Carousels!

So since we arrived in Europe, we have noticed one thing that almost every city has in common! A carousel... Here is a quick montage of all the photos I have been collecting whenever I see a carousel. It's become something of a collection - that spans the beginning to end of my trip. The perfect post for my parting day.

Enjoy!

Nice, France

Geneva, Switzerland - closed for the season 

Barcelona, Spain

Munich, Germany - Oktoberfest

Paris, France

London, England

Strasbourg

Lyon, France

Lyon, France

Our Travels.. Strasbourg

The weekend of Nov 24 was a busy one for us! Friday and Saturday we saw Chamonix and then went back to Lyon, changed our clothes and hitched another train North to Strasbourg for Sunday and Monday too see the Christmas markets. 

Originally a German tradition, outdoor Christmas markets have spread throughout Europe. They have lots in France but the oldest French market is in Strasbourg because it frequently changed ownership between Germany and France. It's right on the border between the two countries, and as a result the culture is a little bit different than elsewhere in France. Strasbourg is in the Alsace region, which is all kind of eccentric compared to the other French regions, having been influenced by border countries. 

How do I know all this? Well because I like to learn things about everywhere I visit...and because I chose to do my French project and presentation on the city! haha 

Anyways! The markets show case hand made and local crafts and other little gifts and specialty foods. My favorite was the pain epice, we tried it from all the different stands before we decided on our favorite.

entire booths dedicated to nativity scenes - now you can have a brown baby jesus if you want 

Other traditional foods include vin chaud, cider, and spiced hot chocolate (yum!) and this weird potato mix fried with sauerkraut and bacon - i think that's coming from the German side of things. 

All in all I enjoyed walking around the markets, enjoying hot drinks and seeing the whole city lit up. Really made me look forward to the holidays. And I found everyone such lovely gifts! The funniest part of the trip was seeing Kelsey's disbelief/embarrassment while me and Cassandra shamelessly haggled with the vendors lol! Guess I have some Manchisi in me after all ahahha!

No more travelling after this, our final trips were much more relaxed then the more extravagant ones in the beginning; but they were the perfect way to wind down the trip and we are looking forward to coming home to everyone! 

love al 

Our Travels...Chamonix

As the weather starts to cool down in Lyon, we thought we'd follow suit and head to the mountains! Chamonix is the biggest village in Mont Blanc. It caters mostly to skiers but the runs weren't open yet when we got there. We mostly went for the scenery anyhow, I don't need any broken limbs in the middle of Europe, it's been a while since I hit the slopes!

We took the train from Lyon to Chamonix, with two short stop overs. The train ride should have taken us just 4 hours but it ended up taking us 8. How you ask? Well! Apparently in one of our transfers, the train that we got into eventually separated along its route, so that the first four carts went one direction and the other four unhitched and went another way. We, obviously were in the wrong cart. On the bright side we ended up in Evian-les-Bains -- where they bottle Evian water from the spring. So at least we got to see that. 

the Evian lake - the spring they get the water from is in town

While we were in Chamonix we stayed in a cute chalet that we rented from Airbnb!

We also took the Montvers tram allll the way up to the top of the mountain, one of the highest points in Western Europe and checked the glacier which is rapidly melting; all signs point to global warming.

One Month!!

So...I have officially been in France for 98 days! At this point we've got one more month left in France before we return to Toronto.

So I will share with you my bucket list for the next month...ITS GUNNA BE HECTIC!! 
Not to mention we've got exams somewhere in there too!

1. Ride the carousel in Lyon
2. Go out for Oysters and White Wine, just like the French 
3. Eat only dessert for one day!
4. Go to a macarron baking class
5. Watch a movie, in French
6. Go to the Art Museum in Lyon
7. Attend the Fete de Lumiere in Lyon, and light candles for the event!
8.Go to the Opera 
9. Try one of Paul Bocuse's restaurants 
10. Try tripe, and terrine (gross!)
11. Visit Chamonix, Lille, Paris, Annecy, Strasbourg and anywhere else I can think up that's cheap!!
12. and finally! visit the Christmas Market that will be held in Lyon through the end of November until Christmas!!


Think I can do it all? Guess you'll wait for the next posts to find out...
Miss everyone at home, been missing you all. Had a mildly depressed homesick episode two weeks ago, but I'm back to myself now just trying to pack as much as I can into this last month and make a few more memories before it's done for good!!

Toronto, here we come!

Our Travels...Beaujolais!

So I got my wish to go on a wine tour in France!!
Our university put together a bus trip to the nearby valleys in Lyon, to sample some of the new wines of the year. These grapes have become ripe enough to bottle and its a celebration all over the country, even restaurants in Paris have put up signs that the Nouveau Beaujolais has arrived!. In France, wine doesn't work like it does at home. So wine is classified by region rather than as Chardonnay, Merlot, etc. This is the Beaujolais region which I visited! We didn't get to see the wine caves, but we did see the vineyards and sample some of the new wines (they taste a bit vinegary! lol) 

Our Travels...Dublin

Finally got around to writing about Dublin...

So after finishing up in Edinburgh we caught a flight to the Emerald Isle. Apparently Ireland is NOT part of the UK, and they don't like it when you say that. I guess it's like when people ask me if I'm American and I always insist that we're not the same 

So! This is gunna take some digging back into my memory because I was last in Dublin about 3 weeks ago but it was a great stay. The people were some of the friendliest people I have ever met. We did not have even one bad experience.

The only downfall was, like everywhere else we visited, the weather was FREEZING. I wish it had been sunnier, mostly for the sake of the pictures but I think you will still enjoy them.

being knocked over by the wind - literally, a grown woman fell down through a strong gust !

We stayed with an adorable old couple, in their home - bed and breakfast style. It was nice to have someone else around looking out for us, it was like having a little nonna away from home -- her name is even Teresa! haha 

We arrived in Dublin on Halloween night. We were unsure of what time we would actually get to our B&B and whether we would have the energy to go out, so we hadn't prepared costumes. But we went out on a whim and decided to throw together a basic costume. We did the classic, go-to, black cats! We didn't even have little ears, so it was pretty pathetic but no one at the bars seemed to mind. A lot of people "meow-ed" at us, so I guess it was a crowd pleaser LOL! It was also nice to come into contact people who spoke english, and who we could actually have a more complex conversation with. Although my french is getting better, trying to explain anything about life in Canada, beyond basic topics, gets really complicated. Also, I'm not as funny and charming in French! C'est dommage! lol 

We hit up the famous Temple Bar, which is an iconic hotspot in Dublin known for celebrity visits, and attracting a cool, laid back crowd. It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad we pulled our tired asses off the beds and got outside! Another fun fact, Halloween is actually a Celtic tradition and originated in Ireland so we picked a good city to celebrate in, the streets were a party in themselves and the costumes weren't the normal skimpy stuff  you see at home, but genuinely elaborate masked ghosts and ghouls!

We spent most of our time in Dublin exploring the city rather than rushing from tourist attraction to tourist attraction, and I really enjoyed not having a schedule and just enjoying the things around us. The only good thing about the cold, was that we stopped for tea really often. We found this cute cafe and stopped for homemade scones. It was in a refurbished warehouse style building, which had been converted into an open air shopping complex. One of the most interesting looking and feeling places we stumbled upon in Irish streets. 

St. Patricks Cathedral

In courtyard of Dublin Castle

We also made a stop at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle, had a sip of Guinness and visited Trinity College - which basically looks like an older, cooler UofT. We didn't make it to the Library of Kells, because it was closed - but it houses original Darwinian documents (for those of you that forgot first year sociology, he theorized on evolution and is big in science and philosophy). 

The second day we got up bright and early and spent a whole 7 hours touring the Irish countryside outside Dublin making a stop for traditional lunch, seeing the route that was taken by Holly in the romantic film Ps. I Love You, and visiting other impressive areas like Wicklow and Glendalough National Parks which have been featured in movies like Braveheart.

our bus driver gave everyone a shot of irish wisky to cheers the landscape and fight the cold! Sante'!

All in all it was a beautiful trip, my only regret is that I didn't get to see more castles! But I'm sure I'll be back again, maybe in the summer at the height of the green. 

Our Travels...Edinburgh

On to Scotland the land of Kilts and Delicious Shortbread! Also, Whiskey is apparently a Scottish "thing" and there are many breweries in Scotland and Edinburgh.

Our stay here came at the perfect time, it was just days before Halloween and the whole city has sort of an eerie look to it because of the architecture - so it was perfect. We did a ghost tour on the 30th, which took us into the underground vaults that were built below Edinburgh city center in the 1700s.

spooky cemeteries!

The vaults existed initially to serve as shops and cellars underground, but because of the ventilation conditions they were eventually abandoned. They became home to the poorest of the poor, and disease eventually spread, which led to the deaths of many people in the vaults. During the cholera pandemic (if I remember correctly) some of the vaults were sealed off, and people who were diseased remained behind and were left to die. They say their ghosts still haunt the vaults, but luckily I didn't get spooked by any. It is also rumored that there is an active poltergeist that lives in one of the various cemeteries scattered around Edinburgh. All in all I think it deserves to be called "the most haunted place on Earth".

My favorite thing about the city was that it was small enough to walk the entire thing in a day, and we got to see all of the monuments, and great lookouts that the city had to offer. We visited Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace as well as the University and countless other cool-looking monuments that I never caught the names of.
And last but not least, there is an extinct volcano in Edinburgh. I would have loved to climb to the top, but truthfully we didn't have the right gear, and it was raining or gloomy every day so the view would have been shitty anyway. But you can see it in the background of some of my panoramic shots. It basically just looks like a huge mossy mountain. I did get to go to a lookout point opposite the volcano, so I could see it from afar. 

Edinburgh Castle

The Scot Monument, Day and Night, Full Moon! 

Next stop, Dublin. We nearly died on the plane ride from Edinburgh to Dublin on Halloween night. The turbulence was some of the roughest I've ever experienced...but we made it through in the end *phew*