Rainy Day in Prague

It was a cold night last night.  I woke up a lot throughout the night because I was so cold.  The hit kicking in around 4 am which made it a little more comfortable.  When I woke up in the morning I thought someone was in the shower but it was just the sound on pouring rain on the cement outside.  We were supposing to meet with David our teacher for breakfast and to go on a class walk of the city. 

Breakfast here is some pretty dense bread, meat, cheese, coffee and OJ.  The meal itself is pretty heavy but doesn’t do much in the way of satisfying my breakfast cravings in the morning. 

The raining didn’t stop and our big walking tour was shortened to a here is a good bar to check out and here is the grocery store style tour.  The full walk through the city is walking till tomorrow.

The air is really cold and the streets are a little slippery when wet because they are all cobblestone roads.  The cold started to really get to me and I found out that the Ukraine was gonna be even colder  so Breanne, Renee and I went searching the stores for warm layers and some warm bake goods from the grocery store.

We went to check up an authentic Czech pub for dinner, that we were told would be a big culture shock but it really wasn’t all that exciting.  We went in to the smoke filled room and sat for a little bit.  No one came over to bring us menus and the smoke was really getting to a couple of us, so we decided to head back to the trusty pizzeria again for dinner. 

There are lots of people that smoke here.  Everyone is free to smoke in restaurants, cafes, pubs, etc and there are no sections dividing up smokers and non- smokers.

Niagara, ON – Toronto, ON- Frankford, Germany – Prague, Czech Republic-Frankford, Germany

May 1, 2011



My flight left from Toronto at 5:30 pm today.  I didn’t get a whole lot done this morning.  Just finished packing up, popped in at the garden centre for some good byes and stopped in Oakville for some last minute shopping stop.  I arrived 2 hours before as normal for an international flight.  One hour was spent in the Air Canada line to check in and the other was spent in the security line up.  When I made it to the gate I had about 5 minutes to buy a bottle of water and make a last minute phone call before boarding the plane.

                                                          May 2, 2011

I arrived in Frankford just after 7 am this morning and was greeted by a few young female airport attendants who collected all the passengers heading to Prague and Amsterdam and lead us onto a bus.  The bus drove us over to a building with customs and security and then another bus took the Amsterdam passengers right to the stair case of their plane and us to the gate for ours.  I saw inside of the Frankfort airport for about 10 minutes before boarding the next plane.  Due to the lack of sleep on the last flight I pretty much passed out for this one.  I only woke up for the granola and liquid yogurt breakfast that was served, and then fell asleep again.

I was still exhausted when I reached Prague.  My luggage showed up, a little bonus for this flight but the minibus that my teacher had advised me to jump on to take to the hostel, but I found a shuttle bus that went into downtown and jumped on that instead.  I had a little map I picked up at the kiosk in the airport to figure out where my hostel was.

When I arrived the sun was out but I was too tired to stay outside.  My room wasn’t ready yet and the only other person from the group that had arrived was out for the day already, but they let me up.  I took the blanket that I stole from the plane and threw it over the duvet that was there and curled up in a ball and slept until the cleaning lady came and changed the sheets so I could crawl into bed and continue to sleep the afternoon away. I woke up around 5pm Czech time and went to search out some WiFi.  I found a Starbucks a couple blocks away and hung out of the internet for a few hours.

When I made it back to the hostel/ dorm my roommate Renee had arrived and the rest of the class.  We all headed over the pizzeria at the end of the block for a some dinner and to hang out for our first night as a group.

Catching up with family in Niagara (late easter dinner)

April 29, 2011

Miguel came home in the middle of the night with a couple of his friends, making it sounds like there was a parade going through the hallway outside of my room.  The guys all slept in the tv room for the rest of night, being just as loud in the morning.  We all went out for some good old greasy silks breakfast before hitting up Peachtrees for a very short and freezing cold game of golf.  In the evening Miguel came with me to meet up with a few cousin’s and Lindsey’s place.  We hung out an chatted it up for a while until we head marble slab and pizza pizza calling us and headed out for a little road trip.  It definitely hit the stop and was a good way to end a great night of visiting.

April 30, 2011

After a couple weeks of exams, traveling for volunteer work and my stomach not liking me I haven’t been getting in a lot of gym time and have been craving a run. I finally got one in this morning.  I hit up my regular route though the town stopping off at my Oma’s to see what time I should come by to help her out preparing dinner later in the evening.  Miguel and mom were at home ready for me to make some French toast so we could try out my mom and Joe’s homemade maple syrup before I took off to go back to my Oma’s place.  Most of the Family was there and I hadn’t seen some of them since the summer so it was nice to catch up.  Oma and Miguel enjoyed their Whiskey pretty early in the evening and a few of us finished up with a little acoustic jam session.

Toronto - Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON

I arrived at in Toronto just after 7 am. I seemed like I was traveling extra light because they left my luggage in Vancouver, thanks Air Canada, hope it makes it to me soon.  My mom and I were going to go shopping in the city for the day, but that didn’t exactly work out so we headed back to Niagara.  We were getting phone calls the whole way home about strong winds and damages that were happening to our property and the properties close by.  The skyways were both closed making an hour and a half drive take about 5 hours.  I spent most the day catching up on sleep and hanging out at home.

Eastern Europe Adventures Day 1, Kamloops, BC – Vancouver, BC – Toronto, ON– Niagara, ON

Today was my final day at my condo.  Denver came and met up to see me and got talked into helping move my stuff over to Nick’s house.  Nick was wasn’t home but his brother home and was very patient with the car loads of my life that we were dropping off to be stored while I am out of town.  I really wish I had my camera out to snap some pics of the process.  Once load consisted of balancing the mattresses on the roof of the Celica that was full of Tupperware containers and Denver standing on the edge of my trunk trying to hold the mattresses still while keeping his own balance while I drove slowly through the across the complex up to Nick’s place.  There was still a little more work to be done but we also wanted to have some fun before he had to go to practice and my flight that evening. 

We made a quick and final trip to Natures Fare and headed out to pick up some golf clubs for the driving range.  The weather was perfect and smashing a few golf balls was exactly what we needed. I got a few technique pointers during our session and I’ll admit made a bit of difference. 

I headed back home to pack up the car with some small things that I felt bad leaving at Nick’s house with the big pile of things I had already dropped off there.  I sadly threw out a bunch of bedding that Tom had left behind, because I ran out of time to drop them off at the second hand store and left my key behind for the landlord, dropped off a couple surf club shirts, dropped off my car to Todd at the school and met up with Aliah for a ride down to the Northshore and Denver to go the rest of the way to the airport.  It was sad to say good bye to Aliah, not because I wouldn’t be seeing her again but because it has been a long four years packed with unforgettable memories that we have done through together and getting ready to move on from.  It was hard to say bye to Denver too, leaving your boyfriend behind is never an easy things to do especially when you can only hope it will be like you never left when you return.  

The rest of the night would be spent in airports and planes, trying to sleep pretty unsuccessfully.

MEETING THE CREW

After a long couple weeks of papers and studying for exams I jumped on a bus and headed to Van (Vancouver) for a quick visit with my bro before heading south.  I slept most of the flight to LA but still managed to chat it up with the Nanaimo couple I was sitting next to, that were on their way to an all-inclusive week of relaxation in Mexico.  When I got to LA still a little groggy I headed to the next gate to try to spot out the team.  I walked around the gate looking for possible candidates.  Hoodies, Backpacks, hats and a small young looking group leaning against the window, sounds about right, it was a good guess. 

There are 3 girls and 3 guys, and none of us have been to Mexico in the last 15 or so years, some of us have never surfed warm water.  We are all at different experience level with both travelling and surfing.  Here is a little team Bio, to introduced each member

CREW BIO

BETA CHIANG

Studies: Camosun College, Business Administration

Hometown: Lima, Peru

Surf Experience: 6 years

Surf Destination History: Lima, California, Brazil, Florida and Vancouver Island

MEGAN RYLL

Studies: UVIC, Biology and Psychology Majors

Hometown: Penticton, BC

Surf Experience: this trip is her 4^th time surfing

Surf Destination History: Vancouver Island

First Impression of Mexico:



ALEX HART

UVIC, Marine Biology Major

Hometown: Smiths, Bermuda

Surf Experience: 6 years

Surf Destination History: Bermuda, Maine, Costa Rica and Vancouver Island

ELLIOTT MOORE

UVIC, Environmental Economics Major

Hometown: Island boy, Nanaimo, BC

Surf Experience: 5 years

Surf Destination History: Vancouver Island

Fist Impression of Mexico: Why am I wearing jeans?

“I have a credit card maybe I’ll just stay down here”

CAYLA NAUMANN

UVIC, Biology Major

Hometown: Victoria, BC/ San Jose, California

Surf Experience: 8 months

Surf Destinations History: Bali and Vancouver Island

First Impression of Mexico: 

ANISA MORI

TRU, Adventure Tourism Major

Hometown: Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON

Surf Experience: 5 years

Surf Destination History: California, Florida, Chile. Easter Island, Australia, Great Lakes, and Vancouver Island

First Impression of Mexico:  They are crazy drivers here

READING WEEK IN MEXICO, Feb 21 - Feb 27

In my effort to link up the TRU Riders Surf Club with the UVIC Surf Club, I was invited on a weeklong surf trip to Rio Nexpa.  I haven't traveled anywhere in a long time where someone else is planning it all.  I have no idea what to expect and so I am going at er excited and ready for an adventure.  

I am leaving from the Vancouver airport on Monday and will be meeting up with the crew in LA, and jumping on the final flight with them.  I believe there will be 8 of us in total on the trip.  I haven't met anyone who going before and I have been told that a few Canadian pros will be joining us students.  I've posted a couple maps, so you can see the location and a couple links so you can check out conditions.  I am not sure that what internet access will be like down there but I will do my best to keep you posted on all the excitment.  

Lonley Planet
Wanna Surf

Surf Forecast

Magicseaweed