BraZil!!

Work gave me a nice little holiday gift, they sent me to BraZil!!! It's about a 10hr flight, not too bad, and incredibly warm there! (it's their summer right now) The layover was 34hrs + (that's long by AC standards, trust me) so lots of time to relax and explore. I was warned by passengers and colleagues alike to be careful, not wear any jewellery and just be on guard....gee that's a great way to start off a (mini) vacation. Needless to say, the exploring was kept to a minimum. I was watching the news last night on the tele, and they showed Sao Paolo, this is where I went, and it showed gangs retaliating against the police drug crack down by going on buses, robbing everyone, and then setting the bus on fire, with everyone in it. So in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't go adventuring on my own like I normally do!

Sao Paolo, it's not the nicest city in the world, but it is the 3rd largest. It's kind of dingy and run down. On the bus ride to the hotel, we pass through the slums, cardboard homes run along the whole length of the highway underpass. Even within the city itself, everything looks unkempt. Although, they take Christmas very seriously, with decorations every 200 meters (and police too).

When in Brazil......camparinhas and brazillians....preferably in that order!! It was a fun little layover; went to the art museum, saw some photo work and some Degas dancing sculptures, a huge Amazon like jungle park, fresh fruits and some good shopping.

Kat looks cute! That jacket (the one the sales girl yelled at us for taking a photo of) looks cute on you!!!

For awhile there I was getting a lot of Vancouver layovers, then I was lucky and got to go to NYC for a day! I wasn't able to connect with my old friend Kasumi, but I made the most of my time. I woke up so early, 6am took the shuttle to the airport, the bus to Harlem and the subway (on the 6, thanks J.Lo) to Canal St. for some bargain Christmas shopping before heading up to Saks and Rockafella Centa to see the Christmas tree and skating rink (did you know there's one on 42nd St near Broadway at Bryant Park too?). Got to see Atlas holding the world, and Cartier all wrapped up for the holidays. Side note, it was FREEZING COLD in Manhattan that day!!! The girl I was with had to buy herself a hat and scarf it was so cold! And yet off to Calgary the next day, and I barely needed a scarf!


Right now I'm off for a week, done my Christmas shopping, yay me! However the stress is building, trying to find a decent, affordable cat friendly apt downtown.It's harder then I thought.

Van City revisited

My first flight back with Air Canada is to go to Vancouver with a 26 hr layover! Not a bad way to start work! Vancouver is always a good destination to fly to because I get to see Kat & Tang, if they don't already have plans! Monday night Kat had off, so we got togerher for a meal and drinks. It was good to see some friends.

After that, I flew to San Francisco and then Los Angeles. However, I only had a 15hr layover in each, so that means airport hotel. There really isn't too much near airport hotels, except other airport hotels, not even a convenience store! At least in San Fran the hotel was along the bay, so I took a nice walk in the morning, and in LA I caught the local bus and went to Target to do a little shopping!

It was the Riots, I had to leave

Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful, apart from being my last two days in Paris. Yep. I decided to leave Paris, return to Toronto and work for Air Canada.

Thursday night, we went out with Joey and Nathan, met some crazy French gay guy named Pierre, who was actually married to a woman in NY- for greencard purposes, who had a boyfriend back at his place but cheated on him every chance he could get. Yeah, he seemed nice.

Friday I took my last walk around my cute little apartment in the Marais (Jess, the paparazzi were there that morning!) and walked over to Ile Saint-Louis, then to the Notre-Dame to see when the Crown of Thorns was to be out and where. I went back at 3pm to check it out. They have three religious relics that come out once a month, on the first Friday at 3pm: the Crown of Thorns, a nail from the cross and a piece of the actual cross. These are protected by two knights of Jerusalem (however, seriously? I could have taken them out). It was interesting to see, and be there for the ceremony and I tried as best I could to take a photo ('cause I'm obsessed with photo taking). Then I moved into the hotel that Joey and Nathan were staying in so that we could all leave early in the AM for the airport.

We went back to the Louvre, it was free on Friday night for 26 and under. FINALLY!!! Something free for me!!!! That was good because we didn't get to see everything when we went on Wednesday last.

On the flight, Nathan and I were lucky enough to get the three middle seats to ourselves and lots of wine to start off the flight! So, that's it folks, at least for Paris. I start work with Air Canada this Thursday, here's hoping for a Paris layover!! Just kidding....only a little. I'll be keeping the files up and running with all the exotic locales, Winnipeg, Calgary.....here's hoping for a few Asian flights and South American too! They have longer layovers, plus it's HOT!

The Tourist Day

Wednesday our plan was to hit the Louvre: A) it's open late (until 9:45pm) and B) we wanted as much time as we could get to spend walking around in the museum. Unbeknowst to us, they celebrate All Saints Day (Nov. 1st) but I checked online and there was nothing mentioned about an early closing, or being closed for that matter. When I awoke, it was a beautiful day, which has been a rareity lately, so I yelled down from my mezzanine bed to Jessica, and I said: Get up, guess what we're doing today? We're going to the top of the Eiffel tower!!! And that we did. However, we dressed for the weather we saw, not for the month that is and we were COLD!!! Thank God for the hot chocolate on the first floor of the tower, hockey arena hot chocolate, i love it!!! The view was spectacular, and after 4 hrs (waiting in line for tickets, waiting in line for the lift to the second level, waiting in line for the lift to the top level, waiting in line to go down, and finally walking down from the first level, oh and then there was an army barricade, and a loud blast and something blew up but no one would explain why the section of the road was blocked off so we had to go around to find a metro), after 4hrs we went to the Louvre. We were able to see most of it, and all the things we really wanted to see, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Victory of Samothrace (my fav!), the mideviel Louvre, and were about to check out Napoleon's room when they kicked up out at 6pm....yep they closed early for the holiday. That's ok, we had some friends from Air Canada visiting, Nathan and Joey so we hung out with Nathan for a bit with plans to meet up the follwing day.

C'est l' Hallowe'en!!!!!

YAY!!!! Hallowe'en!!!!! We had some devilish fun.....WE WENT TO THE CATACOMBS ON HALLOWE'EN!!! Super erie, super COOL. For some reason I thought it would be a mass pile up of carnage; it is not. It makes it even creepier when ALL the bones and skull heads are neatly arranged in rows, and little designs. Someon actually took the time and effort to sort through all of these remains.


We're off to have some pumpkin soup!