Europe

Four Years

 For our forth anniversary we went to Europe. We have dreamed and saved and planned and built castles in the sky and gone without and sacrificed since we were first married for this trip. And it was worth every bit.

We backpacked, cause we are cool like that. (Although if you had asked me at the end I would have said crazy like that.)  We started out with packs that weights 8 and 12 kilos, and ended with 14 and 16 kilos. Which is substantially more when it is on your back. But it was a lot more convenient that lugging typical baggage around, and gave us a lot more mobility and freedom for impetuousness.

We flew Icelandic Air, which I highly recommend. They are exceedingly friendly, less expensive and fairly standard in terms of amenities, like videos, music, food and will soon be getting WiFi.

Mr Sollywood is amazing and I am still marveled that I found a man like him.I don't know a lot of people who want to travel so much that they will sacrifice tv, eating out (this one is especially hard for us as we are food lovers), two cars, (at times even one car), spending money and also willing to work during school in order to save enough to do it. But he did and I love him even more for it.

Our trip included London, Paris, Rome, Venice, and Reykjavik and was three weeks long.

We ate some pretty awesome and some pretty quintessential food everywhere we went. Fish and chips and bangers and mash are a must in London. And as an Irish lass myself I love anything potato related. Bangers aren't bad either and the chips were good, almost as good as fry truck fries back home.

Mr Sollywood took me to see the Lion King in the theater district in London and it was amazing, absolutely energizing. The opening scene was fantastic, it made me cry it was so good.

Stonehenge was on Mr Sollywoods list of must sees and it turned out to pretty cool. The weather changed while we were there and it was neat to feel how the entire atmosphere of the place changed with the

 elements. At first with the sun shining it was a ancient  monument to something mysterious but as the wind picked up and the sky darkened it become rather eerie.

My must see in London was the Police Box (after a show in the theater district that is). I love Doctor Who and I was so excited to be able to see a Tardis!! "I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and dreamer of improbably dreams." "Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I'm Possible."

Our tour guide for Stonehenge, Bath and Windsor Castle was this hilarious tiny Irish woman named Tish, with red hair not unlike Merida from Brave. She made me so glad to be Irish and also laugh a lot. She was pretty funny and quirky.

Mr. Sollywood here. It's been so long since I wrote a blog post (last summer I think) that I forget how to do all the cool stuff like add pictures! Anyway, a 3 week trip around several countries in Europe is tough to summerize and 4 years married to the worlds most wonderful woman is even harder to put into words. I really wanted to be in Paris during our anniversary but seeing the weather in Paris... it might just be better the way things turned out! I like Paris, don't get me wrong, but it rained everyday and I had to layer my clothes because the forecast did not say rain! I had to wear Bogden Smau's sweater the whole time. We slept at his place. Kind of a strange arrangement... but it's all good.

Let me talk about what I really wanted to see in Europe. The Sistine Chapel. Other than the Mona Lisa (which is a bit of a let down in my opinion, seriously, all around it in the Louvre are paintings just as good) which work of art in the entire world is more renowned? The ceiling of the Sistine chapel is much more awe inspiring than Mona. Let me see if I can put up a pic. I had to sneak them because they don't allow photography.

Let's hear it for sneaky cell phone pics!

Now the other place I really wanted to see was Stone Henge. I found it very cool but it was cold and I look fat in the pictures. I had layered clothing and a waste pouch holding our money on underneath, come on!

My pleasant surprise of the trip was Vimy Ridge. That was on Mrs. Sollywoods must see list and other than the basics of a Canadian battle in WW1, I didn't know much about it. I will let her write more on than I but I will say that the Canadian monument (along with being the only nice day in France) had a very... spiritual feel to it. I'm not quite sure of the right word to use to describe it so I think spiritual will work. 

I was freaked out at first before going because here is how this trip went. I contact some guy online and say I want to go. I give no credit card info, nothing paid up front and only give my name. We hop on a train from Paris to Arras, about an hour north, and hope some guy in what I imagined to be a creepy van was there. If said van showed up at all I was prepared to bail on it if it was without windows or any other passengers. All sorts of freaky thoughts went through my head on the way there. They were also late and none of the numbers given to me worked. Sketchy a bit?? Well it turned out awesome. I'm down with taking those risks but not really with expressing those concerns until supported by reality. We went on a day tour with a few other Canadian couples and had an awesome guide. 

Speaking of which, I was totally prepared for whatever kind of weirdos came our way. That's part of the fun of doing the trip the way we did. Not knowing every detail and not doing everything so... 'travel agency'. I like the unknown. It's not always comfortable, it doesn't always work out or pay off but it's always exciting. If I know exactly what I'm getting into I don't find it as exciting. Sometimes you just have to go and see how things turn out. 

We also went to Italy which was amazing, but as this post is getting long we will save that for another day, if people want to read about it that is. Caio