Off and running....

It's been a big day, I moved from the hostel to my new flat and I landed a job! I'm the new Recruitment Assistant for Lonely Planet. I can't believe it only took me 2 days to find a job.

When I got ready to leave for London on Monday I was an absolute mess, saying goodbye to my parents and my sister was really tough. Then I found out that my airplane was delayed until the following day and I was actually happy about the delay, I really didn't want to leave. I ended up heading back home and was able to spend a few more hours at home with my parents and my munchkins. Feeling slightly less nervous I got on the airplane but starting to think that it was going to be a short trip instead of a long stay.

As mentioned before I hated the hostel so I found a short stay apartment, and it's perfect. It's quiet, has a full kitchen and everything else I need. It overlooks a very cute garden. So I am spending at least one summer in London, it's going to be interesting to say the least.

View from my flat

I`m Back!

Some how I got it together and I made it happen, I`m back in London. There were a few hiccups along the way including a delay with my work visa but I`m here.

I`m only 2 days in, but I managed to beat jet leg and I have tried my best to be on top of things. 5 hours into hostel life I determined it is not for me. Tomorrow I am moving into a short term flat in Westminster. It`s lovely and much closer to where I want to be in the city. I also have 2 job interviews set up for tomorrow, I have a busy day ahead!

I haven`t had a chance to do any site seeing, true to London`s reputation it has been raining. I`m planning on having much more exciting posts in the near future, I`m off to Ireland next weekend for a visit with Kara. I`m very excited!

London is calling...

London is calling...and I will be there in less than 3 months. Most of the time I'm quite excited about the move, but I have my moments when I become a bit nervous. As of April 18th I will be a Londoner! It's really quite exciting, but this move is starting to become a bit unnerving.

First off is finding a place for my cats, my parents have agreed to take them on, but they are not happy about it. I understand, my cats are probably the worst behaved - I let them do what ever they want. Scratch furniture, hop on counters, steal anything important, they do it all. Good luck trying to eat dinner without Jack getting up in your plate. So thank you Mom and Dad for taking on my little monsters. Next is packing up my entire apartment and trying to fit my life into one suitcase and one carry-on luggage. I'm optimistic I can handle this; if I could handle my 6 week trip to Europe on that quota, I can move on the same. I can't see myself needing anything more than a 6 weeks tour of Europe, if i had washing i would've done even better. Again thanks to the parents for taking on everything I can't fit into my luggage, and judging from the state of my walk-in closet, I'm gonna need at least on third of theirr house to store everything.

I also have a 3 week stay at my parents house before I leave, I'm hoping to make the most of it but I haven't spent more than a weekend at my parents house in 8 years. This will really be interesting, there is a good chance my parents will be trying to put me on an earlier flight.

A few months to go, I'm terrified yet beyond excited.

Plans are in motion...

October 28th - I've put down my deposit on SWAP, the agency that I'm using to help organize my move overseas. Estimated leave date is April 15, 2011 - that day can not come soon enough!

Sandra and I met up with Tom a few weeks ago in Montreal, he came over for a month for work. It was great catching up with a fellow contiki member, especially Tom! Tom is a pilot with the Australian air force, I find his work is so interesting. I asked him about 1000 questions, I'm sure he was sick of all of them. Overall the weekend was great, and it was nice to get away. Oh and Montreal shopping is amazing -I bought an amazing jacket and some killer shoes.

Tom, Sandra and I in Montreal

Day 41- Home

Monday, June 21 - With a heavy heart I packed up to get ready to head back to Canada. This meant my trip was finally done. 6 weeks earlier I had arrived at the RN and wishing I had never left Canada and now I was dreading going home. This post would be quite boring except with this excerpt - while drinking at the Happy in Belfast Kara dared me to go hit on this random guy. I accepted the dare, and successfully chatted up said boy. In the end it was playful fun and nothing happened. I remember talking to him but I don't remember much of our conversation. In the end I wish I had...

Turns out, some how this guy is on my flight out of Dublin back to Canada! Random coincidence. Worse, I didn't even recognize him the first half of he flight, but he did me. Oh well. Quite a funny story at any rate.

My Euro adventure ends here, sadly. I'm hoping it will be updated in the somewhat near future. I have plans in place (and the wheels are in motion) to move to the UK for a year starting spring 2011. I'm currently working on obtaining my UK Visa and securing employment. Wish me luck! Talk soon.

Day 40 - Back to Dublin

Sunday, June 20th - I woke up feeling quite horrible, thankfully we had a quick send-off with Chris's parents and then we were heading back to Belfast. With it being Sunday, the train ran on limited hours so Sandra and I had to make it back to Dublin by mid-afternoon or we wouldn't make it back for our flight home the following morning. Really, I was quite okay with missing it and staying in Europe forever. Sandra was eager to get home though. I said a tearful goodbye to Kara at the train station - it was hard, really had no idea when I will see her next. As of now UK Visa is in the works, may be sooner than I thought!

2 hours later we arrived back in Dublin and checked into the lodge we had stayed at before. Turned out we had luck-out the first time, our room wasn't as nearly as spacious as the last one, in-fact we had to share a queen bed. It still wasn't horrible, and it was still dirt cheap. We cleaned up and then headed to our last dinner out in Europe. We went back to the restaurant we went to earlier in the week since the food had been fantastic. We splurged and had ridiculously expensive meals with over-priced but delicious wine. After that we headed back to our lodge to get ready to fly home in the morning. Here we dropped heaps of stuff trying to lighten our luggage. This was the worst night of sleep of the entire trip for me, a car alarm started going off around 3am and never stopped. I ended up getting up at 4 to shower and get ready for our 6am departure.

Last Dinner

Day 39 - Exploring Belfast

Saturday, June 19th - Despite going to bed early (at least by contiki standards) I slept quite late and woke up to the delicious smell of home cooked breakfast made by Chris's mom. Bacon, eggs, sausage, rustic bread - it was all delicious. Chris's parents were great, extremely welcoming and quite entertaining to talk to. It was a nice change of pace to sit down to a family breakfast, I don't remember the last time I've done this - certainly not on contiki nor anytime recently at home.

After breaky we took a day trip to see one of the main attractions of Northern Ireland - the Giant's Causeway. We drove through the country-side and arrived at the attraction. It was quite windy and cold compared to what I'm used to. Poor Kara is used to hot Ontario summers and she's been stuck in Ireland in the cold. We climbed down the path to the waterfront and it was an amazing site, the rock formations were all symmetrical columns that were formed from a volcanic eruption that happened ages ago. It was really neat to look at and climb around. Only problem was that Kara and Chris hadn't advised me to where we were going so I was only wearing thongs so I had a bit of a problem on the slippery rocks. I still managed okay, I had climbed waterfalls and trekked around Europe in these thongs, I could definitely handle a few rocks. After admiring the waterfront we make a quick trip to the organ (see picture below) and then headed up the hill back to the car. Poor Sandra wasn't doing very well, the chilly winds made her feel worse than she already did and she had a difficult time climbing up the hill, but she was a trooper. The fresh air did the opposite for me, I felt renewed for the first time in weeks and was well ahead of the crowd, eager to explore the next turn.

After leaving the Giant's Causeway we went to a tiny waterfront city that Kara and Chris swore had the best ice cream. We weren't disappointed - it was elaborate and delicious. I still prefer gelato to ice cream but this was a definite treat. We passed by some shops and decided to stop, Kara and Chris were looking for a tent and I as everyone knows I just enjoying shopping - they didn't find a tent but I found some really cheap hoodies - 6 pounds and fit me perfectly!

We finally arrived back at Chris's parents place and after a quick shower we settled in for a family BBQ. The food was amazing - sausages, hamburgers, steaks - our host family went all out. It was simply delicious. Again, I really enjoyed the family time, and since one of the most famous Irish past-times is drinkin', we all got quite liquored up. Highlights of the evening include me trying to make friends with a herd of sheep - I spent a good 15 minutes trying to convince them to be friendly. I fail, but there is a pretty funny video of this. The entire group of us (parent's included) decided to head to the only pub in town "The Happy", which was heaps of fun. Everyone knew each other and those who didn't were extremely welcoming. It was very small town and unlike anything I've ever experienced I enjoyed every minute of it. We spent a few hours here and by last call I literally had to be dragged from the bar, I was having too much fun to leave!

First Sight of the Giant's Causeway

Up the hillside

More Giant's Causeway

The Organ

Kara and I