http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/puppylover22/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from puppylover22 en-us Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:02:55 BST Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:02:55 BST I thought I'd post one final entry for 2007 since a couple things of note did happen at the Vancouver Scouting Conference although far less exciting things occurred on a daily basis than in Ecuador.The meetings themselves were fairly standard Scouts Canada Commissioner's Forums and Youth Forums although the settings were not. The past SC AGMs I'd attended had been at a Scout camp in Oshawa Ont http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver-Island/Victoria/blog-224972.html Here I sit in the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston Texas. It will be my home for the next 9 hours as I wait for my flight to Vancouver so I can continue my recent Scout meeting binge with 3 more full days of national Scouts Canada meetings. I'm pretty pleased because I've got a table I've got access to a power outlet and I'm sneaking free access to the Continental President's http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Houston/blog-223495.html Irsquom on a bus right now driving back from the ldquomiddle of the worldrdquo as they call it. In other words I was at the equator I stood with one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and one foot in the Southern Hemisphere.That alone is pretty cool but the whole experience was made absolutely unforgettable thanks to the incredibly hard work and detailed planning by the Ecuador Scout Ass http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-222712.html WARNING Ridiculously long blog entry. Please feel free to skimskip this one. Wow this is why itrsquos good to be limited to payperhour internet caf time and not have unlimited computer access. Gasp The internet is out Ohh horror of horrors. I can only hope itrsquos working again by the time I get back from todayrsquos sessions. In the meantime Irsquom writing this in http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-222703.html If you'd have told me two years ago that by Nov. 2007 I would have visted all six populated continents of the world I NEVER would have believed you.Yet here I am just 13 months after Derek Mark and I first boarded the plane for Australia typing a blog entry from Quito Ecuador South America. I made the first half of it all happenmy world tour took me all over Australia SE Asia and Euro http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-222260.html Well here it is my 75th I think and final entry maybe. It was 5 12 months ago that Derek Mark and I said goodbye to our loved ones boarded a BC Ferry and left the land of Tim Horton's Canadian Tire cold Pacific Ocean and sane traffic behind. Yah that was a random summary of Canada wasn't it Well it's what came to mind. I thought I would do one last entry to sum things up a bit. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Yukon/Whitehorse/blog-143621.html I have to say the two major Parisien monuments really let me down today. The Louvre and the Eiffel Tower just really didn't come through. Let me explain. We started our day off at the Louvre. After waiting in a pretty big line to get tickets and then fighting our way through crowded halls we finally made it to the Mona Lisa. Well there it is. was pretty much Derek and my responses. It's not http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/-le-de-France/Paris/blog-141883.html We're in Paris now but I think it's important for me to report on the Juno Beach center where we spent two days after leaving the ski hill. If you don't know and you SHOULD if you are a Canadian citizen Juno Beach is the name for the 8km stretch of Normandy coast line where the Canadians landed during the Allied Forces DDay invasion. The Canadians did great and penetrated farther into occupi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/-le-de-France/Paris/blog-141551.html Wow. I just finished four of the most fun days of my life living waaaay above my general social class and income bracket thanks to the intense generosity of friends from highschool and their subsequent equally kind connections. I'm talking of course of my time in the ski resort village of Meribel. Not sure what Meribel is Let me give you an intro it's in the center of 3 interconnected skia http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Lower-Normandy/blog-140704.html If you're just checking my blog be sure the you caught my last entry which I just published. I split this up into two because the last one was getting excessively long.So when we last spoke Derek and I had just arrived at Vicky's house in ErpsKwerps Belgium. OH I forgot a pivital moment of our first night there. We went and got some famous Belgian frites fries to take back to Vicky's h http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-West/Geneva/blog-137958.html I'm not sure how much I'm going to get through here today because I have days and days and days to catch up on and I don't have unlimited time at the moment but we'll see how much I can do. I guess I'll start with Amsterdam first.When we got of the train a sense of calm immediately fell over me. Ahhhh the Netherlands. I really like that country a lot. After a bit of work to orient ourselve http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Flemish-Brabant/Erps-Kwerps/blog-136996.html For those of you wondering what has happened to me this email to my parents is the best I can do at this point. SorryHi guysI know it has been ages since I posted on the blog but there have been some problems. The internet in Amsterdam seemed unreasonably pricy so I opted to wait until we got to Brussels to just do a mammoth update then since we had a lot of time to kill until we could http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Flemish-Brabant/Erps-Kwerps/blog-136690.html With some much communication now easily possible due to the greatness that is The Internet sometimes it feels like I never left home. However all this communication takes time and more and more the poor blog seems to be getting neglected. Tonight is no exception. By the time I'd finished reading and responding to all my emails and the Scouting ones have picked up again now that the Christm http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-134635.html Hoooonestly I've been on the internet for ages already so this is going to be short. I've uploaded a ton of photos from this WONDERFUL Berlin walking tour that Derek and I took today. Our guide was so animated and super knowledgable it was excellent If you're coming to Berlin we recommend Brewer's Berlin English Walking Tours and ask for Barnaby because he's greatNot only did he show us http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-134098.html It seems like the cold and flu season as finally caught up with usor maybe we just caught up with it. Last night the thin walls of our hostel in Berlin echoed with the sick hacking of Derek my roomates and other people in other rooms and on other floors. Everyone on the street and in the stores is riding themselves of phelm and nooooo one is covering their noses or mouths. Derek just cough http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-133688.html I thought I'd do sort of a summary post to cover the past 5 days since Carnival ended here before we move on to Brussels for our date with Nelly Furtado. We haven't had any incredible major exciting adventures but we have been having a good time just hanging out in one place with our new international dorm buddies and pretending that we actually had a home for once.Wednesday was the first day http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/Limburg/Maastricht/blog-132847.html Well today is the last day of Carnivale and the last day before Lent. Ellen and Phoebe are going to give up refined sugar. I'm not. Haha but I can still enjoy the carnivale partying Last night was a bit tame but BOY was last night fun I don't really know how to describe the joy that is Maastricht Carnivale particularly when coupled with the amazing Phoebe Friesen and assorted internatio http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/Limburg/Maastricht/blog-131224.html This is to be a super short entry because I'm missing some of the amazing partying currently going down here at my friend Phoebe's dorm but I wanted to let everyone know that Derek and I DID make it to Maastircht FINALLY at 1224am after 5 trains over 14 hours of travel and every connection full of uncertainty. One thing's for sure internet train schedules cannot be trusted and neither ca http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/Limburg/Maastricht/blog-130865.html Hmmmm... So you may notice that I'm still in Prague and NOT in Holland I like I was supposed to be around this time. Basically the Eurail and online train schedules were COMPLETELY wrong and the train we were planning to take to start off our 4 train day didn't exist at all. Nothing in that hour nothing from that station. Lovely. To make matters worse we were carrying around huge grocer http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/North/Prague/blog-130137.html Tonight Derek and I went to the long awaited Czech hockey game and had a pretty darn good time. It was no NHL game in level of play or level of financing but at least we could afford to attend unlike any NHL game. We were up in the balcony but that was just fine for me because we had a great view of the whole ice surface and it really wasn't that far away.The game was pretty close. In the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/North/Prague/blog-129842.html