Until next time...

Well, I am home, the laundry is done and I am dreaming about my next vacation.... the list is endless!

Thanks for travelling with me and enjoy the rest of your summer.

Chow,

Tracy xoxo

Camera Overboard...

Well, on our first morning out as we were switching boats (more on that later) my camera fell out of my pocket and sunk... Martin retrieved it and as I type it is sitting in a mason jar of rice. When I came in for lunch with a camera full of water the staff looked at me and said "oh, we will get the jar of rice that we have for cameras overboard..." apparently rice sucks all the moisture out of it. I have a strong feeling these will be last pictures taken with it! Thankfully my memory card was okay - it has all my trip pictures on it....

So here is the beauty of Tadenac in all it's glory. This picture is taken from the front porch. The sun sets here and it is just magnificent. This is also the view we have while having a few drinks before dinner. Hard on the eyes, I know.....

Martin and Kim. Kim and I met 17 years ago at Acadia University. They were married 10 years ago and I met Martin the night before the wedding - I knew he was a great catch from the minute I sat next to him on the eve of the wedding to have dinner! They are beautiful people.

Kimmy D and Tracy modeling their polarized glasses. Martin bought Kim new 'fashion' fishing glasses this year so I got the Orkel leftovers! They did not really help us find fish though... disappointing!

After our hugh breakfast we get geared up and set off in our little boats! Martin is such a gentleman, he 'ferried' us around all day! That is the boathouse in the background and Kim and I requested a mirror in there for next year! Hence the picture above because we wanted to know how we looked in our glasses :)

We decided to fish in Tadenac Lake versus the bay and you have to switch boats at this point because the fishing club does not want barnacles etc in the lake and this is how they are controlling it. You are also not allowed to fish with worms in the lake so this is why I am claiming I did not catch anything yesterday... Kim however, caught a lovely 3lb, 22" small mouth bass - if only I had my camera to take a picture.... the dock on the other side of this one is where it dropped out...

It is so beautiful and relaxing here. Just an absolutely wonderful way to end my vacation with great friends, good food and mother nature!

Farm Life

Once the family finally got up (meanwhile they were on shut down thinking I was sleeping) the kids proudly showed me their playhouse that they painted yesterday all on their own! 

As the day rolled along Luke gathered wood for a fire (it was pouring rain during this activity).

And Sarah was catching frogs at the pond in the back yard!

Oh, it is so nice to relax and hang out with friends. Tomorrow the adults are off fishing for three days. Now this fishing is like no other. I cannot tell you where we are going, according to Martin it is one of the world's biggest secrets. Picture this: waking up in the morning, going for a quick swim and coming back to the smell of freshly brewed coffee on the ledge outside your room. As you are getting dressed the smell of sizzling bacon wafts through your room and once dressed you are called to breakfast by the chef. While you are eating your bed is being made and your boat and fishing rod is being prepared. Now, I like to fish with worms so I always request a fresh worm box as I have better luck worming!!! You also get a little cooler of drinks of your choice.

Once the fishing location of the morning has been established the chef is forewarned so that the picnic lunch can be delivered. After a hard morning of fishing there is nothing more delightful than still warm chocolate chip cookies! 

At the end of the day the dock boy literally helps you out of your boat so you can retire to your room for a rest if need be or you go for another swim to clean away the evils of the day.... Everyone (the same group of 6 go every year and typically invite 2 others - I am one of the invitees this year - lucky girl) gathers on the front porch for drinks and hors' dorves before being called to a gourmet dinner. Now, this is where the antics with this group begins. A little history lesson here - this fishing club has been going since the late 1800's and for over four generations. It was started by lawyers with a houseboat who thought the area was beautiful (10, 000 acres). It now has 36 members and the 'cottage' can sleep 10. Each member signs up for a max. of three days a year. There are 'club rules' one of which is; the men wear suit jackets and ties for dinner. How long or how much bribery do you think it takes for the senior member in attendance to allow the jackets to be removed? 

The dinner is typically four courses each brought to you by the ring of the bell - Kimmy D usually has the honours of ringing the bell. After dinner coffee, mints and copious amounts of port is consumed. At this point in the evening some retire to their rooms, others skinny dip and some play cards! Ahhh it all starts over again the next day!

Next post - Tadenac!

Hello Ontario

I left Rome yesterday on the express train to the airport. So stress free and easy. Airports are like airports are; lots of waiting around, stale air and bad food but after almost 24 hours I arrived to the peace and beauty of Kim and Martin's 'farm'. I have been awake since 5am, it is raining out and no one is up so I will catch up later with a picture of the family - I cannot wait to see them!

Chow from Rome!

Well, it has been a great 4 days here. Tomorrow I am off to Ontario to spend some time with great friends - Kimmy D and Martin. I am going from the booming metropolis of Rome to the peacefulness of fishing... Ahhhhhh it is going to be fab!

Here are a few pics to end this part of my journey!

A gorgeous Italian princess waiting patiently at 9:30pm to get a table for dinner!

The pizza looked so good I started eating before I remembered to take a pic! I have eaten pizza and pasta everyday since I have been here! I rotate between which one is for lunch and dinner and I always order a different variety :) One day I had pizza for both lunch and dinner.

I hope they weren't counting on their bikes to get them home! On my way back to the hostel is a scooter parking lot and it seems as though these four had a little fire action!

Lastly, I ate gelato at least once everyday and sometimes twice! This is Rome's oldest gelato place.

Chow,

Tracy

Vatican City

So today was my most anticipated day of the trip. I was really looking forward to going to Vatican City. I had done my homework and decided rather than wait for approx. 2 hours to get in I would book a tour. There are several tour companies but what I discovered was a tour company who meets you in a designated area outside of the Vatican and then we all go in as a tour group at which point our 'guide' sets us free! Perfect. I am always leery about guided tours, in my experience you either get a guide who is so annoying you want to shoot yourself or the others in the tour make you want to shoot yourself. This was the perfect alternative. Go in as a group, skip the line and then be set free to 'tour' as I pleased!

I (and thousands of others) started at the Vatican Museum and wound my way through the various exhibits. It is a great lead up to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel; the Pope's personal chapel..... Which is absolutely breathtaking. I was awestruck to think he painted the entire ceiling while standing. My neck was killing me after listening to my 27 minute podcast describing all that was going on. Beautiful.

Now this is where I digress; I have been in Italy for just over 6 days and in the rammed packed space of the Sistine Chapel I almost barfed with the smell of body odor. I noticed it pretty soon after getting to Italy but today it was the worst I have ever smelled it. You know, I have done loads of travelling and you would think that in India I would have almost drop from the smell but oh no, Italy has been by far the smellist. How did I deal with it? I got a fresh piece of gum and slightly chewed it then rubbed it under my nose - peppermint much better than sweat... Off we go to St. Peter's Basilica!

St. Peter's is HUGH. Wow wow wow! My 'tour' aka Rick Steves' podcast was 50 minutes long. It was very crowded and I was thankful there was a prayer room to go and be in peace. Otherwise it would have felt like a museum rather than a spiritual place. Michelangelo out did himself again in the dome of the church. For some reason I am really enjoying domes and ceiling on this trip and I have not been disappointed!

After emerging I was able to see what the Basilica looks like from the outside.

Caesar Shuffle-Part III

The final leg of the Caesar Shuffle for me was the Pantheon. Before I checked it out in all it's glory I bought some cheese and crackers from a market and ate lunch in a piazza with wild cats, homeless men and loads of tourists. To kick my ass back into gear I had a coffee at the institution of Eustachio il Cafe. It was simply amazing to watch the locals pay for their order, give their receipt to the barista, wait for the expresso to be made and then literally drink it in two gulps. I digress... it was a great experience and a much needed jolt.

The Pantheon is beautiful, a little magical actually.

Wrong picture - and sideways! These columns are one piece of granite shipped from Egypt!

The dome is 142 feet high and wide and has been recently cleaned. It is beautiful and this picture does not do it justice...

This ends the Caesar Shuffle!

Caesar Shuffle-Part II

After the Colosseum I checked out Palatine Hill. This used to be 'the huts of Romulus and Remus' but now all that is left are scant remains.

Palatine Hill leads to the Roman Forum which is ancient Rome's birthplace and civic center. I thought it was rather dichotomous that a modern art exhibition is also taking place throughout the Forum!

Just about anything important that happened in ancient Rome happened here.

Caesar Shuffle-Part I

It was a crazy full day and I was awe struck for most of it! I started the day by taking the metro to the Colosseum. What a structure. Architecturally beautiful. I cannot say so much for what happened within the walls of the building...

The actual floor of the Colosseum is no longer there so what you are seeing below is the network of tunnels etc. that were necessary for the gladiator contests and public spectacles.

No, I am not listening to music in the Colosseum! I am listening to my Rick Steves' audio tour podcast about the site - I am becoming more of a techy geek than I ever thought!!!

This is the Arch of Constantine taken from the Colosseum. Emperor Constantine defeated Maxentius here in A.D. 312 and Christianity became mainstream.

Roma

I arrived yesterday afternoon into the frenzied Roma Termini. My hostel is one block away from the station so it was pretty convenient. I am staying at The Beehive and this time I am in a room with four sets of bunks. After I checked in I dropped my bags and headed out to the Spanish Steps. I knew I was going in the right direction when I spotted the obelisk:

Basically, these steps are between two Baroque church towers and they make for one of Rome's most iconic sights. Shoppers hang out here after they have drained their wallets and contemplate whether they could actually afford what they just purchased and others (like myself) hang out and watch the people that have dropped too much money!

After a serious people watching session and some window shopping in the Spanish Steps area I had a delicious pizza at La Gallina Bianca.

Four cheese pizza - oh so good and those mounds you can see are hunks of blue cheese. I am enjoying the foods of Italy!!!

The Five Village Hike

Monterosso is village number 5. It took me just over an hour to get to Vernazza village.

Vernazza is village number 4:

It took me another hour to get to village number 3; Corniglia:

Manarola is village number two and from Corniglia to here it took 45 minutes and 382 steps switch backing up hill!:

The first village is Riamaggiore and to get here it took 20 minutes.

My calves are screaming at me but it was a beautiful hike! There were not many people on the trail and the plants along the way were beautiful.... I ended the day with another great swim and dinner at the hostel as my legs would not take me back down the hill for dinner!

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre is absolutely beautiful. It is five traffic free villages on the Italian Riviera. There is lots of sun, sand (rocks), wine and pure unadulterated Italy! Ahhhhh... I am staying in the second town named Manarola but I headed to the fifth town; Monterossa for my first full day here. The "bar" above is what I thought Italy would look like - I have not been disappointed!



After checking out the village of Monterossa I spent the afternoon at the beach. It was really relaxing minus the Italian kids whining at their mother and then an old Italian lady yelling at the kid for whining and then yelling at the mother for letting her child yell at her! Of course, this was all in Italian but let me tell you, it was pretty obvious what was happening!

Manarola is really pretty! I am staying at Ostello 5-Terre in a room with three sets of bunkbeds! It is super clean and the staff are wonderful. You get locked out from 10-5 so it gives lots of opportunity to check out the villages and go swimming:

I hung out to the right of the yellow umbrella. Under that umbrella is a little kid sleeping - yes, on the rocks! Ever since I saw Mama Mia and they were jumping off the rocks into the ocean I have wanted to do it. Well, I did it in fine style and it was so refreshing! To make it purely authentic I guess I have to go to Greece :)

I ended my day with a gorgeous meal at Dal Billy. A speciality there is black pasta so I decided to give it a go and it was sooooooo good. Incredible meal and Billy is just delightful. He has run the restaurant for 25 years and last year he sold it to his son and another dude who told me it was a shame I was staying in a hostel where the curfew was 1am....

Tomorrow I am doing a 11mile hike between the five towns!

Pisa

I arrived in Pisa and hopped on the local bus and went to the Stazione (Train Station) to store my bag while I checked out the town and the infamous leaning tower.

Pisa is quite lovely, loads of tourists, but a nice town to amble through on route to the tower.

It really is leaning! I was shocked that it had this much of a lean - 15 feet off the vertical axis or a 5 degree angle! Finally, I got to see it. I don't know why but this is a landmark I have wanted to see for quite some time now.

Before I hoped on the train I had my first Italian meal; pasta! I am in heaven, pasta, focaccia and pesto. Really, what more could a girl ask for???

Off to Cinque Terre!!!!

RYANAIR

I left London yesterday and flew to Pisa with Ryanair. This is a budget airline that I read and heard about when researching this trip. I saw prices such as 2pounds from London to Venice and I was skeptical but then I found London to Pisa for 28pounds during peak season! I thought this was a bargain so I booked and discovered if I wanted to check a piece of luggage it was an additional 15 pounds. Still not bad considering it is a 2 hour flight. All over the website it screams about your carry on not being more than 10 kilos and the checked baggage not more than 15 kilos. All seemed reasonable! Well, at Vancouver when I checked my bag is was 17.9 kilos....

After buying a few pair of shoes plus a few other things I knew I was in weight trouble. I started to rationalize that maybe I could sweet talk the check in person since I am a lighweight that maybe I could be a few kilos over with my luggage. Well... when I arrived at the airport there were people everywhere with their luggage open and re-arranging between bags... on top of that there were weigh scales every 10 feet that you paid 50 cents to weigh your bag. At this point I knew I was shit out of luck with the sweet talking...

My carry on bag weighed a ton so I was hopeful I had put enough in it. The conversation went like this:

Ryanair dude: Good morning Ms. Brown
Tracy: Good morning.
R: It seems as though your bag is 1.2 kilos over weight
T: Really? I thought I had paired it down enough...
R: Oh, your birthplace is St. John's. That is in NB right?
T: (should I lie or correct him?) No, Saint John is NB, St. John's is in NL. My sister lives in NB though, have you ever been there?
R: Yes, I have when I was 15 (very long pause where I smile sweetly). Okay Tracy I will let your overweight problem go.
T: Thank you so much!!
At this point though I was fearful of what I might have to pay for on the flight; bathroom...

I was pleasantly surprised! Ryanair knows how to do budget; when you get to the waiting lounge there is a line for people who priority booked and then there is a line for the rest of us who did not pay to go on first as there are no assigned seats. I was at the back of the line and managed to get the second row - pays to travel single at times :) and then when you get on board there are only 3 flight attendants for a massive plane! I have been known to complain about weight profiling (skinny person gets next to the largest person on the plane and the arm rests needs to be up for both of us to fit). Well, Ryanair has dealt with this problem for me; the armrests don't go up. End of problem. Also, the seats don't go back, there is not seat pocket hence the safety instructions on the seat in front of you (would not want to waste paper) and there is only one washroom for the entire flight! It was quick and dirty all for the grand price of 43pounds. Ryanair can teach the Canadian air industry a few tips!!!

Roehampton University

So, I rationalize this trip by presenting my research at a conference at Roehampton University; Child and Adolescent Psychopathology Conference. Really, it is all about visiting Wade in London and checking out this amazing city!!! And by checking out I mean; I took public transport to the conference and on my way home I met up with Alek but.... there was a really cute guy wearing a blue stripy shirt on the tube. I had to get off... to meet Alek and when we got back on the tube - there he was Mr. Stripy in all his cuteness! He had a lovely scruff, open collared shirt, black 'trousers' and the most lovely butt!! Can you believe it? Seeing a cute boy twice on the tube in London? I couldn't help but wonder what this was all about? Then... Alek told me that in Venezuela when you bump into a random stranger three times it is essential that you sleep with them! Whew, thank God I only saw him twice :)... or should I have gone on the tube for the third time looking for him?!! Alek and I had a full conversation about what was so hot about him - Alek liked his beefy lips and manly 'posh' hands, I quite enjoyed his boxer brief lines on his athletic thighs! I digress.... yummy!

Really, this city is amazing, actually I love big cities and this one is no exception! However, it does remind me of when I was living in Toronto and commuting and now how grateful I am to live a 20 minute walk from work! Having said that, my destiny is to live and work in a thriving metropolis such as London or Mumbai, which includes riding transport with cute boys :) Oh did I forget to mention there are many brown boys in London that made me smile sweetly

Greenwich Park

Well I did not fall asleep in my drink but I slept in until noon and kept dreaming someone was breaking into my apartment!! We got our butts out of bed and spent the afternoon in Greenwich Park. It is lovely there, not quite Stanley Park but beautiful just the same! The building behind Wade is exactly where the Greenwich Time Line goes through "Greenwich Mean Time."

The gardens are beautiful and right after this shot I found myself upside down and being swung around - dancing with the stars style - it seems as though my gay boys love to put me over their head!

We ended the day with a bbq and a fierce game of rummy where I got my ass whooped. I won the first time I ever played the night before - beginners luck.

Here I am with oh so sweet Alek xoxo

Off to the conference tomorrow..

London Baby!!

I am here safe and sound lying on a bear skin rug in my darling Wade's Victorian terrace house which was built in the 1800's - how english!!! Getting here was speedy on the Heathrow Express and I was picked up at Paddington Station to start my London journey.

The first order of business was lunch and a glass of wine at Sofra, a Turkish restaurant in a small pedestrian only Piazza. My head was spinning the entire lunch but the cutest was when I noticed a boy/girl couple; boy in fuschia jumper (AKA sweater) and girl in red heels with long blonde hair and they were holding hands and the free hands had their scooter helmets - hers was pink, so cute!!!! Next was the little boy who was taken out of the restaurant mid meltdown and his Mom let him but his full body in the water fountain. This is going to be a great four days!!

After lunch we did a little shopping and I bought my first pair of red shoes ever in my life. Of course, I would not have even looked at them and Wade holds them up and says "you have to try these." Oh so fun!! We twacked about and ended our day with my most favorite kind of shopping - grocery shopping. I almost damned near died when I saw the prices..... I was shocked and stunned as we worked our way through the aisles, I could not believe my eyes and the calculator in my brain was going crazy! At one point I was starting to get angry because it was sooooo cheap! Even with the exchange rate. We had three large hand baskets spilling over with loads of cheese, meat, fresh produce, baked bread, three boxes of cereal and champagne, organic gin, and designer beer all for the grand price of 75 pounds. In my calculations from brand to brand it would have been $250cdn!!! Why, how can this be? It was a fun shop none the less!

We are now having a drink, Wade is lounging on his pony skin corbusier chaise drinking his organic gin on ice and I am ready to do a faceplant in my vodka cran from sleep depreviation!

I cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings. xoxo

The First Difference

My bag is twice as big! I went to India for 6 weeks with a 40l pack and I am going this time for under 3 weeks with an 80l pack! My first 'suitcase' with wheels!!! I am taking more than twice as much clothes and shoes, I even have jewelry packed plus my new laptop. This really is a different trip. I am excited and off in about 20 minutes to the airport with one stop to pick up contacts. My next post will be from London where I am staying with my friend Wade!!!!