TRAVEL | WEEKLY REPORT | CANADA
Hello From Chilly Canada!
My Week in Photos — Week 51 — March 2 — March 8, 2023
SURPRISE!
Sorry to have been so secretive with our travel plans lately. I’ve been keeping this journey on the down low because Chris wanted to surprise his mom with our arrival in Canada.
But, the cat is out of the bag now, we successfully surprised her, and now I can shout it to the world!
Phew! I’ve never been great at keeping secrets.
I won’t lie, this past week has been one of the most stressful weeks that we have endured yet in our travels. Heading back into the Western World was a bit disastrous for us. We suffered under the pressure of delayed flights, missed buses, tight schedules and connections, planning in advance, and getting ourselves organized. All things that we haven’t had to deal with too much in the past three years.
I’m going to attempt to write a more detailed post about all of those specific adventures soon. But for now, I will just give you a brief wrap-up of our past week.
We flew from Thessaloniki to Frankfurt, Germany on March 2nd. A lovely young lady that we had met at the Arabas Hostel lived in Cologne, and she offered us her apartment to stay in if we wanted to. We had to make our way out to Amsterdam by the 7th when our flight left for Canada, so this was right on the way.
Coming out of the central train station in Cologne you are immediately met with the massive Cologne Cathedral which is stunning.
Our friend had a lovely little apartment on the top floor of a 5-floor apartment building in central Cologne. We were minutes from numerous stores and supermarkets in one direction, and the Rhine River in the other.
Walking to her apartment was an exciting adventure and we found ourselves down along the river taking in the adorable buildings and scenery along the way.
We spent a couple of days hanging out there and even had a visit from our friend Verena who we had met in Antalya. She lives in neighboring Dusseldorf so she took the train to see us.
We had hoped that she would be our tour guide around the city, but she admitted that she hadn’t been in Cologne for 20 years! So much for that idea.
We did have an amazing lunch with her at a Lebanese restaurant, and being that she is an artist, we all inevitably ended up back at our apartment having a bit of an art jam.
On Sunday, March 5th we made our way from Cologne to Amsterdam. We had more drama along the way as one of our buses that we were supposed to connect to, left 25 minutes early without us.
After paying for a second bus ticket, we made it to Amsterdam late that afternoon.
The next day we found our way into the city and did some walking around the canals. We didn’t plan it, but we were there when people started to turn their lights on in their houses, as the daylight started to creep away outside.
It was interesting watching the hustle and bustle of people heading home at the end of the day. Most by bike, mind you.
I would say that most people get around by bike in Amsterdam. This was made obvious by the many ‘bike parks’ around the city. Plus many houses had bikes parked outside of them instead of cars.
However, those that did have cars, often had ones that were simply adorable.
We found Amsterdam to be quite orderly and well put together. However, much of the city runs on plastic cards, and for those of us who prefer to use cash, it was a bit of a challenging place to be.
On Tuesday morning we got a notification as we awoke that our flight would be delayed by 2 hours. This seems to be the way things go these days with travel. Thankfully we were able to hang out at the hotel for a bit longer and have a late checkout.
We had a pretty uneventful flight back and flew on WestJet’s Dreamliner. It’s almost a brand-new plane and it had some pretty impressive bells and whistles on board. For one, there were no blinds on the windows, you could simply tint the glass to make it darker inside. Looking out of one of the windows, I could see the sun as a strange glowing orb. I couldn’t help but take a photo. It turned out sort of strange and purple/pink looking.
Our flights were purchased on a WestJet travel credit that my parents had because of canceled Covid travel plans. The points needed to be used up in the next year, and they both have some health issues that are preventing them from traveling, so Dad offered them to us.
Unbeknownst to us, and him, he claims, he booked us in Premium class.
We sure didn’t complain and enjoyed the luxury of some comfort for our 9-hour flight. After all the annoyances we had been through over the past week, we felt truly spoiled. (Thanks again Dad!)
Chris and I both sat on aisle seats across from each other, which meant that I had a seatmate between me and the window. I was excited to learn that he had never flown before, so I did my best to try and help him out and make him comfortable.
He is just 23 and he is fleeing Ukraine to find a life in Canada, joining his sister who has already been here for 6 months. We talked a lot about his plans and his expectations for his new country. He had a bunch of questions for me, and I did my best to answer them all.
He spent most of his time staring out the window and taking in the beauty of our planet from above. What an amazing feeling it must have been for him. I realized in that moment that I have never experienced that ‘first’ time of flying since I have been flying from 10 months old.
Of course, take-off and landing brought out a bit more emotion than when we were up in the air. But he was calm and I reassured him that everything was fine. Such a great experience.
We exchanged contact information and I have been checking in with him to see how he is liking Canada. He claims that he is going skiing on the weekend! Lucky guy. I’m sure he will settle in nicely here.
I must admit that it is moments like these where I am very proud to be Canadian. Although Canada is certainly not the perfect place that most in the world think it is, we are warm and friendly and we open our homes up to those less fortunate than ourselves.
I noticed at the airport that there was a crew of people with signs that were there to assist Ukranian immigrants. And I knew then that he would be in very good hands.
I’m sure Roman will build himself a wonderful future here. Surely a better one than what Putin is working on for his countrymen.
For those wondering why we decided to come back to Canada now, especially when it is so cold, there are a few factors at play.
Number one — It has been three years since we were back and it felt like it was time to check-in with family. My parents have had a few health setbacks in the past three years, so I was really feeling like I needed to see them and understand what they are going through. Trying to decipher what is happening from behind a Facetime screen is near impossible.
Number Two — We have been away long enough that all credit cards expired and our debit cards were starting to not work in the ATMs. After a couple of nightmare attempts of trying to get money and not being able to, we decided that it was time to get our finances sorted out.
And it is simply time to rest and recharge.
We didn’t know that coming home could provide that, but already we are feeling like it was the right decision and we look forward to the next 2–3 months of resetting and recharging before we head back out into the world.
Stay tuned for our adventures from Western Canada!
xo Jill and Chris
I’m tagging those who have requested to be tagged in my weekly wrap-ups. If you would like to be tagged, please let me know and I will add you to the list.
Robert | Louise | Adrienne | Kim | Mia | Michele | Ivy | Erika | Anne | Sandra | Julie | Bruce | JoAnn
I write a wrap-up each week on my personal publication Artistic Voyages
If you like my writing and want to read more, subscribe to Medium through my referral link (I will earn a small commission) to get full access! Plus sign up here to get my articles by email!
We have been nomadic since 2017! Join our journey by hitting the links below!
Website | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn| Patreon| YouTube | Medium