Spirited stories come alive in Victoria, British Columbia, during a memorable ghost walk.  If you're a Canadian of a certain age, you are undoubtedly familiar with the following words:
There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales That would make your blood run cold; The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, But the queerest they ever did see Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service's haunting poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee, was required reading for me and just about every other Canadian school kid in the 1980s and 1990s. Little did I know that Service himself experienced a harrowing, haunting moment of his own - and that he may have been the source of someone else's ghostly encounter. Oh, and of course, there's an ice cream shop involved. Welcome to ghost stories, Victoria-style. In Red Bay, Labrador, I found a small beach that made a big impact.  Frolicking on the beach, as captured by my friend Yashy Selvadurai Murphy of https://www.parentingtogo.ca I can’t tell you when Labrador first hit my travel radar.
This rugged, remote Canadian region, a part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador but physically connected to north-east Quebec, is not a spot for a wimpy traveller like me. Distances are far, amenities can be sparse, and the mosquitoes will strip you bare in seconds. Yet the place they call The Big Land has been calling for me for years. Labrador has topped my travel wish list since the beginning of the pandemic. When I had the opportunity to visit as part of the annual Travel Media Association of Canada conference, I knew I had to go. I dearly wanted to make Labrador’s acquaintance, but it’s doubtful that the region wanted the likes of me. I have no good reason to be enamoured with small Labrador fishing communities like Red Bay and Battle Harbour. My aversion to boats is both legendary and well-founded. Similarly, I can’t tell you why stories from events such as Cain’s Quest, Labrador’s legendary annual 3,100-kilometre snowmobile endurance race capture my heart. I dislike cold weather, sporty things, and noisy fanfare. Frankly, even the process of getting to Labrador is determinedly very non-Vanessa-ish. I like cold foam on coffee, not ferry decks, thank you very much. So, sure, the villages are cute, and the events are spirited, but this is clearly the kind of place I should appreciate through a documentary and not my own Gravol-addled brain. Thankfully, my heart is immune to common sense. I love frugal travel and the Big Apple has some amazing bargains. These are New York City's Best Free Museums and Galleries.  Photo by Oneisha Lee on Unsplash You know how much I love a bargain but New York City doesn’t exactly come across as the most frugal of destinations, does it? However, New York City is full of bargains if you know where to go. There are no-cost public events, like festivals and fairs. Bargain hunters know which markets have the best deals on certain days, and savvy foodies maintain an ever-growing list of cheap eats. There are expensive museums and art galleries which occasionally open their doors for free programming. But sometimes, it’s best to keep things simple.
These remarkable museums, memorials, monuments, and galleries are always free, all of the time. And they’re all well worth checking out. Did you know I lived in Africa when I was just 23 years old? Talk about an amazing travel experience! Here are eight of my favourite things to do in Malawi.  One of my favourite things to do in Malawi was to watch the gorgeous sunsets over Lake Malawi. Photo by Craig Manners on Unsplash My beaten, battered, dog-eared 2001 edition of Lonely Planet Malawi opens by describing how tourism brochures hype Malawi as “the warm heart of Africa” and, as much as they like to avoid generalizations, this seems particularly true as Malawians are among the friendliest people you’ll meet anywhere.
It’s been 20-some years since that paragraph was written, but it still holds as true to me today as it did when I first read those words in 2004, and I was preparing to leave graduate school for an internship with the Malawi Department of Fisheries and the Canadian International Development Agency. I worked as a gender analyst, and my work took me throughout the country, from cities to tiny villages. Malawi’s warm heart made for an unforgettable experience. Malawi is a small country in southeast Africa. When I first applied for the internship that would take me there, I knew nothing about Malawi. In fact, I was all muddled between Maui, Mali, and Bali – and I wasn’t close to any of them! The country borders Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique. Visiting here is easier than you might think. It’s just a short flight from Nairobi to the north, Victoria Falls to the west, and Johannesburg to the south. While Malawi is admittedly not a destination for a classic “big 5” safari, the country has fantastic wildlife destinations plus many other experiences and attractions that should put it on any traveller’s bucket list. Here are some of my favourite must-do Malawi moments. Food, nature, art, cider, and museums rank among the best things to do in Pittsburgh for couples. You're going to love this underrated romantic city!  Looking for romantic things to do in Pittsburgh for couples? Start with taking in a gorgeous view like this one! Photo by Jordan Faux on Unsplash In years past, Pittsburgh was known as “the Steel City” – thanks to its 300-plus steel-related business – and the city was associated with industry, building, and growth for decades. However, it’s also known as the “City of Bridges,” thanks to its 446 bridges and today Pittsburgh is just as famous for its food and art scene as its aluminium manufacturing and corporate headquarters. Pittsburgh is laid-back, friendly, down-to-earth, and eager to welcome visitors. Sounds like the perfect formula for a romantic weekend to me! Here are 12 things to do in Pittsburgh for couples.
If you love paintings by Maud Lewis, Nova Scotia's beloved folk artist, as much as I do, you'll want to check out these sites.  Paintings by Maud Lewis are characterized by their strong, bright colours and use of rural, domestic life as inspiration. Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons Maud Lewis was born Maud Dowley in 1903 in the southern Nova Scotia community of Yarmouth. By her death in 1970, she was recognized as a leading Canadian folk artist. Yet the woman who would become Nova Scotia’s treasure spent her life undervalued. If you love paintings by Maud Lewis, you will appreciate her talents even more after learning about her life and visiting the places in Nova Scotia that showcase her gifts.
In the most barren of circumstances, Maud created art – spectacular art. Her adulthood was a story of poverty, crippling and terrifying, and far from the romanticised austerity that sometimes creeps into her present-day narrative. Living with what we now recognize as degenerative juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, Maud bore constant pain. Married life in Digby brought a meagre house and a worse husband. Only a few neighbours offered comfort through hot meals, hot baths, and furtive visits. Defying her circumstances, she generated one of the most impressive yields of any artist. She painted shutters, baking pans, and scallop shells, along with nearly every surface of her diminutive house. She sold thousands of paintings depicting rural life, including oxen teams with gilded yokes and fluffy farm cats with wary eyes, often for just a dollar or two from her perch by the side of the road, a ploy devised by her husband to exploit sympathies and coax sales. Maud is often remembered as childlike with her petite stature and shy smile. But she was a gritty survivor, canny enough to turn her talents into a livelihood, carving a space for herself in an inhospitable world. I grew up in Nova Scotia, and I can’t remember a time when paintings by Maud Lewis weren’t a part of my life. As such, I’ve come to love these tourist attractions dedicated to her. Visiting them should be on any art lover’s travel list. In Calgary, Alberta, a unique city tour combines iconic motorcycles and jaunty sidecars to help visitors see the city in an entirely new way.  If there's one activity I long thought I'd never experience thanks to my deep-seated anti-adventurist tendencies, it's a motorcycle tour. However, when I embarked on a tour with Calgary’s Rocky Mountain Sidecar Adventures, I learned that the experience is about much more than the bike. It's a time-traveling adventure that immerses you in the charm of vintage Ural motorcycles.
Rocky Mountain Sidecar Adventures is a family owned and operated business that offers seasonal motorcycle sidecar tours between May and October. The company uses Urals almost exclusively, though there is one Triumph in the fleet. Ural, which was founded in Russia in 1941, originally built sidecar motorcycles to help the military in World War II but they also thrived in the post-war era, as people fell in love with how practical they were. During my tour, I saw for myself just how practical (and fun!) these vehicles really are. Here’s what I loved about them. Rome wasn't built in a day. But with some savvy planning, you can see the city's most important sites in 24 hours. Here's what you can do with one day in Rome.  With one day in Rome, you have to make time for pizza. Rome is known as the Eternal City and, once you visit, you’re going to wish you had an eternity to explore its beautiful, romantic, historic streets. But even if you’re short on time you can pack in a lot of sightseeing in just one day.
To be clear, this isn't an ideal situation. Rome in 24 hours isn't easy. You won’t be alone in your efforts to squeeze the absolute most from your short time there. The city and its most popular tourist attractions are busy, crowded places. Thus, no matter where you go or which itinerary you follow, it pays to plan ahead. Purchasing “skip the line” tickets or a guided tour package where possible is a savvy investment to minimize the time you spend waiting around. Of course, you could just spend the whole day doing nothing but visiting gelato shops - frankly, Ryan and I have had glorious days that involve doing little more than that- so don’t be afraid to follow your heart and your stomach! But if you do want to explore as much as you eat, here's how to spend one day in Rome. If you're a reader like me, London is the perfect city. Step inside London's literary wonderland and discover 11 bookstores you'll want to visit again and again.  The diverse and creative staff picks at the London Review of Books shop. London is a reader’s dream – and a shopper’s dream as well. However, how many bookstores are in London is a bit of a mystery. While one map claims there are 112 independent bookshops in this British capital, my personal experience says there are endless hidden gems when you add in the quaint second hand stores. Put the non-independent stores, regional chains, global powerhouses, and the kiosks dotting train stations and museums on the list and I suspect the number of book-selling venues easily surpasses a thousand. That’s great news if you’re a reader like me! These are eleven shops that are especially meaningful to me and the spots that I recommend to people again and again. London Review Bookshop (Bloomsbury) Nestled in Bloomsbury, the London Review Bookshop, an extension of the literary periodical, is a cozy haven with a penchant for classic and new fiction. Without a doubt, it is not only my favourite bookstore in London but it is now my favourite in all the world (don’t worry, Paris’ Shakespeare and Co is a close second). It feels like every single book in the shop has been carefully selected and I always discover something entirely new to me which I had never considered before but suddenly have to have. The shop also operates an absolutely delightful cake shop which offers hot drinks, homemade desserts, treats like coconut yogurt with rhubarb compote and granola, and savory fare including a soup and a stew of the day and a sandwich or two.
Did I mention I love this bookshop? I love it. |
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