Not a Journal

As I sit here pretending to be a scriptwriter at a budget Starbucks  Tim Hortons, feeling slightly out of place, I write this review. This will be an attempt at a new series on my blog, since I've been dry with ideas since returning to Canada. Tim Hortons is a Canadian classic coffee shop turned fast food restaurant while still retaining its coffeeshop status. Apparently, it used to be excellent until they changed coffee beans, but that was before my coffee drinking days so I and most people around my age probably feel the same (we don't feel anything about the changed beans). It also used to be cheap, but since high-status coffee shops like the aforementioned Starbucks and Second Cup somehow get away with charging 10$ for a drink, the friendly neighborhood Canadian brand jacks prices to compete. At least it still has its loyal customers. Fun fact, the first Tim's restaurant was in my hometown of Hamilton! It's also the usual go-to spot for a quick bathroom brea...

Polarsteps is done tracking my trip, but the journey is still  here  if you'd like to check it out! If you missed any of the series, check it out on my social media feeds or on my blog homepage. The last post is  right here! I can't say that this finale will be very spectacular. I do however want to share some of the things I learned through my time in Europe and coming home after such a trip. Venice, my final stop, is something special. It's unique, and after so many big cities and subways and buses, the uniqueness of taking a boat around the city is just fun. I never took the overpriced gondola ride or boat cabs, and I don't feel that you need to because the boat-bus was awesome. A 48-hour pass is relatively cheap and I had a blast boating around the city. It does take a long time to get around though, so you need to keep that in mind! The city is unfortunately sinking and eventually will cease to exist. About 1000 locals leave the city each year. So if you...

This series ended up being far longer than I anticipated. I could make an ebook about my travels! Who am I kidding, no one would want to read that... let alone buy it. Also, side note: Polarsteps was so great up until a couple days ago when it went haywire and threw a bunch of phantom travel paths on my map. Support said it has been fixed however, there was no way to remove the phantom lines. This all makes for a ton of work for me to redo all of the travel steps. It's unfortunate but I understand these things happen. Anyway, it's all updated now and working as it should, sorry to my 7000  7 followers for any inconvenience. Now that it's all back to normal, here is the link if you'd like to check out my trip! If you missed any of the series, check it out on my social media feeds or on my blog homepage. The last post is right here! July 22 2017 Wow, am I ever behind on this. [Left off in Florence] So I went up the massive dome of the Florence Cathedral...

We're coming to a close here soon, just about half a month left before I fly home! I realise I got a little behind on blogging so this may be a tad long. You've been warned. Shameless plug : If you'd like to follow my trip on Polarsteps, check it out  here ! Attempt to get more views : If you missed  Part 5  of the series, you can find it  here . You can find all the other parts of the series through links in each of the previous posts or on my other social media platforms! As a preface, I left off in Barcelona on day 2 of 5. July 11, 2017 The rest of Barcelona was both really great and a little annoying. It was the definition of mixed feelings. The weather was hot and humid but no rain, except for a 5-minute downpour while I was on top of a castle. Great view of the city though! It seems like in every city I try to get as high (ha.. in terms of altitude) as possible to get a birds-eye view of the place. Those views usually pay off. I also ...

Shameless plug : If you'd like to follow my trip on Polarsteps, check it out  here . Attempt to get more views : If you missed Part 4 of the series, you can find it here . You can find all the other parts of the series through links in each of the previous posts! Let's jump right in. July 1, 2017 (continued) I met an American woman in my hostel room who was thinking about doing the Game of Thrones tour. Belfast and Northern Ireland is home to most of the filming locations in the series, and hence offer tours of some key spots. It's also a great way to get out of the city and see some of the sites along the coastline. We ended up going on the tour. It was well worth it too! We drove up the Northern Ireland coast, which is absolutely beautiful. The guide was fantastic and a huge fan of the show. He even showed clips of the show at the filming locations! I saw another Wonder of the world UK which was the Giant's Causeway. The Giant's Causeway has a great le...

I think I needed a new title for this installment. I hadn't originally planned to write so much in the previous ones, but hopefully you read them. Shameless plug : If you'd like to follow my trip on Polarsteps, check it out  here . Attempt to get more views : If you missed the first part of the series, you can find it  here . Now that the administrative stuff is out of the way, let's get down to the real business. That's a lie, businesses are profitable, this blog is not... So I think I left off at Stonehenge, let me check my book here. Damn, that felt like a long time ago. June 26, 2017 Stonehenge was, I mean realistically it's just a bunch of big rocks standing up (some fell over) in a circle that line up with the sun a couple times per year. But, still they are over 4500 years old and built by some ancient, well organized humans. The stones are built intricately for the time, and weigh tens of tons. They actually fit together and some were brought from...

Hello again! Please forgive me for my spelling mistakes in the last two posts, which have been corrected. I rushed writing them due to writing on a bunk bed in a room that must have been as hot as the inside of a car on a hot day. I also realize there are mixtures of tenses (past and present) but that is by design as it is how I wrote it at the time. So if my high school English teacher is reading, sorry Ms Butera!  If you'd like to follow my trip on Polarsteps, check it out  here . Also, Part 1 of the series can be found here! Where did I leave off last time? Ah, Paris. Alright, going to stick to the script (mostly) of my notebook here. &quote Just kidding, quoting myself is just too much.  Also, the dates listed are not representative of where I was on that day, but the day I wrote in my journal. Perhaps that wasn't clear before. MY BAD FOLKS. June 22, 2017 I blogged while in Paris but didn't "journal" anything. Now I'm too ...