picture perfect sunsets.

A Greek sunset!

my stay in greece has been a very unique one.  it has been full of greek gods and goddesses, interactions with the athens police, many, many beads of sweat, fantastic sunsets, tears of happiness, delicious food, familiar faces, and a little bit of lovin' from home. 

at the recommendation of a friend, I only spent one day in athens, which was more then enough. i managed to blitz through all the tourist sites such as the acropolis, the parthenon, panathenaic stadium, and a few other things (no pictures, read on to see why). 

i quickly made friends with people at my hostel my first night there so we went out on the town and happened to stumble upon this international 3x3 bball tournament. it was heaps of fun and the teams were actually pretty good (apparently there were a few nba players there reppin usa). side-note: my phone got stolen while we were at the ball game. i was contacted by the police the next day saying they had found my phone and to come get it. that's the short version of the story, i'm still in shock that i got it back but sad that there are no pictures to share from this part of my journey. 

on to the beautiful island of santorini to see my long time friend, amy, marry her wonderful man, jake. 

the day before the wedding jake and amy treated everyone who traveled to greece for the wedding (there was 22 of us including bride and groom) to a private sailing tour. the tour was a wonderful way to see most of the island from afar. we sailed through an active volcano, swam in some not so hot, hot springs and then had the most wonderful meal on a private beach. we then hopped back onto the boat and sailed into the sunset. santorini is world known for having some of the most beautiful sunsets. saskatchewan may be the "land of living sky's" but they have got nothing on santorini. i have never seen a sunset like the ones here, not even from the top of the eiffel tower. 

i truly believe that you would be hard pressed to find a more beautiful place in this world to get married. the wedding took place at a resort that overlooked the ocean. The day was so relaxed and laid back, so perfect. we spend a few hours sitting by the pool sharing some drinks and then danced the night away, with the sunset as our backdrop. it was a fantastic day. the small and intimate feel to the day was so well suited to jake and amy's style. it was a day full of overwhelming joy and tears of happiness. i don't think i have ever cried so much at a wedding, and i have been to a lot of weddings. 

congrats mr. and mrs. hardy on your beautiful day. what an honor it was to be apart of it. i can't wait to continue walking with you both for many years to come! 

a special thanks to the adamson's for adopting me into your family for the few days we were in santorini. it was a treat to be able to be with such lovely people and to receive a little love from home, it's been a long time. i have been blessed by your family in more ways then you know. thank you!

(please ignore the random order of the pictures, it's a bit tricky and to time consuming to move me around.) 

The wedding ceremony. 

Here comes the bride, and a whole lot of tears. 

The Adamson family. 

Orange city from the sunset.  

Last night in santorini, dinner overlooking the ocean.

Wedding reception 

The port where our sailing tour started. 

Street meat... Gyros, soooo good! 

Sailing tour. 

Vows 

A beautiful church in the heart of Fira city. 

Black sand beach 

3x3 basket ball tourney in Athens. The building on the right is the
original athletes village building of the first ever Olympics. 

Beautiful bride, beautiful sunset!

What a lovely backdrop for a wedding dinner! 

Sailing away. 

The Hardy family. 

Athens 3x3 bball tournament  In Athens 

never-never land.

My traditional Czech dress bought for the pub crawl. I then
proceeded to return it the next day. Should have maybe kept it
for my custom trunk. 

the city of prague is unbelievable. unbelievable in the sense that its hard to believe that it's not an amusement park that you pay your 10 euros at the gate to spend the next 3 or 4 days exploring this make believe, never-never land.  it's hard was for me to wrap my head around the fact that  life actually takes place in this city, people work, live, and carry on as we do back at home.  many times throughout  my visit in prague i half expected to have a film director come out and yell 'cut - that's a wrap', as if we were on a movie set.

my stay in prague started off in a funny way. i had booked a bed in a hostel that was a '16 person mixed dorm room'.  my first night it was just me and 9 guys who were on tour with their heavy metal band.  at first i was slightly intimated by these long haired, massive bearded, tattooed, hard core rockers. but they greeted me with open arms and took me out on the town my first night. i probably looked sooo out of place with my high ponytail and neon tank top, it was still fun none the less. 

my favorite thing to do in prague was to walk around and get lost. the inner core of the city is fairly small so it was typically easy to become found again. every street is tiny and packed full of excellent shopping and authentic czech souvenirs like, crystals (celebrity spencer pratt would have been in his glory), absinthe (that stuff is the devil), marionettes, and traditional dress (see above picture). 

i saw as many of the tourist attractions as one could pack into a 4 day stay. the famous famous coo-coo clock in old town square, the john lennon wall, charles bridge, prague castle and many many more. 

prague was a very frustrating city to try and capture in photos.  you are completely surrounded on all sides, with buildings that are so full of character and amazing architecture that a picture of one building does absolutely nothing to give you a feel for what this place is like.  i tried my best to bring you along to this fair tale land through my pictures but have come to the conclusion that it's impossible. to really know what this city is like you must come visit it yourself. 

that's enough for now. off to athens to get a little more friendly with the greek gods. anthen to santorini to see my dear friends, jake and amy, tie the knot!

cheers,

canada (my new nickname from my friends in prague.) 

An average looking street in Prague. Beautiful!

A rather nice view. 

John Lennon Wall. In the 1980's young people graffitied this wall with

art inspired by John Lennon and the Beatles songs. Most msgs were

greivences do to the Husak's communist regime that took place in

1988. The art became a source of contention, authorities on many occasions

tried to cover the wall and ban all art on it but the students continued in

thier ways. The movement that they followed is often referred to as 

'Lennonism'. The wall is still a source of angst in the community as it is

still fairly recent history. When I was at the wall an older gentleman 

came up to us and was yelling about the communist party and how they ruined 

the country. The wall itself is a constantly changing masterpiece as 

people, myself included come to leave their make on it. 

Can you see where I left my mark? It's like an 'I Spy' game!

Rumor has it that if you touch this statue you will be lucky in love 

This is the last standing theatre in the world  in which Mozart himself conducted in.
It  is said that this was actually one of Mozarts favorite places to preform as it
has perfect acoustics.

Traditional Czech street meat and deep fried cheese, can you say 'heart attack?'. 

Castle. 

Old Town Square. The building on the far left is a giant 'coo-coo-clock'.
every hour, on the hour a trumpeter plays along with some bells and
a bunch of small statues up top spin. Just before the clock goes off,
you will find hundreds of tourists waiting to see the clock do its thing.
Once it's done everyone just carries on their way. The clock was
recently rated europes number one most overrated tourist attraction.
I personally would save that title for the Mona Lisa, but to each there
own I suppose.

The same castle from the pervious 'castle'  picture. 

The famous Charles Bridge  

beer, banjos, and brilliant accents.

warning: the following post may lead you to believe that my lifestyle has become that of a booze hound. i promise that this is not the case. i'm just trying to embrace the culture of each place i visit.  irish culture is full of beer, banjos, and brilliant accents. 

because of the traveling that i have been lucky enough to do i have made friends from all over the world. ireland was my next destination to pay a visit to my wee irish friend, ange.

to kick off my stay in this lush land, ange and her boyfriend treated me to a proper irish experience, tickets to a semi-final hurling match. before attending the game i had no idea what the sport of hurling was but i have always been a fan of all sporting events so i jumped at the chance to go. after a quick run down of the sport i caught on fairly quickly.  i only made the mistake of cheering for the wrong team once, it was the silence and the awkward looks from my irish friends that let me know that i was in the wrong.  it has been on my bucket list to experience a soccer match in the uk, as i have heard that the environment at the games is unlike anything else. though it wasn't a soccer match, i'm sure the 80 000 screaming fans that were at the hurling game gave me an experience that would be a close second. 

my girlfriend, katie, flew over from new brunswick to tour the country with me. we rented a car and drove the entire west coast of this amazing land. the majority of our time was spent overlooking the atlantic ocean from the many beautiful beaches and cliffs. on our down time from zipping around the country listening to the band mumford and sons (their song 'I will wait' quickly became our trip theme song. scroll down to find link to listen to the song) we could commonly be found in a small cafe journaling or drinking beer at one of the local pubs with all the friendly old irish men. 

on many occasions i found myself standing in the middle of endless fields of green grass, speechless from the sites that surrounded me. ireland was exactly what i had expected, a chilly, slightly rainy paradise! 

while exploring the sights of ireland, time and time again katie and i found ourselves being reminded of the scenery back home.   the endless rolling hills - alberta. lush, magical rain forrest - british columbia. tiny little fisherman villages that ooze of a very unique culture - nova scotia. the longer i am away and the more of the world i get to explore the more i realize the beauty that we call home. 

i suppose that these blog posts are supposed to be filled with exciting pictures of far off lands that cause  readers to long to escape to these places. however, i will have you know that when i reflect on the places that i have been privileged to visit, as far as beauty and diversity goes, there aren't many countries that would take canada's place. every time i leave on a trip and then return back home, all it takes is a trip to banff for me to think to myself, 'man, canada's still got it!'. 

i have seen many, many amazing places in the last month and a half. however, it makes me proud, and still excites me that at the end of my trip i get to return to a place that is just as stunning as the place i'm leaving.   sometimes it just takes leaving the nest for a short while to fully appreciate our home and native land. 

love from one beautiful place to another,

lauradanielle.  

Tiny country highways. If you can confidently drive these highways
I am certain you can drive almost anywhere! These roads are made
for two-way traffic, and gutsy/crazy cyclers and runners. To top it
off, the speed limit is usually 100km. Needless to say we had a number
of heart stopping swerves while on our journey.

Doing my best at keeping a straight face while doing what
the Irish do. Failure! I hate Guinness! 

Much happier! Bulmers- an Irish cider, much more tasty then
Guinness!

My beautiful friends, Ange and Katie. 

Silly self-photos. 

Dingle, Ireland. A typical, perfect little Irish town. They are just as
lovely as I imagined them to be. Side note: there are 3 pubs
in this picture. It's true, they really are everywhere! 

After a hundred roundabouts (traffic circles), I have mastered
left-hand drive! 

West coast, Ring of  Kerry. 

Cliffs of Moher

Temple Bar. A trendy area in Dublin filled with great night life, and
as you can see, tacky tourists. 

I'm certain that this is some sort of Irish motto. 

My first hurling match, a proper Irish expereience. My eyes were
popping out of my head when I walked into the stadium of over
80 000 rowdy Irish fans. I loved every second of it!

Cliffs of  Moher: an overwhelmingly beautiful site to see - if
you can live to tell of it. It was extremely windy. You had to crawl to
the edge so you didn't get blown off. 

Mumford and sons -  I will wait: 
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0kS8RTRi7HA

the city of lights.

                                    

my stay in paris, initially, wasn't what i had expected.  i had heard such marvelous reviews about the city that i originally thought paris would win my heart my first step off the plane and that i would never want to leave.  this wasn't the case,  in fact, my reaction was the complete opposite. 

however, on the second day of my stay i took a trip inside the louvre, this is when paris started to redeem itself for me.  of course the art inside is incredibly stunning but what really did it for me was the inside of the building itself.  it is massive and is decorated in such a way that left me awestruck. then a visit to the eiffle tower, where I climbed all 1334 steps, yes I counted, it kept me from looking down and having a panic attack. i managed to arrive at the top just in time for the sunset. it was a sunset i will never forget.  it was by far my favorite moment i have had thus far on my trip. 

my trip to the palace of versailles was a bit of a nutty time as i swear every tourist in france was there at the same time. never the less, the palace and their gardens are rich with history and beauty.  i'm glad that i paid them a vist even though at times it felt like a cattle drive getting from room to room inside. 

lastly, i will share with you my greatest accomplishment while in paris. i successfully have made it an entire 4 days in this city without being pick-pocketed! that's not to say that they didn't try.  i don't think i have ever been so poked and prodded in my entire life.  after a few verbal altercations with scammers, a nice lady pulled me aside who spoke english and informed me of all the the different ways and methods they will try to scam tourists. her last piece of advice was to 'ditch the backpack, get a bag that you can carry in front of you.  carrying a backpack is just asking the sneaky mother f****** to rummaged through your stuff.'  needless to say my mission to find a side-bag was back on (see pervious post 'becoming european').

much love from 'the city of lights',
lo. 

The Louvre.   

  

A giant crowd and mass amounts of security can only mean
one thing....

                
                               The Mona Lisa.

             

                'Lovers Bridge'. Love birds from all over the world come and
buy a pad lock, write their names on it, lock
it to this bridge,  throw the key into the river, and then
have a hot and heavy make out session while everyone
watches them. Cute. 

Paris from the top of the Eiffle Tower. 

Gardens of Versailles 

The Palace of Versailles   

Gold gates of Versailles 

Crepes - so delicious!  

 

Because I'm on my own and not able to process things
verbal,  journaling (with a fabulous view) has
quickly become my favorite pass time.