Andie's Travels

Late Post #3 - Avignon

2010-05-12T14:20:00.013-06:00

Look at this silly girl. Walking through Avignon to our hostel across the river Rhone from the city.

Beautiful Avignon with the Palais du Papes in the background

Avignon was this wonderful walled city on the river Rhone. It had very narrow streets and lots of cobblestones. It's called the City of the Popes because they have this big palace that the popes used to live in.

We went in and listened to the extremely boring audio guide. As you can see, Jill is obviously moved by what they are saying.

It was neat but not worth the 10€ But we did get to go onto th

e Pont d'Avignon, this famous bridge with a song about it and everythin

g. "Sur la pont d'Avignon..." something something something. They dance or something, I dunno. The bridge was more impressive to look at than stand on. But there were lots of fish that were eating the seaweed or something. These huge things! And lots, like 20 or so. I really enjoyed those fish..

Here's the bridge. It used to go all the way across but some flood came and destroyed part of it. Our hostel was on the other side of the river Rhone, the wrong side I think. Lots of people would come at night and park their cars along the river and blast dance music and smoke hookah pipes. It was interesting. We didn't feel the safest coming back from dinner one night at 1am, but there was a security guard at the hostel so it wasn't that bad. We were afraid of being thieved though, but luck prevailed!

Here's the outside of the wall. It's like this right around the whole city, very cool. It felt neat being inside, like we were safe and cosy or something.

The meal we had on the first night in Avignon is one of my favourite memories. We had some trouble finding it, but Merci Tonton was finally reached at 9.30pm. It had the cutest little courtyard/patio out back and had about 5 tables or so, really intimate and, like I said, so cute. The waitress knew we were English so she avoided us like the plague. She was nice about it, but it took awhile to get our order for wine in. She brought out the blackboard with the menu on it, all in French of course. We had a tough time

translating it, so again the waitress avoided us, but she asked the other tables if anyone spoke English. This larger group of people beside us helped us out and told us the key words in the menu: beef, seafood, lamb. Normally we would have been able to pick those words out but it said like sirloin and stuff, not boeuf. No good. But they were really helpful and we had fun with it.

This is a picture of the entree (which is their appetizers). It was toast with some puree spread on it, SO delicious, sauteed onions, and little fish which I found out later were sardines!! It was delicious though! It was a suggestion from our neighbouring table.

And then after the meal was all done, after being total goofs and having a fabulous time, the waitress, who warmed up to us, and her husband, the chef, invited us to have a very French drink - Armagnac. It was vile. Jill pawned hers off on me, the jerk. She wasn't feeling all that well though, I force fed her tap water and made her sick again. But the people sang this French song about Vancouver and it was so funny. We stumbled out of there around 1 in the morning. What a lovely place.

Late Entry #2 - Bordeaux

2010-05-12T13:00:00.009-06:00

The beautiful barrel room at Pontet Canet. It smelled wonderful

This is where they load the grapes into the wooden vats from the top, so it's gentler on the grapes

The wooden vats. This is very unusual, they are usually stainless steel. Even Jill hadn't seen it and she's seen everything! (She's delusional and hallucinates often)

The mansion part of Pontet Canet

Our trusty stead, the Ka!!

Bad news bears..

This haunts me.

That girl had way too much wine.

Egads, we're driving in France!

5 May 2010

What a brilliant adventrous day here in Bordeaux!! "What do you wanna do today Jill?" "Oh I dunno, Andie, how about we rent a car and drive around France looking for wine?" Sheer brilliance.

Heh. Well we rented a carand inteded to drive to St-Emilion but decided to go to the Medoc region after a slight detour left us on the complete opposite side of Bordeaux that we needed to be on. The first stop was a chateau we didn't know even had a tasting room, but we just barged in with our N. American baravado demanding some sips. I think it was called Chateau Merye or something. Left with a lovely bottle of '05 Optima.

Next stop was the town of Paulliac, or something to that effect. Tourist info closed so we took the opportunity to grab lunch and get Jill proficient with a manual transmission. Mom, I now know how you felt all those times driving with me in those eary years. I now have seven more gray hairs, Jill counted.

Got the low down on the wineries in the area once the tourist office was owned and booked a tour with Chateau Pontet Canet, a really fancy winery. Drove around the area looking at gorgeous vineyards and chateaua and stoppers at La Haye for a tour and a

Tasting. Couldn't leave empty handed, of course.

Pontet Canet was gorgeous! It's a Grand Cru Classe winery, which means it's special. They use horses and everything! Huge oak vats instead of stainless steel; it was beautiful. Had a special private tour and everything. They had a really neat basement barrel room with this locked room of super old wines. From the 60s and stuff! Very cool. I'll get some photos on of the place.

So driving back to Bordeaux was seamless (Jill was driving, taking the roundabouts on two wheels, testing the Ka's top heaviness..) but once back in the city it was a bit scary. I took over and had to negotiate the roads back to our hotel and then on to the train station. But I did get to park like a Frenchie - two wheels up on the curb. There was barely any car on the road; I was awesome and I was very proud of myself.

Did I tell you about the fantastic Italian restaurant we found on the first night in Bordeaux? OH MY GOODNESS, SOOO GOOD. We went twice. First time, I had the special, penne with broccoli and a word we couldn't translate. Turned out to be cured ham, DROOL. It was incredible. Jill had the margarita pizza, of course she did, and it was delicious. With spicy olive oil drizzled on it, ah! Second time was even better. I had a big ass salad and Jill had the ultima pizza. It really was ultimate, it had huge curls of parmesan, proscuitto, and large leaves of some herb.. It was to die for. I wanted to go back the next day but was a bit embarrassed to go so often. It's called Regazzi's. Check it out.

Late Entry #1 - Grasse

2010-05-12T12:52:00.004-06:00

Late Entry! From my iPod I wasn't able to post things onto here. It was strange and frustrating but not to worry, I saved them!

28 April 2010

What a fantastic day we had yesterday!! We took an earlyish train to Grasse from Nice, about an hour west. We splurged for a cab to take us right to the centre ville (town centre). We went to the first perfumerie (Grimald) and decided to go all out and create our very own scent. That wasn't until 1400 so we walked to another perfumerie called Fragonard. Gorgeous little place with a jardin beside it that had lots of the flowers used. We filmed a little tour through it, I'm sure you'll enjoy that. I found my favourite scent!! It's a plant called faux curry and smells like your memory of the best day ever. It's hypnotizing.

So had McDonald's for lunch, classy, and headed back to Grimald for our Creation! Am I ever glad Jillian convinced me to do that!! It Is the highlight so far!! SO MUCH FUN!!! We were like chemists. We started out by choosing our two fave scents from 9 choices. Then we had to choose 3 out of 6 scents for the body (illustrated by a skirt on the bottle) and then so on for the heart (a shirt with mega-cleavage, haha) and then the top notes (a face. We were so amused by these pictures). So we kept mixing these things into a graduated cylinder and smelling as we went and saw our perfume come to life. We were supervised by the perfumeriers (I made that word up) in lab coats. At one point I had chosen two sweet scents and the lady said, "I don't want you to smell like a... How you say... Bon-Bon?" haha. So cute! I thought she was going to say hooker or something, but I'm very glad that I changed it to not smell like candy.

And then! The naming of our creation. Now picking smells you like out of hundreds of choices was hard. But naming this beast!? That was the real challenge. Jill named hers Za (apparently she says it all the time but I've never once heard it) and i named mine LaFleur after our dear friend on the plane. I don't know if I've told that story yet.. If not, there is no chance it will be forgotten, this trip has been dubbed: LaFleur Does France: Back To His Roots. Haha. Oh LaFleur...

So Grasse was awesome!! And it's pronounced grass, not grassie or DeGrassi Juniour High. What a memory.

Now here we are in wonderful Marseille! Nothing to report as of yet except we have two really great roommates, a guy from Lyon and a girl from N. Carolina. We talked their ears of after arriving last night, feels like we haven't talked to anyone but each other for weeks!! It's only been three days.. Haha.

Jill's not feeling so hot this morning so we're going to take it easy today and just do some walking around in a bit. I like Marseille already and I'm glad we're staying three nights here.

Love to you all! andie.

Ps. We're just so close.. I cannot lie and say we never thought of zipping down to Barcelona. We were thinking about the logistics yesterday and contemplated it heavily! But we are not going, just going to hang around oh-so-gorgeous Provence. We both say we feel so at home here. It is not a foreign country but a place that has been a part of me forever that I am only now realizing and discovering. I cannot wait to live here in France.

Marseille!!

2010-04-29T14:12:00.003-06:00

Damn French keyboards, they are insanely different, so pardon my spelling mistakes. So Jill has been sick for the past two days. BUMMER. What a jerk eh? haha, only kidding, she's feeling better today and even ingested some food. It's all good!! So I really liked Marseille. Dad, I think you would too. It's dirty and real and awesome. Met some cool people here too. Highlight of the trip so far: Grasse and making our own perfume!! I will post about that later though, but goodness was it ever fun! Tomorrow we are moving on to Aix-en-Provence, Salon-de-Provence, and then staying the night in Avignon, or two. I cannot express enough how badly I want to live here. This summer: learn to read and write. Next summer + forever = LIVE IN FRANCE. It is for me!! Okay, has taken me about 30 min to type out and I NEED to get back to my bottle of 4euro Bordeaux wine. Love to you all, andie.

Nice

2010-04-26T15:57:00.003-06:00

Success!! We didn't die in the ash! Nearly died of exhaustion though. 14 hours of travel from Calgary to Nice. Oi. We fell asleep at 7pm after doing a big walk around the city along the Promenade. I finally made it to Alsace-Lorraine. Unfortunately it was just a park in Nice, and not the actual French province that I've wanted to go to for years but never made it. Close!

We WENT TO MONACO TODAY (MY IPOD WONT STOP WITH THE CAPS! SORRY, I'M NOT YELLING) AND THAT WAS A NICE WORK OUT FOR THE OL' CALVES . IT IS VERY STEEP AND CONVOLUTED TO GET DOWN TO THE BEACH.

HAD A WONDERFUL DINNER TONIGHT: SHARED PASTA AND PIZZA AND WINE WITH JILL. AND ALSO HAD AWESOME DELICIOUS GELATO - YOGURT AND BLACKBERRY! JILL WAS AMAZING AT ATTEMPTING TO ORDER IN FRENCH, THE GIRL WAS GIGGLING AT HER. SO FUNNY! BUT I AM VERY PROUD OF HER FOR TRYING! WE GET INTIMIDATED AND SCARED, BUT WE ARE WORKING ON IT.

TOMORROW WE'RE OFF TO VISIT GRASSE AND THEN ON TO MARSEILLE FOR THREE NIGHTS! I'M REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO IT.

HOPE EVERYTHING IS GOOD BACK HOME!

LOVE ANDIE.

A New Adventure Awaits in 3 Days!

2010-04-20T23:04:00.004-06:00

France! Jill and I decided that since we fell so in love with France and spent entirely too much time there last year, we would devote an entire trip to it. We'll be leaving this Saturday, April 24, flying to London from Calgary and then catching a quick connection to Nice. It'll be a long day of travel, but we'll manage I'm sure! After all, we'll be on the Cote d'Azur. That'll cure a little jet lag and exhaustion pronto!

Two nights in Nice, I'm sure several short of what we'll end up wanting to spend there, and then on to Marseille, which I am so looking forward to! I can't wait to spend three nights in this dirty, hard city. It'll be grand. From there we'll make a few stops in Avignon, Aix en Provence, Salon de Provence, Carcasonne, Toulouse (tentatively overnight there and I'll light a candle for my dear lost cat. And then enjoy the amazing artist!), and then on to Bordeaux. We'll spend two or three nights there enjoying the fruits of the area. And then on to Paris! Paris will be the only place where we have been before. Four glorious nights! We'll stay in the same hostel in my favourite part of town, Montmartre, and visit Versaille, all of the markets we were oblivious to last time, and perhaps go all out for a Moulin Rouge show. Jill's going to read that and say, "Perhaps??" with a fierce scowl. Yes, yes, Jill, we're going. 'Cause there's a discount if you go to the 11pm show, heh... I'm still sneaky.

So yes, my beloved France was calling me back again and I could not refuse! I don't remember being so giddy before.. Maybe it's because we leave in 3 days. That seems completely implausible at the moment.

Not just because of the volcano. I have not mentioned it for a reason! But I was monitoring flights today and there was a flight from Toronto to London! Hoo-rah! I'm not sure if it landed. But I bought cancellation insurance JUST in case. Everyone knock on wood and cross all fingers and toes, please. Until Saturday at 4pm.

Because of the whirlwind 17 day trip, I doubt I'll have much time to write. But when I get back and I'll definitely share the highlights.

love andie.

Ps. Last post we were just making our way to Sevilla and from there we went on to Granada. Those two cities alone I could explore for about three months. I would not hesitate suggesting them to visit and it will not be longer than five years until I revisit them. Amazing cities!

Spain

2009-05-18T16:15:00.000-06:00

It's quite lovely here. It's slower and less hectic, compared to Italy. I prefer it, thus far. We're in Barcelona right now, leaving in the morning for Sevilla for two nights there. Spent today walking around and saw the big Gaudi church (Sangrada Familia? No idea..) and then Parc Guell, another of his works. It's weird stuff, really off the wall. Not sure if I like it, but neat still. Tried to find a Spanish flag for 5€ today, but apparently that is much too cheap. I think I offended a couple shop owners, but I will not pay one penny over! Bastards.. I'll go to a market! Speaking of markets, we were in one today and I saw skinned sheep heads. They scared me and I'm glad Jill was too busy chowing down on mango to notice. I did not like it. But we did have delicious fruit. And shwarma for lunch! So delicious; stuffed with humus and veggies and sesame sauce. LOVE IT. I want more! Ciao for now! love andie. ps. I'm dying for clotted cream on scones with strawberry jam!! Thanks to Kate I now have that as one of my fave things to dream about..

France and Italy

2009-05-13T04:58:00.002-06:00

Rest of France was brilliant! Spent the day in Dijon after Paris and rented bicycles. Drank cheap red wine in a gorgeous park and ate baguette with camembert cheese and jam and organic strawberries. Amazing. Stayed overnight in Lyon before the beginning of a 24 hour period of travel. Trained to Milan, then an overnighter to Naples, then a ferry to the island of Capri. Then a bus to the centre of Anacapri where we wandered about finding our "hostel" which is conveniently now a three star hotel. It was nice though. Gelato! Delicious! We both like the chocolate pistacchio one we found in Rome, where we went after one night on Capri. Rome for just one night, did not get to see too much but did manage to get one helluva sunburn, still hurts today. So hot. I did not enjoy it. Now we are in Florence and it is really lovely! We are camping a little campground outside of the centre overlooking the city. Decided to slow down and stay here for three nights. Tomorrow we are off to La Spezia and the Cinque Terre. Trying to figure out where to stay.. and how to get there. Will stay there for two nights before trekking across the French Riviera and into Spain. Getting hot everywhere now, hope it is not too too bad for the rest of the trip! Thanks mom, for giving me your heat-intolerance. hah. Love you guys, hope everything is well back home. andie and Jillian.

Paris!!

2009-05-05T13:53:00.002-06:00

London was great, saw Westminster Abbey, London Tower, Tower Bridge and had a lovely walk along the Thames. Found 1pound cappuccinos and delicious pastries. Saw a play called Madame de Sade starring none other than Dame Judi Dench! Crazy cool! Made it to Paris; feels like it took a long time to get here! The overnight coach was pretty awful, we got woken up to go through customs, then to get on the ferry, then off the ferry.. stupid, very little sleep was had. Took a long time to get to our hostel after getting to the correct metro station, walked past the turn... way past. Then we weren`t allowed to check in until 3pm. So.. running on extreme empty, we went into the heart of Paris to Place St Michele and went on a free walking tour for 3.5 hours and saw all the touristy things, it was fantastic! Then we kept the adrenalin flowing and went for a tour of Montmartre.. the Moulin Rouge area. Really cool area, my favourite neighbourhood by far. Staying in Paris for two more nights then off to Dijon and past that... who knows! This keyboard is not normal and is exceedingly difficult to type with. Need some sleep! And a little more 3€ red wine, haha. love andie.

We're off today!

2009-04-30T06:55:00.002-06:00

No more sleeps left to count; we're leaving in about 10 minutes. bah!! My brilliant plan to stay up late last night and get on London time failed miserably. I was exhausted and we were in bed around 11.30 PM. Ridiculous! Now it's 7 AM and I'm still tired but I'm going to try and not fall asleep on the way to Calgary (ya right..)

So now I must go and be on the way to being on our way.

First Leg: Edmonton to Calgary

Mode of Transportation: Auto

Length of Trip: ~3 Hours

Bye for now!

love andie.

13 Sleeps!

2009-04-17T01:33:00.003-06:00

I am too excited to sleep! Seriously, I am lying wide awake in bed thinking of all the things that need to be done and all the adventures that will be had and I cannot stop! It's 0135 and I have to be up in a few hours, but that fact is not putting me to sleep whatsoever. So here is what we have so far: Land in London on 1 May - hang out there and do the touristy things and get our heads back into travel mode. We'll meet up with my wonderful friend Kate and finally get that proper pint of good ale that we both deserve and haven't had since.. well ever really. I just have repressed memories of cracking that warm Fiji Bitter that just had to be drank before the power came on to chill it... Stay in London for the weekend and do lots of things and prep ourselves to leave the English-speaking world for the the next three and a half weeks, ahhh!! I wonder if that is the cause of my insomnia tonight.. How extremely terrifying and exciting! We'll train it to Paris and stay there for a few nights, seeing the things on our list... Eiffel, Versailles, Moulin Rouge, Louvre, and the couple other things I'm forgetting, then on to Dijon and Lyon for some lovely countryside and wine tasting. Then down to Italy - Florence, Rome, Naples/Pompeii, Sicily, and the little ones in between. Up to Milan and across the French Riviera to Spain. Ole! I think the majority of our time will be spent in Spain due to our need for Flamenco, tapas, beaches, mountains, and saying "hola" on a regular basis. So I kind of just realized that we're leaving in less than two weeks and haven't the faintest idea of where we're staying when we arrive in London. Ah, the joys of the unknown! hah. I cannot wait to be thrown into the crazy, unpredictable, awesome, fun, scare-your-pants-off thrill of backpacking again. I sometimes forget that I still have to be somewhat productive in the hospital for the next week. hm. Perhaps sleep will aid in that endevour. For now, I bid you adieu and let you all shake your head at me for being so danged excited and neglecting sleep. andie.

Off I Go Again!!

2009-02-17T23:11:00.002-07:00

Yet another adventure was set into motion today when my good friend Jillian and I booked our flights to London for April 30, 2009. And already a slight snag! Seems that my credit card did not go through.. I do have a temporary booking, however, and they said they'll call me.. But as of now, it's just Jillian going backpacking. haha. hahahahah. Ah, I'm sure it'll all work out. I will make it so! So yes, we are going. We have yet to book our return flight as Jill is away right now and we must do immense amounts of research in order to calculate how much money/time we'll need. We're tentatively thinking coming home on May 26. Our very non-concrete plans are so far: Fly to London April 30. Fly to Spain sometime. Train it through Spain and France up to Paris. Possibly squeeze another country in there.. Netherlands? Ireland? Italy? Switzerland? Sure! Fly home from London May 26. This is a very exciting day because my hope of this ever turning out was dwindling when my search for cheap flights kept coming up with nothing. But I perservered and refused to accept anything more than $800 and finally caught a break! (Anyone looking for cheap flights to Europe, check out CanadianAffair.com) So yes, that is about it for now. The count down is on! T-minus 72 days. haha. Okay, maybe a little too soon for a count down. love andie.

Day.. I have no idea what number

2008-05-26T08:47:00.005-06:00

I apologize for the lack of posts. It just means we're out and about doing cool things! And that I am lazy. We are in Niagara Falls right now. We drove down to the Falls last night and saw them all lit up with changing coloured lights and fireworks. It was great. We just stopped on the side of the road with our four way flashers on, heh. I was NOT about to spend $14 on parking, no siree! I hate spending money.. I digress.. Where were we last time I posted? Gatineau/Ottawa.. right. Well we went whitewater rafting on the Ottawa River, that was fantastic. Pretty cold water but we both swam in it for a bit. I got taken away by the current away from my boat, that was exciting. I was saved, don't you worry. After that we drove to Montreal and stayed there for three nights. It was nice, not spectacular, but I did enjoy it. My favourite day was walking up Mont Royal and looking over the city. At the top we had a really tiny hot dog with amazing fries, drowned in vinegar. I have become a vinegar-holic, please beware when I come back home. After Montreal we drove to Halifax, staying overnight in the car in Fredricton, and stayed there for three nights. It was fantastic and I will be back. Soon. We had the most amazing dinner at Salty's overlooking Halifax Harbour. Delicious halibut and scallops and oysters. Man I'm hungry.. It was probably the best meal I've ever had. After Halifax we drove to Quebec City. That was a long drive. We stayed there for two nights. On the day of our exploration it was pouring rain so that took a bit of the fun out of it, but it was still quite beautiful. We had crepes on both mornings, so good!! I'm going to make them at home. They might even be a replacement for my beloved fried egg sandwiches.. Oh I doubt that really. After Quebec City we drove to Burlington, an hour outside of Toronto, with a quick dinner stop in Ottawa and to meet up with my friend Jesse from school. Alas, Jesse was nowhere to be found, the jerk (kidding, only kidding Jess), but we still got to eat shwarma, this Lebanese donair type thing that is to die for. Have I mentioned that this trip has turned into more of a food excursion, rather than seeing actual things? I love food. We went to the Sarah Slean concert in Kitchener, that was really great. The day after that, yesterday, we went on an African Lion Safari, woo. It was a drive through open air zoo thing. We opted to take the Monkey Bypass because we are driving Stella's Audi, and it was a damn good thing too. When we were in with the zebras and rhinos, we saw the monkey and baboon pen and they were crawling over all the vehicles! It was hilarious. Now, like I said, we are in Niagara Falls and trying not to fall into all the tourist traps set out every 5 meters. Did I mention parking is $14?? Goodness. I say we just throw our four ways on, pop the hood, and go for a jaunt along the falls. hah. I'm only half kidding.. Alrighty, time to go. Getting our nice usual 11am start to the day. heh. Time for breakfast/lunch, my favourite meal. Hope everyone is doing really great, can't wait to see all of you. We'll be back on the 2nd! Not long now. love andie. Some photos for you! Us at the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border: Stella at her bay (ha ha) but this is quite appropriate for Aunt Carol as well. Old Woman Bay in Ontario somewhere along the way. Our defamation of federal property: (okay okay, it was just a street corner IN Ottawa, and it was mostly dry when we got there so it's probably barely even there..) Me and Stella at the top of Mont Royal, Montreal New Brunswick/Nova Scotia border! I had no tripod, thus the grass in the bottom of the photo.. heh. Me being swallowed by a massive wave along the Halifax harbour. Stella trailblazing in the woods around Quebec City. It was rainy, we were soaked, why not go off the beaten path? hah. Us chilling out, catching some rays in Burlington. Love this photo. Burlington again. Alright so I neglected to tell you all what we were actually doing in Burlington, seeing as it is not a common stop on most itineraries.. Well, take a look at the photos. My turn... Yes. It looks like I've been shot. I was not as stoic as I had hoped, and not even close to Stella's level of stoicism. She's a master. I didn't think it was very fair to only put one calf through that, so let's double it up, shall we? So that was our adventure in Burlington, ON. A way to remember this trip, my previous adventures, and ones yet to be discovered. andie.

Day 6

2008-05-12T08:04:00.003-06:00

Hello from Gatineau, Quebec! Originally we had intended to be in Ottawa today.. however, news to us, Gatineau is right across the river from Ottawa. We got in late last night and, after learning that the hostel we planned on staying at was particularly seedy, we ran across the river to another province, hah. Ottawa smells funny, is this familiar to anyone? Somewhat like fecal matter, to be blunt. Not overly nice, but I'm sure we'll get used to it, which is a lovely thought. We've been travelling now for 5 days and Ottawa is to be our home for at least two more nights. Today we are scouring the Rideau Canal for tulips as the Tulip Festival is now on. We will go to the Parliament buildings and check the goings on there and then later tonight try and find a pub with live music to eat to. Possibly a bar after that, who knows. Tomorrow we have a whitewater rafting trip booked!! We are going to be rafting the Ottawa River and it's going to be fantastic. It's really warm here, 18 today, 22 tomorrow, so I hope the water won't freeze the life out of us. And the brochure had a mention of bungee jumping..?? Who knows! Yesterday on the drive from Sault Ste. Marie to Ottawa, we found an intriguing sign: "Meteor Crater, Turn Right". So what the hell, we're road tripping, let's go! Turn off, see another sign saying 32 km. Well, okay, that's not so bad, quick detour. Then we see that this 32 km consists of nothing but forest, gravel road, and little clearings in the woods, perhaps new development or something. So we are on that road for a good long while, at least 30 minutes, and we get to a sign pointing in three directions. No mention of the crater whatsoever. So we were angry, of course, c'mon, we wanted to see aliens or something. A little disappointing, but it made us laugh. Have to go shower now cause I stink! Must be the air here. Avoir! love andie. ps. Did you know that Quebec is not a bilingual province? Nope! Mono.. goodness. I should've continued on with my French after grade 6.. Good thing I have a personal translator beside me, but still, it's a bit frightening not knowing what anything says. good thing we're heading back to Ottawa.

Day 2

2008-05-08T16:48:00.002-06:00

After a late start yesterday at 2pm, as opposed to the 7am I had hoped for.., we drove to Calgary and stayed with Stella's cousin. Went out for my very first Indian meal, oh boy... I'm hooked. And no digestive problems, as Stella had warned me about, haha. But it was all good, I assure you! Because you all wanted to know. Today we left at a very respectable 6.30am and drove straight East. Not too eventful, however I had forgotten that Saskatchewan is not, in fact, the flat, boring plain that it's reputation perceives it as. It has better undulation (that was for you, mom) than the drive from Edmonton to Calgary! Rolling hills, it was beautiful! The big road side attraction for today was the Swinging Bridge in Wolseley, SK. It was quite a hoot. It was actually, however sarcastic that sounded. It really did swing. Took a few pictures, will post later. We had planned on taking pictures at every provincial border crossing, however the Alberta/Saskatchewan border was nowhere to be found. We did find the Sask/Manitoba one quite nicely, again, photos to come. The GPS system we have in the car is called TomTom and I joke that AndAnd does just as good of a job. Many times it has said that we are no longer on a road and to turn around when safe to do so. But... I haven't driven off the road, honest! And, news to us, we were driving over bodies of water that must have been underground.. or something like that. It was odd. Frightening if I wasn't paying 100% attention and I worried for a minute that it was truthful about me being off the road. I was afraid of drowning.. but no, again, it was wrong! AndAnd to the rescue. And to aid in that persona, I bought some STELLAR aviator sunglasses that are amazing and incredible and make me have superhuman confidence and abilities. They are phenomenal. Anyways, just stopped for some Subway in Verdin (I think..), Manitoba, and heading out now for Winnipeg! Will write soon for more adventure updates. Could we possibly beat the Swinging Bridge?? hah. love andie.

A New Adventure!

2008-05-05T00:21:00.002-06:00

Hello everyone! Welcome to a new installment of Andie on the Loose. On Wednesday, May 7, 2008, my friend Stella and I will be heading out on a cross country road trip. Our turn around destination is tentatively set for Montreal, Quebec. It will be four weeks full of driving, seeing some sights, meeting some people, driving, and driving a bit more. I am really looking forward to it and cannot wait to finally go further East than Saskatchewan. Even though our original plans of going all the way to Newfoundland have been altered slightly, I have no doubts about the fun factor of this trip. Stay tuned for updates as we explore this great country of ours! andie.

sorry about the delay!

2007-02-23T11:47:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone! We're in Belfast at the moment. Slight change of plans from Scotland. We decided last minute to go Dublin since the train was so damn expensive if you don't book early (Amber). So ya, we flew to Dublin the day after watching Newcastle lose by ONE POINT ARGH to Bristol. It was a great game. Absolutely packed, we could only stand! Very exciting. Then went back to Kate's place and chilled out. Very good to see her again and hopefully we'll meet up with her in London before we go back home. Vivian and Festus (Angie's sister's brother and sister in law) picked us up after a short hour flight (quite bumpy, my least enjoyable flight yet) and took us to their house. Festus took us into the city the next day and we checked it out. It was great weather for awhile but soon started raining, same with the next day. Not too exciting in the city. Went to an old jail and loved that, but other than that... meh. Yesterday, Thursday, we took a 3hr bus trip to Belfast. Not bad here.. it's a bit rougher. We went out last night to a movie after dark and were chased down the street by this mean asshole dog. I tried to run but Ang said no. I wanted to kick it. Saw an English movie that was quite good. Walking back was scary as well. Tomorrow we're going to fly to Edinburgh and figure out the buses so we can discover the highlands. Belfast is rude and dirty (Ang says) but I think if you got a bit more time to look around and live here then it'll be good. Amber I'll call when I can find a phone that works! love andie.

Allo!

2007-02-17T09:44:00.000-07:00

Hallo from Jolly Ol' London! Flight here was alright, a bit uncomfortable and crappy sleep (only about 2 hours maybe) and then we got to London at 10:10 Local time, 3am Edmonton time. So we were kind of weirded out about the time. Especially cause it was Friday when we got here... not Thursday. I booked the hostel for Thurs, Fri, and Sat nights... I was worried that it would cancel out our reservation or something, but it didn't. We took the train from Heathrow to Paddington station, and then walked to The Lodge hostel. Only about 5 min away. It looks a bit nicer in the photos on their website, but it's okay. We've got a private room with a double bed and there is a sink and a fridge in it. And a tv but there's not much on. We went for a wonder and found some food stores. Not too expensive either. £11 for peanut butter and jam, bread, meat and cheese, a big ass thing of water, a cake thingy (says it serves 6 but we've had a chunk today and I'm sure we'll polish the rest off tonight) and a bit more. So it's not that bad. We went to sleep at 5pm cause I couldn't keep my eyes open whilst watching Resevoir Dogs, and slept until 2am. hmm... not a whole lot to do at 2 in the morning, so we looked out the window for awhile.. lots of people up on a Friday night. And then slept until... 10am. Tha'ts right. How many hours of sleep is that?? 17. I've never slept that much in my life!! But surprisingly enough I'm not over rested. So we didn't get the early start that I was anticipating but that's okay. We packed a crap load of stuff into one day. Bought a day pass for the buses for only £3.50 and then took it to central London. It's really neat seeing lots of old buildings with modern day stores in them. Walked to Buckingham Palace. Saw a couple guards. Walked all the way around St. James Park to Westminster Abbey and found that we could've walked about 12 steps to it. *sigh. Oh well. Then walked BACK around the park to see the London Eye. It's massive. Saw the Thames River that runs through London. It's really quite dirty. Even more so than the North Saskatchewan I must say. When we walked quite a ways to St. Paul's Cathedral. We were going to pay to go in so we lined up and everything, went through the doors, and realized we only had to pay to go further in. Well I saw all I wanted to really, so we just turned around and went out. hah. It was perfect. There are double decker buses everywhere!! We've taken a couple today. I love them. You can see a lot out of the top deck. Around 4 when we were coming here the streets were packed!! Like west edmonton mall during Christmas. And the buses are crazy too. They manouver around like they're little cars. It's quite scary walking around. We just run. We've been pretty close to getting hit a few times. But not to worry!! Tomorrow we're going to Bristol for the rugby game and to meet up with Kate. Should be fun! Legs are kind of tired from walking all over today so I think we'll go back to the hostel. Things close down around 5 or 6 so there isn't a whole lot to do at night. We were thinking about going to the cinema but maybe we'll just sleep. Because we need more. hah. No but I'll definitely shower!! Haven't had a chance to do that yet. Must do.. hah. Anyways, talk to you guys soon I hope. Hope all is well!! andie. ps. Weather here is TERRIFIC!! I wore a tshirt and a fleece long sleeve and was warm for most of the day. It's not terribly windy at all. Perfect. Extremely sunny. Lucked out I think!

Map of England, Ireland, and Scotland

2007-02-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

So you have a general idea of the places we will speak about. Actually maybe I should have a look at these..

One sleep to go..

2007-02-14T02:04:00.000-07:00

Alright well it's technically two sleeps to go because I haven't gone to bed yet, but still, it's Wednesday morning and it's close. Really close. I can smell the jet fuel. hm, I wonder if the heater is burning something in my room.. I digress. Last day of work tomorrow (today) and that's great. Also, tomorrow is when Ang finds out if her passport is ready. I really hope it is. No need for added stress. Packed my back this evening. Not too bad. Doesn't seem like I have very much stuff, how did I keep 5 months worth in there last time?? Seemed like I had a lot more little tid bitty things. I'm sure they will accumulate. They better! Pretty excited now.. Just having my bag on my back gets me raring to go. I remember when I first got back and how I couldn't wait to have clothes in closets and drawers again, but I'm really looking forward to having everything on my back. At the moment I'm downloading a podcast (my very first one), How To Speak Spanish. hah. Maybe I'll learn it on the plane when we're flying down to Spain. We'll see. I think they're kind of neat.. interesting little things. I'm also converting a few Heroes episodes to watch on my iPod as well. That's exciting. And I'm going to tape Ang's eyelids to her forehead and make her watch it because I rather enjoy it. Takes a long time to convert though, or I would do a few movies too. Anyways, I am quite tired. I think we'll try to stay up late tomorrow night so we can sleep on the plane. I have a problem doing that, I'm just too damn excited! We'll see. Maybe I'll have to pop one of Ang's Adavans, hah. andie.

16 Sleeps to Go..

2007-01-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

Just over two weeks. That's crazy!! I'm really excited and slightly nervous. Not for anything in particular, just nervous to be travelling again. Mostly excited. Yesterday I booked our hostel in London for our first three nights. $48/night but it's a double bed, so that's alright. And it's right next to Paddington Station which is fantastic. On Sunday the 18th we'll head out west to Bristol for a rugby game (Bristol vs. Newcastle Falcons woo!!) and meet up with my friend Kate who I met in Fiji. She lives in Cheltenham (45 min south east of Bristol) where we'll go for a couple days and she'll show us around. Then head up north on a bus or train to Edinburgh. I'm really looking forward to Scotland. The more I read about the Highlands the more I want to go! If we can manage it I'd like to take a hop on hop off tour. It's not cheap but public transport is not very good way up north because it is so remote. I'm not sure how long we'll spend in Scotland but we'll head to Ireland after we're done exploring there. Hopefully go to Belfast, Dublin, and possibly fly out to Barcelona if we have the time. Ang would really like to go there, as would I, and it'd be nice to get a bit warmer. Then back to London and meet up with Amber, Nicole, and Owen for a bit I hope, and then leave for home on March 8. Sounds pretty cool. We'll see how it goes really, hah. andie.