Beautiful Goodbye

Well, the time has finally come to say good-bye! I can't believe that I have kept this blog up for two years, and I hope that if anything, it was at least semi interesting to read! We are now "settling" back into life in Canada. The adjustment has actually been anything but easy. Lots of frustration, transitioning and tears, and I still feel pretty lost at times. Our summer travelling Europe helped us detach a little, but we did return to Cayman for one last week on the beach. What a difference it was to finally feel like a tourist, to get to sip sweet rum punch in the sun during a week day! Boy did we really miss out by working so much. We celebrated our second anniversary on our last night in Cayman. After the island presented us with one last gift; a sunset that felt appropriate in its beauty and moodiness, we dined at Hemingways on the beach. A beach walk under the dark starry sky topped off the wonderful night. It was just as hard as I had imagined to say good-bye to our little paradise. So many amazing memories, laughs, friends and experiences. It feels like we both lived a short lifetime during those 20 months, and that we are coming back to Canada changed from the experience. Not only did we grow, but our marriage did too. I still hold a hope that we will one day make it back to Cayman, maybe with our children, and re-live the glory days. Our wonderful life can really be attributed to the strong friendships we made while we were there, and the kind, generous and welcoming people we met. I will look back at the experience with such a bittersweet feeling, because for all of the joy we had living there, it made leaving so difficult. Like a wise man once said "The past should be a guide post, not a hitching post," and so it is onto the new chapter, which I am confident will be just as exciting and adventurous as the last one. Thank you all for sharing in our adventures, and keep in touch!!! Love Blake and Natalie

Croatian Fun

Our last country on our trip was Croatia. We both didn’t know what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised when we stepped off the overnight ferry in Dubrovnik to a beautiful port city. We found our villa without a problem and were greeted with fresh plums and melon from the garden and the friendliest hosts we had met yet. We spent our day in Dubrovnik exploring the old city where most of the bombings took place several years ago. It is surprising how fast they have recovered, at least on the surface. There was not a bullet hole or derelict building in site. The old city is surrounded by a thick wall which you can walk around, with gorgeous views of the Adriatic Sea and town. The rest of the afternoon we spent at an awesome beach, complete with swim in cave and rock jumping!

After Dubrovnik we took a bus up to Split, passing through Bosnia for breakfast and a brief stop. Unfortunately for us, the bus broke down on the top of a rather remote Croatian mountaintop, so we were left for two hours to explore and admire the views of the valley below. Once we finally arrived in Split we were disappointed to find our grungiest overnight spot yet. Our room, painted bubblegum pink and green had a dirty old mattress in the corner, stains all around the sink, and an irregular shaped sofa- which they called a bed. We tried to spend all of our time away from the room, and checked out Diocletian’s Palace instead.

The following day we were off to Plitvice Lakes, which turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. Sixteen different coloured lakes flow into one another with thousands of cascades and waterfalls, and even some caves and rock formations. We spent two days hiking around the magnificent area, taking way too many pictures and uttering threats of never returning home. However, time wore down and it was finally our last day in Croatia, so we caught a bus for the capital city of Zagreb, near Budapest, where we spent an lovely evening wandering the Eastern European city and enjoying the far less touristy part of the Slavic region. Before we knew it, we had to say good-bye and return to England for the last days of our trip!

La Bella Italia

Pasta, lemons, pastries, narrow roads, espresso on the piazza and cigarettes are the words I would use to describe Italy. I could go on for hours about our 2 weeks in Italy, but I would still not do it justice. So I have decided that I will just regale you with the highlights… which to be fair was the entire time… uh oh.

After what felt like a brush with death, but most would just consider ample turbulence, we landed in Milan. Much to our disappointment we didn’t get much time to explore it. A fantastic Ravioli will forever be my Milan reminder. In the morning we headed down to La Spezia where we overnighted before our Cinque Terre walk. Cinque Terre has some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, and walking inches away from sheer cliffs provides a nice adrenalin rush as well. We hiked for two days and ate pasta and drank wine in the evenings. Pretty much a perfect life.

We headed to Pisa (which was a total let down) and on to Florence. Spending two nights in a Tuscan Villa cleverly disguised as a hostel, we drank chianti, climbed to the top of the colourful Duomo and sat under the replica David statue with gelatos.

Rome itself was a pleasant surprise, with lovely weather and a simple transit system, we had a great time checking out all of the must-sees, like the coliseum, Roman Forum, Vatican, Tiber River and general atmosphere of Rome. One afternoon we climbed up Giancolo to get a view of Rome. At the top we grabbed some cold coolers from a vendor and soaked up the view. Later that evening we gorged ourselves at a little pasta restaurant while watching the ancient owner greet his friends as they walked down the narrow alleyway.

The Amalfi coast was our last stop. Pompeii was interesting and a lot larger than I had originally thought. It is scary to see how an entire town can be buried under ash. In Sorrento we booked a boat trip to Capri, complete with stops to swim in a waterfall, and two grottos and a swim through! Amazing!!!! In the little town of Amalfi, getting sick of the tourist track, we walked up through the narrow streets and found ourselves on an Indiana Jones style trek through a thick forest with ruins of old aquaducts and a million mosquitos and not a tourist in site! We also hiked up 1000 stairs to…. Nowhere! That was a little bit of a disappointment, but the workout probably wore off a few pounds!

I could have spent another week in Italy, but in 12 days we did see an amazing amount. If any of you have been thinking about doing a trip down the boot- DO IT.

Gaudi Glory

If I could sum up Barcelona in a word it would be “funky.” From the unique and eye catching Gaudi art to La Rambla- the famous green strip down the centre of the road - Barcelona is most definitely a modern and exciting city. The night we arrived we spent some time wandering down La Rambla watching the interesting street performers and hawkers along the side lines. Despite being a huge city, we ran into our friend Jan-Sarel (from Cayman) on the street! Since we were planning on meeting up the next day, it was pretty convenient to catch up with him early. He is traveling alone, doing France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland.
On our second day, the three of us took the metro to visit the world renowned La Sagrada Familia cathedral. Gaudi began building it in 1880, and when he died in 1920 it was still only a tenth finished. They are still working on it today, and estimate it will be completed by 2020! From outside it looks like something off of the Flintstone’s Bedrock, but inside it is breath-taking. Soaring arches, columns and wavy designs make you feel like you are in a dream. After the cathedral we headed up to view some of Gaudi’s other buildings, all of them resembling something from Alice in Wonderland. Afterwards, Blake and JS were itching to go to the Barcelona FC Soccer Stadium. I opted out, but the boys went on an amazing tour inside, seeing the entire stadium including locker rooms, President’s box, and much more. Apparently it is a must-see for any “footie” fan. At the end of the day I wanted to check out the Guell Park, high on the hillside. It was originally planned by Guadi to be a housing coop, but fell flat. Now it is a wonderful park, with great views of the city. We were blown away by the aquaducts, houses and plaza. Definitely a recommendation for anyone visiting. Over paella and sangria we said a sad goodbye to JS that night.
The following day we headed to Mont Juic and climbed the hillside for more amazing views of the city. We stumbled upon the Olympic stadium and had a great time wandering all of the sites. In the afternoon we headed to the beach. Cayman has spoiled all future beaches as we found this one dirty and sketchy, but it was still neat to sit on the sand and watch the naked men and women and the Mediterranean waves roll in.
Our final day we just chilled out, did some laundry and wandered some of the side streets, finding cute jewellery stores, a colourful market where we had mojito popsicles, and sidewalk cafes. We returned to the beach to watch the sun set and then wandered back to our hostel to get ready for Milan the next day!

France Fun

When we arrived in Paris the weather was overcast and windy. We were able to take the train to our hostel just north of the downtown centre without a problem. I was at once fascinated with the language and excited to start using my French. It’s been over a year since I last got to speak it! We spent the majority of our time in Paris walking everywhere. One would assume this would be a great weight loss program, but since the French seem to exist solely on carbs in the solitary form of bread it was a blessing that we did have to walk! We feasted on crepes, galettes, baguettes, French bread, pastries, tartelettes, croissants and every single form of bread known to the French man. In order to wear off some of the carby goodness we walked to Notre Dame, Arc de Triumph, Champs Elysees, Ile de la cite, Eiffel Tower, La Seine and the Louvre. I was most blown away with the Louvre and could have spent two days wandering through the old palaces looking at artifacts and art from ancient and medieval times. I also enjoyed the Eiffel Tower with its gorgeous view of the city, but more importantly I enjoyed the bottle of wine, brie and crackers that we enjoyed at the park in the shadow of magnificent “tour.” With the weather being windy and chilly, three days in Paris was more than enough. The third day we actually caught a day train out to Versailles where I was blown away with the bed chambers of Marie Antoinette and the King of France. We toured inside of the palace and admired the lavish décor while feeling like paupers.

After Paris we caught the train to Normandy where we spent two amazing days. The first we spent basking in the magical and surreal glow of Mont St. Michel, climbing the steep stairs and streets to the Benedictine monastery on the top of this miniature island in the sea. It is surrounded by quicksand when the tide is low, and water at high tide, and in the medieval days was a place for monks to come and work uninterrupted. During World War II it managed to escape German occupation for quite some time, but finally fell towards the end of the war. Now it is a living museum, where shops and restaurants still crowd the narrow cobblestone streets, and the old abbey perches on the top of the hill with a watchful eye. We stayed the night in the charming village of Beauvoir where a local actually picked us up from the train station and drove us the 6 kms to our hotel!
Our second day in Normandy we visited the D-Day beaches, American Cemetery, Aramanches and Point du Hoc. It was sobering to see the German trenches and huge craters in the land where bombs were dropped. Perhaps the saddest was the cemetery, where only 40% of the Americans killed rest, with 10,000 white crosses arranged in lines. The cemetery goes on and on and on, overlooking Omaha Beach below. Unfortunately the tour we booked did not go to Juno Beach or the Canadian cemetery, but it doesn’t matter what nationality you are, seeing the carnage and left over results from a battle only 67 years ago really hits home. We spent that night in Bayeux, another beautiful town.

Although we were sad to say goodbye to France, we are excited to move on to Barcelona and hopefully find some heat!

Pictured above: Notre Dame Cathedral, View from Eiffel Tower, Mont St. Michel at night, American Cemetery at D-Day beaches

London Adventures

In typical style, we arrived to London early, but minus our luggage! At this point, this was the least of our travel woes, but nevertheless an annoyance. Having slept less than four hours, we were both exhausted. I fell asleep on the tube into London, but luckily we didn’t miss our stop. As soon as we were out of the tube London hit me hard. It felt like the stone buildings, corner pubs and double decker buses had worked their way out of my imagination and onto the streets! I hate to say it, but all of the stereotypes are real. One of the perks of staying in London is that we get to crash at Blake’s old friend Tyler’s flat. We found his work easily and got the key to his place. Once we had stowed our stuff we were on a mission to find some extra clothes so we didn’t have to wear the same clothes four days in a row. Upon our clothing hunt we stumbled upon St. Paul’s Cathedral, and then meandered beside the Thames, eventually catching a tube to Picadilly Circus, where we met some success at a bargain clothes store. After we blew 75 Pounds on British Airways’ tab we saw the National Geographic’s Headquarters. Inside there was some sort of art exhibition, and free wine was flowing. We perused African animal pictures and downed some free vino, until we realized that somehow we had been mistaken as actual guests to a closed event! Oops, we snuck out the door!
The following day we hit the streets a little later than intended due to some much needed sleep. We checked out Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace (the Queen was in, but didn’t invite us over for tea???), St. James’ Park, Green Park and a few other stops along the way. We returned to Tyler and his girlfriend Liv’s place in time for some truly English fish & chips. That night Tyler and Liv wanted to take us out for a night on the town so we walked to the trendy Hoxton district and I sampled some English Lemonade and vodka. At 10pm, when things we starting to wind down and I thought we would head back to the flat, we took a cab to the Hoxton Hotel. It was a modern boutique hotel filled with sophisticated types. We ended up staying on until 1am!
The next morning was a later one, for obvious reasons. Since the weather was gray and rainy (much like the previous two days) we decided to start the morning at the Museum of London. Some neat displays included fashion through the ages and a history of London from the dawn of time. After two hours I was more than saturated with English knowledge and in need of some retail therapy, so we hopped on a tube to Harrod’s. There are no words to describe that place. I don’t find it remotely odd that it was the beginning of Christian the Lion, and that other strange and fabulous things have happened there. A room devoted entirely to chocolate and tea had me enthralled for a half hour. Blake took to the ice cream parlour and deli. I was also humbled by the fashion on the upper floors. Labels I had only dreamt of and seen in movies were right in front of my eyes. A whole year’s salary could be spent on a pair of pants! After the opulence got to us, we returned to the street and strolled through Hyde Park to Kensington Palace, and then back again. An ambitious walk which left me with some seriously sore feet! On our last night we went out for a delicious curry at a local Indian house, a great way to end three nights in London.

Travel hiccups

So with summer coming, and Blake having 2 months off for the first time ever, we decided we had better go big, or go home (which we are doing anyways... but still). We settled on doing a 6 week European adventure, since I have never been to Europe, and since we have met so many wonderful people from Europe during our time in Cayman. We planned to leave at the beginning of July, and were actually excited when we realized that we could make my cousin Heather's wedding in Toronto if we left on July 1st. Rather than tell my parents that we will be meeting them in Toronto, we decided to surprise them by showing up the night before the wedding. I spent weeks planning this surprise and was so excited. Once I had bid farewell to my students, moved out of our flat and sold our car I was ready to go. July 1st arrived and we headed to the airport for our flight to Miami and then onward to Toronto. The boarding of the plane went smoothly and it was not time until we were on the tarmac ready for take-off. However, after a few minutes of waiting, the pilot told us the left engine wouldn't start. We returned to the gate and tried two more times to start the engine, both times were successful. Then we returned to the tarmac for take-off. After a 5 minute delay, the pilot mentioned he was having problems with the fuel actuator valve, and we returned to the gate again. Upon contact with their head office the plane was taken out of commission until a part was flown in on another flight that afternoon. So we had to return to the lobby and wait while a single attendant called out the names of every single passenger on the airline, and one by one we had to shuffle up and retrieve our entry card and return to the ticket booths to try and reschedule a flight off the island. As time passed, I managed to get Blake and I onto the only other flight off the island that weekend, which was on Saturday at 1:00p.m. Once our tickets were booked we learned that there was going to be a flight out that afternoon, they anticipated that they could fix the fuel actuator valve and have everyone out by 3:00. I had to return to the desk and cancel the flight out the next day and rebook a ticket on our original flight. By the time I got this done it was time to re check in our luggage, go through security a second time and wait for the flight to board. By 4:00 we were on the plane, however, it turned out that there was a slight problem and the mechanic who had fixed the part on the plane had forgotten to use a silicone seal, so we had to wait for that to be applied and dry. Once dry, we were ready for take-off, but this time a ticketing agent from inside forgot to count the people on the plane, so she had to come up and re-do that. When we were finally ready to go we headed out to the tarmac. Once there we waited and waited. I noticed that the plane was beginning to roll backwards. After 12 hours in the airport without anything to eat, I was going to lose it if we returned to the gate. The pilot came on the speaker and told us that once again, the left engine wouldn't start and the plane was unfit to fly. An angry group of us trudged back to the lobby, waited through the excruciating process of receiving our entry cards and returning our duty-free items and then returning to the main ticket booth. By 6:00 we were still waiting to hear if there would be another plane sent from Miami to take us over. At 6:30 we found out there wouldn't be, so Blake and I booked another flight out the next morning on Delta. By 7:00 we learned that American Airlines was going to charter a plane for us first thing in the morning, so we had to go back and cancel our Delta tickets and rebook on the AA flight out in the morning. We then had to wait another hour for hotel and food vouchers, as we hadn't eaten anything all, and we had given up possession of our flat.

The next morning, at 5:30a.m. we headed back to the airport AGAIN. Luckily this time we got to Miami, where we had to catch a connector through Air Canada. Needless to say, when the Air Canada flight was delayed by and hour and then the pilot told us there were computer problems I just about screamed. Thankfully the problems were fixable and we got to Toronto at 6:00p.m. We raced to the hotel, threw on our party clothes and grabbed a cab to my cousin's beautiful reception venue. We snuck in just in time, as dinner hadn't been served and everyone was sitting at their tables. Mom and Dad did still get the surprise of their lives when I snuck up behind them! I'll never forget the looks on their faces!

The rest of the Toronto trip went well. It was so nice being able to have some vacation time with both my parents, aunt and uncle and Melinda and Mat. We spent most of our time walking around downtown Toronto. We did make it to the top of the CN Tower, where Melinda shocked us all by lounging on the glass floor, and Blake managed to get both feet (or rather heels) on it too! At the end of the weekend we were sad to leave, but super excited to start the next leg of our trip to London!!!!