sarahsnowchic

My definition of packing “light” tends to be interpreted as packing innumerable non-heavy items and multiple head wear to add versatility to any and all of my colour themed outfits.  Our week long trip to Thailand in October was no exception.  This strategy does not exactly save on luggage space but to lighten my checked allowance and leave room for shopping, I was wearing every item of jewellery on my person, my black bandana doo-rag which I rationalised could double as an eye mask (should budget Strategic Air not provide this for the comfort of travellers) and my comparatively ‘less-light’ black leather jacket; possibly influenced by late night packing-procrastination bad-ass crime TV watching.  This outfit saw my resembling a cast member from ‘Sons of Anarchy’ rather than a Thai holiday-maker.. or so I thought until realising I had unwittingly assimilated with much of our Strategic Air passengers namely Bikies, bogans and people who buy cheap surgery packages on Scoop...

  Into the western extremity of North Africa in the "Farthest land of the Setting Sun" and now a fair few moons ago.... A week spent exploring this unique country of rich european, african and arabic heritage.  My journey started with a visit to the enormous 2500 worshipper capacity Mosque Hassan II in the coastal town of Casablanca where my last post left off. I had wandered into an internet cafe in a dark alleyway and had my travelling companion/mother(!) worked into a state when i missed dinner, fearing id been abducted by white slave traders. Reassuring cries of "its ok, the nice lady gave me sunflower seeds to eat" met with "they're not sunflower seeds" and so on and so forth... in part may explain any perceived hallucinogenic incomprehensible ramblings. No excuse this time however... Our tour took us to Morocco's elegant capital, Rabat; the first Imperial City and then onto Fes- the country's religious a...

Hola amigos! Well, the last week has been a remarkable journey through the mountanous villages in the South of France and then down to Barcelona; the architectual and Art Nouveau capital of Spain. Now into the North of Africa where, from the expatriate American and European hub of 'Rick's Cafè' in Casablanca, (made famous by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the movie of the same name) my composition begins.... The backdrop of vibrant live jazz music and haze of wafting cigar smoke sets a mood reminiscent of the Hollywood Golden Age. But, unfortuntely any perceived old world charm of the true Casablanca is really a feature of days gone by and perhaps only in the movies- Nonetheless a fitting atmosphere to remember the romantic ambience of my last few days in France... This started in Grenoble, a former host of the Winter Olympics and with the rich skiing history of the nearby Pyrenees and French Alps. It was here i continued my explora...

The year is 2006. A serene, meditative and chilly Paris november awaits...... Bonjour! I write to you all again from a humble apartment in the centre of France where i have just arrived- nestled in the regional, mountainous town of Grenoble, winter is descending but snow is still a few weeks away.  As the title of this email suggests, here follows a reflection on what was barely enough time in the 'worldwide centre of artistic and intellectual Avant Garde'- yes, Paris (or pqrs! as this obtuse keyboard would have me type):  A city where drinking wine can be cheaper than water and the only other reasonably priced consumable is probably and comparatively bananas* Note: too many chocolate/banana crepes is never a good thing. But yet, (obligatory pastries/crepes overindulgance aside) also a fitting destination to continue my exploration into European and French art history, alluded to in my first email- from it's Classical be...

My first UK/Eurotrip started here in October 2006. A small girl in a big city with big dreams and even bigger luggage...and no it wasn't the makings of a Christina Aguilera movie ;) "Sunday night in London as my whirlwind visit sadly draws to a close. In typical fashion, without a plan or any idea, armed with nothing but a free airport HSBC London guide, i have somehow managed to exceed all preconceived expectations (with a little help from my friend..or cousin..Trini- very accomplished London lawyer, and some unseasonally amazing weather). Forget the doom and gloom warnings of miserable rain and the initial pain of lugging 30 kilos up subway steps early friday morning. Still sleep-deprived but after a quick refresh at our base in Southwark, Central London, a 10 minute walk down to the Thames and London Bridge in glorious sunshine saw my first day dedicated to exploring the Tower of London and discovering a macarbe fascination for medieval torture devices a...

...and so i find myself in the conundrum of having started writing a travel blog and then using up all my travel leave in one go. I'm used to exaggerating my daily life into would-be-exciting-if-not-so-mundane exerpts about multiple gym classes, topical and celebrity news, outfits that resemble david bowie, and everday annoyances like traffic and burnt toast.  These fit conveniently into the constraints of a few hundred characters allowable on facebook and less often on twitter-as 140 characters renders me into a paralytic state of writers block. While readers are probably left wondering WTF at the abbreviated shorthand ridiculousness...I like to think these teasers leave the reader wanting more. However something tells me i'm not quite ready to broach an essays worth blog length entry about the perils of internet shopping....in case that isn't, well, the case. So in the meantime, what to do in such a predicament if i am to keep my loyal follower(s) (anonymous though you o...

This day began like many others. Glimpsing through a cracked bus window...or trying not to (are they bullet holes?!).. peering past the swinging rosary beads towards a hillside landscape sometimes dense with coloured concrete shanty houses, today with thick luscious jungle foliage intersperced with cornfield and farming plantations.  We'd descended a couple of thousand metres toward sea level into the tropical, humid Chiapas and a thick fog set an eerie presence as it circled and nestled into the surrounding mountains.  There was also something else a little different about this particular bus ride. A spanish-speaking seemingly local guy in a cowboy hat up the front of the van was passing back a bag of dried chilli grasshoppers and offering swigs of the local spirit "Mezcal" (thankfully no worms inside) which the driver was relishing in a one-for-you-one-for-me type fashion which proved quite disconcerting as we careered around the narrow corners often toward...

Thus begins a story from the road...contemplated while driving south on Highway 395, an almost 1000 mile feat since we left San Francisco all those days ago.  This journey took us from Lake Tahoe California into Nevada and back to California through Yosemite National Park, onto Mammoth Ski Resort and eventually into Los Angeles.  The rugged snow-capped mountains of the glacier-carved Sierra Nevadas formed an epic and impressive backdrop to an otherwise vast open plain where true to form tumbleweeds certainly did blow in the wind.  The landscape reminded me of No Country For Old Men... so i guess i was glad i wasn´t.... at times like an old Western.... a little bit Dances with Wolves..and as we chanced upon the number of Native Indian/American Reservations dotted along the way, you´d be hard pressed to miss them with the accompanying massive Casino and little else. maybe a $4.95 rib special.  But for the rest of the time a...

Our sixth and final day exploring South Lake Tahoe and her surrounding resorts has come to an end. 5 resorts in 5 days has been an epic undertaking and one i could not have survived without my daily breakfast of Advil and a supersized coffee...not to mention an apres massage and hot tub mid week! We started and finished in Heavenly Valley, sister hill to Vail Resorts, Colorado where my first turns were carved into that massive mountain back in the Winter season of 03/04. Reminiscent of these bluebird days riding loops of the courdroy under Chair 2 in my lunch break, much of this week has taken me back onto the groomed packed powder that i became so familiar with on my first north american snow season.  Since this first experience in Colorado where i earned my keep selling alpine outerwear and coyote fur trimmed apres attire, i have been fortunate to consolidate big mountain riding and snowboarding the powder with another northern hemisphere seaso...