Travel Travel Travel

     I decided that I am really bad at updating this blog in a timely manner- I apologize and I will try to work on that. This past week I have done enough traveling around the Northeast to last (well I don't know about a lifetime- but I would say a good while!) Mike and I drove down to Nashua New Hampshire (from Burlington) early last Wednesday for a fun-filled and novaicain-filled dentist appointment. Then we stopped by Londonderry where my mother tested our hearing and we were treated to a delicious lunch! The next stop on our journey was Cumberland Maine, where Mike's family lives. We stopped by Freeport to check out the sale at polo and then waited for an hour and a half while Mike's snow tires were put on his car. (and its a good thing because the next day Maine got a big snowstorm!) The next morning, Mike, his sister, Katie and I, went out to breakfast at this really cool restaurant where I got granola-encrusted French toasts! YUM!
     To spare all of you more boring details, I will speed up my stories a bit and get to the good parts. That night (Thursday I think it was) we drove all the way back to Burlington with a pit stop in Bedford to have dinner with Hannah, Sam and my Dad. We spent the night in Burlington and the next day we woke up early for SKIING at Jay peak. The conditions couldn't have been better!
     Now for the EXCITING part of my weekend with PICTURES! So in my last post I reflected on how I was so lucky to haver the things I have and to be able to do the things I can do (to be as vague as possible haha-) Well the thing I am most tankful fro would I guess be my mobility. I love that I am able to hop into a car and drive to someplace that is so different from where I am right now. It makes me so happy. I love exploring.
     So to make the most of my last two weeks here- Mike and I decided to take a one night trip to Canada (Montreal again) after our day of skiing in Vermont. Now this wasn't any ordinary trip to Montreal--no. This was different because it involved a little something called IGLOOFEST! Ever heard of it? Well now you have. Their website can be checked out here: http://www.igloofest.ca/en/ . Basically it is a giant outdoor concert in the snow. On the river. In Montreal. Surrounded by ice sculptures, Igloos and dupstep music. What more could one ask for? (well I admit they could use a bit of variation in the music- I'm not the biggest fan of dubstep.) I have never seen anything like it! It was sooo cool! Check out some of the pics Mike took on his phone: (they weren't the best quality because they were taken from his iphone but it's better than nothing)

Haha this is from our drive to Montreal. Clearly the Quebecois don't believe in plows

This picture above is the hotel room- we stayed in this strangely modern and stark hotel called L'hotel Zero 1 (check out some more pics on there website here)

We had a beautiful view of Vieux Montreal from the room!

  Huge Sapporo ice sculpture- I guess sapporo sponsored the whole thing but there were other ice sculptures like this all over the place!

 The stage where the DJs were- you can't really see it but there were these crazy lights all over the place that went at the beat of the music. Also- Canadians are really good at dancing to electronic music; they got the little bounce thing down- I felt like a bit of a fool.

 There were these balconies where you could go up and dance as well- Look how many people there were on the dance floor though!

 More igloos and ice sculptures (note the capitol building in the background) It was sooo beautiful there!!!!!!!

 There were also these "bar tents" set up that served special igloofest drinks-

 Moi et mon petit (I apologize for the 'graininess' of the picture)

 The next day: After a delicious breakfast, waiting for the metro to start our next adventure!

 In addition to not believing in plows, the Quebecois do not believe int censoring the ads in pubic places; such as the subway (either that or they may not realize the vulgarity of the english word "fuck")

 The beautiful Saint Joseph's Oratory

 It was so cold that day! Like zero degrees- I was so bundled up!!!

 Inside the oratory- The ceilings were so high. It was interesting to see the comparison between this and the Notre Dame Basilica that we visited last weekend. This was larger and more stark than that of Notre Dame. 

 I loved the stations of the cross in the oratory- they were these huge marble carvings around the walls of the columns in the church. I had never seen anything like it before. 

 Beautiful organ. I am always amazed at the grandeur of the organs in churches such as these.

 Saint Joseph's petit chapelle. You had to walk outside to get to this one. This was one of the first stages of Saint Joseph's oratory. There was a monastery across the street and a few small chapels such as this until they decided to build the huge dome. The construction of the dome took a few decades to complete.

 This was the shrine to Saint Joseph- behind this was a little alcove in which his tomb was located.

 Indoor market in Petit Italie- there were some really cool international spice shops within this which we checked out

The mothership of Quebec Beer!

Well thanks for stopping by! This is probably going to be one of my last updates before my trip! (of course I say that but I doubt that will actually be true- I am sitting here at the house while all of my friends are back in class so I really have nothing better to do.) But you all better get excited for some of my big trip updates in a week! One week from today I will be on a plane to Johannesburg South Africa and then onto Antananarivo!

~Much Love~