The Rockies!

Just over 3 months since we went  to the Rocky Mountains and it's only now I am getting a chance to write a post about it. I seriously admire people who can write blog posts a few times a week. I know it's just a hobby of mine but still, its takes so much time and effort. Being dyslexic doesn't help either because it takes me longer to write and there are probably lots of mistakes but sure it's better late than never.

Back in May we flew to Calgary. We got in late so we booked a hotel close to the airport, that way we could get a good nights sleep and get up early in the morning to head to the Rockies.

The next morning we woke up around 7am and headed away on our adventure in one of my favourite cars, a Jeep Wrangler! I couldn't believe how close Calgary is to the Rockies, only about an hour and a half drive. Also, It is kinda crazy, you drive along and it's all flat and next thing... BAM!!! The mountains are just there!haha.

We were staying in Banff but we stopped in a town called Canmore on the way. It's a gorgeous quaint town and not as touristy as Banff. I would highly recommend it, especially if you are looking for something a little quieter. We continued on to Banff to our hotel. We stayed in the Fox Hotel and Suites. I would highly recommend it. There is an underground pool, it looks like a cave that has an opening at the top. I'd imagine it's also beautiful in winter when it snows.

After checking into our room, we quickly freshened up and went back out to explore. We knew where we wanted to go first as the weather was sunny and clear. We went to the Banff gondola. It's $65 plus tax. Kind of pricey I know but SO worth it! The wait wasn't that long, I imagine that would be different during peak times though. The ride to the top is amazing, however if you're afraid of heights, this might make you nervous. I cried on the way up but to be fair I cried on the Ferris wheel that is in Cork at Christmas too. Hahaha! I just don't like moving heights, hate roller coaster or anything like that! I make myself do it though as I know I will feel great after. I am so glad I did go up the gondola because the views from the top were spectacular.

I have a good camera and I am pretty proud of some of the pictures I have taken but pictures don't even do these mountains justice. They are huge!! I kept saying to Parker "they look fake". We were very lucky with the weather. When we got back down from the mountains, we didn't really have a plan. We decided to pick a few lakes and just drive to them. Sitting in the car looking out the window was just as fun too as the views were breathtaking. Lake Minnewanka (apparently its pronounced different to what you may think, lol) was one of the lakes we drove to. The water was beautiful and so blue. After of long day of sightseeing we went for dinner and drinks.

The next morning we got up early and drove to the Ice Field Parkways, it's about a two hour drive from Banff. It is suppose to be very cool (no pun intended) but we wouldn't know because after two and a bit hours driving with no GPS, as it stopped working on the way, we gave up and turned around. When we got back to an area that had signal, we checked where we had turned around, to see how far from the parkway we were and it was...10 MINUTES!!! So annoying how close we were but all was not lost, we pulled in along the way to some beautiful lakes.

On the way back from our drive, we went to the famous Lake Louise. I was very excited to see this lake prior to our trip. Honestly, I was slightly disappointed! Yes, it is very beautiful but what put me off was the amount of tourists that were there. It is something you don't see from those Instagram perfect pictures of people standing between the two mountains with a bright blue lake behind them. There are thousands of people with selfie sticks. People will stop you a few times to take their photo and you have to nearly get into the lake to get a picture for no one to be in it! lol. Another thing to note if you go, is the time of year. We went in May and the lake was still mainly frozen . The height of summer is when the water is that famous turquoise blue colour. We were lucky to see some blue lakes that had thawed faster. Don't get me wrong, Lake Louise is worth the visit but there are so many more lakes that are just as beautiful. Two lakes that we didn't get to, that are suppose to be incredible also are Moraine Lake and Peyto Lake.

Our last day we went to Johnston Caynon and "hiked" up to the top of the waterfall. I am calling it a hike but for most people who actually hike, it's a walk. I am unfit so it's a bloody hike! I really enjoyed this day besides thinking a bear would just appear from the trees every so often. Lucky I had my bear bell on my bag though. Haha! You think after seeing Niagara Falls three times I would not appreciate smaller waterfalls but there is something so beautiful about waterfalls surrounded by mountains and nature, which is something Niagara Falls lacks.

Overall, our trip to The Rockies was incredible. It's somewhere I said I wouldn't leave Canada without seeing  and it's another place ticked off my bucket list. I genuinely think it's somewhere everyone should see at least once. I would love to go back.

Before heading to the airport in Calgary on our last day, we met my sister friend (and someone I consider my friend now too, hope that is ok Steph) who lives in Calgary and she gave us a very quick tour of the city. From the short glance of this city that I saw, it is somewhere I wish I had thought more about visiting. I will just have to come back.

Feel free to ask me any questions if you are thinking of visiting. I could write way more but think it is already long enough. I'm off to enjoy a long weekend and celebrate starting a new job on Tuesday.

Have a great weekend!

Talk soon xx

Zita J 

Quebec City

So, our first trip of the year happened 2 weeks ago. We flew to Quebec City from Toronto City airport on Saturday morning. I love flying from Toronto City airport, its a 10 minute walk from our apartment and the departure lounge has free refreshments, which makes me feel like a VIP. lol! 

One thing I am not a fan of is the tiny planes, for someone who loves to travel, I am not the best flyer. I blame watching the film Final Destination when I was younger. Haha!

Quebec City is so beautiful. I have been to Montreal but I think Quebec City is completely different. It doesn't feel like you are in Canada. Everyone speaks French and all the menus, signs etc are in French. I obviously knew this going there but I did not expect it to be as French as it was. I really liked that though, I felt like I was half way across the world.We mainly just walked around the old town and took pictures of the main building Chateau Frontenac which is spectacular. The old town is so pretty that you can spend hours wandering around all the cute little streets.

Frozen Maple Syrup

Twice I was forced into doing the toboggan slide (cos I am a wimp) which is located right beside the Chateau Frontenac. Both times, I loved it. I need to be pushed to do these things some times and I usually, I wont say always, enjoy it! The view from the top before you slide down is amazing. It's something I would definitely recommend.

We went to Quebec City with our two friends. The same couple we went to Vegas with 2 years ago. There is a little joke we have about Vegas as it was a bit of a disaster. It ended up being a very relaxing long weekend instead of the crazy Vegas weekend we had imagined. When we were going to Quebec, we joked that we couldn't wait to catch up on some sleep. However, this trip ended up being a bit of a messy one and while I had plans of writing about all the great food recommendations and fun activities, to be perfectly honest we spent it either drinking or hungover. Sure, how bad!

The two pictures above were taken from the restaurant Ciel Bistro Bar. I think its a must if you go to Quebec City, its a revolving 360 restaurant so you get to see so much and the cocktails are delicious! I would definitely recommend Quebec City, I'd say before Christmas would be a magical time to go.

Only 14 more sleeps until our next trip to NYC for Paddys weekend!!! Woohoo!

Have a great weekend and I hope you all enjoyed the snow days in Ireland. 

Talk soon xx

Zita J

The Sten and more

Happy Monday,

Hope your weekend was fun. Mine went so slow, I think it's because I am excited about going home TOMORROW. It was good to not do much this weekend. We needed to pack and get organised for our trip home. The last few weekends have been crazy. One of my best friends, Nicole came to visit last Thursday for 5 nights. We had some laugh. Saturday was probably the most fun. Five of us rented a car and went to Niagara, to be honest I wasn't overly thrilled about going to see it for the fourth time but I wanted to go with her. When I saw it again though it was still as amazing as the first time. We had only planned to stay in Niagara for a few hours and head back to Toronto but we decided instead to stay overnight.

As Niagara can be expensive to stay in we didn't want to be spending a fortune to be close to the falls. We drove around and picked a family room in a Motel. As you can imagine it wasn't the best. The bath tub was like something from the 80's (actually it probably was from then) and I only got about 2 hours  sleep thinking that Norman Bates was going to come in and murder us all. I read the reviews the next day and they were horrendous, glad I didn't read them before I went to bed. You know what though, it was all part of the experience. I have never laughed so much all weekend and It was amazing to see Niagara Falls lit up at night. Its a great place for a night out too and I definitely want to go back (Might book a hotel in advance though) haha. For once saying bye to my friend wasn't that hard, knowing I'll be home this week.

Besides Niagara, I wanted to share with you a few things I did for the long weekend we had two weeks ago. As some of you may have read on my last blog post, I was helping organise my two friends Sten(Joint Stag and Hen). We rented a cottage in Blue Mountain that slept about 20 people. There was 14 of us that headed up there. The cottage was everything we wanted and more. It was very clean,spacious, had a hot tub, a fire pit outside and was very close to the village. I loved the small details about the place and how the owner had everything labelled for us to help find things easily.

To make the weekend a little bit more special, I wanted to add a few Hen and Stag elements to it. I bought a few decoration in the dollar store like balloons etc. I wanted to make a banner for them but had to think of something that would work for both a hen and stag so I came up with this....

This was very easy to make, I drew the letters on white card stock, cut them out, made little holes on each letter and fed string through, super easy!

The next day after a night of drinking. I gave everyone hangover kits. I got the idea from pinterest. Inside I put, a barrys tea bag (I had loads from home), a plaster, a kit kat, a moist wipe, a mint and some alka seltzer. All essentials after a night of drinking. It was a bit of fun and I think everyone enjoyed it.

On Saturday we went to the village for the day and that night we did it all over again. I organised a game of Mr and Mrs, which was hilarious. I also bought photo booth props and set up my camera and tripod and got some great group pics.

On the Sunday, we were all a bit wrecked so it was a more chilled night around the fire pit having smores and some drinks. I bought lanterns so that we could all make a wish to the couple of the weekend, however the weather wouldn't cooperate with us and the wind wouldn't allow us to light them. I was gutted! Besides that, the whole weekend worked out great, all the little things I planned to make it special for them turned out well  and everyone enjoyed themselves. Now for the wedding in 3 months time...eeek!

Talk soon (very soon for my family and friends).

Zita J xx

Montreal

This day last week myself and Parker headed off to Montreal from Toronto, we both had a half day and got the 3.15 pm train. We arrived into Montreal around 8.30 pm and headed straight to our hotel. We stayed in the Hilton Garden Inn and I could not recommend it more. It was central, the room was very clean and the staff were attentive. They also have a pool on the top floor of the hotel. It was a great hangover cure on the Saturday morning.

On the Friday night we met my cousin (I have so many and it's great as they are spread out over the world) and we went for drinks. He took us to a few different bars on Bishops St and many drinks later we got back to our hotel. Saturday morning we woke up early and went to the pool and hot tub to help us start our day of adventures.

We headed out and went straight to Old Montreal, which was highly recommended by many people. If you're visiting from a big city like Toronto, downtown Montreal isn't that appealing as its just big buildings. Although I love that about Toronto, I was coming to Montreal to see something different. Different is certainly what I got. The whole time I was there I felt like I was in France or somewhere a million miles away.

We walked around Old Montreal admiring the beautiful architecture and stopped for lunch in a restaurant called Solmar on Rue St Paul, it looked cute and people were sitting outside so we decided to do the same. I got steak and frites and it was delicious. All the restaurants on Rue St Paul looked lovely and all were very busy so if you go there you have lots of choice on that street.

It was a beautiful day so after our lunch we walked around the old port. There was lots happening down there especially it being a long weekend. There was markets, street performers and activities for both children and adults like zip lining, adventure courses etc. It looks like a lovely place to just relax and enjoy the weather too.

After enjoying the sunshine and walking around we decided we needed a refreshment so we headed to a roof top bar called Terrasse Nelligan part of Hotel Nelligan. The atmosphere was great up there with everyone enjoying the beginning of the summer.

We went back to our hotel to get ready for dinner and drinks with my cousin. He brought us to a restaurant called Le Vin Papillon which is the same owners as Joe Beef a very well known restaurant in Montreal. It's a tapas style restaurant. The menu changes all the time and its written up on a blackboard (in french) so if you don't have someone with you that speaks french you might have fun guessing. They are very helpful though and recommend dishes to you. The food was incredible and the wine was great too.

After dinner we headed to The Drinkerie, they do cool cocktails there. So many to choose from! We then headed to The Burgundy Lion and were greeted with free shots of whiskey, the perks of having a cousin whose a bartender! Lastly we went to Le Bureau, a cosy tapas and cocktail bar. It opens until 3am... I am surprised I lasted until then.

We had a really fun night and it was great to catch up with my cousin. Sore heads in the morning as we got up and got ready to explore more and make the most of our last day in Montreal. Part 2 is to follow......

Talk soon xx

Zita J

                                                                     

New York Part 2

Happy Friday! 

This day 2 weeks ago I was in New York, waaah! I did this post in two parts as I couldn't fit it all in one post, here's Part 1, if you want to have a read. I honestly didn't expect to love this city as much as I did. I thought the crowds of people would make me anxious but I kinda loved the rush! There is so much to see and even though we got a lot done in the few days we were there, there is so much more we had left to do and see. 

On Saturday, we went to grand central station, which I was very excited about seeing. It's pretty cool and after taking a million pictures we headed towards the world trade memorial. This is something I didn't want to leave New York without doing however I was a bit nervous about how upsetting it might be. 

Before we went inside the museum, we walked around the area where the two towers once stood. It was a weird feeling. What is there now is two beautiful man-made waterfalls and engraved all around it the names of the people who died. Reading all the names and seeing flowers laid down was very emotional. It is such a huge area and its crazy to think two enormous buildings were there.

The museum is really interesting but extremely sad. A worker was telling a story about the fire officers in this fire truck above and I had to walk away as it was upsetting to listen to. I would recommend it to learn about things you might not know about 9/11 but it feels weird seeing people taking selfies etc in a place where so many people died. After this we decided to do something fun as the memorial had us both feeling a bit down. We took a stroll to battery park and looked at the statue of liberty from a distance. I didn't have much interest heading out to the statue but maybe next time.

After a busy day we went for a drink in The Dead Rabbit. "The world's best bar", which I found hard to see why. Its overrated and overpriced. You'll find much better bars I think. It's Irish though so I had to have a look. We went to Brooklyn that night for food and drinks and I loved the area so much. We went to a bar that was a converted car garage called Hot Bird, so cool!

On Sunday we went for brunch in Maison Kayser, it was yummy and I wanted everything from the bakery. After that we wanted to walk it off so we went to the High Line, an old railway line transformed into a park. It is an enjoyable walk and you get an amazing view of the Hudson River. The walk was very busy towards the end so we decided to check out the Chelsea Market and meat packing area. With such nice weather that day and all weekend as a matter of fact, I got a feel of how amazing this area would be in summer time.

We met up with my friend after and went for a few drinks on some rooftop bars around this area. The views were incredible! A great way to spend our last night.

On Monday, it was our last day. I always feel on the last day of a trip you're just waiting around to leave for the airport. We weren't leaving for the airport until 5pm so we made the most of it. We walked around stalking peoples houses after brunch and headed to Central Park and The MET. We only briefly walked around Central Park the first day so I was glad we got to see more. You could spend the whole day there, I would love to go back in the summer and have a picnic in there. The MET was good too, I'm not going to lie though, I was more interested in taking pictures on the steps outside. Lol!

As I said previously I really didn't expect to love New York as much I did but I honestly think it is one of my favourite places I have ever been too. We had a great few days and being able to meet my friends again was the icing on the cake. I'm already looking forward to going back, when I have money again lol. If you want to see the video I made check it out on my Facebook page.

Talk soon xx

Zita J