..you're only lost if you know where you're going..
Jase
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Posts by Jase
Danish Changing of The Royal Guard in Copenhagen
Aug 2nd
Probably the highlight of Copenhagen for me, aside from the abundance of people riding bicycles was the Changing of The Royal Guard.
Being February in Copenhagen it was a freezing cold day (-3 degrees Celsius from memory), so it was a bit of a challenge recording the video and not shaking a little.
The Changing of The Royal Guard took place at Amalienborg. Depending on the circumstances at the time you will see a different change take place. We saw the ‘Løjtnantsvagt’, or The Lieutenant Watch. This is when HRH Prins Henrik is residing at the palace, or HRH the Crown Prince or HRH Prince Joachim are residing at Amalienborg in the capacity of regents.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video. For those of you who missed the original post, take a read of Two Days in Copenhagen.
Living Life in Whistler
Jul 4th
It’s been ages since either of us have posted, I know.
Up until this point in our lives, we have both lived in Adelaide, South Australia. I’ve travelled around Australia for work, but only for up to a week at a time. Jess travelled to India back in 2001. Obviously both of us have since done some overseas travelling, however neither of us have ever lived in another place for a prolonged period of time, let alone properly relocated and found work.
Before leaving Australia for our honeymoon and then Europe some 5 months ago, our working holiday to Canada had already began. We applied for our visas through the Working Holiday Program, which was fairly straightforward. My application was quick and easy – Jess’ was complicated by the fact that she wanted to work with children. As it turns out she could have quite easily ignored the more expensive and complicated process of having health tests and examinations, but these are the things that you find out when you actually go through with the plan.
After being told by just about everyone that accommodation is hard to come by in Whistler, we booked ahead. We made the choice when we were in Switzerland. It has made the experience of living in Whistler somewhat easier, but I regret spending so much time on the computer while on the other side of the world.
Arriving in Toronto was once again quite straightforward. Being the well prepared people that we are, all of the required paperwork was printed and ready to be presented to the immigration offer who took care of our file. The experience was great – he knew Whistler quite well, gave us some advice and wished us all the best for our time in Canada.
The next day we flew into Vancouver, then caught a bus to Whistler. It was May the 1st, and we were in our new house, starting our new life. Since arriving, Jess has began nannying, and I am now a mountain bike guide for Whistler Blackcomb. The big things are out of the way, but the surprise to come of our relocation is all of the little things that we take for granted in everyday life.
After being in Europe, with little idea of where anything ever was, it is great to be settled in. To be able to walk to and from the shops with full confidence, knowing that we won’t get lost, or to know and be able to communicate with 100% clarity to your neighbours. We can catch the bus to and from the village without having to check 5 times to know that we are on the right one. It’s just a nice rest.
We have some sort of routine back. My work is quite sporadic, but we are able to have breakfast together, and usually finish the day with a walk down by the lake where we usually sit for an hour or so.
Riding the bike park is great. My riding improved quickly and then as the exhaustion set in it has declined considerably. Hopefully I can take a day or two off this week just to rest, and then I’ll be ready to go and have some fun again. Jess is doing great on her bike and is loving the park too.
Whistler is nothing of what I expected it to be. If we hadn’t visited Domat/Ems in Switzerland before visiting Whistler, I think we would be 100% in love with this place. Given the comparison though, this is just another amazing place in the world. A place that we are happy to live in, and are able to thoroughly enjoy, but also find some faults in too.
Anyway, it’s time for dinner, or “supper” as the locals tell us. Hopefully it won’t be so long between updates in the future.
Dublin to Whistler and Sleeping in an Airport
May 15th
As Jess summed up perfectly, we only had a 14 hour stay in Dublin. It was nice albeit a little rushed, however unfortunately it was one of those hostel nights where you experience broken sleep. The beds weren’t particularly comfy, there was the odd drunken yelling in the street outside and of course people coming and going from your room don’t help either. We were used to this sort of thing by now, however it just contributed to the tiredness that we felt from the late nights and early mornings that we had in London.
While our budget for the trip was looking pretty good, we still opted for public transport to the airport. After spending the best part of three months having only ourselves to rely on, it was almost empowering to be able to figure out public transport systems in other countries, and not pay the ridiculous fees that some people do to catch a taxi or an “airport express” shuttle service. While we were waiting for the bus a taxi van pulled up at the stop and convinced three people to come with him for the low price of only 13 Euro each! I think it cost us around 2.20 Euro each to catch the bus to the airport. As it turned out the taxi stopped at almost every stop along the bus route, so it didn’t even turn out to be a faster option.
We boarded our AirTransat flight and received a fairly smooth trip across the North Atlantic Ocean to Toronto. By the time we landed, I well and truly had a headache. It was 3pm by the time we had our bags, and the day was dragging on already. We had gained 5 hours thanks to the change in timezones, which was a lot less than when originally travelling to Europe, but combined with the lack of sleep we were exhausted. That afternoon we drank as much water as we could to make sure weren’t dehydrated from the flight.
We briefly dropped into Toronto, catching the bus and then metro to the city centre. We just wanted to get some cash out, and do a little bit of shopping before starting our new life in Whistler in a few days time. After trying our Mastercard in about 4 different ATMs, we were a little bit nervous. We only had 20 Euro on us. As it turns out, things are a little different here – Mastercards don’t actually work in that many machines. Nevertheless, this scare, combined with the tiredness and the enormity of this city, we retreated back to the airport with our tails between our legs. We ditched the idea of shopping, and just grabbed a bite to eat. 5 tacos for $5!
When we returned to Toronto Pearson Airport we took a look around for what looked like the best place to sleep. We had planned in advance to sleep there since our flight the next day was at 7am. It just didn’t make sense to stay somewhere else only to have to wake up at 4am anyway.
Sleeping in an airport made for an interesting night. I woke up at one stage and there was an Asian man standing about half a metre away from my feet. We both woke probably once every hour or two, moved into another uncomfortable position on the row of chairs that we were on, and then tried again for more sleep. It wasn’t bad enough that I regret it, but it was enough to know that I never want to be homeless. For anyone considering sleeping in the Toronto Pearson Airport, Terminal 3 is the better airport for sleeping in.
The next day we were off to Vancouver thanks to a cheap flight with Air Canada. Taking a domestic flight within Canada turned out to be a much bigger deal than flying between countries in Europe. While going through airport security I was told that I had three knives in my bag. Not asked, told. It was obvious that the mindset is a little bit different over here. After 5 hours of flying we arrived at 9am in Vancouver. Once again we had jumped timezones and we saw and extra 3 hours in our day. By the time we had arrived in Vancouver I was pretty much wrecked. I made a point of drinking as much water as I could on the plane and I still had a headache. Originally we had planned to stay down in Vancouver in a hostel for a few days to get prepared and buy some supplies but by this stage we were exhausted. We wanted our own bed! After ringing our landlord to check if it was okay for us to arrive that day, we jumped on the next bus up to Whistler.
Arriving at our new home was like closure on the backpacking part of our trip. It was done. We could finally relax! We had a shower, cooked dinner and watched some TV. At 5pm we decided to just take an hour long nap. Jess even set her alarm. I woke up at 3:30am, confused. We both slept through the alarm, but kept sleeping until the morning. I think we had around 13 hours sleep – just what we needed.
So here we are, starting a new life. Over the past few weeks we have been doing a little bit of everything. Buying bikes, clothes, shoes, food, registering for all sorts of government numbers, setting up bank accounts, applying for jobs. ..And of course exploring the local area as best we can.
Exploring Udine
May 3rd
Our return visit to Udine was intended as a surprise. We enjoyed our first visit so much, and we felt as though there was some unfinished business there, so we planned our return while we were staying in Rome. I’m not sure how many of them knew we were coming, but either way they looked happy to see us.
Last time we visited, everyone knew we were coming. Many of them were able to take time off of work and as a result we were always in the company of someone – being taken on day trips to see the greater Friuli. This time, we were often on our own, much to their concern.
While our visit was a great rest, we made a point of being a bit more independant and heading out more on our own. Between having a kick of the soccer ball at the local grounds, handball and table tennis games, riding along the river down Passeggiata delle Rogge, and walking down to Rizollo and through the nearby crops, Jess and I really got to know the village and nearby villages in a lot more detail than we did on the first visit. It was a great time to catch up again – not having to think too much about our upcoming travels.
With that said we were still treated to many special occasions and the time with family was great – the goodbyes were just as tough as last time. It was just a completely different visit to the last.
Jess and I both feel as though we will be back before long. Not too sure when, but I’m sure whenever it is we will be welcome.
Volcanic Ash and Us!
Apr 22nd
Just a quick update.
For those of you wondering where we are, we’re still in Udine, Italy.
We had a flight booked for April 20th that was cancelled due to the volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajokull, the currently active volcano in Iceland.
After reading news stories and social media websites we decided that our best option was to stay put here in Udine, and wait for the next available flight – on the 26th of April. It’s not ideal but we have read stories of people who have spent loads of money and experienced some very uncomfortable situations just to get to their destination. Since the average time to get from Rome to Paris was sounding like 3 days worth of frustrating and expensive travel, we decided to wait the 6 days for our next flight.
What does this mean for us? Well, we get more time to spend with family in Italy, but less time with friends in the UK. It was a tough call because I know how excited Jess has been to see people in the UK but unfortunately it is out of our control. Chances are it would have taken us 5 or so days to make it to London from Udine anyway, and it wouldn’t have been without some uncomfortable and frustrating times.
Planes seem to be flying today, and with any luck things should be relatively normal by the 26th. If the volcano starts spewing ash again and our flight is cancelled, we will consider heading towards Spain to escape Europe and get to Canada late April/early May as we intended.
Anyway, enough time on the computer. We are safe and happy, so no need to worry about us!





















