Sometimes its Fun to Just Act Like a Kid for A Day!

We finally had a decent enough snowfall here in Cape Breton a couple of weeks back and it was just as good a time as any to get the sleighs that have been packed away for about twenty years and go back to my childhood days of sledding in the apple orchard.....

A Traveler's Mid-Winter Night's Dream

First and foremost, I consider myself a traveler. While it is true I have only been to three countries so far and I have yet to venture away from the North American Continent, I have explored these three countries quite thoroughly in recent years and I continue to explore my backyard and beyond through these tough economic times. After all, to be a traveler does not necessarily mean traveling far as long as you are traveling wide and continuing to explore and learn everyday. I see this as just a temporary stall on my future travel plans to explore the Caribbean, South America, Europe and parts of Asia in the near future.

One country that I have been learning a lot about lately is the Czech Republic and the more I learn about this country in Central Europe, the more I want to go there! Why would I like to go there? There are so many reasons, I don't know where to begin!

Lets see. There is the fact that the small country is home to more than 1000 castles and I love castles! I can see myself now, exploring the long corridors and admiring the ancient artifacts that once belonged to a long-ago resident. What fun I would have just being surrounded by all that romanticism, history, culture and architecture so old and sturdy and well-built that it cannot even be compared to anything we build today!

While I state that I am, first and foremost a traveler, my freelance work as a travel writer and photographer is my bread and butter. Writing is a passion of mine and one of the first things I would do if I ever made it to the Czech Republic is indulge in some Czech literature and learn more about the many great authors who penned famed works, both past and present. Franz Kafta, Karel Capek, Vladimir Holen and Milan Kundera are but just a few of the Czech authors from the last century that I am familiar with but I have so much more to learn. Maybe I could even pick up on a bit of the language while I am at it! Other areas of the arts and the culture of the country are of great interest to me. When I visit a new place, I love to indulge in everything local. I want to eat what the locals eat, I want to listen to what the locals listen to, I want to dress the way the locals dress and I want to live the way the locals live. But one thing I would do that is quite different from something the locals do is act like a tourist and explore the little tucked away places that locals tend to take for granted and what better place to start than in the capital city of Prague.

Prague is, no doubt, an influential city in Central Europe and the entire world. Its old-world charm with a healthy dose of modern services and attractions is appealing to me as a history buff, an adventurer and a constant learner. A city with a history that goes back 1,100 years is my kind of city! I can imagine myself wandering the old streets and admiring the ancient buildings that stood the test of time and conflict. I can feel the excitement of exploring the many museums that hold the city's long and turbulent history. I can see myself sitting in a downtown cafe, admiring the urban scenes around me as I sip on a local blend and chow down on a locally made treat.

And Prague would be just the beginning. What about wandering the rolling hills of the Bohemian region in the west, admiring the mountainous terrain in the west, boating on the Morava River, exploring the thick, vast forests that Central Europe is known for or viewing the wild animals and plant life that make this beautiful country home. There is just too much to mention. The Czech Republic is a real dream come true for this photographer, writer, history buff and nature lover!

What a Week!

So, things got a bit crazy around here for a while! Not that its not always a bit crazy around here, but this week has been more so than usual. I managed to finally get all those boxes unpacked but now I have the task of finding somewhere to put all the unpacked items. I emptied the last box today but now I have a huge pile of things that have not yet found their way off the floor. Most of it will be sold or given away I imagine and the rest that I won't be needing to use right now will be stored in boxes for my next move in the near future. I'm trying to downsize after realizing that I just do not need so much stuff and at 1100 dollars to have it moved here, that is a bit costly considering I don't know what end of the country I might end up in next! I have to say that it was stressful but kinda fun at the same time opening up all those boxes filled with things I haven't seen in so long!

On top of all this moving stuff, I also had to get caught up on some writing projects and tend to some much needed business such as having my eyes checked and refitted for new glasses since I forgot to do that for the last 5 years. Fortunately, my prescription barely changed at all and it won't cost an arm and a leg like I thought it would to change my prescription. Turns out the eye-strain I was experiencing was due to the number of scratches that accumulated on the lenses and not my eyes deteriorating. So that is good news!

Despite being so busy, I still had some time to enjoy myself too. I spent a fun evening playing pool with a friend and I did manage to get out for a few drives to Donkin and Port Morien and a few walks in the evening to listen for the coyotes at the 8:30 whistle. I actually finally saw a coyote on a drive to town one evening but unfortunately couldn't grab my camera quick enough to get a picture! I also tried something new this week too. Well, not really new because I did it a lot when I was a kid. I went sledding in the apple orchard not far from my house. It was loads of fun and made me realize that even adults have to loosen up once in a while and just act like an 8-year old for a day. Tomorrow, I will attempt those new snowshoes while there is still snow on the ground after that first real big storm we had a few days ago!

Might be Away for a While but Hopefully not too Long......

Well things are starting to happen and that means things just got a whole busier around here! I finally got a moving truck to pick up my things in St. John's and they should be arriving first thing in the morning if the ferry manages to dock in this storm. I remember there being a lot of things but after a year, I forgot just how much stuff I have. The person who was holding them reminded me yesterday that there is quite a bit. An entire living room...stacked to the ceiling! So this evening I am rushing around trying to make room for it all. Than once it is here, I have the tedious task of having to sort through it all and figure out what to do with it. I figure since I have been here for a year without it and got along fine, I don't really need it. Of course, I will keep my photo albums, a few of my favorite books and maybe some items of clothing but I am thinking of maybe selling or giving away anything else I don't need. I beginning to see how much of a burden it is to have too much stuff. A harsh lesson learned after accumulating a decade worth of things and realizing how difficult it is to get back and forth over long distances. And, truth be told, I don't foresee me staying in one place for too long anytime soon! I'm young, I'm single, I'm adventurous, I have nothing tying me down and I can go anywhere I want so why stay in one place? But it is hard to move around when you have to lug so many things with you.

Other than that, not much else has been happening. Still waiting for some snow so I can test out those snowshoes. Hopefully the snow that is falling now sticks around for a while. Still trying to figure out where I might take a trip this spring with those air miles and still working on getting Captain Jack back here. Progress is being made....slowly but surely!

This Video is a Must See for All!!! Please Read and Spread the Message!

The video, "Killing us Softly 4", I am sharing in this post has been around for some time but I only came across it today so maybe everyone has already seen it. But if you haven't, please watch it and share it. The message is clear and although it targets marketing directed at women, all men should watch it too. It talks about how the media is dehumanizing women and how that dehumanization causes men to see us in a negative or positive light depending on how we look and how perfect we are. Define perfect? Well, as you will see in the video, perfection does not exist and what we see in magazines and in the media is not real. Photoshop is a great tool when trying to portray an image of perfection that does not exist.

Women need to grasp the concepts in these videos in order to understand that that image of perfection they are trying to achieve in the mirror every morning is simply not healthy and men need to understand this as well. They need to understand that the women in their lives have an impossible "role model" to live up to that is causing them to go to unhealthy lengths in order to achieve this impossible perfection and it is partially their duty to become aware of what the media is doing to the women in their lives so that they can help them realize that they are already as perfect as they can be and that is perfectly fine!

The second video "Fotoshop by Adobe" I am sharing is shorter than the first but with a similar, more comical approach to the whole message.

"Killing us Softly 4"
http://youtu.be/1ujySz-_NFQ

"Fotoshop by Adobe"

http://youtu.be/1ujySz-_NFQ