Huntsville - chilling - pedaling - grilling

Woke up early but slept well. I could immediately sit on the beautiful terrace of the hotel in the morning and chill a bit – only the coffee was missing, that would have been perfect. Instead, I retrieved the car from the parking lot across the street, woke Mika up, and we set off.

A quick glance back at the place: basically just a street with casinos, roller coasters, and Niagara Falls – quite surreal, had to really laugh.

In front of us lay a three-and-a-half-hour drive with a lot of traffic jams. The Canadian traffic rules, especially when it comes to turning, are still not entirely clear to us – but we are getting there. The maximum speed is usually 90–110 km/h, so it’s all quite relaxed. Sometimes almost too relaxed, especially when the highway is empty – going 100 feels almost wrong. By the way, our car also suggested every 20 minutes that we should take a break. Kind of strange.

Upon arriving in Huntsville, we were immediately thrilled: super nice lady at the reception, finally a good supermarket – and my personal highlight: a grill! Finally able to cook something myself.

A triathlon is starting here tomorrow, participants are being welcomed everywhere. Since the weather is supposed to turn bad starting tomorrow (😡), we really wanted to do something outdoors today. We decided to rent a boat and explore the many lakes. Actually, we are here to explore nature, so I’m a bit sad about the weather forecast. But who knows, sometimes it’s not so bad after all.

Back to the boat: As everywhere here, we first had to fill out countless forms and leave deposits, but then we had our boat – from a nice guy who kept wondering what we from Germany were doing here.

On the lake, we really paddled hard while the locals cruised past us relaxed on their motor boats – really all waving friendly. It was always a nice gesture - I never felt like they were mocking us. The people also greeted each other, sometimes stopping to chat from boat to boat. Just like others would chat in the village square. It was nice to see.

The place is beautiful: small colorful wooden houses, water everywhere, nice shops and restaurants, and a totally relaxed, friendly atmosphere.

Back to the hotel – grill on, kick off the evening. Let’s see what the next days bring – with thunderstorms forecasted. Tomorrow is the triathlon. I would love to go on a guided kayak day tour – let’s see if that’s possible here.

By the way, Mika is currently looking for a hairdresser nearby on the internet – curious to see if he finds one here.

And my realization of the day 😉 : I constantly feel like I’m missing out on something because Germany has been awake for a long time while I’m still searching for my first coffee. I handle the time change from Australia better, as I’m ahead there. Today, it helped me to just leave my phone lying around during the day. Not so easy, but apparently, I miss less when I don’t constantly check what I’m missing. 😅