I spent the long weekend up in Northern Ontario. It was lovely to be out of the city (especially during the airshow) and to feel unrushed.
We stayed with Nash’s parents in his hometown of Espanola.
We also travelled to nearby places like Manitoulin Island:
Mclean Mountain peak:
Whitefish Falls:
I liked being surrounded by greenery. I’m back in the city now but I feel refreshed.
As you know, I was up north on the weekend. Any time I mentioned Nash’s parents live in a town near Sudbury, everybody always asked if I’ve ever been to the Big Nickel. Now I can finally say I have!
The nickel has overlooked Sudbury since 1964. Sudbury was originally established as a mining town where nickel played a big role.
It was modelled after the 1951 Canadian nickel with King George.
When I was on the East Coast, my friends and I took a day trip to New Brunswick. One of our first stops was Africville, a community that was originally settled by Black Nova Scotians, who were evicted so that the area could be developed. In 2011, the Africville Church (of 1849) was reconstructed as part of a government apology in 2010.
Trailers of protesters were still seen at a distance on the property.
Afterward, we stopped by the Halifax Public gardens which was full of beautiful flowers:
We also visited the Halifax Citadel, which works with this year’s free Parks Canada pass. There was only 30 minutes before closing so we went through all the rooms and museums quickly:
Then I took a walk by the waterfront:
and saw Theodore the tugboat!
Halifax is a beautiful city, and I hope to be able to come back and explore some more soon.
When I was in Shediac (the lobster capital of the world), I visited the Giant Lobster.
For some reason, there was this random man eating horse carrots in front of the lobster.
My friends and I ran to the lobster when a group of kids got off so we could snap some photos.
Of course, I wanted to get one by myself too!
I just arrived home from weekend. I’ll update you later on my adventures at this camping festival I had never been to.
I’m currently in Quebec for Festival D’été. It’s all sorts of magical. I’m going to spend the day time exploring the city, so I’ll get back at you with more blog posts tomorrow.
For now, you can enjoy this video of P!nk flying over the crowd.
Do you ever find yourself on a packed subway train and discover that the only empty seat is the middle seat? The one between two people.
Sometimes there’s a bag on it and you have to ask someone if you could interrupt their comfortably seated belongings. Other times there is a guy manspreading (spreading his legs and taking up two seats). They can be too squishy, especially when I am carrying my worldly belongings on my back. I try my best not to touch anyone as if everyone is made of lava.
A lot of times the middle seat exists because strangers don’t want to sit beside each other. However, I frequently discover after sitting down that the two people on both ends do know each other and I become the awkward fulcrum to a very weird seesaw. I listen to two people share their lives in great detail, without a care in the world that there is a person awkwardly between them.
Now when I see that empty middle seat, I would rather stand and watch other people experience it for themselves.
While in PEI, we did a ridiculous amount of eating and I thought some places deserved their own posts. One of these places was The Big Orange Lunchbox.
We happened to be in PEI during Porktoberfest and there was plenty of options for the pork lover here. I thought I’d go all out and get what was named as the 50 Shades of Pork (pictured at top of post). It was an island pork chorizo patty, topped with BBQ pulled pork, tomato bacon jam, carmelized onions, fried mozarella sticks and mustard aoli. This thing left me in a delcious coma but it was all worth it.
Nash and I kind of fought over who would order the 50 Shades of Pork but ultimately I ended up winning. Anyways he ended up getting something totally different and got the scallop burger. We weren’t sure if it was going to be scallops grinded in a patty or not but it turns out there were a couple of juicy fresh ones between the bun.
If we stayed longer in PEI, we probably would have visited this place like 10 more times as the menu had so many other goodies to eat!
In the past, whenever I hailed a cab in Toronto, I would be constantly rejected for not going a far enough distance. For example, none would take me from Sound Academy (most inconvenient location ever) to Union Station. However, recently I decided to try the new Uber Taxi service and I think it may solve all my taxi problems.
The service operates with a smartphone app. It pinpoints your locations as well as how far away the closest cars are. Once you hit the big green button you get a text and a cab instantly heads to you and your phone keeps track of it’s location. They’ll call you once they are outside. The cars are black and sleek and makes me feel like I have a million dollars. There are two types of cars you can choose from; a normal black car and an SUV.
Another neat feature about Uber Taxi service is the payment is done through the app with a credit card. There is no worry about having cash at hand, and they don’t need to know how much you tip. The service fee (of $8) is a little bit more than the normal $4 you pay to get in regular cabs, but at the end of the ride you don’t have to add tip (and there’s no option to even if you wanted). There is a minimum charge of $15, but at least that means they will take you anywhere no matter the distance.
I love that Uber has considered business through an app. It’s innovated and smart, and I’ll definitely be riding them again! It’s still in testing in Toronto but the other cab companies can learn a thing or two from their business model.
Tiana Feng 