two feet and a heartbeat

10:00 pm - Wed, Jul 14, 2010

cherryville, bc!

hey everyone! we’re still alive! we’re actually in cherryville, bc - visiting my cousin’s farm & hanging out with his super duper radical family (his wife heather and their two kids, lily pearl & pannos!) and having a great time.

just to recap: brighton was crazy fun - meeting rihkee’s friends daniel & aubrey was hilarious times. those guys are really amazing dudes and i really enjoyed their company. we stayed at a hostel right across from the beach and it was nice to be able to see the water and chill out on the rocks. the food in brighton was amazing! they have such a rad variety of vegetarian/vegan friendly shops… we definitely ate well there, that’s for sure.

we hung out at daniel’s dad’s store and listened to music & chilled - it was amazing to see a wall to wall record collection. the pictured evidence will be shown eventually, i promise! also - eating a burger with brie and cranberry on it - is an amazing idea and if you get the chance - you need to try this. man. we really stuffed ourselves!

vancouver was soooo great and amazing as well. we stayed with jeff and randy and had such a rad time! one night - jeff, me, rihkee & bill and curt silver all hung out!! wow, talk about trips down memory lane. we went sailing all day on the ocean, then had beers at this train bar and then walked all around the seawall being drunk and absurd… to coming back to jeff’s and having a random sleepover with the silver boys crashing on the floor in the living room and rihkee & i taking the couches.

fuck i’ve missed those boys. it was so much fun to see jeff, bill and curt again. and all of us together! shit! i think it seriously had been like 10 years since we had a hangout all of us together like that. it was really amazing for me! i was glad i could share it with rihkee too - she thought they were all hilarious and really enjoyed meeting them, from what she says.

i actually got to meet my friend ryan for the first time in real life too! we’ve been friends online for years and it was so much fun. we talked design and drank tea and walked tons - lazed on the grass a bunch too. i really really loved hanging in vancouver actually.

we saw scotty and met his girlfriend ally, who is a total sweetheart! phrail is doing well and keeping sane - as much as he can these days, haha - it was awesome and i definitely hugged him a bunch.

we got a ride to cherryville with a really nice guy named Stephan who lives in Van but has a girlfriend in Kelowna. we hopped in his car with him in White Rock where we met up after his dentist appointment and had a pleasant ride to K-town. my cousin edsel picked us up there and drove us here to Cherryville where we’ve been for the past week.

we’ve been tenting it out in the back in the bush and it’s been glorious. tons of hanging out in the massive garden they have, picking fruits and veggies - going swimming at watering holes - eating amazing delicious foods - jam sessions and just a lot of fun.

family is everything to me. it’s been so amazing to be surrounded by so much love!

everyone loves rihkee too and she’s been getting her share of hugs. i should jet and get back outside and join in, actually.

hope everyone is having a great summer! i’ll update again once we’re in either moosejaw or winnipeg - we’re not sure where we’re going to, just yet.

xo!

-m.

2:22 pm - Sat, Jun 26, 2010

london, uk

super duper fast update! i only have 4 minutes left on this thing!

we’re in london right now and are going to brighton tomorrow for two nights… then flying back to vancouver and loving the concept of seeing everyone in our home countryyyyy!

had such an amazing trip and am looking forward to continuing the journey back home through canada.

thanks so much for everyone’s positive support and hope to see you all soon!

let’s share some hugs and make some memories!

xo.

-m.

7:45 pm - Tue, Jun 22, 2010

update

tomorrow we leave for paris for two days, then london for one, then brighton for two and then we fly back to canada and land in vancouver.

life is intense but we’re still enjoying ourselves and making memories that will last a lifetime.

probably won’t have access to the net that often now - most likely in a few days when we’re in london we will though.

hope everyone is having fun and staying safe…

and to my brother & sister in law… can’t wait to meet the baby! i’m sending love your way and hope for a safe and wonderful delivery.

you know i love you both so much.

xo, m.

5:37 am - Mon, Jun 21, 2010

porto, portugal

what’s up everyone? how have you guys all been doing? rihkee and i have been traveling and at times, pulling our hair out, trying to figure out what and where we wanted to be - and right now, it’s portugal!

we took an entire day yesterday traveling by train (three trains to be precise, well, three trains of long distance and three metro trains, so six trains in total… yikes) from madrid to porto, portugal. we had taken a train from malaga to madrid the day before and spent the night at the welcome hostel before leaving for porto in the morning.

let me take a minute here to talk about the welcome hostel if i can. holy shit guys. i actually dubbed this hostel “Monster Hospital” as soon as we got into it because it was so creepy and steril looking. it’s this massive huge industrial building situated in the middle of nowhere surrounded by other massive huge industrial buildings. we had a room to ourselves, but it was down a corridor with lights that would flicker on as you walked past in a total “Hey, you’re in a hospital and you’re going to die tonight!”-kinda way. all night we’d hear someone walking around and banging open a door, or closing one.

the fact that i slept on the green bed and rihkee slept on the red bed, did nothing to make us feel more comfortable. we had a bit of a jam session though that was fun (she played her melodica and i played my ukulele) and the accoustics sounded amazing… mostly because it felt like we were sleeping in a bathroom.

at any rate, Monster Hospital, we couldn’t leave you fast enough. sweet jesus.

back to porto though - so far it seems really beautiful! everyone has been so friendly and nice… we got fairly lost last night as we got in pretty late and everything looks so different at night. this old man who was so happy and theatrical, and couldn’t speak our language at all, definitely led us through all the streets and up and over until we found the hostel. it was hilarious and so worth it. he wanted us to take photos with him so rihkee snapped one of him and me, and i snapped one of her and him and he left us with cheek kisses and waves.

we decided to not hit up rotterdam as the train situation here is so complicated for no apparent reason. we’re instead going to hang out here in porto for a few days, then potentially head to san sebastian for two days, then paris to check out the louvre and grab our train to london. we haven’t decided if we want to skip out on san sebastian yet because there’s apparently an epic downtown massive festival that happens here on the day that we leave… and well, you know they named port wine after here, right? let’s just say from all accounts, this is supposed to be one helluva party!

when we’re in the UK we’re going to get out of london as fast as possible because we heard it’s so expensive. we’re heading to brighton to hang out with two of rihkee’s friends possibly, but if not, we’re heading there to relax before we fly out of the airport on our way to vancouver.

this trip has been amazing. i’ve met so many wonderful, cool and laid back people… heard life experiences and tested myself on being able to cope with whatever gets tossed my way. we’ve gone through the netherlands, belgium, france, spain, portugal and soon the UK - it’s been incredible and i’m super thankful for the opportunity.

life is short guys. enjoy the days and make the memories.

see you all soon, i hope!

-m.

4:48 am - Thu, Jun 17, 2010

malaga, spain

we got into malaga yesterday to beautiful blue skies and hot weather… FINALLY! the entire time we´ve been in spain so far we haven´t really gotten that so we´re pretty stoked on the whole front now! who wants rain in spain? honestly!

we´re staying at hostel that´s called the Melting Pot that was recommended by our friend james from victoria,bc that we met in madrid (and subsequently hung out with in barcelona!) and is right on the beachfront of the sea… it´s soooo beautiful to be able to just peek out your window and see palm trees, sand and waves! THIS is exactly the kind of stuff i was looking forward to so much during the wintery months in the sault!

last night we walked down the street our hostel is on to find a grocery store that was closed only 10 minutes before haha, but we saw a pizzeria that was right infront of us so we went in and had probably the best pizza i´ve had in a long time for such a small amount of euros. obviously this is the greatest ever. it was a vegetarian pizza with fresh mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini, fresh oregano, mozzarella on a thin crust and little sauce… amazing. so amazing!

pretty much the plan for today is to just be lazybones on the beach for the most part - life is hard, i know. (this has been our mantra for the entire trip so far it seems!) we want to walk to that grocery store and pick up some food to keep here as that´s been our way of operating for most of this trip. it´s way more frugal to buy your own ingredients and eat your own food than going out for dinner or lunch every day. speaking of dinner & lunch, things are pretty different here and it´s kind of neat. i´ve adapted quite easily to eating at different points in the day than in north america - for example, we ate dinner last night at 10pm and the place was full of people doing the same.

you eat when the sun goes down, y´know? and around here, the sun doesn´t go down till way late. so you work with that!

in europe people eat a small breakfast, a huge lunch, a siesta nap & then dinner later on in the evening. why don´t we all do this!? i think it´s the greatest idea ever! i´m going to attempt to bring this philosophy back to the sault, but i highly doubt it´ll stick haha.

at any rate i´m enjoying the trip and look forward to getting back to canada to see everyone and share some more adventures. i´m also looking forward (so much!) to meeting my new neice or nephew since my brother & sis-in-law are due any time now and it´s so super duper exciting to become an aunt!

i wish everyone great sunshine and short working days. haha.

much love!

-m.

ps: i promise when i get a good working computer to use i´ll update with my own photos but for now - this is a shot someone else took from malaga. take out most of the people, and most of the buildings, and put in way more palm trees and that´s pretty much exactly what we´re working with here. it´s beautiful!

6:36 am - Mon, Jun 14, 2010

barcelona, spain

right now i´m hanging out in the swankiest hostel we´ve stayed at, truthfully. our beds are on the 12th floor which is insane and they have a pool, sauna and terrace here that´s a part of the stay. they also have a free breakfast buffet that i hope is better than the one we stayed at last night… which consisted of one crossant, two pieces of white bread, two small slices of cheese, two small slices of salami and a shared yoghurt cup with rihkee.

my stomach is growling right now actually, i should stop talking about food!

the mountain hostel we stayed in last night was actually beautiful in it´s location… and we met and talked with some cool australian girls and two american guys that are currently living in sicily that were both saucy and quick witted. had the hostel been kept in the condition it had been advertised as being (the pools weren´t filled, nor were in working condition… and the place was kinda shotty) it could have been super nice.

regardless we booked a spot in a new one that´s downtown called Urbany Hostel http://www.barcelonaurbany.com/ and it´s actually pretty swanky. rihkee & i are going to go check out what the pool and sauna situation is like and then hopefully find the picasso museum and check that out. we decided to stay two days here so we could explore around because we heard so much about barcelona so far on our trip.

i´ll update later on with some more photos so you can see what we´ve been doing - it might have to wait until we´re in la rochelle or in rotterdam visiting a friend of rihkee´s named merjin who apparently is pretty much, a wizard.

we´ve had a blast so far and are keeping in great spirits.

hope everyone is well!

-m.

9:52 am - Fri, Jun 11, 2010

granada, spain

we´re staying at a hostel here called Makuto which roughly in spanish, means Backpacker. it´s been a lot of fun and everyone here is chill and lovely… we have a private room with twin beds so it´s been so heavenly to just sleep in and have a secure space to spend the nights in. last night we had warm blankets and i bundled up so tightly. i seriously loved it. the smell of incense in the air always makes me smile ´cause it makes me feel like i´m at home. they have a chill room here that rihkee and i just spent at least an hour and a half in hanging out. i played the guitar that resides there and she sewed a baphomet patch onto the back of her sweater.

life is so hard, i know!

granada is absurdly beautiful and so far is rihkee´s favorite place. it´s easy to see why it would be as the streets are filled with cobblestones, running dogs & cats and dreadlocked punk rockers lazily roaming around carting cases of beer on trolleys down steps with two guys having to hold it so it didn´t spill out everywhere, haha.

we´re heading out soon to go check out the gypsy caves and maybe the markets again. i´d like to see if i can pick up something nice for some of my family members. there´s a decent variety of objects for 2-3 euros a piece which isn´t too bad.

we leave for barcelona tomorrow night and have an overnight train that hopefully we can sleep on. i´m looking forward to hopefully meeting up with some friends we made at the last hostel in madrid - two australians named max & harry, a dude from victoria, bc named james and maybe our dancing fiend of a friend puerto ricooooooo!

we´re hoping to get some sunny swim time in barcelona as it´s been cold here so far in spain. a few rainy days and lazy afternoons for sure.

not sure yet on us hanging out in la rochelle - we want to but haven´t booked a place to either camp or just stay at. so that´s still a bit up in the air.

i´ll update more later, hopefully with some photos!

hope everyone´s well!

-m.

4:30 am - Mon, Jun 7, 2010

madrid, spain

i haven´t slept more than two hours in the past 24 so bare with me here. the bus ride from paris to madrid totally kicked me in the face with it´s longness (2:30pm - 7am = 16.5 hrs) but i´m here now so at least that´s over with!

the hostel seems chill and has a young artsy vibe. our room isn´t ready until 3pm though which really sucks - so i´m going to try to catch a nap in the common living room area most likely so i don´t feel like such a zombie.

i´m uploading a few photos to show you guys what´s been going on with us. we miss everyone and hope you´re all having fun and staying radical!

ok, these aren´t in order but oh well - here we go:

banksy graffiti piece in ghent, belgium!

me hanging out & enjoying the sun in a hidden spot by the water in ghent!

gutenberg print at the arts & measures museum in paris! (bummed out there wasn´t a gutenberg press or gutenberg bible there but that´s just the nerd in me.)

graffiti on the walls in madrid by our hostel.

rihkee enjoying a belgian blonde beer at simon says cafe in ghent - loved that place!

carrot cake, espresso & coffee at simon says after our lunch… fair trade belgian chocolates served with the drinks… there´s always small cookies served with coffee over here - it´s something we should do back in Canada.

outside of the museum of arts and measures in paris!

the lounge area at Flesh D´Ore where we saw the Acorn play in Paris.

waiting to see gogol bordello & murder by death at paridiso in amsterdam - giving buddha props!

last but not least - the french countryside. taking the bus was sweet as we got to see such beautiful landscapes… it made me appreciate france, after paris kind of ruined it a bit for me. paris is a huge city center and it has a lot of city feel - lots of garbage in the streets, too crowded, too expensive and it smelled funny everywhere.

all in all so far this trip has been wonderful though and we´re enjoying everything. we decided to wait to see the louvre & the eiffel tower until we go back to paris to take the chunnel to london… so hopefully then i can update with some really traditional style photos haha.

ok! i´m out! lots of love everyone!

-m.

1:38 pm - Sat, Jun 5, 2010

paris

people lie about paris. they say it’s a city of romance, of fashion and of food. well, the food thing is pretty apt so far - but the other two… i’m not so sure!

it’s been OK - we went and saw the Acorn play at a club here and they were great. also went and checked out the Museum of Arts & Measures today which was so nerdy and rad. i loved it! walked all through the three floors and checked out the printing presses and moveable type from the 1700-1800’s… wow. definitely geeked out pretty hard over that.

the super crowded, extremely hot and smelly subways i could do without - it also looks like we might have to stay another night at the hotel so we can get to madrid properly. you need a reservation for a night train and it wasn’t booked & now might be sold out. i phone tomorrow morning to find out - fingers crossed!

all in all it’s a major city so what can you really expect! we still have the louvre and the eiffel tower to check out but i’m already looking forward to seeing Spain to be honest!

to wrap up Belgium - we had a total blast hanging out in Ghent with Eva. she’s such a rad girl and really showed us such wonderful hospitality! belgian beers are delicious and super cheap - for three it was 7.50 euro which is absurd! three beers! we also went and checked out a torture museum that’s located in a castle and that was tons of fun - crawling all over ruins and climbing tons of stairs. talk about a workout! it was totally worth it.

we’ve been finding our ways around pretty easily with the help of local maps and my grasp on french. my parents will be proud to hear that my french isn’t dead at all - it’s been incredibly handy to be able to talk to anyone here quickly and find out what needs to be found out. being able to read all the signs too has been awesome - i’ve been teaching rihkee french actually here & there when it’s needed or when she asks!

time’s running out on this computer so i gotta run! we’re having fun and, keeping safe and taking lots of photos! next time we’ll bring the camera cord so we can upload some of them to show you all what’s been happening haha.

much love!

-m.

9:33 am - Wed, Jun 2, 2010

to ghent

sitting in the basement of a phone company/net cafe place. it’s hot, stuffy and painted silver everywhere. mismatched chairs. lots of different accents.

amsterdam is full of bikes! tons and tons, all beautiful models and some painted so greatly. it’s inspiring actually, at how much of the population here uses bikes… and how much of them are just tossed casually against the brick walls for whomever to use them.

we went to the van gogh museum and saw gogol bordello last night. amazing!! gogol was so fantastic it was crazy - the venue was a sold out show and the crowd loved every minute of it. surprisingly murder by death opened which was so great to have happen as a bonus!