Wanderlust Wednesday: Budapest

If you don't like the cold and grey climate at home, why not try it somewhere else? This photo of Budapest, with the Hungarian Parliament in the background, has been making its way around Pinterest. It looks magical. And while it would likely be colder than Vancouver, it would also be drier.

And in case the snow doesn't entice you, here is the same view of the Budapest funicular in warmer months:)

(photo by Farkas Márton via Pinterest)

Wanderlust Wavelength

Maybe it's the fact that short and grey February, being so close to spring and then summer, gives everyone the travel bug, but I felt on the same wavelength as Joanna when I checked Cup of Jo today. Above is a photo of Saint Jean Cap Ferrat by Laure Joliet.

When I arrived in France to teach English I basically didn't know anyone. My family, having come to Canada some 350 years ago, means I have no French relatives. Whereas when my best friend Anna moved to Oxfordshire after high school for a gap year and had relatives all over the UK, I didn't have many familiar faces to plan to visit. (Though I did have my friends Kristen in Belgium and Dominic in London). Instead I used my generous French vacation time to travel a little all over Europe.

The closest I had to family to visit in Europe was my dear friend and mentor Jacqui's sister who has a home-away-from-home in Cap Ferrat. Jacqui tried to connect us to orchestrate a visit, but unfortunately health concerns prevented her sister and brother-in-law from welcoming me.

Laure's photos make me wonder what a trip to Cap Ferrat might be like. Especially that delicious-looking green been and tomato salad, and those blue beach chairs.

More wanderlust if you're in the mood. Or Cup of Jo has really great travel daydreams to get lost in too.

(photo by Laure Joliet via Cup of Jo)

Winter Wanderlust

Paris is one of those perhaps few places where there really is no bad time of year to go. Autumn in Paris. Paris in the spring. It all sounds romantic. Except for Paris at the height of tourist season in the summer when waits for the museums and galleries can stretch for hours.

Ever since visiting Belgium and having my breath taken away by the beautiful autumn colours, I'm a convert to off-season travel. When Peter came visit me in France just before Christmas 2010, we spent a few days in Paris before he left. We went to the Louvre late one afternoon thinking it as the day they were open into the evening. We were mistaken and instead had just under an hour to visit. As the museum was only open for another 45 minutes, we didn't have a wait to buy tickets and were actually able to see the Mona Lisa and nearby paintings, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, as well as a few of the other essential pieces. It was actually a great visit, and being that we got lost trying to exit the basement, we got a cool tour of the medieval foundations of the palace.

How dreamy does the view looking out from Napoleon's apartments look? My friend Amanda, whom I met while teaching English in France, took this photo and had it as her desktop. It's truly one of my favourites so I'll leave you to get lost in a daydream in it. Or in one of her other photos from her Old Pictures.

More off-season travel.

(photo by Amanda)

First Flower

This little iris bloomed Saturday.

Last year I bought a bunch of 4-inch springtime flowers: hyacinths, crocuses, tulips, daffodils and irises. I mentioned to my mum how lovely I thought the muscari I saw at the florists were and she gave me a bunch to plant. I also planted geraniums and marigolds in some other baskets we had. I planted nasturtiums before I went to Spain. When I got back they had sprouted leaves, but never bloomed. I continued to water them, but soon lost interest and instead tended to my potted herbs.

In January I noticed little green leaves starting to push back up through the dirt. I watered them diligently and patiently waited to see what they would turn out to be. On Saturday morning, I noticed that the first flower had bloomed, an iris.

Encouraged by this, and the fact that my mom mentioned that when she was over last week that it seemed that two of my geraniums had survived the winter, I bought myself a pair of gardening gloves. The gloves gave me the courage to weed out the dead, alien-looking stems that I didn't want to pull bare-handed because I'm a wuss. I also bought parsley to add to my herb garden and romaine lettuce seeds. I was at a backyard barbecue last summer and a guy had a salad from his balcony garden. He said that if you just pick the outer-leaves, the lettuce will continue to yield leaves all summer.

In the next few weeks I'd like to get a few long window boxes to hang off the side of my balcony. I think part of the reason my nasturtiums didn't do so well is because of lack of prolonged direct sunlight.

I'm excited to see my garden grow!

Happy Valentine's Day

When I was living in France, my friend Jacqui sent me a bunch of postcards of Vancouver views. After receiving about two dozen such postcards, I got the idea to use them as teaching aids for my students. I would give each student a postcard and have them tell a brief story pretending they were on vacation a nd writing home to a friend about the location pictured on their postcard.

I happened to give this lesson to a class of mine on the morning of February 14th. Just before leaving for school that morning I had been surprised by Peter who had roses delivered to my apartment door.

The student who got this postcard had raised an eyebrow. I explained that it was a picture of the SeaBus--the most awesome form of transit in Vancouver--and that it was a particularly dear card to me because I would take it in order to go visit my boyfriend. The girls in the class let out a big AWWW and asked me if my amoureux and I were doing anything for Valentine's Day. I blushed and I don't know what I said because I was too overcome with shyness to share that I'd received three dozen roses.

I still love taking the SeaBus although it has lost some of its specialness in having become a twice-daily occurrence as I commute back and forth from what has now become our place.

Happy Valentine's Day!

PS: Valentine's stories from last year and two years ago in case you missed them.

(SeaBus postcard photo by Bob Herger)

De vrais mensonges

When I was living in France, I had seen ads for De vrais mensonges (Beautiful Lies) on the side of trams and at bus stops, but I didn't see it in cinema. As Peter was in Portland for a friend's bachelor party this weekend, I took the opportunity to watch this French film I've been wanting to see on Netflix.

Set in lovely Sète--a town I've only known as a stop on the way to Toulouse--De vrais mensonges is a comedy both charming and witty, the type only French cinema can pull off. When Émilie (Audrey Tautou) receives an anonymous love letter she re-addresses and sends it to her depressed mom (Nathalie Baye) to cheer her up. What at first like a harmless gesture quickly turns complicated as Émilie tries to stage manage a fake relationship for her mum.

What is your favourite French film? Have you seen any foreign language films you recommend? (I always raise an eyebrow at this designation in Canada as French is an official language.)

Juice Cleanse

This past weekend I did my first ever juice cleanse.

As I mentioned previously, I had been thinking about doing a juice cleanse since about September as a way to break my taste for salt, sugar and processed foods and feel bien dans ma peau. I had looked into them but got a bit of sticker shock at first glance. So I got a hold of the juicer my mom's friend had given my sister and tried my hand at making my own juice. Just making one green juice was enough to convince me that $195 and no hassle with clean up was worth it (it also equates to about $9 per juice). Then winter settled and I didn't think the season of rich, warm foods and hibernating was conducive to doing a juice cleanse.

Then, with the new year and spring on its way, I found found renewed resolve to make changes to my eating habits. And why not kick it all off with a juice cleanse?

So how was it? A lot easier than I though it would be.

Day 1 (Friday). I woke up, had some hot water and lemon and my first juice. Mid-morning I noticed I had a low-grade headache. Either this was a coincidence, or I am more addicted to coffee than I had thought. I don't have it every day and don't find I "need it," so this was a bit surprising. I packed some celery as a snack in case I got hangry while at work, but I didn't need them. Peter had a rehearsal so he didn't eat dinner at home. I had forgotten about his rehearsal so I hadn't planned anything and instead dozed in and out of an okay movie on Netflix.

Day 2 (Saturday). I slept in a bit and awoke to sunshine. I had my first juice and went to the karma yoga class at the studio down the block. Later that afternoon we packed my juices in a cooler and headed to Commercial to check out Pasture to Plate. Then came my first: we visited a friend and I had to turn down chips and salsa (one of my favourite foods) and yummy looking endive leaves and dip. I started later in the morning so I was drinking juice until 1AM.

Day 3 (Sunday). My second juice was a pink strawberry-kiwi-apple-lemon blend, a welcome change from all four green-toned juices I'd been having each day. Sunday was also the super bowl. I thought about bringing those celery sticks I hadn't eaten on Friday, but Peter challenged me not to. To be honest, I wasn't even tempted by the Doritos, Lays or Sun Chips. I thought about how gross those would make me feel.

By the end of Day 3, I felt like I could have easily done another two days of juice cleansing. I thought I'd be hungry, but I found the juices actually quite filling. I wasn't more hungry between juices that I would be between meals. I didn't feel tempted and I don't even think it was because I had a particularly strong willpower. I think it's just that when you decide you're going to drink six juices and a protein milk per day the decision on what you're having is made for you. I could see the allure of drinking smoothies instead of meals. But I was looking forward to my first breakfast as I was gulping down the last Sleep Tonic.

Weight loss isn't the goal of this cleanse, but I do feel smaller (I don't know that I actually lost weight as I don't own a scale). This morning I woke up and felt reinvigorated. While I didn't need coffee, I did accompany my coworkers on their coffee break for the walk. I think the juice cleanse was a good idea before embarking on a Whole30 because even thought I saw all the pastries on offer, I didn't actually consider them an option.

I did the Juice Truck juice cleanse. For anyone considering it, I would encourage them to go for it. It was a good way to reset in time for spring.