I'm more or less done with this blog. If you want to know about the goings on of my life and such on this continent, forward yourselves to

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Reader's Digest Version

Countries Visited: 10.5: Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Vatican City (that's the .5), France, Spain, Morocco, Belgium and England

Cities Visited: Zurich, Luzern, Basel, Bern, Geneva, Munich, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Paris, Madrid, Marrakesh, Casablanca, Tangiers, Brussels, Bruges, London

Favorite Cities: Florence and Marrakesh

Least Favorite Cities: Berlin, Venice

Favorite Experiences: The Uffizi, Morocco

Least Favorite Experiences: Being sick in Berlin and depressed in Paris

Pictures Taken: 2700

Okay, now that I am back on Canadian soil, on my own computer (oh Angus, I have missed you) I will try and write a better update on the last week.



Brussels was actually very nice. Probably even nicer than I give it credit for since it did, for awhile anyway, manage to distract me from my miserable mood. It's a quaint city, small enough to walk around easily but with enough to see that you don't get bored in an hour. The Grand Place is absolutely beautiful. One of my favorite squares I think and I sure have seen a lot of them. The buildings are gorgeous and it just has an... essence about it. Hard to describe, impossible to capture.

I took the Eurostar to London, which is ridiculously expensive and highly overrated. Despite their attempts to make it seem plane like (in irritating procedure at least) it is still, just another train.


London was fantastic, which surprised me. I wasn't fond of it the first time around, I think because we rushed through everything so fast. Anyway, given that I was still feeling down and really wanting home more than anything else, I figured London would be more of an exercise in passing the time than anything else but it wasn't.

It got off to a good start when I came out of the tube station at Trafalgar Square and saw maple leaf balloons and all sorts of red and white. Turns out it was Canada Day in London, a day early because the square was occupied on the 1st. So I listened to some obscure Canadian bands and got a fake maple leaf tattoo, and enjoyed feeling a little closer to home.

I hung out with a bunch of Aussie expats all weekend, which was good fun. Watched some of the pride parade and observed the reactions of English soccer fans to the loss to Portugal. The country went into mourning I think. On my last day we went to Wimbledon to watch tennis but there was none on so we had a picnic in Hyde Park and a barbecue on the roof later than involved a bath tub and some creative water pipe making. It was a much better end to my trip than I thought I'd have, which I appreciated.

What I liked about London was that I saw it as a person living there, not as a tourist and I discovered that I like it better as a resident. I could see myself living there for a while maybe one day.


The flight home was interesting. Or at least, getting on the plane was. Boarding was delayed until the actual departure time because of a temperature problem and then there were some other issues after we'd boarded. By the time those were sorted, the thing that pushes the plane back from the gate had gone to help another plane and we had to wait for a new one. Needless to say, my flight was quite late.

Arriving back in Vancouver was great though. It was such a wonderful feeling to see Martin standing there, sorry to the rest of you, he's just taller.

Anyway, I'm glad I went and I'm glad to be back. Pretty soon I'll have a reader's digest version of the trip and some more pictures.

Love you all.

If you happen to be checking this blog, you know that I haven't been in the cheeriest of humors the past week. I am happy to report that that has improved somewhat and I won't be a total grouch in 11ish hours when I land in Vancouver.

I have to admit, I'm glad it's over. I'm not sad at all to be going home. This trip has been more of a trial in many ways than I anticipated and it has drained me. There are a lot of reasons for this, some internal, some external but I have learned lessons I didn't necessarily need to learn. But meh, I'll do a full on post morten when it's really post mortem.

Right now I'm at London Heathrow, paying a ridiculous fee for Internet but I thought one last post from Europe was in order. Brussels was definitely a two day city. I really only spent one day seeing it and feel like I more or less saw what I wanted. So on my last day I went to Bruges and walked around there. It's beautiful. Really I went because I had an extra rail day.

London was great actually, because the people I hung out with were awesome. All a bunch of Aussies and South Americans living in London. So I saw London more as an expat than as a tourist. I didn't much like it as a tourist the first time around so that was a welcome change. I went to the Canada Day stuff and also watched some of the Europride Parade. Yesterday we went to Wimbledon but there was no tennis so we sat in the park and later on had a barbecue. I spent my last night in London walking on the back of an Australian. Weird huh? I'll post more when I get home.

Yay home.