Dublin...sweeeet!

Well we arrived in Dublin this morning after a solid 24hrs travelling by train through Belgium and then catching an early morning flight from Brussels to Dublin. A 30 min bus ride dropped us in downtown Dublin and we meandered our way to Isaac's hostel. This place is super cool with all the amenities, clean facilities and a very helpful staff. They set us up in a room right away that was available at 9am and we all crashed hard. We are up and at 'em now though and are doing our laundry. Catherine and I enjoyed a good meal at a cafe nearby while Sas and Scott chilled at the hostel. This city looks awesome and we can't wait to get exploring.

A little bit more about Holland and Belgium. Amsterdam is a beautiful city with a laid back atmosphere but totally nuts red light district. The place goes off basically every night and we stayed in a hotel at the heart of all the madness. The staff at the Old Quarter were quite helpful and the place was clean, biggest recommendation would be the food, it was badass! We tried the traditional Dutch dishes and were not dissappointed. Catherine, Scott and I followed a local recommendation to the sister pub, the Old Nickel, and Wilhelm served us cold beer and the cold shoulder...he warmed up when we told hime we were Canucks at 5am.

Well, I would like to say just this little bit about our day bike riding in Holland, it was the highlight so far. Yolande (mom) guided us to her parents old place in Haarlem, absolutely beautiful estate which is a heritage location now backing on to what was once the biggest forest in Holland. We were so happy to find it as the farm in Quebec is named after this home. ZOMERLUST (summer love). I say we were relieved to find it because we got turned around a few times with directions and addresses, but thanks to Yolande's perseverance (ie. willingness to even knock on local doors and interupt children's birthday parties) to get us sorted out we did achieve our goal. The whole bike ride was absolutely beautiful and capped off by biking through farmers fields and past cozy houses along rural canals. We probably did 40km and almost missed returning our bikes on time. This last task was a scene straight out of the amazing race with teams arriving back at the bike shop in 5 minute intervals, having only seconds to spare! What an awesome experience!

Before leaving Amsterdam we also visited my great grandparents home in the city and walked in the park my mother and uncle played in as children. Yol remembered affectionately her brother guy watching the draw bridge go up and down from the front window of this place.

When we left Amsterdam we travelled by train to the medieval trading city of Brugge in Belgium. While this place is definitely a tourist trap it is a must see. The city circa. 1200-1400 is unbelievably beautiful and immaculately preserved. Because the canal that was at the heart of the city's trade wealth silted over in the early 1500s the city was virtually abandoned over night leaving it in the same period as we see it today. Recommendation, eat, drink and stay just off the markt square, it is a little less touristy and much more polite.

From Brugge we trained in the evening to Ypres where my parenst would spend the night and go to Vimy while we made our way to Dublin. In Ypres we visited the Menin Gate, a WWI momument to the fallen soldiers with unmarked graves. We witnessed the sounding of The Last Post at 8pm, a moving ceremony which is done each night at 8pm. Regiments from all over appear each night and participate to help us all remember that they gave their today for our tommorrow. A quick dinner followed and then off to Dublin.

Here we are Dublin...woooot woooot!

Amsterdam and Brugge

Well, all flights arrived and we spent 2 nights in Amsterdam at the Old Quarter Hotel. Amsterdam is a crazy town, at least the downtown red light/entertainment district. Check your morals at the door you wont be needing them here. It was an awsome stay, we did a canal cruise and visited my great grandparents house in Haarlem, which is now a Heritage site, absolutely amazing. Our bike tour leading us to ZomerLust was excellent with great weather and only a few stopsto get our bearings.

Yesterday evening we arrived in Brugge Belgium, a medieval town that thrived in the 14th century. It is truly beautiful with spectacular architecture and a clock tower you can climb...only 366 steps.

Tonight we part ways with my parents and fly tommorrow morning to Dublin

As soon as we figure out photo transfer i will upload some pictures

Leavin' on a jet plane!

Well, no photos of our pack up, it was far to hectic and there was so much happening over the last 2 weeks we barely had a moment to breathe. However there were a few moments to party...B-Day celebrations at 5th ave bowladrome come to mind, vaguely! It was awesome to chill with good friends and enjoy some nice Prince George weather.

We are almost about to fly and are writing this at 1am...finally finished packing for the trip. We are allowing ourselves to get excited as the volcano issues have subsided. Fingers crossed we get airborne tommorrow!

Travelling!!!!!!

well it has been almost a year since our last post on the blog. What a year it has been. Catherine is an Ironman and a Master, I have entered the teaching profession and we are about to embark on a 2 month travel adventure. So that being said, we will try and update much more regularly through our travels!


We are only 13 days away from our departure to Europe and beyond and we are getting excited! Or rather we are extremely stoked, pumped, thrilled, ecstatic and generally psyched to start this adventure! That being said, Catherine and I have the entire house pulled apart and are madly yanking pictures from the walls, packing boxes and tubs, disassembling furniture and trying to shed the excess pounds of crap you can accumulate in a house over time. This is at once an exciting and stressful process that leaves us exhausted and smiling ear to ear. The weather is getting nicer, the days longer and the trips to Shooter's Pub more frequent. It's nice to both be done our programs at UNBC. Spring is certainly in the air, yet our christmas lights are still on our tree...another one of this week's projects, there are still many uuuhhhhhh. As we get packed up and learn more about using this site we will keep everyone posted with new info and photos of our pack up and more importantly our trip abroad!