121: LE MARAIS

Le Marais is where I would want to live if I were to be a Parisian. This is also where we ran into some Canadian guys who we saw for the THIRD time in three days. Day 1 = Eiffel Tower, Day 2 = Notre Dame, Day 3 = Le Marais. How coincidental is that, in this huge city?!

120: RAIN DOWN ON ME...FROM A GREAT HEIGHT...

We watched the rain coming down over the other side of Paris, while standing at the top of the Notre Dame.

119: MOONRISE

We were walking from Notre Dame (in front of which I ate one of the best gyros pitas I have ever had) towards the metro when we noticed the giant yellow moon rising above the Seine River. It doesn't look that big in my picture, but I have never seen it so yellow and gigantic in person!

118: ALIAS 6.5

This was right beside the door of a shop and I have no idea what it means. Is Alias the address? What do all those numbers above Alias stand for? And why did someone write $PERMY beside it?

117: FRIEDRICHSCHAIN

Around the Friedrichschain neighborhood.

116: Ich Möchte Eine Curryworst

Curryworst: sausage in tomato sauce sprinkled with curry powder.

Curry 36 is the best place in Berlin (according to my guidebook) to get curryworst. And it was good. And then I felt nauseous, and that made me sad.

114: SPREE RIVER SUNRISE

5:30am sunrise over Berlin.

Clubbing isn't exactly my scene, but Berlin is famous for its techno parties, so we went to one called Watergate which was just right across the river Spree (we are staying one block from the river). We had read online that it is an exclusive club that is hard to get in, and that they turn tourists away and that the bouncers quiz you on the DJs playing that night. We were planning on looking up information about the DJs, but when the bouncer asked us who was playing, we realized that was what we had forgotten. What got us in was when Cat, in her German accent, said,"Techno/Haus" when he asked us what music we listen to. The crazy thing about Berlin is that they party all night and into the next afternoon. People were still coming in at 4 am. By the time we left, it was light out, and we stopped in the middle of the medieval bridge to watch the sunrise.

113: BERLIN WALL

Our hotel is in the Friedrichshain neighborhood in Berlin and is just a few minutes walk to the East Side Gallery, which is the longest, best preserved section of the former Berlin wall. In 1990, it was covered with murals by painters using brushes and spray cans, becoming an open air gallery.

The Berlin wall consisted of two walls, the inner and the outer wall. Whenever someone from East Berlin managed to climb over the interior wall, they would fall into the "death zone", which is the strip between the inner and outer wall. This area was  patrolled regularly by the soldiers from East Berlin, and they would shoot and kill people who were stuck in this death zone. People who successfully crossed the wall did it by digging tunnels, riding hot air balloons, and escaping through the sewers.

112: TRAIN STATION

The Frankfurt airport opened today, so Rae and I were very lucky that we managed to get the first flight from Air Canada out to Frankfurt. We had a bit of trouble with getting from the airport to the train station by metro, since the English instructions on the machine just said to insert the money and then choose what kind of ticket you want. We inserted our money, and then realized that there were ten different options on the types of ticket, and all of the options were in German. We had to get a nice German man (who missed his train because he was waiting in line before us and we were taking so long) help us. Now I know that "einzelfahrt" means one way!

We managed to get to the train station in time to meet Cat, and then we were off for another 5 hours on a train to Berlin!

111: OLIVE ET GOURMANDO

Olive et Gormando is a popular cafe near the condo in Old Montreal where we were staying. It was our third attempt to eat here, and this time we were finally successful. According to Steph and E-talk daily, Jake Gyllenhaal was seen here last week. Today, we sat at a table beside Frida Pinto.

110: "I LIKE JEWISH FOOD"

Rae and I were walking around downtown with Remy, and we turned around to look for him and found him talking to a Jewish man. Remy was asking what the celebration was for, and the man told him it was their Jewish Independence Day. Remy said, "I like Jewish food. I like to eat smoked meat." The man looked at us girls and replied, "I like Asian food."

109: LOST TIME

It was not a very productive day. We managed to walk the wrong direction on Mont Royal for half an hour, and as we were finding our way back, we got a call from Air Canada asking us if we wanted to fly to Rome that night. We spent the next few hours taking the metro to the library, finding out the library was closed, buying a calling card, figuring out how to use said calling card to call Cat in Paris, taking the metro back to Mont Royal and finding an internet cafe just across the street, skyping with Cat, and trying to find train tickets from Rome to Paris. All this was a big waste of time, since we ended up not going for the Rome flight because the train tickets were all sold out anyway. At least we got to go to Rockaberry to have delicious pies, where we met up with Steph, an old friend from high school.

108: I FEEL IT IN MY FINGERS...

This is our new friend Remy, who is from a small town in Quebec called Trois Rivieres. We think he is the funniest person in Quebec because he says the most hilarious things. We decided to take funny pictures one day. During his turn for a picture with Rae, he said, "Let's stick our tongues out!" and so they did. For my turn for a picture with him, he said, "Let's put our finger into each other's noses!" He tried to put his finger up my nose, but I was NOT cool with it. Rae said, "Why don't you pretend to put your fingers in each other's noses, but not actually put it in your nose!" He said, "I don't mind. Here, you can do my nose." He then took my wrist and led my finger to his nostril and said, "Doesn't this look believable?" And I replied with, "That's because my finger IS up your nose!" And that is when Rae burst out laughing.

Don't you love how Remy looks totally fine with my finger up his nose?

PS. I washed my hands right after this picture was taken.

107: MAPLE SYRUP ON A STICK

Maple syrup poured over ice and rolled onto a popsicle stick. The lady told us to watch out for our hair, and sure enough, the wind blew Rae's hair onto the maple syrup, turning it into a big sticky hairy mess.

106: DECISIONS, DECISIONS

We had two hours to wander around Toronto, and we spent it at the CN Tower and in a restaurant eating really really good food!

We woke up early to give Air Canada a call to see what was going to happen with our flight. Basically, the earliest flight they can rebook us on will be on April 21st to Frankfurt, and we will be on a queue for a flight to Paris in case they decide to fly extra planes because of the backlog from the cancelled flights. We did not want to spend 6 days in Toronto, so we decided to take a train to Montreal instead and to (hopefully) catch a flight from there to Frankfurt. I really really really hope that volcanic ash cloud is blown away and that our flight to Frankfurt isn't cancelled. I worked so hard to get the vacation days for this trip, and I want to spend it in Europe!!!

Luckily, Rae has a cousin living in Montreal, and her cousin's boyfriend has graciously given us his extra condo (which he usually rents out) in Old Montreal for us to stay in.

If things had gone according to plan, I would be in Paris right now, about to wake up to go climb the Eiffel Tower in the early morning.....Throughout the past two days I have been telling Rae to look at the good side: we are alive, healthy, and not in Baghdad.

105: A DISRUPTION OF THE VOLCANIC SIZE

At the Toronto Pearson airport. I woke up before my flight to the news that a volcano had erupted in Iceland and that London Heathrow as well as northern European airports had shut down due to volcanic ash. The Paris airport was still open though, and I successfully boarded my flight to Toronto. Ciambella Rae and I looked at the monitors once we arrived to see which terminal our Paris flight would depart from, and I saw: "PARIS - CDG -- annulle."  I stood there for a second, not realizing what it meant, until it changed to english and said "Paris - CDG -- cancelled". I was very upset. 

We waited for our bags. And waited. And waited. It took them 2 and a half hours to find our bags. Then we went to the "hotel" that Air Canada had given us for the night, where we found out that they had no non-smoking rooms available. Walking into our room was like walking into a scene from a horror movie. It was dark, with stains everywhere, and there were even iron imprints on the carpet. And it SMELLED, the smoke even getting into our pj's the next day. Anyway, we went to the restaurant where we had food vouchers, and we waited. And waited. And waited. Today was basically a big waiting game for us. The only good part about today was that we got to watch the Canucks beat the LA Kings in overtime in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

104: IN ANTICIPATION

My favorite Parisian called me today, and I will be attending a birthday picnic by the Eiffel Tower on Saturday :)

I leave for Paris, Prague, and Berlin tomorrow. I will hopefully be able to blog while I am away, but if not, see you all in three weeks!!

xoxo
Ms Bombshell

 

103: STAYING IN

I like to hang out in my flannel pajamas and fluffy slippers at home.

102: SICK DAY

Looking out my window during a beautiful sick day.

I took today off, since yesterday I was so congested that I couldn't pronounce things properly. I couldn't say my m's so instead "my" or "mother" i would say "by" and "buther". No wonder people kept looking at me weirdly while I was talking to them. And now I also have tomorrow off as well. I said, "I don't want to be sick during my trip," and head office agreed and said, "You don't want to be sick during your trip so you should rest because we found someone to take your shift." Woohoo. No more work for me until May 5th!

101: HELLO QUATCHI

Anna dropped by during work to give me my Vancouver 2010 hoodie from the Aritzia warehouse sale.  My favorite thing about this hoodie is the Quatchi waving from the pocket.

100: SKY STREAK

View during my ferry ride home.  I was sitting outside and almost fell asleep because the sun was on my face and I got all warm and comfortable. But then all the little kids came out, screaming and running around, and I wanted to punch them all in the face! Because all I wanted to do was sleep. There must have been some kind of Boy Scout convention going on because there were boy scouts everywhere, taking up all the seats and being very loud. Is it just me or is it weird when the middle aged leaders wear their boy scout uniforms?

The minute I got home, I crawled into bed and fell asleep.  This is a sure sign that I am sick, since I never nap when I am not. Three more days of work left to go. Would it be bad to take a sick day right before a 3 week vacation?

Time to take some drugs.

P.S. I can't believe I am already 100 days into my project 365. It feels like I just started!

99: WALKING THE LAGOON

I had an early shift today so I went to Piper's Lagoon for a little hike after work. It's so gorgeous there, especially since today was such a nice day. I suppose this is why they call it a "working vacation". I love Nanaimo when it's sunny! But then there's nothing to do when it's cold and rainy. Here are some of the answers I got when I asked some of my Nanaimo colleagues on what they do for fun:

"There's nothing to do in Nanaimo. Why did I sign such a long contract? There's nothing here! I'll be here until my hair is gray!"

"Sometimes I go for a drive. But it's only fun when you can go fast, and you can't go fast on any of the roads here."

"I hang out with my friends at the mall in front of the Fido stand."

"Even the pubs at the university stop serving food after 7. You should go to 7-11 if you want to eat something after 8 because you'll have trouble finding a restaurant that's open."

Despite the lackluster responses from the locals, I still think Nanaimo is great for the outdoorsy types, especially when the weather cooperates. I had a fantastic time here when I did my practicum in third year, although playing Mario Kart everyday after work and living in a vacation home with friends probably had something to do with it.

I couldn't decide on which photo I liked best so here are a few more:

98: COME SAIL AWAY

Take me on your boat...

Also, I found it so amusing how my friend, Mr. Nanaimo Pharmacy Manager, furnishes his house like this:

Hopefully the empty box doesn't collapse under the tv!

97: A LOOK INSIDE

Me in my hotel room, reflected off a window streaked with raindrops. I'm back in rainy Nanaimo, and foolishly agreed to do overtime this Saturday, meaning that I will be working nine days in a row! AHHH! Only six more days to go...

96: VIOLET STEMS

Yellow flowers in New Westminister in their purple-stemmed glory.

BTW: If you google "purple stems" like I did, you will find an abundance of marijuana sites. The most common search involving that phrase is actually "purple stems on cannabis".  My aim was to find out the name of this plant, but the only thing I learned from this search is that purple stems on marijuana plants are due to phosphorus deficiency.  At least now I will be able to help out a marijuana grower in need of advice.

95: SICILIAN LOVE

April is Sicily month on my 1000 Places to See Before You Die wall calendar, and I whole-heartedly agree that it is definitely a place to see. I went to Sicily last year on a month-long trip that was originally planned to be just Greece. However, we changed it to two weeks of Sicily and two weeks of Greece instead, and I didn't expect much out of Sicily since it was more of an afterthought to me. I knew nothing about it before I went.

I am so happy that we changed our plans, because I left that island very much impressed by what it had to offer. It was so beautiful and the people were so warm, and most of all, the food was AMAZING. My favorite was the polipe (octopus) pasta with breadcrumbs from Osteria Mariano in Siracusa. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Sicily has it all, and my heart aches just remembering the fun and the memories that my friends and I shared.

Anna looking out onto the gorgeous town of Monreale. 

I was going to conclude my love blog to Sicily with a picture of us with our squid ink-stained smiles,  but thought that this one would probably be a bit more flattering. But I really really love the squid ink pictures, no matter how disgusting we look in them.

94: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

A shot of English Bay from the middle of the Burrard Street Bridge. Remember my disappointment a few days ago when I realized that I had specified walking not just on any bridge, but along the Burrard bridge in particular? Well, I can finally cross it off my list today.

Here I am at the beginning of the bridge, in anticipation of the walk ahead.


Anyway, now that it has been crossed off my bucket list, I have added something else to do before I die: be able to do the CROW. Every time I attempt to do it, I end up falling over. This is what it looks like:

It may take me awhile to master this.

93: COUNTDOWN TO WHAT?

I wonder what is going to happen to the countdown clock now that the Olympics are long gone. It's such a waste of money if it's just going to sit there showing zeros from now on. It should count down to Christmas. Maybe it will count down to the Stanley Cup. Or maybe they will change it so that it shows the time instead.

92: RAMEN GOODNESS

Giosy and I indulged ourselves with bowls of ramen after our yoga class this morning. Today's class was my favorite out of the ones I have been to so far, mostly because of the awesome instructor.  He was very funny and entertaining, not to mention that he was also pretty dreamy and took his shirt off twice during class. Some of the poses he wanted us to do looked so difficult that I can only dream of being able to do them one day. I am just so amazed at how flexible some people are. Anyway, Giosy and I discussed how we would settle to be best friends with him because of his humour and general awesomeness. Giosy, you have to make this happen.

91: CROSSING THE BRIDGE

Today, I walked across the Granville Bridge for the first time. Now I can cross that off my bucket list. Yes, I did create a list of things to do before I die, even though I am still young, but what can I say. I like to make lists. When I was a child, I made lists and lists of every single thing you could imagine because I thought it was fun.

...Well, I just went to look at my list, and it turns out I haven't achieved that particular goal yet, because it said "Walk across the Burrard Street Bridge", not the Granville Street Bridge. If only I wasn't so specific in my choice of bridges to walk across.