A stroll around Kiel, Germany

Kiel, Germany was the first port of call on our Baltic cruise after setting sail from Copenhagen.  To be honest, I wasn't expecting too much since I hadn't really heard of the city before.  We only ended up leaving the ship to use the wifi in town basically since internet on cruise ships is ridiculously expensive.  Much to our surprise, Kiel ended up being a nice place.  The city has a population of around 240,000.  We took a stroll around the area of town near the cruise port and did a bit of shopping.

A lot of people on the ship ended up taking the train from Kiel station to Hamburg (around 1.5 hours away) but we didn't want the hassle, as we wanted this vacation to be more relaxing than the ones we usually go on.  In town we stumbled across the typical German things like pretzel carts, Birkenstock stores, food trucks selling currywurst and huge sausages on a bun, and of course - the biergarten.  When in Germany, why not go to the biergarten?  It always seems to be beer o'clock in this country.  We sat outside people watching and using the free wifi there.  While we didn't spend time seeing major tourist sites, we enjoyed our time relaxing in a quaint city in a country that I always enjoy travelling in.  No complaints!

Copenhagen: my kind of city!

Over the summer John and I had the pleasure of visiting Copenhagen, Denmark for several days as our Baltic cruise started and ended there.  After our delayed baggage fiasco on our many connecting flights home to Canada, we decided to spend the extra money and fly directly with Emirates to Copenhagen.  It was a 6 hour flight and getting from the airport to our hotel was quite easy as well.  Copenhagen has a population of around half a million people, and felt much smaller than other cities we had recently visited.  I really enjoyed the ease of getting around this city, and how clean it was.  The people were also very friendly and even though Danish is the main language, everyone speaks English as well.

Before we started our cruise we stayed at a hotel on a quiet street in the trendy neighbourhood of Osterbro.  The transportation mode of choice by most people seemed to be bicycle, and the streets all had bike lanes.  Copenhagen also had a lot of bus, metro, and train options.

One of the highlights of Copenhagen was visiting a place called Nyhavn, which is famous for its colourful buildings.  Nyhavn was packed with restaurants, street performers, and tourists strolling along the canal.

After visiting Nyhavn, we spent an afternoon at the Rosenborg Castle grounds.  We didn't pay to enter the castle, which houses the Danish crown jewels, but just visited the "Kongens Have" (The King's Garden) which was free.  The King's Garden is a great place to people watch and relax.  It was nice to lay down on the grass and enjoy the warmth of the sun.

From Rosenborg Castle we walked to the famous statue "Den lille havfrue" ... The Little Mermaid.  Hans Christian Andersen, the most famous Danish children's author, wrote the story of the little mermaid and her statue is now a symbol of the city.

We also enjoyed walking down Strøget, which is one of the oldest and longest pedestrian streets in the world.  Along the street you can find many cafes and souvenir shops.  We stopped into the Lego store to admire the amazing Lego creations.  Lego was invented in Denmark, and in the store we saw displays of famous places like Nyhavn made out of Lego.  

Along the pedestrian street you can also see many food stands.  The most famous street food in Denmark is the "pølser"... the hot dog!  Hot dog wagons are everywhere in Copenhagen, and they usually serve a large variety with some interesting toppings.  The classic Danish hot dog is topped with crispy fried onions, raw onions, pickles, ketchup, mustard, and remoulade sauce.  It is really, really good!

Just off of Strøget you can find the Rundetårn (The Round Tower) which was built in the 17th century as an astronomical observatory and is attached to a chapel.  The Round Tower has a winding sloped ramp leading to a short staircase at the top.  From the top you can have a great view of Copenhagen.

However, the best thing we did in Copenhagen was visit Tivoli Gardens, which is an amusement park dating back to 1843 - one of the oldest in the world!  Tivoli Gardens has several "old school" rides, including one of the world's oldest wooden rollercoasters.  There are also some modern rides of course, but overall the place has a very vintage feel.  It is a nice place to visit even if you don't want to go on rides, as there are restaurants, gardens, and a concert stage which has performances throughout the summer months.  We ended up paying for an all-access pass which let us go on any rides we wanted.  Although I'm not a big rides person since I get pretty dizzy, my favourite was the "Star Flyer" which is the world's second-tallest carousel at 80 metres high.  After you strap into your chair, the Star Flyer lifts you up slowly into the air, and before you know it you're swinging around in the sky with an amazing view over the city.

Copenhagen was very charming and a place that I'd love to spend more time in.  Despite the city being fairly expensive, it is definitely a place I'd recommend on a visit to Europe.

Road Trip: Cabot Trail

This summer John and I were lucky to go on a road trip with his family to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia to see the famous Cabot Trail.  The cool and rainy weather didn't stop us from enjoying our time on the beautiful east coast.

When driving on the Cabot Trail, you can't help but pass through Cape Breton Highlands National Park, as 1/3 of the trail passes through it.  A must-do in the park is the scenic "Skyline Trail" which is a 7km looping trail that takes you through forests and bogs, with the famous viewpoint at a boardwalk overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the winding mountain road below.  We had heard of some hikers seeing a moose on the trail, but it seemed as though we just missed it.  Lucky for us, after getting back into the car and driving further into the park we saw a bunch of cars stopped on the road.  There in the trees, near a stream of water we saw a moose!  It was cool to see a moose in the wild.  The moose was aware of us but did not run away.  We were able to watch it for a several minutes and take some photos.

One of the best stops along the Cabot Trail was a place called White Point.  There is a very small town there, and after hiking out to the point, there are dramatic views of waves crashing onto the rocks.  Wild strawberries and blueberries were growing all over the ground.

On our last day on the island we also visited the Fortress of Louisbourg.  It was pretty huge and there were people dressed up in character, teaching visitors what times were like when people lived on the fortress in the 1700s.  Louisbourg was a French settlement that was attacked by the British and eventually destroyed in the 18th century.  The fortress was partially rebuilt so visitors can enjoy it today.  If you are a big fan of Canadian history, I would recommend a visit to this historic place.

The Cabot Trail is 580 km and can be done in a few days.  We stayed in the town of Baddeck and made day trips from there.  Cape Breton Island is definitely a beautiful spot not to be missed on an east coast trip!

Canadian Summer Snaps

This summer we got to spend some time in 4 provinces and visit some new places.  There are so many beautiful spots in this huge country of ours.  Here are a few pics from our time in Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia.

I'm back!

After a 4 month break from blogging I am way past due for an update.  There have been a number of reasons that I have not updated this blog, ranging from lack of interesting material to write about to sheer laziness.  For a while I had forgotten the reason why I started this blog in the first place:  to update my family and friends on my life overseas.  When I lived in Vietnam and Korea I felt like I was always doing something noteworthy, and I felt more motivated to blog about my experiences.  My life in Dubai has not been as positive and interesting as I had hoped it to be, but I am beginning to realize that I need to seek out more opportunities and make things happen for myself so I can make the most of my time here and enjoy it more.

Hope for Nepal

Like many other people, I was very saddened to hear about the earthquake that recently hit Nepal.  With thousands of people dead and extensive damage to homes and other buildings, this event has had a major impact on tons of lives.

Nepal is a beautiful country that had something special about it which I could not quite put my finger on after my visit in October 2013.  Despite the heavy downpour that plagued most of our trekking journey in the mountains, we had a good time and I still think about the time that the clouds finally cleared and we saw the amazing mountains while sitting on a hill in the countryside.  Or when we went to a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Boudhanath Stupa, watching hundreds of people make their way around it, turning the prayer wheels as they passed by.  Maybe the most memorable experience of all was going to Pashupatinath, the temple by the river in Kathmandu, where we witnessed bodies being cremated one evening.  I can only imagine the scene there now as many people set their loved ones to rest.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read this newspaper article showing the extensive damage to places around Nepal.  The before and after photos were devastating.  I can't believe that places I visited less than two years ago are now gone due to the earthquake, namely Kathmandu's Durbar Square.  The building behind me in the photo below is now crumbled to the ground.  I have been thinking about the people who guided us and hosted us in their homes on our trek.  Did they earthquake hit their area?  Are their homes still standing?  Are they still alive?

 The Canadian Red Cross is accepting donations for the Nepal Region Earthquake Fund.  It is easy to donate online and the Canadian government will match donations as well.  I hope that this beautiful country can recover from this and that many more people will be able to visit in the future and realize how special it is.

At the Top

This post should really be called "The Return of the Lazy Blogger"... I haven't posted in a long time.  Unfortunately I haven't been inspired or motivated to write on this blog, but hopefully will be a better blogger in the upcoming future.

Two weeks ago John and I finally went up the Burj Khalifa... the tallest building in the world which dominates the Dubai skyline.  You can see the Burj from just about anywhere in the city on a clear day.  We have a (distant) view of it from one of our apartment windows, and you can also see it from the rooftop pool.

Anyway, for the "At the Top" experience at the Burj, you must reserve a ticket in advance by visiting the box office at the Dubai Mall (biggest mall in the world) or online.  Tickets sell out days in advance and when you buy a ticket you must select a specific day and timeslot.  We went up the Burj in the middle of the afternoon after having a nice lunch at Tim Horton's at the Dubai Mall.  Being able to visit Timmy's in a strange foreign land of mosques and camels never gets old for me.

One general "At the Top" ticket gets you to floor number 124 of this crazy building which looks like a needle pointing up in the middle of the desert.  This floor is located 442 metres above ground level.  If you want to get the deluxe Burj experience, you can pay twice the price for a ticket and visit a swank lounge 24 floors higher, at 488 metres!  Even at that height, you still don't come close to the 828 metres that the Burj reaches!  The elevator up the Burj goes at a ridiculous pace of 10 metres per second.  Despite it being the tallest building next to the hugest mall and fountain in the world, it doesn't have the fastest elevator... currently that honour goes to Taipei 101 which we went up last year in Taiwan, at a speed of 17 metres per second!

Enough about the facts... what does the "At the Top" experience get you?  Not too much.  You go up the fast elevator and then seem to be ushered out to the partially outdoor observation deck to see the views of this crazy city plopped in the middle of a desert.  Depending on the weather, your view may be hazy.  The only thing up on floor number 124 besides the deck is a gift shop and some public bathrooms.  I think going to the top of Taipei 101 was much more interesting... we spent hours up there checking out all the stuff inside!

So after my "At the Top" experience, would I recommend going up the Burj?  Probably.  It's fun to say you've gone to the tallest building in the world.  However, once you check out the view there isn't much else to do!

Here are some photos from the top: