At City of Toronto (what I call my "perfect job"), there was NO drama. No bitchy annoying customers, no interoffice relationships... I just came in every day and did my job, got paid a ridiculous amount for playing scattegories all day, and everyone was content.

Now I'm back working at this ridiculous hole called Mississauga Honda at an embarassing position for a Laurier BBA Grad who's feeling the heat of the downtrodden economy. I look at my paycheque and I cry, especially since the work is 1000x more demanding, you deal with crackhead co-workers, male superiors who PMS every day, and customers who you just want to stab in the face with a knife. There is always drama every day. I've worked for like a week, and three people have already left and new people keep coming so it's like, what's the point of learning anyone's names anymore?

It's hilarious! The guy I just mentioned in the previous post who taught me "what ya sayin" was fired yesterday...it's okay, I got another dude helping me out. Today I learned "what's poppin" and the definition of 'kush' which is apparently a high grade kind of weed. I don't know if this kind of knowledge is going to be useful for my Advanced Corporate Tax midterm this Saturday...

I haven't updated about current events for almost two months now so you're probably wondering "what I'm sayin." I've been keeping BUSY that's for sure...

Back from Europe, me, my brother and sister-in-law went to Buffalo to check out the falls on their side and go shopping

"Cave of the Mist" - surprising I've never been here before (very fun getting SOAKED by the falls)

crazy shot with the falls ravaging behind us... and rainbow!

Sushi Star with friends for Mike's bday celebration!

crappy cellphone pic... but this was at Nuit Blanche where they showcased a bunch of contemporary "art" exhibits downtown Toronto all night

Thanksgiving Weekend was crazy but good... celebrated Shannon's birthday at PJ O'Brien's Irish Pub, went to Waterloo for Jacey's birthday and had Thanksgiving dinner with the family. I've been keeping busy lately studying (or lack thereof) for my exam Saturday, working, etc... and TA-DA ALL CAUGHT UP!!!!!!!!!!!! =)

Yeah, so... the night we left for Rome, we were stranded at the airport because the plane ticket was booked on the wrong day so we effectively missed our flight. Unable to get a refund or book another flight in time, we resolved to take on Ira's idea - "cruise" it from this port city called Civitavecchia all the way to Barcelona. Sounds insane? OH hells yes, it was.

We had little time to get to Civitavecchia from the airport to make it in time for the cruise since the taxi we were supposed to take decided to leave without us. A taxi driver saved the day for us and squeezed five of us into his taxi and drove at a speed of 180 km/hr in his ferrari (SMOOTHEST RIDE EVER) to get us to the port... but even then, it wouldn't be sure we could get the tickets for five of us to get on at the last moment. What happened?

We got on. By our prayers and Lord's grace, the ticket booth was still open and we got tickets for five of us! When we got on the cruise, we even upgraded our tickets so we could get a four-person room to sleep in. The morning of, the water was rocking the boat HARD and I got sea sick.

We were SO SO SO blessed to be on this boat, even though we would be missing out on a day in Barcelona. The deck was CRAZY WINDY, I could feel the skin on my face being blown off. While everyone decided to sleep for the day, I decided to relax on the deck and look out and truly admire the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea.

Land ho! By 6PM, we were arriving at Barcelona. Although the others didn't enjoy the cruise that much, I liked it because I've never been on a real cruise before (even if it's low end) and it was just a beautiful relaxing time. It also fulfilled Ira's need to have an "adventure" even though Europe backpacking is not adventure enough for her I guess

We arrived in beautiful Barcelona and I could tell that I would love this place (although that feeling soon dwindled when I realized there's not much to do or see here)

Our new and very last hostel. These cushions were backbreakingly soft and the bunk beds were shaky as heck... it was very difficult for me to not rustle the entire bunk bed sleeping on top. Also, they didn't give you comforters so I slept under my towel (ghetto!) Lastly, I am almost positive I got all my bug bites from Barcelona and most likely from sleeping in this hostel

Just because the washroom is green, doesn't mean I like it. It was terribly unclean and I felt dirty AS I was showering which is never a good sign. You could tell the bathtub has never once been scrubbed

a) b) c)

d) e)

We went out for dinner for TAPAS which is like a Spanish Dim Sum, in the fact that you order a variety of small dishes. Ira was looking forward most to the tapas, but I think we all fell in love. This is the best tapas meal I had while we were in Barcelona

a) Brochettes - bread sticks filled with cheese

b) Patatas Bravas - fried potato wedges topped with a spicy mayonnaise sauce. This is probably the most popular tapas plate and although it doesn't look like much, you can trust that this is the MOST delicious and tasty of them all. So good, I kept ordering it everywhere I went

c) Forgot what it was called, but it's a cheese sandwich with truffles basically

d) Potato omelette

e) Creme brulee dessert - didn't have a chance to get it in France so might as well have my share now!

Barcelona at night, walking to La Rambla which is a street for tourists and locals where a market is, and also some special events happen. It's also famous for pickpocketing, which is what almost happened to Jackie


One of Gaudi's (a famous architect from Barcelona) works. You can see strange looking buildings like this around. He was a moderniste architect

La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's most famous works. This freaky piece of architecture is supposed to be a church but was never completed because Gaudi died. It is currently being completed with a target date of 2026, 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death

Gaudi was into nature and wanted to incorporate this into his work. The interior of the church has these pillars that represent trees and tree branches that suspend into the roof


Every little carving is symbolic and relates to both religion and nature. His work is so intricate and so different from anyone else out there. He was a moderniste and light years ahead of his time

Parc Guell, which is also by Gaudi and is located in northern Barcelona. It's a garden that has these strange looking buildings

After climbing the stairs, you reach the top which is a sandy area and tons of palm trees. Weird to find sand here though... who do you think you are, Paris?!?!

We relaxed on this bench which is supposed to be this long serpent (not very comfortable to lean back onto) but we stayed here for a while

This is me and the dragon fountain (which was vandalized in 2007 so this is the restored version)

Let's do the hula dance! The harbor area looked like Hawaii

After eating at a seafood restaurant that wasn't too good, we took a walk and found a beach area which is called Barceloneta Beach

Only me and Ira wanted to go play in the water, but the water was crazy cold. This guy was going to take a picture for us, but the tide came rushing in when we didn't realize it

The tide receded and we managed to take a photo! =) Playing in the water was super fun, too bad we wouldn't have enough time to hang out at the beach and go swimming. I'm just glad we got to go to the beach in the first place

We strolled along the beach and I saw this weird fish thing so I decided to capture it. There's weird moderniste archiecture everywhere you go in Barcelona... I don't know what they're trying to prove but having a huge fish thing is not as cool as you think!

As the sun went down, we reached the end of the beach and took a rest at the lovely harbor front area before heading back


Day 17: Barcelona III

In the morning, we walked a lot everywhere, went to La Rambla again, and ended up going up the mountain near the Olympic stadium to see this fantastic view. Just when I was giving up on Barcelona, it goes on to stun me with this nice view away from the very modern city

A nice photo of all of us, at a place that overlooks all of Barcelona (you can even see La Sagrada Familia from this picture)

We proceeded to visit Castell de Montjuic and it was awesome because it was free.

Below is where we got off from our cruise on the first day we arrived in Barcelona. The top corner, there is a beach which is where we were the other day

I love the two different colours of water. The inner port water is more teal greenish while the outer water is blue. It's such a beautiful sight to see. We hung out on top of the castle for a while

After eating lunch, we roamed the city for a while to get an "all-you-can-see" tour guide of the gothic district of Barcelona in the limited time we had left. I think we made good time thanks to our tour guide Jackie who led us to see all that we could see

Sorry I don't know that much about Barcelona history, but I know that this fountain is famous for something. I also know that it is located in a sketchy and if it wasn't day time, I would be tres scared for my life

Again, don't know much about it but it's a well known bridge. I think the tourguide said something about being praising this for its incorporation of gothic themes into the architecture

After seeing all that we could see (which was a lot in a little time), we proceeded back to our hostel to pick up our stuff and head to the airport to go back to Dublin. Say goodbye Barcelona

What I Learned about Barcelona: TAPAS is awesome. As I explained earlier, it's like Spanish dim sum and patatas bravas is the best type of tapas there is. SO SO yummy. Also, we learned about the famous architect Gaudi and you could see his works all around Barcelona

Rating: 7/10 I wasn't too stoked about going to this place because I knew nothing about it. I realize now it's a lovely place and there's some stuff to see, but I'd say it's a great place to just relax and have a good time. But overall, we didn't get much time to see it and in that little time we had, most of the time we were wandering around the ghetto areas of La Rambla at night so maybe I'd give it a better rating next time I go. It's not as quaint as I expected from Vicky Cristina Barcelona, it's actually a very modern city but I still enjoyed it otherwise.

We flew from Barcelona airport to Dublin, and had about 6-7 hours to spare before our plane to Canada. There was absolutely no where in the airport to sit or sleep, so we all decided to go to a nearby hotel and have a good rest and shower. I would say it was worth it, plus we got to see more of Dublin instead of its crappy airport ;)

We made it back to our plane on time, and there were even tons of seats empty so I ended up getting my own space. It was funny, I was able to sleep like a baby on every airplane or train in Europe but when it came time to going home, I could not sleep a wink on that plane (yes I got major jet lagged). I guess I was just excited to get home...

Leaving the beautifully green Dublin...

...arriving in the deathly urban city of Toronto. But it's my home =)