Friday, July 31, 2009

Day 7!

As you may recall I have always been talking about trying to lose weight and how I was going to try and be really good about exercise and all that good stuff and guess what, for once I actually am making some progress..or so it seems! My eating habits aren't exactly the greatest HOWEVER I've been doing pretty friggen awesome with the whole exercise thing! 7 out of 8 days I've done something active! I'm really proud of that because usually I can't be bothered to do 4 out of 5 days worth of exercise and here I am on day 7!! My biggest accomplishment since I've been home is a 26km bike ride on Wednesday! Now considering that I had been away from home for a month eating food that was sooooo good, but not actually good for me, and considering that I hadn't gotten any amount of real exercise in a while, 26km is pretty amazing! Mind you I about collapsed from the heat afterwards but that's not really the important bit. All I have to do is keep it up and I'll reach my goals in no time!! And yes the whole purpose of this blog is to brag :D cuz I'm proud of myself haha!

Cheers!
Holly

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Back to It

Sadly all the fun is over now, I've been home a week and I'm back to work already which was interesting on the first day! Turns out I had forgotten all the produce codes completely (which was actually a very satisfying feeling...) but once I saw them again I managed to remember a vast majority...damn. But apart from work life is good, though I do seem to get tired very quickly still, maybe the jet lag hasn't completely worn off yet. Then again, I have been out and about a lot this past week so that could have something to do with it.

I've been out for two really good bike rides with Yasmin this week, once out to Mattick's Farm on the Galloping Goose and once out to the hospital also on the goose but in the opposite direction. I was meaning to go for a hike this morning but I decided that maybe I just needed a restful morning! But I'm rather happy with myself for being able to get right back into being active because I got pretty lazy toward the end of my trip haha! But this year is my year for getting really active and I'm actually excited for it! I'll be joining the swing dancing club at uni and also an intramural soccer team most likely and then I'll also have a gym pass for the school gym so that will be good! Lots of opportunity to get fit! Now if only sweets weren't so appetizing....

School this year should be good, I'm feeling really excited for it. Money is a bit of an issue at the moment but considering that I just got back from a crazy, month long, whirlwind trip, it seems logical that funds will be a bit tight..well more than a bit but I'll manage just fine for first semester. Second semester on the other hand, well, I'll deal with that when it comes along! For now I'm just focused on making things happen for first semester. And as pathetic as it may sound, I'm totally excited to go shopping for back to school stuff, I've always loved getting new pens and notebooks and things, how dorky eh? Ah well, and also this year I've decided to invest in a new backpack so hooray for that lol!!

Cheers!
-Holly

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

All the stuff I missed.

Alright, considering that I haven't written in this thing since about Vienna and since I'm actually home now I figure that maybe I should do at least some form of an update! Ok so let me think here, I think it's best to just try and sum it all up in as little as possible so I'll try that, there isn't really a heck of a lot to say anyways!! Here goes:

Prague- I hated Prague to be completely honest, there really wasn't much there for me it seemed, plus I felt like it was really sketchy there. The biggest highlight there was going to the Sex Machine Museum and watching a porno from 1925 from Spain. Funniest thing in the world!!

Munich- Totally amazing and I was only there for one afternoon/night. We bought Dirndles which are the traditional German dresses and we definitely wore them out to the beerhall that night, by far one of my very favorite nights on the trip! Munich was really gorgeous though, I'll definitely be going back to Germany at some point!!

Swiss Alps- Soooooo beautiful!! Nothing compares to the mountains there, absolutely nothing. Our campsite was great too, there wasn't much to the city though, you could walk through it in about ten minutes. We slept a lot there hahaha it was a nice change! We didn't really do much there to be honest but it was gorgeous and that was good enough for me!

Edam- This little town wasn't even mentioned in passing for the tour but I loved it so much that I'm giving it it's own section! By far the most adorable little town I've ever seen, we got to ride little granny bikes all around it and it's such an old little town and everything just looks like it's straight out of a movie, it's awesome! Definitely a place that I want to return to, its so peaceful there!

Amsterdam- TONS of fun!! Saw a sex show, aka people having sex on stage and lucky me I got directed to sit in the front row....also I bought a joint for the first time and I still have the tube it came in so I did the two important things in Amsterdam haha! But other than that, we navigated the canals on a paddle boat which was SOOO slow going! But it was fun, as long as you don't get lost, which thankfully we didn't!

So yes, all in all it was a fabulous trip and I think that I would do Contiki again but only a short trip, if ever I do a long trip again it will be be on my own, because then it's not just go, go, go all the time which isn't always fun. Sometimes, you want to sleep in! Best time ever, though I've come home sick, wickedly sore throat and a nasty cough but I'm working on it! Anyways, that's all for now, when I think of something else important to say I'll try to be good and make the time to write it here!!

Cheers!!
Holly

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Venice to Vienna!

Alright lots to catch up on! So sad that we had to leave Corfu, it was so gorgeous there but alas, all good things come to an end! So off we went at 5am, very brutal, the ferry was late of course since everything in Greece runs on 'ish' time, meaning that everything happens when it feels like happening there's really no point in having a schedule for anything! But eventually it came and off we went onto our 24 hour ferry ride, and to be completely honest I slept for about 16 hours of it! Went to bed at 9am, slept till 5pm stayed up till midnight and then slept until 730am and then we drove the last little bit to Venice and I have to say, I didn't like Venice at all really. Though on the way there we stopped in Verona to see Juliette's balcony and for a rest, so we did a bit of shopping, had some lunch, lunch consisted of gelato haha! Anyways, our hotel in Venice was the absolute worst accomodation we've had thus far, we weren't in the city cuz it's like 400 dollars per night to be in the city so I'm not really 100% sure where we were but either way it was soo scuzzy!! Me and Erin had to share a bathroom with 4 other men, old Italian men for that matter and the bathtub was gross, so I showered there once, and since Ian and David had a room with an ensuite I showered there afterwards cuz at least it was clean! The city itself I didn't really enjoy because I found it super hard to navigate and there's so many places to get lost, not to mention the sheer volume of people that are in the city, and it was so expensive, the only thing we really saw was the Basillica (from the outside) and the Ponte di Rialto I think is how it's said, and that was pretty cool, then out of nowhere there came the freak thunderstorm that lasted about 45 mins and we got absolutely drenched! However at least it let up and we did manage to go on the gondola ride at the end of the day, but yea, I wasn't too satisfied with Venice but at least now I can say that I've done it and I know that I wouldn't go back so it's good that way I suppose. The gondola was nice though, very slow, very scenic, so I did enjoy that at least!

This morning we left our scuzzy hotel (yayyy!) for lovely Vienna, and I have to say that when we were driving there I totally felt like I was back in BC, it was all mountains and trees, it was gorgeous and yet I was strongly reminded of Heidi haha so I found that kind of funny! We had two service stops on the way and both of them were awesome, haha there was one that was called the Hansel and Gretel service stop and it was the most adorable thing ever!! It looked like a little candie house, super cute! Anyways, we got into Vienna at about 5pm tonite, and we're staying in the most awesome hostel! And I've already gotten lost! WOOT! haha! I'll get to that in a minute though. We had some time before we had to leave the hostel to go into town, so we got to check out our cute little rooms and that was good, and then we did a short tour on our bus and learned a little bit, though I didn't retain much now that I think about it! But oh well! Then we did a walkabout dinner, which is basically a fend for yourself kind of thing and that was good, I had like the best chicken soup of my life omg it was sooooo good! And then after we left the resturant we stumbeled upon this guy who was playing classical music on water glasses it was amazing! He was soo good, and super funny! Anyways, then we decided to come home instead of waiting for the coach because we didn't want to wait, so it took us ages to find the metro station and then we went all of 3 stops, and then promptly realised that we had no idea how to get from the station back to the hostel, so we wandered a little, not far from the station though, and then we tried looking at a few of the maps and that didn't work that well, haha then finally we asked a guy at the station and he told us where the right exit from the station was, cuz there's exits on like every floor of that thing! Anyways, we did eventually get home hahah so that was good, tomorrow is a full day in the city and it will be amazing I'm sure, I'm really looking forward to it and then we get to visit the Schnapps Museum tomorrow afternoon :D should be good fun! Then afterwards is a lovely Viennese dinner, mmmmm pork schnitzel!!! Can't wait!!!

Cheers!!
-Holly

P.S only 10 days left, AHHH!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Corfu!!

This is just a quick update since I'm running out of time on the computer. Basically Corfu is amazing! Getting here was a pain, we drove all day from Italy and then took two ferries, we had to transfer at 230 in the morning, and then we drove only for about 20 mins and then we were at our hotel which by the way is AWESOME! Not only do we have the most amazing view of the sea, the rooms themselves are fabulous, we have a bathtub, and a balcony and its just the most gorgeous place ever! The walk up the hill is a pain though, it's really steep and since it's so hot here, it makes for a difficult climb! But its so worth it, and there's a pool here, the beach is across the road, theres a bar at the pool and one inside, plus the disco like..its just nuts! There's so much and it feels so fancy, so yea, definitely having a good time! Yesterday we did the Georges Boat tour which was SUPER fun! Spent all day on the water, did water sports, all I did was swim mostly but me and Erin did in fact go parasailing and omg it was friggen amazing! Such a good view! Plus the water here is soooo nice, not cold but not ridiculously warm either its seriously the perfect temperature! Anyways, I have some good stories to tell about Georges boat when I get back, so everyone will just have to wait. Tonite we're going out for the Greek dinner optional excursion so that will be lots of fun, food and dancing and probably booze haha you can't go wrong! Tomorrow night is the toga party and then a 5am departure the morning after that, ugh! And then we're on a ferry for 25 hours.....25!!!!!!! So we'll see how that goes :)

Cheers!
-Holly