Week Sauce: Adios Montréal
Posted: January 30th, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: week sauce | 4 Comments »
Well kids, after 13 months in Montréal, I fly out on Tuesday. The apartment is almost completely empty, and everything I own (now) is crammed into my backpack. In a day and a half I’ll be officially, and intentionally, homeless. I enjoy how my achievements sound quite a bit like failures; It keeps my naysayers on their toes.
I summed up what I know of my plan previously, and I think that’s still accurate so far. From here I’m off for a night in Vancouver, then over to Victoria for the rest of February. I can hardly wait! I’m also going to make a point of getting down to good old Seattle while I’m in the area. The big unknown is what group I’ll be able to sign up with in order to volunteer in Haiti. I guess we’ll see how it all plays out.
As usual this week’s summary is a compilation of good articles from around the web, plus whatever other random crap I have on hand.
If you’re not a fan of touristy crowds, then you’ll be as excited about this list as I was. Ten really cool places around the world that are off the tourist map. I’ll probably be in the Caribbean anyways, so I’ll be looking for a chance to check out La Désirade. Have you been anywhere on this list? Or where on the list looks enticing to you? Ooh, or do you know a secret spot that isn’t on the list?!
This week was the first of a new series over at Monkey Brewster, New Brew Tuesday. This week’s beer was Marke Altenmünster Maibock and I’m looking forward to seeing which beers come around in the future.
To be brutally honest, your best chance at true happiness in life is a magic amulet. Studies have shown that magic amulets are awesome for improving your life in all sorts of unreasonable ways. Real studies. With that in mind, head on over to Johnny Vagabond where you can easily win your choice of a magic amulet from Thailand. Personally, I’m going to win the “Marry Liz Lemon” amulet. See if I don’t.
This week I found two more cool travel blogs. I recommend Pamela (Spunky Girl Monologues) and Chérie (The Travel bee) if you’re in the market for some more travel blog goodness.
Speaking of travel blogs, if you have one of your own, or you’re looking to start one, then you’ll want to consider the new Travel Blog Success site that launches this Monday, Feb 1st. It’s definitely worth taking a look at if you’re serious about travel blogging. I’ll also have my review and thoughts on Travel Blog Success coming up here on Monday.
Congratulations to Chris for taking a big step in his dream to get the hell out of Australia. And also congratulations to Cailin for taking a big step in her dream to get the hell into Australia. Anyone else up for a “grass is always greener..” cliche right about now?
To wrap up this weeks wrap up, here’s my weak attempt to get a photo of the huge, fluffy snowflakes we had here earlier this week. Apparently snowflake photography is very hard. It really made my day to have one more nice snowfall before leaving. If you’re super bored, you can click through on the picture to view my whole Montréal album. As usual for me, I didn’t personally take a lot of these.
Keep on truckin’!
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// shawn
The grass is greener quote works so well for all of travel. To me Australia is just home but to others its an experience of beach’s and sun and shrimp on the BBQ.
The opposite is I can’t wait to wake to snow falling outside my window and having to wear 5 layers of clothing to venture outside. To many that’s a crappy day.
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Thanks for the inclusion on this post, much appreciated. Good luck on your travels around maple town. I might head to Toronto this summer for a visit, other than that It’s cold enough in the midwest to keep me from wanting to visit anywhere that requires going north.
***side note Aussie Nomad shouldn’t it be a Shrimp on the Barbie?
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Chris - The Aussie Nomad Reply:
February 4th, 2010 at 00:51
haha yes it should be, I’m trying to be more understandable.
I mean someone might look at that and go why on earth would you put a shrimp of a barbie doll :)
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Shawn Reply:
February 4th, 2010 at 20:40
You totally have a case of the Canadian travel confusion. Toronto is great compared to elsewhere in the world, but it’s the butthole of Canada. The Vancouver/Victoria region is far nicer and far warmer than the USA mid-west in the winter :)
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