Paris To Amsterdam

Our last night in Paris was definitely one of my favourite nights here. We did a walking tour through Paris and learned quite a bit. We met a few Americans and a few Canadians that we hung out with after the tour. We all grabbed some wine, cheese, meats and baguettes and headed down to the Eiffel Tower to eat. It was a nice spot. After that we went back to the hostel to drink in the basement but there was a live band playing so we decided to grab some wine and head back to the Eiffel Tower for the light show they put on every hour at night time. We ended up getting pretty drunk because we made a drinking game that coincided with the lights of the Eiffel Towel so the wine disappeared pretty quick. After the wine was gone we headed back to Aloha Hostel and drank some more wine and beer from the vending machine. Created a new drink called Leffie Juice that is a mix of Orangina and wine. At about 3 am Graham and I headed back to our Hostel to try and get a room but it was booked so we went across the road and slept in the park. We woke up freezing so went back to our hostel to warm up and have some breakfast.

We went to the train station around noon to buy a Eurorail pass to save some money over the next month or so. We grabbed the train at 3 to make it to Amsterdam for 8PM. It was a connecting train and of course we missed the second connecting train because we don't speak french and couldn't make it to the next train in time. We had to then find our way through a series of other trains and arrived in Amsterdam at 10PM. Anne didn't make it out to meet us so we grabbed a hotel on a side street a block away from the Red Light District. We went for a quick walk through the Red Light District and its the real deal here! "Coffee Shops" everywhere and ladies (not sure they really qualify to be called ladies) in windows half naked ready to be purchased for a good time. I'm not sure if it's an Amsterdam thing but our room came with 2 cats. Tarzan and Jane. They came and went as they pleased through the window. It was pretty awesome!

Just woke up and had a quick breakfast in our hotel and now were off to meet Anne to do a Canal Tour and a Tour of the Heineken Brewery. Might also go see Anne Franks house.

Homeless in Paris..... Almost!

We took the bus from London to Paris today. It was a 10 hour trip in total including 4 hours on the bus, 3 hours on the ferry and then another 3 hours by bus. We arrived at 10 PM with no where to stay so we thought we would take the subway towards the Eiffel Tower and find a place to stay but while we were trying to decipher the ticket dispensing machine because we know next to nothing about the french language, a random guy from Ivory Coast told us that he would take us to a cheap hotel because it would be too expensive near the Eiffel Towel. So we made the excellent decision to go with him and take his word. He seemed pretty Legit because he spoke french and english and apparently lived in London but had family here in Paris. We got on the subway for free because he snuck us in the exit. He took us to a part of Paris called Chateau Rouge. Sounds like a nice place but little did we know. We were in the ghettos of Paris and trying to get into sketchy hotels but they were all booked. After we saw one drug deal go down we decided we should probably walk towards a safer area. We must have checked 15 hotels while but had no luck because its the end of school or something so everything is booked up. We ended up talking to a local that sent us in the direction of a hostel so we arrived here around 1230. With our luck it was totally booked so we had to wait till 2AM to see if there was any cancellations. Luckily there was a few cancellations so we just got some rooms. Heading to sleep now after a long tiring day of travelling and looking for a place to sleep.

London Was a Whirlwind But Still An Awesome Time.

This post is 1 day late because the netbook died just as I was about to post it! So here it is!

I'm laying here in my hostel bed at 1:08am listening to the 2 other random guys in the room snore like 8 year old girls! Pathetic! Graham and I just got in from a great day in London! We arrived by bus at 7am and started wondering around London soon as we got some breakfast in us. We saw a few of the major attractions such as Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, The London Eye and a few Museums. We started drinking Sapporos from the local chinese conveinence store and got a good buzz on before heading off at 8 to meet the wonderful Cristina Ferriera (a friend of ours through Mike Drzazga). She took us on our own mini pub crawl to some of her favorite pubs and bars around London. Mind you, some how we ended up at a gay bar for our first round of drinks but none the less it was a good time. We must of went to 6 or 7 bars/pubs before Cristina had to catch the 12 o'clock tube (Britains term for the subway). After Cristina left Graham and I decided it would be a good idea to waonder a bit before heading back to the hostel. We ended up getting free passes to get into a high end dancers club if you know what I mean. We went in and instantly the ladies were after our money. They were very agressive and wouldn't take no for an answer until about 20 minutes passed and they realized we weren't spending any money in there other then the beers we grabbed.

Last Day in Scotland. Off to London Tonight!!

We are enjoying our last day in Cardonald, Scotland. Tonight we are taking the bus into London. Its just over 8 hours to take the bus so we are catching the 11PM bus so we can sleep on the bus through the night and wake up in down town London in the morning.

We are just relaxing today because yesterday we climbed Ben Nevis which is the highest mountain in the United Kingdom. It was 4406 feet tall. To put that into perspective, Mount Everest is 29,900. It was a 3.5 hour hike up and it only took about 2 hours and 45 minutes to come back down. We took a lot of photos along the way and at the summit of the mountain but the photos definitely don't do it's justice. We started the climb with Dave and Charlotte and about 1\3 of the way up Charlotte wanted to stop, so Dave stayed with here and Graham and I went on. We Made it to the top and there was an old observatory that was there from hundreds of years ago and a little survival hut. We went into the survival hut and ate lunch and just after we finished lunch, Dave and Charlotte showed up. They felt like they couldn't be shown up by Canadians in their own country lol. The hike down was a lot less tiring then the hike up but it was tough with all the loose rocks on the path. All in all it was an amazing day and an even more amazing feat considering It was only 2 days after the 3 month mark of me having knee surgery.

We Made It! Barely!!!

So, we made it here alive and the trip has been amazing so far. We almost didn't get into the Scotland because we didn't have a ticket booked to leave the country. The guy pretty much laughed at us and told us we we're screwed and it took a good 10 minutes to talk our way into letting us in. Graham didn't help the situation when his bank statement stated he only had $6 in his account (it was an old bank statement). We spent our first 2 nights in Glasgow staying with Grahams Aunt Rosie and Uncle Gerry. Our second day here we got dropped off in downtown Glasgow by Grahams cousin Leigh. We started drinking farely early and met a local named Murray who showed us a few of the local pubs and took us to the University of Glasgow. We got some carry out (booze from the corner store) and drank on a big grassy hill with a bunch of people we met down by the university. There must have been about 200-300 people drinking on this hill. It was an awesome party. After that we went bar hopping with some french ladies we met and ended up at a peep show. It was just university students in the peep show so they didnt show everything but it was still fun. At the end of the night we walked home from downtown Glasgow to Cardonald which was about a 4 hour walk. All that walking to get home to a locked door. We ended up sleeping in the back yard on lounge chairs for an hour before Graham remembered they said they would leave a key under the mat. So at 6 am we stumbled into bed.


Last night around dinner time we took the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh to see Dave and Charlotte. Thats a couple that Graham knows. We started the party early at The Amber Rose while waiting to meet up with Dave and Charlotte. We went to 3-4 different bars last night before finally ending up at the Casino around 330 AM. I some how managed to make 80 Pounds playing poker even though I hardly remember it. Graham finished up 35 pounds from black jack. We got back to Dave and Charlottes flat around 630 AM and slept right through the royal wedding. Today Dave had to work so Charlotte took us around and showed us some cool spots around town. Edinburgh is a beautiful city!


We've been absolutely stuffed since we arrived because the food is amazing and it's hard to stop even though you're full. So far we've had haggis balls, haggis on pizza, haggis and bacon sandwich, haggis burgers, deep fried pizza, blood pudding sandwich and curried chicken.

It's currently 215am and were sitting in Dave and Charlottes flat watching the Jays beat the Yankees on the internet.

5 Days left In Canada!

The past few weeks have flown by and were down to our last 5 days in Canada. You would think that with 5 days left we would both be ready to go and pretty much just have to pack. But thats not the case at all. I still have a few things to take care of before I can leave.

Things To Do

• Call my insurance company to see if I can put a hold on my car insurance
• Buy a net book
• Sort out my insurance claim with work regarding my knee surgery
• Go into Bell to cut back my phone bill considering I wont be bringing it
• Pack my back pack
• Purchase a flight out of Scotland
• Call Visa and tell them that I will be traveling and not to cancel my card when it gets used in a foreign country

If I wasn't such a procrastinator all these things would be done but I just can't seem to get them done knowing I still have a few days to do them. I don't think that will ever change with me.

We have found ourselves a place to stay in London. A friend of ours is over there for school so she said we could stay with her for a couple days. We most likely won't make it there for the royal wedding but we will be in London a couple days after so hopefully there will still be some stuff going on related to the wedding.

I've been getting pretty anxious to get traveling, but I know the night before we leave and the day of us leaving the anxiousness will turn into nervousness. But, I don't think i'd be normal if I didn't get nervous. This will probably be my last post before we leave but I will try to write atleast every couple of days. It all depends on where we can get on the internet and if there is anything "blog worthy" of course.

15 Days Until The Start Of My New Life!

Time keeps ticking as the date gets closer and closer. In 15 days the plane will take off from Pearson and then we will land on the 26th in Glasgow. We have our first place to stay once we arrive. We're staying in Paisly with Graham's Aunt which is only a few miles from the airport.

This weekend was the last weekend that I'll make it up to the cottage. I went up Friday morning but had to stop at Casino Rama to feed my ongoing poker addiction. It went well as I made $215 in about 3 hours so I was very pleased. Had a great weekend at the cottage and decided to try my luck at the casino again and in hind sight, I was probably not using my best decision making skills lol. I played poker for about 2 hours and lost $200 so all in all I'm up a whopping $15 dollars this weekend lol. The hand that killed my stack was a pocket pair of nines! Long story short, I made a full house and he made a bigger one on the river after we got all our chips in on the flop. But the important part was that I played well but was just card dead and got all my chips in with the second best hand which is a situation in poker that you can almost never get away from.

One last thought... This weekend I was talking to my friends Dad who owns his own business. So while we were sitting around the fire enjoying a few alcoholic beverages we ended up talking about business and how he started his company etc etc. I won't bore you with the whole conversation but there was one thing he told me to always remember. He explained that the business world is a lot like a whole bunch of people standing around the bottom of a ladder. Most people are always stuck on the bottom step and are always looking up at the asses of those people climbing up the ladder. While others take chances and risks and climb the ladder. The moral of the story/metaphor is to not be the one looking up at the asses of everyone else. You want every one to be looking up at your ass while you climb your way up the ladder!

Don't just stand at the bottom of the Ladder your whole life!