Ah, New Zealand: land of lakes, mountains, fiords, adventure sports, Lord of the Rings, sheep, and colorful thermal pools.
On the latter front, the North Island is home to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, where volcanic activity manifests in brightly colored pools and geysers.
I didn’t plan much beyond excessive coffee consumption and decompression from 5 months of backpacking in Asia for my 2.5 weeks in London en route home – but one thing I knew I wanted to do was take a boat trip on the Thames.
I was a little late to jump on the Instagram bandwagon – though it certainly wasn’t by choice, resistance, or ignorance. Verizon didn’t start carrying the iPhone until February 2011, so really they’re to blame for my late start.
On my way back from a year abroad in Sydney Australia in 2006, I decided to break up the hideously-long flight home to Hartford by stopping for a few days in Los Angeles.
Sure, I was excited to try poutine and explore Mount Royal, but the thing I was most psyched for on my first visit to Montreal? Cycling around the Montreal waterfront.
On my over-ambitious, super cheap 2-week trip to Spain in 2011, I went out of my way to stop in Seville. In retrospect, I should have skipped it – but how was I to know I wouldn’t completely love it there?
Much like how decorative art is everywhere in India, street art is everywhere in Montreal. It fast became one of my favorite things about this city.
First, let’s clarify what is meant by street art:
In my mind, street art is done with the intent of bringing art to a community.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from my wilderness-chasing roadtrips, it’s that cramming too much driving into one day is no bueno. Cramming too much of anything into ANY trip is not good.
I’ve done the halloween parade, gone apple picking, visited the county farm, done a corn maze, gone wine tasting, carved pumpkins, and leaf peeped. In fact, I’ve done most of these things multiple times and they’re still fun – but what’s a semi-jaded New York City dweller to do to jazz up her fall and pretend like the inevitable god-awful winter is not upon us?
So you’ve got a London trip planned. You’re gonna bop around town on the Tube every day to get from your ho(s)tel to Buckingham Palace to Westminster to god knows where.