Bath

The last place I visited during my trip to England was a little town called Bath. Getting to Bath was an awful journey, that included a thirteen hour car ride. The drive should have only taken four hours from London, but because of the floods the motorway barely moved. Needless to say, when I got to Bath, I wan't too excited. Bath did hold many little treasures though including the Roman baths which the town was named after. There were many roman baths around the town, but The Great Bath was the most impressive. After all of the hard work to get there it was really worth it!

Munchen, Detuschland

Munich Germany is a must see city for history buffs. The city is filled with all sorts of various historical hot spots that range from Gothic/ Gaulaic Germany to present day works of art, from the short lived French occupation to the world wars, and from religious wonders to scientific monuments. Being the third largest city in the German Republic, the city is full of attractions for both the young and old. For being a large city, the people who inhabit it are largely friendly in my experience. A friendly welcome was never far away and as expected neither was a pint of their world famous beer. I can confidently say that if more Gerbrew was exported to North America, Molson and the rest of their buddy's would have a grim day.

Shakespeare's Birthplace

The second place i visited on my trip through England was Stratford-Upon-Avon. This is the town that is famous as Shakespeares birthplace. When I had visited, there had recently been severe flooding, so the town was very deserted allowing all of the attractions and sites to be seen more freely. This was one of the most beautiful towns I have ever seen. Shakespeare's birthplace is very historical and is a great place to visit if you appreciate Shakespeare. Stratford was always known as a market town and there are always great farmers markets going on. Stratford-Upon-Avon has so much to offer and you can find anything you could ever want or need.

Montreal

Translated into English I am pretty sure Montreal means Mount Royal. I'm not sure though, but Ron your french, help me out! Last time I was in Montreal I was pretty young so a lot of what I remember from the city is vague. What I do Remember was shopping with my parents which was difficult because my dad said he wouldn't buy me anything unless I spoke to the sales people in french. That was a little intimidating because I wasn't really good, but back then I knew a lot more french than I do now. There is two different parts to Montreal that you can see. There's new Montreal and old Montreal. Old Montreal is the best place in Montreal. It has some of the oldest houses in Canada. Some are as old as 300 years. Old Montreal also has the Notre Dame which looks similar to the one in france( like off of the hunchback of Notre Dame). Old Montreal has a very romantic rustic type feel. Very old with cobble stone and antique stores everywhere. Its a really nice place to visit and the french people there are quite friendly. If you every visit I consider taking a carriage ride through the city, its really fun!

Jamaica-Part 2

There are many things to do while in Jamaica. You can go snorkeling, learn how to scuba dive, lay on the beach, shop, golf, and just take in all of the sights.

My favorite thing to was to lay on the beach or by the pool and take in th sun. My boyfriend loves to golf, so him and I went golfing a few times. We had a lot of fun doing that, except at times I got really frustrated because I'm not very good at it. We also played chess on these life size chess boards that were outside, it was pretty cool, but again I am not very good at chess. We also went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville the last night we were there. Let's just say it's a good thing I took Gravol before we left to the airport! I had a great vacation!

Jamaica- Part 1

Last March my boyfriend and I went to Jamaica for a week. We stayed at the Sandals Grande Ocho Rios, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

The resort was beautiful! It was surrounded by palm trees and plants with a stream running through it. The stream actually went by our room and we could here it. It was very relaxing. The resort also had seven swimming pools and three of them had swim up bars which was really nice considering how hot it was.

The resort had nine restraunts so we were able to eat at a different restraunt every night. My favorite restraunt was an Italian restraunt called San Gennaro, and because I liked it so much we ate there twice. One of my other favorite restraunts was called the Arizona and they set up the tables right on the beach. The night we ate there we were so close to the ocean, the water was hitting my feet.

All in all the resort was great!

I already said that Switzerland was my favourite place that I visited in Europe. While we were there we got to go to this Swiss Folklore Evening which was a huge fondu style supper with lots of music and entertainment. It was so interesting to see how the people of Switzerland still live with their culture and are so proud of who they are and where they come from. First we had Bread with a cheese dipping sauce. After that we had some treats which we could dip in Chocolate as well our meal was accompanied by a delicious white wine. I really enjoyed that evening because they allowed some of us to go up on stage and perform with them and they even had a couple of my friends go up there and drink beer out of this huge glass with them. It was really neat. Switzerland is by far thee most beautiful and magnificient place i've ever been.

Ontario

So this blog is so European right now, so I thought I would add a little more Canada on this thing!

Ontario!! also a great place to travel. Has many attributes and is a huge province. For starters it has Niagra Falls which are amazing to see. First time I went there I was probably about 13 years old. We stayed right near the falls and went on the maid of the mist which is actually quiet freaky when you think about it, sitting on a boat metres away from turning waterfalls. I kept thinking that if we got too close we would be sucked in by the current and we would all die..but fortunately that didnt happen (= thank god haha.

Toronto is a really nice city, lots of tourist things to do. Canadas Wonderland was one of my favorite places to go as a kid. One summer I lived in the city and spent every weekend there. Definately my all time favorite place in Toronto. The CN tower is also pretty amazing to go up when your there. Definately something you have to do. And im not gonna lie, the first time I went up it i was terrified. when you go up the elevator it goes so fast, your ears pop and it turns your stomach. Its definately not as bad when your up there, just getting there is the worst part.
There is alot of other tourist things to do in Toronto. It is definately not a dull city. some other great attributes it has is the Blue Jays, Maple Leafs( even though I know some of you would argue and say they arent a great attribute, but its always fun to watch a live hockey game). The Toronto Zoo which has pretty much every animal imagineable. Supposedly it takes 2 full days to see everything in the zoo, so my dad says, but I dont remmeber it taking that long. Also home of the hockey hall of fame. Toronto even has its own castle!

But Enough about the city.I grew up in Ontario and alot of my time there was spent 2 1/2 hours north-east of toronto in a town of about 1,300 people. The countryside in Ontario is really nice. Summers are the best, it stays up between 25-35 degrees celcius. the summers there also last from the beginning of June and it starts to get cold by the end of october. So none of those Alberta summers from july to august (hahaha). Where I grew up we lived about 30 minutes from 10 different lakes. So during the summer you could always find anyone out at the lake hanging out at a friends cabin or camping at the campsite across the lake. Ontario lakes are 100 billion times better than any slew out here in Alberta.

Like any other place Ontario has many great things to offer and many new things to see. There definately is way more to Ontario than I have included in this blog, so as Ontario tourism says "Ontario, Yours to discover"

Cultural London

Two years ago I visited England for two weeks. It was the most incredible trip of my life and all of the cities I visited were beautiful. Since Ron is covering the lifestyle aspects of England I will cover the cultural and talk about the cities I visited on my trip. The city I spent the most time in was London. London has so many historic sites to visit along with many great tourist attractions. Amazing places I visited were the Tower of London, the Globe Theatre (home of Shakespeare), and the London Bridge. These places captured the essence of London, and really showed what the city was all about. Walking down the streets of London is like no other experience. It feels like you have gone back in time mixed with some modern architecture. If you want to visit a great historic city, this is the place to go. And don’t forget to visit the Queen.

My Favourite things about Europe!!

I had many favourite things about europe...but by far Switzerland was my favourite place I went. The scenery is so amazing and everything about it is just so beautiful!!! I went to Switzerland Italy and France and if I had to pick one place to go back to it would definitely be Switzerland. It absolutely took my breath away. I took this picture when I was climbing Mt. Pilatus(ok im a bad speller but you get the point). It was so incredible...We didnt get to go all the way to the top because the winds were horrible that day but it was still amazing. The reason I put the picture of that kind of not so appetizing picture of pizza there is because even though it looks sketchy it was thee most incredible thing I ate in all of Europe. I would walk back to Europe for more of that. Anyways Enjoy the pics!! See you guys in class!!

Englad: Birthplace of the pub

England. The home of bad teeth and a pub on every corner. My time spent in Englas showed me one thing: British people love beer, rugby and football. Fortunatly for them, they can get all three of those things at one of the thousands of street corner pubs you seem to walk by every few minutes. Not that I'm complaining. One of my favorites I stumbeled across was while I was in the capital city. London is know for many different sights but I think the Watchmaker and Farmer pub is the best sight of them all. A pub devoted to Chelsea FC fans, when asked what your club is (club is equilivent to a team) you had best not respond with anything other than Blue Army (Chelsea's alter ego). As a proud Chelsea fan luck informed me to wear one of my many jerseys while touring the west end of the city and I was welcomed in with open arms. While Stamford Bridge may have been sold of for gameday, the W and F seemed to have enough room for me and my friends. If you want true, modern English culture, this was the place to find it. I struk up coverstaion with many of the other patrons and talked about various things and got pretty simular answers. When asked what I should see in London before I left they would reply that I have seen it alread in the W&F. When I asked things to do, I was told I'm doing it right now. Needless to say I enjoyed my time at the W&F a little more than visiting the clock known as Big Ben or trying to annoy some guards that can't talk (forgot what they call them). When travelling to England, get all the history stuff out of the way first. That way, you can find your own pub were you will see Englishmen at their best.

Football, Futbal, Soccer

Since I'm covering the party (technically "things to do") section for Europe I figured its only fitting to talk about the worlds common language first, Football. Some of my fondest memories of Europe hail from the pitch sidelines as the 12Th player. There is nothing quite like watching your team play at home with thousands of other supports cheering so loud that your not sure if your actually making any noise. And that's just club football. When we start talking national teams we see a group of followers that most religions envy. I remember France '98, site of that years FIFA World Cup of Football. After a long and dramatic road to the finals, France had battled their way to earn a date with Brazil for he last test to lift the holy grail of Football. While needless to say that the stadium was sold out, me and my family secured a spot on LaVeille bridge to watch the game on the 50 foot screen outside the stadium. In case your wondering, the bridge was closed down to traffic so French supporters could pile on it to cheer on Les blu's. 90 minutes and some extra time later France lifted the World Cup at home in front of more than half a million fans. I don't think I'll ever see a scene like that again. The party raged on well into the morning and for many more days to come. I remember looking out my hotel window later that night and seeing the swarms of people lining the streets of Paris in jubilant cheers... and maybe just a few drunken songs, just a few.

Hawaii

When I was 17 I went to Oahu, Hawaii with my parents and sister. My favorite place was the famous Waikiki Beach where I spent many hours laying on the sand enjoying the hot sun and beautiful, warm, blue water of the Ocean. The weather was amazing while we were there. It was around 30C for the entire 14 days we were there.

While we were there we toured the entire island. This included a trip to the Dole Pineapple Plantation and the famous North Shore. It was incredible. I was also lucky enough to experience some history when I visited Pearl Harbour, which I will never forget.

I'm hoping to go to Hawaii sometimes in the near future. It was really incredible there.

My Experiences in British Columbia

When I was a kid I grew up in BC. Since it is one of my favorite places in North america I decided I would make my first blog about it. So I moved to Vancouver Island when I was four. We lived in an apartment on the ocean and it was beautiful! I remember taking walks with my dad on the boardwalk and seeing starfish coming onto the shore, or going to see the seals sitting on the docks. Great experiences there. There was always free festivals on the boardwalk during the summer, always something to do. Vancouver Island is also known for its huge Douglas Fur trees that can grow up to 130metres or about 450 feet. Which is gigantic!!! Then a few years later I lived in Kelowna which was also very nice and warm during the summer. Lots of beaches! It was nice to go to the okanagan valley and pick fresh fruit off the trees. This summer I took a roadtrip with some of my friends to the Shuswaps and went houseboating. The lake was so nice and the drive through the BC mountains was also very beautiful. The Water in the mountains was such a beautiful bluish green color. So thats some of the great things that British Columbia offers and if you ever have a chance you should go!

Hey everyone.. I thought I would get the ball rolling on this whole blog situation. I went to europe when I was 16 years old. I went to switzerland, parts of Italy and parts of France. These were with out a doubt the best places I have ever been. Ron I cannot believe you got to live there because it was unbelievable. Maybe you living there doesnt make it as exciting but you can tell me how you feel about it in one of your blogs. For those of you that havent been there I highly recommend it. Anyways I should get going here..See you in class tomorrow and Have a great night you guys.

Shayla

This looks good so far!