More pictures

Us setting out from Carolyn's parents. Notice it's still dark out?

Yup... we left at 6am

Roadside attraction in NS- one giant blueberry.

Carolyn helping out the logrider in Quebec City


Eating a beavertail in Montreal
One giant smoked meat sandwich, please... yum!

Honey, I'm home!!!!

Wahoo! I'm back in Vancouver! It's amazing. Carolyn and I arrived at my dad's today after a short and eventless 9ish hour drive from Banff. My bedroom is already a total distaster, and the car is still packed full of junk. Oh well.

Carolyn and I missed Danielle so much that we went and surprise visited it her after being home for about an hour. Go us. Then she came over tonight for dessert while we showed my dad pictures and told him stories. We sat and shared stories and relived the trip again already. :)

Now that I'm home, I've started to throw pictures up on my computer. So far all I've got is the ones from my camera from the Canada trip... so here are some highlights.

Fun times in Halifax:

This picture was mostly taken for our ADU boys. The England and Ireland hats were in the rejected sale section, but we still wore them with pride. Also note the Timmy's coffees in our hands. Ahh, to be back in Canada again.

Dollar stores are great fun.

It was amazing to get to hang out with Teri again. She was my neighbour in first year at Acadia, and she let us stay with her for a couple of nights in Halifax. This is us getting ready to go out and be silly.

After the going out and being silly, we tried to head to McDonalds, but only the drive-thru was open. Becoming a 'car' was the only logical solution that would ensure we got food. It worked.

K actual pictures from our drive across the country will come later once I sleep a bit.

The home stretch....

I'm in Banff! That would be the lovely city in the Rocky Mountains a mere 12ish hour drive from home. In fact, I hope to be back in White Rock tomorrow night! Hurrah!!! I can't wait :)


Since I last blogged, we did the drive from Minneapolis to Winnipeg and camped just outside the city. The next day we drove from Winnipeg to Moose Jaw. Moose Jaw was so cute. We did a tour through the tunnels that used to be used for bootlegging during the prohibition. In fact, Al 'Scarface' Capone used to often come up to Moose Jaw while he was running the bootlegging business. It was great. They had actors in period costumes running the tours, and I got married to the guy. I'm now Mrs. Campioni, but also the gangster "Doorstop", and Carolyn was dubbed "Shifty". It was great.

After camping, we had a super early start and headed to Banff. We blew right through Calgary cause it seemed kind of boring from the highway :) It sure was no Moose Jaw.

Anyways... I'm home tomorrow!!! Wee!!!!

Patriotism at it's finest?!

Just a quick one!

We're in Minneapolis, Minnesota (sp?). We arrived here about 5pm and went straight to the MALL OF AMERICA. (I feel like that needs to be yelled). It was large and had about 5 mall gift shops. Ha.

Sunday, we finished up a lovely visit with the Lincolns, (thanks guys), went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was awesome, then drove to Rochester, IL. We survived our first night of rainy camping (yahoo!), then did a full day from there to here.

We hope to be in Canada by tomorrow night. Two? nights of camping and then we'll hopefully be in Banff! Hurrah!

Welcome to the U.S.A.!

You can all stop worrying now, Carolyn and I have made it safely into the United States of America. Phew.

In all honesty, we were a little worried. We have enough stuff in the back seat of the car (and the trunk) to move in and never leave the country. On top of that, our passports have stamps saying that we've just come in from London. Given the current craziness, I figured that wasn't the best place to have just visited. "What were you doing in London?" "Oh, you know, just chatting with some terrorists."

Once we had ourselves good and psyched out about it (this was Carolyn's first time going to the States ever), we got to the border, were asked our citizenship and where we were going, and were flagged through - in about a minute flat. Yessss.

Visiting Nonna was great. As expected, we've both gained a few pounds of sausage, and pasta, and soup and vegetables into our bellies. But it's so worth it. And though we took a bit of food with us, don't be expecting much of it to last all the way to Vancouver... it's going to be free campfire eats for the rest of our trek.

After an incredibly tacky afternoon at Niagra Falls (we had both been before, so we ignored the actual Falls and just hit Clifton Hill - including the Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not Museum), we headed down to my aunt and uncle's (and super awesome cousins') house in Strongsville, Ohio.

We went to a county fair tonight, and are off to one of the most giant amusement parks ever - Cedar Point. They were saying something about the world's highest roller coaster (Sarah - it's not the Millenium one... they have a new taller one!!!). Our stomachs may not survive. We'll report back.


Pictures will have to wait until we're back home.... I left a cord part at Carolyn's parents' place. Oops. :P

"I'm sorry, I don't speak Quebecois"

Fun fact of the day: Did you know Montreal is an island?

I sure didn't, and I felt rather stupid when the incredibly helpful woman at the tourist bureau informed us of that fact. Way to know Canadian geography, Lauren.


So we're on Day 3 of our cross-Canada road trip, having clocked about 1300km thus far. As planned, we made it from Liverpool to Quebec City in about 13 hours, and camped that night. The dinner of hot dogs and s'mores cooked over the fire was long overdue.

Yesterday we spent the morning in Vieux Quebec, wandering around the citadel, and through the old streets. It was really, really beautiful! We left Quebec early afternoon, and made it to Montreal about 4 hours later after dealing with the worst. traffic. ever. But it gave us a chance to take a picture of our packed-full car in action.

We stayed in an old elementary boarding school turned hostel in a slightly sketchy area north of downtown Montreal. Wandered around a bit, and had a drink at a super fun bar in the "chic" area (as recommended to us by the wonderful tourist info lady).

Today we've walked all over Montreal, mostly fueled by the food we felt we had to experience while in the city: A Fairmont bagel, a smoked meat sandwich, and a beavertail for dessert. We also wandered around Vieux Montreal, and along the water. Now we're off to window shop in downtown, then to a campsite for tonight (about 50 minutes outside of Montreal towards Ottawa).

Tomorrow is our second big day of driving - all the way to my Nonna and Nonno's house outside St. Catherine's Ontario. I'm excited to end the day with some of my favourite Italian food!!

Get your engines ready...

... adventure #2 is about to start!

The backpacks are ready again, the car is packed... and as of 6am tomorrow morning, Carolyn and I are Vancouver bound! Our Day 1 destination is a campsite outside Quebec city - we figure it will be about a 12 hour drive. Despite a pitstop to visit the world's largest blueberry in Oxford, NS, we should still hopefully get our tent up before dark.

It's been a great week in Nova Scotia. We've had a few days in Liverpool, and then a couple in Halifax. It was great to stay with Teri, and see a couple other friends from Acadia. In one day, I ate a peanut butter burger, learned some new tricks for making earrings, cooked goulash, hung out at the Fleet Club, met some drunken sailors, danced to Barrett's Privateers and some other Maritime greats, closed down two bars, walked through a McDonald's drive-thru, and met some amazing new friends. I'll miss Halifax a ton.

I had hoped to get some pictures up here, but the cord for my new camera (Thanks Dad!) doesn't actually seem to fit in the camera. Odd.

Home, sweet almost home.

I'm safe and sound back in Canada, and have been hanging around at Carolyn's parents' house in Liverpool for a few days. Relaxing and errand running in Canadian stores is more exciting than I would've imagined :)

The trip back was rather uneventful except that we landed in St. John's Newfoundland, and had to deplane and go through customs there. It would've been really annoying except for how excited we were to be in Newfoundland for the first time, to hear some Newfie accents, and to peruse all the Canadiana souvenirs. You know you're home when you can buy moose droppings (the chocolate), or maple syrup cookbooks.

Now that I've been 'home' for a few days, and reflecting on the trip, I now present:

Europe in Summary - Things learned and observed

Foods

-Do not EVER take for granted the following - mayonnaise, ketchup, peanut butter
-On the flip side, Canada needs to import the following - paprika flavoured chips, Cappy brand fruit juices, Italian gelato, Fanta, Blackcurrent Nestea iced tea.

-'Nescafe' means 'American-style coffee in Turkey.

-Picnics taste better in the shadow of a famous building, or while using a piece of an ancient pillar as a bench.

-Restaurant dinners taste better when you are begged to come in by the waiters.

-Visiting grocery stores and outdoor markets was one of our favourite things do to for free entertainment.

-There is no joy quite like arriving at a hostel to discover they have free breakfast AND dinner.

-Life is better when beer is cheaper than water.

Directions

-Cluelessly following around the biggest crowd will usually get you where you want to go
-If you're lost, just pull out every map of the area that you have, sit down in the middle of the sidewalk and spread out each map. This is the quickest way to have an english speaker approach and offer help.

Backpackers, locals and conversations

-Take recommendations from other backpackers. Even if it means changing your plans, you will almost always be thankful.

-While in Western countries, telling others where you've been in the East gives you serious street credit and instant respect.

-More people than expected do not truely understand the seperation between USA and Canada.

-Expect hospitality and kindness to be the norm everywhere. Everyone is proud of their hometown and likes to show it off.

Day-to-day living

-You will never again take proper bathrooms for granted once you've had to pee on a rocky night train with nothing but a hole to squat over (no TP or soap), and the results of everyone else's poor aim all over the floor.

-I will sleep pretty much anywhere in search of cooler temperatures (cement patios, the bench of a closed rooftop bar...), and will fall asleep hugging a cold water bottle in my bathing suit in an effort to cool down.

-A 4AM call-to-prayer can sound remarkable similar to the incessant dance tunes at a bar beside your tent when they're both keeping you from sleeping.

Falling in love

-Before deciding to move to the first city you visit... get the taste of another dozen or so. You may find you fell the same about each one.
-Marrying a foreign boy in any of the countries visited and moving there despite language barriers seems like a plausible future plan for each of us.

-Purchases of all sorts (especially those you don't actually need) happen much easier when under the threat of breaking hearts.

Baaaa

-UK really *does* have that many sheep.