Baby it's cold outside

As music legend Dean Martin said "Baby it's cold outside".... the winter is well and truly here! The electric blanket is out and my five euro pink Centra mitten seem to be going everywhere with me these days. Typically, Cork seems to be the only county without snow, logging onto Facebook and seeing all my friends status from outside Cork saying how great it is to have snow, can be slightly depressing. So I feel that this week I must blog about winter holidays where snow is everywhere! The idea behind them is quite bizarre, getting up every morning at half 7 on your holiday to get the first ski lift up, spending the day bombing down the mountain, it might not appeal to everyone but ski holidays are alway great fun.

I got quite addicted last February to watching the Winter Olympic's and ever since then have really wanted to take up Ski Cross (if only Patricks Hill was a ski slope, would be a great practice spot). Check out this clip from the men's ski cross final and i'm sure you'll be inspired too- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq9LoeapvH0&feature=channel.

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic's where held in Whistler. To me Whistler would be my ideal skiing location; fantastic slopes, the english language, lively nightlife, great food and shops, not far from the city of Vancouver and even bear hunting trips!! I watched MTV's show Peak Season last year which followed was a reality t.v. show set in Whistler and they made it seem like the perfect location for a group of young people to spend some time. It is ranked as North America's number one ski resort. It seems to have it all, next time I will be discussing Vancouver, which is the gateway to Whistler!

Stay tuned!

J1 is A1

America! One of the favourite places i’ve ever been and hope to return to in the future. It was my 3 month J1 in California when i really fell in love with the country. The Coronas song “San Diego Song” is a pretty good description of what happens on a J1......
 

Things i learned on my J1 include the art of beer pong, microwaving eggs and good bit of Irish (having never done Irish in school, my friends taught me a few words to use when out in public so others wouldn’t understand us). I live at home during the college year so spending 3 months away from home was an experience in itself. Aside from all the nights out and days on the beach we managed to get a bit of traveling in too. We were living in Huntington Beach so we were only one hour away from L.A. The public transport was a joke, but after 3 buses and a few trams we could get to Hollywood.... We walked down the Hollywood Walk of Fame and did the obligatory tour of the stars’ homes which was fun but depressing at the same time-talk about how the other half live. Although I really enjoyed Hollywood, there’s nothing there that would make me want to return. 

One place I did love however was Las Vegas. I most defiantly want to go back there.... we did the trip on a very small budget so would like to go there and do it properly (not taking a greyhound bus for 11 hours and staying in a trucker stop hotel). That said I wouldn’t have changed our last trip, it’s hard to describe the real madness of Vegas unless you’ve been there. The place literally NEVER sleeps! If you’ve seen The Hangover i’de say everything that happened in it from waking up with a tiger in your room to ending up on the roof of your hotel is very possible.

If anyone asked my would I recommend going on a J1 i would say “DO IT”! It’s such a great opportunity and although we did have difficulty getting jobs if you keep trying eventually you’ll find something. It was also nice to experience a new culture, the sense of humour is a lot different and small things like saying “chips” can result in something totally different but it opened up my eyes to American and Americans. 

Rain, rain go away..

As I sit at my desk thinking about what to do for my blog for my digital marketing class, I look out my window to see it pouring rain and dread the thought of having to venture outside later on today into the cold, wet, miserable weather. I love Cork, it will always be my home but I can’t help to think about  the places out there where you can actually put your jackets away for a few months of the year..... then all of a sudden I decided what i’m about to spend the next few weeks writing about in my blog- “Places I want to see before I die”.

The place on the top of my list is most definitely Australia, more specifically the Great Barrier Reef. I think it’s the scuba diving in the warm clear waters that attracts me most. Tourism in this region generates 1 billion Australian dollars per year.  The reef is home to a vibrant assortment of sea creatures, including  dolphins, fish, sharks and turtles- sounds like a scene from Finding Nemo! It contains the world’s largest collection of coral reefs, with 400 types of coral and 3000 individual reef systems and literally hundreds of picturesque tropical islands with some of the worlds most beautiful sun-soaked, golden beaches. ( sounds almost too good to be true)

It seems like a different world to that outside my window a the moment but hopefully one day i’ll be able to tick it off my list of places I want to see before I die.