Yay! I'm in Laos finally! After 3 days of voyage, Carly and I arrived yesturday afternoon to the little port city of Luang Prabang where we will be spending new years. But the way here, the voyage, was quite an interesting experience through and through... culture shock? Definitly. Did I learn from it? Of course.
From Chiang Mai, Carly and I decided to do an organized sort of "tour" for our journey to Laos - a country that only just recently opened its borders to the outside. We concluded that since the packeage offered a discount on the Visa - which I would receive directly at the guesthouse before departing on the boat - as well as 1 night's accomodation in Chiang Khong, dinner, breakfast, and a packed lunch PLUS our 5 hour bus ride to Chiang Khong, and a 2 day journey by slow boat down the Mekong River... well, thought we'd go with that so there wouldn't be any worrying envolved as far as how we could get all that otherwise. It was the safest way to pay for a Laos visa and receive it without question. So we took off in a mini bus to Chiang Khong on the 28th with other people from various guesthouses, and little did we know how close we would all become over the course of our journey...
The guesthouse was quite nice, right on the river, decent food, nice people. The next morning I received my visa as planned and Carly & I were of the first 8 to head down to the pier, ferried to the other side of the river, stamped our visas, payed for that night's accomodation in Pak Beng, and trucked off to another pier where we would board the slow boat. The slow boat can comfortably hold about 40 people and so when we noticed that there were much more than 40 people boarding the boat, we just assumed there would be another boat since so many were trying to get to Laos for New Years. Do you think this happened? HECK NO! If you can imagine, there was 110 people - mostly white tourists - packed like sardines onto a boat that was far from comfortable to begin with. This perhaps is usual for locals to be packed together so tightly, but for all the grumpy and complaining tourists, it was almost like a hell for them. I'm not saying I was happy-go-lucky for the journey, but it was really neat to have experienced that - on the bright side. We saved a couple seats for the 2 aussies travelling with their 1 year old baby boy since we knew it would have been quite difficult for them otherwise. Jetta, Neils, and little Elkin. Carly and I and a few others were babysitters for the ride! It was so cute! They appreciated it totally and in that journey we became quite close, as far as travellor's can achieve closeness to others. Between constantly standing up and sitting back down on the cooler so the crazy boat lady could serve beer to the drunken tourists - and one local who picked a fight with Jetta because he just wouldn't shut-up while Elkin was sleeping, was beligerant and puking over the side and then going back for more beer which the crazy boat lady cheerfully served him - and moving over every 5 mins for the idiots who didn't think to go to the washroom beforehand, and not to mention the jerks who were hanging their legs off the edge and leaning their chairs back who wouldn't budge to allow for more room to get to the toilet, oh ya and there was the heat and crampedness and constant loud droan of the motor situated in the back of the boat where we were also situated... it was a very unique and interesting journey! heehee Baby sitting Elkin definitly passed the time cuz playing with babies is always fun, especially smiley happy ones with really cool parents.
The arrival was a gong show, in its truest sense. It was dusk, there was hardly any light, everyone piled off the boat and waited on the steep sandy banks for someone to unlaod their packs so they could mad dash it to find a place to sleep for the night if they hadn't arranged for one already. But the bags never came. I grabbed mine before deboating, but still had to get Carly's and so while she waited with our stuff, I went back on the boat to see what was going on.
The dudes were moving them from to the middle, but not OFF the boat. I started an assembly line to get the packs off before it got too dark, and as they were coming off Neils was calling out their descriptions and trying to fend off the little local boys who would come and try to steal them (or bring them up the bank)! I got off, Carly went on the search for her's and some older local had it and another's and tried to get her to pay to get it back! Of course she didn't, but because this town was PURELY built for tourism - ie. dodgy guesthouses and restaurants are it's only industry - the locals don't really understand what that means... it's hard to explain. I saw a dude shove a poor boy face first into the sand because he was so fed up with them crowding around him. It was terrible. The tourists don't really understand either, apparently. So after all that crazy day, exausted and sweaty and sore, we found our dodgy guesthouse and went for some delicious thai food with Jetta, Neils, Elkin, Perdy and Abbey (the 2 british birds who were also on the mini bus ride as well as our boat).
Elkin was across the street being watched so Jetta could have some peace time. So cool. The other kids being watched were of the young girl who was cooking everyone's meal BY HERSELF as well as the girl's brothers and sisters. The babysitter? the girl's mother. But that's what it's like there... she is only 15 years old and just had her second child only months before. She is working from dawn til 10pm when the entire village's power is shut off for the evening because of the curfew. A very different way to live. It's incredible.
Day 3 will be written another time...
12.26.2005
bangKOK it's good to be here!
Hello to all my fans and adorerers... heehee I hope everyone's Christmas was a wonderful one, filled with good food, good gifts, but most of all good times. Mine sure was! THE MOST relaxing Christmas I have ever had in the boonies of Northern Thailand, about 17kms outside the city of Chiang Mai. We (Carly & I) stayed a beautiful resort where the spicy thai food was just that: spicy, and the scenary of course was fantastic. I have never seen such beauty before... I've been to many countries these past few months and the landscapes have all been respectively unique - even within a single country the landscapes shift, but nothing can compare to the mountains of Thailand. And though Thailand and the whole of S.E. Asia has been having quite a "cold" spell, the weather has still been substancially warmer than Spain and I've been in flipflops the whole time. TODAY though is absolutely gorgeous, the sun is back! It's been so long since I've felt it's luxurious rays on my skin... YES! heehee And here I am in an internet caf‚e writing an entry for this blog instead of outside basking in the sun! Now THAT's love!
*muah* a kiss for all of you cuz you are surely missed.
So ya. Bangkok was cool. The plane ride over was decent too; with nice reclinging chairs, a tv on every seat, good meals served, me and this dude who looked like Vin Diesel had a whole centre row to ourselves so we took advantage and sprawled out... the flight was 11 hours so why not? haha But arriving into Bangkok was pretty easy, no problems at the border, no real hold-ups either. Carly got pretty sick in Phnom Penh (stomach virus and head cold) and I got some sort of a cold while in Spain so we were pretty dosconnected for our 1.5 days in Bangkok. Went to Kaoh San Road (THE street to go to the city for cheap whatever and accommodation and pretty much everything a tourist might want/need) nonetheless, I met Carly's friend Sue who owns a shop there - very cool lady, single, no kids, travels and her shop is awesome - and hungout til we cought our train for our overnight ride to Chiang Mai.
Our resort was called Banana Bon Bon and it was paradise. Truly. The food was friggen AWESOME! We were right in the mountains, the boonies, no international telephones, no internet. As a gift, Carly and I went on an ELEPHANT RIDE!! WOW!! That was just about the most incredible feeling ever to see the animal I have for so long adored and felt a connection to... touch her, feel her leathery skin, look into her wise and caring eyes... so beautiful, I can hardly describe how I felt. It was a short visit, but it will forever be engraved in my memory as one the happiest moments of my life. Christmas was peaceful, as I've already said, and quite the refreshment from the craziness that is what I'm accustomed to . I might even consider doing something like that every year... truly. And now we are back in the city of Chiang Mai for the day and the night.
We leave tomorrow morning for Chang Khong where we'll be fed dinner, lodged over night, and fed breakies. We will leave Thursday morning on the "slow boat" which takes 2 days to reach the Laos border. In Laos I will write again cuz it likely won't be until then that I'll be near a computer, let alone any sort of advanced technology. I'll be in Luang Prabang for New Years and we'll be touring around Laos until January 9th at which time we'll be heading into Cambodia for the rest of January. I think the plan so far is that we'll be staying at an eco house in Ban Lung, living in a hut amongst the local tribes there, learning how they live, their history. I look forward to that for sure. Also, I have been invited to come along with Rain Water Cambodia and see/learn what it is they do as far cleaning the water and what not. I am honored for this oppertunity. We will be staying with the good people with whom Carly stayed and I am very excited to meet them. I will include a map of Laos in my next entry which won't be until the beginning of January.
Until then, know that I will be playing it safe and taking good care of myself. Carly and I are both healthy and ready to go and adventure! Yay! I hope you are all well... Keep posting comments (S&D) and at least START commenting you guys!!! Come on! I wanna know how you are! I love you!!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
*muah* a kiss for all of you cuz you are surely missed.
So ya. Bangkok was cool. The plane ride over was decent too; with nice reclinging chairs, a tv on every seat, good meals served, me and this dude who looked like Vin Diesel had a whole centre row to ourselves so we took advantage and sprawled out... the flight was 11 hours so why not? haha But arriving into Bangkok was pretty easy, no problems at the border, no real hold-ups either. Carly got pretty sick in Phnom Penh (stomach virus and head cold) and I got some sort of a cold while in Spain so we were pretty dosconnected for our 1.5 days in Bangkok. Went to Kaoh San Road (THE street to go to the city for cheap whatever and accommodation and pretty much everything a tourist might want/need) nonetheless, I met Carly's friend Sue who owns a shop there - very cool lady, single, no kids, travels and her shop is awesome - and hungout til we cought our train for our overnight ride to Chiang Mai.
Our resort was called Banana Bon Bon and it was paradise. Truly. The food was friggen AWESOME! We were right in the mountains, the boonies, no international telephones, no internet. As a gift, Carly and I went on an ELEPHANT RIDE!! WOW!! That was just about the most incredible feeling ever to see the animal I have for so long adored and felt a connection to... touch her, feel her leathery skin, look into her wise and caring eyes... so beautiful, I can hardly describe how I felt. It was a short visit, but it will forever be engraved in my memory as one the happiest moments of my life. Christmas was peaceful, as I've already said, and quite the refreshment from the craziness that is what I'm accustomed to . I might even consider doing something like that every year... truly. And now we are back in the city of Chiang Mai for the day and the night.
We leave tomorrow morning for Chang Khong where we'll be fed dinner, lodged over night, and fed breakies. We will leave Thursday morning on the "slow boat" which takes 2 days to reach the Laos border. In Laos I will write again cuz it likely won't be until then that I'll be near a computer, let alone any sort of advanced technology. I'll be in Luang Prabang for New Years and we'll be touring around Laos until January 9th at which time we'll be heading into Cambodia for the rest of January. I think the plan so far is that we'll be staying at an eco house in Ban Lung, living in a hut amongst the local tribes there, learning how they live, their history. I look forward to that for sure. Also, I have been invited to come along with Rain Water Cambodia and see/learn what it is they do as far cleaning the water and what not. I am honored for this oppertunity. We will be staying with the good people with whom Carly stayed and I am very excited to meet them. I will include a map of Laos in my next entry which won't be until the beginning of January.
Until then, know that I will be playing it safe and taking good care of myself. Carly and I are both healthy and ready to go and adventure! Yay! I hope you are all well... Keep posting comments (S&D) and at least START commenting you guys!!! Come on! I wanna know how you are! I love you!!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
12.20.2005
leavin on a jet plane...
So, my euro tour is over and I'm off to London and then Bangkok. Crazy. In case I don't write again for a while, I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and all the best in the new year... know that while most of you are enjoying a delicious turkey dinner, I' ll be chowing down on a bowl full of rice. heehee
Take care everyone. I'm pretty excited about going... but I still miss you all lots.
Take care everyone. I'm pretty excited about going... but I still miss you all lots.
I love you.
xoxoxox
12.18.2005
what an awesome hostel!
Well, let me tell you, if you ever go to Spain you MUST not only come to Granada, but you must also come and stay at the Oasis hostel. What a cool vibe! And the staff are phenomenal... I have met more cool people here than I have on my entire trip!
Yesturday I woke up just in time for breakies feeling like a piece of crap on the sidewalk that has been smooshed to a disgusting mess that people have walked on and sworn over. I decided to go for a walk around the city with my friend Kat. It was beautiful outside. I bought some multi-colored yarn and she wrapped a few of my dreads last night at the bar over beer and "smokes". It was great! Met some awesome people and got pretty drunk. I plugged in my iPod to the bar speakers and shared some sweet tunes with everyone. I even played Ani DiFranco's Dilate album! We talked about love, its meaning individually speaking... we talked about music and these 2 dudes from Vermont were so surprised that I had Delani cuz they are good friends with them and couldn't believe that anyone outside their area even knew of them. That was neat for sure. I love talking about love and music! We were up til about 4am or so...
This morning, I woke up again just in time for breakies feeling surprisingly good! Musta been the beers and the tequilla shot... heehee I wrapped one of my dreads in hemp, tying macrame knots to give a spiral effect. It looks cool! My hair is colorful now! So much character! Haven't done much else with my day, except I ate 3 delicious home-made waffles with butter and brown sugar...mmmmm! We're going for chinese food later with the manager of Oasis (she's very cool, lived in San Fransisco for 7 years), Maddy, and a few other people including Monique of course! Yay!
Dudes, I am so excited to be leaving for Bangkok on Tuesday, but I am really going to miss this place. I am so attached to so many of the awesome people staying here. I think that's the one thing I have a problem with as far as the travelor's life goes: that you meet so many interesting people and you might not ever see them again. Just people that are a part of your life for such a short time, with whom you share as little or as much about yourself as you like (and vice versa) and with whom you share some pretty cool memories. Truly going to miss this place and all those who have come into my life... I'm truly going to miss travelling in general for this reason. I say that's my only problem, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It is as it is. I've learned so much from those who've crossed my path and walked a short distance with me. They'll always be part of my memories, a part of the path I've walked. This life is incredible. This life is not something I'll never know again for it's too precious and beautiful. You'll never imagine how much you think about everything so differently when you're out and about and seeing different cultures, countries, and towns all over the world. This was the best thing I could have done for myself in the life I once lead. I love everyone on a different level. I appreciate all of you with new eyes. And I'm far from being done experiencing!
So keep checking here for more updates cuz I am about to embark on a whole new adventure in a part of the world more wholly different than anywhere in Europe and North America. I am eager to share as much as possible with all of you.
Take care and spread the LOVE!
Yesturday I woke up just in time for breakies feeling like a piece of crap on the sidewalk that has been smooshed to a disgusting mess that people have walked on and sworn over. I decided to go for a walk around the city with my friend Kat. It was beautiful outside. I bought some multi-colored yarn and she wrapped a few of my dreads last night at the bar over beer and "smokes". It was great! Met some awesome people and got pretty drunk. I plugged in my iPod to the bar speakers and shared some sweet tunes with everyone. I even played Ani DiFranco's Dilate album! We talked about love, its meaning individually speaking... we talked about music and these 2 dudes from Vermont were so surprised that I had Delani cuz they are good friends with them and couldn't believe that anyone outside their area even knew of them. That was neat for sure. I love talking about love and music! We were up til about 4am or so...
This morning, I woke up again just in time for breakies feeling surprisingly good! Musta been the beers and the tequilla shot... heehee I wrapped one of my dreads in hemp, tying macrame knots to give a spiral effect. It looks cool! My hair is colorful now! So much character! Haven't done much else with my day, except I ate 3 delicious home-made waffles with butter and brown sugar...mmmmm! We're going for chinese food later with the manager of Oasis (she's very cool, lived in San Fransisco for 7 years), Maddy, and a few other people including Monique of course! Yay!
Dudes, I am so excited to be leaving for Bangkok on Tuesday, but I am really going to miss this place. I am so attached to so many of the awesome people staying here. I think that's the one thing I have a problem with as far as the travelor's life goes: that you meet so many interesting people and you might not ever see them again. Just people that are a part of your life for such a short time, with whom you share as little or as much about yourself as you like (and vice versa) and with whom you share some pretty cool memories. Truly going to miss this place and all those who have come into my life... I'm truly going to miss travelling in general for this reason. I say that's my only problem, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It is as it is. I've learned so much from those who've crossed my path and walked a short distance with me. They'll always be part of my memories, a part of the path I've walked. This life is incredible. This life is not something I'll never know again for it's too precious and beautiful. You'll never imagine how much you think about everything so differently when you're out and about and seeing different cultures, countries, and towns all over the world. This was the best thing I could have done for myself in the life I once lead. I love everyone on a different level. I appreciate all of you with new eyes. And I'm far from being done experiencing!
So keep checking here for more updates cuz I am about to embark on a whole new adventure in a part of the world more wholly different than anywhere in Europe and North America. I am eager to share as much as possible with all of you.
Take care and spread the LOVE!
12.16.2005
keepin' it REAL
Wow. Tired today! Big day! Full of sweat, and sore muscles, and awesome scenary, and succulent food... mmmm... Heck YES it was a good day! I asked myself as I was scaling the mountain just outside of Granada, I wondered why the hell I choose to do these damn hikes hungover?? Ever single time it's been that way, although keep in mind I've only gone on a major hike about twice this trip. heehee But still. My statement is well-founded.
TAPAS
So, uhm , I was gonna tell everyone about what a Tapas is. A tapas is when you order a beverage of any kind, though it usually contains alcohol, and you get a plate of food for FREE! What a brilliant idea! And you not only get a free plate of food, but you also get to CHOOSE (in some cases) what kind of food you want! The first place on the tour last night incidentally was a tapas bar that was recommended to us by a pair of aussies we met at our hostel in Killarney, Ireland. This bar in particular gives you quite a large portion of food. We had the tortellini in a white sauce... mmmm... very good. With our next cervesas (beer in spanish) we tried the spring rolls. Stuff like that is usual for tapas. And fries with a garlic mayo. After the 3 tapas bars, one of which was a shot bar filled with americans studying abroad who were spending their last night getting loaded before going home for the holidays, we went to a salsa club and I got SCHOOLED! I had never danced salsa in all my long years circling this lovely sun of ours. The dude had mucho patience that is for certain cuz I just couldn't get the steps!! He was doin the fancy moves too apparently and so taking that bit of information into consideration, I certainly wasn't an abomination nor detestation, more a toleration than anything. But he was smiling! haha Worked up a sweat too! After a night of drinking, eating, and dancing, we went back to the hostel - our oasis - which was at about 2am or so, stayed up til about 4am "talking" with our posse... where large, hearty laughs ensued. ;-) Where the term "keepin' it REAL" originated from, well, at least it's been our inside joke all day. haha And speaking of big laughs, one of the dudes from last night - Simon from Victoria living in London - out of nowhere starts singing "knights in white satin..." and we just about lost our whits and everything about us. I mean, when was the last time anyone has heard that song?? Seriously! I told him I was gonna write about that in my journal and so, as Moses once said: So it said, So it is written!
THE HIKE
Well, considering how late I went to bed and the amount of smoke I inhailed, I didn't think I was gonna keep my promise to myself about taking this hike. No way, josé. At breakies, I was a hurtin albertan for certain. But, I asked myself in an inside voice "why not go on this hike? What the heck else are you gonna do with your day? You might as well get off your fanny and actually go out see this city in which you are calling home for only another 2 nights!". Of course, this inside voice is usually right, and not to mention a little intimidating at times, so I took the pep talk into consideration and decided to go with it. I am so glad I did. It was so GORGEOUS!! The sky was clear, albeit a little hazy, but the visibility was still pretty incredible considering I had never seen anything like that before. Each country has its own distinct beauties and these mountains were definitly no exception. And yes, I took many photos. Yay! The hike itself was excrutiating at first, out of breath and sweating, straining muscles that hadn't been worked in quite some time. But it felt so good to be outside and doing SOMETHING! I mean, how many people can say they woke up after a night of tapas and laughs and took a 4 hour hike in the mountains of SPAIN??? Ya. So, ya. It was definitly worth it. The view from the top of was of course breathtaking, with the valley down below and the white caps in the distance... We got a great view of the Alhambra (an old muslim castle, huge) and the city surrounding it. The walk down was much more enjoyable. haha Stopped into a tapas bar with a wonderful young aussie named Kat (we met the night before at the hostel, had both gone on the tapas tour the night before) and our hike guide. Kat and I then decided to go for some hubbly bubbly and good conversation. She is only 19 years old but has lived such unique life full of amazing life experiences. It was awesome getting to know her! I love this life of moving and meeting people, creating a circle of friends for the short time we stay in any given place...
MY NEXT BOLD MOVE?
Well, I have no clue really. Maybe it'll be me hitting the sheets early tonight when I know people are staying up and will miss my awesome presence... I'd say that counts for boldness! heehee I kid, I kid. Naw. I would like to go to sleep soon and wake up refreshed, eat breakies, go and walk around this place cuz I guess it's known for it's cool graffiti art, buy some colored yarn and wrap a few dreads... add some spice, if you will! But who knows. Chances are good I'll hit up another tapas bar at some point tomorrow, not to mention there's another tapas tour planned! And I think there's a concert outside the city in the caves where the gypsies live... flamenco dancers and music! I'd like to do that for sure. I'll have to write another entry, but I'll likely wait til my last day in Madrid, Monday evening, since I'll be leaving for Bangkok on Tuesday!! Crazy... Oh, and so you know, we'll soon be adding another album to the yahoo collection illustrating our time here in Spain. This will happen before we leave the country so make sure you tune in!
TAPAS
So, uhm , I was gonna tell everyone about what a Tapas is. A tapas is when you order a beverage of any kind, though it usually contains alcohol, and you get a plate of food for FREE! What a brilliant idea! And you not only get a free plate of food, but you also get to CHOOSE (in some cases) what kind of food you want! The first place on the tour last night incidentally was a tapas bar that was recommended to us by a pair of aussies we met at our hostel in Killarney, Ireland. This bar in particular gives you quite a large portion of food. We had the tortellini in a white sauce... mmmm... very good. With our next cervesas (beer in spanish) we tried the spring rolls. Stuff like that is usual for tapas. And fries with a garlic mayo. After the 3 tapas bars, one of which was a shot bar filled with americans studying abroad who were spending their last night getting loaded before going home for the holidays, we went to a salsa club and I got SCHOOLED! I had never danced salsa in all my long years circling this lovely sun of ours. The dude had mucho patience that is for certain cuz I just couldn't get the steps!! He was doin the fancy moves too apparently and so taking that bit of information into consideration, I certainly wasn't an abomination nor detestation, more a toleration than anything. But he was smiling! haha Worked up a sweat too! After a night of drinking, eating, and dancing, we went back to the hostel - our oasis - which was at about 2am or so, stayed up til about 4am "talking" with our posse... where large, hearty laughs ensued. ;-) Where the term "keepin' it REAL" originated from, well, at least it's been our inside joke all day. haha And speaking of big laughs, one of the dudes from last night - Simon from Victoria living in London - out of nowhere starts singing "knights in white satin..." and we just about lost our whits and everything about us. I mean, when was the last time anyone has heard that song?? Seriously! I told him I was gonna write about that in my journal and so, as Moses once said: So it said, So it is written!
THE HIKE
Well, considering how late I went to bed and the amount of smoke I inhailed, I didn't think I was gonna keep my promise to myself about taking this hike. No way, josé. At breakies, I was a hurtin albertan for certain. But, I asked myself in an inside voice "why not go on this hike? What the heck else are you gonna do with your day? You might as well get off your fanny and actually go out see this city in which you are calling home for only another 2 nights!". Of course, this inside voice is usually right, and not to mention a little intimidating at times, so I took the pep talk into consideration and decided to go with it. I am so glad I did. It was so GORGEOUS!! The sky was clear, albeit a little hazy, but the visibility was still pretty incredible considering I had never seen anything like that before. Each country has its own distinct beauties and these mountains were definitly no exception. And yes, I took many photos. Yay! The hike itself was excrutiating at first, out of breath and sweating, straining muscles that hadn't been worked in quite some time. But it felt so good to be outside and doing SOMETHING! I mean, how many people can say they woke up after a night of tapas and laughs and took a 4 hour hike in the mountains of SPAIN??? Ya. So, ya. It was definitly worth it. The view from the top of was of course breathtaking, with the valley down below and the white caps in the distance... We got a great view of the Alhambra (an old muslim castle, huge) and the city surrounding it. The walk down was much more enjoyable. haha Stopped into a tapas bar with a wonderful young aussie named Kat (we met the night before at the hostel, had both gone on the tapas tour the night before) and our hike guide. Kat and I then decided to go for some hubbly bubbly and good conversation. She is only 19 years old but has lived such unique life full of amazing life experiences. It was awesome getting to know her! I love this life of moving and meeting people, creating a circle of friends for the short time we stay in any given place...
MY NEXT BOLD MOVE?
Well, I have no clue really. Maybe it'll be me hitting the sheets early tonight when I know people are staying up and will miss my awesome presence... I'd say that counts for boldness! heehee I kid, I kid. Naw. I would like to go to sleep soon and wake up refreshed, eat breakies, go and walk around this place cuz I guess it's known for it's cool graffiti art, buy some colored yarn and wrap a few dreads... add some spice, if you will! But who knows. Chances are good I'll hit up another tapas bar at some point tomorrow, not to mention there's another tapas tour planned! And I think there's a concert outside the city in the caves where the gypsies live... flamenco dancers and music! I'd like to do that for sure. I'll have to write another entry, but I'll likely wait til my last day in Madrid, Monday evening, since I'll be leaving for Bangkok on Tuesday!! Crazy... Oh, and so you know, we'll soon be adding another album to the yahoo collection illustrating our time here in Spain. This will happen before we leave the country so make sure you tune in!
12.14.2005
Here I am at Camp Grenada
Well, coming from the city of Barcelona to the Island of Ibiza to another city called Valencia to where I've currently set my pack down, has been quite the journey in itself. haha So maybe I'll say few words about each of the previous places before I describe this pretty cool place. Oh ya, if you have no idea how to visualise geographically speaking, check out the "map of Spain" link to your right... maybe that'll help you!
Barcelona
Flying into this Olympic city after having spent a little over a month in dreery Ireland was a definite treat! Let me tell you! Palm trees! Warm weather... I whipped out my flipflops and haven't done that since Turkey! We met up with Monique's best friend Erica from Calgary and she travelled with us for about 10 days. We spent about 3 nights in Barcelona... the first night we met a woman named Michelle from NYC who was travelling alone. We spent the evening out on the terrace, drinking wine and talking. 2 other dudes from I can't remember where joined us and we all had a blast until 3am when we were warned the neighbors were gonna call the cops on us. haha So, needless to say, we called it a night. Went to the Aquarium the next day, hungover, but still had a wicked time... there are some crazy fish in the sea! The shark tank was the coolest and the biggest... you stand on a moving walk-way and the tank surrounds you! the sharks and eals and manta rays are swimming all around you! That night we decided to drink beer and again, stayed out on the terrace quite late having a grand time indeed! ;-) We did a hop-on/hop-off bus tour of the city the next day and got to see alot of the Gawdy (not sure on the spelling at the moment) architecture... WOW. That was really cool. So unique. I have pictures, don't worry! But overall, Barcelona was cool but not really my kinda place.
The Island of Ibiza
We took a ferry out there, ferries are expensivé! But since we were 3 and it was low season, we stayed at a beachfront hotel for like 14€/night! It was awesome! We were there for 3 nights. We went to that big time European night club called Pacha where you definitly have to drink BEFORE you go cuz beer and water there are like 9€! Insane. The pub where we pre-gamed was cool and owned by a dude and his husband. We have a cool pic with the 3 of us with them behind the bar. They gave us free shots. mmmm... We went to Pacha at 3am and got home around 5:30am and then slept til about 2:30pm. Ya. Right off day for sure. The day AFTER that day, we rented a car for about 10€ each and drove around most of the island! We got to see it from a different perspective and at our own pace... it felt so good to drive again! AMAZING place... I can't wait to upload those pictures... I would like to go back some day during the summer for sure.
Valencia
Now this was a cool city. Our hostel was located in such a prime area too! Our very street was one of the places recommended to check out cuz of the old architecture, the old buildings, and the HUGE wooden doors, so skillfully carved... We did a lot of walking around that area, it was hot in the sun. We visited the the Space and Science Centre which was way more fun when I was a kid... as in, that's what I realized. The imax film was a highlight though! We had to wear head gear! Hilarious. El Mysterio del Nilo was the title. I recommend it to everyone. The park that runs through the city used to be where the canal divided it until it flooded once too many times a while back and killed some people so they decided to move the canal and convert the space into a pretty cool giant green park. Fully equipped with a large fountain which is situated just in front of the music hall and at night they play classical music, light the fountain up, and the water squirts out to the tune of the music! A neat thing to see. Just a really cool city to visit if anyone is thinking about going to Spain.
Grenada
Well, after an 8 hour train ride from Valencia that didn't even leave til like 1:30am, we were quite pooped upon arriving. However, we got to our hostel, Oassis, and fell in love with the atmosphere here!! Free internet, free breakies, free welcome drink, free tapas tours every other night, 3.50€ gets you a 3 course meal which is offered every other night as well, free spanish lessons from what I hear! And there are tonnes of people still here even in low season! We did a bit of walking along the cobblestone streets after waking from our siesta. I think I'm really gonna like it here. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and take our own little tour of the city. Oh, tomorrow night is Tapas tour night and so you can be assured I'll be recounting the events here! haha Ya, Grenada. Awesome. Very cool shops, very cool vibe. And most importantly: VERY CHEAP! If anyone isn't familiar with what a tapas tour is, you will find out soon enough... it's brilliant!!!
Well, I'm tired. Happy reading!
Barcelona
Flying into this Olympic city after having spent a little over a month in dreery Ireland was a definite treat! Let me tell you! Palm trees! Warm weather... I whipped out my flipflops and haven't done that since Turkey! We met up with Monique's best friend Erica from Calgary and she travelled with us for about 10 days. We spent about 3 nights in Barcelona... the first night we met a woman named Michelle from NYC who was travelling alone. We spent the evening out on the terrace, drinking wine and talking. 2 other dudes from I can't remember where joined us and we all had a blast until 3am when we were warned the neighbors were gonna call the cops on us. haha So, needless to say, we called it a night. Went to the Aquarium the next day, hungover, but still had a wicked time... there are some crazy fish in the sea! The shark tank was the coolest and the biggest... you stand on a moving walk-way and the tank surrounds you! the sharks and eals and manta rays are swimming all around you! That night we decided to drink beer and again, stayed out on the terrace quite late having a grand time indeed! ;-) We did a hop-on/hop-off bus tour of the city the next day and got to see alot of the Gawdy (not sure on the spelling at the moment) architecture... WOW. That was really cool. So unique. I have pictures, don't worry! But overall, Barcelona was cool but not really my kinda place.
The Island of Ibiza
We took a ferry out there, ferries are expensivé! But since we were 3 and it was low season, we stayed at a beachfront hotel for like 14€/night! It was awesome! We were there for 3 nights. We went to that big time European night club called Pacha where you definitly have to drink BEFORE you go cuz beer and water there are like 9€! Insane. The pub where we pre-gamed was cool and owned by a dude and his husband. We have a cool pic with the 3 of us with them behind the bar. They gave us free shots. mmmm... We went to Pacha at 3am and got home around 5:30am and then slept til about 2:30pm. Ya. Right off day for sure. The day AFTER that day, we rented a car for about 10€ each and drove around most of the island! We got to see it from a different perspective and at our own pace... it felt so good to drive again! AMAZING place... I can't wait to upload those pictures... I would like to go back some day during the summer for sure.
Valencia
Now this was a cool city. Our hostel was located in such a prime area too! Our very street was one of the places recommended to check out cuz of the old architecture, the old buildings, and the HUGE wooden doors, so skillfully carved... We did a lot of walking around that area, it was hot in the sun. We visited the the Space and Science Centre which was way more fun when I was a kid... as in, that's what I realized. The imax film was a highlight though! We had to wear head gear! Hilarious. El Mysterio del Nilo was the title. I recommend it to everyone. The park that runs through the city used to be where the canal divided it until it flooded once too many times a while back and killed some people so they decided to move the canal and convert the space into a pretty cool giant green park. Fully equipped with a large fountain which is situated just in front of the music hall and at night they play classical music, light the fountain up, and the water squirts out to the tune of the music! A neat thing to see. Just a really cool city to visit if anyone is thinking about going to Spain.
Grenada
Well, after an 8 hour train ride from Valencia that didn't even leave til like 1:30am, we were quite pooped upon arriving. However, we got to our hostel, Oassis, and fell in love with the atmosphere here!! Free internet, free breakies, free welcome drink, free tapas tours every other night, 3.50€ gets you a 3 course meal which is offered every other night as well, free spanish lessons from what I hear! And there are tonnes of people still here even in low season! We did a bit of walking along the cobblestone streets after waking from our siesta. I think I'm really gonna like it here. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and take our own little tour of the city. Oh, tomorrow night is Tapas tour night and so you can be assured I'll be recounting the events here! haha Ya, Grenada. Awesome. Very cool shops, very cool vibe. And most importantly: VERY CHEAP! If anyone isn't familiar with what a tapas tour is, you will find out soon enough... it's brilliant!!!
Well, I'm tired. Happy reading!
12.12.2005
A FIRST ENTRY...
Well, what can I say? I'm on the last leg of my "European Tour" and lemme tell ya: it's been a wild ride! I've seen so many beautiful cities, experienced such wonderful cultures, and have met some pretty awesome folks along the way. I've learned much about myself over these past 3 months. I've really gotten to KNOW myself on a profound level because I've had a lot of time to think... all those bus and train rides... It's truly amazing what the brain will come up with if you allow it some time to ponder in silence and tranquility, without the day to day, mundane stuff it's grown so accustomed to. I'm impressed with my brain! haha So, my brain is impressed by itself? My brain is self-impressed? I don't know how to put that since I'm talking as though "I" am a seperate entity from my brain... Ok. I can't think about such things right now. Maybe I'll come back to that, maybe not. But ya.
Where have I been?
I've been to Yack n' back! haha Seriously, we - my travelling companion, my partner in crime: Monique and I - departed Toronto on Septemeber 11th and landed in smoggy Athens, Greece. We spent 2 weeks touring mainly the islands of Santorini, Naxos & Mykonos. We ferried our way to Turkey where we spent 3 weeks with Monique's bro Jean-Paul. What a country! My favorite country thus far FOR SURE! Flew out of Instanbul to land in a pot-smoker's dream city: Amsterdam, Netherlands... spent a full week (minus a day) there and indulged ourselves quite chronically. ;-) On to Berlin, Prague, Munich, Frankfurt, Dublin. Spent a whole month (plus 3 days) in Ireland, stayed a while in Greystones with some funky fellas: thank-you Stephen and David Flynn! and toured around down the east coast, to the south, then up the west coast and back to Dublin where we flew to Barcelona on Dec. 4th. We met up with Monique's pal Erica and spent 3 nights there, moved on to the island of Ibiza, to Valencia, and tomorrow we're off to Grenada! yay! We will be there til Sunday before we overnight it to Madrid, our final Spanish destination before Monique and I part ways: she's off to Canada and I'm off to Thailand!!!
Where am I going?
I never really know where I'm going, or, at least, I have learned to play it by ear. Never plan anything, never have expectations, go with the flow and it'll all work out for the best. This has been one the major lessons I've learned on this trip. Not to say don't have a "game plan" or anything! I mean, I always have a general idea of where I want to go and sometimes you have to knuckledown and book a hostel, a train or plane ticket in advance. And as for Thailand? Well, I'm meeting up with a lovely lady named Carly and we'll be spending the holidays together since we're both on our own and out of the country this year. I'm not telling the whole truth about that since Carly is much more than just a pretty face... And if this is about where I'm going, then I'll be talking loads more about this incredible and inspirational woman in the near futur. I'll be back in Canada around V-Day, but until I am back, there is so much more to experience on this excellant adventure and I'll be documenting as much of it as possible.
Awesome. Let's see if this works. All the commands and everything are in Spanish since I've started this blogger here in Spain. So I'm not completely sure of what I'm doing at the moment. This is a test of the emergency broadcast system... heehee
Buenas Noches!
Where have I been?
I've been to Yack n' back! haha Seriously, we - my travelling companion, my partner in crime: Monique and I - departed Toronto on Septemeber 11th and landed in smoggy Athens, Greece. We spent 2 weeks touring mainly the islands of Santorini, Naxos & Mykonos. We ferried our way to Turkey where we spent 3 weeks with Monique's bro Jean-Paul. What a country! My favorite country thus far FOR SURE! Flew out of Instanbul to land in a pot-smoker's dream city: Amsterdam, Netherlands... spent a full week (minus a day) there and indulged ourselves quite chronically. ;-) On to Berlin, Prague, Munich, Frankfurt, Dublin. Spent a whole month (plus 3 days) in Ireland, stayed a while in Greystones with some funky fellas: thank-you Stephen and David Flynn! and toured around down the east coast, to the south, then up the west coast and back to Dublin where we flew to Barcelona on Dec. 4th. We met up with Monique's pal Erica and spent 3 nights there, moved on to the island of Ibiza, to Valencia, and tomorrow we're off to Grenada! yay! We will be there til Sunday before we overnight it to Madrid, our final Spanish destination before Monique and I part ways: she's off to Canada and I'm off to Thailand!!!
Where am I going?
I never really know where I'm going, or, at least, I have learned to play it by ear. Never plan anything, never have expectations, go with the flow and it'll all work out for the best. This has been one the major lessons I've learned on this trip. Not to say don't have a "game plan" or anything! I mean, I always have a general idea of where I want to go and sometimes you have to knuckledown and book a hostel, a train or plane ticket in advance. And as for Thailand? Well, I'm meeting up with a lovely lady named Carly and we'll be spending the holidays together since we're both on our own and out of the country this year. I'm not telling the whole truth about that since Carly is much more than just a pretty face... And if this is about where I'm going, then I'll be talking loads more about this incredible and inspirational woman in the near futur. I'll be back in Canada around V-Day, but until I am back, there is so much more to experience on this excellant adventure and I'll be documenting as much of it as possible.
Awesome. Let's see if this works. All the commands and everything are in Spanish since I've started this blogger here in Spain. So I'm not completely sure of what I'm doing at the moment. This is a test of the emergency broadcast system... heehee
Buenas Noches!
11.05.2005
sausages to leprocauns
Hello all! It's been a while but I have finally found some
(expensive) time to write about my travels from Berlin, Germany to
where Monique and I are now: Greystones, Ireland.
~sigh~
So, Berlin. Ya. It was rainy and our hostel was shit cuz it was
full of stupid teenagers and it was expensive and sheets & breakies
was extra money and the bunk beds were so creeky. So I didn't
really get a good vibe from Berlin and all I wanted to do was go
back to AMSTERDAM! Can you really blame me? But, since we were
there, we thought we might as well see the city and decided to take
a bike tour! Yay! Mike's Bike Tours. Our guide was this greesy
aussie with SUPER long and wonderful dread locks. He was pretty
funny and showed us some pretty interesting and of course historical sites. Let me see if I can remember some of them... The Berlin Wall - or rather, what's left of it cuz in most places it's just a stone line in the ground and in others it's the actual wall with the gap in between the 2 sides of it are still kinda there. It's all graffitied to shit now too and stupid tourists would go out at night and ram into it (with their vehicles, yes) to make chunks fall so they could take home a piece of it. Checkpoint Charlie of course, which is where the old American and the East Germany borders met. The University where all those books were burned, the old palace, museums, Marienplatz (where all the political rallies and such were held... pretty cool... there are statues of Karl Marx and Staline we got pictures with), the hotel from where Wacko Jacko dangled his baby and nearby from where Pink Floyd played and from where David Hasselhoff (AKA: The Hoff) performs. haha Kinda funny. But uh, so Berlin was almost all restored cuz so much of it was destroyed in WWII and so you can see the covered bullet holes in so many of the buildings. It was pretty neat riding our bikes in a huge tour around the city. It was definitly a highlight.
Berlin to Prague, Czech Republic! Uhm... I have a feeling I already wrote about Prague... So, I'll skip it and say that we stayed 6 nights there and I loved every minute of it and the beer was DELISCIOUS and so was the food! haha Let me know if I didn't send a mass on Prague...
Prague to Munich, Germany! Munich was beautiful, sunny, and the vibe was great. We spent the better part of our first 'day' visiting the 1st Nazi Germany concentration camp... we went to
Dachau (pronounced: da-how, with a sort of phlegmy sound for the H)
and got a tour of what's left of the camp today. So eery. Our
first stop on the tour was inside where the SS would hang 'the
undesirables' from the beams by their wrists - BEHIND their backs -
and so their shoulders would pop out and they would be in so much
pain and the only way to avoid the pain is to hang as still as
possible - find the centre of gravity - except, thing is, since they weren't considered people from the moment they walked through the gates, they were already dead to the SS and so the SS would push them and hang off them and whip them until they died the most
excrutiating death... I'm sorry for the vivid description, but I
really want to emphasize how the guide described it to us... I
cried so much that day... To NOT be considered a PERSON, a HUMAN
BEING and to be treated in such a horrible manner, more horrible
than anything you can imagine... as horrible as the Christians
described Hell. And it wasn't just the Jews who were treated this
way, but germans, homosexuals, anti-socials, catholic priests, the
Roma and the gypsies... this happened all over Europe and because of one man... So ya. The whole tour was just indredibly somber and
Monique and I hardly spoke the whole time. The Gas Chambers were
well, very REAL and I was almost sick with sadness... If you ask me
about it some time, I'll tell you, but I'm not gonna write this
stuff here... it's too disturbing. I'm glad I experienced that
place though. We are both glad.
The next day we took a free walking tour of Munich and so that was
MUCH more lighthearted. I loved it!! Bavaria... The famous clock
was really nothing special, but everything else was pretty cool.
The cobblestone roads, the nice people, the YUMMY beer, the
history... Munich, much cooler than Berlin! I have pics and so
I'll post them soon. They'll tell the story. I'm going to try and
add captions to them so you can understand what you're looking at.
Munich to Frankfurt, in a car pool we discovered through one of the
girls from the hostel! Awesome ride! Nice dude for sure and he
drove us right to the city centre where we could catch our shuttle
to the cheap-ass airport Ryanair flies out of. Listened to some
great music!! We had a beer in Frankfurt which means we were
OFFICIALLY in Frankurt. It's a lot more modern than any other city
in Germany, full of skyscrapers and cutting edge technology. We
only spent a few hours there before we flew out to Dublin that night.
Frankfurt to Dublin, Ireland!!! Ahhhhh... Dublin. We are
definitly liking it here, except for the rain andthe cold though!!!
We walked all over the city pretty much, well the centre part
anyhow. We caught a Tracy Chapman gig last night!! That was so
cool! Greystones is so cute and I will write more on that another
time cuz my internet time is expensive and... well... I'll be here
til Christmas! Yay!
Until next time, (sorry I just cut off like that) take care of
yourselves and know you are all in my thouhts and in my heart. I
hope your're enjoying the photos!!! yay!
(expensive) time to write about my travels from Berlin, Germany to
where Monique and I are now: Greystones, Ireland.
~sigh~
So, Berlin. Ya. It was rainy and our hostel was shit cuz it was
full of stupid teenagers and it was expensive and sheets & breakies
was extra money and the bunk beds were so creeky. So I didn't
really get a good vibe from Berlin and all I wanted to do was go
back to AMSTERDAM! Can you really blame me? But, since we were
there, we thought we might as well see the city and decided to take
a bike tour! Yay! Mike's Bike Tours. Our guide was this greesy
aussie with SUPER long and wonderful dread locks. He was pretty
funny and showed us some pretty interesting and of course historical sites. Let me see if I can remember some of them... The Berlin Wall - or rather, what's left of it cuz in most places it's just a stone line in the ground and in others it's the actual wall with the gap in between the 2 sides of it are still kinda there. It's all graffitied to shit now too and stupid tourists would go out at night and ram into it (with their vehicles, yes) to make chunks fall so they could take home a piece of it. Checkpoint Charlie of course, which is where the old American and the East Germany borders met. The University where all those books were burned, the old palace, museums, Marienplatz (where all the political rallies and such were held... pretty cool... there are statues of Karl Marx and Staline we got pictures with), the hotel from where Wacko Jacko dangled his baby and nearby from where Pink Floyd played and from where David Hasselhoff (AKA: The Hoff) performs. haha Kinda funny. But uh, so Berlin was almost all restored cuz so much of it was destroyed in WWII and so you can see the covered bullet holes in so many of the buildings. It was pretty neat riding our bikes in a huge tour around the city. It was definitly a highlight.
Berlin to Prague, Czech Republic! Uhm... I have a feeling I already wrote about Prague... So, I'll skip it and say that we stayed 6 nights there and I loved every minute of it and the beer was DELISCIOUS and so was the food! haha Let me know if I didn't send a mass on Prague...
Prague to Munich, Germany! Munich was beautiful, sunny, and the vibe was great. We spent the better part of our first 'day' visiting the 1st Nazi Germany concentration camp... we went to
Dachau (pronounced: da-how, with a sort of phlegmy sound for the H)
and got a tour of what's left of the camp today. So eery. Our
first stop on the tour was inside where the SS would hang 'the
undesirables' from the beams by their wrists - BEHIND their backs -
and so their shoulders would pop out and they would be in so much
pain and the only way to avoid the pain is to hang as still as
possible - find the centre of gravity - except, thing is, since they weren't considered people from the moment they walked through the gates, they were already dead to the SS and so the SS would push them and hang off them and whip them until they died the most
excrutiating death... I'm sorry for the vivid description, but I
really want to emphasize how the guide described it to us... I
cried so much that day... To NOT be considered a PERSON, a HUMAN
BEING and to be treated in such a horrible manner, more horrible
than anything you can imagine... as horrible as the Christians
described Hell. And it wasn't just the Jews who were treated this
way, but germans, homosexuals, anti-socials, catholic priests, the
Roma and the gypsies... this happened all over Europe and because of one man... So ya. The whole tour was just indredibly somber and
Monique and I hardly spoke the whole time. The Gas Chambers were
well, very REAL and I was almost sick with sadness... If you ask me
about it some time, I'll tell you, but I'm not gonna write this
stuff here... it's too disturbing. I'm glad I experienced that
place though. We are both glad.
The next day we took a free walking tour of Munich and so that was
MUCH more lighthearted. I loved it!! Bavaria... The famous clock
was really nothing special, but everything else was pretty cool.
The cobblestone roads, the nice people, the YUMMY beer, the
history... Munich, much cooler than Berlin! I have pics and so
I'll post them soon. They'll tell the story. I'm going to try and
add captions to them so you can understand what you're looking at.
Munich to Frankfurt, in a car pool we discovered through one of the
girls from the hostel! Awesome ride! Nice dude for sure and he
drove us right to the city centre where we could catch our shuttle
to the cheap-ass airport Ryanair flies out of. Listened to some
great music!! We had a beer in Frankfurt which means we were
OFFICIALLY in Frankurt. It's a lot more modern than any other city
in Germany, full of skyscrapers and cutting edge technology. We
only spent a few hours there before we flew out to Dublin that night.
Frankfurt to Dublin, Ireland!!! Ahhhhh... Dublin. We are
definitly liking it here, except for the rain andthe cold though!!!
We walked all over the city pretty much, well the centre part
anyhow. We caught a Tracy Chapman gig last night!! That was so
cool! Greystones is so cute and I will write more on that another
time cuz my internet time is expensive and... well... I'll be here
til Christmas! Yay!
Until next time, (sorry I just cut off like that) take care of
yourselves and know you are all in my thouhts and in my heart. I
hope your're enjoying the photos!!! yay!
10.20.2005
amsterDAMN it's good to be here! (and Berlin)
Peace, Love, and Happiness to all!
Yay Amsterdam! It is tuesday and we were supposed to leave today, then we pushed it to Wednesday, and now it's FOR SURE Thursday we leave for Berlin... haha So, we got here Friday and haven't been to the famous Red Light District yet and I'm not sure we will even go for a number of reasons, one being that it's supposedly not like it used to be and is therefor dangerous. Another being I'm not sure how I feel about going to a place where I see mostly foreign women, mostly young, mostly pushed into that business, their choice having been removed from them, if they ever really had it. On the other hand, it is a safe place to do it, why? Cuz the government's the pimp? Like murder isn't so bad when it's done by a government?
Wo. Sorry folks. It's been a while since you've had any Jacquie rant! But really, did I make you think about it at least a little? If so, then you know, as long as you can reach ONE person... ;-)
So ya, Amsterdam! Beautiful!! Awesome! I'm lovin it! Staying with my friend Tirza, a local, and we've been out every night since we got here, with the exception of tonight cuz we were pooped so we've indugled ourselves in other activities... Her friends are amazing people who have done amazing things and have hooked me up with some amazing connections not only here with them, but with the organizations they've worked with in S.E. Asia - where I'll be for Christmas and beyond. So who knows what Jacquie's futur holds, but be sure you tune in for the updates! haha But ya, I've been introduced to some incredible music as well... I can't wait to share! And some great books I have to read!
Ya. We went out to the city of Utrecht to meet up with Vilaka - one of the sweetest people I've ever met - for lentil soup, what turned into 5 bottles of wine, and... Picture it: 4 extremely intelligent and beautiful women bonding and sharing some of the most deepest thoughts I've ever had, around a dining room table in a sweet pad that was built in the 60s as a hippy commune (so any architects out there would totally appreciate the character of this place), with awesome music playing, talking about changing the world and passions*. It was really great. The next day we slept in, ate breakies, took old cruisers out to see the dutch countryside! It
was like a chinook, so warm and automn everywhere. Saw a castle, some windmills, a beautiful old town, and lots of sheep.
Went back to Amsterdam and cleaned up for the pot luck Tirza had organised, which turned into a Wine and Cheese rendez-vous, perfect! Met more of her friends and a couple we had already met, took some
funny party pictures too. Crashed out and woke up early and went to see the Van Gogh museum! That was pretty neat. The hotdog I ate before entering was discusting. It was cool getting to know the artist was a struggling one and died relatively unknown. Funny how many only become worth anything AFTER they die and therefor don't need the money. So, ya. That was cool, I have my favs, especially The Walnut Tree (er something). Sat around and took in the city a bit at the park behind the museum and some professor dude from the University of Whales came along... strange experience... wanted us to solve a riddle he and his collegue had brought here a week earlier, their students had come up with the riddle... which wasn't all that much of a riddle... I thought it sucked. But that's not to say we didn't have to think about it! We had 6 guesses, mine was wrong - and obviously WAY too deep for these english dudes. Monique's was right and he gave us 10€ just like he said we would. No one else guessed it! It was stupid. I told him so. haha Maybe I'll tell you about it some day... ;-p
So we met up with Tirza and she took us to our first Coffee Shop experience!! You didn't think I'd pass THAT up, now did you?? I know this is going to family and such, but I refuse to write 2 seperate accounts of what happened. This is ME. Love me for who I am! I am in Amsterdam afterall!! But, if you want the full story on that experience, you can either email me OR wait for the full feature film coming to a theatre near YOU! haha
So dinner was good. Indonesian. Loved it. Met another friend who worked as an english teacher in Cambodia, helped set up like 4 schools. She gave me some contacts for when I'm there and I'm really excited about that prospect. We later went to a really cool jazz club where Monique proceeded take the photography world by surprise when she captured some of that amazing vibe. "Brilliant and REAL" - The New york Times. This was an awesome night cuz that was the best jazz place in the city and we were front and centre, just groovin. We caught the midnight train to the East end where we are staying and popped in a certain series II, episodes 1 through 3 and passed out nicely at about 4am. I woke up at 9 for no real reason, just to
email and stuff, and since we decided to stay yet another night, Monique and I decided to go off on our own and check out the Red Light District by day and the sex museum as well... only we didn't
make it to the museum... and that's all I'd like to say about that. ;-P If you'd like to know how this day/night went, email me and ask... wowzers. A lot of ha ha ho ho and hee hee's... let me tell YOU! Wild!!
So today, we're in Berlin! (In case you're wondering, I saved this email the other day and started writing it again today...) We took a train to Berlin and it only took 6 hours with a gazillion stops so not too shabby! We got here kind of later so we just checked into our rip-off hostel, showered, and grabbed some grub... Tomorrow I'm definitly having sausage and sour craut! And of course see the sites! I'll let you know of course.
We've decided to break up the next 12 days as follows: 3 nights here, 3 nights in Prague, 3 nights in Vienna (hopefully), 2 nights in Munich, and 1 night in Frankfurt which happens to be Holloween night! We were thinking about dressing up as canadians pretending to be americans pretending to be canadians... What do you think? haha We leave the next evening quite late for Dublin... Crazy! To think of all the places we're going to visit within the next couple weeks before we leave for cold - but gorgeous - Ireland for about 5
weeks or so of work. December 20th I'm officially flying to Bangkok from London!!! I'm meeting Carly there and it looks like we'll be heading up to Chiang Mai for Christmas and not sure what we'll be doing for New Year's yet... It's all a surprise for me since I don't know much about S.E. Asia and she works in Cambodia. She has the reigns and I don't mind. I'll be staying in the area for an indefinite amount of time, maybe even work at one of the schools I mentioned earlier... I love not having a plan. I will of course be
keeping you all updated on the turn of events. Questions? Write me! Leave me a voice mail!! Send me party pictures (or whatever) to: orneryhipster@gmail.com
I love you all and I hope everyone had a yummy Thanks Giving... I want to here Halloween stories! Babies? Marriages? I feel so out of touch. Until next time...
Yay Amsterdam! It is tuesday and we were supposed to leave today, then we pushed it to Wednesday, and now it's FOR SURE Thursday we leave for Berlin... haha So, we got here Friday and haven't been to the famous Red Light District yet and I'm not sure we will even go for a number of reasons, one being that it's supposedly not like it used to be and is therefor dangerous. Another being I'm not sure how I feel about going to a place where I see mostly foreign women, mostly young, mostly pushed into that business, their choice having been removed from them, if they ever really had it. On the other hand, it is a safe place to do it, why? Cuz the government's the pimp? Like murder isn't so bad when it's done by a government?
Wo. Sorry folks. It's been a while since you've had any Jacquie rant! But really, did I make you think about it at least a little? If so, then you know, as long as you can reach ONE person... ;-)
So ya, Amsterdam! Beautiful!! Awesome! I'm lovin it! Staying with my friend Tirza, a local, and we've been out every night since we got here, with the exception of tonight cuz we were pooped so we've indugled ourselves in other activities... Her friends are amazing people who have done amazing things and have hooked me up with some amazing connections not only here with them, but with the organizations they've worked with in S.E. Asia - where I'll be for Christmas and beyond. So who knows what Jacquie's futur holds, but be sure you tune in for the updates! haha But ya, I've been introduced to some incredible music as well... I can't wait to share! And some great books I have to read!
Ya. We went out to the city of Utrecht to meet up with Vilaka - one of the sweetest people I've ever met - for lentil soup, what turned into 5 bottles of wine, and... Picture it: 4 extremely intelligent and beautiful women bonding and sharing some of the most deepest thoughts I've ever had, around a dining room table in a sweet pad that was built in the 60s as a hippy commune (so any architects out there would totally appreciate the character of this place), with awesome music playing, talking about changing the world and passions*. It was really great. The next day we slept in, ate breakies, took old cruisers out to see the dutch countryside! It
was like a chinook, so warm and automn everywhere. Saw a castle, some windmills, a beautiful old town, and lots of sheep.
Went back to Amsterdam and cleaned up for the pot luck Tirza had organised, which turned into a Wine and Cheese rendez-vous, perfect! Met more of her friends and a couple we had already met, took some
funny party pictures too. Crashed out and woke up early and went to see the Van Gogh museum! That was pretty neat. The hotdog I ate before entering was discusting. It was cool getting to know the artist was a struggling one and died relatively unknown. Funny how many only become worth anything AFTER they die and therefor don't need the money. So, ya. That was cool, I have my favs, especially The Walnut Tree (er something). Sat around and took in the city a bit at the park behind the museum and some professor dude from the University of Whales came along... strange experience... wanted us to solve a riddle he and his collegue had brought here a week earlier, their students had come up with the riddle... which wasn't all that much of a riddle... I thought it sucked. But that's not to say we didn't have to think about it! We had 6 guesses, mine was wrong - and obviously WAY too deep for these english dudes. Monique's was right and he gave us 10€ just like he said we would. No one else guessed it! It was stupid. I told him so. haha Maybe I'll tell you about it some day... ;-p
So we met up with Tirza and she took us to our first Coffee Shop experience!! You didn't think I'd pass THAT up, now did you?? I know this is going to family and such, but I refuse to write 2 seperate accounts of what happened. This is ME. Love me for who I am! I am in Amsterdam afterall!! But, if you want the full story on that experience, you can either email me OR wait for the full feature film coming to a theatre near YOU! haha
So dinner was good. Indonesian. Loved it. Met another friend who worked as an english teacher in Cambodia, helped set up like 4 schools. She gave me some contacts for when I'm there and I'm really excited about that prospect. We later went to a really cool jazz club where Monique proceeded take the photography world by surprise when she captured some of that amazing vibe. "Brilliant and REAL" - The New york Times. This was an awesome night cuz that was the best jazz place in the city and we were front and centre, just groovin. We caught the midnight train to the East end where we are staying and popped in a certain series II, episodes 1 through 3 and passed out nicely at about 4am. I woke up at 9 for no real reason, just to
email and stuff, and since we decided to stay yet another night, Monique and I decided to go off on our own and check out the Red Light District by day and the sex museum as well... only we didn't
make it to the museum... and that's all I'd like to say about that. ;-P If you'd like to know how this day/night went, email me and ask... wowzers. A lot of ha ha ho ho and hee hee's... let me tell YOU! Wild!!
So today, we're in Berlin! (In case you're wondering, I saved this email the other day and started writing it again today...) We took a train to Berlin and it only took 6 hours with a gazillion stops so not too shabby! We got here kind of later so we just checked into our rip-off hostel, showered, and grabbed some grub... Tomorrow I'm definitly having sausage and sour craut! And of course see the sites! I'll let you know of course.
We've decided to break up the next 12 days as follows: 3 nights here, 3 nights in Prague, 3 nights in Vienna (hopefully), 2 nights in Munich, and 1 night in Frankfurt which happens to be Holloween night! We were thinking about dressing up as canadians pretending to be americans pretending to be canadians... What do you think? haha We leave the next evening quite late for Dublin... Crazy! To think of all the places we're going to visit within the next couple weeks before we leave for cold - but gorgeous - Ireland for about 5
weeks or so of work. December 20th I'm officially flying to Bangkok from London!!! I'm meeting Carly there and it looks like we'll be heading up to Chiang Mai for Christmas and not sure what we'll be doing for New Year's yet... It's all a surprise for me since I don't know much about S.E. Asia and she works in Cambodia. She has the reigns and I don't mind. I'll be staying in the area for an indefinite amount of time, maybe even work at one of the schools I mentioned earlier... I love not having a plan. I will of course be
keeping you all updated on the turn of events. Questions? Write me! Leave me a voice mail!! Send me party pictures (or whatever) to: orneryhipster@gmail.com
I love you all and I hope everyone had a yummy Thanks Giving... I want to here Halloween stories! Babies? Marriages? I feel so out of touch. Until next time...
10.08.2005
Turkish Coasts to Cavernis Caves
GREETINGS ALL!
How is North America treatin' ya? Well let me tell YOUS that Turkey is treating me oh so right! It just keeps getting better and better! Wow. So where did I end off last time? Hmmmm... Let me check the ol' parietal filing cabinet...
So my last entry was about Ephesus, the formidable Roman empire unearthed. We didn't spend too much time in Selçuk cuz we were primarily there to see the old city. There wasn't much to do there anyhow.
We wanted to move on to other sites such as Pamucale (pa-moo-ka-lai): home of the CRAZY CALCIUM DEPOSITS!!! So we spent one more night there and left the next early afternoon for Selçuk. Awesome pics dudes! Awesome scenary! Awesome feeling being there... Imagine a place you had only seen in pictures and had dreamed of seeing with your own eyes someday, and then imagine opening your eyes and BEING there! Looking out onto the deposits, warm spring mountain water flowing, tiny rivulets in the calcium creating a sort of grippy effect... The backdrop to this place was absolutely gorgeous! Mountains and farm fields and a quaint little town, imagine the panoramic view... I hope to help you out a bit with pics... patience
is a virtue. We climbed up to the top and you'd think it was so slippery cuz the calcium resembles ice but no way José! I am experiencing things I never thought I'd ever come close to... Turkey was never a place I thought I'd go but I have been witness to some amazing views and the people are so friggen NICE! It's awesome. Pamucale was probably one the highlights of my trips and I will be seriously dissapointed in anyone who comes to Turkey and DOESN'T visit that place. Be warned. ;-)
So, one night in Pamukale and we moved on to Fethiye (feh-ti-yeh) where we took a minibus to a town called Ölüdeniz (o-lu-de-naiz). WOW! The mountains are so lush and green and the beach at the bottom with waters so clear you can see bottom from 20m out from the shore!! Yet another paradise I've experienced!! Our hostel was called Öba and we lived in a little hut called The Moon House. The restaurant was so cool cuz there were pillows and small tables laid out in one corner and so you had to take your shoes off before mounting onto the carpeted platform. I spent much time there reading, especially the first day cuz we arrived during a TERRENTIAL DOWNPOOR! They had only had rain 1 other day that year and this one was the worst! You should have seen the streets were like rivers, the seweres were spewing and the people were huddled in the tiny shops trying to wait it out. We of course got soaking wet and so to hang out in that restaurant was so perfect, just relaxing... The next day we went to the beach and took a boat taxi out to a place called Butterfly Valley. Pulling up to shore you can see tents everywhere along the beach, a small café, vegetable and druit gardens in the back at the bottom of what was the most picturesque scene I've seen yet: the valley came to a V and you could see so far beyond, all the moutains forming various Vs so you could walk down through the valley and follow along the crevace for a long time. It was like the movie The Beach cuz there were people who actually lived there for free as long as they helped out in the garden and caught fish for everyone to eat that night... I'm totally coming back here and living here for a few months... I felt the vibe for sure. That night we went out drinkin and got pretty wasted. Paul puked. haha
The next day we of course went back to the Valley and spent the entire day there. I finished my book The Da Vinci Code while Monique and Paul went exploring the valley. It was another perfect day. Swimming was so much fun! Upon arriving this day, Monique and I decided to just jump off the side of the boat and swim to shore. Very cool! I was so sad to be leaving... They played St. Germaine on the boat and you should seriously check out that music! Totally groovin!
From Fethiye we moved on to Olympos and stayed in the famous treehouses!! Well, they were more like houses made of trees on stilts rather than actual treehouses, although there were a few genuine treehouses I will admit. haha 15 YTL gets you accommodation, turkish breakfast (which I am so comepltely SICK of)
and an AWESOME warm supper. The hostel is called The Turkman Pension. Awesome music at night!! It was pretty cool and the walk to the beach was very unique: old roman ruins! We spent only 2 nights there cuz we had to move on to where we are currently...
Capadocia!! Home of the cave and underground cities!! Our hostel is in a cave! It's called Shoestring Pension and it's so neat to be actually sleeping in friggen CAVE! haha We crashed out for a fewhours upon arriving since we took an overnight bus and didn't get that much sleep. We woke up and walked the long walk to the open-air museum of the 11th Century cave cities... We have some HILARIOUS pictures and I just can't wait for y'all to see them!! Trust me: you will not only sigh from the crazy beauty but you will cry from laughing. Well... maybe not CRY, but they are pretty funny. I don't even think I can describe what we saw -and what we are living in- because my words won't do it justice. But here's something that maybe you can picture: Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope. Luc, as a young child, living with adoptive parents in that cave city place. If you can picture that then you can picture what we will be seeing for the next 2 days.
Tomorrow we're taking a 6.5 hour hike to see more ruins and an underground city. Tonight we are going out for Paul's 25th birthday, seeing The Whirling Dirvishes, belly dancers, fire dancers, and most importantly: all you can drink drinks!! heehee I'll write my final Turkish entry from Istanbul on the 13th or so before we head off to AMSTERDAM!! moi ah ah ahhhh! It's been quite the trip and like I said, it's only getting better. It looks like I'll be changing my plans after Ireland and won't be touring Europe but S.E. Asia instead... So after Holland, it's Germany, and then finally Ireland. I'll be leaving Ireland at Christmas time and most-likely flying to Bangkok, Thailand where I will be meeting up with my new and awesome friend Carly who'll be in the area since she's working in Cambodia. Maybe New Year's in Laos? So excited!! I'll explain once I know more details of course. The way I see it is if I'm flying there anyhow it makes no sense to fly all the way back to Europe and then go back to Thailand before I go home. This way the money I'll have will go a lot farther then if I stayed in Europe cuz it is FRIGGEN EXPENSIVE! Monique will be going back to Canada for Christmas and it is still unsure as to whether she will be meeting me in Asia. It's all good! Plans change and we are following our hearts. Like I said, I'll keep you posted on all the latest developments. Until next time, keep the emails coming and the voicemails too!! I love hearºng familiar voices and learning that everyone's still alive and well back home. You are all in my heart. I miss you very much. I hope you're enjoying my detailed accounts and I will soon have a website for viewing photos... just keep checking the yahoo photo album! A la prochaine!!
How is North America treatin' ya? Well let me tell YOUS that Turkey is treating me oh so right! It just keeps getting better and better! Wow. So where did I end off last time? Hmmmm... Let me check the ol' parietal filing cabinet...
So my last entry was about Ephesus, the formidable Roman empire unearthed. We didn't spend too much time in Selçuk cuz we were primarily there to see the old city. There wasn't much to do there anyhow.
We wanted to move on to other sites such as Pamucale (pa-moo-ka-lai): home of the CRAZY CALCIUM DEPOSITS!!! So we spent one more night there and left the next early afternoon for Selçuk. Awesome pics dudes! Awesome scenary! Awesome feeling being there... Imagine a place you had only seen in pictures and had dreamed of seeing with your own eyes someday, and then imagine opening your eyes and BEING there! Looking out onto the deposits, warm spring mountain water flowing, tiny rivulets in the calcium creating a sort of grippy effect... The backdrop to this place was absolutely gorgeous! Mountains and farm fields and a quaint little town, imagine the panoramic view... I hope to help you out a bit with pics... patience
is a virtue. We climbed up to the top and you'd think it was so slippery cuz the calcium resembles ice but no way José! I am experiencing things I never thought I'd ever come close to... Turkey was never a place I thought I'd go but I have been witness to some amazing views and the people are so friggen NICE! It's awesome. Pamucale was probably one the highlights of my trips and I will be seriously dissapointed in anyone who comes to Turkey and DOESN'T visit that place. Be warned. ;-)
So, one night in Pamukale and we moved on to Fethiye (feh-ti-yeh) where we took a minibus to a town called Ölüdeniz (o-lu-de-naiz). WOW! The mountains are so lush and green and the beach at the bottom with waters so clear you can see bottom from 20m out from the shore!! Yet another paradise I've experienced!! Our hostel was called Öba and we lived in a little hut called The Moon House. The restaurant was so cool cuz there were pillows and small tables laid out in one corner and so you had to take your shoes off before mounting onto the carpeted platform. I spent much time there reading, especially the first day cuz we arrived during a TERRENTIAL DOWNPOOR! They had only had rain 1 other day that year and this one was the worst! You should have seen the streets were like rivers, the seweres were spewing and the people were huddled in the tiny shops trying to wait it out. We of course got soaking wet and so to hang out in that restaurant was so perfect, just relaxing... The next day we went to the beach and took a boat taxi out to a place called Butterfly Valley. Pulling up to shore you can see tents everywhere along the beach, a small café, vegetable and druit gardens in the back at the bottom of what was the most picturesque scene I've seen yet: the valley came to a V and you could see so far beyond, all the moutains forming various Vs so you could walk down through the valley and follow along the crevace for a long time. It was like the movie The Beach cuz there were people who actually lived there for free as long as they helped out in the garden and caught fish for everyone to eat that night... I'm totally coming back here and living here for a few months... I felt the vibe for sure. That night we went out drinkin and got pretty wasted. Paul puked. haha
The next day we of course went back to the Valley and spent the entire day there. I finished my book The Da Vinci Code while Monique and Paul went exploring the valley. It was another perfect day. Swimming was so much fun! Upon arriving this day, Monique and I decided to just jump off the side of the boat and swim to shore. Very cool! I was so sad to be leaving... They played St. Germaine on the boat and you should seriously check out that music! Totally groovin!
From Fethiye we moved on to Olympos and stayed in the famous treehouses!! Well, they were more like houses made of trees on stilts rather than actual treehouses, although there were a few genuine treehouses I will admit. haha 15 YTL gets you accommodation, turkish breakfast (which I am so comepltely SICK of)
and an AWESOME warm supper. The hostel is called The Turkman Pension. Awesome music at night!! It was pretty cool and the walk to the beach was very unique: old roman ruins! We spent only 2 nights there cuz we had to move on to where we are currently...
Capadocia!! Home of the cave and underground cities!! Our hostel is in a cave! It's called Shoestring Pension and it's so neat to be actually sleeping in friggen CAVE! haha We crashed out for a fewhours upon arriving since we took an overnight bus and didn't get that much sleep. We woke up and walked the long walk to the open-air museum of the 11th Century cave cities... We have some HILARIOUS pictures and I just can't wait for y'all to see them!! Trust me: you will not only sigh from the crazy beauty but you will cry from laughing. Well... maybe not CRY, but they are pretty funny. I don't even think I can describe what we saw -and what we are living in- because my words won't do it justice. But here's something that maybe you can picture: Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope. Luc, as a young child, living with adoptive parents in that cave city place. If you can picture that then you can picture what we will be seeing for the next 2 days.
Tomorrow we're taking a 6.5 hour hike to see more ruins and an underground city. Tonight we are going out for Paul's 25th birthday, seeing The Whirling Dirvishes, belly dancers, fire dancers, and most importantly: all you can drink drinks!! heehee I'll write my final Turkish entry from Istanbul on the 13th or so before we head off to AMSTERDAM!! moi ah ah ahhhh! It's been quite the trip and like I said, it's only getting better. It looks like I'll be changing my plans after Ireland and won't be touring Europe but S.E. Asia instead... So after Holland, it's Germany, and then finally Ireland. I'll be leaving Ireland at Christmas time and most-likely flying to Bangkok, Thailand where I will be meeting up with my new and awesome friend Carly who'll be in the area since she's working in Cambodia. Maybe New Year's in Laos? So excited!! I'll explain once I know more details of course. The way I see it is if I'm flying there anyhow it makes no sense to fly all the way back to Europe and then go back to Thailand before I go home. This way the money I'll have will go a lot farther then if I stayed in Europe cuz it is FRIGGEN EXPENSIVE! Monique will be going back to Canada for Christmas and it is still unsure as to whether she will be meeting me in Asia. It's all good! Plans change and we are following our hearts. Like I said, I'll keep you posted on all the latest developments. Until next time, keep the emails coming and the voicemails too!! I love hearºng familiar voices and learning that everyone's still alive and well back home. You are all in my heart. I miss you very much. I hope you're enjoying my detailed accounts and I will soon have a website for viewing photos... just keep checking the yahoo photo album! A la prochaine!!
9.30.2005
Turkey lurkey do
Yo yo yo!
It's September 30th today and I am in Turkey in a city called Selçuk (sell-chook). I'll start from today how bout? Work backwards? You know... change it up a little? heehee I'm so crazy, I know.
SO TODAY:
We got to this city and our hostel at about 12:30am and crashed out til about 10 this morning but didn't actually leave the place til about 1:30 pm. At which point we went to visit one of the Womders of the World: Ephesus, a once formidable Roman Empire constructed of mostly marble. AMAZING experience dudes. Truly. We got to walk around amongst the ruins, touched them and tried to imagine what life was like back then. So cool!!! I can't wait to upload these pictures cuz you will never see anything like this in your lives! It was an ENTIRE CITY unearthed and we were walking around in it! The Theatre was gigantic and the acoustics were so clear... It seated 25,000 people! HUGE! Oh man it was the coolest site I've seen (except for the Basilica in Istanbul but I'll get to that later). After that, we walked the 30kms back to town and ate some grub at this cute little restaurant where we were served by some roid-infused waiter. Seriously. He was huge and so was the other
waiter. heehee Now we're at an internet cafe and I'm doing this. ;-)
YESTURDAY:
I SAW THE RUINS OF TROY!! WOWZERS! We took a tour and left from the city of Çanakalle (cha-na-ka-lai) to the ancient city of Troy. We took pictures from inside the replica of the Trojan Horse: hilarious. (btw, the Trojan Horse built for the Hollywood film Troy resides in Çanakalle. I'll post a pic of that for sure.) It was so funny cuz that's pretty much the only thing you're goin up in there
to do and it doesn't look anything like what the actual horse would have looked like since this one had holes for people to look out of AND an upper deck. heehee You'll see what I mean. It was so funny. So ya. TROY! There were 9 cities built on top of the one before it after the previous one was wrecked from fire or destroyed by an invading land. So you can see the different crafts made and
the different techniques used to build the walls and the homes and such. Alexander came in, demolished the old Temple of Aphrodite and built another - more beautiful - of marble and so you can see the awesome detail work on the marble as compared to the older ruins. It was pretty neat. Our tour guide had us all sit on the steps of
the theatre while he told us of the ancient legend of how Paris took Hellen from her home and brought her to Troy which started the war of Homer's The Odyssey that lasted for 10 years. He had us sit there and the girls sat on the marble steps at the top where King Priam and his Queen Hecuba once sat to watch the theatre... It was surreal. A great tour.
The day before yesturday:
We left for Çanakalle from Istanbul on a morning bus ride so this
day wasn't that interesting.
3 days ago:
We - Monique, her bro Jean-Paul, and I - visited the BLUE MOSQUE, Ayasofya (a famed Christian church), and the Basilica Cisterns. So. The Blue Mosque was so friggen cool that I don't even know how to explain it. It was HUGE and MAGESTIC and BEAUTIFUL. The outside is one thing - 6 minerttes instead of the standard 2, blue (duh!), and much bigger than all the other mosques and not to mention the
oldest - but the inside is beyond words. I wish I had my notebook here with me so I could share with you my initial thoughts. I just remember walking in and my eyes welling up with tears. Such a crazy feeling upon entering such a sacred place!! I just sat down on the lustrious carpets and took it in. If you could have seen the detail work on every single area of the place!! The ceiling, the blue-
tiled walls, the curves of the walls, the columns, the stained glass windows... every single part had something written on it or some sort of beautiful design painted there. AMAZING. We got to stay during the afternoon closing and watch the prayer!! Monique and I had to cover our heads and necks with a sheet... I can't explain how I felt at that time... watching these people pray and sing and stand up and then kneal right down to the ground, placing their foreheads there. Pretty neat. Not something I'd ever done before nor had ever thought I'd do.
The Ayasofya was built in the 4th or 5th Century A.D. and so that was something pretty cool to see considering it's catholic and stands directly across from the Mosque. The inside was under construction right down the middle so we didn't get the full effect, but trust me: we got a pretty vivid idea since everything was so imaculately preserved or restored. There's this one mosaic above the alter I was truly impressed with since because of the rounded area of the ceiling on which it was located, you can see it perfectly from all angles no matter where you are in the church! So neat!
The Basilica Cisterns was a place I never thought would be cool since what it was essentially was a sewage area with aqueducts and such. Not something you would imagine would be beautiful... but 'au contraire mes amis'! It was THE COOLEST place I've ever seen and I will venture to say, I have EVER seen. The way they have it set up is so eery and dark, but the lighting just makes you feel like you
are there in ancient times with the candles as your lights... I can't wait to show you all the pictures so you can see what I'm not explaining very well... Nothing I can say here will do it justice so I whole-heartedly reccomend that if you ever go to Istanbul, this place should be at the TOP of your list of places to go. AMAZING.
THE FOOD
YUMMY. We are definitly not on our starvation diet anymore. heehee But, a donaýre here isn't a donaire back home... for all you fort mac folks: It ain't no Jomaa's. But it's still really tasty and we've been making the effort to try some of what the locals eat and it has been paying off. Be prepared to eat A LOT of bread in not only Turkey but Greece as well.
Ahhh... what else can I tell you? I think that's it so far. We are on our way to Pamucalla to visit the famous Calcium Deposits I've been dreaming of visiting for so long now!! And from there we're headed to Butterfly Beach - one of the most beautiful beaches on Earth. Next we plan to hýt up a place called Olympos and stay in a treehouse for a few nights! Apparently it's a backpacker's favorite
place to go and I am so friggen excited for that! We'll move on to Cappadocia from there where we'll visit an ancient city built on the face of a mountain... literally! This will take us to the end of our Turkish tour and we'll be heading back to Istanbul where we'll have a couple days to visit the Grand Bizarre, the Spice Bizarre and the Asian side of the city. We then leave for Amsterdam on Friday, October 14th!! Crazy and wonderful stories are coming up next so be sure to check your emails regularily!!! YAY!!
I'm loving this travelling thing... who knew? ;-)
It's September 30th today and I am in Turkey in a city called Selçuk (sell-chook). I'll start from today how bout? Work backwards? You know... change it up a little? heehee I'm so crazy, I know.
SO TODAY:
We got to this city and our hostel at about 12:30am and crashed out til about 10 this morning but didn't actually leave the place til about 1:30 pm. At which point we went to visit one of the Womders of the World: Ephesus, a once formidable Roman Empire constructed of mostly marble. AMAZING experience dudes. Truly. We got to walk around amongst the ruins, touched them and tried to imagine what life was like back then. So cool!!! I can't wait to upload these pictures cuz you will never see anything like this in your lives! It was an ENTIRE CITY unearthed and we were walking around in it! The Theatre was gigantic and the acoustics were so clear... It seated 25,000 people! HUGE! Oh man it was the coolest site I've seen (except for the Basilica in Istanbul but I'll get to that later). After that, we walked the 30kms back to town and ate some grub at this cute little restaurant where we were served by some roid-infused waiter. Seriously. He was huge and so was the other
waiter. heehee Now we're at an internet cafe and I'm doing this. ;-)
YESTURDAY:
I SAW THE RUINS OF TROY!! WOWZERS! We took a tour and left from the city of Çanakalle (cha-na-ka-lai) to the ancient city of Troy. We took pictures from inside the replica of the Trojan Horse: hilarious. (btw, the Trojan Horse built for the Hollywood film Troy resides in Çanakalle. I'll post a pic of that for sure.) It was so funny cuz that's pretty much the only thing you're goin up in there
to do and it doesn't look anything like what the actual horse would have looked like since this one had holes for people to look out of AND an upper deck. heehee You'll see what I mean. It was so funny. So ya. TROY! There were 9 cities built on top of the one before it after the previous one was wrecked from fire or destroyed by an invading land. So you can see the different crafts made and
the different techniques used to build the walls and the homes and such. Alexander came in, demolished the old Temple of Aphrodite and built another - more beautiful - of marble and so you can see the awesome detail work on the marble as compared to the older ruins. It was pretty neat. Our tour guide had us all sit on the steps of
the theatre while he told us of the ancient legend of how Paris took Hellen from her home and brought her to Troy which started the war of Homer's The Odyssey that lasted for 10 years. He had us sit there and the girls sat on the marble steps at the top where King Priam and his Queen Hecuba once sat to watch the theatre... It was surreal. A great tour.
The day before yesturday:
We left for Çanakalle from Istanbul on a morning bus ride so this
day wasn't that interesting.
3 days ago:
We - Monique, her bro Jean-Paul, and I - visited the BLUE MOSQUE, Ayasofya (a famed Christian church), and the Basilica Cisterns. So. The Blue Mosque was so friggen cool that I don't even know how to explain it. It was HUGE and MAGESTIC and BEAUTIFUL. The outside is one thing - 6 minerttes instead of the standard 2, blue (duh!), and much bigger than all the other mosques and not to mention the
oldest - but the inside is beyond words. I wish I had my notebook here with me so I could share with you my initial thoughts. I just remember walking in and my eyes welling up with tears. Such a crazy feeling upon entering such a sacred place!! I just sat down on the lustrious carpets and took it in. If you could have seen the detail work on every single area of the place!! The ceiling, the blue-
tiled walls, the curves of the walls, the columns, the stained glass windows... every single part had something written on it or some sort of beautiful design painted there. AMAZING. We got to stay during the afternoon closing and watch the prayer!! Monique and I had to cover our heads and necks with a sheet... I can't explain how I felt at that time... watching these people pray and sing and stand up and then kneal right down to the ground, placing their foreheads there. Pretty neat. Not something I'd ever done before nor had ever thought I'd do.
The Ayasofya was built in the 4th or 5th Century A.D. and so that was something pretty cool to see considering it's catholic and stands directly across from the Mosque. The inside was under construction right down the middle so we didn't get the full effect, but trust me: we got a pretty vivid idea since everything was so imaculately preserved or restored. There's this one mosaic above the alter I was truly impressed with since because of the rounded area of the ceiling on which it was located, you can see it perfectly from all angles no matter where you are in the church! So neat!
The Basilica Cisterns was a place I never thought would be cool since what it was essentially was a sewage area with aqueducts and such. Not something you would imagine would be beautiful... but 'au contraire mes amis'! It was THE COOLEST place I've ever seen and I will venture to say, I have EVER seen. The way they have it set up is so eery and dark, but the lighting just makes you feel like you
are there in ancient times with the candles as your lights... I can't wait to show you all the pictures so you can see what I'm not explaining very well... Nothing I can say here will do it justice so I whole-heartedly reccomend that if you ever go to Istanbul, this place should be at the TOP of your list of places to go. AMAZING.
THE FOOD
YUMMY. We are definitly not on our starvation diet anymore. heehee But, a donaýre here isn't a donaire back home... for all you fort mac folks: It ain't no Jomaa's. But it's still really tasty and we've been making the effort to try some of what the locals eat and it has been paying off. Be prepared to eat A LOT of bread in not only Turkey but Greece as well.
Ahhh... what else can I tell you? I think that's it so far. We are on our way to Pamucalla to visit the famous Calcium Deposits I've been dreaming of visiting for so long now!! And from there we're headed to Butterfly Beach - one of the most beautiful beaches on Earth. Next we plan to hýt up a place called Olympos and stay in a treehouse for a few nights! Apparently it's a backpacker's favorite
place to go and I am so friggen excited for that! We'll move on to Cappadocia from there where we'll visit an ancient city built on the face of a mountain... literally! This will take us to the end of our Turkish tour and we'll be heading back to Istanbul where we'll have a couple days to visit the Grand Bizarre, the Spice Bizarre and the Asian side of the city. We then leave for Amsterdam on Friday, October 14th!! Crazy and wonderful stories are coming up next so be sure to check your emails regularily!!! YAY!!
I'm loving this travelling thing... who knew? ;-)
9.20.2005
Santorini
So today we're leaving the lsland of Santorini for another island
called Naxos which isn't too far away. We've spent 4 nights here on
Santorini and we have seen the most beautiful cities, beaches, and
towns! I don't even know where to begin! Hmmm...
DAY 1
We got here at about 3:30 in the afternoon, after a
pretty long ferry ride from Athens (which we came SO CLOSE to
missing after running through the rain from our hostel to the metro
with our friggen packs on!). We got off the boat and there were
hundreds of locals trying to convince us to stay at their hotel or
hostel, holding signs, yelling. It was kind of intimidating since
I've never experienced that before. We knew where we wanted to go
though and so we ended up choosing to go with this old man and his
wife to their villa-style hotels for 10 euro/night. It was so
cute! Only 3 mins walk from the Perisa Beach which is the most
famous beach on the island because the sand is not sand at all but
tiny little black (mostly) rocks from the volcano erruption
thousands from about 1650 BC!! You can actually SEE the hardened
lava underneath! The water was so clear and blue and not even that
cold! So when we arrived at our little villa (we have pictures) we
got our bathing suits on and went to the beach! haha It was so
great playing in the water! Oh ya, the drive up the side of the
island to get to the town of Perisa was the freakist thing ever cuz
you're zig-zagging all the way up on these tiny streets with 2-way
traffic and sharp turns that make you feel like you're gonna drive
right off the side! CRAZY! We pretty much just chilled out our
first night.
DAY 2
We woke up early and went back to the beach at
about 10am til about 3:30ish pm, Monique got burnt BAD. We
showered, got dressed and took the bus into Fira, the main city on
the island and whitnessed the most beautiful event I'd ever seen: the Sunset. Here's my journal entry from that:
"I'm in Fira looking...well gazing at paradise. The sun is close to
setting behind the volcano, calling an end to another beautiful day
in Greece, island of Santorini. It's truly amazing. I could die
now having seent he most incredible paradise. My eyes are moist.
There's classical music playing in the background. So many people
gathered to experience the beauty for themselves. I wish I could
give this gift to those I love."
The city is amazing, just a bunch of white villas, shops, and
restaurants perched one on top of the other with tiny pedestrian
streets manouevering in between them ascending and descending every
which way, all this on the side of the cliff. Magnificent.
DAY 3
We went to the Red Beach and rented an ATV to get there. It
was awesome! haha That beach wasn't the greatest cuz there was so
much sea stuff washing in on the shore, but the red cliffs were
something to see and so it made it worth it. We had to pretty much
hike into the beach area! We stayed from about 1 til about 5:30,
rode back, showered, dressed and went for dinner at this cute little restaurant where we shared some fantastic tzatziki, pitta with an olive pate, greek salad, and THE most succulent tortellini with mushrooms and pruscuto (ham) in a yummy white sauce! All for about 5 euro each!!
DAY 4
We did the Volcano Tour!! That was cool. We took a sail boat
out to the volcano, hiked up the friggen thing in the scorching
heat, got a little speal on the history of the volcano, learned that it's still active although it'll be many many years (like thousands) before a catastrophic eruption occurs, although the last time some it blew was in 1950 and only a bit of magma oozed out and a couple more craters were created. Pretty neat though. It blew up and created Santorini as we know it today in 1650 BC. Then we hiked
back down, sailed out to the hot springs which weren't all that hot
at all, and we had to jump off the boat into the sea and then swim
out to the springs. That was awesome. We then sailed out to the
island of Thirisia, had some lunch, lied out on the rocks before we
got back onthe boat to sail to Oia to watch the famous sunset.
There was no sunset though cuz it was cloudy by then. haha But the
city was amazing! We have pics I can't wait for y'all to see!!!
THE PLAN
So now we're getting stuff booked for our travels after Greece for
getting into Turkey to meet up with Monique's bro Paul. We'll be
spending 2 nights on Naxos and one night on Mykonos (the gay island
of Greece) and we leave the second night at like 1:20am for the
ferry to Samos, arriving at 7:20am, taking the international ferry
from Samos to Kussedesy Turkey and then from there a bus to
Istanbul. So we'll be in Turkey by September 26 and we'll have 3
weeks there!! I hope to write more on the other two islands before
we leave them. Until then, keep the emails coming cuz I do read
them I just don't always have time to write everyone back cuz it is
DAMN expensive for internet here!!
I wish you could all be here cuz
this is just friggen cool!!!
I'm havin the time of my life.
called Naxos which isn't too far away. We've spent 4 nights here on
Santorini and we have seen the most beautiful cities, beaches, and
towns! I don't even know where to begin! Hmmm...
DAY 1
We got here at about 3:30 in the afternoon, after a
pretty long ferry ride from Athens (which we came SO CLOSE to
missing after running through the rain from our hostel to the metro
with our friggen packs on!). We got off the boat and there were
hundreds of locals trying to convince us to stay at their hotel or
hostel, holding signs, yelling. It was kind of intimidating since
I've never experienced that before. We knew where we wanted to go
though and so we ended up choosing to go with this old man and his
wife to their villa-style hotels for 10 euro/night. It was so
cute! Only 3 mins walk from the Perisa Beach which is the most
famous beach on the island because the sand is not sand at all but
tiny little black (mostly) rocks from the volcano erruption
thousands from about 1650 BC!! You can actually SEE the hardened
lava underneath! The water was so clear and blue and not even that
cold! So when we arrived at our little villa (we have pictures) we
got our bathing suits on and went to the beach! haha It was so
great playing in the water! Oh ya, the drive up the side of the
island to get to the town of Perisa was the freakist thing ever cuz
you're zig-zagging all the way up on these tiny streets with 2-way
traffic and sharp turns that make you feel like you're gonna drive
right off the side! CRAZY! We pretty much just chilled out our
first night.
DAY 2
We woke up early and went back to the beach at
about 10am til about 3:30ish pm, Monique got burnt BAD. We
showered, got dressed and took the bus into Fira, the main city on
the island and whitnessed the most beautiful event I'd ever seen: the Sunset. Here's my journal entry from that:
"I'm in Fira looking...well gazing at paradise. The sun is close to
setting behind the volcano, calling an end to another beautiful day
in Greece, island of Santorini. It's truly amazing. I could die
now having seent he most incredible paradise. My eyes are moist.
There's classical music playing in the background. So many people
gathered to experience the beauty for themselves. I wish I could
give this gift to those I love."
The city is amazing, just a bunch of white villas, shops, and
restaurants perched one on top of the other with tiny pedestrian
streets manouevering in between them ascending and descending every
which way, all this on the side of the cliff. Magnificent.
DAY 3
We went to the Red Beach and rented an ATV to get there. It
was awesome! haha That beach wasn't the greatest cuz there was so
much sea stuff washing in on the shore, but the red cliffs were
something to see and so it made it worth it. We had to pretty much
hike into the beach area! We stayed from about 1 til about 5:30,
rode back, showered, dressed and went for dinner at this cute little restaurant where we shared some fantastic tzatziki, pitta with an olive pate, greek salad, and THE most succulent tortellini with mushrooms and pruscuto (ham) in a yummy white sauce! All for about 5 euro each!!
DAY 4
We did the Volcano Tour!! That was cool. We took a sail boat
out to the volcano, hiked up the friggen thing in the scorching
heat, got a little speal on the history of the volcano, learned that it's still active although it'll be many many years (like thousands) before a catastrophic eruption occurs, although the last time some it blew was in 1950 and only a bit of magma oozed out and a couple more craters were created. Pretty neat though. It blew up and created Santorini as we know it today in 1650 BC. Then we hiked
back down, sailed out to the hot springs which weren't all that hot
at all, and we had to jump off the boat into the sea and then swim
out to the springs. That was awesome. We then sailed out to the
island of Thirisia, had some lunch, lied out on the rocks before we
got back onthe boat to sail to Oia to watch the famous sunset.
There was no sunset though cuz it was cloudy by then. haha But the
city was amazing! We have pics I can't wait for y'all to see!!!
THE PLAN
So now we're getting stuff booked for our travels after Greece for
getting into Turkey to meet up with Monique's bro Paul. We'll be
spending 2 nights on Naxos and one night on Mykonos (the gay island
of Greece) and we leave the second night at like 1:20am for the
ferry to Samos, arriving at 7:20am, taking the international ferry
from Samos to Kussedesy Turkey and then from there a bus to
Istanbul. So we'll be in Turkey by September 26 and we'll have 3
weeks there!! I hope to write more on the other two islands before
we leave them. Until then, keep the emails coming cuz I do read
them I just don't always have time to write everyone back cuz it is
DAMN expensive for internet here!!
I wish you could all be here cuz
this is just friggen cool!!!
I'm havin the time of my life.
9.14.2005
The Acropolis
ONE WORD: Wowzers.
I'll write here a few passages from the little journal I brought
with me to write down my immediate reactions to what I was seeing.
"I'm here at the Acropolis and I am in utter amazement and awe...
everything - the sculptures, the land, the buildings - are older
than anything and they've lasted! It's so beautiful..."
"We are looking at the skeletal remains of a young girl frm 1000
BC... you can see her teeth"
"I'm looking down on the city of Athens and all it's sprawling
splendor. I'm at the top of the Acropolis and it has been truly
amazing being here with Monique, and Matthew, and Rich. Our 2rd
REAL day here in Athens. It's unreal how HUGE this city is!! And
no skyscrapers either... just extraordinary history. It's scorching
HOT."
Btw, we've met two dudes: Matthew from P.E.I and Rich from South
Africa. Awesome fellows. They share our bunkhouse.
So, I can't really tell you about what I experienced today because
it was beyond words. I have some sweet pictures and I bought a
bunch of postcards and I'll try and include a little something I
remembered from today on them. So, to all of you who gave me your
addresses, expect to recieve your first postcard soon! haha I'll
be uploading our pictures when we leave Greece.
We went to a beach yesturday and swam in the Aegean Sea!! It was
incredible! Merveilleux! Got a sweet tan! haha
Ok, so I have to reserch hostels on islands and plot out which ones
we'll be visiting before we move north towards Turkey. I'll write
again soon. For now, I am having a great time and I'm so happy to
be here. Take care!
Over and Out.
I'll write here a few passages from the little journal I brought
with me to write down my immediate reactions to what I was seeing.
"I'm here at the Acropolis and I am in utter amazement and awe...
everything - the sculptures, the land, the buildings - are older
than anything and they've lasted! It's so beautiful..."
"We are looking at the skeletal remains of a young girl frm 1000
BC... you can see her teeth"
"I'm looking down on the city of Athens and all it's sprawling
splendor. I'm at the top of the Acropolis and it has been truly
amazing being here with Monique, and Matthew, and Rich. Our 2rd
REAL day here in Athens. It's unreal how HUGE this city is!! And
no skyscrapers either... just extraordinary history. It's scorching
HOT."
Btw, we've met two dudes: Matthew from P.E.I and Rich from South
Africa. Awesome fellows. They share our bunkhouse.
So, I can't really tell you about what I experienced today because
it was beyond words. I have some sweet pictures and I bought a
bunch of postcards and I'll try and include a little something I
remembered from today on them. So, to all of you who gave me your
addresses, expect to recieve your first postcard soon! haha I'll
be uploading our pictures when we leave Greece.
We went to a beach yesturday and swam in the Aegean Sea!! It was
incredible! Merveilleux! Got a sweet tan! haha
Ok, so I have to reserch hostels on islands and plot out which ones
we'll be visiting before we move north towards Turkey. I'll write
again soon. For now, I am having a great time and I'm so happy to
be here. Take care!
Over and Out.
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