Butterbean89

Fire and destruction. There is something unsettling about flying over a mountain that is on fire. especially when you know that fire is one of about 160 in the greater area. While in Toronto Gemma and I had caught snippets of the weather for all of North America and we saw that British Columbia (BC) was in the grip of a ferocious heatwave. Some areas hitting 43 centigrade. The BC wilderness is typified by pine forests. Pine trees produce a lot of resin, it's that which you can smell on nice warm days and what gives them such a distinctive smell. It is also what puts Pine trees at a significant disadvantage during droughts and heatwaves. The resin is highly flammable, and in some trees known to take a spark even when wet. Due to the ... read more

Confession I'm going to start this blog with a confession... I wasn't particularly bothered about visiting the Falls when Gemma first mentioned it to me. During our initial planning for our trip many places were mentioned such as Montreal and Quebec and I wouldn't have been too concerned had Niagara Falls been overlooked as the aforementioned had. My mental image of the falls prior to visiting was one of a slightly impressive waterfall surrounded by Mickey Mouse-esque mascots selling crap and trying to pry your money from your wallet, in some grotesque horror show of capitalism based eco-tourism. Now lets not be under any illusion, there is still the fanfare and such but not on half the scale I imagined. In hindsight, I'm quite ashamed of how I initially felt about visiting but in my defence ... read more

A long time coming Back in December, with no travel planned I was sat in the lounge watching some inane program on TV when I was struck down with a super idea. Let's go to Canada. I ran it by Gemma, who for the most part is that voice of reason and the limit switch on my impulsiveness. I didn't anticipate for one minute she'd agree, but she did and after several weeks of planning and deciding on locations, activities, budget etc we booked flights to Toronto, an internal flight to Victoria and a flight back from Vancouver. It was 7 long months before we finally turned my absurd and flippant idea into a reality, but man what a trip it turned out to be! Toronto goes Gerry-atric We arrived in Toronto and made our way ... read more

Time for something completely different For most of my life the concept of caving has been an intriguing yet terrifying prospect. Earlier in the year I purchased a voucher for an outdoor activities day for Gemma and I for £50 instead of £260, among the activities listed was caving, climbing, gorge walking and abseiling. Gemma was keen to try the climbing and I the caving. We'd completely forgotten that we had booked onto it until I received an email earlier this week with consent forms and injury waivers to sign. We arrived at the predetermined meeting point in Calver and I waited for everyone else, we then drove up to Grindleford to a natural rock wall. I was pleasantly surprised as I thought we'd be at a climbing centre. This was just a wall a short ... read more

Respite So my long anticipated week off work rolled around, don't get me wrong I enjoy my job but sometimes you just got to have a rest. God knows my body needed it, the week before I had suffered a 5-day migraine. Which, as you can imagine, was about as pleasant as having your teeth pulled with a rusty pair of pliers and no anaesthetic. Gemma and I had a busy week ahead. Now normally I'd say holidaying in your own country isn't TravelBlog worthy. However it was an awesome week. (South-)Westward Ho! I hadn't seen my Nan for nearly two years, and she has recently had major surgery. Given she was mostly recovered we thought we'd grace her with our presence. We didn't want to stay too long so planned to stay Monday to Thursday, ... read more

My knowledge of Kyiv Before going to Kyiv and even Ukraine I had little knowledge of the area, similarly to Copenhagen which turned out to be quite the adventure. what limited insight I possessed could not have prepared me for the short stay we had in store. So you can imagine my lack of knowledge I shall list what I thought I knew. Ukraine was part of the USSR There was a horrendous famine in the early part of the 20th century Independence was gained following the dissolution of the Soviet Union Ukraine has historically been crapped on by the German's and the Russians Kyiv was sacked by the Mongol's in 1240 resulting in a Mongol victory The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station Lenin Reactor #4 exploded during tests on April 26th 1986 releasing 400 ... read more