South America April - June 2010, Eastern Europe 2009

For the sake of keeping all blog posts in one place, going to keep this Europe travel blog page rolling...



Monday, June 7, 2010

Day 64

Hi,

Home tomorrow - mom&dad, flights in a 430 so see you around 6?

Bye for now!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Montreal

This is the worst keyboard ever but I am going to battle through it for a quick post. Arrived in Mtl three days ago, and man it feels good to be back in Canada and back in montreal. Getting into the Pearson airport in Toronto with people speaking to you in English was glorious. It was a long trip home, Buenos Aires to Santiago to Toronto to Montreal, then express bus, metro and a 15 min walk, but I made it! the first day was a complete bummer because I lost a lot of money hta fell out of my wallet I guess when I paid for something and had my hands full. I then decided to treat myself and get a haircut. Also managed to hang out with Katie, my old Montreal roommate, so that was cool. After having met a group of girls at the hostel, three of us, myself, a kiwi and a Parisien, went to a beer tasting festival for a few hours. Came back ate dinner and talked in a mix of languages, Spanish, English, French. Good times. I am loving being able to use my french and I get to al lot particularly at this hostel where a lot of people are from France, all the girls in my room are.

Yesterday also managed to go on a big reminiscing tour of the city, walked everywhere, up the hill to mcGill down St. Catherines and back up to the Plateau. It was the best day, had it all to myself and the weather was amazing: warm and sunny.

Today I rent a bike I think and bike around the city, maybe pick up a new book, all weather depending though.

Anyways thats it for now, see you in 4 days! Happy Saturday!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Goodbyes to the South

Last full day and night in Buenos Aires. Last few days have been action packed (relatively speaking), starting with the most insane antique market on Sunday. I have never ever seen so many antiques in my life! In San Telmo, one of the barrios (neighbourhoods) in BA there is a market that fills the famous square on Sundays. But not only does it fill this square (as we thought), oh no, it goes 6 or 7 long blocks down the street, pretty much back into downtown BA and spills into all these crazy side markets that are hidden within adjacent buildings. Sometimes more than one level high. Mom and aunt Rita, you two would have died.

So, yes, I did spend some money and got more STUFF to weigh my bag down but honestly it was hard to hold back, especially spending the whole day out there. Only disappointing factor was that because every tourist in town had turned up for it, everything was fairly overpriced. Both Owen and I couldnt believe they could charge so much for everything, because there was SO much of it, but we came to the conclusion that everyone is secretly a hoarder and wants to keep their stuff, or because itÅ› only once a week, they need to make their money in one go by asking more.

Anyways overall it was an interesting, yet exhausting day.

Yesterday, we caught the 3 hr ferry to Colonial, Uruguay. Colonial was very pretty, reminded be of an old Italien town (had originally been Portugese) with the scooters to boot. Again things were expensive because it is a tourist town and surprsingly (i dont know why I found it surprising) but Uruguay isnt that poor, compared to say Bolovia so things arent cheap. We almost didnt make it ebcause I forgot my passport and had to run all the way back to the hostel and then back to the ferry, which now I am sore, making it with only a few minutes to spare.

Today Owen goes to skate, I r-organize my bag, and we go to the best steak house in BA for the last supper.

Cant wait to get back to Canada!

Jess