I have traveled quite a bit in the last 15-20 years. I have written and photographed it in various forms. My intention is to bring most of it to this blog. Some of it will be very detailed. Some will be point form, some will have stories and hopefully there will be some smiles and humour along the way.
I grew up in the Beaches neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada the largest city in Canada and 4th or 5th biggest in North America with over 7M people in the greater Toronto area. The city itself is situated on the North shore of Lake Ontario, the smallest of the 5 great lakes. It's very far south in Canada and further south than maybe 10% or so of the United States (yes sometimes you fly North from Canada to a U.S. city!).
In fact when I moved to London, UK in 2017 I flew quite aways North. This meant shorter darker days in the winter and longer lighter days in the summer in London. I had managed to find a place with a drearier winter!
Travel Bug
While I didn't travel much as a child outside of Ontario (Toronto is in the province of Ontario), I did start to travel more and more by the time I got to university. I was an introverted, shy child so being a bit of homebody with a smaller group of friends was enough for me for my younger years.
I spent 5 years at the University of Toronto (UofT) in the late 1990s. The school is situated in downtown Toronto and will remind some of grand old Universities like Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard as many of the buildings have the same look and feel of those built on those campuses.
As the top ranked school in Canada and often in the top 15-20 worldwide, the school attracts students from all over Canada and the world. I met quite a few people from abroad and my first girlfriend there. Both the international students and my girlfriend inspired me to start exploring the world.
A Brief History of Past Travel
While I didn't travel a lot outside of Ontario there were some notable trips when I was younger than 15. Because I don't remember much of these (nor have digital phots) I will have to summarize.
- Trips to Chicago to visit my Aunt, Uncle and cousins
- A 3 week trip to Europe as a 3 year old which I have no memory of. Apparently I lost my favorite stuffed toy there
- A couple trips to Florida (i.e. Disneyland, Epcot Center) one with my paternal grandparents and one with my father. Both times with my brother as well
- A hockey trip to Lansing, Michigan where I played in Michigan State Arena as a 9 year old
- School trips to Montreal and Quebec City - I was in French Immersion
- New York with my mother as a 13th birthday present - Manhattan was more dangerous then but we made it!
From there I started to get into more trips as a teenager but I'll highlight those in a later post. The bug was starting though I did enjoy going new places by this point even if I was still shy and introverted.
My thoughts to someone still under 18 - pester your parents for trips early and often. They are better when they are free!
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