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Monday 29 September 2014

ALGONQUIN


100% my favourite weekend in Canada so far. Algonquin Provincial Park is about a 4 hour drive from Hamilton and covers over 7000 sqkm. It's located in Central Ontario between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River and is the oldest Provincial Park in Canada. We drove up on a sleepy Friday night to stay for a night in traditional cabins before heading out on the lakes for some canoeing. After a brisk 7am wake up call, we packed up our gear, got into our groups and headed out onto the water. In groups of 9, we had four canoes between us. Mostly in pairs, I was put in the three man and acted as 'princess/team flightless bears professional photographer'. Algonquin is truly spectacular, the autumn colours shone through in reds, gold’s and oranges. This combined with a shiny, still lake meant that the reflections were almost identical to the trees themselves. We spent the first half of the day paddling through a narrow creek. Not used to canoeing this was a bit of a struggle and a few of us beached ourselves in the grass a couple of times. After coming out into a wide, open lake, we spotted a flat-looking island and headed out for lunch and to soak up the sun. After lunch it was back on the open water. At one point we even lost a paddle (even less for me to do). In between getting to all the lakes we had a number of 'portages' or as I liked to call it 'French-canoe-walking'. This is where you need to hoist the canoe up and carry it on your shoulders to the next available body of water. Luckily for most of the guys carrying the canoes, the longest one was just over 500m! Canoes, dear readers, are a bit heavy. However these portages gave us the opportunity to walk through some of Algonquin's woodland, see some chipmunks and get out of the sun for a bit. The last hour of our day was arguably the best. In this hour, I saw a swimming moose and my Canadian dream was fulfilled. At first we thought it was a really big bird...I know. Stupid. Then we saw it's antlers and it's one heck of a snout puffing away. My pictures weren't great but so happy that I got to see a Canadian wildlife icon. After that we drifted in the lake for a bit soaking up the last of the sun’s rays and enjoying the peace and quiet. Arriving at camp, we parked the canoes and jumped straight into the water at sunset for a swim! The water was pretty icy but refreshing and laying out in the sun after was arguably the best way to end the day. The evening was spent stargazing. The stars were breathtaking, you could see the Milky Way and we even spotted a bunch of shooting stars! Despite a restless night, the next morning we got up and continued our canoeing. This was an easier day and a shorter one. The lake remained calm and a big pike nearly jumped in our boat! We encountered one fast moving waterway which apparently took out a few canoes in its rapids- we decided to avoid it altogether! Overall Algonquin was amazing, I'm not sure how many times I muttered 'this is the life' to myself but it's truly a beautiful place. 


Friday 26 September 2014

Exploring Canada


Canada is a pretty big place and I've only really been exploring a tiny portion of it. But I want to share with you some of the beautiful places I've been to and show you how even in your backyard, Canada is a beautiful place. The majority of these photos are surprisngly from Hamilton (my current home). Hamilton is a University town and industrial steel city but for many it's gone a bit into decline. I would argue that Hamilton has some of the best hidden gems including over 1000 waterfalls and an emerging art scene. Dundas Peak gives you a great view of Hamilton and the surrounding area (you can even see Toronto) and hiking along the Bruce Trail takes you to some gorgeous waterfalls which you can paddle in. If you continue to hike along the Bruce Trail you will eventually end up at Niagara Falls which as you will know straddles the US/Canada border (the Canada side has better views mkay?).


Horseshoe falls is probably the most famous of the two and is spectacular when lit up at night. I've also managed a sneaky trip to Toronto, as I mentioned in a previous post. It's a really amazing city- what I would call a 'liveable city'. The waterfront is for many the best view of the city, illuminating the famous CN tower and offering great views of the Rogers Centre Sports Stadium. The best views can be seen from the island, which I haven't been to yet, but I do have a good 7 months left! This weekend I'm travelling to Algonquin National Park. There I'll be canoeing and swimming in the lakes and enjoying the autumnal golds and reds of the surrounding trees- honestly the photos look amazing! The park itself is huge and offers plenty of oppurtunities to see local Canadian wildlife; moose, bears and wolves all live here! Although if I do see a bear I'm not sure if that's good news. The weather is set to be beautiful- 26 degrees and sunny! So I'm pretty excited.


So a quick overview of the backpacking trip I did last weekend. We woke up bright and early for a breakfast at Pancake House and to pack all of our goods away. This included stuffing a sleeping bag, mat, part of a tent and a few pots and pans into my already over-filled backpack. Heaving the thing on made me feel like a turtle to say the least. After a big pancake and bacon breakfast (with a bucket of strength inducing coffee) we jumped on the bus to Dundas and started the hike. The first part of the hike got some getting used to. Carrying an 80l backpack in 20+ degree heat aint so easy my friends. We walked along an old railway track which eventually led up to our campsite. However after walking for 20 mins or so, we took the high ground which led up to Dundas Peak and some great views. We even spotted a train that had at least 50 + carriages! It was great so see some of the autumnal colours coming through and also see a bit of the surrounding area. After this our walk took us past a golf course and along to see some of the waterfalls.


Most of the falls were pretty shallow but some you could paddle in. Which leads me onto the second day! After an evening of s'mores, campfire stories and 'interesting' pasta, we woke up in a puddle. It had been raining all morning and we had to pack everything up in torrential rain. It wasn't a great start to the morning and trying to cook bacon has never been so tiresome! The rains cleared up eventually however and this took us on a great path through the woodlands. It was a very peaceful start to the day, sun shining through the trees and a couple of wildlife sightings; snakes yo. Then when we reached some of the bigger waterfalls, paddling and climbing happened. A few of us drenched ourselves in the falls to cool down, others (like me) enjoyed the spray and snapped a few shots.  We carried on walking back towards Hamilton and even passed McMaster, seeing it from an almost birds-eye view! Finally we ended up near downtown and caught the bus back to campus. A great trip and a new side to Hamilton I'd never seen!

Wednesday 17 September 2014

LIFE IN CANADA (SO FAR)

So this is a more of a 'what have I been doing since I left the country' post. In many ways, I'm still settling in, I've been here for a month now and I guess I can call it home but despite starting classes last week, it still sort of feels like an extended holiday! I've done so much so I won't be able to pack it all in one post. But I've got lots of plans to do some travelling, backpacking, camping and general sightseeing, so you'll here about that soon. Plus I've had a lot of meals out, some good, some average. Once I find somewhere worth blogging about, you will see it up here! I'm also hoping to do some recipe posts, however; SHOCK AND HORROR, I don't have a real oven here! The house is only stocked with mini convection ovens and microwave ovens, luckily I have a friend across the road who's oven I can work out once I need to start baking when winter comes...which is scarily soon. So here are 10 happy things that have happened in the last month!

1. Visiting Niagara Falls! The falls themselves are awe-inspiring and seeing them up close was especially crazy. I got soaked whilst trying to wrap my poncho around me on the boat so it was a good thing it was such a hot day. 


2. Toronto! It's such a cool city and one of those 'liveable' cities where you could see yourself going about your everyday activities. We stayed in Kensington which was an especially cool area with loads of street art, vegan bakeries and trendy looking students milling around. Dinner was at a great little Jewish bistro which served the best blonde beer from Quebec. 

3. TIFF or Toronto Film Fest! We saw Adult Beginners on a rainy Saturday morning. Very funny and very sweet, highly recommend. 




4. Going to Supercrawl, a free festival in Downtown Hamilton. I saw Charles Bradley play; if you don't know him, he's a James Brown-esque Jazz singer with a killer voice. I also ate beavertail (deep fried chocolate and banana covered doughnut dough mmm) and got a pretty handmade pink and purple patterned purse from an independent craft stall.

5. Eating Canadian Foods! I've been so fat and I don't care. Poutine has been a revelation; it's a classic Canadian dish of chips smothered in gravy and cheese. I got some in Niagara at Smokes Poutinerie which were topped with pulled pork and crispy bacon. 

   

























6.The Chinese Supermarket in Jackson Square. I found this place literally on my first day in the city. It has EVERYTHING. Fresh dim sum and cheap sushi, raw sugar cane, a wall of exotic teas... I could spend hours roaming the aisles I swear. 

7. Treating myself to a NARS blusher in Sephora. Oh Britain, why oh why do we not have a Sephora? It's glorious.




8. School Pride at MAC! McMaster has crazy enthusiastic school pride. I went to a football game on my second week here and the stadium was buzzing with cheers and chants. It's such a happy atmosphere and really infectious- I even bought a McMaster t-shirt myself. 






9. Coffee Breaks at Tim Hortons. Cheap, good coffee and yummy baked snacks. No wonder Canadians love Tim Hortons. 

10. The (first three weeks of) weather. Ok so it's cooled a bit down now, but until last weekend it was 30 degree heat, sunshine and smiles. There were a couple of thunderstorms but they brought much needed coolness when it was a bit too much. Plus the lightning was incredible!