Fiddle-e-Dee and Guinness for Everyone!

Ireland has got to be one of the most underrated travel gems in Europe. Why have I never heard more about home of Guinness beer, the IRA, the birthplace of the Titanic and ‘fiddle-e-dee’ music? Europeans seem to know that Dublin is rated amongst the top cities to live in Europe but North Americans have no clue!

Well I’m here to tell you it’s a GREAT place. We only got to spent four days in Ireland all together but thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Dublin and Belfast. We learned that the Titanic actually originated from Belfast and that Arthur Guinness invented stout beer. He also saw far enough into the future to know that his £45 / year lease for the next 9000 years (signed in the 1700s) was a good deal. Seeing Oscar Wild’s house was also a nice bonus.

The highlights of our Ireland trip were the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin and enjoying some traditional live Celtic music at a pub called Fiddle Magee’s in Belfast where I danced and played a Celtic drum with the band in front of about 50 people. Iain even danced with me just the two of us in front of everyone in the bar! Needless to say we had both had some liquid courage to encourage our behaviour (bought by two local ladies who joined us at our table).

Today we took the ferry from Ireland to Scotland and then trained up to Glasgow. The country side of Scotland is beautiful and I can hear bagpipes and William Wallace yelling ‘Freedom!’ quietly in the background (of my head). We’re going to be here for the next three days before we head to Norway. Until then, we should be enjoying some kilt wearing, difficult to understand Scotts.

Oh, and it’s about 8 degrees here. The little change in temperature from Africa is keeping us on our toes.

A Personal Invitation from the Russian Embassy?

Yesterday Iain and I arrived in London safely from Johannesburg, South Africa. We spent the day hanging out with his brother and enjoying a few English ales. I forgot how tasty British beer is.

We were trying to make a few flight bookings to Ireland, Scotland and Russia when we came across a snag. Apparently you need a personal invitation from the Russian Embassy to get a visa to travel into their country.

You’re supposed to apply for this ‘invitation’ about five months in advance. We were planning on going next week. You cannot get into the country without it (or at least if you don’t want to end up in jail or deported you need to have one). Because we’re so close to the date we were travelling there we had to change our itinerary.

So now we have changed our plan. We are heading from Edinburgh, Scotland to Oslo, Norway, then to Copenhagen, then to Stockholm instead. The sister company of Coastal Contacts (the company I used to work for) is located in Stockholm so I’d like to try and visit some of the people there. We’ll see if I can get in touch with anyone at such short notice.

Either way, we’re happy to be on the next leg of our trip. The weather is drastically colder than Africa since England is just coming out of winter. It’ll be cold for a while but should warm up by the time we get to Paris in two weeks.

We’re looking forward to seeing Ireland, Scotland and the Scandinavian countries over the next couple of weeks.

"Project Africa" - Complete!

We're at the end of our tour in Africa and we have had an absolute blast! I still can't believe all the incredible things we have seen and done.

Here’s a summary of our favorites:

-Shark Diving in Cape Town
-The Safari in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater
-Swimming with wild dolphins in Zanzibar
-Learning to surf in Durban
-Visiting grandparents and family we haven’t seen in over 12 years
-Touring the wineries of Southern Africa
-Watching a dozen thunder and lightning storms from various landscapes
-Hiking through the Massai Villages in the Rift Valley
-Learning to wakeboard and wakeskate at The Vaal Dam
-Watching the Junior Pro Surfing competition in Durban
-Playing with a baby White Lion cub in East London
-Holding a rescued eagle at the South African bird sanctuary
-Relaxing by camp fires under the African stars in game reserves
-Eating Biltong, Chilli-bites, mieliepop, milk tarts, boerwors and other South African foods
-Enjoying the beauty, fun and sun of Sun City, Cape Town and Durban
-Getting a much needed tan

We are one day away from heading to Europe for the Amazing Race version of our trip. We are scheduled to visit the following cities by July 3rd:

London
Canterbury
Belfast
Dublin
Edinburgh
Ayr
St. Petersberg
Moscow
Paris
Burges
Brussels
Amsterdam
Berlin
Dresden
Prague
Vienna
Munich
Venice
Athens
Rome
Sienna
Florence
Pisa
Nice
Monaco
Avignon
Barcelona
Valencia
Madrid
San Sebastian
Bordeaux
Tours
Bern
Lauterbrunner
Stuttgart

I know, I know, there are a bunch other cities I want to go visit that we are missing but we have to be back in Vancouver by July 3rd for a friend’s wedding. So, that means we have approximately two days in each city before we move onto the next.

For the Northern cities we are flying from place to place, but for central and southern Europe we are doing a hop-on-hop-off bus route. We have to complete the route before we go home. The only stop we are making for more than two days is in Greece, where we are hoping to do a sailing trip of the Greek Islands.

Africa has been phenomenal and I highly recommend it for a vacation destination if you have more than three weeks. The prices are good (with our exchange rate) the weather is even better and there are a billion things to do. Plus, there are some things here that you could never experience anywhere else.

Now we’re ready for the fast-paced portion of our trip. We have just over two months to see over 35 famous cities. Ready? Let the race begin!

Thoughts from Another Country - Part II

Watching people in my travels has been the greatest learning experience of my life. I came on this trip to discover the world and what it had to offer. Instead I ended up discovering myself.

I always wanted to be a parent, even from when I was a little kid. No one really knows what to do when they become parents. They discover what to do as they go. However watching life on these travels has taught me a few things. A parent's role is not to protect their children, but to teach them how to protect themselves. It's not to feed them (when they are old enough) but to teach them how to feed themselves. The greatest gift that a parent can give their children (other than love) is independence, so that if they are left orphaned or alone, they can survive and be happy and can pass on the important things they learned in their life to others who are willing to listen.

Our role as children is to discover new things and experience life so we can learn. However that doesn't stop when we grow up. Our job in life is to determine who we are and to experience that to it's fullest. The best way to discover who we are is to discover who we are not. I know what I like and what I don't like, and I keep exploring that so that I can be most true to myself.

I've also realized many truths in the world. People are so busy judging each other that they forget they ultimately come from the same place and that they are the same. If you were to take an apple and cut it up into eight equal pieces, would you not say that they are still not from the same larger whole even though they are now different? What of the peel that protects the inside and carries the vitamins? Is it really less or more important that the seeds that produce more apples or the flesh inside that nourishes a body?

The people of this world are like the different pieces of an apple. Even though they are infinitely different, they are all the same because they come from the same larger whole. They also have equal importance, because without each part, the greater whole would be incomplete.

I've also come to realize that we are all offered opportunities on a regular basis. Whether it's an opportunity to learn something or an opportunity to teach something, to make some extra money or to help someone. We each have these opportunities all the time and we alone can choose what's best for us, based on who we are and who we want to be.

I now know who I want to be and I will always strive to be that. However, I will also have as much fun as possible and experience as much as I can along the way. I wish the same for each of you.

Why visit durban? Why not when it has this to offer!

Durban was a blast. Iain and I spent 10 great days staying in a nice hotel right on one of the most popular beaches in the city. Durban is a great place to live and visit if surfing, shopping and sunshine are your major interests.

There is excellent shopping in posh malls around town (the best of what was called Gateway Mall). Gateway hosted hundreds of brand names at really low prices, great theatres (including all the latest Bollywood hits – Durban has the largest population of Indians outside of India) and even a skate park and one of the world's few man made Wave Riders (surfing indoors). We watched a couple of different movies (There Will Be Blood and Juno) and ate some great tasting food the entire week.

The highlights of Durban for us were the Junior Pro Surfing Competition, which was held for three days on the beach outside our hotel and uShaka Marine Park. Massive crowds came to see the incredible skill of the pro surfers, stunt bikers and sea-doers over the three-day Surfing Competition. There was live entertainment all day (including dancers, hip hop groups, stunt bike demonstrations and Red Bull and Oakley sponsorships). There were mimes and sand castle builders for a kilometre along the beach walkways and an amusement park that kept people excited into the later hours of the evening. We even got to enjoy a Hari Krishna parade on our way back to our hotel one day.

uShaka Marine Park was my personal favourite. This is the home of the world's fifth largest aquarium, which is built around a shipwreck! A river that surrounds the park can be cruised in inner-tubes as onlookers come across shark tanks, beautiful gardens, penguins and dolphin arenas. There were so many fun waterslides in the park and Iain and I spent the day reading in the sun, swimming and checking out all the cool marine life. I even wore a dress that day, which is almost unheard of.

During the time we were there, we had a chance to explore some of the historical side of Durban and found out that some of Iain's family were some of the first settlers to help build Durban in the first place. There was a street named after them and even a small monument dedicated to their name. Unfortunately we didn't find this out until we left town, but were still happy to learn that part of Iain's family contributed to this really cool city.

In our last days, we made an attempt at surfing. It was harder than I thought, but really fun. I got up about three times before I was tired and returned my board rental. Being in the water was SO relaxing and Iain and I swam in the ocean a few times. South and North Beach are my two favourite beaches to walk on so far in the world. They are totally pristine, with no stones, shells, garbage, seaweed or animals in the sand. It was the perfect temperature by the water and the sand was easy to walk on.

If South Africa can keep its economy going (and peace remains) both Durban and Capetown are cities I would visit again.