Spring Break 2008! - 2nd Destination, the BEAUTIFUL Portugal!

Well after seeing all of the beautiful places in Barcelona i was positive i could never be in another city that could top it. WELL was i ever wrong. Portugal is HANDS DOWN the most beautiful place i have ever seen in my whole life. The magic and zest for life in this country made me want to move there. The trip started out fabulously once we arrived to our award-winning hostel. NO JOKE! haha Our hostel "Lisbon Lounge" is rated as the top hostel in Europe and trust me the ratings do not lie! This quaint and upbeat hostel gave me an idea of what it means to truely live in Portugal. It was a very "familial" environment and everyone had dinner and breakfast together. This hostel definately made my Lisbon, Portugal experience!

Same as the travelling intentions in Barcelona, we did not want to be bogged down with rushing to see the town. So the first day was spent getting settled into our hostel and getting to know everyone. The second day was spent walking around the town of Lisbon, we went to Belime - a beautiful part of Lisbon. There we got to see a magnificent parc and a wonderful castle!

The third day we had reserved for a place in Portugal called "Sintra" this area of portugal is what most locals call the "Dreamland". This place blew my mind, i have never seen such a beautiful place in my entire life. I felt like i was in heaven... the views were remarkable and it cost a mere 3 euros to get there from lisbon by train! In Sintra we visited the Cabo de Rosa - this is a BEAUTIFUL view of the ocean, with cliffs and mountains of green and golden flowers. Simply breath taking. We also scoped out the town and got to see some magnificent castles and buildings. Our last stop of the day was in Azenhas del mer...this was my favorite part of my whole trip. We got there just as the sun was setting and the view was simply magical. Although it was kind of windy and cold i enjoyed it none the less. The land was soooo incredible and i would go back to Portugal just to see it again! Pictures cannot capture how beautiful this place really is ... it is something you must see in person to truely capture it's essence.

Our fourth in Portugal was spent going to a Flea market in central town. This was fabulous, and i found some incredibly cheap and unique jewellery that i could never find anywhere else! In the afternoon we walked around lisbon and took the old fashion "tram". This rickety historic transportation method was an experience in its own. I definately recommend that you go for a ride on one if you are ever in Lisbon! After that we all went to the castle site in Lisbon, and on the way we went to a terrace near by to get the view of Lisbon. Again we got here while the sun was setting, and it was absolutely spectacular! I recommend going to the terrace, however if you are expecting the castle to be spectacular, dont...i found the castle was a rip-off! But still, the view was worth it!

On the last day we were in Portugal, we went to Cascais - this is where the most beauuuutiful beach near Lisbon is situated. Me and some friends enjoyed lazing around in the sun on our last day of vacation. We also walked around Cascais and discovered tons of little shops and restaurants!

Because our hostel offered supper, our last meal in Lisbon was there, if you are ever staying at the Lisbon Lounge - i HIGHLY recommend their meals over ANY restaurant in Lisbon. The portions are huge, you get a full meal, entree and dessert...and an added bonus is that you get UNLIMITED wine!

Looking back on all of my trips so far, Portugal has to be my favorite! The beauty and essence of Sintra was something i will remember for the rest of my life!

Spring Break 2008! - 1st Destination, BARCELONA!!!!

Well I started my spring break with the ever so beautiful Barcelona, Spain. Me and 3 other Canadian friends stayed at a beautiful hostel that was right on the beach! We had a few hot hot hot days, and i managed to get a pretty bad burn. Our hostel also had fabulous organized tours for a mere seven euros.. this included metro and bus passes we would need to get from place to place.




This vacation was more of a relaxing one because we have been traveling soooo much it tends to get tiring and we all decided it would be nice to see some things but because we were there for 5 days we would have some time to just lay on the beach and relax. The food and liquor was cheap in barcelona, and our hostel was within 2 minutes from a grocery store, so it wasn't difficult to get what we needed. Also the stores in Spain had extended hours and was open until 11pm (alot different from the stores here in France!).


The tour we did through our hostel was called the Gaudi Tour. Gaudi was a famous architect in Barcelona, and created some of the most beautiful and well known buildings in Spain, such as Familia Sagrada. I loved every minute of this tour and learned alot about this well known artist. We also walked through the Parc of Guell - which was his most beautiful piece in my opinion. This parc was filled with interesting landscaping and REMARKABLE mosaiic art work. There was a beautiful view of Barcelona once you reached the top, however the beauty is something a camera could never capture. Once you go to the middle section of the parc there are beautiful rows of benches made of mosaiic, its colorful art pieces are something that i could stare at for hours. Gaudi had something special and i enjoyed viewing all of his pieces. i DEFINATELY recommend seeing anything he created in Barcelona.


The days where we were not on the beach or doing a walking tour were mostly spent shopping and taking in the beautiful town of barcelona. I loved the shopping in Barcelona - Spain is where the beautiful store called "Zara" is created, so the clothing i would usually pay tons for was cheap! The transportation in Barcelona, like most European cities, was exceptional and very easy to get from point A to point B. TIP: Make sure you get the 10 use pass for 7 euros, otherwise you will pay 2 euros each time you go on a bus or metro. This way is ALOT cheaper!

I also had the opportunity to go and see the Arc de Triomphe in Barcelona, very different from the one in Paris. I actual thought the Arc in Barcelona was prettier, the stone and detail was very different to the one found in france. I particularly enjoyed the walk to the Arc with the surrounding palm trees, definately worth the trip there if you are in Barcelona!

Me and some friends also went to this HUGE market in Barcelona. The market was lively and filled with tons of colorful fruit and veggies. The atmosphere was like something i have never seen, it was jam packed with people and the vendors were yelling to beat the others with prices. I have never seen such colorful foods as i did in this market....definately outshines our market in Saint John!



Overall, our stay in Barcelona was Exceptional and am so happy i had the opportunity to go there, definately a place i would like to go back to someday!

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam - the town where anything goes and is LEGAL! My trip to amsterdam was awesome. I got to see tons of museums and experience a culture so diverse and competely opposite to the one i am used to. Me and 2 Canadian friends traveled by bus to get to amsterdam which was about 8 hours, but it really went by fast and was only 60 euros there and back! We arrived on a Wednesday evening and decided to start our time in amsterdam with an adventure to the Red Light District. Surprisingly this is actually a nice part of town, and not as dangerous and scary as others made it sound. We found a decent place to grab some food and then we felt pretty worn out, so we headed back to our hostel.

Day 2 we headed out to the Van gogh Museum! This museum was very cool, 10 euros to get it, and i learned ALOT about the artist and his life. The way the museum was layed out was genius and made it fascinating to walk through the life of Van Gogh. After the museum, we decided to go for a walk in the parc and get some cool shots with the infamous "I Amsterdam"sign. You have to get to this one early though folks, the amount of people jumping on this thing was insane! After a little walk in the parc, we decided to get some shopping out of the way, walking the streets looking for tourist nic nacs. Amsterdam is also well known for their BEAUTIFUL canals. So after lunch we decided to go for a canal tour. This was a very interesting boat tour and i learned ALOT by going on it. I learned that Amsterdam has over 2,000bridges! and that people have boat houses all over the canals (2,500 to be exact), and some poeple have to wait up to 8 YEARS to get their spot in a boat house!

All in all this boat cruise is the TOP thing i suggest doing if you are ever planning on going to amsterdam! After a long day we decided to head back to the hostel until a few other friends arrived to meet up with us!

Once our other friends arrived we headed to the "Hard Rock Cafe". The service wasn't that great but the food was awesome! It was nice to have a good meal after a long day of walking! After dinner we decided to walk around town and explore amsterdam at night.... while walking around i saw some hilarious people doing the strangest things!! We finished of the night by visiting one of the infamous "cafes" in amsterdam.





Day 3 - Our last day in Amsterdam was spent power walking the streets to see last minute monuments and museums we hadn't had the chance to see yet. The day included the ever so classy, sex museum (many laughs), the Anne Frank house - which is VERY cool, i highly reccomment this place! And of course no visit to Amsterdam is complete without a visit to the "hemp and hash museum". I had no idea that Amsterdam was filled with such history and wonderful sites! i had an amazing time and would love to go back some day!