Nachos, Starbucks, trashy magazines - not all travel habits are good ones!Time for nachos? Yes please! While I’d like to pretend I spend all my time seeking out culturally appropriate baked goods or reveling in the café culture, my dark and shameful truth is that I’m a travel nacho girl. Paris, Zermatt, Lilongwe, Derry – nachos, nachos, and more nachos!
I can’t say why nachos hold such an appeal for me. I don’t have a memory of trying them for the first time or consciously making them a travel tradition. In fact, I often avoid ordering nachos, as I feel guilty that I don’t want a more authentic regional dish! What's my travel motto? I Scream for Ice Cream!Ah, ice cream. The most beautiful food in the world! Like all self-respecting children, I grew up loving ice cream and now, as a super important grownup, I still make time for ice cream in all my travels. For reasons unknown, my early childhood years were dominated by maple walnut, as repulsive a flavor ever I tried. Did everyone else have parents are cruel as mine? Things perked up considerably with the arrival of the Ice Cream Barn. The only thing I love more than travel is readingIf I could only describe myself with one word, it would be “reader”. I am a reader. I've been reading since I was 4 years old and, as much as I love being a writer and feel that writing is at the core of who I am, I would never have written a word if I didn't love reading so much. When people say that they haven’t had the time to read anything lately, that they don’t have a favourite book, that they find reading dull, or that there’s never been anything interesting to read, I immediately recoil. Who are these mutants? I feel it would be easier to connect with some of the case studies on Criminal Minds before I could trust, love, confide in a non-reader. Books save lives, they help people fall in love, they spark revolutions and they guide the way to peace. But there’s nothing interesting enough for you to read? I’ll be in the other room, thanks. Coffee and travel have always been intertwined for me.I’m not a girl that caffeine does any favors for. Give me a large latte and you’ll be peeling me off the walls, only to see me crash in a deep slumber 30 minutes later. Sometimes I don’t think I even like the taste that much. So if I don’t really like coffee, and it doesn’t really like me, then how can I say that I love it?
Oh, but I do! I really do love it! I shouldn’t be trusted with the stuff but, oh, when it’s good, it’s very, very good. I am fascinated by coffee, the history, the agriculture, the politics, the commodification, and the culture of coffee. And whenever I travel, I can't help but seek it out. Second only to oil for international trading, to know coffee is to know the world. No treat, no drug, no product seems to be as universally loved. I've only started drinking coffee – in limited doses, for everyone’s safety – in the past few years. Despite this later in life revelation, the coffee and café scene have been a mainstay of my travel experiences. Travel and bakeries go hand in hand.Food for the soul, Cape Breton style.I’m a bakery girl. Always have been. It’s in my blood. Growing up on Cape Breton Island, I was surrounded by some of the best bakers in the world. What the community may have lacked in material resources it made up for in terms of creativity, generosity, and hospitality. I’ve never not known that the best way to show happiness, pride, congratulations, welcome, contrition, support, grief, or sympathy is to roll, knead, whisk, and bake. My childhood was dominated by homemade bread, giant soft molasses drop cookies known as “Fat Archies”, chocolate-coconut-oatmeal no bake ”Spider Cookies”, cinnamon buns, gingerbread cake, oatcakes, date squares, brown sugar fudge, banana bread, apple crisp, shortbread snowball cookies, and fuarag – an olden Scottish Gaelic dish of stiff whipped cream and toasted fine oats, with good luck tokens of rings and coins hidden inside. And there were biscuits. Teddy bears and travel go hand in hand. Stuffed animals travel companions are the best! See some of our favs (plus - are teddy bears allowed on airplanes? We investigate!) Updated in 2022! What is a girl who obsesses over ultra-light packing doing with stuffed animals in her travel pack? Unnecessary waste? Space stealer? Not in the least! I’ve never been one of those too-cool-for-school travelers. I’m still goofy me, happy to bring along my best friends as I travel. After all, stuffed animal travel companions are the best! So what if they’re made of cotton and polyfill? I’m thrilled to have my pals along for the ride and, as you'll see, I’m not alone! Traveling with teddy bears is the best. Read on for a look at what fuzzy companions other travelers bring along for the adventure, starting with me and my two bunny buddies! Plus - we're answering a critical question from readers: Are teddy bears allowed on airplanes? First, meet my own two travel buddies! “Purple Bunny” (the small one) is actually a key chain, and I’ve attached a flashlight, nail file, and bottle opener to him – all of life’s necessities. Originally, the little white bag he holds between his paws contained lavender scented beads that have long gone flat. Before a big trip, I douse him with some lavender oil – I think he appreciates being spruced up a bit. Originally from the gift shop at the International Study Centre in Herstmonceux, East Sussex, Purple Bunny was procured just before my first solo trip through Europe has been with me for every single trip I take, from weekend camping to 4 months in Africa. “Big Bunny” (who - confusingly - is also purple) has a slightly more limited travel life. I only bring him out for the big trips! Incredibly soft and stuffable, he’s a bit too small and flat to be a pillow but has proven infinitely useful for absorbing tears and making hostel beds, guest houses, and hotel rooms feel more like home! Big Bunny is originally from a gift shop on Cape Clear Island, the southern-most part of Ireland, and was a rare impulse purchase, along with a few other choice items that and together they help me remember my months traveling through Ireland. Updated in 2021! Riding a Segway should be easy, right? This is what it was like to try riding one for the first time during a Toronto Segway Tour. For a girl best known for her love of thrill-seeking, extreme adventure activities such as… book club – or art tours – or writing in a café… it’s hard to find an activity wild enough to really get Vanessa’s adrenalin pumping! Who am I kidding – the readers of Turnipseed Travel know me better than that! It’s time to take a (tentative) walk on the wild side – with Segway! Here's what it was like taking a Toronto Segway Tour in the city's Distillery District with Go Tours.
Updated in 2022. Niagara Falls isn't the only thing that's free flowing! In my onion, these are the best Niagara wineries in the escarpment, the ones I return to again and again. |
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