EUROTRIP

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08-02-10

The trial run: Canada

I’ve been increasingly nervous and excited. My OCD has been in full overdrive as I find myself making meticulous lists of things to see. Organizing my bag just so, improvising packing cubes with target plastic bags to keep everything separate and easy to find. Rolling my clothes as tight as possible to get all the extra space I can. And of course fretting that I’m going to forget something super important and irreplaceable.

Then Andrew reminds me by going to Canada first, we have time to fix/buy/get rid of things for a few days before we leave for really real to London. So I’m thinking of it as a trial run. Of course we will be with family and still have familiar comforts, but everything we’re taking with us will be tested out. 

The first trial day was a little rough. A mix of super early morning, layovers, bad traffic, a police scare and a confused front desk guard preventing us from sleeping at Andrew’s brother’s condo downtown..

There were a few highlights, I got to see a beautiful sunrise.

And the Detroit airport has some really neat art installations. Laughing Squid has some better photos.

FYI if you ever drive in Canada, do not speed over 50kph. They take away your license and impound your car right there on the spot. No one else can drive the car, they leave you on the side of the road. Not even the tow truck can take you. Thankfully the cop, although scary, lessened the speed and just wrote a ticket. (We were not driving.) It was one of those days where it was really bad, but it definitely could have been worse.

Our backpacks are pretty great, after carrying it through the airport for a few hours, having the hip strap was definitely the way to go. We both got the Kelty Redwing 3100, which is a 50 liter back, just small enough to be carry-on, but enough room for all our stuff.

Trial day 2: Toronto

We spent the night at Andrew’s sisters house. Then headed out on the subway to visit with Andrew’s childhood friend, John and his wife, Robin. We finally got to see their neat 100 year house in the neighborhood of Leslieville. A very up and coming neighborhood that is transforming into a cool place to live.

This shelf was handbuilt by John and his dad to hold all the jars of handmade pasta sauce they make every year.

They took us to brunch then we headed up to Aurora, an suburb 30 minutes north of Toronto, to visit Andrew’s other friend, Denis, his wife Julie, and their adorable Amelie. Then we made our way up to Bobcaygeon, to Andrew’s parent’s house.

I love looking out on the lake in the mornings.
 

You can see what photos we’ve uploaded so far here.