Hot Dog

So I visited Frankfurt.... and I found it really boring. The only things note worthy that I did were wander the streets, buy some summer shirts, go up Main Tower and go to the zoo. Oh, and eat a lot of ice cream. There were quite a few museums but none of them seemed very unique so I skipped them. There were hardly any nice old buildings to look at either. Most of the original buildings were destroyed during the war and instead of restoring them they just made all new ones. So anyways... not much to say about Frankfurt other then my hostel had amazing breakfasts. Here are some pictures instead.

Bierbike! I wish I had done this!

 View from Main Tower.

 Gilaffes just for you Vangy... If you are still out there somewhere... Are you still alive??

A seriously serious primate for you, Rach!

There is a great story that comes along with this photo. All of the llamas were minding their business eating away when this little girl came running over to the fence. She spooked the fuzzy-headed llama who made a fuss, ran around a bit and then spooked the others. Then, all of them jumped around and stood staring at the little girl while they continued to chew their mouthfuls of grass. They would NOT take theirs eyes off of her! I had a good chuckle but maybe its just me. Animals tend to make me laugh no matter what!

Amsterdammetjes

   From London, I flew into Amsterdam. Of course, that was after spending the night in the airport. It didn't quite make sense to pay for a few hours of sleep in a hostel only to get up in the middle of the night for my 5:20 boarding time. Plus, the Easybus wasn't running at that hour and it was the least expensive way of getting to the Gatwick Airport. So, I opted for the long night in the airport instead. I hopped on the airport bus around 23:30 and arrived at the airport about an hour later. After finding a comfy place to settled down for the next few hours I passed the time reading on my Kindle and having a few short naps. After checking my luggage around 4am I made my way to find myself a bite to eat. However, the shops didn't open until 4:30am so I wasted more time before finally being able to get a snack and then having yet another nap before boarding time.

  I was incredibly exhausted by the time I made it to my hostel in Amsterdam around 10am. I was relieved that I was allowed to check in to my room early. After a wonderfully refreshing and much needed shower I decided to get some errands done. Errand #1- Lunch. Errand # 2 - post office. Well... By the time I was done errand #1, I was so exhausted from the last 24 hours that I didn't have it in me to venture out to find a post office. I took it easy for the rest of the night and managed to stay up until a reasonable hour before going to bed.

   After a good nights rest I was ready to starting wandering the infamous Amsterdam streets and canals. I started my day with a New Europe walking tour. I have done quite a few of their walking tours and they are always very well done. They do a 3 hour free walking tour in most of Europes major cities and they usually offer several paid tours per city also. They only work for tips on the free walking tour and I am more then happy to pay for the personable yet very knowledgeable guides they provide.

  After the walking tour I spent the rest of the day wandering the city with two American gals I had met from my hostel. Amsterdam is a small city and its easily walkable from almost anywhere... or bikeable, which is how the locals get around. Its insane to see the way the bike traffics operate in the same way vehicles would in other cities. The city is strangely quiet from the lack of vehicles on the road, with the exception being the ringing bike bells telling pedestrians to "move it or else"!

   The second day I mostly wandered again. I met up with Carole Ann, a Canadian I met in Nice, and her friend, who is also from Canada. We went to the Hollandsche Manage (Holland riding school) to check out the beautiful historic building and see the beautiful horses and ponies. We rented bikes and rode through the park for awhile before going back to the hostel in the late afternoon. In the evening, I met up with one of the Canadian guys I'd met at the hostel. We decided to check out the Liberation Day events in the square that evening. It was basically the same ceremony that we have on Remembrance Day but they do it in the evening. It was kind of exciting to be there as a Canadian since we were the ones that helped liberate the Dutch in 1945. We ended the evening in one of the many coffee shops in Amsterdam.

My last full day in Amsterdam was spent wandering even more and seeing the things I hadn't seen yet. Anne Frank House, and the The World press photo Exhibit being the top of my list. I met up with Carole Ann again later for an evening at the coffeeshop. We went for a walk through the red light district and stumbled upon an outdoor concert in the main square as part of the two day Liberation Day events. Now that was very UNLIKE our Canadian way of celebrating Remembrance day. I guess for them its more to remember the horrible things that happened and the people that died and then to celebrate being Liberated also. For us its more just remembering those who died. I think we should make our Canadian Remembrance day two days also so we can make the second day a party for our freedom. Who's in?!

 For Vangy: I met Peko again. He was sailing down some canals.

 Milkshakes at the coffeeshop... SO GOOD!

 One of the Amsterdammetjes. Yep, its shaped like a penis. And it says XXX which actually just comes from their coat of arms and doesn't have a dirty meaning. During Gay pride they put a giant one of these on a boat because the parade takes place down the canal. However, to go under the bridges it deflates and the crowd says "Booooo" until it pops back up on the other side of the bridge and everyone cheers.

 The infamous tulips.

Cake at the coffee shop. Yum!

The Big Smoke.

Oh London... where to start. I could have spent so much more time there. I really loved London. There was so much to see and do. Plus, almost all of the museums are free! I had a great time just wandering the streets. I was also able to meet up with Bec again, who I met in Oxford. Plus, Lianne's boyfriend, Matt, came to town for one day and we were able to see some of the sights together.

 Horse guards near Hyde Park.

 The Abbey two days before the Royal Wedding.

 Abbey Road! 

 Bacon, cheese, bubble and squeak bap. YUM!

 Tower Bridge.

 London Tower.

 Buckingham Palace.

 The London Eye and the Thames River.

   While I was in London I was able to watch the Royal Wedding... while standing on the street! I saw the whole procession both to and from the Abbey. It was such a wonderful atmosphere. Everyone was so excited and happy! Everyone was waving flags and cheering! I love being in a big crowd when its full of positive energy!

 Kate on the way to the Abbey.

 The Royal Couple.

 Part of the crowd.

 This guy had an awesome hat!

I laughed at this!

   On my last day in London, I was able to see the Globe theatre and also to watch a performance of "All's Well that Ends well." I think that watching a show at the Globe really was one of the big highlights of my stay in London! It was such a great end to a great trip!

 The Globe.

 Inside the Globe.

Waiting for the performance to start!

Oxfordshire

I'm feeling a little lazy to write anything interesting about my stay in Oxford. I enjoyed it. I had a wonderful time and the weather was mostly great. Unfortunately, at the moment, a night/morning of partying in Berlin and the first day of actual pouring rain since I left Canada has me feeling a little melancholy and less then inspired. Plus, I just finished some pomme frites with mayo so I am in a bit of a post-grease trance. Anyways, here is the short version of some of the things I did while in Oxford:

~Did a free walking tour with a guide who had an amazing English accent.
~Learned a bit about Oxford Uni. and its colleges.
~Met a super cool Aussie pal, Bec, who I later met up with in London.
~Went on a BBQ with the hostel crew.
~Pet horses on the common land in the park along the Thames.
~Developed a new found love for Primark.
~Broke my most favourite leather sandals of the last 5 years and had to stumble back to the hostel with a hair elastic holding my shoe on.
~Fell even more in love with all things Jamie Oliver at his Italian restaurant.

 View from the top of Carfax tower.

 Oh HI Fred and Ginger!

 Common land park along the Thames.

 Because it was all common land anyone can put their animals on it. There were several herds of horses and cows just grazing in the park!

Christ Church College. Famous for something to do with Harry Potter....?

I also had a chance to visit the Village where my great grandfather grew up and where my great, great grandfather spent his whole life. The village is called Stonesfield. It is very small! I was able to track down the name of the street they lived on and wander along to the old church in search of my great, great grandparents graves. Unfortunately I was unable to find them. A lot of the grave plots were disintegrating so it was impossible to read them. It was inspiring to see where a quarter of my ancestry came from!

Scotch, Scotch, and more Scotch.

   I landed in the UK on April 18th. Now, previous to this, I had spent about 9 weeks in temperatures ranging from about 20-30 degrees most days. So, when I landed in Scotland I was absolutely freezing despite the fact the Scots were all in t-shirts and dresses and celebrating their first warm days of spring. I was in approximately 4 layers and still frozen. It was about 17 degrees the first day and dropped down to about 13 the next. However, night time was absolutely FROZEN! Ok, that may be a bit dramatic but I felt like it was. I could see my breathe in the air!!!!

   While I may have been shivering my tush off most of my time in Scotland I had a delightful time. It was a beautiful city with so much history. I would have to say that speaking in terms of architecture Edinburgh was probably one of the most beautiful cities I have seen to date!

 Look up the story of Greyfriars Bobby if you don't already know it. All of the animal lovers will enjoy the story for sure! Plus, the sticks in the photo will make a bit more sense...

   I also had the time to do a day trip to Loch Lomond and the Trussachs. After almost 18 years of reciting the lyrics to the Loch Lomond song with my bestie, Vanessa, I was so excited to see what bonnie, bonnie banks looked like. They were beautiful!

I made it.

   Paris, Paris, Paris... what can I say. I had so many hopes and expectations. Romance, wine, flowers, bicycles, stripes and berets. Needless to say, the expectations were set too high so there was no option but to be slightly disappointed. I maybe saw one person wearing stripes. I didn't see a single beret. There were some flowers but mostly just grass and gravel and the only romantic thing I saw were the love locks on the bridge near the Louvre. At least wine is in abundance no matter where you go in France.

   However, despite feeling slightly let down there was one thing that made up for all of that and fully exceeded my hopes. The Eiffel Tower. My goodness, it is SO much bigger then I had ever imagined. I was absolutely in awe. It is such an icon and there I was standing before it. It was such a wonderful moment for me. I had this overwhelming sense of all the things I have accomplished in the last two years. Of all the work I put in to get here and the emotional hurdles that I endured. All of the 9am- 12am days with little to no sleep weren't in vain. I was in PARIS and I was standing in front of one of the most well known buildings in the world. It was incredible.

 The Louvre court yard.

 The Eiffel Tower looks so small in this photo compared to what its like in real life!

 A rarely seen view of the tower.

 I really wanted to go but the lowest price ticket was 100 euro... not exactly within my budget!

The love locks on the bridge.

  I also made it to Versailles while I was in Paris. I highly suggest devoting at least 10 hours (if not two full days) to Versailles if you ever go. I spent about 4 or 5 hours in just the fountain gardens. There is also the palace, the other gardens, the lake and Marie Antoinette's dwellings to visit that could easily take twice as long. Unfortunately, it was my last full day so I wasn't able to make it back.

 A small portion of the MASSIVE property.

 My favourite fountain.

Some of the lovely topiaries.