EuroTrip 2.0 part 4

Because this was my first trip without parents and the first trip I had to plan myself with my friend Izabeau.

Since I'm 20, and it's my EuroTrip 2.0 I decided to compile 20 thing I learned while on my trip.

1. Always expect the unexpected (I know it's a cliche but it is true)

2. Be willing to modify your plans

3. Asking someone if they speak english is rude (all you have to say is excuse me and your question if they don't speak english they will tell you so)

4. Public transport is the way to go if you're on a budget, and it's a great way to see the town

5. Don't buy tickets from random people... whether it's for vehicles, museum, etc. (you could get in trouble) 

6. If 16:00 is after hours for a hotel don't stay there.

7. If a hotel doesn't have the breakfast included in the price don't take it, it usually isn't worth the price

8. Amsterdam has really steep stairs!

9. You need more than 2 days to visit big cities

10. Backpacks are great.(mostly while moving from place to place)

11. At least learn to say "thank you" and "sorry" in the language of the country you're visiting (even if you butcher it the locals will appreciate it)

12. Put aside your ego, ask for directions (got that men?)

13. Take unusual tours.

14. Cobble stone and shitty shoes don't mix

15. At the airport, smile and wear slip on shoes (mostly if you're going to the U.S.) things will go a lot faster

16. If you have a free night and understand the language go see a movie you can't see at home.

17. Canadians are loved everywhere (at least everywhere I've visited)

18. Ladies "beware" boys in Europe are very charming, not always in a good way.

19. Special tourist passes for trains such at the TGV can save you a lot of money.

20. face/body wipes are a life/stink saver when showers aren't available.

I did learn a lot more on this trip but these are thing I was able to pin-point the day I was coming back from my trip.

I hope my lessons will help you with your trips

EuroTrip 2.0 part 3

The last part of our trip took us to Amsterdam in the Netherlands on a night train. We arrived at 10:00 and got our tram tickets for the two days we decided to visit. Once we figured out how to take the tram we hopped off at our hotel, Hotel Zandbergen the best one yet. It was wonderful because it was close enough to the museums that we could walk there. We dropped our bags off than headed to the museums for the day starting with the wonderful Van Gogh Museum. It was wonderfully set up bringing us through his inspirations followed by his paintings in a chronological order, accompanied by his life story. This let us see the evolution of his art.

Once we finished we headed up town to see the Amsterdam Sex Museum, it sounds garish but it wasn't, it was very interesting. It was taking us through sex in the ages and the different views of sex in the ages. As well as the general history it gave us an over view of Amsterdam's sexual history.

Once again we were on the tram heading for another museum, this time it was Anne Frank's House. The Anne Frank House is where Anne Frank, her family as well as family friends spent quite a few years hiding out during the Nazi invasion of Holland. Having read her diary I was mislead by the size. I don't know if in my mind I made it out to be smaller than it was or if the fact that it was bear of furniture made it look bigger. Either way it was touching for me to be there, in a place with so much history. They had even preserved the wallpaper in Anne and her sister's room.

After visiting the museum the plan was that we were going to go to the restaurant district than take a tram to visit the Red Light District but on our way to supper we got invited to a PubCrawl and decided to go. On this pub crawl the plan was to go to 6 bars that night getting a free drink in each bar. Having visited museum all day we only made it out to 3. It was great because we got to meet people all over the world, there was a big group from England, some Dutch guys, people from Cyprus, Australia, New Zealand, yet we were the only Canadians. I have to admit we did get lost on the way back to the hotel, fine I got us lost, but we got there.

For day two in Amsterdam we registered for a bike tour of the country around  Amsterdam with Mike's Bike Tours. The bike tour was great! I would recommend it for anyone going to Amsterdam. Once we were at the bike shop we got a quick history of the city before heading out on our town bikes to go visit an authentic windmill and a farm where they make delicious cheese and clogs. The 22km ride was very educative and a great way to travel the way the dutch do... by bike. Most road in Amsterdam are not pedestrian friendly, the roads are divided into 3 lanes, the tram lane, the car line and a bike lane... it's a matter of choosing which type of vehicle you want to be run over by, and trust me bikes are not always your best choice.

After the tour was done we didn't have much time to do anything but go back to the hotel to get our bags, eat a light lunch and head back to the train station to get to Paris where I would spend my last night in Europe. We decided to go see a typical french movie called "Il reste du jambon?" for anyone who understands french I do recommend it, it makes you laugh and makes you think at the same time.

The next day I boarded the plane to get back home, just a bit over 24 hours and I was home safe and sound to my familly.

All it all it was an amazing trip full of highs with very few lows.
Au Revoir et a la prochaine aventure

EuroTrip 2.0 part 2

When we left off Izzie and I were getting onto the train for Berlin, it was not a direct train ride to Berlin because we had a stop in Koln (Cologne). Things were going smoothly until our train broke down, and what should have been 20 minutes on the TGV turned into an hour train ride on local lines... that hour meant that we would be arriving at the station at 10:45. The problem with that was our train was leaving Koln to Berlin at 10:48. So there we were pulling an "Amazing Race" and running through the station gently shoving people away to make our train... thankfully we hopped on having the doors close on our back and we were off to Berlin.

Once in Berlin we were starving, it was 15:30 and we were hungry so we B-lined it to a McDonald's to eat a McRib which cannot be found in Canada... and I have to Say it was DELICIOUS!


We made it to the Propeller City Island Lodge which is a themed hotel where each room is designed differently by an artist... we got the room with 360 degree mirrors. One word of warning is the hotel's reception closes at 16:30, and since we got there at 16:30 they had put our key in a safe by the door with a four digit code... Once we got into the room I felt as though I was in a scene from the movie Hostel and I was starting to get freaked out, so we decided to spend as little time in that room as possible.


We headed out to the Unsicht-Bar, a restaurant where you dine in the dark which is a crazy experience. When I say complete darkness I mean "cannot see your hand at the tip of your nose" darkness. We didn't even know what we were eating, we had a choice between a vegetarian, chicken, fish, beef, or a surprise dish. All you knew was that you were starting with a salad, then your main course followed by a desert. At the end of the meal you could go and see exactly what you ate. The meal was absolutely delicious and being in total darkness we had some very deep conversations about everything.


The next day we weren't able to actually check out of the hotel because there was no one there and the fact we no towels meant we couldn't shower (Eww). Needless to say we weren't impressed. After that fun we were off to go visit Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp a few hours from Berlin and had an awesome tour following our guideArja. Arja treated us to a very interesting tour and did a good job of getting the point across without depressing us too much.


The same day we waited in line to see the Bundestag which is the government building in Germany. It was beautiful because we got to go into the dome and see the whole city of Berlin.


Food wise we did make sure to get some Sourcrout and some Haagen Daz before we left, both were delicious. I also have to add that I am glad we walked so much because if not I would have gained a lot of weight due to all the eating.


Before we got onto the train to Amsterdam we concluded our quick visit of Berlin by visiting the Wall and the Hollocaust memorial which can be found in the middle of the city. Noth are beautiful monuments which commemorate hard times for the Germans.


So back to the station we went to wait for our night train to Amsterdam. We were ready to visit a new and exciting city.


Tschüß, until next time

The pictures in order are: 1. me showing off my awesome McRib (before wearing it) 2. the mirror room in the propeller city island lodge 3. the german flag in front of the Bundestag 

EuroTrip 2.0 part 1

I just arrived yesterday from my 2nd trip to Europe. I know I haven't posted anything about the first one yet but this one just happened so Euro trip 1 will have to wait until it gets put into my archives of trips.

The purpose of this trip was to visit my friend who is studying in France at the moment, but it turned into so much more than that!

I have decided to separate this trip into four sections, one for each of the countries we visited (France, Germany, and the Netherlands) plus one section for my list of things I have learned on this trip.

So here it goes... I left last friday at 00:20 to get on a bus to Toronto, ON to catch the plane. By the time I got to the airport it was 06:30... my flight didn't leave until 17:30 which meant I had 11hours in the terminal to do nothing and since I didn't know anyone in Toronto it wasn't like I could just call them up and see if they wanted to do something while I waited for my plane... so airport it was... it wouldn't have been as bad if I would have been in terminal 1 but since I was flying Delta I was going to have to be in terminal 3... not even on the side with the Tim Hortons.

By the time my flight to Paris landed it was 11:30 and I was going to meet my friend Izzie in Rennes so I set up to take the train. When I got there we decided right away to go book all of our tickets for the trip.
The plan was that we were going to leave sunday to go to Berlin, but on sunday they were diffusing a WWII bomb in the train station (which apparently happens a lot in Europe) so we had to leave the same day, so no visiting Rennes for me and to Paris we go.

With that we had an extra day and a half to visit Paris, both of us have already seen all the main attractions in Paris so we decided to just walk about and explore the city. We got to see some really beautiful things, like St-Eustache church (which you can see in the first picture), some very curious things like giant piles of clothing in the middle of the street (if anyone can explain this please do). We also made sure to eat some delicious french pastries while we were there. Izzie is really enjoying her Macaron aux framboises in the picture to the left.



After our day of exploration we set up to leave for Berlin at 06:00 the next day.

But that story is for next time

Future South American Road Trip

This is my future South American Road Trip, I got the idea from a couple who drove from Winnipeg to Rio following the american west coast, the mexican west coast than multiple countries in South America.

Well this is my version of it. I haven't decided if i'm going drive from here to Rio, see the van than get to Cuba and Jamaica by boat or plane before coming back to Ontario. Or fly to Jamaica, get to Cuba than to Rio buy a van there than do the trip.

In my head when I do this trip I will be camping the whole time and avoiding having to buy food at restaurant as much as possible. To do this trip I will buy an old van, here or in Rio, throw a mattress in the back after having taken out the seats and be on my way to the adventure of a lifetime.

I don't know how long this trip will take me or any details to date but I do know that it will let me visit about 15 countries in a very short amount of time, which would be wonderful. If anyone has any suggestions please throw them my way.

Hopefully I have inspired you to go on an adventure just like I was inspired. If you look at the map you can see how awesome it could be!

To dreams of trips to come I let you go!

P.S. just to point out the obvious the black is what I would be driving and the orange is what I would either be flying of boating.

Ixtapa Mexico

In 2008 my family and I decided to spend Christmas in Mexico.

We mostly stayed on our resort named Melia Azul for most of the time, only escaping to the flea market across the beach or the Island not far away to go snorkeling.

The resort itself was gorgeous, it had everything needed, it had multiple pools, a mini golf course, games, and a beautiful beach.

And FOOD! The food was wonderful, there were so many restaurants onsite some of them were buffets others were a la carte. Also there was food from all over the world not just Mexico, there was Italian, Chinese, American, Seafood, a grill and some fancier places.

With all these things to keep us busy it was a vacation and not a trip. For those who don't know the difference a trip is when you go to a foreign area and visit as many tourist attractions and you get very little rest. It's one of those things where you use a guide book and go to the tourist information centers and just go go go all the time. A vacation on the other hand is when you go somewhere with the plan just to relax, no plans, no guidebooks.

Our Mexico vacation was a Vacation we lounged and read most of the time, we went swimming in the ocean (the pools were too cold). we played volleyball, drank various blender drinks.

You get to see a crocodile here and it was down the beach not even a kilometer away it was "fenced" in with a big gaping hole in it so the crocs were known to occasionally get out of their area. Thankfully they are well fed so there haven't been any incidents.... or well that we knew of.

The people hanging upside-down are Mexicans doing a sunset salutation. This consists of 5 guys climbing this super tall pole tying a wound rope around their ankles and throwing themselves down this pole with one of the guys staying on top of the pole doing some drumming and throat singing while they come down in a spiral. It is quite wonderful to see, as well as mesmerizing how people have the guts to do this because this is not the safest equipment.

This last picture is the view from our hotel room, which was wonderful because all the rooms in the hotel had an ocean view. as well as a different animal on the bed. My favorite was the elephant with the fresh flowers. and that spot of land in the distance is where we went snorkeling and had an awesome Pina Colata served inside a carved pine apple with a face made of fruit on it. It was called Coral Island and rightfully got it's name with all the beautiful coral and fish that were there, plus they were attracted there because people were feeding bread to them allowing them to become very friendly with people and letting us get really close to them without them freaking.

It was a wonderful vacation, if anyone wants a good resort in Mexico, I haven't seen others but I loved this one plus they came to pick us up that the airport with Coronas for us to be dropped of at the Hotel.

With wishes of warmer days and the sound of a beautiful ocean this is where I finish!

The list

Afghanistan

Albania

Algeria

Andorra

Angola

Antigua & Deps

Argentina

Armenia

Australia  (july-august 2005)

Austria

Azerbaijan

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Belarus

Belgium(march 2008)

Belize

Benin

Bhutan

Bolivia

Bosnia Herzegovina

Botswana

Brazil

Brunei

Bulgaria

Burkina

Burundi

Cambodia

Cameroon

Canada (since 1990)

Cape Verde

Central African Rep

Chad

Chile

China

Colombia

Comoros

Congo

Congo {Democratic Rep}

Costa Rica

Croatia

Cuba

Cyprus

Czech Republic

Denmark

Djibouti

Dominica

Dominican Republic

East Timor

Ecuador

Egypt

El Salvador

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Estonia

Ethiopia

Fiji

Finland

France (march 2008)

Gabon

Gambia

Georgia

Germany(october 2010)

Ghana

Greece

Grenada

Guatemala

Guinea

Guinea-Bissau

Guyana

Haiti

Honduras

Hungary

Iceland

India

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Ireland {Republic}

Israel

Italy (march 2008)

Ivory Coast

Jamaica

Japan

Jordan

Kazakhstan

Kenya

Kiribati

Korea North

Korea South

Kosovo

Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan

Laos

Latvia

Lebanon

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Macedonia

Madagascar

Malawi

Malaysia

Maldives

Mali

Malta

Marshall Islands

Mauritania

Mauritius

Mexico (december 2008)

Micronesia

Moldova

Monaco

Mongolia

Montenegro

Morocco

Mozambique

Myanmar, {Burma}

Namibia

Nauru

Nepal

Netherlands(october 2010)

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Niger

Nigeria

Norway

Oman

Pakistan

Palau

Panama

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Peru

Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Qatar

Romania

Russian Federation

Rwanda

St Kitts & Nevis

St Lucia

Saint Vincent & the Grenadines

Samoa

San Marino

Sao Tome & Principe

Saudi Arabia

Senegal

Serbia

Seychelles

Sierra Leone

Singapore

Slovakia

Slovenia

Solomon Islands

Somalia

South Africa

Spain

Sri Lanka

Sudan

Suriname

Swaziland

Sweden

Switzerland

Syria

Taiwan

Tajikistan

Tanzania

Thailand

Togo

Tonga

Trinidad & Tobago

Tunisia

Turkey

Turkmenistan

Tuvalu

Uganda

Ukraine

United Arab Emirates

United Kingdom

United States(december2000, march 2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007)

Uruguay

Uzbekistan

Vanuatu

Vatican City(march 2008)

Venezuela

Vietnam

Yemen

Zambia

Zimbabwe