Category Archives: adventure

2778 words about ireland

Posted in adventure, everyday kimli by

I KNEW there was something I was forgetting to do – write about the trip. I’ve been incredibly scattered (more so than usual) since we got home, for reasons I am vaguebooking about. All will become clear soon, but in the meantime: hey, we went to Ireland!

Our flight(s) there were long but uneventful, with the exception of some EXTREME TURBULENCE between Toronto and St. John’s. Seriously, I have never experienced turbulence like that. It was fucking terrifying. People screamed, like in movies! Me, I almost ripped the back off the seat in front of me because I was gripping it so hard. Scary stuff. F——, would not turbule again.

We arrived into the Dublin airport just after 7am local time on Friday morning, and made our way through customs. Because of the early hour it was easy to grab a cab – lucky for us, since there was a bus strike going on and options into the city were limited. We were at the door of our AirBnB around 8:20am, perfectly on time.

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a series of unfortunate events

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Instead of getting ready to board our flight from Toronto to Vancouver, I’m currently sitting in a dark hotel room just off the freeway in the Dublin county of Swords, waiting for 2am to arrive so I can head back to the airport.

Don’t get me wrong – our trip to Dublin has been awesome and we saw so many really cool things and experienced awesome people and I tried very hard to drink beer – but right now I’m feeling kind of petulant and sorry for myself on account of this terrible cold and the fact that I’m in this hotel room at all.

We arrived at the airport just after 6 this morning, and were greeting with a departure board telling us our flight had been cancelled. Why we weren’t notified of this earlier I’ll never know, but it turns out a nasty storm in St John’s grounded our flight and there was no plane to take us home. Since the Westjet’s Dublin/St. John’s flight is a once-a-day thing, we were screwed. Double screwed, even, because it’s not like they could just bump us to the next flight as that would then displace everyone else and it would be an endless cycle of shit with no one getting home.

Westjet shuttled us all to a hotel in the middle of nowhere, gave us some food vouchers, and told us to call the airline to see what was going to happen. Turns out it’s this: they’re bringing in a plane for us that’ll leave Dublin at 0350, getting us to St. John’s around 5am local time. We sit there for 7 hours, then leave for Toronto at which point we’ll have 45 minutes to make our connecting flight to Vancouver. On paper, we’ll get home 22.5 hours later than intended. Whee!

I do know that they’re making the best of a bad situation, but the fact that our hotel friggin’ LOST POWER an hour or so ago isn’t making things any better. My brain is fogged over and it won’t let my body sleep. I’m sitting here in the dark, tethered to my phone and burning through data, with all my batteries (both literal and figurative) draining away, trying to breathe through all the rustic Irish mucous I’ve collected, and wondering if we’ll make it home. I’m out of Diet Coke, ice cubes, Advil, and patience. And clean bras.

We’ve had an awesome time in Ireland, but thiiiiiiiis suuuuuuuuucks. It’s also expensive, as I’m petulantly shopping on Etsy to pass the time.

I miss my kitties and bed and ice machine.

oscar wilde and eduard vilde both agree that, while things could be worse, this has turned out to be a most unfortunate day.

oscar wilde and eduard vilde both agree that, while things could be worse, this has turned out to be a most unfortunate day.

book it, danno

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BOOK ALL THE THINGS IN ALL THE PLACES

So, we’re going to Japan in April. It’s gonna be awesome. I booked the trip this past weekend, and some accommodations. We’re going with a group, so there’s been a lot of back and forth about what we’re doing – but it looks like everything has been planned, and haha we’re going to Tokyo (and Kyoto and Takayaka and Miyajama). There’ve been a lot of discussion about what people want to see – Tokyo Disney, castles, temples, sake tours, cherry blossoms – but there are really only 3 things on my list:

We arrive on April 1st. The Penis Festival is on April 2nd. Gosh, I wonder how that happened.

Before I can truly get bat-shit excited about Japan though, I’ve got something a little closer to be excited about: we’re going to Dublin later this month. I’ve spent the evening booking adventures for us in Dublin: we’re gonna rent a car and go look at some creepy-ass statutes, drink some beer (if I have to drink an entire pint anywhere in the world, it might as well be a Guinness right from the teat), fondle the Oscar Wilde statue, then rent a car again and go roaming the Irish hinterlands armed with little more than a camera and Google Maps.

I AM EXCITED FOR ADVENTURE!

I am also incredibly amused that most of the internet says “If you can handle the long drive, the coast of Ireland is a sight to see” – the “long drive” they speak of is 3 hours. A 3-hour car ride must be a daunting trek to a European, but I’m from Canada – I’ve driven more than three hours to get to the good Denny’s, instead of going to the terrible one. A 3-hour drive is nothing. We should have ample time to stop a million times for a) ridiculous scenery and pictures, and b) peeing a lot.

This is all very awesome and I feel so lucky that we can do this, but I am sort of sticking my fingers in my ears and not looking at the credit card. Go away, reality. I have fantastic adventures to plan.

Besides, I just got a raise. That extra $1.25 an hour is gonna pay for SO MANY AIRPORT IMPROVEMENT FEES!

Oh, and I’m not doing the Remote Year. I have a Grand Plan that is pretty much just a fantasy at the moment, but once my near-future solidifies a little bit more, I will know what I am doing. In the meantime, I’m going to bask in planning and maybe just maybe have something else brewing up my voluminous sleeves for the fall.

Did I mention that I’m excited?

maxresdefault

fully expecting shibuya station to look exactly like this, graffiti soul and all.

 

la indecisión me molesta

Posted in adventure, angst by

Okay, okay.

The Thing: I was accepted into Remote Year for 2017. Remote Year is a program for Digital Nomads, who spend one year traveling the world and working in a large group. It is not a job – that is one of the things you must supply, so a key factor in RY is getting your employer to agree to let you work from wherever you happen to be at the time. You pay a (not insignificant) fee up front, then $2K a month for your travel and accommodations. You are responsible for your own food. People have done the calculations, and it costs each participant an average of $42K USD/$55K CDN for the year. This is a major factor in my decision.

Pros:

  • Epic. Fucking. Adventure.
  • It’s what I wanted – to live abroad for a year
  • Forced to deal with my social demons
  • I could be in a group full of amazing, fun people and make some lifelong friends
  • Seeing several parts of world! Hello, world!

Cons:

  • It’s an extremely long commitment
  • Yes, I can always quit – but they want people to stick it out for the entire year, so there’s a financial penalty to quit
  • It’s not exactly what I wanted – it’s my dream, on someone else’s terms
  • It’s expensive. I’d use up all my savings and break even for the year if I’m lucky – I still have a mortgage and other financial commitments, so it’s not like I’m escaping rent by doing this (as I imagine most other participants are)
  • I’d have to cancel plans for 2017, including a trip to Tokyo, a trip to somewhere else not yet determined, and a UK visit
  • For the amount of money I’d be spending, I could easily afford to it on a smaller scale – in chunks – and be in total control of where, when, why, and how. This would also be a thousandfold easier to get approved through work.
  • I am figuratively too old for this shit. I love me some comforts.
  • I could end up in a group full of gorgeous 20-somethings who party and drink all the time and I’d be the sole fat shy weirdo with unkempt hair and no pants
  • No stability. Sometimes, stability is nice. (only sometimes tho)
  • Living out of one suitcase for an entire year. I can barely do that for a week.
  • I kind of like my husband and cats and don’t really want to be continents away from them for a year
  • Ed doesn’t want me to go (but won’t stop me if decide to go). He’s not actively trying to sway me one way or another (I’m gonna find ya, I’m gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha) and has been very positive about it, but I asked him to be completely honest with me and he doesn’t want to be apart for that long. I can’t blame him for that; I’d likely feel the same if the situation was reversed.

The Unknowns

  • Who am I signing up to spend a year with?
  • Will my employer even consider letting me work extremely remotely for an entire year?
  • What will the accommodations be like? Will they be filled with spiders? Is the internet stable? How’s the weather? What’s nearby? Where’s the nearest source of Diet Coke and ice cubes? A thousand questions, repeated each month.
  • The month I spent in London away from home was hard. How would I handle that times 12?
  • How on earth do I handle the mountain of medication I’m on?

Every person who has responded is encouraging me to go, but it’s just making me feel guilty for considering turning the invite down and/or deferring it. So there.

What to do.

flip it and reverse it

Posted in adventure, angst by

The reaction to my thing-waffling has varied between a mild “you should do the thing!” to a complete dissertation on WHY I MUST DO THE THING RIGHT NOW. Understandably, my mind is not settled. I am still waffling. It is significantly less delicious than it sounds.

So, let me throw this into the mix: the thing requires you to leave everything behind – your family, pets, friends, the excessive Funko Pop collection, your still-unfinished game of Fallout 4, that one really bulky jacket that kind of makes you look like a marshmallow but you love it anyway – for an entire year.

My waffling is not fear of the unknown – it is fear for everything I’d leave behind.

Armed with that knowledge, do you still encourage me to do the thing? What would YOU do?

oops

Posted in adventure, angst by

Well, that backfired.

I read this article about a thing that was relevant to my interests. Applications for this thing had just opened up, so on a lark, I threw my name into the ring. I didn’t think I’d actually GET the thing, because I am short and fat and socially maladjusted and have blue hair, but against all odds (take a look at me now) I passed each step and then they said “congratulations, you can do the thing!” and well shit I panicked and haven’t responded yet and I don’t know what to do.

I could do the thing.

I could not do the thing.

The choice is mine to make and there is a powerful list of pros and cons behind each one.

And I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DOOOOO

So I’m writing an annoying vague blog post instead and also thinking about lemonade. Have you tried the Blackberry Lemonade at Wendy’s? It’s delicious. Perhaps instead of making a decision about the thing, I will go to Wendy’s and get some lemonade and also panic some more.

what’s up with that thang?

Posted in adventure, medical anomaly by

Here I go, here I go, here I go again –

Girls, what’s my weakness?

UV Rays.

Yesterday was the first fully glorious day in Actual Summer. The sun was shining, birds were singing, bees were trying to have sex with them (as is my understanding) .. so we went on a boat. We’ve rented wee speed boats in Horseshoe Bay multiple times before, and it’s always an amazing way to spend a few hours. We packed up snacks and drinks and Shan and took off on our usual route, stopping to say hello to seals and dream about living on a tiny island.

It was wonderful.

Less wonderful is how I managed to completely forget that a) the sun is hot and b) there was sunscreen in the snack bag that I really ought to have used. I burned my exposed parts to a deep, crispy red, and they all hurt like hell. According to the internet, I now have seven kinds of skin cancer caused by Sun Poisoning, all of which can be exacerbated by every single medication I’m on. I didn’t know that! Was I supposed to know that? Goddamnit, I don’t have time for this! I’m already broken!

This is why I can’t have nice things, like skin.

sure was pretty, though

sure was pretty out, though

 

 

new york things

Posted in adventure, international kimli by

I survived New York, broken foot and all!

I wasn’t able to update while we were gone because a) there was no free wifi at the hotel and I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay $70 for an essential service and b) too busy Doing Things to stop and write about them. We’re home now, so it’s time to play catch up.

Excluding travel time, we had four full days in New York to do whatever we wanted. I had a small but significant list of things I wanted to do, and we got through most of it – we’d have done more, but we were pretty seriously hampered by my broken bones. That being said, I was surprisingly mobile in that stupid boot, and it even came in handy several times.

In no particular order, here are the things we did:

  • Hung out in Times Square (which is really more of a rhombus) like gaping tourists, and quickly tired of dodging selfie sticks and people asking if we liked comedy
  • Went up the Empire State Building and took ten thousand pictures of a rainy New York at night
  • Thoroughly enjoyed the VIP experience at the ESB – seriously, we were fawned over. It was hilarious and expensive but I’m so glad I sprung for the no-lines pass.
  • Went to Rockerfeller Center and looked at it; ditto Radio City Music Hall
  • Snuck into the Metropolitan Museum of Art – we had stopped in to pee and look in the shops (museum shops are my favourite), and Ed found a back entrance into Egypt so we wandered around and saw awesome things. Normally I would feel bad about this, but the Met has a suggested donation of $25 per adult. You can pay less if you like, even if that isn’t acknowledged anywhere. And I spent more than that in the shop anyway, so it’s not like we saw art for free. It was just .. discounted.
  • Enjoyed street meat! I had the BEST HOT DOG EVER outside the Met.
  • Walked through Central Park multiple times! Our hotel was on the Upper West Side, just three blocks from the park. It was really nice out for park walkin’, and we hunted down a few statues I wanted to see. It’s very beautiful in there, and I named all the turtles I met. That is likely the reason our walks took a long time (as opposed to my slow hobbling), as there were a lot of turtles.
  • In addition to being close to the park, our hotel was also two blocks from a Shake Shack. Many shakes were shacked.
  • We walked half of Brooklyn Bridge and it was awesome
  • All the bus tours! Correctly guessing that I wouldn’t be able to walk as much as I normally do on vacation, I purchased 3-day bus tours for us. We did almost every tour (some more than once), including the boat cruise which was AMAZING. Neither of us had any idea how close it got to the Statue of Liberty and that it went under the Brooklyn Bridge, so we super enjoyed the cruise. The staff were fantastic, too – seeing that we were at the tail end of a full boatload and not wanting to have to stand at the railing with hundreds of others, they let Ed and I get on at the very start of the next sailing so we could snag railside seats at the front of the boat.
  • Someone suggested that we do the NBC Studio Tour, but we don’t really watch TV or have any kind of yearning for NBC programming. Instead, we paid to go to the top of Rockerfeller Center and marvel at the daytime views.
  • Due to my great distrust of stopovers in Toronto, we both traveled carry-on only. It was trying at times, and due to the lack of free space I decided not to visit the Nintendo Store. That will be saved for next time.
  • Many delicious meals with surprisingly sensible portion sizes, except for one meal that simply did not end (there were so many shrimp my stomach hurts just thinking about it)
  • The one yucky weather day was the day we decided to do the Empire State Building at 11pm, and it is cold as all heck when you are 86 floors above the city. I bought what I THOUGHT were leggings at Macy’s to protect my frosty box, but they turned out to be stupid pants instead. I wore one pair that evening, but returned them the next day. No pants for me, America. Nice try.
  • Took the night tour through Brooklyn, as narrated by a crazy man
  • Very briefly visited MoMA – they closed at 5:30 and we arrived after 4:30, so instead of paying $50USD to see art for an hour we looked at what wasn’t behind Art Guards and put it at the top of the list for next time
  • Ditto the Guggenheim – on my own I could spend days in museums, but they’re not Ed’s cup of tea (especially when they come with a giant price tag: we love you, London). Plus, they’re doing mega construction in the Guggenheim so half the place was closed off. Will go next time.

Observations about New York:

  • I don’t think I could live there
  • It’s nice to know a place exists that is more expensive than London
  • I would definitely visit again
  • I enjoyed the city and like it a lot, but I don’t like like it
  • So that’s good to know – I really do love London, and am not fickle
  • American Airlines blows
  • I took a lot of pictures
  • Feel free to browse through them
  • I’ll inevitably post some when I run out of things to say
  • I am glad to be home

recapping spain

Posted in adventure, international kimli by

Home is the best!

We got home on Tuesday, and the cats were SO HAPPY. They wouldn’t leave our sides, which was very nice and somewhat damp. The flight home was uneventful – almost comfortable, even – and although I was still sick, I was overall pleased with just about everything.

Without further ado:

Barcelona in Bullet Points!

  • Neither our flights to or from Barcelona had USB. However, I was able to manipulate the universe in such a way that we each had double seats to ourselves for the long flights.
  • I’m still marveling at the size of Barcelona streets and sidewalks – they’re fucking huge and it’s so nice
  • THERE WERE SO MANY SCOOTERS
  • THEY PARKED ON EVERY (huge) SIDEWALK
  • SO JEALOUS
  • Our first hotel was attached to a mall, so that was pretty fun – there were plenty of food options available and a supermarket for water and no Diet Coke
  • I missed Diet Coke
  • A lot
  • I didn’t get to see quite a few things on my list because I was sick, but my favourite places I DID see were La Boqueria and La Pedrera
  • Our second (third) hotel was right off La Rambla, a popular thoroughfare in the center of town. It was pretty amazing and reasonable and I completely enjoyed being in one of those little balcony suites I had been admiring all week.
  • Not having access to laundry is a pain in the ass
  • Hotel laundry is laughably expensive
  • I have a really bad stress fracture in my left foot that made things painful – I don’t recommend it
  • My (horrible, no good, terrible) stomach flu had me spending a lot of time in bed, feeling sorry for myself – but it also gave me a lot of time to just listen. So much of Barcelona takes place on side streets and alleys, where pedestrian traffic is king. It was really nice having the prevalent background noise consist of Spanish chatter, laughter, scooters, clinking dishes, and skateboards rather than the usual trucks and honking we get at home. I could definitely live in that environment, and not miss the urban mess of Vancouver one bit.
  • I have been itchy for over a week and I don’t know why
  • Seeing Barcelona by tour bus was awesome, but a two-day pass didn’t seem necessary
  • We didn’t get to use our tickets to Sagrada Familia because they were for the day I got sick, so clearly we will need to return to Barcelona to do that
  • Park Güell, too
  • The weather was gorgeous the entire time – it only really rained on one day, and I was sick in bed anyway so I missed it
  • Everyone was dressed for winter, which was adorable in the +14-18C sunshine
  • I got a lot of weird looks for being bare legged and without a jacket/toque/scarf/mittens/boots
  • Or maybe they were just staring because I am so exotically beautiful
  • But I doubt it
  • Did I mention that the alleyways were amazing?
  • I took a lot of pictures of buildings
  • You can see them here
  • We ate patatas bravas with every meal
  • I was actually sick of them by the time we left
  • To be fair, I was actually sick at the time we left
  • Ham. Ham everywhere.
  • One of the best meals we had in Barcelona was at a vegetarian restaurant
  • I’m surprised, too
  • The Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris is a nightmare – it took us our entire layover of 2+ hours to get from our arrival gate to our departure gate
  • Drinking chocolate is amaaaaaazing
  • It was fun seeing Barcelona with other people! I love traveling with friends. I should do it more.
  • It’s SEVEN MONTHS until my next trip and that is so depressing I could cry
  • I wonder if I could go somewhere for my birthday
  • I think this should happen
  • Anyone want to adventure?

 

night time is the best time