I'm home!

I'm back on Canadian soil, as of this last Wednesday. My last day in Paris was strange for me, knowing that I was at the end of a journey. I went with a girl named Eve to the "Graves of the Innocents" (The catacombs under Paris), where 5 million Parisians lay. Then we went to see the graves of Chopin, Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, and Oscar Wilde. We had a picnic in the cemetary on this patch of grass until a man came and told us we were dining on people's graves! After that we went back to Montmartre and I did my last minute shopping. I said goodbye to Eve and took the metro to Jaure, the stop before the hostel. I wanted to walk back and reflect on things. I began to walk by the pier and I was completely taken aback. I noticed outside of the window in my hostel that every night, the pier was filled with people sitting by the edge, but I didn't know why. When I walked by, I realized that they were all young people having picnics. Every single night, hundreds and hundreds of people buy food and wine and drink on the edge of the water. They bring their guitars and their cards, their children and their pets. Every single night! It was amazing to see and it was beautiful to see so many people enjoying their time with one another. When I got back to the hostel it was quite late and I went to the internet cafe to print out my e-ticket for my flight home. I was sitting there, looking at my email, when I notice something out of the corner of my eye. It was PAUL, my british friend from Barcelona! Remember the post in Barcelona where I talked about my roommates that I liked? Paul was the guy from Liverpool!!! Anyways, we both had no idea that we were going to be at the same hostel or even in Paris! So of course, even though I had to be up at dawn, we sat down and had a drink together. It was so completely random! So we were sitting there talking, and all of a sudden paul says, "Hey, isn't that Ally??". Ally was another of our roommmates from Barcelona, the girl from Toronto. Paul yells her name, and the girl looks over...and it IS Ally!!!! What a small world!! She freaks out of course and we all have a drink together. I realize it is 2am and I have to sleep sometime. I sleep until 6am when I have to wake up and catch my flight. I go to the Airport with two girls from Ireland who had flights home as well. The flight was quite good, actually. I had two seats to myself, so I was able to sleep somewhat.

I couldn't sit still on the flight and when we arrived, I was so antsy about going through customs and all that. When I walked through the arrivals gate in Calgary and saw my Mom and my sister, Becky yelled my name. It can't even describe the feeling of seeing them again. We all cried and cried and embraced, it was so wonderful. The drive home was surreal, as was walking back into my home. Mom, Becky, Nathan and I went out for a celebration dinner for my sister's 18th birthday. It was a wonderful night and I passed out extremely early of course. On Friday I started work again. I was so excited to see everyone again. Penny and me shared an amazing hug. I'm definitely looking forward to starting tomorrow with the kids. It still feels strange to me that I was in Paris earlier this week, and in Barcelona last week, and Rome and Athens the week before, Milan and Cinque terre the week before that....and so on. I am so proud of myself for not giving up and being able to travel alone for 2 and a half months. I feel really blessed for having been able to do this at this point in my life. All the things I experienced, all the incredible people I met, the cities I fell in love with...I will never forget these things. The things that I went through, the hardship and the hilarity of it all, the kindness of strangers and the meaning of the term beauty all have new meanings to me now. I've learned that there are very scary and terrible things in the world, but there is ALWAYS something good and worthy in each one of us. We need to be strong for each other, to not give up hope. I've learned not to be afraid of living, to trust that everything will turn out okay. I've learned so much history of the world and about many people's different opinions and world views. I guess you could say this trip taught me alot about opposites. I saw the poorest people I have ever seen, but I also saw the richest. I saw the Old Europe contrasted against the new. I met capitalists and socialists, catholics and hindus and buddhists, atheists and agnostics. I played games with children who didn't speak English, and had conversations with weathered and wise old people. It has been something that will stay with me forever, and I am forever grateful. So this is the end of this journey, but I dare say that it will not be the last!
I hope everyone enjoyed reading the blog for the last couple of months as much as I enjoyed writing it. There are so many things that I didn't write about that happened, but if I did, this would be a novel by now! Soon I will update with some more pictures just for fun, but all the other photos are on facebook of course :)

Lots of love,
Sarah

La Belle Epoque

Bonjour!

Of course, I am in the last city on my trip. I am in beautiful, romantic Paris. The night train from Barcelona was good, and I slept well (considering my night before!!). I met a really cool lady in our room on the train and she was heading to Paris to translate "You don't mess with the Zohan" with Adam Sandler in it...into French. She was in Barcelona to translate it into Spanish, and she was in Berlin to translate it into German...and Rome to translate it into Italian...she is an incredible woman! She left for Europe in her junior year out of high school and never came back. Anyways, she said that in Japan, the hollywood movie scene is really big, and they do alot of dubbing and subtitling. When I told her I was going to study Asian languages, she said that I could work for Universal, Miramax, Paramount...any of those because there aren't many native English speakers who are in the business, and they are desperate for them (And pay them well!). It was just so interesting to talk to someone else that is so well versed in languages and the nuances of translating into another language, what works and what doesn't. Anyway, she gave me her contact details and encouraged me to contact her in a few years !! Eek! I made it to Paris and got on the extremely confusing metro to my hostel, St. Christopher's Inn. By the way, momma I still have my St. Christopher necklace and I haven't taken it off. Alot of people ask what it represents, and I feel like it has helped me find my guardian angels whenever I have been in a bad situation. The patron saint of pilgrimages is a huge symbol here at St. Christophers and they have these hostels all over Europe. Anyway, it is a fantastic hostel. It is brand new, but costs over 30 euros a night. My first morning in Paris I bought a croissant because I was so hungry....and MOTHER ALMIGHTY they are so TASTYLICIOUS here. When people said they were different here than other places I chose not to believe them...but Parisians love their Boulangeries, and it shows. Le Pain Du Chocolat has been a personal favorite. I tried to order two (deux) in one Boulangerie, but I accidentally asked for ten (dix) and the guy looked at me like I was mad. I went the most fantastic walking tour EVER and our guide was a mime and went to mime school for 2 years. It was 4 hours long, and we got to see Notre Dame, learn about French history, the Louvre, Le Jardin de Tuilleries, the spot of the execution of Marie Antoinette, the Hotel Criant ($50,000 a night), Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower and lots of other interesting things. Napoleon was a really interesting character, poor little 5'2" feller. He put big "N"s on everything around the city because he wanted to feel important...I mean give the guy a break, he only wanted to conquer the world! It's fine, guys, really. He succeeded until he tried to take over Russia. tsk tsk, it's like a little dog that barks at a massive dog because he thinks he can take him. Anyway, it was great and after that, I watched the Euro Cup FINAL! Oh my goodness. I have actually been following the whole thing through Europe but I haven't been really blogging about that. It's soccer, but it's called "football" of course. It started right after I left Austria (Awesome, because all the games were in Austria and I wouldn't have had anywhere to stay!). I watched games all through Italy, Greece, Spain, and now here in France. Spain ended up winning the game against Russia while I was there and it was a ridiculous night of course in Spain, hearing chants of "ESPANIA! ESPANIA! ESPANIA!" all night. It's easy to get caught up in the buzz, like jumping on the bandwagon when the Flames do well. Anyways, last night the final was between Spain and Germany. They were both sort of underdogs and I stayed quite neutral the whole game, although the German team had better looking guys. All of Europe watched that game last night and it was fantastic. SPAIN WON THE EURO CUP! I went to bed pretty promptly after lots of respective WOOing. I got up this morning and went to the Centre de Pompidou, the modern art center here in Paris. It was FANTASTIC, and WAY better than the tate modern. I decided I am not going to the Louvre...I only have 2 days in Paris and spending them in line for 3 hours to be disappointed at the tiny size of the Mona Lisa is not my idea of a good time, especially after the stupid Sistine Chapel. I'd rather spend it in a Parisian garden, eating and drinking and living like the parisians do. So after the museum I went on a tour of Montmartre, the artist's district. When people think of old Paris, they usually think of the mustached painters relaxing at terrace cafes, drunken can-can dancers and absinthe drinkers spilling out onto quaint balconies, tiny cobblestone streets filled with seductive women carrying croissants. Hahaha well that would be Montmartre. It was a place where poor farmers used to live, but when the artists started to flourish in Paris...they lived in this area because it was so cheap to live in. It became this incredible area when the "Belle Epoque" started and there was so much art, philosophy, music, theatre, drinking, living with NO money and it was an amazing time to be in Paris. It was SO great to tour all around this area, it is so romantic to me to imagine all the artists that lived here. During the Belle Epoque, this area saw artists like Vincent Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec, and Claude Monet. Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali eventually came around and it was the time of the famous venues like the Moulin Rouge and le Chat Noir. I want to live there so badly... We walked to the Moulin Rouge, various spots in the movie Amelie and Moulin Rouge, Van Gogh's house, Picasso's studio (that womanizer!!!), paris' red light district, Montmatre Vineyard, The Artist's square, and Sacre Coeur basilica. After the tour ended I went with a girl named Eve to buy some baguettes, cheese and wine. We walked over to the Eiffel Tower to wait for the light show. This is the show that they have had since the Millenium. After 2000 was over, there was such an uprising over keeping the light show that now they do it every night in the summer! At dark, it goes every hour for around 10 minutes. I have a video and I wish I could upload it but I am home tomorrow hahahahaha so I will show somebody my repressed excitement then. It was beautiful and romantic and it glowed blue at the end. It is blue for Bastille day on July 14. I learned something cool about the French flag! The color of the royalty was traditionally white, and the colors of the Revolution in France was Red and Blue. It's funny because the French flag is Red and Blue, with white in the middle (The Revolution overthrowing the government!). It was really interesting to learn more about the revolution too, the French were an EXTREMELY brutal and bloody group of folks. Tomorrow (well today)I am not going to Versailles like I planned but rather I am going to the Paris Catacombs, out to see the graves of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde, and to do a little shopping and some more hanging out in Montmartre. This was a really long winded post and I apologize, but the guy at the front desk here gave me an unlimited internet pass because I guess either he's a moron or he thinks I'm cute. Whatever! I am BACK IN CANADA TOMORROW! EEEEK! I caaaaaaaaannnnooooot wait, I am a sleepy girl and travelling for 68 days makes me more sleepy.

ONE LOVE


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmartre

Wait.....is that what I think it is?? (I said this numerous times last night)

Hola, mi Amigos!

I have been in Barcelona since Monday!!! This city is extremely interesting and I would like to live there at some point (but I said the same about London, Berlin, Prague, Rome...).


I WENT TO SEE MIYAVI LAST NIGHT!!! Yesterday I was quite hungover and was ambitious enough to walk over to find the venue at around noon, so I wouldn´t get lost getting there later in the day. I found the Sala Apolo about 10 minutes walk from the hostel, but get this! At noon, there were NO LESS than 200 young people waiting outside the door in a line that snaked around the block. I am NOT even joking, I really wish that I was. I had a mini panic attack because I wanted to be in the front...but decided that I am little and could squeeze my way to the front later on. So I did some more shopping weeeeee! I bought a new outfit for the show (somehow I didn´t feel like my 3 month old dirty outfits were very fitting for this event. I went into a few stores and tried on a few things...OH! But in one of the little stores, I asked to try something on. The girl said okay and proceeded to show me that the changing room was no more than a flimsy pseudo shower curtain that was strung up with wire in one corner of the open store. Brutal. But I really wanted to try it on, so I just went along. After a while I was like, jumping around and trying to shimmy into a top...I was like...wait...is that what I think it is??? I NOTICE A PEEPHOLE! I looked in and there was a MAN ON THE OTHER END!! WTF!? He immediately stepped away and I turned around the corner and said "You had better have an explanation for that!!" and he was just like "Perdoni!!! Perdoni!!!".


He DID end up giving me a discount. I got my outfit, did a bit more shopping and then went back to the hostel to get ready. I walked back to Sala Apolo around 5pm or so. I have to say that Spanish people really enjoy japanese music and alot of them were dressed up in the visual kei style. There were an amazing amount of reaaaaaaallly good looking people there :) I stood in line behind this girl who was really dressed up and beautiful. It was strange because I can´t understand Spanish or Catalan....so having a conversation with people in the line was kinda fun because we had to gesture and things. Kids in Spain have to learn English in school, so me and the girl in front of me started talking. She was only 17 and from Valencia, and travelled to Barcelona just for the show. We talked for a long time and looked in Miyavi´s bus, and also tried to think of ways to sneak in. You could FEEL the intensity and the excitement considering japanese artists rarely make it outside of Asia, as far as touring goes.




This was like the most epic part of the trip for me in a way, especially considering I was in love with Miyavi since I went to Japan when I was 15. When he came on stage I couldn´t even breath (also considering I was being squishied by spanish hipsters). It was UNBELIEVABLE. He is accompanied on this tour by the Kabuki boys, a group of japanese guys. Each one does something different...there is a DJ, an MC, an artist, a tapdancer etc. They were all in japanese costume with facepaint and it was all very fancy. Miyavi played a ton of songs and changed outfits 3 times!! The interesting thing too is that Miyavi can only speak Japanese and a little English. So when he spoke, it was in English with some japanese and a bit of Spanish. He has a cute accent because he is from Osaka...guys from Osaka have a "cool" accent because it sounds really tough, but when they speak in English it is really funny sounding haha. Anyways, it was amazing and I am still shaking from the experience. I got back to the hostel and decided that I was going to shower and go to bed, no drinking..I went up to my room and went in. I saw like 4 American boys in there and they were snorting something. I was like...wait...is that what I think it is!!?? And yes, they were definitely snorting cocaine. I was not a happy camper. All the cool roommates left and I was with 7 Americans in my room....all in the mood to party in the TINY space. I told them I honestly wanted to sleep and that if they wanted to party they would have to do it downstairs. Anyone want to guess how that went over? American boys don´t care what anyone else wants, as long as they are having a good time. So they smoked a huge bong in the room and took shots of absinthe and gin while I was trying to sleep. It was the absolute WORST ever. I didn´t sleep at all, and get this! They left around 1am to go to a club, and came back around 5 or 6am. They decided that they were going to invite around 10 to 15 people in the room to smoke some more, turned on all the lights and made a ton of noise. OH MY GOD and then later on, when everyone was kind of asleep, I woke up because all this liquid seeped down onto my bed from the top bunk. I was like NO WAY NO WAY NO FREAKING WAY IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS!!!!??? I thought the guy above had peed himself like an absolute champion. I got up and freaked out, but then I realized that his buddy was there, and had just poured an entire litre of cold water on him because he though it was funny. So I had to sleep with a wet bed, UBER pissed. Hahahaha that was such an awful night :( So needless to say, was pumped when I checked out today. I have just been trying to relax before my night train to Paris tonight. I arrive tomorrow morning at 9am. Considering last night, I am just really excited to come home to my bedroom and see everyone. Concert was incredible though, eeeeek! I´ll be home in a few days so I will update once more from Paris. Love yalls

SARAH!


Adios <3

Hola, Amigos!

Good morning....afternoon, actually FROM SPAIN! I am at Kabul hostel now, and have just dragged my sorry self out of bed with the rest of the room. I am NOT in the 20 bed dorm here, thank goodness...only an 8 bed room. For the last 3 days, I have been really tight with this group from the room, and it´s funny because we are kind of a strange mix. 2 girls from Brooklyn, 1 guy from Liverpool, 1 girl from Toronto, 2 guys from Seattle, 1 girl from Manchester.....and a silly blonde girl from Calgary, Canada. I have been justifying the ridiculous amounts of drinking with the fact that this is the end of the trip and I am home in a few days. Still doesn´t make it feel any better when you wake up in the morning!!!! Last night, after we played numerous drinking games we all headed down to a shot bar on Port Vell, the beach. After it closed around 4am, I really had to pee and couldn´t find a bathroom for the life of me. I was on the harbour and it seemed like a reaaaaallly good idea to just pee off the harbour and into the water. The only thing I didn´t count on...was a party boat full of people that watched me do it! HAHAHAHAHA oh noes it was quite hilarious and I am just glad I didn´t fall over backwards into the water. Someone needs to ask me all the strange places I have had to pee over the last couple of months when I get home, because I really think it would be a fantastic conversation.

Mom was right when she said I would get called Rubia while in Spain. Rubia means "blond girl" and I even had one particularly RUDE Spanish man who came up and started twirling my hair and touching before I told him to sod off (I have been hanging out with too many English people lol). Anyways! Today is the Miyavi concert and I am extremely excited! Tonight will be the first day that I have actually styled my hair in ages. Tomorrow morning I will leave for Paris on a VERY long all day train. It is going to hurt if I end up drinking tonight, but I think I will lay off the sauce for once. Today is also my last day for shopping in BCN, so I have to go and take care of that :) Miss you all tons...and see you in 5 days!

LOVE SARAH.

I showed up on the craziest night of the year

OK OK OK OK!

SO!

I showed up to Barcelona on a holiday. I knew that it was a holiday back in April when I was planning the trip a bit. I ASSUMED it was like, a holiday where everything is closed and people get to relax a little, but Barcelona is not your normal city. So the holiday was the festival of San Juan (St. John the Baptist) and I guess celebrations started 2 weeks ago, to culminate in this one ridiculous night. Throughout the trip I have had so many nights that I have wanted to blog about and say ¨That was the most RIDICULOUS day of my life!!!¨ But it always seems to get topped by something else, in another city. I suppose I could just say that I have had alot of ridiculous nights, in many crazy cities....but THIS was on another scale altogether.

I showed up to a hostel and was able to get a bed for 2 nights. The hostel is really hip and relaxed, different to the frenzy of the downtown of Barcelona. It is a nice contrast. When I got of the metro I was hearing gunshots and getting kind of freaked out, because I was like "omg, where am I? What have I gotten myself into!?" (I realized later that these were fireworks)

Anyways!
I went out with a group of 10 people from the hostel at around midnight. We bought bottles of wine for around $0.70 CAD and wandered down Placa Catalunya to the beach. As soon as I stepped of the metro, I could not even believe my eyes. The entire city was outside, setting off fireworks in the streets and on the beach, celebrating. I can't even describe how many people were on the beach, but imagine the entire city of Calgary plus about a hundred thousand tourists all by the sea, drinking and celebrating. It was absolutely unreal because everywhere you turned, you were close to getting hit in the eye with a errant firework. There was music playing all over, but it was somewhat drowned out by the thousands of fireworks coming from all directions. People were setting trees on fire, jumping over bonfires, going to clubs dotted along the shore, swimming, drinking, and generally being out of control. There were also alot of people just chilling, drinking in the scene and relaxing. We sat on the beach and drank for a while, and after I almost got hit with a rocket...we decided to go to a club. Clubs in Barcelona don't open until around 1am, but they stay open until the sun comes up.

Does this city ever SLEEP!? Nobody slept last night, that's for sure. People stayed out all night on the beach and after every firework in Spain was set off, everyone stayed to watch the sun come up in Barcelona. Nobody also bothered to tell me that because no one in the city of Barcelona slept last night, today everything is closed to allow people to relax a bit. Tomorrow the plan is to rent Mopeds and drive to Sitges (MOMMA!!!!) to hang out on the beach. It isn't set in stone and I may just shop and visit some Gaudi architecture. I have to switch hostels tomorrow as well...I am staying right on Las Ramblas, the center of the city by the beach. OH! And my Miyavi concert is this Friday. HOW EXCITED AM I!!!!? I miss you all and I can't wait to step back on Canadian soil. I start work next Friday and that feels a bit weird considering I am so far away, but I am really looking forward to doing the Reading Program again. Also, Becky's 18th birthday is the day I arrive home from Paris! I can't wait to buy her a drink and see her new flowing blonde locks hahaha. <3

Hasta Luego!