Happy Christmas!

Hello my few loyal readers and Happy Holidays!

I can't believe it's been so long . . . much has been happening and I haven't been available for updating my blog until now. I also haven't put together my traditional Christmas email/card send off, so this time I made a Christmas video, which really just shows a few pictures from all the different places I explored in the past year. It's only two minutes long, so you don't have to fear about being incredibly bored for hours . . . I hope it will work!

UPDATE: I just tested it and resolution is TERRIBLE if you play it full screen! All the pictures are blurry. It looks much nicer on my own laptop with excellent resolution pre-posting. Tip: Play it small!

New Year's Resolution: Blog more.

Upcoming Travels

In August, I will be a very busy traveler. Here is a map of all the places I will be going (you will need to zoom out, as googlemaps isn't translating very well onto my blog today!):

View Larger Map

I will have lots to write about!

Belfast
Glasgow
Reykjavik
Halifax
Charlottetown
Edinburgh
Shrewsbury

Tangier, Morocco (pop 1,000,000)

Oh, Tangier – my first glimpse of Africa! I hope I will have many more glimpses in my future. We took the ferry from Tarifa, Spain, which takes you in to the old port (closer to the city centre) than the ferries from Algeciras, which take you to the new port.


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As I watched the continent of Africa loom closer and closer while on the ferry, I couldn't help but feel excited. I have desperately wanted to visit Africa for many years now and here I was finally reaching my goal. Sure, some people might scoff and say that Morocco isn't really visiting Africa, but I disagree. When we arrived at the port our first task was to find the hotel that we booked. Trying to find the entrance to the medina was difficult, and although there was no shortage of eager Moroccans willing to show us the way to a cheap hotel that they knew (for a fee, of course!) we were reluctant to pay someone for this service. Plus, I am a strong believer that getting a little lost is all part of the adventure. Eventually, after consulting the map man,y many times, we found our way into the medina – and luckily chose the right entrance, as there were plenty of clear signs showing us the way to our hotel.

On the ferry to Tangier

Overall, Tangier isn't the type of place that I feel I would like to spend any length of time in again. For starters, you have to have the right mentality: expect men and children to approach you constantly offering to show you to points of interest, hotels, etc. It is important to be exceedingly firm with those offering you help if you do not wish to have their assistance – they will not leave a potential paying customer willingly!

The room to our hotel overlooked the city and it was quite an impressive view which literally did offer a window into the everyday lives of Moroccans. The only thing I might change is the call to prayer from the local mosque which started at 4:30am and lasted for a half an hour! The view from our breakfast terrace out of over the Mediterranean was pretty special though.

View from our hotel window over Tangier

Our Breakfast Terrace

We wandered around through the medina and the kesbah and took in the sights and sounds of what Tangier had to offer. I think the best part was the views over the Mediterranean and the atmosphere. After 24 hours in Tangier, I was ready to move on and see what else Morocco had to offer!

In the Medina

View from the main terrace of our hotel over the Mediterranean

Happy Canada Day (tomorrow)!

Tomorrow is Canada Day and I think I will feel a bit lonely over here then as this is the first year I can remember not having fellow Canadians (or at least honourary Canadians) around to celebrate with. Instead, I will be working . . . maybe I will find something red to wear though!

So to all of you out celebrating back home - I wish you a lovely and safe day. Send me a message and let me know what you did!

Happy 143rd Birthday Canada!

Granada, Spain (pop 300,000)

I will now attempt to blog about Granada once more!

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GoogleMap of Granada, Spain

For me, there are two highlights that stick out in my mind from my visit to Granada. The first, the Alhambra – an amazing old fort/palace on top of a hill overlooking the city of Granada. The second, free tapas with every drink you order. Apparently, Granada is one of the few places in Spain that still does this. At first, we weren't sure if the food would be free or not – perhaps they were just bringing us food and if we ate it we would be charged? No! It turns out they just like to make sure you have something delicious to eat while you consume a soothing and refreshingly cold beer. I only have three words to say about this: I like Granada.

Alhambra outside walls

The Alhambra was first built in the 9^th century, when it was a fortress. Since then, several palaces, hotels, beautiful gardens and even bookshops have been added! The first area we visited was the rose garden. It was simply beautiful and we had some pretty spectacular views to the snow capped mountains in the Sierra Nevada as well.

Prettiest rose ever in the rose garden + buildings

Snow capped mountains of the Sierra Nevada

From there, off we went to explore the different buildings and palaces. There were so many different buildings to look at that we ended up spending an easy 4 hours checking out the Alhambra, and we didn't even make it to the other set of gardens at Generalife. It was definitely worth it though! The views over the city and the Sierra Nevada, as well as the detailing of the mosaics and tiles in one of the palaces were simply breathtaking.

Buildings inside the Alhambra

View through archway over Granada

Beautiful archways

Marco?

Polo! Well, Polo was the name of the wee car I hired this past weekend when my friend Brandon came to visit from Edinburgh. Finally, I was able to drive a manual car in the UK completely on my own. In Canada, driving a manual (aka standard) car is pretty uncommon. Most people drive automatics while in the UK pretty much everyone drives a manual car. Apparently, automatics are considered "old people's cars" - who knew???

I successfully drove around in my wee Polo for 3 whole days. Well, "success" is a relative term I suppose. It didn't start off so well - I couldn't figure out how to shift the car into reverse. The "R" for reverse was next to the "1" for Gear 1, but for some reason I couldn't get the gear shift to, um, shift to that position. Brandon didn't know either . . . luckily we had yet to leave the car park of the car hire place, so I went inside and did the dumb blond routine. We then discovered that the only way to get the gear shift into the reverse position was to press down on the gear shift first and then push it to the left. Oh, technology, how you mock me.

Upon finally leaving the car dealership, I managed to stall on the very first roundabout we came to (about 30 m from the dealership). It was the first of many stalls over our weekend together. Poor Brandon was a bit of a guinea pig for my driving abilities! I think he'd get back into a car with me, but maybe not for a while . . .

So, success wise . . . well, the good news is that no one was killed or injured in the driving of this vehicle.

A pretty picture

Rif Mountains, Chefchouen, Morocco.

This was the view we had from our restaurant's rooftop terrace one night in Morocco. It was a really lovely evening.

Last night, I wrote a long blog about Granada, but when I went to save it, it disappeared! So, due to more technical errors, you will need to content yourself with this wee photo for now!

Delayed due to Technical Difficulties

I know I promised that I would upload photos and blog about my trip this past weekend, but my plans have been curtailed by a major technical difficulty: power outage. When I lived in PEI, the power would frequently go out for a couple of hours or so, especially in the winter when storms caused havoc on the power lines. Since moving to the UK, I don't think I have experienced a single power outage. Well, okay, there has been the occasional power "blink" - you know what I mean: off for a few seconds and then back on again. Nothing major at all. However, this weekend the power went off at 10:30 am on Sunday and remained off for several hours. By 3pm I was getting curious (and a bit tired of reading my book!). This had never happened before. Was it just me???

Sure enough, it was just me! Apparently, I had somehow blown a fuse which resulted in a switch being flipped in the wrong direction and the power had gone out in my flat only. All I had to do was flip the switch back in the opposite direction and the miracle of electrical power was back in place. Too bad I had already wasted most of the day. The good news is that I got power back just in time to watch Ghana win it's match in the the World Cup. I haven't decided who I want to cheer for yet overall, but I have to say I was impressed by Germany's side last night too. Of course, here in the UK, all the adverts are linked to England's attempt to win this year! Even the recent number one song on the UK charts is all about shouting to support England at this year's World Cup! Yeah, they're pretty into their football (aka soccer) over here. You can watch a video of the recent number 1 here:

Back in the NI

Firstly, I think I owe a huge thank you to Volcanic Ash - it stayed away during my holidays and all my flights were blissfully ash-free. I also successfully avoided the British Airways strike and the rail strike in Spain. All in all, it could have been a pretty stressful trip with travel issues, but it wasn't! Success!

So, I am back in Northern Ireland . . . straight back into work, and already staying late again in order to prepare for tomorrow. I am hoping to have time to blog properly about my trip this weekend (highlights to include: Granada, Spain; Chefchouen, Morocco; and Malaga, Spain) but in the mean time here a few highlights:

• Morocco was my first time in Africa and I really enjoyed it!
• Both me and Karen were proposed to in Morocco (we said no) and we were told we were beautiful several times a day by random men on the street
• I enjoyed many sangrias while in Spain
• The weather was HOT - too hot in Morocco (37 degrees!) yuck!
• I spent a day at a spa in Chefchouen and had my first massage - I now understand why people go on spa breaks. When can I go on my next one?
  
• Karen got robbed at our hostel on our second last night in Malaga - they took all her money (BOO) . . . but, at least it was only money. Passports, credit cards, etc are all in tact
• Swimming in the Mediterranean again = HEAVEN
• When I arrived in Malaga, Spain to start my holiday, the customs guy forgot to stamp my passport. I lived in constant fear for the rest of the trip that this might come back to haunt me. Luckily, it didn't.
• I got a total of 7 new stamps in my passport. I heart passport stamps.
• We made a point of eating ice cream at least once a day. Yum. I introduced Karen to Magnum ice cream. So. Good.
  
• This trip made me realise how much I love to travel - I want to go backpacking again soon! Luckily, I am heading to both Iceland and Canada in August: Two more months!
  

Now, back to work! :-)

Dear Volcanic Ash

Please stay away from UK and Spanish airspace over the next fortnight. I will be on holiday and would like to make it there and back on the dates and times I booked.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Kathleen

The Birds and the . . . Bats . . .???

The previous 24 hours have been a bit rough. First, I think I may have accidentally killed a bat in what I can only assume was a most horrific death. Second, I had the misfortune of being an assistant murderer to a greenfinch. Not the best days work for an environmentalist.

First the bat: I was hanging up my wet laundry to dry when, at the bottom of my basket, I noticed something furry and black - a bat! It wasn't moving and I assume it didn't enjoy the spin cycle of my washing machine! The only thing I can think of is that a) it was already in the washing machine before I got there or b) it somehow climbed into my pile of dirty clothes and I put it in the washing machine myself, closed the lid, and pressed start! Either way, if it was alive when it went in, it was a horrible way to go. I feel pretty terrible!

The day after this happened, a green finch got stuck inside one of our rooms at work. Me, being the environmental goody goody that I am decided that I must rescue it and restore my good name. (The week before I had rescued a warbler from a similar situation). Alas, redeeming myself was just not to be. The bird was too high up for me to reach, so I asked my boss to get it for me. He put my jacket over the bird, but he didn't have a tight enough grip and the bird flew away . . . straight into the window with a horrible smack. It fell to the ground, looking a bit stunned, then shuddered a few times and was still. All of this happened in front of my coworker's primary school daughter. Oh yes, things just keep getting better and better!

*hangs head in shame*

On the bright side . . . Spain and Morocco in two days!

Summer is here (I hope)

I don't want to speak too soon, but I feel it should be noted that this weekend has been one the most glorious and sun filled weekends I have had in Northern Ireland. I'm talking sunshine all day both Saturday and Sunday, which is more than enough to get me excited, but on top of that, the temperature has been around 25 degrees each day - that's well hot for NI.

I celebrated this particular spike in the temperature by donning shorts and flip flops for the first time this year. I even walked down to the village in them, showing off my white pasty legs which are so in need of a good tan. However, when I got to the village I felt a little out of place. Not a single other person was sporting shorts. Everyone had jeans on, and I think I caught a few funny looks from the locals too. Do they not where shorts in this country? Did I miss something in the tourist brochure that said "WARNING: Shorts are banned here"? They can keep there jeans - when the sun's out and it's hot, I'll be working on my tan in my shorts!

In -hopefully - related good weather news, I am off to Spain and Morocco on Saturday!!!!!!! By the copious amount of exclamation points I used in that sentence, I hope you get the impression I am excited. I am still concerned about the volcanic ash, but I know I can't do anything about it, so I just have to wait and see. Hopefully the airspace will remain open between here and Malaga, Spain on Saturday. I definitely need the holiday and I am looking forward to traveling with my friend from Canada who is going to meet me there!

Bring on the sunshine and sangria!

Dear Jen

Thank you for being my second loyal reader. I appreciate you keeping tabs on me and I look forward to our next adventure . . . in whatever country that happens to be in!

Miss you (but I will see in you in August - volcanic ash willing!)

PS I dedicate my Aix photos to you. :-) Better late than never!

Dear Vanessa

I only have a few seconds to post this, so I just wanted to say to my one (and only?) loyal reader that I am sorry for not posting during this past month. I will post properly soon and hopefully be as good a friend as Jen. :)

(please don't scold me anymore)

Miss you!

Aix-en-Provence Le Quatre

Well, I think I finally solved how to get my computer to post pictures again! It only took, oh, six hours. Yay for technology!

You can see my new and improved post on Aix HERE (complete with photos). Now, if I only I could get my slideshow to show the rest of my pictures from Aix!!! (I'm not sure if I'm willing to dedicate another 6hrs of work to this . . . )

Bon fin semaine!

Bank notes

There's nothing like the feeling of a brand new crisp dollar bill (or pound note!) coming out of the cash machine into my keen hands! Even if it is just a £10 note, I still enjoy that feeling of new money and knowing that I am probably the first person who has ever handled that bill before. Recently, I was given a brand new bill from my local cash machine which was a £10 note from the Bank of Ireland (in the UK, each individual bank creates it's own notes). This particular bill caught my eye because of what was on the back of it: an image of Old Bushmills Distillery (see picture below for a similar £5 version that I found online). In Northern Ireland, they celebrate their whiskey . . . which kind of perpetuates the stereotype of a country that drinks too much! I guess this is what they are the most proud of? Bushmill's Whiskey . . . perhaps I should try some!


I then decided to look up what Canada had on the back of it's bank notes. The answer? Birds!


Us Canadians must be really proud of the loon (that's Great Northern Divers in the UK) as they not only appear on our $20 bill, but also on our $1 coin. It's too bad we couldn't come up with a better name than "loony" for our coin though. However, it is still much better than "twoony" (I have no idea what the official spelling is supposed to be?), our two dollar coin. I wonder if the powers that be decided to create something called the twoony so that all other coins would feel superior????

Good Friday? Not in Northern Ireland!

(I just emailed this to a friend, but thought it was worth posting online too . . .)

So, today is Good Friday, but apparently in Northern Ireland no one gets it as a holiday (they get Tuesday instead). However, I am still the ONLY person in the office and there is no heat. I've just checked the thermometer and it says 14 degrees! That's celsius, of course . . . you Americans with your funny system beginning with F that I can't spell might not understand what that means, but it's damn cold in here. I want to go home now, but I have to wait for this guy to ring me back. In the mean time I am sporting my winter hat and coat and I can just barely feel my fingers and toes.

What does hypothermia feel like?

Aix-en-Provence Le Deux . . . ou Trois?

I've posted this again . . . this time with pictures! (It only took me a good 6 hours or so to sort out my computer . . . )

*apologies for my absence - I have had tonsillitis and that has made me very cranky and not so much in the mood for blogging!*

I have been taking a look through photos on my laptop and realised that in addition to not posting pictures from my trip to France in October, I also don't remember writing about it on my blog! So, before I can fill you in on Edinburgh I should start with my trip to Aix last year.

In case you were wondering, Aix is pronounced like "x" or "ex" . . . I know was quite curious about the pronunciation before I left for France. The plan was to fly from Dublin to Nice and then take a train to Aix . . . that meant I needed to buy a train ticket and I better know how to pronounce where I was going!

My journey to Aix went something like this: Up at 4:45am (this wouldn't have been too bad if I hadn't been up late packing . . . I've always been a *bit* of a procrastinator when it comes to packing!) then taxi-bus-plane-plane (I changed in Zurich, Switzerland) - bus - train - train (I changed in Marseille) finally arriving in Aix around midnight! I was pretty tired and pretty sure I'd caught something on the plane/train/bus/taxi, but I was very happy to see Jen, if not much of a conversationalist!

We headed back to her place albeit in a very indirect manner! But, I have to say that my first impression of walking through Aix at night was really nice. The old town has a lot of character with plenty of winding streets that do look a little similar, so I can't blame Jen completely for getting a bit lost! Plenty of student-type people were still out at restaurants, sitting in squares finishing off their wine. I immediately got the feeling I would enjoy Aix!

Aix is famous for Cezanne, a famous painter who did a lot of very cool impressionist paintings. I love impressionism and while I didn't know too much about Cezanne, I was willing to learn. So, one day we went in search of Cezanne paintings . . . by accident, we went to the wrong museum, but they had a very cool exhibit on Picasso so we checked it out for a while. It was one of the best exhibits I've seen and they included quite a bit of technology to make it all a bit more interesting too. They had this huge room (see picture below) filled with poles on which pieces of wood were connected that listed various works of Picasso. The pieces of wood that were lit up could be touched and then the corresponding work of art would appear on the wall beside you. To top it off, each lit up piece of wood not only triggered the art to appear, but also resulted in a musical note being played! It was really neat and you could make your own songs up while works of art flashed up on the wall.

Picasso Exhibit

While Picasso is interesting, I still really wanted to see some work by Cezanne. Time was running out, so we made a last ditch attempt to locate a museum with works by Cezanne by heading to the tourist information building to ask them (in French, I might add!) where I could possibly find some paintings by Cezanne. Surely there must be a museum dedicated to his work in his hometown? Well . . . there is . . . however, all his paintings were currently out participating in a travelling exhibition! No Cezanne for me then. (UPDATE: I did eventually get to see 1 painting of Cezanne's when I visited London in December - I really liked it!)

Another thing that Aix does oh so well is fountains. They seemed to be everywhere, and whether they were working or not they were pretty spectacular. The best one was in the middle of this crazy roundabout that had probably 5 different points of entry and 3 or 4 lanes across. It would have been nice to get closer to it so that I could get pictures without a car zooming in front of me, but I decided not to risk it . . . at least for now.

Fountain in middle of roundabout

One of my favourite little squares was the Place des Albertas. It didn't have anything of interest in it really, except a fountain that wasn't working but it was just really pretty. I especially like the nonchalantness of the motorbike resting against the beautiful fountain.

Place des Albertas

The other highlight of my trip to Aix was the Natural History Museum. Now, if you've only been to the Natural History Museum in Ottawa, London or New York City, this museum will perhaps be a *bit* of a disappointment! However, I think that considering its size, it didn't do too badly. They had an interesting display on dinosaurs, which I wasn't really expecting to find there and also some old skulls from our long-lost ancestors.

At the Natural History Museum

My time in Aix was short-lived. I did make sure to go out and enjoy some proper French cuisine and wine and (of course!) crepes! But quicker than I expected it was time to head back to Northern Ireland . . . no problem! Bring on the train-train-bus-plane-plane-bus-taxi!

Trips

One of my plans this year is to do more travelling. So far, I have been to the Lake District in England . . . but that was for work so I am not sure if it counts. I have also been to Edinburgh (more on that later).

I currently have two major trips in the works for this summer though: Iceland and also Spain & Morocco. It will be my first ever time visiting the continent of Africa and I am very excited for that. Apparently the capital of Iceland (Reykjavik) is the most northerly capital in the world. It also has up to 22 hours of daylight in the summer time.

Perfect. ;-)

Hello, hello, hello!

I don't have too much to report really, but felt it was time to update my blog a little. I came back from training in England about 3 weeks ago and life has been pretty quiet since. There hasn't been too much going on at work, which has been nice for a change, but I am now starting to get a bit antsy . . .

So, I decided to book a trip to Edinburgh for my birthday next month. It's a big one: 30. I am having trouble accepting the fact that I will be turning 30 already. It doesn't seem right some how. But, at least I get to spend it with some good friends in my "second" home.

In other news, a good friend of mine from Ottawa might be coming to visit me in June. I am very much looking forward to it. It's been quite a while since I've seen her. I think it's funny that people have started to visit me once I moved to Northern Ireland. I have lived in the UK on and off for a total of about 4 1/2 years and in that time no one has visited except in the past 6 months! I had 3 visitors from Canada in that time period and it's been splendid.

I'm still getting physio for my ankle which I sprained back in December. It's incredibly annoying that it's still not 100%, but I am told that I am doing "really well" and that it "should" go back to normal. Somehow the word "should" isn't as comforting as I would like it to be . . .

The Olympics! I hate being so many time zones away from the Olympics . . . I miss all the good stuff . . . like the US-Canada men's hockey game. The BBC has poor coverage of the Olympics too . . . at least compared to the CBC! I almost never get to see a complete race/competition, it's just the highlights, which somehow takes away from the whole thing. I like to be anxious and on the edge of my seat, waiting to see how things go. Also, they have coverage at random times. For example, on Saturday, there was a recap of what had happened the day before at around 1pm. Then, on there was some coverage again around 8pm. And then, the bulk of the coverage started around 11pm until the wee hours of the morning. I tried to watch, but fell asleep around 2am. Or was it 3am???? Hopefully, this will be well improved for the London Olympics in 2012. I must try to get tickets to some events, but I am not sure what I want to watch . . . track and field? rowing? the marathon? what other events are there???

11 days to go until my UK manual (stick-shift) driving test . . . oh, oh, better go practice!

My very own cookie monsters

A weird thing is going on at my work . . . I have been feeling somewhat excluded lately. Why, you might ask . . . well people seem to be excluding me from the sweets! It's the strangest thing. Someone will come into my office and there will only be two other people sitting there - me and somebody else. The sweets are offered . . . not to me but only to the other person! "Would you like a cookie, Simon?" I am left to salivate obnoxiously while the plate of cookies pass under my nose. At first, I thought it might be some sort of weird Northern Irish hazing ritual - how long until the Canadian girl cracks, grabs the plate of cookies, and procedes to stuff every single one in her mouth? I had been feeling pretty good about passing said ritual without knocking the plate of cookies to the floor and jumping up and down on it to infinity. No sweets had passed under my nose without being offered since Christmas. I thought I had broken these Northern Irish cookie holders. That is, until today. Today, they had apple crumble and I . . . well, I had nothing. I looked longingly at the plastic container, trying to hint suggestively with my eyes but to no avail.

The Northern Irish are definitely tough cookies (what - was that a bad pun?).

My local bank was robbed last week!

Three men committed armed robbery in my bank in Enniskillen last week! I feel especially sorry for the ladies who were working the tills. No one was hurt and a few thousand pounds were taken. You can read the full story here.

Home x3

Recently, I was having a discussion with my fellow workmates about the word "home" and how it has different meanings to different people. At the moment, I can safely say that I have 3 homes. One, refers to PEI where I grew up, but not to a particular house. Another, refers to my place in Northern Ireland, where I currently live. The third refers to wherever I happen to be going to sleep that night (e.g. a friend's place, hostel, etc).

I am curious about how many homes other people feel they have though . . . (feel free to comment if you are reading this)

My home in Northern Ireland