Recent Adventures (Scotland & Ireland)

Its been a while again, so I figured I would capture this before memories of our trips started to overlap... feel free to skip ahead to the titled locations below if you would like to skip my personal update/rant.

As I mentioned on my previous post, my position at work has been made redundant thus ending my 8 year career at Agilent. In order to make the best use of my situation I have decided to take some time to myself and explore Edinburgh and small pockets of Europe with Evelyn.

Firstly I must note that I have been having a blast. I have discovered a passion for cooking, and a renewed pleasure in reading books.

Edinburgh:

I find that photos speak volumes over words (especially the ones I tend to use) so take a look through our collection. To summarize, Spring has passed and we are now in the midst of a lovely Scottish summer (no really), the number of international visitors in Edinburgh is increasing exponentially as we approach festival season... and we have already purchased our tickets for not only the Movie Festival but also for several shows in the Fringe festival (not cheap!)

Scotland:



Recently Evelyn's work contract ran out so we figured we would take some time to explore our new surroundings. The first was a 1,600Km road trip around Scotland.

The following is our top ten places or experiences from our journey

1. The friendly and very chatty Scots
   
2. Ancient ruins on the Isle of Lewis (Iron Age Broch, Callanish Stones)
   
   
3. A true appreciation of peat (not just as a source of fuel but an essential part of the flavour in some Whisks!)
4. The majesty of Glencoe
   
   
5. Unique and unexpected discoveries such as "the place where fairies live"
   
6. Great local food the further away you get, best of which featured lamb and pork on the Isle of Harris and Lewis respectably followed by wild Venison and Hare in Loch Ness.
   
7. Staying in a castle on the cheap!
   
   
8. The diverse character of the landscapes as you cross from very mountainous Scottish Highlands to the barren yet dramatic landscape of the Isle of Skye to the boulder ridden Isle of Harris (both Isles void of trees)
9. Countless ruins scattered throughout the country that resulted from a brutal history.
   
   
10. The endless selection of Ales (Froach being a clear stand out)
    

Ireland:
Before Ev returned to work we figured we would squeeze a week long road trip through Ireland...
I have also provided a top 10 list Ireland:

1. Drink shit loads of Guinness, it really does taste the best in Ireland
   
   
2. Dingle Peninsula... go there first and dedicate a couple of days!
   Eat at Murphy's..
   
   
3. (Dublin) Visit the Chester Beatty Library, its amazing and free... DO NOT waste your time queuing to see the Book of Kells (its pricey, overcrowded and OVERRATED)
   
4. (Dublin) Peat Bog people at the National Museum
   
   
5. For the freshest local seafood eat at Jim Edwards in Kinsale (worth staying the night)
   
6. (Dublin) Guinness Brewery... its touristy (and can get busy) but worth a visit
   
   
7. Climb Croagh Patrick... because St Patty did!
   
   
8. (Dublin) for a great coffee and a quick bite got to Dunne and Crescenzi on Sth Frederick St south of the Trinity Collage


9. The eerie Portal Tomb, in The Burren (good luck finding it)
   
   
10. Driving the very narrow back roads in the Irish country side (Ev swears by it)
    

I didn't realize how long this post would take so I will blog our Polish wedding / Alps and English Lake District trips soon, I promise :)

Now that where settled in Edinburgh.

I guess its no surprise that its been a while since the last blog... lol

Poland:
Picking up from the last entry, we did go to Poland and enjoyed it immensely. No one warned us on the amount of feasting on wonderful Polish food we had to endure, not that I'm complaining. For those that know me know that I love to eat, so having home grown Polish food (like mum used to make and better!) was quite a pleasure, not to mention the great beers and spirits on offer.



Beyond that I finally had the pleasure of meeting Evelyns extended family. This was a great experience as it not only allowed me the opportunity to travel to different parts of Poland but also meet some great people.

Evelyn also got to meet my side of the family, where we enjoyed Christmas and New Years celebrations my extended family and friends. We also had the opportunity to sneak away to Krakow for a couple of days to explore the "City of Kings"

Thank you all for your generous hospitality.

As always you can see the full story in pictures on flickr.


Back to Edinburgh:
Let me begin by giving you the juiciest news. Evelyn has finally landed a job, and I have finally been made redundant from mine (or as I have to teach myself to say, "I'm now currently between jobs"). Our immediate plans are to remain in Edinburgh to at least experience the festival season as we sure as hell didn't come here for the great winters. Personally I intend to take a short break before looking for further employment, which will allow me to explore some of Edinburgh (maybe even try a few new things like climbing and cooking)

Other then that Evelyn had found us a fantastic apartment for us to live in and in a great location (not only because there are 3 bars on our street alone).

Later, j

Forgive me family and friends, for it has been 8 months since my last blog entry.

Firstly, for those of you who have been checking our blog for updates, I'm sorry it has taken us so long. We truly have been busy and frankly quite lazy when it comes to "using our words" but as usual our pictures were up on flickr promptly ;)

In a nutshell

Jarek's parents visited us in April and we took the Rocky Mountaineer to explore the Canadian Rockies for a week which was awesome. We got to celebrate our last "Celebration of Lights" with our dear friends and Jarek got terribly sun burnt at the Gay Pride Parade (he told me to add it was just the arms and face thank-you!!). Jarek had an amazing time climbing Mt. Alpha with his buddies Ed & Mike and we finally got to visit San Francisco.
After our great adventure there we set off to Nova Scotia to attend the wedding of our good mates Tom & Bronwen. The wedding took place in Bronwens home town by the sea, Margretsville where we finally got to sleep in our new tent. During the 10 days on the east coast we clocked 3,800km exploring beautiful Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec City and finally Montreal. One of the many highlights being The Cabot Trail, Canada's own Great Ocean Road complete with the odd Moose on the side of the road.
Upon our return, Jarek and I thought we hadn't seen enough of BC and took a lovely day hike at Joffre lakes north of Whistler. Just stunning!!!!

But before I go on...I have to add Jarek's little entry about the Mt Alpha hike which he enjoyed so much and I'm grateful he came back from alive....

Jareks 2 cents..

Firstly we have been keeping our flickr site largely up to date, and as the saying goes a picture can speak a thousand words... and you won't have to read my rambling.

In my last blog entry I went on about how hard the Mt Baker hike was and how it was the most difficult one I ever did.... well I've out done myself! Since then (as my final BC hike) I along with Ed and Mike climbed (mountaineering style) Mt Alpha in the Tantalus Range. Not counting the 5 hour climb to the base camp at Lake Lovely Water, the Mt Alpha accent and decent took 24 hours... and my heels were thoroughly blistered. I'm quite proud of myself as I achieved many firsts on the hike; first time to wear a climbing harness, first time to rope climb !ever! (rated 5-7 with a 2 pitch accent for those interested), first time to climb in the dark... and the first time to take a shit on the top of a mountain :D

Well that was nice Jarek!....taking a shit on the top of a mountain is definitely a commendable achievement!!

So back to us getting ready to move to ye olde Scotland (at this point I'd like to add the irony of us visiting Nova Scotia which in Polish translates to 'New Scotland' before our move to Scotland itself....believe me when I say we did not click on this fact for quite a while). Anyway, after our trip from the east coast I had a couple more weeks to get rid of all our shit and prepare for our trip to Mexico and our big move to Edinburgh. As usual Jarek kept working and the big move became my full time job.

Dot!, Dottola!, Dottie!, Dottski!, Little Bitch!

It's one thing to leave a country and say good-bye to friends, but another to leave behind a pet. As grateful as I am to the lovely family that adopted our cat Dot, I miss her terribly at times.
It truly isn't until you loose a pet that you notice what an impact they have on your life.




MEXICO!!

Don't get us started on Mexico.
WE FUCKIN LOVE MEXICO!!! We took almost 2000 pics over our 2 weeks there and narrowed it down to a brief 340 ( it was hard) I won't go into any detail here as I painstakingly labelled all the pics with the necessary info. We spent 15 days traveling from Mexico City to Playa del Carmen
Our Stops; Mexico City, Puebla, Oaxaca, San Cristóbal, climbing Mayan temples, Palenque, Mérida, Chichén Itzá, swimming in cenotes, Playa del Carmen.
We met some awesome people, had some fab mexican food and beer, swam in some of the bluest (and warmest) water we've ever seen and learned a lot about mexican history and culture. We recommend Mexico to everyone.



HAGGIS!!!

48 hours after swimming in the Caribeann we found ourselves in Edinburgh, Scotland. We literally had only 6 hours in Vancouver when we arrived from Mexico to unpack and re-sort our worldly posessions before we headed off to our new home. It was a bit of a whirlwind experience but
it all turned out fine. We were worried we would tip the scales with our luggage but ended up just within the limit for weight and volume with British Airways. As you can see in the pics, Edinburgh is an old city. For Jarek and myself it is quite impressive to drink in a pub that is older than Australian Settlement (1788). We look forward to exploring this beautiful country (despite its grey weather) more in the new year. We have already rekindled our love for pies, something we got used to not having in Vancouver and Jarek is having a love affair with haggis (for those of you wondering...it tastes like black pudding) I don't eat it I just prepare it for him, its very high in iron.
I recently found us a place to rent in the new year so we look forward to moving into our own place in Jan but until then we leave on Sunday for a 3 week trip to the homeland.

POLAND (the Homeland)

Well, for me its been 13 years since my last visit and before then I was 3 years old when my folks immigrated to Australia so its going to be interesting to go back as an adult and see all of my extended family. Jarek was there just last year so its much fresher in his memory.
We leave on Sunday and won't be back till Jan 3rd so I will write when I get back ( I promise!!)

Until then, Jarek and I wish you all a happy and safe Christmas and New Year and as usual we'll have a wee drink ( or 2) for you all to mark the occasion!!!

Mt Baker Summit... the one that almost broke me

The one that almost broke me... Ed and I set off at 8pm Tuesday night, we walked throughout the night in 1 foot deep power. By 9am the following morning (13 hours after starting) we called it quits and headed home.

This was the hardest and most dangerous trip I have EVER been on!(we had avalanche and glacial crevasses to contend with) It was an epic 16 hour return trip that literally fucked with my mind.



Mt Baker Summit - Widget powered by: EveryTrail

Some one up there likes me

This is my best snow season.... EVER

In late February we took a ski trip to Kicking Hourse and then Revelstoke in the Canadian Rockies. I was blown away at the size of the mountains! especialy Kicking Hourse which I did prefer. In any case if you would like to see what we got up to just visit our flickr page or click on the images.

That being said, we returned to Vancouver to discover that Spring was in full bloom and the snow everywhere was starting to melt!! and I still had unused pre-purched ski passes left!!! Fortunately winter had a second wind... it came back and offered 3 more weeks of powder... now I have no passes left!

Looking forward, I have only one winter challenge left. Come Wednesday Ed and I will climb Mt Baker (over 2,200m elevation and 19Km return journey). This will be the most difficult and dangerous hike I have ever attempted. We plan to walk though the night as avalanches are less prevalent, after about 10 hours of going uphill we will strap in and ski/board down the entire length of Baker!!! it all has to be finished before noon as the higher temperatures increase the avalanche danger.

Whish me luck, I'll blog about it when I get back (with a shit load of photos)

J

The end of a long and doomed relationship….

I know I’m in one of the world’s Mecca’s for snowboarding but f**** it. As of Saturday I have officially given up snowboarding!!! We have parted amicably, we tried…oh boy did we try to work together but would any of you encourage a relationship that makes me cry and sulk, causes physical pain and is always cold not to mention costly.

And like a fool I kept going back for more…well no more. Next!

Mind you I haven’t given up on the snow, I’m moving onto snowshoeing and possible X country skiing.

I write this after an early return from Golden B.C in the Canadian Rockies a hop skip and jump away from Banff. Jarek is still there having the time of his life snowboarding, talking about snowboarding or analyzing the snow/weather conditions…..none of which interest me in the least bit and frankly I am soooooo looking forward to Spring when I no longer have to hear it anymore. In case I haven’t mentioned this before, I call Vancouver winter's “the other woman” I have to share Jarek with a friggin season!!.

So prepare yourselves for some more bragging from Jarek when he returns. Mind you the Rockies are stunning and we only saw a bit of them and believe me when I say the photos don’t do them justice.

Still, I like going to the ski resorts because there are so many Aussies working there…as your getting on/off lifts, in the stores, making coffees or rentals, its awesome and always a good chance to chat about home. OK!! That’s enough about the snow.

It’s been a while since my last blog dump because I’ve been a busy student. I completed a one month intensive (the type that almost kills you) course to become an ESL Teacher. I finished it and managed to retain some of my sanity despite the fact that for 4 straight weeks I did nothing but eat, drink, sleep and shit grammar!!! We’re talking Groundhog Day for 30 days (I can’t stand that movie by the way)….but I survived and have already started substitute teaching.

Let me tell you something about teaching English....

As a native speaker you can tell a student if something is right or wrong, but it’s bloody hard to explain why, that is because the English language has so many facets, rules and exceptions grrrrrrrrr that I find myself having to learn the grammar rules first before I teach them to students. The key is to know enough to be able to answer you student’s questions…..my goal is too not look like a dumb ass in front of the class.

You see back in Oz, we were’nt taught grammar the same way ESL students are taught. They know more about the rules than we do.

Speaking of grammar rules, it’s back to the books for me. I gotta do some serious reading before tomorrow to avoid the sensation of throwing up from nerves in front of a class.

Be Good

Miss Hodowany

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