TravelStream™ news feed for member itsem on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/itsem en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:01:42 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1132158420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1132158420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1132158420/tpod.html Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:01:42 -0500 So many countries, so little time..

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Lljubania, Slovenia

see next entry..
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1227918060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1227918060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1227918060/tpod.html Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:30:29 -0500 So many countries, so little time..

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Adelaide, Australia

I hadnt been to Adelaide since I was a teen and since it holds some of my favourite people from Vancouver I decided to head over for a weekend.. as is seemingly usual my Qantas flight was delayed again so my weekend started with lurking around the airport for ages before finally getting picked up at Adelaide airport.. by sign wielding maniacs!The next morning we went to the Botanic Gardens for a quick peek and a coffee and then a wander around town. I went to the museum hoping for some South Australian related stuff but none was to be found. More wandering then I was snuck into the members stand at the Adelaide oval for some drinks after a day of Aussie v. Kiwi cricket. Im not into cricket at all but Adam took great delight in pointing out all the features of the oval and we took some snaps and I learnt some cricket info before heading off to dinner. Sunday was the highlight of my quick jaunt. The whole time we were in Vancouver Adam would talk of us all catching up again in the Barossa over a few wines and some sunshine. So we cruised up to the Barossa and I was shocked to see how dry the area is, I vowed to have shorter showers. Living in the city its hard to remember how it affects you but the endless dry grass was a scary sight to see. We drove past a sign saying 'Jacobs Creek' - the road sign for the creek, not the winery, and i tipped my hat thinking of just how many bottles of wine over the world I have drunk and never considered where it came from.  After checking out a few wineries we ended our day with a platter of cheese and a few more glasses out on the verandah looking out over the grape vines. Lovely.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1226066280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1226066280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1226066280/tpod.html Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:17:18 -0500 So many countries, so little time..

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Launceston, Tasmania, Australia

In my continued quest to see more of my own country I found a bargain flight down to Tassie for the weekend and went ahead and booked it.  I had planned to go with Sam but things happen and the next thing I know I landed in Launceston on Saturday morning at 9am solo. I was wearing thongs. Tasmania is even colder than you would think, than I thought anyway, sunny day but an ice cold wind. So as has become common any time I fly somewhere in a plane I had to run around buying appropriate weather gear, and I grabbed some sneakers. Turned out to be a good plan because not only was it cold, but I walked a lot! I had thought Launceston would have a lot of older buildings but they don't seem to make too much of their convict past, and where I grew up is older anyway so I focused more on the animals. Launceston is an hour from Low Head where fairy penguins have been coming in every night for years to nest and make out.  A spot bucketed by icy winds Low Head is not a place where showing up in thongs would have been the smartest of moves. The tour takes you to a seating arena and almost straight away the penguins start coming in. The guide uses a low amber light so we can see the penguins but they arent bothered by us, touching one gets you a fine of $3000. One bumped against my foot but it was not forthcoming with paying me a reverse $3000 fine so I had to let it go. Shame as Launceston really is just a big country town, which for a solo traveller without a car it becomes an expensive place. I also am very glad I went to the Tasmania Zoo, a bit of a trek out of Launceston without a car but they have a shuttle bus that came and got me. Its a breeding zoo for Tassie Devils, and is all about interaction with animals. They let you pat a baby Devil (an adult wouldn't give you back your hand) and feed the other various Aussie animals around the zoo and there is little in the way of fencing. The zoo has 40 of Tasmanias remaining 250 devils, a sad sad story that one can only hope does not end up the same as the Tasmanian Tiger, though things seem to be heading that way. They are just soo cute, it so hard to believe they as so mean!Around Launceston there is a museum that has a bit of history about the town which was more about specific events - such as rail - than the entire town.  Again seeming to ignore its convict beginnings which I would have thought was one of the more interesting parts of its history. As the day got sunnier I went on a river cruise through the local gorge, a whole area that a rich lady had donated to the town that is now a free local park. Has some short trails, a pool, the river of course and a chair ride over the gorge that had to be done.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1217404380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1217404380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1217404380/tpod.html Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:51:32 -0400 So many countries, so little time..

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Nadi, Viti Levu, Fiji

When my contract ended in Vancouver I decided that instead of hunting out another one it was probably time to go home.  A scary thought after six years away there was no way I could just ease straight into it so I contacted original (and most travelled with!) travel buddy Tracey and very easily convinced her to join me in a stopover on the way home.  Fiji was never really one of my 'must dos' but there it was an easy stopover and some sunshine before hitting Aussie winter. I was able to leave some bags at the airport and by the time I had done that find Tracey in the airport (at 6am) and we headed off on a bus down to the Coral Coast, just over an hour out of Nadi.  We stayed in a nice spot on the water and agreed that the coast was definately rather corally. I refused to swim in the water as it had lots of sea snakes slithering about but we were only staying there two nights and went for a few wanders in the lagoon and lazed by the pool as I recovered from jetlag and Tracey waited for me to wake up.  Keen to get to an island pretty quickly we headed off on a day trip the next day to nearby and tiny Robinson Crusoe island. Sadly there were no monkey butlers but they did put on dancing and a few other Fijian style things for us - including rather oddly crab races.  We did a bit of snorkeling and saw our first twister high up in the sky! After our day trip we headed off to some further out islands and stayed on Bounty Island for a bit. A tiny island about half an hours walk around the whole thing and two girls came up to me and said "are you from Windsor??" (I am). Turns out they were a few years below me in school - Windsor sure is a country town you cant escape!! We spent a fair bit of time lazing about on Bounty Island and also lazed on nearby Treasure Island. Both Tracey and I are not natural lazers when it comes to holidays (at home a different story!) and so it took a bit of adjusting for us both to be able to just stop, sit and tan. We then headed over to slightly bigger Manna Island for a few nights. A slightly odd setup with a resort on one side and backpackers on the other side. We of course stayed backpacker side, the resort apparently wont even let us walk their paths! We of course tested that, pish - wont let me on your paths! yea right. One such test of path we walked over to the airfield to fly off the island, it cost hardly anything more than the ferry which we had already used several times and was about a 15 minute flight back to the mainland over the islands.  No way were we leaving any other way. The backpackers were rather irritated with our request and kept attempting to discourage us "why do you want to?? get the ferry" Tracey bless her is a rather persistent girl and in the end went over and sorted it out for us. We realised when leaving it was mostly just that they didn't want to carry our bags over to the airfield! The flight was very worth it, a tiny plane and just us flying over the islands. Beautiful view. Last night and day was spent in Nadi which was a rather small and uninteresting town.  Just a lot of shops full of rather persistent and hard to say no to salesmen with expensive goods that they insisted came right from 'the village' and payment went right back.. oh well typical experience right? We headed back to Sydney after 8 days and as the plane got closer reality certainly wasnt sinking in. That is until Tracey turns on the flight and says "do you smell petrol"??
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1218951600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1218951600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/itsem/ems_been_to.../1218951600/tpod.html Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:46:35 -0400 So many countries, so little time..

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Not quite ready to return home 'home' I headed to Melbourne to try a different Australian city. I always said when travelling away that when I came home I would try and see more of Australia so this is my start! Melbourne seems nice so far and I have very little memory of the place.  I have been here years ago for a weekend but dont remember much about it. Im living on the water which is great and something i missed a fair bit, particularly back in Japan! I have been back home for a few weeks and aside from a few moments of drastically missing those I left in Canada I havent hit the dreader 'travellers return home from trip' blues yet.  Nicely two friends (and a brother)  from Vancouver live in Melbourne too so thats probably helped.  I have been working a crappy job for a few weeks and even hit the reality checking mark of getting paid again for the first time in a while! Despite being winter Melbourne is rather sunny and warm - even though everyone else thinks its cold! So far I have even had two visitors down here, i figure if this average of one a week keeps up all is good! Now to get to planning those trips around Australia..
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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

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Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

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Jasper, Alberta, Canada

I had done a few quick runs through Jasper before, and been to Banff so I hadnt thought too much about the Rockies before arriving.  When we did arrive it was overcast and cold and we could see bits of snow around. We picked up the car and headed straight away to do some sightseeing! On the way we noticed a few cars pulled over on the side of the road and were wondering what was going on. Road party? and then it hit me so i yelled BEAR and we pulled over and bolted across the road to see in the distance (even more distant for me without my glasses!) a bear! Very excited we snapped away and happily got back to the car. Headed off to Maligne Lake and Canyon. The lake was almost totally frozen over which was cool to see and just had a look around the area but it was already dinner time so after being so used to 3 course meals served non stop after the train we headed to find some food and just went to the local brewpub to try a few. The next day we drove the much raved about Icefields parkway. Gorgeous scenery, jaw dropping in some parts and then the next thing we know there were some cars parked on the side of the road and BEAR! This time amazingly there was a mum and two cubs so close to the road. It was an awesome moment and they just totally ignored us. We read later that for their own well being we are supposed to ignore them so we had a few guilt moments cause we did stop and stare, but for our own ease of conscience we did stay in the car. After this we saw two more bears by themselves again later in the day. Im still in awe at seeing them! Finally bears! There were also a few deer and mountain goats on the roadside happily wandering about, cool but not quite bears. We stopped at the Icefields centre where they take you in these weird little trucks to drive on the glacier. The glacier just looks like a big field of ice, not too sure what i was expecting anyway! but it was up to 365m deep which is hard to comprehend. Giddy after the bear sightings and standing on a glacier and being surrounded by the awesome rockies we headed off to Lake Louise. Lake Louise was also mostly frozen over which was cool to see but its much more stunning in the summer so I was really glad I had already been. We had lunch in the Fairmont overlookign the lake which was lovely, even went so far as to have some champers. the life indeed.Went for the final run into Banff just cause the girls hadnt been before and had a wander around there before the drive back into Jasper. As we stopped about half way for petrol Karly told us she had been panicking for ages that we were going to run out and had been driving down hills in neutral to save petrol.. she was so panicked she didnt want to say anything to either of us.. instead of asking if we had seen a petrol station! She had been having visions of parking for the night on the side of the road being attacked by bears...Next morning I got up and admitted to a bit of a cold so i stayed in the sunshine in town while the others went horseriding. Quite beautiful lying in the park in Jasper and it was a sunny day finally so the mountains were clear.  With just enough time before the train we ran up the Jasper Tramway for a great view of town and then headed off to get the train.. none to happy at the end of our holiday approached and knowing that we didnt have sleeper seats...
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Niagra Falls, Ontario, Canada

We arrived in Toronto after a 22 hour train trek from PEI in the afternoon.  Knowing there was little time in Toronto we headed right to the CN Tower but it was abit cloudy, the tower was pricey and we looked at each other and asked how many towers does one need to go up in a lifetime anyway? So we snapped a photo and headed off to wander around town and do some essentials, like find a bank, before heading back to dinner and our laundry. After dinner we headed out again towards what was marked on the map as 'Old Toronto' which turned out to be pretty dull. It was getting late and we had to be up early to get the train to Niagra Falls so we shrugged and said oh well, tomorrow night..Today we made our 8.30am (early for me) train to the falls.  Arrived at Niagra station to no directions and a train load of confused looking tourists. I stopped a French girl who had a guidebook and she didn't seem to know either. As she walked off she wished us good luck and so we thought we would try to walk and see what happened. We stopped at a place marked tourist info to be oddly hounded, think old Gil from the Simpsons, into buying some day pass.  All we wanted was directions.. the guy even showed us the cardboard box the passes were kept in. Interesting. We declined and headed off on foot again..I had yet again dressed inappropriately (for the weather I mean) so we wandered around for a while trying to find an ordinary clothing store. I knew Niagra Falls was a bit touristy but we were slightly suprised to see just how tacky it was in the surrounding areas. Who sees these amazing falls and thinks you know whats missing? a million souvineer stalls, rides, fun park style games and casinos?? apparently someone did. I had to eventually cave and buy myself a stylin' Niagra Falls jumper, i learned to love it - mostly because it was so warm and cosy! We had lunch at a revolving restaurant in a large tower. They had promised us a buffet and I nearly died when we got there after much wandering about to be told there was no buffet today. Still it was pretty cool eating overlooking the falls and surrounding area, while we out our overpriced bland food. After lunch and rugging up in my jumper we went to do the Maid of the Mist ride. Icy cold and it goes right up to the falls, an amazing view. Karly and I kept our ponchos on for the rest of the afternoon as we were walking near and around the top of the falls and there was a lot of spray. Could have done much more there and gaped for a fair bit longer but we had to run back to catch our train.. which ended up being two hours late thanks to border control. Made it back rather late into Toronto but since we have to leave early the morning we dragged ourselves through town to a pub for dinner. And then dragged oursevles back to to pack for the train ride to Jasper..
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Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, Canada

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