June Shenanigans

I really dropped the ball on keeping up to date with this blog. So saying that, I am going to try and re-cap all the fun things I did in June before I left to fly back to the motherland!

Shakespeare's Globe

Jade, Melissa, Myself and one of Jade's friends went to Shakespeare's Globe! We saw "Much Ado About Nothing" and stood in the "peasants area". This area was the part right by the stage where you stood for the entire play. The actors were brilliant and we even saw Jeffery from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air play the role of the King! The actors were so close, it was a totally different theatre experience than anything I've ever seen before.



Visiting Craig in Manchester - June 11th / 12th

I spent a night up in Manchester visiting my buddy Craig from back home in Toronto. Craig is a friend from the high school era who had been working in Manchester for the past year. It was great seeing him and meeting his buddies. We toured around Manchester and went on the Manchester Eye (not as cool as the London Eye, sorry norther neighbors). We also came across a Malibu makeup tent promotion and I got a free makeover! Craig was a good sport and stood around awkwardly as I got dolled up. In the evening, a lot of his friends were at a music festival close by so we met up with them afterwords. Had some drinks and some dancing and some laughs! Good times! The hungover 5 hour bus ride back to London was not much fun the following day though...

Cocktail Mixing Class - June 16th



As part of Melissa's birthday gift and Jade's goodbye, the ladies of Felday went to a cocktail mixing class in Greenwich! They fed us cupcakes, showed us the tools to use and provided the alcohol to make 5 different summer drinks. We made: Passion Fruit Bellini, Caipirinha, Apple Moonshine, White Wine Sangria and a Pineapple Pina Colada. It was a lot of fun and a very welcome girly night out!

Royal Ascot - June 18th

We went to the Royal Ascot horse races again this year! It was a true Felday outing: Mon, Chris, Melissa, Fletcher, Jade and myself. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty unpredictable - alternating between gorgeous sunshine to 10 minute rain showers. I was prepared though. Even with my nice classy dress on - I wore my wellies! I looked like a complete tool at the station but as soon as we got there and it started raining - look who was laughing now! :P In pure classy Ascot style, we drank wine and bet on horses mostly because of their names. I even won about 10 pounds on a horse named "Waffles" with that strategy! It was a lovely day full of fun, betting, and wine. Let's just not mention me sleeping on the ground of the train carriage on the way back home.... :)




Mom and Dad Howse visit! - June 19 - 24th

My parents came to London for a week to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. They spent a week living in Whitechapel and then a week home on the St. Mary Cruise ship across the Atlantic to get back to North America! I toured them around Harrod's, The Imperial War Museum (for father's day!), saw the musical Betty Blue Eyes (very recommended!! It was hilarious!), and visited Windsor Castle (I can't believe I hadn't been there yet! It was gorgeous!!). It was wonderful showing off my city to them. They arrived at a time when I was really homesick so I appreciated them visiting even more. :)

Britain's Got Talent - June 23rd

We had become addicted to this show while in England. It was always on! So when a groupon came up that offered 15 pound tickets to see the top 10 acts, we went for it. It was at the 02, so that was an experience in itself - such a big stadium! Michael Jackson was supposed to play there - single tear. The performances were fun, but I think this little boy blew them all away. Ronan Park. He was bloody brilliant, but came in second place.

Bournemouth Day Trip - June 26th

I was getting itchy feet from my lack of traveling and the limited time I had left to travel, so I convinced Jen (and her friend Joe) to come with me for a day trip to Bournemouth, a seaside town with a SANDY beach! it was about two hours away from London, but the commute wasnt' that bad. When we first got there, it was cloudy and foggy but we were determined to make the best of it. Then, a few hours later, it was sunny and wonderful! I swam in the Atlantic!!! We dozed on the beach, got burned, ate ice-cream and walked along the pier. It was a lovely lovely summer day. :)



Mumford & Sons / Arcade Fire / The Vaccines - Hyde Park June 30th



I FINALLY SAW MUMFORD AND SONS!!!! There have been four opportunities and four misses to see them in concert, but I finally did and they were wonderful! Oh and the other bands were great too! :) It was fun going to a concert at Hyde Park. Huge venue, cheap beers, good vibes. The Vaccines sang most of their album, catchy fun indie rock. Then Beruit preformed (i wasn't too fussed about that band). Then Mumford came on and I lost my mind. I squirmed my way to a better view and lost everyone else until they went off stage. They were wonderful and I am a total fan girl when it comes to Marcus Mumford. lol. Arcade Fire were great too, but I only know a few of their songs. Canadian content what! :)

Canada Day @ Trafalgar Square - July 1st



A tradition as of last year, we went down to Trafalgar Square to celebrate Canada Day with all the other ex-pats. They sold poutine, curly fries, Molson and Sleeman's. They had street hockey tournaments. We all wore red and white and tons of temporary tattoos. I convinced my Aussie friend Andrew to come join us and he was an honourary Canadian. Mike Myers made a surprise appearance and waved to the crowd. Cabbie on the Street and that Asian chick from E Talk hosted the event. Blue Rodeo headlined the concert. We met a bunch of new awesome people, including a cool South African model/photographer named Zeke (who came to my goodbye party the next day!). Great day full of Canadian pride!

Goodbye Party - July 2nd

We had a "Bye Bye Susan" party at Felday on the Saturday. Complete with flipcup, beer pong, disco balls and a dancing frenzy. It was so nice to see everyone one last time!



Billy Elliot - July 5th

As my last night in London, I went with the girls to see Billy Elliot. It was good, but not as amazing as everyone had hyped it up to be. I still think that Wicked was the best theatre show I saw in London. But either way I loved how we went out for my last night!

Phew! There you go! Recap of June!!!

Edinburgh: It's a Hell of a Town!

Day 1 - Exploring Edinburgh
We woke up super early to catch our flight. Like, woke up at 3am early. Stupid Stanstead (rants about airports and ryanair are a common occurrence in every household in England - especially the ex-pat ones). We got to our hostel however, by about 10:00 in the morning so we were able to make it to the walking tour in the morning!

We went on our free walking tour (I think I have done the New Europe tours in about 10 different cities now!) and saw all of downtown Edinburgh. Old churches, execution spots, Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile, haunted graveyards, the whole shebang! We also experienced four different seasons in this tour! Spring - rain, Summer - sunshine, Autumn - wind, and Winter - hail. It was insane. This country can't decide what season it wants it to be!!

My favourite story that our tour guide told us was about "Greyfriar's Bobby". This was a story about a very faithful dog. When his master - the groundskeeper of the Greyfriar's Graveyard - died, Bobby sat by his grave waiting for his master to return. The townspeople fed him and sheltered him when it was cold, but he never left his master's side. He lived for like 15 years like that. When Bobby died, they built a grave for him and a statue of him outside the graveyard. People leave sticks and little dog treats / toys for him on his grave to this day.



The rest of the day was spent exploring Edinburgh on our own, even coming across a group of older Scottish men and women who were practicing traditional Scottish dancing in the park!

Day 2 - "Hogwarts" Castle
The second day was our day at the castle. We woke up and headed over to the castle after eating our deliciously simply hostel breakfast. All Dan had wanted to do in Europe was visit a castle, so obviously, the giant Edinburgh castle was a point of interest on our trip. We saw cannons and armour, prisoner cells and palace halls, fortifications and the oldest building in Edinburgh (the small church within the castle grounds). We even saw the Scottish crown jewels (a sceptre, sword, crown and stone of destiny). I don't' want to really get into the whole story of the Stone of Destiny, but I think it was pretty interesting, so here's the ever so informative wikipedia link. Dan was in his glory this whole day and I was so happy to have shared in seeing this great castle with him. :)


After the castle, we met up with my traveling friend Lucy! James and I met Lucy in Krakow / Prague when we did our Eurotrip in 2009 and she is currently living and working in Scotland! It was great to see her two years later and what had happened since those crazy nights in Poland! Lucy took us to lunch and then to the cafe where J.K. Rowling penned the first two harry potter books! It was awesome! You could see a perfect view of the castle that I am introducing Dan to Harry Potter, so he wasn't as excited as I was, but he still feigned support. :P In the evening, we went out to a jazz/live music bar and had a few drinks and good times.



Day 3 - Monster Hunting
The third day in Edinburgh wasn't actually spent in Edinburgh! We went on a day trip to Loch Ness to search for Nessie! I obviously slept the entire way there, but we saw some great views of the highlands - even though the weather was typically Scottish and rainy.



When we got to Loch Ness, we went on a boat tour and they explained all about the theories of Nessie and the sightings. And guess what? We saw her floating along the boat! Here's our proof! :P




Day 4 - Loose Ends
On our last day there, we tied up all our loose ends and did all the things we had left to do. One of them was to located an angel playing bagpipes in a church. It is the only church in the world that has a wooden carving of an angel playing the bagpipes. Pretty kitschy and cute! We also tried to tour the Royal Palace of Edinburgh (located at the other end of the Royal Mile with Edinburgh Castle on the top and the Palace on the bottom). However, it was closed as there were currently royalty visiting! We maintain it must have been Will and Kate. :P Finally, we HAD to try some traditional Scottish foods. I tried Haggis! Look at me, being all cultured now and trying crazy food! It was actually very tasty. Just like ground up sausage mixed with oats and spices. I just tried not to think about where it was cooked. We also tried the even more delicious delicacy of DEEP FRIED MARS BARS. mmmmmmmmm... Heavenly! I don't care how bad it is for you. it was amazing!

All in all, our trip was lovely. A perfect place to spend four days and really explore it all. I hope Dan had as much fun as I had! :

A Visit from Dan!

I got to play tour guide over the past two weeks and share my love of London and smartypants trivia that I've gathered over the accumulated 10 months I've been here!

It's sometimes confusing for my friends when I say that "Dan" is visiting because I have both a best friend Dan (Dan Grant) and a boy that I was seeing in Toronto before I left (Dan M. or "Dr. Dan" as he is finishing up school to be a chiropractor this year). Also, Dan Grant is moving to Edinburgh to do teacher's college in the fall and Dan M and and I went to Edinburgh this past week. Confused? Anyways, for clarity in the next few posts: Dan = Dr. Dan, not Dan Grant! :P

I was so excited for Dan to be coming. We've stayed in touch over the past few months and are very close now, albeit still in different countries. He came to visit for almost 2 weeks in between the end of his clinic rotations and his final exams. Things we did in London included:

- Watching the Champions Final between Man U and Barcelona at home with Fletch, Jade, Melissa, & Martin. Incidentally, I had picked Dan up from Gatwick that morning and there were tons of Barc fans singing songs and getting into the footie spirit!
- Sightsaw the whole Trafalgar/Parliament/Big Ben/Westminster/Buckingham area as well as a wonderful walk through Hyde Park and the Serpentine.
- Met up with Sophie and Kyle (who was in town for the week with work... He lived in England last year but now works for Barclay's NYC!) at the Shakespeare for Dan's introduction to the wonderful summer delight that is Pimm's!
- Went to Borough Market to have a delicious lunch. I had paella, he had a burger, and we shared a banoffee pie.
- Toured along the Southbank: Golden Hinde, Shakespeare's Globe, St. Paul's, Tower Bridge.
- Went in the Tate Modern and were amazed by the power and beauty of some of the pieces, as well as baffled by what some consider art
- Walked through Greenwich Park to see the Deer
- Took a Thames Clipper ride from Greenwich to Embankment
- Went to the London Science Museum and learned about "Energy", old medical tools and the creation of Plastic?? Random museum!
- Spent a night out in London (Went to Gordon's Wine Bar with Emma and Andrew and then off to the Porterhouse in Covent for some live music)
- Went on the London Eye. The first time I've ever been on it. It was fun, but a little boring. Great pics of London though!!
- Took Dan to Pub Quiz at the Fox. "Team Canaussie" came in last as usual.
- Had a fancy night out by dinner and a musical. We saw Chicago. It was great, minimalist set but excellent singing and dancing by all the cast members! Due to time restraints, we ended up eating at the "Golden Arches" (our posh name for a not so posh, well known fastfood joint, lol)

It was a wonderful time in London. It was the first time that Dan had ever been overseas and he said that he was falling in love with London just like I have! :) That's a pretty big statement from the boy from Chester, Nova Scotia. ;) We didn't just stay in London though, we also did a four day trip to Edinburgh in Scotland! But that, my friends, is another post.

Wonderful Weekend!

Friday was a HORRIBLE day. The Year 2 Class that I've been supplying in twice a week for the past three weeks was off the wall today (so much so that the secretary asked if I "needed a break from them") and made me feel like crying. Also, my wisdom tooth is coming in on the bottom left and that's KILLING as it's pushing through the gums. So I was teething and grumpy all day long. Luckily for me, I came home and everyone was also in a "we need to drink wine and eat kebabs" kind of mood so we had a chilled out evening doing just that (plus a viewing of "It's All Gone, Pete Tong".

Then, Saturday came along and I had an absolutely wonderful time. I went over to Fulham to meet up with my two Australian friends, Emma and Andrew, whom I met last year when I was in Spain. We went to a pub to watch the Man U/Blackburn match as well as the FA Cup Final (Man City vs. Stoke). After the game, we went back to Emma and Andrew's flat, grabbed a football and played in the park. After the park, we cooked dinner, grabbed some wine and settled in for a night of Eurovision finals!

Eurovision is this hilarious singing competition that all the European countries compete in. Imagine American Idol, but where the residents of each country vote (but you can't vote for your own country). The songs are pretty ridiculous / cheesy and the performances are so over the top its a riot to watch! Each of us picked six countries out of a hat and they were "our team". We then made a drinking game out of it whereby:
a). If the commentator makes fun of your country's performance, take a drink.
b). If your country wears a ridiculous outfit / hairstyle, drink.
c). If your country does something ridiculous, drink.
d). If your country does something AWESOME, give out a drink
e). If the commentator says something positive about your performance, give out a drink.

It was so much fun and we got really into it. I also learned the name of two new countries (Moldova and Azerbaijan... which actually won it!). So you can see what it's like, here are the youtubes of my two favourite performances:
Iceland (they reminded me of Mumford & Sons)
Moldova (this was ridiculous!!! I ended up having to drink a lot in this round)

I slept over in Fulham and then came back to my house in Lewisham. I convinced everyone to FINALLY get a TV and we found a sweet deal on Ebay. So the afternoon consisted of us getting the TV and watching Britain's Got Talent as family time. :) THEN, I was able to skype my entire family back home who were at my cousin's house for a birthday party / goodbye Jaclyn party and that was amazing to see my little cousins shout that they miss me on to the camera. I really miss them too!!

Basically, it was a wonderful weekend in London and I was so happy to go out and socialize but not spend loads of money. :)

P.S. I got 4 pre-booked days of work this week!!! Wahooo!! Let`s hope my tooth stops bothering me so that I can actually get loads of pay! :)

Someday my Prince will come!

Now, if you were a smart person living in Britain, you would leave super early in the morning to get a good spot to see the carriage, or Buckingham palace, or the church, or...anything.

If you were a silly person, you would wait until 10am to leave and then wander around the city amongst thousands of other people doing it as well, until finally deciding just to sit and enjoy the atmosphere.

We got to Charing Cross and it was madness! There were SO many people and SO many flags!! Of COURSE we had to buy one and wave it around. :) We trekked it to the edge of High Park, where they had giant video screens broadcasting the wedding, but by the time we got there, the carriage was almost back at Buckingham! So we sat right beside the Wellington Arch, turned on Melissa's cell phone radio and listened to the broadcast while drinking mimosas we brought with us.

We were all dolled up and the atmosphere was SO happy and excited! So many little kids, so many flags, so much pride! We actually ended up picking a good place to settle because the Royal Calvary rode right past us and we had a good view of the airplanes and jets as they flew overhead!

After it was over, we headed to Shoreditch to have dinner and check out the market. We grabbed an Evening Standard that had a picture of the kiss on the front and it was the first time we had seen it!! So beautiful!

I don't know much about the Royal Family, nor about the politics surrounding them, but I do know that with all this crap that has been going on with the world, from Osama to Egypt to Earthquakes to Protests, it was nice to have a day where everyone was just happy. And a Prince got to marry his princess. :)

Don't Worry Mum, I'm in Lisbon!

After the hellish experience of Seville, our weekend in Portugal was AMAZING. We went to two cities: Lisbon (the Capital, called Lisboa in Portuguese) and Porto (where we flew out of).



We spent the entire day basically waiting in the bus station so that we could catch a seven hour bus that went from Seville to Faro to Lisbon. Even that BUS ride was so much better than the buses in Spain. They had comfy seats, friendly drivers and they even served us some sandwiches because we were driving through dinner time. We arrived in Porto at like 10pm and found our hostel very easily.

We stayed at Home Hostel in Lisbon and man, did it live up to its name. It felt like we were really at home! Very relaxed, chilled atmosphere and they also had free laundry!! And even though we were going to be back in London in like two days, it was nice to get laundry done and have fresh clothes the next day!!

The next full day we had in Lisbon, we actually didn't even stay in the city! We had been told by numerous people to go visit Sintra, a small town outside of Lisbon that housed Pena Palace as well as a 9thC Moorish Castle called Mouros. We took at 3 euro train there and were blown away. Unfortunately the weather was reallllly gross. Cold and wet and we were in the forest, but it was absolutely beautiful. I think the prettiest scenery are in Forests. I know mountains and oceans are impressive, but every time I see a gorgeous forest and green trees everywhere, I fall a little bit in love.

We took a bus (good call, apparently it was an hour plus walk up!) to the Palace to see it first. The palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal. It was very pretty, but also VERY busy. We waited forever to get inside and tour around. The Palace served as the summer residence of the royal family before Portugal became a Republic. Its ontop of a giant hill, overlooking Sintra and apparently on a nice day you can even see it in Lisbon.



P.S. Fun Wikipedia Fact: The last queen of Portugal, Queen Amélia, spent her last night at the palace before leaving the country in exile.

I, however, much rather enjoyed the Castelo dos Mouros as you were free to roam and explore the ruins at your own leisure (instead of being led around in a massive line like at Pena Palace). Also recognized as a World Heritage Site, these ruins still stand today despite being built by the Moors in the 9th/10th CenturY!!! It was pretty cool to go stand up on the top of the towers, overlooking the Pena Forest and the town of Sintra, imagining that ages ago, people fought and died on these very spots during sieges!! SUSAN THE "COOL HISTORY NERD" REJOICED.



We explored the rest of the Town and during a late lunch, made friends with our waiter, Bruno. And by friends, I mean, he blatantly hitted on us. He ended up giving us his card telling us that "Sintra is only 40 minutes from Lisbon and the last train leaves at 2!" hahaha, needless-to-say we didn't take him up on that offer! :P

Because we were tired from the day trip to Sintra, we didn't want to go out and party that night (we decided to save it for our last night in Porto). Instead, we bought some pasta and wine, made dinner, then met some nice people in our hostel, got a free shot of a yummy cherry liquour and watched movies (Juno and Ace Ventura). Prefect ending to a great day.

The next day we spent half of the time in Lisbon and the evening in Porto. We woke up early, checked out of the hostel, left our bags in storage and went on a walking tour. We met a really nice Canadian from Saskatchewan, Tyler, on the tour. Unfortunately, it was raining the whole time during the tour. We learned a lot of interesting things and ended up at a neat little flea market to do some shopping. Then, The SUN came out! We warmed up a bit and went to lunch in a hole-in-the-wall Cafe where we had the MOST DELICIOUS PORTUGUESE PASTRIES! They are called "Pastel de Nata" (nata tarts). They are a custard type tart that is sprinkled with Cinnamon. They were so good that the three of us ordered two each!! :)



We then jumped on the bus to Porto, meeting an American traveler along the way named Nick. Nick, Melissa and I navigated our way to our hostels (although Melissa and I had a bit of difficulty without a map and with the directions of "Ask someone where ___ Garden is and we're there!"). Since it was our last night on the trip, we decided to do the Porto Late NIght Tour (mostly because we ran into the tour guides while lost and they took us to our hostel and also advertised thier pub crawl at the same time). Everyone except the three of us spoke Spanish, but by the end of the night it didn't matter! We got so many free shots and drinks from the tour guides that it ended up being a very fun but messy night, ending around 6am!!

All in All, we had a WONDERFUL time in Portugal and I really want to go back. I've heard Lagos in the south is gorgeous and I would love to explore more of that country. Everyone was SO nice and friendly. :-) What a great way to end our trip!

Me robaron el pasaporte!!!!

Now to tell you about the scariest moment I have ever, ever had while traveling.

We were at the bus station in Seville, around 11 pm about to head on our overnight bus to Lisbon, Portugal. We bought some drinks and postcards at the shop in the bus station just before heading down the escalator to the bus. Normally, I keep some of my money in my little wallet and the rest in a big red travel wallet (that also houses my passport, train tickets, oyster card, Canadian credit card, etc). However, I was a little short of cash so I took out my travel wallet from its secure place to get some extra money. Either I must have put it down on the counter after I paid for my drinks / souvenirs, or more likely someone was watching me from the waiting area and saw where i put it and then pick pocketed me as I walked to the bus.

It was really really scary. I was bawling the entire time in the bus station and the shop keeper was really nice to me because she spoke a bit of English and gave me the number of the police and talked to security for us. We looked around the station then thinking that someone tossed the passport and stuff after they took the money. We even rooted through the garbage bins. Some really nice Spanish people even taped my glasses together for me because I was carrying them around broken (imagine two monacles being held up to your face) and since I didn't have my contacts in, I couldn't see. It was really nice of them, especially since they didn't speak ANY English.

We decided the best bet was to then go somewhere where they speak English so we went to a hostel. It wasn't the one we stayed at but another one that was affiliated with it so we thought they would be helpful.

They weren't.

They were rude, yelled at us to leave because I was crying and then we just went upstairs to use their computers to try and find the number of the Canadian embassy. There was one in Madrid so we made a plan to call the police, then head to Madrid tomorrow to talk to the embassy.

The hostel people wouldn't even let us use their phones to call the police!! I was crying upstairs and then this nice German girl and an American boy calmed me down and helped me out. The girl, Linda, let me use her phone. Well, when we called the police (the emergency line) it said all the lines were busy and to call back later?! Stupid Spain and their lazy attitudes!

One of the nicer hostel workers (actually the lady from the hostel we were staying at BEFORE) then gave us the location of a 24 hour police station. Melissa, Linda, Linda's boyfriend Marcus and I all walked there planning to make a report about what happened. When we got there, Linda, who speaks a bit of Spanish, told the police what happened. They gestured for her and I to go to a room and then they.... pulled out my red passport holder!!!! The money wasn't there (about 150 euros), but my passport, Canadian credit card, oyster card, Ryan air ticket, etc were all there!!!

I have only cried out of happiness twice and this was one of them! I even hugged the police man (he was very wierded out by that).

We then had to figure out what to do about sleeping. The Germans were so nice and let us take one of their bunks. We slept, then Melissa got yelled at by the hostel worker the next day saying we were trying to rob them by not paying. It was pretty awful because in reality, THEY DIDN'T HELP US AT ALL and told us there was no room there to sleep! We just slept there out of the kindness of the German couple!!!! Whatever, we paid. Then went to the bus station and were able to get a bus that leaves at 4pm and goes to Faro and then Lisbon.

I have never been so scared in my life but everyone in the hostel (the guests NOT the staff) were so helpful and calming me down. So many people have told me that either they or their friend had things stolen in Spain, so at least I am fortunate that my camera and ipod weren't stolen too.

I am so so so lucky. I keep thinking that maybe it was because the thief saw me hysterical in the bus station and left everything they couldn´t use. Or else its holy week and there are a lot of nice Samaritans around.

However, it's all part of the adventure of traveling. And as Noah and the Whale sing, "L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N." but it was really terrifying at the time.