Blog 2

Now I had seen the Christmas trees I decided to get sick, right before the actual Christmas. But I didn't miss out much, because that was right at the time, when the famous ice storm hit Toronto and caused a power outage for a big part of the city. By now you probably all have heard and seen the images, and videos of people who had to live for days without power.. Luckily I didn't have any power outage, that's why I did not found out about the whole storm until the next monday.

My friend K. who I haven't seen since summer 2011, had invited me over for her Christmas dinner with her family on tuesday night, so I could experience a real Canadian Christmas dinner! Since I couldn't show up with empty hands, I decided to make real Dutch oliebollen (Or "Oily balls" ;-), which wasn't hard (nor as messy) but just took me a couple of hours. I made about 80-100 of them.. So maybe next time I should make a little bit less. But K's family said they liked it, so that was good! The dinner was lovely, we had real Turkey and her family was very nice and somehow Santa Claus came by, because there was even a present for me under the tree! Thanks Santa!

On Boxing day I went to visit another friend and her family in Windsor (on the border with Detroit) and spend there a couple of days. They had waited for me to have the real family Christmas dinner and also that one was a treat! And somehow Santa came by again and gave me some nice pj's and a French coffee maker! Thanks again Santa! The other days, we just relaxed, hung around in Windsor area and had a real good Pita bread & Poutine at Pita grill, check out my food map to get the location!
I spent my new years eve at a bar in Windsor. It was different and quiet without all the fireworks (we are used to that in Holland) but it was still fun! Hello 2014!

On January first I took the train back to Toronto, but first a small journey to P?? and on the second I had to work again...

Santa's sleigh at Yonge St.

Waiting for the dough to rise

Oily balls

Staring at the U.S. border - Detroit at the background

Can you see the bridge to the USA?

What can I say?

Jup! They do have a drive in pharmacy here

New years eve at a Windsor bar

Some Dutch clogs hanging in the tree

My french coffee maker

Just a quick journey to Paris!

Oh Toronto, what are you beautiful

Ice cream... and

cold....

Wow.. Finally... - Part 1

Finally.. I checked it... and my last post was almost a month ago - 9 days... The emails and messages, from friends and family started to increase, which usually means you have to start working again, and keep writing on that blog... So here it is.. Since it has been almost three weeks and a lot has happened since then I will divide this blog in separate parts, so it won't be TLTR (Too Long Too Read...) 

Last year, when it was still 2013, one of my colleagues invited me to come with her and a couple of other people on a X-Mas tree tour to watch the trees and and take pictures (in front) of them. I said yes, because I was looking forward to see how Canadians celebrate their Christmas and because it is a travelers-rule to (almost) always say YES to things, so you will get to meet new people and experience new things. 

"Always say YES when you are travelling"

It was cold outside and I didn't know where to go (and it was supposed to take a couple of hours) so I made sure I had warm clothes on and went. When meeting at the starting point it turned out that almost everybody canceled because of the "bad" weather, it was just a little bit cold... (Since I have been in Toronto, I found out people like to complain about the weather and the cold.. So it is not only the Dutch who complain about the weather all the time!) But it turned out I had to much clothes on, because everything was inside of the longest underground shopping center in the world called PATH, with 29km of pedestrian tunnels and 1200 shops beneath the financial district's office towers in Downtown Toronto and which was opened in 1987 (More info: Wiki and PathMap). After having seen most of the biggest christmas trees and decoration we walked to a little Belgian restaurant called Le Petit Déjeuner (See also my food&drinks map). But unfortunately it was closed that day... So we had dinner at the Marché (Which is like a La Place in The Netherlands) right next to the Hockey Hall of Fame, which is also on my bucket list.

End of part one - If you are Dutch, if you can read Dutch or want to learn Dutch then also check out my other blog posts (obviously in Dutch) at the website of Furore which sponsored me, allowing me to do this placement, so a big Shout Out to them!! You can find them by clicking on their logo in the right menu on this blog.

This is the result of the Christmas Tree Hunt: