Happy Canada Day

I love July first. I'm not usually patriotic throughout the year but for Canada Day I will sing the national anthem at the top of my lungs. But not today. All I want to do is cry. And I have.

Salzburg

Took the train to Salzburg and arrived to another heat wave. We were starving so we went to the Spar to order a schnitzel. Turns out they were out so we asked for the cooked meat next to it. We ended up walking out with a hamburger in a bun type deal which was super delicious. But we can't replicate it because we don't know what it was. And that is our only sad story from Salzburg.

Flashback June 15-Leaving Vienna and reminiscing

After one tiring day in Vienna, we're off to Salzburg. Vienna is a beautiful city, you can't really fault it for that. But it does mean that there are masses of tourists. I thought there were a lot before. I was wrong. 

Bathing in Budapest

They have a saying in Hungary. If you dig in Budapest, you'll hit a hot spring. And I'm happy to report that they make extremely good use of this natural resource. 

Where (one of) Dani's worst nightmares is realised. (From June 10)

June 8

Jill and I arrived in Krakow safely and have just been wandering around the city, exploring the old town and sampling the local fare. We just had the most amazing perogies in Krakow. Finger licking, stomach stretching, boiled and roasted dumplings. We followed up on a recommendation by our hostel receptionist to find Grandma's raspberrys (U Babci Maliny),  a hidden gem definitely worth visiting. It's a tad hard to find. There's only a small sign hanging above a large imposing wrought iron gate. It's through a deserted hallway, then a courtyard and down a few flights of stairs. All unsignposted so it definitely felt like we were trespassing the entire time but once we opened that last door, a kitschy polish Mecca awaited. It was done up to look exactly like a Polish grandmother's house. Except with long tables and benches crammed in and a circular aquarium in the middle. We ordered ruski perogies (yay!!) and compote. So delicious. My craving is finally satisfied. Over half a year later, I've finally had my perogie fix. Oh happy day!! Now I just need to discover dill pickles in a supermarket and my life will be complete. 

Excitement and Trepidation

EXCITEMENT

Eastern Europe? Whoohoo!! I've always wanted to go and it's finally happening! All those places I've only read about I'll finally be seeing in real life!! Cheap, cultural and everything is relatively close together. What more could a young girl want?

TREPIDATION

It is the most whirlwind-y tour of Eastern Europe that I've ever attempted. I'm usually more of a city-a-week sort of girl but this time we're going all out. Won't we get burnt out really quick?

Sunday Funday

Whoops, sorry for the long break from this blog. I finally finished all my finals this past week and now have a lovely (somewhat) relaxing week before leaving to go travelling again. No more stuffing my brain every day with facts and concepts. I can now read REAL books (The Woman in White and then a birthday book from Joel) and maybe see sunshine. It's a grand new age.

Leeds life

Life in Leeds is finally settling into a rhythm just as its all about to change for exams. I know the exact time I have to leave my house to arrive a minute before lecture starts (8:59 for a 9:05 class), the amount of money I can spend on food to only have to shop every week and a half (12 pounds) and I've perfected the standard english greeting (hiyah, you alright?) 

Flash back: March 28

I've just spent a night in the desert with wind blowing sand in my face the whole night. I don't understand Berber tent doors. I haven't mastered the whole closing them yet.

Flash back: March 24

We're on the bus back to Marrakech from sunny, surf town Taghazout. I don't think I've swallowed quite so much sea water in a very long time... Is it gross to say that my phlegm still tastes like the ocean? Yeah that's probably TMI. Sorry.

Flash back: March 18

We're leaving Malaga to head to sunnier, cheaper Morocco. I have to admit that Spain hasn't been my favourite country so far. To be fair I've only given it two days... But still.

My Fish Feet

I had one of my bright ideas the other day. I decided what I wanted as a reward for all my studying this past week and a half was to stick my feet in a pool of water and have fish nibble at them. I amaze even myself sometimes.

Thankful Mondays

I am studying like a crazy person for my midterm this week which is why I've been avoiding humanity.  And the internet. To a lesser extent than I probably should. Anyway. This is what I'm thankful for.

Happy Mother's Day y'all.

I love you mom. So much.

Thankful Mondays

Because the weekend started out stressful and then turned itself around. This is what I'm thankful for.

Learning in Leeds

Let's pass on some truth bombs.

Snowy Belgium

My friend Victoria and I decided to liven up our lives and go to Belgium for the weekend. And since I'm pretty broke we decided to couch surf while we were there. On Saturday we flew into Charleroi-Sud (just outside of Brussels) and our couch surfing host picked us up to take us to a nearby photography museum. 

What Dani has learned from living in residence this week (the boring bits)

Today's been a stay-in-my-room-all-day-and-eat-sweets sort of day. Something about not having a weekend to recharge has made me suddenly feel devoid of energy. But on the flip side, since I was feeling down I decided to go shopping and coupled with the fact that I have no money and no food... I did my first online grocery shop!

The February Blues

Leeds is not cooperating with my mental mind messages to start spring already, so while there are some snow drops around (I'll take photos later) it's been pretty darn cold. So I've decided to liven up my flat by making myself a bird feeder. Yep. I'm cool.

Happy half-price-chocolate-day!!

Yesterday I hosted my first Pathetic Singles Girls Night for Valentines. Not that I think it's pathetic to be single or that Valentines is so depressing without a significant other that you need to eat your sorrows away. Really. It's just that non-couples in the UK don't do much besides go out to bars on V-day. Who wants that? The pictures were taken at the beginning of the night so it looks small but seriously. My room got packed. 

Gong Hey Fat Choy!!

Happy New Year! I had the pleasure of going to Manchester for Chinese New Year today. Chynna Blue (my biology buddy) and I went to celebrate and eat our weight in Chinese. We wandered through the carnival, lots of trinkets and shooting games. Then we gorged on barbecue pork buns, asian juice boxes and snacks. All very yummy but slightly dampened by the rain/sleet. I would like to be more witty but I'm still cold, wet and tired. So here's some photos.

Thankful Mondays

Because Mondays suck and I had to work on a presentation Saturday and Sunday night, here's a few things that I'm grateful for.

Spring Break

I don't know how up to date y'all are on the British university schedule. Or maybe more specifically Leeds Uni. I have a month long spring break. A month. From the middle of March to the middle of April. And I have no clue if I'm supposed to use that entire month to study for my exams that happen a few weeks later or if I really am expected to relax. I'm going with the second option.

Liverpool Sunday

Wanna know what I've been craving? Asian food. They have amazing Indian cuisine here but Japanese, Chinese and even Vietnamese is lacking. It's expensive and usually not very good. So you can imagine how excited I was to hear that Liverpool has the oldest Chinatown in Europe. SUPER DUPER.

Tog up Tuesday

According to dictionary.com, to tog is a verb that means to dress and is usually followed by up or out. Thank you internet for finding a clothing term that starts with a T. Anyway, I wanted to share the fashion over here and the ways I've noticed that it differs or is similar to Canada's. I don't have any pictures for today, mainly because I thought of this tog up tuesday thing five minutes ago and I just got back from shopping. (For socks. Calm down parents, I'm only buying essentials) So I guess I'll just let you in on what's big in the Leeds student fashion world right now. 

My New Flat

I finally did it. I moved into my new flat. We packed up the car to it's gills and drove forty minutes to Leeds. No more commuting for me, no more checking train times and speed walking down the hill to the station. I'm now a lazy five minutes from campus. Its wonderful. But I am now dead tired and don't have exciting pictures to show you all. So here's a few ones from showing the lovely family around the campus. 

My new favourite breakfast

Want to know my favourite thing in the world? Have you guessed it? No? Really? Don't you know me at all?? It's...

First (real) day of school

After having a cancelled class the first day, my semester in Leeds has started. With a sleepless night beforehand that I'm blaming on the giant black tea I had had that evening. As I slogged through the inch of icy slush at 7:20, I wanted so much for my first day to just be over and done with. I honestly don't mind first days, they're exciting and an adventure but this one I felt unprepared for. It didn't matter in the end though. I got through it.

A what?

The UK is the motherland of Canada. We used to be a colony, we still have the English monarch on our money and most Canadians follow the Royal family more closely than the Brits do. So why do I feel like it's an entirely new planet? I mean, c'mon. I used to live here. I'm practically a local(no I'm not), I never get lost anymore (lies), or take the wrong train (I just really wanted to get half way to Edinburgh). So why are accents so difficult? Maybe it's that my ears are getting old or that I have lost the knack but I feel hard of hearing 80% of the time and 100% when a cute boy is around. 

The Beginning

This blog is to share my thoughts, keep everyone up to date on my life and to cut down on the amount of time I spend on individually replying to friends. I promise I still love you all and want to stay connected but... Seriously. I just want to share everything. And it takes forever to reply differently to all of you. I have said in the past that blogs are just diaries online and I hope to God that that isn't what this is. This is just a quick coffee catch up or Skype date, in which I may discuss why I love to travel and how that can be detrimental or positive to my health. But mostly it'll just be snapshots of my life so I can bring everyone I love along for the ride this year. Let me tell you about my deafening wanderlust.