Habit: Not a lot of comfortable seating, and no perks like wifi, make this a good choice for a latte to go. It’s perfectly located right downtown.

Street Level Espresso: Definitely a to-go cup establishment that embodies the true “hole in the wall” spirit of excellence. As a secret bonus tip, bring the barista a 1973 Canadian quarter and see what happens.

Discovery Coffee: A little less central than the other downtown cafes, but still well worth the visit. Also a sweet spot to pick up some good beans for home.

Caffe Fantastico: I haven’t made it to this one yet. However, it’s highly recommended by trusted sources. Plus I really wanted a 5th cafe to list. So there you have it. This is over in the newly cool Vic West area.

Buon Amicis Coffee: If you can handle walking a few blocks out of the downtown area, then definitely cross the bridge to Vic West and go here. Perhaps the comfiest of the five cafes, they have free wifi, nice chairs and a great latte.

I’m by no measure a coffee connoisseur or snob, but I do enjoy a nice latte sometimes. Sure I enjoy some Tim Horton’s as much as the next guy. Sometimes though you’re in the mood for something top shelf, and sometimes you’re in the mood for convenient and reliable. Know what I mean?

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// shawn

ps:  that photo is street level espresso.

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! -- Top 5 Cafes In Victoria BC is a post from: Rerunaround

No Real Issues

I don’t know how many Air Canada flights I’ve taken over the years. Lets call it dozens. I’ve never had a flight arrive more than 15 minutes off of the scheduled time. I consider 15 minutes to be a pretty acceptable buffer.

Comfy & Clean

There have been times on other airlines where I’ve had visible food smudges on my seat, trash in the pocket, random stickiness, you name it. Air Canada planes always seem to be pretty clean. And to me, clean is half the battle of comfy. I can’t get comfortable in a dirty seat. The seats on Air Canada flights are probably about average for comfort I suppose. Plus I can cross my legs without any coxal bone contortions.

Video On Demand

I’m generally appalled these days when I’m on a plane with those little TVs hanging from the center of the ceiling. They always seem to have that one worn out VHS copy of Harry and the Hendersons where the audio cuts out right when he chases Harry back into the woods. Every Air Canada flight I’ve been on in the past few years has had the seat back LCD with a full catalog of movies, TV, music and games on demand. Not even crappy shows either!

USB & Power

Smack dab right beside said video on demand screen are a USB plug and a power plug. This is as good as it gets in geek land. When my flight is just the first part of my trip it’s so nice to be able to have my MP3 player charging while I listen to it. So the battery doesn’t die on me in the middle of a train ride the following day.

Snacky Snack Snack

Yea, Air Canada still gives you a snack with the beverage service. How nice is that? I love the snack! Usually it’s some kind of nuts, or chex mix or a chewy snack bar. So the one time I decide to take a phone pic of my snack for the purpose of this post it’s Bran Crunch. Which sounds pretty crappy, but it was surprisingly tasty.

Mobile Boarding Pass

When I check in online, from my phone, or even at the airport kiosk, I have the option to receive a paperless boarding pass sent to my phone. This is very cool. I just show the bar code image on my phone to security and at the gate and that’s it.

Canada

I’m a big sucker for patriotism, so just the fact that they’ve got Canada in their name makes me like it. If there was Canada brand gum, underpants, or chocolate bars I would buy the hell out of them. Are you reading this Canadian gum entrepreneurs?!

Star Alliance

Air Canada is a Star Alliance member, which means their flights have a strong partner list for connections and the such. Plus their mileage points will quite easily get you anywhere in the world. After reading Frequent Flyer Master I know just how important that really is.

Nice People

I like nice people. Generally, there’s no good reason to be rude to people. If someone working for a company is rude, I unintentionally take it as a negative aspect of the entire company. I’ve never had any rude interactions with an Air Canada employee, and they always seem to be quite nice.

Napkin?

Okay yea, this one at first sounds like filler to bump this list to an even dozen. Basically, one small change they’ve made that I noticed is that the napkins no longer have the dyed logo on them. They’re just white with the white logo stamped on them. There’s been a few little things they’ve done like that to be more environmental, and I appreciate those types of things. Especially when you consider the scale of each small step they take to be greener. Imagine how many napkins they use worldwide every day.

Haitian Relief Efforts

There have been some really touching stories in the news about Air Canada sending multiple flights full of relief supplies and people into Haiti, and bringing home orphans and refugees. I feel really good about supporting a company that is a generous global citizen.

The Beautiful People

No, I don’t mean the flight attendants are foxy. Oh, but I’m not saying that some aren’t either! I mean they are well groomed, healthy looking people. I’ve been on some airlines where the sickly and sloppy looking attendants turned me right off of my free orange juice.

Well anyways, those are my dozen reasons for preferring Air Canada. I suppose not all of those reasons appeal to everyone, but they are what they are. Do you have a preferred air carrier? Or is brand loyalty dead in favour of saving a dollar or two?

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// shawn

ps: This post is dedicated to Jeannie.

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! -- A Dozen Reasons Why I Prefer Air Canada is a post from: Rerunaround

The sore point for me is watching this great scenery sail past while I have no photography skills at all. So a few days ago, I stood on the deck of the seventh floor, right up at the bow and tried my best to get a good photo. With it being a chilly February afternoon, high up on the bow of a fast moving ship, it wasn’t exactly crowded. I have a very tough time taking photos; I don’t feel comfortable taking them, plus I don’t have much of an eye for it. So excuses aside, here are a few that I got which seem fairly nice to me. Let me know what you think!

Unfortunately, photos alone don’t do much to capture the beauty of the area. You’ll just have to go there as well and experience it for yourself.

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// shawn

photo credit: The top photo of the ferry wasn’t taken by me, it links through to the source wikipedia article.

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! -- The Vancouver to Victoria Ferry Photography Experiment is a post from: Rerunaround

I really like the style of those roundtable posts they do at Where I’ve Been. Comparing the different answers from various travel folks gives a different sense of perspective on the topic. Plus it’s neat when all three of the contributors give the identical answer to a question. Then you know there must really be something to it beyond personal opinion. This is actually the second one I’ve contributed to and with some luck I hope to do more in the future. Anyways, check it out!

Oh, Canada: In a few days, epic NBC Winter Olympics montages will remind the world that its rugged environs have provided us photogenic landscapes, hockey, poutine and moose for decades. And while Bob Costas and co. might boost interest, Canada remains a remarkably overlooked tourist destination. Why?

Continue reading Travel Tuesday Roundtable: Canada on the whereivebeen.com blog.

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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! -- Visiting Canada? is a post from: Rerunaround

I’ll take this claim one step further and officially predict that Newfoundland is going to become an increasingly popular global tourism destination over the next few years. You might as well start talking about it now so your water cooler buddies think you’re cutting edge. You’ll agree with me in the next three minutes, just you watch.

Ok, start your three minutes now, and hit play.

We regularly get a series of ads like this on TV here in Canada. I promise you they look so much better than these low quality youtube videos, but they’re all I can find online. Are those not some stunning places though? The amazing shoreline cliffs and wind blasted vistas absolutely make me want to go visit. Standing in those places, amongst such powerful surroundings must be quite literally, awesome.

Plus, how can you not appreciate a place that uses, “For the traveller, not the tourist” in their tourism ad?

There are several other videos in this series also if you’re curious to see more. Here are just a few. I recommend each and every one of them. Eric Harry composed the music in the videos, and it happens to be his youtube channel that has the best posting of the videos that I can find. So that’s why they start with, “the music I wrote for…” in the title.

This next one is especially nice at capturing that Newfie attitude.

Ok one last one about the vikings. It’s cute too because you can see Candice* as a wee lass.

Well, what did you think? Was I right? Are you going? Writing it down on your little list now? I totally told you so.

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// shawn

* Yes, I’m lying, that isn’t actually Candice. You wouldn’t have known any better if I hadn’t confessed though!

ps: Whoever is responsible for not having these videos available online in HD should seriously be fed to the puffins.

pps: I need to hurry up and leave for Asia. I just posted about a place I bloody well want to go to. That’s not even a real thing posting wish list places like that. 3 weeks until I leave … hang in there.

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! -- Newfoundland, It’s For The Travellers, Not The Tourists is a post from: Rerunaround

Some of these would be true in general for most folks, and others are very specific to my preferences. Here is just one man’s opinion of living in Montreal for one year.

Likes:

Restaurants: There are heaps of good restaurants of all type. I’m not starving here.

Architecture: Old Montreal gets all the credit for cool architecture, but regular parts of the city have plenty of cool buildings also. It’s visually an interesting city to drive around. Or in my case, ride in the back of a taxi around.

Identity: Montrealers seem to generally take pride in their city and their identity.

Language: French is a wonderful language. It’s been great being surrounded by it. Even if I did an abysmal job learning any of it.

Scooters vs SUVs: Previously living in the USA I was sick of seeing giant SUVs used to transport one person and a chihuahua to the mall. Not only are there far fewer SUVs here, but there are tons of scooters. How rad is that? I live and work downtown, so maybe the scooter population is more here, but it’s still cool.

Snowflakes: So far, Montreal has the record for the largest snowflakes I have ever seen. Not every time obviously, but once in a while the snows here are beautiful. I just wish it would snow more often.

Hockey: Anyone who loves hockey is in some small way a Habs fan. The Montreal Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cups over their 100 year franchise history. Any hockey fan can’t help but respect that. So for me it’s been a lot of fun being around the Canadiens fanaticism.

Clean: Comparatively speaking, for a big city Montreal is rather clean. More so downtown than the other areas it seems.

Safe: Downtown Montreal feels really safe. I’ve never had any fear or uncertainty while walking around. Which is pretty good for a large city.

People: I was hesitant to add this one to the list because I’ve found that there are nice people to be found anywhere in the world. Montreal is certainly no exception and I have come across plenty of really nice folks here.

Don’t Likes:

Styrofoam: Coming from the west coast I was shocked when my lunch was handed to me in a styrofoam box. I felt like some unfortunate time traveller to the past. I half expected my fork to be made of ivory and the ketchup to come in a disposable aerosol can. Montreal is not a very environmental city.

Smoking: I didn’t think anyone other than characters on TV still smoked. Holy crap do a lot of people in Montreal smoke. It’s disgusting, and right up there with huffing paint out of a paper bag in the good idea department.

Door holders: I noticed it right away when I got here, and have mentally noted how often it occurs all year. Almost every time, the person in front of you will let a door close in your face rather than hold it open a few seconds. I’ve never seen it in any big city as often as I have here. It’s actually the rare exception when someone does hold the door for the person behind them. I also regularly see people turn sideways and duck their shoulder so as to avoid the door and slip through in the last few seconds. I always hold the door, and people often look surprised. Sad.

Pumpkin pies: These are my favourite, and I have yet to see one for sale in the city. What the hell?

Remembrance Day/Canada Day: These holidays are very important to me, but they are totally slagged off in Quebec. It is unacceptable that the national day of remembrance for those who give their life for our country is not a holiday. How incredibly disrespectful can you get? I also have no patience for childish sovereignty agendas – get over yourself.

Leases: The apartment leasing process in Montreal is ridiculous. My one year lease (jan-dec) was silently renewed for an additional year because I didn’t notify the property manager in August stating that I didn’t want to renew. August!

Provincial Government Offices: Wow is it painful to get anything provincial done here. For example, I phoned the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec to make an appointment for my drivers license. Couldn’t make the appointment online. And the soonest available appointment was 6 weeks away. Then at my 10am appointment I waited an hour to talk to someone (I guess appointment doesn’t mean what they think it means). After all that it turns out that a lease and rental payment receipts are not proof of residency – how silly of me.

Well, that’s my list. I hope it didn’t come off as too negative, because I have really enjoyed my year here. It’s a cool city, but not one I would call home for longer than a year or so. Now I need to figure out how to get the opportunity to live in Tokyo or London.

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// shawn

ps: The photo is a tiny segment of a beautiful Montreal cityscape at Digital Apoptosis, please check out the full image, it’s wicked! Plus I can see my balcony in there.

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! -- Après un An à Montréal is a post from: Rerunaround