London – Day 13 and 14

The past two days in London have been a little less hectic than our epic walking day. Yesterday we spent the whole day with Charles (after a good sleep in from the pub crawl) and did more walking… we went to picadilly circus, Chirag and Darcy were clearly not impressed with the “circus”. Technically London could be kind of disappointing for a kid if they were expecting lots of circuses and arcades that we know them as!

We had a chill night and watched the England vs Ukraine. It was a good think England won or there would have been lots of people “greetin in their beers”. Technically I think Ukraine played better and got jiped on the goal they should have had but anyhoo…

My friend from OpenText Josh Warden has just moved to London and he came to meet us at the bar/hostel. It was great to catch up all the way across the pond !

Today we had to leave Charles early as he was going up to Edinburgh and we  caught the bus to go to Stonehenge and Bath. It was a perfect day to go to Stonehenge as it was the Summer Equinox (apparently on the 20th this year because of the leap year).  It was also a beautiful day. Unfortunately with the tour we were on we only had like 40 minutes to see everything. Speaking of the tour, the guide had the most proper English accent, spoke ridiculously slow and soft and repeated everything … I wanted to go up and turn her stupid microphone off ! Ok, whew.. had to get that off my chest.

The city of Bath is beautiful and I wish we had more time there. The baths were pretty interesting and it was neat how everything there is made from bath stone. So we are back at the hostel for our last night here and the next stop is Copenhagen, the next post won’t be for a couple days as we will be travelling and getting settle in our ‘permenant home’ in Denmark.

London – Day 12

Not too much to write about for Monday. We toook it easy after our epic walking tour the day before, so we walked along the Thames to the Globe Theatre which was built to replicate the theatre that would have existed in Shakespeare’s time.

My coronation

We ate lunch by the water and made our way to St James park. It was actually really funny to watch the male pigeons attempt to court the females, puffing up their necks and doing funny little dances to impress them. Just like people, the girls wouldn’t give them the time of day and the males would eventually give up.

Unfortunately my camera died so I don’t have too many pictures of the day, although Darcy did take some good creeper pictures of the birds with her super-power zoom lens.

At night we went on the Camden pub crawl. It was pretty good for a Monday night, we met a nice group of guys from Philly and Spain as well as another Canadian from Newmarket. Unfortunately half of our group consisted of overly made up, fake fur wearing chicks from Aussie that were not friendly at all. Our guide was a really cool guy (cousin of Sam Roberts) and his band played in the Bovine Club in Toronto earlier this year and will be back in October. I can’t remember the name of the band but it sounded like interesting music a mix of african, blues, techno, and anything in between!

London – Day 11

Today was our first full day in London. We decided to do the free tour offered by Sandemans and our guide Mark was fantastic! 

Our tour guide Mark in front of London Tower

So good in fact we decided to do the afternoon tour of Old London.

We are staying in St Christopher’s Village and the location is good but it does have some downsides. The internet isn’t working properly, and for some reason there is no paper towels in the washroom. Oh and the showers are kinda of weird, they are like those taps that you press in and slowly turn off, so you have to keep pressing it every minute or so. Also, we haven’t been able to get into the same room together and Chirag had to move to another room today, which is a blessing in disiguise because the one guy in his room was a bit sketchy.

Definitely though there is no way to get bored in this city, the history is weaved into every aspect and everything is just so interesting. One thing that is good about getting the tour is that the guide showed us areas and explained things that you wouldn’t otherwise not know about. One of the neat places was an alley way with some shops and pubs (one called Simspons!) and it looked just like old London would have…at least cleaner and without the hookers or thiefs.

After trapsing around the city all day we came back to a quiet night, although I needed to wash my feet after stomping around London in sandals… ewwww.

Me outside of St Pauls Cathedral

Team Dublin: Day 7 & 8

So apparently I’m a pretty lazy blogger, and not so great at updating every day (sorry Anne!!), but in my defence, we’ve been fairly busy these past few days.  On Wednesday, we caught the bus out of Dublin at 6:45 am, and arrived in Galway around 10.  We did a 1 hour walking tour of the city.  It was beautiful and bright, and we learned a number of interesting stories, including the one about the origin of the word ‘lynching’, which is actually rather sad.  From Galway, we did a 2 hour tour through the surrounding countryside, notably, through the burrens, which are hills make completely out of rock, stopping at a number of castle ruins and towers for pictures.  Our bus driver was really knowledgeable about the area, and told stories for the duration of the ride.  

Honestly, It seems like you can’t go more than five metres in this country without coming across something of profound historical significance.  For instance, we made a stop on our way about from the cliffs of moher at a tomb that actually predates the pyramids, being some 3000 years old.  

We stopped in a small town called Doolin before heading to the cliffs, somewhere that I am certain I visited some ten years before during my last stint in Ireland.  How strange to end up back int he same small village so many years later.  Upon our arrival at the Cliffs of Moher, we spent about two hours walking along the edge, taking pictures, and listening to the street performers play the harp and the fiddle.  It was beautiful and comparatively warm, and made for some pretty impressive pictures.  There were actually places along the cliffs where you could get right up to edge and either look down to the waves some 300 metres below, or sit and dangle your feet over.  Its is both a terrifying and beautiful sight.  It would be so easy to simply fall over.

We left the cliffs and continued our travels through the burrens, stopping at the portal tomb on our way back to Galway, and Dublin.  We got back into Dublin around 9 pm, and promptly passed out.  

On Day 8, we took a slightly different approach.  We spent the bulk of the morning recovering from the trip to the cliffs the day before, and then left to tour the Guinness Factory some time later.  It’s interesting to see how they’ve structured the tour, and to learn the history of the place.  When it was founded in the 1700s, Arthur Guinness actually managed to secure a 9000 year lease, for some odd reason.  At the end of the tour, guests are given a free pint on the top floor in the galaxy bar, which has 360 degree views over the city.  

Later on, we headed to the Duke Pub to take part in a literary pub crawl, something somewhat out of character for Chi Chi.  We learned a fair amount about the famous writers of the city, and, torrential rain or not, I think it was worthwhile.  We hadn’t really seen much of that side of the city yet, and this afforded a good opportunity to cover some ground.  Today, we’re headed out to see Christ Church Cathedral, then Kilmainham Gaol, and finally out for our last pub crawl in Dublin!

Dublin Detour – Day 6

We split up for the week as of yesterday, with Anne heading off to Dundee, and Chi Chi and myself making our way to Dublin.  It was surprisingly nice out when we arrived, with clear skies and warm temperatures, an unusual occurrence in this particular part of the globe.  Having arrives at the end of the day, we more or less checked into our hostel, the Barnacles Temple Bar, and took it easy for the remainder of the evening.  The hostel allows bands to stay for free if they agree to play a set for the people in the lounge, so there was a band playing there when we went down.  Being that they were two, and one played guitar while the other played the sax, they were kind of an odd combination, but they were pretty talented.  

Today was somewhat cold and rainy, but we persevered and did a 3 hour guided walking tour of the city, which included stops at Dublin Castle, Trinity College, and Temple bar.  We did the stereotypical tourist thing, and learned about the city.  Damp, cold weather aside, it was pretty interesting.  

 

Tomorrow we’re heading out bright and early to the cliffs of moher!

 

-Darcy

Edinburgh Part 1 – Day 3

We arrived in Edinburgh by bus at St Andrews Station and checked in to Budget Backpackers on cowgate. The area where the hostel is is quite charming and definitely Edinburgh has more character than Glasgow! We are in a room with eight beds but lucked out and the people in our room seem nice and pretty quiet.

We didn’t really have any plans for the day so we just walked around the area, stopped off at the Greyfriars Kirk (aka  another graveyard). This one strangely had a lot of skulls on things. 

Creepy.

We walked the royal mile and saw some interesting things and stopped at gardens by Scotts Monument to soak up som rays. Ya, you read that right, it was actually nice and sunny!

I had to take a picture of the cafe in the gardens just for my brother Blair…the fish and chips came with mushy peas… his favourite (note: sarcasm). We also did a quick visit in the Art Museum, primarily because it was free 🙂

We took a quick nap, cleaned up and went out for the evening. We went to this place called the Frankenstein bar which was pretty awesome. There were lots of bachelorette/bachelor parties so all the people in there get ups made it feel like we were in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. We made friends with a group dressed in medical gear who were clearly enjoying the night! Somewhere in Scotland we have been captured in a strangers pictures and they are going to look back on them and say who the hell are those three people ? Apparently there is a Frankenstein that comes out at some point but we didn’t stick around to see it.

We originally intended to do our own little pub crawl but it was pouring rain outside (surprise surprise) so we just made a mad dash back to the hostel and called it a night.

Glasgow – Day 2

The post is day two even thought we arrived in Glasgow yesterday. The day consisted of eating napping, more eating and more sleeping. Pretty uneventful and thus no post!

We did have dinner at a place called the Driftwood and Darcy and I missed the memo that we were supposed to ‘whore-it-up’. The waitress told us the bar is the first place people go to before hitting up the other clubs down the street, likely because of the cheap drinks. As Darcy put it “Don’t they know its cheaper to drink at home first?”

We are staying at McLay’s Guest House on Renfrew St, which to get up to has ridiculously steep hills. Note to anyone traveling or staying here.. take a cab! We toughed it out and actually carried our bags up the hill. Go go gadget glutes !! This place is okay, the staff is friendly, the one bathroom is completely renovated and looks straight out of a magazine. We also had a hot breakfast today which was a nice unexpected surprise ! It came complete with beans, fried tomato and tiny glasses of juice. So scottish!

Today we did our own walking tour of Glasgow as the guide who normally does the tours was sick. St George’s square was all closed off because of the Olympic torch, which was a ticket only event which kind of made downtown a bit of a chaotic mess!  For our ‘tour’ We walked along Ingram St, to High Street and toured around the Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis. I love the word Necropolis, I wish it was used more often. Even though Chirag was a bit scared, it really is a beautiful and old place.

The main street, Buchanan is really neat as a pedestrian only street as well as most of Sachiehall. If I actually had a real job (and a pay cheque!) it would be great to go shopping here! I also learned that I think my shoe fetish is a trait I come by honestly, I swear they have the best shoes here and all the women where fantastic shoes !

We at lunch at a cute little place called the Italian Job, the food was fantastic. I had the sweet pepper salad  (after taking the picture I realized it looks like a giant tongue… but it tasted good I swear!) . After walking around all day, we were still pretty jetlagged so it was nap time again. Tonight we plan on going to a pub and/or a club to check out some of the night life. This is only the second time I’ve been here of legal drinking age and the last time I had just turned 18 and didn’t really do the club/pub thing. Its very fun expreriencing the city from a whole new perspective !

Tomorrow we are off to Edinburgh, looking forward to doing some real touristy stuff there!

Cheers !

~Anne

PS – be careful… someone is always watching…

ready set go !!

We are at the Pearson airport waiting for our flight and the three traveling musketeers are ready to go, even though someone has packed too much (ahem Chirag…). Its funny we’ve known each other less than a year and this is our third trip together ! So far its already been an adventure to get here, I drove through my first hailstorm! Well the next post will be from another country!! -Anne

Travel Blog

Hello!

Thanks for stopping by! Check back here for updates, stories, pictures and general debauchery from our trip around Europe and at the Copenhagen business school. I hope the information here will be informative, entertaining and interesting !

It is exactly one week today that our flight to Scotland departs and I’m getting nervous and excited ! I’m already worrying about making sure I have the right things packed and that I have enough money to actually make this work !

The participants of this trip are myself (Anne), Darcy, Chirag and Orest. We are all full time students of Ryerson’s MBA program. This is our last term and the final leg of our journey in our MBA tutelage (and our MRP but we don’t want to talk about that here … *groan*)

Orest will be travelling to the Ukraine first and then meeting up with us in Copenhagen. We plan on making some trips to major cities around Europe during our stay including Amsterdam, Berlin, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Paris and Pomplona just to name a few ! This is my first time in Europe (besides the UK) and the longest trip I have taken out of Canada. I’m looking forward to all the different sites we will see and all the interesting people we will meet!

Well, not much else to say here, stay tuned to the blog next week for the start of the trip updates !