Elsien's Traveblogue

26th September 2006

Cornstalks. Mine looked kind of more droopy.


St Andrew's Presbyterian, across from City Hall. Taller than the office 'tower'behind it.

Had a very Canadian time in Canada. First in Toronto, staying with a friend from Kiribati. Went canoeing on Lake Ontario, followed by posh lunch on top of Park Hyatt Hotel overlooking Toronto in the sunshine, then CN Tower and an Iranian movie in the Toronto Film Festival. Saw some celebs but don't know who they were.
Next to Goderich - a very pretty little town on Lake Huron - where one of my cousins and an uncle and aunt live, who emigrated in the 1950's, when most of Holland left the country. Wonder why? More tourist activities, a sports centre session on an spin bike and got roped into a very interesting and rather Canadian activity for the Goderich Town Traders’ Association or some such – my cousin runs a quilting shop here in the town square – also quite a Canadian activity. We decorated the lamp posts (lots of them) in the town square (or the village green, it’s a cross between the two) with corn stalks for the Harvest Festival (indeed). I couldn’t quite believe I was doing this, carrying cornstalks to lamp posts, tying these things around the posts, finish off with a bow. They certainly looked pretty when we were done, or rather nearly done, because just as we were about to do the last handful, the heavens opened and a veritable Canadian monsoon fell down on us. I found that the jacket my Mum had bought me to go and travel with was rather less than waterproof so that’s not coming to India with me – we were drenched to our underwear. All the other ladies had already given up, so that just shows that labour imported from China will always finish the jobs spoilt Westerners aren’t willing to do any more!
I had already met the local quilters’ gang in the morning, before I set off with my uncle and aunt on the tourist tour of the area. The ladies quilt every Tuesday in the local church – they had just set up the material for a huge quilt which was going to take them several months to do.
The local area is really pretty; Lake Huron is fringed by gorgeous holiday cottages but also beautiful 19th century houses from when there were prosperous fishing towns. We had lunch at Aunt Gussie’s diner in St Jacob's, a Mennonite village where people still drive aroundin horse-drawn buggies. I had Reuben sandwiches of corned beef and sauerkraut, another first. Did lots of dining out, actually. My 80-year-old uncle amuses himself on Mondays sampling local restaurants with one of his mates, rating them using an obscure systemof their own and then sharing the best with his family.
A visit to Stratford-on-Avon (yes, the Canadian copy!) was also interesting: I got into the theatre by posing as a Drama Teacher and tagging on to some school groups - I watched a workshop on Coriolanus, which I'd just seen in the London Globe Theatre of which the Canadian Stratford Theatre is a carbon copy. Weird.
On Sunday I traveled some 1000 miles North by Greyhound Bus (19 hours) to Thunder Bay on Lake Superior to see my other cousin, who's a vicar there. If you want to see what Thunder Bay looks like, go to this website forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=104163 which shows you all the pictures. You should be able to understand why I didn't take that many pictures myself. There is one of my cousin's church here though. It's pretty wild with boars and moose in the immediate vicinity - the town is full of Finnish immigrants who have created saunas, Finnish shops and a famous Finnish restaurant where you can eat Finnish food at long trestle tables (it's of Communist origin). The original immigrants were Scottish (Thunder Bay used to be Fort William and Port Arthur) who were responsible for the impressive church where my cousin officiates - full of the most beautiful stained glass windows and a huge pipe organ.
I flew back to Toronto as only an idiot would bus it twice and then plane back to Amsterdam, weekend with family to celebrate my Mum's birthday. UK again today with Eurolines, what a treat!