Travel Posts

I recently made the decision to take advantage of Iceland Air’s free stopover policy to visit Iceland on my way from Vancouver, Canada to Europe. If you weren’t aware, Iceland Air allows anyone to stop for up to a week in Iceland without any additional charges. This is a brilliant marketing move, and it’s help Iceland become a hugely successful tourist destination in the last few years (one tour guide told me that fishing used to be about 70% of the economy, and now tourism is coming close to eclipsing that). Before I arrived, I had heard stories about how expensive the country is. Let me be clear, those rumours are true. Compared to prices back in Vancouver, I would say most items in Iceland are 2-3x as expensive. For example, I had a small latte and a banana, which back home would probably cost me about $5 Canadian – […]

I used to proactively write about every upcoming travel adventure I had, but I tend not to do that much these days. One of the reasons is that sometimes my plans change, and then I end up with a post that’s no longer accurate. Another reason is that people, while well intentioned, tend to sometimes aggressively give advice on how I should change my trips around, which ends up putting me on the defensive regarding my choices (most of which are well thought out in terms of what I want to get out of that trip). That said, this next three month trip of mine is pretty exciting, so I wanted to share it. Iceland In less than a week I’m getting on a plane and heading to Iceland for two days. Obviously two days is a pretty short amount of time, but I’m taking advantage of Iceland Air’s free […]

People keep asking me what my next travel plans are, so I thought I would give a little update. While I used to only come back to Canada for a month or two at a time, now that I have my own cottage in Canada I tend to spend longer periods here. Plus, while last year I dabbled in renting my cottage out while I was gone, it’s really only the summer months that seem to appeal to most renters; so it makes more sense for me to travel then so I can rent my cottage out and at least break-even while gone. So for my next adventure, I’ve chosen to walk The West Highland Way, an approximately 150km trail that runs from just outside Glasgow, Scotland, to Fort William. As the name implies, part of the trail takes a person through the beautiful Scottish highlands. Last April I walked […]

It’s 7am in the morning, and the trail in front of me is barely lit by the LED headlamp I’m wearing on my head. I’m up earlier than I have been over the last few days, mainly due to the orchestra of snoring in my albergue room throughout the night. Yesterday I limped my way into town, hobbling in pain due to sore knees and a pair of star-crossed blisters on my feet. I had been chewing ibuprofin for the last 12 hours, hoping it would take away some of the pain in my knees and allow me to continue on today. But after only about 10 minutes of walking this morning, both of them are once again screaming in pain. I stop and stare at the dimly-lit rocky descent in front of me, wondering how in the hell I’m going to walk the twenty or so kilometres to Pamplona […]

In less than two weeks from today, I’ll be leaving St. Jean Pied de Port, France and starting my 800 kilometre journey to Santiago de Compostela. People keep asking me if I’m excited, and a small part of me at this point definitely is. But I typically don’t start feeling real excitement or butterflies until I’m on the airplane heading to my destination. I have most of the logistics for my trip figured out, including a late night shuttle from Biarritz, France to St. Jean, and a nice bed and breakfast in St. Jean Pied de Port, France, for my first night. I’ll probably spend my second night in St. Jean in an actual albergue – it seems like a good opportunity to start mingling with fellow pilgrims, and I’ll take advantage of the people leaving at 6am to act as my alarm clock. My goal that day is to […]

While I still have roughly two months before I head to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to start the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, I have been focusing a lot of time recently with packing. I’d like to start being able to do some practice walks with a full pack shortly, which means I need to get my pack to roughly the same weight as it will be when I arrive. Of course, I could just fill it with rocks for now, but since I already have many of the items with me at home, I thought I’d just finish buying what I need and have it done ahead of time. As a rule of thumb, most people try to bring around 10% of their body weight on the Camino. For me, that’s probably around 20 lbs. I once did a 75 km hike with a 60 lb pack on […]

In about 90 days, I’m heading to London, England, to spend my birthday. As you get older, birthdays become less and less important I find, certainly not enough to warrant a huge drunk at the bar. So I thought this year I would spend my birthday in another country, hopefully meeting a few new people and maybe exploring the countryside. A few days after my birthday, I’m heading to Spain to start the Camino de Santiago, a famous Christian pilgrimage that ends in the city of Santiago, Spain. Historically many people attempted the long walk as penance for their sins, but nowadays people walk it for a variety of reasons, often because they want some introspection on life. There are many different routes to Santiago, most of which span various countries in Europe such as France, Spain and Portugal. The route I’ve settled on is called the Camino Frances, or […]

Earlier this year, I got a Facebook invite for a surprise birthday party in Malta. I’m sure when it was sent out nobody thought anyone from Canada would show up, since it’s a really long way to go for a birthday. But as soon as I received the invite, I decided it would be really fun to show up, and also a chance to see a little more of Europe. I left at the end of May and stopped briefly in London for a few days. I met up with my friend Barry, someone I recently met in Argentina back in February. We mostly just hung out around his area, watching football in the pubs. But one night we ventured to another part of town and set up for the afternoon on this rooftop pub. During the day we encountered this really great group of people from Sweden, and spent […]

In about ten days I’ll be jumping in the vehicle with my girlfriend and driving across North America, yet again. We moved out to Ontario last year from the British Columbia-area to spend a year in Hamilton, and were forced to do the drive in four days due to commitments that were waiting for us. Thankfully we are going to do the drive back in about nine days, which should be a lot more enjoyable. This is actually my fourth time moving across the country, and I’ve done this song and dance enough times that I thought I would give some advice on the subject. First, moving across the country doesn’t really have to be much more stressful than moving across town, but that really depends on how much money you are willing to spend on the move. If you hire professional movers, they will typically charge you based on […]

My girlfriend left the other day to spend three weeks in Italy and Hungary. I have to say, I’m more than a little jealous. I spent three years basically up and travelling whenever I felt like it, but currently we’re too busy at work for me to slip away. But the thought of sitting around a patio, nibbling on a wood-oven pizza and sipping a beer sure sounds appealing right now. As people may remember, Luciana and I moved out to Hamilton, Ontario last year to spend a year working in the new office. It’s been a great experience, and it will be hard to say goodbye to everyone we’ve spent time with over the last year, but the plan was always just to spend a year out here, and that’s coming to a close. I lived in Ontario for two years when I was younger, and decided then that […]