Canucks merchandise now on sale . . . .
. . . . 50% off at Blue Line Sports. Like, duh.
Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity to break away from talk about food and/or flowers (although there's plenty of both in reserve) to talk about my upcoming international June Jaunt, since I haven't really divulged a lot of details yet. Apologies for that, but I wanted to wait until a) I knew I was going for sure, b) I had at least 50% conditional pre-approval from my boss and c) I had hammered out most of the details. I think I have all three bases covered now, although it took a lot of work, especially on the last two accounts.
B) Dramatic re-enactment
C) Logisticalculus. Actual photo
So here is the route:
Flying in to Paris, then immediately taking a train to Arras, France (actually a tiny little town just south of Arras called Ablainzevelle, but it doesn't appear on a lot of maps because it's so tiny) where I will stay with my pen pal for five days. Then to Brugge, Belgium for four days, then Erp in the Netherlands, where I will stay with my great aunt and uncle for four days, then an all-day train ride to northern Jutland, where I will stay with my other pen pal for six days, giving me just enough time to get to Copenhagen so I can fly back halfway around the world to start working immediately with a gonzo jetlag hangover. Woot!
In the very early stages of planning, I was trying my darnedest to fly out to Dublin, taking a train to Cork, staying there for a day and then taking a ferry to France, but it was just too grueling and it threw a wrench into all my other plans, so unfortunately, Ireland is going to have to wait for another day (preferably when I can go to Ireland and Ireland alone for a few weeks).
Anyway, I don't have a lot of concrete plans for Ablainzevelle/Arras. I will follow the lead of my hosts and do whatever they have planned. I do hope we get to go to nearby Vimy Ridge though. There's a large Canadian memorial there, and preserved trenches from the First World War. There are a lot of WWI and WWII memorials in the area, actually. This part of the country was right in the thick of things both times.
I wanted to stay in Belgium because I've never stayed in Belgium before. During my first European escapade, my friends and I toured through France, The Netherlands and Denmark, but we whizzed through Belgium in just a few hours. I want to officially "collect" Belgium! Plus, it's on the way, and it would be such a shame to pass up all that Belgian chocolate . . . . or the Belgian waffles, or the Belgian frites or the Belgian beer. I decided on Brugge (AKA Bruges) because it seems right up my alley. A quick trip to the Google Image bank should show you why. If the weather is good, a day trip to Oostende would be great too.
Next is getting in touch with some roots: a stint in Erp, Netherlands, the village where the paternal family lived before moving to Canada after WWII. I'll be staying with a great aunt and uncle who have promised me to show me around the little village and show me some of the houses my grandfather made after learning his trade as a bricklayer and stonemason. It also seems like there are a lot of cousins who want to meet me. I hope four days is enough! (Especially since I want to take a quick jaunt to Maastricht and see this thing of beauty.)
Finally, it's a looooooong train trip to Aalborg, where I'll be staying with someone whom I consider a very good friend, even though we've never met. I'm sure we can conquer Denmark in just six days! Don't have any plans or expectations here, although a day trip to Sweden would be nice in order to officially "collect" it too!
And that's it! Wish I could do more, but that's all the time and money I have! I may be retracing some steps I've made before, but at the same time, I've had a "visit my penpals" trip planned in the back of my mind for a few years, so now I can knock that one off my list and go to the next idea: Argentina or Lithuania or Croatia or the Ukraine or Iceland or Thailand . . . . .
Whoa . . . let's not get ahead of ourselves here! Sigh . . . . I can't help it. I gots the wanderlust bug, and bad!