AndreaMagee

¡Vamanos a Perú! Hola amigos! I'm going traveling to Perú from January 27th until February 12th, 2011 and have decided to resurrect this travel blog and post some updates during the trip! This is my Mom's year-long teaching sabbatical, and she's been across the US, to Vancouver, Mexico, Guatemala, and more. Peru is our trip together and we're both really excited! Tonight I'm going to do a practice run of packing my backpack since next week is busy with work conferences and I fly out of Vancouver late on Thursday night to Toronto, meet up with Mom there to catch our flight to Lima. We have plans for Lima, Arequipa, Lake Titicaca, Cusco, Machu Picchu, some festivals, and more, so if you would like to hear some stories and see some photos, please subscribe and we ... read more

to pick up where i left off going to the tower, a group of us walked down and saw the light show, honestly it made me gasp i wasnt expecting it, and then on the way back.... we saw a guy propose to his girlfriend! it was adorable. she said yes, because there is no way to not say yes to that. the 24th was my profs bday and we went walking all over the latin quarter to his old haunts, went to a picturesque cafe and toured around. went to notre dame, saw the gargoyles and flying buttresses, really intricate and wonderful. we even went to the shakespeare and company bookstore, which now does creative writing salons for anyone intersted! since then i have been to the louvre, which is huge, out to the sacre ... read more

Yesterday I went on a little day trip to Verona, and it is considered one of the most beautiful places in northern Italy for a reason! It is just how you might picture a little Italian city, all pretty buildings and balconies, lots of steps and parks with fountains. Throw in a Roman-looking ruin with strange Egyptian sphinxes out front (a play they are doing) and you have yourself Verona. I even went to Juliet's house! It's pretty amazing, there is a courtyard and on the way in is an alcove absolutely covered in love-graffiti! Paper notes and hearts and Ti àmos all over the place, it is quite astonishing. I even went up into the Capulet house where there is all kinds of memorabilia, things from the Romeo and Juliet films of the 50s and ... read more

I want to stay on Ios forever. I have met so many people who've come and stayed, it's unreal. Everyone comes to Far Out camping (where I had my own whitewashed thatched-roof hut) and they love it so much they find jobs working in town and just stay. Ios has a reputation for being a party island, and even though the season is just getting started it's still a lot of fun. Imagine an area with all of your friends from Australia, Canada, and Britain, and this neighbourhood has everyone waking up in the afternoon, going out on the 4-wheelers, sitting by the pool, swimming, laying on the beach, doing water sports, and generally being super friendly. Then watching a movie on the outdoor screen while eating dinner, then catching the last bus at 10:15 up ... read more

It didn't happen yesterday, for which I am grateful, but today there is a public transit strike. No worries though, Leslie and I had plans to be tourists so we just walked all over town, all the way to the Acropolis. You can just imagine how it would have been minus all the city buildings, coming upon this huge creation at the top of a hill you can see for miles. I can see it right now from Leslie's place, and it's all lit up at night which is wonderful. There's been some deterioration of the structures because of the pollution, and most of the ancient buildings are surrounded by scaffolding, which is too bad because it totally ruins the look. Metal and ancient stones just should not mix, but otherwise it might fall down, and ... read more