Negombo

For Yves' last few days, we stayed at a small family run guesthouse near the beach in Negombo.  We spent a lot of time hanging out in the pool and visited Negombo’s fishing market, beach, and dutch canal.


One evening, on our way to dinner, we happened upon a kite festival on the beach where crowds of kids were flying elaborate kites of all shapes and sizes.  Some were huge or had crazy long tails, while others were decked out with LED lights.  After dinner, we hung out at the kite festival concert for a while and then stopped to watch a local wedding ceremony on the beach that had live musicians playing really nice traditional music.


Dom's dad is a really friendly person who loves to talk to people.  Locals in Sri Lanka are so genuinely friendly, so Yves would often stop to chat with them.  On his camera, he had pictures of snow in Canada that he enjoyed showing to the locals. The funny thing is that it actually turned out to be a great way of fending off vendors in the market.  The locals who genuinely wanted to chat with him would look at the pictures with interest, but the ones who just wanted to make a sale would quickly get bored and race away to the next potential buyer. 


After our visit in Negombo, Yves returned to Canada.  We were really happy to have the opportunity to travel with him and have so many wonderful experiences and adventures together!  We look forward to the next time :)

Kandy

From Sigirya we went South to Kandy.  Our plan was to take the train to visit the highlands, unfortunately, the "first" class car (the only car with reserved seating) was temporarily cancelled for the next few weeks.  We were a bit disappointed, but since we weren't thrilled at the idea of standing in a hot crowded train for the entire 7 hour journey, we decided to stay in Kandy for a couple of days.  

We took it easy exploring the streets and discovering all of the delicious restaurants, markets, and temples in the area. 


On our way to Negombo we stopped to visit a tea plantation, where learned all about how the various types of tea are grown, picked, processed and exported. 

Sigirya

After visiting all of the Stupas in Anuradhapura, we made our way to Sigiriya. Who could say no to a little 5:00AM morning mountain hike to start the day!  

Thanks to an excellent tip from our friend Christos, we opted to climb Pidurangala Rock for $3usd, to see the sunrise and a beautiful view of Sigiriya (instead of spending $30usd to climb Sigiriya).  We were a bit surprised that there was a small section of boulder scrambling at the very top, making it a bit more treacherous for Dom’s dad. 


But we all made it up and down safely - it was definitely worth it!!



We returned to our guest house for breakfast and a nice mid-day nap.  Jen was super excited to have traditional Sri Lankan Egg Hoppers for breakfast!!


In the afternoon, we went on a jeep tour safari to the Kaudulla National Park.


We saw a handful of monkeys, lizards, and a variety of birds.


But the highlight was the elephants - we spent hours watching about 100 elephants grazing around us.  Jen was in heaven!


Our day ended by a nice dinner into the town where Dom discovered his favourite Sri Lankan dish - Kottu Roti!








Anuradhapura

After a week of relaxing on the beach, we set off to explore the countryside. From Kalpitiya, we took a tuk-tuk and 2 local buses to get to the historical city of Anuradhapura.  We arrived late-afternoon with just enough time to take a quick stroll through town and visit the local market. 


We found a really nice restaurant at the Little Paradise Tourist Guest House, with great food and a friendly owner, so we decided to book the next day's city tour through them.


The next day, we had an early morning start in our tuk-tuk, for a full day of sightseeing.  We visited pretty much all of the temples, ruins, and stupas within the UNESCO protected city.  


By mid-afternoon, we understood why they recommended starting so early.  It's mandatory to remove your shoes when near/within the holy areas, and the clear skies and 40+ degree heat made the stone tiles extremely hot!  Even many of the locals were wincing and prancing around the sites, seeking the tiniest patches of shade to stand on to give their burning feet a break.


Funny story - this picture looks like Dom asked to take a picture with this Monk, but actually it was the Monk who asked if Dom would mind being in a picture with him :). 






Kalpitiya

After our 6 month stay in London, we decided to bring Dom's dad, Yves, on a big adventure to Sri Lanka!  Our first stop was near a small town called Kalpitiya, where our friend Peter has opened a new kitesurfing school and hotel called Surfpoint Sri Lanka Kite Village.


Our final weeks of work in London were rather stressful and exhausting, so our number one goal for our week at the beach was to simply hang out and relax at the beautiful beach and hotel.


Many of our kite friends were there when we arrived, so as always, we were greeted with huge smiles and open arms.  It was great to introduce Yves to part of our kiting family. We all enjoyed each others' company with plenty of laughs, fun, entertainment, and memories to go around.  On one day, Yves got to experience his very first tuk-tuk ride, along the bumpy local dirt roads into town.  He described it as being both exciting and terrifying, but he really enjoyed the new experience!


Dom also gave his dad a few kitesurfing lessons, so Yves learned some basic kite control skills and then went out body-dragging in the water. He had a lot of fun dragging through the lagoon, but wasn't a big fan of the ocean because of the strong waves. 

Yves' visit to London

Our last visitor was the one and only, master of his own destiny, Yves - known to all as “Dom’s Dad”. 

He joined us in London for our final 10 days, which meant helping us pack, and eating all of the leftover sweets (Maple Syrup, Maple Toffee and Maple Butter). We took it fairly easy for the 10 days, visiting our favourite sites one last time and just enjoying each other's company.

Yves had a lot of fun spotting all the crazy expensive luxury cars driving through the streets of London.  He fulfilled one of his lifelong dreams of seeing a real Rolls-Royce (3 actually) in person.


Biking Belgium

We decided to spend a long weekend biking in Belgium.  On Friday morning, we folded up our bikes, hopped onto a high-speed Eurostar train, and arrived in Brussels 2 hours later.  

Bruges

From Brussels, we took a local train to Bruges where we intended to spend the afternoon seeing the cute canals, squares, and shops, but it turned out that everything was closed because it was a national holiday. On the plus side, there was a huge stage in the main plaza with music/entertainment, so we picked out a nearby patio and had dinner while watching the show.



The next day, we cycled a 50 km loop to the coast and were really impressed with the cycle network here.  The car-free path from Bruges to the coast along the canal was particularly beautiful.  We were surrounded by unending rows of trees that protected us from the wind and light sprinkle of rain.


The actual costal cities were a bit disappointing. There is a cycle path running down the coast, but it runs alongside a busy main road, is not as well maintained, and you can’t actually see the sea from it. The area is quite industrial and the coastal city of Blankenberge looked like an overcrowded beach town with no soul. We stopped for a quick lunch of burgers and Belgian fries with curry mayonnaise. 


On our return trip, we were caught in a huge downpour and arrived back in Bruges soaked to the bone. Despite the rain and the costal town not meeting expectations, we still had an amazing day and would recommend it to everyone. 

Bruges To Ghent

We cycled about 50 km from Bruges to Ghent along another super flat, scenic path, away from the main roads. 


When we arrived in Ghent, we noticed Market booths in the distance, so we dropped the bikes off at the hotel and wandered over to check out the Market. To our surprise, we had arrived in Ghent on the last day of the Ghent Flanders Festival. Apparently it’s a huge 2-week-long music festival with 10 stages showing a variety of free music performances. We wandered around experiencing the sites and sounds, bought sausages, had dinner, and returned to the main area to watch a really good reggae band, Jahneration, playing on the main stage that spanned across one of the canals.


On our last day, we woke up to pouring rain. On our Eurostar train from London to Brussels, we were given a warning, that our bikes had to be in bags.  Since we didn't want to take any risks returning home, Dom braved a quick 10 km round trip in the rain to get DIMPA bags from IKEA. By the time Dom dried himself and we checked out, the downpour settled to a light mist and the sky eventually opened up to a lovely day.  We visited the Medieval Castle in the middle of the city and witnessed the city squares return to normal as they tore down the various festival stands, stages, and rides.


We then returned to Brussels and took the Eurostar back to London.  Lucky us - the Standard Premium tickets that we had picked up on sale meant we got dinner and wine for the ride home! :)


Food experience

One of the best things about travelling is tasting different foods everywhere you go!  On this trip, we found some local dishes to try: 
 - Belgian Fries: Every restaurant serves fries with the meal and we had way too many, but the best fries we had were in Ghent at a touristy fast food joint called Frituur Trans Hooiaard. They had several options for sauce (besides Belgium's typical "mayonnaise"), but we went with the one they recommended, "Joggie sauce", which was quite tasty.
 - Belgian Waffles: They were a bit expensive for what you get, but it was worth the experience - the taste and texture was unlike any waffles we had tried before - very dense and full of sugary goodness :)
- Stoverij: A traditional Flemish Beef Stew, served with Belgian fries of course!
- Gentse Waterzooi: A classic Flemish Chicken Stew with a soupier consistency.  Very delicious!
- RoomeR: A deliciously light and fruity liqueur flavoured with Elderflowers.


Weekend in Wroclaw

While researching for hidden gems to visit in Europe, we saw a few posts mentioning Wroclaw, Poland.  Our Polish coworker, Rafal, mentioned that Wroclaw (apparently pronounced “vr-oat-swavf”..?!?) is his favourite city in Poland, so we decided to book a weekend there.

Despite arriving quite late at night, we decided to bus and walk to the apartment we had booked.  We arrived at a an older run-down building and quadruple-checked that the address was indeed correct.  We pushed open the large, rotting wood door to reveal a pitch black hallway and staircase.  The walls had graffiti and there was litter on the floor.  


Thank goodness for cell phones.. we managed to navigate our way up the creaky wooden stairs and found our apartment. We opened the door to our beautiful apartment room!  ..and breathed a small sigh of relief! ;)


We spent the first day wandering the city’s parks, huge square, and eating yummy food!


We did decide to check out the Racławice Panorama, which houses a 100 year old painting of the Battle of Racławice.


We ate at a “milk bar”, which is a cafeteria-style restaurant serving traditional Polish food - we had no clue what any of the items on the menu were.  Fortunately the staff was super friendly and helpful.  Everything was very inexpensive, so we just pointed to random items on the counter and were really happy about how delicious everything was!  Of course, we returned to the same place for lunch again the next day :).


Our co-worker, Rafal, also happened to be in Poland visiting family/friends for the weekend, so we met up with him for dinner and a beer.


We were supposed to meet up with him at the beach on Sunday, but we got a little distracted on our way there...


We heard some music in the park and saw hints of an ongoing festival… a rum festival. 

After slight hesitating, we decided to pay the admission and enjoyed a lovely chill afternoon lounging in the warm sun sipping rum and watching bartender competitions in Polish.  They gave out free cigars and poured samples of many different rums from around the world.  The 2 we enjoyed the most were:

1) "A. H. Riise" from Denmark

2) "PuntaCana" from the Dominican Republic


After closing down the rum festival, we took a short stroll through the Japanese Gardens.


Interestingly, you will find little gnome statues along random sidewalks throughout the Wroclaw core. They’re usually doing something related to the store/restaurant that they’re near.  So, for example, one Bank had a gnome counting money, and one bar had a gnome pouring a drink, etc.  Lucky for us, Jen had an strange innate sense for spotting them everywhere we went :). 





Flo’s Visit to London

Jen’s friend, Flo, came to London to visit us and her cousin, Melissa, who she'd never met before. We accompanied them to some of the usual tourist sites: Buckingham, Big Ben, London Eye, British museum, etc.


We also took a really nice City Cruises ferry to Greenwich, where we visited the Greenwich Market and straddled the crowded meridian line near the Royal Observatory. 


Since Flo wanted to check out a show, we decided to see Wicked. We were really blown away by the incredible voices of the main actresses!  None of us knew what the story was about beforehand, so we really enjoyed captivating storyline - a very clever backstory of Elphaba (the wicked witch of the West) and Galinda (the Good Witch) from the Wizard of Oz.  


We also decided to check out the Secret Cinema: Moulin Rouge. Secret Cinema is an interactive cinema experience where you become immersed in the world of the movie.  After purchasing tickets, we were each given characters and suggested items to bring/wear so that everyone attending would contribute to the decor and ambiance of the event.  In our case, we were both assigned “writer” roles, while Flo was assigned an “illustrator” role.  Half the fun was shopping for costumes at Camden Market and dressing up :) 

When we arrived outside the “secret” location, we snapped a few pictures before sealing our phones and proceeding through security.  We were transported to Montmartre, Paris, 1899, where the elaborate sets and actors allowed us to actually experience the characters and atmosphere of the Moulin Rouge. 

We spent about 2 hours eating/drinking and wandering through the interactive world that was filled with actors playing out their characters and performing acts on various stages. Eventually they gathered everyone into a big parade through the "streets" and transported us into the Moulin Rouge viewing area to watched the actual movie.  During the movie, the interactive actors continued to re-enact various scenes and performances in parallel.  After the film, most people stuck around to continue drinking and dancing.  

It’s a pretty pricey event, but the unique experience made it worthwhile. 


Montenegro & Croatia

Since Jen’s parents were doing a cruise that ended in Rome, we decided to meet up with them for a long weekend in Croatia.  We picked them up in Dubrovnik and drove to Montenegro where Sharon found a really nice Airbnb in the old town of Kotor. 


We wandered the old town and stopped for dinner at “Tanjga Family Restaurant” since our Airbnb host said they had really good BBQ.  We weren’t sure it was the right place as felt more like a butcher shop, but the guys behind the counter helped us pick out some the different meats and salads, and sent us to sit in the garden at the back.  It totally felt like the perfect backyard BBQ - they brought out a huge sharing platter of chicken breast/leg, ribeye, sausages, bacon, burger, salads, sauces, bread.  What a feast!  The fun friendly staff, atmosphere, and delicious food were just perfect!


We woke up early and climbed up to the top of the cliff with Jen’s dad.  After about 1350 steps (290 meters) we reached the fortress at the top and took in the view of the bay and old town. 


We then drove to Lake Skadar National Park, only to discover that the local Tourist Info Centre is closed on Sundays :(   We were hoping to do some light hiking around the Nature Reserve, but the area isn't very well marked.  Luckily, some local tour operators were more than happy to help us (despite the fact that we didn’t want to do their touristy boat ride).  We did a short hike to one of the old villages, Godinje. 


On our way back to Kotor, we stopped at a couple of other coastal towns along the way including Sveti Stefan and Budva.  Since we enjoyed the previous night's BBQ feast so much, we returned to the same place for dinner again!!


We spent our last 2 nights at another Airbnb in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  We visited the old town and, of course, stopped for some delicious pre-dinner gelato.


We ate diner at a Bosnian restaurant recommended by both our Airbnb host and Trip Advisor. The Bosnian food was quite similar to the Montenegrin food - huge meat platter with few vegetables. Again, the food was delicious albeit a lot more expensive since we were in the touristy old town of Dubrovnik.


We spent our last day wandering the rest of old town and eating more gelato :)  


Jen’s parents were returning to Calgary from London Gatwick, so we all flew to London together.  They stayed with us for 2 nights and took us out for Fish & Chips for Dom’s birthday dinner!