Blog of Champions

Last post ever?

mikedeanna — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 17:13:09 +0000

Hello all, sorry for the lack of bloggage but with the trip winding down it has been a whirlwind of activity (and laziness). We are currently in london and loving it, other than the hot stinky subway system. its hard to believe but after almost half a year away from saskamatoon, we are coming home tomorrow. I guess we are ready to face the real world again although it will be a bit of a shock to the system. We’d like to thank you all for reading this post and although i’d like to say that we will keep posting once we get home, the chances are not that good (especially with facebook taking over the world). We hope to see you all soon, if you’re lucky enough (or unlucky) we can even show you our 4000+ pictures, bring a pillow. See you all back in Canada, eh.

Wales of a tales

mikedeanna — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:57:40 +0000

Yoyo, we are just chillin out here in Cardiff with Nicole and her cousin. We just got here and are thus far having a rockin good time. Our last couple days in Edinburgh we spent seeing the sites of the city and we also spent one day in the town of St. Andrews. We walked a bit of the old course and also saw the castle and cathedral. Very cool.
Hard to believe it, but we only have a week left of travelling before we will be forced to face the real world. Let’s not think about it to much. Here are a few pics.

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Highland Games

mikedeanna — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:04:51 +0000

We figured we are in Scotland so we better take in some of the Scottish sights. We ventured off to a regional highland games where we were especially impressed with the tossing of the tabour or as we refer to them, a giant log. The views from the apartment we are staying in are amazing. We are definately looking forward to coming back to Scotland in the future. Cheers

A Walk Through History

mikedeanna — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:54:59 +0000

Today Mike and I took a black taxi tour of west Belfast. It was really informative and interesting to see all of the murals and division between the loyalist and republic neighbourhoods. The peace fences were interesting as were all of the general memorials dedicated to people killed on both sides. I had hoped that taking this tour would help to explain the conflicts here but really it made me more confused. I ended up having more questions then I had to begin with. I guess memories here don’t fade as quickly as the paint on the walls. It is a safe city, but it is marching season so Protestants are marching in some Catholic neighbourhoods which can cause some tension. It has been a really interesting experience exploring Belfast.

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In the Footsteps of Giants

mikedeanna — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 18:30:17 +0000

Today we did a day tour of the Northern Coast of Ireland which was super scenic and amazing. We first went over a rope bridge which connects the main island to a small rock islands. The bridge is suspended over the beautiful blue sea. It was definately one of the highlights of our trip. We then drove up to the Giants Causeway which is an area on the coast that has tons of steping stone like rocks, I am not really sure how they were formed but they were pretty cool. Either way a very nice tour of the beautiful coast and back roads of Northern Ireland.

In other news Mike and I enjoyed our first Gaelic games match including Gaelic football, which is quite similar to Aussie rules football, and hurling. Hurling might be the most scary game I have ever witnessed. The players all have bats which they use like baseball bats to hit the ball up the field. Every now and then someone gets hit and the sad thing is that none of the players have any safety gear besides a helmet. Pretty intense.

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The end of continental Europa

mikedeanna — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:44:34 +0000

Well we have had a busy few days since our last blog. The internet was out at our french chateau so we were not able to keep everyone posted. sorry. We spent the weekend seeing local castles and eating and drinking in true french style i.e. all day. On Tuesday we said goodbye to our french parents and headed to the north of France where we took a very interesting and informative tour of the D day beaches. Our tour guide was an Irish war buff who had an expressive vocabulary and equally loved bashing people of all nationalities. Other than using a couple exit ramps as entrance ramps the day was very enjoyable.

Yesterday we decided to do the most un french thing possible. Eurodisney. It was freakin awesome, although the herds of kids made it a little annoying at times. I even managed to trick Deanna into going on Space mountain with me, which was the first, and last, upside down roller coaster she will be going on. I also think that there is a definate advantage to being older when visiting, such as being able to make your tea cup spin 10 times faster than all the little kids and running between rides. Anyway, a good time was had by all.

Today we are lazing about and tonight we fly into Dublin. On Sunday we are going to a hurling game. I can’t wait.

PS apperently the link didn’t work for some people in the last post, so here it is again:

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The week of Lazy

mikedeanna — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 18:00:10 +0000

Hey everyone, we are a little behind on the blog due to the nice lazyness we have been throughly enjoying. This past week we have spent eating really cool French food, hanging out with my french family and basically spending a maximum amount of time doing as little as possible. I have to say we have really enjoyed our time in the land of the French.

Friday we did have a little car adventure where we drove to La Rochelle, which is an old sea port on the Altantic ocean. It was nice to sit at a little cafe overlooking the ocean. We than drove a couple hours north to Noirmoutier which is an island off the coast that has a road that can only be passed at low tide. It had a lot of oyster famers out picking and many grounded boats which was neat to see. We spent all of today in Blois with Emeline, Deannas exchange partner walking around the old town. All in all a really cool week.

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a Montbazon

mikedeanna — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 22:14:59 +0000

We have arrived in the lovely town of Montbazon and are now staying with the parents of Deannas highschool exchange partner. The family is amazingly generous and have made us feel very much at home. The house itself is also awesome , it is huge and they even have a sweet swimming pool. We will spend the whole week here and do some day tripping to other areas as well. The best part thus far has been the amazing amount of delicious French cuisine we have consumed including: duck liver, frogs legs, various cheeses, escargot, wine of course and awesome chocolate desserts. It has been an amazing experience to live like the French!

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Blois

mikedeanna — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:44:18 +0000

Hello Everyone. We left Paris and are now in Blois with Emeline and her fiance Antony. We had a couple of lazy days in Paris, getting up rather late and sleeping alot. I think once you slow down on a trip like this you kinda crash. Either way Paris was rather enjoyable. We saw most of the Louvre in an afternoon, including sneeking a picture of a lady you may recognize as the Mona Lisa. Emeline also took us to a French restaurant and we had the best crepes ever. We had one for supper and treated ourselves to a tasty dessert crepe also. Yesterday we went down into the creepy catacombs which had the bones of over one million people. The funniest thing is that after you are done security checks your bag to make sure you are not taking any bones, and there was a big pile of bones they have confiscated from bone thieves. We didnt take any.

In other news Mike and Deanna havent gotten seperated again, yet. Enjoy some pictures.

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P.S. Moms, the email here isnt working, but dont worry we are not dead or anything.

En Paris

mikedeanna — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:12:25 +0000

We have arrived in the city of Love and are loving it. We are staying with Deannas exchange partner from highschool so we are getting a good french language refresher. It is also always nice to stay with someone local and get a bit more than the usual tourist feel of the city. We have taken in all the essential Paris sights (arc de Triomph, Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, Palace of Versailles) and now we are going to spend some time doing day trips to other town (although we will spend some time in Paris as well).

In other news, whilst running to catch a train today, Mike made it on while Deanna did not quite make it. We have jokingly talked about this happening but never thought that it was a real possibility. Luckily Deanna did excactly what one should in this situation and sat down with no intention of moving. After a trying ten minutes Mike returned and all was well. We have new travelling rules now, such as holding hands while boarding trains and always carrying our own tickets. The adventure continues…