Housesitting in Edmonton (Throwback post)

Edmonton, Canada

Because of our hiccup with US immigration on our arrival, we flew from Chicago straight to Canada.  We had arranged a housesit in Edmonton, and arrived there with minimum fuss after a fantastically easy change at Toronto.  After some of our US airport experiences - Miami in particular - it was lovely to breeze through immigration and customs and not to have to leg it through the airport with our rucksacks to just about make the connection.

Despite being the sixth largest city in Canada, there isn't all that much to do in Edmonton, especially in April which was when we were there.  Most people that we spoke to were surprised to see visitors, and to be honest, it is not somewhere we would really recommend at this time.  We gather that there are festivals on during the summer months, but in April it is still in the second stage of winter.  It isn't freezing cold like the first part of their winter, but there was snow on the ground for the entire time we were there; we only actually saw the garden at all in the last week, when some of the snow finally melted away, revealing bare earth and barely alive shrubs.
 



Edmonton, Canada

We were there to house sit for a very nice couple while they were away in Amsterdam for five weeks.  They had a great house and a lovely, if a bit timid, cat, which we thoroughly enjoyed looking after, even if she did always try to wake us up ten minutes earlier than the alarm was set for.



Edmonton, Canada

There was a nasty surprise on our first supermarket shop though.  We were in a bit of a hurry just to pick up a few bits that we needed, and we thought we'd quickly grab a bottle of wine while we were at it.  We were somewhat disappointed to see such a tiny few shelves of beer and wine, and so hurriedly just took the one that said chardonnay.  When we drank it later, we thought it tasted like grape juice rather than wine, and looked at the bottle more carefully.  Sure enough, it was dealcoholised.  At which point we remembered that the supermarkets aren't allowed to sell alcohol in most of Canada, you have to go to the mainly government run liquor stores instead.  We didn't make that mistake again.





Edmonton, Canada

We managed to abandon the warmth and comfort of our temporary home and get out into Edmonton a few times.  We met up with some fellow couchsurfers one time and we went out with the people that we stayed with on our first night in town.  We found a lovely cupcake shop, Crave Cupcakes, and a good wine store.  We were most pleased to come across a great little cheese and wine place called Cavern that had only just opened, where I discovered a delicious nutty, caramelly Beemster XO Gouda; sadly not to be found in the UK as far as I can tell.

But in general there wasn't a lot in Edmonton at this time of the year.

A number of people have asked us why we would want to go to somewhere like that.  Well the answer is two fold.  The first reason is financial.  By doing this house sit we get five weeks of free accommodation in a great house that we only have to share with a cat. That saved money allows us a bit more to spend elsewhere, which is quite important when you are travelling in the more expensive places like North America.  After all, if someone said to you that you could work for a couple of months a year and travel the rest, wouldn't you say yes?  And this is hardly work - just simply looking after the house, shovelling a bit of snow and enjoying the company of a lovely cat.

Edmonton, Canada

The second reason is that we do want to get a feel for the countries we visit.  We don't regard what we are doing as being on holiday, so we don't have to be doing big ticket, touristy things all of the time.  And staying in somewhere like Edmonton out of season is a great insight into what it is to live in Canada, and how the country differs from the UK.  Edmonton is the 6th largest city in Canada with a population of around 1.16 million.  In the  best equivalent the  6th largest primary urban areas in the UK is Sheffield, which only has a population of 0.55 million, in a smaller area, but still has somewhat more to offer than Edmonton. Personally, when considering aspects like sights, attractions, culture, restaurants and entertainment, I would compare Edmonton more to somewhere like Wakefield, which incidentally is 46th on the UK list.

Still, we enjoyed our five weeks of relaxation and it did wonders for our budget.

Taking the Temperature of Chicago (Throwback post)

We didn’t really see a lot of Chicago, and we liked it to different degrees. This was partly due to it being such a cold time to visit. The wind didn’t help; we couldn’t quite believe that Chicago is only called the ‘windy city’ due to the windbag politicians of the past.

We only ended up there in March due to US immigration policy that would have stopped us from instead re-entering from Canada later that year (due to having already spent nearly 3 months in the USA, then not leaving adjacent countries before re-entry).

But still, Chicago in winter was impressive (more so from Nic’s perspective). It has a classy skyline, with a good and sympathetic mix of old and new buildings and some particular architectural gems. Also, the streets were generally quite wide, so it didn’t feel claustrophobic.

Beyond the centre, we walked through a number of other areas, which felt like distinct neighbourhoods with real character, quite individual shops and large old red-brick buildings, rather than just dull suburbs.


One other specific thing that we liked, which maybe says something about the city’s attitude, was the fact that Lincoln Park zoo, apart from being free and open all year, just lets people run/jog on wide paths throughout it without going through entrance gates – rather better than the average running route!


On the other hand, apparently the metro system had recently become more frequented by homeless people riding it from one end to the other due to the recent closing down of their shelters, which doesn’t suggest such a socially cohesive approach.



Overall, it was still interesting to visit Chicago but it would definitely be better to try at another time of year, when it would be easier to wander and there are more outdoor activities, like the baseball at Wrigley Field that we could visit in season.

Devil's Island and Vega Island

Today's trip was taking the helicopter out to Devil's Island with a walk across the sea ice to Vega Island and the adelie penguin colony.  We were first out today, which was nice because when we arrived the walk was almost pristine.

The helicopter trip was again great with even more fabulous views of different types of sea ice, including parts where initially it looked like open water, but when you got closer you could see that it was still ice, but just very clear, perhaps with a layer of water on top.

We landed next to a huge lump of rock and some icebergs that were frozen into the sea ice.  It was a strange feeling to know that you are walking on sea ice and seeing those trapped bergs.

The expedition team had already set up a tent on the ice as an emergency shelter, just in case we got stuck there for any time, and they had been out to check out a safe route across the ice, marking out any huge crevasses that we might be in danger of falling down.

I'm not sure that some people took that entirely seriously until they realised that the only way the seals that we saw would be this far inland was if they had got up through a hole in the ice.

Being amongst the first to cross, we had the advantage of being almost completely alone in a mostly untouched landscape. We also had the disadvantage of treading the path, which meant that we - or more accurately I - kept managing to tread in the really deep soft snow where you sink in up to your knees. Very glad I had on my waterproofs. 

Aside from being quite a tiring way to walk, there was always that split second when you realise that your foot is going down further and can't help but think of those seal holes and wonder whether you will just be up to your knee in snow, or whether you are about to end up with a very wet leg!

Part of the way across the ice we came across the seals hauled out by a small iceberg.  There were three weddell seals and a crabeater, none of whom seemed the slightest bit concerned to see us.  They had a quick look at us then went back to their dozing.

We just about managed to stay on our feet on the really icy bit, avoided the crevasses, and after about forty five minutes reached the penguin colony.


We clambered up the very slippery edge (we saw one person come a cropper there later) and were face to beak with the adelies.

Last time we were in Antarctica, the chicks were almost grown up and so except for the penguins that were moulting, we could get quite close.


This year though, the penguins were on their eggs, so we had to keep a bit more distance so that they didn't get disturbed and possibly abandon their eggs.

We still were pretty close, and once they could see we weren't a threat, quite often a penguin or two would walk right by us.

We did see quite a few abandoned eggs around the nests.  Most of these were probably from young penguins that weren't ready to breed yet, or inexperienced parents.  But most eggs were safely tucked up under an adelie, protected from the skuas that were flying above looking for a meal.

Mind you the skuas had their own eggs and were highly protective of them.  We must have walked a bit too close for them at one point, as when we stopped, we were buzzed by the skua.  I told Nic to duck and he did so just in time; otherwise I think he may have felt the skuas claws on his head.  We moved away a little and they seemed satisfied with that.

We watched the penguins for a few hours, both the ones in the colony and those that were making the long trek across the sea ice to get to the water and hunt for food.

 
You have to admire the way these little creatures waddle such distances over the ice, often having to leap up to get over a ridge, or toboggan themselves along with their flippers to save a bit of energy.

They are clearly so much better adapted to the water, but they are far more fun to watch on land.

Eventually we made the trek back to the helicopter, pausing again to look at the seals that were still resting.

When we arrived, we discovered that the helicopter flights had had to be suspended due to bad weather.

This was a surprise, as we were having lovely sunshine, but as the expedition staff always said, the weather in Antarctica can change very quickly and be very different only short distances apart.

Ten miles away back at the ship they were have strong cold winds, some snow, and had had to move the ship into a calmer area both to enable the helicopters to fly, and to prevent the ship from getting iced in.

They only had to suspend flying for about an hour, but it reminded us all that Antarctica can be an inhospitable, unpredictable and therefore a dangerous place to get caught out in.

Thankfully, we were stuck in the nice weather area.

Raining in Rio

Rio is one of those places where most of what you want to do is outside.  Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf Mountain, Copacabana, Ipanema, the Escadaria Selaron steps, and general sightseeing in areas like Lapa and Santa Teresa, are all things best done in the sunshine.

So we weren't feeling overly enthusiastic about Rio in the rain.  Especially as the rain wasn't just normal rain, but torrential downpours that lasted most of the day.

Now I know that there are things that we could have done to amuse ourselves.  We could have gone for salsa lessons, or taken a cooking class, or even done a crash course in Portuguese, but I think we had reached the point where we were winding down to the end of our first year away, and didn't really feel like making that much of an effort.

We knew that we had plenty of things to do when we got back to the UK, and that we could cadge a free bed from family as opposed to spending a fair amount on Brazilian accommodation prices, so we decided to look into bringing our flights forward.  When we found that we could, we did.

And then we figured that, rather than telling my parents that the lift they had offered us from the airport was now needed a week earlier than expected, it would be much more fun to make our own way there and surprise them on the doorstep.

So we had one last day in the rain in Rio, during which we took a trip to the bus station to get our previously bought tickets refunded, and then took our overnight flight back to Heathrow.  We hadn`t seen as much of Rio as we`d expected, but we had at least made it up Corcovado and had a good view of the city and Sugarloaf Mountain.  We had also had a quick glimpse of the Sambadrome and the Maracana stadium as we passed them on a bus.

The flight was relatively good, although there was a mini drama about an hour in when a fellow passenger was taken ill and they had to find a doctor on board.  Thankfully it obviously wasn't too serious, so we didn't have to make an unscheduled landing, and when we got to London he did manage to walk off the plane under his own steam.

We had a good rest of journey back to Kent, and arrived at my parents house roughly twenty four hours after we left the hostel.  My mum's response, "what are you doing here?"  She did at least say afterwards that she was pleased to see us though.

Buenos Aires again

When we got off the Plancius, we had a couple of days in Ushuaia to get our land legs back and have a few more drinks with some of our shipmates, before flying up to Buenos Aires for a month. Originally we were only passing through for a few days, but as our budget got more and more stretched, we figured that it was time to take some budget friendly decisions.

As we will be planning to go back to Brazil some time in the future, and it is one of the more expensive countries in South America, we decided to only do a small bit of Brazil this time, and save some money. It is relatively inexpensive to rent a flat in BsAs, and with our own kitchen we can cook for ourselves often enough to make up for the steaks and wine that we inevitably buy.

As it turned out, with me feeling decidedly under the weather still, it was good to have a break from travelling to have a chance to get over it. It also allowed us some time to catch up on some of our practical issues like planning our route for the rest of this year, thinking about our plans for the summer and booking flights for next year.

So we had a month of relative relaxation in BsAs, with its fabulous graffiti and the paseoperro dogwalkers, spending plenty of time in cafes.

The weather was much warmer than last time we were here as it is the tail end of their summer. It was generally around the high 20s to early 30s, so even the Porteños weren't complaining about the cold this time. It did however rain a few times. On our first full day, when we were moving from our hostel to the flat, it bucketed down. It was literally stand outside for a few seconds and get completely drenched.

Unfortunately the taxis here are a law unto themselves and refused point blank to take us with our rucksacks. In the end, with little time to spare to meet the rental people, I stayed in a cafe with the bags so that Nic would be unhampered by them and could get to the flat. By the time he came back it was largely stopped and we both walked up. A few taxis sounded their horns at us to see if we wanted to use them - oh now they want our business - and it was only the fact that these were probably different drivers that stopped them from getting a mouthful of abuse.

Other than that, we we lucky to be able to avoid the downpours, and could instead watch them from the safe harbour of either the flat or a cafe. They were worth watching for the sheer volume of water that they dropped and the amazing thunder and lightening.

One evening we were sat in a cafe and watched the road become almost a river, and pieces of tree and other debris flowing along it. The rain set off car alarms and drenched anyone who moved. We later heard that four people were killed in the centre and a further eleven in the suburbs of BsAs.  The wind had been 60 miles an hour, with reports of it reaching 75 miles an hour at times.  Most of the people killed were hit by falling trees or masonry, but one was electrocuted by a fallen power cable.  Ten people were injured by a church roof that lifted off and landed where they were waiting for a bus.

We were glad that we had been inside a restaurant.  Just as an aside, the restauant that we ended up in was one that had a lot of bottles with messages on around the walls.  At the end of the meal they asked us to write on ours.  It is the one third from the left at the front above the bar.