To Canada and beyond

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...