We are on our final leg of the trip in beautiful ireland... it has exceeded both our expectations and has turned out to be one of our favorite places. We did a day tour yesterday that took us to a bunch of cliffs and wonderful views. pretty much a national park kinda thing. We have experienced true irish culture at a couple pubs. they do party hard. very hard. today we are doing another tour and going to the guinness factory ..... the queen has been here the last couple days and has been putting the city on hold - everyone wants to see her and a whole bunch of the main streets have been closed, making it hard for us to do the shopping we have wanted to do for weeks. we feel we are part of irish history as this is the first time royalty has come to ireland.. seems weird she has been to canada a bunch of times but not ireland which is sooo close to where she lives.
We cant upload pictures but we took a ton. This may be our last post from the European continent and we are sad about this -- we dont want to leave Ireland but are happy to come home to everyone and get into a routine again.
They have a 24/7 misty rain that happens here but we have learnt to appreciate it.. kinda suits dublin.
anyways, talk soon!!
h and j
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Sexy, sophisticated city of lights
Hello from Paris!!
Yep, skulls. We went to the catacombs which has tunnels for about forty minutes filled with the remains of parisian bones ...
This is day three of four in Paris, and we have seen a ton. We have packed everything possible into every day. We went on another walking tour a couple days ago and our lovely tour guide told us about the history of many of the famous buildings and statues in Paris. We then took their advice and looked at all those monuments in greater detail. For example, we had our intimate moment with the mona lisa, which wasnt even really intimate because there were hundreds of people around us. We then found our way through the labrynth they call the louvre to the venus and then got out of there. We went to the arc de triumph (excuse our inability to spell any of these words) and waited to watch an accident happen. Apparently they happen every fifteen minutes seeing as it is a twelve lane round about with NO LANES. unbelievable.
Oh and did i mention we went and saw the eiffel tower!!!! ha. it was huge and wonderful. It didnt dissappoint us at all..
today we are taking a tour on a famous hill here called Montmare.. mountain of the dead. so we'll see how that turns out.
Seeing as it is Jess'' birthday today( cant find the apostrophe button on this comp) we are going to get escargot and probably duck and spend hours at a restaurant tonight sipping on wine and feasting on french cuisine.
The people in Paris are huge on manners. You have to be careful how you talk to them, and how polite you are when asking whether they speak english.. we havent had any rude rude people answer us, but we are trying to be careful.
Tomorrow we are off to dublin, our final stop on this trip :( But for now, we must get ready and have some french breakfast consisting of croissant and pain de chocolate. yep, chocolate bread. we love pastries.
xoxo
H and J
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Quick Clarification
We are home may 19 at 2300 which is a thursday i believe. i will blog more later with jess and tell you all about our first day in paris!!!talk soon
h
h
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Barceloneta Beach, largest in Barcelona-10 steps from our hostel door
One of Gaudi's most prized work of art
One of Gaudi's most prized work of art
Here we are in beautiful BARCELONA Spain. Amazing and so far we love it, completely different from anywhere else we have been, but it is very refreshing. Of course the first night we get here we did go out and stayed up till 5, the bar was really good, great music and multiple rooms but the drinks are pricey. Our goal is to not pay for any of them:)
We went on the Gaudi art tour and it was great, alot of history that we had no idea about. The sun was shining all day and we both continued to tan/burn, it is no longer painful.
We had paella at a nice spanish place today, which we were over charged for. It was good, classic spanish rice dish but, it didn't blow our mind.
On a different note, during our travel days we tend to remince about what we have learned from the places we've been and people we have met. And we have discovered just how little we know about history, culture and the world in general. Having said that, this trip has inspired us to expand our horizons and knowledge when we get back home....We will try to cook new meals, have different attitudes towards situations and people, basically a new perspective on life. That in itself is worth having done this EuroTrip...and we are having a ton of fun:)
If you want to know what our go to music is, here are a few songs...
Jess likes...six foot seven foot (lil wayne), mr.saxobeat (alrxander stan), take over control (afrojack)
Heather likes...anything by The National, Damien Rice & Adele
Time for a siesta!
xox-J&H
Sunday, May 08, 2011
Napoli= getting hit by scooter.
Capri Island, one of our highlights so far on this trip, rumored to be vacation island of the stars. Apparently Matthew McConaughey was there
Still at Capri..
Yep, it was inevitable that one of us would be hit by one of the stupid scooters. They are everywhyere, whizzing in and out of traffic, not caring for lane markers whatsoever. They swerve between cars like nobodys business. We were doing pretty good, following the signs and keeping a look out for the speeding cars but last night when we were crossing the walkway, all the cars had stopped but one speeding scooter came darting out of nowhere. Somehow, they managed to scoot right in between us, slamming on their breaks, in the meantime giving jess a little love tap on the knee. No serious injuries, we just gave dirty looks and kept walking. It had to happen.
As you can see from the pictures, Naples has a beautiful landscape. Nice waters and scenery outside the city BUT inside the city is one big garbage hill. We didnt know that Naples was known for its garbage. It is basically a tourist attraction, much different than the rest of Italy. Not that exciting within but it is the surrounding areas that make it amazing. Yes, we did eat pizza everyday - it was invented here so we figured it had to be good. and it was.
Off to Pompeii today, going to be interesting. and then tomorrow... SPAIN!!! yay.
talk to you soon,
ciao
heather and jessica
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Ammazza che bono!
This is the only phrase we seem to remember in Italy. It means that we like it a lot. So basically we say it after everthing we eat and everything we see.
We left Rome a day early because we were kind of unimpressed by it. It was beautiful and all but we saw everything we wanted to in two days.. We hung out with our couch surfer Roberto who was awesome, he told us the best places to see, cooked the best risotto of my life AND did our laundry for us. what a gem. We had such a great meal yesterday night as well. Me and Jess sat in a restaurant for four hours polishing off a bottle of wine and a four course dinner. no big deal. We were craving red meat and we found steak with a balsamic strawberry glaze which was great. definitely trying that at home.
Today we arrived in Naples and it is crazy. There are garbage piles on every street corner which smell, but if you look around to the coast you see hills and crisp blue sea. We have three day trips planned from Naples- Capri Island, Pompeij and Amalfi.
Italy has almost come to an end and then we are off to Barcelona - the city that never sleeps. except at three in the afternoon for their siesta.
Here are some pictures of Italy thus far.
Hope you like!
We left Rome a day early because we were kind of unimpressed by it. It was beautiful and all but we saw everything we wanted to in two days.. We hung out with our couch surfer Roberto who was awesome, he told us the best places to see, cooked the best risotto of my life AND did our laundry for us. what a gem. We had such a great meal yesterday night as well. Me and Jess sat in a restaurant for four hours polishing off a bottle of wine and a four course dinner. no big deal. We were craving red meat and we found steak with a balsamic strawberry glaze which was great. definitely trying that at home.
Today we arrived in Naples and it is crazy. There are garbage piles on every street corner which smell, but if you look around to the coast you see hills and crisp blue sea. We have three day trips planned from Naples- Capri Island, Pompeij and Amalfi.
Italy has almost come to an end and then we are off to Barcelona - the city that never sleeps. except at three in the afternoon for their siesta.
Here are some pictures of Italy thus far.
Hope you like!
yumm our first italian meal in Venice
i spillt all over myself that meal.
out for dinner with Marco to a local pizza place in Florence
Highest point in Florence, took about a thousand steps to get up there. We are going to have calves of steel by the end of this trip
yup you guessed it, the colloseum
Roberto our Rome Couchsurfer
Windy day today in Naples, picture taken from inside a castle.no big deal.
Pizza originated in Naples and you better believe it was the best pizza we ever had. Mine had corn, ham, basil and moz cheese on it. Brilliant.
Cheers everyone!
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Rome-day1
We arrived in Rome yesterday in the early evening. We made our way to our new home for the next 2 days with our friend Roberto. He made us delicious zuccinni, sausage and smoke cheese risotto and chocolate torte. We shared 3 bottles of wine and each bottle was 3 Euros! (shout out to my Aunty Holly, I will toast my next glass of wine to you as I said I would) We finally found the jackpot of cheap delicious wine in Italy, and we are starting to enjoy it!
Today we are on our way to Vatican city and Trevi fountain, the weather is beautiful and the sun is shining. And yes Ben, we had our morning dose of cappuccino and it is 10x better than Tims or Starbucks and its about 2 euro.
Ciao for now,
J&H
Today we are on our way to Vatican city and Trevi fountain, the weather is beautiful and the sun is shining. And yes Ben, we had our morning dose of cappuccino and it is 10x better than Tims or Starbucks and its about 2 euro.
Ciao for now,
J&H
Sunday, May 01, 2011
there is no love more sincere than the love of food.
Bonjourno from Italia!
Our first day in Italy was in Venice, literally the city with no streets and only water. There were water buses that took us around and other than that we walked all around Venice. It was pretty, and we literally got lost, which is the number 1 rated thing to do in Venice. Done. Our first Italiano supper was delicious, and it is strange because in italy, pasta is an appetizer or first course and then you get 2 more courses after that. We had our first bottle of red wine and have since discovered that we are a fan of white:) We only stayed in Venice 1 day because we pretty much saw everything there was to see and were rather unimpressed. Then we went to Firenze(Florence)...
IN Florence, was our first couch surfing experience with our friend Marco. And thanks to him, we had our favorite day of our trip yet. We arrived at his place and he made risotto for lunch (which happens to be H's fav dish), he played "Thats Amore", the song for us...and laughed at us as we sang along and giggled. After lunch, Myself, Heather, Marco and his friend Francesco grabbed some Gelato(which we have had every day so far:)) And drove 1 hour outside of Firenze to Roma Terme (hot mineral springs). We lounged there for hours in the spring watching the sunset over Tuscany...AMAZING, literally an out of body moment. We snacked on bruscetta 3 times that day:) After the springs, Marco made reservations at a local and fabulous Italian Pizzeria, where we had the best white wine from Tuscany and more bruscetta, some cheese dish and pizza de napoli. Yum and it was all so delicious.
We woke up today to a sunny Florence, gazing off of Marco's balcony we knew it would be another good day. We ventured up to Piazza de Michelangelo, the highest point in Florence where we admired a view and shared a caprese salad.
Italy is amazing, breathtaking and more beautiful and delicious than we ever imagined, it is above and beyond what you ever see in the movies. Thanks Marco for showing us the real Firenze way of life!...off to ROME tomorrow after seeing Pisa.
Amore Italia-xox
J&H
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
finally some pictures.
These are some of our pictures from our time in Amsterdam, hope you enjoy!
Bar 2 of a 6 bar pub crawl, we had fun.
Bar 3 of 6...still having a good time.
Bar number...?
Bar 3 of 6...still having a good time.
no big deal.
Just a view of where we were eating lunch in Switzerland, nbd. Well, this is our first full day in Interlaken Switz. Just beautiful, very quaint and not a crazy town. We just got back to our hostel, we have been canyoning all day in the swiss alps. We drove up around 10 this morning and hiked up an alp, and came down via canyoning, repelling, jumping, sliding, swimming etc...it was insane. Then we enjoyed lunch and a beer on the top of the mountain before driving back. In the pictures, you will see us in our gear getting ready to go, as well as the insane scenery that surrounded us.
Monday, April 25, 2011
frohe östern
Hello from Munich and Happy Easter, we posted when we first arrived, early yestreday morning but its not appearing. We apologize:) So...our time here in Germany consists of schnitzel...schpätzel and wurst, curry wurst! yummm.
We went to a traditional roman catholic church for an easter service and we got shunned by a very german lady who said she liked our outfits but they were not appropriate for the catholic church...we left shortly after oppps!.
Did another day tour of this very historic city. And last night had an interesting evening with our 3 new friends from switzerland...nice guys, very forward which seems to be the trend around here. This afternoon we found ourselves napping in the english garden which is 2 times the size of central park.
This city is crazy for beer..and it is everywhere and so cheap too! All the size cups are half a litre big and that is huge, for about $3! And oddly enough beer is rooted deep into the history of this city.
happpy easter everyone, hope all is well in Winnipeg. Sorry to be missing family dinners, x0x
-j&h
We went to a traditional roman catholic church for an easter service and we got shunned by a very german lady who said she liked our outfits but they were not appropriate for the catholic church...we left shortly after oppps!.
Did another day tour of this very historic city. And last night had an interesting evening with our 3 new friends from switzerland...nice guys, very forward which seems to be the trend around here. This afternoon we found ourselves napping in the english garden which is 2 times the size of central park.
This city is crazy for beer..and it is everywhere and so cheap too! All the size cups are half a litre big and that is huge, for about $3! And oddly enough beer is rooted deep into the history of this city.
happpy easter everyone, hope all is well in Winnipeg. Sorry to be missing family dinners, x0x
-j&h
Friday, April 22, 2011
van gogh...& other abstract things.
Well, amsterdam is a ridiculous place. Firstly - the bikes. Very overwhelming. Secondly - everything seems to be legal. We spent a couple days just touring around the downtown of amsterdam and just this afternoon we had an awesome lunch outside the van gogh museum which we gathered from a local supermarket. We sat in a park and watched boys play soccer. They definitely have better talent than Canadians. The thing that was the greatest about the park was that it actually smellt like nature. We could smell trees again!
DISCLAIMER: Due to the audience of this blog, some minor details will be excluded in regards to our nightly activities.
h and j
DISCLAIMER: Due to the audience of this blog, some minor details will be excluded in regards to our nightly activities.
h and j
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
brilliant.smashing.mad.
Hello from LONDON!...This is our first chance to use an internet cafe and haven't figured out how to add pictures yet, but they will be on here asap. This is our second day in London but let's back up a bit...
Plane ride was really good, only 7.5 hours from Minni and we got fed twice! :P We had pretty horrid sleeps but it was enough to keep us powered all last night in London:D. We somehow successfully found the way to the hostel from Heathrow airport, and we never got on the wrong train/tube/bus ever, but it was a close call. We arrive at the hostel to find our 2 roomies, we were in a 4 bed dorm which was nice. However, our 2 roomies were meh. One was ok, kinda weird but a nice fella, hilarious when drunken. The other guy..."mr.tries-alot" he earned the name "chumpion". :P. So after getting settled at the hostel we went out scowrering around London and walked for hours, this place is beautiful. So full of character and history, everything looks old but still has style. The people are another thing...everyone is so nice and they really love Canadians, we have made several new friends in this one place alone. After walking about, we went to see Cinderella on Pointe at the Royal Opera House, unfortunately we were unaware that we had standing seats in the back ampitheatre. Couldn't have been farther.Period. So its safe to say we left early and wandered back to our hostel. We then went on a bar hop with our hostel group. We went to "ruby blue" and the "zoo". The second place was quite literally a zoo. The people here are crazyyy and that is the bottom line. They party hard and dance harder and luckily we can keep up. On the way back to the hostel, we were summoned to go to the "penthouse" bar, but left soon due to its lameness. We went to sleep...
And woke up the next day, ickh. Annnnd to top it off, our walking tour(3hours) started at 10:15! Ooo boy, but we made it no problem. This tour was fantastic and it showed us all the famous sites of London,which we have pictures of. It is so surreal to actually see these monuments in person, and to see whats around them and beside them and not just a photo. London is oozing with history and you can feel it everywhere. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon in a cute little pub...somewhere...and it was so nice not to have somewhere to be, we are on vacation and it doesn't matter what time it is!!!
We weren't hit too hard with jet lag and we are finidng it easier to use the underground trainsystems everyday. Once we get used to this place, up and off we go to the next one. As for now, we are off to eat delicious curry at some famous restaurant we were recommended to by our tour guide JAMES. Very informative, clever Irish man. After we haggle for the curry...we will see how we feel..our ferry leaves at 5am so we might not feel up to it..but you know what they say, when in Rome...I think it applies here too. Talk to you in Amsterdam.
-lots of xoxo
J&H
Plane ride was really good, only 7.5 hours from Minni and we got fed twice! :P We had pretty horrid sleeps but it was enough to keep us powered all last night in London:D. We somehow successfully found the way to the hostel from Heathrow airport, and we never got on the wrong train/tube/bus ever, but it was a close call. We arrive at the hostel to find our 2 roomies, we were in a 4 bed dorm which was nice. However, our 2 roomies were meh. One was ok, kinda weird but a nice fella, hilarious when drunken. The other guy..."mr.tries-alot" he earned the name "chumpion". :P. So after getting settled at the hostel we went out scowrering around London and walked for hours, this place is beautiful. So full of character and history, everything looks old but still has style. The people are another thing...everyone is so nice and they really love Canadians, we have made several new friends in this one place alone. After walking about, we went to see Cinderella on Pointe at the Royal Opera House, unfortunately we were unaware that we had standing seats in the back ampitheatre. Couldn't have been farther.Period. So its safe to say we left early and wandered back to our hostel. We then went on a bar hop with our hostel group. We went to "ruby blue" and the "zoo". The second place was quite literally a zoo. The people here are crazyyy and that is the bottom line. They party hard and dance harder and luckily we can keep up. On the way back to the hostel, we were summoned to go to the "penthouse" bar, but left soon due to its lameness. We went to sleep...
And woke up the next day, ickh. Annnnd to top it off, our walking tour(3hours) started at 10:15! Ooo boy, but we made it no problem. This tour was fantastic and it showed us all the famous sites of London,which we have pictures of. It is so surreal to actually see these monuments in person, and to see whats around them and beside them and not just a photo. London is oozing with history and you can feel it everywhere. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon in a cute little pub...somewhere...and it was so nice not to have somewhere to be, we are on vacation and it doesn't matter what time it is!!!
We weren't hit too hard with jet lag and we are finidng it easier to use the underground trainsystems everyday. Once we get used to this place, up and off we go to the next one. As for now, we are off to eat delicious curry at some famous restaurant we were recommended to by our tour guide JAMES. Very informative, clever Irish man. After we haggle for the curry...we will see how we feel..our ferry leaves at 5am so we might not feel up to it..but you know what they say, when in Rome...I think it applies here too. Talk to you in Amsterdam.
-lots of xoxo
J&H
Monday, April 18, 2011
leaving in a few hours...
Thanks to everyone for all of your well wishes, we will miss you all and will think of you on our travels! Just a heads up here are some of the places we are going--> London, Amsterdam, Munich, Interlaken, all over Italy, Barcelona, Paris and Dublin. Let the European Adventure begin:)
Farewell
-jess x0
Farewell
-jess x0
Saturday, April 16, 2011
less than 2 days...ba ba..americano.
Thanks to everyone who came out the other night! We both had a great time and it was nice to see you all there. I appreciate all of your words of wisdom, very heart warming. -xox-
As seen above, my back pack, this has everything in it, fully loaded and ready to go and there is still some room. I packed incredibly light and efficiently (i think) which was very challenging. It weighs 20lbs and a majority of that is trailmix that Heather and I created at bulkbarn. I also tried it on fully loaded and ran up and down my stairs a few times and I didn't pass out, so I think this is a good thing.
If anyone has any pointers for us, please let us know and we will gladly take your advice if it seems valuable. Only 2 more days...and this blog will become incredibly interesting so please stay tuned.
Talk soon
jess-x0
two days.
Well that was a great night, thanks to everyone for coming to see us off! We both had a great time.
Two days and we are gone! Today we picked up snacks for the plane and got some foreign cash which was more expensive than i thought. I still haven't started packing and have a feeling I won't start until Monday. On another note, my iPod was stolen at work so I'm trying to buy another one via kijiji... we'll see how that works out.
I'm excited for the music we'll hear in Europe, I'm pretty sure i'll be listening to "Hello" by Martin Solveig the whole plane ride there check it out- - - -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MkkdYVAKJQ&feature=fvst.
Also if you wanna see a really neat video check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6zr6kCPj8. It cracks me up for some reason.
If anyone has any music suggestions before we leave lemme know, I'm always up for something new!
Talk to you all soon!
h
Two days and we are gone! Today we picked up snacks for the plane and got some foreign cash which was more expensive than i thought. I still haven't started packing and have a feeling I won't start until Monday. On another note, my iPod was stolen at work so I'm trying to buy another one via kijiji... we'll see how that works out.
I'm excited for the music we'll hear in Europe, I'm pretty sure i'll be listening to "Hello" by Martin Solveig the whole plane ride there check it out- - - -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MkkdYVAKJQ&feature=fvst.
Also if you wanna see a really neat video check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6zr6kCPj8. It cracks me up for some reason.
If anyone has any music suggestions before we leave lemme know, I'm always up for something new!
Talk to you all soon!
h
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
ROPA= 5 days
Sooo 5 days until we are on a new continent...we are seeing 8 countries in 1 month and it will be a mad dash but will enjoy every minute of it:). Let's see...to my knowledge we both have yet to pack our huge backpacks but other than that we are pretty well prepared for anything that happens. Made a few trips to MEC and got some neat trinkets, my fav being the swiss army knife as it has the essential cork screw on it. As of now, I'm not nervous, nor anxious or even really excited, it still seems far away but its not at all. I have 2 exams to write which could explain my lack of emotion but I know that will change. Really looking forward to seeing everyone at earls tomorrow and after that reality will set in and I probably won't be able to sleep!!!! Ahhh...actually writing this is kinda getting me excited! Anyways, Stay tuned for our European adventures...xox
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
6 days and counting..
Six days! That's all. And we're leaving to a far far away place which hopefully is a completely different reality than here in Winnipeg.
Doing some last minute shopping and planning this week. Starting to pack in the next couple days.. but mostly studying for exams which Jess has two hours before we leave. Cuttin it nice and close there Jess..
Anyways, we created this blog so you can see what we are doing and more importantly, so you know we are alive. We'll try and update it whenever we are at a internet cafe or are near a free computer. Keep a look out for amateur videos and my attempts at inspiring photography.
Come to Earl's on Main Thursday anytime after 9pm to come see us off. Bring us many words of wisdom but mostly just come so we can see you before we leave!
Cya soon
Heather
Here is my office right now.. most disorganized it's ever been.. filled with stuff that is going to fit into one measly traveling backpack. And that's not including clothes.
p.s.shoutout to my lovely brother Mark in B.C. for helping me set up this blog. You are awesome.
Doing some last minute shopping and planning this week. Starting to pack in the next couple days.. but mostly studying for exams which Jess has two hours before we leave. Cuttin it nice and close there Jess..
Anyways, we created this blog so you can see what we are doing and more importantly, so you know we are alive. We'll try and update it whenever we are at a internet cafe or are near a free computer. Keep a look out for amateur videos and my attempts at inspiring photography.
Come to Earl's on Main Thursday anytime after 9pm to come see us off. Bring us many words of wisdom but mostly just come so we can see you before we leave!
Cya soon
Heather
Here is my office right now.. most disorganized it's ever been.. filled with stuff that is going to fit into one measly traveling backpack. And that's not including clothes.
p.s.shoutout to my lovely brother Mark in B.C. for helping me set up this blog. You are awesome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)