For those unfamiliar with the place, it is essentially an entire village center with various businesses and workshops all staffed by people in period costumes. The village is circa early to mid 1800s and was simply fascinating to visit. We didn’t have very much time so we didn’t get to see it all, but we definitely want to go back and visit it again when we have more time. They even had a fully-operational microbrewery built to 1850 standards and a blacksmith heating and bending metal with period tools:

Our quick visit to the village was a fun adventure and reminded us both a little of our trip across Europe. Full gallery below:

The package contained something that I was quite happy to receive; inside was a great letter and a wonderful gift from Vietnam – Rose Tea:

The tea is effectively dried rosebuds in a package, such an intriguing idea to use roses as an herbal tea! Interesting fact: Roses are very closely related genetically to apples.

Anyhow, Desi and I decided to try out the tea, and I found it quite crisp and very aromatic, Desi found it wonderful as well – a great tea with a unique story! Desi and I both thought it was a nice romantic gift for us to share.

We also made a cup of it for Desi’s mom, and I think that out of the three of us, I enjoyed it the most – I love these special herbal teas. Thanks very much for the great gift James, I’m still shocked it made it through customs without a problem!

In mid-February, while my photos were still on display at the Barrie City Hall Rotunda, there was an evening when SNAP Barrie  came to take photos of the winners. I stopped in that evening for the photo op, later joined by mom and Walter (thanks for the support!). It was a great little bit of exposure, and I got a copy of the pics to share:

And here is a photo of all the winners that were present that evening. Thanks very much to Mark at SNAP Barrie for the photos. Check them out for cool local community stuff! :

Another interesting thing happened recently. I was approached on Flickr (a place where I also share some of my photos) by someone claiming to have seen my Maple Leaf Flag photo submitted in a photo contest – in Vancouver! I was able to track down the photo store running the contest to inquire about it:

The owner told me that he purchased the photo through iStockPhoto to put up as an example to inspire people for their own submissions. I have had the photo listed in iStockPhoto for some time now and it has given me a constant trickle of revenue over the past year or so. Glad to see it finally out in the “wild”, especially in such a patriotic context (and even more especially during the Olympics!):

Ron, the owner, was kind enough to share these photos with me.

For reference, here is the photo:

I am not sure if the display is still up, or for how long it was up – but I thank Photo Express Foto Source for including me in a very patriotic display. I hope my photo was inspirational to those that saw it.

I have also been working recently on a photography portfolio website! The site is not completely finished yet, but you can check it out by clicking here. A lot of work has gone into it so far, and it is specifically tuned to display on mobile browsers (like the iPhone and soon-to-be iPad) so I can show off my photos on the go, and maybe get a little bit more exposure and possible a few print sales. I’ll be working on this in my free time (ha!) over the next month or so to complete it.

But that’s not all! On February 25th I talked at the Barrie Photo Club and did a presentation on travel photography (from my trip to Europe) that was very well received. I also did a three-hour seminar on photography basics this past Saturday for the photo club as well.

I’ll post again when I have time to take some photos, hopefully this warm weather will inspire me to get out with my camera a little more.

Most of these wonderful buildings have archways and symmetrical designs – which can be beautifully enhanced with the distortion caused by the 180 degree view of a fisheye lens:

You see more of the architecture this way, such as the windows on the sides that wouldn’t be in the frame with a regular lens. The fisheye effect can get old fast – but I love what it does to churches and cathedrals. Here’s the full set:

Desi’s dad also had many works up on the walls, all made of wood. Here’s one of my favourites (more in the gallery below):

We then headed out to a beach with Nasi, somewhere in the Balchik area. The beach was calm and not too busy, and the sun was nice and warm. We browsed a local bazaar before heading to the sand, and had one of the first moments of relaxation on our adventure – one of the last moments. Desi’s dad was nice enough to drive us all to the beach and wait for us until we were ready to go. It was a lot of fun – Desi and I played in the sea, so did Desi and Nasi while I relaxed in the sun. It was a wonderful visit to the beach, I just wish we had more time!

We went back to the apartment and had lunch – so much good food that kept coming. I was full, but there was so much. We gathered our things and headed to the airport for our departure… where the adventure continued!

We were late. We thought we were on time (my fault, I think) but we were a half hour late for check in, and when we went to the check-in desk the attendants had already left. Uh oh! We looked around and saw absolutely no one. Desi spotted a lady in a back room at a desk and asked about boarding passes – the lady said boarding was done and the attendants had left. Desi’s response probably saved us, simply saying that this was impossible and they needed to come back.

Within 5 minutes the attendants came rushing back, scolded us a little for being late and told us to hurry. We got our boarding passes, ran through the security checks asking with panic to cut the lines or we’d miss our plane. We got through everything okay and the bus was still waiting for us. Phew!

The plane was fine, we landed in Vienna a few hours later and found our hotel just across the street, 2 minutes walk from the airport terminal. Early the next morning, we were waiting for our plane and it was overbooked – we decided to wait and get home 6 hours later with a stop-over in London and put 300 Euros each in our pockets. We arrived very late on the 11th at Toronto Pearson International Airport, and ended our adventure.

I must say, it was the best thing I have ever done. I know Desi would agree with me as well. We learned and experienced so very much, and took some major steps towards our future. I could not possibly speak more highly of this journey, and we definitely wish to continue these worldly adventures in the future.

Thanks to everyone who has followed this series of posts and enjoyed it – there will be more to come! I will be posting certain series of photos over the coming week or two. If you haven’t seen it already, check out the Europe 2009 page with all of the post links and a map with all the photos on it.

Every day is an adventure.