Destinations Posts

A little over 24 hours ago we boarded Air New Zealand flight 83 in Vancouver for a 14-hour trip back to Auckland, New Zealand. I spent four weeks in Auckland about two years ago and really enjoyed myself. My original plan at the time was to slowly make my way south to the South Island and spend some time in a CamperVan, but eventually decided against it because I couldn’t find anyone to share the adventure with me. Thankfully now I have a girlfriend, and she was excited to spend a few weeks in a CamperVan in New Zealand. So we booked a three week trip back to New Zealand, and are currently in Auckland getting ready for New Year’s Eve. We are here until Friday, at which time we will likely take a bus to Matamata and spend part of Saturday back at the set of Hobbiton. I was […]

A few years ago I visited New Zealand and fulfilled one of my lifelong dreams. The highlight of the trip for me was undoubtedly my trip to Matamata, New Zealand to visit the actual, real-life set of Hobbiton from the Lord of the Rings movies. Due to time constraints, I only spent one month there and only saw the North Island. I had wanted to head down to the South Island at the time and possibly rent a campervan, but it didn’t really seem like something that would be that fun by myself. So I decided at the time to head back to Canada and enjoy Christmas with my family. A New Trip Luciana and I were recently trying to figure out something to do for New Year’s eve, and found a ‘cheap’ (all flights to New Zealand are relatively expensive) flight to New Zealand for around the same time. […]

One of my favourite aspects of travelling is the process of arriving in a new destination. It doesn’t really matter how much research you do online before getting there, the actual experience of seeing it for yourself for the first time is always unique and usually unexpected. Almost always a place is better in person that you imagine in your head after doing research, but sometimes it takes a little time to overcome your first impressions after arriving. For example, both me and a friend of mine thought Buenos Aires was fairly dirty when we first arrived. But it’s the type of city that grows on you over a few weeks while you discover all the little aspects of the city that make it appealing. Often though I usually think a city is much better in person when compared to everything I’ve read about it prior to arriving. That’s one […]

Prior to visiting Barcelona for my first time this year, I had no idea who Antoni Gaudi was. But after spending a few days in Barcelona visiting architectural sites, it’s pretty clear what a revolutionary architect he was. Park Güell Antonia Guadi was a Catalan architect whose various works in Spain have become extremely important, and draw huge crowds of tourists each day. While not entirely appreciated when he was alive, several of his works have now been classified as Unesco World Heritage Sites and he is one of Spain’s most revered architects. The first of his creations we went to visit was Park Güell. Our apartment was close enough Park Güell to walk to, but the nearest Metro station is Lesseps. Even from there though be prepared to walk for about 20 minutes, with the last part uphill. But don’t worry, the park is well worth the hike. Inside […]

One of the most impressive geological formations in the world are the Cliffs of Moher located in County Claire, Ireland. Located approximately an hour drive away from Galway, it’s an easily accessible location in the beautiful Burren region of Ireland, which has an eerie resemblance to a moonscape. I visited the Cliffs once in 2011, but unfortunately it was foggy and didn’t make for very nice photos. Thankfully I got a chance to go back again yesterday and got to see the Cliffs of Moher with much better sunshine this time. If you’re going to visit the Cliffs of Moher, I recommend giving yourself a window of a few days so you optimize your chances of having nice weather for your visit. When it is cloudy and foggy the view isn’t nearly as impressive, so definitely hold out for a bit of sun if you can. Near the highest point […]

I’ve been bouncing around Galway for a week now, and one thing that surprises me compared to a lot of other countries I have visited is how hard it is to find free WiFi. Lots of places seem to offer it on the internet, but when you actually show up to use it you typically only get 20 minutes for free via BitBuzz or Boingo. As someone who typically works remotely as I am travelling, 20 minutes just doesn’t cut it. Thankfully I found a pub in completely free WiFi in Galway: The Front Door. So while I typically prefer to spend my days working in coffee shops, for the time being I’m upgrading to beer-filled days due to the free WiFi here. So if you are visiting Galway and looking for a place to sit down for a bit and get reconnected with people back home, or possibly even […]

Back in high school I signed up to take English Literature, which for me at the time was a rather unusual departure. One of the reasons I decided to take the plunge was due to the rather passionate sales pitch by the teacher at the time, Mr. Chadsey. As it turns out, it was one of my most enjoyable courses ever, and many of the poems and prose I read at the time has stayed with me throughout most of my adult life. One play we read at the time was The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Due to the controversial (at least at the time) life of Oscar Wilde, the play didn’t get performed much while he was alive. But it’s become a bit of a classic since that time, and he’s now recognized as an important playwright. It turns out that Oscar Wilde was Irish, something […]

One of the first items I try to tackle whenever I hit a new country is to get a pay as you go SIM for my iPhone. If you are on a budget it’s something that you may not want to do, but I find having data on my phone invaluable for various reasons. Last time I was in Ireland, I opted for a Vodafone SIM card for my iPhone. I remember at the time it was reasonably priced and gave me 100MB or so of data. Since I was going to be in Ireland for a month though, I wanted to have more data. I look at Vodafone’s pricing, but it started at around 40 Euros for the month for 1GB worth of data. A friend of mine recommended O2 instead, so as soon as I arrived in Galway I went down to the O2 office to price out […]

Last year while in Paris I decided to head down to the Louvre, one of the finest museums of art in the world. While there are several masterpieces there, one of the most valuable paintings in the world in also displayed inside the Louvre: The Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa, or La Gioconda, is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, and is thought to be a painting of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Part of the painting’s appeal is the beautiful Tuscan background and the enigmatic pose of Lisa in the painting. Prior to viewing it last year, I decided to do a quick Google search to read about the Mona Lisa’s history. One interesting tidbit of information that I found was that another version of the Mona Lisa had been recently discovered by a museum in 2012. The owners of this painting previously thought that the […]

I recently returned returned about four month’s ago from a three week visit to Australia. I managed to make it as far as New Zealand in 2011, but didn’t have the time to get across to Australia. Despite appearances, most people think Australia and New Zealand are fairly close – but they are actually separated by a distance that would take between 3.5 and 4 hours to fly between them, which is obviously quite far (like going from Calgary to Toronto). I left Vancouver on a Wednesday with the goal of being in Sydney on the Friday (you lose a day crossing the date-line). It was a long flight (14 hours), but I managed to sleep during some of it so it ended up not feeling like an extremely long time. It’s hard to believe at this stage in my traveling career that a 5 hour flight used to seem […]