The hills are alive with the sound of muuuusic....

Ahhh so we visited the lovely little place where they filmed the Wedding Scene in the Sound of Music - super cute little town and the rolling hills and mountains of Austria are beautiful! Tomorrow, I hop on a bike and haul myself up a hill....we shall see how well that works. I may be left behind on the side of the road because I am just too much of a pansy to go up a mountain (another one of those moments where you kick yourself for avoiding the gym like the plague)...

It will just be a chill little time so yeah...oh crud I am out of internet time...
Later later more details...

Italy...been there, done that...

So, since the last attempt at finding internet on this crazy trip, I have gone to the French Riviera (Cannes with Margot!! I <3 you!) , Monaco, Florence, Rome, Venice, and now, I am in Vienna ~ the home of Mozart and music in Europe! Actually, watching a lovely Mozart concert last night was super lovely and gave me an appreciation of classical music (Awwwww...I know...cute eh?)

Monaco was just flashy and a quick side-trip at night...lots and lots of pretty cars though... Like damn, reeeeeeeeaaally pretty.... basically a boy´s paradise.

Florence was cool...just crazy streets everywhere, as was Rome which was insanity. We wandered EVERYWHERE.... Even this crazy catacomb thing where the priests apparently exhumed the bodies of other priests and then used thier bones to decorate the catacomb´y cementary part....creeepy but very cool all the same! Super super creepy though~

Venice and gondolas were fabulous. It was just awesome to get lost in that city, wander about, and just explore while getting cut off by little canals everywhere! Murano glass is also just beautiful beautiful stuff...

Now in Vienna, we are chilling. Just hanging out about the city, perhaps will check out the Hapsburg palaces and such, and then a lil´Viennese coffee somewhere...although I did just find a Starbucks and am now guiltily drinking it in the city with renowned coffee everywhere...

Starbucks are just rather hard to comeby sometimes and I haven´t seen one since Barcelona. It´s like Italy put a Starbucks ban on the stuff =p

Anyhow...I am weathering a lovely cold that everyone on the trip has...we are all sick, and no, we have not been all making out with one another =p haha...that would be awkward...yes....awkward....

Anyway, time is running out and I must go find a frigging sweater...they totally lied when the thing said that it was 20+ degrees here...this is more like 12, which is damn cold when all you brought are tshirts and light sweaters...wait till Switzerland...

Till I find more internet later...

<3

Life without communication tools...

So we have just arrived in Barcelona. I made one collect call home because I couldn´t add any money to a phone card and the lack of internet over the past 5 days has been insanity. We are running all over place all the time, but I´m glad that I´m a travel sleeper. The lack of sleep would otherwise do me in.

I have discovered that Australians are very VERY consistant binge drinkers. They are somehow able to drink heavily every night and wake up super early in the morning, nice and hungover, and then able to start drinking again by noon. It´s crazy, and physically impossible for us Canadians who are young and not particularly that bad at drinking, even after living through McGill´s Management Carnival. It is insanity and a little painful. They sure didn´t tell you this about Contiki (especially to my parents) but apparently it´s well known throughout that part of the world that Contiki trips are just weeks of no sleep.

Anyway, enough complaining about my own lack of liver....

France is beautiful. Paris is a crazy crazy bustling city where the city doesn´t run on gridded streets and everything just goes everywhere and the chances of getting hit by a car are really really high. Wandering around hungover was a tad painful, but I´m lucky that I´ll be going back there in a little while with mommy where we´ll do real tour things. Had a really nice authentic dinner in a French restaurant and saw a Cabaret show at the Nouvelle Eve. It was fantastic despite what they say about Cabaret shows and our tour guide said the one there was the best one she´d ever seen. I think I may take Mommy there =)

The countryside, and especially the Beaujolais wine region is super pretty - I took pictures but they really don´t give justice to the beauty all over the place. Grape vines for grapes are kept in these really cute neat little rows and just everything seems so organized. We went to The Top of the World where we had a nice picnic that just overlooked the whole region. Gorgeous is the best word to describe the scenery!

We drove to Barcelona today, a very long 13 hour trip, to our campsite. Tomorrow we´ll be entering the city bright and early to check out the sites. I found Absenth today in the store. 85% alcohol. You can imagine why it´s illegal in Canada and most other places where governments care about the bodies of thier people. I may just pick up a bottle to bring back for show since it´s such a random piece of work and it´s just dirty cheap here. No one should be able to buy a micky of Absenth for under 10 euros, or like 15 dollars. It´s just wrong. But nonethelss, it´s here! We´ll see.

Tomorrow when we go into the city I´ll try to find some traditional souvenier thingies and perhaps a postcard or two to be a real tourist! Then at night, it´s a flamingo dinner and dance! Exciting =) Anyhow anyhow, my internet time is running a little low at this shady campground internet cafe and I´m out of Euros to put into the clock.

Adios till I find another source of communication!

My hat's off to consultants...

I've arrived in London, or lovely Londres (=p) and I must say, I have the utmost respect for consultants now. I have never taken a red-eye flight before and sleeping on a plane is quite painful, especially when you realize you have 4 hours to sleep, then can't sleep, then realize the lights are on and breakfast is being served because you're arriving in a place 5 hours ahead of the time you're used to. Needless to say, I napped and will be avoiding any exploration of London this time around.

Also, as a side note, London is not warm in August. Especially when it's raining. I think I will spend the rest of this day looking desparately for some store nearby that will sell me a sweater or warmer jacket. 20-degrees...lies! More like 13, and that's not tank-top weather (unless you're in Montreal just as the 6 months of winter have passed and it's the first time you are not layering clothes on or in a gigantic down jacket)

London as a city is quite lovely though. Bustling little cosmopolitain and I think it's charming =)

However, Paris is tomorrow and I have yet to meet my roommates (hey! It's like my first day in Trois-Rivieres) but I will see everyone tonight and make friends like a good little kid =p

As my internet time is running down, I must say goodbye =) Margot, I will call you when I get to the south of France <3

A bientot¬

After-School-Life Crisis...

One last day in lovely Canada before wandering about...It's amazing how time flies! The back-to-school flyers are out and telling us that it's time for school - only this time, I'm not heading back! ;_; Unfortunately, I no longer have an excuse to bulk-buy lined paper and packs of pens...

It's a little creepy, I think it will really get me once the last week of August hits and I realize I'm not back in Montreal chilling at OAP doing a week or two of McGill-sanctioned-all-day-outdoor-drinking-on-campus.

For all of you who are going back, have a beer (Boreal this time! Oh Molson Dry, I miss you...) and perhaps a questionable hamburger at OAP for me. Bronfman should be lovely after $22 million in renovations (and since Management saves huge money on the fact that they don't heat the building in winter...)

I believe I'm officially locked out August 31st. No more sneaking in and stealing "No eating/drinking" and "Quiet study only" signs. (Nothing quite like corrupting young Americans trying to learn French in Trois-Rivieres, eh Greg? Tsk tsk, Jeff & Jeremy =p)

Anyway, I fly out tomorrow to Heathrow where I will likely have to clear plastic-baggie all my belongings to go through security (because my shampoo and facewash is rather explosive!) and throw my iPod into checked baggage. For the sake the child, I hope I am not sitting next to any children. As a travel-sleeper and iPod-less, crying children are not cool...

Also, Leslie, I took your advice and checked out that site - thanks! :)

Enough of my ramblings for now, more to come when I cross the Atlantic and find a lovely little internet cafe~

Au revoir!

The horrors of moving and packing...en Francais!

I thought that returning from Trois-Rivieres with my new sense of French'ness and whatnot would prepare me for what lay ahead, but here I am, in lovely Mississauga, simply confusing myself.As the pledge that we took at UQTR (Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres) said:I promise to speak/think in French even in my dreams!

It is true. The French is still steeping in my brain.

I tried to unpack some of the bags I had used in moving today - essentially a suitcase in which everything inside had been hurridly tossed in. (It was so that I could attend a campfire in which mosquitos ate through the Off! Skintastic stuff I had sprayed all over my body and through my clothes. I suppose I really -am- just that delicious... >.<).

Either way, unpacking and determining what it was that I would really need for my trip turned sketchy. Counting items and considering whether certain things should go with you is one thing, but doing it all in French, in your head, occassionally talking to yourself outloud, in French, is another. When there are no threats of Cartes Rouges or crazed people yelling "En francais, s'il vous plait!" it is really quite remarkable what 6 weeks can do to ya...you UQTR kids will understand...

I have been told to pack only the things that I will need to survive. Then unpack it, toss out half of the stuff and repack. Then unpack that, toss out another half, and then repack. Then, if I only took up less than half my backpack, I would be ready to face the Old World... We'll see how that goes tomorrow. I see this being a very painful process...Ahh...le sac est deja plein. C'est tres difficile >.<>

But now, back to the wonderful world of packing!