Seattle the Splendid

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I love Seattle. Out of all the places we visited in North America, Seattle was definitely the unexpected favourite. We arrived not really knowing much about the city other than its grunge and coffee credentials, and ended up staying longer than planned to fit in all the cool stuff we found. Particular highights included:

• Splashing out on fresh salmon at Pike Place Market, home of the world famous shouting, fish-hurling fishmongers

• Finding a clown-themed bar across the street from our hostel, complete with pinball parlour and guitar hero (at which I repeatedly thrashed the pants off Rich)

• Staying in a funky new hostel that doubled as a modern art gallery and had a home movie theatre in the basement, complete with genuine cinema seats

• Visitng the quirky district of Fremont, self-proclaimed Centre of the Universe, home of a giant statue of Lenin (salvaged from a rubbish dump in Slovakia by a local entrepreneur who raised the money to bring it to Fremont by mortgaging his house), a 1950s cold war rocket fuselage and the fabulous 18ft Fremont Troll (who lurks under a roadbridge crushing a VW beetle in his giant hand)

• Re-enacting scenes from my favourite romantic comedy, 10 Things I Hate About You, including the paintball game at Gas Works Park (there is no paintball to be played there, sadly, but we made do with tag) and the bit in the bookstore (much to the obvious boredom of the shop assistant and embarassment of Rich)

• Checking out Seattle's music scene at The Crocodile, the iconic rock club where the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and REM played before launching into the national and international spotlight

• Having far too much fun at the excellent Sci-Fi Hall of Fame (home of ET, the original Death Star, Donatello the turtle and a scarily large collection of Star Trek props)

• Admiring Kurt Cobain's guitar, reading Jimi Hendrix's tour diary and messing about with mixing desks at the equally excellent Experience Music Project

• Learning how Seattle used to be underground, literally, on the Underground Seattle tour (Short story = Seattle was originally built from wood on a lowlying area that flooded lots. In 1889 there was a catastrophic fire, after which the city planners decided to (1) rebuild everything using stone and(2) rebuild everything on a higher level so there would be less flooding. To achieve this, the existing streets were lined with concrete walls that formed narrow alleyways between the walls and the buildings on both sides of the street, with a wide "alley" in between (where the traffic usually went). Material was then washed down the naturally steep streets into the "alleys", raising the streets to the desired new level, generally 12 feet higher than before. While this was going on people continued using the shops and houses along the streets by going down ladders from the new elevated street level. Once the new streets were finished, everyone moved their businesses up to the new ground floor that had been built around and above them). Sorry, that was the shortest I could make it...
  

• Taking in the sunset skyline on the ferry across the Puget Sound.

• Purchasing a chai tea latte at the original Starbucks

• Seriously thinking about moving to ultra funky Ballard, home of Madame K's 1950s burlesque pizza bistro, more magnificently funky coffee shops than you can shake a stick at and Rich's El Dorado, Mike's Chili Parlour

• Dancing around to the country/rockabilly/bluegrass stylings of the Hot Club of Cowtown at the brilliant Tractor Tavern

• Taking advantage of the free public transport, locally microbrewed beer, 50 cent oyster shooters and amazing Mexican food surrounding our hostel
  

As a side note, I also needed to see a pysiotherapist while in Seattle and found the best one in the world. If anyone ever needs a pysio in Seattle, go see Erin at Belltown Physical Therapy. Seriously, she's excellent.

Vancouver, Vancouver

Piccies:

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And so, after a 13 hour but not unpleasant bus journey, we arrived in our final Canadian destination, Vancouver. This was a city that promised big things - almost everyone we'd spoken to about our travel plans had nodded sagely at the mention of Vancouver and informed us of how beautiful/modern/clean/fantastic it was. Which was unfortunate as we were both disappointed by first impressions - the downtown area seemed slightly sterile and the main street where we stayed, lined with bars and nightclubs, was reminiscent of Birmingham's Broad Street. The weather didn't help - it was grey and rainy for the 4 days we were there which only emphasised the blandness of the modern monochrome architecture which made up the heart of the city; a hotch potch of new tower blocks and complexes which, under a leaden sky, created a lifeless, unfinished appearance.

Our impressions may also have been tarnished by the fact that we both had tedious yet pressing matters to attend to during our stay. I had been bothered by a recurring pain in my hip which forced me to trudge through the rain to a physiotherapist's office somewhere in the middle of the business district to be told I needed to do a myriad of exercises every day to sort it out. Rich, who had for several weeks been battling with the Swampy-esque dreadlocks that formed during his 5 months away from civilisation, finally admitted defeat and booked himself a 2 hour appointment with the legendary dreadlock gurus at Knotty Boy, who proceeded to pull at his hair until the majority of the matted strands were free. On top of that, what should have been a magical evening visiting a huge outdoor Santa's grotto, drinking mulled wine, eating candied popcorn and riding a miniature railway through the most impressive Christmas light and sound show I've ever seen only reminded me of my impending first Christmas away from home and brought on a tearful bout of homesickness.

As a result, we probably weren't looking at Vancouver with entirely forgiving eyes, but that's not to say there wasn't a lot to enjoy about the city. We spent a morning wandering around Granville Market, sampling the dizzying array of foodstuffs and foreign cuisines on offer, before sailing across the river the visit the friendly looking Inukshuk who stands waiting to welcome visitors. We had a superb meal, courtesy of our friends at Pretty River, in the Twisted Fork bistro - 3 courses + cocktails + wine = the ritziest we've felt since leaving England. The Gastown or historic district also captured my imagination, looking (particularly at dusk), like a modern interpretation of a Dickens streetscape. It was here that we first encountered the loveable Quatchi and co, mascots for the forthcoming Vancouver winter Olympics who lined almost every shop window we passed, along with some of the most impressive native art we've seen on our travels. On our final day we headed over to Stanley Park to admire the totem poles, sculptures and panoramic views of the city from across the water. So all in all, with better weather, higher spirits and lower expectations I'm pretty sure we would've formed a more favourable impression of "the Best City to Live in In The World."

Canadian Rockies Winter Wonderland

Photos, photos, photos:

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Other than a couple of brief snow flurries at Pretty River we'd had a fairly mild time of it weather wise, so it was a bit of a shock to the system when, having arrived at our next stop late at night, we woke up to find ourselves surrounded by huge snow capped mountains and a thick blanket of the white stuff. We'd come to stay with Rich's friend Mac at Lake Louise, the beautiful and tres swanky ski resort in the Canadian Rockies where he currently lives and works, and by the looks of things the season was already underway.

We spent an excellent few days relaxing at Mac's apartment, hanging out with him and his friends (an alarming number of whom already had an assortment of broken wrists, collarbones and shoulders from snowboarding), sipping cocktails at the impressive Chateaux Lake Louise hotel overlooking the frozen lake and glacier and generally taking things very easy. We also visited the nearby town of Banff where I had my first taste of the local delicacy, the Caesar. If you imagine a drink made from tomato and clam juice (called "clamato" if you're keen to track some down), vodka, Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce, served in a glass rimmed with celery salt and garnished with a gherkin and a sausage, you'd probably think it was the highlight of a particularly vindictive stag party, but apparently people in Canada just drink them for fun.

Fortunately I recovered from my ill-judged sip of a Caesar in time to see some of the amazing winter scenery. We went for a hike through Johnston's Canyon where we saw (and I profusely photographed) frozen waterfalls, snow covered forest and enormous icicles. It was here that I found my new best friend - a contraption called Yak Trax (http://www.yaktrax.com/) which when slipped over the soles of your shoes imbues you with the magical ability to walk on icy surfaces without falling over. Never before has a girl been so happy as I skipped merrily downhill while all around me slid on their hindquarters. The next day we had a go at snow shoeing, which is a lot of fun but much more tiring than you'd think. (I also discovered that it's quite hard to return to a standing position if you crouch down to take a picture, overbalance and slowly keel over onto your side). All in all though, it was an excellent few days. Next stop, Vancouver.

The Art of Innkeeping

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Once we had got the hang of the farm work, and demonstrated that we were safe to be around paying guests at a reputable hostelry, we were let loose on the Inn itself and given a crash course in housekeeping. As you can see from the pictures, and the Inn's website http://www.prettyriverinn.com/ this is a pretty luxurious place, and everything needed to be just right. And so it was that we learned how to make a bed (in a manner befitting a bed with complex cushion/sheet arrangements that people pay to sleep in, in case my mum thinks I'm questioning her parenting skills), clean a jacuzzi, fold towels in an attractive manner and make swans out of napkins. If anyone's planning a trip to Canada I'd highly recommend paying Pretty River a visit - it's a beautiful place, set amongst the wooded hills surrounding Georgian Bay, close to the famous Bruce Trail. All of the rooms are impressive, but the Suites have their own log fireplaces and indoor hot tubs, and the Crofts are like small luxury apartments. With Paul and Linda's hospitality on top you couldn't ask for a better relaxing getaway.

For me, the best part of working at Pretty River was looking after the animals. Linda and Paul have 14 beautiful horses; 10 Icelandics, 2 Percherons and 2 miniatures, and they all have their own distinct personalities. There was Noni the rockstar stallion (see photos - he stands out a mile); Rogge his current ladyfriend and Queen Bee of the horses; Pippin and Frodo the miniatures (though not so miniature in character, Frodo is a little maniac and gleefully charged me one day when I foolishly stood in the same field as him); Nokkur the slow, wise one; Imagine the beautiful one; Baldur the headstrong baby and my favourite Hylton, the largest of the horses who gets bullied so badly by the others he has to have his own special meals to make sure he gets his fair share of food.

Then, of course, there are the reindeer. Before arriving at Pretty River I was under the impression, nurtured by years of Christmas stories about Rudolph and co., that reindeer were cute, friendly creatures, kind to children etc etc. Apparently not. As you may be able to tell from the photos, reindeer are in fact quite intimidating beasties - particularly Gandalf the dominant male of the herd. He of the extremely large antlers was, we were warned, prone to pinning people against the fence at feeding time. and we soon learned that feeding the reindeer was something of a military operation. It took at least 2 people, long distance surveillance to establish when the coast was clear and a mad dash to get into the enclosure, grab the bowls and get out again before they realised what was going on. This was followed by a finely tuned pincer movement in which one of us distracted them by posting a couple of bowls through a gap in the corner of the fence while another scooted in behind them, dropped the other bowls in and then ran for dear life. Whilst we managed to avoid any unsavoury pinning incidents, one wily specimen did make a bid for freedom during a split second lapse of gate security. Never turn your back on a reindeer...

Finally, two of our best friends at the Inn were the dogs, Angus and Mac. Good old Angus was the wise old dog of the two - friendly and playful but at the same time the most laid back dog I've ever met. In contrast, Mac was the young upstart with (until a few days before we left) a crazy Oscar the Grouch style hairdo and a penchant for chasing and (unfortunately) taking out guinea fowl. As a result he now sports a fetching Hannibal Lecter muzzle whenever he goes outdoors.

All too soon it was time for us to hit the road again. Before we left, Linda and Paul treated us to an amazing day at a Scandinavian spa in Collingwood (http://www.scandinaveblue.com/) which was exactly what we needed after 3 weeks of hard work and several months of travelling behind us! We had a fantastic time at Pretty River, made some great friends and it was definitely the highlight of our trip so far. After a tearful farewell we headed for Alberta and our next stop the Canadian Rockies.

Fun on the Farm

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As every good traveller knows, the best thing to do if you're looking to have a different travelling experience, to stay in one place for a while, meet some friendly locals and, well, save some money, is to go and work on a farm. Actually, this was news to me but it turns out lots of people have been doing exactly that for years. So, with the help of an organisation called WWOOF ("Willing Workers On Organic Farms") Rich and I found a farm/country inn to call home and workplace for three weeks and in return we were to receive room, board and the unique experience of being referred to as "wwoofers."

Being new to wwoofing we were slightly worried about the possibility of spending three weeks shovelling manure until the early hours, living off bread and water and sleeping in the barn with the sheep. Maybe at some places we would have, but at Pretty River Country Inn we felt like we'd found a second home. Together with Manu (our "chimping" French fellow wwoofer), Libby (resident ray of sunshine and hopeless romantic), Chris (source of all Inn-related wisdom and a huge NASCAR fan), Paulie (yoga guru and future reindeer wrestling champion) we soon got into the twice daily routine of feeding the horses, pigs, reindeer and chickens. Who knew that reindeer like beetroot so much? Once the early morning feed was distributed, we sat down to a hearty country breakfast cooked up by masterchef and main man at the Inn, Paul. This was usually whatever the guests at the Inn were having that day, which included smoked salmon, asparagus and scrambled eggs or Paul's legendary French toast.

For the rest of the working day we were given such a fun variety of jobs to do it often felt like we were at some kind of country style holiday camp. We picked apples from the orchard, made lavender and apple jelly, cut cedar boughs and festooned them with bows, bells and glitter to make festive decorations for the Inn, re-planted shrubs, constructed a vineyard, put up a fence for the horses, pressed apples into cider and helped get the farm ready for the winter. That's not to say it wasn't hard work though - after a few days I was aching in places I didn't know could ache. Then there was the day we had to send the pigs off to the Happy Sausage Holiday Camp. Getting 3 large and uncooperative swine from a quagmire of mud into the back of a trailer was certainly no mean feat and all we did was line the space between mud and trailer while Paul, Chris and Paulie did the chasing, wrestling and occasional falling over.

At the end of the day Paul and his wife Linda (joint Commander-In-Chief, mother to the Pretty River family and general superwoman) served up a proper home-cooked feast which we all sat down to eat together. In the evenings we had our own wwoofers' chill out area with access to more DVDs than we could watch, and once a week we were treated to a film of our choice at the local cinema. We even became honorary locals at the Admiral's Post pub in Collingwood, where we found fame at the pub quiz by coming from last place to first by virtue of Rich knowing the full names of all 4 Ghostbusters. After a couple of days the Inn felt like home, and pretty soon we didn't want to leave...

Falling for Toronto

Water falling, and other visual delights:

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Since I saw Iguassu Falls a few years ago, I've always been underwhelmed by other waterfalls, so I wasn't sure what to expect from Niagara. When we arrived (after a mad dash across Toronto to catch the train after an alarm clock malfunction) it was rainy and the view of the falls was predominantly of mist. Like the good tourists we are, we decided to take the "Journey Behind the Falls" tour, and it turned out to be a good investment. Two tunnels take you underneath and behind the falls, so that you can look out at the wall of water from the other side and feel the spray as it thunders past you. You also get to wear stylish yellow bin bags, which is always a bonus. When we resurfaced the weather had cleared, and we now had a great view of the falls. It was really impressive - the Canadian horseshoe falls are huge, and the US falls on the other side were still framed in pretty Autumn colours. After taking a photo or two we headed into Niagara Falls town for lunch to find it a lot like Gatlinburg Tennessee. Fortunately, you couldn't see any of the fast food chains or massive hotels from the falls themselves.

Toronto was also a big hit. We stayed in undoubtedly the swankiest hostel I've ever seen (everything was brand new, fitted out with wooden floors and chrome, with a communal area I'd be proud to call my living room - see photos). We wandered the city, stopping for coffee at a retro coffee emporium in the excellently named district of Cabbagetown. Our visit was rounded off with a visit to the haven of cool known as Queen Street West, where we had heard we could find an authentic fish & chip shop. Alas, it was no match for the chippies of the Teesside Seaside - the fish to chips ratio was too heavily weighted in favour of the chips, someone had tried to gentrify the mushy peas by adding copious amounts of freshly ground black pepper, and they were under the misguided impression that salmon was an acceptable fish to batter. Still, after 6 months of searching it was good to find somewhere that knew what a mushy pea was...

Whole Lotta Ottawa

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You learn a lot of different things when you're travelling. Like, for example, that Ottawa is the capital of Canada. Many people may already have known this, I did not. In fact, apart from having heard that Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are really nice places, that they have lots of maple syrup, moose and mounties, before I arrived I didn't really know much about the country at all. Having spent a bit of time here now I can report the following:

• Canadians are definitely the friendliest people I have met on any of my travels so far. Everyone from bus drivers to people on the street have been lovely and helpful, without exception. Even the customs officials were nice.

• In between the major cities we visited, there is a lot of space. Some of it has really impressive mountains but a lot of it is mainly space. (Editor's note: Rich is unhappy with the use of the term "space" so to clarify, the space consists of flat farmland with the odd house every few miles). This is not a criticism, merely an observation. It has the whole rugged wilderness vibe going on, is quite appealing actually.
  

• Canadians call soft drinks "pop". This endears them to me as that's what I used to call soft drinks when I was little. Don't know why I stopped really, am thinking of reintroducing the term to daily usage.

• Canada's news channels are much more sensible than those in the US (sorry the US). In fact (and perhaps unsurprisingly) Canada is very English in many ways. Rich was delighted to be able to purchase a Fry's turkish delight bar and a can of irn bru. I was delighted they knew how to make proper tea.

• Canada has a lot of very large black squirrels. See photos for example.
  

• This may not be Canada specific, but in North America generally I've noticed that movie trailers are excessively long and always give away the entirety of the plot, in quite substantial detail. Pack it in, North America. I might want to see those movies.

As for Ottawa itself, Rich and I were both impressed with it - looked a lot like Edinburgh we thought, and we spent a couple of pleasant days wandering around the Parliament buildings, markets and shopping streets in the Autumn sunshine and marvelling at the giant spider poised to attack the art gallery. As the photos show, the Autumn leaves were still in full force, and outshone even some parts of New England. So far then, big thumbs up for Canada. Next stop, Toronto and a big famous watery thing.