To Canada and beyond

I've made it to Germany for Christmas despite the snow chaos (more than 15cm is actually a lot for Germany). There was a little delay in Munich airport. But all in all it went pretty smooth. So after good night's sleep we decided to collect my granny from Lippstadt via train for Christmas eve. Driving a car for 1.5h through icy road just seemed too risky. Getting to Lippstasdt was no real issue. We had an hour delay, but apart from that it went well. The return however was a bit of an Odyssee. We got about half the way before the train could not go any further. To make a really long story short, we were stuck at this stage for hours with my over 90 year old granny. In the end we managed to finally get a taxi driver on the phone that was willing to give us a ride home. Luckily we got on that taxi - super expensive though; but we didn't care at this stage. And with that we were on our way home. Bottomline: after leaving at 9am, we arrived at 8pm on Christmas eve. So a ride

Not entirely true though. It snowed before, but this time it actually stuck for more than a day. I went North for the weekend and was glad that my rental car had winter tires. It snowed a bit and many of the road were a mix of ice and slush. In Europe this amount of snow would have been a little bit of a concern. Over here however everyone is just so accustomed to snow that it didn't even seem to bother anyone at all. For me it was a bit of a wake up call. I will need some winter boots, because the best is yet to come. Apparently, the winter really breaks through in January/February. Anyway, due to the change in scenery my camera saw some use. I took the photo attached without a polarizing filter, so I had to equalize the colors a little on the computer. It came out quite nice. And I think it conveys the mood perfectly.

Busy times. Last week's Friday, I went on my first pub crawl here in Toronto. It was probably not the best timing, considering that I had to get up very early next day to help a friend move. But I made it nevertheless. The move then was alright. Even though we had to over come a couple of obstacles. Besides me being tired beyond belief and the rented truck not being there on collection, the superintendent was on holidays so that we could not reserve the service lift. Did I mention that my friends lived on the 12th floor? When we finished up at around 9pm, it was time for us to costume suit up. All of us were invited on a Halloween party, which started at 7pm. But arriving at 10:30pm made us feel all the more special. And in all fairness it was great despite us being quite late. Last week my bicycle finally arrived. I yet have to shoot a picture to share. Anyway, I'm already very happy with the buy. The bike has given me a lot of freedom. I'm cycling to work now, which me

Summer is throwing it's last fight for this year before Winter finally takes over. The days are nice and warm and even the evenings are warm enough. What's more, the trees are super colorful. After this weekend's trip north, Toronto has finally caught up with all the red and yellow and orange and brown that I associated with the North American autumn. Anyway, so this weekend's (Canadian) Thanks Giving coincided with my godfather's 70s birthday (Congrats again!). And in between the preparations and celebrations (oh, tasty tasty turkey and cranberries and gravy and stuffing and ...) I managed to sneak in a few hours of picture taking. I think I shot some good pictures, but it's definitely a different thing when you drive through alleys of colorful trees in person. I can highly recommend this season for drive through Canada.

More color in trees It's official: Summer's over. Temperatures dropped from 20 degrees (Celsius) to around 10'ish from last Wednesday to Friday. Trees have started to change their color and I got a first impression what power the notorious 'wind chill factor' has when walking across the street from one heated building to the next. It's not yet winter (obviously), but it's surely not summer anymore either. Daft as I am, I underestimated just how much the temperatures might drop over here at night. So, when I visited friends on Saturday, I boldly dressed in jeans, t-shirt and a jumper - ergo, neither coat nor jacket. Considering that people were walking around in shorts and t-shirts just last week, I thought I had my basics covered. Well ... let's just say, I was very lucky getting the bus back right away. Another 5 minutes waiting and I might have turned blue. Raining heavy Anyway, I arrived in town around midnight in a subway full of people. As I

Proof? (click to enlarge) This weekend was a quiet one. Saturday was rainy and with just under 20 degrees (Celsius) comparably cool. I hope this weather does not entirely seclude the summer yet. However, even if it does, I heard the so called Indian Summer (usually 2 weeks) in October is very nice as well. I'll be sure to post some pictures if that's the case. Something to look forward to. In the mean time, I have started to work once more. After a summer of job search, I'm very happy to have found something that I feel is a very good match. Last week Tuesday was my first workday. Also, I already joined a gym that is located maybe 10 - 20 sec (!) walk from the office. They have classes like spinning and boxing in their program. Since one of my colleagues is conducting the spinning class on Friday, I went along. Well, not only did I go along, what's more I bravely participated. It's a good sport to show you how unfit you truly are. And even though I walked back

Blue Mountain village (click to enlarge) Last weekend I rented a car once more and drove up north to visit my godfather and his wife. I had a wonderful time there. I went onto a little road trip with my godfather, which brought us to the Blue Mountains on Sunday. It was unbelievable hot. Blue Mountains is a skiing resort. During the summer loads of mountain bikers enjoy the steep trails. The entire area was only recently developed. Therefore, the slopes, the lifts, the shops, hotels and houses are all brand new. I still find it odd to see how these entire towns just seem to pop out of the ground in a few years over here. Eugenia Falls (click to enlarge) We continued our road trip west and discovered a very nice and remote place featuring a water fall.  The place is called Eugenia. That's where I took the picture below. If you click on the picture you will be able to spot some impressively grown roots. Well, in any case it was well worth the trip. This weekend I had actu

The troublemaker (click to enlarge) The weekend trip to Hamilton, Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo didn't quite go as planned. For one, I never got as far as Waterloo. The reason for that is the "chewing gum incident". Let me elaborate. As I was cruising through some residential estates in Kitchener, which is about 2h drive from Toronto, I delightfully chewed on one of those new brand gums. Now, in my experience there are no bones or stones or other hard things in chewing gum. I brought the car to an abrupt stop when I noticed something in my mouth that had a lot of resemblance to a little rock. After a closer look I found that the unknown item must be part of a tooth. It only took a moment to realise which of my teeth was actually missing a fair chunk (a tooth in the back of my right, upper denture). Hamilton downtown (click to enlarge) There was no pain, which was good. Nevertheless, it took me a moment to snap out of a little shock. Once back on track, I q

The new racquet (click to enlarge) I got the new racquet. Woohoo. It took a while to arrive and I actually had to pick it up from a post office near by, but it was well worth the wait. It's super light, well balanced and I can barely wait for my next training. That won't be for another week though, since this weekend is already booked out with other things to do. Last weekend, I had the best Sushi of my life so far. A friend of mine prepared some excellent Sushi. He was a chef in a Sushi restaurant here in Toronto for a couple of years. It was all freshly made from scratch that very same day. It's incredible how much work goes into the preparation for the little creations. But it's so tasty! Toronto skyline from St. Lawrence market For this Sunday, I have a road trip planned to Hamilton, Kitchener, Waterloo and Camebridge. I hope it won't rain for that. The weather has been fantastic so far. However, apparently a bad weather front is closing in on Toronto

Broke it in a smash (click pic to enlarge) Having found a number of good and inexpensive badminton courts, I still found a way to make it an expensive sport. Last weekend I went to play again and broke my "good" racquet. I was a little upset, because this raqcuet went with me on nearly all my journeys. I bought it in China. I brought it back to Germany. I took it over to Ireland and now to Canada. Anyway, so I had to find a replacement, which didn't come cheap. I ordered it through eBay, so hopefully delivery doesn't take too long. Over the last two weeks, I had my first visitors over. Firstly my godfather came to visit me. He lives 2h north from Toronto, so it was a short enough trip. Secondly, a very good friend stopped by on his Canada travel. He lives in Switzerland, so that was a bit more of a journey. I was delighted to finally meet him once more. Especially, since we hadn't seen each other for 8 years. I keep my fingers crossed that more friends may

Canada Day (click to enlarge) I totally forgot about my blog. I meant to post something in here at least every week. And now look how long I haven't published anything. Well, so what happened the last weeks? To be quite honest, I don't remember exactly. There were big celebrations for Canada Day, which is the 1 st of July. It meant fireworks, mini-flags, air-filled jumping castles, mechanical rodeo bulls and loads of sunshine - tons of fun. Also, I had a few BBQs already. The weather here is very inviting. And so far only once I got stung (or is it bitten?) by a mosquito. That was itchy. Worker in the sun (click to enlarge) Apart from that, I learned that there is a huge gap between a badminton club and just playing badminton in a club. Which still doesn't make much sense. The difference between those two is that one costs about 14000$ entry fee, another member has to vouch for you, the yearly fees are around 1000$ and monthly playing fees of 100$ are added on a

"Blissfully oblivious" would be the most suitable description of my state of mind this week. Canadians were shaken (not stirred) last week by a quake of 5.0 (not 007) and I didn't hear or feel a thing. Well, that was until in the evening my brother in law asked me how I was doing. Then this weekend I was on my way to watch the A-Team in the cinema. Usually it would take maybe 15 min from my place to that cinema. Yesterday it took me about 90 minutes to walk to the screens because protesters had blocked the streetcar paths in downtown. Only after the movie, I learned that police cars were set on fire. I really wonder what these guys are trying to achieve with that. Anyway, so I actually had a nice week whilst the rest of Toronto was taking its first steps towards 2012 (which probably only makes sense if you saw the movie).

Could it have been the least eventful week in Canada yet? I'm not quite sure. I watched the Brazilian match in a Brazilian café/bar and met some very interesting lads. I had another job interview and I have no idea how it went. I think there more looking for a Delphi guy and my Java and C++ skills only kept me in the game, but didn't win them over. So, I'll see what comes back. Until Wednesday my legs had to recover from last weekends 5K run. Therefore I focused my training on my upper body. Accordingly, my arms are quite heavy now.

Oh boy, I cannot believe that the last entry was two weeks ago. And I'm not quite sure what to write this time. A lot has happened, but I keep forgetting as much as well. Anyway, I think I'll just start with more recent events. On Friday evening I took another stroll through downtown and towards 'Little Italy', which was quite nice. Yesterday I booked a car with "Autoshare.com" for the first time. They even have a car inside my building. And when you're member you actually build up your insurance history over here in Canada. It's a neat deal. So with my new found freedom, I drove to "Dimpflmeier" a German Bakery, a home store to get some missing bits and pieces and to Lindt Chocolate Factory Outlet. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the Lindt Outlet. In Aachen you could buy chocolate for at least half a year and spend less then 30 €. Now for 30 $ I only got a tiny amount of chocolate... but it might actually be for the better, si

The dust has settled a little by now and I have a little more time on my hands. So, I thought it's only fair to write a quick entry in my blog. Moving into the new apartment went quite well... Well, apart from the IKEA guys forgetting one of the components of my bed. That led to two rather unfortunate things. A night on the mattress, which honestly is not that bad, but it's not great either. And also a trip to IKEA in Vaughan, which takes approx. 2.5 h by public transport. Maybe I should give a little background on that. I went to my godfather over the weekend, for which I had to rent a car. That meant I had a car for my Ikea shopping. So quite logically, I chose the IKEA that was closest to me on my route from my godfather to my new apartment. All went perfectly well - or so it seemed. I didn't hit too much traffic and arrived in IKEA early. I went shopping for smaller items first and tossed them into the trunk of my rental car. Then I went in for a second rount and got t

It's a been a good while since my last entry. The search for a place to stay has evolved into a tedious one. After finding a nice apartment in a good neighborhood, the landlord decided that he would prefer to sell rather then rent... half an hour before giving out the keys. After many more viewings, another nice place ticked all the boxes. Centrally located in the heart of downtown, it had all the niceties for modern living. Like a pool, a gym, sauna... This time the landlord asked for a deposit of a years rent! That was not going to happen. Since he didn't move on his position even after much negotiation, it was time to move on once more. Then finally after a few more days of intensive search on craigslist and co, another apartment made it to the top of the list. This time the deal was sealed. Move-in will be next Wednesday and I'm already looking forward to sharing some photos with you. Okay, that's it for today. Stay tuned for more. (The photo above is a sunse

I cannot believe that a week has already passed since my last entry. I have been in Toronto since last week's Wednesday eve. Well, still being in possession of the rental car for Thursday, a trip down to wine valley and Niagara Falls was pretty much a must. Which was very enjoyable, BTW. Toronto itself is extremely big. I still haven't quite grasped the entire scale of the Toronto and Greater Toronto area. I went down to the end of one of the subway lines and there were still loads of skyscrapers. However, I have encountered a couple of stops in between that feel more like a small village or suburbia. Therefore, I'm still figuring out where I would like to live in the long run. But for the moment I might have a look at some apartments close to High Park tomorrow. Another thing that I can hardly (especially as a bureaucracy ridden German) get my head around. Last Friday, in just one day, I managed to get the Social Insurance Number (needed when you want to work here), a

One of my points for choosing Canada as my new home, was the fact that they have all the seasons. A tough winter as well as a hot summer. Nevertheless, I didn't expect to have all seasons in less than a week. Yesterday in Montreal, I walked the streets in a T-shirt. Today however, (Quelle surprise!) I woke up to a snow storm. For most parts, the snow melted before hitting the ground. So it wasn't too much of a problem driving. Nonetheless, I haven't seen snow density like this for years. And it only turned into snow/rain when finally arriving in Ottawa. Anyway, apart from snowfall at the end of April, there was a lot of fun to be had. I've been meeting friends/colleagues from my internship in Trois-Rivieres in 2005 (see previous) entry. A whole bunch of them now work in Montreal. So I had the chance to visit their workplace, which was very interesting. Only one of them had time for a few pints after work, which was extremely enjoyable still. Today, due to the weathe

After the first night sleep, the first day was mainly retracing steps of my previous visits in Montreal. As it so happened, there was actually a parade on for the winter Olympia teams this very day. BTW, for all those who didn't watch any of the last games, Canada is crazy about winter sports... and excels in it too. So there were a lot of heroes to be cheered for and the streets were packed. Having had a wonderful day in Montreal, my trip brought me to Trois-Rivieres on Saturday. In this the (very small) city I did my internship in 2005. So it had been a while since I was there last. And I was quite happy to see that so many things were pretty much as I remembered. The main reason to come to this 150,000 francophone citizen strong town was to meet with two of my colleagues/friends from my already mentioned internship. We enjoyed Moroccan food and caught up on ... well, just sooooo many things. Now I'm already looking forward to meeting you guys again. And I promise we can ma

The flight was rather uneventful. Pretty much like an other 7 to 8 hour flight. So I'll skip the flight and the stop over in Philadelphia and jump to the end of my final transit flight to Montreal in Quebec, Canada. I had brought my guitar with me as part of my hand luggage. Since the guitar is too big to actually go into the cabin, it's handled as valet luggage. That means, it's still stored with the rest of the checked bags, but you don't pay for it and it's put on top of the other suit cases. So I had to hand the music instrument off before I entered the plane and I was supposed to get it back just after the flight. Well, that's the theory. On both flights I had half of the cabin crew sorting out the ground personal to locate my guitar. Both times it worked out fine, but it meant a good 20 min delay. Something you don't want when you're already short on time. Anyway, it didn't make much of a difference to me, but I'll definitely keep this in

I'm just leaving Ireland at this stage. Legally I'm already in the US, but physically I'm still over Irish airspace. It's been quite the day already. Getting up at 5 in the morning, with the flight scheduled at 11am, was a very good thing. I even had to repack some stuff from my hand lugguage to one of my suit cases before leaving my apartment. And since the taxi arrived very much on time, there was actually no minute to spare. At the airport, there was a lot of waiting and queuing, but only barely more than the usual. I actually managed to get my 2 (with over 30 kg each, way overweight) suit cases, my guitar and (more than 17kg) hand lugguage checked-in for only 40 Euro extra. Boy, am I a happy camper! I'm sure I'll add more to this later. But for now, I'm going to enjoy some music and feel extremely lucky to be on this flight. Oh and another fun fact, the picture above is the last picture I took in Irleand. It's shot from the balcony of my flat

Due to a volcano in Island I had a couple of very exciting days. At this stage I'm hopeful that I will be on a flight to Canada on Thursday. However, anything is still quite possible. Currently, no flights are allowed in the Irish airspace; much like the rest of Europe. But that might change on Tuesday or Wednesday. If that's the case, maybe I can be on my flight Thursday as planned. I would not want to complain though, since I know other travelers have way more serious issues due to being stranded without visa, medicine or money. For myself the clouds of ash are more or less "just" an inconvenience. If my flight on Thursday does not take off, I will have to cancel or rebook my hotels, my health insurance, my car rental and obviously my flight. I suppose I will also have to let everyone I'm planning to meet during my first week know as well. Anyway, there is little I can do now but wait once more. By the way, the photo shows locally produced ash. Long liv

I got it! I got my passport back. The package arrived yesterday already. Happy days. Now everything is set. Also, all hotels are booked at this stage. So I have to print off the booking confirmations and then the stay for my first couple of weeks are already sorted. I guess, I can finally call a few property management companies to see what they need from me as a potential tenant. And then I will have to get myself into the job hunting game. Exciting times ahead, but I'm delighted to have my visa sorted this far. Photo above: I took the photo above on my last ski trip in the US. I thought with all the snow, it might be fitting. It's a little on the ironc side, since it happens to snow in Ireland today, whilst Canada apparently experiences a rather nice day...

There is no update on my visa status since my last entry. However, much has been organized and I thought I might as well share some highlights. Well for one, the flight is booked for the 22nd April. I got a nice deal from Hertz on a one-way car rental from Montreal to Toronto. I have accommodation booked for all but 3 days of the first 3 weeks. I have also been in touch with my old colleagues from Quebec, which has been an endearing enterprise. I'm really looking forward to seeing you lads again. As I said there is no update in regards to my visa application. And so my passport is still with the guys in London. It's rather discomforting to have a flight booked, resigned work and not yet holding the papers that will make all of this possible in my hands. Any-who, I'm sure it will work out just fine, as it did so far. Besides realistically I don't really expect it to arrive before next week. For those who are wondering, the photo above shows Dublin's docks as se

Woohoo! My passport was requested by London last Wednesday. So Friday I send my passport along with the other requested documents over to London. Hopefully, I will have it back well within this months. Anyway, I will boldly book my flight for mid or end of April and then hand in my notice at work next week. Exciting times! By the way, the picture of this entry was taken back in 2009 on the hills of Killiney. Not a particular nice day, but fairly good for Ireland - Not raining ;)

Last week's Monday I had my medical. Only having received an appointment on Friday, I was very happy that I actually sorted the entire examination that same day. After initial hesitation and after getting a quote I decided to go for the medical in Ireland. It worked out to be 280€ in total; examination 150€, blood 80€ and the X-ray 50€. So, there would not have been any point in traveling to Germany and paying maybe 50 - 100 € less. Also, I would have never made it this quickly. At this point I will still have to send the results to London. This will, however, have to wait for the blood result's arrival. In theory, they are due tomorrow. If they are, I will have them collected by a courier and delivered to London. The photo above was taken on Britta's beach in Wicklow.

I just got word from my laywer in Canada that my medical forms have arrived. It took a lot longer than I expected, but it's a nice new year surprise that they are on the way. My laywer confirmed that I can actually get my medical done from any medician on the following list. http://www.cic.gc.ca/dmp-md/medical.aspx That means I don't necessarily have to do my medical in Ireland. It might be worth it for me to fly to Germany and save some money. I will have to get some quotes in and compare some prices. From what I have read in other blogs and forums it might be well worth it. By the way, for those wondering where the picture above is from. I shot it today on the beach in Carmel-on-the-sea. California is always great for a visit.