In Bruges

Like every other normal person out there, when I saw the movie "In Bruges" with Colin Farrell, I decided that I wanted to visit this city in Belgium.

Being on a long trip with countless other individuals, I thought that this would be the perfect time to take some time away to discover Bruges on my own. As I said before, the volcanic ash kept me from going to Italy that time so we headed to France early. After visiting Montpellier (which is a gorgeous, small, college town), we headed to Paris. Since I had just been to Paris the previous year, I wasn't as desperate to see all the sights again. This actually worked out in my favour!

Some of the best food of the trip



Montpellier


I took a day trip to Bruges from Paris. I left my friends bright and early to discover something alone (finally! It's amazing how much I craved alone time). I hopped a bus to Bruges. It was kind of unreal. If you watch the movie first you will understand.

Literally, the town looks exactly as it does in the movie. There is a river running through the city (similar to Venice but maybe nicer), the buildings were well-kept and gorgeous, and the scenery was gorgeous. It was much better than expected.

My day was spent taking a ride on the boat, eating lunch at a gorgeous restaurant, and touring the buildings as well as the stores.

If you are ever in the area, I do recommend you atleast take a day trip to Bruges!

Happy 4 day weekend!!

Big Changes - Part 2

Moving to a new city like Winnipeg where I know no one can be overwhelming and extremely difficult.  For anyone who is moving to a new city for a job or for school, knowing no one, I won't sugarcoat it for you - It's very difficult. That sense of your security is gone. What if my car breaks down? What if my computer shuts down? What will I do at night? These are all legitimate questions and freak-outs that I experienced often. But, moving to a new place sometimes makes it difficult to see the positive experiences and wonderful moments. I know that when I lived in Winnipeg I complained a lot (sorry about that everyone) but some of my most defining moments and self realization happened there.

So here's the short list of some of my favourite moments in Year 1 of living in the peg (in no particular order):

1. I could go to football games right beside the mall. No joke, the stadium used to be located beside my favourite mall. I could also go to hockey games for a reasonable price!

2. I saw this on a regular basis. It was nice to see some open space and agriculture that we don't see in Toronto.

3. This is by far one of my favourite places in Winnipeg - Kawaii Crepe. I used to eat there all of the time, it was right across from my apartment and they had the best crepes.

4. My roommate Kasey and I would go explore Winnipeg, pump some rap tunes, and drive around. We would also take random road trips to the US for mexican food since it was only a couple hours away.

5. I loved Mel - Sometimes we would go to the club (which played normal club music downstairs and had a live band upstairs) where she knew the band! 

 6. What better way to pass the time than to go snow shoeing. Manitoba is extremely flat. This seemed like a great way to get some exercise in the winter.

7. Kaila is also amazing. We would do random things together all the time. Such as visiting the star restaurant.. (please note all the stars hanging from the ceiling). We also went to events such as Nuit blanche together.

 

8. It was pretty cold outside so I tried to embrace it once in awhile. The days when it was -45 or colder, I avoided going anywhere outside.

9. There were polar bears outside. The construction one reminded me of Eoghan. haha

That's all for today folks. Have a fantastic Monday! Hope you all had a spectacular weekend!



It's Hump Day!

So I have been a little neglectful lately. I must say that this weather is really killing me. The change in the pressure is really getting to my head (literally... stupid migraines). So I really hope that Spring comes soon. I have also decided that global warming is really not good for my migraines. I could live without the constant weather changes.

So this weekend was St. Patty's Day. What did I do you ask? Well, I spent it with my half-irish boyfriend drinking green beer (well... I drank a different green drink). We ended up driving all the way up to Montreal on Saturday for the TFC (soccer) game against the Montreal Impact and driving back to Toronto Sunday! WOW... 6 hours in a car each way? Must be love (for the boyfriend... not TFC).

As for the trip up to Montreal, it was cold! Along with the coldness, TFC lost so we got heckled by children... No joke, we would be driving down the street, in our car, and children would be shouting at us. They could tell we were TFC fans from the red scarves. Also, people in the cars next to us would heckle us. To be honest, it was kind of unreal. If Montreal was to play a game in Toronto and they lost, Torontonians would just go about their business like nothing happened.. Not Montreal....

Schwartz - Best Smoked Meat

Going to Montreal did mean that I got to buy Montreal smoked meat and bring it back... So yeah, I've basically been eating that for 3 days.. yumm...

The restaurant we ate at - It was very nice!

We also ate at a really good restaurant where I had sauerkraut, sausage, and a salad. Not bad! As you can see by this post, the majority of my happiness of going to Montreal is derived from food.. I really wish that Guy from Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives would tour around Canada... Actually on that note, Guy did do some filming for that show in Toronto as a special.

Might as well list out the restaurants he visited and that will appear on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives sometime this year (super exciting!!!):
1. Hey Meatball
2. The Lakeview Restaurant
3. The Ace
4. Caplansky's deli

I've only been to 1 (Caplansky's) on this list. I have driven by Hey Meatball but have never ventured in. I have plans to visit The Lakeview soon. Expect a blog post about the reviews of these restaurants. Guy never disappoints me, so hopefully these restaurants live up to my expectations!

Happy hump day everyone!

Big Changes - Part 1

So I thought I would rant explain to you about my time spent in Winnipeg AKA the peg. So when I finished my undergrad at York, I really wanted to do my Masters in Psychology. Having not left Toronto for my undergrad, I basically applied to only schools outside of the Ontario area... I didn't even apply within Ontario. So either way I was moving, leaving Toronto for bigger and better things (or so I thought). So I chose the University of Manitoba for the flexible program along with the professor and area of research I wanted to work in. Also, the cheaper tuition and rent didn't hurt.

So after finishing my undergrad, I packed my car full, and drove the 24 hours to Winnipeg. Now, having only been to Winnipeg once before moving there, I really had no idea where I should live. I knew 0 people in the city which didn't make the situation any easier, so I proceeded to do what any other normal person would do, I found a roommate on Kijiji. Now don't roll your eyes at me, would you want to live ALL ALONE in a city where you knew NO ONE? That sounds even more depressing that moving in with a random possible killer person from Kijiji. So, I met Kasey from Calgary and had multiple phone conversations to make sure she was not crazy. We found a place to live, also off Kijiji.  We ended up living in a 2 bedroom apartment in the oldest residential building in Manitoba (with the first elevator!)...




40 Osborne


So, I moved my stuff in (with the help of my lovely boyfriend Eoghan who drove with me). We used the elevator. Since the elevator was the first one built, you had to manually open the wire door, close it yourself, push the button and it would proceed to move... slowly... It was a concern whether you would make it to the top or plummet to the bottom. Then, you had to walk outside on the balconies in order to reach our apartment (I'm serious...). I really couldn't complain much about the apartment, it was HUGE, full of old dark hardwood and much more space than I needed.




The restaurant


So, I had some time that week while Eoghan was visitng before school started to explore. I lived right in Osborne village so basically close to everything, comparable to maybe Spadina in Toronto. The first night, Eoghan and I decided to go to this restaurant on the corner (photo above). We walked over in our leather jackets, me in my high heels, and both in our sunglasses. The stares were unreal... Basically, it was the "you are really not from here, are you?" stare. So we ate at the restaurant. I still remember the drunken woman blasting into the restaurant, demanding to be served, knocking stuff over, and yelling. She proceeded (after awhile) to be escorted out. I should have realized at that point, that this may have been a somewhat accurate representation of what Winnipeg would be like.

What else can I say about Winnipeg in the first week I was there? Well... the little Italy was full of sushi restaurants, it was not safe to be wondering around downtown alone at night, the homeless population was more aggressive than Toronto, and... there were sooo many less people. As you can see, my first week was full of positives! *Chuckle* (Year 2 was better).

After a week of assembling my furniture, helping me run my errands, and discovering the city, Eoghan left me. I was alone. Other than my roommate, I knew no one. I had heard that one of my friends from York had moved to Winnipeg to go to law school however, he had yet to arrive (I also knew over the year, he would be very very busy..)

Before school started, I had a teaching assistant mandatory training day and I was pretty desperate to make friends... So, I went up and introduced myself to a girl that seemed like she might be someone I could hang out with. She seemed surprised by my directness but let's be honest, I had nothing to lose. Her name was Melanie and I must say that over the course of the next two years, we became good friends, and she made my time in Winnipeg much more enjoyable.

After finally starting school, I still hadn't met too many people. I was the new girl. It didn't take me time to realize that many graduate students did their undergrad at the University of Manitoba (UofM) as well.. and many of them also went to highschool and elementary school together. I learnt fast that many individuals in Winnipeg had a set group of friends and didn't need to be friends with me. It was like a slap in the face. So many people being so nice to you, yet no one really wanting to hang out with you. I still stand by the comment I made during that first week of school, "Winnipegers are clique". It isn't really their fault, they have a great group of friends, have a dynamic with their group going, why change that? I did make a few friends but a lot of those individuals would hang out with me but would never introduce me to their group of friends. Needless to say, as the weeks went on and I still hadn't made very many friends, I was starting to get lonely.

After talking to one of my good friends back home, he mentioned that this girl he used to work with years ago just moved to Winnipeg (he learnt about this via Facebook). He offered to randomly message her (they hadn't spoken in a while) and he proceeded to set me up on a blind friend date. Yes, I went. Why wouldn't I? A possible Torontonian to hang out with, why not? So I met Kaila for cheesecake. Best decision I ever made.

Over the course of the first couple of months, I had made a few friends. I would hang out with Kaila all the time often. My roommate had made a good friend in her program, so Kaila and I would hang out with the two of them sometimes, and sometimes, I would go hang out with my law friend and his crew. I began to realize that going to school, being a TA, and hanging out with some friends was not enough to fill my time. I was still lonely. I started applying to part-time jobs, found a yoga studio, and started trying out gyms. I missed home and was very home sick. This is how I felt in September/October and to be honest, this feeling was pretty constant until April/May (pretty much my full first year there). Moving to a place where you don't know anyone is hard. I get it, so if you just made a big move to a place where you don't know anyone.. I know how you feel!!

I promise these posts will not just be me omplaining. I had some amazing times in my first year... those to come in part 2.

Stay tuned!

So I thought that I would have some themes running throughout my blog so I decided that Thursday starts with the letter T and so does Travel (and I love to travel). I am that annoying person in the office that is so jealous of everyone else going on vacation when I have just returned... It's like a drug, I never can get enough. These are the days (and there are many) when I truly wish I was a trust-fund kid that could travel the world and not work.

So Thursday posts will be about my random travels throughout the world. Amazing places I've seen, fabulous people I have met, and the many stupid things that I have done (mostly in my teenage years/early 20s).

Barcelona & Madrid

A few years ago, I traveled to Spain, first stop Barcelona. Barcelona is a gorgeous city with many offerings: a beautiful beach, marvelous shopping, fantastic food, and an overall big city atmosphere (being a city girl, we all know I appreciate this). I see many parallels between Barcelona and Toronto, most likely why I liked it there so much. If I could speak Spanish, I might even consider living there.

This city is easy to navigate, easy to bicycle in (I never came close to death like my numerous times in Toronto), and generally very friendly people. One of my favourite things that Barcelona has to offer, other than the beaches, is the Picasso Museum. After a visit to my favourite Picasso Museum, I bought a print of one of his paintings… Sadly to say, after hauling it around for another week, I left it on a train, and it never made it back to Toronto. I really hope that whoever found my print firstly, knew who painted it, and secondly, appreciated it as much as I would have.

So, after leaving Barcelona, we made our way to Madrid, where I didn’t feel nearly as at home as I did in Barcelona. From Madrid, we were supposed to hop on a plane to Italy. Because of the volcanic ash, that never happened. Our plane got cancelled and our dreams of eating pasta and drinking cheap wine were crushed within minutes. Needless to say, we decided to make our way to France earlier (I was not protesting!). However, all trains that went to France left from Barcelona. We made our way to the train stop with hours, upon hours to spare… We wondered around... waiting for our train back to Barcelona… about 1 hour before our train was set to leave, I looked at our tickets and discovered we were at the wrong train station (there are 2 in Madrid). I have never had to pack up my stuff, find out where to go and get a cab as quickly as that. You know that scene in the movies where someone is running to the train as it is slowly taking off, and then the person jumps into the train, I lived that! You are probably shaking your head in disbelief, but I am serious. The guys on the train had to yell, "just jump on, anywhere!” Back to Barcelona we went.


This is in the Train Station in Madrid... yes IN the train station (the wrong one, this is when we thought we had hours to kill before our train left).

  Things I learned while being in Barcelona once twice:

1.      Having a large group of foreign men (preferably big men) is helpful ward off local creeps in the clubs (my friend would agree, she got her camera pickpocketed by a local she was dancing with!)

2.      Speaking Spanish would have been very helpful. You think that yelling explaining to the cab driver where to go in English would be easy, well, it’s not.. especially when they take you to the wrong place

3.      Take a card of where you are staying out with you… Wandering the streets in a foreign city where you don’t speak the language did not seem overly safe

4.      If you wonder into the city tour store on La Rambla, you will probably meet the staff who are willing to sell you drugs and take you to parties… (If someone ever goes, let me know how that goes for you, I turned down that offer)

5.      If you don’t like rice that much, you won’t like paella. I have had enough paella (2 times) to last me a lifetime.

If you ever want advice on where to eat, stay, visit while you are in any of the cities I write about, just send me an email: Ashley.mary.hall@gmail.com I would be happy to share my thoughts.

Also, when I run out of places I’ve been to, expect annoying posts about the gorgeous places I want to travel to!

 

Hello world

So, it's just another ordinary hump day... except for one thing, today I have finally decided to start a blog. After searching around for various types of blogs I could have, I have settled on a lifestyle blog, really this just seems like the best blog for me. An outlet where I can write about anything from food to traveling to make-up. It's a blog where I don't have to make up my mind but can write about the world as I see it, in my perspective, and express my opinions. You may not agree with everything I have to say, which is fine, but hopefully at one point or another, you will at least find it interesting or entertaining.

So I will tell you a little about myself... where to begin? Well, I'm 24 living in Toronto... And finally, after many years of not being sure and wondering if I should settle down somewhere other than Toronto, I have decided that really I just love Toronto.... There's no where else I want to be. This might be because 1. I lived in Winnipeg and it was hell interesting 2. I am such a city girl 3. As much as I love to travel, I love to come home.

Me during my first visit to Paris, j'adore!

I love clothes. I have a lot. Also, shoes. Have a lot of those as well... I also love design, photography, crafts, and a lot of random artistic-ish things. I also love coffee and Starbucks.

What else can I say? I currently work at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in the Nicotine Dependence Clinic (so no, I do not smoke). I do an energy exchange at the Yoga Sanctuary at Danforth and Broadview every Saturday and love it. I did a Masters of Arts at the University of Manitoba (I see a blog in the near future about my life in the peg) and I went to York University for my Honours BA in Psychology.

I have recently moved to the Danforth neighbourhood in Toronto and am in love. I am always trying out new restaurants and clothing stores in the city, so stay tuned for those. I am itching to bike to work when the weather gets warmer (maybe that will change once I start biking and almost die). I used to have a dog (for 13 years) named Daisy, a wheaten terrier, and miss her dearly... I love dogs, anyone who knows me, knows that I am actually a little nuts when it comes to dogs. The crazy lady that stops to pet any adorable dog, stares at all the dogs walking by, and frequents dog breeding websites for fun, yeah... that's me (guilty...). I see you shaking your head, it's okay, I would be too. The day will come when I eventually get another dog, but until that time, I will be that stalker person asking to pet your dog.

That was my gorgeous dog, Daisy. Miss her so much!

My life has some pretty amazing ups: great boyfriend, amazing friends, some great adventures traveling, etc. 
Of course, there are always the downs: what seems like constant dental problems and finding out you are unable to eat dairy and are allergic to eggs (my struggles with that to come)

All in all, I got it pretty good. And I would love to share it with you.

So follow me, as I begin this new journey, writing my first blog (well.. I used to have a livejournal like every other 15 year old out there... but I don't think that qualifies).

You may also follow me on Twitter @Ms_AshleyH
Or on Linkedin for my Professional Network