The Great English Festival

I've never been drawn to Festivals. The idea of camping in a field with 100,000 people who are on their worst behavior just didn't seem worth it to me. But, in the spirit of trying new things and seeing as the English have a reputation for throwing a hell of a festival I figured now was the time to try. We were told Glastonbury was the craziest and best festival to go to, but it wasn't on this year. There's a number of huge festivals to choose from, but when the line up for Reading this year included Foo Fighters the decision was pretty easy. They're easily my favorite band still active but I hadn't seen them yet - We actually had to sell our tickets to their last Vancouver show because tickets to London were too cheap to pass up only 2 days before. It was almost too perfect to have the chance to make up for that and cross a festival off our list at the same time.

Leading up to the festival we did a little research to see what to expect. The more we read, the more anxiety I started to feel. Rain, mud, shit, piss, teenagers, fights, what the hell were we thinking. Too late to back out though, and you only live once.

We arrived early on Thursday to get a decent spot, and after a 30 minute trek from the car park with all our gear we were inside. The site was absolutely massive, about a 30 minute walk from one side to the other. We had read that we didn't want to be too close to the stages (mayhem), too close to a path (trampled) or too close to the toilets or bushes (toilets). You could also tell what areas looked like they would be mud pits when it rained. We found a spot we liked and set up. We introduced ourselves to our neighbors right away since we were hoping to find some people to party with as well as keep an eye out for our stuff. They happened to be locals, a group of about 10 who were all on at least their 8th Reading festival in a row. We felt pretty good about our spot after finding out the veterans chose it as well. They also happened to be in their mid 20's, which turned out to be a bit of a rare find amongst campers.

The vast majority of people at Reading looked to be under 20, which made me feel pretty old, as well as terrified about having a teenage daughter. I always thought I might be kind of a cool dad, but I would have a pretty hard time letting my daughter go to a place like Reading, and yet there they all were with their 15 year old asses hanging out of short shorts. Scary.

As well as short cut offs, festival wear consisted of a lot of ridiculous fancy dress, further proving the English dress up for everything but Halloween, and Wellies. Wellies are gum boots here, and you can't do a festival without them. We overheard someone say it was the best weather they'd ever seen at Reading, which I guess we should feel good about, but there were periods where it was absolutely pissing and parts of the camp definitely required the wellies.

English Festival Fashion

While wearing a Canucks shirt I got a shout out from a couple walking by who ended up being from Vancouver and on the tail end of a 2 year trip of their own. They were both great people and we wound up spending most of our time in the venue with them, which was a funny coincidence. It was quite easy to make friends there as Canadians, it's an easy thing to talk about and people seem genuinely interested in the novelty of it, I'm really going to miss that. Being Canadian in Canada is boring.

Friday we watched The Hives, Bombay Bicycle Club, Paramore, and The Cure. The Cure had played there 33 years earlier, which is pretty awesome. They put on a great show, but the highlight for me was when Robert Smith said 'I know I don't say a lot, it's not easy for me, but just know that I'm thinkin' it' which just seemed so honest and real, I loved that. They were great.

Secret Green Day show!

There were rumors that Green Day would play a surprise set on Saturday at 12 so we headed in early to check it out, and lucky we did because they did play and they started at 11 and only let a certain amount in so tons of people missed it. I was a huge Green Day fan when I was 15 but never saw them, so it was a perfect surprise gift to my teenage self to get to see that, and we were quite close as well. They played a lot of older stuff and it was a really high energy show, and as Gen pointed out, probably the only time we'll see a concert like that at 11am.

Saturday night was The Shins, Florence and the Machine and Kasabian. It pissed rain for the last 2, which really make it feel like an English summer festival. Florence was great, but she is a weird girl. She was on her knees in the rain patting a puddle at one point.

Sunday was the most anticipated day, starting with Band of Skulls, who we had seen open for The Black Keys in December and really liked. They're our favourite British discovery. Then another cool English band The Kaiser Chiefs followed by The Black Keys and then Foo Fighters. All of them were great, but Dave Grohl was unreal. They played for over 3 hours, and every song was better than the last. He also had his daughter on stage with him, sang Happy Birthday to his mom who was there, and told a lot of personal stories about his time with Nirvana and what the Reading Festival meant to him. He said coming back to headline was one of the most important shows of his life, which was so cool. He had Genevieve in tears a couple times. The sun was shining all day Sunday, and it was just such a great show and perfect finish to the weekend.

Like I said, I was getting really worried leading up to it, I mean I'm 27 and had never been to a festival and I had my reasons for avoiding them. While it was really crazy, and there were obviously a lot of nutters and pissed up teenage boys, it was way more good than bad. We met a lot of really awesome people that we had a great 4 days with, and saw some incredible performances at a legendary event. I'm so glad that we stepped out of our comfort zone again while we were here and tried something that is truly iconic here in England. I couldn't have asked for a better place to go to my first festival and it was a highlight of our time here for sure. Loved Reading 2012!

-Justin

A brief trip to reality

When my good friends Katlin & Kristie got engaged last summer I was really stoked for them, the first of my close friends to tie the knot, so awesome! Then when they set the date for while we were in London I thought, could you be any more self centered? I spent the next 10 months or so on the fence about whether I could really justify spending the time and money to go all the way back to the one part of this great big world that I've seen plenty of. But could I really miss an event like this? For the bulk of the time I was pretty certain I would be passing, leave London during the Olympics, I don't think so. But the closer it got the more I started to realize just how much these two people mean to me, and how much I would regret looking back on the pictures for years to come and not being there with them. Some wise and very selfless coaxing from Genevieve to go on my own made the decision that much easier. It has to be said that she herself missed the wedding of a very good friend (and casual foe of mine) only a couple weeks earlier, and I know she will wish she was there for a long time. It was a really hard decision to pick none, some, or all of things we'd miss while we were away, and it doesn't really seem fair how we came to it, but we did.

To avoid missing any more work than need be I planned the trip the shortest I possibly could, and ended up with a whirlwind 5 day test of jet lag. A couple 30+ hour days and I feel like I came out on top. Coming back only a few months before we plan to move home, I didn't really spend any time looking forward to the trip, more looking past it to how to spend the last couple months here. I only booked it a month prior, so it snuck up on me pretty quick.

Flying in to Vancouver didn't really affect me like I thought it might, and rushing through the city to the ferry I didn't even really give myself time to feel weird to be home. Getting on the ferry on a beautiful summer day gave me my first opportunity to soak it in, and I did. I've always known the Horseshoe Bay and the Howe Sound have to be some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, but after spending some time trying to find rivals I could really appreciate BC's stunning coast. It was nice to be back. That said, 20 minutes in I was still bored of the ferry, hasn't been that long.

It's funny how normal things feel even after it's been longer than usual, and having my dad pick me up and sharing a bite to eat and a ride to Qualicum didn't feel at all like I had come from as far as I just had. Always nice to see the old man.

When I had booked my tickets I figured it'd be a fun surprise not to tell anyone, except of course the bride and best man for any necessary planning. The call to Katlin saying I couldn't make it was a funny kind of awkward, but his face when I walked up to the rehearsal was completely worth it. I knew there was a reason I went. Word spreads quick but I did get to surprise Rick and Cory at the Rod & Gun later that night, where I proceeded to extend my day to 32 hours.

The wedding itself was beautiful, and I felt so honored to stand up there while two of my best friends got married. Since we've all been friends since we were kids, just about everybody at the wedding was quite close and it was an incredible reunion and a wicked party. Something I'm really happy to have made the effort to be a part of.

I got to squeeze in a day trip to Hornby Island with my dad and Daron and a kayaking trip in Nanaimo with my mom before heading back to Vancouver for 1 night with some city friends at the Cambie. It was really nice to get some quality family time in on a trip that was focused on friends. It was also great how much everyone made time for me, you make me feel so special.

I didn't expect to feel more emotional on the ferry into Vancouver as I did on the way to the island, but it definitely hit me then that while I might be from the island, I've spent my adult life in the city and that's the part that felt like going home. Weird.

It was a really quick trip, and while I saw almost everyone important to me at least briefly, as well as swam in the river, drank a caesar and had a teen burger, I didn't go out of my way to experience all that is home because my focus was always looking ahead to the last of my time in London. As great as it was to be a part of that wedding and see all those great people, the more I talked with them the more I realized just how much I have loved my time in London and that I'm not quite ready to settle back into that groove just yet. BC is exactly how I left it and I'm ready for more.

-Justin

The Glamorous London Night Out

London requires a totally different procedure when getting ready for a night out than the average city.

Thursdays and Fridays are big pub nights here, but with most people working a fair distance from where they live or are heading to, and the Tube stopping at midnight, there is no time to go home to shower and change.

For the average receptionist I wouldn't imagine this poses a huge problem. She probably dresses nice for work, and doesn't sweat her face off during the day. But for people in the service industry like myself, (or any other dirty, hot, sweat busting job), it's not such an easy situation.

Dirty Work Shoes

I've become pretty adept at getting ready for an evening out after work now that I've been here for almost a year. Granted, on my best day with hours of prep I wouldn't be able to compare to the drop dead gorgeous Eastern European women who casually stroll down the sidewalks in droves, but I've learned to work with what I've got.

Number one: You NEED aerosol deodorant. I still use my trusty Canadian pit stick (to use the classy term) every morning, but aerosol is a must for when the job is finished. It not only masks the smell of a ten hour shift, but it leaves you feeling oddly cool and refreshed.

Number two: Don't wear makeup to work. Now this might be difficult if you aren't used to seeing yourself au natural, but this prevents the after work re-do which usually just looks like you've caked on makeup over sweat... because you have. Besides, who really cares what customers think of you? It's the cool people you are trying to impress! Bring the makeup essentials to work, wash your face after your shift, and then apply a fresh look. Ideally you should just carry a second set of makeup with you so you're not constantly transferring things from your home makeup bag to your purse. But that would require a bigger income than I have.

Last is the clothes. Different shoes are an absolute must. God forbid you wear your coffee stained runners for an evening out. Bring a whole new outfit to change into and leave your old work clothes in a bag at the shop. You wouldn't want to be carrying a plastic Sainsburys bag with you when you meet up with your potential new friends. That would just look stupid.
If your clothes aren't dry, because no one in this country has a dryer, you better pray you work somewhere you can discreetly hang your favourite pair of jeans so they dry by the time your shift is over. I did this on Tuesday, and it was awesome.

If you follow all these tips you're almost guaranteed to look at least acceptable in London social situations. No one has to know that mere moments before you were scooping old food out of a drain, or were on your knees cleaning shelves for an hour. Hopefully people will look at you and think "she looks clean and lovely, she must be a receptionist and I want to be her friend!" or something similar. Actually, all I hope for is that I can disguise how much of a disaster I feel like. Lately I think I have been quite successful at doing just that.

Gen

On Rhodes

Obviously our impending departure from London evokes a lot of emotion, but I'm not really ready to put that to words yet, so here's a little about our trip to Greece.

My friend Cole does a lot of traveling for work so when we first got to London I made sure to keep in touch in case we could meet up somewhere in Europe for a vacation. We came up with Greece in July. His girlfriend, Catherine, who's also a friend from high school, happened to be in Switzerland for a couple weeks before so the timing was great. Her sister Maddie and her boyfriend Josh, who happen to live in London as well, were also keen to go so we had a crew big enough for a villa. Add Cole's friend Pryce, who was on a European vacation of his own, and the couch was full too, as it should be on any great trip.

No one was too fussy about where in Greece, and luckily it all looked pretty great so our options were wide open and we ended up with Rhodes, specifically the village of Lindos. Everyone else could only do 5 nights so Genevieve and I decided to spend the first couple nights in hotel in another town called Faliraki since we wanted a full 8 days in the sun.

I would never have chosen a hot destination in July since it seems a waste to leave where you're at in the only nice part of the year. Lucky for us the months leading up to the trip were easily the shittiest April-July I have ever seen. Without this trip (and our spontaneous Mallorca trip) to look forward to I would have lost it.

Faliraki is well known as a party town for European (mostly English) kids to go get loser pissed and hook up. We'd read this a bit, and a colorful story from our English friends confirmed this. Think The Inbetweeners Movie. There are a number of these places on the Med and I was curious to see one for myself.

The beach was beautiful, as they all seem to be, and the town was alright, but definitely a bit run down and dingy in the bright sunlight. Not many people were far from the beach or pool during the day. Our hotel was pretty cheap, but well reviewed and actually really nice. The pool was fantastic and the bar/restaurant beside it had great people and cheap beer. In 45 degree heat we didn't stray far. At night Faliraki is completely different, tons of people out and about and lots of bright lights of bars and clubs that change the atmosphere.

A great part of the weather in Greece is how much time you can spend outside, all the bars and restaurants were almost entirely under the stars. Our first night there lined up with a massive beach rave that everyone in town was talking about, and we watched ten coaches worth of people leave the strip for it. We were feeling a bit too old and wanted to enjoy the next day so we decided to take it easy, which ended up being drinking vodka and watching the lights from down the beach until 3am.

We rented a scooter and cruised over to a couple bays for some snorkeling the next day. Even the breeze on the scooter was hot. Trying to be thrifty we picked the Vespa over getting a quad (which you can drive on all the roads there) but after seeing all the amazing off road opportunity I immediately regretted that decision. Quads trump scooters every time. We ended up back at the pool relaxing and had a quieter night with dinner at a beach bar.

The next day Cole and them picked us up at the hotel and we headed down the coast to our villa just outside Lindos. The place was more than big enough for 7 with a beauty pool and an ocean view and it was pretty reasonably priced.

The town of Lindos was about a 15 minute walk and consisted of 2 beautiful bays with beaches, a picturesque village with narrow pedestrian streets lined with classic white Greek buildings and the ruins of a massive acropolis perched on a cliff overlooking the city and the ocean. It was just stunning.

For the most part we spent our time either at the pool, at a nearby beach or out on a little excursion. We checked out the top of the acropolis, and had several nights out in Lindos on one of many roof top restaurants.

Cole was determined to make some mojitos to go with the heat but couldn't find mint at any supermarket, eventually coming to the conclusion Rhodes had no mint. There was talk of getting into the mint importing business on Rhodes, an untapped market we thought. On our second to last day as we were lounging by the pool a stranger pulled up, walked into the yard and said something that sounded like 'Sorry, here for mint'. But with his accent it coulda been a lot of things. As we looked at each other confused he walked over to the far edge of the yard to a garden we had never really noticed but he was very familiar with. He started chopping mint out of this garden that was probably 100 sq feet of mint plants. Turns out he was a bartender at a bar in Lindos and our villa had the towns supply of mint for mojitos. We headed over that night for tasty mojitos with very fresh mint. Cole tried to make up for lost time by hammering out the mojitos over the last couple day but we definitely blew by not venturing 25 feet from the pool in our own yard.

On an ambitious day we took the car for a drive down to the southern tip of Rhodes, about an hour away. Most of the drive was along the water with great views and beaches. Catherine pointed out however, that as cool as the landscape was to see because it was so different to what we're used to, it was really dry and barren compared to the beauty of the wet coast. At the tip of the island was a peninsula where the wind of 2 seas crashed into each other and turned out to be a kite boarding mecca. It was really cool to see so many people having such an awesome time at what was probably somewhere they'd seen in magazines and videos and finally got to do themselves. Reminded me of being a skateboarder in Barcelona, I could kinda feel their excitement.

Great thing about a big group was on top of splitting costs on the villa and car, we could do something like rent a boat pretty cheap. We got a little fishing boat for a few hours at the next town over and went out to try to catch dinner. We picked up a stylish tourists bucket cap for the biggest fish to encourage some success. Our bait and hooks were none too enticing to the many decent sized fish we could see, and anything edible stayed in the water. Not to take away from Catherine's success of course! I'm claiming pity points for my comically smallest catch of the day.

Greece's economic troubles didn't affect our trip but there were signs of it all over the island, the most obvious being countless unfinished concrete frames of buildings. It's hard to imagine an economy changing so immediately that there could be literally thousands of buildings that just halted construction all at once, it was strange.

On our last day we drove the rental car across the island to the west coast on the way to Rhodes town and the airport. While it was a pretty good little ride we were packed to the tits with 7 people and all our luggage. As you should with any rental car we pushed it to it's absolute limit by taking it on some rough steep dirt roads through the hills to the other side. We passed through some really cool little villages that were quite different from the tourist towns of the coast. Rhodes town is the main city of the island with something like 80% of the population. At the heart of the city is an ancient walled town that has housed and been conquered by numerous empires over the centuries. There are dozens of criss crossing narrow streets with sections of tourist shops and restaurants on one strip and locals living in run down shanty houses around the corner. I can only imagine how sick of tourists they must be. Another highlight of Rhodes town, and all of the island actually, were the gangs of wild cats, they were gnarly, and really go to show how pathetic and spoiled house cats are. Garbage cats would eat yours alive.

I've been on trips where a week with the same 7 people causes tension, but considering not everyone knew each other well this one was good times start to finish, which was a real bonus. Unless everyone was just being polite about how sick of me they were, either way, thanks for the awesome Greek vacation!

-Justin

Mama I'm Coming Home

It's been an amazing 9 months so far, but we've decided to move back to Canada at the end of October. The decision hasn't been easy, and Justin and I have had our moments arguing about it quite seriously. But it is final now; we put in 1 month notice at our flat and will be homeless as of September 2nd.

We are quitting our jobs at the end of the month and going to travel until our bank account runs dry. Our plan is to take the little red Micra and drive around Italy. I have my doubts that the car will last, (I've been skeptical of it since our last car broke down in Wales) but Justin seems pretty confident about the plan. And worst case scenario we leave another car in a different European country and continue our journey by bus or train.

Going back to Vancouver will most likely be bittersweet; I don't think either of us are looking forward to starting from scratch again. But there is no point in getting all reflective or sentimental yet as we still have over 2 months before the big move. Should be a very interesting last few months here. I promise we'll take full advantage of it.

Gen