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I always berate myself because I’m Canadian, and I feel like I haven’t seen nearly enough of Canada. Canada is such a varied country, is incredibly scenic, and has some really cool places to visit, but yet I keep choosing to go elsewhere.  My own country always seems to get relegated to the bottom of the list.

I have been to Nova Scotia, but my memories of it consist of a hazy harbour and a playground by said harbour. And I don’t even know where in Nova Scotia that was. That’s the problem with travelling when you are younger, you forget it all. I don’t think I appreciated it then the way I would now, thus, Nova Scotia, specifically Cape Breton Island is on my must travel too list. It’s gorge.

Cape Breton Island is about a four hour drive from Halifax, and has some of the most incredible scenery in the entire Province. Plus whales! Which is always a huge selling point for me.

Once again, sorry for the erratic posting. Every single piece of technology I own has decided to be an asshole and stop working properly, so I’ve had a time. Plus, I decided it would be a good idea to get two part time jobs which has really just created a fun time of schedule juggling, and I’m not complaining, because I’m enjoying it, but it’s just been crazy. And the fact that my computer works at a snails pace, really doesn’t help matters.

I digress.

Going to the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE or “The Ex” for short) has been a long standing summer tradition for me. The first time I went, it was with a group of girl friends. We were in grade 10, my parents drove us, and we just went insane. Like, had the greatest time. We rode fully dressed down a giant waterslide in a tube made for 6 people and spent the majority of the evening walking around dripping wet. But oh! The fun! The tradition has changed slightly throughout the years, as for the past 5 or 6, it’s just been me and my friend Neal. I mean, I’m not sure what I’m going to do next summer as he is moving to Australia, which is very exciting for him indeed, but now I have no one to eat deep fried mars bars with.

The Ex is pretty much the same thing every year: a giant food building, the Superdogs, an ice skating show, free concerts, an airshow, questionable rides, tons of games, sand sculptures, butter sculptures, free samples and cheap shopping. It’s a great time ya’ll! It’s a Toronto tradition that has been going on forever! There was an exhibit this year called “Love, Longing and Lust at the CNE”, and being a fan of history as well as cool black and white photos, I totally dug it. It traced how the CNE has brought couples together since 1879. And once upon a time there was a place at the Ex called the “Striporama”. Scandalous!

Something that was a little different this year was that one of the booths was offering deep fried butter. And this was a big deal when people found out about it, I mean, it made the papers and everything. All I have to say about that is  “ew”. Deep fried mars bars are one thing, but deep fried butter is another. The amount of people waiting in line for it was a little astonishing, and I was a little bit tempted, I’m not going to lie, but then I would imagine myself having a heart attack right on Princes Blvd, and that’s really not the way I want to go.

The first few years Neal and I went to The Ex together, we always got the little wristband that would let us ride the midway rides all day long. Looking back, I’m horrified. Carnival rides scare me, especially carnival rides that go upside down. Before I go on a carnival ride, I need to map out a long process in my head about what would happen if the ride suddenly malfunctioned and bits and pieces of it went flying all over the place. With this logic, I will usually opt for the Scrambler and the Tilt A Whirl (if the carriage I was in broke off and went flying, there is a pretty good chance it would remain upright and just careen into everything in it’s path, which while unfortunate for everything/everybody it hit, would be okay for those of us in the actual carriage). The one ride where I just threw caution to the wind is the Ferris Wheel…lord knows if that collapsed, it wouldn’t be pretty, but the risk is worth it for the view:  on side, you have the skyline of Downtown Toronto, one you have the lake, and the others you have rows and rows of colourful midway tent tops. It’s cool.

Another one of my favourite CNE activities is going to see the Superdogs. Despite the fact that the only thing that changes year by year in this show is the decor, I always drag Neal to it. Most things about it annoy me while I”m there, especially the announcer who yells unnecessarily into his mike the entire time, and the constant urging to buy a certain kind of dog food, but the dogs themselves make up for it. I don’t know if ya realize, but I love dogs. Especially ones that dance.

Other highlights always include eating enough food to gain at least five pounds, being continuously heckled by carnies, trying to dodge really slow moving people, people watching and feeling like you’ve time warped back to the 1950s. I don’t know what it is about carnivals, maybe it’s my obsession with the book Geek Love or the hankering I have always had to be a carnie for a summer, but I love them. And the Ex, well,  it’s the biggest carnival of carnivals and is just magnificent. If you are ever visiting Toronto the last two weeks of August, I highly recommend checking it out.

Oh pretty little blog,  I miss you. I’ll be back soon.  Exciting things are happening. Not travelling exciting at the moment, but exciting none the less.

I am going up to Northern Ontario this weekend, so that should be good for a fresh air filled post or two!

And! And! I’m going back to Utah in October, back to Best Friends, because I loved it that much! I dream of that place on a daily basis, and I can’t wait to have red sand filled socks again.  Going there completely changed my life, and I know that probably every single person who goes there says that, but, I really truly mean it. The course of my life is now altered, and it is a direct result of that wonderful, wondrous place.

Be back with a real travel post soon.

Wow, life, it just creeps up on you. I’m not entirely sure where the last two weeks went, but there you have it: summer. I’ve been fostering a little puppy for my local shelter, which basically took up every minute of my time…I forgot how much work puppies are.  I’m happy to say my little furry friend has found a new permanent home, so I can get back to what I like to do: write. Oh, I also started a new writing job, but it’s only part time, so I can still concentrate on my blogging and whatnot.

Anyway, Germany! Germany is without a doubt my favourite European country, at least out of the ones I’ve been to so far. I haven’t even seen all of Germany, but the parts I have seen, mainly Bavaria, I adore. I like the people and how friendly they are, I like their accents, I like trying to speak German, I love the food and the beer, I love the history, and the scenery is not half bad either. There are so many things I could write about Germany, and I’m sure I will, but today I just want to concentrate on what was so far, one of my favourite travel experiences: visiting Schloss Neuschwanstein.

I first saw this castle when I got an email with all these pictures of amazing places all over the world, I looked at it and just though: holy crap, I need to see that at some point before I die. It is an absolute fairy tale of a castle, and is in fact, the castle that Walt Disney based Sleeping Beauty’s castle on.  So, the next time  I was in Europe, I made sure that a visit to Neuschwanstein was high on my list of things to do.

I was in Munich by myself, and despite being completly directionly challenged, I managed to make my way to Hohenschwangau, which is the tiny little hamlet that the castle towers above. Htown is located about 3 hours from Munich, and getting there involves a train, then a bus. As I was riding the bus up to the final stop, and looking out the window at what looked like a fairy tale, I had one of those moments.   A moment, I’ve usually only had them when travelling, when everything is just perfect. I didn’t want to be anywhere else but there.

Before going to Neuschwanstein, I did a lot of reading, as I was mostly interested in the hiking that the area provided. There are three ways to get up the mountain that that castle sits upon: horse and carriage, trolley or walk. I opted for the trolley as no matter how romantic the notion, there was no way in hell I was waiting in a long, long line to be driven up a mountain in a carriage full of strangers speaking German. Trolley it was! The trolley lets you off at the entrance to a bridge which is where most people stop and view the castle:

As you can see from the picture, I was high, high above the bridge. If you continue to the other side of the bridge and follow the path, you will eventually (after about…oh, 20 minutes) come to a clearing where you will have an amazing view of the castle. Even more amazing? Oh that morning, I had it all to myself. I sat there, staring at this view, for at least an hour, and I was the only person there:

My mother probably would have killed me twice if she saw where I was sitting/standing to get these photos, but personally, I think it was totally worth it. Eventually, other people did find “my” spot, so I continued back down the mountain and over the bridge to explore some other hiking trails. I opted to not go in the actually castle, because I heard it wasn’t really worth the price of admission, but a lot of people seem to be going on the tour, so I can’t really speak to that.

The options of getting back down to HTown are the same as going up: horse, trolley or walking. On the way down, I opted for walking, as there was some really cool hiking trails leading down through the mountain.

This view is from the bottom of the trail, where there is a nice little river that meanders beside you as you descend. You can see the viewing bridge at the top of the picture if you look closely. After I made it down, I rested a while at the bottom and dangled my feet in the stream, which was a tad cold, but I suppose I could have expected that as it is run off from a glacial mountain.

When you get back to town, there is another castle that you can explore, Schloss Hohenschwangau, which is this bright yellow colour, and though less impressive visually than the other castle, still pretty cool. Both these castles were owned by the same family, and are within viewing distance of one another, so I was having a grand ole time picturing family members leaning out the windows of their respective castles, cupping their hands around their mouths, and being like, “Hey, King Ludwig, you wanna come over for dinner tonight??? We are having schnitzel, bring the wine!!” It may or may not have happened, but I know it’s what I would do if I were German royalty.

If you walk down past the castles and all the touristy things, you get to a lake, where you can rent paddle boats and whatnot, and take in one heck of a view:

I did not rent one, because I am cheap, and also it’s really hard to paddleboat with one person, but I found a nice bench to sit and write on, and just soak it all in.

Visiting these two castles and this little town is one of my favourite travel memories of all time. When I get wanderlust, Bavaria is the place I dream of going back to immediately.  The castles, the colours, ah, it’s just perfection.