sandbanks

so these photos are from a few weeks ago, as it is painfully obvious that i am bad with putting up photos.



one weekend, me and the boys (rob, adrian, mike curley, dylan) packed up our camping gear into our respective cars and drove to Sandbanks for a weekend of camping.

home again

my last night in europe was spent in paris with soloman. i miraculously made it out of Italy to France fine, despite the train srike going on. that strike really messed a lot of people up. i saw people sleeping on the train floors, and even worse, some stranded travellers sleeping on park benches like homeless people, clutching their luggages in their sleep. i was really fortunate though. pretty much all the trains had been cancelled except mine.

once i got to paris, soloman showed me a great time. he told me that since he didn't have a boyfriend, he was going to have a romantic night with me. he's got this sweet flat that overlooks the paris cityline, including Sacre Coeur and even the Eiffel Tower off in the distance. we went to Le Train Bleu for dinner and had a mind-blowingly delicious traditional French dinner and a bottle of wine that left me full and happy. afterwards, we took a long stroll around La Marais at night while Soloman told me everything about the history of Paris' architecture and the development of the city. he is such an awesome guy.

now i am back home and settling into my new apartment. and GLAD to be home. it was a long month, fun but exhausting. once i get internet installed at home, i'm going to put up some photos. i have some great videos as well.

thank you trenitalia

well, today was a special, special, special pile of /"$(&, as jillian put it. i was warned once about the trains in italy, but i thought it was because it was sketchy with pickpocketers around. instead, i learned the truth today.

jill and barbara woke me up this morning and told me we had half an hour to get to the train station in order to ride for three hours to the baths in Saturnia. sanford pulled his blanket over his head and declared that it was going to be a ladies day today. nevertheless we dragged adam out of the apartment and ran down to the station, unshowered and barely dressed.

we got to Grosseto where we were supposed to switch on to a bus to Saturnia, only to find out that the next bus to Saturnia wasn't leaving until 4:20PM, and that there were no more buses coming back from Saturnia, and that the last train back to Florence was also at 4:30, so we would essentially be stranded in eiher Saturnia or Grosseto. neither of these options appealed to us, so we sadly had to abandon our plans to visit the waterfall-decorated hot springs to jump on a train to visit the medieval town of Siena instead. which was beautiful. unfortunately, the man at the train station told us that there was going to be a train strike that night, and the last train we could take back to Florence was at 7:20. which left us with forty-frive minutes to sightsee Siena. so we power-walked through the city with just enough time to get gelatto and espresso while walking. it was, at least, the best espresso i ever had.

these city names may mean nothing to some of you, but essentially it means i spent the entire day on the trains. it was the equivalent of us taking a train to go from Toronto to Ottawa, to stay less than an hour to eat lunch in Ottawa, and then taking a train from Ottawa to Kingston, for coffee and dessert. it was special.

at least we passed the city of Bad Ass.

and indeed, once we got back to the train station in Florence (miraculously...adam jumped off the train and hugged a pillar) we discovered that there was indeed a train strike. i had awful flashbacks of that night when i was stranded in the subway station at midnight during the TTC strike. only this time, my morning route was cancelled, the very route that i needed to take to catch my plane trip to Paris from Milan. i was pretty close to tears. fortunately, adam (who is like my best friend ever and is officially now my little big brother) helped me talk to customer service who managed to find me a route to Milan for tomorrow. the problem is, i may miss the flight because its so close. but, um, i can walk to paris, i suppose...

stupid trains.

oh, i saw a tower of pisa today. it wasnt THE tower, nor was it leaning, but my train did pass through pisa and i did see a tower, so i am going to hold on to that.

other than today nearly reducing me to disturbing bouts of crying and lunatic laughing, my stay in Florence has been wonderfully pleasant. adam, who is italian, has been a sweetheart showing me around. the first night i came here, we took a walk along the River Arno because adam wanted to show me Florence at night, like the bridges and the Duomo, which is absolutely breathtaking. its pretty safe too, the only dangerous folks around here are the drunken (mostly american tourists).

yesterday was Sanford's birthday, and i spent a big chunk of the day relaxing with the boys watching episodes of South Park, which was just what i needed after so much moving around. what i found most fitting for sanford's birthday was that we watched the South Park episode about gingers and the ginger seperatist movement(sanford is very red-headed). afterwards, sanford remarked about how he learned a new lesson about the importance to getting rid of all asian women. i love that kid.

also, YESTERDAY WE WATCHED A EUROCUP FOOTBALL GAME. italy versus belgium. italy won, of course, 3-1. it was pretty mind-blowing. and yes, professor johnson was there. we also happily met up with chantelle, arlene, anton, and john, who are all also studying in florence. we had a few drinks at their amazing flat after the game, along with sanford's melted birthday cake (tiramisoup). that was when we discovered that John thought the bidet was a urinal, and has been pissing in it all this time. oh, toilets. how i miss north america.

wish me luck in getting to Paris tomorrow!

lasagna, bolagna, spaghetti, PIZZA

ive only been in italy for maybe a day but already i can tell that florence is going to make me fat. and broke. i have no idea how food can possibly taste so good here. last night after meeting up with my friends from school who are studying in florence, we all headed out to supposedly the best tuscan restaurant. it was pretty much what soloman calls a tongue-gasm. we ate bunny, goat, boar, all sorts of delicious stuff. mmmm. my wallet is crying.

my friends have a sweet house here, really spacious so it doesnt seem crowded with five people living here. there are even two bathrooms. the girls bathroom has a bidet in it, but jillian and barbara insist that they think it is a foot wash. right now i am sleeping in sanford's room, and he hasnt killed me yet, so thats a good sign.

yesterday was a long day travelling on my own through the french and italian countryside. i took a taxi, train, bus, plane, bus, and a train to get to florence. i stopped off in milan for a few hours; i dont know anything about the city except that its the fashion design capital of the world. my girl friend Gabrielle used to be a model in Milan and once she did vodka shots with the folks from the Smashing Pumpkins, who are, in her words, apparently some big band or something. i didnt see anything particurly amazing, just a lot of rain.

adam and i are going to try to get tickets to see the italy-belgium football game tonight. hopefully it will work out, and hopefully my tendancy to attract riots wont repeat itself here in italia...

the irish are taking over the world

so dublin was awesome, even though there were gingers everywhere. annie and i did a tour of the guinness brewery which was very educational...and by educational i mean
we got a free pint and that was awesome. dublin brewed guiness simply cannot compare with the stuff we get in canada. it was a beautiful thing. the first night we were there, it was a saturday night so it was essential to head down to the temple bar area where EVERYONE goes to drink. see, in every country i have visited, there has been an irish pub, so i was excited to visit an irish pub IN IRELAND. and it was pretty great. afterwards we took a stroll home along the river liffey, which i did not realize was in dublin. all i had heard of it was from a radiohead song

that there, that's not me
i go where i please
i walk through walls
i float down the Liffey

i'm not here
this isn't happening

but then, i was also the one that didnt realize that Ireland and Northern Ireland were two separate political identities. also, the first thing i asked when i got to dublin seeing all the bilingual signs was, does anyone actually speak gaelic here? its a wonder i didnt get lynched in ireland.

afterwards, we took a plane back to France and met up with annies friends in Nimes. my guidebook says that Nimes is significant for two reasons: the roman ruins, and the fact that denim was invented here...de nimes. when someone elses culture and jeans is what you have to boast about, you dont expect much from a place. but i rather enjoyed Nimes a lot. it was a very quaint city and the Roman ruins was actually pretty cool. most of my night was spent in an irish pub. you really cant escape irish pubs. come to think of it, i spent most of tonight in nantes in an irish pub as well. ahhh, who cant help loving the irish.

my french gets better with beer.

i am totally perplexed by the toilets in france. many of them dont have toilet seats. its not because i am a spoiled north american girl; its just because ive only encountered seatless toilets in third world countries like Cuba. i mean, i travelled eastern european countries struggling to rebuild after communism, and even their toilets have seats. so what is the french excuse for forcing me to squat? nous sommes trop occupe avec nos revolutions?

je veux une fourchette

just arrived in nantes tonight taking the train from nimes. yes, i am alive. too tired to post. its been a crazy last couple of days. it was a good time but let me just say that i hate fleas and all italian transportation websites. and i am getting tired of trains.

wrote a couple of poems on the train though.

BAD HAIKU 1...yeah i was tired and trying to sleep
thy snoring is my
calming ocean sounds; tis my
soothing lullaby

BAD HAIKU 2
so sick of the train
damn breathtaking landscapes. so
sick so sick so sick

BAD HAIKU 3
bah, un homme francais
j avais voulu une fourchette
tu me donne un spoon.

that last one is dedicated to the bartender in marseilles. i asked him for a fork in french and he insisted that i meant a spoon.

more bad poetry to come later.

travelling with annie has been that i get to hear the pearls of wisdom that she shares every day. last night she woke me up in the middle of my sleep to tell me, 'dont you think that if we used paper hot dog style instead of hamburger style, we'd save a lot of trees.'

other tidbits of genius she has shared included, 'something smells mummified in here' in St. Stephen's Basilic. Also, her discovery that the paper towels here in Eastern Europe are softer than the toilet paper.

annie and i went to the opera again last night to see the Marriage of Figaro, which we enjoyed much more. not only were there English subtitles so we could follow along, but this opera was a comedy rather than a tragedy, with a lot of hilarious hinjinx that involved cross-dressing and sexual innuendos. oh mozart. Cherubino was played by a woman - im not sure if thats normal, but it definitely added to the fun of it. we used to play the Marriage of Figaro in concert band in high school, so i was bummed out that we missed the opening number when we came in late. i had been humming the tune all day in anticipation of it and was sorely deprived of the chance to sing along.

in other news, annie and i gave into temptation last night. we have gone an obscenely long time without any asian food whatsoever, and our cravings finally took over last night, so we hit up a chinese restaurant for dinner. IT WAS SO GOOD. not particularly gourmet or anything, we have just been missing grandma's cooking that much. mmmmm. tofu.

we also got to try some czech absinthe as well, complete with the whole lighting sugar in a spoon on fire bit. i hate licorice, so the taste was only so-so to me, but it was definitely strong - the czechs are known for their absinthe. i felt a sort of minty cool burning down my esophagus. annie said her tummy felt like it was getting its teeth cleaned. no hallucinations a la Oscar Wilde, of course. interesting stuff, although not as weird as the cannabis vodka they love selling around here.