Earlier this week I had a great night in Vancouver meeting my favourite travel blogger, Jeannie (nomadicchick.com). Fortunately for me I procrastinated long enough and she wrote up a little something about the meeting and such. While you’re there, be sure to read the rest of that post too. And while you’re on her site go ahead and read the whole damn site, you won’t regret it. Sweet.

I’ve always been a fan of the public transit system in British Columbia. Of the various cities I’ve visited or lived in over my many years, the transit system in Vancouver and Victoria are easily amongst the best I’ve ever used. Since I landed here on Tuesday, I’ve been relying on the public transit system extensively, and it’s been nothing but super handy. Consequently, I enjoyed this tribute to public transit from around the world over on Uncornered Market.

This week over on Everything Everywhere Gary started a cool series of posts on street food. It’s a really cool read so far. I recommend starting with day 1 here.

Do you love animals? And do you not totally hate the idea of volunteering? Then take a gander at this super cute list of baby animal volunteering opportunities around the world over at Off Track Planet. I have the list saved and I hope to try a couple of these.

I’m really happy that I finally remembered to take a Laviator photo this week. So I’ll be emailing that to Heather! Oh, and did y’all see this review of sleepphones? I am really tempted to get some. They seem awesome! Anyone try them?

Alright kiddies, I hope everyone has a great week. I’m off to watch zombies. Keep on truckin’!

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// shawn

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Week Sauce: Zombie Edition is a post from: Rerunaround

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

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Week Sauce: Adios Montréal is a post from: Rerunaround

Nicaragua is quite possibly where I’ve had the most fun backpacking. I hate to generalize like that, but if I had to pick one place to call the “best so far”, it’s probably there. I definitely recommend it, and I also recommend reading Art of Backpacking’s Tips on Backpacking in Nicaragua. It’s a beautiful country with super nice people and heaps to do. Plus it’s much cheaper and less touristy (almost like they go hand in hand) than neighbouring Costa Rica. The picture above is the tastiest coffee I’ve ever had, which was in Ometepe, Nicaragua. Now that I look at it, I admit the picture doesn’t relay much about the tastiness of the coffee, but that’s really your problem.

So apparently bed bugs aren’t just some cutesy thing that parents made up. It turns out they’re actually fairly gross and prolific. This last year I’ve seen a few articles on them, but this post by T-Roy on GoBackpacking really sums up everything you need to know. I’d consider this article required reading for every traveler.

If you’re interested in seeing some travel shows about places you will never ever go, then check out this article that Lauren did on the VICE travel guides. I’m on episode 4 of the Liberia series and it is really great. The horrible, crazy, shocking and amazing type of great.

Also this week, Matt finally learned to scuba dive (and was nearly murdered by a Portuguese woman), Jeannie finally came up with a travel route, and Steph posted up a sweet compilation of her Montenegro pictures.

On a congratulatory theme; Happy 3rd anniversary GoBackpacking! Way to go on quitting that job, Diana! And welcome to the travel blogging scene, Ayngelina!

I wanted to test out this video feature that my camera has, plus capture the view I’ve been enjoying from this apartment. This what downtown Montreal looks like from a 17th floor perspective. My apartment is small, and the windows are large, so this is what I see from everywhere in the apartment except from the toilet and under the sink. It’s a bit shaky and weird, but hey it’s my first time. It’s also -12°C plus wind chill, so you’re welcome to stand out there and try to do better if you like.

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// shawn

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Week Sauce: Now In HD! is a post from: Rerunaround

This week in the Sauce™ I’d like to share a few sweet new travel blogs that I found. Plus great articles from some familiar favourites, some good phonetography shots, and I’ll sum up my new travel plans.

For whatever reason, this week brought some awesome new travel blogs to my attention. By, “new” I mean, “new to me” not necessarily newly created. With 4 out of 5 of these being written by women I wonder if there’s any data showing which gender is prevalent in travel blogging. Anyways, check these puppies out!

• The Adventures of D
• The Aussie Nomad
• Heels and Wheels (oh yea, Vote For Bobbi!)
• The Jungle Princess
• Jasmine Wanders

There’s a succinct piece up on Monkey Brewster about why us independent travel bloggers do what we do, and why many of us dig the, “I got friends in low places” approach. Speaking of travel blogging, I’ll be attending TBEX 2010 in NYC after all. Holler at me if you’ll be there also!

Yet again Forks and Jets have inspired me. This time their great post on The B’s Knees pegged Barcelona strongly on my todo list. Also in the inspiration department there is a fantastic lowdown on New Zealand over on The Road Forks — required reading if you ever intend to visit the big NZ.

Okay, so my new travel plans. I was going to head to Japan on Feb 3rd and then meander throughout Asia from there. Nice plan, and I think I will pick it up again around July-ish. In the past couple weeks a few things have pulled me another direction though. A lot of inspiration from certain writers to visit Cuba this year (which I’ve mentioned in previous posts), plus the Haiti earthquakes brought an issue I have to the forefront. I used to be proud that I had an Occupational First Aid 3 certification. It was a practical skill that was genuinely useful in all manner of situations. However, after years in my corporate carpet box, I no longer have that certification. So when looking into volunteering in Haiti it was really discouraging that my only useful skills were being hella good at video games and having a penchant for project management. I want to volunteer to do some rebuilding in Haiti, but first I am going to get my first aid certifications again. In order to do that I’m trading some home renovation skills for a place to sleep in Victoria, BC for the month of February. That gives me the time and place to get re-certified. From there I’ll try and get setup with a volunteer scheme in Haiti. Then I’ll also be regionally situated to check out Cuba. Perhaps throw some Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico into the mix. I’ll head north when it starts to get really hot in June, attend TBEX in New York, then perhaps pick up the Japan plan. I dig my new plan, but we’ll see how it unfolds. The only guaranteed part is that with no commitments I’m as prone to changing my mind as a Bangkok whore on an aircraft carrier.

Enough yapping, here’s some of the pictures I took with my phone while minding my own business around Montreal this week.

I must say that I admire the Montreal bike commuters who keep at it throughout the winter. Drivers here are not exactly bike friendly, then add to that the slippery sides of the road and the cold and you have one seriously dedicated cyclist.

My phone does an especially craptacular job of catching snowflakes. They were everywhere and as huge as corn flakes, but it’s not like you could tell from this photo. The size of the snowflakes is perhaps my favourite thing about Montreal.

Montreal has a seemingly large population of creepy fur guys. Or at least I have a very keen eye for spotting them. This guy is a perfect example, so I had to take a pic. He’s walking at about quarter normal walking speed, high out of his mind, with the proverbial fur guy leather pants, and he has no clue where he is going. The only thing unusual about this one is that he isn’t chain smoking like a bingo caller on welfare Wednesday. I won’t rant on here about wearing fur. However, the other day while riding in a taxi from the Montreal airport, I saw this huge, obnoxious billboard that said, “Fur, the most environmental choice!” What the hell?

These are the stairs at my local bank. So you take stairs halfway up then take escalators the other halfway up. There’s no “all stairs” or “all escalators” option. So while this is strange in itself, the whole fiasco also blocks the main thoroughfare of the building. Most people need to walk over or around this mess to get where they need to go. I’d definitely fire the traffic flow wizard who came up with that one.

Anyways, have a good day! Holler at me if you have something cool I should look at for next week’s round up. Thanks!

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// shawn

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Week Sauce: New Is The New Old is a post from: Rerunaround

I learned this week that I’m obsessed with Cuba and that the interwebs are conspiring to push me over the edge. The primary catalyst for this little obsession is Lauren who insists on posting these brilliant and captivating pieces on the real pre-post-embargo Cuba. This mixed with those rad car photos on GoBackpacking that I mentioned a few weeks ago plus TravelZoo keeps emailing me super cheap fares to Havana. I fully suspect that there’s a consortium of Cuban masterminds co-ordinating this entire effort. They loiter on a Havana street corner in the afternoons, bellies full of China town bean sprouts, enjoying a good laugh at my expense. That said, I decided that if I can get well ahead of schedule with flogging my apartment stuff then I can go for a week. I have to fit it in before I leave for Japan, so it’ll be a long shot.

I learned that my favourite night out in Austin is still the Alamo Drafthouse. I don’t understand how there isn’t a swarm of copycat theaters everywhere. It’s such a perfect setup. A great menu, plus a great beer list (they have Fat Tire on tap!), all served to you while you watch your movie. What the hell else do you want? Hilarious clips, commercials and trailers before your movie? Oh yea, they have that too. That place is seriously the cat’s meow.

I learned that my “sleeping-in satisfaction” test is still accurate. When visiting a city I purposely sleep-in late just to see how satisfying it is to waste away the day in a cool place. It seems that the cooler the place, the more satisfying it is to sleep late. New York measured really quite high on the scale, so it is obviously a great place. I was only there for two days, but I can easily see why there’s so many unattractive I ♥ NY shirts in the world.

I learned that Bolivian prisons are seriously weird from reading Jason’s account of his dodgy visit. I wonder though if that prison model might not be a better system. It’s almost the same idea as colonial prison islands I guess.

I learned this week that if a batshit crazy man holding a severed head offers you a tooth you should accept it. I’d probably recommend a “thank you, sir” also for good measure.

Okay, so the aforementioned Vegas schwag . I’m not really certain why I find these naked lady pens so hilarious, but I always have. I had one when I was like 13 or so, and it was the greatest damn thing. So when I saw them in Vegas a couple weeks ago, I had to buy them. Unfortunately for me they only came in packs of 3. Which means I have 2 extra pens to give away. If you would like a naked lady pen to dazzle your classy friends with just let me know – rerunaround [at] gmail [dot] com. If you’ll feel better about it, you’re welcome to work for your free pen with poems about insensitive souvenirs or pictures of your current unsatisfying pen or whatever you want. All three pens write in black, but you’re welcome to indicate your preferred pen colour from the pic.

I know Americans read this, and I know how sensitive some of you folks can be to things that are not violence, so I won’t say what happens when you turn the pen upside down. Let’s just say it would be a big hit during recess for sixth graders. I would have bought some men pens also, just to be fair, but they don’t seem to make them. I assume because most women know that “tacky” doesn’t just refer to duct tape and sweaty backs.

That pretty much wraps up this week. Back to the grind of replying to insane craigslist people. If you miraculously happen to want a furnished apartment in downtown Montreal, let me know. Here’s a few pics from the last week for the illiterate folks.

I liked the little water thingies on top of so many buildings in NYC. So when I saw three together like this it was a kodak moment. Clicky for the bigger version.

The capitol building in Austin, where all that crazy Texas government business goes down.

A really bad resolution shot of a mesquite tree in Tucson. My dad is the BBQ master, and he’s so hardcore that he hand picks his own mesquite out of the desert. Kinda shames your crappy little bag of briquettes doesn’t it?

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// shawn

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Week Sauce: Vegas Schwag Edition is a post from: Rerunaround