The Briar Patch

 There is an AMAZING website called with locals. My wife looked into a bike tour through them. To be honest, I was slightly worried it wasn't going to be good. Not the tour, I was sure that would be, but the day before we got a phone call, our guide asked if we could change our 11 – 2 tour to 2 – 5 or something. We couldn't do that as that time would be right when we were to meet up with our actual tour. We told him no, and that worried me. Did we screw up his day, and he wouldn't care about giving us a good tour? I should learn to be more optimistic, I guess. We met with Claudio at 11, and he was perfectly on time, got us hooked up with everything we needed, and started the tour. Claudio was amazing! I want to thank him again and feel bad that I ever doubted. Also, I highly recommend With Locals. If they are all as good as he was, you will get a fantastic tour with someone who knows the city. Once we got on our tour bus, everywhere we stopped, we had a guided tour, and I w...

 We landed at Fiumicino "DaVinci" airport. This one was slightly more stressful, trying to find the correct baggage terminals, and unlike landing in Paris, we were not VIPs, so our baggage did not come out first; it did come out, though, and it was fine. We also had no problem finding our driver, which was more convenient than in Paris, and the driver was much better than the French driver earlier in the day. He didn't speak much English, but he was a cheerful old guy. It is only 22 km to the Hotel Midas, where we stayed, so the commute wasn't long, but this gentleman got a tip. I did not know that it was owned by the Barcelo Group, but I was not surprised. I stayed at a Barcelo in Mexico, which was rather nice. So is the Midas. We were staying there, honestly, because it was easy. Our official tour group was starting here, so when we arrived a day early, staying in the same place was much easier than changing hotels. Midas is a hotel I would recommend. No, it isn...

SO school has been insane. I dont really have time to blog but I do need a break now and then, so this is a quick one on lunches and coffees when I am not doing school shit. It is a mix of a few things that have been on my mind and a bit of pop culture. Sorry if it is edited for shit and hard to read.... Who are you? Who do you wanna be? Do you ever think about that shit? Events in my life made me think about it. Strangely enough I am taking marketing right now and since a lot of psychology (kind of scary that marketers want in your head) is in it, my school brought up the same question. For example it can broken down into 3 parts. What do you want in life, what are your goals and dreams. Second what are you values and morals and last what is your lifestyle? I NEVER really thought about that kind of stuff and I wonder how many people actually do. I have always just lived and done things somewhat impulsive. Bit of back story, roughly 18 years ago my dad was a sales rep for an oil compan...

So I just went on a fantastic trip. Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Verona, Athens, Kalambaka and Delfi. While it wasn't a life-changing trip, it was eye-opening. It is a vast world out there, and there is much more to it than we have here in North America. So I don't know how long this will be, maybe two entries. I have a bit of memories and thoughts about my trip. We in North America are not nearly as big a deal as we think. Over in Europe, unless the states are starting a war, they don't think about North America. Mostly, they are just laughing at Trump and his trial. Canada doesn't even come up. Most of us know about Rome, Paris, and Athens. All those places might know in Canada would be Toronto or Vancity. Barely anyone had even heard of Edmonton or Alberta. I didn't expect them to know much, but not even knowing of Edmonton blew my mind. So we flew to Paris. Charles De Gaulle Airport is a shit show. First, the people are rude and rush you through. As a North Am...