Tuesday August 7th, 2018
Pearson International Airport, Toronto, Canada, 20:00 local time – I’m waiting for my Air Transat flight TS 849 to Calgary which marks the beginning of a – hopefully – great roadtrip adventure.
While my wife Paola is taking English classes for about 10 weeks in Toronto, I’m using the chance of traveling – unfortunately alone this time. To support her in her first days, I came with her to Toronto on July 25th and we spent a couple of days together. From July 26th to July 28th, we traveled with a rental car all the way from Toronto to Ottawa, the capital of Canada. On the way, we visited Prince Edwards Island, the city of Kingston and the Thousand Islands in the north-western tip of the Lake Ontario. Before and after that short trip, we used our time together to get Paola started with all the things necessary for her language learning experience which then started on Monday July 30th. While she is staying in Toronto with a hosting family, I’m traveling through the country for about 8 weeks.
My first short trip took me to Boston, MA where I visited my aunt Christine, my uncle Joe and my cousin Leah with her 10-months old baby Charlotte. I enjoyed visiting the impressive city of Boston and the both well-known universities of Harvard and the MIT. Apart from that I enjoyed a day trip along the coast of Massachusets visiting the many small towns and villages. It was just a really short trip, but thanks to my aunt and my uncle I’ve seen a lot and enjoyed the time with them to the maximum extent possible.
However, the trip back to Toronto was unfortunately not that pleasant: After a number of announced delays, my flight with Porter Airlines was finally completely cancelled – supposedly because of bad weather conditions. In the end, this made me rent a car – or should I rather say a tank according to the enormous size of that vehicle – together with some other stranded travelers and drive all the way from Boston to Buffalo, NY. We were driving the entire night, starting in Boston at around 23:30 in the evening and arriving to Buffalo, NY at around 6:30 in the next morning. From Buffalo we took a bus back to Toronto which of course was also delayed.
Back in Toronto, I could finally get my reserved rental car after another series of delays with the rental company Discount and drive the way back to Buffalo, where I spend two days with Fábio, a friend of mine from my time back in Brazil in 2006/2007. He was showing me around his new adopted home, the city of Buffalo and did an incredibly good job in doing so. We rode bikes through the city, visited the Letchworth State Park and the Gorge a few miles behind the world-famous Niagara Falls. I got to know some of his friends also living in Buffalo and spend a beautiful time with them there. Unfortunately, the time was just limited a bit as I wanted to spent a final night and day with my wife in Toronto before leaving for my great adventure in the west of Canada…
… and here am I now waiting for my flight to take me to Calgary, where I’m going to rent a mid-size SUV and drive westbound to Vancouver and – most likely – northbound to Yukon and maybe Alaska. On the way, I’m going to sleep in the car, mostly using simple camp grounds, but maybe also in the pure wilderness from time to time. Such a roadtrip has always been one of my dreams and now came the time to fulfill it. Unfortunately alone since my wife Paola chose to take those English classes which I completely support and am thankful for her to have that chance. However, I will enjoy the roadtrip to a maximum and am going to post infrequently here about my experiences and impressions. So stay tuned and follow me on the trip through Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska!