Skiing

Hey guys,

So my family and I went skiing a couple weeks ago. We live pretty close to the mountains so we drove there on a Wednesday after everyone was done working. On Thursday we went into one of the bigger cities around there and I got to see the university there as it is the closest university to where I live that has a veterinary program. We also went shopping that day. From there we drove back to our hotel which was about an hour and a half away. I ended up driving there and as we were getting close and I was exiting the highway I went to change lanes and there was an elk going to cross the road. I went around it and scared it enough so that it would not cross the road. When we looked onto the grassy area that this elk came from we realized there was a whole heard of elk with it.

The next morning we woke up early to go skiing and snowboarding. We got there around 9 or 10 and all did a practice run on the bunny hill before going half way up the mountain a couple times. After a couple runs of half of the mountain we decided to have lunch before continuing. After lunch we went up the whole mountain and split up so my sister and I could do a couple runs where my parents would do one run before we went home. After we were done we went to another hotel that is part of the Fairmont chain to get some hot chocolate before heading home.

The next morning we drove back home. It was fun to go snowboarding again especially since I hadn’t gone in 3 years. It was easier than I thought it would be to come back to it after all that time. Anyways it was’t the most exciting trip but I got some beautiful pictures that I thought I would share with you.

Ashley xx

Croatia and Montenegro

Hey guys,

So this kind of is a continuation from my last post on London and Wales. Right after my time in Wales my dad and I went back to London to go to Dubrovnik, Croatia. We were only going to be there for 2 and a half days before heading home. We rented a house in Dubrovnik only about 10 mins away from old town. It was a massive but was split into two so the owner had a place to stay and so did we. There was also a large garden and a church on the property. The first night we were there we went to a lovely restaurant which was right on the sea side and was on a harbour. We got to sit right next to the sea while having dinner and it was really lovely.  I will link the restaurant here. Also you will need a reservation for this restaurant first but I highly recommend trying it out.

 

The next day we went to old town as well as an island which is close by called Lokrum. It was a really pretty island that you can walk around with lots of different things to see. It was only about a 10 min boat ride from Dubrovnik. There was also a festival of some sort going on when we were there. That night there were fireworks in old town as well as music being played. We were also told that there were a lot of diplomats in Dubrovnik at that time. We went into old town that night to go see the fireworks and explore a bit more.

The next day we decided to get a early start and head to Montenegro. We were told that Kotor is the place to go in Montenegro. We drove around the bay area in Montenegro to Kotor and Tivat and back around to Croatia. Crossing from Croatia to Montenegro isn’t as easy as it sounds though. To get into Montenegro you need insurance that will cover your car for Montenegro specifically and not just Croatia. If you do not have this  you need to purchase insurance once you cross the border as there is an insurance company just on the other side of the border. You also need your passport for everybody in the car. Montenegro was different than Croatia but also very pretty in its own way. We went into a small walled in village type area. There were many churches and you could walk up to a fort I think it was. It was defiantly worth the trip though.

The next day was a really early day to head back to the airport. Our flight was really early and we got to the airport before it opened. The airport finally opened about an hour before our flight was meant to take off. We made it onto our flight to Frankfurt though. We had a long lay over in Frankfurt before heading on to our next two flights to Canada. We found it very difficult to find flights that went from Croatia to Canada so we ended up taking three flights to get home. It was a very long travel day but we made it home.

It was a short world wind of a trip but it was fun and I’m glad I got to see Croatia and Montenegro.

Ashley xx.

Vienna, Austria

Hey guys!

Sorry this is so delayed but I’ve been super busy since my last post. So if you can’t tell by the title of this post I went to Austria. About 3 days after the Isle of Wight my mom came to London and later that day we went to Vienna. We had been planning this trip for a little while and I was super excited to go.

We arrived in Vienna and just hung out in our hotel the first night as we had to get up early the next day to explore the city. The first place we went was the Spanish Riding School as we were going to see a performance and go on a tour there the next day. We explored that area before we kept going. I made a friend in London who was actually from Austria so she gave us some hints of good places to see as well as things to try. We then went to the palace and got to go inside of it as well as into five different gardens. We then went to the Prater, which is an amusement park area, and explored for a bit and had dinner around there.

 

The next day we woke up early and headed to the Spanish Riding School and saw the performance which was amazing. We then went on a tour of the yard and stables of the school and got to see all of the horses. After we went shopping on the two high streets in Vienna and then went to try some different foods. We tried Radler, a beer and lemonade mix, as well as this Austrian dessert that my friend told me was like cut up pancakes. I will put a picture below due to my terrible explanation. It was really good though.

Even though we only had 2 days in Vienna it was a lot of fun and I would defiantly go back but maybe for a bit longer. The Spanish Riding School was most defiantly the highlight of this trip for me. I have heard about that school since I was very little and to be able to finally see it in person was just amazing.

I will be posting keeping up posts like this until I catch up to where I am now.

Ashley xx

Isle of Wight

Hey guys,

So last weekend I went to the Isle of Wight!! This was the start to a busy couple weeks again. So on Saturday morning I headed off to meet my friends in Working and my other friend in Guilford to catch the train to go to Portsmouth. With my overpacked bags, as usual, I headed off to go on my first self planned holiday with friends. I had met two of the girls going on the trip once before as they were friends of a friend who was going on the trip with us. That day we booked our accommodations and made plans to go on this trip. The train to Portsmouth was not that long and we were able to catch the earlier ferry to the Isle of Wight and arrive there by 11 am. It was beautiful weather there when we arrived. We stopped to take lots of pictures on the way to the place we were staying as well as grabbing some groceries. It was quite lovely.

After we got settled in the house we were staying in we decided to go out and explore the Isle of Wight. We thought we would walk to the rail station in order to eventually catch the steam rail. We ended up getting lost though in a forest meadow type area. We could see the rail station from the forest area just were not able to get to the station as it was fenced off on the one side we were on. We ended up finding another station and caught a train which lead to the steam rail. We then took the steam rail all the way to the end of the line, which is the southern part of the isle. We then took the steam rail back up and got off at a couple stops before coming back to Ryde, where we were staying.

The next day we got up and went to Needles. We saw walked down to the beach and took the chair lift back up which was very windy but quite pretty. We also went into the glass blowing shop and got some sweets from the sweet shop. Needles is defiantly somewhere I recommend going. Its defiantly a place you want to go on a nice day though so you can enjoy it a bit more.

The last day we spent the morning in Ryde at the beach which was lovely. The rest of the day we spent in Portsmouth at the outlet shopping centre. We also walked around Portsmouth for a little bit before heading back to London. The last day is a bit blurry to me as I ended up getting sick and just felt horrible that day.

All in all though the Isle of Wight was a lot of fun and is defiantly something I will remember. I would totally recommend going as it is just so different from the hustle and bustle of London.

Ashley xx.

100 Happy Days (Days 81-90)

Day 81: Spending the day in Dublin, seeing the sites in Dublin, and trying Guinness

Day 82: Going grocery shopping with my sister and finding mozzarella sticks

Day 83: Going to Windsor and Eaton with my cousin, getting Costa with my sister, getting Shake Away and dinner with my cousin

Day 84: Getting Costa with my cousin, taking a nap, and talking to my mom and sister

Day 85: Working out and talking to my mom and sister

Day 86: Buying flowers, buying an oyster necklace, and getting a caramel cream frappuccino from Starbucks

Day 87: Working out and talking to my cousin and watching White Collar together

Day 88: Making two new friends and seeing another friend, making pancakes, and working out

Day 89: Talking to my mom and sister

Day 90: Doing well in a class I am taking and talking to my mom

Ireland, London, family visiting, and things up to now

Hey guys,

I feel like I haven’t written an actually update type post in a long time but March has been super busy. I will try and be brief when writing an overview of March and the beginning of April.

The beginning of March started off with a book keeping class I took as well as a psychology class, an anthropology class, and a class on CBT. I started walking a dog, called Pierre, three times a week as well. I helped take the girl guides on a trip to the science museum, Hyde Park, and Imperial College. I continued to help my cousin out with a business he is starting up as well as my other cousin and sister came to visit me. My cousin was here for two weeks and my sister for one. While they were both here we took a quick weekend trip to Dublin, Ireland. In Ireland, we were only there for two full days, we went to Cobh, Cork, Blarney, and of course Dublin.

We arrived in Dublin and the next day we took a bus tour to see Cobh, Cork, and Blarney. We walked to a see a beautiful church in Cobh which was at the top of the hill and there was a pier at the bottom of the hill with some Titanic things. We only had two hours in Cobh but it was quite a pretty town and the coloured buildings reminded me of Iceland. We then went to Cork which was bigger than Cobh but was also quite pretty. Cork is reminded me more of towns in England as it had some brick buildings and had a high street with some of the same shops as there are in London. There was a market called the English Market which has tons of things to see. My sister and I got a jam for my mom and my grandma from there. It was something that I think is defiantly unique and something that will always come to mind when I think of Cork. We had about an hour in Cork and then were on our way to Blarney. We were dropped off on the grounds of the Blarney stone house and castle so we went and saw those. We climbed up to the top of the castle (I think it was) and saw the Blarney stone. None of us kissed it but we did get to see it and there was a beautiful view from the top of the castle where the stone is. We then walked along the grounds and saw the house, which was closed. I thought the house looked beautiful though. We started to head back to the entrance of the castle grounds and spotted a waterfall which we stopped to take some pictures of. We then went to the market there which was a huge building that sold a ton of things such as sweaters, trinkets, and home supplies. That night we got back to Dublin and went to Temple Bar and had some dinner before heading back to our hotel to get ready for our next and last day in Ireland.

In Dublin we had a full day of sight seeing and trying different restaurants. We started off our day having breakfast at a place called Lemon Crepes. It was delicious. We then went to try sea salt ice cream at Murphy’s which was super good. We went to St Stephan’s Green, Trinity College grounds, shopped/walked down Grafton Street and O’Connell Street, saw the post office with the bullet holes on O’Connell Street, walked along the Liffey, and went to the Leprechaun museum. We also tried Guinness while we were there. All in all Ireland was great; it was a great break from London and a really nice change of scenery. I defiantly want to go back to Ireland someday and see more of the country. While we were driving the countryside looked beautiful and I defiantly want to see more of the Irish countryside. I also love the Irish accent. I don’t know if it is just because I am now so used to the English accent that it doesn’t phase me anymore and the Irish is just slightly different but I love it.

My cousin’s last day in the UK we went to Windsor. After dropping my sister off at the airport I met him in Windsor. I defiantly felt somewhat lost without my sister here anymore and just alone. I know my cousin was still here but it’s just not the same as having your sister with you. Windsor was a good distraction for me and a way to spend some quality time with him once more before he went back home. We walked to Eaton and back to Windsor to have dinner in a pub that I always go to every time I am in Windsor. We had a good time there and defiantly ended his trip on a high note.

Since my sister and cousin have left I started walking Pierre again after having two weeks off. I also met up with a leader from GirlGuides as I am supposed to run part of the session during the next meeting. I have also met up with a friend twice as well as made a couple new friends through her. I also started another class that is two weeks long and is about comedy as well as YouTube. All the people in the class as well as the instructor are very nice and we all get along pretty well. I met a lady in that class and we were talking about maybe meeting after this class is finished to make a couple videos while I am still in the UK. I also met with my cousin who lives here once more. He came over to my flat and helped me with making sure I do not have anymore bugs come into my flat. I have had some bugs come into my flat as the weather has been quite nice recently and I am terrified of them and just very particular on cleaning after they have touched anything.

This whole time I have also still been doing my 100 Happy Days so I will be posting another update on that soon. I know I seem to always be like oh I’ll post something soon but I never do. I started writing this post about a week ago and just never finished it until now. I am going to try to be better about posting more frequently and not just my 100 Happy Days. I find if I post right after or a couple days after something has happened I can give more detail and know exactly how I felt experiencing something rather than now trying to reflect on things that happened in March and up to now in April.

In other news I have booked a couple other trips that are coming up in May that I am super excited for. I will tell you more about those trips closer to the time that they happen. I am also super excited for May in itself as lots of different things are happening. I have my birthday in May, which will be the my second birthday ever that I will be in the same country and city as my cousin here, my mom will be coming to see me, and I have two different trips planned.

Anyways now I am going to make a promise that I will post more frequently than I have been. I may also do another mini haul type post as when my sister was here I picked up a bunch of different little things. I will think about what types of things I want to post. If you have any suggestions on what type of posts you want to see let me know. Anyways thanks for reading this and I will post something very soon.

Ashley xx.

100 Happy Days (71-80)

Day 71: Getting two new books and taking some Instagram worthy pictures

Day 72: Walking Pierre and getting fries

Day 73: Going to an anthropology class and getting mint tea and a banana nut muffin from Starbucks

Day 74: My sister arriving in London and going to Nandos

Day 75: Going to the Victoria and Albert museum and having a pasty

Day 76: Going to psychology class, shopping, getting a Five Guy’s burger and a raspberry cheesecake mocha frappuchino

Day 77: Watching “Into the Woods” with my sister and cousin

Day 78: Hanging out with my other cousin, seeing “War Horse”, and climbing the lion in Trafalgar Square

Day 79: Going to Ireland

Day 80: Going to Cobh, Cork, and Blarney

Year of a Lifetime

Hey guys,

Sorry I have been MIA for so long. March has been super super busy. To catch you up a bit I started a bookkeeping class at the beginning of March that is for 5 weeks as well as a psychology class that is also 5 weeks. I also got a little job walking a dog three times a week. The dog I am walking is a little jack russell who’s name is Pierre. I also went with the girl guide group I am volunteering with to Hyde Park, Imperial College, and the Science museum for them to earn some badges. I think at the end of that trip all of the leaders where more tired than the children. I also went to see “Focus” with my new friend that I made on my trip to Stratford-upon-Avon.

I also tried a Cornish pasty for the first time on Saturday as well as sticky toffee pudding. Since I have been here I have also tried a vegetarian percy pig for the first time as well as a jaffa cake. When I first came to the UK I also tried custard which I really took a liking to. Now that I have tried all of these new things I will be making my cousin try them when he comes to London. With mentioning that I am getting ready for my younger cousin to come to London in about a week time. I am trying now to come up with things I think he will really enjoy seeing and doing in London and the surrounding areas. It is his first time in Europe so I really want him to just experience as much as he can in the two weeks he is here. I also am getting ready for my sister to visit me in about two weeks time as well as get ready to go on a little weekend trip with them to Ireland!!

When my cousin and sister are here I am also looking into going somewhere for a day trip. I am not sure where we would go yet but when I was looking at a Buzzfeed article I was quite interested in New Forest, St Albans, and Canterbury. If you guys have any suggestions on where a good place to go for a day trip is then please let me know. I just want him to see somewhere beautiful outside of London that gives a very British vibe and somewhere that you would never see something like this anywhere else in the world. Also if anybody knows some really cool places in London to go please let me know. I am making a list of things we need to do and see but I am always looking to add to the list.

I think the past couple of days have been the busiest all month so far so I shall give you a brief overview of what has happened. So things really got busy on Friday. I walked Pierre on Friday then went to cousin’s house and ended up there for something like 7 hours I think. He is starting a business and needed some help with just scanning things. So I ended up scanning about four books and quickly learning you need to save them about every 50 scans in case something happens and they all get deleted… I also had to swap phones with his friend which I wasn’t too keen on as my phone is like my life. So we ended up swapping phones and my sim card went in her phone and her’s in mine. The next morning I had to get up at 6:45 to meet my cousin at 8:30 when he was going to start filming a commercial. Well I woke up at 6:45 and then was like I’ll just lie here for 5 minutes with my eyes open and then get up. Then what felt like 5 minutes later my next alarm to leave the house went off! I jumped out of bed and was also supposed to meet a family friend later that day so I checked my email, got ready, and was out the door. When I checked my email though I realized my cousin had asked if I pick him up some notebooks. So I frantically was running around looking for places open that sold notebooks on a Saturday morning and picked some up and was off. I was then a little lost finding the place where he was filming and he wasn’t answering his phone but eventually I got a hold of him and was okay. Later that day I had to go meet a family friend and needed a phone but the reason I swapped phones was because my cousin needed an iPhone 6 which is what I had swapped for so I had to leave the phone with him and he brought me an old phone to use for the day. The phone was okay but I soon realized that the date on it and time was way way off. It said it was June 6th 1980 and was about 6 or 7 hours off. I made it to meet my family friend though even though I was about 10-15 minutes late. Later that night my cousin was supposed to swap the phones back and pop by my house to drop my phone off as on Sunday I have my bookkeeping class and need it for a calculator. I never heard from him though and it was starting to get quite late so I messaged him and he told me he still hadn’t swapped the phones back yet and it was about 11pm. He then asked if he could just drop it off sometime tomorrow so we decided we would meet where my class is and just do a quick change off and I would keep going to my class. So I set my alarm for 8am and woke up the next morning and thought oh it must still be early as my alarm hasn’t gone off yet. Then it hits me… The phone says its 2 am and I check my laptop quickly and its 9am! This is when I was supposed to leave. So once again I book it out the door and make it to the station where my class is by 10 which is when my class starts. Lucky my cousin was there and gave me my phone back right away and when I got there I really hadn’t missed anything. I think they had just listened to an accounting rap song. Ya I didn’t miss much. The point of this though is just to tell you how hectic my last couple of days have been. I was so excited to just have today off and sleep in and stay in my pjs and chill.

When I was with my family friend we went to Pinner and drove around which was quiet nice. I always look at houses like those and just think about what I would have to do with my life to end up with something like that one day. I think it would include a lot of university and a number of years of slaving away at work.

In other news I’ve realized when I sleep with my heat on I have the weirdest dreams. I think I will make a separate blog post on that though. Today I was watching “No Camera’s Allowed” and have a lot of motivation to do something that is a once in a lifetime type thing. I am looking for things in the UK to do and just Europe in general that are once in a lifetime type things so that when I go back to Canada I can say I have done all of these things and have made the absolute most out of my time in London. If you guys know or have any ideas of things I could do or see that would be a once in a lifetime type thing.

Anyways I feel like I have rambled enough for now and I will defiantly be posting quite soon as I have still been doing my 100 Happy Days and need to put up.

Ashley x.

Stratford-upon-Avon

Hey guys,

I know I haven’t posted anything in a while but I’ve been quite busy. Last weekend I went with a big group of people to Stratford-upon-Avon. I was preparing the night before for this day trip as we had to meet and leave quite early in the morning. We met in London and took a coach to Stratford-upon-Avon which arrived there by about 11 am. I met a couple eau pars and sat next to them on the bus. I quickly made friends with the one eau par and spent the day in Stratford-upon-Avon exploring with her.

When we got to Stratford-upon-Avon the group walked through the city and saw the birth house of Shakespeare, the theatre, a church, and many more iconic sights. The weather wasn’t always in our favour as it would hail on and off but for the most part it was nice weather and so nice to see all of these buildings and landscapes. It was great to get out of London for the day for a change of scenery.

Around 1:30 the group split up for lunch and to have some time our own to explore. During this time my new friend and I went into Shakespeare’s birth house and walked through the house and garden. We were lucky that when we had lunch it was raining but once we were done and ready to go and explore the weather held up for us. We explored the town a bit and went into Shakespeare’s birth house but did not have enough time to see any of the other houses which was somewhat disappointing but we thought that we may just have to come back again to see the rest.

Near the end of our day trip we saw a shop which sold many Harry Potter items. In this shop you were able to send Hogwarts acceptance letters as well as other letters from either Hogwarts or the Ministry of Magic. We also spotted a Peter Rabbit store which brought back fond memories.

Around 5 pm we all got back on the bus to London, which was longer than I think leaving London took, my new friend and I sat next to a guy from Spain who we started talking to a bit. Coming back into London we arrived around 8 pm near Piccadilly Circus and the group was then going to go out to the pub. My new friend and I both headed to the tube station though as she had to meet with other friends and I had to be up early the next day to meet with some people. 

I think all in all Stratford-upon-Avon was a great place to visit and has so much history that you need more than a day to explore all of it. I do wish though that we had a car to go out and see more of the houses as only 3 of the 5 (I think) are in walking distance and the others are just outside of Stratford-upon-Avon. It was so lovely to just get out of London for the day and see something completely new that you wouldn’t see otherwise. It was an experience I will never forget and hey I made a new friend out of it.

Ashley xx.

Weekend in Edinburgh

Hey guys,

Last weekend I went to Edinburgh to see my sister. It didn’t start off so well though as I just missed my flight so I had to take the train from London to Edinburgh which took like 5 and a half hours and my mom still doesn’t know about… I was happy when I got there though and was made lasagna for dinner as well given peppermint fudge, truffles, mars bar cake, and a chocolate ganache cake. I played with the dogs a bit, Alfie and TC, and went to bed. The next morning my sister and I went horseback riding on a hack. I made it about 15 minutes and then as we were trotting along I hit a tree branch and my glasses came off and went over my helmet and got lost somewhere in the mud. I tried looking for them and same with the lady leading the trail ride but we couldn’t find them anywhere. Other than that the hack was a lot of fun. My sister and I walked back after the ride to try and look for my glasses but we couldn’t find them anywhere. I then also realized I hadn’t brought any of my contacts to Edinburgh with me because I left them in London. We then decided to take the dogs for a walk and later that night we went to the bowling club to see Mr. Onkel which was a lot of fun. For a soul singer he’s a lot more funky than we thought he would be. He sang to my sister twice which I got on video then he decided to sing to me which she thought was hilarious and got on video. He then tried to make my sister dance with him which was fun to watch and later that night he asked to take a picture with us and my sister and I decided to take a selfie with him. On Sunday we went into town and did a bit of shopping and met up with some friends and saw the Christmas lights get turned on and some fireworks. By this time my sister was getting sick and I was really hoping to not get sick so I was taking Cold FX.  I came back to London on Monday and now am super excited for December as I was given an advent calendar. I am also now getting sick so today I have been sitting in bed most of the day on the internet just feeling sorry for myself and coughing while listening to Christmas music. I have also been watching a lot of Christmas movies already and I went and ordered new glasses which should hopefully come by Monday. For the first time ever I am also having to deal with the insurance company. After coming back from Edinburgh and staying in a house with four people again I came back to London and realized very quickly just how lonely London can be. I realized though I won’t be by myself for very long though as my family is spending Christmas together and I still have my cousin in London until he goes home for Christmas as well.

Anyways I am now sick and tired and my throat hurts. I have girl guides again tonight and will have to stop and pick some stuff up before I go for my throat. Last night I watched “The Holiday” which was super good and just had me thinking they were kind of in my situation but only for two weeks although it was different. I am supposed to see my cousin on the weekend so I need to get this cough under control because I really want to see him and just not feel so alone. So I’m trying to come up with a game plan of getting lots of rest and drinking lots, which I’ve already been kind of failing at but I’m going to try really hard to keep it up. Ya so I really don’t have a lot going right now. I was supposed to see Backchat last Tuesday but that didn’t work out so I am going another time with another girl from Canada. I also learnt just how expensive meat is over here. For two packs of ground beef I paid like $25 Canadian or £12 which is ridiculously expensive.

Well I’m going to leave it at that for now and I’m going to probably have a nap and eat before I have to go out again. I don’t know how people can live alone and deal with being sick, it’s a struggle to make sure I eat and everything as I don’t want to have to get up. I’ll try and post something again at least by the end of the weekend or Monday, hopefully by then something half interesting has happened.

Thanks,

Ashley