I`m a home-owner!

I am a proud first-time home owner!! My boyfriend and I recently decided to take our cohabitation to a whole new level and make the commitment of home ownership together. After a few months of searching, we fell completely in love with a beautiful little home about 10 minutes east of the city. For a starter home, it`s in fairly good shape. There are a few odd cosmetic choices here and there - the one textured wall in the master bedroom for example - that I`m not totally in love with, but I`m told that you have to accept quirky things when you buy your first house. We go through it one final time next week for our home inspection!

I know the timing could certainly be better, I`m graduating in just a few short weeks and I have yet to find a job. Whew, the pressure is definitely on for me to find one! That aside, sometimes the best things in life happen to you when you least expect them or when they seem to happen to you a little too quickly. Case in point: I was only eighteen when I fell in love with my boyfriend, and I know that there were people that said I was probably too young to know if it was really love, or that I shouldn`t get so serious about a boy at that age, and here I am, three years later (pretty much) and more in love than ever. I know that the road ahead will be difficult, and we`ll have to put a lot of ourselves into the house for the next few years, but I really could not be more excited. The dreamer in me keeps reminding me that this will be the house that I live in as a newlywed, the house my child(ren) will take their first steps in, and the house that will hold so many memories for me in the years to come.

With that said, I have got my work cut out for me in the upcoming weeks! The sellers had a really motivated closing date, so we`ll be moving in about a month and a half. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas in November, when it seems like Christmas is so far away, when in reality it is just around the corner!!

This will be our home sweet home on July 13th! Can`t wait!

My European Adventure: Part 2

I left off in my European adventure in my last blog post on the fifth day of travel, in Helsinki. We were all catching a 6:00am flight from Helsinki to Frankfurt on the sixth day, which was Saturday April 28. Brutal. Waking up to be at the airport for just after 4 in the morning is not my thing. The rest of the guys had about an hour layover in Frankfurt before returning to Toronto, while Jeff and I had arranged to stay on for an extra six days.

So the sixth day we arrived in Frankfurt and obtained our rental car. We lucked out and got an Opel Astra, a type of car that I'd never heard of before. Jeff says they aren't carried in North America, at least not commonly, so it's not surprising that I've never heard of it. We drove about two hours from Frankfurt into Koln, Germany for some sightseeing. The drive was really fun, and I had a blast stopping at the German Serways, which are like up scale gas stations/rest stops along the autobahns. They've extremely clean, and serve reasonably priced fresh food. Stuff like bratwurst, chicken, steak, and pasta are all cooked up fresh in front of your eyes - so much better from pulling through a McDonald's on the side of the highway in Canada! Jeff and I often stopped at one on our longer driving days, and we were never disappointed with what we got.

Once we got to Koln, we both had a nap at our hotel, the Mercure Severinshof Koln City. We then explored the famous Koln Cathedral, known in English as the High Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Mary. Apparently, it's Germany's most visited landmark. This I do believe, as the place was swarming with tourists such as myself. It was an amazing experience, and I highly suggest it to anyone travelling in that area. We also stumbled upon a bridge of 'love locks'. The Hohenzollernbruke Bridge is mainly used by trains, but the pedestrian walking path that connects Koln over the Rhine has over 1000 locks attached to its side. Apparently, these locks are supposed to commemorate a couple's devotion to one another. It was actually incredibly romantic to see, and after the cathedral it was my favourite part of Koln.

Our Opel Astra station wagon 

Incredibly beautiful cathedral - it took my breath away

The 'nave' of the church

Exterior side doors of cathedral

Love locks in Koln :) 

The seventh day, we drove to Volendam, Holland. We stayed in the Hotel Old Dutch, which was located on one of the main walking streets in the town, just across from the harbour. We loved our stay there! When we arrived we had a brief time to rest from our 4 hour drive before we grabbed dinner and visited some of Jeff's relatives. I snapped some pictures, and one the way there we came across a tulip field!!! It was awesome.

Out hotel

The view from our room 

Tulip field! 

The eighth day was Queen's Day in Holland, and it seemed to be sort of like a combination between Canada Day and St. Patrick's Day over here. Most of the younger people dressed up in outrageously orange outfits and drank beer all day, and there was a marching band of people in traditional Dutch clothing in the morning to kick off the celebrations. We really enjoyed it.

The marching band - they walked past our hotel room twice!

A local party in Marken

The ninth day we took the bus from Volendam into Amsterdam and spent the day there. I had a really good time even though the city was filthy because of all the Queen's Day parties from the day before. We had the best Chinese food I've ever had for dinner that night in Amsterdam on a floating, 3 storey restaurant!

Canal in Amsterdam

Anne Frank's house

Amsterdam's floating flower market

Chinese 'Sea Palace' restaurant - the food was so good! 

The tenth day we drove back to Frankfurt from Volendam, and stayed Best Western Grand City Frankfurt. Sad to say, it was not like the Best Western's that I have stayed at before. It was not clean, or in a safe neighbourhood. We'd had great luck with hotels up to this point. Oh well.

The eleventh day, which was also our last day in Germany before our flight, we drove over eight hours (round trip) to see Neuschwanstein Castle outside of Fussen, Germany. It was totally worth it! The scenery was amazing once we got closer to the castle, and we certainly got our exercise that day with the steep 1.5 km hike up to the castle in the sun!

Jeff at the base of the castle

Neuschwanstein Castle

Me standing in the courtyard

This was like a postcard - the countryside from a lookout point on the walk up to the castle

Beautiful mountains marking the German-Austrian border

The twelfth day, we packed up all of our souvenirs and headed back to the airport. I was sad to leave! We flew Frankfurt-Toronto and arrived, on schedule, around 8.5 hours after we took off from Germany.

The whole trip was amazing, and an experience I'll never forget.

My European Adventure: Part 1

As I said in my previous post, I had a wonderfully amazing trip abroad. I have visited Europe before with my parents when I was about 14, but I feel as if I've only scratched the surface. What is it about Europe that is so entrancing to us North Americans? I feel as if the European continent harbours a secret that I want to uncover, and the more time I spend over there, the more I realize it just isn't enough. I so admire the depth of history and architecture, and I often try to imagine what life would be like if I lived abroad for a period of time. I have now added more countries to my 'travel list'; a list which only gets longer the more I travel.

Anyway, I visited three countries in my latest jaunt to Europe, although I did briefly stray over the border of Germany into Austria for around 10 minutes! I have added Austria to my list of places to see someday, so hopefully I'll be back.

We started off in Finland, as Jeff had some training to complete for work there, along with 5 other guys. We flew Saturday, April 21 from London-Toronto, Toronto-Frankfurt, experienced a 7-hour layover (that was brutal), and then flew Frankfurt-Helsinki. We stayed about two hours from Helsinki in Hameenlinna, which roughly translated, means Hame Castle. We arrived late Sunday, grabbed some dinner, and crashed into bed. I hadn't slept in over 24 hours!!

The first day I was there, Monday, we all explored the castle ruins across from the hotel - the Rantasipi Aulanko.

Castle ruins

Beautiful marble spiral staircase to get up to the turret

 The second day it was rainy, so we spent time exploring the hotel and swimming in the pool.

Cool chandeliers in the business atrium

View of the spa (glassed-in structure) and the hotel from the dock

The third day, we went to the lookout tower about 5km from the hotel. when we got there, we discovered we could only go about 1/3 of the way up since the final staircase was locked for the 'winter' season! We also visited the not-so-aptly-named Bear Caves, which turned out to not really be bear caves at all.

Lookout tower

Me as far as we could go up the lookout tower

Bear Caves - literally just a statue of some bears in a very shallow cave

The fourth day we didn't really do anything because I had too much school work to do. The rest of the guys went to a mall about 40 mins away, but I didn't go or take any pictures.

The fifth day we travelled to Helsinki since everyone was flying back to Frankfurt the next day. We took the 30 minute bus ride from the Hilton Helsinki Airport to downtown Helsinki. Helsinki is the cleanest city I've ever been in - apparently they zamboni the streets at night. I totally loved it, and I would definitely go back. All of the buildings were really architecturally interesting and unique. I would have loved to spend more time there!

Our very modern room at the Hilton Helsinki Airport Hotel

The bear is the national animal of Finland

Six or seven storey mall in Helsinki

Cool statue in one of the main squares of Helsinki 

Can you spot me?

And thus concludes part one of my European adventure. I think I'll either post part two later tonight or tomorrow sometime! I had an amazing time in Finland!

Absence from blogging

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've last posted anything here. I got so incredibly busy with school and stress that I just didn't have the time or the energy to do anything else. In the first three weeks of April, I completed 4 essays, 3 take-home exams, and two sit-down exams. Whew. I get tired just thinking about it. After four years of studying, I'm glad to say that the worst is behind me, and I'm so excited to see what the next chapter of my life will be like. Now I can get pumped up for summer! (And finding a job of course.)

I also just got back from an amazing two-week whirlwind trip to Europe with my boyfriend, so I'll post some pictures in a separate post of some of the highlights. We went to Finland first for a week because Jeff was going for business, so I wrote my final exam during the day and explored when he was done work. The following week we travelled through Germany and Holland, we even spent 10 very brief minutes in Austria! It seems like we saw and did something amazing every day, and it's frankly a little weird to be back in my apartment in London. I guess I need to re-learn how to slow down again, since the last month has been so crazy!

So cheers to summer, and to relaxation!