Quick, Catch Up

I'm a bad blogger. Quick catch-up:

So much beer!

March - Portland with the boy. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Portland! The drunken train ride down was awesome, the city was lovely, the people friendly, and the beer was flowing! Eric and I hit six different breweries while we were there, and we were only there for two days. Seriously, Portland rocks! We also ate under a bridge, like homeless people. It was uber romantic.

Hey kids!

April - Hawaii with the family. Holy hell are my nieces and nephews cute! We frolicked in the sun, a lot. I love hanging out with kids, but good lord are they tiring. I don't know how parents do it, I was exhausted after my week in the sun.

Seriously, no dumping. 

June - LA with Lis! I love Lis, but still don't love LA. The Getty Museum was fantastic and some unmentionable adventures occurred. Unmentionable adventures seem about par for Lis and I.

Jarod, frolicking in a glacier-fed lake.

July - Valemount to visit my boyfriends with my boyfriend. The village is beautiful, we dipped our toes in a glacier-fed lake and strolled alongside waterfalls. No big deal.



August - My view came in handy. Both the Celebration of Light fireworks and Pride Parade were visible from my balcony, so parties were had. Yes, apparently I have parties now. Weird.

The past five months have been pretty great. My life in Vancouver seems to have finally settled into something awesome. I credit that, in equal parts, to the boy who changed my outlook on boys and the apartment that (literally) changed by outlook on Vancouver. It's hard to hate on a city when it has produced two of the best things in your life.

So thanks Vancouver, I'm finally starting to get you.

Vacation Highlight: Trains, Again

Florence to Pisa, I think.

After Paris & Switzerland I fell I love with trains   and traveling on them. What a lovely way to see the country. Always on time, comfortable, speeding through the beautiful countrysides. Ah.

So, when ma, pa & I were planning the trip to Italy, I put in a demand to travel to each city via train. This time around though, we went first class and it was awesome, and for not a lot more money.

It's also fun to drink wine on trains.

Rome to Florence was beautiful. Florence to Pisa like a postcard, and though Florence to Milan was too dark to tell for sure, I'm fairly certain that it too was magical. Milan to Venice was incredible, all leading into one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen.

I wish Canada had an efficient and inexpensive rail system - I'm sure the ride between BC & Alberta would give Europe some scenery competition.

Vacation Highlight: Switzerland

When I planned on going to Switzerland to see about a boy, I had no idea it would be the perfect ending to an already perfect trip.

Paris was loud. There was a constant buzz to the city, just like there should be. But Parisians are different than any other city-dweller I have encountered. I am not sure why, but the city didn't capture me the way New York did. I mean, NYC was love at first sight, where Paris was lovely, but did not inspire me to pack up and move there.

The train to Bern was stressful to say the least. My nerves were wracked and all day, all I could concentrate on was seeing the Swiss boy I met months ago. Not to mention my luggage had become very large and heavy. oye.

When I got to Bern, the first thing I noticed, other than the boy of course, was the smell - so fresh and so clean - and holy shit was it quiet. That was to be expected, traveling from a city of millions to a city of 200,000 but it still  acted as such a pleasant surprise.

My Swiss friend was an incredible host. Taking me for great food, showing me the sights, introducing me to his friends, drinks all day long, smoking at will, a day trip to Interlaken and not once did he annoy me - a miracle in and of itself.

He was all kinds of great and he didn't make me feel like too much of a burden at any point. Laughing at me wearing ridiculous outfits, recognizing that not only am I loud, but very silly - he was a great punctuation to my trip.

His awesomeness made leaving incredibly difficult though. I haven't been that sad to leave a boy in a very long time, but I did and allowed all of the TGV to read the sadness on my face - it was hard to hide between the tears and all.

For all of my cynicism, my Swiss friend provided me with something I thought I had lost - hope. Hope for something great, something special and more importantly, hope for someone special.

So thanks for the hope Switzerland - it is much appreciated and desperately needed.

Vacation Highlight: Train Travel

The first time I experienced train travel was on my way to Versailles. I don't really count it though because it was a short trip, and I was still in a foreign-land daze.

The next time I took a train was from Paris to Bern, Switzerland. It was a 4.5 hour ride from one country to another - can you imagine?! It would take longer to get from Vancouver to Edmonton.

When I was in Bern, we went on a day-trip to Interlaken, again via train.

This time it was awesome. We stood and had a sandwich and a beer for lunch, followed by a smoke - at the train station. Yes, you read that right, I was able to smoke, inside the train station. yesssss!

We couldn't finish our beer before our train, so we took the can onto the train.

Sidenote: This was very common - people walking around drinking alcoholic beverages. Usually just beer, but even in Paris, people were casually strolling and drinking and smoking and it was the best thing ever.

The train-ride to Interlaken was beautiful. Lakes snuggled into the foothills of the Swiss Alps, the snowcapped  mountains, well it was splendid.

Check it out:

Of course, not all train travel is happy travel - the ride from Bern to Paris was depressing as shit. And it was late, but the cops all of a sudden were on board, so I think we may have been smuggling a criminal or something.

Also, is it weird that I didn't have to fill out any paperwork going into France or Switzerland, and they didn't even look at my passport going or leaving Switzerland?! Does anyone else find that strange?

Anyways, trains are awesome and I wish we had more access to them here. That would be great.