Canada Part Two: Bears, Dog Walking, and Birthday Parties

trucking at dusk in Ontario

Superior beauty

a place to buy worms

We left Winnipeg and drove past some lakes called Ontario.  It took three days. We saw some bears – a mama bear and her two cubs – and some really beautiful scenery.  We looked and looked for a moose and although we passed through many moose crossings, we did not see see any mooses.  We saw pictures of mooses and restaurants and cafes named after mooses and uncle Alec has a moose sculpture in his yard, but in the end we did not see a live moose.  However, Ontario is a beautiful province and has lots of wildlife.  We’re happy that Keeana gets to enjoy it for the next few years. 

Vince exploring the woods

Because we tried to take a ferry between a couple of the lakes but were thwarted by our computers, who both thought we were still in Qatar, we arrived at Elora late and Keeana had already been gardening with Uncle Alec for a couple of hours.  We had a delicious dinner with them and a late dog walk and bedtime.  Next day we helped Keeana set up her long-awaited bed and other belongings, and then got back to Alec’s for late dog-walking and bedtime.

On Friday I helped Keeana with more furniture buying and Vince spent some time with his mom.  The plan was to meet in Toronto: the men folk to take in a Jays game, and the girls to join Karri at the Broadway show “War Horse!” After a busy but productive day, Keeana and I had a horrific drive into Toronto.  My Torontonian friends often told me tales of the 401, but I think it is one of those things you have to experience yourself.

The ferry we didn't take

  Also, our handwritten Google directions (the printer I brought for Keeana didn’t have the disc, oops) weren’t quite clear and we had to ask passing drivers for clarification a couple of times.  But eventually we made it to our destination – The Royal York – only half an hour late.  By that time, of course everyone had gone on without us, and we had to find the theatre ourselves, but War Horse was worth every harrowing moment on the 401 and beyond, including the twice-around-the-block search for The Royal York Parking Garage Entrance.

beautiful Guelph

Saturday Keeana and I attempted to put furniture together – definitely a job for an engineer after all.  On Sunday we had the big day.  Gramma’s birthday celebration started with the one-time-only complete Morden family mass.  We all descended on the local church in our Sunday best (or better than what we were wearing earlier that week, anyway) and saw some of our new family for the first time as we joined Gramma in some hymns and enjoyed a baptism.

Afterwards we drove with Karri and her friend Jeannie to Mount Pleasant, where Gramma lived as a little girl and young woman, and had cocktails and then dinner at Devlin’s Bistro, which  used to be the general store where Gramma rode to on her bike to get the mail.  The party was a lot of fun and an awesome opportunity to meet and talk to the cousins, aunties and uncles, and meet Gramma’s friends and neighbours.

Finally we got to spend one more evening with Uncle Alec.  On Monday I took Keeana to visit our old friend Amy and her two little girls, Elizabeth and Katherine.  I made it back to Alec’s with the old van only a teensy bit late and we weren’t late for our flight back to Europe.

I got IDed trying to buy congratulatory wine for Amy!

Winnipeg – An Entertaining visit to the Murder capital of Canada

hula-hula girl does not like the rain

a big teepee

We left Calgary at the crack of 3:30 pm in our trusty van in the hopes of making it to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan before midnight.  After a couple of minor set-backs – Vince’s AC/DC converter wasn’t powerful enough to charge his laptop on the fly so we had to stop at Canadian Tire in Brooks, where we didn’t see Heather but we did buy a bigger and more powerful power converter, and we almost ran out of gas somewhere near Gull Lake because we couldn’t find Vince’s bank card, but a trucker rescued us (trucker rescue number one of our cross Canada road-trip adventure) – we made it to the beautiful town of Moose Jaw and had a wonderful sleep at our one-and-a-half star hotel, the Knight’s Inn Moose Jaw.  Eastern Alberta and Saskatchewan are flat and it rained.

another great-looking van

Next day, we hit the road bright and early.  When we stopped for a coffee and pee break (in one end and out the other) Vince noticed that our tail pipe was riding lower than before, so we experienced trucker rescue number two when a kindly trucker went and found us a big fat length of wire from his truck so Vince could sort out the tail pipe.

They still have grain elevators in Saskatchewan

We then found Winnipeg and Dale’s house all by ourselves.  Dale was surprised to see us because he hadn’t thought we’d be able to traverse the confusing streets of Winnipeg without guidance.  But we did!  We sat on his sofa and had a wonderful catch-up visit of several hours before finally going to sleep.  Dale, being the extremely gracious host, gave us his room and he slept on a very thin futon or something in his guest bedroom, and claimed that he had the best sleep he’d had in weeks. 

flea-markety goodness

In the morning Dale took us to his neighbourhood flea market, which is a proper flea market.  Booth after booth of fantastic antiques and junk and garage-sale type stuff – we bought a few little nutty things.  Afterwards we met up with my old friend Amita, whom I know from teaching in Egypt, and we all went on a little fun evening out in Winnipeg together.  We went for delicious sushi, and then we went to play Karaoke.  Finally we were all too tired to keep having fun so we were forced to go home and sleep.

On Sunday morning, we met up with another couple of friends that I had taught with in Egypt, Valdine and Barry, and we went to Cora’s for a delicious breakfast.  Afterwards we went on a Borrowman historical tour with Dale as the tour guide, because Amita (who was planning a fun Winnipeg tour for us) had to go into a clinic because she had a knee injury that was acting up. 

misbehaving at Borrowman Place

paying respects

enjoying the first sunny day of our adventure - with Amita

 Our Borrowman historical tour started with a drive to Borrowman Place, where we got out and tried to uproot the road sign post, but it was pretty firmly stuck in the sidewalk.  Next we found Great Grandfather Leroy Borrowman’s house, at 1192 Wolseley Ave, but there was nobody home there so we weren’t able to see inside our ancestral home, just outside. 

1192 Waverly, former home of Great 
Grandfather Leroy and Great Grandmother
Edith Borrowman of Wolseley Elm fame

Edith Borrowman and her friends defending the Wolseley Elm in 1957

Then Amita was released from the clinic, so we picked her up and the four of us started looking for the sight of the Wolseley Elm, but despite asking countless pedestrians of the Wolseley area, were unable to find it.  Finally we continued on our journey of Borrowman ancestral discovery with a trip to the Chapel Lawn Memorial Cemetery.  For more info on our illustrious Great Grandmother Edith Borrowman, read this: http://timemachine.siamandas.com/PAGES/winnipeg_stories/WOLSELEY_ELM.htm

haberdashery

caryatids at the exchange

our album cover art

vince carried me through this long scary tunnel

After all that Borrowman ancestral heritage, we went to a part of Winnipeg called “The Exchange” which is pretty old and neat, and we were going to get coffee but the fair-trade coffee shop was closed.  However the haberdashery was open, so Dale bought a cool new hat.  Then we went to a place called “The Forks” and had delicious food-court food, and bought a few souvenirs.  Finally we said “goodbye” to Amita and came back to Dale’s to blog.  Hope you are enjoying reading about our adventures! Stay tuned, because tomorrow we resume our cross-Canada road-trip adventure through Ontario.

winnipeg is alright

A Castle Pretty Enough to Go on a Beer Label!

what every vampire hunter needs, wooden sword and shield.

Today from Brasov we took a train to Sinaia to see the local castle most recommended by Helena, the hostess in our hostel, Kismet Dao.  What was supposed to be a twenty-minute walk from the train station in Sinaia to the castle, called Peles, turned into a couple hours trek uphill through a lovely town when we were too stubborn to stop at the tourist info booth in town and ask for a map.

a lovely portrait taken by a passing tourist

When we finally found the castle, it was very pretty, but we were pretty tired and too disenchanted to do the 45-minute tour of the rooms, so we took some pictures around the castle grounds and then headed back through Sinaia (via the designated twenty-minute tourist pathway, stopping for souvenirs along the way) and back to the train station so we could get back to Brasov and reserve the next leg of our journey, an overnight train to Budapest. 

We are very lucky because there were no more first-class sleeper berths available except for one super-extra-first-class, which cost 120 euros to reserve and will have a WC and a shower in our berth! We are very excited about experiencing all of what 120 euros gets you (above and beyond what we already paid for our Eurail pass) on an overnight train from Brasov to Budapest.

mmm, cement grapes...

On our way back to the hostel, we stopped in at a little shop to buy a pair of hiking trousers for Vince since his ones from Carrefour broke (though they did survive our Nepal trip so not bad for a pair of ten dollar trousers) and we ended up having a long chat with the owner of the shop, Louis.  He told us a lot about the history of Romania and of Brasov in particular, and about the local people and culture, and some of the differences between Transylvania and Northern Romania.

Now we are on our way to our next country, so stay tuned for tales of being hungry in Hungary!

Out the Train Window

We boarded a train in Sighisoara for Brasov, a three-hour ride in the train we chose, which we were lucky enough to find was possibly Romania's oldest train, a relic from probably the 1920s or 30s.  Looking out the window, we could see that for some Romanians (not just the ones who ride this train), life doesn't seem to have changed very much during modern times.  We saw a horse munching on delicious hay in a villager's yard, and another horse pulling his cart into a petrol station.  We also saw a flock of fluffy sheep being herded by shepherds and sheepdogs. The landscape is similar to southern Alberta except the farms are smaller and there are many tiny multi-coloured plots of various crops growing everywhere in the villages, sometimes with black and white cranes foraging in the fields.  The village houses look like they are made of wood and plaster, with terracotta tile roofs, which makes each village very pretty.  There are moo cows and concrete blocks and hay bales and roads like in Alberta, but there are also haystacks on wood tripods like in 1950s Dick and Jane readers and also other traditional farming implements like you can only see at heritage museums in Canada and US America.  Also, in the parts of the landscape that are not being farmed and all along the track, there are all colours of wildflowers.  Romania is a beautiful and friendly country to visit.

I Want to Suck Your Blood!

Vlad Tepes's birth house, now a cafe / restaurant

Dracula Iced Tea

We spent our first day in Sighisoara piecing together Vlad the Impaler's history by seeing the house where he was born and the type of environment he grew up in, which is very beautiful to say the least. Little homes dot Sighisora, adding a warm charm to this beautiful village. It looks to have changed a lot over the past six hundred years since Vlad the Impaler was born, and has come a long way while still retaining its rich and vibrant history. With not many modern amenities, the people who once lived here dedicated their lives to God, family and the church, which is plain to see when you look up at the giant church at the top of the hill that this town is built upon. It is also plain to see that they were firm believers in taking the Bible literally by their affinity for torture and capital punishment. Long ago, witchcraft was one such offense deserving of torture and finally death, as were fighting and adultery. 

Our hosts got a new puppy

A painting we got for Keeana
in front of the subject of the painting

The way to the church at the top of the hill

Brains.... brains.......

We thought we were unlucky when we arrived in Sighisoara to find that the hostel that had been recommended to us was full, but they suggested we go look up at the citadel, where we found a little home that seemed to be just in the process of becoming a hostel.  We were welcomed there in a lovely bedroom with an attached bathroom, very homey and an excellent value in an excellent location because we found that we were right where we needed to be to enjoy the best of Sighisoara -- namely high tea at Vlad's house, great views from the old clock tower, and a nice look around a neat museum.  We also met our hosts' many doggies and pigeons, as well as a parrot who greeted us in many languages.

Brains.... brains......

There are many dogs here who spend their nights barking to ward off the loneliness and boredom of being a watch dog. The people here are very friendly and made us feel welcome at every turn. With fair prices for food, entertainment and lodgings we had no trouble enjoying ourselves without going over our budget. The museums were great and they have converted an old clock tower built in the 12th century into a walk-through town history museum with something amazing to see on each and every floor. After Shigishora we are heading off to Brasov to track down some more of Vlad the Impaler's past and we will let you know what we find... Over and out! :)

Mostly photos... More Walking in Bucharest

Taking photo number eight zillion-ish

One of the many old Dracula-houses 
we have seen--and we're not 
even in Transylvania yet!

Today started with our favourite part of backpacking, the hostel's free breakfast.

Afterwards we went walking to see if we could find some of the more interesting things described in our travel guidebook.  We also saw a lot of bizarre public art, so it became an impromptu abuse-public-art day.  

Who is this guy? And what's wrong with his dog?

We took more rides on public transit, saw more community dogs, and ate another delicious healthy lunch, this time in the local fast-food restaurant, which was right across the street from McDonalds and makes us wonder how McD's could possibly stay in business here.

This is a bank. Why is it so ornate and beautiful? We
don't know. But we would keep our money here.

I am crossing a little river on a dyke.

Bucharest is amazing and we would love to live here some day.

Vince loves art...

...to play with!

This is the Parliament Palace, the second largest building in the world.

There are beautiful buildings like this one everywhere we
look, but we didn't want to clutter up our blog with photos,
so we posted the rest on flickr. 

Go and look at our flickr site for more of our pictures from this lovely city:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/kayayebee/

Bucharest is hot in the summer, but was kind enough to provide
public misters.  Aaahhh...

Blah blah blah... Blah blah?  Blah blah BLAH!! Blah blah.

Check back tomorrow as we visit the Peasant museum and board a train for Sighisoara, home of Dracula.

Romanian Dances

Getting on the metro train

Today we arrived in Bucharest at the delightful hour of 0730, rolling in clackity-clack with just enough time to pack our bags between discovering we had entered the city and arriving at the station.  The station was abuzz with life including farmers, children, aunts, uncles, grammas, pigeons, and dogs.  Everyone was really excited and seemed happy to be there because they were traveling.

We joined the other backpackers in McDonalds and ate a delicious breakfast of McCrepes and McLattes while we pored over our guidebook and free wifi looking for a hostel and planning our Bucharest adventure.  Then Vince had his first ever underground Metro ride as we took line one and then line two to East Hostel.  The metro was clean, nice, safe, and well-organized, with many directions and fast, reliable trains.  With security checkpoints and no more than five minutes to wait for each train, it is a far cry from anything Calgary Transit has ever offered.

See it? See our hostel?

Our hostel welcomed us with free food, free wifi, a nice clean spacious room and friendly staff.  Luckily, we had bought a ten-ride pass to the metro because as soon as we had checked in, we realized we had to go back to the train station to reserve the next leg of our journey.  The first part of our Bucharest adventure was taken up with Train Station Adventures, but finally we had our Eurail pass sorted and were on our way to explore the city.

This is the Ministry of Agriculture building.

We decided to walk through the historic center, from one end of Calea Victoriei to the other, passing historic buildings, museums, plazas, monuments, and shops along the way.  We stopped in at the art museum and saw lots of religious pieces from the middle ages and early Renaissance, which was spectacular, and then we had late lunch at a nice little restaurant.  Everybody we see here appears fit and healthy and after our lunch we thought it might be partly because the food here is so wholesome and fresh, and not filled with any processed ingredients.  Also, we see people everywhere, walking on their ways to wherever, and not too many cars around, so people must be getting their daily exercise on their daily excursions.

We had lunch here. 

After free dinner back at our hostel, we discovered a free music show at the small plaza near our metro station, a string quartet who played everything from the Beer Barrel Polka to Hava Nagila.  We also had a special treat, because a guy who must have been a famous Romanian ballet dancer was practicing his art to the music being played, dancing on the pathway behind the stage.  That was a lucky find and a fantastic way to finish a great day in Bucharest.

A gargoyle shouted at us from up there.