In the summer of 2011, I did the obligatory European trip. One of my friends was studying in Regensburg, Germany. The home of the previous Pope. It was an exciting year. I made it to 5 or 6 different countries with my Eurorail pass. I was happy that I was under 25 and could still travel with a youth pass. Luckily, I had a few friends dotted all over Europe due to my experience in Japan and was able to meet with a few people in Europe even though I was traveling primarily by myself. 

If I can remember correctly, my travels began in London and parts of the UK, mainly Hereford. It was fun, met some friends. Drank a lot of beer and cider. Was gleeful when I found out that there was something called half-pints and went through a maze. We had ice cream too!

This is the hedge maze. One of the great wonders of (Edit) England...It actually was very pretty and I had a great time. And there's a lovely Welsh man in the middle of the maze taking a photo. 

Next I went to the Netherlands, primarily Amsterdam. It was nice. Lots of canals, a lot of coffee shops. I never knew how prolific the amount of weed in Amsterdam was until I actually went there. All in all it was neat. The beaches were lovely and I saw a lot of miniature figurines, went to probably the most awesome zoo ever called Burgers Zoo. Saw snakes in jars...Which really just reminded me of Chinese liquor. Food wasn't (isn't) great in the Netherlands. Got confirmation from a Japanese girl who lives in Amsterdam today. I'm not imagining that the food is crap. But they do have some awesome Turkish foods. 

Next came Germany, Regensburg and Munich to be exact. I met up with my dear friend who I've known since I was 12 or 13 years old. We had awesome ice cream and chocolates in Germany. It was also the first time I've ever had schnitzel. Very exciting experience.

 Als my first döner. Which was also tasty and nice. Not my last döner by the way. I've had a lot more since then.

 Potato, meat and beer at the Hofbräuhaus in München. Was great fun. I got drunk off a stein of beer. Ate a lot while in Germany. 

 Had tasty dessert cakes and coffee with my lovely friend. And wonderful frolicking was done in Germany woods. 

 Also had my first real German bratwurst. 

Great time hiking in Müchen.

Copenhagen was beautiful.

 Next real food experience was of a Danish pastry with my favorite Dane. We had an awesome time with delicious pastries and the beauty that is Copenhagen. 

Back to Hamburg, Köln, Amsterdam, Limburg to Belgium. Had delicious belgian waffles. This particular one had apples stuffed inside. Was very, very tasty. Can't get enough of them waffles. 

After catching a flight from Belgium my Danish friend and I met up again in Ireland. Yes, I do end up in Ireland and London a lot. We travelled around Dublin, Killarney, Kilkenny, Limerick and Cork together. It was wonderful. We had delicious food, with delicious meaty goodness and also some rather in expensive sushi. It was nice. We also met a few characters. Notably an old gentle man that gave us a ride back to our hostel and took us to his garden. He gave us fruit there. It could've been very scary because of all my Korean horror movie watching ways. But it was nice, he had cute dogs. 

The hikes in Ireland were really breath taking. Later I travelled to Belfast myself and saw Giant's Causeway and had some delicious curry while I was in Belfast. Belfast was really, really nice. I enjoyed every minute of it. Had a real nice feeling for the city and there shops, restaurants and even hostel were really welcoming. I loved it.

If you can't tell by now, I'm a real big fan of Ireland and it's nature. It's BEAUTIFUL. Too bad the food's not great. But I had a fantastic chicken Vindaloo. 

Next I met up again with my old friend in London and we went to see Much Ado About Nothing with David Tennant and Catherine Tate and then to the Doctor Who Experience in London. It was a once and a life time experience...and so concludes my travel experience of 2011. 

Past Travel - Food

I've been VERY nostalgic today. It could be that it's because I'm avoiding the trials and tribulations of my thesis or I am sick and I want to comfort myself with nicer, healthier and easier times. Or a mixture of the two. But I went looking back at old food photos I've taken over the last four or five years now. I want to share my food experiences from my travels with you. My 2 blog visitors. I hope you enjoy them as I have.

I guess I should start with the oldest first and move my way closer to the present?

Spring 2009 - Ireland and UK 

In 2009, I experienced my first real trip away from home. I went to Ireland and the UK with my brother. Mainly focused in Dublin and London. We stayed in the rather ghetto part of Dublin on the cheap and then took the ferry into Liverpool and a train to London. Was a good experience and my first real taste of being abroad (China with my mom doesn't count).

Of course we tried the obligatory fish and chips. Well, I tried chicken and chips. My brother had the fish and chips. It was at the "best" fish and chips shop in Dublin...somehow I doubt it but you never know.

We had even more fried food there, a nice Uncle Ben's chicken sandwich - I mean Uncle Ben's Cabin, why not? Sadly it tasted exactly how it looked. Fried, greasy and not what I expected from Uncle Ben.

 After finding out that Irish food was pretty bland and getting tired of fried foods we tried the Wagamama in Ireland, a chain Japanese restaurant. Which, was OK. We were quite honestly too poor to afford to dine out in Ireland.

But there were some saving graces about Irish food. For instance Irish stew really does rock. The Guinness made it all the better.

 Once we arrived in London we knew that Chinese restaurants and Asian restaurants in general were the cheapest way to dine without dying on fastfood. So we had some awesome Ramen in Chinatown. Ramen eventually became a theme for me as I travelled.

We aslo discovered that they have BBQ cuttle fish along with Peking duck. Who knew?

For the trip in total I learned a few things. For example, Lays potato chips are called Walkers in the UK and Ireland and the Irish drink a lot more beer than I first thought.

Oh! and never order lasagna in Ireland, it's too much cheese. I never knew that was a thing, but it is. There can be too much cheese.

Winter 2009 - UK and Canada

After my first trip to Ireland and the UK I caught the traveling bug. During the winter of that year I went back to London to see all the extra things and dragged along my beautiful friend. 

 We tried English Tea. It was nice, we also shared a full English breakfast, which was enormous.

 We had awesome desserts. I remember a very awesome profiteroles in chocolate sauce. We even had a tiramisu made for us by an Italian man, who was living at the B&B we stayed at. Actually, I think it was already made but he served it to us.  We also had lots of pub food and lots of beer too.

 We tried digestive cookies

 And saw humorous signs and handome men

Once again, we knew the importance of ramen and beer. 

Forgot to mention we also enjoyed our fair share of Kinder Eggs and candies.

The Dark Times 2009 - Canada

 So on our flight home we were ment to fly home with a layover in Calgary Canada. There was a massive snow storm though. So the airline suggested we go to Regina, which landed us in Regina for roughly 4 days and up until Christmas day. It really was a Christmas miracle that we made it home, considering there was talk about flights being grounded till New Years. 

 During that time we ate donuts and drank coffee from Tim Hortons and became chummy with the flight staff, especially Dale. We also found out that Canadians are the nicest people on Earth, learned some Canadianisms, eh and got offered cookies from strangers, places to stay and booze. Sadly it was a very hectic time and there was a hockey championships in the city!!! And of course there was 3 plus feet of snow and -26 C degrees out which made it impossible to leave.

 So we ate pizza and watched movies a lot of the time. Though I do remember a Canadian waitress who was quite nice...

Eventually we made it home! YAY! I believe it was at 7 pm and we were over joyed! It's a bit sad that we lost all our Canadianisms though.

Here's a picture of our predicament and all the boarding passes we accumulated due to the booking and rebooking process!

2010 Spring - San Francisco Bay Area

The horrible experience of being locked down in Canada didn't scare me away from traveling though! In the spring of 2010 I went to San Francisco for 4 days before moving along south towards LA to see my sister. While I was there I was able to meet one of my favorite people in the world Carlos!

I saw bread baked as animals!

Had some Thai food, enjoyed some awesome drinks and saw the wonderful sights. 

Dun...dun...duuuuun...I'm going to leave the rest of 2010 and 2011 for another post. Do let me know if this is boring or if you want to see more. Not sure why that would matter much though. I'll probably do it anyhow.