Trip Review Part 1 - "Flying from Fredericton"; or, "On the Wings of the Cheap Silver Bird"

Alright my lovelies, here's the first instalment on the jog that my li'l sis and I took around Europe last month!

Marg and I began our voyage in the bustling metropolis of Fredericton, New Brunswick. After a hearty breakfast of eggs benedict that we had delivered straight from Fredericton's most celebrated Chinese restaurant, we called a cab and the adventure got underway!

                                                            Excited eyeballs in the cab to the Fredericton Airport

                                       Marg wastes no time in starting her vacation - first beer of the trip in the YFC departures "lounge"


Now, being so full from breakfast, it didn't occur to either of us to pack any snacks for the flight. Which was dumb, as it turns out. Our plane was about 30 minutes late leaving Fredericton, meaning that our once-comfortably-timed connection in Toronto became "sprint-for-the-finish-line" short. That in turn meant that we had no time to grab a bite in between flights. Sweaty and peckish, but ever upbeat, we boarded the Air Canada Flight from Toronto to Barcelona. While boarding, we couldn't help but notice that the flight attendants were all wearing some seriously dorky-looking fedoras. Turns out that this was our first indication that we were not flying simply with Air Canada, but with "Air Canada Rouge," the company's new "low-cost" (read: "cheap-ass") branch.

                                        
                                                 Air Canada imposes jaunty douchebaggery on its staff and customers
                                                                               

Apparently they blew their whole food budget on those damn fedoras, because indication #2 that we were on the cheap flight was that they were incredibly loathe to feed us. The plane boarded just after 7:00 p.m. and by 11:30 p.m., when they finally came around with something to eat, Marg and I had polished off our full supply of tic-tacs and had started in on the seat-back cushions. The food option was pasta sludge or meat sludge. Margaret, being the dedicated carnivore that she is, naturally opted for the meat sludge. It was not the right choice. Nor did it fill her tum, as it turns out, because after consuming that, her all-crust dinner roll, her brownie-ish thing and her thimble of water, she was still famished (go figure). Being somewhat sated (as well as highly benevolent), I donated my sphere of crust to her. I stashed the brownie in my seat pocket though. Just in case.

   A VERY hungry Margaret eyeing me in a way that makes me slightly uncomfortable......

                                                                   Oh, no big deal guys, we're just flying over SPAIN

Fast-forward seven hours. We are in the Barcelona airport. We're having difficulty finding the metro. We need to SLEEP. We eventually locate an Airlink bus that more or less takes us close-ish to where we need to go. Kinda. After a forty-minute ride in a bus with covered windows (to eliminate all those annoying countryside vistas), we finally arrive at Plaza Espanya in the city centre. We hike from there to one of my favourite hostels - Hello BCN! Funky, friendly and colourful. And, at this point in the day (around 1:00 p.m.), not yet ready to let us into our rooms. Thus we were cast into our first instance of traveller purgatory - too early to get into the room but too lazy to leave the hostel. What anguish! So we sat for about half an hour in the empty hostel lobby, placidly sipping on mango juice from the vending machine. After an eon, just as we were about to give up and nap where we sat, the blessed, most wonderful receptionist told us that our rooms were ready. Lacking coherence, emotion and most of our will to survive, sis and I lurched our way up to room 201 where we drifted off into the most glorious nap ever napped......

End scene. 

The Whirlwind Settles

Hi there team! Apologies for the long delay between posts! But as you know, I've been fairly transient for the past six weeks or so, so it's been a little bit difficult to set aside dedicated blogging time. Not to worry! I'm in Edinburgh now - that's right, in Edinburgh - and I'm slowly gluing the scattered bits of my existence into the semblance of a life.

I've been in the city for just about 2 weeks now and after a bit of a scramble, I have an apartment, a job and a friend! Actually, I don't quite have an apartment yet... I've found one and I've signed on the dotted line. I'm just not allowed into it until July 8. It's really nice to have the stress of searching for one relieved, but I really want to be able to move me and my trusty backpack in. Mostly I just don't want to have to pack up my clothes every single night and then tear my poor packing cubes to shreds again every morning. But it's a nice flat (that's United Kingdomish for "apartment"), it's in a solid location and it's CHEAP. Yey! Apartment-hunting is actually a bit of a bloodsport here. They show each flat to multiple potential tenants at the same time, so it's a race to call the letting agency before the other bastards do - even if you don't really like the place, you're tempted to take it just because you don't want anyone else to get it. And you don't know when the next will come up. Fun! Plus, back home, we generally rent directly from the landlord so there's more room for negotiation on things like move-in date, decoration, furnishings, humanity, etc. Not so here. Every flat is rented through a letting agency and they are not flexible. The last two apartments I had in Ottawa were promised to me before I was even in the province. That would not fly here. You MUST see the apartment before you can rent it, you need to provide every piece of ID you've ever had and you need proof of employment or a UK guarantor (and if you're a sketchy foreigner like me, you need both). Now, obviously I don't have a UK guarantor - I don't know any grown-ups who live here. How they expect immigrants to get a UK guarantor is beyond me. Fortunately, I have my aforementioned friend. Her name is Rachel. She's great. She's from Manchester. She has parents who are UK grown-ups who will be our guarantors. Rachel is fun and cheerful and mischievous and you will no doubt be hearing more of our shenanigans.

My job is classic traveller - bartending/receptionist in a hostel. But the bar is hip, the coworkers seem cool and it's right in the city centre, so it makes life easy. And it will give me cash dollahs, which are not in serious abundance for me right now. Who knew that a month of travelling through Europe followed by setting up a new life from scratch could be expensive?

Now, my plan for a while has been to write a brief(ish) post about each stop of my trip in Europe. I'm still intending on doing that, but it might take a little while to complete all of the instalments. So here's what I'm gonna do: I've taken notes of key events and ideas from each section of the trip and I'm going to publish the notes here for you now. Spoiler Alert! Actually, they probably won't make much sense at the moment, but fear not - all will be revealed......eventually.......



Mickie's Trip Notes - May 2014:

Barcelona:
-Sangria galore
-Pan con tomate (chasing the tapas dragon)
-Marg's Burn
-Sagrada Familia
-Scots on a beach (Keith BeachSquat Fireboobs)

Madrid:
-The hostel impossibility/train issues
-Claudio, Martin and Luis
-Culture at Prado

Dublin:
-Street names (Harcourt)
-Really cool apartment
-Guinness
-Dad begrudgingly has fun
-Marg eats a wad of meat at the market
-The best Italian in Ireland

Paris:
-3 for 10 berets
-Catacombs
-Eiffel Tower Dinner
-The crazy wine guy/Canadian whiskey/so much nougat
-I've got to go to the Louvre
-Versaille's been invaded a.k.a. Opulence - I has it

Lisbon:
-The golden tram
-Riding the rails
-The High School Party
-Cod Chug
-Belem and the Kicky German
-Cork and Tiles
-The search for the pink street
- Can the Can

Madrid Part 2:
-Row your boat
-Tuesday night fever; Or, "why I shouldn't have put that guy in an arm lock"
-All the pasta in the world

Barcelona Airport:
-The fond farewells

London:
-The Sweltering Central Line
-The Harcourt problem, take two: Shepherd's Bush
-The Belushi gang; or, "Dammit Australia"
-Arranging accounts; or, "What looked like the hard part but turned out to be the easy part"
-That one walking tour
-More goodbyes
-Toot toot to the North

Edinburgh:
-Avenue Q
-Film Festival
-Roomie Rachel
-The Great Flat Hunt
-Job Job no Job
-"Foggy" Scotland

That's all for now, me lovelies! Await my updates with bated breath!

Once More Old Girl... Then Ye Can Rest

Hey team! Here are the pictures I captured of the shockingly gorgeous people who came to the going-away at Lunenburg on Thursday. If you have any others that you'd like to share with me, drop me a line!

My my, so photogenic!

Only 3 days left  - that's trois, drei, três, trí, 三, kolm, tiga or III if you're in ancient Rome.

Off to the Races

I started writing this post at 10:00 in the morning on Thursday May 8th. By the time 11:00 am rolled around, I had written the following:

"The day of my departure from Ottawa has arrived. At the moment I'm sitting in Artissimo Café waiting for Adorit (the best fair trade, eco-friendly boutique in Ottawa) to open so that I can get in to my soon-to-be-former apartment above the store. I've passed off residence of the place to my good friends Alain and Emily which means that I'm left sans keys. Which wouldn't be an issue except that all of my luggage is in there. And my plane to New Brunswick leaves in just over 3 hours.

I've missed a plane to NB before. The result was that I had to take the greyhound all the way from Ottawa to Fredericton. In a car, that's about a 9-hour drive for most people (or 11 for me - I'm a geriatric). But the greyhound I took did the milk run. A full 16 hours taking the scenic route the lesser-known areas of South-Eastern Québec, passing through the type of villages locals lovingly refer to as "St. Buttfuck-de-Nowhere".  All of this to say that I'm fairly determined to be well ahead of time for this flight back home. My bags are packed, I just gotta get to them (and maybe take a quick shower, being semi-nomadic for the past week has been a direct-route ticket to stank city). After that, je vais caller le taxi, give a big hug to Emma (the owner of Adorit and my very good friend), give Java (the store's poodle-y mascot) a good ear scritch and then be on my way."

Which brings us to my Thursday afternoon. 4:19 pm. At this point, I should have been on a plane, just about to get into Montréal. Instead, I was sitting at Gate 23 at the Ottawa airport. You’re probably thinking “but Mickie, you said your flight was at 2:00, and you just made a big fuss about how you were super prepared and definitely weren't going to miss it this time.” Yeah. Well.

Sometimes, even if you pack your bags a week and a half in advance, things don’t go exactly according to plan. Or at least, not to your plan. Granted, part of the problem was my own difficulty in understanding how time works. I waited till the last minute to get a prescription filled and that delayed me by a half-hour. But even still, I should have been able to make it to the airport before the cut-off point to get on the plane. My bags and I were in a cab, the cabbie was on the ball, we were making some serious tracks and then... I was thwarted by them gosh-darn protesters. Caught up in my own preoccupations, I had completely forgotten about the pro-life rally that was planned for that afternoon. Turns out that the route they had chosen for their Grand Parade of Indoctrination cut right through my path to the airport. If I was unsympathetic to that particular cause before, now that it made me miss my flight home, I would go so far as to say that I am moderately disgruntled by it.

Never fear though. The whole previous paragraph was written strictly to make a mountain out of a molehill. It was no trouble whatsoever to change my flight and I ended up getting into Saint John only about 4 hours later than expected. And, to be honest, I like hanging out in airports. Once you’re through security, there’s nothing you can really accomplish before getting on the plane, so it’s sort of like a forced vacation. You get to poke around the duty-free shop, grab a bev and a bagel at Timmy Tim Ho Ho’s and read a trashy magazine or five. And you get to watch planes take off, which is cool and, I’m fairly certain, attributable only to sorcery. 

Alright, enough of my bellyachin'. Now, back to very good friends! I want to use this space to send some good feelings to a few more Ottawa people who weren't included in my Parliament love-sesh in the previous post. 

Let's start with the whole Adorit family - You have been the most incredible semi-roomates! In the words of Emma, you are all "Amazing!" :p

And Java - Bark, bark, woof, snifffffff

Emma and Ed, I'm so sad that I won't be able to be at your wedding, but seeing the preparations going into it, I know it's going to represent you guys and your relationship perfectly. Cheerful, loving, free-spirited, adventurous and exactly you. I expect to see lots of pictures from it!

To the staff at the Tea Party and Rasam – even though the crew that I started working with has more or less all gone our separate ways, we shared some lovely, exhausting and delicious times and it was really cool to go from being a customer to your teammate. I will never forget the glory that is scratch-made Butter Chicken Poutine (a.k.a. Butt Chick Pooters).

Since I was a transfer to UOttawa, I didn't get really too involved in campus life (been there, done that at MUN) so I didn't collect too many school friends. But I did have one prof who was a shining star, who became my friend and who was definitely the best prof in all of my  (long) university career - Annik, me han gustado mucho tus clases, pero más importante, eres una amiga buenísima (y bellísima). Suerte! You have prepared me to annoy people not only in English and French, but in the local tongue when I'm in Madrid - for that I thank you!

I want to thank everyone who came out to the going-away party at Lunenburg – what a great turnout! It was a blast and it meant so much to me to see you all there! I’d also like to thank those who couldn’t make it to the bar, but who were there in spirit and/or hologram. If I was kind of quiet at the end of the night, it was partially because I was getting a teeny tiny bit emotional about having to leave all of you and partially because I’ve been putting so much energy into getting myself to yesterday night that when I finally relaxed to enjoy it, my brain chose to respond by sloooowwwinnngg doooowwwwnnnn. But I digress. My friends, you all showed me that Ottawa has become my home, not just a place where I’ve happened to live. I love that beautiful city, but it wouldn’t have meant a quarter as much to me if I hadn’t had all of you there to share it with me.

Finally, Simon. You already know a lot of what I have to say to you – you’re thoughtful, you’re insightful, you’re brilliant, I have some serious respect you and also you've got a hot bod. Thank you for showing me how to be myself around you. Thank you for liking me the way I am.

Meow.

One week left. 

Au Revoir au Parlement

After a four-year run, today I wrapped up my 'career' as a heritage interpreter (i.e. tour guide) in the Parliament of Canada. It was hard. I know that I'm off to adventures and excitement overseas. But this job has been the centre point of my whole life here in Ottawa. It's where I met 95% of my friends. It's what gave me purpose in my tough early days in the city. Without question, it's played a significant part in shaping the person I am today (for better or crazier).

Turning in my security pass stung a little bit - in that moment I transformed from a parliamentarian back into a civilian. No more hanging out in the House of Commons Foyer at midnight, should the mood strike (the mood never struck before, but at least with my pass, I had the option).

I asked my supervisor if I could have the last tour of the day so that I could go out in style and he kindly obliged. What a perfect tour on which to end. An absolute fabulous group of guys. They were in high spirits, they asked intelligent questions and they let me have fun with them. It was a tour that reminded me of the thrill I had when I first started the job. And at the end of the tour, when I told them it was my last one, they gave me a round of applause and then they all came up, shook my hand and wished me luck. Thank you, gentlemen, for helping end on such a high note! You made my day! (Hope you had a good time imbibing at D'Arcy McGee's).

In a few minutes I have to head off to my goodbye soirée - the gang is gathering at my fave pub, Lunenburg, for reminiscing, hugs and tasty, tasty cider. I just want to give a HUGE thank you to every single person who has made my time at Parliament such a joyful chapter of my life.

To the constables, scanners, boutique team, cafeteria squad, maintenance brigade, pages (senate and house), LOP employees, staffers (yes, even the staffers ;p ), senators, MPs, protocol crew, visitors (et visiteurs) and far more wonderful people than I can mention here, thank you for creating the community that makes Parliament such a wonderful place to work.

To the IOs - thank you for being the best supervisors, mentors and friends that I could ask for.

And finally, to you crazy, crazy guides - you made me this way. It's all your fault.

...and I wouldn't give up the time I've spent with you for all the world.

Thank you for making me laugh, being weird, picking me up when I've been down and most importantly, for putting up with me. Vous allez me manquez. Je vous aime à la folie (literally, it would seem).

In this bitter-sweet moment, I sign off for now.

Love,
Mickie

8 days

A Stroll Across the Bonnie Isle

In doing a little armchair adventuring the other day (via my good friend google) a chain of links led me to a goal for my time in Scotland: to walk ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY by means of the newly minted John Muir Way.

For those disinclined (read: too lazy) to check out the site, the John Muir Way is a collection of trails, bike roads and canal tow paths that reaches 215 km (that's 134 miles for you metric resisters) from Helensburgh on the West Coast to Dunbar, a little ways past Edinburgh on the East Coast. It's designed to be completed in 10 stages. The length of each stage ranges from 4.5 to 7 hours walking. That's anywhere from 14 km to 29.5 km depending on the stage. And I'mma gonna do it.

The 10 stages of the John Muir Way

I might take more than just 10 days - if I'm going to walk all the way across a country, I'm darn well going to take my time to explore and enjoy it. I'm thinking that maybe 2 weeks would give a sufficient amount of time for walking, vista-looking, history-learning and village-visiting. I'll suss out the word on the street when I get to Edinburgh to see what's what.

I mentioned this plan to my good ol', wander-lovin' buddy Ethain and he jumped right on it. So when he finishes up with his Jasper-ing, park interpreting and wilderness-ing, we'll try to get a trans-Atlantic wind to blow him over my way so that we can gear up and hit the trail together.

Now I'm not in the worst shape ever, but it's certainly going to take a little practice to build up to it (I'm no bearded, burly, run-loving Islander. Sorry, Eth). That's why I'm planning on joining the Edinburgh Young Walkers, a division of the Lothian and Borders Ramblers. Essentially, the Ramblers are groups of people who enjoy walking and hiking, so they do it together. Sounds reasonable. Plus, I won't have too many friends in Edinburgh when I first arrive, so any group that is willing to let me tag along to their social activities is up my alley. Aaand they host pub nights. So, ya know. Drankz.

For the time being, I'm left dreaming of rocky crags, rugged coastlines and all that other cool biz that Scotland has. And applying for jobs (upon which plans to do anything fun whatsoever are naturally contingent). So until next time, keep your boots laced tight, your matches dry and may your GORP be full of chocolatey candies.

9 days till the adventure begins...

The Great Ottawa Bingo Card

Hey team!

Only 3 days left till I leave Ottawa for my pre-Europe New Brunswick visit! Lately, I've been doing a lot of thinking about how wonderful Ottawa is and all of the things I'll miss about it.

Aside from the obvious (friends, job, favourite café, blah, blah, etc. etc.) there's also the fact that, being the nation's capital, Ottawa is chock-full of interesting and entertaining things to see and do. Of course, like most people, it never really occurred to me to be a tourist in my own town. At least, not until about 3 months ago when my move to Scotland transformed from an idea into a sure thing. Suddenly, I realized that there was so much left to do in Ottawa that I had wanted to do, but had just never made a point of actually going out and doing.

Being a person who loves to check things off lists, I decided to organize these activities into the OTTAWA BINGO CARD (patent pending).

Here it is, y'all:

Canadian Mint 10h00-17h00 Res. (613) 993-8990 $6 Weekday $4.50 Weekend	National Gallery 10h00-17h00 Closed Monday $12-Adult $10-Student	Bytown Museum 11h00-16h00 Closed Monday $6.50-Adult $4.50-Student	Aviation Museum 10h00-17h00 Closed Tuesday $13-Adult $10-Student	Science Museum 9h00-17h00 Closed Monday $12-Adult $10-Student	Nature Museum 9h00-17h00 Closed Monday $12-Adult $10-Student
Civilization 9h30-17h00 $13-Adult $10-Student Combo w/ War: $20-Adult; $15-Student Imax+1 Mus: $20-Adult; $15-Student Imax+2 Mus $26-Adult; $20 Student Combos good for 2 extra days	War Museum 9h30-17h00 $13-Adult $10-Student Combo w/ Civ: $20-Adult; $15-Student Imax+1 Mus: $20-Adult; $15-Student Imax+2 Mus $26-Adult; $20 Student Combos good for 2 extra days	Rideau Hall Res.1-866-842-4422 Res. 2 days ahead	Bytowne Theatre $10.00	IMAX 1 Film $11-Adult; $9-Student 2 Films $17-Adult; $14 Student	Mayfair Theatre $10.00
Little Italy Wander for an afternoon	Chinatown Wander for an afternoon	Monopolatte Mon-Thur 12h-2h Fri 12h00-3h00 Sat 11h00-3h00 Sun 11h00-1h00 $5 Cover; No Cover on Mondays	NAC Concerts Live Rush prices Available from 10am the day before the show	Little Theatre Box Office 11h-20h show night 11h-16h dark night Shows start 19h30 Closed Monday Adult-$25 Student-$12	Arts Court Every Day 9h00-23h00 -
Ottawa School of Art Gallery Mon-Thur 9h30-21h Fri+Sat 8h30-16h30 Sun. 12h30-16h30	St. Laurent+Hill Gallery Tues.-Sat. 10h-18h Sun. 12h00-17h00 Closed Monday	Diefenbunker Every Day 11h-16h $14-Adults $10-Students	Supreme Court Mon.-Fri 9h-17h00 Closed Sat & Sun Res. Request form: http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/vis/tour-visite/request-demande-eng.aspx	Notre Dame Mon.11h30-18h00  Tues.- Sat.10h-18h Sun.8h00-20h30	U Ottawa Drama 20h00 Academic Hall $20-Ad; $10-Student

The dates and times I've included on the card were for the winter season, but a lot of places stay open longer during the summer so keep that in mind when exploring. 

This is just a sample of all that is to be seen and done in O-town, but it's certainly a good start, regardless of whether you're a visitor from away, or simply trying to be a hometown adventurer. 

I haven't quite finished it myself yet (and I almost certainly won't before I leave) but it definitely has gotten me out of my routine of work-home-couch-TV-bedtime. In researching the info for the Bingo Card, I also came across a cool website dedicated to helping people in Ottawa break the lazy+sweatpants routine: http://couchassassin.com/ - worth a look if you're bored!

That's all for now chicas y chicos! Happy exploring!

Only 10 days till Marg and I get on that plane to Spain!

P.S. My favourite Ottawa café is Artissimo at the corner of George and Cumberland.  The café au lait is perfection, the employees are really friendly, the decor is funky and most importantly, it's really close to my apartment. Convenience!