Lovely and sunny BC

Welcome to Vancouver!




Its not American its not Britain its better! Welcome to Canada! Otherwise known as BC it goes by both names! People are friendly and helpful, love their pets and buy everything in bulk.


I arived to a nice warm day in which the weather has been a mixture of hot Sunday afternoons and temperate weather during the rest of the week! So my lovely cousin Cynthia has put me up and has been showing me around!




My first full day was at the Vancouver Aquarium which displayed Belugas, Otters, Dolphins and a show pony Sea Lion as its main exhibits as well as some giant tropical fish which were scary as hell! Oh my favourite was probably the big old turtle sharing a tank with sharks pushing them aside...you tell those fish whose boss...

The Belugas put on a great show they are so white and quite small for whales though the resemble dolphins more. They have bout 24% body fat which is why they wiggle when they swim, if you pay extra you ca have the pleasure of being splashed or squirted by them, its my idea of fun being covered by whale spit...

I spent some of the afternoon walking through Stanmore Park which is huge and easy to get lost in I managed to find a good view of the harbour then after lunch headed down towards Gas Town which is known for its Steam Clock and shopping! Its a fun little area with plenty to do even on a drizzly afternoon my favourite shop was the chocolate shop which are famous for their chocolate creams, when I decide to eat it I'll let you know...

Emily was easily amused by these license plates in Chintown where she spent a whole morning and visited a lovely but expensive traditional chinese garden also visited many of its monuments and had dim sum for lunch! Highly reccomended. After I went for a short walk on a long bridge and took some photos it was a nice warm day which was perfect to be outside!



On the weekend I was chaffered around by Cynthia and Russel where we visted the Lyncanon swinging bridge which I'm told no one's ever fallen off which is marginally comforting when your rocking about a couple of hundred meters in the air...we visted the ecology center and then drove on to one of cynthias favourite cafes where we had fabulous muffins (maybe we had two) and on the Saturday night we played host to friends Livio, Dalianne and Caroline where I did pull my weight in the kitchen and I did get drunk!

Sunday we went to Ambleside and Dundarave and visited the German Friendship globe (from the top) got some great views and visited Cynthias' friend Dorothy at her fabulous house where we had tea and chocolate mousse cake. The photos below are from West Vancouver Whycliff Park and it was a beautiful clear warm sunny day!
More later I hopexoxox Emily

Ciao Ciao Italia!

Ciao Ciao Bella!

Welcome to the most beautiful country of Italy with fantastic food (no diet land!) and a rich and invigorating history and welcoming and friendly (sometimes a little too much) Italian people! I spent 28 days in Italy arriving in Pisa going straight to Florence then to Bologna, Venice, Rome, Naples and Pompeii!

For those of you unaware I lost my camera on my last day there (oh the cruelty) so the photos I have are courtesy of those who I met in Italy and who I extend a BIG thank you too!

THANK YOU!!!

I am going to be constantly updating this page until it is finished, meanwhile I thought everyone would like to read a little about what I'd done and see some photos!

Florence

I spent four nights in Florence and stayed in a pretty cool hostel with great location (smack in the middle of town) that had graffiti of people who had stayed previously all over the walls and the breakfast was pretty good!

I spent the morning at the Duomo which is a huge Basillica in the centre of town which is so intricate both inside and outside it's almost hard to beleive! It is a beautiful white, green and pink color on the outside and inside it has a huge dome with a painting of the Last Judgement which I know nothing about but looking at it its very easy to tell! After going inside I climbed several hundred steps to the top for a sensational view of Florence! It was a beautiful sunny day (with many to come) and in the afternoon I went to the Uffizi a great big gallery filled with plenty of historical paintings and for something different, statues! That night I have dinner at a place just a few miuntes from my hostel and enjoyed the best seafood pasta I have ever had!

The next day I lined up to the David's Michelangelo which is quite a huge stature and oddly fascinating but possibly not worth the money unless your really into art! Though you can appreciate how long something like that would take! The Weather continued to be glorius so i spent most of the afternoon just strolling around and eating Gelato! I made a trip to the other side of the city and took in a beautiful view from high up, it was fantastic because the sun was going down on the city and its something thats hard to explain but you just love it!

I managed a trip to a place called Opera Museo but was somewhat disappointed, one thing that wasnt disappointing was dinner as I found a place with a decently priced set menu and it was just fantastic!

The next day I made my way to to the Bapistry for the Duomo which is a cute little church that I spent all of ten fifteen minutes in to come outside to the market which I spent all afternoon!

Bologna

Well my first full day in Bologna was quite eventful I managed to see quite a lot that morning - Neptunes Foutain in the middle of the square, a Cathedral and some beautiful cheese and meats shops through the back streets!

Then I found the two tallest towers and went to the top of the tallest for a fantastic view of the city I spent close to half an hour there but at the very bottom it was wet and dark and a I slipped and fell over falling on my ankle! The next two days I manged to do very little I went to the Hospital and made sure it wasnt broken, I consoled myself with a rest and the Internet and decided I would keep going! My last night I went out and tried Tortelloni with bolognese and had Tirmasu for dessert and vowed that Venice would be nothing but fun!

Venice
Oh how I loved Venice! Its so pretty!

If there was only one place in Italy I was allowed to come back to it would be Venice! It is so magical and seems like it comes out of a fairytale!! The water is beautiful and blue (not that you would swim in it) and it reflects the beutiful buildings in a way that is incredible! Its great to get around on the waterbus which chugs along slowly giving you a chance to take everything in as you go down the Grand Canal! Everything is fairly easy to navigate along the Grand Canal but once you get off you get a maze of streets which often lead to a dead end and you have to go all the way back which seems to make it more of an adventure!

My first day was jam packed, I met an American girl Liz at breakfast and we both had the same agenda so we jumped on the boats and went and visited the Majorie (a church) and went to the top for a fantastic view of Venice! I was suprised at how small the city is because we could see the whole thing from there!

We went to St.Marcos Square which is a main area for tourists and swarming with pidgeons, most people are feeding them but I was kicking them! We went inside the Basillica which is just fantastic as its roof is covered in gold and its a sight to behold! So much detail and you get a sore neck from looking up all the time! It costs 3 Euro to get to the top and get a view looking out which is well worth it!

Later that night Liz and I went all the way along the Grand Canal, it was kinda cold but so so pretty!
The next day Liz's friends turned up and we headed up to the Jewish Quater where in being a holy day everything was closed so we went for wine and pizza and Gelato instead! Had the best gelato I have had so far and the pizzas had become addictive!

From top to bottom - St.Marcos Square, Me and American Girls Dianne, Liz and Beth, a lovely shot taken along the Grand Canal of the Gondala which you can afford if you have a spare 80 Euro lying around and the view from high up!

Rome

Coming soon(ish)

Naples and Pompeii (Salerno, Ecadoro and Sorrento)

I was in Naples for 5 days (possilby two or three days too many!) and mangaged to see many of it's castles and took a trip out to Ecadoro to visit ruins and to Salerno (an Island about a two hour boat ride away) to walk through the little lanes and to explore.

Top to Bottom - Emily is the King of the Castle and your.... a big old dormant Volcano Mount Vesivus!
Inside the Galleria which was mostly closed, out of Naples in Ecadoro ruins.

Amsterdam says relax...

A cheery Amsterdam hello!

Amsterdam is a beautiful city, forgetting that its known mostly for its legal drugs and Red light District it offers a much more scenic spledor with its endless canals and bridges, iconic houses and a whole lotta bikes!

The first thing that I came across in Amsterdam was a fun little market which had a lot for tourists and for locals alike! I had my first taste of healthy modern Amsterdam cuisin which is frites (hot chips) covered in peanut sauce and thin hot waffles held together by caramel sauce! Healthy Cuisine! I like it!

Then I went into the Van Gough museum where I saw heaps of his most famous work like Sunflowers which was very exciting I love to see art I know something about!
The rest of the day was fairly relaxing as I went to the local park and watched the ice skaters it was quite a cool day so I spent the rest of it inside with a nice bottle of wine! Cheers!

The next morning I changed from my hotel (which was the only thing available boring and expensive!) to Amsterdam Stay OK hostel which was a six bedroom share and I met two spanish girls and two Brazillian guys who all spoke little English but were fine otherwise!

I headed out toward the Anne Frank house which I have read a lot about and been told I had to go and see and though there was a long line and it took my some time to find it I must admit it was really worth it and probably the most intersting attraction I found in Amsterdam! You get to go through the house where Anne and her family and two other families hid for so long!! Its really hard to beleive and its such a sad shame that they were found!

In the afternoon I went to the Rijksmuseum which is the largest in the Netherlands a mixture of art and history with paintings by Rembrant and Jan Vermeer (they were the ones I knew) with paintings by artists who were inspired by the work of Rembrant and this was mostly what I found to be interesting.

That evening I made the trip to the Famous Red Light district with the two Spanish girls (who addmittedly I have forgotten their names!) from my dorm and it was quite a shock to see everything so in your face! The women stand inside houses which have Red Neon lights and they just stand around (some looking quite bored) in next to nothing just looking at you!

It was fascinating,intimidating and disgusting all at the same time! We went for some drinks after but didnt feel like hanging around the area so headed back towards the hostel! I could right a long monolgue about the conversations we had about how degrading it is but it wont change anything (or make me any less angry) so lets all just move on and say it was an experience!

The next day I went on a canal cruise in the morning to see Amsterdam from a slightly different point of view! The cruise was about an hour long and if you ignore the commentary which is kinda boring and comes across in five different languages then your OK!
After lunch I went to the Rijeiks Muesum which was not overly fasciationg except for a few paintings of Johannes Vermeer's which I knew only because Ive read Girl with A Pearl Earing and seen the movie but that painting was unfortuently not there but it was such a vast gallery I spent the best part of an hour and half there!

That night I went out and saw a movie Blood Diamond - all the movies in Amsterdam are in English with Dutch subtitles! Anyway I really enjoyed the movie and it was a good way to spend my last night! The next morning afterbreakfast I went and did some souvenir shopping and had a great time doing so! There is lots of shopping in Amsterdam so its quite easy to just walk around and think about all the thing's you want to buy but dont because you are on a budget! Later I had lunch at a Irish Pub and later waffles with ice cream!

Amsterdam strikes me as a place which is so diverse that it is simply fascinating to be there and to watch the people and to see them interact with each other and tourists! Its a really friendly place and special in that it makes light out of what many people see as serious issues but are willing to let slide when in a different country!

(OK so I hadnt yet downloaded my Amsterdam photos when I lost my camera, it's a cruel way in which my laziness is catching up with me)

Ooo la la Paris!

Bonjour! I know its taken me a long time but here are my adventures in Paris! It was great!

DAY ONE & TWO (10th & 11th FEB)
I arrived in Paris via the Eurostar which is a train that frequents between London and Paris (via a underground tunnel) on Saturday evening and proceeded to my accomodation The Peace and Love Hostel! It was a very relaxed place with a bar and kitchen facilities and 24hrs no lockout! In rooms of three bunk beds every night I secured myself top bunk! That night in the bar I met some American guys and 1 Aussie girl and we got out of the hostel and went to find a club - though we were not particulary succesful I did get to see the Moulin Rouge lit up that night which was worth it!
That next day I have my first crossaint and coffee (say coffee and you get an espresso) which both went very well together! then I met up with an American guy Mierielle and we decided to head off and see The Lourve - its an absolutely huge museum but really people only go to see the Mona Lisa so thats what we did - we looked around at other stuff but got hungry so went and had crepes!
Then we walked down to the Arc De Triumph which is a and went to the top which was possibly the best view of Paris on the whole trip because your up high enough that not everything becomes miniscule, and it has the effect of all the streets coming towards you and it gives a great view of the Eiffel Tower!
Day Three 12th FEB
This day I ventured out on my own and after a stroll through te park in front of the Tower (still unable to go to the top) I made my way to Hotel De Invalides which was contrsucted to house soilders who survived the war (think it still does) and now is a comprehensive war museum and also Napoleons Tomb which is about five layers of casket and a big old beautiful foyer - I think if someone wanted to build me something like that when I die it'd be OK.
After a quick lunch of coffee and sultana crossaint (happens a lot in paris) I want to the Notre Dame Catherdral which has fantastic stain glass windows inside and lovely architecture outside! I made a small donation and nicked a candle maybe thats a sin who knows but I think its more of a sin to charge such huge entrance fees to these places! Along that area is some great souvenir shops but all I bought was postcards! I think everyone got postcards and I'm so tired from writing them all so I just met up with people in the bar downstairs and got pleasantly drunk!

(Top inside Hotel De Invalides with Napoleons Statue and above Notre Damn Cathedral)

Day four 13th FEB
This morning I bought myself a little blue hat which I got on discount cause I'm pretty (thats what the vendor said all I did was ask how much - Merci Monsieur! ) and I joined a ridiculous queue to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower! Of course the view was fantastic (as you can see from the photo) and its fun to see where you've been and maybe work out where you go but I would hate to come here in the summer because you'd be there all day for all the queues! But I was happy finally to be standing on top of such a huge icon!
That afternoon I has organised to go on the tour through my hostel which was a tour from the Moulin Rouge to the surrounding area where Amelie the movie was filmed, the Cafe the Two windmills which are the Moulin Rouge and the last remaining windmill in the area - it took the director one year to convince the owner to let him use the cafe! We also went to the former house of Van Gough and circled the area which is still quite arty!! We also visited the Sacre Coeur which is a large and beutiful church that sits on one of the highest points of Paris giving a beautiful view! That day I treated myself to lunch at a French restaurant and bought some tasty French Chocolates!

(The Sacre Coeur cathedral and me in front of the Moulin Rouge)

Day five 14th FEB
My last day in Paris I could hardly beleive it - in the morning I was up early and off to the catacombs which was eerie and after awhile it almost didn't seem like it was real because there were so many skulls and bones looking right at you! I made a trip to the Opera Garnier which is mostly known for ballet performances and has a beautiful grand staircase and fabulous inside embellishments!

Paris was a fantastic mix of splendor, beauty and history and I will definetely be back here!!
Au Revoir

Oh my LORD photos!

UK PHOTOS...

30/01/07

Ok some random photos for your viewing pleasure I know its been a long time since you've seen any so enjoy! Also note to check out my new haircut!

Brighton -
Kelly organised with his friends a weekend down in Brighton which is at the sea - we stayed in a lovely big house and were treated to lucious meals all weekend - the day we arrived we explored some lovely shops and the next day went to the peir and a few of the kids (myself included I had a rather aggressive passenger as well) went on the bumber cars and generally mucked about - we had lunch at a lovely Italian restaurant before heading home for cake then setted off back to london early that evening...I really liked Brighton!!

















Workmate leaving party -

Our security guard at Beauty Base David was moving on to bigger and better things so a few of us went of to TGI Fridays for some farewell drinks - I had about four cocktails and two tequila shots and somehow had a good time! The photos werent great so these are some of the OK ones - you try taking good shots after so much alcohol! Anyway I'll let you guess which one David is...































I'm not sure how many of you know that as of the end of the this week I have left my job and will be putting my hard earned money towards some adventures in europe so my updates will be more regular and more interesting!

See you then
xxoo EMILY

London happenings...

Hello everyone!!
I know it has been a long time as usual but heres an update of whats been going on here in London...

Since I was in Manchester I have changed jobs I now work at a Beauty shop named quite rightly Beauty Base and each day get to spray myself with a host of designer perfumes and make myself (even more) beautiful with make up I cant afford in this life so thats kinda fun and its less hours than I used to work at the pub, which is even nicer!
Its mostly work that I already know like working on the till and with stock but I also have to sell a bit and I'm responsible for taking mail and internet orders which means I get to break the day up a bit with a trip to the post office but mostly its been learning about perfumes which has been the most interesting part of my job, not a day went by when I didnt learn the name of a new perfume or distributing company!

During Christmas the place was absolutely crazy and you have to keep a really sharp eye on customers because you just wont believe what people will do ...anyway we all worked very long hours but that was fine by me because I had a little other plans!
For Christmas I was with my flatmates Renata and Natalie and we had a little kris kringle which was fun - it was more fun to buy for them really but it was nice to get gifts on Christmas though I have to say a nice big thank you to Nana and Grandpa who sent me some very thoughtful winter warmers which have been very useful!!
For christmas lunch we had a lovely salmon pasta cooked by a friend of Renatas which was abosultely stunning to eat and a change from the usual routine and we all have some choccies and then went to the pub and got drunk (well everyone else did) and that was my christmas 2006!

For New Years I met a colleague and we went to a French restaurant where her friend works and shared a meal and dessert and had some celebratory cocktails, we had plans to go to a nightclub but got caught up at the restaurant so ended up having our New Years there, not the wild night we'd planned but still fun seems we got some free booze and entertainment in.

Not too long ago we had our work Christmas party, seems as over Christmas it was too busy we had it after in a lovely Moroccan restaurant just up the road from work where we had fruit smoothies and plenty of food - most of us didnt realise that there was more than one course so we had little room for our mains though dessert was trayfuls of baklava and I manged to save some room for those plus I took some home! We had some traditional entertianment - a very lovely bellydancer and we all got some shisha!

xxoo EM

Manchester

Hi Everyone!
Sorry for the lack of updates but really not much exciting stuff has been happening - I have a new job in a perfume and make up shop which is so far going well. I have met some nice new people and have a change of responsibilites
Anyway I spent two nights and three days in Manchester - things got off to a great start when I missed my bus and had to re-book (a very expensive exercise I dont advise) and didnt make it there on my first day to early to late afternoon, I had booked at a very central and very plesant hostel called The Hatters and stayed in a doorm sharing with 12 others which was fine - there was free toast and tea all day which was convenient when I didnt have much food and saved effort in the morning!
I met some nice people and got a few pics - I hung out mostly with a canadian girl Shauna because we had the fairly same itinerary and were both organised. For most of my first day I just wandered around getting an idea of the city - it was an interesting time to be there because it was the Gay Pride weekend and every second person had a rainbow coloured wristband also a large part of the city was taken up by a festival which would cost thirteen pounds to get in - I thought that was too much money and went a saw a movie Vulver with Penelope Cruz instead which was in Spanish but very good! I met a nice couple and discussed movie themes with them and then met Shauna the next morning and we started our journey with a trip to the chinese museum which sounded interesting but was quite dull and not really what I expected.
We took a detour to Starbucks and then went to a craft shopping center which hosted beautiful paintings and jewellery but which was very much out of my budget, we then had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant and enjoyed some pasta then went back to our hostel where we met some people in our doorm and organised to go out for a few drinks that night which we fun...there is never a pub far away no matter where you are in the UK!
The next morning Shauna and I headed to Chinatown and then visited the Cathedral and some giant architectural building.
We had lunch in Chinatown and then i was on my way back to London - I thought the city was Ok but I would have liked to have the chance to go to Liverpool which could have been more interesting...and I would have liked to be there when the Uni crew were there....pictures are on their way!