Amy and I flew back to Edinburgh Tuesday evening and as we were waiting for the plane to start moving the pilot came on over the PA and announced that a passenger had decided not to travel at the last minute. This meant they had to sift through all the luggage in the cargo hold to get to his bag. That wasn't the problem because they had the bag out within a few minutes and we were on our way, it was the crazy thoughts of plane crashes that had us worried! Why didn't he want to travel!??! Did he have a 'feeling'!?!? Is the plane going to crash!?!?
Obviously we made it here safe and sound. We've started our job search and hope that we'll hear something within a few days. We had an amazing time at home visiting with everyone, but are excited to start working again so we can start traveling.
We're not sure where we'll go next, but we're hoping it will be somewhere WARM!
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Friday, 6 February 2009
A Blessing in Disguise
I am writing this blog from the comforts of my own home...in CANADA! That's right, I am home. Not for good...just for a two week visit, but a visit none the less. It feels so weird, but so good to be home. Some of the things I've missed: sleeping in my very comfortable double bed, looking in the fridge or pantry and having more than one thing to choose from to eat, going shopping at all my favourite stores (although I was quite disappointed...no good sales!) and of course seeing my friends and family after five long months! We kept the trip home on the DL because we wanted to surprise my best friend, Lucy from Lucy's Life. My parents had the difficult task of keeping it a secret and they did very well. We got here on Wednesday and that evening Lucy and her hubby were set to have dinner with my parents. When they got here, mom told them that one of my nieces was hiding and wanted Lucy and hubby to find her. Amy and I were hiding as well and gave them the shock of their lives. There was a lot of screaming, a lot of hugging and a little bit of crying. It was so fun! We are here until the 17th, when we will go back to Edinburgh and start looking for a job. Now a little about that...
On January 31st, Amy I worked our last shift at Baxters. The store isn't doing well financially so they decided not to keep the Christmas staff. Thats why this post is called 'A Blessing in Disguise' because if it weren't for loosing our jobs we wouldn't have had the time off to come home. The Tuesday before our last day we were checking tickets on-line for fun and found insanely cheap flights to Toronto. They were 258 pounds round trip! Our amazing parents agreed to pay for half of the ticket so we're talking 129 pounds each for two weeks. We would spend some of that on food and just living, so we figured we might as well go home where we can see our family and eat our parents food for two weeks!
It will be stressful trying to look for a new job when we get back, but it will all be worth it.
I'm off to get ready to go out for lunch with my parents to the Mandarin...oh, how I missed the Mandarin!
On January 31st, Amy I worked our last shift at Baxters. The store isn't doing well financially so they decided not to keep the Christmas staff. Thats why this post is called 'A Blessing in Disguise' because if it weren't for loosing our jobs we wouldn't have had the time off to come home. The Tuesday before our last day we were checking tickets on-line for fun and found insanely cheap flights to Toronto. They were 258 pounds round trip! Our amazing parents agreed to pay for half of the ticket so we're talking 129 pounds each for two weeks. We would spend some of that on food and just living, so we figured we might as well go home where we can see our family and eat our parents food for two weeks!
It will be stressful trying to look for a new job when we get back, but it will all be worth it.
I'm off to get ready to go out for lunch with my parents to the Mandarin...oh, how I missed the Mandarin!
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Happy 250th birthday Rabbie Burns!
Every year on January 25th, the Scots celebrate the birth of the famous poet Robert Burns with a Burns night dinner. This usually consists of haggis, neeps (turnip) and tatties (potatoes). On Saturday night we had a bunch of people over for dinner to celebrate the birth of Scotland's national poet. We had a huge meal consisting of haggis, neeps and tatties, of course, as well as scotch pie and haggis sausages. Amy had tried a bite of haggis before but this was my first encounter with the Scottish dish. I have to say it was quite tasty. It looked and tasted a lot like meatloaf and as long as you don't think about whats in it you'll be fine!
Before you cut into the haggis someone is supposed to read one of Burns' poems 'Address to a Haggis'. I took a video of our friend reading part of it but for some reason I can't upload it onto the blog.
Robbie Burns wrote Auld Lang Syne, which I just realized not too long ago actually has words to it. Every year at New Years I would just hum along or say 'la, la, la' to the tune without actually knowing what the words were. Here's a link to the words. To make the night interesting we were all supposed to come up with 30 seconds worth of entertainment, whether it be a poem, song or perhaps...a rap about Canada??? Yep, Amy and I went all out and rapped a poem about Canadian provinces. It went over quite well. Heres a pic of our gangster outfits.
Happy Birthday Rabbie Burns!
Before you cut into the haggis someone is supposed to read one of Burns' poems 'Address to a Haggis'. I took a video of our friend reading part of it but for some reason I can't upload it onto the blog.Robbie Burns wrote Auld Lang Syne, which I just realized not too long ago actually has words to it. Every year at New Years I would just hum along or say 'la, la, la' to the tune without actually knowing what the words were. Here's a link to the words. To make the night interesting we were all supposed to come up with 30 seconds worth of entertainment, whether it be a poem, song or perhaps...a rap about Canada??? Yep, Amy and I went all out and rapped a poem about Canadian provinces. It went over quite well. Heres a pic of our gangster outfits.
Happy Birthday Rabbie Burns!
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Italian adventure
I guess the easiest thing is to just start from the beginning...
We got into Pisa at 10:30 pm and set out to try and find our way to our hotel. We decided a taxi would be easier than trying to figure out which bus would take us there.We stood near the taxi line for a few minutes sort of in shock of being in a country where English is not the first language. This was the first time being in that situation for both of us. We felt silly trying to say things in Italian but you could tell people appreciated the effort.
The hotel was a three minute drive from the airport but ended up costing 9 euros. Most of that was a service charge that is tacked on to most things in Italy. I would recommend finding another mode of transportation if you are ever going there. Our hotel was pretty nice and right beside the train station, which is why we chose it. Once in our room we read through the Florence section in our Italy book to figure out what our plan of action would be the next day. Our room had nice shutters opening onto a little balcony. We took a few pictures opening our Italian shutters onto our Italian balcony with our gorgeous Italian view -- a palm tree, a road and some train tracks.
It was raining when we woke up, which was quite disappointing. We were hoping to see some nice Tuscan countryside on the train from Pisa to Florence but because it was rainy and overcast it was nothing spectacular. It wasn't all because of the rain though; it seemed like the train tracks went through the ghettos of Italy. We did see some nice houses on hills (Italy is a lot more hilly than I was expecting) surrounded by Cyprus trees.
Once in Florence we found our hostel, dropped our bags off and went out to explore the sights. The first thing we came across was the San Lorenzo Market which is a street market filled with stalls selling mostly stuff made from leather. There were a lot of belts, bags and wallets. They were also selling the typical tourist things like t-shirts, pictures and mini David statues (Amy wanted to buy said statue but I told her it was too tacky!). I bought three Italia t-shirts as my souvenirs. I normally wouldn't buy three t-shirts of the same place but they had a deal going on that was too good to pass up! The had a selection of shirts that were one for 8 Euros, two for 10 or three for 12. I had picked out two and Amy was going to get one but she couldn't find one that she liked. Well, I wasn't going to buy only two when I could get another for 2 Euros! So, I ended up with three t-shirts.
We had a map of the city but mostly just ended up walking around taking pictures of whatever we happened to pass. So we weren't expecting to see the Duomo when we did. We were walking along a narrow street when we turned the corner and BAM! there it was. I turned the corner first and even yelled "whoa!" right in front of an old couple because I was so shocked to see it. It's size is shocking but mostly it was the contrast in the colours of the buildings around it. Most of the buildings in Florence are done in yellows and oranges but the Duomo is white, pale pink and green. This was the only building we went inside, mostly because it was the only free one! It was quite dark inside so we couldn't get good pictures, but we did happen to get some of the paintings on the dome. Construction started on the cathedral in 1296...1296! isn't that incredible!?!?! The dome is what makes this cathedral so famous. It is self-supported and was built without scaffolding. You can climb to the top of the dome, but we both decided after the four flights of stairs we had to climb to reach our hostel, that the 450 or so steps to the top were not doable. However, we'll use the fact that it was overcast and it wouldn't have been a great view anyways as our excuse :)
After the Duomo we got our first taste of gelato. Before we left we read up on how to tell if the gelato was homemade or not. You are supposed to check out the colour of the pistachio flavour and if it is a lime green it is not homemade. Apparently, sometimes they put food colouring in it to make it a brighter green colour, but if it is made au naturale it is a darker green. With that in mind, we wandered around (there is a gelato shop around every corner) until we found a shop with the appropriate pistachio colour. We got two flavours each, Amy got pistachio and strawberry and I got coffee chocholate chip and ferraro rocher. Delicious! They all tasted exactly like the real thing. We got gelato three more times on our trip (we couldn't resist!) and the flavours were banana, coconut x2 (it was that good!), panna cotta, coffee and lemon.
The rest of the day we wandered the streets taking pictures, going into tourist shops, as well as some normal clothing stores, and window shopping at all the delicous bakeries and delis that are on every street in Florence. Around 8 we decided to have dinner and found a cute little restaurant near our hostel. Amy ordered pasta with an egg cream sauce and bacon and I got pizza with mushrooms, mozzarella, tomatoes and salad. The salad turned out to be some kind of bitter leaves and I ended up scraping most of it off. The rest of the pizza was good, though. Once back at the hostel we did some research on line about Pisa and went to bed praying for sunshine.
We woke up to a beautiful sunny day. We decided to walk around Florence for an hour to see some of the buildings in the sun. The day before Amy had seen a mask (like the ones worn at costume balls in movies) at one of the vendors in the market and decided thats what she wanted as her souvenir. Unfortunately, we couldn't find it again so instead she got some beautiful scenery pictures.
Once back in Pisa we went directly to the Piazza dei Miracoli, which has the famous tower as well as a duomo and baptistry. We were both very excited to see the leaning tower and have both said it was our favourite part of the trip. The tower is something you learn about as a child, so to be able to see it in person after all those years is amazing! A trip to the leaning tower wouldn't be complete without a few famous 'holding up the tower' poses. We felt a little silly but it had to be done. They turned out quite well, too!
Pisa is a cute little town with a lot of cafes and what looked to be some good shopping. Unfortunately, all of the shops are closed from 1-3:30 for a siesta. We definitely felt as though we didn't have enough time in Pisa. Our flight left at 4:45 which meant we only had a few hours in Pisa before we needed to get to the airport. You could easily spend an hour or two at the tower and surrounding buildings.
All in all our first major trip went smoothly, with the only problem being that it was too short. For our next trip, we are planning on going to Greece for four or five days. Before we left Canada we didn't think we would be able to go to Greece because we figured the tickets would be too expensive. Amy found some good deals though and we're thinking about heading there at the end of February. Let's hope everything works out!
We got into Pisa at 10:30 pm and set out to try and find our way to our hotel. We decided a taxi would be easier than trying to figure out which bus would take us there.We stood near the taxi line for a few minutes sort of in shock of being in a country where English is not the first language. This was the first time being in that situation for both of us. We felt silly trying to say things in Italian but you could tell people appreciated the effort.
The hotel was a three minute drive from the airport but ended up costing 9 euros. Most of that was a service charge that is tacked on to most things in Italy. I would recommend finding another mode of transportation if you are ever going there. Our hotel was pretty nice and right beside the train station, which is why we chose it. Once in our room we read through the Florence section in our Italy book to figure out what our plan of action would be the next day. Our room had nice shutters opening onto a little balcony. We took a few pictures opening our Italian shutters onto our Italian balcony with our gorgeous Italian view -- a palm tree, a road and some train tracks.
It was raining when we woke up, which was quite disappointing. We were hoping to see some nice Tuscan countryside on the train from Pisa to Florence but because it was rainy and overcast it was nothing spectacular. It wasn't all because of the rain though; it seemed like the train tracks went through the ghettos of Italy. We did see some nice houses on hills (Italy is a lot more hilly than I was expecting) surrounded by Cyprus trees.
Once in Florence we found our hostel, dropped our bags off and went out to explore the sights. The first thing we came across was the San Lorenzo Market which is a street market filled with stalls selling mostly stuff made from leather. There were a lot of belts, bags and wallets. They were also selling the typical tourist things like t-shirts, pictures and mini David statues (Amy wanted to buy said statue but I told her it was too tacky!). I bought three Italia t-shirts as my souvenirs. I normally wouldn't buy three t-shirts of the same place but they had a deal going on that was too good to pass up! The had a selection of shirts that were one for 8 Euros, two for 10 or three for 12. I had picked out two and Amy was going to get one but she couldn't find one that she liked. Well, I wasn't going to buy only two when I could get another for 2 Euros! So, I ended up with three t-shirts.
We had a map of the city but mostly just ended up walking around taking pictures of whatever we happened to pass. So we weren't expecting to see the Duomo when we did. We were walking along a narrow street when we turned the corner and BAM! there it was. I turned the corner first and even yelled "whoa!" right in front of an old couple because I was so shocked to see it. It's size is shocking but mostly it was the contrast in the colours of the buildings around it. Most of the buildings in Florence are done in yellows and oranges but the Duomo is white, pale pink and green. This was the only building we went inside, mostly because it was the only free one! It was quite dark inside so we couldn't get good pictures, but we did happen to get some of the paintings on the dome. Construction started on the cathedral in 1296...1296! isn't that incredible!?!?! The dome is what makes this cathedral so famous. It is self-supported and was built without scaffolding. You can climb to the top of the dome, but we both decided after the four flights of stairs we had to climb to reach our hostel, that the 450 or so steps to the top were not doable. However, we'll use the fact that it was overcast and it wouldn't have been a great view anyways as our excuse :)
After the Duomo we got our first taste of gelato. Before we left we read up on how to tell if the gelato was homemade or not. You are supposed to check out the colour of the pistachio flavour and if it is a lime green it is not homemade. Apparently, sometimes they put food colouring in it to make it a brighter green colour, but if it is made au naturale it is a darker green. With that in mind, we wandered around (there is a gelato shop around every corner) until we found a shop with the appropriate pistachio colour. We got two flavours each, Amy got pistachio and strawberry and I got coffee chocholate chip and ferraro rocher. Delicious! They all tasted exactly like the real thing. We got gelato three more times on our trip (we couldn't resist!) and the flavours were banana, coconut x2 (it was that good!), panna cotta, coffee and lemon.
The rest of the day we wandered the streets taking pictures, going into tourist shops, as well as some normal clothing stores, and window shopping at all the delicous bakeries and delis that are on every street in Florence. Around 8 we decided to have dinner and found a cute little restaurant near our hostel. Amy ordered pasta with an egg cream sauce and bacon and I got pizza with mushrooms, mozzarella, tomatoes and salad. The salad turned out to be some kind of bitter leaves and I ended up scraping most of it off. The rest of the pizza was good, though. Once back at the hostel we did some research on line about Pisa and went to bed praying for sunshine.
We woke up to a beautiful sunny day. We decided to walk around Florence for an hour to see some of the buildings in the sun. The day before Amy had seen a mask (like the ones worn at costume balls in movies) at one of the vendors in the market and decided thats what she wanted as her souvenir. Unfortunately, we couldn't find it again so instead she got some beautiful scenery pictures.
Once back in Pisa we went directly to the Piazza dei Miracoli, which has the famous tower as well as a duomo and baptistry. We were both very excited to see the leaning tower and have both said it was our favourite part of the trip. The tower is something you learn about as a child, so to be able to see it in person after all those years is amazing! A trip to the leaning tower wouldn't be complete without a few famous 'holding up the tower' poses. We felt a little silly but it had to be done. They turned out quite well, too!
Pisa is a cute little town with a lot of cafes and what looked to be some good shopping. Unfortunately, all of the shops are closed from 1-3:30 for a siesta. We definitely felt as though we didn't have enough time in Pisa. Our flight left at 4:45 which meant we only had a few hours in Pisa before we needed to get to the airport. You could easily spend an hour or two at the tower and surrounding buildings.
All in all our first major trip went smoothly, with the only problem being that it was too short. For our next trip, we are planning on going to Greece for four or five days. Before we left Canada we didn't think we would be able to go to Greece because we figured the tickets would be too expensive. Amy found some good deals though and we're thinking about heading there at the end of February. Let's hope everything works out!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
