Student of Speech – Edition Four

This is the final installment (for the moment) of my Advanced Communicator Bronze speeches. I’m scheduled to give my next one in January. I’m working on a piece about roomates. But for now enjoy the extended story of a previous blog post from 2007 titled ‘Continental Crossover.’ This speech of the same name goes into greater detail about my experience on the Eurostar and in Paris. Stay tuned for details of my winter getaway to Florida next week.

Have you ever had what you thought was the worst day of your life? Well you obviously lived to tell about it. I invite you to relive the worst day of my life and hopefully laugh and learn from it.

Good evening fellow toastmasters, this evening I invite you to travel back with me to June 2007 where I am standing in line at London’s Waterloo Station waiting to buy a ticket on the famous Eurostar train that connects London to Paris through the underwater chunnel. It’s about 4pm and I’m trying to get a ticket for the 5:15 train which would arrive at 8:30 in Paris. This would give me plenty of time to find a hostel and settle in for the night. I felt like I had been standing in line for eons – mostly because of the weight of, when a very British female voice comes over the intercom. “Attention all passengers travelling on the Eurostar, currently our computer systems are down and no purchases of tickets may be made at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Any inconvenience… I had to be in Paris tonight. The train that I wanted to be on was leaving in an hour! My breathing accelerated faster than a train could pull away from a station and my heart was beating faster than the train could go over the tracks. Then I came back to reality and I realized there was nothing I could do, so why should I panic? So I camped out in the in line and waited. Finally 45 minutes later the line started moving again and I reached the ticket counter.

This distinguished looking gentlemen says, “How may I help you miss?”

I respond “One student ticket for the 5:15 to Paris please.”

 “I’m sorry miss we are no long selling tickets for that train.”

“Well how about the 6:15”

“Well miss there are no more student tickets, but I can get you a full fare ticket.”

“Yes fine”

 “Marvelous”

There was nothing marvelous about it! I pulled out my travelling life preserver – my credit card – and sighed.This was the price I had to pay for what I thought would be a once in a lifetime experience – going on a train that travels under the English Channel – how cool is that! Right?

Sorry to ruin everyone’s great expectations for the chunnel, but it’s really just like any other tunnel – dark and boring. But I had to take a picture just to prove I was there. So I’ve got this photo on my computer of my reflection holding my camera and smiling. Everyone wonders why I took a picture of myself in the middle of nowhere

While waiting to arrive in France, the train ride gave me valuable time to reflect on the first lesson I’d learnt that day. Lesson #1 -Do your research – While I had travel experience with buying same day transit tickets in Spain, not every service in every country is the same. So had I looked into the Eurostar more closely I would have known that I could have saved quite a bit of cash 

So while this wasn’t a great start to my evening, the shenanigans didn’t end there. When I finally arrived at the Gare du Nord in Paris it was 9:15. I first called all the hostels I had numbers for but all of them were full – apparently peak tourist season starts early in Paris. Before I started to panic I realized there was a ton of hotels nearby that I could check into. But each one had a sign on the door that said ‘complet’ -You don’t have to be fluent in French or a rocket science to realize pretty quickly that complet means -full. Finally 30 minutes later, exhausted, hungry, and drenched in sweat from lugging my bag around I found a hotel that didn’t proudly display one of these signs. Luckily the man at the front was obliging.

“That will be 60 Euros madame”

Once again I handed over my life preserver, cringing – knowing my credit card usage had now doubled in the space of 4 hours.

“Merci, here is your key.”

As I rode in the tidy elevator up to the second floor another travelling tidbit became apparent. Lesson #2 – Book ahead for accommodation. It is always more relaxing to arrive in a city and have somewhere to go. I do a lot of stuff when I’m travelling by the seat of my pants, but never again will I leave accommodation up to chance.

This lesson was further instilled in me when I arrived in the room. While 60 Euros isn’t outrageous – it was definitely more than I should have paid for this room. It was of modest size, but looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the WW2. And the bathroom installations could have been in a museum depicting the early 20^th century. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse a small dark object skittered across the floor. As it turned out Hotel D’Orsay – should really have been called hotel cockroach.

As I laid down in my rather lumpy bed I could only reflect on my third and final lesson of the day. Lesson #3 – Expect the best but prepare for the worst. While generally my travelling have been wonderful and that’s why I keep travelling, there are, just as in normal life, always going to be accidents and things to learn from.

So while I survived this experience without any serious damage – except for my bank account. It definitely goes down as some of the most unpleasant hours of my life. It has definitely a useful experience to help me better plan my future travels and of course as useful material for a speech at Toastmasters.

 

 

 

 

You Know You Are a Backpacker When…

So I haven’t written much of note lately…mostly because of a hectic semester, law school applications and just life! More on those things when the semester from hell ends (in two weeks!)

Anyways while taking a 2AM study break, I happened across my journal from the summer and came across this list I made of all the things that most backpackers can relate to (or at least things I’ve done as a backpacker!). Just thought I’d share…

You know you are a backpacker when…

1. You’ve gotten lost, even just for fun
2. You’ve slept in airports, bus stations, train stations etc
3. You’ve hand washed your clothes
4. You get upset when passport control doesn’t stamp your passport
5. You’ve spent way too much money on something to get yourself out of a bind
6. You’ve saved a ton of money on fabulous deals bartering
7. You wear flip-flops 24/7 – and now your feet are cracking
8. You own at least one guidebook
9. You’ve discovered the gold mine that is budget airlines in Europe
10. You love the “Where Have You Been?” application on Facebook
11. You’ve gotten dirty at one or more festivals
12. You’ve woken up people in your hostel
13. You’ve been woken up BY people in your hostel
14. You’ve partied ’till sunrise
15. You’ve ‘creatively rearranged’ your backpack at the airport weight scales to meet the 15kg maximum EXACTLY on budget flights
16. You’ve saved money by taking overnight buses and trains – and then regretted it the next day
17. You can tell what country people are from based on their backpack brand
18. You need a haircut
19. You’ve gotten smashed with people who until one hour ago were complete strangers
20. You get excited for flush toilets and indoor plumbing
21. You look forward to hostels with free Internet
22. You’ve invented your own system of packing
23. You’ve come home with completely different clothes than you left with
24. You look at people with suitcases and shake you head
25. You’ve gone free camping
26. You’ve been lost in translation
27. You’ve been confused about public transportation
28. You’ve had some close calls, but not close enough not to live and tell everyone about them
29. You never buy books, you just wait to trade them at hostels
30. No matter how much you travel, you always want to travel more!

If you have any other ideas for the list, feel free to add a comment!

Six Things Simply not to be Forgotten on Summer Sojourns

Pumice stone- while this little rock may seem insignificant, it can come in handy at some of the most crucial times. In the summer, especially in warm countries, the footwear of choice is definitely sandals because they are convenient and comfy. But this exposes the feet to nature and the weather. Speaking from personal experience skin gets dried and cracked within a few weeks, and even with daily moisturizer these deep cracks can take weeks to heal. So in this case prevention is the best medicine – use a pumice stone daily!

Plastic Sealable Bags – these are probably the most versatile things to bring along. They can be used to separate different clothing items – not just clean from dirty, but also t-shirts from shorts. They can be used to safely store bottles of liquid. Not only to they keep liquid in but they also keep liquid out – in case of being caught in a sudden thunderstorm. I recommend buying good quality, heavy duty, extra large bags to cover all contingencies.

Book – while this may seem like a unnecessary extra, I argue it is a must have! Books are a great way to pass the time waiting in lines, after you’ve gotten bored of the scenery on a 5 hour bus ride or sitting solo in a restaurant. They also are great gifts if you need something to barter with. There is also no need to bring more than one, most hostels have a book exchange so you can trade in your old one for a new one.

Alarm Clock- it doesn’t have to be a separate one, just something that it loud enough to wake you up NO MATTER what. There is nothing worse than missing a flight…enough said.

Multi-purpose Tool/Knife - you never know when you made need to cut something or open a bottle of wine. Be prepared for any situation, you’d be surprised how many times I’ve had to use mine!

Laundry Detergent (for handwashing) - sometimes good laundry facilities can be few and far between. Then when you do find laundry services they are often quite expensive. So learn how to handwash and then bring along some detergent. It will save you space in the long run, because you won’t need to bring as many clothes. Detergent is easy to find in most places so you can replenish your supply when you run out – to save space use those plastic resealable bags you brought along!

Stay tuned for more updates, photos and a selection of my Toastmasters speeches to come in December 2008!

The not so Lonely Planet

There is plenty of intelligent (and some not so intelligent) life out there. According to the Science Park in Granada on August 26th there are 6,852,793,069 of us. Even though I have been travelling by myself, I have not once felt alone. I’ve met a multitude of people – backpackers, locals, Americans with their fanny packs, drifters and university students like me. I’ve had some pretty close calls with some sketchy incidents, but these rare moment could not overshadow the awesomeness of my trip.

It seems like just yesterday (what an overused but accurate cliché) that I was on my long flight from Toronto to London Heathrow. I remember being nervous about travelling for the first time properly on my own. I has no idea what to expect. But with the right attitude especially when things didn’t go exactly as planned, I managed to survive (and have a blast!)

After these three months I still wouldn’t call myself an experienced traveller, but I definitely know a lot more about how to travel than I did when I left Canada. Mum asked me if this had satiated my ‘travel bug’ for awhile. To be honest this tripe has only made me want to travel more. Talking to other travellers has given me inspiration for future travel plans that I may not have considered before. I also think that this learning experience will help me have an even better experience next time. So in short Mum, while it fells good to be back home for a bit, the rest of the world is still waiting to be discovered.

This has been not only a learning experience about travelling, but also a learning experience about different cultures and ways of life. While some of the places are not too dissimilar to Canada it was still eye opening. Even though I only visited eight and a half countries (I’m counting Gibraltar as the half), each different city/village/metropolis I visited had a certain unique aspect that made it worth visiting. While many of these impressions are noted in my diary, there was not enough room to jot down all of them, so many will be mental notes to be remembered for a later date.

A lot of the unforgettable memories, impression and experiences I had were thanks to the locals that I met/stayed with- all the way from Telford to Ciudad Real. The efforts I made to fully immerse myself in the local culture and language really paid off. I felt that (especially as an International Relations student) I gained an immense amount of knowledge about business, customs, what to eat, and local history. Furthermore I had the good fortune of practicing some of my foreign languages. My conversational Spanish improved heaps after talking with the campers on a daily basis for a month. I had I refreshers course in French in Paris and in hostels with an abundant amount of francophones. I even had a quick conversation in Russian in Granada!

I think that the last thing that you learn while travelling (and from what I’ve been told is the most important thing) is about yourself. Many other travellers have said that getting away and travelling by yourself is the best way to find direction in life, realize what your priorities are and to get ‘life experiences’. People have told me throughout my trip ‘wow you’re brave to travel by yourself’. Initially I brushed this comment aside saying ‘oh, it’s no big deal – just a bit of planning.’ But now that I think more, it does take guts to go out there and travel, but once you get out there it’s definitely worth it! Right now I still haven’t figured out what I’ve learned about myself, but I’m sure when I get back to the real world it will become apparent. Because I do know that with all that I’ve seen and all that I’ve done, this trip has changed me in some way, shape or form.

These three months have been the most unforgettable monthof my life (to date). It will be hard to explain to people who weren’t with me about how amazing it was and how I learned so much. But I hope through my enthusiasm and anecdotes I will at least be abel to convince people that they should try it for themselves one day!

Already Andalusia?

I can’t believe it’s already over! But here is my final words on the last part of my trip.Well it is true what they say…the south of Spain is hot! On most days it was above 40 degrees Celsius. The whole afternoon siesta thing makes sense, because it’s way too hot to do anything. I really enjoyed my tour of the south – Cadiz, Jerez, Sevilla, Granada and Valencia. It was really easy to get around and each city had very unique things to do. In Cadiz it was all about the beach. Apparently it’s the best urban beach in the world. It wasn’t bad, but the one in Cap Spartal in Morocco was still better . The actual city of Cadiz doesn’t have that much to see, so you can visit it in a day.

 

After that I headed to Jerez, basically just an overnight stop to see the sherry bodegas. Then I went to Sevilla which was a nice town. The Cathedral there and the Giralda (mosque converted to bell tower by Christians) is definitely worth seeing. I went to a Flamenco museum and the museum at the Bullring. All the stereotypical things you hear about Spain are definitely exaggerated more in the southern province of Andalusia.

 

In Granada the main attraction is the Alhambra. People buy tickets months in advance to get in. If you want to buy tickets on the day you visit, you have to line up early in the morning (5AM) to ensure you can get in even though the ticket office doesn’t open till 8:30. Crazy! Granada is like a ‘tourist Morocco’, because of its huge Arab influences from the 13th century. I had to laugh when I saw the ‘markets’ they looked similar in design to the Moroccan ones but it was all wrong…things had prices on them, the street didn’t smell, there were no donkeys trying to run you over and no cows heads being chopped off.

 

The grand finale of my summer trip was going to La Tomatina in Bunol. It’s the biggest food fight in the world where you get to throw tomatoes at other people (about 20 000 of them) for one hour. This was intense…an all-out contact sport (I even wore swimming goggles) While it was very theraputic to be smashing fruit, tomatoes in large quantities SMELL REALLY BAD! Needless to say I won’t want to eat a tomato for a long while!

Anyways this is my last entry as I am now safely back in Canada. Thanks for reading…that’s all folks!

A view from above…

Lots of Tomatoes…

Tio Pepe [translation = Uncle Joe]…

Some nice architecture…

It’s a mosque sorta…

Out of Africa (Morocco Part Two)

This is just a quick update for everyone to let them know that I managed to survive the cockroaches, the scorpions, the squat toilets and the food and I am now safely back in Spain to start the last week and a half of travel in the south of Spain.

 

The second part of my Moroccan trip was just as amazing as the first part. I got to experience a local Hammam — which is like a public bath where everyone is totally naked and they scrub you down all over (I could see the dirt rolling off) and then rub you in oil and give you a massage. While this experience was initially awkward it was something that I will remember for a lifetime. We also went to this AMAZING beach on the Atlantic Ocean with huge waves and white sand. I also bought more goods (mostly clothes and silver jewelry) really cheaply in Marrakesh. I would definitely go back to Morocco. While it was somewhat of a grueling experience being in campgrounds, it made me appreciate everything we have in a first world country and I also got to see and experience things that were so different from what I’m used to. I’m off to Cadiz this afternoon to enjoy the beach and work some more on my tan!

My new tat…

A local place of worship…

Lunch time…

More shopping time…

A Saharan getaway…

Marvelous Magical Magnificient Morocco – Part One

This entry gets lots of adjectives because Morocco has definitely been the highlight of my trip so far. I’m so glad I decided to come! I think the reason I like so much is because it is very different from anything I have experienced before.

You could really rename this visit to Morocco a toilet tour…after camping for three days with only squat toilets and bushes when we arrived in a nice restaurant and all we could talk about was how good the toilets were. Being in a developing country is very interesting it varies from a very westernized part of a city with internet, and nice air conditioned buildings to the less developed areas with shanty towns with garbage everywhere. But despite the less than perfect living conditions it is absolutely worth the trip to see some incomparable things.

In Chefchaouen the entire city was painted blue (apparently it help keeps the flies away) and it was gorgeous! The medina in Fes has 9500 streets and is so confusing (we had a guide with us) but had so many interesting shops and markets. We had a tour of a leather tannery (which smelled REALLY bad but which was cool to see), a carpet/blanket shop (now we’ve been to about 3 separate blanket shops), a mosaic/ceramic shop (it was really neat to see how much effort is put into making a mosaic) and a traditional Moroccan pharmacy (we got to sample all these different products – my favorite was this black powder which you sniff and apparently it treats everything from hangovers to snoring)

After Fes we headed south towards the desert. As we were driving you could see the change in landscape as well as feel the change in temperature. So far the temperature has been pretty good (we haven’t got into the 40s yet) We had the complete desert experience yesterday. We rode out on camels in the early evening (during the tail end of a sandstorm). Arrived at the Berber oasis with our night gear and then went sandboarding (like tobogganing with a snowboard on sand) When it got dark we ate traditional Berber food and played some bongo drums. We slept outside under the Saharan stars! We had a ‘desert bonus’ when one of my travelmates got bitten by a scorpion (luckily it just used the pinchers and not its stinger so it was only his foot that was swollen) Apparently because it was raining (which only happens every 5 years in this part of the desert) that’s why the scorpion was out. We watched the sun rise around 5AM and then rode our camels back out to the meeting point for a nice breakfast. Right now I’m in a place called Todra Gorge and tomorrow we are heading to Marrakesh.

Thank you everyone for your comments and there will be more to come about Morocco and the last part of my trip in Spain. I miss you all and I hope everyone’s summer is going well! Luck and lollipops!

Livin’ it Up in Lisbon

So this is the first time I am actually writing an entry while I’m still actually in the city. I have about 24 hours left in Lisbon. I love Lisbon! Portugal has a lot of character compared to other European cities, they have not westernized as much and so there is a definite Portuguese feeling here. It is also very cheap (even more so than Spain) so it is very tempting to basically redo my ENTIRE wardrobe…my I am trying to restrain myself for Morocco. I have seen a lot of the different districts in Lisbon, starting with the one where my hostel is…it’s the most historic and is good for shopping. Yesterday I went to the area of Belem which is a tribute to the ‘Discovery Period’ of Portugal’s history (where they went out and discovered the world starting in the 15th century) Today I went to the more modern part where they had the 98 World Expo, very cool and modern. Right now they have a big Ocean festival on, so they had outdoor exhibits. The best one was sand sculpturing (right in the middle of a concrete jungle) I was also at the beach in the afternoon Very exciting to have my feet in the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean and then to burn them off on the hot sand! Tomorrow I plan to visit the nearby city of Sintra. Photos to come!!

Vasco da Gama et al. …

Looking West…

Shopping time…

In the new part of Lisbon…

Camp in Campo

I know it has been awhile since I have updated, so I figure I better write at least a little bit!

I have been busy for the last 3 weeks teaching English and Canadian culture. From the 1st to the 14th of July I was staying in a youth hostel in the tiny town of Campo in the Pyrenees mountains. I was there with 2 other Canadian monitors, 3 Spanish monitors, 3 Scottish ESL teachers and a Spanish camp director. The 6 monitors were in charge of planning daytime activities for the kids (aged 8-14). We also did an evening game for the kids every night.

The area was very beautiful, it was this little town in a valley surrounded by mountains. The town was nice too, lots of old building and the people were very typical of a small town they all knew each other and seemed to just ‘hang out’ in the square and the bar.

We did some exciting activities too like rafting, 2 hikes (the kids HATED this but the leaders loved it), kayaking, archery and rock climbing. The 2 weeks went by very fast and I was very tired at the end (most days we worked 18 hours or so)

I will update about the places I visited before camp soon when I get more time on the one shared computer we have here to use!

The boys…

The view from my room…

Rock climbing day…

One hot afternoon…

On the hike…

Beautiful Buildings in Barcelona

After leaving Andorra, Barcelona was a bit of a shock. There were soooooooo many tourists. It seemed like everything I visited (even less popular places like the Picasso museum), I had line up to get in and was overcrowded with visitors! Barcelona definitely had more interesting things to see than Madrid…but next time I would not come in high season.

Gaudi’s architectural work is definitely a must see. His incomplete masterpiece, the Sangrada Familia, is very interesting because it has been a work in progress for over 100 years! In the basement you can see how the builders are still using the same techniques and tools as they did when the project began in the 19th century. Another one of Gaudi’s must sees is Park Guell…here there are some houses that look like they belong in Hansel and Gretel as well as beautiful mosaic benches. The last piece of Gaudi’s work that is the most impressive is Casa Mila…rich people wait for years to live in these apartments. Because of the curvy exterior of the building it really stands out from the other apartment buildings and office towers in the area.

Like Madrid, Barcelona is another city that never sleeps…some of the night clubs here don’t even open until 7AM, but because our hostel had a curfew we had to leave around 3AM. At the hostel I was staying at, there seemed to be an extremely high number of francophones, some from Belgium, France, Switzerland and Quebec…very random…but we all went out together to a bar and spoke French.

One thing I would not recommend is taking the bus from Barcelona to Madrid…it took me 8 hours. I find Spanish countryside really boring too…all it consists of is brown fields, rolling hills and the occasional olive field. You are better off paying the extra 20€ and taking the train!

On Las Ramblas…

Over 100 years later still not finished…

Futher down Las Ramblas

At Park Guell…

More of Gaudi’s architecture