Spinning again in the time machine – Bulgaria (Rila Monastry)

It took me a total of 20 minutes to find a start on this entry and even now I am not sure what I can tell you about this small trip, but I will try my best to give you the details of my experience.

Work had send me over to Bulgaria again and I pokered a bit to stay the weekend and get my return flight booked on Monday. Luckily it seems my previous work performance paid off and my boss agreed to it. So it happened that I had two full days to spend in Bulgaria.

I won’t give you this time the details of the actual trip over since I have done so already in my previous entry and nothing much has changed since.

The many faces of London - Holi Festival

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine texted me and asked if I wanted to come along to the so called Holi Festival, as well known as Festival of Colors. Until that day I didn't even know that we celebrated such Festival in London.

One of the reason I want to go to India is to celebrate one of the many events that take place there every year. So I took the opportunity and went with them last Saturday together to the Battersea Power Station where the event would take place. 

Interesting facts about the location click here

Canada East Coast Trip – Research and Conclusion

The last 16 days just flew by and it all seems so far away now even though it just happened. I start already to think of the next trip, but first things first. The phase of the research for Canada drove me a bit mad. Traveling in Canada without a car is not impossible but very complex depending on where you want to go.

 

When it came to the decision on what to see and to do within such a short time frame I decided I stick with the East Coast and next time I will visit the West Coast. To manage both sites of Canada in just two weeks is impossible if you are not flying from one site to another and leave out a few places.

Why the East Coast first? To be honest I have no idea, maybe because I knew people in that area and because it probably doesn’t make a difference since I am planning to visit the West Coast as well.

 

 

Halifax – The beginning, middle and end of a journey

Traveling is a journey that will never end, no matter what your destination, route or goal. Small journeys along the big journey called live will end eventually. 

I arrived in Halifax, my last stop in Canada after a 3 hour car trip. In the morning Nelson Shuttle came to pick us up at 6:45 am; it was a quick and pain free trip with a little nap in between.

Upon arrival I checked into the HI Hostel in the Barrington Street, one of the few Hostels in the area. So far I have really enjoyed the Maritimes and hope it will continue in Halifax. I didn’t plan anything for my stay here and hoped that something would come up eventually. And it did!

Digby – Nova Scotia - Some sea air for thoughts

After a 3 hours boat ride I arrived at the Ferry Terminal of Digby in the Province Nova Scotia, a small landing with not much around. Based on the map it was around 4km to Digby Town and I had planned to ask someone on the Ferry if I could get a lift, but there were all kind of people; from a bus tour, bikers, couples etc. Basically I wasn’t sure who I could ask, instead I decided I would just walk the route which would have taken me around an hour to get to my hostel.

A quick stop in Saint John – New Brunswick

The bus transfer from Quebec City with Orleans Express to Rivière-du-Loup over to Maritime Express and then to Saint John worked just fine and after ‘just’ 11 hours of sitting in the bus and enjoying my time I arrived at the mini Bus Terminal in Saint John.

After the initial hick up with my booking for St. Johns in Newfoundland I was able to find a host via Couchsurfing last minute. 

Quebec City – The capital of Quebec Province

I arrived by Train from Montreal in Quebec City in just under 3 hours and made my way to the host I would be staying with, two lovely sisters.

After an initial confusion in which way to go I found the place in the end and the girls were already waiting for me.

Montreal – The city with lots of laughter, food and another lesson learned

I arrived via train in Montreal, just 2 hours from Ottawa. Again, I love the free WIFI on the train and being able to check last minute messages, such as change of departures or routes.

The hostel I had booked here was the 20$ Hostel at Sherbrooke Est, around a 30 minute walk or 10 minutes with the Metro from the Montreal Central Station. A single journey would be 3$. Me being me I decided to walk the distance, and it wasn’t really bad beside the facts that it rained and I was wearing my ballerinas.

The capital of Canada – Ottawa

Early in the morning I got ready, checked out, had a quick breakfast and headed to the Union station, the main ‘via rail’ train station, from which all regional trains are leaving from. The whole station was under construction like a lot of other things in Toronto. It looks like the revamp the whole city. This made it a bit more inconvenient to navigate around the city and the train station. As I learned a bit later, summer is pretty much the only season the construction works can take place in Canada, otherwise it is just too cold or everything is frozen.

The boarding process was a bit confusing for me as they go by Gate, not platform. To indicate the gate number they have put up signs, which meant instead of looking at platform numbers I had to look for my gate number.

Booking train tickets online was straight forward and easy. Printing the boarding ticket saves you queuing time. In some cases greyhound buses or a shared car ride can be cheaper depending on your route. If you plan to travel a lot, one of their rail passes might help you to save some dollars, worth checking it out.

I was on my way to Ottawa, the capital of Canada. The ride took me around 4.5 hours and wasn't really scenic, but nevertheless enjoyable. I was pleasantly surprised that you have free WIFI on the train throughout the ride which enabled me to update my blog during the trip.

Casa Loma and CN Tower– The beauty and the beast of Toronto

For today we had arranged a Couchsurfing get-together and a few people from the past two days joined in as well. But first I went to visit the CN tower, the tallest building in the western hemisphere and the landmark of Toronto. I had pre-booked my tickets which are open tickets and you can use it within the next 2 months or so of booking. You even get a discount when booking online.

Today, the antenna broadcasts over 30 Toronto television and FM radio signals across Southern Ontario in addition to wireless paging and cellular telephone signals.