Archive for October, 2010

Pick berries on an organic farm in Ontario. Or work a couple of weeks with a dairy herd in Quebec. Spend the summer whale-watching in the Bay of Fundy with a research team. Or paint fences and cook meals on an eco-friendly ranch in Western Canada. Or help care for llamas on a small farm on Cape Breton Island. In short, you can learn about sustainable lifestyles and organic farming at the same time you experience a new part of Canada (or, possibly, the world, but more about that later).

You can do it all through WWOOF: (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (formerly known as Willing Workers on Organic Farms).

What is it: WWOOF Canada is a grassroots organization, part of the wider WWOOF International. WWOOF Canada lists about 900 farm hosts located from coast to coast and as far north as the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, where you can volunteer your skills gardening, painting, cooking, working with livestock and other related chores. No experience or specific level of skill is necessary.

What's my commitment: You typically work 4 to 6 hours per day, 5 to 5 1/2 days per week in exchange for food, accommodation - and a life-changing experience. Become part of the family. Become part of the community. Get a taste for farm living. Consider it a cultural immersion program.

Who can participate: Canadians of all ages and experience levels. A basic understanding of English is required, and if your host is francophone, you may require some basic French skills. Better yet, you'll likely improve your own francais!

How long must I commit: You can sign up for a few days, a few weeks or even an entire season. You negotiate directly with the host farmer.

Is there a membership: Yes, you pay an initial $40 membership which gives you access to the directory of hosts.

Can I become a WWOOFER in other parts of the world? Yes, indeed, you could work in a tea house in Japan or learn to herd sheep in Ireland

Does this type of volunteer experience appeal to you? Would you ever become a WWOOFER?

Okay, I need to come clean about how I have financed some of my travels.

For some people, their home is their castle. It's the dwelling place of their pride and passion in life. For me, it's my backpack. Even though I don't sleep there every night, it's where my heart and soul reside. My backpack, you see, symbolizes travel, it represents my next trip. It speaks to me of new cultures, new people, new experiences. I'd gladly hock my kitchen stove if I thought it would cover the cost of a plane ticket. And on that note of household appliances, let me begin.

Picture this: it's around 11 pm on a week night in early spring of 2009, and I'm surfing the internet looking for apartment-sized washers and dryers, an exercise which did little to stir my emotions. The utility room in my condo has been all prepped for months and the plumbing connections long installed. All I needed to do was order the appliance and have it delivered. Easy peasy...so you'd think.

The thing is....I mean the thing is, if it's late at night and you're all alone searching the net for Maytags it's only understandable that one would get distracted, right? And it's only understandable that my thoughts - and browser - would wander off in the direction of various travel web sites I have bookmarked.

So in a few quick (and innocent) clicks I go from reading about rinse cycles to Reykjavik. It's just a simple matter of how your mouse, or perhaps your soul, is programmed.

I blame it on Patrick Dineen who writes the travel bargain column in The Globe and Mail's Travel Section. If he hadn't written about an amazing travel deal to Iceland (this was pre-volcanic spewing) then I'd likely be sitting at home at night basking in the warmth of my ensuite dryer. Alas, this is not so. I succumbed not just to my life-long dream of visiting Iceland, but also to the power of Mr. Dineen's finely-crafted text which announced to the world, and more pointedly to me, that a 5-day Icelandic travel package would be mine for less than the total cost of my washer-dryer. It was not fickleness, it was fate.

I am only human. I am weak. By the blue glow my laptop in the dark of night, the dollars ear-marked for my washer-dryer made haste to a secure bank account in Reykjavik. And by the blue glow of my laptop in the dark of the night I danced with joy!

Here are some images of my trip to one of the most breath-taking places in the world.

I spent my days riding Icelandic ponies, hiking on glaciers, eating lobster and whale, walking the breadth of the city (population of Reykjavik is approximately 125,000; the entire country hovers not much over 300,000) into the wee hours. In the month of May, the time of my visit, we were treated to two hours of dark. The people were friendly. Seafood was relatively inexpensive. The beer was not.

Day hikes from Skaftafell bring you to Virkisjokull glacier where you strap on crampons, absorb brief but vital instruction from the guide, and spend a few hours traipsing about the ever-changing glacial mass.

The Icelandic landscape is full of surprises. One moment you're staring at moonscapes where nothing can grow, and the next you're at places such as Seljalandsfoss Falls, getting drenched by the mist.

Geothermal energy is one of Iceland's greatest assets. You'll be driving along, eyes transfixed on the barren lava-rock strewn fields, and suddenly out of nowhere you'll see steam spouting from the ground, and a wonderfully warm lagoon appears like a mirage before you.

A visit to the Blue Lagoon spa is a must and only minutes from the airport. You'll float in bathing and swimming pools whose waters are 37 - 39 degrees Celsius (98 to 102 F). It's relaxing, rejuvenating and cleansing.

And to think, I got all this - for less than the price of a washer-dryer.

Travel information on Iceland is only a click away. So too, for that matter, are tips for purchasing washer-dryers.

One of the first things I do when visiting a new city is to head out and find a really, REALLY good coffee shop, the kind of place I can kick back, meet the locals and soak up the flavour of a new city. Not for me those pristine cafes in the hotel lobby. Of course, I'm always on the look out for great coffee shops in my own city of Toronto. So you can imagine how thrilled I was on the weekend to take my out-of-town guests on a walking tour of my beloved old neighbourhood of Riverdale, east of downtown Toronto, and discover that the most amazing coffee shop, called Rooster Coffee House, has sprung up in my absence and it's just one of the many independent cafes popping up in neighbourhoods across Canada.

In the case of the Rooster Coffee House, I'm particularly bowled over that this new coffee-lover's paradise has emerged from what once was a tired looking variety store I frequented for a decade.

BEFORE SHOT: First, let me show you what it looked like years ago when I lived in the leafy neighbourhood.

AFTER SHOT: This is what exterior looks like this, thanks to creative coffee-loving entrepreneur Shawn Andrews.

The inside used to be chockablock with canned goods, light bulbs, magazines, packages of dried noodles and sundry other things you'd need on a Sunday afternoon.

And the clientele, some of whom hang out for hours working on their lap tops, include a mix of writers, actors, therapists and other local folk just out for a cup of java in the middle of the day. They all grab a spot at the harvest table at the back of the cafe and make like they're at home. Isn't that what a good coffee house should offer anyway?

So you can imagine why I'm now wishing the Rooster Coffee House had appeared when I lived around the corner in the 1990s. I might never have left. Still, it's only a brisk 20-minute walk from where I live now. And it's a perfect (and accessible) escape from downtown.

Don't expect shrink-wrapped tuna and egg salad sandwiches or oily muffins of indeterminate taste. And if you have a hankering for something buttery and sugary, this is the spot.

Looking for a good coffee shop when you travel across Canada, or perhaps shopping for a new hang-out in your own town? Here are three java-loving resources to help you out:

• Urban Spoon publishes a list of the Top 10 coffee houses in Winnipeg
• Indie Coffee Passport is a collective of coffee-lovers who want you to support independent cafes around Toronto.
• Discover Calgary lists coffee houses (and tea houses) in the thriving Alberta city.
• Vancouver Coffee has a running list of cafes worth checking out

Enjoy your cuppa! And let me know about the must-visit independent coffee houses in your town or city. You never know when I'll be passing through.

I couldn't stand museums as a kid. Once a year, usually towards the end of
summer, my Dad would pile us all into the car and haul us off for an educational afternoon at the Simcoe County Museum in Midhurst, Ontario, just outside Barrie. Little changed in my youthful mind's eye from year to year. The same old buggy, the same turn-of-the-century farming relics (not much to excite a lad who wanted nothing more than to head back home and watch reruns of "Hawaii 5-0." Fast-forward a few decades and I found myself one rainy Saturday staring transfixed at a mountain of the strangest footwear items in the world from go-go boots to tiny beaded slippers worn by French aristocrats at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Ontario. Yes, a M-U-S-E-U-M no less. Had I been missing something?

Then I began to hear of assorted museums devoted to all manner of intriguing paraphernalia and subject matter, such as gophers and root vegetables. There's the Potato Museum in Prince Edward Island. Dig that! And on the other side of the country you can get the inside scoop on the lives of gophers at the Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, Alberta.

My good friend and travel writer Michele Sponagle has a batch more to share in her well-researched article, Top 7 Strangest, Yet Most Fascinating, Canadian Museums, from the Ottawa Citizen.

What's the weirdest or quirkiest museum you've ever visited?

For much of this past summer and fall, I religiously followed Ian Brown's foodie journals in the Globe and Mail, chronicling his experiences as he eats his way across Canada. And much like my favourite TV miniseries, I go back and revisit earlier entries that stick with me. Like a favourite meal, you just don't forget it.

Brown digs into everything from apple pie to rural small-town Canada’s version of Chinese food in various roadside stands and food emporiums across the country. It got me thinking about some of my own favourite noshing spots in Canada.

Here are three of my most memorable dining spots in Canada - and, believe, it's pure coincidence that two of them are named after pigs:

In Quebec City, you can't go wrong at Le Cochon Dingue if you're looking for a taste of French cuisine in Vieux Quebec. It's been so popular that three other locations have opened throughout ville de Quebec. But to get the most truly Quebecois experience, head to Le Cochon on boulevard Champlain in Old Quebec.

In Kingston, Ontario, Chez Piggy is imprinted on my taste buds forever since I chowed down on a smokey beef burger brimming with guacamole, jalapeño, havarti, bacon and watercress.

And you haven't had proper Indian food in Canada until you've eaten at Vij's, located in Vancouver's Granville neighbourhood. The restaurant's menu is influenced by various cuisines throughout India. Vij eschews tandoori simply because it's so popular elsewhere in Vancouver. The trick is: no reservations are accepted. Should Vij's be crowded when you arrive, just be patient. It's well worth the wait.

So what's your favourite foodie memory from your travels across Canada?

I've discovered a great way to travel this great country of ours - without leaving your porch or backyard. I call it the CanLit Express: Tour Canada through amazing Canadian fiction.

Let's start at the top: Yellowknife.

Elizabeth May's "Nights on Air" succeeds, for me, at doing something few other CanLit titles managed to pull off - to provide a real snapshot of everyday life in Yellowknife beyond trapper lines and isolated mining projects. The characters in May's book work in a regional radio station (you wouldn't be off the mark if you're thinking CBC). Expect descriptive passages about the unforgettable characters, their shenanigans, their tragedies, their desires, losses, their loves. You will, of course, get the requisite descriptions of the northern wilderness.

Next stop on the CanLit Express: Montreal, Quebec

Mordecai Richler's "St. Urbain's Horseman" could function as a well-thumbed Frommers' Travel Guide to the back streets and cafes of Montreal. This bawdy novel, in my eyes, sealed Mordecai Richler's place in the gallery of CanLit icons.

Next: Edmonton, Alberta.

Todd Babiak's Garneau Block is a laugh-out-loud celebration of the quirky side of Edmonton, set in a make-believe neighbourhood near University of Alberta. The zaniness of this bunch of characters is partially fuelled by their seemingly sequestered neighbourhood, where everyone seems to fit in, even, curiously enough, the misfits.

Next stop: rural Ontario.

Kim Eichlin's "Elephants in Winter" explores rural southern Ontario - in winter, where, oh shockers, a herd of elephants reside. In truth, it reminds me of Jungle Zoo, outside Elmvale, Ontario where I grew up. I had the privilege of taking a fiction course with the author at University of Toronto and her descriptions are those of a documentarian.

Next stop: New Brunswick

David Adam Richards' Miramichi trilogy (Nights Below Station Street, Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace, and For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down) takes you straight to the heart of tough and tumble New Brunswick. There's a melancholy tone to these stories yet Richards also captures the resilience of easterners.

Which do you prefer when travelling? A photo book full of excellent images of the destination, or a guide book or a fiction set in the destination?

My "Bucket List" of things to do before I leave this earthly paradise seems to get longer each year. As a travel junkie, I'm constantly on the look-out for new destinations and lately I've been adding more and more Canadian destinations to my list. It's my dream one day to spend a night in the Ice House in Quebec City during Carnaval de Quebec, and I've long dreamt about dog-sledding in Algonquin Park in the thick of winter. Now I've added about a dozen Saskatchewan sites to my bucket list thanks to an amazing travel book that has garnered a slew of awards.

I've never thought of the Prairie provinces as quirky. D. Grant Black's "Saskatchewan Book of Musts: The 101 Places Every Saskatchewanian MUST Visit" has changed that perception. His book is packed with interesting destinations and attractions. How about these?

• Great Ow's cabin in Prince Albert National Park
• Athabasca's Sand Dunes Provincial Park
• Big Muddy Badlands - the glacier-tilled ranch lands which American outlaws from Montana used as a base to rob banks and trains in the 1800s.
  

Saskatchewan Book of Musts" is published by Macintyre Purcell Publishing, who have released similar books on Labrador, Newfoundland, Manitoba and other parts of Canada.

What's the quirkiest must-visit attraction or destination in your province?

Some days you just have to channel your inner Obama and tell yourself: "Yes, you CAN. YES YOU CAN." So I did just that -- and I went hang gliding for the first time.

It was FANTASTIC. It was something I'd always longed to do.

What To Expect: I went with an outfitter called Fly High, based in Locust Hill, Ontario (just east of Toronto). The lift-off is surprisingly smooth and quick. You're towed, at what seems like break-neck speed, across a grassy farmer's field (the chords are hooked up to an ATV until you're airborne and then are detached). Then suddenly you're airborne, my heart was in my mouth - competing with boyish giggles - as I looked down onto the rooves of houses, farms and four-lane highways. Fly High guarantees you'll get up to 1,000 feet, but the winds were good that day and we got up to 1,300. It was surprisingly quiet up there and, truth to tell, there's not much to the glider itself. (I guess the lighter the better.)

Oh, What a Feeling: Looking up is just as exciting as looking down. You're free. Nothing between you and the sky, the breeze brushing your open limbs. I worked the left-side of the frame which helped turn the glider when instructed. You feel connected to the wind. Just a slight tug with my left hand and suddenly we were soaring eastward over the Highway 401, and then my tandem partner pulled in on the right side and we sailed back over grazing cattle that looked like tiny insects below us. Not even my boyhood Batman dreams prepared me for the reality of flying that high, and so open to the wind.

Soaring High: I've never experienced anything more liberating. It was me, my gliding partner (an experienced instructor, of course) and a lightweight frame against the elements. Every few minutes we'd catch a gust of wind and then zoom upward for a few seconds, and then level off. Butterflies did a polka in my stomach.

Coming down was actually exciting, too, swooping gently over the tops of trees and then closer, closer, closer to the ground.

Find a hang gliding (or even para gliding) outfitter near you. Visit The Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada.

Up until that afternoon my most exciting airborne adventure was a helicopter ride over the breath-taking, tree-covered dormant volcanoes near the Napali Coast on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai. But this hang gliding experience topped it all. Perhaps there was something to the risk involved. I rather think it was all about living the dream.

Right about now you're finalizing your upcoming holiday travel plans. Perhaps you're taking the train from Montreal to North Bay, or booking airfare from Edmonton, Alberta to Gander, Newfoundland. Or may you're one of the lucky ones who's heading south for the holidays in favour of tanning over turkey.

Here are 5 easy ways to take the stress out of holiday travel:

1. Fly or take the train on Christmas Day. I've done this twice, once flying from Toronto to Thunder Bay on Christmas morning, and a few years ago I flew from Toronto to Montreal on Christmas afternoon. They were two of the quietest, most relaxing flights I've ever taken. Not only that, but booking flights was easy as every one else in Canada was flying before December 25 so there was a lot more availability, and that's crucial especially if you're travelling with multiple family members.

2. Send your luggage (and any Christmas parcels) ahead. Consider shipping some of your extra baggage, such as gifts, extra toys for the kids, or that second suitcase, by FedEx or Canada Post. You'll have less to deal with when navigating airports and train stations. Plus: most airlines charge for extra baggage these days so take that into consideration when your make your holiday travel plans.

3. Book your holiday travel early! The rule of thumb is: The earlier you confirm your travel plans the less you're going to pay. Look around for flight deals on such web sites as Momondo and Kayak.

4. Pack extra food for your travel days. Many stores and restaurants reduce their hours during the holidays. Don't assume variety stores and quick food outlets will be open. Bring along some power bars, several pieces of fruit, biscuits for the kids. You don't want to be left with a growling stomach. (And double-check in advance whether you pay for the inflight meals or not.)

5. Book your car and hotel rentals in advance. People often book travel (air and train) early but forget those other travel necessities. Sure, you can get that rental vehicle on the spot when you travel mid-April, but holidays are busy for hotels and automobiles. Consider AutoShare or Zip Car rentals to save some money.

Have you ever flown or taken the train on Christmas Day? Would you recommend it to others, or pay extra to get there a few days early?

Pear butter. That's right. Tasty, sweet and golden-coloured pear butter. Yesterday's Pinch My Salt post was so inspiring, I just had to have my own pear butter. (Note: I processed my jars so I could store a few).

Without further ado, meet Pear Butter: