VERMONT

Crossing the border once more.

Filled with jubilation from Montreal i excitedly headed across the border and back into the States to meet up with my surrogate family members kicking off with my new cousin & international bestie Kelly. Kelly is the daughter of my mum's best friend Pat so by default we shall be international best friends... i'm not sure if she wants this but in my head its happening. 

Burlington, VT was the next stop on the tour and i was very excited to be picked up from the airport especially as the snow had fallen and the temperatures were dropping by the day. We spent the evening drinking many glasses of wine and watching the football American style! 

Vermont is a sweet city with a huge university and some amazing shops, cafes and bars to check out. Kelly gave me a whistle stop tour before work the next day and i had a great afternoon checking out the shops full of sweets, tea, hiking shoes, crafts and organic produce. I also sampled an oriental style bagel which sounds strange but was delicious... i love a peanut dipping sauce with any meal.

Day two was another snowy day and i took great pleasure in heading out in my new hiking shoes to find a swimming pool and visit my new favourite supermarket for some supplies. By the end of the day i felt very American with my many many layers, puffer jacket and a classic paper shopping bag to boot. This feeling was topped off by spending the night drinking with Kelly's boyfriend Jay at Kelly's work watching even more football. Turns out i am really good at picking the winner and i greatly enjoy a pumpkin ale. Winning all round.

On our final day we went to see the amazing Zach Deputy at Nectars for music, dancing and wings. Wings are the ultimate bar food in America and when i return i will be on a one woman mission to bring them to the UK. 

The next morning we hit the road for a the drive to Maine and Thanksgiving... obviously i was very excited! I also learned that Vermont give out free coffee at the service stations. They are stand up guys! 

MONTREAL

A magical land filled with treats and treasures.

Montreal was amazing, i was so excited to get a slightly different city with a different language and i am so glad that i spent a week there. It was the first place i had been that felt busy with options and activities. Despite the dropping temperatures there were plenty of people to chat to and visits to organise. 

I was so lucky to meet some excellent people and form a little touring group. Montreal has a huge Irish influence and we spent many a night in an Irish bar hunting down gigs and live bands. I love the architecture and culture of Montreal, it is the perfect blend of Europe and Canada, the food tour was a great chance to see both. Our newly formed group (the quad) headed out into the cold for food market treats, bagels with cream cheese and loxs and smoked meat sandwiches with sour cherry soda and pickles. It was DELICIOUS! 

We followed up our day of feasting with a trip to the Contemporary Art Museum for their free evening. I didn't have great expectation to be honest but they had an amazing exhibition which i really enjoyed and in fact it deserves a solo blogpost. So more on that later. 

Other Montreal highlights included our hostel cooking parties, climbing Mount Royal on an icy day and discovering a huge open fire at the top!, Sleemans Honey Beer, more live music, the botanical gardens & bio-dome and a christmas parade that ended in me overdosing on caffeine in many forms and franticly storming around the east of the city looking for food.  

I loved the city so much and really had a great time, before long it was time to leave and board a bus (that i had to run for as i was distracted by a muffin) to visit my surrogate cousin Kelly in Vermont. 

TORONTO ISLAND

In the summer this island is teaming with people enjoying the beach and the lakes, in the winter the island is a spooky silent place with barren beaches and icy bridges. 

Myself and a fellow English traveller took the ferry out and MY GOD it was cold on the lake with the wind whipping round your ears. Local residents have to come over to the mainland to do their shopping so there were lot's of bikes with small trailers attached full to the brim with groceries and household essentials. It reminded me a little of Christiania in Copenhagen with the winding paths and wooden buildings surrounding the water. 

The houses here are amazing and we had a good walk around the small plots peeking into windows and gardens as we went. It was way to cold for a full day's visit so after i ate my picnic lunch at maximum speed we headed back onto the ferry this time choosing an indoor seat. 

A nice surprise was a simple art installation at the Ferry Terminal, all yellow vinyl had been pasted on the building and it looked amazing next to the bright blue sky and stark grey concrete. I was a big fan! (The picture of this is in the main Toronto post FYI)

I quiet liked that we were the only ones walking around the island but i can imagine things are a lot more fun when it's warm and you can go swimming. I mean i do love swimming! 

SWIMMING POOLS OF THE WEST EAST PART.4

Through sleet and snow i travelled in search of a swimming session suitable to live up to the dizzy heights that this blog feature has become. 

I can tell you it did not disappoint! 

One particularly cold Sunday in Toronto i headed up on the metro to The Douglas Snow Aquatic Centre.

It was very hard to find and a little spooky on the approach, the two decorative pools outside the building had frozen solid and there was not a sole in sight. Heading round the back i found a small entrance to the pool and a very empty reception desk. I'm not sure why but i figured i would skip the whole paying part of swimming and head straight in, the internet had told me the session was at 8pm so i strode on in. 

This was a foolish thing to do, once inside and changed into my lycra outfit i realised that all that was happening was a lot of classes. 

It took me a while to figure out what to do and then i thought 'just lie' so i did. I put on my best British accent and explained to a friendly lifeguard that i had left my money on the counter at reception and didn't realise there were classes going on. She said not to worry, that the lane swim would start in 40 mins and i was welcome to join a class. So i hopped in and spent 30 mins jumping and bouncing in an Aqua Fat class. 

Much harder than is looks i will tell you. After this i did my usual swimming session and yet again had the pleasure of joining some Asian seniors in the poaching pool. It turned out to be a very LONG session...

NO. OF POOLS: 1

LOCATION: Jump on the Yonge St Metro 

INDOORS/OUTDOORS: Indoors

LENGTH: 1x 50 1x poaching pool

WOW FACTOR: 5/10

CHANGING FACILITIES: 6/10

BONUS: Free swim and Free Aqua Fat Class

TORONTO

Where layers are your friends..

I did board the flight from Vancouver to Toronto with some hesitation, mainly based around the weather and the  icy storms i had been warned about. Yes it was cold.... really cold but it was also bright and sunny. I am definitely a lover of the east coast where people are harsher, places are busier and everything's closer. 

The hostel in Toronto was packed with travellers, well Australians but that is a given. 

Toronto was also the city of free things! Yay! I enjoy a free 2 hour bike rental that i took out to Kensington Market to browse the vintage stores, eat tiny expensive pastry's and finally i found a coffee that wasn't the size of my head. It was basically a slice of East London transported to Canada, just exchange the Victorian houses for slightly grubby wooden ones and you are there. I liked it. 

Next up on the free list was two tickets to the David Bowie exhibition that had come over from London. Amazing as i didn't have a chance to see it in London and it was, as i expected, EXCELLENT but HUGE! The V&A is one of my fav museums anyway and they did a great job. 

Finally and best of all was a free tour of the Steam Whistle Brewery... i'm not sure how that happened but i was late and they ushered me in while shoving a  beer in my hand so who was i to complain! They sound like a great company to work for and i couldn't help but nose at the two graphic designers who were working in the office while we were walked through. Interesting stuff made all the more interesting by the fact that i skipped breakfast! WOHOOOO.

The weekend was spent browsing the many food stalls and markets in town and nibbeling on various offerings my favourite of which were some small spicy smoked sausages. Delicous and really cheap! YUM 

Toronto was a blast and further solidified in my mind and heart that i had made the right decision to carry on travelling and exploring the East of this very very large continent. 

Oh i forgot to mention my first night... in short i went on a pub crawl, got overly drunk, hit up a drag queen show (amazing as always!) and ended up with a group of hostel goers in a real life Canadians flat drinking on the balcony and dancing till 5am. It was fun, i felt special the next day. 

SWIMMING POOLS OF THE WEST PART.3

This time i bring you a very special edition of Swimming Pools Of The West. We will be reviewing the two swimming pools that i visited in the fine city of Vancouver. Well know for its love of sport i was excited about the swimming opportunities that faced me. 

Swimming Pool No. 1: Kilarney Leisure Centre

I visited this local pool on a rainy saturday morning and it was during the week of gloom so my spirits were not that high. However i dragged myself out of the house at 8.30am and ventured over to this pool. What i really wanted was a relaxing time and to clear my head. What i got was a whole different experience. 

As i approached the centre i noted lot's of teenagers gathering for what i assumed was a football or hockey match. I thought nothing of it and carried on inside where i was greeted by literally 100 Asian seniors. 80% of them were splashing about in a high techno aqua fat class, the younger fitter men where diving and somersaulting off the diving board and the ones on the edge of death were poaching themselves in the Jacuzzi. 

There were two very small lanes next to the techno section assigned for lengths and these two were filled with very slow very old people. I did a small amount of swimming and pretty much gave up as the whole thing was very distracting. I figured i would spend some time in the death soup and got out to go over to the Jacuzzi... to my absolute amazement i heard the theme tune to Harry Potter blasting across the field and groups of people running around with brooms. What i thought had been a casual saturday game of football was in fact QUIDDITCH!!! It was Amazing!

NO. OF POOLS: 2

LOCATION: Out of town but close to my house, i cycled there in 10 mins

INDOORS/OUTDOORS: Indoors

LENGTH: 1x 25m 1x 15m

WOW FACTOR: 10/10 (only for the experience... the pool itself probs a 7/100

CHANGING FACILITIES: 7/10

BONUS: Jacuzzi!!! & Diving Boards!

Swimming Pool No.2: Vancouver Aquatic Centre

My second experience of swimming in Vancouver was much more tame and much more tiring  I haven't been keeping up to my usual three swims per week so i struggled a little with the 50m lengths and only managed to do 25 of them. I did however greatly enjoy watching people practicing their diving and this distracted me from the very very long very very splashy pool. All in all an enjoyable swim though nothing in comparison to the first swim!

The pool itself was a little old and had seen better days and it sits inside a funny concrete bunker that reminded me of Poland not Vancouver... 

NO. OF POOLS: 1

LOCATION: Downtown... easy access

INDOORS/OUTDOORS: Indoors

LENGTH: 1x 50

WOW FACTOR: 7/10

CHANGING FACILITIES: 6/10

BONUS: Diving boards if you like that kind of thing