Ireland: Arrival and Shannon

I arrived almost 3 months ago in this wonderful and friendly country also known as Ireland. I had the time to settle, find a good and nice place, get used to the new workplace, meet new people and make new friends. I know I should have updated the blog before, but I was either lazy or busy, but today, since I woke up at 8am, I decided to start writing about Ireland.

I will start then with Shannon, the place I live at the moment in.

On the 6th of January I arrived in Ireland, after the Christmas break in Italy.
Dublin welcomed me with a nice rainy day.
After having waited few hours at the airport for getting a bus going to Limerick, I finally reached Shannon with the help of the taxi hired by the company.

The first week I stayed in a B&B, very nice and comfortable.
During that week I looked for a place and luckily after only few days I found a nice apartment right in the city center, 20 mins away from the workplace by walk.
The only way to quickly show and describe the town is to show you the pictures I have taken.

So, here are some pictures. Enjoy:

[Main Street, next to the Sky Court (the Mall in the city center)]

Pit Stop in Paris

Hey fellows,

I finally figured out how to view the pics on FB in the old way, so I take the good news and update once again the blog with a previous trip I did.
The word ‘trip’ is maybe incorrect, maybe pit stop would suit it better, since I stayed there half a day, but I still could see a good part of the city centre of Paris.
I basically planned to pick two flights far from each other in order to have the time to visit Paris.
I did not realize that the airport in Paris was so far from the city itself. So, I stayed something like 4 hours in total.

I expected Paris to be waaay better, you know the ‘city of love’, so romantic and wonderful. I can’t say it was ugly, but all those rumors and reviews gave me different eyes. I can say that it was pretty crowded and full of life, way more than in Rome, but I would not say it is the best city in Europe. In fact, the city centre was filled of people trying to sell souvenirs of the Eiffel Tower and France. Every 50m you could see someone with at least a hundred of these little towers.

I just leave you with some pics of the capital of France, Paris!

Holiday resume #3 – Sweden (Sverige)

Hi there,

I know I know, I am ashamed of myself… 4 months of delay… But I have been quite busy lately, but I will try to catch up and explain the reasons why it took me ages to write something again.

The third part of my holiday is located in Sweden, and it lasted 7 days, from Oct 4 to Oct 11.
I chose Sweden for many reasons: for visiting a dear friend, who lives there, visiting the country, and checking out the universities and the campuses, since one of my plans is to start studying in Sweden.

My first stop: Stockholm.

[View of Stockholm]

After landing in Nyköping and a couple of hours, I managed to reach my first destination: Stockholm.
I have been gladly impressed by the city. It is a wonderful city, well kept and the people I met were open and friendly and with an extremely good English.

[Stockholm Downtown]

I wandered around Stockholm and I first went to visit my first University, the Stockholm University, where I got some depliants and some general info about studying in Sweden. I also met a wonderful
person while going around the University, we spent only few hours together but we became quickly friends, and we still are in touch. She is a very pretty, smart and funny movie director and she studies and lives in Stockholm. She came with me around Stockholm looking for a hidden University, when we found it, it was closed :O.

[Stockholm Downtown]

Holiday resume #2 – Abruzzo

Hello guys,

so December is almost here, and the snow arrived, late but it arrived.
Many news and many changes happened in just 1 week, good and bad things, that’s the life.
I am not going to say anything for now, since nothing is sure yet.

Anyway, where were we? Oh yes, Rome. [Here is the first part]
After Rome I went to Pescara (city in the region of Abruzzo) to meet a friend of mine who I met in Canada, Giovanni.
I went there by train. It took some time so I read a book and in the meantime I could enjoy the wonderful landscape that was before my eyes.

I arrived at night and after few minutes I met with the guy.
We hugged and he brought me to eat.

In Abruzzo, there are  many typical dishes, we are in Italy at the end, but the most famous one is called ‘Arrosticini’.
It is grilled sheep meat, very thin, but good.
You usually order them saying the number. For instance, he said “We’d like to have 30 Arrosticini”.
Here is a picture of them:

They do not look so awesome, but if you try them…. welll, you must try them!

My friend is living in Ortona, a small village where during the WWII a battle has been fought. It was a massacre, but thanks to Canadian troops after a long battle the city was free.
We also visited the cemetery in honour of these soldiers who fought for the freedom of those people.
Here is some pics from Ortona:

[Passeggiata Orientale]

Holiday resume #1 – Rome

Hello guys,

here I am, in this snowy day in Canada, and I am going to try to resume my holiday in Europe, as I promised.

It is going to be tough and long, since it lasted almost 2 months, but somewhere I must start.

I passed my first month in Italy, of course.
I spent most of my time with my close friends, my family, and my parents.
Around the end of the month of September I went to my first location: Rome.

Yes, that’s a shame, I’ve never been in Rome before. But there is always a first time .
Well, even before going there I was almost sure I wouldn’t like it, I am more a ‘nature-wild animal-village’ guy, I’m not into city life stuff.
When I arrived there, I was even more sure I was right, so many people running around, all stressed and unfriendly with ‘tourists’.
But later on I managed to change my mind…

PS. This post contains pictures already posted before, but is for a complete resume. Sorry about that

[Link to the post --- Here ]

[ Piazza della Repubblica ]

My whole trip has a major issue, not a single ATM wanted to let me withdraw a single Euro from my Canadian account. I will not spend words on it, but believe me, being in Rome or later on in Abruzzo without a cent is not nice.
In the first afternoon in Rome, I contacted a guy I met on Couchsurfing.org (a website where people can contact other people who are offering their couches or their beds to others) and he told me that he hasn’t been able to come to Rome, but he had a friend at his place and he could contact her and then let me know if I still could go there.
After several minutes of impatience I got another phone call where he gave me her phone number and told me something about her: she is doing an internship in RAI (the Italian national public televesion/radio company).

After setting up with her time and place, I continued my journey around Rome, the wonderful Rome I should say.
I reached the Vittoriano:

An amazing building in honour of Vittorio Emanuele II. It is my favourite building in Rome.

Snowy Halloween Party

Hello guys,

so how did your halloween ‘trick or treat’ day go?
Here where I live in Canada that night was awesomely cold and snowy. Some colleagues invited us all at their place where they made up a very good looking party: with a scene of crime (blood around the house, blood in the bathtub, graveyard on the garden and a dead body hanged outside).
Almost everyone had a costume, even me that I had almost no time to prepare it. In fact I tried to use some ideas and made up an easy and quick costume: the drunken businessman (see picture, I got the idea from that exact picture).

The night went smooth at at a certain point I started playing some Italian cartoon soundtracks, good old days *sniff.
So we had the chance to let other people enjoy the music we were used to sing when we were child *tears.

Right now the snow had gone and so the halloween atmosphere.
Well, now waiting for Christmas, New Year’s eve.
I am going to plan a trip somewhere for New Year’s eve, something like Boston or else; still deciding.

New pictures are going to come, as well as a resume of my previous trips with some of the best pics.

For now,

Have a nice day, weekend and night.

Peace,

Nesh

Back to Canada!!

Hello fellows,

after many troubles with the immigration lasted almost 3 hours in the border, I’m back and active in Canada.
I arrived yesterday and in the very same day the first snow fell. And it was what I’ve been waited for so long .
I am going to post several pics of the first snow, this is the second day it snows, and I hope it is going to remain. In fact I am looking forward to start snowboarding, building up forts, castles and quinzees (see picture below). I’ve already planned many things to try to do with the snow. Last year it has been a ‘baby winter’ (as we called it), in fact it wasn’t that cold.

[Quinzee - a mountain of snow with a hole inside. Different from Igloos]

I anyone has any suggestion or cool ideas about what to do during winter time and with snow and ice, I would appreciate any conseil

Enjoy, peace and happy halloween.

Italian vacances – Rome

Hello,

after a long period I’m back. I have been very busy during this long month. Most of the time I travelled: around my hometown, Rome, Abruzzo (an Italian region) and then Sweden.
I also used my time to stay with my family and with my friends.
In this post I won’t spend too much time talking, I will show you instead.

[Vittoriano - Rome]

 

[Vittoriano - Rome]

Half-day Off in Sainte-Adèle

Hello fellows,

after an amazing weekend in Quebec City, today, I found the tiem for posting something new.

Last week, I took half day off from work for going to the dentist, afterwards I went around the small village I live in.
I ended up going to a place I like, because it always has something interesting to take pics of.

And even that day I found something to do.

[View of the river next to work]

[Another view of the aforementioned river]

[Every picture has been taken by me with a Nikon D5000]

Otakuthon 2010 – Anime Convention August 13-14-15

Hola there,

finally I found some spare time to write a post. I am so ashamed, lately I have been so busy that I could not sit and write something on the blog.
I will try to resume my last week in this post, trying not to mess up things.

I’ll start with the Anime Convention in Montrèal: Otakuthon.
It was on August 13-14-15 and it was simply awesome.
That was my first time on an anime convention, and I really enjoyed the time there.
I have seen many people and I’ve taken so many pics.

I felt like being a professional photographer, going around a camera asking people for pictures.

There were many cosplayers (people who dress up like a fictional character, from animes, comics or movies), some of them were amazingly similar, others were just funny and original with their ideas.

[Alice in Wonderland]

[Princess Mononoke]

[Lulu - Final Fantasy X]