Happy New Year everyone! This year has been amazing for both Dee and I. We’ve managed to suspend our jobs (Dee permanently!), got our apartment rented out, possessions all packed and hopped on an airplane to explore the word! We’ve seen and done some pretty frickin awesome things and written about most of it. So here it is, what we think our top 10 things we did this year traveling.

The DVS top 10 of 2009

How could we not include our Tour de France experience in this? While it wasn’t the most enjoyable experience riding 50 km’s, half in the pitch black dark… it was a most memorable experience.


Newgrange was one of the first ancient wonders. that we saw, and they were darn impressive. You could touch the mounds and walk in a wooden henge

Banksy vs Bristol Museum was one of the best museums we’ve been to. Poor Ronald, why are you sitting on the ledge? Feeling guilty of peddling your death fries and enslaving people to crappy food?

AK-47’s and Naughty Squirrels Who doesn’t want to shoot the real thing? The Ak47 we shot was probably held in some scared kids hands during the Cold War.


Thorpe Park This ride is temporarily shut down for an essential clean up.

Oktoberfest The full, Golden liquid cup of beer and friendly Belgium’s.

Guadi and Parc Guelle were amazing. Parc Guelle was probably one of the coolest pieces of art I’ve ever seen.

Roni Size and Get Loaded in the Park. ’nuff said.


Eiffel Tower is on everyone’s list and we drank undercover in front of it. Unfortunately there was one regret.


A week partying on Sardinia with 4 awesome friends and drum’n'bass. What more do you really need in a vacation? Sun and Bass was wicked.

And a special thank you to Dee’s Aunt and Uncle, Barbara and Artur, who live in Baden-Baden  Germany. You welcomed us into your home not once, but twice! Both these times were on short notice and we really appreciate it!

I can’t beleive it’s already Furry Friday again! Time sure goes by strangely when your traveling. It goes by slow during the day but when you look at it by the week you are always thinking: What? It’s been a week since then?? Due to this traveltimeitis problem our next scheduled Furry Friend didn’t even get his questionnaire emailed to him! So we have had to post pone his interview to next week!

Anyways, here is this weeks replacement Furry Friday! Or should I say… Feather Friday??

This is Dublintina the Duck who happens to live in Dublin, Ireland. She has made her home by a fountain and comes up to anyone sitting on the side. She likes to tell strangers knock-knock jokes but unfortunately no one speaks duck, let alone with a strong irish duck accent! So everyone just assumes she is like any other duck, one that comes to see if they have any food to spare. To our luck we had no food on us and happen to hear her quiet irish quacks and eventually after much tries figured out what she was trying to say.

Knock, Knock!
Who’s there?
Honey bee.
Honey bee who?
Honey bee a dear and get me a beer!!

Hmm… I guess she was after something in the first place… =)

Stayed tuned for our special guest interview next week from Le Pamplemousse!

Have you already read Part 3 of our Ireland trip – The Roads of Insanity? If not click here!

After driving for the last several hours on the tiny roads of Ireland, I was ready for a break and to see Irelands great sights. We pulled up to the parking lot only to be caught off guard with a 7.00 Euro parking fee. Hadn’t our guidebook said it was free? There was no way I was going to pay another high fee in Ireland and reversed out of there faster than you can say four leaf clover.

We drove up the road and saw several cars parked on the side of the road. During our hectic drive we saw many cars parked on the side and termed it “Irish parking” as everyone seemed to park whereever they wanted. Sidewalk, road, grass, it didn’t seem to matter. I figured we’d park like the Irish and save ourselves the 7.00 euro while we saw these majestic sights.

The Cliffs of Moher are located on the most western side of the island and are a beautiful sight. The cliffs run 400 feet straight up from the Atlantic ocean are look like someone decided the earth would stop here, and ocean start. If you’re in the area I reccomend them as they truly are a great sight, much what I think Niagra falls would be.  We spent several hours hiking up the side, going past the “do not go here or you may die” sign, stopping at the “7 stupid people have fallen off th cliffs and died” memorial.

Seeing as everyone else went past this sign, why shouldn’t we? I’m glad that we did as we got to see the best views of the cliffs from this “do not go past” area. Check out our flikr pictures below for more views.

Fun fact for Potter Fans: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was filmed here.

It was hot out and we had a long, hectic drive back to Dublin so we decided to pack it in after a couple of hours. As we were walking back to our car we joked that we either got away without paying for parking, got a ticket or got towed. As it turns out we got a $50 euro ticket. It seems that you can park on ANY side road in Ireland, except outside of this one tourist destination. Going through the country side we saw 50-70 people parked on double yellow lines with no problems, and had to maneuver between them and a bus – no problem. But not here.

We decided to go into town and pay the ticket, fearful of being put into the gestapo’s computers and getting arrested when we returned to the EU. I even tried my best to get the ticket waived, but the nice lady at the city office couldn’t do a thing for me other than to say too bad! Actually, she did say that all they would do is write me letters in Canada, and I was ready to leave when Dee gave me the look of “pay the 50 euro’s and let’s get out of here”. I couldn’t help but feel a bit gyped as we walked out of the office.

We burned our way back to Dublin excited that we were going to make it north to Belfast. View more of our Cliffs of Moher photos below.

This is part 4 of our Ireland series. Click the following:

Part 1 – Pubs as far as the eye can see, Dublin Ireland

Part 2 – Faery Temples in Ireland

Part 3 – Roads of Insantiy