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The Man-Plan!
I have loads of photos to upload of my adventures since being in Golden, BC, but they may be a while, and might have to actually wait until I get back to the UK.
Until then, I’m getting close to the end of my stay in Golden, and have a little bit of time to go travelling before I have to catch my plane back to the homeland. So to that end me and Sam (who will be joining me on some of the journey) have come up with a little travel itinerary, starting at Golden and with me ending up in Toronto, AKA the ‘Man-Plan’.
I’ve added a couple of maps as well for those who like pictures.
THE MAN-PLAN
The journey begins with us leaving Golden on the 14th April for Lake Louise, in Jasper National Park. We’ll spend 3 days in Jasper, taking in some of the natural beauty, outdoor activities and hopefully wildlife (I still haven’t seen a bear yet!) that the biggest of the Canadian Rockies Parks has to offer.
We’ll then leave Jasper for Vancouver on the 17th April, travelling overnight on apparently one of the most beautiful coach journeys in the world. Arriving at Vancouver; the city which is ringed by the Pacific ocean and snow-capped coast mountains, we’ll spend 5 days sampling a tiny bit of what the city has to offer, before heading off again over a stretch of water to Vancouver Island, to visit the capital of British Columbia: Victoria.
We’ll then spend 3 days in Victoria, described as a “small, sedate city with quaint English air, leafy old town, delightful old-fashioned shopping streets and exquisite harbour”. Apparently as well it’s got a cracking museum!
Travelling across waters known for whale-spotting, we’ll briefly make our way out of Canada and travel to the American city of Seattle. I’ll see what the Yanks have to offer and if they can match up to the experience the Canadians have given me so far. 5 days in Seattle, exploring the sights and the aquarium, and then I’ll make my triumphant return to Canada, and more specifically back to Toronto on the 30th April.
Spending 4 nights back where I first started my journey nearly 11 months previously seems a fitting way to also end it. So I’ll return to Toronto, perhaps push the boat out and enjoy a few fizzy drinks and milkshakes in the evening with some friends, before I say “Goodbye”, or rather “See you soon” to my North American adventure, and “Hello again” to the homeland. After flying overnight I’ll arrive back to a hero’s welcome in Heathrow in the early morning of the 6th May.
Well… that’s the plan anyway.
Goodbye Toronto
My last few weeks, as you can no doubt imagine, have been slightly hectic what with all the planning needed for my new job, accommodation and new (much colder) conditions. Never mind how I was going to get to the town of Golden, BC from Toronto, Ontario and that I had to organise a going away party before I left.
The last week or so in Toronto turned out to be a little more eventful than I had anticipated, which is always a pleasant surprise. The reason that I haven’t blogged anything recently is because there has been very little to say about my adventures. I had got into a ‘routine’; a word that divides our lovely species, bringing some order, bliss and comfort, and trapping others in a mundane world of boredom. Luckily I am a person who can deal with a routine… for a couple of months at least. However with a routine came a lack of time to explore the wonderful experiences that Canada had to offer, and so hence my lack of blog updates. That and my camera has defiantly decided that it didn’t want to work any more and has been retired for the past couple of months, meaning no pictures of any adventures I may well have had.
I have recently acquired a new camera however, as I felt that my current town of residence has an aesthetic value that many of you will appreciate, and that I’d like to appreciate when I’ve left. Pictures coming soon!
So I suppose this is a thank you, and a goodbye Toronto! It’s been a blast, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the 5 or so months that I’ve lived there, the people that I’ve met and the places I’ve been. Although I could quite easily have lived there for my entire year in Canada, and will miss a lot of people, I think it’s time for me to move on and start a new adventure… To Golden!
Some of the pics of my last couple of days in Toronto… including a Raptors game!
Vinyl Bowls
I was walking back home from work the other night, when I saw loads of boxes full of vinyl records on the street. Now the thing about Toronto for those who have never been here are that there are few charity shops, so people put things that
Box of Vinyl
they don’t need out on the street (usually furniture, which is how we’ve furnished most of our apartment actually), and if it’s on the curb… then it’s fair game!
So I picked up as much as I could carry and took them back home, as my roomate is a DJ. Sadly only 2 of the records were any decent, so we were stuck with loads of vinyl that we didn’t need… so what did we do with them?
Welcome to the Kaluuja guide to making a vinyl bowl!
Put the vinyl in the oven
Step 1: Get some old vinyl records that you don’t need.
Step 2: Pre-heat your oven to 200C
Step 3: Put your vinyl record onto something roughly the shape you want your object to be (e.g. if you want a bowl, put the vinyl on an upside-down bowl so that when you heat it, it will droop over the bowl).
Step 4: Leave the vinyl in the oven for about 4-6mins
Vinyl Bowl
Step 5: Take out and shape whilst still warm and flexible
Step 6: Let it cool and enjoy your new vinyl bowl! (Or pen holder…)
We ended up making a pen holder and a bowl in the time we had. See if you can get creative and make something as well!
Vinyl Penholder in use!
Vinyl Penholder
The CN Tower
The CN Tower is one of Toronto’s main tourist attractions. For those who don’t know, it’s a communications and observation tower standing 553.3 metres (1,815 ft) tall. At the time of writing it is the world’s 3rd tallest free-standing structure, and is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
So really, having been in Toronto since June, it made sense for me to finally go and see it!
The elevator takes 58 seconds to travel up to the main observation deck (there is a higher ‘sky pod’ experience for a bit extra, but I stuck with the standard observation deck this time around). When you get up there it’s quite incredible how high up you are and how far you can see, and the pictures I took don’t really capture the experience fully. There was also a glass floor that enabled you to see right to the bottom, and although logically I know that it’s reinforced glass and wont break, I didn’t spend too long on it! So I got a slushie instead.
<update: Have added more pics to the Vector Art post check them out!>
Royal Ontario Museum
Recently during one of my days off, I realised that although I’d been in Toronto for 2 months now, I hadn’t really visited many of the ‘Tourist’ sights that the city has to offer. So I got out my Toronto guide book (which I hadn’t really looked at since the first week!) and had a look at the top 10 things to do in Toronto. Apparently I’d only done two of them! So I took the opportunity to visit the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and tick another top 10 off my list.
I managed to take a few pictures around the museum of things that I found interesting whilst I was there. Obviously there is so much more in the museum, and there were a few exhibits where you weren’t allowed to take a camera. Especially the ‘Warrior Emperor’s Terracotta Army’ exhibition which was fascinating. I’d highly recommend seeing or learning about it, it was a great experience learning about the man who unified China, built himself a tomb (probably the biggest ever in the world) with thousands of terracotta soldiers and underground lakes made from mercury!
I couldn’t take any pictures in there, but here are some of the others I took around the place… including dinosaurs… and who doesn’t love them?
I tried to organise them so they’re in a very rough chronological order, from dinosaurs, to the first humans, to ancient Egyptians and Greeks, to medieval times, to 16th Century Europe, Victorian times and finally to the modern day art of Dan Perjovschi.
Anyway, enjoy! And I’d recommend viewing the photos on full screen by selecting it from the menu.
Ontario Part 1: Toronto, The Falls and Poutine
Firstly, apologies for my lack of blogging since I have got to Canada, a combination of (a lot of) socializing, having no internet, and using the most temperamental camera ever has made it quite difficult for me to post anything!
However now I am at a more ‘settled’ phase (at least for the next couple of months) hopefully that will make things a lot easier! So… let’s start at the beginning…
– x –
The CN Tower
After about 8 hours in the air, I finally landed in Toronto, Canada. My first port of call was to make my way to the hostel where I’d be staying for the first couple of nights.
Although a great place to meet other like-minded traveling folk, as well as an awesome place for socializing (as it has it’s own bar) it wasn’t the greatest place to get a good nights sleep, which was what I was definitely in need of after my first ever case of jet lag! After the first couple of days exploring and getting our bearings around downtown Toronto (the location of the CN Tower, and the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Stadium) a group of us managed to get a place in one of the University of Toronto halls of residence, and with it a good nights sleep!
Blue Jays Stadium
The next couple of weeks were spent exploring the city that many of the group would call home for the next few months, as well as exploring the new pubs, and watching the world cup (which was surprisingly popular we found out).
Amongst all this I managed to be able to see Niagara Falls for the first time, as well as do a host of other things on the same day. Wine tasting, seeing the world’s biggest natural whirlpool, and visiting a village (with British shops!) called Niagara-on-the-lake were just a few of the things we experienced on that day.
<Pics coming soon for this day, my camera decided it didn’t want to work>
So other than the tax and drinking laws (which were a little confusing at first) it’s been an awesome experience so far, and I intend to keep that up whilst I’m out here. And even though it’s very difficult to get a proper cup of tea here (I’ve had 2 since arriving) the Canadians do have something that almost makes up for it: Poutine. It consists of chips, gravy and cheese (the ‘proper’ poutine uses cheese curds, but I prefer just cheese), and next time I go to the chippy in England… that’s the way I’m going! You know you’re going to have a good time in a country when that’s their national dish!
Poutine
Toronto Baby!
(This is actually a draft I forgot to post, it’s from June 14)
OK, so I’ve been in Toronto now for a few days, so it’s about time I stuck some stuff up here! The first couple of night I was here I stayed in one of the the hostels, awesome place to meet people and socialize… not so great to sleep in… So after the first couple of nights there a group of us have moved to some of the uni halls accommodation in Toronto.
Global Village Hostel
It’s actually been brilliant the amount of places in Canada that are showing the world cup, and how many Canadians are supporting England! The last game (vs USA) was such a good atmosphere… but we lost… (i know the result was ‘draw’, but we lost), but it should be great to get to the next game and represent some more!
I went to Niagara Falls yesterday, and that was an awesome day, found a shop selling British goods, so bought some Lucozade, had a Cornish Pasty and a sausage roll… cracking lunch!
Photos from Niagara falls and the CN tower to come soon, but now I’ve got to try and sort out a job!
Before Canada
Well… my first post in 3 months, and alot has changed since then in my plans!
No longer do i plan to traverse the outback of Australia, instead I am now 3 days away from my flight to Toronto, Canada!
For the next few posts I’ll be probably using the blog as a sort of ‘travel journal’, just sharing some of the experiences and maybe photos of what I’ve been up to. So the next time you hear (well… read) from me, the Canadians will hopefully have let me in, and i’ll be speaking with a Canadian accent!
Exciting times!
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