I decided to return.

I decided to return and bring blogging back to my life . Distance, school, time difference, responsibilities, maturity… all these features can stop people from doing what they like, what they enjoy doing during their free time. There are always point in life in which you may not have time to do thing you enjoy, but you have to find the time. We are currently facing a strange crisis in which everything is relative and unpredictable, for that reason I want to write about things that are part of me and my life. Things that are existent and present in my life.

I consider important to get involved in new activities and experiences that will bring good things to my life. It is now the time to type and meditate about all the good things that life gives us such as our family, friends, nature, challenges…

Fuerteventura.

Hello guys, welcome back, to you and to us to our blog. We have been a while without posting any of our trips, and we apologize. After leaving Canada, we went back to our routines and life is more stressful that it was before: school, work, the family, the distance…

Anyways! This winter, Livia has spent her Christmas holidays with her family in the Canary Islands. She travelled to another fabulous island which is well-known because of its crystalline water and white sand. This island is called Fuerteventura.

It is also a volcanic island abounded in mountains and beaches. It’s not a big city, so people usually come here looking for a peaceful place  where relaxation is guaranteed.

You can find many different towns that could be located on the top of a mountain or very close to the ocean.

Livia: -You may be surprised of how wonderful the weather is. I was really lucky, the days were sunny and the temperature was perfect, 23ºC EVERYDAY. The only problem it’s the wind, that blows really hard and it gets annoying after a while.

I had the chance to see the Windsurfing World Cup Competition.

I went with my family, and we spent a week there. We did many things such as visiting different towns, riding a camel, going to the beach, eating (of course) and a lot more.

Here we leave you some pictures of how cute this island is.

If you are ever tired of the cold from your country and you want to experience  warm-sunny  winter holidays, don’t think of it twice and come to this placid place, you won’t ever regret.

Tenerife

From the busy capital of Spain, we move to one of the charming famous Canary Islands. Tenerife is located in the north of the African continent and the south of Spain; is has almost 200,000 inhabitants (including Livia and her family) and a lovely warm weather.

Tenerife is the perfect combination of beach and mountain. You can impressively swim in the ocean in the morning and go to check the highest mountain of Spain during the afternoon. El Teide has 7,500 meters and is actually a volcano, which explains its amazing “Mars”s atmosphere.

I spent one entire week there getting to know Livia’s city and there are so many different things to do. Tenerife is full of cool restaurants (with amazing food), cute vintage stores, charming “calles”as they call their streets, and not even mentioning the thousands of amazing beaches everywhere.

The Spanish people living in Spain are crazy (in the good meaning) lol; they are so energetic and they love partying! The cultural festivals and events gather the population together around ports, parks..Where ever it is, it’s crowded, loud, fun and it doesn’t end until late.

Being there was an amazing experience, it was just about living the moment, trying every different thing, enjoying the experiences, and having lots of fun!!

 

Don’t forget to check the blog of this trip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NWO2SLWEoQ

 

 

Toledo.

Very close to Madrid, around fifty minutes far by car, is located a historical city called Toledo (capital of the province of Toledo in Castilla la Mancha community). This old town, during the middle age, was considerate the most important city in the Western World. At that time, Christians, Arabs and Jews would live together, and this type of community  lasted for many centuries; being the reason why Toledo is known as the “city  of the three cultures”.

Also during the X-XII centuries, this special city was the house of the Spanish monarchy, being called as the “Imperial City”.

Toledo is one of the cities in Spain with the greatest wealth of monuments. This big diversity of artistic styles makes the old quarter of the capital of Castilla la Mancha an open museum, being declared by Unesco a World Heritage Site.

Most of the buildings and houses from the old part of Toledo are made of rocks and bricks. They have been preserved for many years. The streets are sharp and narrow, what makes it hard to walk within long distances.

We visited  most of the historic monuments from the city, such as the Alcázar, the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes, la Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz, el Puente de San Martin, la Iglesia de Santo Tomé, and a lot more.

LIVIA’s impression:

At a certain point of our day, we ended up finding this big zip line which crosses the Tajo river. I decided to try it, while Ana was taking the pictures. Since I love all types of adventure attractions, I really loved and enjoyed this one.

Ana tried new Spanish dishes that are very common in Toledo, such as “Pimiento de Bacalao” which is basically fish with red peppers. And we can not forget about the famous Sangria, a fresh drink made with wine and seasonal fruit.

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Ana’s impression:

As being my first time in Spain, I was fascinated with everything, specially with this city! For me Toledo is one of those small charming cities that just makes you fall in love with every single new corner you suddenly discover. It’s basically about picking a radom pathway (although we had a map to avoid being too lost!) and surprising yourself with new incredible things.

If you ever go to Madrid we suggest you to spend the day in one of the closest cities. For example: Toledo, Segovia, Albacete or Ávila. There are a few companies in Madrid that organize this type of trips.  Even though, we decided to do it by ourselves (it was way cheaper to be honest).

Explore as much as you can, and don’t be too lazy to spend time walking and moving around. Check our vlog from this crazy, amazing day at: https://youtu.be/Q4RFjA5enSI

 

 

Madrid.

It’s time to leave Canada, leave our routine, leave our friends, school, lives. We are very sad about this fact, because after a year full of experiences and emotions, is hard for us to run away from all these. But don’t worry Ottawa, we’ll come back soon.

Since it’s summer time (for Livia) and winter holydays (for Ana), we decided to keep travelling a little bit more. We took a big step from Canada to…….

MADRID

Madrid, capital of Spain since the 17th century, also the highest capital city in Europe.

It is home to the Spanish Royal  family, as well as the Spanish Government. It’s located in the center of the Iberian Peninsula. This is a modern metropolitan  city and an economical and industrial center of Spain.

Madrid being the biggest city of Spain, has a population of  3.142 million people.

It is a very historical city, which has very important monuments and buildings. The main land marks that we visitedare:

Plaza Mayor. This square was built  during the 16th century to regulate the commercial sector of the citizens of the city. In this picture you can see the structure of the houses of the square. People still leaving on them, but it’s very expensive to afford it, and impossible to buy one of these apartments

Gran Vía. Is one of the principal streets from Madrid. It was built at the beginning of the 20th century, and it has been demonstrating significant importance to the city because it’s very touristic and also a commercial and life spot.

Puerta del Sol. This is another commercial square. It is very common to find in the city big centres like this, where the network of small roads are led to. Here is located the oldest building in Madrid, the post office. The clock at the top of the tower was built in the 19th century and is famous for ringing on the New Year’s celebration.

Museo del Prado. Is one of the most important art museums in the world and also most visited. Here you can find paintings of the most famous artists of the 16th to the 19th century, such as Velazquez, Goya, El Greco, el Bosco and many others.

One of the most incredibe things of Spain is the food!!!

Just open your mind and let yourself try differentiated and tasty dished with sea food, Jamón Serrano and delicious bread. It is worthy!

We had the pleasure to stay in the charming Madrid for a week, therefore we have visited a lot of land marks and tried incredible things. Visit our YouTube channel Cacao16.wordpress or just click on the link below to check our full trip in Madrid. We hope you’ll like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSktwLHwZcA

Canada Day!!!

Are you ready to party? Canada Day is just one of the biggest events around Canada, specially in Ottawa. It celebrates the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, when the Constitution Act, 1867 united the three separated British colonies, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Province of Canada into one single independent country.

The celebration is a mix of concerts, food, presentations and a lot of fun. Everyone is out and you can enjoy from traditional house parties to beach festivals and big concerts. In the capital, the crowd is located in downtown of course. The streets full of red displays throughout the day cultural performances, food trucks, musical concerts, etc.

However, as a tradition of every Canada Day, the rain came to join us, and right when the night concert was about to start. We were soaked, during half a hour, waiting for the concert in front of Parliament Hill… and don’t think we didn’t have fun anyways.

The concert was a mix of french, english and native performs that brought the whole perspective of the Canadian cultural diversity…and it had a perfect ending with a fireworks exhibition behind Parliament Hill!!

CHECK THE CLIP ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO SEE BETTER WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwdVpiQnhe0

Tasting the Market.

One of our favourites hobbies when travelling is eating.  The gastronomy from each country teaches you about the culture and habits. We decided to go to the market, located in  downtown, and try different appetizers in each restaurant. Canada’s biggest meal of the day is supper/dinner, when families have the perfect time to sit all together, talk about their day and enjoy the food.

This is the famous ByWard market located in downtown Ottawa. It has little stands all over the place, selling fresh fruit and vegetables and also traditional maple syrup.

Zak’s dinner. What an amazing place to eat! They have been open since 1986 with their most traditional and famous plates: burgers and milkshakes. But as appetizers we tried their BBQ chicken wings and the “Salsa and extra chess nachos” (we have never tried any nachos like these ones before, they were amazing). Inside, you will see a typical American restaurant atmosphere from the 20’s, with leader seats, colourful walls and the melody of old songs playing from the radio.

Warehouse. Since the moment you get there, you already feel cool and stylish. The waiters dress up like normal people, so it’s hard to differ them. The place is very new and modern, you may get surprised if you look carefully at the decoration. Lamps made by bottles of vodka, tables made of skate boards… and a cool DJ playing at night. The best thing of the restaurant  is that every single option in the menu cost only $5.00. We had as an appetizer, fried sweet potato with spicy cream and a couscous salad. Yummy!!

Cacao70. Maybe some of you have been waiting to finally know which was that place where Ana and Livia met, and here it is. If you are fan of sweets and desserts, don’t miss going to this restaurant. We’ve never tried a place like this before. Their offer cool desserts that you have never tried, such as this chocolate and marshmallows pizza, served with fruits and the fresh milkshakes. The employees are very nice during their service, they never miss any detail. If you don’t like too much sweet…no worries! They also have a normal menu with a variety of salads, sandwiches and omelettes.

These are just some of the restaurants that we think that you should try, but we also encourage you to visit some others because all the restaurants in the market are incredibly good.

Some other recommendations…

Nandos. Portuguese restaurant.

Blue Cactus.

DON’T FORGET TO CHECK THE VIDEO FROM THE MARKET!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNEHvmI9qPc

Westboro & Little Italy.

Summer has come, and since we have only a couple of weeks left in Canada, it’s time to enjoy the nice weather and the cool festivals.

Let´s start by Westboro, which is a neighbourhood in the West end of Ottawa. It has a combination of old stores from the 90’s, where you may find vintage clothing, and rustic coffee places made of wood, a small market where you can get flowers and fresh fruit and also there are many decoration stores.

Wellington is the name of the main street where all the places named before are located.

First stop. ¨Maker House¨,the first decoration store. It was open recently, here they sell decoration stuff made by different artists from Canada. The special thing from the store is that the products sold represent symbols, cities or places form each province.

The Westboro Market, this is little market located at the beginning of Wellington where they sell fresh fruit and flowers. As we did, you can buy some of them and sit on the benches of the park located right next to it.

Second stop. FOOD. You decide where to go, Wellington St offers a big variety of place to eat, or even to get a small appetizer. If you just feel like having something fun and tasty ´´Hintonburgers´´ or ´´Whatsup Dog?´´ are always great places. Hot dogs, burgers, and poutine, nothing better than a real Canadian American meal. As you can see in the picture they are both little locals that offer a movie atmosphere.

MORE FOOD. Desserts. If you are a fan of doughnuts, you better go to Suzy Q Doughnuts. They offer around 20 different types and are home made, they are always fresh. The people that work there is very friendly and outgoing, what makes it even more enjoyable.Just look at the picture and you’ll feel like eating one right now.

Different stores that you may not find everywhere are also located on this street. For example: Malenka Original, an original store where you go to build and paint your own furniture; The Record Centre, it offers a huge selection of vintage audio equipment and vinyls, sometimes they even have concerts inside the store; and normal vintage stores where you will find clothing and jewelry.

Last stop of the day! Little Italy, a cool version of Italian culture spread in one small area. This week, June 19th, the traditional Italian festival was happening on Preston Street, around late afternoon-night time. A lot of pretty good food, music and shows were going on and we went to check it out.

 

What a busy day ei!! Well, we had a lot of fun filming Westboro and Little Italy! Don´t forget to check out our youtube channel with the new video we recorded throughout the day! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY7KJy5heQRjwsdGM4iyZcw

A Day in Montreal

We keep moving and now we come out with a new city, ¨La Métropole¨ (The Metropolis), Montreal. This beautiful city is well-known because of the diversity of festivals. It also stands out the combination of  old/ historical areas with modernism of a new city. We only had the chance to spend one day, but don’t think that this is not enough to enjoy it.

As any other big city, the subway is the best way to move from one place to another really fast. Sometimes you can even find people performing on it.

Price: Day Pass $10Vieux-Montréal or The Old Montreal is the perfect place to enjoy the old streets with buildings and walls made of marble, learning about the history of Montreal,  visiting monument such us La Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal, le Marche Bonsecours or L’hôtel de Ville de Montréal.

Fashion. Of course that a city like Montreal has style. Graffitis exist in every street of Le Plateau Mont-Royal. This is called the hipster neighborhood, were people dress up with vintage clothing, and why not, we decided to take some pictures in this amazing walls painted my street artists.

Feeling like in a Disney movie, this cute houses located in the centre of the city are very common. Each house has a different shape and colour. most of them have about 25 years old and even if the look small from outside, inside are big apartments with at least five different rooms.

We recommend you guys to do a trip to Montreal , since it’s a fabulous city, full of magic and night life. We only could stay for 1 day, but if you have the opportunity to stay at least one week, you will probably enjoy it better. Look for festivals and concerts that are coming soon. For those that love SHOPPING, yes SHOPPING! you will become crazy in St Catherine street.

New York in 4 days!!

Hello everyone!! I hope you guys had enjoyed our firsts posts..Livia and I are very excited about this project! Today I’m going to take you a little bit away from Ottawa, actually even out of Canada. YESS..Welcome to United States..NY City!! This trip was a six day trip that was organized by my travel agency, CISS (Canadian International Student Services) related with my exchange program here in Ottawa.

All the students met in Toronto, and from there, we headed out on a 12 hours bus ride towards New York. We all stayed in a hotel named Hyatt Place, in New Jersey. The location of the hotel was actually a very good idea, because the price was way cheaper than a hotel in New City itself and we would take less than 30 min by our bus to get to New York every day.

Essentially, we only had two complete days in New York, therefore, they were all very busy and full of fun things to do. On the first day, we went to Central Park, and we were able to walk throughout that beautiful view and just feel the scent of the nature…if I was not with such a big group I would have definitely rented a bike which is something that always give me a lot of pleasure..so if you like cycling as well, don’t forget that. The Memorial Strawberry Fields dedicated for the Beatle John Lennon is also a cool spot to visit in the park.

 

Just as this nice spot where the movie HITCH, for the lovers of Will Smith, was filmed!

He also passed by The Plaza Hotel where a feeling of nostalgia got me from the times of “Home Alone” with the little Macaulay Culkin. 

My first favourite thing was definitely the Aladdin musical we watched in Broadway !!! The show was insane and the actors were fantastic..I was really impress!!

At night we enjoyed the pretty sunset from a boat view towards the Statue of Liberty and the bright lights of the famous Times Square. 

The second day was very rushy as well, we went to visit Brooklyn Bridge, the 9/11 National Memorial, the first pizza place opened in New York: Lombardi’s Pizza, having a nice time to walk and shop around Soho area, ending up with one of my favourite activities of the trip, the Yankees game!! 

After these two amazing days we went back to Toronto and some of us, including myself, stayed for the night before heading out to their original city. In general, the trip was very excited, especially because of the crazy and amazing group I was with…just a mix of Europeans, Australians, Brazilians and Chinese students. It was awesome to meet and spend time with them.

The city itself is not my “sooooo coolllll!!” style of destination..the atmosphere is a lot busier, there are lots of loud noise and urban things going on, so if you are a busy, party person, that’s totally a good spot for you to look at..however, I had fun with those people and I’m really glad I got to know one of the top 10 cities in the world!!

Make sure you also check the video I recorded with the best moments of the trip in our Youtube channel Cacao16 : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSkwVwPG_Yw