2012-05-27 The end?

I am very sad to say this but I suppose my travel blog has come to an end... for now. If I travel on my own again, I will write in this blog but that may take a little while. I'm not sure when my budget will allow for another big trip and I don't know if my boss will ever let me go for a long period... She might chain me to my desk to ensure I don't leave her again :)

I would like to take a moment to thank all of you who have been faithfully reading, some of you every now and then, some of you every single day. The Internet is such a fascinating thing... Thanks to this blog, I don't feel like I have traveled as a lonely soul. I feel like I have traveled with each and every one of you. And I loved it very much!

This blog also made me realize that I enjoy writing. I have many more blog ideas in my head but I will have to put some more thoughts into it before I make any kind of announcement... If you have time, please do come back to this travel blog in a month or so and I might have another blog address to give you. There are a few topics I'd like to write on but unfortunately I cannot write on everything at the same time. I'm interested in other cultures and traditions, languages, music, happiness, humour, news... If you have any ideas on how to combine all or some of these topics, or if you know what you'd be inclined to read about on a weekly or monthly basis, feel free to let me know!

I'm going to give you my e-mail address, here it is : claudielarouche [at] gmail.com

Feel free to send me a quick message if you would like to have an e-mail notification if I ever write in this travel blog again.

Before I forget, I would like to do a little bit of self-advertising. I didn't mention it in my blog but I'm also a singer-songwriter! Feel free to listen to one of my songs on Youtube,  here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwmjDKOV9Qg. Sorry for the long intro, my voice is not stable and I got confused in my lyrics, I was nervous! But despite all that, I hope you enjoy the song :) I wrote the lyrics and the music, don't hesitate to let me know what you think!

Thank you once again for all the positive vibes you sent me while I was away on my vacation, I didn't get too homesick since I knew my family and friends were following me. I hope I was able to generate an interest in you about the places I have seen. Tourists contribute to the economy of these beautiful areas and I would be very happy to be responsible for a tiny portion of the success of the tourism industry in these amazing countries. If you ever go to Serbia, Croatia or Bosnia, don't forget to ask the waiters and hostel staff if they know Claudie, you never know they might remember me! ;) Maybe when they hear my name you'll get a free drink haha.

A huge thank you also to all the new friends I met along the way, I hope you know that each one of you made my travel experience much richer and unforgettable!

Have fun in this life, follow your dreams, smile a lot, take a deep breath and jump on the opportunities that arise!

Claudie

2012-05-26 Ottawa, jour 56

This morning very early, two of my very good friends and myself went to the Great Glebe Garage Sale!!

The "Glebe" is a neighbourhood in Ottawa and they organize a mega garage sale once a year. Many households participate by putting up a garage sale on their yard and people walk through these to bargain for used things. Prices are quite good and the earlier you go, the more stuff you can find.

Since this event draws a huge amount of people, there are a few extra things happening. For example we saw a booth from one of the Canadian political parties (the liberals). There are also people who were giving real music shows with several instruments and a singer right from their balcony.

I ended up buying a trivia game, rackets for the beach and I took a free book, for a total of $4. I think that was an excellent deal!

Unfortunately for you this is the only tourist-like activity that I did today so that is all you will get :) The rest of my time was spent having lunch with my two friends, and then we split so I went to the beach, later on I met again with the same friends for dinner and finally I went to a dance!

Sadly, tomorrow will be my last post because I'm starting to work again on Monday so stay tuned for my final goodbyes!

2012-05-25 Ottawa, day 55

As I have a fairly active social life in Ottawa, it's getting more and more difficult to play the tourist because my friends want to see me and of course I want to see them as well. But thankfully I'm still on jet lag which means I woke up at 6 AM. People rarely want to hang out with me at that time of day haha so that gave me the whole morning to walk downtown and take some pictures for you!

Here is my favourite fountain in Ottawa:

It has a twin fountain in Regina. I traveled to Regina when I was 16 years old and I first went to Ottawa when I was 19. I took a picture of both fountains and found out 2 years later that they were identical. So I had a look at my pictures and true enough, they're the exact same thing. I thought it was funny that I took a picture of both without realizing that they were exactly the same :)

Here is our city hall:

Not very impressive but I thought you may like to know what it looks like!

Here is something more impressive, the Château Laurier:

It is a luxurious hotel. Just out of curiousity, I checked the prices for a room. It is $450 CAD per night or more... I'm not going to sleep there anytime soon!

Yesterday I mentionned the Ottawa river to you. That river is actually the border between the province of Ontario where Ottawa is located and the province of Québec. As you probably all know, Canada is mainly an English-speaking country. However there is one province that is mainly francophone, the province of Québec (there are other provinces that have a strong French community but Québec has the biggest). That's where I was born so I spent the first 22 years of my life in a French-only environment (I'm 26 now).

I think there is a lot of misunderstanding between Francophones and Anglophones. Not so much in Ottawa because French and English-speaking people are always mixed together in the work place, on the street, etc. But I spent the first 22 years of my life hearing people say bad things about Anglophones. It was easy to talk behind their back because we never saw them. But as soon as I moved out of Québec, I started hearing the exact same things but coming from the Anglophones, talking about the Francophones. This is quite ridiculous. Honestly, I think we do have some cultural differences but we're also pretty much all the same. If each group made the effort to know the other one better, I know we would get along quite well.

There are many people in Québec, especially from the region where I am from, who want Québec to separate from Canada, we call them separatists. I'm not going to start this debate here so I won't share what you my opinion on the matter, but I'm just quickly mentioning it to you, so you have an idea of some of the political stuff that's going on in Canada. We may seem like a very stable country but if the separatists ever get their way, the country may lose one of its province one day. Only time will tell...

Today I crossed the Alexandra bridge on foot and ended up on the Québec side:

Here, you can find the Canadian Museum of Civilization:

It is quite interesting to see a buiding that is mostly made of curves.

Inside the museum, there are some permanent exhibits such as one on natives:

I'm not sure whether you have to pay or not in order to get in but I was able to sneak in that part for free today. I didn't stay very long so I figured it was acceptable. The one thing I like the most in the Museum is the following sculpture:

The reason I like it so much is that the first time I saw it, I immediately recognized it. I see it every day on our $20 bill:

Outside of the museum, there is a fountain with what I think is the best view of Ottawa.

After my quick visit to the museum, I left my french-speaking province and returned to the anglophone Ontario.

Sparks street is our pedestrian only street here in Ottawa:

With several shops, restaurants and coffee places, it can get pretty crowded in the summer. Then I continued my walk and reached Bank street:

This street also has several shops, boutiques, coffee places, restaurants just like Sparks but the difference is that cars can drive here, and that there are shops and coffee places for many kilometers! I think it's a nice place to bring tourists for a long walk (if they have seen the parliament and the other places to see around it already).

Today I didn't walk the whole stretch of boutiques and coffee places, I eventually turned on Somerset street, which is where we have our Chinatown:

Here you can find many Asian restaurants, hairdressers, dentists, shops, etc. Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Mongolian, and many more are represented. I had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant with a friend and that was the end of my tourist activities for the day because my friend and I spent the rest of the day together. We did some shopping, worked in her yard, had dinner and took a long evening walk.

Tomorrow I am also seeing friends for pretty much the whole day but we are going to a special even that happens only once a year. I will be happy to document it for you, I think I should have interesting stories to share!

2012-05-24 Ottawa, jour 54

You know, there's a little something that I wanted to mention in my blog but I didn't really get a chance to say it yet, so I decided that today was the day! Many of you found out that I was going on a long vacation only a few weeks or even just a few days before I left (and some of you only once I was gone!) To you, it may seem like this whole thing pretty much fell from the sky for me, that I'm lucky and that this is the kind of things that would never happen to you. That is why I thought it might be good to clarify a few things.

Ever since I started my career (May 2008), I have placed 10% of every paycheck in a saving account. I know not everyone is able to place 10% on the side but if you have a project, I think any small amount becomes significant when consistently saved over a long period of time. That's how I was able to afford my trip. At first I didn't really know that this was how I was going to use the money saved, but in a way, I've been saving for this trip for 4 years.

Secondly, I was able to have 2 months off because I made an arrangement with my employer to be paid less in order to have more time off. It is called "Leave with income averaging" and the concept is similar to what teachers do. They never work during the summer but during the school year, they are not paid their full salary in order to keep receiving money while they are off in the summer. I have been asking my boss for the permission to do the income averaging pretty much for 4 years. For 4 years, the answer was "not now" until she finally accepted.

And thirdly, I started learning Serbian approximately 2 years ago. At first it was just for the fun of it, I didn't even plan on traveling, I simply have a passion for other cultures. I suppose I do have a certain talent to learn languages, but I did work hard too. I bought grammar books and I studied them. Almost every day, I was using the software called Anki to review flash cards in order to learn Serbian vocabulary. And once my leave with income averaging got accepted, I took my learning more seriously and enrolled in a course. From September to April, every Tuesday evening, I was in a classroom learning Croatian from 6 PM to 10 PM.

So, I'm trying my best not to sound full of myself because I don't want to make this about me. What I'm trying to say is that nothing comes for free. If I hadn't saved up my money right away, I would never have afforded this trip. If I had given up asking permission for the leave with income averaging, I would never have gotten a long vacation. If I hadn't learnt Serbian, my travel experience would have been completely different. I would have had the same amount of pictures but I would not have had the same human contact. I would have felt like a stranger who just comes and goes and does not leave a trace. Instead, I am a stranger who made friends in different cities along the way. These people will remember me, and I will remember them. I think that by establishing friendships with people from a completely different cultures than your own makes you both grow.

Whatever you want to do in this life, you have to work for it. I'm a very very ordinary person, yet, I think I had a wondeful experience during these two months, something that not many people will get to do. Not necessarily because they cannot do it, but because they do not try. Not everybody's wish is to travel for two months, of course. What is YOUR dream? What do you need to do in order to get there? Then start now! Otherwise it will never happen.

Ok I'm done with little attempt at motivational talk :)

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Because of the hour difference between Europe and Canada, I was wide awake at 5 AM this morning. In a way it was a good thing because it enabled me to do the boring stuff such as unpacking, cleaning, washing dishes, etc.

When I was unpacking today I took this picture that I really like:

The same edition of National Geographic in 4 different languages: Serbian, Hungarian, English and German (I found that one at the airport in Frankfurt where I had my connection flight). I know, I'm a little bit crazy sometimes!

Then, as promised, I behaved like a tourist in my own city, took my camera and left the house. I took the bus to go downtown. I have a car but I prefered to take the bus for two reasons: First of all, parking downtown on a weekday is more expensive than bus tickets. Secondly, my level of energy is quite low and I thought that falling asleep on a bus is a tiny bit less dangerous then falling asleep while driving!


Here is one of the nicest buildings in Ottawa, the Canadian parliament!

Not as nice as Budapest's but still not too bad :)

In front of the parliament, there is a perpetual flame:

It burns days and nights, 365 days a year. I'm not sure what is the reason behind though!

Hidden at the back of the parliament building is the parliament library:

I think it is beautiful!

I laughed because I ran into annoying tourists here as well! I was just about to go take pictures of these sculptures but a big group of German tourists arrived and blocked the view so I had to wait until they were gone to go take my pictures:

This is a close-up of the same sculptures as above, to commemorate the fact that women officially became "persons" in Canada in 1929.

Terry Fox is a very well-known Canadian but I don't know if he is known world-wide as well. He has his own sculpture in front of the parliament:

From Wikipedia: "In 1980, with one leg having been amputated, Terry Fox embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. Although the spread of his cancer eventually forced him to end his quest after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (3,339 mi), and ultimately cost him his life, his efforts resulted in a lasting, worldwide legacy. The annual Terry Fox Run, first held in 1981, has grown to involve millions of participants in over 60 countries and is now the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research; over C$500 million has been raised in his name."

He is a great example of courage, perseverance, endurance... I think he deserves his place right in front of our parliament.

Here is one of my favourite highlights of Ottawa, the Rideau Canal:

Not only can you take a very long and beautiful walk by the canal, you can also skate on it during the winter. The canal turns into a 7.8 kilometers long skateway and is very popular for both tourists and locals. Skating on the canal is definitely one of my favourite winter activity here!

Boats can get on the canal from the Ottawa river by going through locks:

Another very popular tourist destination is the Byward Market. I think we could call it the heart of Ottawa. During the day, we can see lots and lots of people shopping at the different kiosks and shops:

During the evening, we can see lots and lots of people eating in restaurants or having a drink in one of the pubs.

Today was a bit quiet but keep in mind that it was only 9 AM :)

Next I went to take a picture of the National Art Gallery, mostly to show you the big spider in front of it:

From what I recall, the spider costed $1 000 000 CAD. I'm not sure we should have paid that big amount for a spider but I must admit that I like it more and more every time I see it.

Right in front of the National Art Gallery, there is the Notre-Dame church.

The outside is quite boring but the inside is gorgeous:

I think this competes with the churches I've seen in Europe which is quite an accomplishment!

At around 11 I headed back toward my appartment because I wanted to go have lunch with my colleagues! Unfortunately I ended up falling asleep on the couch by mistake so I was a little bit late haha. It was very nice to see them!!! They decorated my cubicule :)

They made fun of me by installing a bed instead of the chair so that I can live in my cubicle. I tried the bed, it was very comfortable!

I can even work while lying down, the perfect life:

Of course I was just pretending to be on the phone, I'm still on vacation!!

In the afternoon my friend Zoe joined me for a drink at Starbucks, oh how I love Starbucks! Yes it's a big american company and it doesn't have the ambiance of a family owned coffee place but I still enjoy this place very much!

Zoe left early to try to avoid the traffic as much as possible so I decided to go to my favourite spot near my home, Britannia beach:

Today was a warm day but the beach season is not quite started yet so there wasn't that many people. The water is also not the greatest, there is often a sign that advises people not to swim because of the level of pollution in the water... But it's still a beach, 5 minutes away from my appartment by bike. Wonderful!

Speaking of bikes, Ottawa is a city that is extremely bike-friendly. There are over 170 km of bike paths in the city.

My bike:

This is great to keep in good shape while enjoying nice views of the Rideau Canal, the Ottawa river, etc. The bike paths are very well maintained and are often surrounded by trees so it's a good way to enjoy nature.

I hope you like Ottawa so far, more to come tomorrow!!

2012-05-23 Ottawa, day 53

After not sleeping at all last night I am a little bit burnt out and will not write a very long post today! But at least I wanted you to know that I arrived safely in Canada after approximately 10 hours of flying (not including the waiting time in Frankfurt airport). I am so happy to be here!! Everything is familiar, the car plates, the language, the roads, my apartment... Home sweet home :)

My friend Kim came to pick me up and she also cooked a very nice dinner because she knew I wasn't going to have the energy to cook anything today:

That's my apartment  you see behind! Thank you Kim for taking good care of me! And now it is time for me to crash in bed and try to sleep 10 hours in a row if possible! Good night!!

2012-05-22 Belgrade, day 52

What a happy and sad day all at the same time!! As you now know, this was my last day of traveling... or maybe not! Do not worry, I am coming back to Ottawa tomorrow! But once I'm back, I still have a few days before I start working, so I will play the tourist in my own town and introduce you to my city! Hopefully this will convince some of my new friends to come and visit me in Canada :) And that means this will not be the end of my blog yet, so you can keep following my adventures for a few days!

This morning I spent lots of time hanging out at the hostel because I became good friend with the girls who work here. Let me introduce you to Marina:

The weather was horrible in Belgrade, it rained a lot this morning (I think Belgrade is crying because I'm leaving ;) Marina and I walked together to the grocery store where she bought a whole bunch of sweets for me to try. Typical Serbian sweets, yay! I'm looking forward to eat some, probably as soon as I am done this blog post because since I ordered a taxi for 3:30 AM and I don't plan on sleeping at all tonight so instead I will eat. Marina was the first person to whom I said my final goodbyes and I was quite sad to leave her but hopefully I will see her again someday!

I had to leave Marina before the end of her shift at the hostel because at 1 o'clock I was getting together with Jelena for the last time as well. She told me that she thinks it's really neat when friends keep in touch with each other from a distance for 20, 30, 40 years... So we promised each other we would be like that, sending messages to each other and showing each other pictures of our future kids.

Today we had a drink together and she actually stayed with me quite a long time which was lots of fun. She brought me a box of typical Serbian cookies that I am to share with my family. But since my family is far away, I think I will end up sharing the cookies with my colleagues... Sorry family! Jelena also brought me a CD where she put plenty of Serbian language learning material which means I am not allowed to stop learning her language. I won't be bored when I come back :) Saying goodbye to Jelena was sad too but now that we promised we would be friends forever, I'm sure we will keep in touch through the years!

At 7 PM, I was invited for dinner at Adrijana's place. There was 4 of us, Adrijana, Miljan, Adrijana's boyfriend (Igor) and myself. We had lots of fun and lots of laugh! Adrijana is an AMAZING cook:

The meal was absolutely delicious and I told her once again that she has a secure job in Canada whenever she wants, I will hire her anytime as my personal cook!

To go to Adrijana's place, I had to take the bus. Today I decided to pay. What a wonderful decision that was because inspectors came in to check people's tickets!! I'm so lucky!! I paid my bus journeys every now and then (not always), but the one time they check is on one of the time I decided to pay!

On the way back from Adrijana's, Miljan and I were going to take the bus together so I prepared my money to pay. Miljan said "Don't bother, they don't check anymore at that time of day but OK if you feel more comfortable paying your ticket, then go ahead". Since it's my last day and it was getting late, I didn't want to get in trouble, I wanted to pay the ticket. But once I got on the bus and tried to give my money to the driver he gave me a look that meant "just go in and don't bother me with your money". So I got a free ride!

Saying goodbye to Adrijana, Miljan and Igor was also sad but I have great hope of seeing them again since Adrijana and Igor are considering moving to Canada eventually. Maybe I will see them in my country!! That would be fantastic :) And if Adrijana and Igor move to Canada, maybe Miljan will come and visit them so maybe I will see him in my country too!

And that was my last day in Belgrade!

As I said, I will still be posting tomorrow and for a few days, first of all to confirm that I arrived safely in Ottawa and then to introduce you to my city. You will see, Ottawa is quite different than what I've shown you so far but it is a beautiful place too! To all my Ottawa friends, if you would like to be featured on my blog, please feel free to invite me over for dinner, I haven't cooked for two months and I'm not looking forward to start again so do not hesitate, I accept invitations from anybody! Also, if anyone would like to go for a sightseeing tour of Ottawa with me, send me a comment or an e-mail and we can play the tourists and take pictures together!

I'm really looking forward to see all my Ottawa friends very soon, and at the same time my heart is breaking because of all the wonderful people I leave behind, but life is full of excitement and surprises so I might be back in the Balkans sooner than I think!

Thank you for everyone who have faithfully followed me during my trip, I hope you will still want to stay with me for another few days, even if you know Ottawa already. You never know, you might discover something new! I will continue posting in the evening so don't be surprised, from now on all the blog posts will appear 6 hours later than what you've been used to! Talk to you very soon!!