Category: Travel

Preparing for Southeast Asia

Flights, Visas, and Travel Insurance

Planning a trip is a great amount of work, especially for a planner like myself. No, I’m not just going to show up and “wing it.” No, I’m not just going to look at someone else’s itinerary and do every single thing that they do. I’m going to research. I’m going to look at TripAdvisor, Google, Pinterest, Facebook, read blogs, read multiple itineraries, and I’m going to choose the best locations for me. Over ten people have already asked me, “Oh, are you going to Koh Phi Phi in Thailand?” No, I’m not. I don’t want to go somewhere just because everyone else is going/has went. I want to find some less travelled places that are even more stunning! I had my Southeast Asia trip planned within my first two months of living in Australia. Back when I was doing my farmwork and living on a farm with nothing to do, I got the sudden urge to plan a trip. And since I had unlimited hours of free time, I spent it all researching about places to go to. I already had a rough itinerary planned before I moved out of my first house. It was when I moved into my second house (in April) that I booked my flights. The most expensive flight (in comparison to the others) was to go to Taiwan, but because I had made so many new Taiwanese friends at the tomato farm, I knew it would be worth going. In my opinion, I did a pretty good job when it came to my flight prices:

Roundtrip Melbourne to Bangkok – $763

Roundtrip Bangkok to Krabi (Thailand) – $103

Roundtrip Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) – $124

Roundtrip Kuala Lumpur to Taipei (Taiwan) – $310

=$1300

Quite a few months later, I really started thinking that I should visit my sister, brother-in-law, and two nephews in Shanghai. I had pondered it before, but the price of the flights made me decide not to buy a ticket. However, I realized that I hadn’t seen my brother-in-law since he visited me in London over a year and a half ago, I hadn’t seen my sister and nephew since my 25th birthday, which was almost four years ago, and I haven’t even MET my other nephew, who turns two years old in January. I figured I should leave Melbourne a week earlier so that I could spend a week with the family in Shanghai before Christmas. So adding that (more expensive) flight into the equation:

Roundtrip Bangkok to Shanghai – $463.74 (with baggage)

=$1763.74 total,

which honestly isn’t that bad for a 4.5-month trip. On top of my flights, I also had to apply for a couple of visas ahead of time:

Visa for China – $148

Visa for Vietnam – $100 (plus postage and postal insurance).

I’ll also have to pay for my visas in Laos and Cambodia, but won’t have to pay until I arrive.  Then, I also had to look into travel insurance. I decided to go with the usual backpackers’ insurance, World Nomads. I went with the Standard Plan since I’m only travelling with a backpack and therefore the chance of me losing luggage/getting thousands of dollars worth of stuff stolen is pretty low. Plus hopefully emergency medical costs in Asia would be lower compared to other countries. I paid $395.01 CAD (or $425.04 AUD) for my 130-day trip (plus added 7 extra days when I arrive back in Australia until I get my Medicare re-sorted). Therefore, it comes to about $2.90 CAD (or $3.10 AUD) per day.

Packing

In terms of packing, I wasn’t sure whether I should go with the carry-on route or try to check in a bag. After doing a trip to Tasmania and a trip to Byron Bay/Brisbane in September, I realized that it would be a huge challenge to try to do a 4-month trip with only 7 kg. I decided that I’d probably have to check in a bag but upon looking at the prices and finding out that it would cost me 78 dollars EACH WAY for my flight from Melbourne to Bangkok alone, I knew I wasn’t going to pay over 300 dollars just to carry a heavier bag around. Therefore, the 7kg challenge was a challenge that I was going to have to accept. Since most bags weigh about 2-3kg on their own, my first step was to find the lightest bag that I could. After tons of research, I ordered a Cabin Zero bag from the UK, which cost me $110 AUD. This 44L bag is awesome because it only weighs 0.76kg, which leaves me a lot of weight to add. It has a ten year warranty, and it has a unique lost-and-found tag so I can trace my bag if it gets lost. It opens like a suitcase would, which makes finding items a lot easier.

I also decided to buy some packing cubes in order to keep my bag more organised. I had bought some cheap packing cubes for my Africa trip but the zippers already broke after opening them a few times, so this time I paid $20 for a 7-piece Waterproof set. Everything is the perfect size to fit in my backpack, and there’s even some space leftover!

In terms of items that I bought specifically for my travels, the first thing I needed to find was a new camera. I got my previous camera (Canon PowerShot S95) in 2012 for my Europe trip but a few months ago, I ended up dropping it and the lens stopped opening. I wanted to find another DSLR that would take amazing pictures so after doing a ton of research (as usual), I finally decided to go with a Canon PowerShot SX730. This camera is awesome because it connects to both Wi-fi and Bluetooth, so I can control the camera using my phone if I’m using a tripod. I can also instantly transfer all of the photos to my phone, which will then automatically upload all of my pictures to iCloud AND Google Photos so that if my camera ever gets stolen (knock on wood), I won’t have to worry about my biggest fear happening when travelling, which is losing all of my pictures (I ALWAYS try to back up my pictures at least three times). This camera also has a flip screen for easy-to-take selfies, and it also has an AMAZING zoom!! I’ll attach pictures of the Bon Jovi concert that I went to – one picture uses no zoom at all and one picture is using full zoom. The results are unbelievable! This camera set me back by $399 AUD, which is definitely worth it!

To go with my new camera, I also finally decided to cave and get a selfie-stick. I’ve never had one before and find them quite annoying when in high-tourist areas, but I also realized that they come in handy when doing solo travel. The selfie-stick that I got is also a tripod, and it comes with a remote for easy picture-taking. It has a two different attachments – one 1/4 screw head for my camera and one phone holder, so I can use it with both my camera and my phone. The BlitzWolf Selfie Stick cost me $27.99AUD.

Another travel essential is a portable charging pod. I had already gotten my Poweradd Pilot X7 before, and I use it almost everyday when my phone is about to die when I’m coming home from work. It states that it can charge an iPhone 7 six times and with my iPhone 6s, I can definitely get at least ten charges out of it. Perfect when you don’t know the next time you’ll be around a power outlet!

And speaking of power outlets, it’s also important to have a good adapter. I got my universal adapter a couple of years ago when I was living in London and I take it on all of my trips (and now use it everyday for all of my Canadian items in Australia). While it’s a bit bulky, it has every outlet option to plug into, plus it has 2 USB ports and 1 plug-in, so I can charge three items at one time (whether it be my camera, phone, pedometer, selfie stick, charging pod, etc.) – so handy!

The last electronic device that’s not necessarily an essential, but is nice to have is my new Mi Band3, which is like a FitBit but a different brand. It has the time, the weather, counts my steps, tracks my light and deep sleep, and will update me of any messages I get on Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, etc (obviously only if I’m on data or Wifi).

Thank goodness it was just Black Friday because I was able to take advantage of travel deals last week! I was on the search for hiking shoes and a waterproof jacket, and stopped at the DFO (designer fashion outlet) to find the best deals. I made all of my purchases at Adventure Megastore, which is the only store (that I know of) in Australia that sells Columbia products. I found some waterproof hiking shoes, which out of all of the shoes I tried on at DFO, I liked the best because they were less bulky than all of the other waterproof shoes (as in they just felt like regular running shoes). I got the Columbia Peakfreak XCRSN II Xcel shoe for $149 (originally $250). I then found a waterproof Columbia Arcadia II rain jacket for $99 (originally $180).

The last essential item that I got is a type of travel belt, but it’s not your typical ugly travel belt that your mom makes you wear on your first flight to Europe. I love these ones because they are made for people who run (not me), so they can put in their phones, keys, etc. It’s a stretchy piece of fabric that goes around your entire body so you have to put it over your head or your legs in order to take it off – no one will be able to clip or cut it off. It fits tightly against your skin so if you’re wearing a shirt overtop, you can’t even tell that it’s there (and you usually forget that you have it on). I bought one from a company called Stashbandz for my Africa trip and loved it – I’d always put it on when we went through border control. I tried to get the same one for this trip but after having to wait over a month for it to come from the US (it still hasn’t arrived), I found a similar one from an Australia-based company called FlipBelt.

So now, I have less than 24 hours to make sure my bag is 7kg or smaller. Right now, I’m hovering around 7.3kg, but I’d like to stay on the safe side, especially because I’ll be taking multiple flights and I’ll probably accumulate some stuff on my trip. Wish me luck!

Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, and Brisbane: Jump in the Pool

My holidays are already over, and I only have 9 weeks left in Australia until my next big trip!! 😦 After I got back from Tasmania, I only had the evening to unpack everything (all of my winter clothes) and repack for Byron Bay (all of my summer clothes). I have now realized that trying to fit 7kg of stuff for ten days is pretty much impossible, so I might have to rethink my options when I do my 4-month Asia trip… On Tuesday morning, I had to walk to St. Kilda so that I could take the bus to the airport. I arrived in Brisbane at about 12:30pm and then I was planning to take a bus straight to Byron Bay. However, when I went to all of the service desks, they had either said that their last bus had already left at noon, or the next bus wouldn’t be until 5pm. One of the ladies told me that if I went to the main station in Brisbane, I might be able to get a bus from there. Therefore, I bought a ticket to central Brisbane. I was to arrive at the Brisbane station just after 2pm and I saw that the last Greyhound bus would be leaving at 2:30pm. Luckily, I ended up making it on time, and the bus ended up even being about a half hour late. I then had a 4-hour bus journey ahead of me, which actually went by quite quickly. Since the bus was late, I got into Byron Bay at about 7pm. Byron Bay has a completely different vibe, where everyone just has a carefree attitude. There’s no style in Byron – everyone wears whatever they want and you’ll often see people just wandering the sidewalks or shops in bare feet. I ended up being put in an all-girls’ dorm, but for some reason I was put with all of the girls who worked there so most of them had been there for 1-3 months. They were all getting ready to go out that night and since I had been travelling for basically the last 12 hours, I decided to have a quieter night in. The hostel was awesome in that it gave free dinners, so I met some British guys and hung out with them for the evening. That night though, one of the girls ended up bringing a guy back, so I had to listen to them for about two hours. I wasn’t too impressed and was thinking I should ask to change rooms, but I decided to give it one more night to see how things went. The next day was supposed to have on and off rain, so I decided to walk along the beaches and check out the lighthouse. I was taking a walk along the trail and I saw a path leading down to the beach. For some reason, I decided to take this path, even though there had been numerous other paths along my walk. When I got to the beach, I realized that there was a wedding going on, with tons of people watching. I didn’t think much of it and went to go sit down but then when I looked over, I noticed that there were quite a few cameras and videos there just for an average wedding. I then looked over and saw two normal-looking guys standing to the side with cameras, trying to get some shots of the wedding and then saw two security guards run over and try to jump in front of their pictures. I wondered, “What if this is a wedding for Married at First Sight (which is a HUGE deal in Australia – everyone gets into it)…” I decided to get closer to watch, and casually snap a photo while the securities guards were distracted by the paparazzi. I noticed that when they said you may now kiss the bride, the bride went in for a hug first. I couldn’t contain my excitement and messaged my friends who kept up with the show. I’ll definitely be ready to watch next season! Anyway, I continued my walk towards the lighthouse and spent a couple of hours sitting next to the beach. Once I saw the rainclouds start heading over, I decided to walk to the lighthouse, look at the most eastern point of Australia (the lighthouse in Tasmania was the most southern point of Australia, so now I only need to do north and west!), and head back to the hostel. It started to rain just as I headed back to the hostel and I made it back just in time, before it started pouring. That evening, I took advantage of the free dinner at the hostel and then watched the ping pong tournament with the British guys that I had met the evening before.

On Thursday, it rained pretty much the entire day so I decided to check out all of the shops. Everything was so expensive there! I definitely wouldn’t be able to afford any clothes, which was probably a good thing since my bag was already overweight. The rain stopped in the evening, so I walked to the beach and listened to one of the buskers for a couple of hours while the sun was setting. It was so relaxing! I went back to the hostel because I wanted to sign up for kayaking with dolphins on Friday, but I found out that it was completely booked up. I was seriously contemplating leaving Byron early because I had felt like I had seen everything I needed to see and I didn’t know what else I could do the next day. Lucky for me (and as I had mentioned in my previous post), two American girls showed up that night after dinner. We instantly clicked, and they asked if I’d like to join them on a hiking trip the next day.

On Friday, I got up and met with Amelia and Meghan for breakfast at the cafe next-door. We then got everything ready for our hike to Minyon Falls, and started the drive over. It’s great hiking in Australia because you have to totally be one with nature, as there’s rarely any phone service anywhere. Which can also be a bad thing if anything happens and you have no way to contact anyone. We were told that it would be an easy 2-hour roundtrip walk, so we had the rest of the day planned with other activities. However, we just kept walking and walking, wondering why it had been well over an hour and we still hadn’t reached the falls. We then reached a fork in the road with a really crappy map that didn’t tell us anything, so we struggled figuring out where to go next. We could either go up some stairs which seemed to lead away from the falls, or climb over a bunch of huge, dangerous rocks, which seemed to lead towards the sound of water. None of us were wearing proper hiking shoes since I didn’t really expect to be doing any hiking on this trip (unlike in Tasmania), so I was sliding around on slippery rocks in my Converse sneakers. I was legitimately concerned that someone would take a wrong step, fall off the rocks and break a leg, and then we’d be trapped at the bottom of the falls with no way to call for help. Luckily, that didn’t end up happening. We finally made it to the falls, which actually only ended up being somewhat of a trickle. We decided to stay and sit for about 45 minutes to an hour and while we were sitting there, we finally heard (and saw) other humans!! It was a family of six with three kids for sure under the age of 12. When we asked how long it took them to do the hike, the dad responded, “Oh about an hour” as non-chalantly as possible, while we decided not to share that it took us over two hours. The dad was even wearing flip flops! Like they were just a superfamily. Anyway, we decided to make our way back but we weren’t too keen on going back the way we came, since it had taken too long. The only other way seemed to lead in a completely different direction from where we started but luckily, we saw a couple more humans who knew the trail and they said that if we took the other path, it would just lead us to another parking lot and then we could walk back to our car from there. The path that we left on was supposed to take half the time of the path that we came on, so we definitely were ready to take the short way! We got to the top much quicker than expected and saw that there was a full map there, where we realized that we took the longest route possible to get to the falls (a 5-hour circuit, which we did in 4 hours – 1 of those hours was us just sitting by the waterfall so we did quite well). The path that we had just finished was the only path we SHOULD have taken to get to the falls and back, which would have taken us a total of 2 hours. We walked back to the car and by the time we got there, the superfamily had also made it back at the same time, even though they had taken the path that should have taken double the time! The girls had wanted to go to the Crystal Castle so we drove there but when we arrived, we’d only have about 45 minutes until it closed. The lady suggested that we go to this small, nearby town called Mullumbimby, which seemed to be quite hippie-like and had a neat feel to it. Unfortunately with small towns, most restaurants were closed during the afternoon but we were able to find one cafe, where we fuelled up on coffee and had a few snacks. We headed back to Byron once it got dark, had dinner, chatted for awhile, and then I went to bed.

On Saturday, I was planning to leave for the Gold Coast that morning but Meghan and Amelia were planning to drive to Brisbane later that day, so they suggested that we all hang out again and then they could drive me to the Gold Coast. We packed up all of our stuff and then found out that there was a market in Byron that only comes four times a year! We spent the morning and a good part of the afternoon looking at the hundreds of stalls, and eating tons of food. We then went to the cafe next to the hostel so that I could have a much-needed poutine before we went to the Crystal Castle. Literally as soon as we got to the parking lot, it started to rain. The park supplied umbrellas so we started walking around all of the different areas. The park was big into zen and energy, and all that jazz, so it was interesting to see. We saw that there was a rainforest walk so we started our walk through it, which is when we got caught in the middle of a huge thunderstorm! The rain started going sideways and we got absolutely soaked, plus the pathways got so wet that there was mud everywhere. When we finally got out, we noticed that they had actually closed the gate to the rainforest walk due to bad weather, so we shouldn’t have even been down there! We ran to the cafe, as it was the only shelter, and then it started to hail – I couldn’t believe it! We spent about the next hour to hour and a half waiting for the rain to stop so once it finally did, we were able to explore the last of the park before starting our drive towards Brisbane. We got to Surfers Paradise later that evening and I instantly knew it was going to be a dangerous place. Why?? Cause every store had huge SALE signs in the windows! Never would I ever see sales in Melbourne unless it was on winter clothes that no one wanted. The feel of Surfers Paradise reminded me of any other American coastal city, where there was a beach all the way along the city but it was surrounded by tall skyscrapers, shops and restaurants everywhere. I had heard bad things about Surfers Paradise before I arrived so my expectations were low (whereas with Byron, they were high), but I actually think that Surfers Paradise ended up being my favourite part.

On Sunday morning, I met one of the girls in my dorm room (Lena) from Germany and she was meeting up with another German girl (Alex) to explore the city. I decided to join them, so we walked around and explored the shops, went out for lunch, and then Alex left that day. Lena was in Surfers Paradise for an internship so she was looking at different apartments throughout the day. Therefore, that gave me the chance to check out some of the shops on my own. I decided to just treat it as a shopping trip, since I don’t really have many summer clothes (because I’ve always been going from winter to winter to winter) and this would be the cheapest place that I could find new clothes. I ended up having to pay the airline for a checked bag, and I also had to BUY a bag to take on the plane (don’t worry, it was only a $10 backpack), but it was totally worth it! Lena and I went out for dinner that evening, where I was able to get a steak and salad for 10 bucks! They had the rugby final on that night, so we stayed and watched along with everyone else in the pub, and tried to figure out the rules.

On Monday, I had my mind made that I wanted to do a whale-watching tour. Since whale-watching season was only from May-October, I figured that I probably wouldn’t get the chance to see them again since when I finally DO tour Australia, it’ll likely be from January to April. I did some more shopping in the morning, and then my tour started at 2pm. At the beginning of the tour, they tried selling motion-sickness tablets for $3 and they strongly recommended them since we’d be going into really rough waters that day. I didn’t really think anything of it since I’ve never been sick-sick on a boat, and I had only gotten that sick feeling twice in my life. Therefore, I didn’t bother buying any of the pills. We started the tour by going on a nice, smooth cruise down the river, where we got to see Jackie Chan’s summer house. Then we hit the ocean and boy, they definitely weren’t lying when they said the waters would be rough. I got bruises on my arm from getting thrown back and forth on the boat! Finally, we got through the worst of it but it was still a bumpy ride. They had a rule that if you were standing, you HAD to have one hand holding onto something at all times. Eventually, they spotted a mother whale and her calf, so we followed them for the rest of our trip. They’d come in and out, making sure they kept their distance and at the end of the tour, the calf started doing all types of jumps as the sun was setting – it was so majestic! I definitely started feeling sick towards the end of the tour though and there was a moment when I just wanted to get off of the boat and get back to land. It was a good three and a half hours though! Lena and I met up for dinner at the same place that night and then walked around Surfers Paradise.

On Tuesday, I spent the morning sitting by the beach and enjoying the sunshine before catching my 1:30pm Greyhound to Brisbane. I think I arrived in Brisbane right before 3pm and then I had to get to my hostel. For some reason, I chose a hostel way outside of the city centre, so I actually had to take a boat down the river to get to it. That was one of the coolest things about Brisbane is they offer a free ferry transport service which stops at about ten different places along the river. I think I finally arrived at my hostel at about 4:30, so I unpacked everything and then decided to go and explore. I was staying in an area called Kangaroo Cliffs, which were cliffs beside the river, where people can rock-climb whenever they choose. I walked along the river to Southbank, which is where there’s a man-made pool beside the river, and is basically Brisbane’s only “beach.” I then walked downtown, checked out the shops, and had dinner before doing the 55-minute walk back to the hostel. The next day, I did a lot of the same thing – just walked around the botanical gardens, checked out Southbank, did some shopping, and just sat in the park and people-watched. It was such a nice day, so it was good to just relax! I went to bed super-early that night since I’d have to get up at 5 the next morning to get to the airport. However, the girls in my dorm had different plans for me, as they continuously kept making noise. One girl decided to shower and blow-dry her hair at 11:30! So I didn’t end up actually falling asleep until after midnight and was exhausted the next day.

On Thursday, I got up and caught an uber to the airport. I arrived in Melbourne at 10am and then had to take the Skybus to the city in order to get back home. I got back home at about 12:30pm. Then, I just spent most of the day trying to catch up on the past two weeks of laundry. This past week has actually been pretty productive and busy, even though I didn’t work the entire week. But I’ll save that for the next post! Hope everyone is well. Love always

Jump in the Pool – Friendly Fires

Tasmania: Take a Walk

I’m already finished my trip to Tasmania, and it was so awesome! So how did it all come about? Well, my flatmate (Beena) had to go to Hobart for work on Monday and she wanted to make a long weekend out of it. A couple of weeks ago, she messaged me on Sunday afternoon and asked if I’d be interested in joining her. Originally, I wasn’t planning on going to Tasmania until the summer since it tends to be a bit colder than the rest of Australia, but once I looked at flight prices and saw that it would only be $160 round trip, I figured why not go twice?! I decided to give myself Thursday and Friday off, and we booked our flights that night. We got an Uber to the airport at 6:15 Thursday morning and arrived at the airport with plenty of time to go through security and have breakfast. A few things that shocked me upon flying within Australia is first, they didn’t ask for identification or boarding passes to go through security and therefore, anyone could go through whether they were getting on a flight or not. The second thing is you can bring an unlimited amount of liquids of any size. I brought through my water bottle and two bags of toiletries and didn’t get stopped at all. Lastly, they didn’t even check identification to get on the plane – they just scanned the boarding passes. I could have given my ticket to a friend and they wouldn’t have known! Everything was a lot more relaxed than what I’m used to.
Our flight was only an hour and fifteen minutes, so we arrived in Hobart just before 10am. We picked up our car rental and started our drive towards Freycinet Park. We made a couple of stops along the way to get some snacks and see some views. Then we made it to Coles Bay (the nearest town) at around 2pm. We stopped at the only restaurant we could find, ordered a pizza to go, and ate next to the water. Then we were ready to go hiking!

In order to see the famous Wineglass Bay, they said it would take an hour and a half round trip. It was only 16 degrees outside, but both of us were so hot walking up to the lookout! We were both dying once we made it to the top, but we only took 22 minutes – half the time! From that point onwards, Beena started joking about whether a specified hiking time would be for normal people, or “Janelle-walking-time.” I guess I tend to speed-hike just as much as I speed-walk… After we went back down, there were two wallabies waiting for us in the parking lot, and one of them even had a baby in its pouch! We then went to a few other short hikes, and then finished our day at Honeymoon Point, where we sat for an hour and waited for the sunset. After that, we did another 2.5 hours of driving to Saint Helens. I knew that the lodge that we’d be staying in would have a cat, but I stupidly only brought Benadryl so by the time we got to Saint Helens, I was nearly passed out. I made myself stay up until 9 and then I was good to go to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

On Friday, we stopped at a cute, little bakery in Saint Helens to have breakfast before starting another activity-filled day. We started by checking out Bay of Fires, which is 50km of pristine beaches. There wasn’t a soul to be seen and it was absolutely beautiful! Unfortunately, it was still too cold to have a beach day so we wondered if the beaches were just as quiet during the summer. After exploring for a couple of hours, we left Saint Helens at 10 and started the 4-hour drive to Cradle Mountain. We arrived there at 2pm, had lunch, and then waited for the shuttle to take us to the mountain. What we didn’t realise was that the last shuttle left the mountain at 5pm, so it only gave us two hours to hike. We decided not to do the lake circuit because they said it would take between 2-3 hours (even though we had full confidence in our speed-hiking abilities). Instead, we walked down to the lake and then did a 1.5-hour hike to Ronny Creek, which was another shuttle bus stop. The weather at Cradle Mountain tried to be on our side – apparently the fog had (for the most part) cleared up right when we arrived, but towards the last half hour of our hike, it started raining. The coolest thing about the hike was the amount of wombats that we were able to see!We caught the shuttle back to the parking lot and we were originally planning to drive two hours to Launceston (the other major city) but we decided we might as well do the 4-hour drive back to Hobart since we’d have to wake up the next morning to finish it from Launceston anyway. We arrived in Hobart just after 9pm and were exhausted once again, so we just went straight to bed without having dinner for a second night in a row.
On Saturday morning, we went to Salamanca Market, which happens every Saturday and has about 300 stalls. I got a smoked salmon omelette on a roll for breakfast, which was so good! Tasmania is apparently known for its food, and Hobart definitely did not disappoint! We spent about an hour and a half exploring the market, then drove to the ferry terminal to go to Bruny Island. Fun fact: Bruny Island is the same size as the island of Singapore, but instead of having 5-6 million people, it has a population of about 600. We got to the ferry terminal with ten minutes to spare, got on the ferry, and took the 20-minute trip to the island. We then drove a half hour to the Fluted Cape trail, which is a 2.5-hour hike. Unfortunately for us, it was quite misty and foggy on the island, and it started to pour for nearly our entire walk up the cliff. When we finally got to the top, our view was a white fog into nothingness. Luckily, the fog slowly started to clear as we made it back down, so we were able to see some views (and a couple of wallabies!) on our way down. We were completely soaked and freezing once we got back to the car so we drove to a cheese restaurant and split a cheese and bread platter. We then drove an hour to the very southern part of the island (the southernmost part of Australia) to see the view from the lighthouse. It was FREEZING up there, and the wind nearly blew me off of the cliff! Our plan was to stay until sunset, but we only lasted about 5-10 minutes before we decided we’d rather spend our time next to the car heater. We drove another hour back to the ferry terminal and had to wait about 40 minutes to catch the final ferry back to Hobart. By the time we got back to Hobart, it was about 8pm so we went to a restaurant called Urban Greek and had a delicious late dinner. I had forgotten how good real Greek food was, and it really made me want to go back so I could eat my way through it! I do think Greece was one of my favourite countries to eat in, as everything was so delicious!
On Sunday morning, we arrived at MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) right when it opened at 10am. We had breakfast at a cafe there and split a frittata and a beef & ale pie, which were both so good. And then we decided to also split a slice of carrot cake because I had been talking about carrot cake nonstop the entire weekend, so why not have it for breakfast? We then spent about three hours going through the museum. It’s quite modern and abstract art, and it deals a lot more with other senses rather than just eyesight. I didn’t really understand any of the art, but it was still interesting. It reminded me a lot of the Pompidou Museum in Paris, as the types of art were similar. After the museum, we decided to check out central Hobart, so we walked along the cold harbour and then found a restaurant called Mures, where we had a late lunch (and I had an amazing seafood chowder!). Afterwards, we spent an hour checking out the shops until they closed at 4pm, and then we went to the cinema to watch Crazy, Rich Asians. The last time I’ve been in a cinema was about three years ago when I got a free ticket to watch a movie in London. This is cause I’m too cheap to spend 15-20 dollars to go to a movie. However, since Sunday was a rainy day in Hobart, there wasn’t much else to do. And the movie was cute – Beena and I both cried (I think we have similar tastes in movies). After the movie, we went back to the hostel to rest for an hour and a half cause we had a dinner reservation at a place called Templo for 8:30. The restaurant offered a tasting menu for $65 per person, but we decided to each just get the gnocchetti/anchovy/lemon sauce dish, and then share the swede dish (which here, a swede is a rutabaga). Both dishes were absolutely delicious! We were so full after only eating half our meals, but we couldn’t stop eating them. I was shocked as to how good all of the flavours meshed together!
On Monday, we got up and packed all of our stuff. Beena’s work meetings started at 10am and my bus to the airport left at 10:45, so we parted ways and I stopped at a restaurant called Waffle On. There, I had a bacon and banana cinnamon waffle, which was so amazing (again, the food in Hobart is spectacular, so no surprise!)! I then walked to the bus stop, took the half hour bus ride to the airport, got screened for a random drug test, went through security, and still had an hour until boarding. Then, I found out that my flight would be delayed by 45 minutes, which is when I decided it would be useful to write this blog post. So here we are! Officially on the flight as I’m finishing this up, and then I’ll have tonight to unpack and repack my stuff to fly to Brisbane tomorrow morning (I’ll be going from 10 degree to 22 degree weather). Hope everyone’s doing well! Love always

Take a Walk – Passion Pit

 

LAST POST! (Zimbabwe, Victoria Falls, Botswana, Johannesburg, and Dubai)

Well, my trip is officially over and I can’t believe how fast it went! Two years in London has shaped so many memories and caused me to grow in so many ways. This past year, I’ve had many opportunities to do some pretty cool things! I went to Friends Fest, the Chocolate Show (again!), Aladdin, Kinky Boots (twice!), School of Rock, a rugby game, The Nutcracker Ballet, the Carlsberg Brewery, Stonehenge, the Birmingham Christmas Markets… I moved apartments, got a full-time job at an amazing school, went to the Lindt Chocolate Factory, had tea with cats, flew eagles and owls, saw the Grey Cup, fed giraffes and giant tortoises, pet elephants and lions, WALKED lions, jumped off a cliff twice, and went white water rafting… I went to too many concerts – Billy Joel, Ricky Martin, Empire of the Sun, Close Talker (twice!), Bastille, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Kooks, The Beach Boys, Elton John, and Phil Collins… I went to 24 new countries (Romania, Germany, Denmark, Slovenia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates) and 2 countries that I’ve already been to (Croatia and Italy). And I’ve met many new people and made many new friends along the way! Coming back home feels bittersweet, but I’m excited to see everyone once I get there.
I guess I need to catch everyone up on the last of my trip… I forgot to say in my last blog (because I thought it wasn’t necessary) that when we did the rhino trek, I wasn’t feeling very well. I found difficulty in climbing a hill and I started to feel really light-headed and hot. Towards the end of the trek, I had to speed walk back to our truck so that I could chug a bunch of water. When we went back to the camp, I was shaking and needed to eat something so I could raise my sugar levels. I didn’t think anything of it because after lunch, I felt a lot better. However, that night, I could hardly keep my eyes open during and after dinner. (Up ahead is a little too much information, so feel free to skip to the next paragraph if necessary). I headed to bed at 8pm and that night, I woke up at 2am feeling really sick and I ran to the toilet. Again at 5am, I felt sick and had to run to the toilet. This time after I was sick from one end, I turned around and threw up three times! I don’t remember the last time I’ve thrown up from being sick but it was horrible and I just wanted to cry. I skipped breakfast that morning cause my stomach couldn’t handle any food. After I threw up the first time, I ended up having to go to the toilet every ten minutes cause I was sick from the other end. The muscles in my legs were really achy and I had little energy. Lucky for me (not), it was a driving day (a long one) and I knew it was going to be horrible when within the first ten minutes of us leaving, I already had to go to the bathroom again. I curled up in a sleeping bag in the bumpy, back part of the truck (where the garbage can was, just in case) and I tried to sleep (and I think I succeeded for a short amount of time! Which considering I can never sleep in any type of vehicle, I felt was a great achievement). We stopped for a few bush toilets (aka peeing in the bush) but since I couldn’t trust my body at the time, I decided not to risk it.
9 long hours later, we finally got to Victoria Falls! We had to sit through a briefing that went over all of the activities we could do and by that point, I was starving (which was a good sign since I hadn’t eaten all day). I ate some dinner and signed up for my activities, but my legs were still killing me and I was still feeling slightly lightheaded so I decided to stay in that night while everyone else went out for dinner. Luckily, I had some company while everyone was gone so I got to have some good conversations with a few people on the truck. My tour guide told me about how he had malaria twice and I was petrified that I had gotten it too. He said that the parasite is only active for 12 hours of the day so if I felt worse again the next day, we’d have to go to the clinic. My tentmate and I decided to upgrade to the dorm rooms while in Victoria Falls just in case I got sick again, and it only cost us $5 each per night so it wasn’t that bad! I went to bed at about 10pm and the next day, I felt great! I’m hoping my situation was just a bad case of heat stroke/dehydration, or something along those lines. That next day, I was signed up for the half-day adrenaline package, which included a flying fox ride, a zip line, and two gorge swings. I started off with the flying fox, which held me from my back so I basically did a superman flight over the gorge. It was so awesome to see how large it was, knowing that the side of the gorge that we were on was Zimbabwe and the opposite side was Zambia. I somewhat started to freak out when I stopped in the middle before they slowly started pulling me back, because I was just hanging there with no choice but to look down. The next one was the zipline, which was the easiest. Then was the gorge swing… it consisted of a 7-second freefall until the rope tensed up and then you’d just swing back and forth in the gorge. Since I had a small audience, I didn’t want to chicken out but I continued hesitating to jump off. The guide would say, “3.. 2…” and I’d be like, “Wait! Can you count down again?” “3..2..” “No, start from 10!” And then he just pushed me off! I screamed until I had no air left in me. I actually thought I was going to die but once the rope tensed up, the swing was so fun! And after I did it once, I went ahead and tried it a second time. I thought it would be easier (and it was to jump off) but the falling part was just as scary as the first time. My adrenaline was so high for a good part of the day! That afternoon, a few of us went to check out some of the markets (I found a Christmas tree ornament!) and then six of us went for high tea. It was the same as you would find in London – tea, scones, sandwiches and desserts, but the service wasn’t so great and the macaroons were stale 😦 . However, it was at a really nice hotel with a lovely view! That evening, we spent the night dancing; it was a great night!
The next day, I had no activities planned so a few of us decided to walk through the park of Victoria Falls. My body started aching again and I think it was because I was so tense during my cliff jumps the day before. It made it very difficult to do stairs though! Victoria Falls is the largest waterfall in the whole world, and it was quite spectacular to see! It took us about 1.5- to 2- hours to walk along the length of the park and it was impossible to not get wet. A few of us girls went to have slushies at a cafe that had a nice view of the gorge. Then, we met up with the rest of the group and we went to the Sunset Lodge, where we could have drinks while watching the sunset.  Because we had to leave for whitewater rafting at about 7 the next morning, I decided to have an early night. On Wednesday, I got up nice and early, and even ordered breakfast. However, by the time my breakfast came, I only had about five minutes until we had to leave for rafting. Therefore, I only managed to have a bit of my eggs and all of my bacon. We had to sit through an induction, which went over all of the safety rules and then we had to walk down into the gorge. The walk probably took about 15-20 minutes and I knew that going back up would suck. However, I was told that after rafting, we’d have a barbecue and then we’d walk up the gorge. The rafting trip included 19 rapids but we had to skip over a few of them because they were higher than class 5 (meaning extremely dangerous). It was my first time rafting and it was a lot of fun, but I started to lose all of my energy right after we got halfway through the rapids. Considering I didn’t have a full breakfast and we didn’t have lunch until about 2:30, I was completely worn out. When we finished rafting, they told us that we had to take our lifejackets, helmets, and paddles, and walk up the gorge so we could have our barbecue. I thought they were kidding! They warned us to avoid giving our paddles/lifejackets to anyone (there are people who wait at the bottom who offer to carry everything up for you) or we wouldn’t get them back. However, after about ten minutes of walking up the gorge, my legs had turned into jelly. I literally couldn’t walk up the gorge no matter how hard I tried. Someone ended up just grabbing everything from me without even asking and when I asked if we were close and he replied with, “Yes, we have about 15 minutes left,” I nearly just gave up. I’ve never been close to crying from physical exhaustion but that day, I was on the edge of tears and I was fully willing for them to just leave me there because I had no strength left in me. I think that with the combination of not having food that morning and my body and muscles still recuperating from being sick, it probably wasn’t a good idea to take part in those physical demands. The guy who was carrying my stuff had to take my hand and literally pull me up the rest of the gorge because I wouldn’t have made it up on my own. When I finally got to the top, I was so out of it. I went to get some food and all I wanted to do was burst into tears. I stared into space while eating and I couldn’t take part in any conversations until the energy started kicking in again. We got back to our hostel at about 3:30pm so I had a shower, and then a few of us went back to check out the markets one last time. I got one good deal, which I was happy with! We went back to the hostel and then a few of us went for dinner before I had another early night. Because it was our last night in Victoria Falls, most people stayed up and danced but I was completely worn out.
On Thursday, we had to leave at 6am so that we could go to Kasane, Botswana. The border crossing was the easiest one we’ve ever done, so we got to the camp at about 9:30am that morning. We made breakfast and then we had the option to go on a game drive in the morning, and a game cruise in the afternoon. The prices ended up being more expensive than quoted so I decided not to go and instead, a bunch of us just hung out at the campsite for the afternoon. It was a nice, lazy day to have! The next morning, we had to get up early again to drive to Maun. It was my last full day with the group, and it was another long driving day. We finally got there at about 3pm and then we stopped at the grocery store so everyone could get food for their upcoming trip to the Delta. When we finally got to camp, the sun was setting so we quickly put up our tents and then I helped with preparing dinner. That night, I had to fill out feedback forms for the tour and get all of my stuff packed. Even though my flight out of Maun wasn’t until 2pm, I still had to get up and ready by 6am with the rest of the group, since the tent had to be packed up. We had breakfast and then I had to say my goodbyes to everyone else. There were only two of us leaving (the other one was Michelle from New Zealand) and most people were continuing their 73-day trips. After everyone left (including Michelle), I stayed at the hotel for a few hours until I had to go to the airport. I instantly felt lonely (which continued for the next three days). Even though I enjoy my alone time, I got used to being able to talk to one of 24 people whenever I felt like it and this time, I didn’t have that option. I caught a shuttle to the airport and then got on my flight to Johannesburg. At the beginning of the flight, a flight attendant walked down the aisle while spraying insect repellent! My flight was only two hours, and there was someone there to pick me up from the airport. I had heard a lot of negative reviews about Johannesburg because apparently there is still a lot of tension between black and white people, so I was told to always walk with someone and to not walk after dark. However when I got to the hostel, there were only two other people there (a couple) and I had a whole 12-person dorm to myself (hence my feeling lonely in Johannesburg). Johannesburg is absolutely huge – its area is four times larger than Greater London, and it has 12 million people! That night, I ordered a pizza to be delivered for dinner, I had a hot shower (which I didn’t have to share with any insects or frogs), I had a bed, and I got to watch two movies! I remember sitting in the hostel lounge just thinking about how bizarre it felt sitting on a couch and watching Rio while eating pizza. I bought a 2-day Hop On-Hop Off bus ticket so the next day, I used it and stopped at the Apartheid Museum. I spent about 2.5-3 hours there, where I learned about the history of South Africa and the separation between races. In 1913, they passed a land act, where 8% of the land was reserved for Africans while 92% was reserved for whites. In 1950, they passed the Immorality Act, which outlawed sex and marriage across racial lines. The 1953 Act prohibited different racial groups from using the same public facilities. When we entered the museum, we were randomly assigned whether we were black or white, and we had to enter through the correct door. In terms of schooling, the government would spent 40 on Africans and 644 on whites. The whites were taught regular school subjects – biology, history, etc. while the African people were basically trained to do slavework. African people weren’t allowed to vote and the whites were paranoid that if they gave the Africans too much power, they’d be taken over. I also learned about Nelson Mandela and how he was imprisoned for 27 years before finally being released and becoming president. It blew my mind to find out how long the Apartheid lasted for, and really made me realize how the British and European people took over so much land all over the world and caused so many others to suffer because of it. After the museum, I took the bus back to where I started and I walked back to my hostel, which took about a half hour. The next day, I did more of the bus tour. This time, I went to Soweto, which is a smaller community outside of Johannesburg, where a lot of the African people were sent to (because the whites didn’t want them to be in the cities). Soweto is where Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu grew up (on the same street!), so it was possible to tour Mandela’s house if we wanted to. After that, I went to World of Beer. It was about to close in an hour and I didn’t want to miss the final bus, so I decided to forego the tour and instead, just go straight to the bar. I had to pay 40 Rand (4 dollars) to get into the bar, but I got two drinks with it so it was quite a good deal!
Tuesday was my last day in Johannesburg and I decided to just spend it in the neighbourhood that I was close to. It had a huge mall, as well as a market. The market was extremely expensive, since most of the items came from other parts of Africa (ex. Zimbabwe) so everything was a lot more expensive than all of the other countries I went to. I spent most of the day walking around the mall, and then I went back to the hostel to charge my phone before I had to head to the airport. My flight was leaving at 10:20pm that evening so I had to take an Uber to the airport, and then I flew to Dubai. I tried my hardest to sleep during my flight since I was arriving at Dubai at 8:20am in the morning and would have an 18-hour layover, but my body wouldn’t let me sleep! I arrived in Dubai and lucky for me, my tentmate actually lives there! So she picked me up from the airport and she showed me around the city. First, we went by the beach, where we had breakfast at Tim Horton’s(!). I was so excited, I bought everything I could. I didn’t know what the conversion rate was until AFTER I ordered so when I looked it up, I realized that I had spent $17 on Tim Horton’s. It was totally worth it though! I got an iced cappuccino, a half-and-half French Vanilla, an apple fritter, and 20 timbits. They asked if I wanted a regular or a large of both of my drinks so I said regular, and they were absolutely huge! I swear they’d be our extra larges in Canada. After breakfast, we went to The Palm, which is a man-made island that’s shaped like a palm tree (you’ve probably seen it in photos). It has a gorgeous Atlantis hotel at the end of the island, but we could only spend a limited amount of time outside since it was “feels like” 41 degrees. It was unbearably hot! We then went to Dubai Mall, which is the largest mall in the world. Just like West Ed, it has a skating rink, but it ALSO has a huge aquarium. We got to see the tallest building in the world as well – the Burj Khalifa. We went out for lunch/dinner at Cheesecake Factory, which ended up costing $27 for a lunch-sized pasta, but it was so good! Afterwards, it was about 4pm and Nicola had to go back home so I decided to go back to the airport. Even though I still had 10 hours to kill, I was quite tired since I hadn’t slept. I killed time doing crosswords in the airport and I even fell asleep for an hour right before boarding! The flight left at 2:45am and was 7 hours, and I (miraculously) fell asleep as soon as we lifted off. I slept through all of the snacks and got about 4.5 hours in! I woke up in time for breakfast and then we landed in London at 7:20am. I caught the bus back to central London and got to my hostel quite early. Since I couldn’t check in, I left my luggage at reception and then I went to Kim’s to get some more of my luggage. I stayed for a chat and by the time I got back to the hostel at 2pm, I was able to check in! I showered and then my other suitcase got delivered to the hostel so I could transfer everything from that suitcase into the one from Kim’s. I then went out for a couple of drinks with someone I met from the hostel before going back to Kim’s at about 10pm to get my last suitcase. I was finally moved out! The next day was my last day in London so I spent the entire time walking around – down Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road, China Town, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, and Bond Street, while feeling nostalgic and sad. Halfway through my walk, it started POURING (which I’ve learned to expect from London) and I welcomed it. For the rest of the evening, I finished packing all of my stuff so that I’d be ready to wake up at five the next morning. Today, I got up and requested an Uber but once he came, he said he wouldn’t be able to fit all of my suitcases in his car. I said that it’s been done before (and it has! I’ve done it twice in the exact same type of car!) and he said that he’d have to fold down the seat so I should order a bigger Uber. I was pretty upset since the other Uber took an additional 15 minutes to come, but he got me to the bus station right before the bus was about to leave and I made it to the airport! My flight ended up being delayed due to traffic control and we didn’t leave the tarmac until 50 minutes after we were supposed to leave. My flight is 9 hours and I have a 2 hour layover in Edmonton to go through customs (which may now be shortened if we arrive late), so hopefully I’ll make it to Saskatoon! Thanks to everyone who has kept up with my blog during the past two years; it’s always nice to hear feedback and know that people have been reading about my stories. Can’t wait to see everyone! Love always

In the Jungle (Zanzibar, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe)

I only have one week left of my tour! 😦 I’ve had quite a lot of fun since I’ve posted my last entry! On the first day in Zanzibar, it was very rainy for the first part of the day. We had a late lunch (not that we were trying to, but the restaurant service was beyond slow) and finished when the sun came back out at 2pm. I still had to get my laundry done but when I asked the hotel, they said that they charged per item. This meant that one pair of underwear would cost 500 shillings (which is only equivalent to about 25 cents American) but would definitely add up with two weeks of dirty clothes. I decided to just wash my clothes in the sink (which took about an hour) and then I spent the afternoon on the beach. About half of our group went on a booze cruise, where they got unlimited alcohol for $30, but my group decided to buy Smirnoff for $5 each and stay at the hotel. The pop was so expensive! Two 2-litre bottles ended up costing us $8!! (By the way, all of the dollar amounts refer to American dollars, so it would be even more in Canadian). That night, we had a dance party on the beach, which was a lot of fun! The next day was the first day that I didn’t get sick after a meal (yay!). Our group had come up with the name “The Diarrhea Club” with the slogan “Where Shit Happens” because all of us were constantly getting sick. That morning, I got up for breakfast and then spent the entire day on the beach. We had dinner as a group that night since a lot of people would be ending their trips the next day (including our tour guide). I had an amazing eggplant lasagna that night, and I got dessert as well! The payment for dinner took at least half an hour. They went to all 20 of us with a calculator, asked what we ate, looked at the menu for the price, and added it together so we could each pay individually. Because dinner ended so late and because we had an early morning the next day, we all went to bed right after dinner (after paying off our tabs). The payment of our tabs also took forever! We had to tell them our room numbers at reception, they phoned the restaurant who had to walk all of our receipts to reception, and then they added up all of the receipts using a calculator. Finally, we were able to go to bed! On Friday, we had to have everything packed by 6am and then we had breakfast and left at 7am. They had a 28-passenger van, so we had a 1.5-hour drive back to Stone Town and then caught the 9:30 ferry. The ferry was absolutely horrible that day! It kept rocking back and forth, and many people were carrying around puke bags. I don’t normally get sick on boats but that day, I was trying to keep myself occupied so I wouldn’t get sick. When we got back to Dar es Salaam, we joined a new group of people in a new truck for the rest of our trip. These people are doing a 73-day trip around Africa and were already together for about 33 days when we joined them. There were 12 of them and 12 of us so we made a full group again. In their group, they have some Americans, Kiwis, Canadians (from Whistler and Abbotsford), Belges, Australians, a Swede, and a German. Within a few days, we all integrated quite well together. That day, we were supposed to stay in Dar es Salaam but due to construction, they decided to travel a bit further in order to cut down our driving time the following day. We were able to do some shopping and we ended up finding KFC, which was so worth it! We drove to a place called Morogoro and found out that we’d have to leave early the next morning. It was already dark by the time we got there and I was on dinner duty so I spent most of my evening cutting vegetables. They have a chores rota on our truck so we’re put into groups and one day, we’ll make meals, another we’ll do dishes, then we’ll be security and make sure everything’s locked up, and then we’ll have to clean the truck out. It’s a good system and very well-organised – during the first week of our trip, our guide was just asking for volunteers and the same people would volunteer each time. The way that this truck worked, we’d often leave at 6 in the morning and stop on the side of the road at about 9:30 in the morning to set up the stove and make breakfast. It’s an interesting way of doing things but it’s hard not being able to have my coffee during the first few hours of the day! The next day, we drove just outside Iringa, to a place called Kisolanza, which was located at a Farm House. For lunch, we stopped in the middle of a random field and had cows walking 1 metre away from us while we were eating our food. We actually got to the camp at around 3 or 4 so we had some free time to shower and play card games. That location had 1GB of data (total) for internet and because everyone was trying to connect, it took way too long to look at anything. It gave everyone a good excuse to be social, although most locations have been giving us that opportunity lately. Because we would be crossing the border the following day, we had to leave the camp by 4am the next day!
On Sunday morning, that’s just what we did. We stopped for breakfast on the side of the road and we also did the same for lunch. Border control took us about two to two and a half hours to get into Malawi! We all had to fill in the forms and give $75 with our passports, and then we waited forever to get them back. We continued to our next destination but ended up stopping because we were close to getting a flat tire so they had to change it. This gave everyone an opportunity to have a bush pee, but it was difficult doing so in the dark when there were so many other people around! We arrived at our next location (Chitimba) after dark and we were apparently right by Lake Malawi but we couldn’t actually see it. We left at 8am the next morning to go to our main destination – Kande Beach on Lake Malawi. It was a gorgeous place! The lake itself takes up one third of the country so it’s absolutely huge, and the waves are humongous and can be quite dangerous.
The first night, I went to bed quite early because I was so exhausted from the previous nights. I ended up getting a solid 10 hours of sleep! The next day, we sat in the sun and then a bunch of us decided to go for a walk along the beach. As soon as we crossed an invisible line in the sand, the locals all joined us and somehow got us all separated so that we were walking with one or two locals each. Most of these locals were woodworkers and their main goal was to get you to buy some of their products, but they did quite well at starting a conversation and getting to know you first. At the end of the walk, I was already quite far from the rest of the group, and the guy I was with kept asking me to come see his shop so that I could place an order to be ready for the following day. He had shown me one of his paintings, which was a personalised map of Africa with the countries that we went to, and it was really nice! It was a painting that was made for one of my friends, so I figured she must have paid the same price that he offered me. He said it would be $35 for the painting and then he was going to design a wooden Christmas tree ornament for me as well, which would also be $35 but he’d give both of them to me for $60. While this was still quite expensive, I felt put on the spot since I had to make the decision right then, and I assumed that my friend had paid the same price. I agreed and he asked for ten dollars immediately so he could order the wood and get it sent over.  He also gave me two bracelets as a gift – one with Zambia colours and one with Zimbabwe colours. He then asked if I could take the painting to my friend (Kar), so I walked to the beach and showed everyone the picture, and when I told them I was going to pay $35 for mine, Susan said that Kar only paid $10 (she hadn’t paid yet). So I went to go find Kar to ask her how much she was paying and she said 18000 shillings, which is about 9 dollars. I had definitely been ripped off! We both decided to confront the guy together, so we went back and she said that they had agreed with that amount. He said it wasn’t enough and he’d rather take back the painting than take her money. So she gave the painting back and then I expressed my concern with getting ripped off but he just said that everything was being made new and it would be worth it. I went back to camp and asked everyone’s opinion (including my guide) and they all said to talk the price down. I was supposed to meet him at 2pm the next day so I was trying to decide whether I should go at all. Anyway, at camp, they spent the whole day roasting an entire pig, which we got to eat for dinner. It was really tasty! That night, our guide made really strong punch and we had a great night having a bonfire on the beach.
On Wednesday morning, some people in our group decided to do a village walk tour. We assumed it would take an hour, but it ended up taking over 2.5 hours! As soon as the gate of our campground opened, we saw a mob of salesmen and they swarmed around us, separating each of us once again. The person who I had talked to yesterday (MJ) found me quite quickly and he had my painting with him. He first showed me another painting, which he gave to me as a gift, and then he showed me my personalised painting, which clearly was the painting that Kar had given back. Kar is going to an extra country during her trip, so I could see that Namibia had been covered over and disguised as waves, and her name at the bottom was covered in white out and replaced with my name. I wasn’t too impressed but I didn’t say anything at that moment. He left us when we went into the actual village. However, after the salesmen left us, we were swarmed  once again, but this time by kids who wanted to hold our hands and get their pictures taken. It was quite overwhelming! In the village, we got to see the inside of a house, how they use their water pumps (both of which were donated by Canada), and we got to go into the school and medical centre. The average class size is 120 students, but it could go up to 250! And I thought my 33 class sizes were bad… The doctor said he gets about 200 patients per day, and about 3/4 of those cases are for malaria. After our tour through the village, we had to walk back to the camp, which took about 20 minutes. That was when all of the kids left and the salesmen came back. This time, MJ was back with my Christmas tree ornament, which was actually quite nice. He wanted to talk price since I had said that I felt like I couldn’t pay 60 dollars. He kept saying that everything was made brand new for me, which is when I said that the painting clearly wasn’t because it was redone. He kept denying it and then asked if he should bring Kar’s original painting so I said yes. Then he asked if he could see the painting so I took it out of my bag and showed him how Namibia was changed, as well as the name at the bottom. He said he could paint a new one and bring it, but I just said I was done. I said I didn’t want to hang up an ornament each year and think about how I was screwed over. Then I said he could keep the ten dollars and I walked away. I still ended up having the gift painting in my bag, as well as the two bracelets, which is probably what ten dollars would have gotten me, so I didn’t get completely ripped off! That afternoon, we had lunch and then a few of us stayed on the beach while the rest of the group went horseback riding. That evening, I was on dinner duty so we basically threw a bunch of stuff in a pot and added some leftover pico de gallo from the night before, and it tasted delicious! While I was cooking, one of my friends (Michelle) ended up getting caught in the riptide, which was pulling her further out. One of the people in our group (Kevin) was close to her and tried pulling her out but she kept pulling him under so he left her to go yell for help while she just tried not to pass out from constantly being covered by water. Luckily, an Aussie from another camp swam in and pulled her in about three quarters of the way, and then someone else came to help with the rest of the way. Needless to say, both of the people in our group were pretty shaken up, as well as physically exhausted. It was enough drama for the night!
We had to leave by 6am the next morning so I went to bed by 9. On Thursday, we packed everything up and then went on the road again. It was so nice to stay in one place for three nights, but now we would be going back to moving around every night. We stopped for breakfast at about 9, which I was in charge of again. We made a fruit salad with all of the fruit that we had (since it was starting to go bad), and then we made oatmeal to go with it. We had to cross the border to go into Zambia that day, and we got to the border at around 3pm. Luckily, it was the fastest border crossing ever! We didn’t even have to fill out a form; we only had to give our $50 and they gave us our visas. We ended up getting to camp in Petauke at about 7:30 so it was an extremely long driving day! We set up our tents in the dark and within about 30 seconds of being inside it, I was able to tell that we had gotten someone else’s tent because my eyes got itchy and my nose started running. I’m pretty sure that we got a tent that belonged to someone who had went horseback riding the day before. I was quite out of it for dinner, but took an antihistamine and I was fine when I went to bed. It was freezing cold that night! Definitely less than ten degrees, so I didn’t have the best sleep.
On Friday morning, we had breakfast at 5am and then left camp at 6am. We got to the capital of Zambia (Lusaka) at about noon and then we were able to go to Nando’s for lunch (an extremely popular restaurant in London). The food took quite long, but tasted good! We had about an hour to do grocery shopping but I didn’t have Zambian money since we were only there for a day. I also had my credit card locked in the safe so when I asked the cashier if they accepted American cash and he said no, I had to decide what was most important to buy with the little money that I had borrowed. I decided to not get alcohol or snacks for the upcoming houseboat trip and instead get a coffee travel mug since the handle on my mug had broken the day before. That was when my disappointment started. We got to our campsite at about 5pm and I set my mug to the side so it could be washed for the next morning, and then I went to shower before dinner. I went to grab something out of my bag after my shower (forgetting that my razor was there), and I ended up slicing the side of my finger. I then had to get dressed while trying to avoid getting blood all over everything, and then I went back to the tents so that one of my friends could play nurse and cover up my finger. We had dinner and then I went to find my mug and it was gone! I looked through all of the dishes and couldn’t find it. Because it was all I could afford to buy that day, I was not a happy camper (literally). That tiny incident finally made me reach my breaking point and when one of my friends asked if I was okay, I had to walk away so I could have a good cry. I think I just needed to have some “me time” since I had been spending 24/7 with 24 other people. I went to bed right after since I’m pretty sure I was overtired, and we got up at 5 the next morning, had breakfast at 6, and left camp at 7. We had to cross the border again to get into Zimbabwe and get to Lake Kariba, where we would be spending our time on a houseboat for the next two nights. The border crossing took us about two hours, and the Canadians were pretty disappointed when we found out that we had to pay $75 while everyone else paid $30. Not only that, but we weren’t allowed to get a double entry visa, so if we decide to do certain activities at Victoria Falls, we’ll have to pay another $75 to get back into the country. Once we crossed the border, we went straight to the houseboat, which was really cool! The bottom part was like being in a university dorm, with 2-person rooms down the hallway. It also had four bathrooms (with warm showers! -although we were only allowed to use two at a time for pressure purposes) and the kitchen. However, we didn’t ever have to use the kitchen because we got chefs for the duration of the houseboat! By the time we got everything put together, everyone was absolutely starving! We must have gotten on the boat at about 2pm and would have gladly had instant noodles for lunch. We ended up waiting until 4 to finally eat, which ended up being sausage rolls. As soon as we finished lunch, the drinking began. I didn’t have any alcohol but I luckily had some generous people in the group who were willing to share. We danced until dinner, which was at 9pm, and then most people went to bed right after dinner.
On Sunday, I woke up at 5 but stayed in bed until 6:30. We had coffee in the sun and waited until breakfast, which wasn’t until about 9:30. We then went on a game cruise; the group split into two boats and went around the shores to find animals. We found some elephants, hippos, and crocodiles, which was pretty cool! After that, we tanned on the boat and waited for lunch, which was again quite late – at about 2:30pm. Some of the people in our group had gone fishing at 6 that morning and ended up catching enough lunch for everyone – we each got our own fish and there were 25 of us! The fish was absolutely delicious, and we also got fries to go with it. We spent the rest of the afternoon lying in the sun and then went on another game cruise right before sunset. This time, there weren’t as many animals but we saw some crocodiles and hippos, and we got to see the gorgeous sunset. Once we got back, I had a shower and then we had dinner right at 6pm – I don’t think anyone was expecting it so early as it was the first meal we had on time! After dinner, the drinking started again and we danced the night away – it was a lot of fun!
Monday morning, I woke up just after 7:30, had coffee in the sun, and waited for breakfast. After eating, they took the boat into the middle of the lake so that we could go swimming. The water was so refreshing since the sun was quite hot that day. We spent some last-minute time in the sun before having lunch, packing up, and heading back to shore to get back to our truck 😦 I was so sad to leave the houseboat – I’ve missed being on the water! We stopped at a grocery store to stock up on snacks and then started our journey towards Antelope Park. That day, we stopped at Chinhoyi Cave National Park but didn’t arrive until after dark. We set up our tents and had a late dinner before going to bed, and it was absolutely freezing that night! Everything felt really damp (likely cause of the houseboat) and we changed altitude so fast, so it was my coldest night so far. On Tuesday morning, a group of us went to check out the cave. We had to pay three dollars to take a short walk down into the cave, which was filled with bright blue water. It was quite pretty! After our walk, we went to the grocery store to prepare our meals for the next three days, and then we drove the rest of the way to Antelope Park, where we spent three nights. Antelope Park was also quite cold so I spent most of my free time relaxing inside, playing cards and doing crosswords. At this location, there was horse crap all over the campground, and I was quite surprised to find a donkey next to our tent the first night. The next morning, I woke up to 7 horses just grazing outside our tent! The campsite also had a bunch of cats, which would come join us for dinner or cuddle with us in the cafe. Needless to say, I spent the entire three days having quite a bit of difficulty breathing. Antelope Park houses a lion conservation program, where they’re trying to breed wild lions from captive lions so that the cubs can eventually be released back into the wild. Most of the lions are from zoos or orphanages and will never be able to go back into the wild because they’ve had too much human contact. The company has started a four-stage program to allow these lions to live in as natural of an environment as possible, where they can still hunt game and build prides. One morning, I took part in a lion walk, which was such a cool experience! We walked with three 20-month old lions, which were basically full grown – two females and one male. We each had to carry a stick, which was used to show dominance and we had to abide by many rules, such as staying behind the lions, not crouching down, always staying with the group, etc. I was quite scared at first considering these lions weren’t being restrained in any way, but it was just like walking a dog! The lions would lead the way, and then they might get sidetracked by an impala or gazelle in the distance and run off, and then they might walk right beside you so you could pet them while walking, or they might just be bored of walking and lie down in the sun. It was such a cool once-in-a-lifetime experience; I never thought I’d be in such close proximity to a lion, let alone pet one!

 

On Friday morning, we left Antelope Park to go to Bulawayo, the second biggest city in Zimbabwe. We stopped to do some grocery shopping and then got to our campsite, which has a freezing cold pool and some very slow wifi (but the first time I’ve had wifi in over a week!). This morning, we went on a rhino trek, which was pretty awesome! The guides estimate that rhinos could only be around for up to five more years because people keep poaching them. The horn of the rhino is extremely valuable so poachers continue to skin off the faces of rhinos and leave the rest of their bodies. When we went to the national park to see the rhinos, there was someone walking around the park with a gun who is allowed to shoot any poachers that he sees. They said that they’ll catch and/or kill 20-25 poachers each month! We saw a mom and her baby, and we also saw a male rhino. We were less than 100 metres away but I think I was more scared about it than I was when I walked with the lions! Today, we’re spending the rest of the day relaxing and then we head to Victoria Falls tomorrow morning. Hope everyone’s having fun at home; be there in two weeks! Love always

Africa (Kenya, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, and Zanzibar)

Africa has been a blast so far! On Tuesday morning at 7:45, I was picked up from my hostel in Nairobi to join the tour. There were five other people at the hostel with me – three Dutch girls, one Brazilian guy, and an American girl. We joined the rest of the group who had already been travelling for over a week. This kind of caused a division in our group, and most of the newer people ended up sticking together because we found it quite hard to integrate ourselves with many of the people who had already formed relationships with each other. We were also joined by an American couple and a Kiwi girl (who has also been living in London for the past two years, and we lived five minutes away from each other for 1.5 years!). Our drive to Arusha was quite long – we ended up getting to Arusha after about 9 hours and then we were given one hour to stock up on food and water in an empty grocery store (it literally didn’t even have water). We then got to our campsite and learned how to set up our tents (which we’ll be experts at after the next few weeks!). However, we weren’t given a briefing when we got there so all of the new people have felt quite lost with trying to figure out what to do and how everything works. We had a great pasta dinner (which has been the majority of most of our meals) and then had an introduction evening, where we learned everyones’ names and occupation (mostly everyone is a teacher, and there are 22 people in our group). The next morning, we had to be ready by 7 to leave for the Serengeti. However, at 5 in the morning, we were all woken up by the (very loud) call to prayer that blasted throughout the city.
To get to the Serengeti, we had to separate into three vehicles. I went with the three Dutch girls (Kar, Susan, and Donna), three Americans (Yusef, Cassie, and T), and the Kiwi (Michelle). Our driver’s name was Hamadi, and he was the best driver! We all formed a great bond singing and dancing to endless music while being in the vehicle for about 10 hours each day for three full days together. The first day was a lot of driving! We drove all the way to the Serengeti, which is less than 300km away, but it took over ten hours. We were able to see a few animals on our trip (zebras, giraffes, ostriches, and hyenas) and watched the sunset as well. We stopped for a picnic on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater and we also stopped at a souvenir shop. Late in the afternoon, they took us to a Masai village. The Masai live without electricity, live off of domesticated animals, and still have to collect their water from miles away. Many men become “warriors” from age 14-28, and they’re in charge of standing guard and protecting the community from  wild animals. In order to become a warrior, they have to get circumcised and then they put white designs on their faces with paint, and have to wear traditional clothing for three months. Warriors aren’t allowed to get married so they have to wait until after they’re 28. When they reach this point, they have to kill a lion in order to get married. Then they have to go to another village to find a woman to marry, and bring back to their community. The Masai people believe in polygamous relationships, and one wife is usually equivalent to 25 cows. We were allowed to go into one of the houses as well as look at their school, which was just one tiny room with benches and a lot of kids. While it was cool to see, a bunch of us were wondering if it was just for show, as we all had to pay in order to see the village. When we arrived at our campsite in the Serengeti, all of our tents were (luckily) set up for us since it was already dark. We then had a late dinner and went to bed.
On Thursday, we had to be packed and ready for breakfast by 6am. We left to explore the Serengeti at 7. Within the first hour, we had already seen so much – buffalo, zebra, gazelle, and a whole bunch of lions! It was so crazy to have the lions walk right in front of your vehicle so that you were metres away from them! We also saw many giraffes, monkeys, different types of birds, elephants, hyenas, warthogs, and ostriches. It was insane! We drove around the Serengeti for about five hours total, then went back to camp to have lunch, and then we drove to the Ngorongoro Crater, which took about five hours. We got there just before sunset, which was lucky because the entire campsite was covered in poo! We set up our tents, had dinner at about 8:30, and then went to bed. As soon as we got into our tents, we heard hyenas laughing in the distance – it was so crazy! It was freezing that evening because we were sleeping on the rim of the crater, which was at very high altitude. I stupidly got the thinnest sleeping bag I could find (forgetting it would be winter in Africa), so I’ve been finding it quite difficult to keep warm. The next morning, there was a fresh buffalo poop about 5-10 metres away from our tent, so we had at least one visitor! We had breakfast at 6am again, in front of the sunrise, and then we started our tour around the crater. The crater was gorgeous! The clouds would start drifting down into the crater, so it looked like there was a constant cloud waterfall around the rim of the crater. We had to drive down into the crater, and then we could drive throughout it. Within the first 15 minutes, we saw six lions slowly pacing towards a lone buffalo. We were hoping to see an attack, but the lions didn’t seem too determined. Every time they got 50 metres from the buffalo, he would turn around and run for awhile and then wait for them to get close again. That day, we saw a lot of buffalo, wildebeest, zebras, warthogs, hyenas (play-fighting in the water), giraffes, gazelles, and hippos! One of the groups got a flat tire so we had to sit for quite awhile so our driver could help change the tire. As soon as we got going again, we saw a lion that looked like it was ready to pounce. It started sprinting towards a lone buffalo and kept clawing and biting at it while the buffalo ran away. Once it reached its pack, the entire buffalo pack turned onto the lone lion and started running towards it so the lion ran away. It was such a cool thing to see, and definitely topped the whole trip! After driving around the crater for five hours, we went back to camp to have lunch and then we drove back to Arusha. It was a long trip back, but it was a lot of fun since it was the last time we’d have with our driver. He taught us how to sing a traditional song in Swahili, which was really awesome! We got back to camp before sunset, but the tents hadn’t arrived yet so we had to wait over an hour until we could set everything up. There was quite a bit of hostility between the entire group because we were supposed to tip our drivers at the end of the trip and many people cheaped out. We were supposed to give all the tips to one person, who would split all of the tips evenly to the three drivers, but one vehicle was unhappy with their driver because he kept stalling and got a flat tire, so they wanted to tip their driver and only their driver. They ended up giving 5 dollars each to their driver, while the other group gave 10 dollars each to their driver. Our group had such a great time with our driver and I’m glad we were all on the same page cause we all gave 20 dollars each to our driver. Our group has felt quite isolated from the original group, so I’m glad we all have each other! It was some peoples’ last night, so now our group is down to 19 people.
Saturday, we got to sleep in a little bit and had to be ready for 7am. However, we were still woken up at 5 for the call to prayer. We then headed towards Dar es Salaam, but had to stop halfway in a small town called Korogwe. That night, a bunch of us volunteered to help prepare dinner, which basically just involved chopping up vegetables so the guide could add it to the soup, stew, and salad. After dinner, I saw the guide walk away with a jar of Aromat, which is a European spice that’s equivalent to MSG. I knew I’d be sick, and I ended up being sick for about four days straight. While it seems quite normal for most of us to have upset stomachs (our group is VERY open about that kind of thing cause you have to be), it’s still been difficult to be hungry, eat, and immediately be sick (and stuck in a vehicle for 7+ hours each day). Anyway, the next morning we continued to Dar es Salaam, which took about six or seven hours. We stayed in a campsite right on the beach and we had a private pool! However, it wasn’t as sunny as we were hoping so most of us just sat by the pool and visited with each other. That evening, we had a special prepared dinner (usually people take turns preparing the meals), which was great! The next morning, we had to get up early again so that we could catch a ride on a tuk-tuk to the ferry. The first ferry we took only took about two minutes and it was just to the other side of the river. We then had to walk about 20 minutes with our heavy bags (in the sun) in order to get to the next ferry. Since the ferry didn’t leave for another hour, we just sat around and cooled off in the air-conditioned depot. The ferry ride to Stone Town, Zanzibar took two hours, so we arrived at about 11:30am. Even though Zanzibar is technically still part of Tanzania, we still had to fill out entry forms and go through passport control. We went to the hotel and I was paired with Michelle (the kiwi girl). Our room was humongous! It had a king sized bed, as well as two single beds. And we didn’t have to sleep on the floor for the first time in days! We all went for lunch, where I had chicken biryani and then we were given the option to go on a walking tour (not free) or have three hours of free time. I downloaded a self-guided walking tour so the girls (Michelle, Susan, and Kar) and I did that instead. We checked out the beach and a market. Then we went to Zanzibar Coffee House, where we had dessert for the first time in over a week! I had an iced latte with chocolate mousse pie, which was amazing! We then took a walk to the food markets, but stayed closer to the outside when we realised we would get hassled. We then met up with the rest of the group at Africa House, which is a rooftop bar with a view of the ocean and sunset – it was nice and relaxing! Afterwards, we went to the night market to find something for dinner and I got a Zanzipizza, which has a crepe bottom, and then the toppings of the “pizza” are mixed with egg and then poured on top of the dough to cook. I tried to keep it simple with just tomato and cheese since I had been feeling sick the past few days, but it still didn’t help 😦 the antimalarial pills might be having an effect on me. However, the Zanzipizza was still really good! On Tuesday morning, we had the option to go to Prison Island, which was originally built for a prison but was never actually used as a prison. This is because they had an outbreak of cholera and chicken pox many years ago, so they ended up quarantining all of the people who were sick. Now, the island is used as a turtle sanctuary, where they have giant tortoises (which are an endangered species) and they’ve been breeding them to increase the population. The tortoises are huge! We got to feed them and touch them, which was really cool! After that, we got back in the boat to make the half-hour trip back to Zanzibar, but we also stopped so that some people could do some snorkelling. That day for lunch, we got to go to a local’s house, who made us a curry rice dish and it was so delicious! We all had to take off our shoes at the door, walk through the huge living room and dining room, and then there were two large rooms with only rugs and food placed on them. We sat on the floor while eating our meals and I think normally, we’d have to eat with our hands, but they gave us a spoon. After our meal, we went to the spice farm where we saw the different plants and trees that made different spices and fruits. It was really neat to hear what the locals used certain spices for (in terms of medicine and everyday needs). We got to see turmeric root (which turned our hands yellow), we bit a stem which tasted exactly like pepper, we got to smell lemongrass, cloves and cinnamon. The cinnamon tree was really neat cause the bark smelled like cinnamon and the roots smelled like Vicks rub (used to put on chests to clear the sinuses). We also got to see vanilla, jackfruit, papaya, nutmeg, durian, and ginger root. After the tour, the locals had weaved all of the girls vine crowns and all of the boys ties. We then got to sample some of the fruits, such as grapefruit, mandarin, pineapple, watermelon, and banana. We took a one-hour ride to the north part of the island, which is where I am now and where we’re spending the next three nights. Unfortunately today, it’s been cloudy and rainy all morning so I’m hoping it’ll clear up soon so I can enjoy my time on the beach. Hope everyone’s enjoying their time back at home! Love always

 

Africa – Toto

Another Day in Paradise (Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Nairobi, Diani Beach, Kenya)

My Europe trip finished before I knew it and I’ve already moved onto my Africa trip! Actually, once I reached my last destination in Europe (Prague), everything started to go downhill so I think I was almost relieved to get back to London. The last time I posted, I was in Belgrade, Serbia, which was really nice but also really hot! During the last week of my trip, it was a constant 33 degrees (except in Prague, where it often just rained). I did the walking tour in Belgrade and then I spent the rest of the day exploring the city. I had limited myself to 20 pounds per day (including accommodation) during my entire trip, and it got more and more difficult as I got further north. This was only the beginning of my struggles in trying to keep up with my daily limit.
On Tuesday morning, I had to catch a 7am train to Budapest. This was the first time during my entire trip when I took a train, and it also ended up being the only time. A bus ride was 6 hours and a train ride was 8 hours, but the train was cheaper so I opted for the longer trip. I ended up getting an entire Harry Potter carriage to myself, which I was so thankful for but after 45 minutes, a guy from South Korea asked if he could sit with me. I said yes, although I was somewhat disappointed. Then, he continued to talk and talk nonstop! For those of you who know me, I hate mornings, and I hate talking to people in the morning, especially when I haven’t had my coffee. I struggled for about an hour and excused myself so I could go find the restaurant carriage. As I walked over, I noticed that every other carriage was completely empty… this guy came specifically looking for someone to talk to! I wondered if it would be rude if I went and grabbed my stuff and moved to a different carriage, and decided against it. I endured his conversation for hours, even when the train stopped randomly for over and hour and a half – increasing our total time to ten hours! When I finally got to Budapest, I was not disappointed! Oftentimes, I don’t like hearing how much other people liked or disliked a city because it builds up my expectations and I end up being disappointed. Budapest is a city that I constantly hear about but it didn’t disappoint whatsoever! The architecture everywhere is absolutely beautiful, and I instantly had the feeling, “I could live here.” I went on my usual walking tour the next day, and then had lunch with some of the people on the tour. I then spent the rest of the day walking around and trying to stay cool by spending time in the stores. The next day, I was really wanting to go to the thermal baths since it was supposed to be another hot day, but it would cause me to go over my budget. I therefore decided to go for lunch at an amazing soup & sandwich spot called Bors Gasztro Bar. I then decided to walk to the city’s island, where I could sit by the musical fountain for hours and hours (for free!). The fountain continued throughout the day, but the music only happened for about 15-20 minutes every hour on the hour, and the fountain and music were synchronised perfectly! I stayed for about three hours before heading back to my hostel to have dinner.
On Friday, I took a two-hour bus ride to Bratislava, Slovakia. These buses (RegioJet) were better than most European planes I’ve been on! We each got our own TV with a selection of movies, and you could order food or drinks, and have as many complimentary coffees/teas/cappuccinos as you wanted! The time went by extremely fast and I got there just in time to do an evening walking tour – the communist tour. It was one of my favourite walking tours because the girl was so passionate about the subject and knew her information really well. The next morning, I went on the actual city walking tour, which was the history of Bratislava. It was quite interesting to hear how peaceful most of their protests were, and how they broke away from Czechoslovakia. Bratislava had also lost most of its Old Town because they had to decide which city they would preserve – Prague or Bratislava (and they obviously chose Prague). However, I still think Bratislava is quite charming and I enjoyed my time there. That day, they had a music festival happening so I was able to watch some live music and enjoy my time in the sun. The next day, I wandered across the river (over their famous UFO bridge) and spent some time in the park. It started pouring later that afternoon so I spent the rest of my time in the hostel.
On Monday, I went to my last destination – Prague. I took the same type of bus so I got to watch movies during the trip. However, I started to feel a bunch of pressure right around my nose. Halfway through the trip, the bus driver stopped for a bathroom break and as I got up, the pressure increased and I had an extreme pain go through my nose and forehead. (Warning: too much information up ahead!) When I went to the bathroom and bent over, liquid came streaming out of my nose – it was like someone had turned a tap on! It filled up my hand and it felt like a nosebleed but when I looked down, it was just like water. I then went to my phone to figure out what was happening and the majority of posts said it was brain fluid!! I then started freaking out and wrote my doctor friend in Canada (thanks Raman!) who assured me that it was only sinusitis and I had nothing to worry about. I got to Prague and decided to take it easy that evening since my head was still hurting and I still felt stuffed up. The next morning, I woke up to some bites on my arms, which made me somewhat concerned. The bites continued to add up each morning during my time in Prague – mostly on one side of my body. That morning, I took my last walking tour, which was also interesting hearing the Czech side of Czechoslovakia, and then explored the east side of the city. Wednesday morning was when everything started to go downhill. I tried to check in to my flight online and it wouldn’t let me. I then called the airline and he replied that my booking had been cancelled and I didn’t have a seat on the flight. “Umm.. excuse me?” He said I’d have to call Expedia to sort it out, and didn’t seem willing to help out any further. The thing that ticked me off about this was that at the beginning of May, I had gotten an email saying that my booking was cancelled and if it was an error, I should phone them. So I phoned them and the guy basically just laughed and said I had nothing to worry about and my booking was still there! Well, apparently not… I called Expedia and he said I didn’t have a seat on the plane and he’d try to sort it out. He asked if I wanted to stay on the line or get a call back, and he said it could take 5 minutes or an hour. I opted for a call back and I couldn’t even say bye before I started crying in the middle of the cafe. About an hour later, I got a call saying everything had been sorted out (thank goodness!), and I should wait an hour before trying to check in again. I went to check in when he said, but it still wouldn’t let me! I called the airline and they said I’d have to wait until I got to the airport. Someone else I met while travelling said the same thing had happened to him and then when he showed up at the airport, they told him that there weren’t any seats available, so I was paranoid that was going to happen to me. I tried to keep myself occupied by going to the other side of the river and exploring the castle grounds. The next morning, I made my way to the airport. I walked to the nearest metro station in the pouring rain, only to find out that the station was closed. I then had to take a tram to the next station, and eventually I made it to the airport. The weird thing about this airport is that they had security right before each gate. Therefore, if you wanted to eat at a restaurant or buy a bottle of water, you’d have to get it sealed before boarding the plane. I went through security and bought some water from a vending machine, and waited to board. They finally started boarding us when we were supposed to be leaving and then when about half the people were on the plane, one of the security guys came from the plane and started yelling at the flight attendants in Czech. They then stopped checking people in, and everyone who was on the plane had to get back off. They announced that we would find out more information in an hour. Great! Since it was lunch, I decided to go eat but I had to leave the gate, meaning I’d have to re-enter security with my bottle of water. I asked if it would be okay and the guy said he’d remember me. I went and got some goulash and then when I went to re-check in, the security guy was just leaving! The new lady seemed pretty pissed off that I was trying to bring a bottle of water in, but she put it in her box thing, saw it was safe, and let me bring it in. I boarded the plane and they announced that they were waiting for the go-ahead to start flying. We waited while sat down for over an hour, and we were 20 minutes short of getting compensation by the time we finally left (I swear they do that on purpose). By the time I got to London, I was physically, mentally and emotionally drained. And I was seriously questioning all of the bites on my body, which I was hoping weren’t from bedbugs. I waited in the long line to get through passport control and then went to get on the bus that I had prebooked. However, because the plane was so late, the driver said my ticket was no longer valid and I’d have to buy a new one. By that time, I was just annoyed and mad, and I stubbornly decided to wait for four hours until I could use my other bus ticket (which I had bought for my cancelled flight). However, I realised that I’d probably spend the same amount on food while waiting as I would on the bus ticket, and decided to just take the bus anyway. I got to my hostel, got some food, and then went to bed. My bug bites continued to swell over the next two days and became at least the size of a dime and were bright red. I became more and more concerned, and questioned everyone I met on whether they were bug bites or not. That Friday was the Phil Collins concert! The doors opened at 2 so I headed over for 2:30, and then there were five concerts. The concert was in Hyde park, so there weren’t any seats but everyone sat on the grass between concerts and then stood during the performances. After the first performance, a mother and daughter (who was about my age) came and sat beside me and I noticed a Canada flag on their backpack. They then pulled out a deck of cards, which was also Canadian. I couldn’t help but ask, and I found out that they were from Vancouver, doing a trip in Italy and Germany, and flew to London just for the Phil Collins concert. It was nice to see some fellow Canadians, and the night was so good, it helped keep my mind off of everything else. Phil Collins’ voice is still just as good as ever, but he had to use a cane on stage and he sat in a chair during the entire performance. His 16-year-old son was his drummer, which was pretty cool! Saturday was Canada day! There was a huge get-together at Trafalgar Square from 12-8, so I headed over for 12:30. I waited for one of my former flat mates to show up with her girlfriend, and then we stood in the extremely long line for Poutine. They had one line to order and one line to collect, and it took us about an hour and a half just to get through the order line so we got to know the people around us quite well. However, once we got closer to the front, we noticed there were tons of people trying to butt in line, so we had to stay glued to the person in front of us. Sam and I basically stood as a human wall so that people couldn’t get through. There was one point when I turned and told everyone that no one would be getting in the line because we’ve been waiting our turns and no one would be let in. Then when I got to the front, someone tried to cut right in front of me, so I had to say, “No, all of us have stood in line for an hour and a half so you’re going to let us go first,” which she did. If London’s taught me anything, it’s to have a backbone! I don’t like anyone getting in the way of me and my Poutine! Anyway, we finally got the ticket to order and then had to get in the collection line, which took another half hour. However, our two hour wait was totally worth it! The Poutines were delicious! Apparently the line to get to Tim Horton’s was also over two hours, so I decided I’d have to wait a few more weeks to get my iced cappuccino. One of the event coordinators said that there were 69,000 people who attended Canada day! I also found out that the Grey Cup was there! I stood in line for 2-3 hours during a blades game to see the grey cup and when I had gotten to the front, the Roughriders said, “okay, we’re done” and walked away with the Cup. This time when I went, there were five people in line so I easily got a picture! After we finished our Poutines (and my flatmate’s friend shared a Nanaimo bar!), Kim called and said she arrived. I met up with her and her friends, who I had met before at Thanksgiving, and we spent the rest of the day drinking Sleeman’s Honey Brown (until it ran out). We went out for dinner at Nando’s (a popular chicken place in the U.K.), and then we bought alcohol and stood on the street in front of the Canadian pub (the Maple Leaf), where hundreds of other Canadians were hanging out. We stayed out until about 10pm and then I headed back to the hostel.
On Sunday, I had made plans with my flatmate to pick up my mail so I had also made plans to meet up with one of my co-workers for coffee in that area. She also didn’t know what my bites were, but suggested I go to the pharmacy to ask. I got them checked and the pharmacist said they weren’t bedbugs, and I probably got them cause I was sleeping right next to an open window in Prague. I also got a message from my flatmate, who said that she couldn’t be at the flat anymore cause she slept over at her friend’s house, and could I come the next day instead. Super annoying since it costs my five pounds every time I go there, and I was already in the neighbourhood. I was also planning to drop off my Europe suitcase and pick up my Africa suitcase from Kim the following day, but she wrote and said she didn’t feel comfortable taking my Europe bag and couldn’t risk getting bedbugs in her flat. This was completely understandable but also extremely inconvenient, and I was getting to the point where I just wanted to go back to Canada because nothing seemed to be going right. I called my parents in tears and they reassured me that everything would work itself out. Lucky for me, I was able to find a company that would pick up my suitcase and then drop it off when I needed it again. However, it needed to be packed in a box so they’d have to deliver the box, then I’d have to pack the box, and they’d collect it the following day. The soonest they could deliver the box was in two days, meaning I wouldn’t actually be there when they collected the box. Lucky for me, my hostel was really accommodating and said I could leave the box with them and they’d make sure the delivery man got it.
I went to bed and the next day, I went to the bank to order the money I’d need for my African trip, which I’d have to pick up the following day. I then stopped at Primark to pick up some clothes for my trip, and then I made my way to my flat. My flatmate wrote me that morning saying she wasn’t able to come to the flat and her boyfriend would come at 4:30. I wrote my flatmate to tell her I was on my way, heard nothing, wrote her when I was at our station, still nothing, and then walked to the flat and called her when I was there. She said she was just about to message me and her boyfriend was on his way. 20 minutes later, he finally showed up and I got my mail. However, the letter I was expecting for taxes wasn’t there! I headed to Kim’s to pick up my backpack for Africa, which was also quite stressful because I had packed things in different bags and had to remember where everything was located and if I forgot anything (I’ve already realised I’ve forgotten quite a few things). Tuesday was my last full day in London, and the waiting day (which was kind of inconvenient). I had to wait for the box to arrive so I could pack my suitcase, so I went to do laundry, then went to pick up my money at the bank, and then did some last clothes shopping. Finally, my box had arrived! I packed everything up and left it with the hostel, and then headed to my other hostel, which would be closer to the bus station.
The next morning, I had to get up at 4:30 so I could make it to the bus station by 6, and head to the airport. My flight left at 10am and was about 7 hours to Dubai. I was able to watch three movies, and then I had a five hour layover in Dubai. Everything in Dubai was so expensive! Even the burgers at McDonald’s were 10 dollars! I avoided buying anything there and waited to eat on my next flight to Nairobi, which was five hours. I finally got there at 5:40am and then had to wait to get my Kenyan visa, which took at least an hour. This cut back some of my layover there, and then I had to re-check in and catch my 50 minute flight to Mombasa, which ended up being 20 minutes late. I arrived in Mombasa at about 10:30am but when I went outside, my pre-ordered taxi wasn’t there! I asked to use someone’s phone and called the hostel, who said I’d have to ask for another taxi and he’d cover the cost. What I didn’t realise was how long the taxi would take. By the time I go to the hostel, it was about 1-1:30pm! However, the taxi driver kept doing errands – stopping at the tire shop to get his tire fixed, stopping at the gas station twice, etc. It should have only taken 1.5 hours but it took way longer. I was exhausted by the time I got to the hostel, but the gave me an upgrade since the taxi didn’t come, which was great! I slept in an amazing treehouse, meaning I had to climb up and down a ladder in order to enter and exit, but it was so cool! I loved being able to sit on the private deck and watch the monkeys jump from tree to tree. The owner of the hostel is Canadian, and he also owns two other properties close by, so I was allowed to walk over to the hotel and use the pool or take advantage of the beachfront location on the Indian Ocean. Every night at 7pm, the bushbabies would come out so we could feed them bananas; it was so cool! I ended up getting 11 hours of sleep on each of the first two nights that I was there – I was obviously exhausted from all of the travelling! During the day, I just relaxed by the pool and read my book. It was a much needed relaxing holiday! On Sunday morning, I had to take the 1.5 hour taxi ride back to the airport, only to find that my flight would be delayed an hour and 40 minutes. I finally made it to Nairobi at about 4pm and I got to meet a few people who would be going on the tour with me. This time, I slept in a tent-like 8-person dorm room, which got quite cold at night! Even though Nairobi is quite hot during the day (about 26 degrees), it goes down to about 12 in the nighttime since it’s their winter right now. And this is one of the warmer places! I might have to buy a few extra blankets to survive the nights. Today, I got to go to the Giraffe Centre to feed some giraffes, and then we went to the elephant orphanage, where they raise elephants until they’re about three years old (since they wouldn’t be able to survive without the milk of their mother), and then they reintroduce them back into the wild. They have 26 elephants right now, but they said they can get up to 20 elephants each year. Although some of the mothers are killed by natural causes, most are killed due to poaching for ivory, which causes these babies to grow up without a parent. It’s quite sad! They said that the best way to help is to avoid buying products made of ivory, so I’m passing this message along for everyone to make their own decisions on the subject. Tomorrow, I’m officially starting my African trip and we’ll be leaving quite early in the morning to start the 7-hour drive to our next destination in Tanzania. I’ll try to update as much as I can, but I don’t think we’ll have much access to wifi. Hope everyone’s doing well! Love always
Another Day in Paradise – Phil Collins

See The World (Rome, London, Lithuania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Serbia)

My extremely long vacation has already begun! Since I last wrote, I’ve been up to quite a lot. I went back to work for five more weeks, which turned out fine even after the awkward conversation before the holiday. I only had to teach the year 12’s two more times and the Head of Biology had to observe me during one of those times, which I think we both thought was quite unnecessary and pointless. The situation with my flatmate also turned out – I ended up getting my deposit back, and I’m now officially moved out. And my mom left 😦 After she got back from Edinburgh, we had about four days left together.
On Monday night, we went out to celebrate my birthday and had a steak dinner followed by going to Kinky Boots, which again, was amazing! My mom left on Wednesday morning and then my birthday was the following day. I didn’t do anything special that evening but I met up with Becky on Friday night to go for drinks. The following weekend, I went to Rome! I left early Saturday morning and took Monday off to come back that evening. Adriana (one of my friends who was also an au pair in France) was coming to Italy with her fiancé, so Helena (my other au pair friend) and I decided to make the trip to Rome to see her after 8 years. Helena and I both got to Rome at about noon so we were able to check into our airbnb and have a much-needed lunch. This trip, I decided to treat myself and buy good food instead of finding the cheapest deal and being disappointed, so this food experience in Italy was MUCH better than my last. We did a bit of walking around and then found a nice cafe in front of the Pantheon to have drinks until Adriana and Jake showed up. It was so great to all be reunited again! We didn’t end up having dinner until about 11 so it ended up being a late night. The next morning, it was the first Sunday of the month so all museums were free! We went for lunch and coffee, and then decided to try out the Colosseum. The line-up was so long and we kept second-guessing whether we should stay in line or not. Luckily, it moved very fast and we ended up getting tickets within half an hour. It was neat seeing the Colosseum on the inside, but it probably wasn’t anything I’d pay money to see (which thankfully, I didn’t have to that day!). With our tickets, we also got free entrance into the Roman Forum, so we took some time walking around that and then headed back into central Rome to meet up with Adriana and Jake for dinner. That was our last night together and then the next morning, we had all booked tickets to the Vatican (at different times). Helena and I went for lunch before heading to the Vatican Museum. The Sistine Chapel seemed to be at the very end of the museum and we were forced to walk through all of the other rooms with no air conditioning. Both of us were ready to be out within five minutes! Unfortunately, there weren’t any other exits so we just had to follow the crowd. They’d have wide halls to walk through with the art on either side and then they’d just have one small door at the end of each hall, where hundreds of people had to go into. After doing that over and over again for about twenty minutes, we finally got to the Sistine Chapel! It was super quiet and we weren’t allowed to take pictures, but it wasn’t as great as I thought it was going to be. Honestly, I thought some of the other ceilings in the museum were nicer. After seeing the Chapel, we saw that we’d have to continue with the crowd to finish the rest of the museum so we snuck through the “tour guides only” door to escape. We then went to St. Peter’s Basilica, which I’ve already seen before but it was still just as beautiful. We had some gelato before making our way back to central Rome to get our suitcases and catch our buses back to the airport.

The next weekend, I went to The Kooks concert, which was great! It was at Alexandra Palace, which is on a hilltop so it has a beautiful view of London. They played all of their classic songs, so everyone got into it. However, it was a standing concert so I was definitely exhausted by the time it finished. The following day, I went to The English School of Falconry with Becky so that we could meet some owls and eagles! We had to take a train ride to Bedford (which took about two hours) and then take a bus to Cotton End, which is where the farm was located. It was such a cool experience – not only being able to hold the owls and eagles, but actually being able to have them fly to and from your arm! The day showed me just how much of a personality birds have; it was a really entertaining day!

The next week was my last week in the classroom, which was just a revision week so it was pretty easy. However, the school wanted me to write end-of-year reports before I left since the teacher replacing me wouldn’t know the students as well. I had to write reports for all of my year 7-10 students, meaning I had to write just over 150 reports – each at least four sentences long, and no copying and pasting allowed! I definitely started to lose motivation towards the end of the report-writing, as I felt like I was constantly repeating myself. That Friday, I went to the Beach Boys concert, which was another good concert. It blew my mind hearing that they formed in 1961, and they were still performing! They seemed to play a lot of unknown or unfamiliar songs (for me anyway) and saved all of the classics for last. However, I heard over and over again: “Aren’t you too young to be here?” “Do you even know what concert you’re at?”, etc. On Saturday, I packed all of my stuff and then I transferred it all to Kim’s house on Sunday because she graciously allowed me to keep everything there while I travelled for the next few months.

On Monday, I went to the Close Talker concert. I remember thinking I’d be lucky to watch them ONCE while I was in London but I was seeing them for the third time! I walked into the bar and saw someone who looked familiar, but often my mind plays tricks on me when I’m abroad and I think I see people I know. However, he half-smiled at me so I was like, “Hello? What are you doing here?” (Really hoping that this was the guy who I thought he was). Luckily, he replied and said that he and his wife were travelling and decided to come to the Close Talker concert. I hadn’t seen him since high school, which was almost ten years ago! Anyway, I joined them for drinks and for the concert. On Tuesday night, I went out for dinner with the Biology department and then on Wednesday night, I went to my last musical with Kim 😦 We decided to go to School of Rock, which was really well done! The guy who played the main character was so much like Jack Black. On Thursday, I went to get my last vaccine and to drop off (what I thought was) my last bag at Kim’s, and then Friday was my last night! I went out for drinks with my flatmate and her friends before packing up the last of my stuff and cleaning my room. I was moved out by 8:30 Saturday morning. I don’t know HOW I thought it would be a good idea to plan my trip the day after my last day of work AND move out at the same time, while making sure two year’s worth of stuff was packed away. Somehow, I did it and I’m quite impressed with myself!

On Saturday, I flew to Vilnius, Lithuania. Apparently that day, the IT system crashed in both Gatwick and Heathrow airports so most of the flights were delayed or cancelled. Lucky for me, I flew out of Luton so my flight wasn’t affected (although it was 20 minutes late). I got to Vilnius at about 7:30pm so I went out for dinner and had some amazing pea soup. I wish I got to explore more of the city because it was really cute, but I had an early morning the next day and had to get up at 4:30. I caught an uber to the airport (which only cost me 2 euro!) and then flew to Kyiv at 7am. I arrived at 8:30 but by the time I got to my hostel, it was about 10:30. I couldn’t figure out where my hostel was located or how to get in because there weren’t any signs and my phone was almost dead. I ran to McDonald’s to get wifi and found out I had found the right place but had to put in a code to get in. I finally got in, went up the four flights of stairs and pressed the doorbell about 15 times but no one came! I ended up sitting on the steps for about a half hour and then tried again, and was let in! The hostel had a brand new kitten, which was good and bad cause I couldn’t breathe most of the time I was there, but she was so cute and playful so I couldn’t resist.

That day, I was determined to find perogies and borscht so I looked up one of the cheaper places to go to and walked there (which took about a half hour). The thing with Kyiv is they’ve really preserved their culture, in that they don’t have signs written in English and not many people speak English. Unlike many other major cities, where they’ve changed their ways to get more tourism. I admired this about Ukraine, but it also made me feel somewhat ashamed because I didn’t know the language, and I couldn’t even understand the alphabet. Lucky for me, the restaurant I went to ended up having an English menu so I got my borscht and perogies! After lunch, I decided to go on a walking tour which focused on the Soviet history. I ended up being the only person on the tour, and the tour guide said I looked more Ukrainian than a tourist (yay!). She also was really surprised when I knew about all of the foods, but I spoke English.  That evening, I went for sushi cause it was so cheap! I was able to get two sets of sushi, a cider, and dessert for less than ten pounds (less than it would cost for ONE set of sushi in London!). The next morning, I went on another walking tour, which covered the ancient history of Ukraine. I then went for lunch with a bunch of people on the tour and we went to a buffet-like Ukrainian restaurant. There were four types of perogies and I asked for the ones that looked most similar to home and the lady gave me seven(!). However, when I cut into the first one, I was disappointed to see that there was meat inside. I tried it anyway and it wasn’t too bad! However, when I cut into my second one and an Australian girl sat beside me and asked if I knew what was inside, she informed me that it was liver! I was then thrown off of the perogies cause my mind took over my tastebuds. After lunch, I went to a cave monastery with a couple of the guys but the caves closed as soon as we got there. We decided to explore the monastery grounds for a few hours since we were there, and then we went for dinner. I went to bed early that night cause I had to catch my train to Lviv at 7 the next morning.

The trip to Lviv was five hours and I’m not kidding – it looked exactly like Saskatchewan the entire time! I was shocked as to how much it resembled home. I got to my hostel early that afternoon and then I went for lunch where I again had perogies. I then explored the little city, but it rained most of the time I was there. Lviv is a small and charming city and most people I met raved about it, but I ended up getting quite bored while I was there and I think I preferred Kyiv more. I spent the rest of the day wandering around, and made my way to the highest point of the city, where it started to pour! The next day, I looked for souvenirs and filled up on more Ukrainian food. I made my way back to Kyiv on Thursday morning. This time, I had booked first class and even ordered a tea (which I never got), but the seats were a hundred times worse than my third class seat on the other train. I was in another Harry Potter- like carriage but there were five of us in the six seats so our legs had to be moved to the side cause there was hardly any space between the two rows. Two people ended up pulling the beds out from the walls and lying on those so that the rest of us would have more space. It’s always difficult being in those compartments when you’re the only one who doesn’t speak the language though! I arrived in Kyiv that evening and finally found some cabbage rolls for my final meal in Ukraine. I then went to the hostel and went for drinks with a couple of people. On Friday morning, I went to a random cafe and after I ordered my meal, a man from the table beside me asked where I was from. He was from North Carolina and probably my dad’s age, but we had a good conversation during the duration of our breakfast. Towards the end, he got up and then came back to shake my hand and ask my name. He said his name was Bob and he paid for my meal(!), and he really enjoyed our conversation. That was a nice surprise! I did the last of my souvenir shopping. I got my own embroidered shirt (called a vyshyvanka) and I was once again told I had all of the Ukrainian features. The lady there was so friendly and told me how her son lived in America but she wants to move her daughter there too so her family can be together. She said how the last thirty years have been so difficult and that she’s hoping for victory and she burst into tears. I could feel her pain and it made me sad what all of the Ukrainian people were having to go through, and I started to cry as well. I then sat in Independence Square for one last time, where I had quite an emotional time. I was really sad to be leaving Ukraine, knowing that it likely wouldn’t be the same if I were to come again. I then took an Uber to the airport and went back to London. I had some time to kill so I went to my flat to get my last bag, went to Kim’s to drop it off, and then went to Becky’s cause I was staying at her place for the weekend. On Saturday, we went for breakfast and watched a movie, and then I headed to the Elton John concert! He had just finished going through his life-threatening illness and said how he was glad to still be alive. I think he was still getting better, as he seemed to really struggle the one time he walked across the stage, and he didn’t even do an encore. He may have, but I couldn’t tell if it was actually one cause he literally went off stage and was back on five seconds later. The best part was when he sung “Don’t let the sun go down on me” and it started pelting rain. We all had to get out our rain jackets and everyone else just danced in the rain. The rain stopped as soon as the song ended; it honestly felt like special effects. However, it was a good concert and the atmosphere was great! The next morning, Becky and I went for breakfast again before I made my way to the airport for my European trip.

I flew to Sofia, Bulgaria and arrived at my hostel at about 10:30 that night. It was a pretty cool hostel and had a treehouse feel to it. The next morning, I took the free walking tour and then wandered around for the rest of the day. On Tuesday, I took a free hiking tour, which took us to Sofia’s closest mountain (Vitosha). We walked about four or five hours, and it was a nice way to get out of the city!

On Wednesday morning, I got up nice and early to catch a cab to the bus station with an Australian girl. We were both planning to go to Skopje (scope-ee-ah), Macedonia but they informed us that the 7am bus was full. Luckily, there was a 9:30 bus, so we killed time at a coffee shop before catching the five hour bus ride. I met a Canadian guy (from Ottawa) as soon as I got to the hostel so we went out for a late lunch/early dinner and walked around  Skopje. Skopje is a city that reminds me of no other place I’ve seen before. It has such random statues (over 200) and buildings, which makes it very unique. It “copies and pastes” from a lot of other cities, so it has an Arc de Triomphe, random roman columns, red London buses, a couple of pirate ships in the river (which are restaurants), and now they’re in the middle of building a London eye. Also, Mother Theresa was born in Skopje! So as you can imagine, most Balkan main cities have a Mother Theresa Square, and at least one statue as well. We went back to the hostel, where I met two more Canadians (also from Ottawa, and who had been living in London for the past two years) so we exchanged our horror stories of working in London. On Thursday, I went on a walking tour, which was probably one of the best ones I’ve been on. It went for about 3 hours and 20 minutes but you hardly noticed cause the guide really knew his information. The coolest thing about many of the Balkan major cities is that any of the stray dogs who have tags on their ears (like cows) have been sterilised and vaccinated, meaning they’re safe to pet. And a lot of them are so loveable! We had tons join us on our walking tours. After the tour, a few of us (people from the Netherlands, Croatia, and England) went to Matka Canyon. In order to get there, we had to take a bus that only came once every 1.5-2 hours. We went to where the guide told us to wait and we waited for about 30-40 minutes. While we were waiting, some taxi drivers came over and offered to drive us there for ten euro but we declined. When the bus finally came, it just drove right past us! So we went back to the taxi drivers, who then decided they’d drive us for 15 Euro! We declined and decided we’d just wait for the next one and started walking to the bus station. Once we got over a block away, one of the taxi drivers had come running after us saying he’d take us for 10. So we took the taxi to the canyon, which was gorgeous! We did the hike through the canyon, which took an hour each way, and then we took the bus back to Skopje. However, about five minutes into our bus ride, the rear door window completely shattered into a million pieces. Glass flew everywhere, and there was a huge brick in the aisle! The guys behind me informed me that if it was half a second later, the brick would have hit me! So that was reassuring.. I went for dinner with some of the same people, and then the next day I went to Pristina, Kosovo (Prish-TEEN-ah, KOS-uh-voh).

Kosovo is the second newest country and is less than ten years old (in terms of independence) but it’s still having a lot of difficulty being accepted by the EU. Serbia also makes it very difficult on them since they gained independence, so they don’t actually allow direct public transportation from Kosovo to Serbia. They all love Americans since they played a big part in stopping the war, so they have a statue of Bill Clinton in the city. Anyway, I caught the bus with one of the Canadian people and the person in front of us asked where we were from. He was from Pristina, so when we arrived he took us for coffee and then we met his girlfriend and we all went for dinner. That night, I went out with some people from the hostel (from Mexico, Germany, France, and the Netherlands) so we got back to the hostel at about 2:30 and then ordered pizza (which ended up being 1.80 euro per pizza!!). The next day, I just did a lot of walking around. They didn’t have a walking tour since they’re still not used to having many tourists. I covered everything easily in a day though!

On Sunday, I took the bus to Tirana, Albania (teer-AN-ah), which took about five hours. I got there just in time to do the walking tour during the evening. I learned all about its history in being a communist country under a dictatorship. The guide compared his country to North Korea and said they were convinced that they were the best country, but had no contact with the outside world. They could only watch Albanian television, which was all propaganda and most people weren’t allowed to leave. He said they’ve only had vehicles for 23 years and they didn’t even have bananas until after 1991! The next day, I went to the cable car, which went up Tirana’s tallest mountain (Dajti). Because it was so hot, I didn’t wear my runners so I didn’t get a chance to hike, but it probably would have been too hot anyway. After heading back down, I went to BunkArt, which is a museum made in one of the bunkers. The museum basically went through the entire history of Albania, from fascism to communism to liberation. It was very interesting, and it definitely makes me want to read more about the history. Tirana is now a very colourful city because they painted all of the buildings from the dull grey communist period.

On Tuesday, I went to Podgorica, Montenegro. I got there mid-afternoon and took a walk around the city. I was told not to go to Podgorica because there’s nothing to do in the city and it’s much better going to the coast, but I wasn’t able to cancel my hostel reservation cause it was too late. While yes, Podgorica is quite a sleepy city with nothing to do in terms of tourism, it seems like most locals spend a lot of their time sitting in cafes or restaurants, so I joined in! The next day, I decided to go to their Niagara Falls, which is only 10km outside of the city. It’s called Niagara Falls because the restaurant that it’s beside is called Niagara. I took a taxi to the Falls and the hostel owner had said it should be maximum 5 euro but it ended up being 9! Scammed by another taxi driver, which is why I normally avoid taxis at all costs. Anyway, I spent the morning and most of the afternoon at the Falls. There’s a swimming pool area, which just looks like a river that doesn’t really flow. But then as you walk along the river, it literally just falls into the start of a canyon. It was really gorgeous, and a nice way to spend the afternoon in 33 degree weather! However, I was sitting in a rock in the water at one point and I happened to feel something brush against my side, which I thought was just a stick. When I looked down, there was a huge frog on my lap (like the size of my hand!). I’ve never jumped in the water so fast! Anyway, I caught a taxi back to Podgorica (which only cost 3.70 this time), and then I had dinner and hung out with some people at the hostel.

On Thursday, I went to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. I got there in the later afternoon (it was about a 6 hour bus ride), and then I had dinner and an early night in. The next day, I went on a walking tour, where I found out about the city. I then went for lunch, went back to the hostel, and then a bunch of us went on another walking tour, which was focused on the 44-month war, which was from 1992-1995. When Yugoslavia was composed of six countries, some of the countries started becoming more nationalistic. When Bosnia decided to break away from Yugoslavia, Serbia wasn’t very happy about it because a high percentage of Serbs still lived in Bosnia. The Bosnian Serbs were supplied with weapons from Serbia and because Sarajevo is in a valley, the Serbs only had to go on the surrounding hills and mountains and continuously launch missiles. The tour guide was 7 when the war started and she said that everyone had to move to the basement, and her building had 70 people. And she said that some of the people who went to go shoot could have been your neighbour or friend your entire life! Oddly enough, life still continued – people still went to school and work, they just had to run through the streets instead of walk. They got used to hearing and recognising the sound of a missile being launched, as well as it flying through the air so she said it gave them enough time to find shelter before it hit. However, many people weren’t so lucky. 1600 kids were killed in Sarajevo. In total, over 100,000 people were killed during the war. The UN supplied them with food each week but it was mostly canned meat, stale bread, and rice that was covered in dead worms. She said the medicines that they were supplied with had expired in the 70’s! People were kidnapped and put into concentration camps, where thousands were killed. Many of the people who were responsible are still on trial today. Bosnia now has three presidents – a Serbian president, a Croatian president, and a Bosnian president. They all have to agree unanimously before anything can go through. The unemployment rate for people between the ages of 25-35 is 62%! It just blows my mind how this was all happening during the early years of my life, and I was completely oblivious of it until now. The Balkan history is so recent and the effects of it are still evident. That evening, I went back to the hostel and hung out with some of the people there. The next day, I spent most of the day with a guy from America. We tried pretty much all of the Bosnian food possible: the ćevapi (sausages in pita), the Bosnian coffee (which is similar to Turkish coffee), and two desserts called kadaif (a thin ball of noodles, stuffed with walnuts and syrup) and tufahije (a baked apple filled with walnuts, sugar and cream, and topped with whipped cream). We also went up to the Yellow Fortress, which gave a great view of Sarajevo, and then we went to a war museum, which literally laid everything out in the table. Even the concentration camp museum I went to in Germany wasn’t this morbid. It was quite devastating to see how people were treated. Human beings are cruel. We are all brainwashed in one way or another to believe certain things, and we are convinced that other people aren’t living the “right” way. As I’ve said in another post, I really respected when I went to Germany and saw how open they were about their history, admitting the wrong that they did because they didn’t want it to happen again. Little did I know, it happened again 50 years later in Bosnia. People were delivered to concentration camps and tortured to death while I was innocently playing in the safe streets with my neighbours. Along the same lines, the last residential school in Canada closed in 1996! If you ask me, residential school is just a fancy name for concentration camp. Some Canadians still don’t even understand what happened at these schools, or that they even existed. And all three of these situations stemmed from religion. The Holocaust against the Jews, in Bosnia against Muslims, and residential schools were run by the church to convert Aboriginal peoples to Christianity. Ethnic cleansing. Whatever you want to call it. And believe it or not, that is STILL occurring. Trump. Brexit. “Cleaning” different nations and getting rid of what doesn’t “belong.” Who are we? History continues to repeat itself over and over, and it’s sickening. I have never questioned my beliefs and religion more than at this very moment.
Anyway, I took an 8-hour bus to Belgrade, Serbia yesterday and now I’m there! I was honestly nervous about coming to Serbia since they weren’t talked about in a great light in Kosovo and Bosnia. However, everyone has been very friendly and the city is really nice! I’m taking a break from people today. I’ve noticed today that how social I am depends on a pattern. I’ll be really social and click with a bunch of people who I get along with really well. People who I don’t have to have the same surface-level conversation with, and who I can just share my life story with, including my hard times and problems. Then, we have to part ways and I get really sad and closed off for a couple of days. This is where I’m at right now, as I met some really awesome people in Sarajevo. It’s like losing a friend every time! But in a day or two, I’ll be back to square one, ready to find new people. I swear, every conversation literally starts, “I’ve been living in London for the past two years.” “Oh, you were studying?” “No I was a teacher” Oh, you were teaching English?” (Why I’d go to London to teach English, I have no idea..) “No, I was teaching biology” “Oh, but how old are you?/aren’t you like 18?/you look too young to be a teacher.” I’ve now learned to embrace how people think I’m younger, and I now tend to get offended if I don’t get ID’d at a bar.
Anyway, I think this is getting a bit too long (I guess it’s been two months since I last wrote though). I hope everyone’s doing well! Love always
See the World – The Kooks

Family (Slovenia and Croatia)

My former flatmate said that her professor told her: a person knows they’ve made it as a blogger if the reader can feel like they’re just having a conversation with the writer. They can hear your voice and can feel your enthusiasm. Can you hear my voice in your ear? Sorry if it’s annoying… Well then, you might as well make a cup of tea cause we have lots to catch up on! Of course, this will be the type of conversation that consists of me just talking about myself the entire time. You can write back with your stories though; I’m sure I’d enjoy it! Another holiday has went by way too quickly (and this one was 18 days long!). Since I last wrote, I’ve been pretty busy with teaching, planning, and marking. I agreed to stay another half-term to help out the school, meaning instead of being finished at the school right now (like I could have been), I still have another 5 and a half weeks to go. I’ve definitely struggled with teaching my year 12’s, as a lot of the information that I’ve been teaching, I a) didn’t learn it until third-year university and therefore, don’t know it very well, or b) have never learnt it before (so I’m reading about it before the lesson, trying to understand it as best as I can, and then teaching it). Not only that, but I’ve talked to a few of my med-school friends, and THEY even said that they haven’t learnt the information that I’m teaching until this past year. Needless to say, I really haven’t enjoyed teaching my year 12’s, since I’m not as confident about the subject as I should be, and I spend so much of my extra time trying to learn about the topics. More on that later… (a lot more). 
During the past two months, I’ve been trying to enjoy my remaining time in London as best as I can. Ron came to visit again from China, so we met up for dinner. I also had my most embarrassing moment (or at least one of the top three most embarrassing moments of my life).  As I mentioned in my previous blog post, when I went to Copenhagen, I met a Canadian guy who lives in London so I was like, “Cool, a new Canadian friend!” So he wrote me when I got back from Copenhagen and was like, “Can I interest you in going to dinner?” Based on his text, I was kind of thinking, “Ah crap, this is not going to be a friend thing.” But I was keen on making a new friend, so I agreed to dinner. I met him at a bar and he asked if I wanted a drink so I said yes, but he had his card out and I was thinking, “No, I’m not giving the wrong impression,” so I made sure I paid for my own drink. Afterwards, we went to this Sri Lankan place for dinner and it was really good! He paid and I said, “No! let’s do half and half,” but he said I could get the drinks after so I agreed. We went to have drinks afterwards and he asked if I liked stand-up comedy, and I replied that I’ve never been. So he looked up a show and there was one only 15 minutes away that started in a half hour. We walked over and literally got the last two tickets. Anyway, the comedian decided to make fun of US. He asked, “Oh, is this a couple?” and I was like, “No.” He asked, “Is it a date?” and it was just an awkward silence. So he continued, “Is it a FIRST date?! Have you kissed yet?” “No.” “Well, how about they have their first kiss RIGHT HERE in front of everyone?” And the whole audience starts cheering and yelling, “Kiss kiss kiss” and I was just shaking my head. I’ve never been more embarrassed in my entire life – my cheeks were RED HOT. And for everyone wondering, no, we did not kiss. The following weekend, I went to a travel show with Kim. The travel show had a whole bunch of travel agencies who were trying to sell trips for discounted prices. I found out that one of the companies that I had been looking at would be at the show, and I ended up buying a 33-day trip to Africa, which will start in July! The next week, my dad’s friend Dave came to visit again, and my mom’s friend Karen also came to visit again, so I got to catch up with both of them. Kim and I also went to another musical, Kinky Boots, which was AMAZING! I definitely recommend it to everyone who has a chance to see it. At the end of March, my mom arrived! She came on a Wednesday evening and then I gave her two days to get over her jet lag while I worked. On Friday, I finished at noon
London
 and then I started my holidays! My mom and I spent that afternoon at Camden Market, checking out all of the stalls and then we walked down the canal to Paddington station (which must have taken at least an hour to an hour and a half). The next day, we spent a couple of hours at the Natural History Museum, went to Buckingham Palace, and then had tea (with many tasty treats!). On Sunday, it was a gorgeous day so we did a cruise along the Thames, spent some time in Greenwich (and stood on the Prime Meridian), and explored more of the City of London. On Monday, we had our flight to Slovenia! That morning, I had a quick doctor’s appointment to FINALLY pick up my orthotics (which I’ve been waiting for since November – it’s a long story, and not necessary to write on here). After my appointment, I went back home so we could get all of our stuff together and start our journey to the airport.
We arrived in Ljubljana (pronounced Loo-blee-on-ah), Slovenia at about 8pm Monday night and since public transportation was already closed by then, we had to take a private shuttle to our Airbnb. The Airbnb was a nice
Ljubljana
and cozy studio apartment, about a 20 minute walk from the Old Town of Ljubljana. We decided to get Chinese food from the nearest restaurant (and the only one that was open at 9:30pm), and call it a night. The next morning, we woke up and went on a free walking tour. Ljubljana is such a charming capital city! It’s not too busy, and the people are extremely friendly. After our walking tour, we went for lunch at a restaurant called Druga Violina. Not only do they have delicious food and amazing prices, but they also hire many people with special needs – awesome to see! On Wednesday, we went to a sausage place for lunch called Klobasarna, which also had really good prices and really great food! We spent our afternoon walking around, taking pictures, eating ice cream, and checking out the markets. Later that day, we also walked to a neighbourhood called Metelkova, which is set up in an abandoned army base and is a self-proclaimed city. It holds many events in illegally occupied buildings, and reminded me a lot of Christiana in Copenhagen, with its bright colours and houses. 
On Thursday morning, we caught a bus to a Unesco heritage site – Skocjan Caves. The first tour was about 1.5 to 2 hours long, and it was absolutely amazing! We got to see the
Skocjan Caves!
Piran
formation of stalactites and stalagmites, which take about 100 to 150 years per 1 cm of growth. It’s crazy to see how big the stalactites are, and realize how long they’ve been around! The craziest part about the entire tour was when we were in the deepest part of the cave and the tour guide turned out all of the lights and lit one match, so we could see what it would be like as an explorer. I don’t think I’d be walking around caves with just a match! Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the caves, but we were able to take pictures at the very end of the tour – towards the exit of the caves. It was such a cool thing to see! After our tour, we had to wait for about an hour and half until our bus came. We waited at a pub beside the bus stop and our Airbnb host met us there to give us the key to our next destination in Piran (pronounced Peer-an). Piran is one of Slovenia’s only coastal towns, so we were able to be close to the Adriatic Sea while watching the sunset. We only stayed one night, but we took advantage of the seafood there! We walked into a random restaurant (Restaurant Pavel) and the waiter completely took over. He told us to close our menus and he would take care of the rest. When he brought out bibs with bowties, we weren’t sure what we’d be in for. However, he brought out a HUGE plate of assorted seafood – shrimp, mussels, scallops, razor clams, and more, all covered in a tomato-wine sauce. Absolutely delicious! The next morning, we were planning to do a bit more exploring of Piran but because it still wasn’t tourist season, not much was open. It was cold and windy, so we decided to move on to our next destination – Bled. In order to get there, we had to catch a bus back to Ljubljana and then take a train to Lesce, where we had a private room in a hostel. The hostel (1A Adventure Hostel) was in an old monastery and it had a city clock next to it (RIGHT outside our window), which rang every 15
Our fish feast
minutes from 7am to 10pm. Meaning we got pretty accustomed to hearing bells ringing when we were there (although I didn’t enjoy the ones first thing in the morning). 
On Saturday morning, we took the hostel shuttle to Lake Bled, which is a cute little lake with a little island. It was a gorgeous day and we walked around the lake, which took about 2-3 hours, and then we stopped at the grocery store and had a picnic on the side. On Sunday, we took a bus to Lake Bohinj (pronounced Boh-heen), which is a less touristy and more natural-looking lake. We also decided to walk around THAT lake, which was 12km! Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we finished. On the walk, I happened to hear some rustling in the leaves beside me so I looked down, and there was a snake backing up right in front of my foot. As I screamed and leapt over it, he backed up completely, and
Lake Bled
slithered away. Not impressed! An hour or two later, we saw a couple who was quietly recording something in front of us. I snuck up and noticed it was another snake, exactly like the one we had just seen. I got a picture that time and after, my mom did some research at the hostel. We found out that it was a poisonous snake – a common viper! When we told the hostel worker, he didn’t believe us. He said it was still too cold for the big snakes to come out, and it was likely only a little, non-venomous snake. However when we showed him the picture, he confirmed that we were right and said that if I had gotten bit, I would have died within ten minutes. Well that was reassuring, considering we were three hours away from any main roads! Anyway, snake aside, the hike was really gorgeous and enjoyable! On Monday, we took the shuttle back to Lake Bled but this time, we decided to do the one-hour walk to Vintgar Gorge, even though it was mostly closed (and was reopening April 15th – missing it by a week!). The walk was almost completely uphill on a road with no shelter from the sun, so
The snake!
we got warm really fast. Once we got to the Gorge, we were able to sneak through the “Closed” barricades and walk for about 200 metres, until a steel door prevented us from going any further. We then walked back to Lake Bled, took advantage of the sunshine, and relaxed beside the lake (where I got extremely burnt and now have a bad tanline because of the neckline on the shirt that I was wearing). 
On Tuesday, we had to take a train back to Ljubljana in order to go to our next destination on the east side of Slovenia – Maribor. The train and bus rides in Slovenia are so amazing because the landscapes are beautiful! Slovenia is such a clean country and it has a little bit of everything, even though it’s such a small country. I shouldn’t be saying this (cause it’s nice not having lots of tourism), but Slovenia should be near the top of everyone’s travel list when and if they come to Europe. It’s definitely worth it! We only stayed in Maribor for one night, but it was another small city so we saw what we needed to in a day. Maribor was much more European than the rest of the cities we went to in Slovenia – it had more of a city-like feel. The private room that we stayed in was absolutely gorgeous! It was nicer than most hotels! On Wednesday, we left Slovenia and made our way to
Zagreb
Croatia. We had to take three trains in order to get to Zagreb, where we stayed for one night. One of the trains had Harry Potter-like carriages and then when they stopped at the border, we had to get our passports checked by the Slovenian police (and get an exit stamp), and then by the Croatian police (and get an entrance stamp). Once we arrived in Zagreb, we explored the Old Town as fast as we could during daylight hours, and then went back to the hostel early because we were planning for an early morning. Unfortunately for us, the walls were SO thin – we could hear every person who entered the hostel and walked down the hallway, and we could also hear the couple across the hallway, who seemed to be having a bit TOO much fun multiple times that night. Needless to say, I did not get a good sleep that night, even with earplugs. We found out that it was supposed to rain the day that we were planning to spend in Plitvice Lakes National Park, so we decided that instead of spending the following day
Plitvice Lakes
exploring more of Zagreb, we should just go straight to Plitvice and take advantage of the sun that day. However, neither of us set an alarm, and long story short, we ended up missing the early bus. We took the next bus out, but because it arrived in Plitvice in the afternoon, it wouldn’t be worth paying for a day pass in the Park. Instead, we just went straight to the hostel and decided to do a hike that the hostel suggested. This was a 2.5 hour hike and ended up being straight up a mountain – not zig-zagging its way up, but literally straight uphill. After about an hour and a half, my mom’s knee was bothering her (as it had been our entire trip), so she decided to sit and wait while I continued. I walk for about 20 more minutes, thinking I had gotten to the top, only to see that the path wanted me to go straight downhill, only to go back uphill even higher. At that point, I decided to give up so I headed back down towards my mom. When we got to the hostel, one of the people staying there informed me that I was about 3 minutes away from the end of the hike. Well, I guess I know for next time! We went for dinner, and did some grocery shopping so we’d be prepared for Plitvice the next day. The shuttle took us to the park at 8 the next morning and was due to pick us up at 4pm that afternoon. We understood and were prepared that at about 11am, we should be hit with thunderstorms and possible flooding. However, that never ended up coming! Once again, we had completely sunny weather! Plitvice was just as gorgeous as I remembered it being in 2012, and this time I did a different hiking trail so I got to see the lakes from a different view. There are 16 lakes total, and they’re all piled on top of each other, so we started by going to the upper lakes, and then we made our way down to the lower lakes, seeing tons of waterfalls as we went along. It was such a good way to spend the day! I had booked bus tickets to our last stop (Zadar) for 6pm that evening so
Zadar
we had just enough time to go back to the hostel, get our stuff, and go to the bus stop. We waited, and waited, and waited some more and finally, the bus came about a half hour late, only to inform us that there wasn’t any room left. We HAD to get on that bus, since we already paid for an Airbnb in Zadar, and our flights went back to London the next day but they kept refusing until we volunteered to stand. Luckily, they let my mom sit on the extra seat in front, but I ended up standing for two of the 2.5-hour bus ride with the other girl who came with us from our hostel. Only AFTER walking around for six to seven hours, so no big deal… We got into Zadar at about 8:30 that night, went for a three-course dinner (mussels for an appetiser, fish for a main, and ice cream for dessert), and then sat by the infamous Sea Organ for awhile before going back to get a well-deserved sleep. Zadar still remains one of my favourite cities! It has a charm just like Ljubljana. One day, I’ll have to compile a list of all of my “good vibe” cities – maybe when all of my summer travelling is over. Anyway, on Saturday we spent the day exploring Zadar (not in the dark), had a great lunch, and went back to the Sea Organ. While we were sitting there, a sailboat came right up to where we were sitting and they asked if we wanted a free ride. I guess we were in the right place at the right time! They happened to be promoting a summer festival so they were giving as many free sailboat rides as they could. It was pretty cool to watch the guy move back and forth around the boat, pulling different ropes and putting up different sails. We had dinner and then caught the bus to the airport at 8pm. Our flight didn’t leave until 10:50 and we arrived in London at about midnight. The passport control line was so long! It was quite stressful as well, cause I had booked a bus for us to get back to London for 1:10am. Luckily, we ended up catching the bus with ten minutes to spare! We got back into London at 2:30am, then had to take the tube back to my station, which took until about 3:15am, and then we had to do the 25-minute walk back to my house, getting us home at about 3:45am. My mom got to do one of my typical Saturday nights! :p We probably got to
Vintgar Gorge
bed at about 4:30 that morning so it was a very lazy day on Easter Sunday!
On Monday, we had another lazy morning and then took the bus to Richmond, where we had hot chocolate and cocktails! After that, we headed back home so that my mom could pack for Edinburgh! This morning, we got up nice and early and took the train so my mom could catch the bus to the airport. Unfortunately for her, the plane ended up being delayed over four and a half hours! She’s now safely in Edinburgh, and I’ll be (unfortunately) going back to work tomorrow. I’m now really regretting that I decided to stay. On the last day of term, the head of biology came to talk to me. He seemed very awkward and kept repeating that it was a bad time to have this conversation. Basically, one of my year 12 parents called and said that her daughter was complaining that when they ask me questions, I…(he paused). I finished for him: “Don’t seem to know what I’m talking about?” “Yeah, basically.” “Well, I feel like that too.” I explained how I read the textbooks and try to learn everything before lessons, but I’m still not as confident as I should be on the topics. Again, I’m teaching my students stuff that my friends haven’t learned until med school. The head of biology said that since there wasn’t any point in switching teachers because there was only five weeks left, I should spend my time really getting to know the information during the holidays. I felt horrible. Part of me felt guilty, part of me felt angry. It wasn’t like I was keeping it a secret… I was clear from the beginning that the information was new to me and I’d need the support. I spent the entire weekend worrying about it and then I decided that I had to explain
Lake Bohinj
that I wouldn’t be able to put in the time that they expected of me. I sent the Head of Biology an email explaining that my mom was in town for the next month and after that, I’d be travelling for the next two weekends, and then I’d be moving out during the last weekend. I also said that I’ve put in a lot of extra time on my evenings, weekends and holidays to prepare for that class and obviously it’s not enough. Not only that, but I’m not even paid to do work during that time. I wouldn’t be able to commit to doing as much work as I have been doing and I definitely wouldn’t be able to commit to doing even more work than I’ve been doing. The school also wanted me to write end-of-year reports for my year 7-10 students since the new teacher wouldn’t know the students well enough to write reports – meaning I’d have to write over 150 reports in five weeks (each about 4-5 sentences long, which also usually take at least 10-15 minutes each). I explained that it wasn’t fair for me to have to do those reports, unless they were during my spare periods when I wasn’t planning and/or marking. I told him that if the school wanted to find someone who would be more dedicated, I wouldn’t be offended since I couldn’t give the time and effort that they expect of me. The next day, he wrote back and said he hoped I was enjoying my time with my mom and that he didn’t want me to spend my holidays stressing about the year 12’s. Great! However, then he went on to say that he had a talk with the Deputy Head (the guy who interviewed me before and made me feel like garbage) and said that while they were aware I wouldn’t have the extra time because my mom was visiting, the school was keen for me to use that time to benefit the girls, and they’d be willing to pay me for my holidays if I did the extra work. From that email, I no longer felt guilty but I just felt angry since the paid holidays were what they tried to bribe me with to stay until the end of the year (and it didn’t work that time either). I then emailed back, said I was in Slovenia and I’d be travelling for the next two weeks, that I didn’t have my laptop or any school supplies, and once again threw it back on them that if they require someone who can put in the extra dedication, then I’m not the person for them. Anyway, tomorrow is just a staff day so I’m kind of nervous to see how things pan out, and how awkward it’ll be. So that’s strike one: what happened in my life of work. 
Now for Strike Two: what happened in my flat. As I mentioned before, my mom and I got back from Croatia at about 3:45am on Saturday night. When we arrived, my light wouldn’t turn on, as the lightbulb must have burnt out. I turned on my extremely dim lamp, and noticed that my mail was on my night table (nothing new, since my flatmate always seems to find it necessary to put my mail straight into my room when I’m not home, instead of on the kitchen table, or anywhere else that’s not my personal space). My mom started making comments about how her pajamas had been moved from under her pillow, how her underwear was missing, how one of my shelves had been knocked over, and how she couldn’t find her extra blanket. She also noticed that her iPad was missing, and then found it in my laptop case. I kind of just brushed those aside, since it was late at night and I was too tired to deal with anything. However, when I went into bed, I noticed that my duvet was sideways. Someone had definitely been in my room for longer than just placing my mail on my night table. We went to bed, since there was nothing much that we could do. The next day, later in the morning, I opened my closet to get dressed and I noticed that everything had been moved around – my mom’s underwear, blanket, and t-shirt were put into my closet, my school backpack (which was on the floor) was also put on top of my clothes in my closet, and then my bag of hangers were also moved. By that point, I was literally shaking. I had to keep taking deep breaths and try to keep myself calm, so I could go approach my flatmate. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate confrontation and I would have rather just ignored it, but since this wasn’t the first incident of my flatmate being disrespectful, I knew I had to say something or it would continue. I went and knocked on her door, and asked her what had been going on in my room while I was gone. “Oh I slept in it.” “You slept in it… why?” “Cause I really just needed to sleep in my own bed.” “But you can’t just do that…” “I’m sorry, it was just one of those weeks and I really just needed to sleep in my own bed.” “Why didn’t you text and ask beforehand?” “I tried but…” “But no, if I’m paying for rent, I should be able to leave and know that my room won’t be entered. That’s not right.” “I know, there’s no excuse and I’m sorry.” “And why was everything moved around if you were only sleeping in it? Like my mom’s iPad was moved…” “Well I didn’t want to knock anything over. I tried to put everything back in its place, I even took pictures.” “Still, I’m paying rent. That’s my room.” “Well you can take one week of rent off, and I’m really sorry.” I can GUARANTEE that it wasn’t her sleeping in my room cause there’d be no reason to move all of my other stuff around. I was livid. Still am! It got even worse the next day when my mom and I decided to go to Richmond. I decided to wear my new insoles/orthotics that I had gotten right before we left on our trip, but I couldn’t find them. I had left them on the floor and they were nowhere to be seen. I texted my flatmate to ask where she put them, and then my mom and I searched the room, and eventually found them halfway down my laundry basket, in my dirty laundry! I didn’t bother texting my flatmate to tell her that I found them, but she eventually replied saying that she put everything that was by my night table on top of my bookshelf (when in reality, all that was on top of my bookshelf were my mom’s socks…). Now, I’m wondering if I should not only deduct the one week of rent for next month, but also deduct my deposit. I have a feeling I won’t get it back otherwise, cause I’ve definitely lost all of my trust in my flatmate. Anyway, my flatmate went to stay with her boyfriend and I haven’t seen her since the incident. Strike two.
And last, strike three: what happened with my money. Yesterday, I decided to be productive and start making all of my purchases that needed to be made for the upcoming month. Most importantly, I needed to book my buses to the airport for my upcoming trips, and I needed to order new contacts and new face wash, as well as register for travel insurance. I got as far as booking the buses and then when I went to order my face wash, my card was declined. I tried two more times and then immediately got a call from an unrecognizable number. It was someone claiming to be part of the HSBC Fraud Department, and he needed my birthday and my full address. I for sure thought it was a scam so I typed in the number online while talking to him, and saw that it was a legitimate number. He said that my card was on a list of details that had been stolen and my card was compromised and would have to be cancelled. He went through all of my recent transactions, which I confirmed were all done by me. He repeatedly asked, “You were in Croatia last week?” “Yes, I notified the bank about it..” When he went through all of the charges and I said that they were all my transactions, I was hoping he’d change his mind, but he said that my card still had to be cancelled. “But it’s the only card I have. I need to get groceries, I use it for transportation, you can’t just cancel it!” ”Okay, well I’ll cancel online transactions and you can do your grocery shopping and then you’ll have to call us so that we can cancel it and send you a new one.” Great. So now I have no card once again, and I’m patiently waiting for my new one to arrive. And that’s strike three! 
I’m just trying to remain positive and get through work and my flat for the next five weeks. Then I can put everything behind me and just enjoy my travels! However, I AM open to any advice on how I should handle the whole flatmate situation. I hope everyone’s been doing well! Love always
Family – Catey Shaw

Trojans (New Job & Copenhagen)

Another trip has been and gone 😦 Since my last trip, I fully started working at the private all-girls’ school. It’s been alright, but it’s also been a lot of work. Sometimes, I truly miss supply teaching (and I never thought I would say that!). Starting with the very first week back at the school, I had to do weekly parents’ evenings – the first week was year 9’s, then year 8’s, year 11’s, year 7’s, and year 10’s (and with year 10’s, I had three classes – so 67 students!). Every Thursday, I would sit in my chair from 5:30 to 8pm and wait for the next parent to come and interview me (even though it was ACTUALLY supposed to be an interview about their daughter). When I had the year 9 meetings, I had only met the girls twice because I only see them once a week, so it was very difficult for me to give feedback when I really only had their test scores to talk about. Some parents were quite nice, many were quite intimidating, others made slightly rude comments (“Bit young to be a teacher, if you ask me…”), and most quizzed me about where I studied, what my REAL area of study was (“ummm..biology?”), what school I had worked at previously (“I was doing supply teaching all over the place.. but my behaviour management is great!”), if I would be staying until the end of the year (“well, I’m signed on until Easter…” *parent rolls eyes*), if the time comes when I’m given the CHOICE of staying until the end of the year, would I (“Ummmm… I don’t think I’ll be able to make that commitment”), why I was the third teacher that the girls have had (“Well, it’s kind of a complicated situation…”), and many just went on to inform me about how distracting it was to have the girls constantly go through different teachers and blablabla (“I’m sorry; the school is doing the best that they can). The school never once pulled me aside and told me how I should be answering these questions and since most of it is supposed to be kept confidential, I had to do the best I could. THANK GOODNESS I’m done with that! By the time my second parents’ evening came around, I expressed my concerns to the biology technician (who is somewhat the mother figure in the biology department, who everyone goes to for advice). She was also shocked that I hadn’t been coached on what to say during these parents’ evenings and she brought it up with the head of biology. I think the realization hit all of us that Easter was only about ten weeks away so if I decided not to stay longer, they’d have to find someone else. Not only that, but it hit me that I only had about six months left in London, which meant I had little time left to travel. They both started to ask me (on a daily basis) whether I’d stay after Easter and I constantly replied, “Well, I’m still not sure.. I might not teach until the end of the year so that I can travel some more.” The Head of Biology talked to the Deputy Head and said that he needed to set up a meeting with me, so they could start sorting everything out. A couple of weeks went by and I still hadn’t heard from him. However, knowing the way that I work, I KNEW I wouldn’t be able to say no unless I had a valid excuse. That weekend, I booked flights and hostels throughout the month of June so that I wouldn’t be able to commit to the rest of the year (I know, I felt like somewhat of a traitor). Finally during another parents’ evening, the Head of Biology told me that I had to write the Deputy Head’s secretary to make an appointment with him (pretty sure he should be the one making the appointment with me, but okay). He said he’d give me the secretary’s information so I could set up my meeting. Later that week, the Head of Biology asked if I had set up the meeting yet, to which I replied that I still didn’t receive the secretary’s information. He said he’d just send the email himself and CC me in, which he did (I think he was feeling the pressure more than anyone else, which is understandable). Later that morning, I received an email with no greeting, no words, but only a picture of a day calendar, with a slot for our meeting the following day. That day at lunch was Chinese New Year, and the school had a Chinese lunch and gave everyone their own fortune cookie. When I cracked my cookie, I just about died when I read my fortune. A definite sign! I’ve placed it in my phone case and I carry it with me everywhere I go. The next day, I finally had my meeting. I was really nervous, because I didn’t know how it would go and I felt bad about letting the school down. Before I went, I had conversations with people about how I would make sure to get HIM to steer the conversation, and I’d wait for him to make an offer before I agreed to anything. Neither of those things really happened.. I left the meeting feeling more offended than anything. The meeting started off with him making the statement, “So this must be the longest you’ve been at a school over here now…” Me: “Yes, I guess it would be. The longest I’ve stayed at a school was 7 weeks, so this is just past that point.” Him: “So, the Head of Biology wanted us to set up a meeting about whether you’re staying with us after Easter or not. Tell me how you’re feeling about that.” Me: “Well, I know that I won’t be staying with you until the end of the year.” Him (looking somewhat shocked): “Oh. Well when would be the definite date that you could stay with us until?” Me: “I could stay for another half-term, for six weeks longer – until the end of May, if you need my help.” Him: “Can I just ask where you’re hoping to get to in terms of your career?” Me (this time I was somewhat shocked. And offended): “Well, in Canada, we don’t have opportunities to move up on the career ladder. You start as a teacher and you end as a teacher. We don’t have head of biology or head of science, or deputy head, or headmaster. Whether you’re a teacher for 25 years or for 2 years, you’re considered an equal. The only opportunities to move up is to be a vice-principal or principal and you need to go back to school and get a Masters for that. So for you to ask me that question, and I know I’ll end up back in Canada, my answer is to be a teacher.” Him: “Well, don’t you think it would look better on your CV if you were at a school for a longer period of time?” Me: “Most likely, but that’s not my main concern right now. I have the rest of my life to build that up.” Him: “Well to be honest, that’s what made it so difficult for us to hire you – because you were just jumping from school to school.” (!!! But they DID hire me! And it wouldn’t have made any difference to me anyway..) Him: “So how do I know you’re not going to change your mind and suddenly decide to leave earlier?” (Because I gave them my word?) He continues: “I think we’d benefit  from putting a contract forward to make everything official.” (But would I benefit from it, really?). Him again: “So, have the Head of Biology and Head of Science observed you yet?” Me: “The Head of Biology has (because the Deputy Head told him he had to), but not the Head of Science.” Him: “Well, she’ll be coming to observe you sometime soon. I’m going to give you some incentive – if you decide to stay with us until the end of the year, I’ll offer to pay for all of your holidays. So think about it for the week, and let me know by Friday.” Me: “Okay, thanks.” I get up to leave and as I open his door, he adds in, “Oh, I should also add in that all of this will ONLY be put through on the assumption that I get positive feedback about you from the Heads of Biology and Science.” I grimace as I shut the door. I couldn’t believe the meeting I just had. Nothing about, “We really appreciate everything you’ve done for the school,” and nothing about, “The girls and the biology department really like having you here.” Just a whole meeting basically telling me about how I might not be good enough, and making it sound like THEY’RE doing ME a favour, and not the other way around. It was then that I realized that I will never see eye-to-eye with the people who put their careers over everything else, and vice versa. I feel like I’m living my life to the fullest and I actually look at people who only live to work and I feel sorry for them, and I’m sure they feel the same way about me. But there’s no way we’ll ever see things the same way or even be able to compromise, because I will never live my life trying to improve my CV. I never have, as I’m sure many of you have realized. I’ve never kept a job for longer than a year and during my whole job history, I’ve never done a job that would help me with education or with biology (other than au pairing and tutoring). My way of working has always been to get me money so I can travel, not to move up the career ladder. And I’ve never had a job that I didn’t like. And I’ve had some pretty darn AWESOME jobs: working at the Enchanted Forest, being a Blades Ambassador for the hockey games, working the Froster Truck, countless serving jobs – I may as well be in public relations or business because that’s all I’ve done for work. While going to university, I watched many of my friends try to find jobs working in a lab so they could get experience, and I didn’t understand why. Maybe my mind just works differently, but I know it won’t be swayed. Maybe it’s a downfall, or maybe it’s a gift. Anyway, I went upstairs (feeling pretty pissed off) to tell the Biology Department about my meeting. I think the Head of Biology realized that I wasn’t there because I HAD to be there: “So, do you have a contract here right now?” “No.” “So, if you decided not to come to work tomorrow, you could technically just not show up?” “Well yeah, but I obviously wouldn’t do that…” “And if you decide not to come back, would you get work pretty much everyday somewhere else?” “Yeah, and even if I didn’t get work, I’d still get paid for the day.” “So… you really have no reason to actually be here, do you?” “Well no, not really.” “You’re not in it for the money or anything?” “No, I’m here cause you guys need me.” He started to pick up the pieces that the Deputy Head had thrown away, “Well, I just want you to know that WE’RE really thankful that you’re here, and the girls really like you and you’ve been a huge help, and we’d like you to stay but if you want to travel as well, then we completely understand. If you can at least stay until half-term of next term, that would help us out so much and we’d really appreciate it.” So I emailed the Deputy Head back right before my holiday and I declined his offer to stay until the end of the year, but I said I could stay until the end of May to help out the school (once again, putting it back on him that I’M helping THEM out and not the other way around). I still haven’t heard back from him, but I also still have to get observed by the Head of Science next week and then I guess he’ll make his decision. So that’s pretty much everything in my school life!
In terms of my social life, January was quite a busy month! Kim and I went out nearly every weekend. The streets of London were SO quiet because 1) It was Dry January for many people (not us), and 2) Most people were still broke from Christmas (probably us, but it didn’t change anything). It was crazy being able to walk down the sidewalk and not have to bump into anyone! Or being able to go into a bar and find an empty table! Since I’ve moved into my new flat, I’m now directly connected to the night tube (it’s open 24/7), which has opened a range of possibilities for me! I no longer have to make sure I catch the last train before midnight in order to get home. However, that’s also come at a cost – me getting home at 3 or 4 in the morning, and more than once being woken up at the last stop (which is my stop anyway) by a random stranger, telling me to get off. At the beginning of the month, I went to The Nutcracker (the ballet) with Kim, which was great! We also went to a Cat Tea Emporium, where we got to sit in a tearoom with 12 cats for two hours. It was nice, but the cats weren’t very interested in hanging out with anyone, which is understandable considering people are in their faces for 8 hours each day. I also went to a couple of cinema shows – Pretty Woman and Frozen. The cinema happens in a bar, and then they turn it into a dance floor after the show, so both were a lot of fun. Ron also came to London, so I got to see him after almost two years! While our visit was short, it was really nice to see him, especially since him and Yang have been living in Shanghai. I went to a Travel Show, where there are a lot of different travel companies trying to give you good deals, which inspired me to do all of my upcoming trips (and NOT work until the end of the year). And I got to meet up with a couple of people who I met in Cologne during Christmas, which is always one of my favourite parts of travelling – meeting up with people again!
This last week was half-term break, where I went to Copenhagen for four nights. I’ve been avoiding the Scandinavian countries because they cost so much money, but the flight was so cheap on Skyscanner (36 pounds), so I couldn’t resist. I arrived on Saturday evening and as soon as I got to the hostel, a guy from Belgium was in the room and we started talking. I was starving so I asked if he wanted to go for dinner, and we went to a bistro for sushi. Afterwards, we went for a couple of drinks but smoking was still allowed in the bars, so we went back to the hostel and stayed in the bar there. On my way to the bathroom there (I know, lots of detail), I walked past a table and overheard that they were from Canada so on my way back, I stopped at the table and asked where in Canada they were from. Only one person was from Canada and he was from Vancouver, so when I said that I was from Saskatoon, he was shocked. He exclaimed to the entire table that I was a gem. A diamond even. Finding someone from Saskatchewan is so rare and they should probably all take pictures with me because they’ll likely never run into anyone from Saskatchewan again (I mean, he WAS right – With 1 million people in Saskatchewan and 7.5 billion people in the world, you have a 0.015% chance of meeting someone from Saskatchewan, and a 0.004% chance of meeting someone from Saskatoon. Crazy eh?!). So I went back to get the Belgium guy and we joined their table, where there were people from England, Australia, and Spain. It was a good night! I’ve been meeting many awesome people lately! I used to find it so difficult to find people who I just vibe with and recently, I’ve been finding them everywhere I travel. Maybe I’m sending good vibes out into the universe and it’s rewarding me with equal vibes from awesome people. I totally believe there’s something about energy in the world, cause there are certain people who you just “get,” and who you feel that energy from. Either way, I’m glad I’m finding all of these people! The next day (Sunday), I went on a free walking tour and met up with the guy from Spain there. After the walking tour, we went to see The Little Mermaid statue, had coffee, and then went to Christiania. Christiania is a freetown, which is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood. They refuse to be a part of the EU and therefore have their own rules, laws, and schools. It’s well-known for cannibis trade, but they don’t allow cameras inside, in order to keep the traders safe. It was an interesting place, and really cool to see! After that, we went to the Meat-Packing District, to a restaurant called War Pigs, which is a craft brewery. The drinks in Copenhagen were so expensive! The beer that we got were 65-70 krone each, which is about 8-9 pounds (12 or 13 dollars!!). However, they were higher in alcohol content – about 7.4%, so we only had a couple. When I went to get my second beer, two guys beside me asked to pay their tab, which was 775 krone (89 pounds, or 145 dollars)!!! They were British and were shocked about how they had just spent 70 pounds on drinks, and I sadly burst their bubbles even more, saying that 775 krone was closer to 100 pounds than 70. “What?! No, you divide by 10 to find pounds…” “No, you divide by 8. You guys have been very considerate to yourselves though, dividing by 10.” One looks it up on his phone, “Yeah, she’s right…” I think they may have skipped dinner that night. On Monday, I went to the Round Tower, which is exactly what it sounds like – a round tower. There aren’t any steps; it just goes round and round like a ramp. It was cool! After that, I met up with the Spanish guy again to have lunch at Paper Island, which reminds me of Granville Island in Vancouver, if anyone’s been there. It had food of every country! We had to eat really fast, because I had booked another walking tour (but the “alternative walking tour”), which I had already paid for. He was leaving that evening so we said bye, and I went on the walking tour. They showed us all of the alternative things – the Red Light District, the Green Light District, etc. Afterwards, I was absolutely freezing so I went to Paper Island to warm up and then I had dinner. On Tuesday, I decided to go to the Carlsberg Brewery. It was a good tour, and I got two free beer at the end. I became addicted to their cider (which is called Somersby Cider) because it’s cheap, but also because it’s probably one of the best ciders I’ve had. That evening, I did some souvenir shopping and sat in coffee shops. On Wednesday, I went back to London so I spent the morning doing one last walk around the main city and then headed to the airport. I arrived back home at about 6pm and since then, I’ve just been catching up on my TV shows and planning the next six weeks of school (so I can focus on marking). I hope everyone’s been doing well! Love always
Trojans – Atlas Genius