going to be able to see Manda from the 15-20th. I was going to be meeting her in Paris and then we could come back to Lille the 17th. This was the master plan.

Off we went! I was at the CDG Airport to pick her up ahead of time and she was coming in at 11:30. Perfect. The terminal had changed last minute, but no worries; I was on top of it. So I am watching the flights come in and manda’s lands. Woo hoo! I’m waiting….and waiting….and waiting. Where the hell was she? I’m beginning to worry a bit that maybe she lost her baggage or that something went wrong somewhere between getting off the plane and getting out the doors. Hmm. She had my cell number so all I could do was wait. Hmm. I finally get a call around 12:30 asking where I am? “What?! I’m at your door waiting for you to come out! Did I miss you!?” I’m thinking I would be the biggest epic fail if I had missed that. No effing way. No no, well turns out I hadn’t. She was in a totally different terminal. How did that even happen we will never know? But I was off for terminal 3 to find her. Stay there I said. Off we go. She said she was near the shuttle. Perfect. I was familiar with the CDG shuttle after meeting Jewels and the girls there before Barcelona. Fabulous. Off we go. Get there and no Manda. Seriously? Where is this girl!? Turns out I had to walk another 10 minutes or so to finally get to her but I found her! Yay!

We were now off to find Eveline’s house! This was a dear friend of Amanda’s mum and we would be spending our two evenings there. How lucky. We actually had no problem tracking it down. We took the RER down, and then a quick taxi over to her house. Sensational. Navigating was off to a good start.



Manda has a tour book of Paris which was perfect since it included everything. We decided to head first to Notre Dame. It was packed and yet you still felt so small standing in front of it. The strangest feeling. But after this we decided to hit the grand of the grand…the Eiffel Tower. How gorgeous. Even being my 3rd time to Paris, you are speechless. It’s phenomenal. I did something new this time which was fantastic: Amanda and I went to the top of the Eiffel Tower! Ah! Talk about windy though eh? Wow, it was crazy. Like literally, hair flying straight up windy. Too funny. But what a view; gorgeous and breathtaking. We both stood there staring literally at all of Paris. Of course as well, in true Parisian style, there was a champagne bar at the very top. Of course. Eveline had planned to have dinner at 7 and we rushed back as fast as we could to get back in time. I think we managed to be a bit late, but the lines were out of this world long getting back down to the ground level.

Dinner was delicious and she had a friend over which was also fun. We had had an eventful day to say the least and it took us all of 5 minutes to fall asleep.

Wednesday was the day that I was looking forward to the most: DISNEYLAND BABY! Oh gosh, this was going to be so damn cool. It would be my first time ever going and I couldn’t wait. My tagline for the day was “22 going on 7” but damn was I ever excited. The whole experience of the princesses and Mickey and well how cool right? And the fact that a) it was in Paris was sensational and b) that Amanda had free tickets just was the icing on the cake. We started the day by taking our picture with….MICKEY! Can you believe it? How perfect. We then packed the day with the most brilliant children’s rides such as the merry-go-round, for example. We almost went on a roller coaster, but turns out Amanda wasn’t the biggest fan (I don’t blame her – I mean the girls inside sounded like they were being tortured they were screaming so damn loud) so in our perfect timing theme of the day we caught the cast performance in front of the Disney castle! How fun! We had seen the parade by chance earlier that day, and now this, it was just perfect timing.

The day was wonderful and young and just so damn cool I was thrilled with life. We walked through another Disney village afterwards, who knew right, but it was a ton of fun. Since it was a late night when we got back, we had a key to Eveline’s place, but oh god you would not believe how hard it was to get in. We just couldn’t get it. I swear we must have been at the door for a good 45 minutes trying the key. Amanda, then me, then Amanda…it was insane. We were in tears laughing, slash at 1am wondering what the hell we were gonna do. Ring the doorbell? That was the whole damn point of having a key! Buah – well they had heard us at the door and thankfully came to our rescue, but first thing in the morning we got a lesson on how to use the damn key. This would happen to us.

The next morning was our last in Paris and we rushed early to go see the Louvre and Mona, of course in addition to the Arc de Triomphe. It was a whirlwind morning slash early afternoon but we managed, somehow to catch our 3pm train back to Lille. Yay us. The afternoon went pretty quickly with a bit of walking and some dinner. Out cold to say the least.

The next morning Jess was arriving at10:57 and Amanda luckily woke me up at 10:52. Oh crap batman. I got dressed and ran to the train station. Luckily we met just in time and the day was going to start. Once we weren’t rushing, we all got ready and headed to vieux Lille for some crepes. Of course the girls had to have crepes. French crepes and essential to the visit. We did a bit of shopping as I showed them the sites, which included the Beaux Arts museum, Grand Place and the fantastic mini streets. It was Nicoline’s ‘going away’ party, so naturally we had a pre drink at our place and met up at Magnum. To cap the night I took the girls to the illegal baguette joint that we love so much, and the girls agreed it was sort of like heaven in your mouth with the fresh bread with baked ham and cheese inside. How could it not be right?

The next was Amanda’s last before setting off on her sensational adventure of Italy, so we got up, walked around and the girls the day before had made up their mind on making a dessert: essentially baking a chocolate cake. Since my lovely apartment lacks in the area of ovens, a good friend Simon agreed to let us use his. Wonderful. So we take the walk over to his place, ring the bell….and nothing. They were all there as I’m calling their cells, but apparently they were on silent, and Basia’s phone was stolen at another party of ours, so that was no longer her number. Oh man. Brilliant. So we walked right back home to chill for a bit before taking Amanda to the train station.

It was once again fantastic to see a familiar face and so cool to be setting her off for what will be a hell of an adventure for her.

Oh Europe. We all love you.

Eat, Pray, Love: Part 2

I read this book at the airport and boy did it hit home. I am travelling and of course as life goes on, things happen, life changes, people change and you therefore change as well. But something about that book resided in me. I related to it so much and on so many different levels. It made me really think about what I wanted to do, where I wanted to be and the kind of person I wanted to be as well.

All that shit that you hang on to for so long, all the bad karma and all that jazz, I just had to let go. And that I did. It’s like a cheesy epiphany you hear about, where everything all of a sudden makes sense and it just clicks.

It clicked.

Again.

I have now had 2 of the “a-ha” moments in France, and I’m damn happy about it.
Going back to Ottawa in August will be a hell of a change. I will be living in Europe for 7.5 months, 222 days in total, and I will be different. As such when I get home things have to change. I will be purging the junk from my life. Starting with my room. Funny enough, I am that squirrel that holds onto everything thinking maybe sometime, someday, somewhere I’ll ‘use’ it. I know I won’t. So out with the old and in with the new. Making time for the people I love and making sure I am happy.

I’ll be starting a job and goodness knows that will be an adventure in and of itself. I can’t wait though, as strange as that thought is not going back to school right away, but hey, new people, new atmosphere and new things.

So bring it on life. I can handle it. And if I can’t…well I’ll figure it out, but for now I am so excited for the next little while. So as such, I plan to take full advantage of the last while in Europe I have.

And you can hold me to that.
Hello Sarah; welcome back.

Haggis & Bagpipes Please!

This was one of the trips that I looked forward to the most: I was finally going to be able to see one of my girls, Jewels, in person, going to where she lived for this semester in Aberdeen, Scotland. But first: Edinburgh!

It had been a long time since I had to travel on my own, but naturally I had taken the idiotically pointless route to Charleroi airport in Brussels before so I was prepared. I have to take the train to the train station, then a bus to the actual airport. Now normally this is fine, but it’s more just a pain in the ass timing wise to make sure you aren’t standing waiting for the bus for an hour. Okay, so I’m getting ahead of myself here, I got to the airport no problem and the flight was smoothe. I arrived in Edinburgh late afternoon and had to then find my hostel. I wasn’t meeting the girls until the next day, so I would have the night to myself. Cool. So I found the bus 100 that goes to town and jumped on. Turns out it’s about a 10-15 minute walk, but no worries, I had my directions and I was off. Of course though…being Scotland, the weather had forecasted rain. I am not kidding; it was sunny until the absolute second the plane touched the ground…then torrential downpour. Superb. Welcome to Scotland alright.

I was finally able to track down where the hostel was, which by the way, was up hills, down hills, ridiculous, but god it was pretty. I arrived and there were 2 girls in my room already, since I was alone we started chatting and they invited me to dinner. It’s that awkward first chat that you have, “so what are you guys doing tonight? Can I join you?” chat that I wasn’t too thrilled on having to do, but honestly, no problem, you chat and it wasn’t awkward at all. They invited me and were off. We went to a cute little pub called Deacon Brodie’s up the way and we got some dinner and drinks. Nothing major, but nice to have company for sure and Scottish food was good thus far. Once we got back we chatted for a while seeing as how I was going to be living in Berlin, and one of the girls was German living in Berlin. Perfect. She wrote me up the most killer list of all the shopping places, bars, clubs and the major things to see. How useful eh?

The next morning I wasn’t meeting up with the girls until later that day, so I had some time until around lunch to start touring around. Of course, in good ol Scotland style, it was raining so I grabbed the rain coat and the girls and I: Sarah & Anne heading up to the castle. Have you ever seen a Scottish castle? One of those things you see in pictures but don’t quite do any justice until you get there in person. Holy crap batman, it was sensational. Gorgeous, old, everything you would want it to be. And the rain, well didn’t exactly help for the spectacular view, but still, it was sensational anyways. We did a little bit of shopping and that’s when I got the call from Jess saying she was in St.Andrews square and less than five minutes from me. Excellent! I couldn’t wait to see Jess again, we had all had such a killer good time in Barcelona and Rome that I knew Scotland would be everything I was looking for and more.

And of course it was. We got some lunch at a fabulous place up the road from our hostel called Bobby’s bar. I got Haggis; can you believe it? I mean, of course I was going to try it…c’mon now. But when you hear how it’s prepared; well just don’t really think about it. Turns out a) it’s delicious and b) looks like ground beef with spices. Hmm.

As always, timing was perfect and as soon as we got back to the hostel before heading out to track down Jewels, she was at the hostel! I get a call from Jewels asking where we were and we said…S: ”in the hostel? Where are you!?” J: “What? I’m in the hostel!” S: “really? Were in the room! Where are you now? Did you leave?” J: “Umm…I’m at reception!” Of course she was. How perfect.

All ladies reunited, we were off. We walked down the royal mile (in the rain no less) and just started catching up. We rubbed the lucky toe and spit on the heart in front of the church. All wonderful. We got to a restaurant called Bella Italia at around 5 something-ish and decided we could get some dinner. Turns out we stayed and chatted for just over 4 hours. Record? I think so. Actual I know so…the waiter told us we were the longest guests in the restaurant…ever. Ha. Well what can I say? When you have a lot to catch up on…you have a lot to catch up on. And boy did we chat!

A very successful first day in Scotland for sure. The next morning we got up early and ate and showered and headed for the free tour at 11. So I guess it wasn’t really that early, but still. C’mon now. We met a bunch of Canadians (surprisingly from the Toronto area actually) and one Aussie and just clicked. The walking tour was fantastic. We went up the hill to the monument at the top which provided a phenomenal view, we saw the castle again, and the back streets which are honesty, the best part really. The tour ended at a bar called “The Last Drop” which ironically enough was where they brought people for a beer just before their hanging. So literally…their last drop. Ha. Well, regardless, it was sensational. We had several rounds of drinks complimented with some nachos and awesome convo with the guys.

Turns out one of the guys had been to Ottawa before at a great bar he loved but couldn’t remember the name. We started playing the name game. But also, it had been a good 5ish months since I had been home…and names start to slip. Well, I knew exactly which bar he was talking about but just couldn’t remember the name. We were talking about he same place for sure but he was convinced it was called “The Ball & Chain”. No way was it called that because I’m pretty sure that sounds like a strip club, but regardless I couldn’t think of it so I had to text Lauren from home. HEART & CROWN! We finally figured it out though; with a little help from Canada.

Turns out we were also in luck and witnesses a Bollywood movie called “Seasons” that was filming right outside the pub. We met the main actress in the washroom and she was a) gorgeous and b) incredibly nice. I will for sure be checking up on the movie later to see any press about it!
Unfortunately we had to rush out from the bar because we had booked…drum roll please…HIGH TEA! Woo! I was so damn excited about this! It’s like afternoon tea, but fancy and you have to dress up and wear heels. The guys got a huge kick out of it since it was raining but we had booked it and were determined to go. A nice tea break right after beer was never a bad idea eh? Nah, never. What a life. So we got back to the hostel, got all dolled up and then our hostel room door opens and IT’S THE GUYS! Ha! The three Canadians were in our room; at first we thought it was a joke, but how damn ironic eh? We saw Troy (our Aussie friend that was with us) outside of our hostel, and he helped us hail a cab. The homeless man outside the hostel even complimented us, maybe mentioning something about nice legs and we were off. We pull into the hotel where our High Tea was being held and our mouths dropped. It was beautiful!

Off the main road, and surrounded by trees it was beautiful. A man came right up to the taxi door and we each received our very own umbrella and were escorted to the front door. Wow service, we felt posh alright! We had some raspberry and elderflower tea I believe complimented with cucumber sandwiches, and some finger licking desserts. So damn elegant if I may say so myself. Being all grown up and such, we continued our chat fest and just loved life a little bit more than was already possible.

We arrived back to the hostel fully satisfied with our tea and snacks and were ready for the highly chatted about pub crawl. First things first, the guys in our room set up the most ridiculously funny clothes line since the dryer in the hostel was utter crap, but this became the biggest liability of zig zag wire going across our room. Rather humorous to us, but eventually had to come down. We had it up there for a good while though.

The pub crawl was free (fantastic) and of course our Canadians and the Aussie were present as well. We were to do 4 different bars and clubs and all I can say is it was a night to remember…forever. We had a freaking blast. The mix of great people, cheap drinks, drinking games in bars and some of the funniest stories of all time would help to make a hell of a good time. We started in what was called Oz bar, where Paul, one of the Canadians got shot glasses and we decided to do beer shots. Each time we would cheers to something ridiculous, a person, place or thing and just had a really good time. We then moved to another, and another, and another. I lost the girls in the last one but Troy and I managed to track them down at the hostel. Too funny. We continued to have fun at the hostel where we met some ridiculous Irish guys, and then Troy left at 4am-ish to catch his flight the next day to Paris. I’m pretty sure he was intoxicated while on the plane…actually I am positive he was. But we gave him a damn good send off.

We awoke the next morning with a ton of funny stories and a major appetite. Jewels and Jess had gone to this place once called Elephants & Bagels and we were determined to find it again. We finally did and boy was it worth the search. I had a bagel (which do not exist in France by the way) with salmon and cream cheese and damn goodness in my belly was what that was. In addition, it was raining again, of course. To celebrate our last day in Edinburgh we did some shopping and just enjoyed the weather. Ha. But honestly, it was so nice just walking around, window shopping, we purchases some books and were on our way again. We checked out of the hostel and managed to wake the guys up to say goodbye before we left. We caught a bus to Aberdeen (which was freaking freezing) and had to change a couple of times. Honestly though, back to the cold, this bus was freezing. Apparently all MegaBus buses are effing cold, but wowza, this was like “I can see my breath” cold.

Once in Aberdeen we took the treck back to the girl’s apartments, and boy was I happy to arrive. My feet were soaked, which doesn’t exactly help with the cold and the wet you know. I seriously debated buying some wellies, which in the long run I should have done, but you know, all was well. We had a nice warm night in compliments with pizza and a movie: 500 days of summer. Love love all of the above. We were exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before but hey, this is where Jewels went to school and I couldn’t wait to see more of it starting the next day.

Good ol Jewels got me some breakfast from her cafeteria the next morning (which I wasn’t allowed in) and we took it easy that morning catching up on SYTYCD (with 3 dancers, duh). It was now time to hit the shops in Aberdeen and they promised to take me to Primark: the most legendary of all stores. Like my love H&M but everything is less than 10 pounds….and super cute. Go figure. Yeah, well that shopping trip was not only fantastic but was not even that expensive for what we got. Heaven really.

We stopped at a place called Enigma, which we had dinner for 50% off to = amazing. Delicious too. Of course, some more chatting which was so nice. It had been so weird in Lille once all the girls had left so it was genuinely nice to just chat about everything and nothing in particular. We were back to Jewels rez before I knew it and compliments of delicious Vodka and crystal light (which Europe doesn’t have either) we indulged in our very own classy pre-drink. The plan for the night was a bar called JPs for cheap drinks then a club called Liquid. Woo hoo. Ladies night out. We met a bunch of other dancer girls at JPs and were at Liquid by 11 for our free entrance (yes yes yes). Needless to say we dominated the dance floor and had a freaking fantastic time. We danced, chatted and I was introduced to some of the guys from Jewels & Jess’ rez. Needless to say it was another late night but man oh man did we have fun. I hadn’t been out like that in a long time, just dancing you know?

The next morning we had a later breakfast, cough cough 11:30 and this began Jewels packing fiasco. She was going home to Canada on the 12th and that was the same day I would be taking the treck back to Lille. One of their good friends Lucas was leaving that day so we went to a handmade burger place which was delicious. Mine had mozzarella and pesto. Yumm. After that the girls and I did a nice bit of shopping, again, shocking right? And Jewels was finally able to show me the infamous Pandora store that we had long searched for in Rome that one time.

It was a pretty easy going rest of the day and we finished the night off with the local university of Aberdeen bar called “The Watering Hole”. We hung out with another one of their good friends Matt as well, and we ended up chilling in his room, late night talking and guitar playing. It was first year all over again and yet somehow, it was just as fantastic even 4 years later.

The next morning was our official, and Jewels & Jess too, which was so weird. For them especially, obviously. But what to do with a last full day in Aberdeen? We headed to have a photoshoot of campus obviously. God was their campus ever pretty. Just gorgeous, so much history, all the old buildings, just fabulous. I loved every bit of it. We got some awesome pictures and even stepped into a local bakery and had a donut. Needless to say, our mouths were salivating even after the fact. We spent the remainder of the day downtown. Jewels went for a run and Jess and I hung out while she did her last minute packing. Impressive really. She had been smart enough to only bring one suitcase which we lovingly called Tonka because the thing must be the size of Texas. Just enormous weighing I’m sure no less than 45 kgs. We had bought the mixings to a great homemade dinner (aka sandwiches) earlier that day and when Jewels got back from her run it was just delicious.

Now my favorite part: the beach. We made the nice walk down to the beach and just gorgeous. It was the perfect time of day, late afternoon, early night, so the sun was beginning to set but we still had sun on the beach. It was so cool to actual be at the very top bit of Scotland, in the North Sea. It was freezing, don’t get me wrong, but just beautiful. The tide coming in, silence along the ocean, it was just the most amazing feeling. I was so envious they could see this whenever they wanted. Lille was gorgeous, don’t get me wrong, but no ocean. Calais was great too, but a long treck.

Anyways, we spent a few hours at the beach and concluded our eventful last day with a solid movie: The Proposal. Epic right?

Saturday morning was the morning of truth: the girls both had to be out of rez by 11ish and I was only catching the bus back to the airport in the early afternoon, and Jess at 7 that night. We were going to chill the day at the station, since I had Big Blue and she had Tonka (our bags, remember?) to accompany us. Not prime for travelling the city. But we were up early, breakfast, showered and out of rez for Jewels at 915. I saw Colleen again (we met in Rome) and the two girls were off like lightning. We finally made the treck of our own to the bus station and finished our lovely time together by having an Italian feast at one of the restaurants. Delicious. So I managed to locate my bus and was off.

Turns out what I thought was going to be one change bus wise, was 3 changed. Pardon? Right. Okay sure, let me just stay awake to ensure that. The woman driver was a complete doll and made sure to come get me when it was time for me to get off since well, I had no idea that I was in the middle of effing nowhere in Scotland. Beauty. All went well of course since I followed the directions and I managed somehow to get to the Edinburgh Airport and on my flight. Once again, ryanair pulled through with a smooth flight. Fantastic.



This was to be the first of 2 all nighters that I would be spending at the Charleroi Airport in Brussels. I got in around 830ish, and by then there were no trains, car, buses, nada going back to Lille. An all nighter it would be. I got some snacks and drinks and found my place. Book in hand I spent until 6am reading, where I could finally catch the bus back to the station to get a train back to Lille. Wonderful.

Honestly though, it really wasn’t as bad as you would think. It was super busy which was comforting, and the water/diet coke pulled me through the night. Of course texting Petey also helped too. Duh. But I took a coffee break and made some friends, so around 2:45 am I actually found myself laughing with the people around me and then indulged back into my book: Eat, Pray, Love. What a fantastic book, but that’s another post of its own. It was nice to have some time for me reading.

Anyways, Scotland was better than expected and I was so fortunate to be able to see Jewels and Jess again in their own territory. I will absolutely be going back to the North to the ocean again.