Summer 2007 part 2

CANADA'S WONDERLAND!!!!
I had not gone to Canada's Wonderland in years so Denise and I decided to go one day over the summer break because we both wanted to go. It was a great day, the weather was gorgeous and we only almost got into 2 car accidents getting there because we got turned around....LOL....overall a great day. It was the first time I ever went on an upside down rollercoaster.... I had always been too scared to go on but it was actually a lot of fun and I will definitely go on another one!!! A beautiful shot in front of the big waterfall at the beginning of out day....
During the summer we also had a nice birthday party for my Grandpa. It was a lot of fun seeing most of my family and I was able to get some good photos!!! Here is a great photo of my mom, Grandpa, and aunt Elenore.
Smile parents!!! I am happy that this photo turned out so well!!!
Time with the cousins was great because I do not get to see them very often but when I do it is great because they are so cute and smart. It was nice to catch up with them!

As the summer was coming to a close I was getting sad to leave everyone again because I had been home for so long that I really wanted to stay and make a life in Canada, I think I could have been happy to stay but I made a commitment to come back to England and I am looking forward to spending another year in Europe and there are going to be many more adventures to come because there are still many places I want to be able to go and see this year.....so keep checking back to see how I am getting along in Europe!!!

Summer 2007 part 1

Coming back to Canada was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to spending some quality time with my family and friends because I know that I am only here for a matter of weeks and I want to make the most out of my time at home that I can! I am working at the pool with Brie, one of my friends who is also a lifeguard so it will be a chilled out summer. I am going on a girls weekend with some of my friends from uni which I am looking forward to and I am going to be just taking it easy!!!!

Here are a couple pics of the girls weekend in Grand Bend!!! LOTS and LOTS of fun!!! We only were able to spend a few nights there but it was quality and I was soooo happy that I was able to see the girls again!

This is the girls getting ready to go out on night number 1!!!! Lets go out and have some fun in the Bend!!!

Dinner on the last day at the Bend...the sunset this night was amazing so we decided to eat on the patio...it was not very nice during the day so we didn't actually get to to go the beach a lot but we still managed to have a lot of fun and it was overall and amazing weekend which will be repeated again next year!!!!

The last night in the Bend sure had some crazy times and I do not know how this picture was taken but it is classic and I am so happy that it is part of my collection!!!

Tamara's brithday was right after I got home and we went out to Cowboys to have a great night out...it was a country good time and the singer was very hot!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAMARA!!!!

My first little while at home was amazing but I know there are going to be many more good times had by all....keep tuning in to see how everything goes down in the remainder of the summer months!!!

Final Times in Canterbury June 2007!!!

These are some of the pics that will highlight the last month of my PGCE year!!!!Katy and Elaine having a great night!

Clare and I getting ready to go out and you can see by my eyes that I am already feeling very happy!!!

Lucy....this was one of my bestest over the year in Canterbury and I am so happy that we are going to be able to hang out again next year!!!! Good times ahead.

Kate, Wid and I in Alberrys...some good times were had there and I am sad to say that they will not be in Canterbury next year and I am going to miss them a lot but I wish them all the best in their new lives in Spain and Bermuda!!!!

Elaine, Katy and I on one of the last nights out in the city.

So my final few weeks in Canterbury were amazing...and actually not the final weeks at all because it turns out the I was offered a job here and I am going to take it so that I will be here another year. I am kind of nervous about the job but it will be all ok and I am sure that it is the right thing to do. So with that being said the only thing to do was have a great time with the people I have met here because I may not see them all again in a very long time, some I will since we will be in Canterbury together still but not all of them so spending time with them was the right thing to do!!!

I am not going to write a lot about my last few weeks except to say that they were amazing and I met some of the best people of my life this past year. Thank you to everyone who has helped to make my time in Canterbury worthwhile!!!

Granada

Granada was the last leg of my spanish adventure! I took a bus from Seville to Granada and spent 2 full days there. My journey was strange...it took about 3 hours on the bus which wasn't bad and then when I got to the bus station I had to make my way to the hostel which was a little hard to find but eventually it was found and was really cool. There was a great roof-top patio which is where the bar and kitchen were. I got to meet some good people there and I ended up going out with them for a tapas tour the first night.

This is the cathedral in the middle of the city. I took an open bus top tour around the city like I had in a few cities (I am growing quite fond of these bus tours) so I was able to see a lot of the sights in the city and then I could decide what I wanted to go and get a better look at. First of all I decided that I should go to the Alhambra because I studied a lot about this at school and it was one of the cannot miss things to do when you are there....

I am posing in front of a canon inside the grounds of the Alhambra, which is like a little city because there were houses, stores, a church, pretty much everything you could have ever needed in a city...

The alhambra was absolutely gorgeous!!! I could not believe the views from around all of Granada. The white houses you can see in the background of this picture were breath-taking.

The architecture in the Alhambra was magnificent...there is so much history there that it is unbelievable. I was really looking forward to seeing the Patio of the Lions when I was there because it is one of the most famous parts of the Alhmabra....but to my disappointment it was being re-finished....of course.....like everything in europe, so I couldn't actually see it. For those that do not know what it is, there is this patio with a fountain in the middle of a courtyard which has the basin resting on the heads of 12 lions. Even though you could not see the lions it was still amazing to see all the little details that were put into this magnificent structure!

This is the last photo I took in the Alhambra which I feel is one of the best. I wish that it was a little straighter but that is ok because I love the reflection of the building in the water!

Overall my time in Granada was great. I enjoyed it a lot and I was able to see a lot of the sights but I did spend the majority of my time in the Alhambra and I would tell everyone to go and see it if they get the chance because it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen!

Seville

Seville was probably my FAVORITE place in Spain! I loved this city and I want to go back soon!!! I arrive in Seville around 12pm and then walked around to find my hostel. I was happy to find my hostel and meet some people. I dropped my things off at my hostel and then went out to explore. This was one of my must see cities on my trip and there was so much I wanted to see. I will try to do this magnificent city justice!

This is the entrance to my hostel. The hostel was located around the corner in an ally way but it was great inside with a great patio on the roof!
My first day in Seville was jam packed with things to do. I went into the Cathedral and the Giralda. This is the entrance to the Cathedral. Can you see all the detail which has been put into this, it is unbelievable.

This is the Giralda which is the tower of the cathedral. I climbed all the way up this to see the view from the top which was great. You could see so far away. The weird thing about climbing up the tower was that there were no stairs, only ramps. The ramps went around the outer sides of the tower so you were constantly going around in circles and there were numbers on each full circle of the tower. I think there were something like 47 entire circles, therefore 188 ramps. It was ok, and it didn't take that long. After the Cathedral I continued to the Real Alcazar, which was once a kings palace. The scenery was gorgeous and I am sorry that I cannot include photos on here but I can show you some if you let me know you want to see some.

I decided to do these two things on my own because there were certain things I wanted to see and do and sometimes when you have other people around you cannot always do what you want, plus I was on a limited time schedule. I arrived back at the hostel around 6pm and met some of the people on the rooftop. I met two girls from Oakville who were travelling around, as well as a guy from Australia, and some girls from the US. We all decided to go and get tapas and then go see a Flamenco show.

We went and got some great tapas, with chorizo!!! and then even were tempted into tasting some orange wine which was an experience. It was really strong but it was good. Then we were wandering around trying to find the bar which had the flamenco show. We went in and saw the dancing. It was a nice small bar and the entertainment was great. We had a great night and ended up back at the hostel late at night!

The next day I decided to take one of those open top double decker bus tours around to see all the sights and decide what I wanted to spend my last full day doing. I decided it was going to be a super full day! I took the bus around a whole loop and then got off at the Plaza de Espana. It was funny because I went alone again and said I would meet up with the girls from the hostel later in the day. BUT...I found everyone at the Plaza. Here is a picture of some of us! Me, Lauren (canadian), Tristan (australian) and Rula (american), Jaclyn (canadian) was not in the photo because she was taking it but she was there as well.

We spent some time walking around and then walked back into the city. Since they had not seen the cathedral they were going to go there and I decided that I was going to go see the bull ring and then the house of Pontius Pilot. Here I am in the bull ring.
After my busy day we had another great night getting tapas and relaxing. I loved Seville and I wish I could have stayed there longer. I left Seville early the next morning to head to Granada which was my next stop on my adventure.

Muchas gracias Sevilla por todo!!!!

Cordoba

Well this had to be the hardest part of my trek around southern Spain. I was alone, I was not too sure where I was going, and to add to everything it was raining and gross. I arrived around midday and I was not in the mood to go and do anything. I arrived to what I thought was a hostel looking forward to meeting some people to hang out with and do something with since I was a little down...to my surprise when I arrived at the hotel (which was an actual hotel) I got a room to myself. Weird...I had the worst feeling that this 24 hours in Cordoba was going to be the worst...
Eventually I decided, after calling home to Canada to go out and see the things that I came here to see, since I do not know if I will ever be coming back!

My first stop was at the Mezquita. It was gorgeous. It was raining on and off the whole day and it was not the best to walk around in but it was ok. I met a group of four people, two couples, who were travelling around. They were really sweet and I was able to go around with them for a little bit so that I wasn't all alone the whole day!
This is the passageway into the grounds of the Mezquita! It was beautiful with all the orange trees! I didn't try to eat any even thought they are edible because the locals told me that they were not ready yet and they were still too bitter. After seeing a girl try one I was happy I didn't. She had the most sour face. It was funny!!!
This is a picture of me (if you can find me) in front of the fountain in the Mezquita grounds.
After going through the Mezquita for about an hour I decided to walk about the city. The Mezquita was the only big thing to see in Cordoba but the city was so pretty I walked around for a few hours just taking in the sights! This is a fountain near the middle of the city. I am sure that these pictures would have given this city more justice.
When I was walking around I found this nice park which had some built in ponds with shelters for animals and birds. I thought this was a gorgeous picture showing some of the birds and the trees in this area.
Overall my trip to Cordoba was worth it and I enjoyed every minute. I am going to make sure that I am staying in hostels from now on so I will not feel so alone. I would definitely do this trip again if I had to go back in time. This was probably the city where I learned the most about myself over my travels alone.

Madrid

This was the most rewarding and exciting trip I have ever taken. I was able to go on my own and I survived...well I did better than that! I had an amazing time, a time I will never forget. I left on my 9 day adventure Friday February 9th at 9pm. I took a bus from Canterbury to Gatwick airport and spent the night there. I slept on these two chairs. What a great start. The flight to Madrid left at 7:25am on Saturday!

When we got into Madrid I had to take the metro to my hostel, which was a little hard to find but I got there eventually after asking a couple people for derections. My hostel was on the 4th floor of a building so that is why it was hard to find.

This is the symbol of Madrid...a bear picking something out of a tree!?!?!? There is this symbol everywhere around the city!

As soon as I got into the hostel there was a group of people who invited me to go for a pic-nic with them. We went to el Cotes Ingles, this huge department store which has a grocery store in it as well and then we walked to the main park (Buen RetiroPark) in Madrid and sat on the grass and had a lovely pic-nic. The weather was so nice, it was a beautiful spring day and we were able to enjoy the weather. This is a picture of me by the big pond (I don't remember what the name or importance was but it was gorgeous!)

Once we finished in the part there was still some light so I decided to walk around the city a little more to make the most of the time I had there. I was only there for a couple days and there was so much to see that I didn't want to waste anytime there. I walked to the Royal Palace and then walked to the catherdral. It was too late to go in but I was able to walk around which was nice! I was really worried when I had this couple taking this picture for me because they kept walking backwards to get the whole thing in the picture and I was worried they were going to try to run off with my camera...it was the last time I had other people take the pictures for me. It turned out the be a good picture though.

That I also visited the Plaza Mayor which is one the main sights in Madrid. I DO have pictures but since these posts arent very big I cannot upload all the pictures so I will show people if they ask for more pics!

That night there was a big group of us that decided to go out and we got free entry into this AMAZING club! Normally the entry was 20euro but since we befriended one of the spanish guys they gave us these free cards which was amazing, the drinks were still a little expensive 10euro each! The club was so nice, it looked like a palace inside...there was gold trim everywhere with really high ceilings!!! Every room there was a differnet DJ with different type of music which was so nice. We danced salsa for a while which was nice and then we went into a more mainstream room. The one thing I couldn't adjust to quickly was the time because the spanish would go out at midnight and then come home around 7am, which is so different from the UK. We had such a good time and ended up back at the hostel "early" around 4am.

The next morning I decided to get up fairly early so that I could jam a lot into my day. It was not the nicest day out but it was ok. I went to the bullring in the morning but I couldn't go in because there was a circus in town and they were performing in the ring so there was no way I could get in, unless I wanted to go see the circus and I passed on that one!!!

After going to the bullring, I went back to the hostel and got some of the other girls who wanted to walk around. We went walking around the city. We went to el Museo del Prado, which is one of the best museums in the world. The line was sooo long that we decided to come back but somehow never got back there. We did walk around and found the statue that I had been looking for. This is a picture of the only statue of the devil in the world. Something unique and something I didn't think I would ever have the opportunity to see again in my life.
After a long day of walking aorund the girls and I went back to the hostel and made the most unique and weird meal ever. It was not very good and I will never ever try to make it again but it was a good idea in theory! After a little break we started getting ready to go out on the pubcrawl which runs every wednesday and sunday night in Madrid. All I am going to say is that it was an amazing time with a lot of tequilla!!! YAY....

I loved Madrid!!! it was such a fun and busy city but now onto more cultural cities...Cordoba is the next stop!

Superbowl night in the UK!?

The Superbowl!!! Many uker's do not know what this is and therefore it was hard for us to find a place to go and watch the game...We ended up going to this pub...The PennyTheatre...and we paid £5 to watch the game. It was a good night....here is Kellyann, Heather and I at the beginning of the night! Sitting around having a couple drinks, waiting for the game to begin!
Awww....look at us, Thor, Heather and I ....
This is some of the american gang watching the screens intently to see what is going to happen with the game...
Jesse and Kellyann....yes you are caught on camera!!!
It was a good night and a good game! We all had a lot of fun and at 3am on school night I was walking home to get some sleep!!!

Chris' 23rd Birthday!

The beginning of the night. This was sure to be a night to remember as we all sat around the table at Chris' house to play a nice, quiet sophisticated game called...21! It was the best game ever and if you have not tried it then I suggest you start right now because it can be the funniest game! Let just say at the end of the game we had drank two bottles of gin, some wine and some other stuff...good times. There were only 8 of us so that means that we all had rather a lot to drink before heading out.

In celebration of Chris' birthday he had to chug this whole beer...looks like it could be a rather hard thing to accommplish. BUT...he did it! Lucy is so excited, she was the best coach ever. The whole way through, she would never let him give up. It is his day and he needs to complete the tasks asked of him! YAY for Chris!
The girls! We are waiting outside for the boys...who waits for boys? I don't know but they were taking a long time to get ready. Don't we look magnificent!
Our first stop of the night was West Bar. It is a quiet bar which is not always that busy, but the drinks are cheap so it makes it a perfect spot to start the night! Here is a group shot of the guys after doing a couple shots at the bar.
The night progressed very well! We were not permitted to stay in WestBar for too long because we were too loud. They told us at 11pm that they were closing the bar and that we had to leave. But then they let others come in...weird since we were the ONLY people in the bar so that means we were the only ones buying any drinks....ah well....that didn't last long (as in we were told to leave around 10:30) and we were off to another bar. HAHAs!!! yes you read right. The bar we went to next was HaHa's!

We met up with some other friends there and had some more to drink. I don't really remember a lot but I can say it was only 10:30pm and we were all in rough shape. We sat at the very high table and the boys were having drinking contest...I think at one point Chris and Buster were chugging 3 or 4 drinks at a time...InSAnE!!!

Here is Katy and I posing at HaHa's. The jonsey has come out!!! The night was still young as we decided to go somewhere else to finish the night...

Right across the street from HaHa's...literally!!! This time we went to Alberry's, which is a nice place...but the downstairs is like a cave...fun times though and the music is usually ok!

When you go to Alberry's you pay £4 to get in and then you get a free shot at the bar of sambuca or something else...but I don't like the something else so I always get the sambuca. By that time in the night we were beginning to get a little ridiculous! The night ended well...short a few people since some people couldn't make it out the whole night...but we ended the night on a good note!!! Everyone had an amazing time!

My 23rd Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to me!!! It was a great birthday even though I could not spend it with most of my good friends. I will be there soon and we will all be able to celebrate again. Thank you for the calls and all the good wishes on my birthday, they were very much appreciated!

We started of the celebrationg at Pizza Express for dinner. I went to dinner with Elizabeth and Stephanie (tow of my roomates-canadian and german) as well as one of the other canadian girls, Emily. It was a lot of fun and the food was great. If anyone comes over the visit me I will take you there. It doesnt sound very amusing but I assure you that it is! After dinner we headed off to The Cuban which is a bar in town. I was very excited because I had wanted to go since it opened (end of Oct) so I thought my birthday would be perfect to go!!!

A lot of people came out for my birthday which was nice. I do not have pictures of all of them on here but it does not mean you aren't important! Thanks to the American guys that came out. It was great!

This is a picture of myself, Angela and Nina. Three Canadian girls out in the city. It was good times!!!

Tequilla does not always go down the best!?!? Overall the night was amazing....thank you everyone for making it an unforgetable night!!!! I love you all, and for those who did not get to see me I will see you soon and thanks for all the birthday wishes!!! You are all the best!