home

I am alive, in case you were wondering.

My movie moment at the airport did not turn out the way I expected it to... I arrived and no one was there and all I could think was "Sweet, I survived the airplane and my family died in a car crash on the way to get me". I took my baggage cart, steered it out of the crowds, plopped myself down on my bag and waited. My family did turn up about 5 minutes later... they were all taking a bathroom break (haha what the!?) and mum blamed dad for parking SO far away. 

I arrived home to a brand new bedroom (courtesy of dad, and ky) and a heck of a lot of good cooking (also courtesy of dad). I'm basically back to normal, aside from the very frustrating jet lag (what to do when i wake up at 3am and cannot for the life of me get back to bed!). Today I baked the most beautiful cupcakes in all the world and I've been writing letters to N and A that are set to send in the mail as soon as i get the stamps. Home feels nice (so nice!) and Europe seems like a dream... just like I knew it would. I feel like a part of me has been left behind... a little bit in Schladming and the other bit in  Lancashire. Even though I am surrounded by people I feel a bit lonely without A and N. I think about them all the time and keep half expecting that they are about to run through the door. I miss them more then I could have imagined. I cannot wait to be reunited in the summer. HURRY UP AND GET HERE!!!!

I now know that even though I may not be inclined to backpack through Europe again, I am definitely addicted to Europe in general and will definitely be heading back. In fact, I believe that travelling may be one of my raisons d'etre.

Until next time...

J

the best

Stuffed

My backpack is almost bursting at the seams. It is so full that I will have to put my pj's in my carry on tomorrow. It took me almost 30 minutes to pack it and a solid 10 to zip it shut. Good thing all I have to do is ditch it once I get to the airport tomorrow and not deal with it until I land in Vancouver, and when I do land in Vancouver I am totally grabbing one of those luggage carts. That is not lazy... my backpack has gained copeous amounts of weight in the past few weeks and it has actaully bruised my hip bones. I am done wearing the pack.
Right now I am sitting at the computer in Bloomsbury with curlers in my hair which is slightly embarassing because i can feel the old woman who is sitting me bore her eyes into the back of my head. Well, I am not ashamed really. Family, please take the time to notice how good I look when you see me tomorrow. I am sleep deprived, will be jet lagged, but none the less did spend aproximately 2 hours trying to decide what to wear for my arrival. I settled on a dress...everything else i own smells like it hasn't been washed in months.
Today Nicole and I ate at the Pret for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I wrote the manager a comment card that begged him to try and bring Pret a Manger to Vancouver. I would eat there every day.
I miss Andrea. Saying goodbye to her was so much harder then I imagined. I had no idea that we would click the way we did but she has become one of my best friends in the whole world. I wonder what she is doingn right now. I know what I would be doing if I were her... I would be watching the sound of music! We are planning a reunion this summer, after she gets back from Eastern Europe. In the meantime, we are writing long letters back and forth with our new quill pens and our fancy wax seals.
I think I am still having a hard time believing that this journey is over. I honestly felt like it would never end. I never thought that the three of us would become as close as we did, and I never thought that saying goodbye was going to be as hard as it was. I think this trip has made lifelong friendships for the three of us. We know eachother inside and out. We've laughted a lot and talked a lot (we are extremely intellectual girls!) and cried some but we always worked through everything together and now I'm stuck with some of the best memories of my life.
I think there is a need for a brief recap of the trip...some of my favorite memories (although there are far to many to even begin to write).
London: Nicole and I crying on the streetcorner and feeling like we had just made the biggest mistake of our lives, us mastering the london underground, me getting stuck in a dress at topshop, nicole flashing the clerk at topshop when he asked for her id, discovering the pret, spending 4 hours in the food department at harrods
Paris: The groaning man at hotel eldorado, bread and la vache qui rie for dinner every single night, freezing our butts of in pretty little dresses in 3 degree weather under the eiffle tower
Nice: burning the backs of our hands (what the), eating copeous amounts of strawberries on the beach, visiting the market, and of course stuffing our faces at nissa socca
Venice: going to a restraunt that served food from a box that was warmed in the microwave and then served on a plate, bringing Anny 5 scoops of gelato on her birthdays eve, trying on millions of carnivale masks
Florence: lemonchello, and very friendly men, the old fashioned lift at our hotel, intellectual conversations begin, singing your so vein at the top of our lungs
Piraous: Grumpy lady who didn't want to sell us bread, baklava runs
Paros: sitting under the tree at our favorite cafe, sunbathing topless on our own private beach, me driving standard down the twistiest roads in the world, sleeping in long johns and wool socks and zip up sweaters, eating loads of greek honey
Sulzburg: watching the sound of music 24/7, going on the sound of music tour, singing the sound of music, eating the best meal we've had since leaving home

I could honestly go on forever but i will stop because once again i am almost out of time. A drunk woman just came up to me and comented on my curlers. Now i am ashamed of them.

Tomorrow I will be home and I wonder if all of this will feel like a dream.

A short synopis of where I've been

To be frank, I COULD have used a computer before now but I was enjoying life without the computer for once. I havn't written for weeks and I have so much to say but there is no way to fit it all into one measley blog.
Anyway, we went to Greece. It took a very, very long time to get there but it was well worth it. I have not felt so relaxed the whole entire trip. Good greek food turned out to be hard to find but by the end we did have a favorite. In Greece it was easy to be self indulgent. We were for the first time sleeping in late, spending the afternoons at cafes in the old town and suntanning (of course). If you have travelled before, you know what hard work it is so I really honestly felt like Greece was the first place I got to relax. The island we stayed on was pretty much deserted so we got to pick and choose where we wanted to be and we even managed to score ourselves a private beach two days in a row. One of the best parts about Greece is the yogurt. Seriously, i had greek yogurt and honey for breakfast every single morning. I got a good tan but didn't burn at all (what the?) thanks to spf 30 which i wore constantly. My face is now full of freakles and i have a pretty decent tan for me.
Next we went to Austria. The journey from Greece to Salzburg took us 47 hours of non stop travelling. I wish we had had more time to spend there because it was GORGEOUS. Mountains everywhere and hello, the Sound of Music was filmed there! We actually took the tour and one of the neatest things about our hotel is that they played the Sound of Music on tv 24/7. We watched it anytime we were in our room. I know all the words to all the songs and I can recite huge chuncks of dialoge.
On the train to London we went through Germany (i seriously had no idea how beautiful it is there!) and Belgum. We took a night train and didn't sleep a wink. We just went shopping on Oxford Street and walked around like zombies. Our wonderful trio is down to a duo, which is sad and as of tomorrow we will all have gone our own seperate ways. Crazy.
Anyway, sorry that was so brief. I feel relaxed in any case and I do believe the computer may have tainted my frame of mind ;-)
Gotta go, times almost up! I will write later today!!!

love, J

Roma

When in Rome do as the Romans do. I dont know what that is exactly but for me it included a whole lot of pouting. Let me just say that I am exausted. Nicole is having trouble sleeping and she isnt exactly quiet when she gets up in the morning... Rome is hot and smells like the smoggiest city on the planet earth. It actually hurts my nose to breathe! We were kind of just stopping here so that we could have just one more night of solid rest before the treck down to Greese so when we arrived today I was hoping to just set up camp in a little cafe and read and write. Unfortunitly I was dragged around Rome looking at fountains. I would not mind this if we had come to Rome to sight see... I mean we didnt even have a full day here! And if we had wanted to sight see in Rome, we would have been spending more then 15 hours here. Anyway, so I figure one fountain wont kill me, but of couse one fountain leads to another fountain. On the way to the second fountain I feel like I might burst with frustration (travelling does make you grumpy and tired sometimes and I am so sick of seeing tourist attractions you have no idea!) so I tell A and N that I am going to go sit in the park and they can just get me when they are done. The park is small and full of old people playing chess. Of couse I end up getting hit on by a sexist 17 year old who plants himself beside me and starts talking about the strangest things i have ever heard. He is so rude and I am just praying for N and A to return. When the stupid twerp asks for my email Im like I dont even know you and then he says something about already having a girlfriend and then i told him he was a creep and he left. Then N and A returned and i made them swear that we would never leave eachother again. Men here are gross.
We are now gearing up for the trip to Greece... have no idea when we will arrive but hopefully it will be soon (2 days max!!)
I will write soon hopefully, maybe...
Wish us luck

J

Heading down south

I didn't get to write last night because there was a lady on the computer for practically 2 hours and they shut off the computer at 11 so...........
Anyway, luckily yesterday was a fairly low key day. We were going to go see The David, which could have been cool I gues but the exhibit is closed on Mondays. I am starting to get very tired of visiting museums anyway. We sat in a cafe on a side road and drank sparkling water and wrote our lives away. We also managed to connect with Nicole's friend Hannah who is attending TWU but is taking a semester over here in Florence. She invited us over for tea in her appartment and it was really nice to see a framiliar face! Then we went out for dinner at the restraunt we went to for Andrea's birthday. The main courses are delicous and really affordable so we all got gnocci with pesto. And because the owner of the restraunt is actually in love with us, he brought us free appetizers. He also practically begged us not to leave when I asked for our bill, which was creepy kind of. But we are getting used to all the attention here. Italy has been by far the worst place we have been for that kind of thing. I do not understand what would possess a 45 year old man to even THINK about saying anything to a group of girls that could actually be his daughters. Anyway, in case this worries you (it shouldn't) we have been handeling things well. We don't giggle and we are actually good at acting extremely cold hearted.
Now we are getting ready to hop on the train and go to Rome for a day. My bag is packed to the brim with goodness knows what but it has gained an additional 10 lbs for sure since Nice. I don't know when I will find a computer again so this could be the last post for a while. To keep you all vaugely in the loop, we are planning on taking a train from Rome to a port called Barrie where we are catching the only ferry there is at 8pm. The ferry ride to Greese is 16 hours and we aren't 100% sure where we are going in Greece yet but we will have quite a long ride to figure it out. We are planning on spending a week and a while in Greece, lounging on the beaches reading and tanning (on a quite beach on one of the southern islands) and then we will take A to Austria and then I will come home. My how time flys.
Seriously though, I don't see any point in stressing about getting to Greese. Nicole can't sleep and I keep telling her it's the biggest waste of time. Hopefully she will just let it go. We will be there soon enough.
Talk to you all soon,
J

It's Hard To Live In The City

Our tour today started off interestingly enough. We met at the building at 8:45am and were joined by two other women, who we quickly learnt were from the US. We were taking a bus to the outside of Florence and then beginning our walk. While we were waiting for the bus one of the women started talking about immigrants in America. She basically generalised them all to be the reason there is any crime in America and actually said that they are all horrible parents. N, A, and I were all kind of standing there and I was trying my best to hold my tongue (I didn't want to make any enemies after only having been on the tour for 5 minutes) but Andrea was not able to do so. She basically challenged the woman (not in a rude way though) and subtley said things like 'not all americans are good parents either' and 'i heard that if all the immigrants in america left, america wouldn't be able to function as a nation' . I was kind of glad she said something because all of us were thinking it. Then she stopped herself because the debate was becoming kind of heated and she didn't want to make enemies so short into the tour either. Suprisingly we did befriend this lady during lunch but that story will come later. Our tour guide was awesome- very funny and knowledgeable, and his English was perfect. He speaks four different languages fluently, works 9 months a year in Germany doing something in the fashion industry and was flamboyently gay (these are the things you learn when you are in a tour group of only 5 people. He didn't tell us about being gay... but it was pretty obvious, not that it mattered or anything..). The first part of the tour we had to walk up and over a mountain, which was a good workout and i managed to get some spectacular pictures of Florence in the distance as well as the real Tuscan country side. It would have been too hot if basically the whole treck hadn't been in the shade but it was okay. The air was so fresh and floraly and earthy... I had forgotten how fresh air smells after being in the city for three weeks straight. It was such a nice break to be able to get out of the city and into the country. Standing on top of that hill looking down at the city in the distance made me feel so incredibley alive...more then i've ever felt. I don't know how else to describe that feeling but that is how i felt and it was crazy. When we get to the base of the mountain ( I call it a mountain but it was more like a giant hill) we begin to make our way to this AMAZING tuscan villa where we met up with 3 other tourists. We learn about olive trees (there were so many trees!!!), the history of the Villa, certain pieces of art that were inside, and had a whole lesson about wine (although i was not paying so much attention to this, so do not quiz me). Once the tour of the villa was through with, we made our way to the restraunt where we were eating... which was owned by the villa (actually did you know that one person owns almost 17000 acres of land (or something unbelievable...everywhere we walked was owned by one person!). Lunch was easily the highlight but that is not too suprising considering what a foodie I am. First of all, we had an increible view of the tuscan countryside, and it was so sunny and so warm even if the food had been disgusting i probably still would have been happy. There was red wine from Chianti that i tried (because we had just learnt ALL about it) and actually did not hate because it wasn't dry like every other red wine i have tasted. There was fresh olive oil from the villa with bread and balsamic vineger and let me tell you I never knew that olive oil could be packed with so much flavor! Then they brough out brushetta's and cheeses and meats , all made locally and they told us all about each thing we ate and it all was so, so delicious. I thought this was all there was to lunch so i LOADED up big time. And just as i ate my last bite, i was told that the second course was about to be served. Luckily i metabolise pretty fast (not that fast enough unfortunitly) and I can almost always find room for more food so i ate more. I ate risotto and pasta and this tomato\bread soup and everything was soo good and I honestly think I could eat tuscan cuisine until the day I die (but I actually decided just this second that I don't want to because it would get boring BUT ANYWAY it is VERY good!). Seriously we ate like royalty which has only really happend once because we have been budgeting quite a bit and it was SUCH a treat to eat like that again. To top it all off, everyone got coffee for dessert and I ordered a cappuccino and drank the whole entire thing. I have no idea why I did because I have tried all the ones A and N get and I do not like them one bit but the espresso they used was so smooth I apparently didn't mind it. Okay so by this point I'm thinking I am going to have to be rolled home because I am so full and we still have a 45 minute walk before we can catch a bus back into Florence. I am not even lying. But once we start walking I start feeling un full and it is so beautiful- EVERYTHING looks like it belongs in a postcard and i took a googleplex amount of pictures and they turned out wonderfully!
Oh i forgot to add the whole befriending of the racist American lady.
What happend is that we ended up sitting by her at lunch and we started talking. She turned out to be incredibly insightful and fun to talk to. I found out that her hobby is entering contests, which made me very excited because I've only ever heard about it a few times and one time I saw it on Oprah but I have never in my life met someone who actually has that hobby! So she told us about all the cool things she's won and how she spends two hours every night just entering contests and in that time she can enter like 200. She also asked all of us what we wanted to be (we told her we were students backpacking through Europe) and I told her that I wasn't sure but I was thinking of doing something with design and becoming a writer. And not that is mattered because she was practically a stranger, but she told me that she could definitely see me doing that and it made me feel good. I guess everyone was drinking a lot of wine (minus N and myself because we do not like it) but our small group of tourist companions talked like we had known eachother for years and we just talked and talked and talked about everything and it was so nice. She told us not to never give up on our dreams, which sounds cliche and i totally already knew that but she told us she did and now she is stuck with a job that she hates. I told her that it is never to late to try something new, which is also cliche but it's true plus i think it made her feel a bit better. ANYWAY... back to the tour
Basically after taking a googleplex of pictures, we got on the bus and got off the bus and walked back to our hotel. And i will tell you that that was some of the most well spent money i have used since i have been here. It was fabulous. Now we are back in the city and the desil feels like it is burning my nose and the air feels thick and smoggy. I do miss that fresh air.
If you could see what I see, you would probably think you had died and gone to heaven, it is that beautiful.

Side note...
Mom and Dad: i sort of have become a vegetarian during my trip. Not like seriously but i havn't had meat since i left and i don't have any desire to eat any again anytime soon. don't be mad. everything here is so good without meat and i don't miss it at all! i already know that i will break down when i come home and dad will make some delicious meaty meal or something. Maybe can i request a flaffle dinner for my comming home dinner? I have been wanting some for quite some time. Okay this was random...
Side note number 2:
Andrea and I decided to be friends instead of just cousins. I actually like her as a person and I never realised how much we have in common. Does that sound strange? It actually does make sense. There is a difference between knowing someone as your cousin and knowing someone as your friend.
Side note number 3:
Italians speak really really really loudly.

I am still full from lunch today and it is nearly 7 o'clock here.
I am still the same but I feel incredibly different.
I think all three of us are learning from eachother and growing together and independantly. We are learning what we like and what we don't like and growing up and feeling ready for life.
Who would have thought that the three of us would have clicked so well. I couldn't be doing this with any other girls.

I'm off, but i'll be back. Until then..

Luv,
J