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Today is a gloomy day in my apartment... I wish I was in the Florida Keys instead.

Florida’s 7 mile bridge has been called a ‘masterpiece of engineering’, and ranks as one of the best drives in America. 

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Montreal, Quebec

I love Montreal. It reminds me of Europe. The culture is heavy on food, drink and art and there are no skyscrapers.

I don't actually like poutine that much though... I'm very picky about my gravies. 

I love Rue St Catherine for shopping in Montreal and I love Boulevard Saint-Laurent for bars. Blizzarts on Saint-Laurent was my brother's recommendation and I loved it. The night I went, it was 3 shots for $10 and hip hop all night.

It was fabulous. 

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Liechtenstein is also on my travel list next time I go to Europe. 

Vaduz Castle, Liechtenstein:

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I hope to go to Switzerland on my next trip to Europe! I would love to be in the mountains again.

Adelboden, Switzerland

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I want to own a print of this. 

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Last February, I stayed with my cousin in Ottawa to experience Winterlude. It was a wonderfully snowy weekend. It wasn't the freezing snow, it was almost warm and cozy.

I don't actually know how to skate. I just sort of walk on the ice more or less. It's not enjoyable. But I love being outside and I wanted to cross off skating on the Rideau Canal from my bucket list. And I wanted to cross off eating a beavertail from that list too. 

I loved staying with my cousin. Her husband made us eggplant parmesan for dinner that night. It was unbelievable. I wish I could cook that well. Anyways, I can't wait until they visit us in December. 

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The always stylish Motëm. 

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a watercolour of my friend's baby. 

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Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia

Eastern Passage is a cute little fishing town. I loved the brightly coloured shops. One was an art co-op, and I loved some of the paintings. If I was in the financial situation to be buying paintings, there was three that I could have easily purchased. 

We watched the tide come in. It was incredible. I always expected a tide to just slowly creep in, but this one came in like a wave that didn't retreat. I could watch that every day and still be in awe of it.

I had to walk into the ocean. I couldn't just appreciate it from the sidelines. It called me.

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Halifax, Nova Scotia round 2

My second trip to Nova Scotia was even better than the first. 

I stayed at the Sheraton Four Points and it was a lovely, very affordable hotel.

The Harbour walk is always nice, and I loved my breakfast at the Wired Monk. It reminded me of Mulberry St Coffeehouse in Hamilton.

We went to Pier 21 where I tried to look up my grandpa's name to see his document of when he landed into Canada. However, they only had records up until 1935, and my grandpa didn't come over until the 1940's. Alas...

We went to the Alexander Keith's Brewery and did a tour there and I thought it was awesome. They sang to us. We played card games. I chugged a couple mini beers.

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Killarney, Ireland

Killarney, located in County Kerry, was my favourite city that I visited in Ireland.

It was a very touristy town, but the food and drinking and shopping was awesome. 

I also loved Ross Castle and Lough Leane. It was mysterious and foggy. 

Ross Castle was about a 15 minute walk from the B&B. It made for a very nice post-pint walk. Also, the entry to Killarney National Park was very close walk. We saw red deer and they were very domesticated. We kept our distance though because it's good to give wild animals their space. Or at least that's what I think.

I could have spent days walking in that park. But the day we decided to hike it, we were a bit hungover so we only hiked it for a couple of hours and then got a pint and fish and chips for lunch.

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Ring of Kerry, Ireland

The Ring of Kerry has to be one of the most picturesque drives in the world. And also one of the scariest ones... so many blind turns on a road barely wide enough to fit two cars, through the mountains and beside lakes...

I was very lucky to get engaged while hiking off the side of the road on the Ring of Kerry. I wasn't expecting it at all. I didn't believe it was real and was laughing nervously for the next hour.

I wish we did the whole Ring of Kerry drive, but I think our nerves were shot from driving 30 minutes of it.

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Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

What a beautiful drive.

This is the part of Ireland I could easily live in. 

One side of the road is the vast Atlantic and the other side of the road is green hills, littered with quaint cottages and goats and sheep.

There are very few houses, but I would love that view everyday. 

My only advice is not to bother with the Prehistoric museum if you are driving the Dingle Peninsula. It seemed phony bologna to me. 

My other advice is to stop often and take in the view. 

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Cork County, Ireland

After a beautiful drive through Cork County to find Castledonovan; which is a beautiful one-tier castle in the process of being restored; we arrived at Cork City. 

I wish I spent the night in the castle rather than the B&B we had in Cork. 

The University campus in Cork City was beautiful, and the art museum was small but impressive. 

But the restaurant we ate at in the shopping area was not remarkable... and after the art museum we didn't have anything else we wanted to do in Cork. So we stayed in our B&B and watched a documentary about an Austrian man who locked up his daughter in the basement and impregnated her. It was disturbing. Anyways, point is, I wish we stayed the night in a small town rather than Cork City. There were many boarded up store fronts and it did not seem as welcoming as other Irish towns.

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Dublin, Ireland

Dublin is a drinker's city. I am not a huge constant drinker. I could easily have one drink a day, but that's not acceptable in Dublin. 

After a sleepless flight over from Canada and not being able to check into our hotel room until 3pm, my boyfriend and I meandered to the Guinness Brewery. It was awesome. It made me love Guinness. But I think I only love it in Ireland. I'm afraid to try it again here... there's no way that it'll be as fresh as it was there.

The first hotel we stayed in was the Hampton Hotel. It was in the ritzy part of town and I loved it. We went to a bar in the ritzy part too, and business men were leaving work to have a drink out in the street here. The bars are so full there that everyone just drinks their pint on the sidewalk.

I didn't take a picture of that bar because it was so un-touristy, I didn't want to look like a loser tourist. 

We also went to the Old Jameson Distillery. I had my whiskey mixed with gingerale. Chris had his six whiskeys without anything.

At this point, I'm sick of drinking, but we still ended up going to O'Donoghue's... and the Temple Bar.

Just remembering all the drinking makes me want a glass of water.

PS. If you stay in Dublin, don't stay north of the Liffey River. We made the mistake of switching hotels to see more of the city. North of the Liffey reminds me of the run down part of Brantford, Ontario.

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Presqu'ile Provincial Park

Two weekends ago, I went to Presqu'ile Provincial Park with my boyfriend and met up with my cousin and her fiance there.

Presqu'ile is on Lake Ontario, so there was a beautiful view and a nice breeze, but the water wasn't the most pleasant for swimming. Plus they don't allow dogs on the nice beaches, so we had to stay on the rocky one. 

It's a pretty decent drive from Hamilton though. 

There are some nice hiking trails in Presqu'ile, but my favourite was the marsh boardwalk, Graham brought his binoculars and was showing us where to look and what birds we were viewing. I enjoyed that. I like to know the name of the beautiful animals I'm admiring.

Overall, Presqu'ile is like any other car camping site, but it was a great family get-together and a cool marsh ecosystem that I usually don't get a chance to see!

PS. Smores for breakfast is a good reason to love camping.