Archive for the 'Canada' Category
February 9th, 2008 -- Posted in Canada |
Since one adventure has come to an end and another has begun, I thought that I would keep up the blog. Hopefully Chris will join in too. I have been in TO since Jan 21 and a lot has happened. My first few days were spent looking for an apartment for us. I found one that we both agree is pretty great. It is a building from the 1930s with original wood, beautiful hardwood floors, glass door knobs, 2 bedrooms, close to the lake and trails as well as BloorWest. We don’t have much furniture yet but we are making due with a futon and borrowed dishes until our stuff arrives at the end of the month. We have most of what we need - kettle, pots, etc. and we have gotten used to improvising. Chris arrived about a week after I left Vancouver and it was great to be back together after the week apart. After spending 24X7 together for 10 months, it felt odd to be so far apart. It was good time for both of us to spend some time on our own and with friends. Shortly after Chris arrived we moved into our apartment. It was a quick and easy move and it feels great to have our own space and be able to cook our own meals. While traveling was great, and staying with friends a nice treat, nothing beats being able to kick back at home and relax.
I started working at Yummy Stuff with Morag this week. It is amazing to be in a place that smells so amazing all day! I’m amazed and proud of what Morag has done with her business. It is exciting to become a part of it, and exciting also to be in such a different environment to the corporate world. Valentines Day is a busy time of the year at a bakery and it is a good chance for me to see how things operate. Getting back into the routine of daily work has been more tiring than I had anticipated! The end of my loafing around is welcome, but will take some getting used to!
Chris has been busy with interviews and job searching, and he has been an excellent house husband during this first week of work
for me. He’s made some great dinners and taken good care of stuff on the home front. I think the role suits him very well, actually.
As you may know it has snowed quite a lot in TO. I was dreading such weather, but am finding it quite nice actually! The snow has been gorgeous and the temperature cold, but not crazy cold. The sky has been blue and brilliant, so no complaints from me. I miss the snow on the mountains in Vancouver and I’m sure that those thoughts won’t go away too soon, however it is nice to be reminded of the beauty in this city too. So far so good.
Hope that all is well for anyone reading
Paula
xo
January 17th, 2008 -- Posted in Canada |
Well here we are, back in Canada. We arrived on Monday afternoon from Tokyo via Portland on a very small airplane. It was quite turbulent on the way down through the clouds and I think it was our roughest flight of the whole trip! Anyhow, made it safely to Vancouver to a very rainy and miserable day. Our friend Sheila picked us up from the airport and it was nice to see her and Vancouver again. It was a very odd feeling to be back in North America. In the Portland airport, the ability to understand conversations going on around me was the first thing I noticed. It was tough not to eavesdrop though topics ranging from little David’s diapers and plans for a new patio weren’t all that exciting. Funny, when you are away and surrounded by different languages, the conversations always sound so important and so interesting. No doubt they were about the same kinds of things.
As far as emotions about coming home, it is difficult to say. It feels less of a shock than I was anticipating. It is great to be able to come “home” and make a cup of tea, or do a load of laundry without having to pull out the Tide bar and fill up a tiny sink. It is amazing to be back in Vancouver and see the mountains and the ocean. It was a shock to go into our storage unit (we were getting clothes and some necessities for our initial move to TO) and see how many clothes we have. Living with two t-shirts and two pairs of pants and everything else we need fitting into one bag each, it was funny to see all of our stuff sitting there waiting for us. It has been great to connect with friends and catch up on all the happenings from the year. It is nice to be able to read every sign and be very sure which washroom you are entering.
I find myself thinking of different places and different experiences frequently, but I don’t really feel sad about the trip ending. I think that we were both ready to be back in Canada, and ready to restart life. It is going to be another exciting new chapter in our lives. I feel proud that we did what we did, and that we managed to keep loving each other despite moods, illness, disagreements about directions, frustrations, etc. The past ten months of moving around the world have certainly had their ups and downs — the really good times will continue to be good and with time even the bad times will likely become good memories. All of our experiences combined to make the trip what it was. We were lucky that the trip went off without incident. We were able to connect with people in places that we couldn’t even imagine before we left Canada, and that will stay with us forever. The trip was full of contrasts and those contrasts have made us think long and hard about the way we want to live our lives. All in all, it was great to be away and it is great to be home.
Thanks to everyone who read our blog along the way. It was so great to get comments and see that the people we care about were caring enough to check in once in a while. It has been fun keeping it up and we are happy to have this record of the trip. I will be posting pictures from Tokyo, just so the record is complete. Can’t wait to see everyone, and share our 12,000 picture slide show (just kidding…. we wouldn’t do that to you). If anyone is thinking of doing a long trip we would be happy to help convince you to go for it!
See you all soon I hope!!
Paula
xoxo
January 6th, 2008 -- Posted in Canada |
We are about 10 months of being abroad now and our thoughts for the past little while have been shifting towards home. I think that a combination of Christmas, so long on the road and all the $$ we are spending has led to that 
I think we are both pretty comfortable that we have seen lots and experienced lots on this trip and that soon will be the right time to come home and begin the next trip of sorts….
On January 7th we fly from Bangkok to Tokyo for a week with Paula’s friends Tak and Jenny. Then on January 14th we fly from Tokyo to Vancouver with a few hour stop in Portland, Oregon (does that mean I can add USA on our list of countries?). I think we arrive back in Vancouver at 11:15 January 14th, 10 months and 10 days after leaving. Seems like yesterday!
After some lengthy thought on the matter, we have decided to relocate our Canadian selves from Vancouver to Toronto around the 1st of February. For quite a while now we have both thought that we need to be closer to our families and the ‘freshness’ of coming home after this trip makes for a good opportunity to do just that. Of course there is the cold and there is the Leaf’s, but we are prepared to cope with both of them
I’m going to be heading back into the Nerd line of work, looking to restart my career in the Toronto market. Paula is going to be going to work with her friend Morag at Yummy Stuff. We are both pretty excited!
We will be initially looking for a matchbox sized apartment to live in until we can get ourselves back on our feet and decide what that will become. We have definitely learned how to live on small amounts of material goods over the past year….
That’s our plan so far
March 22nd, 2007 -- Posted in Canada |
Thought it was time for a little update. After Ottawa we headed to Saint John , NB to visit Chris’ family for 4 days. We stayed with Chris’ mom, Norma, who was very happy to have her son home. Our time in Saint John was spent visiting with his family, including his two grandmothers. Chris’ beard was not a hit with his Gramie, and she introduced him as “Whiskers” to everyone we came across in the home that she lives in. Funny enough, the beard was gone about four days later! No doubt it will surface again in the trip, but it was nice to see Chris’ full face again! From NB we went to visit my parents in Newfoundland. In the first of our flight delays, we ended up in St. John’s about 7 hours late (a plane with mechanical difficulties in Saint John). We spent three days with my parents… lots of good fish dinners and cards. Chris and dad went ice fishing (sadly, no catches) while mom and I had tea with the gals at the 50+ club. Nice to visit with the family, as well as spend some time up on the highland for a walk. Our last night was spent with Chris’ Aunt and Uncle in St. John’s, who invited us along with my folks for a nice dinner. Arriving 5:30 a.m. at the airport for a flight to Halifax then on to Toronto, we discovered that due to weather, all flights in and out of Halifax were cancelled. We were rerouted to Montreal, arriving at 7:40 a.m., and were rescheduled for a flight to TO at 3:00 p.m. (actually flying out at 4:30 p.m.). Originally set to arrive in TO at 10:35, we ended up in the city at about 6 p.m. Morag had a get together for us that night, along with a very cool cake (photo is downloaded) and good friends. Visited with Barb, Neil and my sweet nieces on Sunday, then had a great dinner with Jo and Damian on Sunday night at Henry VIII, Damian’s pub. We spent Monday getting some things done, met with the Simons for a nice lunch and met up with Morag, Nicole and Brian for dinner. All in all, a good visit out East!
March 11th, 2007 -- Posted in Canada |
We’ve been on the road for a week so far. It has been a very COLD week in eastern Canada. In Ottawa the temperature was -41 with wind-chill. We quickly found our long johns would become our favourite items in our heavy backpacks. We were successful in getting three visas…better than we had even hoped for. Our first stop was the Jordan Embassy. We learned there that Embassies accept only money orders. After a very cold walk, we were back at the Embassy, and three hours later we had the first cool page in our passports. Syria was the next day… Without incident we had the second of our visas.
On Tuesday we headed to Montreal by train after leaving the Syrian Embassy. Our hotel for the night was quite fancy — XIXe Siecle, an old boutique hotel in old Montreal. Still freezing but happy, we set out to find dinner. After doing some laundry in the sink (we had been in a hotel for four nights prior to leaving Vancouver), we headed to bed. We spent Wednesday walking around the city — the temperature was -20ish, so we are heroes.
Wednesday was our first night in the Ottawa Jail hostel. The hostel used to be a fully functioning jail from 1867 to 1972 when it was closed due to inhumane conditions. Our room for the next two nights would be a jail cell with a bunk bed– actually three cells with the walls knocked out between them. Th original cells were 3.5′ X 6.5 ‘… Not very big! A very interesting place that I’ll describe in more detail in a moment.
On Thursday we visited the Tanzanian Embassy (without much hope that they would be able to do a visa for us as our travel date is pretty far out and visas last only 3 months). Happily they were able to accommodate us and post date the visa, making this one less official document we’ll have to worry about once we are out of Canada. After the Embassy, we visited the Canadian War Museum and the Museum of Civilization. At the the War Museum, there was an incredible exhibit about Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan. Really amazing to see, and I think difficult for anyone to leave with dry eyes.
On Thursday evening we took a tour of the Jail that we were staying at. EEK! The prison is apparently haunted by the ghost of one poor guy, James Patrick Whelan, accused of murdering a Father of Confederation. On the eight floor of the prison (a floor unused by the Hostel) we saw the cells (including death row) where these people were kept. After one too many stories (among them, stories of hostellers visited by Whelan’s ghost), and a visit to the gallows (the only operational gallows in Canada apparently), the tour ended. I don’t do so well with ghost stories and made Chris sleep in the bottom bunk with me - me and Chris on a single bunk. My mind racing with visions of ghosts and criminal goblins as well as the very real fear that our bed would come crashing down, I don’t think I slept for more than an hour.
From Ottawa we made our way to St. John to visit with Chris’ family, arriving Friday evening. So far we have done some visiting, but we will write more about that later… This entry is getting way too long!
March 5th, 2007 -- Posted in Canada |
We arrived in Ottawa an hour late this morning after the midnight flight from Vancouver. It’s only about -4 degrees, but the wind is blowing about 1 million miles per hour directly from the North Pole. We obtained our Jordanian travel visa without incident. Tomorrow we get the Syrian visa and then we are heading off to Montreal for a night. We both need a bit of sleep, perhaps more later on when I wake up……
March 1st, 2007 -- Posted in Canada |
I’m sitting in an Internet Cafe typing this up. How demoralizing for someone who considered himself Lord of the Computer World at one point….
All we have now is the packs on our backs. Busy doing taxes, packing up our stuff into storage, and all the crap that we need to do before we get this show on the road….
We leave Vancouver this Sunday, March 4th at 23:50 PST. 1st stop is Ottawa to get some travel Visas…..
February 23rd, 2007 -- Posted in Canada |
I’m sitting here tying up some things for work. It all seems very surreal now! I can’t believe that we are actually doing this!
I am surrounded by boxes that are packed and ready to go into storage. I kept 80% of my boxes from my last move so it makes the packing easy — no guessing as to what will fit where. I have become a lot more comfortable about the idea of all possessions neatly fitting into 8′ X 12′. This will be a considerable downsize… carrying two 55L bags holding all of our possessions will be interesting to say the least! I am convinced that Chris would do fine with a day pack or fanny pack, but I will be glad for the extra space in his bag 
. Our things go into storage on Sunday and we leave Beach Towers on the 28th. I’m going to miss this place.
We will be starting our travels within Canada, heading out East on March 4. The itinerary is Ottawa (for visas to Jordan and Syria), St. John to visit Chris’ family, Port de Grave (NL) to see my family, then to TO to spend some time with family and friends there. We’ll be heading out of the country on March 21 - first stop will be Scotland to visit Pamela, Chris’ sister.
Last day of work for a year - how odd and exciting. Since I was 14, I’ve always had a job. This will take some getting used to, but I’m sure I’ll be able to handle it!
The blog needs some work, and we’ll hopefully get to that prior to leaving. This will be a much more interesting place once we are on the road. Please visit and drop a line from time to time… no doubt it will be very good to hear from home.
p
January 15th, 2007 -- Posted in Canada |
Our big journey is just around the corner. Chris has resigned, and I will hopefully do the same in the next week. Chris just pulled out our backpacks and we are going to do a test pack to see what fits and what stays home. I think that Chris would likely do fine with a fanny pack, but we are both carrying large (55-70L) packs regardless.
A lot has to happen in the next month or so. As I write this, Chris is doing some more research on visas. We’ve also been researching the credit card type of Visa this weekend. My card is conveniently set to expire mid trip… we’ll be somewhere in India when the date hits, and that means trouble. Crazy that a TRAVEL Visa will not make an allowance for travelers with a card set to expire mid trip. The wise people at CIBC have told me that I can not arrange for a replacement until 2 months prior to expiry. Good luck getting a courier to deliver my new credit card somewhere in Northern India. NOT so convenient at all. I’ll show them… two months after paying my $125 for the privilege of using the damn card, I’m going to cancel it. I feel so used.
We’ll be getting the remainder of our jabs this week… will be good to have that done. Pricey little injections are costing us a lot of dough. Better safe than sorry I suppose.
We’ve decided on our storage solution and will be going with a company called PODS. I like the name. As long as Hugo (our building manager) doesn’t have a coronary with them putting the container in front of the building, we should be fine. What a cool idea - mobile storage - handy and less expensive than hauling it ourselves into storage. Sweet.
Condo is still up in the air and causing me some stress. Lucky for me, Chris is a patient guy. Still no word on possession date, however I’m feeling positive that it will be in Feb. This may push our trip by a week or three, but we’ll deal with it. Sooner than later we will have a bag each to our names, and be doing just fine. If we are a few weeks without our TV or blender, I’m sure we’ll make do.
Still working on the itinerary. It has been pretty static for a while now, but the possible delay may change things a bit. We are also looking into the possibility of starting our RTW (round the world) tickets from the UK — could be a saver of money as well as allow us to extend the trip at the end if we want to… who knows.
Thought I would add some content and let people know what is happening.
Paula