One Way Ticket To Canada
One Way Ticket To Canada
vakantio.de/onewaytickettocanada

Into the (almost) wild!

Atejade: 17.05.2018

So as soon as a lot of people start writing to me: Hey, how are you? How's Canada? I know that I urgently need to write a new blog entry. So here it is. Of course, I had planned to write every week, but that won't happen anyway and I'm glad that I at least make notes from time to time so that I don't forget half of it right away.

After a week that I have already spent in Toronto and of course did everything except a city tour of Toronto, I thought in the second week, oh well. So I took one of the Free-tours, which was called: Death, Disease and Destruction. It was really great and our guide had a lot of fun telling us about all the diseases, wars and fires in Toronto. Martha, the new couchsurfer from Poland, was also on the tour, and as a senior couchsurfer, I had to explain Joey's apartment to her again. As usual: the cat is under the couch, both of you at the refrigerator, but be careful, the faucet doesn't work, the best place to wash your hands is in the shower. Yeah.

And here is a part of the
And here is a part of the 'Berlin Wall'... You could also have taken a part of the wall from the prominent neighboring country in the south, which is currently so prominent for its wall...

That was also my last day in Joey's apartment. For the rest of the week, I stayed with Terry in Mississauga, an hour away from Toronto by public transport. I didn't see much of Mississauga, there are a few nice areas, but on the day when I finally wanted to ride through the city with Terry's bicycle, it started to storm after 10 minutes, and I was afraid to come back.
Impressive wild animals Part 1
Impressive wild animals Part 1

Terry took time off for the 'hotdocs Canadian International Documentary Festival'. So we ran from one cinema to the next like crazy people all week and watched all kinds of documentaries. I highly recommend 'The Mountain life'. The main story is about a mother (60) and her daughter (late 20s) who plan to 'walk' from Vancouver to Alaska in 6 months in the winter. They walk in quotation marks because they do the tour in winter! so that they can cover most of the distance on skis. The documentary of their tour is super exciting, and it's amazing when you see them suddenly stop and the daughter says, 'Hmm, there should be a glacier here', and then there's already the ocean, and they have to completely change the route. The other documentary I watched was more unintentionally, Terry had an extra ticket and then I watched 'behind the curve'. The documentary is about the founders of the 'Flat-Earth Movement', who come from Canada. It's super exhausting to watch how convinced the people behind it are and then do 'experiments' to prove that the earth is flat, and they buy expensive devices for $20,000. I almost felt a little sorry when the expensive equipment showed the 15% curvature and the Flat-Earthers said that this would be bad for their theory and then said they had to measure again -_- In between, physicists and psychologists shake their heads.

super fancy VIP Lounge for people like Terry, who have an annual membership for the cinema, maybe even for life. People know him there..
super fancy VIP Lounge for people like Terry, who have an annual membership for the cinema, maybe even for life. People know him there..

When we weren't at the cinema, we went to see photo exhibitions or attended the presentation of the final projects of the art students.
Yeah, no.
Yeah, no.
Which types of vegetables are hidden here?
Which types of vegetables are hidden here?

Because that was all a bit too much culture, we took breaks in the green in between. Unfortunately, it's not really possible to completely escape the traffic within Toronto.
Yeah Nico, there
Yeah Nico, there's a big park, but there's still a road going through it!
Impressive wild animals Part 2. A Chipmunk :)
Impressive wild animals Part 2. A Chipmunk :)

The week was coming to an end, and so was my stay in the city. I wanted to get out and see something green, so more green and fewer people! So I looked at the free woofing places and found Emily and Cameron.
Somewhere in there I am right now. Well, not right now, right now I
Somewhere in there I am right now. Well, not right now, right now I'm on free run in Kingston, as I can only upload pictures here ;)

Emily and Cameron are an old couple. I can say older because they really are old. She is 73 and he is 84, and they live on the farm with 2 horses, a dog, a cat, 8 chickens, and 1 rooster. There is a small garden, a stable, and a main house. Both are retired, and she is a teacher and he is a journalist. While Cameron is trying to write a book, Emily is trying to protect her garden from butterflies and bugs on cabbage and all other types of vegetables with all her might and without chemicals.
Cameron, Emily describing a big fish, and Zelda
Cameron, Emily describing a big fish, and Zelda
Meave, named after an Irish warrior queen
Meave, named after an Irish warrior queen
A part of my room
A part of my room
Chicken tunnel. hehe. I
Chicken tunnel. hehe. I'll also take a picture of the breakfast traffic
Garden and horse
Garden and horse
Zelda doesn
Zelda doesn't help me (not) while working. So I work and she waits for me to throw her ball

So most of the time at the moment, I spend weeding, feeding animals, and above all, reading, because every free space in Emily and Cameron's house is filled with books and even more books :)
Every Thursday, I have a day off and go on a trip with Emily to Kingston. She has Spanish lessons then, and I try to write this blog or visit, for example, the 'penitentiary Museum' or take a trip to the '1000 Islands', which are actually more than 1800 islands. An island is defined by at least 2 living trees that must stand on the small piece protruding from the water.
Kingston Penitentiary Museum. First prison in which measures were taken for the reintegration of prisoners into society
Kingston Penitentiary Museum. First prison in which measures were taken for the reintegration of prisoners into society
old school water boarding
old school water boarding
Things prisoners have made, the rest were mainly knives
Things prisoners have made, the rest were mainly knives

Kingston
Kingston
Kingston
Kingston
Boat ride :) 1000 Islands Boat Tour
Boat ride :) 1000 Islands Boat Tour
Lots of old people
Lots of old people
More lavish cottages than you can imagine
More lavish cottages than you can imagine


The last 3 days, I was alone on the farm because Emily and Cameron went to Ottawa, as it was Emily's sister's birthday. Somehow it didn't help that the day before they left, they told me that they had already had the odd bear with them. One was also in the vegetable garden and tested every cabbage once, but didn't eat any of them :D. Oh, and there are also coyotes... I mainly made sure that no one died and no one had to go to the vet, and I talked to the dog because it was a little lonely. And I finished reading 'Lullaby for little Criminals' by Heather O'Neil. The author is from Montreal, and I can highly recommend the book. My personal highlights here in the middle of nowhere include the 3 hummingbirds that flew past me in the garden, the bald eagle I saw on the boat tour, and that I was allowed to sing with the Brockville Community Choir because Emily sings there. There's also a concert next week that I already have a ticket for, and I'm also allowed to go to Emily's book club, for which I have already read the book. Otherwise, I hope that other woofers will come soon, so I stop talking to the dog and that I can go canoeing on the lake on the weekend :)

See you soon

Lea :)

And here's some bonus material:

Choir concert!
Choir concert!
Impressive wild animals Part 3
Impressive wild animals Part 3
Find the animal!
Find the animal!
hehe
hehe
Stairs outside??
Stairs outside??
so much cooler than pushing a button, you simply pull the leash :O
so much cooler than pushing a button, you simply pull the leash :O


Idahun (1)

Marieke
Wenn Kanada eine Silbe weniger hätte, dann könnte man bestimmt was lustiges drauf dichten, à là: "Moaskau, Moskau, werft die Gläser an die Wand, Russland ist ein Schönes Land!" Aber so... nix zu machen.