Alberta

Home, Home On The Range

It just wouldn't be a trip to Medicine Hat
without a stop to feed the gophers.

It's a bit funny to write my first "Back in Canada" post two months after the "I'm back in Canada" moment. Maybe then I would have had some more profound sentiments to share, but as of now, life is just going on.

This is what life is these days: University (consisting of French grammar & medieval literature, German, Spanish and Ocean Science), trying to scrape up some free time now and then, getting our apartment together (which I think we have finally achieved, although I think it will never be DONE), getting things done that need to be done. And that last one is taking more time that I could have possibly imagined. School, I imagine it takes a lot of my time and it does. But my To-Do list with no more than 6 things on it took me 4 hours today? And I didn't even leave the house.

Hooray for being independent.

Driver change pit-stop.


Little brother got hungry.


Lovely wheat field.


Cyril & Joel checkin' out Grandma & Pappa's new crib.


The toilets at Medalta Potteries.


Medalta.


She was too busy eating to care about us.


Alberta Badlands.


Hoodoo with seats!


T-Rex and the Royal Tyrell Museum!


Dinosaur!


Strange animal.


Lake Louise.


We are a very enthusiastic looking bunch.


The drive home got foggy!

It's the start of my favorite month today.

Ireland

Ireland = amazing & amazingly green.

I've never tried out this public link business that I'm going to put up here because, frankly, there are too many pictures to upload and reorganize here as well as there.

CLICK TO GET PICTURES.

So there they are.

I'm glad Cyril got to finally see it; he's been wanting to go for a long time. We did a lot; saw a lot. Many, many bus tours. Many, many days of wearing my Sea-Bands on the windy, narrow, often cliff-side roads on large buses.

Next time I go to Ireland, however, I will make darn sure I'm old enough to rent a car! Hopefully by then I will be confident enough to drive in narrow-streeted Europe and on the left-hand side. Yikes.

Yet to come: photos from trips a bit closer to home, wherever that is.

England

In the Land of Angles

Heading back in time for a minute, we'll go to the beginning of August. Yes, it has been that long since I posted. And because of that, events are not as fresh in the old brain as they would have been had I been a good blogger, so yes. So minimal commentaries, I suppose.

Plymouth




Driving through Dartmoor.






Aquarium.










Pub.






Bill, Auntie Peggy, Roger, Margaret, Cyril.


Poole


Bill, Pauline and that Swiss guy in the gusting July wind.








Cliffs near "Old Harry".


Getting blown off the cliffs.




The lonely rock is Old Harry.


Yeah, we were that close!


Tropics. In England.




Heather in July.






Durdle Door.




London


Church of Scientology, uh-oh.


At the airport.

Which leads nicely into: Ireland. Coming soon. Wait for it. Watch for it. Soon. Here.

Paris

It's All Been Done

We're back. From 3 weeks holiday. Oh wait, we're still on holiday! Right, how could I forget. Oh we don't.

A revelation has come to me whilst joining back up with my mum & sister in Paris a week after they left Switzerland and it is this: I should never, ever, really EVER travel alone.

This is the outcome of my attempted solo-travels:
Cyril takes me to the train station, I look at the time on my ticket to see which platform I need to be at. Hm, odd, my ticket says a different time from what's on the giant board. Oh... no. This is our ticket to Paris for 2 weeks from now! Cyril leaves me crying in the full train station to rush home to see if he can find them. No. Turns out the company failed to send me my tickets at all. I have some very choice words I'd like to say to TGV as they still have not reimbursed me plus they made me cry a lot, plus you know what, they're always late.
Moving along. I had to buy new tickets, I left the next day, UGH.

I'm not finished.
I drop my mum & sister off at the bus the day their plane leaves and the day I take the train home. Go back to the apartment, get my stuff, go to the bus stop myself. The bus doesn't seem to be coming any time this century (NOT an unusual occurrence in France) I better take the Métro. Not until I'm on the Métro do I realise I have to take 3 different lines and I only have 20 minutes until my train leaves. I should have given up there, but no, I ran. I RAN LIKE THE DICKENS all through the underground and through the train station, the contents of my backpack spewing onto the escalator at one point, fighting back tears (and entire bodily breakdown) the whole time... only to find my platform with no train beside it. I have not cried so openly in public since I was too young to care. Yes, sweaty and audibly sobbing in a train station at rush hour.
The rest is history, I got home eventually.
AWESOME WEEKEND.

Besides my Great Train Adventures it really was a lovely weekend. Let me show you.

Mum and Jocelyn (looking oh-so-impressed) inside the Louvre.


Heading for the Jardin des Tuileries.


Au soleil, sous la pluie, à midi ou à minuit,
il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux Champs-Elysées.


l'Arc de Triomphe.


Le Métro.


Walking around the 3rd arrondissement.


Mum found a friend.


Hôtel de Ville.


Cathédrale Notre Dame.
The line was insane to go in, so we opted out.


And went to another church instead. Sainte-Chapelle.


Joc lookin' pretty fly.




Eiffel Time!


Sisters and a sparkling metal tower.


Last thing we saw at night, first thing we saw in the morning.
Eiffel nerds? No comment.


Going up.


Up!
My lovely ladies in Paris.


Tourists.


Montmartre.


Vegetable stand from Amélie!




Stodola girls at Sacré-Coeur.




Ah... modernity at La Défence.


Dinner out in Paris. Poc is now addicted to crème brûlée.


Dinner shot!


Oh my.


OH MY.

That was Paris, June 20-23 (ish).
On my computer, ready to be revealed... ENGLAND!

I am back in Canada in 6 days, fyi. You can get excited now.