Hey all!

I am in glorious Belgium today! I arrived in Bruges this afternoon with, shocking, no placed booked to stay. After eventually figuring out how to use the phone I used my useful Flemish and Dutch skills to get myself a room at the first place I called. And by useful language skills, I mean shouting into the phone in English, "Hi! Do you speak English?"

Bruges is AWESOME! The weather was fabulous today and the city is soooo pretty. I also had my worst eating day EVER (save Sundae Sunday) and now am sitting in the hostel with a slight tummy ache. Whoops!

I may go on a boat tour tonight of the city's canals and grab some BELGIAN beer at the hostel as there is a bar in here.

Tomorrow's plan involves biking. I haven't decided whether I am going to go on a tour or do my own thing. I *think* I may do my own thing as there is a walking tour in the evening (free!) sponsored by the hostel. So far I'm the only one that has signed up though...

The showers at this place are weird. I won't say bad, as the water is warm... But, umm, you have to pull down a chain the ENTIRE time one showers! What's up with that?!

Anyway, time to bum around on MSN/book hostels.

Adios!

Whoa - been awhile, eh? I haven't been on the net in AGES! Ver important thing to note, according tomy inbox Miss Keri Shields is LEAVING Scotland today to returnto PEI and I am going to miss her boatloads! Saaaaaaad. But I shall see her in August. And surprise to all, but i am acctually here with MY MUM in Paris! And then my dad is coming to Sccotland a few days after I get back. Neat, eh? Anyway, huge thanks for all the emailsinn mmy inbox, but I ddonn't have time to email everyone back. Andd i've been ccarrying postcards for soe ppl for awhile... you'll get them eventually ;)

Shock, this is going to be a short post as it's almost noon and I haven't even left the hostel yet! So much for making the most of my time.

Today's plans:
° Buying travel insurance as mine *may* have ran out a couple of days ago.
° Going to the Lindt Chocolate Factory to eat free chocolate.
° Booking myself into a party hostel as I am incredibly goddamned bored and lonely. (Although I spoke to the folk at reception of said party hostel yesterday and they are having a "quiet week". Ugh. Three cheers for going to a pub by oneself!)
° Renting a bike for a 20CHF deposit.
° Making sure said bike doesn?t get lost thus I can get my deposit back!

I am in Zurich today. Just thought I would add that in. I am supposed to be in Lugano today, but I changed plans rather last minute. Ironic since when I was in Lugano earlier in the week the weather was crap thus I could not take advantage of the hostel's pool and now the weather is super nice. Lugano is best done with company and good weather! As with Como, where I overnighted in Italy. Basically I have been to too many old people vacation spots and am in extreem desire of young blood/company. However, Nice was a freaking blast and I am sooo tempted to go back... =) (1-euro beers in the hostel - how can one go wrong with that?!?!)

Off I go...!

(PS to Mother, I hope you booked your ticket to Paris! Now that I have mentioned it on my blog there is moer pressure for you to come!! I am sneaky that way.)

üè[äà{ö駰¢ funny keys of the day, and the z and y on this keyboard are in the opposite places...)

Hey all! (Saying that makes me wonder how may folk actually read this...)

Second hostel with free internet! However, sitting on the internet isn't overly enticing. In monumental news, I HAVE A SUNBURN. Shocking, I know! But that's what I get for putting on sunscreen when in shorts and a tank top and then stripping down to my bathing suit.

I arrived in Nice last night and encountered quite the mess trying to get to the hostel! Literally, as the main road was a mess from the boat loads of construction going on. So I hop off the train in Nice with my directions to the hostel in my hand. First problem: the road I am supposed to catch the bus on is ripped up and traffic is being deterred on one side of the road. After asking for help in a hotel I finally find the bus stop. However, yesterday was a holiday in France so the bus schedule was operating on reduced hours and I had JUST missed the last bus! Zut alors! So I tried to go to a payphone to call the hostel but the phones here don't accept change, one must by a pre-paid phone card. So I used my mobile and every last pence of credit on it since rates are GOD AWFUL. I get new directions from the chick at the front desk and decide to go online to top up my phone before hopping over the bus stop she tells me about. This was necessary as I was to call them after getting off the bus. So I go to the internet cafe and the birgin mobile website is down. So I had to buy a 7.40-euro phone card. Then I go to the bus stop I was told about. Unfortunately, that bus was heading in the wrong direction. Through my powerful reading skills I determined this BEFORE the bus came along. Yay! Anyway, as you can tell, I made it to the hostel and all was well. Met some Canadians (there are looooads of 'em here) and made plans to hit up the beach in Cannes today. And we did! It was great, the city is getting ready for the Cannes Film Festival that starts on the 11th. No celebrities yet though! ;)

After baking in the sun and splashing about in the somwhat-cold water, we all went for a nice walk around Cannes. The BC girl and I said good=bye to the two Quebecois boys and came back to Nice. BC girl went back to the hostel and I wandered around Nice. It was nice. Nice = nice. (Hee hee... I'm such a knob! And for the record, Nice is pronouned neice.)

The buildings here along the coast are so awesome! Actually, everything here is quite great. And breakfast at the hostel? SIX KINDS OF CEREAL. SIX. INCLUDING THE REALLY GOOD MUESLI!!

Anyway, my time is up, people are waiting for the computer!

Adios! (I'm still spanish in mind and often want to say "Hola!" when enterting a shop.)

¡Hola!

Still in Spain and ABSOLUTELY HEARTING IT!!

Things to love about España:

- The upside down question and exclamation mark ¡¿

- The weather

- Palm trees

- A kilo of strawberries for 90 cents (in euro cents... I can´t find the appropriate sign on this keyboard)

- Spanish! I must say, not as many people here speak English as you would think. I can´t remember if I already mentioned it in my blog but a man at the train statin REFUSED to serve me as he didn´t speak english. Which would be a big deal if I wasn´t speaking Spanish to me. Anyway, I am enjoying trying out my Spanish but it can be rather frustrating by times. I think I´ll have a far easier time in France, but I LOVE the Spanish language and reading signs. (I ·may· be a nerd.)

- Cheap watches! I broke my watch about two days before leaving on my trip. (It fell out of the locker onto the cement floor at the gym. Whoops! Bad timing as usually I have a locker above a bench which would have broken the fall more gently. I know this as I have dropped my watch before.) I put my back-up watch on durning the flight here (a 11:50) and my watch is still at that time as it turns out the battery is dead. Whoops again!

- Efficient metros (in Barcelona anyway).

- Being amused by the fact that the locals wear PANTS and, some of them, LONG SLEEVES in this almost-30C weather.

Anyway, need to run and check for some folk Shan and I are waiting for.

¡Adios!

Hiya!

Well, I made it to glorious España! And glorious is definately a well-chosen verb as the weather has been fab, the palm trees beautiful, etc. We flew into Valencia and blah blah blah. More importantly are the quirky things about Spain rather than the chronological write-up of events.

• Marshmellows - Valenica and Barcelona seem to be loaded with candy stores comparable to the Sweet Factory. Within these stores one occassionally finds very lavish cakes made of what appears to be marshmellow! In the pretty-to-look-at category these marshmellow cakes outdo any pastry OR cake (save a wedding cake) I´ve ever seen.
• Beaches - The Mediterranean Sea is well worth the hype! We went there twice, once in Valencia and Shan and I went in Taragona. The water is freakishly clear, the scenery VERY nice (I heart palm trees!) and the sand quite lovely, although it seems to get "rockier" to more east one travels.
• Pizza - Shan and I got a giant pizza to share for supper. I had previously spotted said pizzas through the window when wandering about Tarragona earlier in the afternoon. The menu was in catalan, so I could barely read it. (Catalan is similar to spanish and french, but not close enough so that I can easily get by.) We ended up with a giant 8-euro pizza that was on a VERY thin, crispy crust and had four giant pieces of bacon and red pepper, cheese and one fried egg in the middle of it. No sauce. It was actually quite good and I do recommonend experimenting with egg pizzas sometime!

Anyway, I think my time is up...

Adios!