no_fosters_thanks

waar zijn mijn klompen?

no_fosters_thanks — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Some of my family is originally from the Island of Texel, on the coast of the Netherlands. So I decide to coral Tom into a good old family roots visit...even though I wasn´t sure where on Texel they came from. Good oportunity to see some windmills anyway.

We took the ferry over from Den Helder...after I manage to almost not get there. If you ever hear there...don´t get off at ´Den Helder Zuid´, it just means the Den Helder South train station, and it utterly useless unless you like looking at paddocks. Lucky Tom and I are both paddock enthusiasts. Lucky.

We stayed in the village of Oudeschild, in a family owned inn which was lovely. Some fantastic home cooked food, and tried some of the locally made brew.

We generally just chilled and enjoyed the outdoors in Texel, walking along the Dykes, and over to the next village. Such a beautiful place, it was lovely just to meander about the town.

Munich - Beer halls and aeroplanes

no_fosters_thanks — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Munich was not really planned into the trip. The realistic fact is, we decided we couldn´t afford to go to Denmark (most the hostels being shut in winter), and we had trouble finding accomodation and a train to Frankfurt to visit our Canadian pal, Sonja.

So spur of the moment, we ended up IN THE WORST HOSTEL I´VE EVER BEEN TO! Avoid this ´meninger hostel´place...granted, they do a damn fine breakfast...and it was very clean, but that´s about it. A double room...equipped with one single duvet and one pillow. The noisiest hallways...and worst of all...huge school groups. French school kids. Now, don´t get me wrong, I´m the first to admit I should have realised what it for what it was before I booked it. But...ugh. Plague.

Aside from the icky hostel, we had a really good walk about Munich, saw the beer halls, and lots of the usual sights...old buildings etc. But, my favourite thing about Munich was the Deutsches Museum. It focused on the technical aspects of things...and it was worth it just for the aeronautics. A helicopter...inside a museum, and other planes, a cross section of a 707...it was a brilliant museum. The photography exhibition was great....could have spent days in there. But, (this is a little lame of me), the thing I got most excited about, was an interactive panel of glass thingy...it just blew my mind. I want one. Don´t know what I could use it for....but I want one.

Berlin - Snack Point Charlie

no_fosters_thanks — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I jest not - if you go to Checkpoint Charlie, you can wander across the road to Snack Point Charlie. One of my favourite names for a shop - ever. Not going to work so well if they want to start franchises....but still, points for that one.

Berlin is a really interesting city - and one of my favourites so far, which I wasn't expecting. But then again, if I had a euro for everytime I said 'I could live in this city' then I'd be having more euros than I do right now. Which is none. Tom and I have decided it's good fiscal policy for me to never see any money. I spend less that way. It's actually turning out surprisingly well. Surprising for me - not to anyone else I suspect.

We stayed in a houseboat, which was pretty cool to begin with, but it was moored by the longest surviving part of the Berlin wall, which is now known as the eastside gallery. The wall has been used by graffiti artists as an open air gallery which is really interesting. Sadly, lots of people have done lame graffiti over the artwork.

We walked along where the berlin wall used to stand, from our hostel to the checkpoint charlie location, and also where the museum is. Quite facinating the escape attempts that people made.

While I remember, we bought some cheese, based on the pure fact it had "extra dick". Not bad cheese either. Now thats advertising!

I found it surprising how much of the city was destroyed in WW2, and has still not been rebuilt. In the city centre there are so many vacant lots, esp in the east side.

We ventured out on a walking tour one morning, recommended by a friend, and it was brilliant! (we tried another in Munich and it was shit....make sure in berlin you go on Brewers walking tour - not the other one advertised in hostels). Our guide was piss funny, and had been living in Berlin for the last 9 years and being a tiny group, really showed us the city, with depth. I can't describe the difference, but this tour was brill:)

What else....we hit up two of the museums on museumisle, which were good, but smaller than I expected. The germans did manage to bring over ancient market gates from egypt - which are great to see.

GO TO THE MEATY PLACE!!!!

no_fosters_thanks — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Wow. One of the 'fairytale cities' of europe. Going in the middle of winter was ideal, as it wasn't that busy - but even in summer with hordes of people it would still be as beautiful. We managed to book into one of the best hostels, Krumlov house. More like being at home than a hostel - stellar experience. We ended up spending three nights here, but could have easily stayed longer.

Cesky Krumlov was a stunning city, and incidentally used for the filming of 'hostel', when they are walking around the city in Slovakia. Yet again, a castle overlooked the city, and didn't fail to amaze. We really should get onto this castle business in Australia. Now.

The view of the city from the castle

So we wandered the castle, and hiked up past the castle gardens to some old ruins which was good - hard to get photos as it was so dark however. We did some more hiking around, actually I think we walked the whole expanse of the city and the surrouding hills a few times over. Was good for the appetite....

We ended up at what the hostel referred to as 'the meaty place' for meals twice. My god. They call it the meaty place, as you pretty much just get massive slabs of meat cooked in the local style - cooked in an open fire/grill thing. By the way mum, I might be a little chubbier when I get back......but it was worth it. Aside from the overkeenes of potatoes - czechs do gooood stodgy food.

We even went horse-riding, but our horses were less enthusiastic about the ride than we were, but it was nice to walk through the forest, in the hills over the town. To top off our great days, we usually ended up playing big card games (and twice monopoly) which sometimes got a little competitive - but overall hillarious. It has been conclusively proven that I suck at monopoly.

Ceske Budejovice - try saying that after a few beers

no_fosters_thanks — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Damn those Czech beers....so irresistable

We initially stopped here for two reasons - we needed some time out from hostels, and we also knew the Budvar brewery was here.....sadly the brewery was shut for tours on the weekend (Tom nearly cried), but our hotel was wonderful:) Most things are shut on the weekends in the Czech Republic, and being a small town - we did what we did best. Drink beer and eat good food. Yuuuuuuum. Went to the 'London Bar', which you could tell was a london bar, for inside it had pictures of london bridge, big ben, and the beatles.

Tried to go up the black tower (which was closed) - which is reputed to be good for lovelorn people to jump off. Hence, the black tower. Slightly unusual tourist attraction, but interesting all the same.

Prague

no_fosters_thanks — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Everyone knows this one....

Prague was one of the most gorgeous cities we have come across, being virtually untouched by WW2. We stumbled across the town square at dusk, being in one of our various wandering expeditions (so much easier than trying to navigate to a set destination - esp after a few beers). After being amazed by the laneways and alleys that just Spring from nowhere, we headed to local restaurant for dinner. The food was brilliant, so after stuffing ourselves silly (another theme for this trip) we wandered ourselves home again.

The next morning was a fantastic day - one of the sunniest we've seen so far. Still bloody cold mind you, but at least good for photos! We hiked up the hill to the castle, and had a good sticky beak, and into the cathedral there.

One of the most stellar cathedrals I've ever seen. Just stunning. We continued wandering to the much painted/photographed/stuffed full of tourist bridge, St Andrews bridge. Pretty, but dangerous as the risk of a gawping person would walk straight into you.

inside the cathedral

Staropramen Brewery

Being the entity of tom and Sarah - finding out our hostel was 300m from the Staropramen brewery - irresistable. So we naturally did the brewery tour - and enjoyed the free beer tasting afterwards. Our group was 2 irish, us, and many many norweigans. So the norweigans had a little taste, then buggered off - and us and the irish helped the guide clear the lines - by drinking all the excess beer! The guide was awesome, chatting away to us. Was quite hillarious though, when we were first standing next to the Irish, we thought they non-english (I thought german?) and they thought the same of us! So when we finally worked out we all spoke english (rather poorly) we got along grandly.

Prague has many marionette makers, and one shop as we were walking along had a store person making pinocchio dance to Butterfly - by crazy town. Hillarious!

Poland!!!

no_fosters_thanks — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Krakow was great to fly into - and it was even better when we discovered the best hostel in the world - Greg and Tom hostel, if you are ever there, make sure you book in! Where else do they make you a cup of tea and give you a cake as you sign in? Aside from your grandma's....

We nearly got off to a shaky start, after arriving at Edinburgh Airport and discovering I had left my handbag at Bec's house...complete with purse, phone, ipod and camera. Luckily we had it sent over to the airport in a taxi - but Tom was ready to murder me. And very understandably.

The city itself was quite compact, which was very convenient for walking around, and seeing all the sights in a short period of time. We wandered up to Wawel castle, (where allegedly they kept a dragon which they had to feed on Virgins - the Poles have an awful number of jokes regarding this).

We generally pottered around the main square, which was pretty spectacular, but it was quite noticable that you were never more than a few hundred metres from the nearest church. For a place with 50p beers....not quite what I expected.

Cloth Market

Also wandered about the Jewish section of the city, which used to have near 70,000 strong living there, which is now down to only approximately 200, as after WW2 who was remaining tended to immigrate.

Salt mines

The other major thing we did was head out to the salt mines, which have extraordinary carvings made by the miners, compeltely from Salt. Multiple chapels have been carved by hand, underground in these mines.

Glasgow! Wooo!

no_fosters_thanks — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Dr Who was in Glasgow...

Well, we finally made it over to Glasgow yesterday. I don't know what took us so long (probably the lack of time off), but it was only a 1 hour bus trip from Edinburgh, right into the centre of Glasgow. Not a particularily interesting bus ride, but the city itself is just so different. You would never believe that Glasgow and Edinburgh were only an hour apart, the people, architecture, the accent! The whole feel of the cities are worlds apart.

Whilst our main intentions in Glasgow were to go and see Damien Rice in concert, we manage to see some sights while we were there...

Firstly headed for a wander around the streets to get a bit of orientation, swung past George Square which was rather impressive. Then up to the Cathedral, which was simply stunning. Not the biggest, or the most opulent church, but it was built in the 13th century, and is a multi-level place that is incredibly interesting.

Right after visiting the Cathedral, we needed a quick bathroom stop, which was impeded by the fact the public bathrooms were locked....so what do we think, 'hey, there's a free museum right there...we'll just duck in....' Which went well until we walked in the door and was greeted by a sweet little old lady, who told us ALL about the museum and it's exhibitions, and we felt so guilty we walked around the whole place until we thought it wouldn't be rude to use the bathrooms. It was a rather interesting accidental trip to 'St Mungos Museum of Religous Art'. Places I never thought I would see Tom.

After that we toddled up to the Glasgow Necropolis, which was basically an old and interesting cemetary (still in use too), which also has great views over the city.

Necropolis

All and all, a rather strange day for sightseeing.... Then seeking to quench our thirst, trying to find a pub that was not either the bloody ritz of pubs, or the scariest dirty old man pub, we dismally failed, but headed off to the SECC for a few pre-show pints and people watching, which was rather good fun.

As for the concert, good fun. Definately a good day out, topped off with managing to make the last bus to Edinburgh, home safe and sound by 2am.

Finally, and update

no_fosters_thanks — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Things are getting pretty settled down here in Scotland. We've been busy working and saving, towards travels. Recently we hired a car and drove down into North England, and I met the rest of Tom's family. It was a fantastic weekend, and really nice to get away. Also managed to duck over to Sherwood forest, which was pretty exciting for me, being the nerd that I am.

This Thursday we're heading over to Glasgow to go and see Damien Rice which we've been looking forward to for awhile. We'll only be over there for a day, but it will be a packed one! There's a few exhibitions we're going to try and make as well.

At the moment we're trying to plan a trip over to the Netherlands for Toms birthday in November.

In other news, we're still just hobnobbing around Edinburgh, checking out the local sights.

oyster cards rock my world

no_fosters_thanks — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Edinburgh Castle

London was a weird experience, didn’t really see or do much, just spent time with Matt and Jo and Trev (Trev being a female cat….hard to wrap your head around) and caught up with Emr and Malte which was great. Haven’t even seen the Thames yet, but I was really keen to head up to Edinburgh and start working just to get settled. Funnily enough dollars don’t make many pounds, so we really needed to get that ball rolling, so four days after flying in, I flew to Edinburgh, Scotland.

I’ve been in Edinburgh for about a week and a half, and absolutely love the place, weather and all. (for those still in Aus, it’s about the same weather here as you have at the moment). The city has the gorgeous houses, massive castle in the middle, cobbled streets, pubs on every second corner…who wouldn’t love it here?

When I first arrived, I stayed at a hostel for a few days, then crashed with Emr and Malte’s fantastic friend David. There was much Booze and sightseeing which was really fun. We headed to the Scotland Museum of Art (I think, it was an art museum in Edinburgh of some name), and it was so much better than I expected. It was a relatively small building, but had some amazing paintings. Absolute favourite was a Rembrant self portrait at 51. If you ever have the chance to see it, it’s great. David was a bit appalled when I walked straight past the Monet’s and the like, but you know, if it doesn’t tickle your fancy…

Gosh this city is just too beautiful

I came up on my own to try and get some things sorted for us, and ended up getting the most suitable job in the world. Yes, I work for Scottish and Newcastle, the Brewery and general booze Co. Places where I belong much☺. Once I secured the job, I also found a gorgeous flat for us to live in, where we will be sharing…but we’re not sure who with! The other couple are moving out in a week, so who knows who it will be. Trying to convince Garth to come and play in Scotland…but unsure how much success we’ll have. The flat we moved into (last night), our moving date kept getting pushed back…and back…and back…although for reasons outside our Landlords control, but it still cost us 200 pounds in alternative accommodation. Ouch. But it’s great to be in our home for the next 6 months already, except we don’t have anything yet…last night all we had on the bed was a tiny travel pillow and a sleeping bag. Todays big expedition is to buy some bed sheets! And pillows!

Tom has an interview at a nice pub around the corner this afternoon, and Harry Potter comes out, so it’s going to be a busy day for all!

New York, New York

no_fosters_thanks — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

NY Stock Exchange

New York is BIG. When Central park is a couple of km’s long, and takes up a teeenie part of Manhattan island, you know there is going to be plenty of walking involved. Honestly, we were in NYC for a crazy four days, and were always out and about, so I’ll give you some of the highlights.

Statue of Liberty

Statue of Liberty – Smaller than I thought. Always looks big on the small screen, but it really just has a massive base. Still worth having a look at, and if you were still able to go up into the statue to the viewing deck (closed post Sept 11) it would be amazing.

Times Square

Times Square – Standing in the middle of Times Square is one of the quintessential New York things, and broadway, wow, crazy busy. Would have been awesome to have gone to see a show there, but I’m still hoping to go and see the Lion King at West End in London. The most fun thing about Times Square is for sure the huge Toys’r’us. This place is so big it has a ferris wheel in the middle of the store. Pretty exciting. They also had a BIG animated T-Rex, I actually found it a big scary. But also HELL COOL! Other highlights, definitely going into the two storey Barbie Fun house. If I had more money, Oktoberfest Barbie would have been coming home with me! Although, with the recent changes to Barbie, she looks like a bit of a slapper. Getting Tom in the Barbie fun house was by far the most hilarious experience, and apparently trying to take a picture…not cool. So for fear of a celebrity style Camera smashing, sorry readers, no visuals of Tom and Barbie☹

Central Park

Central Park was really interesting, it’s so big, and really gorgeous. Walking through there having a hot dog, really good fun. We were lucky our hostel was only a few blocks from the park, so we got to spend a fair amount of time walking around. I didn’t realise but there are actually quite a few sporting facilities in the park, including a mini beach volleyball area. Just a massive sandbox.

Painting at the New York Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art – This was my favourite thing we did in New York, and the best money spent. The Met is so huge, we spent nearly five hours walking around, and covered not even a third of the collection. We picked a few exhibits we were really interested in, and tried to focus on them. But the strangest thing is, you are allowed to take photos in the museum, as long as you don’t use a flash. Which I found a surreal experience, and a little gutting as I had left my camera at the hostel that day! Well excited to see “The death of Socrates”, and my two favourite exhibits were the Modern, and Medieval Armoury. Some of the work in the Modern section were fantastic, and then you had blue canvas. A blue canvas. The Andy Warhols were great to see, and there was some modern portraits that were cool.
But the Armoury was huge, showing full body armour from around the world, and also full horse armour. It was really amazing to see the whole sets that people used to wear into battle. Although, I feel sorry for the poor horses having to carry the whole shebang.

The birthplace of Cheers…the bar

no_fosters_thanks — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Amazing statehouse

When it came time to leave beautiful Quebec City, we struck upon the small problem that EVERYWHERE IN CANADA WAS BOOKED OUT FOR THE WEEKEND, and consequently we had no-where to go…but down south. incidentally, spending Canada day in Quebec, no-one even seemed to notice it occurred. St Jean Baptiste day though….big nationalist party!
So to till time, we just bussed around Canada for the day, heading down to Ottawa with the intention of leaving our bags at the station and checking out the town for the evening. But when we arrived, we discovered we really were not fussed, so just sat in the canteen for a few hours and played cards. We managed to get ourselves on the bus to Boston (why not, with a couple of days to kill, lets check it out eh?) and gosh, was that a bus trip.
Now americans, just to preface this, I don’t mind Americans, in fact I like quite a few of them. (and in the case of joyce absolutely adore). HOWEVER, this was the bus trip from hell…the moment we crossed into the States.
Firstly, getting Sarah to do a border crossing at 2am…I’m hardly at my sharpest. So the first indication I’m a terrorist, I kept telling that my date to fly out of New York, was three days previously. Apparently, the difference between the 6th of June and 6th of July, is quite big. Whatever. Plus I have a massive bag, so I must be hiding weapons of mass destruction…in my sleeping mat. Having to do a full bag search was not what I was interested in at 2am. In fact when the guard told me to open my bag, I believe I answered with “fine, but if you want it open, you have to help me close it again”. Which he had too…as after my bag search I was unable to jam it all back it. I had messily shoved (I mean packed) with precision and skill, and you can’t just open it up and expect it to close itself.
God knows why, but he didn’t say anything to my washing bag, which had a very large quantity of white powder in a zip-locked bag with no markings…he must have just known it was washing powder.
Then, to add insult to injury, he charged me USD$6 for a three month tourist visa…even though I already have a year long visa! What is with that country? I can only stay for three months at a time, have to leave and re-enter EVEN THOUGH I PAID STUPID AMOUNTS OF MONEY TO BE ALLOWED THERE FOR A YEAR.

So, as you can see, America and I got off on the wrong foot. And then we changed to the greyhound. Please refer to Tom’s blog for a description of that awful bus. Ikes.

However, Boston surprised me. The public transport, cheap and easy to use, the people friendly, the city, pretty and also walkable, which is very unusual. We had two nights booked in Boston, and we jammed a fair bit into those days. Firstly, we headed out to the Samuel Adams Brewery, for our free brewery tour. Not amazingly keen on all of their beers, but it’s the closest they have to boutique beer, and I’ll admit the Summer ale is really quite tasty. That was a good tour, except for the young guy who overfilled his beer, and proceeded to slurp it off the table. That was our cue to depart.

Boston Heritage weekend celebrations...right

Later that day we headed down to the local park, which was full of community gardens. That was one of the real highlights, these gorgeous little gardens, complete with tables and chairs, and it was obvious people took real pride in their gardens. It was really lovely to see that in the middle of the city.

The other big thing we did was headed out to Harvard. So yes mum, I went to Harvard. Hehehehe. The campus there is massive and every building covered in Ivy. Funnily enough where that ‘Ivy League’ stuff all comes from. I didn’t realise but it was the first University in the US. My favourite though, for sure the number of bookstores. Oh, an absolute dream.

But the best thing about Boston, we met some fantastic people. From the guy in the pizza shop to our fellow dorm-mates, we had a ball. Our roomies was a couple from Alabama, two musicians and they were great fun to hang out with, and we got together with more people, and played cards until 2am in the morning one night. Great time. But, all good things come to an end, and it was time to go to NYC!

A bit of old world charm

no_fosters_thanks — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Tom-pom

After being wowed in Montreal with the architecture, Quebec city knocked my socks off. The old city itself has been fantastically maintained, with the original city walls intact, rambling cobbled lanes and houses and hotels older than anything in Australia. The first thing we did upon arrival, was to find the city walls, and walk all the way around them! Old Quebec is actually quite small, with the walls only being 4.5kms. Great wall of china it is not, but it IS the closest fortified city to Mexico City. And believe me, that’s a long way. Anyone who has gone greyhound in North America will agree.

We have spent three nights in Quebec city, having to change hostels after the first night. The hostel we originally booked into was nice, clean and cheap, but it also had no locks on any of the doors, no lockers in the room, and sadly, no security whatsoever. We made the change to the nearby HI, which although has lots of older people and school groups…also had a bar! We met some more top people there, and hopefully will be catching up with some of them in New York City.

To be honest, there are plenty of museums and tours, restaurants and carriage rides to do in Quebec, but we spent all our time walking and just enjoying the random sculptures and taking it all in, and Tom taking 300 photos a day. You can’t even explain what a contrast to the rest of Canada it is. And to be honest our French is appalling, and even trying to buy bread is a big ordeal. More than it should be. But in saying that, some French people we were talking with, said the difference between French-french and Canadian-french is massive, and even they struggled. Not that we can speak French-french either, but hey, I’ll take any reason right now.

After a great three days walking all around Quebec, we have decided to move on, but had the slight dilemma that everywhere in Canada doesn’t seem to have beds available tonight, so we thought, stuff it, lets head to Boston! So the next stop will be the hometown of Harvard University, and the Samuel Adams brewery. And considering my impending career change to brewmaster, we’ll be forced to do tours of both. (market and production you see).

Bonjour!

no_fosters_thanks — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The view from Mont Royal

That is as much french as I can muster. What we intended to be a two night stay in Montreal, became three…and then five. We completely lucked out with our hostel, which I would have to say is one of my favourite hostels I’ve been too, and I really wish we had been there while it was packed full. My usual ability to find hostels in random places…yet again confirmed, this time our hostel was in the middle of the Village, that being the gay village. Which was good, as Tom felt right at home. For a change I wasn’t in the middle of all the strip clubs, but that’s due to Montreal spreading them around, there isn’t a red light district per se, the naked chicks are dispersed around the city.

Still gorgeous Montreal

Montreal itself is a beautiful city, by the waterfront is many original buildings, and it has a real European charm. It’s awesome that the province of Quebec has managed to thrive so well within Canada, it’s like a separate world. Fall asleep for two hours from Ottawa, and all of a sudden it really is like a slice of france. There is a real food and wine culture there, but even some things are totally different to the rest of Canada, like to provision of alcohol. It’s everywhere in Quebec, and about half the price of what we would pay in Vancouver. Even at a BC Liquor store. So I think the rest of this little story is obvious, a hostel with a rooftop terrace….and some stellar backpackers (not us, Cheryl and Graham – who happen to be some of the funniest brits I’ve met in my life. When we were all rolling drunk they invited us to their homecoming party in London…which we’re intending on turning up to, so hopefully they were serious!)

Violence against pool noodles, quebec says "every sunday"

Something we did find, was walking through Mont Royal park, was the weekly drumming circle (which was huge), and the medieval pool noodle fight. People in armour, with pool noodle fashioned into swords, axes, one enterprising young man even had a bow and padded arrows. And then they rush into battle, and die. Then do it again. And again. Queer.

In Montreal, by and large all we did is walk around the city, having a gander at the waterfront, walked up Mont Royal to get a full view over the city. Actually, it was a little embarrassing to arrive in Montreal to find out the rather large fact that Montreal is actually on an island. Something major we managed to miss. Whoops.

After 5 days though, it’s was time to keep moving, towards our next French-canadian destination with a rather large hangover, Quebec City.

Those kidneys eh

no_fosters_thanks — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The bus here was fantastic! We went via the great lakes to Toronto, and it was some of the most amazing scenery in Canada. It`s hard to comprehend that such a huge expanse of water is only a lake. And if that isn`t enough reason for us to have spent 4500km already on the bus...we also get to meet some really interesting people. Mr Ted and his friend were escorted to the bus leaving Thunder Bay by the police.

Toronto has been a really cool city, with a really strong cafe culture and a level of constant energy. People do move faster here, but they also party more than the Vancouverites. Sorry guys, that`s just how it seems. I`ll admit it, I fell in love with Toronto. The moment we got of the bus, and tried to find our hostel, we got caught up in the throng of people going to watch the Much Music awards, recorded live at stages set up in the street in the heart of the city. People were everywhere, but even at the best of times, Avril and Hilary aren`t my top priority, so we kept hauling our packs and eventually found our hostel. Incidentally, if anyone is going to Toronto, head to the Canadiana backpackers, it really is as good as the ratings say.

So what did we do in Toronto, we kicked it up the CN tower, and stood on the glass floor. Yes, I`ll admit, it gave me the heebie jeebies. Glass, under your feet at that height, just doesn`t seem smart. But it was fun, and thats what really counts.

Steam Whistle Brewery

But my FAVOURITE thing we did in Toronto, was visit the Steam Whistle Brewery and have a few beers and a guided tour. And I`m now going to change careers, and become Sarah the brewmaster. HEll yes. Teh tour was fun, and really interesting and all about beer. What more do you need in life, thats right, nothing.

We also had the good fortune to catch up with my friend Monique, who I met in South America, and we had a few lagers and laughs. Hard to believe that it had been over 6 months since I last saw her. Time has passed so quickly.

On the last day in Toronto we headed down to Niagara Falls, which was pretty cool, but to be honest, not a patch on Iguazu Falls in Argentina. But, still a great day trip.

Although the funniest thing happened at the greyhound Toronto transit station, an Australian girl was sitting behind Tom and I..and was having a hillarious conversation with a Canadian girl. Aside from the fact that she had done almost EXACTLY the same thing I have done since I left home, she was a bit ditzy. She asked the Canadian girl what she was reading, and she's gone 'a book about kidneys'. Then Aussie was like 'those kidneys eh? My friend has three'. Tom and I were nearly rolling around the floor. I still get the giggles thinking about it.

So, I might be afraid of heights...

no_fosters_thanks — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Just down at the shops...

Arriving into ThunderBay in the evening...things were a little off kilter from the beginning. From our taxi driver, trying VERY hard to take us to the Super 8 Motel, even when we gave him the exact address of the our hostel. The fact that he said we were going to be in a dodgy part of town, also hardly encouraging. But, considering my innate ability to book hostels where hookers live, it was no surprise.

The hostel turned out to be more of a house, with the very friendly owner Gail, living in the basement suite, and the rest of the house occupied by travellers. It was actually a great experience, and we met a fantastic Spanish bloke called Carlos. Carlos decided he was over his job, so decided to pack up and cycle across Canada for 5 months, and some of the stories he had, fantastic.

Although the first night in Thunder bay was far from perfect, with half the town losing power (and as a result...tom and I struggling to get a feed anywhere) we were well surprised when everything turned out great.

Thunder bay is most commonly known for the town where you can see the Sleeping Giant, this HUGE island, when viewed from the town, looks like just that, a sleeping giant. It was actually very cool, but for some unknown reason to myself, I failed to take a photograph. Idiot much. But, I did take a photo of the local porn store...just around the corner. Like they always seem to be.

Swimming spot at the river

The weather (which has been absolutely PISSING down) cleared up to a gorgeous next day, and Gail insisted on taking Carlos, Tom and I to some of the local swimming holes, which strangely, did include a waterfall. Although Gail insisted it was safe to jump, the thought of Tom trying to explain to my dad how I broke two legs...less than appealing. Carlos gave it a go, but hey, one crazy person is enough for every tour.
After that, we did go to the local river, where we were all game enough to swim...and some locals tried to teach us where we could dive. Which was fine, when we climbed up the rocks...they jumped...and Tom jumped..and I chickened. It was ok, I was only stuck up there for like, 15 minutes before I jumped. Sadly, the rocks we climbed up, where not exactly climb downable...so it was the only option. Tom did climb back up to give me some moral support...or scare me into thinking he would push me...it`s hard to tell.

Teddy took the bus to Toronto

Anyways, after a pleasant 24 hours at the town of the sleeping giant, it was time to jump back on the greyhound for another 22 hour stint. Yay. Although, it did turn out to be a fantastic trip. Believe it or not, I`m glad we went greyhound.

Those crazy prairie kids!

no_fosters_thanks — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Tom and I have just spend a fantastic week with Stu, Amanda and Andrew in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (hard to spell, easy to draw). After our short early morning adventures with Wal-Mart, the 5 of us loaded up the car, and headed off to Stu's lake cabin, up at the wickedly cool, Emma lake.

Amanda, Tom, Andrew and Stu at the Zoo

To be honest, we just had four days of good old fashioned fun. There was mini-golf, ice-cream, playing at the beach (ok, lake with sand) canoeing.....It was quite hillarious playing mini-golf, as there was the added challenge of putting your ball in the hole before andrew picked it up, and either gave it to you, or put it straight in the hole! I'm proud to say Andrew and I make a stellar team, one effort I didn't even have to hit the ball before we got it in the hole...

Andrew playing mini-golf

We played in the sand aplenty..got to meet the neighbours and just generally had a great time. By sheer co-incidence, Tom and I had our 1 year anniversary at the cabin, on the same day as Amanda and Stu, so we all went out for dinner to celebrate! Yaay!!! It was a great few days, and wow, when people say saskathewan is flat, they really mean it. I got excited when I next saw a hill. And it was in Manitoba.

Banff and JJJ

no_fosters_thanks — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Watch for those...elk

Well, Banff and I didn't get off to a great start. We arrived early in the morning, to rain, more rain and an australian at our hostel, who managed to wind tom up like a clock. So lets be honest, our first day in Banff, a complete Australian write off. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE jjj radio station, but hearing it broadcast at a hostel in Canada, while hearing more aussie accents then in Werribee....it wasn't what I was quite looking for. Thrown in with poor weather and so many gift shops (with signs in Japanese) and I'll be honest, my first impression of Banff was less than good.

Tunnel Mountain

After a good snooze though, the next day we awoke to great sunny weather, and we managed to get out off the main tourist strip and explore (and for the first time see the mountains without a hazy wet blur). Being in the Rocky mountains, wow. Banff is basically a valley nestled inbetween some amazing mountains. In the middle of summer, and the middle of winter Banff would be a great place to stay - but Spring, maybe give it a miss. In saying that, we hiked up Tunnel Mountain, and had a small picnic lunch, and the views were nothing short of spectacular. It was a decent walk up there, but for panoramic views of the Rockies, priceless.

The view from Tunnel Mountain

That evening, we headed out on a bus to Saskatoon, which is further east about 10 hours. That wasn't too bad, we were two of ten people who also had the crazy inclination to spend 10 hours on a bus from Calgary (we had to swap buses) to Saskatoon, so it was a quiet and comfortable leg.

Once we arrived at Saskatoon, at 5.30 in the morning, we were greeted by a rather surreal experience, of Stu running through the bus station waving a giant aussie flag. Lucky we weren't in Banff, or he would have been mobbed. After a very early morning breakfast out at Denny's, we also made a quick stop at Wal-mart, to pick up the essentials. Oars, charcoal and lifejackets. What else do you need at 7am?

"I think my horse wants to go this way"

no_fosters_thanks — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Our goodbye bbq

What a crazy few days it's been. So, lets finish off last week, after finishing work the lovely HPO (they took me out for lunch on my last day - and gave me a sweet t-shirt - a temp never gets treated this good) we had a small bbq and beers down at Kitsilano beach, to say goodbye to many of our Canadian friends. It really was a fun night, less on the frisbee as planned, and more on the beers. Amber and Simon brought down their portable bbq, and we had 'smokies'. Which as we understand is as important to the Canadian childs birthday parties as...well, fairy bread. Except more so, as boys have smokies too. (btw they are tasty little smoky flavoured snags...brilliant!)

The next morning we had to move out of our house, so we went and imposed on the best australian themed b&b in Vancouver, also known as Amber and Simon. And then things went a little weird.

Chilling at Amber and Simons

Wreck Beach

So, one of the big things for touristas to do in the vancouver area, is to go and visit the funky wreck beach, out near the University of British Columbia. So Elsa drove Amber, Tom and myself out there...and gosh, was it a shock. This beach was PACKED. Full of naked people. We however, we considerably overdressed, but wow. I have never seen so much, and anywhere I tried to look, it was unavoidable. Now, we're not prudes, but there are just somethings that shouldn't get sunburnt. The amostphere was pretty cool though, a random drumming session to our left, with people dancing, beach volleyball, stalls with people selling Jewellery/clothes/food/anything. It was a really good experience, but I'm a very confident clothesist.

After drinking a bottle of wine down the beach, and having a snack, we headed back to Ambers place (with a very distressed looking Tom). For the evening, being our last in Vancouver, we collected Simon and headed out for all you can eat sushi and korean bbq. YUM. $20, and we stuffed ourselved silly. And I'm now a really big fan of Kimchee, a more avid fan of pork dumplings, and less of a fan of oysters and sqiud. Ugh.

And to think we couldn't leave Vancouver on even more of a high, Sunday, after Amber cooked us bacon and eggs (I love that girl), we headed back down to kits beach, and had a picnic and a game of boce, and coincidentally, a few beers. Unlike me, I know. However, come 5pm, it's time to leave, and we said our final goodbyes, and got on the greyhound.

That was a fairly uneventful night, the bus took 13 hours, from Vancouver to Lake Louise, but being an overnight bus, and having an ability to sleep most places, it wasn't too bad. But wow, when the sunrise came, we were travelling through the snow capped rocky mountains, and it was simply stunning. It actually make me glad we took the bus. No matter how shattered we were.
Before we got off the bus however, there was another tourist who was trying to get some help, she was spanish, and had some questions about one of the spots...and gosh, did I realise how shaky my spanish is. It's gone even more downhill (although it was hardly high on the slope), but we eventually got a 'level' of communication, and worked it all out. Such a mental workout for 7am though. WOW!

Lake Louise - look at the reflection!

After ditching our bags in the hostel, we headed for a little hike up to lake louise, taking the longer, more scenic Bow River trail. It was really awesome. Once there, we hiked halfway around the base of the lake, checked out the Chateau and were generally amazed by the lake. The water is just such an intense blue, it was great to see. Early in the day however, we were exhausted, so headed back to get an early dinner and early night. Or so it would seem.

Last night we managed to get some old people (youth hostel?) in our room, which would be fine, except for the fact they BOTH snored like tractors. There needs to be a rule, if you know you snore, you CAN'T STAY IN DORMS. I was ok, pretty wrecked from the trip so I only woke a few times, but I think Tom was about to go postal. Luckily, we fell asleep at 7pm, and didn't get up until 9am, so we managed to get a few hours in there, but we needed that sleep. It has been calculated, at walking over 15km, both that day AND today, make Sarah one hungry and tired little traveller.

Tom, the little snowbunny

So today, when we headed back up to lake louise (incidentally, we appear to be the only crazy people to walk up from the village to the lake) we hiked a higher trail, up to mirror lake. This is the trail to do, on a switchback, there's a clearing where you can look back on the lake, and that is honestly the best spot to see the lake. Photos can't do it justice. It was quite funny though, it's been a late spring, so the trail still has ice...and SNOW! Tom and I would not be so immature as to make snowballs to throw at one another. Maybe. It was great, but when we were walking on this three foot snow, I deviated only slightly...and totally dropped my foot in uncompacted snow and went sprawling in the snow..Tom, to his credit did not laugh at me, but it would have been understood. Incidentally, Tom is addicted to when he sees ice or snow, he has to walk on it. Even if it's only a foot wide stretch.

Tom and Oreo

After retrieving my leg from the snow, we headed down to Timberline Tours, to do our 2 hour horse ride! I really had my heart set on riding up to the 6 glaciers, and to lake agnes tea house, but due to the snow (and massive ice sheets which were due to come down on the trail any day), we had to do a combination of shorter rides, which were still fantastic. Not as fantastic as Tom on a horse! Brilliant. My favourite moment, was when the trail split in two, and one way headed back to the stables, and one was the way we were going. Steve (the guide) and myself start walking down the trail to the right...and hear a call "I think my horse wants to go this way"..with Toms and his horse Oreo turned left, and heading back to the stables. After stopping Oreo, he refused to turn around and come with us, until Steve talked Oreo into it...and he complied, but had a very unimpressed look for the rest of the ride.

It was a great ride, and Lake Louise has been good, but after two full days, it's time to move on, so we're off to Banff next. We have to be in Saskatoon by friday, so still aways to go!

Tom

Chat soon, love sarah

Leaving Vancouver

no_fosters_thanks — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Ok, I'll finish my blog entry soon...I promise. But the day has come, we're bussing out of vancouver today, heading for the awesome, Lake Louise. So, contact will be more random, but YAY! On the road again.

Finished work friday, spend all weekend with amber and simon, and very soon it's time to leave. But enough time for bacon and eggs first!

Chatskies soon

Sarah