Banff is the sort of scenic mountain town that you might find in Colorado, USA. Big mountains, trees, rivers, lots of tourist appeal, hiking and activities to attract visitors in every season of the year. The real appeal of Banff is not the town of Banff – it’s everything outside of it. For some reason all of us tourists flock there because it gets a lot of the attention for the beauty of Alberta that surrounds it. Banff is just another hyped up touristy mountain town. Skip it if you can and enjoy all the cool stuff outside of it. There are so many hikes to do all over the place offering different views and panoramic landscapes. Morraine Lake and Mirror Lake are both famous places to see but there are some logistical stress that comes with visiting them. The national park service disallows parking or vehicle traffic to manage load, so you need to purchase ticketed reservations. The time slots sell out immediately (as within 10 seconds of them becoming available online during high season). But what you can do is rent a bike or ebike (electrical bike) and ride 9 kilometers from the rental shop to the lakes […]
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Calgary has been on my Canadian hit list for the past couple years as Canada has increasingly become a place of interest to me; it’s like the United States, but it isn’t the United States,. For a travel hipster like me, that’s a cool reason to visit. So far I have visited Montreal, Toronto and Newfoundland and Calgary has been next in queue. Part of my interest in Calgary has come from the annual Calgary Stampede which is a huge, ten day rodeo in the middle of July with many other events and activities, and always seemed similar to Cheyenne Frontier Days, a comparable event in Cheyenne, Wyoming each July for ten days. I couldn’t visit the Stampeded this year owing to my friends’ wedding in Prague at the same time, but I was able to visit in August. The people I talked to while I was in Newfoundland told me how the province of Alberta (within which Calgary is situated) is different from the other places I had visited in Canada. Alberta is more western, mountainous, scenic and rural. It’s always really fun to “discover” a new sort of mico-culture in a country, it makes you feel like an […]
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My friend David is from and lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland and I visited him for the second year in a row to stay at his house and attend the annual George Street Festival. Each year dozens of bars on George Street open their doors and people stream between them as live music bands play in the street during each of the seven nights. David was again a gracious host and we had fun exploring the streets of George Street again, though I think we only made it out about three or four times. When David goes out he likes to stay out until 4 AM which isn’t something I’m so good at handling anymore, though I am proud to say I’m pretty good at drinking David’s drink of choice, Whisky diet gingers. My favorite part about staying at David’s are the afternoon happy hours that happen outside in his back yard around his fire pit, listening to a portable speaker playing tunes while we talk about work and women. I’d fly to St. John’s just for that. The next time I see David there’s a good chance he’ll be married – he met a woman from Jersey (the island) […]
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My friend David from business school told me that I should come to visit his hometown, St. John’s Newfoundland at the height of the summer season during the six-day George Street festival. George Street is in the central part of St. John’s and houses around fifty bars, restaurants, and pubs. During the summer festival, all the venues are open, without the regular cover charges, and attendees can roam freely between them and the outside live music shows throughout the night. Before I met David, I couldn’t even point to Newfoundland on a map, let alone have an expectation of what it was like. So of course I came for a visit — unknown destinations are my favorite, and those with a local friend who wants to show you around, are the best. David’s high school friend Glen (who now lives in Toronto) was visiting David during the George Street festival too, and the three of us made a good team for bar-hopping at night. I must admit that I was the first one to bow out each night – being unable to match their partying energy until 4 am each morning. The history of St. John’s and Newfoundland is fascinating. […]
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I spent three days exploring Toronto on my way to Newfoundland. I caught a Blue Jays game, visited Tim Horton’s for the first time, saw my friend Jamie Bishara, went to the Hockey Hall of fame, and managed to still get some work done. Even though Toronto is a big city, it felt like a small town — never crowded, and the people walking downtown outnumbered the cars. I’m skeptical that the winters “aren’t that cold,” and I do not understand why the hockey team, “The Maple Leafs” isn’t called “The Maple Leaves,” or why the (former) Queen of England is on the Canadian currency, nor why Canada pays the British Royal family over fifty million dollars each year. I suppose there is still more to be learned about Canada!
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Halfway through a busy April 2022 which would see me in nine different cities, I was able to visit a place I hadn’t yet visited: Montréal, Canada. I had intended to visit Montréal ever since 2017 when my Québecoise friend Alexandra, who I met in Split, Croatia, put it on my radar as a place I should want to visit. There was a very European personality to Montréal and Quebec as a whole owing to its predominantly French influence. I was told that the food is especially good and the people personable and kind. So when I had about two weeks to kill before a wedding in New Jersey, Montréal seemed the right destination. The intent was to do some exploration and discovery if Montréal and Canada as a whole, could be a place I would want to spend more time living in during the coming years. As you may already know, I love destinations that are (to me) blank slates and where I am completely ignorant of what to expect. Standard life becomes interesting and novel without prior expectations. My regular habits upon landing in a new location, such as finding a gym, a restaurant to eat dinner at, […]
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