Montreal

Hi everyone, Sarah here! Sorry it's been so long since our last post.

Last weekend we finally went up north to Montreal for the weekend. It's an awesome place but the weather wasn't quite so rad. We arrived to a miserable wet cold Saturday.

So the first day we didn't get up to much. Sunday it cleared up a little so we were able to go out and see the sights.

It is a very French city - their metro looks the same as the one in Paris!

We walked through the Old Port which was really pretty.

We stumbled across this xmas shop - it mustn't make much money this time of year but it was pretty all the same!

Then we went to the Notre Dame Basilica which was really impressive.

and it was even better on the inside! It was probably one of the top 3 churches we've ever seen I reckon. Way more impressive that we thought we'd find in a North American city that's for sure!

They had just finished there service when we got there.

The light was pretty bad so we struggled to get some good shots of it.

The stained glass windows were really beautiful.

This is the view standing outside the church - we tried to get the Quebec flag but it didn't really come out.

There is heaps of amazing graffiti in Montreal - I would even go as far to say that it's better than anywhere else we've been eg LA, NY, San Fran etc. Kim was loving it and we got lots and lots of photos (not shown here obviously)!

Then we enjoyed some of the local brews at a big pub in the St Laurent area.

This is our couchsurfer that we stayed with. For those of you who don't know what couchsurfing is, it's a website where you request to stay with people in any city in the world! It is completely safe and a great way to meet other travellers. Her name is Caitlyn and she was a great host!

I was still in my PJ's hence why I'm not in the photo!!!!

We loved Montreal and would've definitley gone there instead of Toronto if we spoke French fluently!

Hibernation

Whoahhh! its been over a month since I last wrote on here! We have been hibernating to avoid the cold.


Thruth is the internet got shut off at home so its a little tricky to get these posts up now, but fear not cause we will have some new photos up soon.


We haven't been up to much really, just saving for our trip home. For anybody who is interested, this is where we are going.


On April 16th we go to NY for a few days, we are spending some time there with Sean and Emma (Sarah's twin sis for those that don't know). After that weekend we come back, pack our things and jet out again on April 23rd.


We fly to Nashville for a couple of days before going to Memphis to look for elvis, then New Orleans and accross to Austin and San Antonio Texas, Yeehaw!


From there we fly to NZ for a few weeks and will return home around May 25th. Exciting times.


Now here is a reward for reading this far
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2BgjH_CtIA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_theqvT9fc

Feb happenings

Hi everyone,
Just a little post to say we are still kicking over here and haven't gone into hibernation just yet.
Our internet has been cut at home so its a little more difficult to post regularly, but I'll try.

Since I last wrote we had our coldest ever Australia day, tried to understand the superbowl, froze in -22 degrees below and are now enjoying some amazing positive temperatures.

I'll start with Australia day, we visited the token Aussie pub (its actually owned by a Kiwi). We were a bit dissapointed to be honest as they didn't serve any Aussie beer or have any aussie food. We had to make do with fosters!

There was a decent turnout for a Monday night, and we did our best to display the proper (lack of) Aussie culture.

The camera didn't come out until late in the piece so you will have to excuse the quality of the snaps.

Squinting.
After a tough week at work following that night out we were rewarded with a weekend of out of season weather. It was a sweltering 4 degrees and sunny. But after living in -10 and lower for the past month it seemed like summer. The snow was even warm enough to build a snowman.
We names him Boris.
After Boris was built we headed out to watch Americas biggest sporting event. The superbowl.

At least attempt to watch it, the game doesn't seem to make much sense and is pretty boring. I think I was into more than Sarah was. There was an Australian playing for Arizona.
This was Sarah after 4 hours of American football. Not happy, and a little tipsy.
In the end Pittsburg beat Arizona, but at least it was close. At least as far as I could tell.

This weekend our run of luck continues with the weather, we had a -22 day on Thursday, but yesterday was 8 degrees and today is 1. So the streets are alive and it feels really warm.
Yesterday we went out for lunch at the marriot, which was cool because the restaurant is built into the wall of the Rogers Centre, Torontos baseball stadium.

They were setting up for some carshow, but it was still cool to see what its like from there.

The food was good too!

Anyways gotta split, hope everyone is doing ok. Can't remember if I have mentioned this but, we will be back in NZ on May 10th and in Brisbane on May 24th. So keep the calenders free and get the xxxx on ice!

Laters

Back by (un)Popular Demand

Hey everyone,
Been very slack of late with posting on here, although the lovely Sarah has done a good job in my absence.

Not much has really been happening to be honest, the sub arctic temperatures make it impossible to spend more than 5 mins outdoors without getting severe frostbite to the face and anywhere else thats exposed!

Last week and this week we have had some pretty badass temps, even by Toronto Standards. We have been lucky to break into single digit minus temps, most days being around -15 to -20. When you factor in windchill we are talking temps of -25 to -30. Its even colder than it sounds. I always watch breakfast news to prepare me for the commute ahead.

I couldn't actually give a rats ass about what they are talking about.
All I care about is that bottom left hand corner.
That is a bad start to a day if ever I have seen one! To top it off our pipes froze in the kitchen so we had to get all our water from the bathroom, and to complete the trifecta, there was a blackout in our part of the city that left us without power for 18 hrs.

18hrs might not sound too bad, except we had no heating, no hot water and it was -22 outside. I felt like I was camping in antartica! I have never been so cold. The newspapers actually recomended we go to a shelter, but we just decided to wait it out at the pub.

The only other attempt at braving the elements was when we visited the Dakota tavern, Torontos best country bar, for their "Bluegrass Brunch". This is exactly what the name suggests, a tasty breaky enjoyed while listening to the sweet sounds of duelling Banjos!
Hope everyone enjoys their Long weekend, we will be partying Monday. Its going to be -18, so don't complain about the heat!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Sorry it's so late everyone. I hope you all had a great time wherever you were. Here are some pics of us on New Years. Kim and I went to the Bovine Sex Club - no it's not a strip joint or a brothel - it's a punk/rock venue and it's awesome! We didn't have too wild a night but it was fun to let loose and have a few drinks.


Miss you all.
Love Sarah

NEW YORK CITY (Sarah's blog) PART II

Hello and happy new year everyone! I hope everyone had a great time wherever they were!

So we up to part II of NYC - and hopefully I can get it all done so there won't be a part III!

On boxing day Kim and I did our own walking tour of the city. We started off in the trendy suburb of Soho , where Kim spotted some of his favourite artists' work around the streets.



Then we walked, and walked and walked. We walked through China Town past the Brooklyn Bridge...


And finally made it to Downtown!



... to one of the most famous streets in the world!



No honking allowed!!! Isn't that great?



This was an old graveyard right out side the American Stock Exchange!


... and further up Wall St we found the New York Stock Exchange. This building was really impressive and it was lit up all Christmas like.



Then after the long walk back to the hostel we geared up to party with the Dr. PFM and the lovely Sarah!

We started off having a drink or 2 at the hostel and then let Sarah show us the way around Lower East Side. We started off at an Irish Pub.


Is that a peace sign???


Reminiscing on old times.


Then we went to an old beer hall that had saw dust on the floor! It was awesome (didn't get any pics of it though duh)!

Then we walked around (can't remember where or for how long, we were pretty drunk at this stage) and we found this! Kim and I had heard of this bar before we got to NY and we really wanted to see the Joe Strummer mural so we were stoked when we stumbled across it!


We took tones of photo's of it but they didn't turn out that well due to the state we were in!
Get out of my photo Sarah!

We had a really great night with Pete and Sarah and we were really grateful to them for taking us out.

Next day we were both completely written off and didn't do anything, but the day after however...



we went up the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING!!! These photo's just don't do it justice. Manhatten is soo big. This area is called midtown. This is where you'll find the Rockefella Centre and Times Square.


I was amazed at the way this pigeon sat so comfortably outside the rails on the ledge... I was packing it!


This is looking uptown - if you enlarge the picture you can see Central Park in the distance.



This is looking Downtown (where Wall St and World Trade Centre site is). You can see the Brooklyn Bridge.


LOOK AT ALL THE TAXIS!!!

Some fancy photography (sort of).


Then once we back on the ground we went in search of the Statue of Liberty - but there was a massive cue to get on the ferry there so we just made do.

One last glimpse at the Brooklyn Bridge...


And then it was back to the hostel for an early night. We flew out the next morning and we were both sad to be leaving so soon. It is a magical city and I hope that we can go back there one day.
We missed everyone at home especially at this time of year so to be in New York definitely helped the home sickness.

Wow this blogging really takes it out of you... don't know how Kim does it all the time!

We will put up some photos from New Years soon. Miss you all.

Love Sarah