hong knog is rockin'!!!!! I love it here! went for a hike up a huge big hill and rode the worlds longest escalator ( i think we rode 1200m of escalator yesterday!!!! thats about 15minutes on an escalator!) i'm off to more of shouthern china tomorrow... internet is a little sucky right now. Hope everyone had a great holiday season and that everyone has a magical new years eve!

My blog is updated, my pictures burned to CD and my pack cleaned out... Im in london for the next couple of days with friends of the family drinking tea and playing with the cats. So nice!!! I'll be spending christmas eve in the airport and then I'm flying to Hong Kong on christmas day - if anyone has any good tips or information about travelling in china and south east asia, i would sppreciate it! Or if you plan on being in the gatwick airport on christmas day i have enough white russian mix for two, so stop by and we'll share some spirits! cant wait to meet more new friends!

Afte many hours of transit from vienna to london and a landing in crazy thick fog, i arrived safely. I wanted to explor ethe national art gallery because I had seen so little of it my previous visit to london, and so aI headed off to explore... only to end up at the british museum!!! The next day i explored the tate modern where an exhibit in slides as installed. So much fun, just a couple of slides - whi needs disney world!!?!?! There were people af all ages and descriptions playing on the slides and having a great time! There is also a big ram p in the hall and kids were sliding down on their jackets and another couple was racing toy cars... incredible what fun everyone had wih so little!!! good times in london!

salsa dancing with real dancers, earth wind and fire cover band, spanish riding school warm up exercises, many hours of coffee and pastry, eat what you want indian (and pay what you want!!!?), hundertwasser (the austrian gaudi)!, sausages with warm cheese inside on a cold day, christmas market galore!!! I dont think I will ever leave!!!

images: hundertwasser haus and the christmas market. The biggest one I have seen yet, and instead of tiny lights on the trees (because the square is so big) they had these giant christmas lantern things... so pretty!

hockey in bratislava, Christina Aguilera in Vienna, Vienna boys choir, opera!!! so much goodness! Many stories to be updated shortly... and many photos to accompany!

Nicolle and I were in Bratislava what i mentioned in passing that i had over heard in budapest that christina aguilera was playing in vienna soon... well after a few minutes of google. We decided to catch the first train to vienna the next day, get a hostel first and the get tickets, and then go shoping for the show!!! Ok... so we missed the train even after a lovely slovakian woman helped us butt the line! But that was the only flaw in our plan and we ended up purchasing the very last floor tickets to the concert!!! a few hours latter we were decked out in new clothes and having a wild time - her concert was like a musical with new costumes and singers and dancers ....! Nicolle has all of the pictures but Ill post some soon!

images - nicolle and i with our christina tickets! playing romeo and juliet at th eopera house with a very nice random man! More street food ! Nicolle and Maggie (from kingston) and i had to have one of these sausages infused with cheese!

Welcome to bratislava!
After the hard canoe lesson of the 14th of December, I arrived in Bratislava set for more adventures! Im now settled into a new hostle with my friend Nicolle from calgary (we met in prague) and we have a great day planned... coffee at coffee and co, make noise makers, book bus tickets for tomorrow, wander the old town, purchase christmas ornament, view castle (?), hockey game at 1pm (!), break for local food at the market, hockey at 5:30pm (!), and finish the night with some mulled wine at the market place... I havent heard many good things about bratislava, but I thnk this is going to be a really great day!

images:so much currency... i think i had 7 differnt ones on me by the time i got to bratislava! Nicole and i with our snacks and hot wine at the hockey game! she had sausage and bread and i had a cheese burger (no meat?) yeah! it had a peice of cheese and lots of grated cabbage and ketchup!!! it was warm though and thats really all i needed!

always paddle your own canoe!!!
I have been trying to make sure that I know when and wher eI am going, even if I am travelling in a group. In budapest however I handed over some of that responsability and at came back to bite me a little. For one day I followed. I let someone else make the decisons about trams and buses and I didnt double check. Everything went smoothly as this peticular person knew what they were doing. However, the following day when we parted ways at the bottom of a hill in budapest and I was left on my own to find my way back to the hostle I realised that I hdidnt even know what the hostle was called! I took tow trams in the wrong dirrection (ran into the officer that had ticketed us that morning for not having tickets!!!) walked for half an hour, contemplated taking a taxi ('yes could you take me to the hostle by the shell station.... i dont think that would have worked very well) In the end i found a familiar tram, made it back to the hostle and to the bus station in time for my bus. But now I know even though we should trust others and work together, one should always gather all of the information they need for themselves! (as Tanya always says when she get into an unknown situation... I should have asked more questions!)
So yeah... paddle your own canoe!

Train ride to vacation land
the train ride from krakow to budapest was beautiful. I shared a sleeper with the usken brothers from calorado. It felt a little bit like a movie. Since then I have been on vacation; movies, turkish baths and naps have been mz priority here. i could stay in budapest for ever (exclamation mark ... i cant find it on this key board) Tomorrow i am off to bratislave where i am hoping to see some hockey and then onto...

image added, gluewine at the market with the ursken brothers and the goulash gang!!!

The night train is always an experience. Krakow at dawn is beautiful, filled with mist and mystery. I met some fun americans today and we ventured to Auschwitz and Birkenau... 'nough said.

other adventure in krakow include a day out with two american (one an architecture student form the fLW school and the other a peace corps worker stationed in ukraine) we went into the most beautiful bell tower! The beams and columns made of wood bigger than me (please note the pumpkin colored dress, a splurge in prague!!! one of the pretyest things i have ever owned!) Then we went off to Nawa Huta a completely soviet planned town, they built it from scratch on agricultural land, we had a great day filled with architectural talk and much fun!

Vladislov's hall...
my wow moment in prague was in this hall, I felt like a BOHEMIAN PRINCESS and wanted to waltz about the space, but I don't think they allow waltzing there any more, plus I don't think the walking tours would have appreciated me waltzing thorugh there group!

met a fun canadian, she introduced me to these great sausages in the market and for any one that knows STROOPWAFFLES , she took me to a man that makes them!!! Only 5 people apparently have the recipe and I had a fresh one!!! It was so delicious. Most of the day was spend wandering... and we ended up on this mini skating rink, it was a dollar to rent sakets and they were the dullet skates I have ever used! We wore the 'boy' skates too, which they thought was very funny, and took lots of silly pictures. Supper fun canadian day!

I hear that there is snow on the east coast! I have not seen snow since I left Ottawa, but I did find a pile of ice shavings from a very tiny rink they have here in a square. So... I did what every good Canadian does when they see snow... I built a snow man!!! he has a spoon instead of a broom and paper eyes instead of coal or apples... I think he looks pretty handsome!

as the sun passes to market square...

I arrived in the city at 5:45... to early to wander very far and too late to start s search for a place to stay. So I fallowed some poeple around for a little while (I figured if it was safe for them to be there, it was safe for me to be there - stop worrying mom and dad, it was fine) This led me to the main square where there were a few others with back packs that had obviously also come on a midnight express.

The square was defined by a variety of cafes and a church and an old astrological clock (or maybe thats astronomical ? ....) and is filled with christmas markets stalls with holy and mini lights and a life sized ginger bread house and petting zoo! (oh tourism...) The construction men came and carried away some steel ibeam, the woman moped the coffee shop and put out sugar and cream on the table, a taxi driver took a doughnut break and got icing sugar all over his car...

Fast forward a few hours and the market was completely packed with children dresses as devils, angels and bishops.... They were handing out candy and being merry! Now why you might ask, as I did, what was this strange celebration ??? Aparently it was the night that nicolas was comming (NOT to be confused with christmas, no one comes to visit at christmas... well jesus brings the presents...)

And so I guess on dec 5th a fusion of halloween and christmas are celebrated here in prague... I;ve never seen so many children with flashing devil horns! ...

what a day in the market!

images added: me dancing at the frank ghery 'fred and ginger' building in prague! and a view of the buildings by the river.

midnight express!!!

I took the overnight bus to prague and they played this great czeck movie that was like a mix of dumber and dumber and a really bad psycho movie. I think all of the czeck people had seen it (or maybe they deemed it too horrible to watch) but a spanish couple and I really enjoyed it (you could tell cause we were the only ones laughing out loud!)

BRAZILIAN BIRTHDAY!

last night as I typed about good times in berlin, lovely man asked me to help him type in English. He was from Brazil and we communicated in Spanish and it went very well. He was at the cafe with his friend Christian from Berlin and they were heading off to a birthday party and wanted to know if I would like to come. Now under normal circumstance I would have said no... but the party was at a club, I had friends in the city that new where I was going, and I was really interested in seeing what a Brazilian party consisted of... and so of course I went on the adventure!

We get to the club and they were on a private list... thats a good start, so there really is a party. We walk in and as my eyes adjust to the light I see these beautiful brazilian couple dancing and I mean dancing! It could have been a ballroom dance conpetition except there was more passion and involvement from the dancers and the 'audience'. I could have watched them all night and been content. But...

Of course it was after all a party and so when gasolina started to play I was on the dance floor in second! There was a little salsa beat and some songs I recognized from Costa Rica and so much dancing!

Then it was time for the birthday boys presents! (Now as an aside please let me describe this birthday boy... He was a petite portuguese man in his earlz thirties with the most beautiful long curly black hair, and when he danced he knew how to work his hair and his hips, Ive never seen anything like it... he was also flamboyantly gay... I hate to add that in, but it really helps you picture him) So the band returns to the stage and enter... pablo dressed in tiger skins and straw. He has prepared a dance for the birthday boy. It was about three minuted of coreographie and he was such a pretty dancer. MUCH better than my brazilian that I did in Halifax! and he kept all of his clothes on! (I lost a small piece of my top in a show once, only to expose myself slightly to a tine portion of the halifax community) He was a strong dancer full of grace. If that wasnt enough...

Then Five capoeiristas proceded to dress sown to their crisp white pants and belts to perform their best capoeira tricks! They were amazing, they must have been practicing since they were very small to have the felibility and strength they had in thier backs! And the band played on and we all sang!

And I was still in bed at a decent hour!

So have yourself a visit to an internet cafe today, you never know where it might take you!

images added; eating spanish tortilla on the way to berlin! me looking very intellectual in an orginal (sp?) barcelona chair!!! Jason at the GSW building! The jewish museun and all the gang from berlin (fernando and hector from spain, hans and kirsten, and myself and jason!)


i love berlin

friday morning jason from dalhousie, Hans from france and two big spanish boys hector and fernando piled into a very cozy hoda civic and headed off for Berlin. Nine lovely hours latter we arrived a little sore but in good spirits! Our hostel is great, secure and clean and free breakfast and a bar and all. I went to bed early the first night as I am still recoverving with the antibiotikos.

Day one in Berlin. I think we saw every major building in berlin in one day! Hans is also studying architecture and he lived in berlin for 7 years. We did the jewish museum and a plethora of other renzo piano and mies and rogers... pictures to be included latter. Enter, rob , christof and kirsten... we ate some white trash food (actuallz the name of the restaurant) had some beers listened to some sweet electronica music (i need more music vocabulary to describe them best) and went to bed early ???

The scale here is wild, everything is spaced out like at big box stores in canada, it takes days to walk around because everything is so far apart, and there is construction everywhere...

Sunday was a day of rest... sleeping... a bowl of koffee and the Riechstag sp? (by Foster) we took a small nap at the top of the dome, it was delicious!

And tomorrow, more architecture, more donair!!!! [I have never had such savorz doanirs before, I will never be able to eat at KOD again (so sad!) to was salivating while I ate! and for only 3 dollards!] and then to prague...

Im off into some unknown land by myself for the next few weeks so posts might be a little weak... ill try and keep up!