http://www.worldnomads.com/

Take Action!

Update:

Saturday we (hubby & I) went to a birthday party and to honor the Earth Hour we turned out the lights for one hour!

The party became very romantic in Candle Lights!

You won’t be disappointed to take a look at this web base (ONLY) guide specialized in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and so on) called TRAVELFISH.ORG.

It is free, up-to-date e excellent guide…a must see website!

Note: We still love Lonely Planet Guides, but for Southeast Asia… TravelFish Rocks!

http://gapyear.com/

I liked the ideas of traveling around the world, volunteer travels and so much more…

Enjoy!

But no doubt it is time to enjoy the little ones and if you don’t have the time or the money to travel, Toronto has a lot to offer.

Some March Break ideas:

- ROM (Royal Ontario Museum): Enjoy the Egypt Month at the museum. Check it out the March Break Kids Activities.

- Head to the library of you region, a lot is being offer, click here for more information.

- How about some Sugar Bush experience??? Kids just love pancakes with maple syrup, horse ridding, history and so on!!! See here some options in the GTA.

- Cooking with kids is such a nice way to teach some lessons as well as to have fun… just google and you will find great ideas of activities and recipes.

- With the nice weather we are having, I truly recommend some street games… kids have to run, play and be free… and after a long winter, nothing better than to be outside.

There is plenty to do… Google on web, talk to other moms and have fun!

One of walking tour we did was through the prestigious TriBeCa neighborhood… To do that, we follow: “New York Walking Tour: Traipsing Tribeca” by National Geographic.

Find below some pictures we took and the places we most enjoyed:

Who does not love Ghostbusters??? Ladder Company 8 (14 N. Moore St.) is where portions of Ghostbusters movie was filmed

Houston St… Sunday is always a quite day… ideal for kids to enjoy the streets.

Duane Park (Duane and Hudson Sts.)… my favourite spot in TriBeCa. Can you believe this square was bought for 5 bucks in 1797??? I wish we could make deals like that nowadays

Odeon… famous retro restaurant and opening credits for Saturday Night Live continue to be shot here.

How much does this penthouse would cost???

Future Hudson River Park (under construction).

Is it a joke?! New Yorkers love to honk…

That is it… hope you enjoy the pictures.
Do you have any tip from TriBeCa to share with us?

Another advantage??? Ghent wasn’t totally discovered by tourists, so it is pretty calm if compared with Brugges. I just felt in love and I highly recommended a visit…

We spend one night and one full day in the city and we had the chance to see a lot of things, as well as eat wonderfully well!

At our first night we walked around and it was great to the see lots of people spending their time talking and people watching on the streets (specially at Graslie & Koornlei canal). We stopped for a dinner in one of the restaurants at Vrijdagmarkt square (Friday Market – picture below). My husband loves beer, so… he was in heaven in Belgium, there are so many choices, you can’t really try it all . I also have to recommend the Cheese Croquette you find in many restaurants… it is fantastic… so belgium!

The next day we start our city tour at “Belfort en Lakenhalle” (Belfry, bell-tower and clothmakers’ hall from XIV century) – the symbol of the city and the closest attraction on our hotel (Novotel Gent Centrum). You can also go to the top of the tower and enjoy great views from the city.

At Graslie & Koornlei we enjoyed our breakfast… it was a perfect time to appreciate the canal, the boats and the buildings on this famous place in Ghent. Graslie & Koornlei was constructed between XII and XVI when the canal was a small port and the heart of the city.

Our next stop was at the Het Gravensteen (The Castle of the Counts), a medieval castle built in 1180 by the Philip of Alsace. Today it is a museum and you can visit the interior of the castle, enjoy a nice view from the city and have some “excitement” at the torture room (they have as interesting collection of medieval torture instruments… glup! )

We had some free walking in the city (I really like to do that…) and we stopped at Vrijdagmarkt square to enjoy the famous tavern “De Dulle Griet” (Vrijdagmarkt, 50) and to try one of its 250 drinks (most of them beers… of course!).

The biggest attraction of the bar is the “kwak” beer, basically if you ask for this beer served in a special glass, you will have to take out your shoes (which will be hanged in the sealing) in order to have the beer, when you finish and give the glass back, you will have you shoes back as well … I prefered only to enjoy the bar atmosphere and my hubby asked for a local beer called Jan van Gent and yes, he loved it!

From the De Dulle Griet we head to Groentenmarkt, a market that exist since middle age and a place where you can buy local products and enjoy the ambiance… and than we visited the Stadhuis (the city hall), where we got impressed by the facade styles.

We ended our day in Ghent visiting the Sint-Baafskathedraal (St. Bavos Cathedral); a beautiful cathedral which the main attraction is the picture of Jan van Dyck called “The Mystic Lamb” (1432)… I had a magical moment inside of the church when we arrived and a choral start singing… so peaceful!

We made this trip back in Sept./2004. Read more things about Ghent here.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia. (By Wikipedia)

As you noticed there is plenty of places where you can enjoy this beauty, but as of most of the tourists, I stayed in Cairns on May/2008. Supposedly, may is the best time of the year to go: better weather and less chance to swim with the deadly jeely fish, unfortunately I didn’t have luck with the weather – cold and bumpy water…

My experience in Cairns was pretty nice, but I highly recommend Port Douglas as your base in the region (that is where I will stay next time) – it is a small and cozy village.

Cairns and Port Douglas hasve few cruise companies which you can buy your ticket to go to the reefs, I chose Great Adventures (Cairns only) and I have no regrets, good service. I bought a package of two days: one in the Green Island (totally waste of time) and one day at the Barrier Reef on their platform (Great!).

Green Island is a remote island close to Cairns where a bunch of tourist goes to enjoy their day and try to see some colorful fishes or to swim in their “public” swimming pool… The only high point for me, was the chance to learn how snorkeling before going to the real Barrier Reef, but the water was so cold I almost freeze .

At Great Adventures Barrier Reef Plataform is where I had the best of my time in Cairns… There isn’t enought words to describe the beauty and the colours you see on the reef: the fishes, the corals, the reef habitat is amazing… it is a bright, peaceful, silent and a colouful world. I didn’t want to leave!
Ah… don’t forget to rent a wet suit to keep you warm… it is worth the money! The anti-jeely-fish suit is included on the package.

more pictures

Notes:

201 Lake Street: Hotel/Apartment I stayed in cairns. Fews blocks from dowtow, new furnitures, great option for those who are looking for “apartment feeling”.

Tjapukai: I must go attraction in the region. Nice place to discover the aboriginal culture, music and history (I will talk about this “park”  in another post).

For me, Kensington Market looks like a hyppie place from the 70′s with some Caribbean twist.

Not every Torontonian like this place, I guess or you like it or not… I have to say that I am somewhere in between this love or hate feeling, maybe I am making up my mind to one or another

Read about Kensigton Market history at Wikipedia [link]. You will be surprised!

What I really like about this neighborhood is the relaxing atmosphere, as well as the amount of no brand coffee shops, bakeries and cheese stores along the Balwin St. . And I didn’t like the graffiti all over the buildings, it really do not give a nice impression.

Some locals say the Casa Acoreana (Augusta x Balwin) has the best coffee in town, as I am not a coffee fan I can’t really give my opinion, but the place is full of students and people.

At Kensigton Ave. you will be delightful by the colours of the houses as well as the unique stores (retro) along the street. Some people say that you can find wonderful brand clothes and accessories for excellent price. So if you like bargain, that is the place to be!

This is a little bit of Kensington Market for you to enjoy!

>>> This woman on the pictures is my mommy

It is easy to fall in love with this few blocks in Greenwhich Village (Bleecker St x Carmine all the way to Hudson River). I loved walk around all those little no brand shops, restaurants, bakeries and butcheries. I few like walking in Amsterdam (yeah, I lived there for 4 months in 2007)…

Actually New York is the only city in North Amercia that give us the felling of being in Europe… Quebec City (Canada) has the look, but NYC has it all, a trully walking city!

Look around… you will be surprise by the way of life!

And when you reach Bleecker x 11th St stop for the famous cupcake at Magnolia Bakery… the top cream is wonderful!

… and dont worry if you drop small pieces of your cupcake on the floor, the pigeons will take care of the cleaning

Note: The first picture in this post show the Risotteria, an italian restaurant that I can’t wait to try!

Magnolia Bakery [website]
401 Bleecker Street

Risotteria [website]
270 Bleecker St

Greenwhich Village Walking Tour [website]
I always try to use locals ideas to get know new places…Today I would like to thank JLK100‘s jornal which guided me through the Village.