Just took a three day holiday with my fair lady to the wonderful city of Toronto in the beautiful but, often cold Country of Canada. This time around instead of flying, we took the modern and quite comfortable Neon Trailways bus. It is extremely accommodating, offering a convenient pickup and drop off location in both NYC (Penn Station) and Toronto (Downtown TO). They made two pit stops for restroom use / food and one when crossing the broader to clear customs. The wifi on board was speedy and it really allowed me to be productive while on the long and grueling 9 hour ride. The price tag for the ride wasn’t bad either, at $50USD round trip (can get fares as low as $1 if you’re flexable with the dates) it sure beats flying and the long trips to and from the airport.

I stayed at the Novotel Toronto Centre at 45 The Esplanade located in the St. Lawrence market Neighborhood / old town. The room that I was given was spacious and very comforatble. The only complaint that I had was the room was a bit cold at night and they didn’t have heat, other then that everthing was great.

While in Toronto for the second time , I quickly notice that the cost of living has increase subsatilly since I last visited (about 4 years ago). The cost of food and daily expensse of just getting around and hangging out in the city is a lot higher than what I remembered it to be. Never-the-less that did not stop me from enjoying myself. Cody and I did the toursit thing but, was really winging it since we have both seen the city once before. We came mainy for the authenic Chinese food and was quite dissapointed to find that the Chinese food here was not all that authenic compared to NYC and frenkly did not tastes all that great either.

Despite the dissapointment with TO’s food, we still found ways to enjoy ourselves. Below are some of the places we found interesting and recommend you checking out if you are ever in town.

Chinatown – this is one of the most authentic in the world. It is filled with sidewalk markets, dim sum restaurants, exotic spices, unique clothing and many kinds if knick-knacks. But don’t be surprise if you find things pricey, it is no longer dirt cheap like it use to be. To get here, take the subway to Dundas and then transfer to the 505 Dundas West Streetcar to Spadina Ave.

Queen Street West – is a neighborhood that has a vibrant art culture. Many of the top Canadian musician and comedians perform here, at local pubs and bars. It is also one of TO most popular shopping districts, filled with great shops, restaurants, patios, clubs, and local fashion designer boutiques. If you are looking for a fun atmosphere to hang out, this the district for you. To get here, take the subway to Queens then transfer to the 501 Long Branch Streetcar westbound to Spadina ave.

Downtown Yonge – is located along the largest street in the world. This is a really lively, vibrant, and exciting location in the heart of the city. It’s filled with theatres, hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops. Most notibly for the TO Eaton Centre, Yonge-Dundas Square and the newly developed TO life Square.

St. Lawrence Market – located in “Old Town Toronto”, it boost over 60 specialty vendors offering everything from gourmet foods to local art. To get here, take the subway to King and Yonge, then walk south to Front and turn eastward.

The Path – is the largest ungrounded shopping concourse, it sits under the financial district and spans numerous buildings, connecting a bunch of subway stations.

Casa Loma – TO’s majestic Edwaedian castle featuring soaring ceilings, rich wood carvings, sumotous marble and lumious stained glass. It is over 5 acres large and filled with with secret passage ways, soaring towers, and a 800-foot tunel that leads you to a luxurious stable. To get here, Take the subway to Dupont then walk north up the stairs or hill.

Living in downtown TO is awesome is almost like living in Manhattan, the only difference is the the real estate is slightly cheaper. TO’s Chinatowns are amazing, they have plenty of cheap and quality food.

During my stay I made a trip out to Pacific Mall, the most Asian mall you can find in North America. The whole complex consisted of asian food vendors, asian markets, and bootleg DVD shops. It was like Flushing Mall in New York times ten.

Queen Street is one of my favorite areas to hangout. It’s filled with trendy shops and social individuals. Simple Plan was on Queen Street performing at the Much Music Studios on Thursday Night and I got to check that out from a far.

taken from the top of the CNN Tower

I got into Toronto last night and it’s freezing! If I want to make it out of here alive, I’d better get me a warmer coat. I had my  first day of the Interviews for a marketing company that goes by the name of BASE.

On the first day, my job was to tour the city and do research. How awesome is that they gave me 100 bucks and told me to sell them the idea of tourism in Toronto. I had massive fun running around the city and taking in its culture. To be honest its not so different from NY city, except that it’s not crowed and dirty.

Everywhere is within walking distance! I can really see myself living our here.

I think I did well on the interview today considering I’m not native to this area….

Planning on go apartment hunting tomorrow afternoon and look at some real estate just in case I really do decide to work here.

Ok, time to go hang out with some buddies and relax a bit before another stressful activity tomorrow.

Peace from Toronto

Alone at last.

Traveling alone can be scary. I thought about the many complications that could have arise and tried to prepare myself for them as best as possible, that meant two copies of my passport and credit cards stored in different locations.

Other then that, traveling alone can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life. For me I wanted to break away from the group and try to be n my own. When your alone traveling is a bit different. You are more prone to socialize with new people and that’s exactly what I did.

My first stop was Venice, a breath taking city. Everywhere you looked it was just absolutely beautiful. Here, I meet a couple of cool locals that was able to take me around in there uncle’s boat. Whatgreat fun that was.

Next, I headed down to Rome. I think I booked too long of a stay in Rome. I constantly found myself with nothing to do. I mean it’s an amazing city, far different from all the other European cities, but it didn’t do anything for Me. I walked at least 40 Km during my stay there. I went to the the Vatican city almost everyday. I also meet a bunch of locals in Rome, one by the name of Kate. I spent a lot of time with Kate and here friend, who were nice enough to let me use their internet connection. There were some awesome people at my hostel as well, Americans of course. We did a day of sight seeing and random chatting. Sarah, one of the Americans was nice enough to hook me up with an extra rail ticket she had so I went to see Pisa for a day.

I also meet up with Maio, Kathy, Bomi, and G, for dinner on my last day in Rome!

My final destination was Manchester before I meet up with Holi to celebrate my birthday. Manchester was your typical UK city with of course the most massive, extravagant mall ever: Old Trafford Mall.

I learnt a lot from these last couple of day of traveling alone. It has taught me to be more independent and more responsible. “What doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger.”

Dublin’s bar to household ration is 1:5, that’s insane.

I stayed at the Issac Inn and it was a great hostel. It’s young, hip, and happening. I meet a lot of people from the States, which felt refreshing to talk to someone in an American accent again.

I did the whole tourist thing with Alex. We walk around the whole city and saw everything you could possible see. My favorite was trinity college in Dublin. It refreshing to students doing the same thing you do back at home, cram fro exams.

The Dublin Castle was extremely rubbish, nothing to see at all

We meet up with Sharon the follow day and went to the Guinness store house together, where all now certified to work.

Later that night we hit up the world famous Temple Bar, were we had a blast drinking a glass and enjoying live local music.

Not a sight seeing town but a city filled with Excitement!

We made the journey there via train with Eva, Jackie, Alvina, Polly, Jongmi and Jason!

We began the day with some goofing off at the TJ Max department store. Here we tried various sunglasses, exercise machines, dress, etc Lots of laughs and fun!

For lunch we hit this student cafe in Chinatown, where we got some good Asian food and bubble tea! They provided Chinese Comics for Alvina to read too, so I guess she was happy….

Next it was off to Cadbury World, where we learnt the company’s rich history and the process that went into making that famous chocolate we eat everyday. It prove to be a fun and filling experience, they stuffed us with more chocolate then the body can hold…

We rounded the day off by walking around The Market and doing some shopping at the world famous Bull Ring Mall.

Words cannot explain the experience that I had on these last 30 days. There were ups and downs throughout the trip but the ending result is that I got to know nine individuals really well! Park, J, Choi, Stacy, Alex, Jurhree, Young G, and Bomi will always be remembered, Having shared an experiences that definitely ranks as one of best times I have had in the life.

Places traveled:

• Flew to Girona, Spain
• Drove to Barcelona, Spain
• Camped in Villanova, Spain
• Drove by Tours, France
• Drove to Paris
• Drove by Belgium
• Camped in Amsterdam
• Drove to Koln, Germany
• Drove to Bonn, Germany
• Stayed in a Castle in Koblenz, Germany
• Drove to Heidelberg, Germany
• Drove by Bad Wimp Fen, Germany
• Drove to Rothenberg, Germany
• Drove to Prague
• Drove by Bratislava
• Drove to Budapest
• Drove to Vien, Austria
• Drove to Salzburg
• Drove By Hallstatt
• Drove to Salzammer Gut
• Drove by Wolf Gang Ce
• Drove to Munich, Germany
• Drove to Fussen, Germany
• Drove to Luzen, Swiss
• Drove to Interlaken, Swiss
• Drove to Geneva, Swiss
• Flew back to East Midlands (Nottingham)






Want to know what happens during a Euro trip, when friends decide to rent a car and drive from west to east Europe and then around? There’s too much to be said but look at my gallery and let the pictures paint a million words for….



More Pics

From start to finish, the York trip was awesome.

We began the day my mistakenly reading that we had to catch a connecting train across town in a 2 min span when it was really 20 minutes, and so we ran like crazy for no reason….

We walked the York Wall which lead us to all the great sights around town. I still remember that small museum that we stopped at for three pounds but ended up gaining a lot more. No need to go into details but the prisoners in the cells gave us money…

The Trip ended with us starving and going home to share one dinning hall meal amongst the three of us. Sad ending but what a blast we had walking all round town!

London with Vlad, Jose, and Adam was no different, simply awesome!

It’s quite funny Adam missed his train, but he managed to get to London before us…Don’t ask how…the train system is weird like that…

Funniest thing we did: We looked for this Wonton Shop that Vlad’s friend told him about in Chinatown. Might I add that he also drew out a map on pain paper. So we were in the pouring rain looking for this shop and when we found it, the shop had waiters wearing funny tees that said upstairs… downstairs wonton shop on it…

Vlad, Adam, and I basically saw all of London in one night, in the pouring rain too. Our Hostel was awesome and the Madam Tussaud was loads of fun, especially with Jose. I still can’t believe that Jose found us in a crowd of at least 400 people during changing of the guards.

Cambridge much like Oxford has a rich college tradition. Much of the town is built around its university heritage. However I chose to take a lesser sight seeing approach here and decided to just have fun doing anything that popped up along the way.

We all started out at kings college, one of the most beautiful colleges I might add, then we broke up into small groups amongst ourselves and continued our journey.

Me, J, Jenson, Kathy, Choi, and Stacy ventured together. We were then joined by Choi’s friends that happened to be studying at Cambridge at the time. They attempted to show us around town however we got lost a couple of times. But that’s Ok because we had a lot of fun along the way.

The flea market was trendy but at times a bit expensive. St. Mary’s church was a lot of fun in Cambridge as well, in part due o Jenson’s idea of sneaking to the top of the tower. We got to the top to find ourselves running from corer to corner, like a wrestler posing for pictures.

I didn’t get a chance to go punting but that will happen on another tip I guess.

There was just a lot of random stuff in the middle of the trip like snow fights, climbing the bridge of Sigh, etc.

The trip ended with J, Stacy, and I window shopping around town. Things, however, got bad when Stacy’s heal broke from here shoe and she couldn’t walk. So I carried her for the rest of the trip and Jenson was nice enough to carry here back to Beeston.

The night cap included a large round of Dino’s Pizza and drinks. Music was then provided by Juhree on the piano and followed by Jenson’s giving a try as well…

My first trip via train in the UK and my first experience in a hostel. Both a great One!

Did a lot in a weekend you can say. We started in Bath, Vested the Abby, the circus, the crescent and my favorite the Roman Bath. The idea seem so weird to me that people take baths in public. But now that I think about it, Bathing in public is not so weird as long as the community accepts it and its thought of to be the norm I guess.

Avebury didn’t have much to see but it was still fun watching Park, Sharon, Clarissa, Jessica, and Tina run down this really steep hill and then try to climb back up…

Stonehenge is something that I saw in a textbook and never did it ever enter my mind that I could someday see it in person. Well this weekend I did just that. In the freezing UK weather, Me and “Company” took a tour of Stonehenge, learn about its history and had a lot of fun along the way.

Lacock, Castle Combe, and Bristel was among the other places that we visited this weekend. There isn’t much to talk about there except for the Funny inside comment that J made…”I’m Afraid” “I’m Afraid we’ll find a burger king”…you had to be there to understand…

The whole weekend was wicked! Had fun Hanging out with Park, J, Sharon, Jessica, Clarissa, and Tina. Then to meet up with Louise and Vlad to hang in the Chill out room…Absolutely Awesome!