My first Canadian journey

Dear diary,

   It took me a month and a half since returning home from my long awaited Canadian journey to realize how much I miss Canada. I haven't missed it during this month and a half. All I remember is my last feeling when I left Canada: the intense longing for HOME and everything I have in Romania: my kindergarten kids, my apartment, my family and friends, my city and all its wonderful places. I was definitely home sick after 3 weeks spent in Canada, even more so when some places (like the Jasper national park and Banff national park) reminded me of Tarnita and the mountains surrounding Cluj. The last week in Canada was definitely bittersweet but now, after a month and a half it sunk in how much I actually loved the whole Canadian experience.

    I tried to do as many things as possible, eat in as many and varied restaurants as possible to try out food we don't have in Cluj (fresh seafooood!!!) and to see how customer service is there (every single restaurant - even Denny's which is a diner - had excellent service with very polite and involved servers). I LOVED Canadian seafood and their breakfasts with Eggs Benedict and Bagel & cream cheese. 

   I loved all the festivals I attended (again, this aspect reminded me of Cluj since we always have events going on in our city)! I was absolutely blown away by the humongous variety of nationalities I saw at Heritage Festival (whose purpose is to celebrate all the nationalities that live in Canada): over 60 world wide nationalities were present there with a pavilion - but the thing that impressed me the most and left me teary was that Romania (of all places) also had a pavilion and the lineup for the food was one of the longest I've ever seen. That day I was literally like a kid in a huge Toy Store because I always wanted to go travel the world, discover new cultures and learn about them but at Heritage Festival all those cultures came to ME. To give you a short insight let me just write some of the most "exotic" countries I saw there: Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Peru, Nicaragua, Cameroon, Rwanda, Venezuela, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh and so many more (of course, the well known countries, too). I saw white people, black people, Asian people, everything you can imagine in ONE place, all dressed in their national costumes and dancing around on stages. I cried when I saw Hungarians dance cos it reminded me of home. I tried the food in various places and I have to admit I was a bit disappointed because it was all deep fried (you don't have time to cook delicious dishes when the line is a kilometer long) but all in all Heritage Festival was a big, amazing surprise for me and Definitely one of my favorite things about Canada (and Edmonton).

   Then we went to the Cariwest Parade. Man, that was awesome! Just like taking a plunge in the Rio de Janeiro carnival. I loved all the bright colors of the costumes, all the types of people dancing and having the best time of their lives: kids and old, wrinkled people with a huge smile on their face, thin people, fat people, everybody enjoying the rhythm of the music and dancing like there's no tomorrow. these were all Caribbean nationalities living in Canada. wow, what a show! 

   The last festival Oli took me to was the Fringe: a theatre and street art performers festival: so vivid, wild and fun! All the acts were so entertaining and some very dangerous. My favorite moment was when they called Oli to go on the stage to pretend he's a rock star :))) I laughed so much! He was adorable! We even went to a Martian play (called Mars :D) and I thought it was just OK till the last 5 minutes when I realized the point of it all: how difficult it is to be an astronaut and how sometime in the future we'd all have to move to a different planet in order to survive. Hmmm... deep and sad altogether.   

   I discovered some wonderful home decoration stores in Edmonton and Oli was kind enough to let me buy something from each of them:D I found an owl soap dispenser and a very cute and, at that time, very heartfelt sign "There's no place like home". I fell in love with an antique shop that reminded me of Chic Ville (felt like heaven there and I used a lot of happy interjections while in there and the shop assistants said "yep, it's pretty awesome here":D But my favorite shop will always be Dollarama where you can buy anything for 1, 2 or 3 dollars. And man do they have awesome stuff! I wish we had a Dollarama in Romania. I swear I would even travel to a different city if I had to:D

   Talking about shops: Chapters!!! My favorite book store: 90% exactly like our Carturesti only way more awesome. Also, Audrey's (the only independent book store in Edmonton) was really beautiful too :)

   West Edmonton Mall was humongous (so humongous they even had a "Christopher Columbus ship" in there!!!). Veeeery awesome, addictive and helpful (for gifts) :D Two other stores that made my day were IKEA and JYSK! I even found a Klimt painting in Ikea! Couldn't be happier!

   3 weeks (the amount of time we stayed in Canada) is a fairly long period of time so Oli and I had the chance to do a lot of stuff there but mostly we did the following:

1. We stayed at the farm with the family (I cooked sarmale and baked all sorts of desserts for them) and enjoyed the peace and quiet there, laughed with and about Timber the dorkiest dog ever, enjoyed the sunsets and Tom's and Lizzie's amazing dinners (some of the best I've ever had!).

2. We went to the city (Edmonton) to meet Oli's friends, eat out, see amazing places (like the Fort Edmonton Park where you go back in history) and attend terrific festivals.

3. We did souvenir shopping - in search of tons and tons of Maple Syrup and all the other goodies Canada has to offer. We bought so many stuff (for myself included - long live Dollarama and IKEA) that I can sum it up like this: we went to Canada with 2 half full luggages and we came back with 4 overloaded ones :)))

4. We took a 6 days road trip around Alberta and a bit of British Columbia, visiting some of the best people Ever. Our final destination was Waterton, the place where you can cross the US border without having to show a passport. I loved the whole trip but it was also very very tiring for me. I never had to be in a car so many hours daily (between 7-9h/day) and at the end of the trip I just thought Canada was way too big for me :))) I still remember the turquoise water in Jasper National Park and the wild animals by the side of the road, the fun times with our friends and the wonderful relaxing days in Waterton. I loved it all but at the end of it I missed the farm so badly.

5. I took photos with ALL the water hydrants I saw... because Minions, that's why! :D

What I loved about Canada (random order):

- The customer service in all the restaurants (way better than Romania)

- Oli's friends: so much fun!

- The food at the farm, all around the city and at the Prince of Wales hotel in Waterton - to die for! 

- Garneau neighborhood in Edmonton - all green, US type family houses, peace and quiet

- The Warehouse district in Edmonton - very artsie and lovely

- Seeing the Northern Lights at the farm: totally unexpected and amazing

- Nelson, Kamloops and Enderby - underrated cities with unexpected treasures

- The Italian store in Edmonton where I found "Mustar de la bunica" - OMG!

- The sunsets on the porch at the farm

- Dollarama! Best store ever! 

- The BC Okanagan wine

- Ikea!

- The landscapes that resembled Romania

- The Heritage Festival, Cariwest Parade and the Fringe

- Fort Museum Park

- Finding new amazing books in unexpected places

- Cooking at the farm

- Jasper national park and Banff national park

What I didn't like so much:

- The Tim Horton's donuts - too much fuss for something way too sugary (the Tim Bits were good though)

- Too many eggs in the morning

- No proper crosswalks like in Romania (confusing)

- Banff (tourist city) was way too crowded

- Eating way too often from Subway (great sandwiches, but it got repetitive after a while. When you're on the road a lot of hours, there aren't many options.)

- Dim Sum food- ewwww! Not my type at all.

Do I wanna go back? Hell yeah!!! Best people ever, delicious food and places reminding me of home! 'course I wanna! :D Who wouldn't? 

Personal conclusion? Canada was a splash of colour and adventure and everyone should visit it!