Destination #11-Cambridge & Windsor, "The Ice Hockey", and Halfies

Oh boy. The Canucks are back in the playoffs and I'm wishing I was back home in Vancouver for this time of year. I've been watching as many games as I can and luckily I've had someone at work to talk to about it, otherwise I would've driven myself mad. I have to be careful here when I talk about hockey though, because if you just say "hockey", the Brits think you're talking about field hockey (!?) so you have to say "ice hockey". Not to mention, they like to put a "the" in front of sports. For example, they'll say "Did you watch the football?" So now I have to say "I watched THE ice hockey last night..."

Last weekend was the Easter long weekend and I think the last time I had the entire 4 days off would have been in high school. Trip planning for this weekend had been a complete failure after a few months of trying so my friends; Sasha, Nicole, and I decided to just do a couple of day trips and an Easter Sunday roast.

Our first trip was to Cambridge University on the Saturday. The first thing we did was take in a walking tour in which we were shown King's College, Trinity College, The Backs, Peterhouse, Queen's College, and the Mathematical Bridge. After, we grabbed some lunch in Cambridge's oldest pub (or at least that's what we were told). The rest of the afternoon was very much just walking around and seeing the city/university in more detail. We also made our way over to the Bridge of Sighs which you may recognize from The Theory of Everything. To wrap up the day, we went and got some afternoon tea. This was my first experience doing so and although it wasn't the full experience of sandwiches, cakes, and scones, it was still awesome.

On Sunday, I decided to cook my first roast beef and have an Easter Dinner with Sasha and Nicole. Everything turned out good except I underestimated the difficulty of making gravy from scratch! Never again.

The next day, we went to Windsor Castle and unfortunately, I don't think the Queen was in that day. Although the castle does seem huge, there actually wasn't a whole lot to see after paying 19 pounds to get in. There was definitely some cool sights to see though and we caught a little luck at the end where we saw a mini changing of the guard. I feel like it was a little bit of a joke though as I'm pretty sure the guard that was getting replaced was laughing. 

For those that don't know, I am currently training for my first ever half marathon. Right now, I am in week 6 of 10 and I'm up to 15km (Halfie is 21km). The run is on May 10 and while I do not need any donations or money, I do request that you wish me the best of luck as already running 15km is longer than I have ever ran. It hasn't been easy training and there's many times I would rather just sit at home then go for a run, but I am staying committed and I'm very happy that I've decided to do this for myself.

Next month, I will be heading up to Scotland for the first long weekend where my flatmates and I will be seeing Edinburgh, Lochness, and Isle of Skye. The second long weekend in May, I will be travelling to Dublin with Nicole! Exciting times ahead!

Destination #10-Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Day 5 of this Topdeck tour began early as we made our way over to The Netherlands, which would prove to be a long journey. Our first stop worth talking about was at a random farm owned by a crazy Dutchman. This crazy Dutchman gave us a tour of his family business of making cheese and clogs. To be honest, it was actually interesting and the Dutchman provided some great comedy along the way. At the end, I bought a block of pepper flavoured cheese because the stuff was legit my friends. I have brought it home with me and I can’t wait to crack it open. After the demo, we made our way to Amsterdam.

We checked into the hostel that night and uhhh, it was interesting. A few years back, the hostel was named the worst hostel in Europe, or at least I heard it was. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't spectacular. After we got settled in, our Topdeck leader, Chris, gave us a small walking tour of Amsterdam and the Red Light District. I was actually quite shocked at how attractive and beautiful the girls were in the windows. For some reason, I was expecting Hastings Street Vancouver type quality, but I understand now that it is a legitimate profession in Amsterdam and somewhat respected industry. After walking around, the crew went to a sex show. I will not go into detail about what happened but let’s just say everyone, including me, left with a wide-eyed expression and confused look on their face.

Now, it’s Amsterdam (it’s legal Mom), I was thinking about enjoying a certain type of brownie, but at this point I was coughing, my voice was still gone, my throat still sore, and my right ear was plugged. So this night I decided to go to bed early. It’s definitely not fun being sick on a trip where you have limited time to see everything and all you want to do is sleep!

The next day started with a bike tour of Amsterdam and I was kind of nervous. I had not rode a bike in years and even then, I didn't ride a bike a whole lot as a kid! It was also raining so that put a damper on the day….anyone? I have to say, after it was all said and done, this was actually probably my highlight of the trip. If you don’t know, riding a bike in Amsterdam is probably more popular than walking. Amsterdam is also a really a cool sight with all the canals and bikes everywhere. After the bike tour, the gang headed over to the Anne Frank Huis to see what the line was like. The gang was disappointed. The line was massive and as we were on limited time, we decided to skip it. Instead, we went out for lunch. After this, we decided to make our way over to the Heineken Brewery, except we ended up just going around in a circle and ended up back at Anne Frank Huis where the line was still just as big. We then corrected our path and made our way over to the brewery. The tour was pretty mediocre but hey, you get 2 beers at the end plus a free glass. Later on that night, we had a group dinner at a Chinese restaurant that floats on the canal. It was perfect timing as well because the Liang family back home was celebrating Chinese New Year the same weekend. The meal was amazing because there was so much food and everyone stuffed their face. Afterwards, we went on a canal cruise that was a little disappointing. I think because it was our last night, I was hoping it would be more like a party boat. However, it was small and had tables so we were all sitting down the whole time. We also couldn't see anything out the windows because it was raining. It was open bar though so that was good. After the cruise, we all went for a few drinks and some dancing.

On the last day of our trip, we made the journey back to London. We made a small stop in Bruges, in which I have visited before. I made sure I got some fries and chocolate before we left again. We arrived in London around dinner time and it was time to say goodbye to everyone. The Gang shared some hugs but it was sweet sorrow because all 6 of us actually live in or around London! So I'm sure the Gang will reunite someday. By the end of this trip, I had fit the profile of “Coughdeck”, which is not a good thing.

Amsterdam was another city that I don’t believe I got a fulfilling amount of time in. So I would love to go back, especially in the summer time. The trip itself was a lot of fun filled with great people, lots of laughs, and amazing sights. I'm thinking about doing at least one more of these types of trips because travelling with 45 people rather than just by yourself can be a lot more fun. The only downfall is the limited amount of time you get in each city. I don’t have a favourite out of the 3 cities as they’re all unique in their own way but I loved all of them. 

Destination #9-Berlin, Germany

Day 3 of this Topdeck tour started off with me waking up to no voice K. This was legitimately the first time in my life that I had lost my voice. Of course, I also still had a sore throat. I also never mentioned that because the majority of the Topdeck crew was sick, we were given the name “Coughdeck”. So I was pretty much doomed.

Our bus was headed for Berlin but along the way, we stopped in a city called Dresden which is also in Germany. It was here that our fearless Topdeck leader, Chris, showed us some sights and Currywurst (spicy sausage). At this particular vender we went to, you could choose your level of spiciness, rated 1 to 7. I went with 4 and I’m glad I did. As some of you may know, I love spicy food and if I had gone any higher, I would have been crying. Some crazy people tried 7, including Josh. He was in so much pain that he ran to McDonalds to get a milkshake! After Dresden, we made our way to Berlin. When we arrived, Chris gave us a driving tour of Berlin. Unlike Prague, Berlin is a huge city, so trying to see all the sights on foot would be difficult. The vibe for this city was quite different as well as a lot of the sights and historical monuments were related to World War II and the Holocaust. Once we had checked into the hostel and settled into our rooms, we enjoyed a German meal at the hostel that included schnitzels and pretzels. That night, almost the entire crew decided to take it easy and call it a night. However, a few of us decided to go a grab a drink at a local bar.

The next day started with a walking tour of Berlin where we saw the Reichstag, the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma victims of National Socialism, Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, and many other interesting sights. Afterwards, “The Gang” grabbed some coffee and headed over to the Topography of Terror, a museum located on the site of buildings which during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 were the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS. Next, we went back to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This is a very interesting memorial as the design is open to interpretation. 2,711 concrete slabs are arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field and I got the feeling of isolation whilst in there. Underneath the memorial is another museum in which we visited. Both this museum and the Topography of Terror were difficult to visit as you can imagine and the gang members were in solemn moods by the end of it. Unfortunately, the day had gone by quickly and it was time to head back to the hostel. Luckily, I had a little bit of time to get pictures of the Berlin Wall which was located just outside our hostel. We decided to have dinner at the hostel that night and we weren't very good at timing. When our food hit the table, we had like 5 minutes to scarf it down and meet the rest of the Topdeck crew for a pub crawl. I won’t give you the gory details of the pub crawl, only that I didn't go to bed until probably 3:30am to have to wake up at 7:00am the next morning.

Berlin was great but I do not feel like I spent as much time as I would have liked in the city. It is definitely on my list to go back.

To be continued….

Currywurst

Reichstag

The Gang

Berlin Wall

Destination #8-Prague, Czech Republic

Day 1 of this Topdeck tour started off very early Sunday morning. I had booked the cheapest flight possible, as you do, that departed London at 6:45am. This meant waking up at 3:00am and heading to the bus stop. Luckily, a bus that goes to the airport comes pretty much right by my flat. However, this particular bus decided to be mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 55 minutes late! In true Liang family fashion, I was running late for my flight. Side note: this trip started off with a sore throat as well, which you will hear more about later. I arrived at the airport with minimal time to spare and of course the line to check in was ginormous. I also tried to fit my carry-on bag into the measurement box the airline provides and it would not fit!! Luckily, absolutely no one noticed and I got on my flight in time and was able to carry on my above-average size backpack.

I arrived in Prague at about 10:00am local time and knew I had a bit of a long day ahead of me as a.) I would have to carry around my heavy bag until 5pm when the rest of the Topdeck crew was joining us and b.) I was running on almost no sleep. My first stop was Prague Castle where I decided it was a good idea to climb to the very top. Stunning views but I was reminded as to just how out of shape I am. After I left Prague castle, I made my way towards Charles Bridge where I found a cool little market. On display was a dead Pig sliced in half….and this is where I proceeded to buy a sausage and some mulled wine. I must say, it was delicious and it was nice to sit down and enjoy the moment for a bit. Afterwards, I searched for the John Lennon wall, a wall since the 1980s that has been filled with John Lennon-inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beatles' songs. I knew it was close by but I forgot to give myself directions to the exact location. After a solid 20 minutes of looking, I finally found the wall only to realize it was basically right beside where I had my sausage. Afterwards, I walked the Charles Bridge and visited the Old Town square and the Jewish Quarter. At this point, I was exhausted and didn’t really know where else to go and explore. I made my way over to the hostel and luckily, they let me chill in the lounge before the rest of the crew arrived. While I was waiting, I met another Canadian who would be joining the Topdeck crew for the trip as well. Once acquainted and the Topdeck crew arrived, we got settled into our rooms and enjoyed a Czech meal at the hostel, which appeared to be a lot of chicken. Later on that evening, our Topdeck leader, Chris, took us on a walking tour of the city. I was so exhausted by the end of it, that many others and I decided to call it a night and go back to the hostel.

Today started off with my sore throat being 10x worse. After breakfast, Chris took us on a walking tour again (mainly for those that missed the previous nights) and this time went to Prague castle. We watched the changing of the guard and my buddy, Josh, and I went and shot a crossbow as well. We were both naturals ;). Afterwards, we visited Old Town square and the Jewish Quarter again before heading over to Wenceslas Square. It was shortly after where Josh decided to buy a trombone…it took me a while to wrap my head around it but props to the kid for doing whatever the hell he wanted to. Later on that evening, I went out to dinner with what was now “The Gang”. The Gang consisted of me, Josh (Aussie), Valerie (the Canadian I met), and 3 other Aussies: Nerida, Flick, and Rhiannon. That was another thing about EVERYBODY on this trip was that they all had unique names. I had a pretty hard time learning them all. In fact, by the end of the trip, I definitely didn’t remember everyone’s names. Also, I’m pretty sure like 96% of the people on this trip were from Australia…and there was like 45 people?? I digress! Dinner was great with “The Gang” (Flick created this name…um) and the night ended with the some bar hopping and my favourite was a 5 story nightclub that played different music on each level. Everyone’s favourite was the Oldies level.

To be continued….

View of Prague from the top of the castle

John Lennon wall

Charles Bridge

Wenceslas Square

Josh and his trombone

Pit Stop-Home

I never thought that I would consider going home to be a vacation but that was what it was. Two and a half weeks of catching up with everyone and eating and drinking. Safe to say I gained a few pounds from this trip... and I'm not talking about Great British Pounds. It was really nice to see everyone and I've been reminded of how lucky I am to have such amazing and wonderful people in my life. As usual, there was never a dull moment, whether it was my car not starting due to a dead battery, or going to a Canucks game, or going snow tubing, or even devoting an entire night to Spicy Caesars. Saying goodbye to everyone this time around was a little different as I'm not 100% sure when I'll be seeing everyone again. Of course, my visa will expire come May of 2016 so you know I'll for sure be back by then. But I'm still deciding on a definitive time to come home and there's a few factors that will decide that, one of them being how much travelling I can get done. There's still so many places I want to see but it can get complicated with getting time off work and of course, money. I think the 6 months in 2014 was very 'go-with-the-flow' whereas I think 2015 is going to have to be a bit more planned in order to get everything done that I want to get done.

As I write this post, I am currently jet lagged and this is hopefully keeping me awake. It's only 8:50pm and I'm about to pass out. Before I leave, I thought I would humour you with some notable differences between London and Vancouver. I realize there are probably quite a few more things I'm missing but here's a simple list.

Who does it better?

Drying clothes: Vancouver - I'm amazed at the limited existence of dryers in the UK. It's not like it's always sunny here and we can dry our clothes outside!!

Groceries: London - Leave out the exchange rate but wow doing groceries is soooo much cheaper here. I rarely have much on my bill that is over £2.00

Tap water: Vancouver - You can probably guess why.

Transit: London - Let's just say, you do not need a car in London.

Things to do/Frequency of places to eat & drink: London

Movie popcorn: Vancouver - They don't put butter on their popcorn over here????

Stick deodorant: Vancouver - For some odd reason, it's all body spray or antiperspirant over here. No regular deodorant except for these tiny little roller versions of them.

Post/Delivery: London - If I order something online, it comes to my front door in like 2 days.

Other notable differences:
-There seems to be an extreme amount of Fried Chicken shops in London.
-London always seems to be windy.
-In London, the price you see is the price you pay. None of this $7.99 plus tax junk!
-Vancouver has eggnog, maple bacon, caesars, and better peanut butter.
-Songza is not available in the UK...

Pretty even match-up, I would say.

In a month, I'll be travelling to Prague, Berlin, and Amsterdam for a week tour. Can't wait!

Destination #7-Paris & Versailles, France

Bonjour! Je ai apprécié de Paris! Comprenez vous?

Last weekend, my friend Nicole and I went for a short weekend trip to Paris. As we have both been before, we were wanting to do something different than the usual touristy stuff. Our original plan was to go to Versailles one of the days and to a place called Mont St. Michel the other day. Unfortunately Mont St. Michel turned out to be pretty expensive to get to so we only ended up doing Versailles as something different and still ended up doing all the touristy stuff anyway!

We arrived at Charles De Gaulle airport Friday night and found ourselves in a little bit of pickle. There were military guards guarding the entrance to the train station. As neither of us can really understand French, we're assuming there was some sort of bomb threat. We attempted to find other means of transportation into the city and waited at a bus stop for 20 minutes before going back to the train station to find the guards had left and the train station fully operational...

We ventured to our hostel with not much difficulty and by the time we checked in, it was about 9pm and we were too lazy to head into the centre of Paris to find something to eat. Our hostel was pretty much in what we would have guessed was Chinatown. So naturally, we got some Chinese for dinner.

The next day, we got up early and headed over to the Palace of Versailles. We couldn't have gotten any luckier because it was an absolute gorgeous day out. The palace itself is giant and the gardens are like 20 times bigger so by the end of it, Nicole and I were only able to do a small fraction of the grounds because the place is just massive. If you don't know your history, this place was for royalty in the mid 17th century and it's where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were dragged from by revolutionaries to Paris for them to be guillotined. This is also where the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end World War II. The palace itself was beautiful and there was lots of interesting sights inside including the Hall of Mirrors. However, the gardens amazed us even more. So many beautiful sights and the more further we went into the gardens, the prettier it got. There is only so much describing I can do but you will see in pictures just how stunning this place was. I would love to see this place in the summer time!

By the time we had decided to leave, we were already exhausted from walking around so much and the day was only half over. We made our way back to Paris in the late afternoon and the plan was to walk down the Champs Élysées and climb up the Arc de Triomphe. This however, took some time. The avenue was beautifully lit up with Christmas lights but was packed to the max with people! This was because they had Christmas markets all lined up along the avenue and it was a Saturday so it only made sense. Shuffling along like snails, we finally made it to the Arc de Triomphe and made our way up. Although it was freezing cold, the sight was breathtaking. A full moon, the Champs Élysées all lit up, and the Eiffel Tower sparkling. We could not have picked a better time to go up.

After that, we had some dinner and went back to the hostel to call it a night. We were so exhausted.

The next day consisted of returning to the touristy sights and eating French food. We went and saw the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, and ate food in the Latin Quarter. This day's food consisted of croissants, pain au chocolats, croque monsieurs, crepes, and macarons. Mmmmmmmm.

That was the trip, short and sweet. Even though I've been before, it was honestly more fun this time around ;)

This last week was a fun one here in London. On Wednesday, my friends and I went to this event called Winter Wonderland. Basically, they've turned Hyde Park into this massive carnival for Christmas and it has rides, lots of food stalls, Christmas market stalls, and an ice skating rink. It seems it's quite a popular thing to set up skating rinks in the winter time here as there's also one in Victoria Park and one in Canary Wharf, Although the rink at Hyde Park was actually quite tiny and the skates quite brutal, it was still a lot of fun to be skating around again. On Thursday, our work had our Christmas party at this super nice hotel called The Mayfair. We even got greeted at the door with champagne!! I've never ever been greeted with champagne! I think? Either way, it was still so nice and the dinner was really good as well. The night then carried onto the dance floor. The worst part was having to go to work the next day. How can anybody get any work done being hungover!? I don't know why they make these things on Thursdays.

Well, it's less than 10 days until I return home for Christmas and I couldn't be more excited! See everyone soon!

Destination #6-Cardiff, Wales

Credit to my friend for coming up with this one: We had a Wales of a time...

Let me start off by saying that this was a difficult trip to plan. As we were only hoping to go for a weekend, we were intrigued by places in Wales like Pembrokeshire and Snowdonia. If you google image those areas, you'll know why we wanted to go there. Unfortunately, it proved difficult to get there with the limited amount of time that we had. So literally, it wasn't until 2 weeks before we departed that we actually came up with things to do. Here's how it went:

Because Wales is side by side with England, we decided to take a 3.5 hour bus ride there for only £9 each way. Not too bad! There was 6 of us that went, as you'll see in pictures. We stayed in this beautiful apartment while we there and it was situated pretty central in Cardiff. Our immediate thought when we first stepped into the apartment was that we wanted to stay there longer! Compared to all the small flats we live in in London, this was luxury. After settling in, we went and grabbed something to eat at a pub. We were hoping to find some Welsh dishes to try but as soon as I looked at the menu, I realized it was the exact same menu as the pub beside my office in London. Chain pub, damn. Oh well, it was still good. We then ventured over to a cocktail bar where they had a pianist playing and the bartenders put on a good show for how pricy the drinks were. The rest of the night took off from there, as I am sure you can imagine.

The next morning, we took a 2 hour journey to get to a place called 'Waterfall Country' just on the outside of Brecon Beacons National Park. Now, if you look on a map, Brecon Beacons is HUGE. You can seriously only do a small fraction in one day. We were hoping to do 2 trails that had waterfalls but in the end, only did one...and I'll tell you why. We decided to do the first trail that was closest to the bus stop we got off at. The starting point of the trail was not clearly signposted so we had a hard time finding it. After walking a bit, we finally found it...or at least, thought we found it. We start walking up this hill and none of us really notice that we're not close to a river. It obviously seems now that that was common sense if you want to find a waterfall, but we kept going. Up, up, up, we kept going up this massive hill and we start going into people's farms I'm pretty sure. Something didn't feel right and was beginning to feel like the start of a horror movie. Luckily, we were out in the open so despite us actually going the wrong way, the views were gorgeous. After walking with muddy shoes and basically making it to the peak of the hill, I finally decided to pull out my phone and compare Google maps with my paper map. We were going East when we should have been going West. So we turned around, headed West and kept our ears open for running water. After some time, we finally heard the sound and we headed downhill (of course) to the river. Although we were going the wrong way, it was actually still a lot of fun to find our own pathway to the river and we still saw some great sights. Along the trail, there was one big waterfall but we couldn't get anywhere close to it which was a bummer. At the end of it, there was a miniature one and it wasn't as big as the one back home (Maple Ridge) in our backyard trail. When we had walked all the way back to the other end of the trail, we found the 'real' starting point of the trail, which was only about 15 yards from the one we had started on. Because of winter, the sun was well on its way down so we didn't have time to do the other trail. I'm a bit bummed as well because the other trail has a waterfall from a scene in 'The Dark Knight Rises'. Either way, it was still great to get outdoors and do some hiking. It made me realize how much I haven't explored back home. That night, we went and got some Tapas for dinner (real Welsh, I know) and hung out at the apartment after.

The next day, we went to Cardiff Castle. This was really interesting as it's supposedly 2000 years old! Naturally, we spent quite a bit of time there. So after doing that and getting lunch, it was already time to head back to London. I would certainly love to do Wales again to either see that other waterfall trail, see Pembrokeshire, or Snowdonia.

Well, it's officially 5 weeks until I go back home for the holidays and I am thoroughly excited! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone though. I've been here 5 months now and it's been an absolute blast. I'm heading to Paris in a couple of weeks with my friend Nicole so looking forward to that. I've also booked a trip in February for a week that will go to Prague, Berlin, and Amsterdam. Super excited for that. I've also booked a tour in Scotland in May.

Christmas is coming up and my flatmate hasn't let me forget it. She put up the tree on the weekend while I was away...even after I told her not until December 1st!! Sneaky. London is starting to look more festive and Christmas themed parties are starting to get under way. Like Vancouver, the days here are getting darker earlier and it's getting colder. At this point, I'm used to more rain in Vancouver but locals have told me that this is unusual for London to be this dry. So maybe I should hold my breath.

Next post shouldn't be as long of a wait as this one. I'll be back from Paris on Dec 7th. More pictures on Facebook and Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/125490324@N06/sets/