stepping on stars

I am so far behind on this thing, I will try to remember everything I've done!! 

We made it to Grenada where the highlights included: 

- a super nice hostel called the oasis that had a pool, free pancakes and bananas!

- taking pictures of all the crazy coloured walls and doors

- climbing to the top of a cathedral and getting a 360 view of the city

- drinking juice in a bag

- getting hopelessly lost in the local market

- buying some lovely had made jewlery 

Grenada was awesome, a nice change to a city after being by the lake. 

We left with jack and Alice on the chicken bus to rivas, where they headed to isla de ometepe and we took another bus to San Juan del sur. Once there, we hopped on a beach shuttle to stay for a few days at playa Maderas. We stayed in perma tents aka "the doghouses" at Matilda's right on the beach! It was so cool and we heard the waves crashing at night. We watched the sunset, and as it finally went down, the bioluminescence came out. It looked like there were fairy lights in the waves! Every step you took on the sand was stepping on stars. It was so amazingly beautiful and something I have wanted to see my whole life! I feel so lucky to have seen it :)

The next day I rented a surfboard with Nicole, a girl we met there, and we took turns going for some waves. It was so fun! Then Siw and I headed back to San Juan del sur for the next four days. 

In San Juan, we went ziplining, watched amazing sunsets, and went to the pub crawl called Sunday funday! It was hilarious, all of these people getting hammered and bopping around in the pool haha I was a sober spectator but the people watching was the best lol we went to three different bar/pool/hostels including the beautiful "naked tiger hostel" up on the hill with an epic view of the sunset! We also went ziplining which was really fun once I got over my initial nervousness. 

We also got tattoos yeeeewwww!

I also ate a poutine and had a Caesar at the Canadian bar called the loose moose, how cool is that?! 

After a lovely four nights in San Juan del sur, we were ready to move on to ometepe, which I will leave for another post.... 

Really looking forward to coming homeeeeee on April 11th! ( sick of all my clothes now and living out of a bag hehehe plus I just miss you all!!! ) 

Loads of love!!! Xx 

birthday/bon voyage!

this saturday (the 20th) was my going away and birthday combo bbq! it was perfect. the weather, all my friends and family, the food, and my AMAZING beautiful cake! and my floating remote control shark... WHAAAAt. i had seriously the best time ever and i am so so thankful to everyone who came and those who couldn't come but i knew were thinking of me that day. i also had an amazing birthday day which was sunday the 21st. my friends from TO and i all went downtown and sat on a patio and had some apps and a cider. we just walked around the market enjoying each other's company and the sunshine. after a while, amy, alex and victoria decided to start the drive home to beat the traffic, so we said goodbye which made me sad because it is the last time i'll see them for a while! alex is planning a trip to se asia in the wintertime, so hopefully we will be able to meet up, and amy is thinking of coming to australia in the new year so that would be ideal! so they hit the road after a lot of epic hugs <3 

my flying remote controlled shark, frank!

me and my birthday cake

all of my beautiful friends

my lovely family!

cake closeup - tasted as good as it looked!

tilley hat my mom got me and everyone signed :)

amy, myself and ness downtown for lunch on my birthday

then it was russell, ness and i left just walking down the street when we saw a sign in a local tattoo shop window. friendship infinity tattoos $50 per person, minimum 3 people. we just looked at each other and were like, yup thats happening! me and russ were super down for it, but ness was a bit nervous because her mum had basically told her that if she gets a tattoo that she is in big trouble.. so we went next door to urban outfitters to walk around and contemplate the decision and this happened: 

this is actually the coolest photo booth i've been in because after it prints out (three sheets so we each got one!), you get a code to go on the website and then you can share it on all the social media channels! it is really smart thinking on urban outfitters' part, and the ad geek in me got super stoked when i saw it :P it also records a video of you in the booth.. so funny!

so ness decided that she was gonna do it, and i was sooo pumped! we were talking about different places that we should get the tattoo done, and after some consultation with our artist dave, we decided on the back of our elbows. she got it on her right and i got it on my left so when we stand beside each other they are on the same side :) russ got his on his ankle and it looks RAD everyone go to Ink City next time you're looking for some new ink. dave is an amazing artist and a really cool guy. #tinytats 

two elbows and a foot! finished product

nessie's first tat!

russ doesn't look so impressed

wicked

besties 

all in all, it was an amazing birthday, and i feel so lucky to have shared the weekend with so many of my family and friends! i had an amazing time, and got lots of great pics that i'm going to print and bring with me so i can look at them when i get sad! 

speaking of pictures actually, on tuesday this week, mckenzie and jess from my work took me to the photo studio to get portraits done for my birthday! we pretty much didn't plan poses or anything, but they turned out so amazing! the one where we were all stacked was a  joke because we saw one with a dad, mum and child posed like that and thought it would be hilarious, but it actually turned out to be one of my faves! excuse the fuzziness, i just took photos of photos on my webcam haha

 ... i love my friends hahahaa

ok so i have enough for about 5 more posts but i won't continue blabbing haha i will write again on the weekend maybe. theme: surfing. 

i'll leave it at that for now :) thanks again to everyone for an amazing birthday weekend, i love you allllll!!!!!

soph xo