Thursday Thirteen - The Traveler

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Thirteen Things about Alix I don't always participate in Thursday Thirteen like the lovely Sherrie does. But, then again, I seem to only post about twice a month, so maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if I did a Thursday Thirteen every once in a while. This week's Thursday Thirteen has a theme of recommended locations for travelers, which intrigued me. So here goes: 1. The "Rest" of Ontario Might as well start at home. All too often, when people think of Ontario, they think of Toronto, or Southern Ontario. Ontario is much much cooler than that people - as long as you enjoy lakes, anyway. The above picture is from the backwoods of Eastern Ontario, but I really recommend people check out the North Shore of lake Superior. It is gorgeous. 2. Cochem, Germany The Mosel River is stunning. Cochem itself, is a beautiful town. It has some great wine and, if you tour the castle, you can get some inspired ideas on  house-features for drunkards. Gabe's favorite memory of traveling with me may be our trip to Ireland, but my favorite memory of traveling with him would probably have to be our trip to Cochem. 3. New Brunswick I always know when I'm getting close to Gabe's house, because the scenery becomes more and more beautiful the closer I get. New Brunswick tends to be ignored for flashy locations such as PEI and Nova Scotia, but that doesn't mean that it isn't beautiful in it's own right. I'm particularly found of the Grand Falls area. It's where the above picture was taken, and it is also right close to Mt. Carleton, which is the highest peak in the Maritimes, a great afternoon climb, and a fantastic view of nothing but Canadian wilderness in all directions. 4. Newfoundland Newfoundland is like a secret planet. There's a reason Newfoundland nationalism is so strong, it really does feel like it a country unto itself. 5. St. John's, Newfoundland St. John's gets it's own entry. It is a great city. I'm willing to bet it has special appeal to those of us who grew up in places such as Ottawa, who like our cities to be a certain size - not too small, not too big - a city should have everything you need, and nothing more. It has the most amazing social-scene I've ever had the pleasure of drinking with. I could go on and on, but it's really something that has to be experienced. Recently, I was chatting with a fellow who, like me, grew up in Ottawa but spent a year or so living in Newfoundland just recently, and we both expressed the desire to have St. John's come with us wherever we went. 6. Montreal My attempt to live there may have failed, but I'm not holding it against the city as a whole. I'd have loved to have stayed. Montreal is a great city. I dare say, as long as you don't try to drive, it MAY in fact be better than Toronto...but really, it's like comparing apples to...umm...different apples. 7. Bermuda There's something about realizing that you are in the middle of the Atlantic, on an extremely narrow stretch of land, that fills you with a kind of fear that only someone born on the Canadian shield can appreciate. My next venture will be to go to some Pacific island and experience that same sort of rush of adrenaline that says "WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE?" and then in the next breath think "This is AWESOME!" Bermuda has a great feel to it. There aren't any of those stupid resort things, that separate the tourists from the rest of the world. Also the architecture is so much fun. If it's not square, it's round. The limestone roofs are brilliant in all senses of the word, and if you go for a swim in February, you'll have the beach all to yourself, except for a few people out for a stroll that look at you like you are from Mars - Bermuda, is SUB-tropical. 8. Ireland My favorite small town is Kilkenny. My favorite city is Cork. My favorite Indian Restaurant is in Limerick. My favorite castle is in Cahir, Co. Tipperary. 9. Berlin, Germany If you like museums, have I got the place for you! Berlin has a whole island dedicated to museums, while simultaneously providing a treasure trove of conflicting architectural styles and history before you even reach the museums. Besides Dublin, I've never actually been to another European capital, mainly, because I don't like big cities. I make an exception for Berlin, and I think it is well deserved. 10. Switzerland I think the picture says it all really. The place is beautiful. I took that picture behind a truck-stop...if that's what the places they DON'T advertise look like, just think of the places they do! 11. The Black Forest, Freiburg, Germany 12. The Scottish Highlands Sadly, I do not have a picture on hand. I took the train ride up from Glasgow to Mallaig (it's the same train track they use for the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films). There's enough beauty up there to kill a man. 13. Your Own Home Look around, not so much at the house/apartment/dwelling itself, but the community and landscape around you. I find all too often people take the places they are from for granted - or, they develop this weird notion that the place they live in his horribly mundane, whereas the REST of the world is amazing. People spend a lot of their time wishing they were some place else. When you go someplace else though, there are people who live there, and while you are taking pictures of their home and ooh-ing and ahh-ing, they are walking by thinking that where they live is horribly mundane and wouldn't it be nice to go someplace interesting... When I took the train up though the Scottish Highlands, there were houses perched on the sides of mountains. I kept wondering if those people realized that they were living in one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen, or if they just worked on their farms with a general sort of indifference their surroundings, like so many others. If you can't appreciate the beauty of your own home, wherever it may be, then you'll turn into one of those tourists in the Radiohead song "the Tourist", running to check off the next item on your "to see" list and completely missing the point of travel, beauty, and life in general.

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