I started later than usual this year - felt very odd being in town for Canada Day and music festivals... The departure was a little dicey yesterday - remnants of storms in Western Canada delayed my first flight, but I had such a long layover it didn't matter. The flight from St. John's to Dublin damn near gave me a heart attack - we dropped or did something and the pressure went down. I felt like I was getting sucked down a drain. Very unpleasant. Needless to say, as per usual I didn't sleep on the plane. I did, however, manage to sleep most of the bus ride from Dublin to Cork. It was raining (shocker!), so I don't think I missed much. I was awake long enough passing through Dublin to see this giant creepy ... read more

July 20: Pwllgwaelod / Dinas Head I don’t know what it is, but I felt lazy lazy LAZY today. Perhaps because it’s Sunday. Perhaps because I knew I was going hiking and I’ve been hiking (or at least walking for 5+ hrs) most days on this trip… so… I was no overly gung-ho when I woke up. I decided to take the bus to Pwllgwaelod (don’t bother asking how it’s pronounced, I have no clue haha) and doing the circuit hike around Dinas Head for some beautiful views along the coast towards Fishguard and towards Newport on the other side. The weather was interesting - it was supposed to be sunny and partly cloudy and about 20 min into the hike I saw the clouds coming and they did not say “partly cloudy” … they said ... read more

(Day 30 already? I can't believe it.) I had a lovely relaxing day today… other than trying to deal with my hostel re: laundry but let’s not focus on that right now. I’ve been to Cardiff quite a few times now - the first time I was here I had visited the Welsh Life Museum which is almost like an “Upper Canada Village” sort of museum - it’s basically a bunch of buildings that have been moved from their original locations and rebuilt and replicated to the t here at the museum. It was this museum that cemented in my mind that the Welsh and Canadians are pretty much the exact same people haha. So all that to say, I decided to head out to enjoy the beautiful weather and wander around the grounds. (Bonus, it’s ... read more

Ahhhhhh. I've never been to the London Zoo and decided today would be the day. It didn't disappoint :) I got to see a lot of animals you don't always get to see at a zoo. Anteaters are ginormous... I knew they were big but I didn't think that large. Same with these African porcupines... they were the size of a large dog. Ooooh and coaties (so spelling that wrong) are adorable. I have to say it's pretty glorious going to a zoo with the new camera. I got a ton of lovely shots of the usual - penguins, cheetahs, meerkats, giraffes etc. The lions and tigers were snoozing both times I went over. Oh well. Their male pygmy hippo is named Thug. That is pretty great. Their gibbons were singing in the morning - I ... read more

Ok, so today was one of the day’s I was pretty much counting down to for my entire trip - I went to see Richard III (with Martin Freeman in it). It lived up to expectations, but more about that later. I had to switch hostels today so I took care of that in the morning, lugging my damn bag to the next place. The problem with buying a bunch of new clothes in London is of course then being stuck carrying them around with you the rest of the trip. It’s an ok problem to have ;) The DLR trip was funny - I overheard a great conversation that truly speaks to London. A bunch of late 20 something year olds were having a heated discussion re: Thor 2 and how they 100% messed up ... read more