Day 1

As those on Facebook have already deduced, I am safely installed at the volunteer guesthouse in Bangkok (unless you count my recent encounter with a very large and nimble-legged cockroach which rapidly approached me from across the kitchen table).
After my lovely parents drove me all the way to Vancouver airport on Wedneday evening, I departed on a 2:20AM flight to Tai Pei, Taiwan, which lasted over 12 hours. By the time we boarded I was so exhausted I literally fell asleep during take-off...yes, the most turbulent part of the flight. I remember nothing of it. Fortunately, my slumber lasted for a good portion of the trip, and I watched Jurassic World and listened to an audiobook for the rest of it.
The wait in Tai Pei was only a few hours, and then it was only another 4 hours flight after that to Bangkok. It was about 12:3pm local time when I arrived and met my contact from the volunteer orgnaization, but I was feeling preeeetttty tired at that point.
The drive from the airport should only have been 45 minutes long, but was nearly twice that due to traffic, and then it started raining....now I know what typhoon season means! The thunder and lightening haven't stopped, and the rain is incredible! Our road is a river of muddy brown swirling water. I'm not sure what my "walking tour" orientation is going to look like, seeing as we are scheduled to leave in a few hours! :P
So far I havent done much, as I unpacked and showered when I got here and then basically fell asleep instantly. I woke up very early local time and listened to the rain coming down.
Today I get some Thai language lessons and hearing more about how things work around here. I am currently the only volunteer (at least until 2 weeks), and I'm not entirely sure what my role will be.
Looking forward to doing and seeing more as the week progresses!

The Motherland and the Homeland

I've just gotten back, after a looooong night in Gatwick airport, a loooooong flight to Vancouver, and a loooooong drive home.
While its only ten after 7pm here, I'm still operating under the European clock which is 8 hours ahead...making it 3:10am. I've also got a brutal head cold (thanks a lot, Salzburg!) and a big to-do list before I leave again on Thursday.......ahhhhh!
Ok, now that my whining is out of the way, I will mention that Holland was amazing and I got to do some really cool stuff, and I will hopefully have a bit of time to post some pictures tomorrow, if you're lucky! Hooray!

Bohemia

I started a blog post the other day, but it was growing to massive proportions, and I just don't have enough time or patience with this iTouch to complete it.
So I'm going to try to keep this brief, until I can do proper posts with pictures and anecdotes.
We have been in Prague the last couple of days, and it is quite different from everywhere else we've been so far!
It's a beautiful city with lots of intricate and unique buildings. The castle on the hill is quite stunning no matter what time of day, you always want to take another picture of it!
The Czech language sounds a lot like Russian...meaning it's frickin hard to pronounce! This is the first country we've been to where we haven't even attempted to learn the "basic" phrases. We can't get our tongues around the crazy sounds! So far it hasn't been a problem since almost everyone we need to communicate with speaks some English. It's surprisingly touristy here.
I can't say that I've found it a particularly friendly country, though. I'm going to have to give that impression a bit more thought to explain exactly why I feel that way, so I'll try and remember if for a future post :)
Anyway, tomorrow is our last day here. We head out on our last night train tomorrow at 6:30pm, and will arrive in Amsterdam at 10am the next day! The longest train yet. I'm super stoked for holland though! Can't wait!

The Sound of Disappointment

Still getting over the disappointment of not being able to stay with my Czech friends, I left a gray and cloudy Munich behind me this morning and arrived to an equally drab skyskape in Salzburg: famous for being the birthplace of both Mozart, and The Sound of Music. I didn't realize just how much the tourism here is dependent on the movie musical until we arrived! There are a ton of tours (bus, walking, biking...even segway!)that will take you to visit the movie film sites! One tour that really made us laugh was called "the sound of Trudy", and was led by a costumed guide who would sing songs from the movie at each location!! SO tempted to go.
After we got on the right bus (with a very snappy driver) we arrived at our hostel to discover our rooms wouldn't be ready til 4,which left us with a lot of time.
Neither of us felt very energized, but we decided the most flexible and economical option would be to rent bikes and explore the city on our own.
It was chilly outside when we left at 1pm, but we had our rainjackets so we thought we were prepared.
Wrong.
By the time we got to the city center it was starting to rain quite a bit. We took a couple pictures and then wandered up a steep stairway to see if we could find a sweet view of the city.
Long story short,we wandered for quite a while, it rained harder, we got on our bikes, it rained harder, we biked for a long time and then realized we were lost, it rained harder, we got soaked and more lost...it rained harder.
It was twenty past 4 when we finally rolledback to the hostel. And we were very wet, and very done with Salzburg. I took a hot shower, ate some free muffins and drank free coffee, and now I feel much better.
But I'm still glad we're only spending one night here!
Tomorrow will be a better day.

Munich

My second trip on a night train wasn't too bad. Turns out ear plugs make all the difference! We arrived at 6:30am this morning and grabbed breakfast at the stations Starbucks. We couldn't check into our rooms that early but luckily the hotel let us leave our bags there and we caught the next train to dachau.
We knew going in that a visit to the concentration camp memorial site wouldn't be exactly an uplifting experience...it was actually pretty emotionally draining. We spent probably close to 5 hours there and I feel like I skipped a lot of it. The property is massive and actually very beautiful. It felt wrong that as we walked up the gravel road it was a bright sunny day and the birds were singing. Hard to believe that so many terrible things happened right there not that long ago.
The hardest part for me was walking through the crematorium and seeing so many horrific images of the bodies that had been just left in heaps there. It got quite emotional.
The site was kept up really well, and there was plenty of information to be had. Too much for one day, I think. Worth a visit for sure though.
Despite this dark andmorbid history, Munich is really awesome and Brit and I are both loving it! It's a very cool city.

Leaving Italy

Tonight Brit and I hop on a night-train to Munich, from our current city of residence: Venice.
This will be our second experience with trains of these sort, and I can't say I'm too stoked about it, but at least I am prepared this time with ear plugs and flashlight!
Italy has been a great time, especially the 3 days we chilled in Lucca. I've probably eaten more than my fair share of pizza and gelato (surprisingly little pasta, tho), and I've even learned to enjoy a few olives! I didn't think that was possible.
Italy has been a totally different experience from France. For one thing, it is just so much more laid back! Also, there doesn't seem to be nearly as much emphasis on fashion or appearance (I expect it might be different in Milan!) as we found in France, especially Paris. The architecture is much more along the lines of what I'd expect to see in Spain...when the train was pulling in, I was reminded of a peach. The houses are every shade of orange, ranging from reddy-pinks to terra-cotta, to sunny yellows. Window frames and doors are often dark green, and there are a lot of beautiful flowering shrubs everywhere. The plaster on the buildings is usually peeling somewhere to reveal a lot of brick underneath...Brit and I were discussing how weird it is that everything still looks so beautiful while it is so run-down! 
We've had both hot sunny days (I'm getting a tan!) and rainy downpours...sometimes both in one day. Today we were at the beach in Lido (Venice's tiny neighbouring island) and got roasted. It was nice. I'm hoping it keeps up while we're in Germany, but then again, most of my "hot weather clothes" are in dire need of a wash now...there are downsides to light packing! so far though I have been super glad that I took my 30L pack, because its about as much as I can handle! I actually wouldn't change too much of what I packed.

I can't get any pictures up today unfortunately, but maybe once we reach the Czech Republic I can get some decent internet. I don't think we'll have a computer at our place in Munich. Anyhoo, I think we've pretty much reached the halfway point in our trip...hard to believe, but at the same time it seems like we've been on the road for a long time!
I'm taking a ton of pictures, so I hope to do some more in-depth blogging when I get back...if possible. It will happen eventually...I promise :)

Ok, gonna go now.

Impressions of Paris

*Beautiful architecture! SO. BEAUTIFUL.

*Everyone smokes. All the time. In your face.
*People dress so nice! Most women were wearing dresses & heels (or jumpsuits!). Men have perfectly groomed coifs. I felt like a total grub!
*Its dirty. Mars De Champs (park beside Eiffel Tower) has a lawn of cigarette butts. The Metro is littered with little single-use tickets. Garbage on the streets.
*Creperies are not just for tourists! There are way too many...Im pretty sure everyone eats at least one crepe a day. Along with croissants, and baguettes, and other delicious things. How DO they stay so thin??
*Helmets are not mandatory for bicycles. Frightening.
*Intersections hardly ever designed in a simple perpendicular shape. They are more like...I dont even know. Cars come from every which way, and there are no lines, and there are stoplights everywhere. I dont know how they can tell which light to obey!
*The French that have to deal with tourists are day are generally snappy with foreigners, while the regular everyday folks are usually more than happy to chat with you and try and communicate. I had a lot of fun using my (very) limited French vocabulary.
*Its very expensive. My wallet is screaming with pain, and I didnt even splurge on anything!
*Its HOT and HUMID! I did not expect that, but it was a nice surprise, for the most part :)

Next up...I will try and jot down some impressions of Italy, and update you on things we have been doing. Ciao!

Bonjour!

Greetings my dear followers! Today I write to you from Rennes, France. This is pronounced "ren". "there is no 'renness'" as our bus driver told some asian tourists, while making a face. Ha ha! But I have actually met some really nice French people and it is so beautiful here.
There is so much to tell but I am only able to use brit's itouch here since we haven't located an Internet cafe.
So far I have taken over 200 pictures (filled a 1 gb memory card. This doesn't bode well) and seen some really awesome things. I can't wait to share them with you! I am also trying to keep up my journal so that when I get a chance to blog I will have some early impressions to draw from.
Regis is loving it here and gorging himself on fresh figs, and croissants. He insists on his picture being taken from time to time to probe that he is actually here so those will go up at some point as well.
Tomorrow we head to versailles for the day and then hop on our first "night train" to get to Italy! So excited!! Hopefully I will be able to get some quality time with a keyboard there. Just can't seem to adapt to this touch screen. I'm such an old lady.
Well I need to go now but we will chat again soon!

Family Time

I had the awesome privilege of getting a ride down to Vancouver with my Oma and Opa. Since they live in the neighboring province a 10-hour drive away, I don't get to see them all that often. It was very special to spend some time alone with them. I got to pepper them with questions, and learned so much about their lives.
My grandparents moved to Canada from Holland when they were younger than I am now- my Oma was 16, and moved with her family, and my Opa was 19, and came alone. They both ended up in Port Alberni, met at a church gathering, and married 3 years later!
I loved chatting with them and hearing about my heritage, and laughing at personality traits that have obviously been passed down the line ;)

I spent the evening at my Aunt and Uncles' house in Langley, watching the hockey game with my cousins (tense game!), and then spent the night at another Aunt and Uncles' house!! Lots of visiting. Its all good though. I love my family!

I head to the airport pretty soon, and then its a long flight to London! Can't wait to get there!!