Hello

My regular website www.travelerahoy.com has been experiencing some technical difficulties.

I’m working on fixing this problem. In the mean time you can read through my previous posts from travelerahoy.com below.

I have disabled comments for these posts, because this is just a temporary site. Once my regular website is back running I’ll open up comments again.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me.

I apologize for the inconvenience and hope to get my regular website back and running soon.

Happy and safe travels.

Alouise

Road Trip Memories 17 – World’s Largest Oil Lamp in Donalda, Alberta

Valentine’s Day is all about love. And there’s nothing I love more, well aside from like friends and family and the like, than road trips and giant roadside attractions.

Donalda is a small village located along highway 53 in Alberta. It’s about a two hour drive southeast from Edmonton. This summer driving back from Saskatoon I decided to take a different way home and I stopped in Donalda.

I’ve actually been to this town few times before. It’s a really pretty town, and is quite different from the other towns I’m used to seeing. I think it’s because of the Meeting Creek Coulee which is on the edge of town. When I drive through Donalda I can start to see the landscape change from prairie farmland to the badlands which continue on into southern Alberta. Donalda has an art gallery housed in a 1932 art deco style building, which used to house a bank. Donalda also has a museum with a large collection of oil lamps and local artifacts. Unfortunately for me both the museum and the art gallery were closed for the day when I got into town.

Of course Donalda also has the World’s Largest Oil Lamp which measures 12.8 metres high and 5.18m wide (or 42 feet high by 17 feet wide). At dusk the lamp lights up.

The World’s Largest Oil Lamp.

Photo Essay – Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden

When I was in Vancouver last June for TBEX I ended up spending some time at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden. This is a classical Chinese garden, and a place I’d wanted visit in Vancouver since I found out about it a few years ago.

Of course I didn’t really visit the Garden under the most ideal situation. I ended up not feeling well on the last day of the conference. But instead of taking the bus or calling a cab to go back to my hostel, I decided to hope on the Vancouver Trolley, because TBEX attendants had been given a Vancouver attraction pass. My reasoning was that it stopped by Davie Street, which would theoretically be just a few blocks from my hostel. But when I saw that the trolley stopped at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden I decided to stay on and spend some time in the garden. I remember reading that they had green tea at the garden. Green tea would make me feel better, right? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent about an hour or so wandering around the garden, and if I had been feeling better I probably could have spent a lot more time there. The Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden is located at 578 Carrall Street in Vancouver, British Columbia. Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $9 for students and free for kids under 5. Hours vary from 10am to 4:30pm in winter, 10am to 6pm in spring and fall, and 9:30am to 7pm during the summer.

Even though I was given free admission to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden all opinions are my own.

I Think I Am Going To Colorado

Colorado looks like a beautiful state, and I’m sure there’s lots to do there, but it was never a place that was high up on my travel radar. But just how I found myself going to other places I never considered, like Las Vegas or Munich, I now find myself planning a trip to Colorado.

Last June I attended the Travel Blog Exchange Conference in Vancouver. It worked out great for me. I booked a flight from Edmonton to Victoria, and ended up getting it at a really low price. I used a prize I’d won to stay at a nice hotel for practically free (I think I had to pay $30 for two nights worth of tax). Then I boarded the ferry (super cheap if your only going by foot) and went to Vancouver. Spent a few days there for TBEX, even got to catch up with a friend who lives there, and flew home.

TBEX is in Keystone Colorado this year, and I went back and forth on whether or not I should attend. I enjoyed the conference last year, and I wished I made more of an effort to meet people when I was there. But traveling from Edmonton to Denver is much further, and more costly than traveling from Edmonton to Vancouver, or nearby Victoria. I’m a student on a limited budget, and I can’t just charge a trip on my credit card, and just hope it goes away.

I weighed the pros and cons endlessly. I kept checking the TBEX website to see if tickets were available. I asked other travel bloggers if they were going. Of course that was no help because some said yes and some said no. I also thought about New Orleans. Would I be able to afford to go there this year if I go to Denver and Keystone?

Denver Nightscape. Photo courtesy of Dag Peak.

There are moments when I can go round and round in circles weighing pros and cons. Despite the rather ironic statement I’m going to make the best course to take in a situation like this is not to think, but to do. If you think too much you’ll end up hesitating too much. Last year I could have gotten an Edmonton to New Orleans flight for ridiculously cheap, like $400 roundtrip (plus tax). I debated too much, and by the time I was ready to purchase a ticket, the price had doubled, and gone out of my budget.

But in 2010 I did the just act, don’t think too much manoever, and booked a great flight deal to New York. Of course after my excitement I soon came crashing down, as practical and critical me began asking all these questions. Where was I going to stay? How was going to afford this?

But I made it work. So when I started to panic a little bit after purchasing my TBEX tickets this year I reminded myself that I’d figure things out. The general idea of my trip so far is this:

- Go from Edmonton to Denver.
- Spend a night or two in Denver.
- Go from Denver to Keystone (where the conference is).
- Spend two or three nights in Keystone.
- Go back to Denver. Hopefully find a cheap flight to New Orleans.
- Spend a few nights (maybe five or so) in New Orleans.
- Go from New Orleans to Edmonton.

The research part of a trip is always fun for me. I’ve already started to look at airfare, even bus and train options. I’m keeping an open mind and trying to be creative to stretch my travel budget.

I may have not expected to go to Colorado this year, but now I’m starting to get excited for it. The more I start looking the more I want to make this trip work.

What travel plans do you have this year? Are you going to TBEX in Keystone, CO? Let me know in the comments.

List #15 – Some Little Things I Didn’t Know Before I Traveled

Travel can help break down barriers. It can dispel ignorant stereotype, and change large misconceptions. I always hate feeling stupid or ignorant. That’s probably one reason why I like to research before I travel. It not only gets me excited for a trip, but it helps me to be prepared (or to at least think I’m prepared).

Unfortunately I don’t know everything. And sometimes I don’t really do enough research before I travel, and instead I rely on my own knowledge which includes many false assumptions. Here are some little things I didn’t know before I traveled:  

1. It snows in the Grand Canyon.

When my friends and I went to the Grand Canyon, in May, we were pretty shocked to see snow. It wasn’t like there was a blizzard, but there was snow. My friends and I went to Arizona to escape the snow we had back home. I once thought Arizona being south = always hot, but not so much.

2. Montana has mountains.

Now before you call me a complete failure, I knew Montana had mountains, I just thought the part of Montana my friends and I were driving through didn’t have mountains. We were driving from southern Alberta, which is relatively flat, so I just assumed (even though I’d know you shouldn’t assume) that the part of Montana we’d be driving through would be the same. It wasn’t.


Mountains in Montana.

3. There’s more than one Edmonton.

When I was in London I got an Oyster card holder and there was an ad with information about taking a shuttle to Ikea in Edmonton. I had a blonde moment, where I wondered why Edmonton in Alberta was advertising in London. Finally it dawned on me that there’s an Edmonton in the U.K. There’s also an Edmonton in Kentucky and Australia. Now I have a little goal to visit all four Edmontons.

4. The fast food version of “authentic food” is still fast food.

On my Contiki tour in Europe there were many stops at “rest stops” which were very similar to the truck stops back home (but nicer). I was trying to eat as much “local” cuisine as I could on that trip, and so naturally we stopped at a rest stop in Italy I got a slice of pizza. Surely, because it was pizza in Italy, it would be the best slice of pizza I’d ever have? No. It was just like any greasy truck stop pizza I could get at home. I learned a similar lesson visiting McDonald’s in France. The food at there was just as bad (I fully admit to not being a Mickey D’s fan) as the McDonald’s food at home.

5. Gravol makes you sleepy.

I like the ocean, but I’d always been wary of getting seasick. On the ferry from Saint John, New Brunswick to Digby, Nova Scotia my friend brought gravol. I’d only ever had the non-drowsy gravol, the natural ginger ones, and so I didn’t realize that regular gravol makes you sleepy, like really sleepy. I remember taking a gravol pill, sitting on the ferry, and watching the opening credits for Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Next thing I knew the ending credits were rolling. Now I know what to take on red-eye flights when I need to get some sleep.

These are just a few things I’ve learned while travelling. Are there any travel ignorances that have been dispelled during your travels?

This post has been written by me and is brought to you by Virgin Holidays Cruises which offers great deals on Mediterranean breaks!