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Thursday 13 December 2018

Moving on to the next adventure

Hi,
It's been a while since I wrote something, but I was mostly busy working in Subway.
Yesterday was my last day of work and some colleagues I won't forget :)
I've been working there for the last 3 months and happy to have found that job.
Duncan is known for it's many totem poles, you can even make a walking tour of all of them. This is such a nice little town. I enjoyed my time here.
Saturday I leave my workaway family here in Duncan, where I stayed the last 3 months.
They will be missed as well as the family dog Oliver :) They were like a second family to me.
I was so lucky to have found them, because I didn't know what my next move would be.
They welcomed me in there home and it felt like I was a part of the family.
Their daughter Essa who came home in the weekends was always happy to do some things with me (you can read our adventures in previous blogs). I really appreciate all that she has done for me. Also this weekend will be one of our last adventures together. I'll go over to spend the weekend with here in Victoria, before taking the ferry to Vancouver on Monday. I have a view rooms to visit in Victoria on saturday, cause thats me and my sisters plan B for the next working part of this journey. And monday I'll see a view in Vancouver as well, before deciding..
Sunday Essa will show me around Victoria a bit and I already know it will be a fun time :)
The son of the family Nolan also took me on a hike while here (see other blog) and gave my rides to work at times at well, I'm thankful for that as well :)
Tom and Lael are such nice people, I can never thank them enough for taking me in and showing me around the Island. They were always there to give me a ride after work as well. Because buses in Duncan have weird hours :)
They're always welcome to visit me when I'm back in Belgium.
I made so many memories out here and met so many nice people.
Like going to the hockey game, going on hikes, seeing Vancouver Island, see goats on a roof,...
Now it's time to continue my adventures with my sister, she arrives monday evening!!!
I will continue my blog, but also we will film some of our journey on our youtube channel :)
I hope you enjoyed my solo travel blog as far, cause I did enjoy traveling by myself. But can't wait to see my sister after 7 months apart!!!
Love,
Sarah


Wanted to end with some pictures of all the things I did while being in Duncan.
See you next time ;)

Saturday 3 November 2018

Another weekend, another adventure.

Hi,
Last weekend I did something I've never thought of doing, until Essa told me about it and I was like yes why not :)
Horne lake caves are natural caves situated on Vancouver Island.
We came prepared with long pants and long sleeves like the website said, we also had a total other outfit for after. The tour we did is called the wet and wild, the days before it rained a lot so we rented some boots and bought some cloves on the spot. Lucky we did cause the water was high in the caves.
We were a small good group and the guide gave us a lot of information. First we started with a hike uphill to get to the first cave.
The first cave we did was said to be the easy one :) I was thinking really? There were big rocks to go down on, we were told to always have 3 body parts touching the ground. So your arms, legs or bum should always touch the ground. The further down we went the more we heard the water that was flowing under us. We also went up like 2 steps to see a buda in the rocks in the middle of a little pool of water. At some point we all went to sit down and turned out our flashlights, a minute sitting in pitch black listening to the water, magical moment it was. Then we went back up and to the second cave.
To get into the second cave we had to go through a narrow passage, where I got stuck, because I was to short...But with some help it worked out :) We couldn't touch the whole right side of the caves cause that was crystallized rock and protected. So here I found out why the first cave was the easy one...It was so small in the second one and sometimes you got to almost crawl to move on. At some point we all stopped at a waterfall in the cave. That was when the guide said, we're going up, climbing the waterfall. He said we didn't have to, but we could all do it. So I was like ok lets to this :)
The waterfall was in 3 levels, at the second level there was a really small passage. Again I was to short to get over it, but the guide lent me his leg to stand up on, poor guy :( I won't lie, it was hard for me to get to the top, but I was so happy that I did it. And not once I was thinking of being afraid or that I was doing something crazy. Oooh yeah the only protection we had was a helmet with a flashlight on top, no ropes or whatever. After the waterfall we went further on and got down on a slide and went back out the cave.
The third cave we did was narrow as well. At some point we went down to the water and we could only do that on our bum because the rocks were to wet and slippery. Then once with our feet in the water the guide showed us a whole in the rocks and said you're going through that now...So we did :) We came out in a little cave and he said to turn of our lights, then he lighted up a piece of the rock and turned his light out. And the rock gave light, so cool to see :)
Then we had to go back out through the same little whole in the rocks and the guide said to go head first, which seemed weird, but else we would be in the water with our whole body :) So for some reason I went first, it went ok just got some water in one of my boots :)
Then we were standing like what it seemed closed in, so I asked where are we getting out? And he pointed to a horizontal crack in a rock, I was thinking no way I can fit there. He showed us how exactly to follow his lead, so thats what I did...and I passed, but ripped my pants while doing it hahaha :)
After that we went back down and it was the end of our adventure.
We did need to change, cause we were wet and dirty :) and I had ripped my pants hahaha.
I had a great time and never thought I was going to say one day that I climbed a waterfall in a cave :)
The only downside was the days after, when my legs were in so much pain of all the efforts I did. Till this day my 'bad' knee is still hurting. But it was well worth it :)
I had a great adventure with Essa, once again :)
And if you guys are ever on Vancouver Island, this is something worth doing!!!
Love,
Sarah

Monday 22 October 2018

Hiking to Skutz falls...and falling

Hi,
Today I went on a fun hike with Essa again, near Duncan this time.
We were going to find Skutz falls, something she even never went to before :)
So on the way there we parked near a canyon to enjoy the view and then it would take us 2km to get to the falls, not bad. The trail is pretty flat and easy to walk on and the nature is just amazing.
This is known to have bears and cougars wander around, but I still haven't seen any big wild animals.
The falls weren't really waterfalls like we thought, it was more of rapid water flowing, still nice to see. On the way back we took a bit of another way, first did a bit next the river and then a bit on the road before having access to the trail again. Then we saw a path a bit more beneath and decided to go and check that out. We came out on a nice campground with a wilder trail to follow back. So we took that one, it was not flat anymore and a lot of tree roots on the path. We did take some really nice pictures. At one point we were going down, on one side the forest on the other side the cliff with the river at the bottom. Thats were I started slipping on some tiny rocks...I fell but luckily on the side of the forrest and I just hurt my leg, gonna be hurting more tomorrow I guess :) After letting a big group of hikers pass we also went back on our way.
I've been really careful the rest of the way back :) but we were almost at the end.
Another hike and still no bear sightings for me...
Maybe one day...
Oooh yeah, after the hike we went to try out my first rootbeer float....it wasn't as bad I thought it would be :)
Love,
Sarah


Sunday 21 October 2018

Port Renfrew and Avatar grove

Hi,
Last weekend I spent my sunday with the daughter of the couple where I'm staying doing a little road trip :)
We left in the morning to go to Avatar grove and Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.
Gnarliest tree
The drive up there alone is worth doing this, beautiful nature all along the way, we were lucky with the nice weather to.
On the way up we did a little stop along the way to see a big old tree, you would miss it if you didn't know where to stop, but of course my great guide new where it was :)
After first passing Port Renfrew to go to see Avatar grove, we did a little toilet stop and I had to go into a outhouse... That was a first hahaha, Essa (the daughter) told me that those were pretty clean, there are worse... Well  don't think I'll do that again :)
Arrived at Avatar grove we did a little hike to get to the gnarliest tree in Canada. Just being there is like being in another world, I get why they call it Avatar grove. They've put in some wooden stairs and walkways to make it easier to access, because it's really ruff nature up here, love it!!
We also had Oliver (the dog) with us and he just loved it, he kept on running up and down :)
The hike up wasn't as bad as we thought it would be and the surrounding are stunning.
After that we went to Port Renfrew and Essa brought me to a beach where they go camping once a year. This place is just breath taking. It's also at the start of the west coast trail, a famous trail in Canada, but I won't do it cause you have to go up and I don't do good on heights :)
We had our picnic on the beach and enjoyed the view. From here going straight in the ocean the next stop is Japan. You can see the west side of the island is more wild, just so beautiful, this is one of the most beautiful places I've been so far.
After showing me the little town of Port Renfrew we started to head back home.
It was a beautiful day in nature, so thankful Essa brought me here to witness this beautiful nature.
I hope you enjoy the pictures :)
Love,
Sarah

Sunday 7 October 2018

Hockey game and goats on a roof.

Hi,
The last few weeks I've been staying with a lovely workaway family :)
I could even take a job on to make some money, so now I also work in a Subway :)
The family tries to do stuff with me in the weekends, 2 weekends ago I went to the farmers market with the mom and daughter and that was really nice. I also saw a field hockey game from the daughters team, which was nice to see. The sunday the son took me out for a hike and that was really nice and we also took their dog Oliver :)

But last weekend I saw my first Ice hockey game :) Since a kid I loved the movie The mighty ducks, so I've always wanted to see a game. The mom got some tickets for me and Michael, also someone doing a Working holiday. The teen players made it that the game stopped every few minutes because of fighting, that was so funny to see, but one fight got pretty serious so that wasn't that nice. The game itself was cool to see, the skating gives it something elegant while the hitting each other against the wall gave it something raw and aggressive. This is a game for me :) I would like to go see a big game in Vancouver, so maybe next time :)

Sunday we went up island to Cooms, I had no idea what to expect but what was it a surprise :)
The ride up there is really nice to begin with :) Like Canada is known for a lot of beautiful nature.
Once we arrived I saw what it was al about, there were goats living on the roof of a shop/restaurant.
Like they live there year round, they have grass and housing on the roof :)
The shop has all kinds of food from all over the world and there is a great Italian restaurant.
You also have all kinds of little shops around there.
We also passed by a beach that is really busy and known in the summer time.
After that we went to Costco, a big supermarket, to do some shopping.
Really had a nice weekend with the family I'm staying with.

I know I've been posting less last weeks, but with working now I don't have much time to have adventures. But that will change in a while :)
Love,
Sarah


Wednesday 12 September 2018

Whistler

Hi,
So I just spent a week in a town called Whistler in BC.
It is known for hosting the winter olympics in 2010 and a big ski location in winter.
I was going there for a job opportunity but that didn't go as well as expected.

So the Saturday I flew from Montreal to Vancouver, I stayed in a hostel for 1 night because I didn't find a bus going to Whistler that day. I had a great evening in Vancouver seeing the sunset at sunset beach :) The next morning I had a walk in Stanley park and saw the totem poles. And after that it was time for me to take the bus for my next destination.

Sunday evening when I arrived I just chilled a bit and had some diner in my room :)
There was just 1 shop across the street and they did't had so much, especially for a vegetarian.
I had some chips and ice tea for diner and I bought myself a chocolate bar and smoothie for breakfast the next day.
Monday I went to the village and looked around a bit, it's such a nice village, small but nice.
I also did some grocery shopping to have some food at the hostel. I didn't want to do to much, cause the next day I would be tested for an hour in a bakery for a possible job.
Tuesday I got ready to go to my interview in the early afternoon. I got there way on time and so we started with a bit of conversation and then I got to work for a bit, showing how I was with customers.
I got payed in bread and cakes, so not so bad :) But I didn't get the job I've heard after a few days.
I got out of the hostel to enjoy a beautiful sunset surrounded by mountains.
Wednesday I've got ready for a hike, so I went into the village and asked at the info centre what I could do. A lot of the walks involved going up with a gondola and we all know I'm afraid of heights..so that was a big no :) Then she said there were a few options without the gondola, so I did one who started not so far from the village. I went to walk on the Lost lake trail, a 5km that would be easy and without to much ups and downs. Honestly I was a bit anxious about seeing a bear, but I didn't saw one, but I did hear one growl from a distance. Once I walked almost around the whole lake , I came across a platform in the water. There was a warning sign saying clothing was optional on the platform, and yes it didn't take long. After sitting there 5 min a couple decided to go skinny dipping and after an hour the first nudist were there, 2 different (older) guys decided to do some naked sunbathing. That was my queue to go :) I thought about coming back the next day to do some swimming, but that was before I saw a snake swimming in the lake.
A bit later in the afternoon i decided to do the little hike behind the hostel, called the Trainwreck trail.
The path was really small on that one and there were almost no people, it being after 5pm, so I got a bit nervous about bears and such but kept on going. What I did't know was that there was a suspension bridge I needed to cross, luckily it wasn't that heigh but it did move a lot. Once across I was at the train wrecks, that was nice and weird to see. And then I saw the sign to say you were in bear territory, so going back I went so fast :) Not hiking alone again in bear country.
Thursday I went back to the lost lake but took another way going there, it would be the last nice sunny day so I wanted to enjoy it.
Friday it was raining all day so I stayed in and also booked 2 more nights in the hostel, because I needed to figure out my next step.
Saturday the weather looked a bit grey, but dry, so I went into the village for some souvenirs and some diner. Arriving back in the hostel the rain started again.
Sunday was a rainy day and I got my things into order to leave the next day. Breakfast was nice because the 2 german girls in my room made pancakes and invited me to have some with them.
Monday it was time to say goodbye to Whistler and started my trip to Duncan on Vancouver Island, where I'll stay with a workaway family till I figure out my next step  :)

It was a busy week but I enjoyed my time in Whistler and who knows I'll come back in winter ;)
Love,
Sarah

Sunday 26 August 2018

Mont Tremblant: my first national park

Hi,
I've waited a long time for this day :)
The reason why I came to Canada was for the nature and of course there National Parks.
Now I did my first one in Quebec, cause I really wanted to do one on this site, before later on my travel doing the big ones on the other side of the country.

I've found a shuttle who did Montreal - Mont Tremblant and booked myself a ticket :)
We left from downtown at 8am with a typical yellow schoolbus! Also a first for me :)
Ones out of the city you had amazing views and the closer we got, you saw the mountains and ski lifts for the winter. A lot of lakes also ones we got close.
They dropped us of at Lake Monroe and we got a map and a reminder to be back at 3.45pm to go back to the city.
First stop to the bathroom and then get some info on the trails.
I went with the 'La roche' trail, cause ones on top you would have an amazing view of the lake and the mountains. Of course that meant a hike going way up :)
I've heard that in this park they still had wolves and it was also home to the black bear.
On one side I wanted to see a bear (from a safe distant), but sadly I haven't saw one :(
Going up was hard, especially ones halfway. It went up really steep and I wasn't the only one having some trouble and in need of some breaks. At a point you don't even notice the nice nature around you, it was that bad.... But it was all worth it in the end, ones you get at the lookout point you forget the pain :)
The view is just amazing...The lake, the mountains, the nature... Perfect!
I took a break and had some lunch while enjoying the view up there.
A little squirrel tried to get in my bag for food, the cutie :)
Ones I took in this beautiful view I started to go down again.
I took my time to take some pictures and enjoy more of the nature, some small waterfalls and I saw a deer :) The only big animal I saw up there, but still beautiful to see :)
Ones back down I went to fill up my water bottle.
I walked a bit around the lake and enjoyed the view.
There was a dock with some chairs on and I took a break there to look over the lake.
Ones more people came on the dock I saw one a bit further with a small beach, so I decided to go check it out. There were no chairs here, but a canoe with paintings on. Looked like one of the First Nations, really nice. I sad a bit on the dock to enjoy the view some more. Can't get enough of that view. While I sat there I knew this is why I came to Canada, to enjoy views and nature like this.
After a nice day it was time to get back to the city :(

This was one of my favorite days so far in Canada :)
Love,
Sarah

Wednesday 22 August 2018

Fun weekend in Montreal

Hi,
So last weekend was a busy weekend for me in Montreal.

On saturday one of my roommates invited me to come to Cap Saint Jacques, a park outside of the city. We brought our picnic and beachwear and went to the park. First stop was the ecological farm, where we took a walk and saw some animals. My favorite were the little piglets!! Never saw them in real and of course I needed to pet them :) Then we did a little walk in the park, before going back to the car to go see the beach. Once at the beach we first had our picnic and then had a walk to a Castle nearby. It was a nice little walk. Then we headed to the beach, where I just put my feet in the water, cause it was not that hot to take a swim. We had some relax time there. After we saw you could look at some turtles, so of course I wanted to check that out :) We had a little walk till there and first we could not find turtles, until we looked further in the water. They were all sunbathing on a log of wood. Just a great view. In the evening there was a astronomy gathering at the main entrance of the park, this was the main reason we came :) We had some great info of how to take pictures of the sky and stars. And once it was dark we could go see through the telescopes of the professionals. This is what we saw: Moon, Mars, Jupiter, M57 ( ring nebula), M13 ( hercules cluster).
We had a great day and evening!

Sunday it was the Pride Parade in Montreal, I've heard it was one of the big ones :)
Never been to one so one of my roommates wanted to join and a friend I've met in Toronto was in town and also joined us. It was so colorful and fun! A lot of music and dancing :) I've seen Justin Trudeau and Antoni from Queer eye ( see picture ). What surprised me the most were all of the religions supporting the LGBTQ community, really didn't expect that, but was nice to see.
I had a great time, and at the end me and my friend decided to walk a bit with the parade to show support. It was a great day!

So after that weekend I was so tired :)
I enjoyed myself so much and ready for some more adventures.
Love,
Sarah










Sunday 12 August 2018

Toronto

Hi,
Just got back from a few days in Toronto :)
Let me tell you all about it.

To get there I travelled with a site called amigo express, a carpool site. Never done that before, it's not really something we have back home. But everything went great, did some stops along the way.
It was a 6 hours drive till there and it went like you would expect, hahaha.
I got at my hostel, who was great btw, around 17:30h. So I checked in, got the tour and got into my room. A bit further in the street I found a vegan restaurant and had some diner.
I went to bet pretty early goes the next day I had to wake up at 6am to get my bus to the Niagara falls.

So the second day I woke up real early and walked to the bus terminal, for the first time on a greyhound bus :) They split us up in 2 groups, the ones going to the  falls and the ones going to NY.
Came out a bunch of us going to the falls needed to wait on a other bus cause the first one got full.
But at the end got there pretty much on time. Still had to walk about 30 minutes to get to the actual falls, but it was a walk next the river so not that bad.
I just have one word for the Niagara falls, AMAZING!
Mother nature did great there, I mean it's just wow.
I went on the Hornblower, the boat who gets real close and personal with the falls :)
We got some red rain ponchos and on the side of the US they got blue ones.
I knew we were going to get wet, but I didn't expect to get an actual shower :) That was so crazy, I mean my hood came of just of the power of that water coming down. I was soaked!!
Had a bit of a panic cause some water got in my camera and my memory card did a bit weird, but it got fixed by drying the next day.
In the afternoon I did the Behind the falls walk. Again you get a rain poncho, this time a yellow one.
You get down 38m with an elevator, then you are in the caves behind the falls.
In one tunnel you really got a good view from behind, you just see water coming down. And you hear the power of the falls. You also get to two platforms right next to where the water falls down. On the top platform you get wet, but on the lower one you get soaked :) Afternoon shower anyone?
It's just great to see it from that close.
I also went on top to see the river coming closer to then fall down.
I just had the best day over there, nature is amazing.

On my last full day I visited Toronto itself. Didn't got lucky with the weather in the morning, cause it was pouring down. But the hostel got some umbrella's for people to borrow. I went do Graffiti Alley first and took some nice pictures there :) Then I went to the city hall to take pictures of the big Toronto letters. After that rain stopped, but my feet were soaked :( I found some other shoes at H&M, so I continued my way to the CN tower. I didn't get up but took some pictures :) For the rest I walked some more downtown and enjoyed the city. What was kinda weird for me was to find streets with houses (like regular houses) in the city. Just thought that was a bit weird, thinking of a big city. I didn't felt great cause my feet got so wet and then it got hot, so I got back to rest some in the hostel before going for diner. I went to diner with a friend I've met in the beginning of my travels in a hostel in Montreal. We had a great evening together.

The morning of my last day I walked around a bit more in the city and got some snacks for the busied back to Montreal. It was a 7 hours long busdrive, just crazy. But it was ok :)

I had a great time in Toronto :) Everyone who knows me must know that the Niagara falls was the highlight of my trip, cause I love nature. But the city was nice to visit to. I'm happy I changed my mind to stay in Toronto for a few months, cause I wouldn't have liked living there. Thats just me, cause I'm not a big city kind of girl. But I can imagine people loving to live there :)
I hope you liked my adventures so far.

Love,
Sarah

Toronto by night 

Behind the falls
 





Sunday 29 July 2018

English pie recipe

Hi,
While starting watching The great british bake of I've been tempted to make some english pie myself, but then totally vegan :)
Here you have my recipe :) For 2 ;)

For the pie :
- Flour 200gr
- Butter (vegan) 100gr
- Ice cold water
- Pinch of salt

For the stuffing :
- Mushrooms
- Spinach
- Soy milk
- Salt
- Pepper
- Butter
- Flour

I started to make the stuffing first cause everything needs to be cold before putting the pie together to have a good bake.
First wash and cook your spinach, then do the same with your mushrooms.
I make my saus to bind everything like this: put some butter in a pan then ad a spoon of flour to it and some salt and pepper. Now put the stove on under your pot and whisk all this together, when it all start to stick together you put some soy milk to the mix but keep whisking. Put soy milk and whisk till it look like a good texture. Now put your vegetables in the saus, make sure to get most of the water out of your spinach. Mix this all together and if necessary put some more salt and pepper.
Now you can put this aside to cool down.

For the pie put the flour in a bowl and ad the butter to it. Wash your hands cause you're going in :)
Rub the butter into the flour gently if it's all mixing together you can start by adding 4 spoons of the ice-cold water in. Keep doing that till you have a good texture. Roll the dough in a ball and put it in the bowl with a plastic foil over it and put it for 30 min or longer in the fridge to cool.

Now get some flour on your counter top and roll out the dough till it's half a cm.
Make sure to butter up your cooking form you're going to put this in and put some flour in it to, so it doesn't stick after.
Now put in your stuffing.
Then roll out the rest of your dough to use as the top.
Put it over to close your pie but cut a whole in the middle of it to let the air out.
Now brush on some water over the top to make a nice crust.

Put it in the oven for 40min on 180°C. Till it's golden brown.

Watch out it will be hot when you get it out so let it cool for a few minutes before eating it :)
Enjoy your pie :)
( Of course you can fill your pie with everything you want, if your not vegan you can of course put some cheese in it, and if you eat meat go ahead and enjoy )

Love,
Sarah

Friday 27 July 2018

Getting used to Montreal

Hi,

I know it's been a while.
I've settled in into my room and shared housing and my roommates are great :)
Been looking for a job since I've arrived here but still no luck, had some interviews but nothing more.
Is it because they know that I'm here with a working holiday so not planning to stay long? Not that I tell them that :)
So now I've decided that instead of stressing around about not finding a job I just need to enjoy my time here and work out my next steps on this journey.
Planning now to go do some national parks with my roommate probably, so that should be fun :)
Also looking to maybe go a few days to Ottawa to visit and of course i have to go visit Toronto and the Niagara falls  while I'm still on this side of Canada.
So with all this on the planning for next month I should have enough to post also :)
What I love about the place where I stay now is that even if it still is in the city it's not downtown so really chill. I even made a friend who comes almost each day :) haha it's a squirrel and he's just so cute (if you know me you know I love animals)
My room has a view on the little garden so I have a good look at it :)
I've been to the Firework festival here in Montreal last saturday because it was a Game of Thrones theme, but did not see any dragons :) but it was nice fireworks.
Also this saturday I go to the just for laughs festival, which is all about comedy. So on demand of my sister I'm going to see the Tiffany Hadish gala :) my sister is such a big fan and I thing she was so funny in Girls trip, so looking forward to that :)
For the rest I try to enjoy myself the best I can, sometimes it's weird to do things by myself, but I'm getting there :)

Love,
Sarah

Sunday 1 July 2018

My work away with the huskies

Hi,
I know I'm a bit late with my post, but my charger for my laptop died so needed to buy a new one.
Already back in Montreal looking for a job for the summer, just got in my room for the next 2 months.

I arrived at Plessisville on the 16th of june in the evening, I got a ride till the place I would stay, called Randonee Mickla. In the winter they have a dog sledding company and I was there now to help take care of the 100 huskies :) By arrival I already got to see them all and meet some from up close.
There were 4 other people staying there to help out, a couple from Mexico who were very nice and 2 french guys who were not social at all. But I was tired so got to bed to be fresh in the morning.
The job was to go feed the chickens and bunnies and check for eggs with the chickens.
For the dogs we had to give them water twice a day, once in the morning and once around 5PM.
The guy who was in charge came every morning with the meat for the dogs, which were frozen chickens cut in half. So we put the meat in the back of the quad and went to feed the dogs.
All the dogs were very nice, but one dog always barked at me even if I came close to let him smell me he didn't liked me... I can't please everyone :)
The big group of dogs stayed at 2min walk from our place, each dog was chained to a pole and had their own little house. They didn't got a lot of place to move but I guess it was enough... We could walk the dogs but you had to be sure you could handle them and we had to ask a guy which we could walk, but the guy wasn't there a lot.
There were also a few dogs staying closer to us, that were the younger once (who still have to learn how it all works) and the once people left there behind.
While I was there a guy came to leave behind his 4 year old siberian husky and it was so sad. But then a few days later he comes back to see him and asks the guy in charge if gets walks, cause he's used to walk 5km a day. The guy says no because even the other dogs don't get that kind of walk.
And a few days later he came back to walk his dog and then leaves again. How confusing for this dog!! Didn't liked that :(
My best friend on this stay was Charlie, the little puppy. He was so cute and we got really attached to each other. The day i left he was following me so I had to go and put him inside so he wouldn't get on the busy road. His mom Louve was also so loving, it was sad to leave them :(
There was also one dog who wasn't a husky and the only one who could be inside and also slept inside, Boulette is 13 years old and was so nice :) our little guard dog.
I had a great time here with all those dogs!!

Love,
Sarah

Sunday 17 June 2018

My first work away experience

Hi,
So the past 2 weeks I've spent on the beautiful Ile d'Orleans.
Here I stayed in motel île d'Orleans and worked as a volunteer.
The concept work away is so you can travel cheap and on the place you stay you work max 5 hours a day and in return you get your stay and food. I've learned of this from a girl in my hostel in Montreal.

Here at the motel I was helping out with cleaning the rooms and preparing them for the new guest.
It was nice that you always got a thank you for your work after each day, even if it's part of the deal.
The two hosts Stephanie and Francois are very nice people and take really good care of you.
Just across the bridge you have the beautiful Montmorency falls and on my first day Francois took me there, because he was going for a run there with Elise the other girl who was there to volunteer.
Me and Elise stayed at the motel in a room with a kitchen and bathroom, just the perfect size for 2.
We got along great and on our days off or after work we explored the island together.
The first week Stephanie invited us to go to the movies with her and we had a great girls time :)
Also my first movie experience in Canada :)
Once a week we went to the supermarket with Stephanie and we could choose our groceries for a week, which was nice.
We could also borrow a bike if we wanted to explore the island, but I'm more of a walker than a biker.
One day of I did a 16km walk and saw some beautiful nature and the richer side of the island, you won't believe the houses I saw and the view they have. If only I had the money ;)
On the island you have all these little businesses who make their own products, like I went to the chocolatier and the nougatier. But my favorite was Monna & filles where they made everything with cassis. Everything was so good there :)

Also in 15min you're in Quebec city, so one day after work me and Elise went to visit. Or should I say she was my tour guide, cause she already knew the city. Of course the day we went the G7 was going on. We saw a manifestation, but it was pretty calm.
The city is small and cute, especially the old town. Loved visiting it :)

I just had a great time here and now it's time to move on to my new adventure.
Thank you Stephanie and Francois for the great experience :)

Love,
Sarah