Europe! Netherlands, Ireland, Greece!

OKay well I was typing something really long and it all dissapeared so here it is in short. I got bored, bought a ticket, and went to europe. Here are a few pictures of my journey so far in amsterdam dublin, and athens and a few islands in greece. Itsall good and Im enjoying the experience. I decided Id update this thing now since I am sitting in an airport all night in Heraklion Crete, Greece. here are some pics for you alllll.

arica(northchile)arequipa(mountains peru)and Lima(capital)

alrighttt. Well Joel just joined me a day ago or so and we are having a great time. Its fun to have someone to share good times with that you have known your whole life. alright ill back up. From Santiago I took a 30 hour bus to Arica where I met some very nice british people that i spent a few hostls with. Arica was nice but we wanted to get into Peru so onwards we went. Crossing the boarder from chile to peru in a taxi is kinda funny and scary. I can tell you more details if you ask me. well from the boarder town we took a 7 hour bus to arequipa which is a beatiful city in the andes surrouned by volcanoes. That was a sweet place but I had tohead up toLima to meet Joel and that was a good 16 hours or so. Neways Lima was good butnow we got a 23 hour bus to Cuzco and can hopefully see the ruins of machu picchu. ttyl gota go

to the west coast! ( cordoba and Santiago)

okay I am not really sure when it was that I wrote last in this thingy. Well this is how it goess. After Iguazu and seeing the falls I took a twenty some hour busride south to Cordoba. Cordoba is a university town of Argentina. Lots of schools here and smart good looking ladies lol. I was only there a few minutes when I met this really cool guy from vancouver. Dan was heading to Chile pretty soon and I sorta felt like checkin out chile so I decided to go with him to the bus station right then and there to get tickets. Back on the bus lol. Well Dan and I had another twenty some hours to Santiago but this was a scenic drive. Through the Andes. it was amazing and Ill put some pics up. On the bus we met a girl who lives in Santiago or a suburb of it neways. She said her rents were still gone for a bit so we could spend a night there. It was fun and she knew no english but fortunately for me Dan is really good at spanish and english aswell so he did translations. She had friends over that night so It was a long night of not much sleep. The reason Dan was in Santiago though was through his college program. He is doing a 5 month or so program to study here in Santiago. The first couple of days of orientation he had a hotel room paid for so I decided to tag along lol. I got a free nights stay in the rich area of downtown Santiago in a sweet hotel at the top floor. Good Views! yeaa. Well I secretly camped there for a night and it was a cool experience. The next morning though we both agreed that it was time for me to continue on and get back to backpacking lol. So I found a really sweet hostel in a different area of Santiago. Today is my second day here and its just been raining all day and is really gloomy outside. Kinda sucks really. Well I only needed to wait a few hours to get on the free comps but now Im here so its all good. Free laundry here aswell...hehe bout time to wash my sweater. Might be needing it soon. I did buy a bus ticket for tomorrow night thats about a thirty hour trip. Oiiii.. oh myyy. yea but its two nights accomadations saved lol. Thats always a plus. Well my bus is going to Arica which is in the northern desert region of chile right before the peruvian boarder. It is coastal so I hope to do a couple days of beaching. we shall seee. After that I wanna do peru and some bolivia posibly. Someone I worked with last summer in the Parks of glacier national park actually is living and working in La Paz so He said I could stop by. Still some adventures coming up so I ll try and keep ya posted... If I feel like it lol. Later!

-Adrien

The Iguazusss

Alright. There is this place called Foz do Iguacu on the brazilian side of the boarder and Porto de Iguazu on the argentine side. The cities are sorta connected or atleast very close and you can takae city buses across and you just stop for customs. I spent two nights on the brazilian side before coming over at a really nice hostel. I could have stayed longer but I wanted out of brazil. They had a sweet breakfast of fruits and grill cheese sandwiches and ps2 a swimming pool, a gym and hammocks. Oh and a place to play your own music by the bar. It was cool. Then I came over here to the Argentine side and went to see the waterfalls. they kicked butt but the hostel sucks real bad. Today I will leave to go south I think but I am not sure where. I think I might just check out of myhostel and go to the bus station. From there I will pick a ticket and then just go with it. Sorta random. Wanna get some distance behind me so I think I will do a 24 ride or longer. lol. So mendoza or cordoba. Back to the same ol crap breakfasts here though. Bread and butter lol. oh well. Things are good and its always like 36 degrees during the day up here so I am ready for slightly cooler temperatures further south. Alright this is it for now so soon I shall be in the Andes. I hope. Or near by lol. Bye Bye

-Adrien

well this is brazil

Oh k everyone. I know that this isnt exactly what you might have expected me to say about brazil but this is how I have taken it in so far. I have been here for only about three days now and I have gotten a feel for it. I knew it was going to be more expensive than Argentina but this is a little bit more than I was expecting. My first evening and fallowing day I spent as much money that would last me over a week in Buenos Aires. I know there are cheaper places to eat that I have found now but it still is quite expensive. I was paying like 12 cad dollars for a meal . no wonder there are so many homeless people in these cities. Sao paulo was huge and Rio is amazing but it is so superficial and full of bodybuilding speedo strapped fake bods. well in otherwords just a lot of people out to impress. And the language hasnt really taken me either. I am in this continent to learn spanish and this place is just,..... weird for language. Portuguese sounds like a mix of hebrew, japanese, french, and spanish. Origato is thank you in japanese. Gracias is in spanish, and obrigado is thank you in portuguese. Well there you go. its weird. I met a really cool guy named Ira but its too bad that I am probably leaving soon to head back into the spanish speaking world because there is nothing holding me here. My first morning here in Rio de Janiero I decided to go with a handful of brits to a ol fashion football game at an irish pub. Big mistake. While im writing this they are still walking through the room and calling me the big woman who wasnt gettin piss drunk offa beer at 1045 am while becoming soccer hooligans lol. Oh well it was still a good day and They are only kiddin, I can tell. I know that I want to see a couple more things in Rio and then I want to leave ASAP because I really am spening lots. My next bus trip is about the cost of a week and a half of hostels in BA. Tomorrow morning I am going on a Favela tour of Rio. Its where the movie "city of god" takes place. I am very excitied. I was notified that its also the superbowl lol. Well I figured out that uploading pictures takes a long time so I will just post some links of other photos of Rio of things that I say today. http://www.innrio.com/images/Arpoador_Ipanema.jpg http://www.verinha2.de/images_01/rio_cristo_copyright_verinha.jpg http://rioadventuretours.com/images/Rio_Sugarloaf_1.jpg

well thats about it. Its really hard to see the christ statue ( cristo Redentor) or soemthing like that. I think that he is ashamed of one of the most sinful cities next to Las Vegas lol. Always covering himself with clouds. Well I will write again later but right now it is tough to find computers in hostels for a good price. I will leave brazil soon. dont worry.

This is it for now. -Adrien

Final week of January and BA

Well today is the 30th of January and this is my last night in Buenos Aires. wow there goes the first month of 2007, that was quick. Seems like just the other day that I was at my Uncle Harry and Aunt Irene´s condo in the middle of the mountains and the snow as we rang in a new year. Now I am on the bottom of the world and it was about 33 celcius today and I went for a walk and was looking for some boardshorts. These jean shorts are getting a little bit dirty and they just arent practical for places I will be going. Well I sure did pack light for this trip and now the trick is to keep it light. Of course I still need to buy the odd suvenier, just try and stay away from buying a whole load of stuff. My past days here have been very nice and I have spent about five days now with a guy named Aaron. He is originally from Maschechusettes.. or however you spell that lol. For the past year and a half though he has been travelling the world. He started with Europe, then India, then Australia, then was in New Zealand. He had just arrived here and came to the hostel I am staying at and we have done lots of hanging out. He has tought me lots and has a very different and open way of seeing things. He was originally kicked out of school for being caught with weed off campus and now he never smokes and never even touches a drop of alcohol. He doesnt really intend on going back to school. He wants to spend a year in South America and then work his way up to central america and see how hard it is to find a cheap boat and then start sailing. Whenever he runs out of money he just finds a little work where ever he is and then keeps going. So tomorrow we will go our seperate paths but I am sure we will keep in touch. Over the past days I have gone to a few museums and went to the Recoleta cemetary where I got to see Evita Peron´s grave. I really thought that hers would be bigger lol. I love to go out shopping but the buying part doesnt happen so often lol. I know I am sure ready to try some new cuisine in Brazil though. Another person told me of what they were planning on doing and it sounded so tempting except for the fact that I dont think I have the time or the funds. He is going to slowly work his way up until he gets to Canada. Bussing!! from here. I really hope that I get to see some of the Amazon river before I have to come home so this is something I am going to look into for sure. It is present in atleast 4 countries here I think. Well thats about it for now and I will let you all know how Sao Paulo is after I have arrived tomorrow night and find my hostel lol. Thatl be an adventure. Well this is it for now so Farewell! and Brazil, Here I COME!

Mar del Plata

Mar del Plata sorta bit it big. Didnt like any real part of it. I was gone for only two nights from BA and I missed it very quick . My first full day there walking on the beach I almost got robbed but my senses told me that something was up and I sorta heard a faint zipper sound so I checked my backpack. Sure enough, the back little pocket had been 3/4 opened. I checked thoroughly to make sure that everything was still inside the pocket and it was so I was very thankful and wore the backpack on the front after that. In that pocket I had my passport, two credit cards, and my new cell phone. Yea I was lucky. Right after I stopped and closed the zipper I looked around to see if anyone was watching. Sure enough, I noticed a lady maybe in her fourties that had stopped walking and was looking around. I stared at her for a while and eventually her wandering look took a peek at me and I saw her quickly look away and keep walking. Yea I am almost 100percent sure it was her. But I knew that there was nothing I could do so I just was very careful from there on. The bus ride back from Mar del Plata was very sweet because it was about 18 bux for the top end executive ticket and it was niiiiice. Compfy and food and free coffee etc. spacious! Oh by the way Mar del Plata and pretty much the vacation getaway for people living in BA during the summer which it is right now. Its 5 hours south of here by bus. Well I spent the day walking with two girls from London and we had a great time. Sooooo much walking lol. tired now and I think tonight is a time for a little relaxing . I love this hostel and everyone is so amazing here so making friends happens in an instant almost. Such nice people! Well I dont really have enough pictures to update any new ones but I will put some on before I go to Brazil I think. well thats all for now and I will write again. Enjoy the cool temps back in the canadian lands. Im out for now -Adrien

the first week here

Well the first week here was great. When I got here it was like the only day it has been raining really. The other days have all been about 32 and up on the celcius chart. I found the bus that costs 1.35 pesos(3 pesos to the american dollar about) so about 50 cents for this bus to my hotel. It seems no one else here used it but Iam glad that I did. It took almost two hours but I saw lots of Buenos Aires on the way in. It is an amazing city. The architecture here is very european and the food is quite european aswell. Anyways, when I got to my hostel I found it to be quite compfy and costs just under ten dollars a night. This isnt that bad but you can find hostels for around 6 dollars if you look hard enough. I have met lots of nice people here and it seems to be run strictly buy Israeli and Brazilian travelers so it is hebrew and portuegues in the air all the time. That and a lot of smoke. It seems people love to smoke when they travel. The nightlife here is crazy and I usually wake up to my roommates coming in at almost five after going out on the town starting at 1am or so. This doesnt bother me all that much either except I usually feel like such a loser staying in some days lol.
The food here isnt quite as tantelizing for me as it was in asia but that is ok because I think I will like it a little more when I get to the coast of Brazil. Oh by the way, I decided to buy a ticket to Sao Paulo because I found one for 35usd before taxes one way. I bought a round trip and leave on the 31st of jan. The Visa is a tough thing to get for that stupid country lol but I got it now. I have been walking lots and seeing tons of the city and decided that it is almost time to move on. come monday the 22nd I will be checking out Mar del Plata which is a beach city south of here about five hours on bus. I am very excited to see some more of Argentina.
The past couple of days have been some real airy days for me in BA and my stomach always feels so tight. its tough to work up a big appetite with all this gas sitting in me 24/7. I hope this goes away soon and I know that it is a normal occurence when you are travelling. I told myself that I would not send any pictures and people could see them when I got home but I changed my mind and will be posting a few periodically. Now its the weekend and I hope that I have some energy to go out a bit. Tight stomache and low on energy(sucks) well atleast I dont have the flu or anything. Still can function. Well thats about it for now. Besides getting robbed for 100 pesos when they told me they were taking me to tango lessons but actually werent. ( I sat and talked with a girl for a few minutes while they brought beer and then they said I needed to pay for the girls´ beer. 100pesos!!!) I paid cause im a little wuss lol. well just that and gettin lost the other day walking are my most exciting stories. lol. anyways okay thats it and I will update later. Signing out from Buenos Aires.