Taking it Easy in Lisbon

Don't ever be me, I mean it.

Picture this.. it's 10 pm and you're in a pretty, but tiny little border town between France and Spain. You're trying to decide if you should walk to the slightly larger town down the road to get a hotel, or call a Taxi, when an old man comes over, grabs your bag and starts talking to you in rapid-fire Spanish. When you reach for your phrase book he swats your hand away and continues talking to you in Spanish ignoring your pleas in English. You gather that he is asking if you are going on to Portugal on the only train leaving that night, or staying in Irún (the pretty little border town) to sleep. Trying to explain to him that you aren't sure yet just results in him walking away from you, with your bag, presumably to his overpriced bed and breakfast where I'm sure none of his family speaks English either.

Well, that's what happened to me last night, so I did what every other sleepy and only semi-logical person does in that situation.. I bought a ticket to Portugal.

I shared my cabin with a really nice Swedish couple, and 2 Iranian girls from Germany, and with 5 people in the cabin, none of us had a very comfortable sleep. Unfortunately neither sleepers nor couchettes were available that particular trip, and rightfully so if the reservation is only €7.50.

We all tried very hard though. The Swedish couple got out in Salamanca, Spain, and we continued on. I finally managed to drift off to sleep slightly before the Portuguese border where I was rudely awakened by a Portuguese border guard wanting to see my passport. By this point it was after 6 in the morning so I drifted in and out of consciousness for most of the morning, trading beauty products with the Iranian girls so we all LOOKED like we'd slept.

Portugal is BEAUTIFUL. The north is very impoverished and there are a lot of tiny little worn down towns with people living in houses with almost no roof left, but the scenery is breathtaking, and even the worn down villages have a unique charm. The people are quite friendly here, and although almost no one I've met speaks fluent English, they all seem to understand and can speak basic English. I've had a few people smile when I ask, "Fala Inglês?" and I hope it's just because they're happy I'm even trying, and not because I'm horribly mispronouncing it.

I had a brilliant stroke of good luck leaving Paris, where neither the conductor from Paris to Bordeaux, or the conductor from Bordeaux to Irún checked my Eurail pass to see if it was validated. Since I genuinely didn't know that it NEEDED to be before I got on the train and read the pamphlet closely, I travelled from Paris to Irún for just €4.50, which was the reservation cost. Pretty damn good.

The conductor DID check it leaving Irún for Lisbon though, but my pass now starts the day after I actually first started using it since the trip was well after the 8pm when they consider the travel next day travel. Yay.

I have to go find my hostel now.

One Night in Paris

*Edit - Had to change the name.. was so tired that I didn't even think to make the obvious joke*

Against my better judgement, I stayed in Paris last night. Turns out there were no trains to Irun, Spain yesterday, so I had to. Booked a cute hostel for the night and set off sightseeing.

First off, Paris is nothing like London. London is a little more compact and straightforward. I walked from the train station to the Eiffel Tower, but beyond that, I needed the services of a tour bus.

I played the tacky tourist bit all afternoon, snapping pictures and speaking in really bad Franglais for the most part. I did make a really passable effort at speaking only french at the post office, and since he smiled and stuck an International stamp on the postcard I assume he understood.

You CAN get lost in Paris. I wandered the streets for over 4 hours yesterday looking for the Montparnasse train station again. It's a good thing my bags were there in a storage locker and not on my back, or I wouldn't have made it.

Got back to the hostel late, showered and went out for a drink and a late supper with Santiago, my roommate from Mexico.

When we got back, Napoleon from St. Louis (although he lives in New York/Jersey) and Joshua from Kentucky were there. Napoleon scared the crap out of me when he greeted me in French, and I started to get worried that I'd be forced to speak French my entire stay here. I even got the cold sweats I used to get in Grade 11 French class when Monsieur Bobby would glare at me and growl, "En Francais, Mademoiselle!".

Margherita from Milan showed up a little later, and I felt a little better with the 3 testosterone to 2 estrogen ratio.

Anyway, we stayed up much too late, and I'm sleepy today but I'm going to go visit Sacre Couer this morning and then I take the train out at 2 this afternoon.

I'll update from Spain. Au Revoir.

Bonjour

Guess where I am?

I'll give you 2 hints.. I'm not confused when crossing streets, but am EXTREMELY confused with this keyboard. Why is the A key above the Q? Why do I have to press the Shift key to type a number? How many accents and punctuation points does one language need?

Anyway, Bienvenue à Paris, where very little makes sense.

I have to make this short since I still need to find the Montparnasse Train station, and typing takes forever when I have to retrain my fingers where to go. There goes my 90 WPM.

I've seen very little of Paris so far, but for the day I hope to see more, and I'm already starting to realize that my high school French is not going to get me very far, although I've already broke it out several times (Où peut-on acheter le billet de metro?). I'm sure by the end of the day Parisians will hate non-Francophone Canadians and you all have me to thank for it.

The chunnel train was actually sort of boring, and I can't say I recommend it. You aren't even aware that you were under the channel at all until you come up in Calais and start seeing french signs everywhere.

Should probably find that train station now.

Ok, ONE more night

Actually, I'm not staying in London completely by my own will.. the Eurostar to Paris is completely booked for today, and actually for tomorrow, as well, save the 5 am train that I'm going to be taking. Yes, that's right. 5 o'clock in the bloody morning.

Anyway, I'm jot terribly upset about it since I still have some sightseeing to do and I just discovered the joy that is Tesco and Marks and Spencer.

I want British grocery stores in Canada.

I feel like I've missed so much.

Anyway, I just wanted everyone to be aware that I have started a photo album of the trip at Flickr. The address is http://www.flickr.com/photos/28911393@N07/.

Off to do some more sightseeing.

London, Cont.

I'm very proud of myself for not having a glass of wine on the plane ride here, because it could have caused me to be seriously jetlagged. As it stands though, I feel amazing, since it's now 7 am, and I'm wide awake, showered and waiting for breakfast before I go on a bus tour. The 2 other girls in my hostel room came in REALLY late from the pub last night, and between the smell of stale beer coming from their direction, and the really strong BO from the black guy on the bunk above me, I needed to get up and out. Let's face it, when was the last time I was willingly awake at 7am in Canada?

Randy suggested the bus tour, and as much as I was apprehensive about sitting in a double decker bus with the stereotypically annoying American family on vacation, I've opted to go with it, since I only managed to walk from the Westend of London to the east yesterday, and my feet still kind of ache.

I saw Trafalgar Square, the London Eye and Big Ben on my own, and had a nice guy I met in a Starbucks show me the tower of London and the London Bridge before dinner last night.

I had this moment of feeling fiercely independent yesterday where I felt like I could manage to see the entire city on my own, with no help from anyone, but Randy's right that it's an easy way to see the sights. Plus, generally tour guides can tell you a little more about the sights than what you recall from history class or your own research.

I'm, as of yet, undecided about whether or not I should stay in London one more night, and am thinking, I should probably go to the St Pancras train station and check on availability for tonight's trains to Paris, and let that be the deciding factor.

I know that I've not seen even remotely a small portion of what this city can offer, but I also know I've managed to spend 60£ already on incidentals, and another $40 CAD on the hostel room, so it's a tossup. It definitely blows my $90CAD a day budget, but then I knew England would, so I shouldn't be so surprised.

Still Melting

It's 11pm here and a balmy 28 degrees centigrade outside. Translation: With the River Thames only mere blocks away and pavement and stone covering almost every concievable inch of the world directly surrounding me, I am literally BBQ-ing as I type this.

The door in the computer cafe is WIDE open, the fan is going full-bore and still I'm wondering if it's possible to get heatstroke at bedtime.

I spent part of my afternoon at the National Gallery looking at portraits, but since the first thousand or so depicted Christ on the cross, or Mary's lap, that started to get old fast. After all, there are only so many ways he can be painted, so many times I can be surprised at the bold colors used, so many times I can look at a naked baby and wonder if depicting Baby Jesus as uncircumcised can really be correct, if there are 2 paintings of his actual circumcision on display, as well. But I digress.

Anyone, I only found one that I found appealing:

Not that it's the sort of painting I'd buy or hang on my wall, but just because of it's clarity, the gold tones and the way it is multidimensional. It wasn't the most astounding piece I saw all day, but the one that disappointed me the least out of the many on display with that subject matter.

I discovered that Rembrandt doesn't impress me in the least, and I failed to be awed by the presence of his paintings. Michelangelo and Raphael seemed almost interchangable in some respects with the paintings on display. Obviously Raphael was influenced by Michelangelo but I didn't feel anything stood out.

I did however really enjoy the impressionists, and bought a few postcard prints of Monet and Manet paintings. I think I'll hit the Tate tomorrow if I have time because I know I enjoy contemporary and modern art for the most part.

Mostly, I spent my time there looking at paintings that included a dog, trying to figure out what breed or breeds are being depicted, since so many have changed so drastically.

Yes, I'm definitely still me.

One thing I noticed about London today in my wandering is that it's almost impossible to get REALLY lost.

A brief moment of hesitation or a confused look always results in a kindly local pointing out the way, or clearing some unspoked question up.

Even if I really wanted to get lost, I can't fault them for knowing how to do their part for tourism. After all, not everyone is crazy like me.

I did manage to get lost though, and wandered down an alley to discover a little back of the way Indian place where the guys were awesome. They bought me wine just so I'd stay and talk, and the food was excellent.

Do wander down the back streets of London's East end if you feel up to it. There were several little places that looked excellent, and I wish I could have tried them all.

I'm getting booted out of the cafe now as it's 11:30, so I suppose I should either go get drunk or go to bed.

I Heart London

Even if it is trying to smother me with it's sticky humidity. I thought Hamilton, Ontario was bad.

My flight went by fairly quickly, although my seatback TV went on the fritz and made it difficult to sleep when it kept turning on and off by itself. One of the flight attendants threw my blanket over it, and that helped, but then I was sans blanket, so I still wasn't happy.

I made it though, and made it downtown and to Victoria Station with absolutely no assistance from anyone (well I suppose I did ask the Canadian girl and her Brit boyfriend I met on the Gatwick Express if I was on the right train, if that counts). I was feeling pretty proud of myself until I stood on platform 2 waiting for a train to King's Cross St Pancras for almost an hour. Little did I realize that that line is another floor down in the tube system at platform 3. Note to self and others.. ask if in doubt. Don't stand and sweat lugging your massively heavy bag around praying that it's going to show shortly.. especially in London's Underground, where it's just as hot as the street and lacks the cool breeze of the outdoors.

It's a gorgeous city though. I ended up walking by Buckingham just for kicks, and because I really just wanted to stand on a London street corner already, and it is absolutely full of tourists. I also discovered that the Korean and Japanese tourists love to stop and create 'photojams' just as much here as they do in Jasper and West Edmonton Mall. Somethings will never change.

I haven't decided if I'm going to move onto France and then Spain tomorrow, or stay on another night in London. I suppose it depends on what I see and do tonight. Better get at it!

Best Job Ever.. Where the Hell is Matt?

I wish I'd paid more attention to that strange little blurb on Stride packages about having too much time on my hands... he got the best job in the world out of the deal.

What do I want to be when I grow up?

How about the person that does a jig in every city of the world? I'll take that job.

Days 2 and 3

I had a really good day yesterday. I slept in until Xaskaa decided to sing along with Jayson's ringing phone. The phone was for me, though, so I guess it's fair enough that it woke me.

Spent the afternoon playing with the puppy, and meeting what felt like every person in Jayson's neighbourhood. Playful Belgian Malinois puppy figures everyone is his friend, and with a partially fenced yard, it's either going to go that direction or completely the opposite. Oh well, socialization is a good thing.

Met up with Ali for drinks at the new Hudson's in West Ed and had a great time catching up. We've decided to make yoga, salsa and kickboxing dates if I decide to come back to E-town for school. I'm still not sure if I'm more psyched about my trip or jealous because he's going to stay at his uncle's penthouse apartment ACROSS THE NILE from his uncle's brand new luxury hotel in Cairo. Hmmm. We'll compare notes when I get back.

Shane and I met up at his place and headed to the Capital Ex, where we wandered into the massive amounts of oncoming foot traffic. He never fails to strike a nerve and I guilted him into doing rides with me for bringing up sensitive topics. I still wish he's left certain topics alone, but I'm happy I got to go on the tilt-a-whirl -- twice. We did the bumper cars once. I think he felt a little out of his league standing in line with a bunch of kids and parents, not realizing he's standing with the epitome of 'child at heart'. I won Hamish a stuffed penguin and Xaskaa a stuffed cheetah (that he adores). Had a few beers at the beer garden, watched Sam Roberts play (good show!), laughed at the crazy drunk chick the police dragged out (twice) and admired the fireworks display.

I made it back to Jayson's shortly after one, and Garner Andrews on Sonic woke me up this morning touting his unique gift. Have any other Sonic listeners been awake at quarter after 7 in the morning to hear this the past few days?

This morning I heard with my very own ears that Garner Andrews can indeed tell exactly what brand of cigarettes you smoke just by hearing your smoker's cough. Either that or he's weeding out all the calls where he gets the brand wrong, like I theorized last night when Shane first brought it up.

I'm having a lazy afternoon with Xaskaa today, and then we might go for a short walk before I meet up with E and Noelle for dinner tonight.

I can't believe I'm flying out tomorrow!

On a funny sidenote, I heard the song 'Tom Cruise Crazy' by Jonathan Coulter last night, and I'm still smiling about it. Check out this fan video, also smile-worthy.

I'll start posting pictures when I can. I've never toyed with a Linux computer before and I'm having trouble figuring out how to upload pictures from my camera to put on here and Flickr.

Bridgit's Quarter Life Crisis Trip, Day 1: Edmonton

I got in at the ungodly hour of 5 this morning, and wandered bleary eyed over to my friend Shane's to catch a few winks before he headed off to work. Alas, I'm still not entirely used to be cellphone-less, and Telus STILL hasn't fixed any of the GD payphones along Jasper Avenue, I literally had to backtrack 5 blocks just to find a working phone to alert him to my arrival.

Had a short mumbly half asleep conversation with him, gave Hamish a dog toy and then they headed off to sleep for the remaining hour and a half Shane had before leaving to work, and I layed down with a book and procrastinated about repacking my pack.

I eventually got around to it, decided I STILL have too much crap and pulled out a wack of stuff I'm going to mail home tonight or tomorrow morning.

Shane left, and just as he and I were walking out the door, the skies opened and it started pouring. I don't normally mind the rain, but since I forgot my nice waterproof Goretex jacket at his place, and was just wearing a fleece pullover, I felt like a drowned rat and raced for Commerce Place.

I had an hour and a bit to blow before the bank opened, so I grabbed a tea and sat and watched the news in the food court of City Centre Mall for a bit.

Made it to the bank, and disappointingly, Amie-Lynn and Naomi are BOTH on holidays, but luckily Mariafe was still working commercial and she gave me the staff discount on the Pounds and Euros I was buying. Good stuff, that probably saved me a buck or two, even if I haven't been a CIBC employee in over a year.

Apparently it was 'Hot-guy-walking-his-dog-on-Jasper-Ave' day today. I passed at least 6 before lunch. Although that could just be my hormones, too. Funnily enough I don't remember even one hot guy walking his dog while I worked downtown, but now they're out in droves. Bizarre.

I've been contemplating going to the Valley Zoo today, since in the 4 years I lived here I never went, but I've decided to hold off for another day since today has been chock full of goodness already.

I even went to the psychic this afternoon for fun. Well, not necessarily fun since they always tend to strike a nerve with me about one thing that I'm feeling particularly sensitive about. In this case, it's skin cancer, and the fact that my mom has already had her bout with it, a close friend just had a scare and according to the psychic, I will, too. I'm not sure if I'm more sad about the fact that apparently I'm going to have to deal with cancer at a fairly young age (around 35) or the fact that I shouldn't be worshipping the sun like I have in year's past. Fucking ozone. Mr. Sun and I were having a ripe old time until you developed all your dramatic "I'm getting thin and hole-y" crap.

Other than that, my life seems positive according to the cards. Whether you believe that or not is up to you, but I'm choosing to believe it, because right now I need something to believe in.

Highlights of my readings include:
-An impending love, uhh, rectangle this year in which I have to choose between 3 guys -- a Cancer (with baggage, a divorce and a kid), a Taurus (with issues of their own that they'll need time to figure out, but who is a 'soul mate') and an affluent Aries who is fun, fun, fun but not my best match. Evidently I will choose one of these men and start a long term relationship this fall or winter, likely November.
-I'm to expect to outlive my first husband, but I will remarry
-Success in investments, and a comfortable lifestyle later in life
-Bouts of arthritis and possibly osteoporosis, unless I take better care of my joint health
-A year of change, success and happiness, as this year marks a sort of completion for me, and the next phase of my life is now beginning

Most importantly though, aside from all the predictions, she told me something that I've always thought myself, but always pushed aside for fear of winding up alone:

It's ok to be picky. It's ok to have a set of criteria that you want love matches to adhere to. It's ok to keep looking for something better and to push those limits. It's not ok to settle.

I guess I needed that.

Other than that, I wandered to MEC to pick up a cable lock for my pack, and I'm off to Jayson's to go let little Xaskaa out for a potty break. Just call me the Fairy Dog-mother.

I might check the Capital Ex out tomorrow if the weather is cooperative.