Wow! So it's been a while since I last updated... ('cause I've never started a blog post like that before ;).) ... Lesse where to begin??? After the end of exams there were two beautiful weeks spent lazing around Oxford soaking up the sun, playing frisbee, showing Julianne around when she came to visit, not showing Linna arond when she couldn't make it (:( ), going to the pub, having schools dinner with Stan and Mark and Nick and Neil, having the final dinner with all of the ArchAnther's, watching Lisa get her top first (CONGRATULATIONS!!!) and having my results predictions vindicated ;), going out, playing in the parks, seeing all my friends and sorting out the last of what was my life in England. *shakes head* I don't think there's any way to put in words how much I loved that house (thank you paul and janice!), and the back yard and just living there and how much I'll miss it and the books and the green of the parks and *sighs happily* It was definitely three years well spent and I will miss you all very dearly - Charlotte and Tabby, Julia and Claire Reid and Phil (no David, you don't count as I will still be seeing you for the rest of the comming year ;P), Mark and Simon and Ewen (and posibly even simmo), El (even though I had better be seeing you whenever you come over to Ottawa :P!) Caroline and Lisa, Jo Salter and Claire Love, Jess Daggers and Henry Fisher, Henry Wilman, Jess Evans and Lucy, Chris Allen, Matt Ashworth and 'the History Girls' Rosie, Shaz, Anne, Leah and Hannah and so many many many more, all of the second years who formed W3, Alya, Charlie D, vicky and Sian (who wasn't in W3 'cause she was better than us but I supose we can forgive her), Qu and my adopted college families, simon-my-son, amelia and avi, my tutors, my fellow dancers (aww, Emily I'm so gonna missing laughing with you in class! and Trevor and Henry and just so many people!) and Yuka who taught me so much and helped me improve my dancing by such a great amount!!! and even still more people after that, everyone in Hertford really, both in years above an below and, :'( I really am going to miss you all so everyone had better keep in touch!!!
Right, after the end of term came one of the most fun trips ever as Ju and I travelled around the balkans celebrating our finishment of degrees :D. We started off in Bulgaria stopping in Sofia and Rila for some hiking and post-finals relaxation time - such a pretty city where we met the most amazing 14-year-old with flawless english who helped us find our way. Next it was overnight train to Beograd in Serbia with it's delicious food and late night bohemian quarter. Also with it's crazy hostel workers and their stories of soft bellied squirrels who live in the citadel ;). The overnight train was soo cool!!! it was like going back in time - sooo awesome :D! Belgrade was pretty awesome too, and it was especially neat to see the confluence of the danube and sava rivers. From there, we bussed it into Sarajevo where Ju and I decided we wanted to stay forever. Bosnia-Hertzegovina has some of the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen in my life!!! It's such a shame that unguided hiking is nearly impossible with all of the unretrieved land mines :S. The city too is absolutely incredible and we had so many awesome adventures. Getting lost trying to find Tariq's place and calling him to come pick us up at the information centre... again..., seeing the tunnels, making it in time for the opening of the summer arts festival and watching free opera and ballet - tat woman's voice was incredible! Being bought beer and ice cream and offered dinner by football scouts from Milan (one of whom we found out later was one of Ronaldino's best friends... *shakes head*) buying pink sunglasses (to match the stuffed monkey Ju brought in Belgrade and who followed us throughout) and just experiencing all the rich history - both extremely old and extremely recent - and cultural diversity of the place. Definitely somewhere I could enjoy for a long time. From there it was south to Mostar in Herzegovine to check out the reconstructed Stari Most bridge and the beauty that is the old town there (to say nothing of the amazingly breathtaking train ride in from Sarajevo). Ooh! and it was there we met Trevor, our crazy fellow cannuck :D OOh! *cracks up* it was also at this point that Julianne managed to get herself locked in a bathroom... well, the whole closed restaurant really, while we were out one night and I had to feed her beer through the keyhole with a straw :D *shakes head* soo much fun - I'm so mad I lost those pictures! Next we headed down into Kotor on the Montenegrin coast where we got to swim in a *dundundun* fjord (thereby making up for the fact that we hadn't gone to scandinavia as originally planned :D) and it wasn't just any fjord either, it was the biggest fjord in all of southern Europe, and boy was it ever pretty!!!! The town was gorgeous too. the Stari Grad (old town) in Kotor was just stunning with medieval walls built into the cliff face and a battlements going up quite a ways (which we natuarally hiked up one morning :D oooh! And we had these adorable puppys that led/followed us the whole way up!! soo cute, Ju shared her breakfast with them. I don't share my food ;).). From there it was onwards to Dubrovnik Croatia with our new found friends Kiyo and Lara. So amazing, we stayed in a lady's house outside the old town where we could easily walk to the limestone cliffs that served as the beach and dropped of into the crystal clear waters of the adriatic. They were stunning and, even more importantly, the water was just perfect, with enough wave to make bobbing and clinging to rocks one an awesomely fun time-passing activity :D. The Venetian trading city of dubrovnik itself was also gorgeous, called by lord byron 'the pearl of the adriatic' it's extensive walls were well worth the climb and trek around for their ever changing view. Uh! and the food, so glad we found Cafe Pupo and our amazingowner/waiter/manager/food suggester - best food ever! and all made by the 16yr-old chef he tried to set Ju up with ;) (that's okay, I can't say anything, later in the trip some guy tried to set me up with the ear candler in the stall next to his at the market *shakes head*). From there were hopped on the ferry up to Split where I positively fell in love with the incongruity of the modern shops filling the winding medieval warren of streets which filled in and spilled out of Diocletian's ancient palace. Amazing! and there was another beach to boot! (and another free ballet as I got to watch the open air rehearsal of Carmina Burana by the national theatre - so good!). From there it was on to Zadar and then home with a brief stop in Ox to go to ballet and pick up my stuff. On the way to Zadar however we made a quick stopover in the Plitvice Lakes National Park. omg, I don't think I can express the beauty of the place in words. It's just an endless series of watersfalls. waterfalls after waterfalls after waterfalls of every shape size and description formed by the spilling over of five mountain lakes and their layered travetine terraces, and not only that but their are fish swimming in the clear blue and aquamarine waters flitting in and out of the calcified remains of trees and reeds and surrounded by the lushest most green boreal forests - just incredible. I spent 8 solid hours hiking around all of the lakes, it was amazing. Zadar was pretty cool too, very much an austro-hungarian feel in contrast to the mediteranean feel of the coasts but still very very neat... I especially liked how they tended to combine pedestrian and tram thuroughfares ;). All in all a very very awesome trip - and I even learnt how to count and say simple things in the Serbo-Croatian languages!!! :)
Oh, dear... hmmm I suppose I have a lot more to update given that that only brings us to about mid July, but school has now started and I seem to have been living off minimal amounts of sleep lately so methinks it is well past my bedtime...
That said, maybe I have time for one more update.
Coming home (home! I'm back in Toronto!!! For Good (-ish)!!!! if the next two years can be counted as for good and, in my case, I'm pretty sure they can ;) - oooh! In other news, I (finally) got my Italian citizenship officially recognised. Now that I'm no longer living in Europe of course ;).) I made it back in time (wow, that was one of my customary long-ish digressions) for my cousin's wedding - and what a wedding it was! It must have costed well over half a million dollars, running from 10am-2am with over 400 guests and an unending supply of food, alcohol (including some of the most expensive champagne and wine I've ever seen) and live entertainment I think Nal was right in suggesting it wasn't a wedding, it was a full on event. I think the Luncheon at the bride's family's with the delicious food, live oldies, ice cream truck and stunning garden (and that was pre the reception with the sushi bar, antipasto buffet,four course meal, extensive desserts and midnight pizza bar) was definitely my favourite part :D! That said mine and trina's tango was pretty darn awesome ;).
From there it was up to the cottage for a week with Papa where I got to play on the Water trampoline with Vanessa and Keith and their friends and relieve my childhood with Matt as we went tubbing for several hours straight (and didn't try to kill each other. What do you know, we may have learnt civility with age after all... nah, he just wanted his cookies ;)). Since then, summer's continued on it's pretty awesome trend, learning economics (totally still falls under this category...), spending time with nick and kat (though not nearly enough), going to Wonderland with the cousins, hanging out with Ju (who then disappeared to get even more tanned in Jamaica :P), seeing Jessiann (and Marc!!! ), spending time with Em B (yay!, I've missed you, have fun in BC!), having indian food with the gifties, moving in with Em H (our place is soooo awesome!!! she has the best taste in appartments ever!!! so loving it! especially our orange and pink and blue and green and brown and white living room :D), playing football (but only one game, what's up with that??), playing in the wadding pool with El when she came and going to Niagra Falls with her and Jess Daggers and meeting up with Jon there and going on the Maid of the Mist (Yay! finally!!!) and introducing Jess to all the joys that are Candian things and taking Jess and David hiking along the Bruce trail up in Collingwood and going to the Ex and watching the airshow and seeing Elvis Stojko skate (*still in shock*), seeing Natasha and Rebecca off to university - I can't believe they've gone, younger cousins aren't supposed to grow up! and, yeah, just generally having an awesome time of it. *sighs hapily* and, so, I suppose that brings us up to now, with summer winding down and school starting and, yeah daunting but exciting, I think I'm looking forward to it, but I may be a little to tired to know.
G'night and much love,
~Ally