#we’ve driven other places but i paid for the flight and hotel for us and stuff and we have like a budget. it all feels very adult to me

[tigersorange]

going 2 vegas wont be on much til like next tuesday or wednesday. goonight

[motherlifesucher-archives]

Like a whiskey l Shawn Mendes Imagine

prompt: I never knew that love was blind until I was hers but she was never mine (based on the song “Whiskey” by Maroon 5)

i.

Shawn never thought he was going to fall for the wrong girl.

Fame not only brought unwanted attention, it made him careful. Careful of his surroundings; being on a bar wasn’t the carefree environment that meant for pretty much everyone, for him was a space where someone was going to take a picture of him sipping from his beer or hitting on a girl, and people were going to talk about it.

He became paranoid. He locked himself on different hotel rooms, only leaving to perform, having to ask someone to remind him which city he was in, and then rushing out of the stage and being driven to the airport to keep living on a routine.

That ended when he met her. 

She was intoxicating. He couldn’t get enough of her. 

She was staying on the hotel room next to his in New York City. They bumped into each other while going down to have breakfast, she was wearing a John Mayer t-shirt, and he couldn’t help himself by starting a conversation that led to them having breakfast together and Shawn later inviting her to his concert. 

Pictures didn’t take long from appearing on every Instagram account dedicated to him, but for once he didn’t care. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, he just wanted to live his dream, and he understood that he didn’t have to give up his personal life in order to live the life he always dreamed for.

ii.

It was mid September when he saw her again.

It was the third time they saw each other since they’d met for the first time. He wanted nothing but to fly her over, but she was adamant that she also wanted to seem him so she paid for her flights.

Leaves were decorating the city and the weather was colder than she expected, making chills appear on her arms. He didn’t hesitate on taking off his jacket and placing it on her shoulders; it was almost twice her size but she smiled sweetly at him and stopped walking.

The street was empty as it was almost midnight, so she didn’t stop herself from taking his hand on hers and running her fingers through his curly hair.

Shawn closed his eyes and enjoyed the gentle touch. Time seemed to stop until he opened his eyes, only to find her nose almost touching his.

She had taken the first step, it was only fair he did the rest.

So he did. He leaned in and waited for his lips to touch hers. 

Her lips were cold, but he quickly felt her warming up to his kiss and the way he squeezed her waist. 

It felt like their lips were meant to be together, like two pieces of a puzzle. Her body reacted to his touch in a way that made his fingertips tingle and his head get dizzy.

Maybe having a successful career at such a young age and a girlfriend couldn’t be on the same equation, but he didn’t care as he called an Uber that drove them back to the hotel and waited no time in getting her out of her clothes.

His stomach was filled with butterflies as she ran her hands though his naked torso. He couldn’t help the way his breathing quickened and his muscles contracted, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Shawn wanted to mark her as his, he didn’t want anyone picturing her in the way he had her right now, naked and whispering his name.

She was going to be the subject of his songs in the upcoming years, she was set to be a person he never wanted to forget. He never wanted to forget the way her nails marked his back and his lips left his mark on her neck.

He was on a dream.

iii.

It was mid February when the trouble started.

She didn’t want to travel to see him and she was running out of excuses, but he was so in too deep and couldn’t face the truth in front of him.

She loved the way he loved her, but she couldn’t reciprocate.

She wasn’t going to deny it was fun, he was caring, he was handsome, but she was tired.

Tired of pretending their relationship meant more than it actually did. She didn’t want love or be loved, she just wanted to have fun, but it was ruined by Shawn wanted more than that.

Of course, (y/n) couldn’t blame him. If controlling feelings was so easy, there wouldn’t be such thing as heartbreak and disappointment. 

“Shawn, I get it, but I always told you I wasn’t looking for something extremely serious”

Shawn rolled his eyes, “Extremely serious? (y/n), we’ve been seeing each other for months, you can’t tell me you didn’t mean for us to become serious!”

“I care for you, but I don’t love you, and I don’t have any intention to do so. Why can’t you understand that?”

“Because I do love you, in case you haven't noticed,” Shawn said with venom lacing his tone, “I don’t know what. have to do to make you feel the same way.”

She sighed, “There’s nothing you can do, Shawn. Let me go, you’ll get over me and you are obviously going to find someone that wants the same thing as you and feels the same way, you deserve it. This isn’t about you, it’s about me.” she caressed his cheek.

“Don’t give me that bullshit. Don’t fucking talk to me anymore.”

The thing is, Shawn would’ve give everything to have her for more time, to feel her touch one last time.

To hear those three words coming out of her mouth. 

He actually thought of giving up everything, just so she could feel the same way. 

He wanted more time; time to make her feel like he was worth loving, he was worth her time and what they had was worth of becoming something beautiful. 

She was something else and he didn’t want to find someone that was never going to be her. 

The only thing he had left was the memory of his fingertips tingling while thinking he was her world.

Clearly, he was wrong.

iv.

With time, Shawn came to understand that it was better to let her go. Just as she had told him, he deserved better than someone who didn’t want to give him what he wanted.

It was bittersweet, knowing he deserved more but only wanting her. 

But as the leaves were falling again, he found himself with another body lying next to him. 

No one was her, she was one of a kind, but he was moving on.

He stopped feeling intoxicated by her, his fingertips stopped tingling, but every lyric that he sang reminded him of her, and every word that shaped his new songs was about her.

Eventually, the pictures on his phone were deleted and her number was forgotten. He started to forget how her voice sounded like and the lyrics started to feel more mechanical.

Everything started to make sense again, but he still couldn’t find a pair of lips that crashed against his so perfectly.

And he doubted that he’d ever find them.

[fromwinnipeg2everywhere]

The Land of Guinness and Irish Whiskey

We typically don’t travel during summer because we are not fans of the crowds and the heat. Also, just like the days between Christmas and New Years’, it is usually nice and quiet at work in the summer, and with us being child-free, we’ve kind of taken it upon ourselves to “hold the fort” while everyone else is on summer holidays. Summer of 2019 was an exception. We just lost our beloved cat, Jake, in the early spring, and we were both so sad and full of guilt and grief, and at that time, our response to this was “Let’s book a trip!”. This was technically a “last minute” trip by our standards and picked Ireland because it was the least expensive we can find given our timeline and because they have mild summer weather.

We arrived in Dublin at around 11am on August 11, 2019 and we hit the ground running. We knew we only had a week and we had no time to waste. The first thing we did was buy four 24-hour LEAP visitor cards at the airport. The 24-hour LEAP cards are 10 Euros each and allows unlimited travel on the Airport Bus, city buses and DART trains. The Airport bus already costs 7 Euros one way, so if you plan the trip so that most of your commute is on the first and last 24 hours, then this card is worth it. We took the Airlink 747 bus to our hotel in the Temple Bar Area and the bus stop was just a three-minute walk to our hotel, which is convenient if you have lots of luggage. Many people would probably advise against staying at the Temple Bar area because it is very crowded and loud at night, but unlike most people, we actually thrive in busy and lively areas. Really, all you need is a good set of earplugs and you’re set. We like having our hotel in a central area because we can enjoy bars and restaurants late into the night without having to worry about the commute back to the hotel, and we enjoy being in the center of everything. We stayed at the Temple Bar Inn which is a couple of blocks away from the Temple Bar so it isn’t as loud, but who am I kidding, it was still pretty loud. Apparently, air conditioning isn’t a thing in hotels in Ireland, so you must keep the windows open which means you hear every drunken person within a hundred feet radius. Aside from being surrounded by bars, there is also a TESCO supermarket right next door to our hotel, so we never went hungry or thirsty. After checking in, we visited Phoenix Park. We read that there are a lot of wild deer in that park, but sadly we didn’t see any. After exploring the park, we went to a restaurant called Hairy Lemon for dinner. The lineup is long so go early if you want to try this restaurant! We ordered fish and chips, Irish stew and our first of many, many pints of Guinness for the trip. I’ve always appreciated the pub atmosphere where I feel more comfortable than in a fancy restaurant.  

We had an early start for our second day. We set the alarm for 5am so we can be at our meeting point for 6:30am for our Northern Ireland tour. We don’t typically go for the big bus tours, but I was wary of driving on the left-hand side of the road with a right-hand side car and the roads in the Irish countryside are no wider than a Winnipeg back lane. We bought our tour on Viator, but the tour operator name is Finn McCool’s and I highly recommend them. The tour started promptly, and it was very organized. If you are doing this tour, do not forget to bring Gravol if you get motion sickness. The driver is very good but there are a lot of winding roads. The tour guide was very informative, and I learned a lot about Irish history and about Northern Ireland. Our first stop for this tour was the Giant’s Causeway. It was a long walk from the bus to the rocks. The Giant’s Causeway is basically this very cool rock formation extending into the sea. Legend has it that it used to be a bridge that the giants used between Ireland and Scotland. I’m sure there’s a pretty good scientific explanation for it, but the giant story is funny, and you should google it. We stayed a couple of hours here then drove over to Carrick-a-Rede. I’m not a fan of heights but since the crossing the bridge was already part of what we paid for, I went ahead and crossed the bridge. Apparently, I would rather scare myself to death crossing a bouncy, rickety, rope bridge than not get my money’s worth. I would have to admit the views on the other side of the bridge are worth it. After Carrick-a-Rede, we drove to the Belfast City Centre for a quick dinner then returned to Dublin. It was a very long day and it was late by the time that we got back to Dublin, but we still had drinks at the Palace Bar right across our hotel before calling it a night.

The next day was another early start to another long day. We needed to be at the Gresham Hotel by 6:30am for our Cliffs of Moher bus tour. We also bought the tour from Viator, but the tour operator is Wild Rover and they are also very good. Our tour guide was wonderful, and he entertained us a lot of stories about Irish culture, history, music and folklore. One unique thing about this tour is that about 2 hours (about halfway) to the cliffs from Dublin, we stopped at the Barack Obama Plaza at Moneygall. Barack Obama’s great-great-great grandfather’s ancestral home was in Moneygall and in 2011, Barack and Michelle paid the village a visit, had a pint of Guinness at the local bar and met a lot of his distant relatives. In 2014, they built the Plaza, which is basically a service area with gas stations and restaurants and restrooms for bus tours like ours. It was still quite a long drive to the cliffs from here, and by the time we got there, I was ready to barf. Thank goodness for Gravol. The long drive was so worth it. I wish that I could have driven there by myself and spent at least a couple of days just hiking the trail, perhaps going early in the morning for sunrise or staying late in the evening to catch sunset. They only gave us a couple of hours to explore and it was not even close to being enough time. I love that there were no guard rails and although we received abundant warning about not stepping too close to the edge, there were a few people who were brave (or stupid?) enough to go very close to the edge. I’m a little bit of a rebel myself, and I did go near the edge, but nowhere near that I would risk my life just to get a good photo (besides, hubby refused to let me near the edge). After lunch, we drove to Galway via the Wild Atlantic Way. The drive was so scenic and if you are going to take this tour, make sure you sit on the left side of the bus! I missed most of the drive because I took another Gravol and I was asleep for most of it. Galway City Centre is a little town full of pubs and shops and it was very quaint and lovely. We ate seafood chowder and had some Irish whiskey and Guinness, before heading back to Dublin.

The following day was hubby’s birthday, and what better way to celebrate it than to spend the morning at the Guinness Storehouse! The tour itself was pretty standard, but the highlight was that I learned how to properly pour a pint of Guinness and that I got to pour myself a pint at the bar. I even got a certificate to show for it! We spent a couple of hours here, bought some souvenirs then walked to Brother Hubbard for some yummy brunch. We did some more walking and shopping in between, then in the afternoon, we went to the Irish Whiskey Museum for the Blending Tour. We learned a lot about the history of Irish Whiskey and were given four kinds to do the blending and tasting with. Needless to say, I didn’t finish everything because we have been basically drinking since we got up that morning. We bought the tickets for the Guinness Storehouse and the Irish Whiskey Museum online way ahead of time so that we can get the timeslots that we want. You also get a bit of a discount when you buy online.

The following day, we went to Trinity College to see the Old Library and the Book of Kells.  Hubby lined up super early so that he is in first in line. He wanted to be the first person in line so he can go straight to the Long Room and take photos of it before everyone else got there. This strategy works, but not for long. It probably bought him two to three minutes of being able to take photographs by himself. For me, although the library was beautiful, I enjoyed the Book of Kells more. The Book of Kells is from the 9th (!) century and it is very well preserved. After Trinity College, we headed over to the International Bar to meet Lorcan Collins, the leader of the 1916 Rebellion Tour. He talked about the rebellion and took us to some places around the city that figured prominently in the rebellion. Irish history is very interesting. I think what I took most out of it is how very inspiring it is, especially women’s role in it. After the tour, we went to Merrion Square to check out Oscar Wilde’s statue, then went to the National Gallery of Ireland. The museum is free to enter, and they have a decent collection of Picassos, Monets, Vermeers and Rembrandts. After the museum, we went to a pub called O’Neill’s. We ordered some more chowder and Irish stew. Later in the evening, we went to the Whiskey Palace for some drinks and we were lucky enough that they had a bunch of musicians having a jam session at the bar that night.

Our last day in Dublin was another busy one. We had an early start and took the bus to Kilmainham Gaol. If you want to visit Kilmainham Gaol, you need to be online the second that the tickets are released. They sell out very fast. The tour itself was very somber. We learned a lot about the inspiring men and women who were instrumental in liberating Ireland from British rule. After the tour, we went back to the hotel to check in for our flights back to Winnipeg for the following day. We were able to snag decent seats considering we only bought Basic Economy fares. After checking in, we took the DART to Howth. Howth is a village just outside of Dublin where you can eat amazing, fresh seafood. We ate crab claws and oysters and of course, had some more Guinness. We walked around the harbor and the lighthouse, then we took the trail for the Cliff Walk. It started out really sunny, but typical Irish weather meant an hour or so later, we got caught in a downpour up in the cliffs. It was quite the experience except that it destroyed hubby’s only pair of shoes for the trip and he ended up having to buy new ones once we got back to Dublin. After exploring Howth, we went back to Dublin and had dinner at Chapter One. The dinner started out strong – the amuse bouche was good (mushroom themed) and the first few courses (seafood) were excellent, but I wasn’t too impressed with the terrine and the duck dishes. Overall, it was a good experience, what you would typically expect from a one-starred Michelin establishment.

Our last day was also a very long day. We took the airport bus from Bachelor’s Walk and it was a good thing we were one of the first on the bus because by the third or fourth stop, the driver was no longer letting people on because it was full. The airport experience was uneventful, which is a good thing. The tax credit process was very efficient, and it didn’t take that long to get the credit back. We had a long layover in Toronto which gave us an opportunity to meet up with some friends. They took us for dinner at Pai and then we walked around the harbor before going back to Pearson to catch our flight to Winnipeg. The experience at Pearson was horrendous. The line ups were long, and they didn’t even bother opening the Nexus lines. Then they lost our luggage, which took a couple of days to turn up.

We basically booked Ireland without doing a lot of research. I was kind of hoping for it to be a relaxing, easy trip, but it turned out to be super busy with a lot of early mornings and late nights, but it was so worth it. I definitely want to return someday and spend more time in the countryside and the little villages. Ireland is one of the places we’ve visited that I would love to live in, but alas, I’m a little too old to meet their immigration criteria! But this just means I’ll just have to visit a little longer next time.

[nebsabroad-blog]

Bahir Dar

Our last stop on the historic Northern Circuit was Bahir Dar which is a big bustling city.  Unfortunately for us Bahir Dar was the site of three calamities which I shall detail forthwith.

Our route to Bahir Dar was a bit long winded. We got driven to Axum airport in a car stinking of diesel by the lovely man who owned our shabby-not-chic hotel that was being built as we stayed there. We then flew one hour to Gondar which was in the midst of protests (so we had heard). We avoided these by going straight from the airport to the bus station and from there catching a bus to Bahir Dar.

Calamity one was it was the first place we were scammed on our whole trip. After our long journey we were met off the bus by a guy who said he could direct us to our hotel. This happens a lot and usually we’d have just ignored him but we didn’t have a map or our bearings and had no idea where we were and so we let him take us. Once in the hotel he tried to upsell us a tour of the main sites in Bahir Dar - the Blue Nile Falls and a tour of some islands with ancient convents. After travelling for quite a long time and meeting only trustworthy and good people we got a bit lazy and couldn’t be bothered to price check. We just said yes to this guy and paid $35 each for our tour. We’ll circle back to this price in a bit.

Calamity 2 was our hotel. It was a total and complete shitshow, a veritable faulty towers. The first sign was that the toilet didn’t flush and the public ones in the hallways were backed-up and disgusting. I asked the front desk about this and they said the water only works from 2pm onwards which of course makes complete sense (that was irony FYI). At this point we should have just upsticks but we were tired and hopeful. After leaving to explore the city and then going back we found that by some miracle the toilet was working. Rejoicing with the news of functioning plumbing we decide to take showers. On the shower goes and almost immediately the bathroom starts flooding and we only prevented the water escaping into the room by shutting off the shower in the nick of time.  We asked for a new room but I already was thinking that with dodgy plumbing and non-functioning drainage meant we should probably just leave.

Avi went off with the man to check on some other rooms and there proceeded to be a comedy of errors. The first room he tried to open, the door handle fell off. Then he ran downstairs to open the room beside our one for me to check out. He then ran back up the stairs to show Avi another room. Meanwhile I run the shower in the new room to see if it would flood, and the good news was that the drainage looked good. The bad news was that 5 seconds after I put the shower on strange noises started emanating from it, then sparks started to fly from the exposed electrical wire above the shower (live wire and water always a good combo) and then the shower-head genuinely went on fire. 

“Wholly fuck” I scream, “it’s on fire.” 

Ariel :“What?! What?!” 

I run back into the shower and shut off the tap and by the grace of god the fire went out before it could properly take hold.  “We’ve got to leave before this hotel kills us” I tell Ariel. We scream up to Avi to come down so we can get the hell out of there.

We felt very sorry the poor man who was showing us around as one calamity followed another. He said that he pleaded with the owner for investment to fix the hotel and he knows it is a hellhole. He organised a cab for us and escorted us all the way to a hotel he recommended. Of course we were sceptical but we arrived at a lovely new hotel that was light years ahead of where we had just been. As we settled in to our amazing new room, I ran down the stairs to catch him just as he was heading back. I tried to give him a tip for helping us and going the extra mile; in fact the sceptical part of me thought he had only been so diligent because he was angling for a tip. But he flat out refused. He said it was the least he could do given what had happened (the electrical fire and all). It was another example of the friendliness we experienced throughout our time in Ethiopia and in fact the whole of Africa.

The next day we went on our trip and quickly realised what a waste of money it was. The islands and convents were all lovely. But the boat that took us there was just a public taxi boat anyone could get by going to the harbour. The Blue Nile Falls were also good enough but the car that took us was just a taxi that we could have flagged down. Basically we could have organised everything ourselves for literally £10 total. So we paid 10x more than we hadto and got absolutely nothing for it, no tour guide, no extra explanation, no air conditioned car (in fact the shitty taxi didn’t have headlights and so the journey home, over a long dirt road, was terrifying).

Of course once we had figured all this out we had no way to find the bastard that duped us. To be fair most of my anger stemmed from frustration with ourselves for being so bloody stupid.

We consoled ourselves by heading to a night of Ethiopian food and dancing. Ethiopia has a few “traditional” restaurants which are as popular with Ethiopians as tourists. In fact in Bahir Dar we were the only tourists there. The dancers and singers perform on stage doing 5-10 minute bits each. Towards the end of the evening they come into the audience and look for some participation, cue our heads sinking towards our knees and complete avoidance of eye contact. Naturally as the only Westerners there one guy makes a beeline for us and Avi and Ariel push me up. And then I proceed to dance off with the pro and as you can imagine there was only one winner…. 

Job offers were made but I had to tell them that despite my extreme natural ability at shoulder and head dancing I had to get back to the UK eventually. After all the UK electricity and gas markets won’t regulate themselves (despite what economists may believe).

Onto the final calamity. (for those still with us) We booked our last internal flight to take us from Bahir Dar back to Addis Ababa. We turn up to the airport the requisite hour before, all with a strange feeling in our stomach. We are stopped at the entrance to the airport by a heavily armed security guard who looks at us quizzically, shakes his head and says “finished finished.” 

Uh oh.

We check our ticket and we’re sure we’re on time. We rush up to the tiny airport terminal, Ariel leaps out of the taxi before it stops moving - as if in a movie when the driver in the heist has shouted “Go! Go! Go!” -  in a desperate bid to somehow find that that extra second means we have not arrived at a deserted airport. 

As she runs through security, I follow suit, tripping up over the body scanner Benny Hill style. We are directed by a security guard to the Ethiopian Air office where we are informed the plane had just left.

“Why? How?” we exclaimed,

“oh well, we moved it an hour earlier”

“YOU DID WHAT?!?!”

“we did try to call to let you know”

“But we have no phone network, why didn’t you email and also WHY DID YOU CHANGE THE TIME OF THE FLIGHT, WHO DOES THAT, SERIOUSLY WHICH INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE DECIDES JUST TO MOVE A FLIGHT AN HOUR EARLIER???

And then we proceeded to scream: “why? who does that?” at the 2 Ethiopian Airline representatives for the next 20 minutes.

After doing that until we were blue in the face we then had to try resolve the situation. And there we sat for an hour and a half waiting for the two guys to figure out how they could get Avi to London. Unfortunately for her the best option would be to wait a day and then fly to London via Frankfurt missing a day of work. Luckily for me and Ariel our flight out of Ethiopia wasn’t until the next day and so we didn’t miss ours. Avi had to spend a day in Bahir Dar on her own, I’m sure feeling very frustrated not to be home.

After displaying our incredulity over moving a scheduled flight and completely messing up our travel plans, we got a free night’s accommodation and taxi back to the airport. Incredibly the taxi driver who took us to the airport in the first place had waited and took us to our new hotel. Again he refused a tip until we pushed it into his hand.

We got back to Addis the next morning and left Ethiopia and Africa shortly afterwards, bound for Bangkok.