Dıabolıcal!

At long last

Well, ıt's been a whıle. It's been so long ın fact that I can't remember half of the thıngs I want to wrıte, and the thıngs that I can remember are so abundant ın number that ıf I trıed to transcrıbe them all I would have to neglect all else and probably dıe of starvatıon.

So. ınstead of all that I'll ınstead tell you that I mılked a cow ın Latovnık, Bulgarıa. It was later ın the same day that she'd gıven bırth. At about 8am at the neıghbourıng farm Aıden and Aıesha's cow gave bırth. We came by to see ıt after breakfast (about 9 am) and the baby was just tryıng to stand and was stıll covered wıth after bırth.

It mıght seem odd to mılk a cow the same day ıt's gıven bırth but worry not! We saved 2 teets for the baby and mılked the other 2 for us. We made pancakes (more crepes but apparently that's what the rest of the world calls pancakes. Who knew?) wıth the mılk and the colostrum gave them a great buttery flavour! The mılk was ın my belly about 10 mınutes after I'd taken ıt from the cow!

It was a good day!

Super Tea

This was a good cup!

I like this picture because it looks like we`re a wacky crime fighting team or something.

It was taken in Česky Krumlov in the Czech Republic at the hostel I was staying at.

The dude on the far right is in Budapest now, as I am, and tomorrow we`re going to meet up and see some stuff.

Lots of other stuff, I mean LOTS of other stuff has happened in the time since last I logged an entry on here, but I don`t feel like writing about it now.

Yesterday

I had wanted to leave the 'farm' yesterday, hitchhike into Koblenz and then catch a train to Hamburg in order to chance a meeting with a friend who said they could host me. I figured I'd find a way to get in touch with them so no biggy if I had nothing really arranged ahead of time.

I arrived in Koblenz (after a free bus ride and 1 car) and the weather was wonderful! Sunny and warm in a way not typical of October 23rd! I was feeling good so I went to a shop and got my watch battery replaced (the one that controls the 'globlu' function, because as it turned out my watch has 3 batteries.) and grab a kebab for a quick lunch outside the train station.

That's where things went wrong.

A ticket to Hamburg was €80. I decided screw it I'll head straight to Berlin. But that would cost me €100. So now I have a dilemma the likes of which can only be sorted with the help of the Internet. So that's where I went, a cafe just outside the Hauptbahnhof to search for cheaper bus lines and to ask for a ride share. I found nothing. So I talked to the Moroccans outside (this is when it's good to know a little French even in Germany) who told me I should go to the homeless shelter for 1 night and then try to get a ticket tomorrow.

I didn't do that.

Instead I went back to the station to see when the next 'cheap' train fare would be available. Turns out if I waited until Sunday I could get to Berlin for only €64. Still far more than I was expecting if I wanted this rate I would have to buy the ticket at some point before 8pm that night. So I had some thinking to do. I posted some last minute requests on Couch Surfing and now I had to play the waiting game.

I'd been told Cologne had more and cheaper hostels but the Internet revealed that this was a lie. So I did what any traveller in my situation would do. I bought some cheap beer and sat on a park bench.

Behind me there was a skate shop\record shop that I thought might be nice to check out, so I finished me beer and took a walk inside. I looked around, and on my way out asked if the store clerk (a 24 year old named Geronimo) if he knew of any hostels in Koblenz. Turns out there is only one and it's €18 a night. But he said he'd let me use the Internet at his shop if I wanted!

It was while surfing the net here that I got a call from a CS host who said she could host me, but not until the following evening. So now I had to find a place for tonight. The search was one and I was diligently running through all of my options when Geronimo politely informed me that he was closing the shop. I was screwed, but Geronimo told me to wait a moment while he made a phone call. Homeless himself he had nowhere he could let me crash, but after a phone call to his boss he assured me I would not be out on the street, I could in fact crash in his store's back room where he would be spending the night.

Crisis averted I went back to the station to buy my €64 ticket at which point I was told I could go to Berlin for a mere €25 if I didn't mind taking the slow train and having the 6 hour trip stretch into an 11 hour trek. I didn't mind and so with ticket in hand, I set off to the Circus Maximus to buy a burger and relax.

6 hours after arriving in a strange city without anywhere to stay and no idea where I was going or what was going to happen to me the Universe once again smiled upon me and I was spared a chilly evening on the banks of the Rhine.

Oktoberfest

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

I'm not going today! Aside from the beer I had this morning for breakfast (it was a traditional Bavarian breakfast apparently, and was composed of white sausage, white beer, and big ass pretzels. It was pretty damned good too!) I will be giving the drink a bit of a miss today. Instead I think I'll try to take it easy and do some corresponding with the folks back home.

Time for a recap . . .

For the moment I'm in Frankfurt (as pictured above) but will be leaving for München and Oktoberfest tomorrow. So far this has pretty much been the pace of the trip. Quick! We stayed in London for 3 nights at a hostal in Lewisham. It was even more awesome than you#d have imagnied. Folks there were awesome and Richard and I had some great times!

Now we're in Frankfurt and things are just as great! Last night we went out to try some local apple wine and some traditional Frankfurt foods. What we got was a 10 liter jug (it's the smallest they had) of apple wine and a HUGE plate os meat layed over a bed of saurkraut. Seriously, it was a plate of meat! Sausages, ham, whatever! It was delicious! And much to my dismay and misinformation it cost €11.50.

Today we forced ourselves to wake up before 2pm and are going to go walking and exploring for a bit.

It's the theme song.

Put this in your I-Pod, I dare you!

On the road again . . .

Yes folks, it's that time again. The time to cast off the shackles of daily life in Canada in favor of adventure in Europe. A time to gain, a time to lose. A time to rend, a time to sew. A time to love, a time to hate. A time for peace, I swear it's not to late. But enough of this rhetoric, it's for the byrds!


My plans thus far are as follows . . .

23rd - Departure to London, England
24th - Arrive in London, England
27th - Arrive in Frankfurt, Germany
30th - Arrive in Munich for the last week of Oktoberfest
Sometime after that - Some other stuff

Yes, I find the secret of successful travel is to have a carefully laid out itinerary.

August Post!!

Shoot! I almost missed a month!

Here's the most of it!

I've been trying to find a way to post some of the 'best of' pictures from my year abroad. (that's the year I spent in Europe, not the year I spent as a woman. The pictures from THAT year are well hidden and for a good reason!)

So here's what I've got so far . . .

http://www.flickr.com/groups/799465@N20/pool/

I still have to post Norway, the Netherlands, Scotland and Wales and to compoung my frustration, I'll have to wait 'till next month to friggin upload them too thanks to the fact that I don't wanna buy a 'Pro' account!

All that aside, it is now time to look on dear friends. To vicariously bask in the Portuguese sun, to marvel at my adventures, and enjoy a few of the highlights of my year abroad!

'Tis a storm a brewin'

So it's been a while eh?

Today I had a haphazard 'what the hell is going on here anyway?' type of work day where nothing was planned and I just kind of ran all over the place. First laying sod in the thunder and lightening and then doing the same in the dry sweltering heat. But I did finish early . . .

And came home and juggled. I should have mowed the lawn but I couldn't be arsed. I'm hoping to borrow the 'big' mower from work anyway to make things a little easier!

Dancing fool

I just felt I should publish something on here. Anything really, just to make it seem like I wasn't neglecting my blog.

The sad thing is that I can't really be arsed to write anything. Well, at least nothing particularly interesting. I could write about my 17 hour work day yesterday, or the BBQ that followed. I could write about going to pick my brother up from the Buffalo airport this Saturday or that after that I'll be heading into Toronto to a housewarming party and possibly to hear Ashley McIsaac play a free show. Heck I could write about anything really!

But I won't.

Actually, I changed my mind. Here . . .

If you wanna connect with someone and get some art in the mail, send some art of your own to these folks along with a little letter explaining that you want to trade. . .

Lisa F.

P.O. Box 220
Papaikou Hawaii
U.S.A.
96781

Cynthia Says
P.O. Box 641711
San Francisco, California
U.S.A.
94164

And you get a letter in the mail!

I was thinking today while I was at work moving lawns. Here's what I was thinking . . .

A story writing exercise.

I'm going to handwrite a page of a story and then post that page to someone else.
That person then handwrites the next page and posts post pages to someone else.
That person then handwrites the next page and so on and so on.

Each participant needs only write 1 page (and please lets limit it to that so everyone can get a chance without us inadvertently killing a small forest)

Then when the story is done, the last participant sends me the entire thing and I'll make copies, bind them, and send one to each participant!

Sound like fun? Let's get started! Either leave me your address in a comment or sent it via e-mail! Do it now!

Good thing we didn't tear the universe!

The physical manifestation of my constant struggle with my inner child.

3 little pigs

No folks, I'm not discussing pork. (the title of this post is horrendously inaccurate) I am in fact going to be talking about the three cool dudes who's pictures appear above. Look at them, bask in their glory!

• Regard with envy their sweet moustaches!
• Marvel at their unique and stylish hair!
• Notice how each of them wears the ol' 'button up over a t' ensemble!

Alone each of these marvelous fellows is the very template of masculinity. Each is the envy of all who know him and garner admiration and accolades where 'ere they go. It's actually been postulated that part of the reason the three are never photographed together is because the universe cannot withstand the strain of such an imbalance of concentrated coolness and thus the three have made a pact to keep their distance, to maintain the universe as it is for the sake of all the mere mortals who they share existence with.

Actually, this started out as a post to see which of the 2 guys people thought I looked more like. I've been accused of resembling them both. I guess once I started writing though, things kinda got away from me . . .

So who do you think I look more like? (Neither of them is also a valid answer!)

Canada IS a great country!

Yesterday I got roped into moving my brother out of University. Not normally a tragedy in any sense but I had other plans I was eager to get to so this mammoth move (it took us almost 12 hours to get everything loaded and the flat tidied up) I was ready to get home and then head back out.

This didn’t exactly happen as on our drive home the right wheel of the trailer behind the van decided to lock up and we had to pull over.

No matter what we tried (we drove both forwards AND backwards!!) We couldn’t seem to make this stubborn wheel turn, so we were just resigning ourselves to our fate and getting ready for a long walk to the closest phone when a friendly stranger and good Samaritan (both the same person) pulled over in their pickup truck and lent us his phone to call for a tow truck. As it turned out this helpful gentleman happened to hail from Caistor Centre and only a hop, skip and a jump (and perhaps a final lunge) from where I’m situated. We only chatted briefly but during this time I excused my appalling geographical knowledge of the area by saying that I’d been away for a long time and was just coming back.

After we’d called the truck and our new pal had driven off we were all sitting in the van chatting about how fortunate we’d been to have him stop, when who should come driving back towards us but the man himself. He got out of his truck and walked up to us and said something along the lines of . . .

“As I was driving away I was thinking. You said you just got back, and that probably meant you don’t have a job yet. Do you want a job?”

I of course accepted, shook hands and exchanged information before he headed off again. It’s a landscaping position which is good because I’ll get to be outside, doing different stuff all the time, getting to travel to different areas, and it pays well enough that I’ll be able to save up some money during the work season and then bugger off again once the season turns.

Cha Ching!

Mr. Murray

Thanks! (for all the fish)

Rome was nice!

Okay, so I've been neglect. Big whoopidy do! I've been doing other things!

Anyway, for everyone who was anxiously awaiting pictures from Morocco you're going to have to wait 'till I'm back in Canada. (Don't worry, I'll make a slideshow and invite everyone to their own private screening in my house . . . wherever that ends up being. Don't get too excited!)

Things are going great! I'm still having a ball but I'm a tad conflicted about returning home. I'm going to miss my current lifestyle, the friends I have over here, the way of life, everything. Then on the other hand I'm really looking forward to being back in Canada, with friends and family, familiar surroundings, and being able to just relax for a bit.

Regardless of how I feel, I'll be back in Canada on April 14th (good thing I checked! I thought it was the 15th!) after I find a way to get to London to catch my flight, and I'm expecting to be bombarded, immediately upon my arrival, by invitations to dinner, teas, pints, clubs, farms, cities, beans, eggs, salad . . . ok, I got a bit carried away. I'm a tad hungry!

40 hours on a bus

That's how long it took me to get from Saharan Morocco up to Barcelona. It was direct, but LONG and now that I'm in town I have nowhere to stay tonight and I'm a bit tired and hungry.

Anyway, Morocco was great, and I'm sure Barcelona will be too! I'm characteristically running out of time, so here are a couple of pictures to keep you up to date-ish.

No I won't the computer won't let me access my drive.

Another time dear readers, another time.

Not just another list.

Often when I post a list of sites it's not just I think other people might benefit from them, but also because I don't want to forget them myself. (Other times it's just something I think is funny in the moment, but I'm not going to worry about that one right now)

I found these sites recently and thought that I'd share them with everyone and keep them in a place I'll be able to find them later.

The first 2 are about volunteering in South America . . .
http://www.travellernottourist.com/index.HTML
http://www.volunteersouthamerica.net/

The nest one is about doing worthwhile things all over the world . . .
http://www.idealist.org/

And this one is about trading your clothes with strangers . . .
http://www.rehashclothing.com/

Have a look, be inspired, and send me a new jacket!

Thank goodness for saving drafts!

I almost forgot to post this!

I heard about this guy from a Dutchman who met him. He's a cool spoken word poet that pretty much raps the entire Canterbury Tales. You can find some cool fan stuff done on you tube too if you like what you hear.

http://www.myspace.com/bababrinkman
http://babasword.com/writing/rapcantales.html

I guess it's not very Valentine's Day related, but neither is this . . .

A little more information for you.

Okay folks, I've been in Portugal now for 5 weeks and have posted only that last (and let's face it) shitty post, so now I've got 10 minutes to turn this whole thing around and post a mind blowing entry that people will be talking about for centuries!

Seeing as a picture is much more expressive than I can possibly hope to be in 10 minutes let's start with a few of them.

These first 2 pictures are of Lisbon where I spent 4 nights couchsurfing in a hostel and hanging out with a friend from the Netherlands that I met on the bus and a couple of Brasilians, a Texan, a Norwegian, an Estonian, and others that I know I'm forgetting and having a whale of a time in the scary little streets in the old city.

These next 2 are where I spent all those cold nights in January and the first week of February. It's called Paradise in Portugal and I stayed at the resort expense free and met people from all over the world.

This is a dude on his way . . . somewhere. I snapped the picture (I asked him first) on the way back from Santa Clara with the groceries for the Quinta.
This was about an hour and a half ago in Faro. I was in a park reading a book when all these Peacocks (and Peahens to be inclusive) walked out from behind the bench I was sitting on. I fed them some crumbs to get this picture.

Any of the really good ones from Portimão are on my friends camera and he's going to mail a CD of them to me in about 2 weeks. I won't get it 'till I'm back in Canada though, so you're just going to have to be patient.

And now dearest friends, you know a little more about what I've been up to these past few days during the terrible silence that befell my blog. And e-mail correspondance. And Facebook. And phone calls. ANYWAY, I'm still alive and still having a ball.

Still alive.

I'm still alive and kicking.

I tried to post something on my blog yesterday, from this very computer but timed out. Then today, when I came back HOURS later I sat at the same computer. I turned on said computer and executed the firefox program. At this point I was presented with the choice to either open a new session or restart the old one. I selected restart because I'm a curious bastard and guess what popped up?

My blog, logged in, ready to post a new entry.

Good thing I checked it or someone else might have had a bit of fun at my expence!

New Motivation

Watch this, (be warned, it's like an hour!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcqcWVZJPb0

And then check out more here!

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/
http://www.heymarci.com/


I've only just found out about them but they seem awesome!

Madrid

You ever take a long bus ride and kind of get excited because you'll be able to get some reading done and just take it easy? Well that was the state of mind that I was in when I boarded the bus in Bilbao bound for Madrid. Sadly the driver thought he'd turn on the overhead T.V.s and play James Bond and then the Bourne Surpremecy in Spanish and blast the sound the entire trip. The Bourne film was a pirate copy too and was terrible, complete with people standing up in front of the screen.

So then we arrived in Madrid and I tried to call my hosts so they could meet me or give me directions to their place. Nope, the payphone wasn't having any of it. So I asked around in my best yet still apauling Spanish to see what the deal was. Nobody knew why but one woman gave me her phone to use so I got in contact, but I had to call back later so I had to thank the woman and let her go.

So I waited around for about an hour and then decided to try yet another payphone. While doing so I overheard a woman speaking English so I approached her to ask for her phone. When she turned around she was in tears, and couldn't lend me her phone because the battery was almost dead and she had just been mugged.

Then I asked a security guard if he could help me with the payphone and as he was a girl came up to him, tears streaming, and reported that she had been robbed.

Eventually I met 3 Irish girls who told me that you can't call a mobile phone from a payphone, and they graciously lent me their mobile and I was able to call my hosts and sort out the rest of my life from there.

Strange how in one station you can have people who are so trusting and generous and others who're so immoral and willing to take advantage of people. It's actually probably the one personality that enables the other to exist sadly.

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Leading up to New Years I was a little nervous. I had been told that the last time June introduced someone to her friends who only spoke English, they really made no effort to talk to him and he was bored.

I shouldn´t have worried though. When we arrived June and her friends all talked with each other and I found out there was a Brazilian girl there too, so good! 2 non native speakers! I think I started talking to her in English and within a few minutes I was able to talk to everyone and they were all great!Our entrance to the bar cost us 20€ but that included 3 drinks and a shot. And they just gave you free shots when you ordered a drink anyway, I have no idea why! And if you asked them to mix you a really strong drink they would. It was pretty good! Anyway we stayed there ´till 4 or 5 I guess then we went to another bar and then to a house party in some room some guys rented. Across from their room there was a bar, I went in and bought a beer and ended up talking with strangers in there too. I had an argument with some Latin American guy about whether or not I was American and I just gave up because he was getting mad. After that though we were best of friends.

Just before the bar closed I asked the bartender if he´d just fill up my pint for me . . . and he did!!! Ha! Just filled ´er on up! Then I played hackey sack with some guy with a tennis ball, or more accurately just kind of kicked his tennis ball away from him.

Over the course of the night people disappeared, people reappeared, people threw up, I was given a roll of toilet paper in a grand ceremony in the bar, and then at about 8:30am we all stumbled back to our places and tried to get as much sleep as possible. I didn´t get up ´till 5pm.
Prior to all of this, June and I had watched the countdown to New Years on T.V. and then ate the traditional 12 grapes during the first 12 seconds of the year, then went out to the balcony to watch people shooting off fireworks from their balconies! Seriously! People were shooting crap right out their kitchen windows! I say one thing smack into the wall of the building on the other side of the road! I saw pedestrians on their way out have to run after someone dropped a firecracker out their window above them. It was awesome!!

Please note the Christmas tree in the background of the one picture. That´s because Christmas here isn´t over ´till January 5th when the 3 wise men come. The 25th is when Olentzaro brings gifts. That´s the dude who´s effigy I´m carrying in the impromptu parade in the old town.