The Little Things

I thought I'd make a blog ot show everyone all of the little details that are different here. Most of these stood out more at the start of the year than they used to, but they're all just little things that made me say "Hey!" 

So here are the some of the normal things here that aren't normal back home:

There is NO HONEY AT STARBUCKS. Honey is necessary at Starbucks. When mom was here and sick, I tried to find honey for her green tea - no luck. More importantly, how am I supposed to swipe honey and bring it home with me after paying 7 euros (~10 Canadian dollars) for a drink?

Here's what the plugs look like:

Here's what the light switches look like:

Bread is seriously cheap - I always imagined the reason is because of Marie Antoinette saying "let them eat cake" and that to this day the French are telling her to shove it by making bread extra affordable. But you can buy these packs of 4 baguettes for around a euro (they aren't very filling though).

Nanny, aunt vi and and aunt jean - sorry for making part of your carts, they're super popular here! Apparently you girls are just ahead of the curve. 

When we're travelling buses generally take twice as long and cost half as much as trains. 

Generally people really do smoke more here, like chimneys, and sometimes indoors. Yuck. :-(

If I think of more tiny differences I'll add them here. Barcelona blog soon to come!

 

Cute Hedgehog

I couldn't find a spot for this in the last blog, so I made a new one.

Here is a cute baby hedgehog!

Extravaganza

So here's the ins and outs on our big trip,  I put the highlights above everything else since I thought you might want to skip right to the goodies.

Here is our route

Highlights in order:
-Concert in Vienna
-Sunset river boat cruise in Budapest (sounds so grown up)
-Playing in the sculpture garden in Prague
-Kittens!!!!
-Playing in the bubbles in Prague
-Dancing at any and all bars we went to

And a shout out to everyone we met and loved (to Megan, Heather, Sam and Chandrika from Prague, to Sammy for making us welcome in Budapest and to Mel and boyfriend who's name I forget for making our hostel in Bratislava bearable)

Tastiest foods:
-Kava Cafe in Bratislava had tasty coffee plus blackberry cheesecake that melted in your mouth the way all cheesecakes should. I got the enjoy this while listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers with teacups dangling above me, heavenly.
-Lokal restaurant in Prague has locally sourced everything, had this thing that was like a solid version of split pea soup (I then tried to explain split pea soup that we make home to our waiter, he told me they did also make soups, I don't know if my point made it across the language barrier)
-Best beer - Czech - I did not have a bad beer this whole trip, but I was especially into the dark flat ales here
-Re:fresh in Bratislava made me really plain bean chili and rice and it saved my life

Cheers!

PRAGUE

Prague ended up being my favourite of the four cities. I think probably because we spent the most time there. It was generally just really pretty, and had lots of good vibes, and felt really safe, and had good beer.

Prague Old Town Square

Goes to Europe to find out I don't really enjoy crowds - Charles Bridge

Playing with bubbles in Wenceslas Square

VIENNA

Being in Vienna was similar to what I imgine being in the eye of a hurricane might feel like. We definitely did not have nearly enough time so it felt like we were whirling around trying to visit everything. We went to a fabulous performance (and I mean fab) and ate and slept and went for a big bus tour and I saw the first floor of the Hapsburg treasury and BAM we were out!

Concert hall in Vienna

The girls and me went to different restaurants for supper -  enjoying beer while waiting

Hapsburg coronation robe from the treasury

BUDAPEST

Budapest felt slightly longer than Vienna. I think that's because we stayed in a cooler neighbourhood that was more central, we went out to a bar at night (not doing night time activities shortens like 50% of the time you're in a city and could be doing stuff!), spent an afternoon lounging. I think I can pinpoint Budapest day 2 as when I really started to feel travel weary. Generally didn't like the food here.

***So, is it worth the price of staying in the middle of the city? If you ask me, yes. When we were in Prague and Budapest we were within spittin distance of the city centre/ stuff we cared about seeing. And those are the two cities I felt like I got the best feel for. When it's borderline late and you don't want to take the metro in to town, or your walks home could be any city, I think that sucks, so stay somewhere cool.

During the bingo bar crawl

At the laundromat the morning after the bar crawl

Spot the odd one out

Sunset cruise looking at the Budapest castle

BRATISLAVA

Okay, let's face it, we had no collective opinion on Bratislava. We heard from Megan in Prague that it was a hidden gem, I thought it would be too, Natasha didn't have high hopes and Kaelan was somewhere in the middle.

We stayed in a shitty bed bug infested hostel that did boast some cool Australians and seven kittens!  Day two we went to the castle, had a sleep in the sun on the observatory deck above the city, found honest to God the best cafe I've been in in a long time.

Kitty cat baby 

Our hostel was shit so we found a new spot to crash

I thought this looked really cool and was neat instead of ceiling medalians

Teacups on twine at Kava cafe, Momma - thought you'd like this!

AND THEN WE CAME BACK TO FRANCE!

So weary we barely made it home

Remembering to Blog More

Hi everyone! I'm back from my 10 Day Extravaganza!!!

It was super super fun. The things that made it the most fun were some of the people we met along the way. I've learned that British and Australians can generally always be relied on for fun. (I might be not so subconsciously stereotyping all Brits as awesome because of how much fun I had in the UK.)

We (the five then 4 then 3 of us) spent the whole trip together, and have since spent our 2 days here in solitary confinement recovering from all that togetherness.

Currently listening to Christmas music and eating tea from mamma's nanny with chocolate chip cookies from papa's nanny.

NEXT DESTINATION YOU ASK? This weekend! I'll be on the way to Hamburg to see Laura for the first time in 3 (4?) years!!

Other things? I have to go to school now, for a couple hours, then I'll get back here and do a more serious job of filling everyone in on our trip.

ENJOY THIS SNEAK PEAK INTO MY LIFE, A WEBCAM PICTURE!

Favourite Pictures from England

I think I'm going to end up doing another blog about my trip to England, but I thought I'd start out with putting together some of my favourite pictures out of the 411 (!!! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?) I took. I tried to at least mark a little bit about each picture on Facebook, but I think it would be nice to pic my favourite few and tell the story of why I like each particular one. 

So this is a picture of the first hostel I've ever stayed in! It's called the Smart Hyde Park Inn. It was surprisingly nice! It had breakfast and wifi (both were just okay though). But it was 16 bucks (Canadian) a night, the front desk people were really friendly, it seemed to be in a nice neighbourhood, and all in all pretty good! 

This is one of my favourite pictures because when I went for a walk right after I had gotten settled in my hostel I went to Hyde Park for a walk, and it was on that walk and looking up at this statue that it really hit me that I had made it to London! 

I was out for a little walk/ baby hike through the woods, and I came around the bend and ducked under a tree, and all the sudden I saw this view of the rolling hills and the sheep grazing and I remember it took my breath away. I thought it was like a gorgeous hidden gem. 

So this made the list o favourites because I think it does a good job of bundling my peaceful getaway into one picture. The sheep were everywhere, I could look up anywhere in town and see the fell (we would call them hills or little mountainy things) and Keswick itself was just adorable and nested in between.

So, since I spent my trip alone, I did a lot of three things: people watching, chit chatting with local senior citizens, and petting stangers' dogs. Took this picture while doing the first one. I was in Hope Park and I was just loving watching families out having picnics and playing golf and doing fun cute things that we would do back home. And it just struck me that the simple life really is wonderful, and how nice it is to enjoy the little things in life.

One of my favourite spots that I found was on the edge of Derwent Water lake.

A close up of the house on the island from the last picture. Its actually an old mansion where the local aristocracy lived until a few hundred years ago. But I loved sitting on the lakeside and imagining fairy tales about the island. 

On that note, I guess I'm not the only one imagining make believe stories about the lake. One of the nights I went to see a movie called Swallows and Pirates, a kids movie based there!

Flower beds in Hope Park. This one made it in because they're gorgeous!

A holly bush!! I always thought that holly was just Christmas decoration but it grew all around!

This one is here because I wanted to show everyone how charming the cottages were! And I was worried you'd miss it among the other 410 pictures on Facebook lol. 

LOOK HOW BIG AND FLUFFY AND LOVELY THESE HYDRANGEAS ARE! 

SAME STORY HERE THIS PEONY BLOSSOM WAS THE SIZE OF A TENNIS BALL! WOW! 10 POINTS TO MOTHER NATURE!

One day I went to the Keswick Museum (I have a ticket valid for the whole year if anyone wants its and can forge my signature) and they had a special exhibition on Arnold Wainwright. He loved walking on the fells and wrote a whole series on them. Here are a couple of the quotes from two of his books. Personally I think he was spot on with the bit where he said "The Lake Districts are the complete antidote for urban depression", which I relate to because I sure felt better after spending a few days in the fresh air.

My favourite pub that I found. Three reason? Super friendly bar tender, I tried Yorkshire pudding here (beef stew filled pancake, can I get an amen?), AND the nice old couple who let me pet their dogs.

See that green tub? Those are smushed canned peas, and they are the best part about fish and chips. No lie, I dreamt about them on the flight to the UK and ate them every chance I got.

Last year when we were decorating our hallways, Deb taught me what bunting was. This was hanging up in a second hand store and it just looked pretty as a picture. When I was here I bought a top notch, super secret Christmas person for a certain momma, SHHH! 

Another nature pic! It's astounding how few critters I've seen since I got here. No squirrels, no raccoons, no little birds aside from pigeons and crows. So I found this little guy and was super pumped. 

This reads "In loving memory of Kathleen and Edward, They loved Keswick as much as they loved each other". Cue me getting mushier than peas and welly-eyed (again).

This one's for you Sabrina! :D

The Theatre by the Lake, its here because it provided me with hours of fun an they put on some seriously awesome productions! Nearly went to go see Dial M for Murder twice, and I would have if I'd had another night, it was a wonderful show.  hated one of the main characters at the start and loved her by the end, and I just love when a play can do that :)

If you're sitting there thinking "Holy shit that looks big", well you'd be correct. It was this massive statue in St. Pancras, a train station in London that I wandered into by mistake and was really glad I did!

I was a little pulled tight emotionally this trip, and as anyone who knows me knows, I get really grateful/ a titch sad over anything veterans related, and especially things to with men my age going off to war. So I immediately loved this part of the statue.

The statue had a ring of smaller decorations around the bottom showing life in Britain themed things. The first one I saw was the one above this, life years ago. But next up I saw the one of modern life. In case it's hard to see, it's a couple embraced and the woman is paying more attention to her cell phone she's holding behind her head. Pretty moving statue, really speaks to how we choose to value each other.  (boo hooing in public again Emma? No, just allergies)

On my last full day in London I went to the Sherlock Holmes and Victoria and Albert Museum. On my way there, I found the Wonder Walk! It's this tunnel from one side of the road to the other, but they'e made it realy interactive and wonky! It had little facts about the area all the way along, candy cane stripes and funny shaped mirrors and I took about 10 minutes to "cross the road" and felt like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory.

Last favourite picture is from the Sherlock Holmes museum!! This was mostly a depiction of what somebody imagined Sherlock's rooms looked like. They did an awesome job! There were mementos from different cases, and rooms for Dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson. All of the rooms were filled to their ears (rooms have ears?) with little things. It looked bang on like I imagined it would from the books. Neat fact: the townhouse they used still had its original EVERYTHING, floor boards, plaster work, room configuration, which is apparently pretty unusual in London, since people tend to remove those things now.

Swimming Pools

Some updates on what I've been up to lately (then explanation on title):

I spent Saturday visiting this little town called Obernai!
First thing in the morning me and Claire have a little tradition that before we go on a trip, we stop at this little bakery on our street for coffee and a pastry. (Sad to report I didn't like the almond marizpan filled croissant I got - wasn't aware of the sugar filling in the middle and it was only subpar.) With pastries in hand we took the tram to the train station where we bought our 3.20$ each way tickets! How crazy is it that one of my ticket and my breakfast were basically equal price!?

Obernai didn't have anything specific to see, but we bummed around and found lots. We found a sweet play park, some crepes for lunch, and walked on (or near?) the old city wall, and I found a little hidden nature spot!
HYPE! GOOD DAY! Here's cute pictures of us being cute!

Crew fresh off the train (minus Kaelan)

A bunch of touristy nerds enjoying being nerdy:)

Found a hunk 

City walls make for good picture spots

Outside the old wall

Nature spot! Behind the outermost wall and down a ditch

THIS IS THE KITTY I FOUND! I FED IT COOKIES! I PET IT! I NEARLY TOOK IT HOME!

MHM get in ma belly!! (Actually the cheese was really too much and I only ate half But SHH DON'T TELL THE CHEF I LIED AND SAID IT WAS GREAT)

I'm the fool on the left, Natasha is the fool on the right, Momma Claire is supervising. 

Cute wall, cute trees, cuties 

On to the meat and potatoes of this blog:  What has the last week in the life of Emma looked like? Well....

Swimming Pools (click those blue words)

Really identifying with Kendrick right now. Saturday night we went out to party in Kelh, Germany (the city that is the Riverview to my Moncton). We've heard since basically day one about how crazy the German night clubs are and let me tell you, we were NOT disappointed! I'll take more pictures next time I go, but this place was beyond cool. There was a red carpet that we walked in on, and then when you got inside the whole place was full of red and purple glow lights. A few notable things are that the music was 10/10 excellent, the DJ literally did not play one bad song, and everything blended from song to song and time just melted away. Another thing I remember thinking is how gorgeous all the staff were! To get an idea of what I mean, think about what it would be like if Hollister opened a bar.

smoke and disco ball and very happy Emma

One other thing, we took to shuttle to the Gold Club, which comes home at the earliest at 4 am. I took a page out of Uncle James's Vegas advice book and hit the vodka redbulls in anticipation of my late / early parting needs. Between the caffeine and the vodka I was buzzin, and the music was so none of us could hear for a good 15 minutes after we left. But the whole thing was so fun! They had sparklers and confetti and fog and it was like living in a magic party snowglobe.

We're going back to the Gold Club this weekend and I am already hyped about it! I promise I'll try do better with pictures next time (no guarantees). 

Went to bed at 6 am Sunday, lol proceeded to do dick all the whole day.

Which brings me to the start of this week:

Monday - I don't think we drank?

Tuesday - Me and Natasha finished the vodka redbulls and people watched in the quad

Wednesday - Apparently Wednesday is Irish Pub night in my hallway?! (*not sure on the authenticity of "Irish") Elizabeth and Natasha came over, we missed the pub since we turned the wrong way and by the time we turned around the crew was leaving. So we went out to the Living Room where we found an out of touch DJ and some drunk 15 year olds, promptly hid in their bathroom discussing better options, ended up striking out and going home. 

Thursday (today) - Going to go out to this place the Mount A kids from last year said was good, also have tickets for free drinks

Friday - Going to drink wine in the park (it's Friday tradition, we can't not)

Saturday - Going back to Gold Club 

Sunday - recovering and facetiming y'all

Sorry, liver.