Spring Break 2008! - 2nd Destination, the BEAUTIFUL Portugal!

Well after seeing all of the beautiful places in Barcelona i was positive i could never be in another city that could top it. WELL was i ever wrong. Portugal is HANDS DOWN the most beautiful place i have ever seen in my whole life. The magic and zest for life in this country made me want to move there. The trip started out fabulously once we arrived to our award-winning hostel. NO JOKE! haha Our hostel "Lisbon Lounge" is rated as the top hostel in Europe and trust me the ratings do not lie! This quaint and upbeat hostel gave me an idea of what it means to truely live in Portugal. It was a very "familial" environment and everyone had dinner and breakfast together. This hostel definately made my Lisbon, Portugal experience!

Same as the travelling intentions in Barcelona, we did not want to be bogged down with rushing to see the town. So the first day was spent getting settled into our hostel and getting to know everyone. The second day was spent walking around the town of Lisbon, we went to Belime - a beautiful part of Lisbon. There we got to see a magnificent parc and a wonderful castle!

The third day we had reserved for a place in Portugal called "Sintra" this area of portugal is what most locals call the "Dreamland". This place blew my mind, i have never seen such a beautiful place in my entire life. I felt like i was in heaven... the views were remarkable and it cost a mere 3 euros to get there from lisbon by train! In Sintra we visited the Cabo de Rosa - this is a BEAUTIFUL view of the ocean, with cliffs and mountains of green and golden flowers. Simply breath taking. We also scoped out the town and got to see some magnificent castles and buildings. Our last stop of the day was in Azenhas del mer...this was my favorite part of my whole trip. We got there just as the sun was setting and the view was simply magical. Although it was kind of windy and cold i enjoyed it none the less. The land was soooo incredible and i would go back to Portugal just to see it again! Pictures cannot capture how beautiful this place really is ... it is something you must see in person to truely capture it's essence.

Our fourth in Portugal was spent going to a Flea market in central town. This was fabulous, and i found some incredibly cheap and unique jewellery that i could never find anywhere else! In the afternoon we walked around lisbon and took the old fashion "tram". This rickety historic transportation method was an experience in its own. I definately recommend that you go for a ride on one if you are ever in Lisbon! After that we all went to the castle site in Lisbon, and on the way we went to a terrace near by to get the view of Lisbon. Again we got here while the sun was setting, and it was absolutely spectacular! I recommend going to the terrace, however if you are expecting the castle to be spectacular, dont...i found the castle was a rip-off! But still, the view was worth it!

On the last day we were in Portugal, we went to Cascais - this is where the most beauuuutiful beach near Lisbon is situated. Me and some friends enjoyed lazing around in the sun on our last day of vacation. We also walked around Cascais and discovered tons of little shops and restaurants!

Because our hostel offered supper, our last meal in Lisbon was there, if you are ever staying at the Lisbon Lounge - i HIGHLY recommend their meals over ANY restaurant in Lisbon. The portions are huge, you get a full meal, entree and dessert...and an added bonus is that you get UNLIMITED wine!

Looking back on all of my trips so far, Portugal has to be my favorite! The beauty and essence of Sintra was something i will remember for the rest of my life!

Spring Break 2008! - 1st Destination, BARCELONA!!!!

Well I started my spring break with the ever so beautiful Barcelona, Spain. Me and 3 other Canadian friends stayed at a beautiful hostel that was right on the beach! We had a few hot hot hot days, and i managed to get a pretty bad burn. Our hostel also had fabulous organized tours for a mere seven euros.. this included metro and bus passes we would need to get from place to place.




This vacation was more of a relaxing one because we have been traveling soooo much it tends to get tiring and we all decided it would be nice to see some things but because we were there for 5 days we would have some time to just lay on the beach and relax. The food and liquor was cheap in barcelona, and our hostel was within 2 minutes from a grocery store, so it wasn't difficult to get what we needed. Also the stores in Spain had extended hours and was open until 11pm (alot different from the stores here in France!).


The tour we did through our hostel was called the Gaudi Tour. Gaudi was a famous architect in Barcelona, and created some of the most beautiful and well known buildings in Spain, such as Familia Sagrada. I loved every minute of this tour and learned alot about this well known artist. We also walked through the Parc of Guell - which was his most beautiful piece in my opinion. This parc was filled with interesting landscaping and REMARKABLE mosaiic art work. There was a beautiful view of Barcelona once you reached the top, however the beauty is something a camera could never capture. Once you go to the middle section of the parc there are beautiful rows of benches made of mosaiic, its colorful art pieces are something that i could stare at for hours. Gaudi had something special and i enjoyed viewing all of his pieces. i DEFINATELY recommend seeing anything he created in Barcelona.


The days where we were not on the beach or doing a walking tour were mostly spent shopping and taking in the beautiful town of barcelona. I loved the shopping in Barcelona - Spain is where the beautiful store called "Zara" is created, so the clothing i would usually pay tons for was cheap! The transportation in Barcelona, like most European cities, was exceptional and very easy to get from point A to point B. TIP: Make sure you get the 10 use pass for 7 euros, otherwise you will pay 2 euros each time you go on a bus or metro. This way is ALOT cheaper!

I also had the opportunity to go and see the Arc de Triomphe in Barcelona, very different from the one in Paris. I actual thought the Arc in Barcelona was prettier, the stone and detail was very different to the one found in france. I particularly enjoyed the walk to the Arc with the surrounding palm trees, definately worth the trip there if you are in Barcelona!

Me and some friends also went to this HUGE market in Barcelona. The market was lively and filled with tons of colorful fruit and veggies. The atmosphere was like something i have never seen, it was jam packed with people and the vendors were yelling to beat the others with prices. I have never seen such colorful foods as i did in this market....definately outshines our market in Saint John!



Overall, our stay in Barcelona was Exceptional and am so happy i had the opportunity to go there, definately a place i would like to go back to someday!

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam - the town where anything goes and is LEGAL! My trip to amsterdam was awesome. I got to see tons of museums and experience a culture so diverse and competely opposite to the one i am used to. Me and 2 Canadian friends traveled by bus to get to amsterdam which was about 8 hours, but it really went by fast and was only 60 euros there and back! We arrived on a Wednesday evening and decided to start our time in amsterdam with an adventure to the Red Light District. Surprisingly this is actually a nice part of town, and not as dangerous and scary as others made it sound. We found a decent place to grab some food and then we felt pretty worn out, so we headed back to our hostel.

Day 2 we headed out to the Van gogh Museum! This museum was very cool, 10 euros to get it, and i learned ALOT about the artist and his life. The way the museum was layed out was genius and made it fascinating to walk through the life of Van Gogh. After the museum, we decided to go for a walk in the parc and get some cool shots with the infamous "I Amsterdam"sign. You have to get to this one early though folks, the amount of people jumping on this thing was insane! After a little walk in the parc, we decided to get some shopping out of the way, walking the streets looking for tourist nic nacs. Amsterdam is also well known for their BEAUTIFUL canals. So after lunch we decided to go for a canal tour. This was a very interesting boat tour and i learned ALOT by going on it. I learned that Amsterdam has over 2,000bridges! and that people have boat houses all over the canals (2,500 to be exact), and some poeple have to wait up to 8 YEARS to get their spot in a boat house!

All in all this boat cruise is the TOP thing i suggest doing if you are ever planning on going to amsterdam! After a long day we decided to head back to the hostel until a few other friends arrived to meet up with us!

Once our other friends arrived we headed to the "Hard Rock Cafe". The service wasn't that great but the food was awesome! It was nice to have a good meal after a long day of walking! After dinner we decided to walk around town and explore amsterdam at night.... while walking around i saw some hilarious people doing the strangest things!! We finished of the night by visiting one of the infamous "cafes" in amsterdam.





Day 3 - Our last day in Amsterdam was spent power walking the streets to see last minute monuments and museums we hadn't had the chance to see yet. The day included the ever so classy, sex museum (many laughs), the Anne Frank house - which is VERY cool, i highly reccomment this place! And of course no visit to Amsterdam is complete without a visit to the "hemp and hash museum". I had no idea that Amsterdam was filled with such history and wonderful sites! i had an amazing time and would love to go back some day!

London 2008 - Easter Weekend!

London, England is by far my favorite place i have gone in Europe to date. The people, the attractions, the food and the atmosphere was incredible! I traveled to London with 2 other friends from Moncton. We left on a saturday and came back on a Monday night, this amount of time was certainly not long enough! I definately want to go back in the future.

Although many people say london is the priciest city in london, i would have to disagree. The price difference isnt that much, and long as you spend wisely. Restaurants is where they get you most, you have to consider that the price is in pounds which is DOUBLE our CDN dollar. As long as you keep that in mind, you will be fine. We found an excellent price for our flight (2 cents there and back) so it made this trip well worth our dollar. We also stayed at an EXCELLENT hostel, it was called St. Christopher's Greenwhich, this hostel is actually a company that is all around europe (paris, barcelona, amsteram...just to name a few) and this hostel is IDEAL for the young student. There was a bar downstairs (owned by the hostel) and there was always something going on! For those who preferred not to drink or party, there was a "chill out room" downstairs which was loaded with TONS of movies and a mini kitchen for those who wanted to save money by making their meals. All in all i HIGHLY recommend all the St. Christopher's hostels around Europe!

The first day spent in London was pretty low key because we got there so late, but we had time to take in some parts of the city and chill out at our hostel. Day 2 was a longer day, the weather was cold and rainy and at some points it actually SNOWED!!! yes thats right, i felt like i was back in canada! haha We started out our day by going on the Double decker bus and exploring what london had to offer....what a beautiful city! We stopped at "Picadilly Circus" first, this is London's equivalent to New York's "Times Square". If you are looking for awesome restaurants and deadly shopping, this is the place for you!!

After walking around Picadilly we hopped on another bus and ventured off to see where it would take us (we are brave ones lol). Within minutes of being on the bus we saw Westminster Abbey and the Big Ben!!! We jumped off to see these two attractions .... and was it ever worth it! The Big Ben was bigger than i imagined, and the Westminster abbey was even more beautiful! Definately a MUST SEE if you go to London! We then went to find the infamous "Buckingham Palace" - This is a beautiful place, and an even more impressive garden and walk to get to it!

After seeing alot of London in a few hours we decided to relax for a little bit and have a nice dinner. I must say i prefer the food choices and restaurants in London than in France. I guess it is because it is more similar to home and i like the familiar! One very different thing about the food service in London is that in most resturants the waiter does not come up to you to take your order, you actually have to go up to the bar, order and pay and then take a number. My friends and I didn't realize this until about 30 minutes of waiting! That night we returned to the hostel to freshen up and go out for the night on the town! The nightlife in London is fantastic and anything but dull, even on a Sunday! All in all, we ended up having a fabulous night with tons of memories!!!

The next day we woke up and had a fabulous breakfast offered by the hostel then we were off for another day of tourist affairs. Our first stop was the london bridge... small attraction but a BEAUTIFUL view of the city. We then walked along the "Queen's walk" along the water and found the London Tower Bridge and the London Tower.... again this is a beautiful site and a definate must see!!!

My advice to anyone coming to Europe is definately to make the time and save some money for London. This city is amazing, in more ways than one. Trust me when i say this - the culture, atmostphere and way of living is something not even pictures can capture!!

Italia 2008!!

So my first venture outside of France was AMAZING! Me and some other students went on a trip to Rome, Italy for a week. We took a bus trip up, (24 hours!) and that wasn't fun at all... but worth it in the end. Our first day in Rome was pretty mellow, we found this excellent bar called "Sloppy Sam's" .. Apparently we stumbled upon the best English speaking bars in Rome! They had awesome drinks, fabulous nachos and even BETTER music..... me and some fellow Canadians had a great time chilling and rocking out to some old tunes.





Our second day in Rome was spent mostly at the Colosseum....the amount of history and architecture that this one site consists of is insane! Pictures cant even begin to explain or to capture the feeling you get when you see something so amazing. After spending the day walking around the Colosseum and the ruins it really made me wish i had paid more attention in history classes in high school! lol. The weather was kind of chilly but comfortable... Italy is well known for their "fake" designer bags and sunglasses, they are easy to come by - but you must barter with them to get a decent price. After a long day of walking and discovering things a cool and refreshing gelato is EXACTLY what i needed. If you didn't know, gelato's are this AMAZING type of ice cream dessert, and are everywhere in Italy. If you ever get the chance to try one you have to get it! The second night we ventured of to find the Trevi Fountain...this is ABSOLUTELY beautiful and i recommend that if you ever get to go there, go at night! The lights and the scenery are simply magical!





The third day i had come down with a nasty cold, but i suffered through it and went on with the site seeing! The Vatican was our plan for the third day in Rome, we had to get up and be there by 7 am because the line ups to get in can stretch out to be 5 KM LONG! My whole morning was jammed packed with seeing the most beautiful church in the world. We also went into the Vatican museum, where we saw the sisteen chapel... VERY cool. The amount of intense paintings and cool things you see are overwhelming and alot to take in at once. After a long morning of waiting, and walking we settled down for some delicious Italian pizza and pasta .... with a little bit of souvenir shopping!





The night life in Rome was surprisingly AWESOME! Italian men are however alot more aggressive than the french men. TIP: If you are a female going out in Europe make sure there are alot of girls or at least some boys with you.... they can get VERY aggressive.





We finished off our third night with a wonderful AMERICAN dinner at the hard rock cafe in Rome. All of the Canadian and American exchange students came, as well as some french students from Poitiers and 2 Australian's we met at our hostel. Kyle and I had an arrangement with the restaurant and got a great deal for a large and tasty meal ... well worth it! They also let kyle and i select a menu and made us all place cards with a personal greeting of our choice, it was a great night all together! :)





The fourth day me and 2 other UNBSJ students decided to leave Rome for the day and venture off to Florence, Italy. This city is very beautiful and it was so nice to get away from the hustle and business of Rome. We started our day off as any other day in Europe, walking around. We found an absolutely beautiful church and then proceeded to find HUGE markets filled with authentic leather purses and suitcases.... and tons of exotic scarfs and pashmina's! I personally loved this aspect of the city... it reminded me of something you would see in the movies. We then proceeded to find the oldest bridge in Italy to be still standing after WWII "Ponte Vecchio". This bridge was beautiful and so colorful... inside the bridge were fancy jewellery shops..WAY over-priced though! We also found some amazing shops, the shopping in Florence was alot better than Rome and lower prices as well! After a few hours we found a place that did characatures...and of course we couldn't resist but to get one done! Another thing i forgot to mention was that in both Rome and Florence, these statue/people actors were EVERYWHERE. They appear to be statues, and stay completely still until you give them money or they just randomly move. At first i jumped and screamed every time they did this... but after seeing it a couple times it was just plain CREEPY! We also came across the David statue in Florence, it was in a museum and on the outside of the museum the fake replicas were all around it! To finish up a great day, we decided to sit down for a nice meal (seeing as how we had been walking all day), the restaurant we went to was called Ketsch, and it was AMAZING. We got an all you can eat buffet and a huge cocktail for only 7 euros! This is amazingly cheap considering every meal (including fast food) if minimum 10-12 euros. The priciest thing i have found in travel has been meal expenses...BRACE YOURSELF! lol





The fifth day was spent mostly taking in the city one last time... eating gelatos...Italian coffees...you name it, whatever i had not had the chance to see and so i did on the last day. The trip organizers planned an evening out for us and it was an absolute blast! We danced the night away until about 5 am!





Overall I had a great time in Italy and I am so happy to have had the opportunity to go and travel and see things i never thought i would get the chance to!

The Vacation Countdown is ON!

As the school work begins to thicken and pile up faster and faster, i am becoming more anxious for my first break to commence. In 5 days i will be on my way to Rome for a week! This trip is supposed to be a great one, and an awesome way to start my first vacation. We are traveling by bus, which is going to be long but it is with a bunch of ESCEM students, many of whom i know from UNBSJ. With my school work getting harder and harder i think this trip is just what i need to relax! I will be posting the pictures and details of this trip very soon! Stay Tuned! :)

Travel, Travel, Travel!!!

Well Since my last post, i have been swamped in school work and busy planning trips ahead! I just recently went to Tours, France and i must say what a beautiful town this is. I highly recommend anyone coming to Poitiers to check this town out. They have fabulous shopping sales, a GREAT mexican restaurant (that i was overly thrilled to discover) and magical castles. The price isnt bad either, it only cost me 35 euros to get there and back by train AND hotel!

Me and 3 other friends, Krista, Yasmine and Dominique (All New Brunskwickers!)are planning a trip to Bordeaux, France this weekend. This is also a relatively cheap place to travel and is equally as beautiful to see! Bordeaux is big on wine as well, so if you are a wine lover this is definately a place you have to check out, they have wine tastings galore! My next trip after Bordeaux (2 weekends from now) is my first outing outside of France. I am going with the ESCEM crew to Rome for a week. I'm getting very excited about it, and i actually still cant believe i have a week off school already!

First Experiences in Poitiers...
Where to start really? Being in Poitiers has been an experience so far thats for sure! Well I'll start out with my first week here, Me and my fellow unbsj friend krista, arrived at our new home late on a wednesday afternoon. The outside was absolutely beautiful, almost castle esque, naturally we got really excited about our new home.... Until we went to our section of the house. Needless to say it was below resonable standards and it was bad enough that we moved within a few days. ADVICE: Make sure you get your international housing advisor, for Uni. of P. its M. Guerin, to send you pics and info in detail of your housing and if internet in your apartment is what you want, make sure you let them know because we had a hard time finding one with internet after we arrived. Now things are much better, we now live in a cozy home with other international students that is close to "centre-ville". We currently have 5 roomates, 2 from France, 1 from china, 1 from Belgium and 1 from moncton!

It just so happened that the students of university of Poitiers went on strike...thats right STUDENTS went on strike for a month because they werent happy with the education system. That was not so fun for me because it pushed all of my classes ahead by 3 weeks. Which meant that my first month here has been mostly getting settled and picking classes....and going out for drinks.A great aspect of living here is the transportation system, it is VERY impressive, alot better than Saint John. I can get across town easily and very fast also you can get a monthly pass for a reasonable price and some schools offer free bus passes. My advice is learn the bus system when you first get here, the taxis tend to be pricey. They also can tell that you're not from here so they will try to make you tab higher by driving around in circles and going the extra long routes!

The first couple weeks i tagged along with Krista's ESCEM crew (which is another school here in Poitiers) and went to a pub crawl and met some new and exciting people from all over the world. I just came back from a weekend in Paris with some of them, and it was awesome. Travelling around europe here is very cheap, and a big reason as to why i decided to study in Poitiers. Ryan Air sells tickets for reasonable prices to all around europe, in particular this weekend for example their is a flight from Paris to Spain for 1 €! You also have the option of staying at a hostel rather than a hotel which is alot cheaper and usually the same quality room. I already have planned to travel to Rome over my February break and hopefully go to Spain over easter break. The travel here is so cheap that i would advise anyone coming abroad to europe to take advantage of it while you can! You dont always have to fly either, you can also take the train here, which also comes very cheap. ADVICE: if you plan on travel even a little bit, buy the "carte 12-25" card, it saves you alot of money when buying tickets and is well worth the 50€!

Also, anyone going to University of Poitiers, be prepared. This school is very unlike UNBSJ, they're not as organized and often aren't as helpful as our staff in Saint John. Although you may come across a few that genuinely want to help you. Office hours are usually 9-12 and 2-4... not a minute later or earlier... they are very set in their 2 hour lunches! ADVICE: If you are going to see andadvisor, its best to go in the mornings, it varies with all departments and faculties, but alot of them take random afternoons off during the week ESPECIALLY fridays. Other than that the people here are friendly, and i found a couple profs to be very helpful. If you a new comer to UN of P be sure you can keep up with the french language, the profs here do not always speak clearly and mumble often. The secretaries can be hard to deal with too, ADVICE: make sure that you know which faculty you belong to before leaving! I made the mistake of registering for the wrong one when I first came because they offer my courses in 2 different faculties!