EUROTRIP

illustration by Tania Kaufmann

08-03-10

The Trial Run: Canada part 2

After we all woke up and had our breakfast, everyone did their own thing for the morning. Andrew needed to finish up his final paper, Heather and I watched Fame. In the afternoon, we took the boat out to downtown Bobcaygeon.

Captain Jim

Heather & Me

Being that it was summer, the town was packed with tourists. We stopped into a local pub, had some grub, a beer and some window shopping.

We packed up and made our way back to Toronto with Heather, Andrew’s sister to hang out with Scott, Andrew’s brother and spend the night. We walked around downtown Toronto after feasting on the sushi platter Scott had bought for us to share.

Downtown Toronto : CN Tower & Sky Dome

I started one of the books I’ve downloaded on my iPad called “Water for Elephants,” I’m four chapters in and already really into it. It’s about an old man in his 90′s reminiscing about his life in the circus in his 20′s in the 1930′s. It’s funny and witty so far. At the end of each chapter there are archived photos circus’ during that time. And I just found out they are currently making a movie out if it, starring Robert Pattinson & Reese Witherspoon.

We leave tomorrow so it’s going to be a really long travel day. I’m not quite as nervous as before and I’m getting use to going place to place in the pack now. The hardest part is making sure Andrew doesn’t put something down in a random place and forgets about it, aka his credit cards, passport. I don’t have to worry about his green card as that is firmly taped in his pouch! Which reminds me of, “I stapled the itinerary in your jacket.”

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.