Day Eighty-Four

Paris, France

On the first Sunday of every month the Pompidou Centre and the Louvre are free to visit, so we today we went to both. The Pompidou Centre is a fantastic modern art museum that was filled with great films and interesting photos and paintings. The Lovre on the other hand was far too overwhelming. There were thousands of different paintings, statues, and artifacts, but very few of them were exciting. It's weird seeing things like the Mona Lisa after seeing them in movies for years. It's not like I had high expectations for it or anything, but it just wasn't that impressive.

Tomorrow we start our trek back to the UK so we can catch a plane back to Canada. We are going to be in the airport foreverrrrr.

Pat

Day Eighty-Three

Paris, France

Today we walked across town to the Catacombs. The bones of thousands of people line the tunnels. They were all moved here from different graveyards around Paris. It was pretty eerie, but it was worth the long wait. Afterward we got some fastfood pasta and some creme brulé. We took it easy for the rest of the night and sat around watching some TV.

Pat

Day Eighty-Two

Paris, France

Today we adventured to the Eiffel Tower again, except this time we did it during the day. We climbed up to the second level and decided that we couldn't be bothered going to the top. I really wanted to, but no one else wanted to wait, so we climbed down and moved on. We spent the rest of the day walking around and shopping. We went to Galeries Lafayette which was quite astounding, though I didn't find anything worth buying.

Pat

Day Eighty-One

Paris, France

Today we explored, then we got drunk.

Paris is a great city: it's very clean, there are tons of things to do, and the people seem cool. I find the language more difficult than the language in any other country, which is weird because I was in french immersion from grade 7-11. I think it's that people don't speak nearly as much English as any other country we've been to. It's making me want to start learning French again though, which is good.

Today we took the metro to the Tuilerie Garden for a picnic, its right beside the Lovre so we went and walked around outside of there too. It is free on the first Sunday of the month, so we may come back on Sunday to see the Mona Lisa and whatnot. After walking around by the Louvre we headed up Champs Elysees, finishing at the Arc de Triomphe.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out in our room drinking and telling funny stories. The people at the front desk are starting to get suspicious about how many people are in our room. eek.

-Pat

Day Eighty

Paris, France

Today I saw the Eiffel Tower.

After arriving in Paris we quickly located our hotel and checked in. We are fooling them into thinking we are three and not four. Hopefully we can pull it off this one last time. The place is super nice, but the only downside is that there is no wifi and internet access is crazy expensive. Something like 8 euro for half an hour. Bogus. The bathroom is incredible though, and it more than makes up for the lack of internet.

After getting situated we got pizza hut and some alcohol and went back to our hotel room. We drank a bit and then made our way towards the Eiffel Tower. By this time it was dark and it was all lit up. It looked incredible. I have seen so many pictures, but it is far more impressive up close. We are going to come back in a few days and go up to the top.

-Pat

ps My ipod has been broken for a couple weeks and I am going insane. I keep getting ridiculous songs like the Pippy Longstocking theme song stuck in my head.

Day Seventy-Nine

Nice, France

Today we went to the beach.

I never realized how awesome beaches were until we went to one today. Even coming from PEI, an Island surrounded by beaches didn't prepare me for how enjoyable the water would be or how relaxing lying on the rocks would be.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out and eating food, the way a vacation should be.

-Pat

Day Seventy-Eight

Nice, France

Today we skipped stones.

I was sad to leave Cinque Terre, and Italy too, but it would have been hard to pick a better place to visit next. Nice is great so far. Its definitely a cool place to have a vacation from our vacation. The beach is entirely made of smooth rounded rocks, so I am not sure how great it will be to lie on, but that is all we have planned for tomorrow. I can't wait.

-Pat

Day Seventy-Seven

Cinque Terre, Italy

Today I ate the best pizza of my life.

Holy moly, that is all I can think. Cinque Terre is absolutely stunning. The view is unexplainable, the only way to experience it is to come here yourself. This place raises far too many questions for me. The main one being why. Why would you build five villages on the side of a mountain above the Mediterranean Sea? Laura says they built it here because of the great view, but as adorable as that is, it doesn't really answer my question. I am beyond amazed by this place. We were a little hesitant to pay the 5euro to use the walking path, but I am very glad we did. It was great.

We also met an awesome couple who were staying in the same room as us in our hostel. They were from Minnesota and had just gotten engaged a couple hours before we met them. Their names are Jenny and Nate and we are hopefully going to be able to meet up with them in Paris next week. They are really friendly and are also pretty familiar with Canada. They said they have a saying for whenever things get rough in the states, "We're moving to Canada". I'd welcome them.

-Pat

Day Seventy-Six

Rome, Italy

Today we visited the Ancient City and met up with Mitch.

We met up with Mitch around 2:00pm at the metro by his hostel. It was nice to see him again, it's been weeks since we were at his place in oxford, even though it feels like yesterday. We spent the day walking around the ancient ruins and touring around the Colosseum. The Colosseum was unreal, but the rest of the ruins were kinda unimpressive. I find the giant structures to be cool as hell, but I also find it hard to relate to ancient history. Zac loves it because he studied it in school, but I find it rather boring. I think that's why I liked Berlin so much. Its history is fairly recent in comparison.

Afterward we went to a Chinese restaurant and were very close to going to an icebar after that, but we were all tired and were ready for bed.

I came to Rome with few expectations and it has really impressed me. The place is so old and famous. There always seems to be something exciting going on as well. We may have just missed the giant soccer tournament by a day, but we did manage to be in the middle of a giant G8 protest. Oi oi oi!

Tomorrow we are going to Cinque Terre, I just realized how long I have been pronouncing that wrong for.

-Pat

Day Seventy-Five

Rome, Italy

Today we hung out with the Pope.

Not really, but we did go check out where he lives. We got to Vatican City around noon and got in line for the Vatican. There were dozens of tourguides promising the opportunity to skip ahead of the 3 hour line up for a small fee, luckily I had just gotten an email from my mom telling me that the line moves incredibly fast and not to pay attention to any of those people. not that i would have anyway, they were fun to egg on though. We ended up waiting in line for less than 20 minutes and probably stayed inside for about half an hour. It wasn't mind blowing, but it was cool to be at the center of the dominating religion of the world.

We spent the rest of the day walking around what we thought was going to be a park, but ended up being a giant hill with a view of the city. It was a good surprise, but my feet have never hurt more in my life.

-Pat

Day Seventy-Four

Rome, Italy

Today we went to Rome.

It may have taken four hours of walking around to find our hostel, and we may have almost gotten raped/kidnapped/murdered in the process, but so far so good. Our hostel is located right next to the Olympic Stadium, which happend to host the champions league finals last night. Everything is still setup there, so it feels like a weird sporty graveyard. We ended up rounding up a bunch of leftover water bottles from the place and taking them back to our hostel. Free water is amazing, especially in this heat.

-Pat

Day Seventy-Three

Florence, Italy

Today we went to a GIANT toystore.

It wasn't large in a Toy's r Us kinda way, but more in a huge whippersnappers kind of way. One huge floor of every toy you could imagine. They had an entire room dedicated to Lego.

After that we went to a Serial Killer museum. I didn't want to go, but I figured I wouldn't be the stick in the mud and bought a ticket. It sucked, but there were a few laughs, so it was worth it in the end.

Oh yeah, we saw Michelangelo's David too, that was cool. He is a lot taller than I had imagined.

Florence is a nice place. I can definitely see myself coming back here someday, I really want to go back to that restaurant we went to when we got here. mmmmm.

Tomorrow we are off to Rome!

-Pat

Day Seventy-Two

Florence, Italy

Today we ate gelato and went to a giant cathedral.

I also came to the realization that I don't really like traveling with people. No offense to these guys, they are a lot of fun to be around, but traveling in such a big group is difficult. We are all pretty similar in taste, and we all get along, but we are not as like minded as I thought we would be on this trip. We (mainly Zac and I) are always arguing over simple things like directions and it takes us forever to get anywhere. I do walk fast, I admit that, but it shouldn't take us so long to walk down a street. If I were traveling by myself I could see so much more. I also find that traveling in a big group is intimidating to other travelers. The only time that I ever get to talk to people around our hostels is when I veer off from the group. Tonight, for instance, I had a sweet conversation about traveling with a guy named Cliff from Australia and two Danish girls. Never would have happened if I didn't go off by myself.

Traveling with them is definitely an incredible experience, there really isn't that much I would change. They are hilarious to be around and there is rarely a dull moment, it's just so inefficient and tiring. I'm conflicted because I feel like I'm missing out on so much, but I know if I hadn't gone with them there is so much I wouldn't have seen or done. I never would have met that couple in The Netherlands, and I never would have gotten that tour from Andrew for example.

To sum up: this trip so far has ruled, but I'd never do it again with so many people.


Anyway!We went to see the Duomo today. It's a GIANT cathedral in the center of town, it was pretty breathtaking, and it was freeeeee. The line was pretty big, but we entertained ourselves by trying to make the street vendors think that Elisha really wanted to buy something from them. hehehe.

-Pat

Day Seventy-One

Florence, Italy

Today Jillian decided to go home :( :(

This morning we got on a train headed to Florence. We neglected to get a reservation for two reasons. 1) We have ballin' Eurail passes, and 2) because we were so used to the German rail system and its fast free (for Eurail holders) trains. Turns out this was a bad idea because you need to get a reservation (they aren't too expensive) for highspeed trains here. Luckily the conductor was pretty nice about it and just kicked us off at the next stop instead of making us pay. This stop turned out to be Bologna, the city where Sarah lived for a semester. It was warm and all we could really do was sit and wait for the next train. The heat was obviously taking its tole on Jillian, and while we were waiting she decided to call her dad and ask for help getting home. He told her to go to the next travel agent we saw and get them to set up a plane home. :( It was pretty sad to hear, but she really isn't feeling well and she will be much happier/healthier in PEI.

The train from Bologna to Florence was slow and extremely warm, but it was breath taking. It was through some sort of national park. There were mountains and valleys, trees and tunnels. Very cool, figuratively speaking of course, because it was so warm, even the breeze was warm.

Tonight we didn't do much other than gt supper and find out where we were staying.
We ate supper at a sweet restaurant down the street from our hostel. It was run by an older couple and it was run semi-under the table so that they didn't have to pay taxes. This meant we had to sign a waiver though, which was alright because it was only 10 euro for an amazing three course meal. There was bread, water, caprese salad, pasta, and delicious chickpeas. The man who ran it called me Mr. Bubbly because I was the only one who got carbonated water at the table haha.

Tomorrow Jillian leaves for home, and we go in search of whatever makes this city cool.

-Pat

Day Seventy

Venice, Italy

Today we switched countries and swindled another hotel.

After an exhausting overnight ride from Germany we have finally arrived in Venice. We got here shortly after 6:00am and it was already hot as hell. We aren't used to this kind of weather. It is so hot that if I want to clean my glasses I can't breathe on them to fog them up. No condensation appears. Useless, I have resorted to licking them or running them under taps.

We have managed to convince another hotel that there are far fewer people staying in our room than there actually is. Part of me feels guilty, but at the same time I feel very little remorse, because we are poor and we aren't inconveniencing them in the slightest.

After finding a hotel, we got cleaned up and set out to explore a bit of the city. We walked down confusing alley ways and over many canals until we got to St Marco Square. It was a pretty beautiful place, but it was super hot and there were thousands of tourists around, so we ducked out of there pretty fast and made our way back to our hotel.

The heat is taking its tole on Jill. She is really tired and seems to be dizzy all the time. Hoping she gets better soon.

-Pat

Day Sixty-Nine

Between Germany and Italy

Today we traveled... a lot.

We headed south from Berlin around 11:00am by train and arrived in Munich around 5:00pm. We had a few hours to spare, so we got some good ol'Subway (they have a "veggie-pattie" here. It is delicious) and ate it in a park near the train station. Afterward I went for a walk downtown by myself. I figured I may as well explore a bit while I'm there. The walk was nice, it seems like a very happening city. There were a lot of street entertainers and soooo many dressed in football jerseys.

When you are traveling with a large group you really start to value your alone time. Not to say that being with the group isn't fun, its just that adventuring around and being in complete control of where you go is liberating and very refreshing.

Before we got on the train for Venice we were hanging out in the trainstation amidst hundreds of people wearing red football jerseys, tons of police officers and riot squads dressed to the nines. I will never get tired of European's dedication to all things soccer. Its hard to believe there is that much tension over a sports game.

Time to try and fall asleep on this train, I can already tell that I am not going to be a fan of the overnight ones.

-Pat

Day Sixty-Eight

Berlin, Germany

Today we visited Jill in the hospital.

Our original plan was to go to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin, but we threw those plans away once Jill went to the hospital. Making sure she was alive was much more important. We had no idea which hospital she went to though, so we set out to track her down. Luckily she called to let us know where she was and how she was doing.

She was at a hospital near by so we took the metro over to see her. The hospital was a bit of a maze, and none of the nurses spoke English, but we did manage to find her. We were helped by the hilarious whale sticker that was conveniently placed outside her door. She told us all about her night at the hospital (she watched an old man pee in the hallway) and we laughed about the creepy old German lady that she was sharing a room with. It was good to see her and to see that she was alright. We could finally report back to her dad that she was alive and well. Hopefully she will make a full recovery before we leave tomorrow.

-Pat

Day Sixty-Seven

Berlin, Germany

Today Jillian went to the hospital.

Major bummer. We woke up to Jill freaking out because she had been sick all night. It was really sad, we weren't sure what to do. She got some breakfast and started feeling a little better, but she decided to stay at the hostel to rest while we went for a walk. When we came back from walking around southern Berlin in the rain, we found Jillian about to hop in a cab to go to the hospital. Again we weren't sure what to do, but she insisted that she would be fine by herself, so we let her go. The nice people at the hostel called her a cab and told her what hospital would be better for her to go to.

The rest of the day was spent eating Mexican food, sipping delicious drinks, playing drinking games and worrying about Jill.

It was very bitter-sweet.

-Pat

Day Sixty-Six

Berlin, Germany

Today we went to the Holocaust Memorial and the National Jewish Museum.

Both were great, but I was more partial to the memorial. It was constructed four years ago with over 2700 giant concrete blocks placed in a grid formation over uneven ground. Much like Berlin itself, it doesn't tower above the land. It is huge, but at the same time it is discrete and doesn't actually have any visible markings to tell what it is or why it is there. you have to actually go underneath it to an information center to find out. The holocaust isn't flaunted around the city for obvious reasons, the German's know what happened and they don't need a huge sign to remind them. The memorial is perfect for exactly that reason. Everyone knows what it is, why it is there, and what it is meant to symbolize, but it isn't shoved in their faces.

Before visiting the memorial we went to see the Reichstag. It was the building that housed Hitler's government up until it was burnt to the ground in 1933. We didn't go in, but we hung out outside of it and listened to Zac give us a sweet history lesson, which I imagine was just as good as any tour they could have given us haha.

I am loving the WWII history more than i could have imagined.

-Pat

Day Sixty-Five

Berlin, Germany

Today we got shown around by a German man.

Our luck is impeccable, seriously. We woke up, showered, lathered on sunscreen, and headed out to explore Berlin. Our first stop was the giant TV Tower that soars above the city. There was an information center set up for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, so we mulled around there for a bit before heading over to check out some cool dancing fountains. While we were there waiting for the fountains to come back on two German boys no older than us came over and propositioned Jill and Laura for sexual favours in VERY broken English. "You fuck me? You fuck him? Yes?" They had a girl with them and we could tell they were just joking around, so we got a kick out of it.

Later on while we were checking out a giant fountain of Poseidon an older German man came up to Jillian and Laura and started telling them all about the fountain. This caught our interest and before we knew it we were following him around the city for nearly four hours. It was incredible. His name was Andrew and apparently he tours people around the city every Saturday ,free of charge, as a way to get out and exercise. He showed us around to the coolest places. We saw things that we never would have seen had we been walking by ourselves. He also gave us a great perspective on how Germans feel about WWII and the holocaust.

-Pat

Day Sixty-Four

Berlin, Germany

Today we found a new favourite city.

We have made it to Berlin, and we are in love. Who could have thought such a huge city could be so warm and inviting. Not to mention we are seeing the sun for the first time in a long time. Booo ya. We arrived this afternoon and met up with Megan at our hostel. It is super cheap and run by a couple from New Zealand. The guy has a sweet accent and walks around all day in a pair of rugby shorts.

We are staying in what would have been East Berlin and under communist rule 20 years ago. Prettty crazy. We didn't do much since we arrived, other than eat and go for a walk. We are pretty tired and want to save our energy for tomorrow. Megan has a sweet day planned. Usually we visit Megan in a city she is familiar with, so it'll be fun to explore a city together for once.

-Pat

Day Sixty-Three

Frankfurt, Germany

Today was a lot to handle.

Today we decided to leave Amsterdam and travel south towards Frankfurt, stopping only in Nijmegan to visit the Groesbeek Canadian War Memorial where my great-uncle is buried. We arrived in Nijmegan shortly before noon and began to wander around the somewhat small city trying to figure out where we had to go. We really had no idea where it was, all I had been told was that is was only 'ten minutes' from the train-station, so we found a map and tried to find it. We found a street called Groesbeek, so we figured we'd try there. After walking for 15 minutes we had had no luck finding anything other than some small residential cemeteries, so I decided to ask an older woman on the street for directions. What happened next was one of the luckiest, most memorable things to happen to me, ever.

Through a thick dutch accent the lady went on to tell us that, not only did she know where it was, but that she loved the Canadians and that her and her family have a deep admiration for them and everything they did for The Netherlands during WWII. Not only that, but her husband had housed Canadian soldiers, in the house they currently live in, near the end of WWII after the Germans were driven out of their country. They even keep in contact with the decedents of the Canadian soldiers to this day. Words cannot describe house nice they were. They invited us all in for tea and offered to drive us ten minutes out of town to the memorial. We never really got their names, but if I am ever in Holland again I am going to go to their house to say thank you.

After tea, a little conversation, and a picture the husband drove us to the memorial and said goodbye. We walked into the memorial to see a sea of identical graves. They were slightly eerie and one of them belonged to my great-uncle. I found a duotang by the entrance that had all of the dead soldiers' names and looked through until I found his name. Pvt. George Preston Smith. It gave the location, but we weren't entirely sure where it was, so we just walked in that general direction until we found the right row. Once we had found the row it wasn't hard to find his stone because placed in front of it was a single white rose (it was relatively fresh looking too) lying parallel to his grave. This might not sound strange, but there were no flowers by any of the other graves, and my family hasn't been to Holland since my mom and her sister visited in the 70s. Either way, we had found it.

I had obviously never met the guy, he died 64 years before I was born, and my grammy hasn't told me much about him. All I really know is that he was my grandmothers brother and that he died in WWII, so I didn't feelhave much of a connection to him and I really wasn't sure what to expect when I came to his grave. It wasn't until I saw his age inscribed on the headstone that I felt any strong emotion.

He was my age when he was killed. He was only Twenty-one years old. Never have I felt so mortal. A million things raced through my head at that moment. I had never really put two and two together. The fact that these soldiers were so young had never been so tangible before. I couldn't contain myself, I was sobbing as I looked around at the graves of thousands of teenagers and people my own age. I guess before when I thought of soldiers I naively pictured the wrinkly old men that we see at Remembrance Day ceremonies. Truth is, those old men were most likely my age or younger when they fought in WWII, along side all of the young men that populated that cemetery. Not knowing what to do, and becoming increasingly overwhelmed with the entire experience, I un-clipped the little cross my grammy gave me for good luck and left it on his grave. I figured getting there and meeting that couple was testament to our incredible luck thus far, so I thought I'd leave it there.

I've seen many documentaries about the war and learned about it in school, but this was my first real taste of WWII history since we've been here, and it has blown everything I've ever learned out of the water.

As for the rest of the day. It was spent riding along the Rhine (beautiful) to Frankfurt and yelling at Zac at a trainstation somewhere in Germany. Emotional day, sorry about that Zac.

-Pat

Day Sixty-Two

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Today was much more productive.

Jill and I ended up getting frustrated with the others today so we made a deal. If she came with me to the Press Photo 09 exhibit, I would go to the Anne Frank House with her later that day. This worked out great because I wanted to see both things and I really didn't feel like going by myself.

The Press Photo 09 exhibit (above) was incredible. It is put on by a group that strives to promote art within the photo journalism world, so not only were the photos awesome, they each told a story which made them that much more incredible. Some pictures were ridiculously sad, like the ones of the earthquakes in China or the wars in Georgia, but some were super uplifting, like the photos of Obama or the pictures from the Olympics.

The Anne Frank House was also incredible. I had never read The Diary of Anne Frank before going in, so I wasn't sure if it would have a very profound effect on me, but it was definitely memorable. Being in the place where they hid out for two years was interesting, but hearing the first hand accounts, reading quotes from her diary, and reading the story of her family's struggle really blew me away. It's really hard to conceptualize what they went through. They lived in the top floor of building for two straight years; they couldn't make a sound and they couldn't even open the windows to get some fresh air.

-Pat

Day Sixty-One

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Today we ventured into the red light district.

Amsterdam is just like I imagined. Its weird, beautiful, but not all that its made out to be. It may be the weather getting to me, but I just haven't found the city to be all that endearing. I do like the Canals though.

We spent a lot of time walking around today, but we didn't really do anything. Zac doesn't want to pay for anything that isn't sold at MacDoanld's or H&M, Elisha and Laura are indifferent about most things, and I want to see as much as possible. Unfortunately for me, it is much easier to convince people not to pay for things rather than pay for things. Ahh wellllll, this is what I signed up for. I'll probably end up going off by myself if I really want to see something.

As for the red light district, it wasn't all that great. It was just a busy shopping district with cramped alleyways and an air of pot. Not really my thing, but it was definitely worth seeing. So far the canals are still at the top of my list though.

-Pat

Day Sixty

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Today Zac got robbed.

Not really, but kinda.

We hopped on another train early this morning and left the lovely city of Bruges. We headed north toward Holland, stopping first for an afternoon in Antwerp Belgium before crossing the border.

Since we had our packs we decided it would be best to shove them into a locker while we roamed the city. While we were getting our bags situated, and eating some free doughnuts courtesy of ING, a man came up to us and asked for a Euro so he could afford the train. instead of just saying no Zac reached into his pocket and whipped out a fistful of small change. he explained to the man that he had no change because he needed some of the coins for the locker, and some for something else. The man muttered something about making change and then reached in and grabbed a Euro from Zac's hand. We all just stared and laughed as Zac said "I think I just got robbed". It was definitely one of the funnier moments of the trip so far. We even saw the guy later that day bumming a cigarette off of another guy.

After witnessing the robbery of the century we walked around Antwerp for a couple hours with no real destination in mind. We ended up doing some shopping and getting some food at an incredible sandwich shop. I'm sure it would have been an awesome city had we given it a fair chance, but for the short while we were there it was pretty crappy. It just felt like a big busy city street, but without the class or character that sets most cities apart.

Almost as soon as we had arrived, we were back on a train toward the next city. We arrived in Amsterdam around 5:00pm and walked around for an hour looking for a good place to stay. After striking out a few times we happened upon a cheap hotel where we are splitting a double/triple room between the five of us for around ten Euro each. It is pretty cramped, but we can make it work.

I'm pretty excited to explore the city tomorrow, I don't have the highest expectations, but from what we saw today it looks pretty great.

Day Fifty-Nine

Bruges, Belgium

Today our only goal was to find ridiculously cheap waffles.

We succeeded and they were delicious. Mine was dipped in chocolate and covered with pineapple and strawberries.

We spent the rest of the day people watching and climbing the giant Bell Tower.

A simple day, but a good one none the less.

-Pat

Day Fifty-Eight

Bruges, Belgium

Today was Jillian's birthday.

We woke up at 8:30 this morning, but apparently last night everyone woke up a number of times because the window kept banging shut and because Jillian kept yelling in her sleep "Ohhhh ya! I like the way you dance Diane!" haha.

After we were all situated we went out in search of waffles. We found some relatively cheap ones at a little restaurant down the street from our hostel. They seemed to be covered in a layer of caramelized sugar or something .They were soo good. We also got Belgian french fries from a street vendor. Never have french fries or mayonnaise tasted so delicious.

For Jill's bday we decided to rent some bikes and have a picnic by the windmills. It started to rain as we biked there, but it didn't stop us from having a good time. We also went out for some birthday gelato too, birthday candles and everything. I think she enjoyed it. I know if that was my birthday I would have been very happy with it.

-Pat

Day Fifty-Seven

Bruges, Belgium

Today was ridiculous.

Today was the day that we were to leave the UK for Belgium. We left Edinburgh by bus around 8:30 with the understanding that it wasn't very far to Glasgow and from there not very far to the airport. It ended up being an hour each way and we got to the airport with only an hour to spare.

Long story short, we ended up having to pay an extra 50+ Pounds and we missed the luggage checking deadline, so we had to carry on our huge backpacks. In order to do this they had to be under 10kg. Mine was 13+ and Jill's was not far off, so we had to shed a few pounds before they would let us on, all the while worrying that we would run out of time and miss our flight completely. So there we were, luggage strewn about all over the Prestwick Airport floor, swearing, panicking, and ripping our hair out. I ended up losing a pair of shorts, my pjs, a plug converter, and all of my toiletries. I also put on most of the clothes in my bag in order to lighten the load even more.

Luckily, our flight was delayed and we managed to get our packs under 10kg in time to make the flight. Once we were sure that we would make the flight we switched from worrying about our flight to being excited for where the plane was going to take us.
We were going to be in another new country, but this time we wouldn't know anyone, and it wouldn't be an English speaking country.

Our day really started to brighten up when we landed in Brussels. We were able to get our Eurail pass validated and start traveling on trains instead of shitty buses and planes. We also decided upon arriving that we were going to go to Bruges for two nights, then go to Brussels for two nights, and then go to Antwerp for an afternoon before going to the Netherlands.

When we got on our train to Bruges we had to stand in the back compartment of a car because there were no seats left for us. This was ok though because we ended up having a conversation with an American woman named Kari who thought we were starving students traveling around with no money. This was only partly true, but it didn't stop her from giving us each a fistfull of change and a bunch of maps of Paris. She was really nice, even if she did ask if we had facebook in Canada, and if we had a hard time adjusting to the 'warm' weather. She also paid for the cab that she asked if wanted to split with her. She rules, we are hopefully going to see her sometime while we are here.

After saying goodbye to Kari we wandered over to a hostel that was recommended by our guidebookthing. Turns out it is an amazing, simple, hostel that is only charging us 15 Euro a night for what appears to be our own room. Couldn't have asked for a better place. No puking foreign girls either. Boo ya.

This city is great so far. After walking around the quiet streets, eating Pizza Hut, and checking out the sights at night we have decided to stay two extra nights here. We love it too much to leave.

Tomorrow is Jillian's birthday. It should be a blast; we are renting bikes!

-Pat

Day Fifty-Six

Edinburgh, Scotland.

Our last day in Edinburgh has been fantastic.

We spent the better part of the day exploring the city while Megan studied for her exams. We did some shopping at H&M, visited the Scottish National Art Gallery, and walked around a gigantic comicbook store. Jill also showed off her somersault skillz to a group of guys doing flips and shit at a park. They replied to her skillz with "You can't do what we do!". Amateurs.

Later that afternoon we met up with Megan and headed to Arthur's Seat which is a giant hill formed by some sort of ancient volcano. It seemed like we were walking forever and Elisha nearly had a heartattack, but we did manage to make it to the top. The 'summit' wasn't super impressive, but the view was pretty beautiful, and the sun had decided to come out while we were up there, so that was nice.

Good times.

-Pat

Day Fifty-Five

Edinburgh, Scotland.

What a long day.

We arrived in Edinburgh around 8:30 after having traveled for 9 hours on a bus. I can't sleep on buses, so I got really far in my FF3 game. We arrived at Megan's around 9:00 and said our hellos. It was great to see her after such a long time.

Visiting Megan has become a sort of tradition for Laura and I. It is what spurred the idea for this trip in the first place. For the past two years we have visited her in Montreal shortly after exam time. So this year we decided to do the same, except we would travel in the opposite direction and stay for much longer.

We did some touristy sightseeing in the afternoon (Edinburgh Castle, among other things, though we were too cheap to pay) and hit up some delicious Thai Food for supper ("Gooooooood evening spicebox").

Our hostel is alright. It's kinda dirty and it smells really bad. This, of course, wasn't helped by the Spanish girl puking in a bucket when we walked in tonight. :S

-Pat

Day Fifty-Four

Oxford, England.

Today was our last day in Oxford, so we got up pretty early and made the best of it.

We took the bus downtown and walked around the botanical gardens for an hour or so. It was pretty remarkable, if not because of all the interesting plants, but because it was started in the 1600's. J.R.R. Tolkien spent a lot of time in these gardens and it even lays claim to holding his favourite tree (see above).

We left the gardens, did some shopping, and eventually went back to Mitch's house to make UK's version on Mac and Cheese, which ended up being more like Sidekicks than anything else. We also drank an ungodly amount of Irn Bruu. That stuff is going to be the death of us. Especially Elisha, she has probably consumed 4L since we arrived.

After saying our goodbyes we walked to the bus station to begin our long bus ride to Scotland.

-Pat

Day Fifty-Three

Oxford, England.

Today was our first full day in Europe.

We planned on waking up fairly early so we could get the most out of our short visit to Oxford, but we ended up sleeping in until about noon. We definitely needed the sleep, so it was no big deal.

We followed our sleep with some food and then headed out to Christ Church. I didn't see too much that I recognized, but apparently some of the Harry Potter movies were filmed there. CRAZY.

Afterward we did some shopping got some supper and walked around. All of the walking outside is very relaxing, especially the walk from Mitch's house to downtown.

Tonight Laura Elisha and I attempted to get a little drunk and watch Lost and ANTM on the internet. We weren't all that successful at getting drunk, but we did manage to watch Lost and ANTM which made up for our lack of buzz.

-Pat

Day Fifty-Two

Oxford, England.

We made it alive.

Laura, Jillian, Elisha, Zac and myself are safe and sound at MitchJennaEmma's place in Oxford. The ride from Gatwick to oxford was crazy. We were so shocked to see so many trees and fields in full bloom. We thought that the green colour was different from home, but really I think it was just a shock coming from home where we just got out of the dead of winter. Either way, it was nice to see leaves.

We haven't done much since we got here, we're just happy to be Europe. We did go out for supper though and I got some traditional English curry from a pub. It was incredible.

Our plan from here is to hang out with these guys for a couple days, then take a bus up to Edinburgh to visit with Megan.

Its really great to see these guys, they came here in January so it has been months since I've really talked to them. We are hopefully going to get to hang out with them in Ireland and Italy when we go there.

-Pat

Day Fifty-One

Halifax, Canada

Today started about as early as it possibly could.

I was at work all night/morning photoshopping and getting a bunch of different projects out of the way before I left for Europe, so I never really had a chance to sleep, but it's probably for the best considering my internal clock is going to be screwed up anyway once we get there.

The rest of the day was spent packing and traveling. We left Charlottetown around 4:00pm and drove straight to Halifax, minus the u-turn once we realized we were going to miss the boat, and a brief stop at Jungle Jim's in Truro. The drive from Truro to the airport was terrifying. It started to pour rain as soon as the sun started to go down. Definitely not my favourite driving conditions, but I managed to get us here safe and sound.

Now we are sitting in Stanfield waiting for our plane to England. It's only supposed to be 5-6 hours or something, but with the time change I have no idea what time it'll be when we get there. I could probably figure it out, but I would rather play FF3 on my DS.

-Pat

Day Fifty

I got my incometax return back today, so i decided to get something to entertain myself on the plane/train.

We leave tomorrow.

At 4 o'clock we are driving to Halifax to catch a plane that will take us to an entirely different continent. We will then spend 5 weeks living out of our backpacks and traveling around by train. We may meet some cool people along the way, we may not. We may get into trouble, we may not. I'm sure we will all have our differences, and we may want to kill each other at some point, but I am sure we will all come out of this trip closer than we are today. It'll definitely be a learning experience for myself too. I've gone on a few trips, but I've never been away from home for such an extended period of time.

While I'm in Europe I don't think I'm going to be able to update as frequently as I usually do, if at all, but I am going to try my best. If all else fails I am going to be keeping a journal, so I will make updates when I get back for every day that I miss. Also, I can guarantee that there will be plenty of pictures. Laura and I have
over 10GB of space combined.

Au revoir,

Patrick

Day Forty-Nine

Today I adventured with Katie, Jeff'm, Sarah, and Carver to the eastern most tip of PEI. No real rhyme or reason, it just seemed like a good thing to do on such a nice day. We made a stop in at a diner on the way there where we were treated to the largest servings of food I have ever seen. The grilled cheese was awesome. That plus some scratch tickets, bouncyballs, and a sweet Joel Plaskett sing-along made for a great day. It was kinda fitting that I would go to the eastern most tip of the province before heading to Europe. Tourists apparently go there and mistake the land seen across the water for Ireland, when in fact it is really Cape Breton. Crazy tourists.

This evening we all went to Baba's for the going away party that Carver (thanks again) had organized. Morgan got everyone a round of Baba's famous Sweet-O and we danced and had a great time. Sadly, China Garden was closed, so I didn't get any drunk Chinese food. Ah well!

I leave so sooon, it still hasn't sunk in.

Cheers,

Patrick

Day Forty-Eight

Today was fairly relaxed.

-Woken up at 10:30am by Mom calling from Europe (they are having a good time).
-Went back to sleep until 12:00pm
-Jeff'm picked me up and we met Connor AlDoug and Jcam at the market.
-Got all of my favourite market foods as it will be my last time there for a while.
-Photoshopped for a few hours.
-Went to Laura's and kicked everyone's butt at a game of Settlers of Catan.

Now I'm at work photoshopping like mad trying to get all of these pictures edited. It's 4:00am :S maybe I should go home, hmmm.

Goodnight,

Patrick

Day Forty-Seven

Today was fairly boring.

I decided to go to work for a few hours to photoshop some stuff, but I ended up just facebooking/youtubing instead. So I'll have to go back in tomorrow to finish up some stuff.

Afterward I stopped into the Delta for the CCFF reception. It was nice to see some of the people there that I hadn't seen in a long time, like Serena, Jill, Will and Ryan. I also got to see Tracy, who is the lady who works for Shinerama in Toronto and helps me out whenever I have a problem. She is great.

Later on in the night I met up with Sarah and watched the last couple songs of The Northlakes' set. They were pretty great, but the crowd at the place was pitiful, due to the moron running the show, so we left as fast as possible.

They decided to head home, so I stopped by Dan MacNeill's house to hang out with him,Elisha, Matt, Laura, and Steve Love, who I hadn't seen in ages. A few of them were a little drunk, so it made for a pretty funny time.

Cheers,

Patrick

Day Forty-Six

Another busy day.

-Went shopping with Laura and Elisha for some last minute necessities for the trip.
-Met up with Matt Gill. Took some photos of him for a possible album cover.
-Went to Carver's and watched The Office and 30 Rock with him and Sarah.

Tomorrow I am going to a dinner for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundations Annual General Meeting. Afetrwards I may go see the Barnkats and the Northlakes play at the Murphy Center.

Cheers,

Patrick

Day Forty-Five

Today i realized how to spell forty. Bravo.

Wednesdays are always sweet. We get together and eat Formosa, then we sit around and watch ANTM and Lost. We do this no matter what. We could have an exam the next day or have to be up at six the next morning for work, it doesn't matter. We never play Settlers of Catan on Wednesdays anymore, which is sad, we should probably bring that back.

Tomorrow is my last day of work before we head out. Although I can see myself spending a lot of time in the office photoshopping this weekend.

Cheers,

Patio

Day Forty-Four

Best photo-shoot to date; I am really starting to get the hang of it.

I took pictures for Sunsets on the Eastside tonight. It was a very gratifying experience. I usually feel kind of awkward when I'm taking pictures, but I actually felt competent as photographer tonight. As exhausting as it was, the shoot went very well. I took over 600 shots and I'd say most of them are usable. Allison (above) and Kirstin were fantastic models, especially for having no prior experience. I was impressed; they caught on quickly! Also, thanks to Jackie for her excellent direction. Always helps these things go faster and smoother.

Anyway, I am super tired and it is 2:00am, I think its time to go home.

Goodnight,

Patrick

Day Fourty-Three

Busy day.

I'm stretching myself too thin. I keep trying to do too much in one day. Too many hangouts and too many photo-shoots and too much work. Not that i didn't enjoy the hangouts or photo-shoots (I did very much!), it's just that I need to have some time to relax and get my shit together. I really haven't had a chance since school ended.

That's alright though, just over a week and we'll be flying into Europe. Booo ya. Speaking of Europe, Laura and I booked our first hostel tonight. We will be staying right across the street from Megan in Edinburgh!

Cheers,

Patio

Day Forty-Two

Goodbye James. He leaves for his own euro-adventure on Tuesday.

No big update today; I didn't do too all that much. I spent most of the day driving home from Halifax with Laura and Jen, which was good, but tiring. I made it back in under three and a quarter hours, I thought this was pretty respectable considering what i was driving (2000 Dodge Caravan). Moments after I got home Tristan picked me up and we went to the Frosty Treat for ice cream with Katie, Connor, Jeff'm, and another car full of hooligans. As tired as I was, this was also a lot of fun. I am loving how many frosty treat adventures we are going on. Feels like summer, especially with the weather we've had lately.

Cheers,

Patio

Day Forty-One

The plan went off without a hitch. My parents are now in Rome and I got to spend the day in Halifax with Jen, Laura, and David (Laura's brother). We ate out at some great restaurants (Star Anise and The Wooden Monkey), sat atop Citadel Hill, and went to the Boxer the Horse show at The Seahorse. It was funnnnnnn.

We also watched two movies at David's house that have changed my life: Total Recall and The Room. The first was actually an amazing movie, even if Arnold Swarssgnfgsdfas can't act. His one liners are great and their attempt at creating a futuristic world in 1990 was awesome. The second movie was easily the WORST movie I have ever seen. Terribly shot, horribly acted, and sooo poorly written. That being said, this movie was phenomenal and everyone should find it and watch it. You will laugh so much; especially when you know that the movie is completely serious, and that it was funded (all $6000000), directed, and produced by the one man. The same man who stars in the movie. I could imagine it being weird to watch by yourself, but with a small group of people it is incredible. Especially the awkward sex scenes and the terrible (incredible) dialogue.

Cheers,

Patio

Day Forty

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

This afternoon Darrah picked me up to go for lunch. We went to the Monsoon Tea House for some Tea and Sushi. Because of its strange hours, 11:30-3 (or something equally ridiculous), I never get the chance to go there. I actually thought the place had been closed down for the past couple years. No joke. It was delicious, and I plan on going back soon.

After lunch we went to Darrah's mom's office to check out the cute kitten that she was looking after. As you can see from the picture above, it is definitely "bawwwomgkittin" worthy. What made it even more adorable, was that it was about the size of the PAW on the giant Newfoundland Dog we saw just moments earlier. Seriously, it was gigantic, but very friendly as well.

Later in the evening Laura and I concocted a master plan to get us to the Halifax Airport next Tuesday. It is SUPER complicated (boring), but it means that I will be spending the better part of tomorrow, and some of Sunday, in Halifax. Woo woo. It also means that we have to drive them there in less than five hours. Hmm, should probably get some rest.

Goodnight,

Patrick

Day Thirty-Nine

Its still 12 days before we leave for Europe, but I am already packed. This is mainly because my parents leave for their trip in two days, and my mom insisted I be packed before they go. I think she is convinced I will forget everything if I don't get it done now. Ah well, it was good to get it out f the way. Made me realize what I still have to pick up before I leave.

Things I am bringing with me:

-3 Short-sleeve t-shirts
-2 Long-sleeve t-shirts
-1 Button-up shirt
-1 Cardigan
-1 Hoody
-1 Belt
-1 Rainjacketinabag
-2 Pairs of jeans
-2 Pairs of shorts
-4 Pairs of boxers
-5 Pairs of Socks
-1 Light sleeping bag
-1 Laura's travel guide
-1 Eurorail pass, plus the attached map/guides
-1 iPod
-1 Nikon d80, with 50mm+shitty17-55mm+charger+ remote shutter release
-3 Juggling balls
-1 Journal, with pencil, pen, and notepad
-1 Deck of cards
-1 Mini checkerboard
-1 Mini Connect-4
-1 First-aid kit
-1 Bottle of sunscreen
-1 Stick of Oldspice
-1 Money belt
-1 Passport
-1 Debit card
-1 Credit card
-60 Euro
-50 British Pounds
-1 Combination lock
-2 Luggage locks
-1 Bunch of elastic bands
-1 Roll of duct-tape
-1 Roll of electical tape
-10 AA batteries (don't think I will need these)
-1 Can of nice smelling stuff
-1 Toothbrush, tube of toothpaste, roll of dental floss.
-3 Tins of vitamins/Tylonal
-1 Electric razor (although I doubt I will end up shaving)
-1 Ridiculous comb from 1992 McDonald's happy meal.

I was amazed that this all fit into my backpack; I was also surprised how small you can compact a pair of jeans.

I now have a week and a half to get my life in order before I go. Yikes.

Cheers,

Patrick

Day Thirty-Eight

Today I was invited to Carver's for a BBQ. One of his bands, Milks and Rectangles , are recording a CD and Carver finished his drum tracks, so he decided to have a few people over to celebrate. It was a good time, a lot of BBQ veggie burgers, a few beer, and some really funny people.

One of those people being Daniel Ledwell, who was producing Milks new record. He isn't super famous or anything, but I do enjoy (and listen to) his music quite a bit, so I was kind of awestruck to be sitting around laughing with someone like him. It also provided for some laughs whenever Nathan was casually looking at my iPod and announced, "Oh, you have Dan Ledwell on your iPod". hah

That, combined with Allison getting the best photo on ANTM, made for a pretty solid day.

Cheers,

PAT

Day Thirty-Seven

Whenever I'm at home and I'm really bored, I like to cook food. I never have a recipe, and I really have no idea what I'm doing. The only skills I have are those I've picked up from living with my mom, The Iron Chef of Sherwood. I know what flavours I like, and have a pretty good sense of what goes well with what, so things usually turn out well.

For not doing anything today, other than working for a couple hours, it was a pretty sweet day. I woke up to my mom bringing in a fedex package this morning. It was my Eurail pass! Came with a great map too. I now have almost everything I need to get to (and around) Europe! I also spent my $35 Bookstore gift card on a notebook, pens, and new headphones for the trip. I managed to get my taxes done tonight too, so I'll have another $500 dollars to bring with me.

The Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Annual General Meeting is coming up soon too, only a few days before we leave. It is being hosted in PEI this year, so I've been asked to help out as much as I can. If anyone wants to help out, just let me know, I think there is going to be a UPEI Shinerama booth of some sort. Should be a fun weekend. Its going to make for a busy week of preparation though. Bring it onnnnn.


Cheers,

Patrick

Day Thirty-Six

lol jeff is gettin' sooooooo high off dem chips omg we luv 420!1!. Just kidding, but we did find it quite funny that there were 420g in that bag of chips. The 'smoke' isn't real, just poorly photoshopped.

Today was great. Kate invited us over for a sweet summer BBQ. We got some movies from jumbo and a ton of food from the superstore. Even though we* weren't smoking pot, like many do on this day, we made sure to show our support by getting a lot of munchies anyway. The chip aisle was ravaged by the time we got there.

The BBQ went well. We ate delicious food and watched Kill Bill on Blueray. There was so much detail that you could see Uma's pores and the strings holding up the model plane. We couldn't figure out if the last one was intentional or not, but it ruled either way. Fun night.

Cheers,

Patio

Day Thirty-Five

For the most part today was spent recovering the sleep I lost last night. I did, however, manage to get out of the house for a little while. If I hadn't it would have felt like such a waste of a day.

I stopped by the apt. Laura is housesitting this evening to help her tidy up from the party and fold up the ridiculous futon. She is pretty much finished housesitting at that place, this would be kinda sad if it weren't for its lack of internet connection. I will miss the cat though.

Afterward I went for a walk around town and took a few pictures on the parkade. Cliche, I know, but I was bored and had slept all day, so I needed to do something. All I had was my Nikon D80 and a 50mm lens, so I didn't have much to work with, but I got some cool pictures. I especially like the one that I posted above. I would love to go back there some night when I have a couple flashes on me. Also, the new building they are putting up on Fitzroy looks incredibly easy to sneak into. Getting in there to take a couple pictures would be amazing.

Cheers,

Patio.