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.

I want to go home NOW. If I didn't have a super cheap ticket that doesn't let you make any changes at all I'd be on the phone changing it. Well maybe not right now because it's almost 1am but you get the idea.

I want desperately to be at home right now. Well actually I want to be parents' home. In the spare room bed, eating mom food (chicken soup would be good right now) and ice cream and gorging on all the season finales I missed. Then I want to see my best friend and eat more ice cream and chocolate while I tell her that she was right. And then I'd like to go to work and make money for a change. Then I want to decompress and try and separate the good memories of this trip from the bad ones.

I missed the Orsay. The one museum I really wanted to see. I won't get into why because not everyone needs to know. I'm hoping Brussels will be better but I doubt it. London should be some improvement at least. At the very least it'll be almost over then.

It's terrible that it's come to this.

Out of Africa

So now that I'm on a keyboard that isn't Arabic (most confusing ones to use yet) I'm going to attempt to put into words my experience in Morocco.

I was really nervous on the ferry trip over because I had no idea what to expect. I'd gotten some very mixed reviews from people about my going there. Some said it was a great place to visit others said they thought it wasn't safe and even my book had mixed reviews about it. I chatted with an elderly Moroccan woman on the boat over. She was very helpful. Anyway, we got into Tangier and I took a taxi to the train station. There was another backpacker there and we were instant friends. His name was Jamie and we went for coffee down the street to pass the time before our night train to Marrakesh. It was funny because the cafe owner carried on a thirty minute conversation with him as though I weren't even there. That was my first taste of how different attitudes are there. When we got to the train station we met some more backpackers and I ended up spending most of my time in Marrakesh with them. I think there, much more than in Europe, there is a tendency for Western travellers to congregate, because it is so foreign.

Waking up in Marrakesh was like waking up in another world. Definitely does not look like Europe. We quickly found hotels (for 5 euro a night yay) and set off to see the city. We wandered through the souks (little shops all lined up together) and even went into a carpet shop. That was a pretty cool experience because they make you mint tea and do a whole song and dance for you. We only went in because Jen wanted a carpet. Once your inside it's difficult to leave without a purchase. We discovered quickly that window shopping is not possible because as soon as you look at something too long, or touch it, they're right on you, determined to make a sale. So we were careful about how long we glanced at things since most people just wanted to check things out the first day. Later on that night we hit the square, called Djemaa Fna, which is what Marrakesh is famous for. It doesn't look like much during the day but at night it fills with food stalls and performers and all kinds of things. Both Jen and I ended up getting henna. The food stalls are interesting because they all call out to you as you walk through, trying to get you to eat there. It must be difficult because everyone is selling mostly the same thing. After dinner we had a feast of watermelon on the terrace of one of the hotels.

The next day I got very very lost with Mike, trying to find the palaces. At first it was a good kind of lost but then it started to get kind of sketchy with people on bicycles following us. You have to always remember that nothing comes for free in Marrakesh. After a few hours we managed to figure out where we were and get back to the square. It was interesting though because we saw parts of Marrakesh where tourists don't usually venture.

I relaxed most of the third day then said goodbye to Jen, Neil, Jose and Dave. Mike and Jamie had already left for Essaoira. It worked out well because they let me use their hotel room that night (much nicer than mine) since they'd paid for it but were taking the night train back to Tangier. I met Shannon there and he and I spent the following day looking for, and eventually finding the palaces.

After Marrakesh I went to Casablanca, spent a night there because there wasn't much to see and then went to Rabat. Rabat was cool. I sat on the beach for awhile and enjoyed the atmosphere.

I'm really glad I decided to go. I'm also glad I found people to hang out with because I think I enjoyed myself a lot more that way. For one, I'd been missing being around people. It was cool being someplace so different from what I'm used to. I hope to go back one day and see more of the country. A week was definitely not enough.

I am in Africa. That is all for now.