In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself - Frantz Fanon

I find it amazing how I can go on such an extraordinary and life changing experience, come home and within a few weeks I feel as if things are exactly how they used to be. Nothing has changed. Before leaving for Europe I remember people telling me that coming home would be more of a culture shock then going. Now more than ever, I believe that. It's surreal to think that a month ago I was touring Italy with my two best friends, and now I don't even see them. I stayed at my parent’s house for the first week, fearful of going back to my apartment. After the excitement wears off of seeing family and friends I found myself wanting to get back on a plane. I felt lost, unsure of myself and just.. Sad.

My last post was pre-Italy and for the past month I've been meaning to write about it.. But life has taken over yet again. Henni, Lauren and I took off for yet another amazing adventure. This time, we got a stroke of bad luck. The first few days in Venice were wonderful, it truly is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We walked and walked and saw everything we could.. On our last day we discovered that our Hostel had bed bugs. Lauren, Henni and I were all covered in bites. I can take a lot, but this was something that completely grossed me out. So now, on our way to Rome, in the blistering heat covered in bites. Let me tell you, it was not fun. But Rome is ROME! I think what made me smile the most was seeing Lauren experience Rome, this is somewhere she had never been before and always dreamed of going. So that was something we could share together. Rome is seriously a walking museum. There is so much to see, read about and explore. It amazes me that people actually live there. I swear I would visit the coliseum everyday if I did.

Our plan was to have one last night in Vienna before coming back to Canada, but unfortunately that didn't happen. We missed our train into the Rome airport, thus missing our expensive flight back to Vienna. It was a bad day, with each of us looking at each other to blame. We sat in the Rome train terminal for almost 7 hours, until finally getting on a 10 hour train ride back to Vienna to arrive at 8 am. Lauren and I had just enough time to get the rest of things and head to the airport. This was not the way I had hoped to end my trip. No time for good-bye's, we had to leave. And just like that, it was all over.

Today as I sit at home, trying to figure out the next direction to go with my life, I remember the people that I've met, the words of advice they have given me and all the wonderful things I this experience has taught me. It is so easy to get caught up and forget. I am a better person coming out of this. I'm stronger, more willing to take risks and most importantly, I'm happy. I felt so free while I was in Europe and I said that was the one thing I wanted to bring home with me. No more worrying about the little things. I feel so lucky to see all the amazing countries I did and now I am determined to see more of the world. It was so refreshing to see parts of the world how they really are.. Not how their portrayed to be.

So, this is my good-bye to Vienna, to an extraordinary experience, to Jussi, Henni, Marien, Tony and Alejandro. Friends who will never be forgotten. I have never laughed as hard as I did with you guys. You have each taught me something and I hope that I will see you all again.

Auf Wiedersehen..

A few of my favs:

Embracing the last few days in Vienna..

It's Thursday morning, and it a couple of days I will be on a train to Italy and then back to Canada a week Saturday. As I sit here in my room, my bulletin board full of postcards of the places I’ve travelled to, pictures of friends, and most recently a lei from our luau party, I can’t bring myself to take any of it down yet. Where does the time go? I remember arriving at the airport excited and scared in February, which feels just like yesterday. I'm not ready to say goodbye to this extraordinary experience..

Classes are pretty much over, Lauren’s had a rough week of finals and assignments, but of course she aced all of them! I have my last class on Friday but no finals for this girl! We’ve been spending most of our free time lately at the outdoor pools in Vienna, soaking up the sun. It is so hot here right now, some days unbearable to walk around. These outdoor pools are awesome!

Although we've been here for just over 4 months, we have yet to see all the major attractions in Vienna. We kept on saying we had lots of time.. and now with just 3 days left in Vienna, our time has run out. We visited Schönbrunn Palace a few days ago, which was absolutely stunning. Of course nothing will beat Versailles :) But it was still amazing. It's so much more pleasurable to see these places when it's nice out instead of freezing cold like back in Feb. Tonight were going to head out to see another famous castle and then I think we've covered it all! My new favorite place to hang out in Vienna is at Danube Island. This place is huge and all down the river are tons and tons of beach bars, sand and all, it’s a lot of fun. I'm really going to miss this city.

Henni, Lauren and I will head to Venice on Saturday night, then to Rome on the following Tuesday. This will be a great way to end our trip here in Europe. I’m so happy Henni is going to come with us. The three of us have truly become the three musketeers’. We do everything together.

Stay tuned for a posting about Italy... As it should be amazing!

Thank-you so much to my friends and my mom who have been sending me e-mails about things they would like to do for the weekend I am home.. I'm so thankful for all of you. I know being with you is going to make that transition so much easier. xo

Here’s are a couple shots from our Canadian Luau Party and Schönbrunn Palace.



Schönbrunn Palace



Lauren and I infront of Schönbrunn Palace



Jussi and I



Group Shot! - Tony, Marien, Alejandro, Henni, Lauren and I.



LT and decided to host a Luau Party - Canadian Style. This included matching outfits!

New places, new adventures..

Another month has passed by, and today I am sad. It hit me today that I will be leaving Vienna in 4 weeks; leaving new friends, a new home and a new life. Being here has changed me. Today I sat outside with Lauren and Henni for almost 6 hours in the sun. We got a blanket a few bottles of wine and just sat in this park that had the most amazing view of the city. As I sat there I thought about my time here and for the first time, in a really long time, I can truly say I am happy; Genuinely happy. For those of you who know me, you know that I am a worrier. I’m constantly worrying about something that is going on in my life; work, friends, family, boys, you name it, I never can really feel content and I’m always stressed. Being here is so much different. I find myself surrounded by the most wonderful people who are going through the same things I am in life. Not being sure where they’re going, what they really want to do and feeling lost. It’s comforting and I hope that I will take this comfort home with me and not fall back into the routine of being worried all the time. I am so very grateful to be here and it has made a major impact on my life. I’m trying to saver everything I do. If I come back to Canada with just this, I will be happy.

Easter Break was amazing. We took a trip to Berlin, London and Paris. Berlin is FILLED with so much history, it’s truly amazing. We visited Check Point Charlie and got a few pictures with the guards which was really fun then travelled down to the Berlin Dom, which was hands down the most amazing thing I think I had ever seen. This Cathedral was huge and survived the war, unlike hundreds of other buildings that had to be re-built. Berlin is very different than the other cities I have seen in Europe, you can be walking and admiring this really ancient building and then right next to it is a brand new government building. The city was literally destroyed in the war. We took a boat tour around the city, which was awesome as it was in English and was basically a story as to what happened after the war and how the country had to re-build itself. Very surreal. We visited the Berlin Zoo on the last day, the biggest zoo in Europe, it took us almost 5 hours to see it all. We had about another 4 hours to kill before our bus left so we found this weird beach bar where these lounge chairs are set up on the river, like hundreds of them, and you can just sit there and drink and watch the boats go by. So after many many cocktails we arrived at the bus station and passed out within 20 min! Every time we go to a new city I always say this was my favourite, but now after seeing Berlin it really is my favourite city, it even beat Paris in my book! Oh.. AND Obama was in Berlin when we were... How cool! We thought it would be cheaper to take the bus to Berlin so we did and this was the longest bus ride of my life. 10 hours of screaming children, guys whose passports were fake when we got to the boarder and had to be taken off... it was one thing after another. SO we decided that was the end of bus rides. We have opted now for trains and cheap flights!

Our next destination was London. Yes London Baby! It was awesome. Lauren’s Uncle is a teacher there at a very elite all boys school in Potters Bar. We stayed with him and his hospitality was amazing. It was so nice to take a break from staying in Hostels with 8-10 people a night in the same room. We had our own beds, he cooked us breakfast, took us out for meals. It was wonderful and I was very thankful. He even gave us a few boxes of Kraft Dinner to take back :) Although where he lived was about an hour outside of London, it was well worth it. We spent two full days touring the city. I saw Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, the London Bridge, The London Eye and of course Buckingham Palace. It was all really fun. London has WAY too many people for my liking, but the trip was relaxing and I loved it. We were there the weekend of Easter so on Sunday night her Uncle and many of his colleagues came over and cooked a roast chicken, turkey, potatoes.. And so much more. It was like Thanksgiving! I was a happy girl. After eating gross Austrian food for the past 3 months which is filled with pork and egg in everything, I was ecstatic!

About a week later we jumped on a plan and headed to Paris. PARIS. This is really special to me, as I never thought I would actually make it to France. The city was everything I thought it would be and so much more. I literally just fazed out all the bad because I wanted to. Sure the subways smelt horrible, it was dirty and the men were over the top, BUT it’s PARIS!! The first time I saw the Eiffel Tower I screamed. No jokes. I had to stop, take a second and take in where I really was. We decided to go up it at night for the views of the city. It was amazing. I never wanted to come down, you could see all of Paris, I loved it. I think within a 2 hour time slot I took about 100 pictures, this was something I will never forget. Because we were only in Paris for 3 days we wanted to see as much as we could. Our days were constant go go go. Every night we would get back to our hostel around 9:30 and just pass out, get up at 6am the next day and do it all over again. By the end of these three days I was exhausted, but I got to see so much. We visited Notre Dame, The Louvre and Sacré-Coeur. We managed to make it out on our last night and went to go see the Moulin Rouge, very cool! We finally found a somewhat normal karaoke bar close by and danced until 4am or so with cute French boys!

On our last day we decided to get on a train and go to Versailles. Seriously, this place was insane. INSANE. For some reason we got to see the entire palace and the gardens for free, I think the lady thought we were a part of the EU, even though we gave her our driver’s licences! Either way, that was a bonus! We spent about 2 hours in the Palace and 3 in the Gardens and we didn’t even see it all. The gardens are crazy, I fell in love with this place and didn’t want to leave. It was so beautiful. I cannot believe people, even royalty lived there, I think I need to find me a prince ;)

In all honesty I had the time of my life and would love to go back one day. It was so great to share that with Lauren, someone who has started off to be my travel companion and has become my best friend. I adore her and I know after this we will be friends for life.

I am back in Vienna and back to school this week. I have started to hate some of the Austrian girls in my classes. Although all of my classes are in English in all of my groups these girls insist of speaking German. After I asked them once if they could speak English they were kind of rude so I thought F**K it. I think it’s simply ignorance as they all can speak English really well. However there are the odd few that are nice and the boys are all very nice.. it always seems to work this way. I’m used to girls not liking me!

I booked my flights back to Canada today, so i will be home on June 6, just in time for my birthday and the hopefully a hot summer. It makes me sad just thinking about it, I think coming home is going to be very hard, however this experience has led me to look forward to the next chapter in my life; whatever that may be. AND ...I really miss my brother!!

Lots of Love.

... I took 570 pictures in 10 days, so I will post my favourites!


This is me in front of the Brandenburg Gate, the only gate left in Berlin.


This is the city centre in Berlin, it doesn’t even look like we are in Europe, it’s crazy.


Lauren and I at Checkpoint Charlie.


This is Lauren and I at the top of the TV Tower in Berlin.


On the Boat Tour in Berlin


Where we spent our afternoon having cocktails


The Berlin Dom. This picture does not do justice to how amazing this Cathedral is. I sat on the grass here for an hour just staring. I loved it.


The Reichstag government building.


Huge protest that was going on in front of the Brandenburg Gate.


Some random dude and I, behind us The Tower Bridge and City Hall


Lauren and I, first day in London.


The London Eye.. We didn’t go on it, WAY over priced!


Westminster Abbey


Me going to Visit Prince William!


Here’s Lauren loving the phone booths in London!


Admiring the gardens at Buckingham Palace


Best souvenirs ever!


The Tower of London, very creepy!


Lauren and I at Westminster Abbey.


This is the first time I saw the Eiffel Tower, it’s so amazing!


The Sacré-Coeur in Paris, beautiful.


Sacré-Coeur at night.


Sacré-Coeur at night again, I love this picture.


Seeing the Eiffel Tower at Night.


At the Louvre, we saw the Mona Lisa!


A cat who decided to Join us for Lunch!!


This is me in front of Notre Dame.


Lauren and I, really fun day!


This is just a small portion of the gardens of Versailles!



The Grand Canal of Versailles, this is simply amazing and surreal.


Lauren and I at the Gates of Versailles


I love this picture of Lauren and I


At the top of the tower in Paris, the views of the city were insane.


Jussi and I enjoying ice cream and the sun in Vienna.


This pretty much sums up our night in Paris!


Lauren dancing with some French guy.. who had moves!!


Moulin Rouge!!


Stopping for Wine.. :)


I love Vienna at Night.

Adventures in March..

Today is April 1st and it's makes me sad that time here is going so fast. I can't belive I only have 2 months left! I am so glad that I chose to come to Austria out of all the places that were available to travel too. If I had chosen to go to Australia, that would have been the only place I would have seen. Austria is Central Europe, which gives us so many opportunities to travel to other countries and see so much.

I have become very good friends with a girl named Henni, she's from Finland and might be one of the nicest girls I've ever met. We have so much fun together and after spending a couple months with her I feel like we've been friends for years. Her English is very good and everytime she hears me say a word that she's unfamiliar with she picks it up so fast! It's really cute. So Henni, Lauren and I decided to take a girls night away and travel to Budapest, Hungary last Saturday. We got on an early bus (8am) and arrived in Budapest around 10. We lucked out as the weather was beautiful that day, sunny and warm. We walked around the city for probably 8 hours that day. It was beautiful. I found the city to be very very touristy, which can be annoying at times, but it makes you feel safe at the same time. We had lunch down by the Duabe River which is beautiful. It also has a very neat memorial to the Budapest Jews who were killed in World War II. It was neat to explore some history I didn't know about.

After seeing the entire City, we checked into our hostel which was very interesting. It was small, very very small. We shared a room with two guys from Vietnam and our room was probably the size of my bedroom. It was.. interesting. However, the location was perfect, we were walking distance from the city centre and the famous St. Stephens Basilica, which was incredible at night. We went on a pub crawl that was organized that night by our hostel, it was lots of fun and we ended up meeting a ton of people from Australia and two girls from the US were studying in Greece. The girls told us the Budapest was known for it's Hotsprings and Spa's, something we had no idea about, so on Sunday while it poured rain we decided to check it out. This again was an intresting expeirence.. Europeans love there spedo's.. seriously old men everywhere!! However, the hotsprings were in this very old building surrounded with Statue's and scripture, it was really cool. All in all, a very rememberable and fun weekend!

Everything else is going really great. I love all of my classes, I wish that my classes at Mount Royal were taught the way they are here. I just finished a class called "Doing Business in Eastern European Countries" so interesting. I was the only person in the class who wasn't from Europe, so a lot of the history was all very new to me. I loved it, and our professor was funny, real and very motivational. It's so weird that the class was only for a week and now over. A lot of my other classes are focused on Marketing, Advertising and Sales. Public Relations is rarely brought up, it's very different than home, considering that is my major!!

Easter Break starts this week and Im so excited to go to London and stay with Lauren's Uncle. He's a teacher there and has lived in the UK for 5 years now. Im sure he is going to show us around the city.. and we will get to have an Easter dinner! .. It will also be very nice to have people all around me speak English again, even if it's only for a few days! My German improves day by day but it is such a hard language to learn. It's not even a nice language, I think it sounds horrible!! I can now at least say hi, exuse me, bye, can I have the bill, and those sort of things. The rest of the time, it's back to playing charades with people!!

I'm so happy the Stephen (my brother) and I are able to talk while I'm here. I love asking him things and always turn to him for advice. We were talking about trying to meet on our trip, he thinks I should meet him in Singapore in June and travel with him for a few weeks. I researched a lot about Malaysia and it freaked the hell out of me. I wish I had his bravery, I really do. I would feel safe because I was with him, and I know it would be so good for me to put myself out of my comfort zone and expeirence something like that.. but I feel like my fears overpower all of those things. I truly admire his bravery. I guess it's something to ponder.

I'm going to post a few pictures from our weekend in Budapest, a very beautiful city. Thanks to all my family and friends back home who continue to send me e-mails. I love hearing from all of you.





This is Lauren and I standing in front of the Danube River.




View from of one side of the city, Budapest.




Budapest’s Parliament Building.




Henni, Lauren and I standing on a little bridge with a statue of man who I don’t know!




St. Stephen’s Basilica




This is Lauren and I getting ready in our very tiny hostel.




This is Hero's Square in Budapest, this picture doesn't do justice to how huge it was.




Really nice bridge I liked :)



This was the memorial to the Budapest Jews, very neat.



St. Stephen’s Basilica at night.



Henni, Lauren and I.



Here is the group of us from the Hostel that ventured out on the town for the night.




This is our group a couple hours after finding out that ALL of our liquor was included!!



This is a picture of the hotsprings we went to on Sunday in Budapest.