"So this is their summer?" remarks a lady wearing a black, bubble winter coat as she zooms by on her bike. Yes, the temperatures have dropped further down today. It's almost comical to look at the 14 day forecast where upon my arrival the temperature slowly drops and upon my departure it starts to rise again well into the 30s. Well that's ok no rain or overcast is going to stop me from exploring. I mean it rains here all the time and there still hasn't been one day of rain, just overcast skies, so I guess I'm lucky. There are a lot of tourists in town it seems. Vancouver is host to the Police and Fire Games this year and over 10, 000 firefighters and police officers from a round the world are in ... read more

It’s amazing the difference walking up one street makes. Exploring historic Gastown it’s hard to imagine that this was once called ‘Skid City’. The neighbourhood is trendy, polished and touristy. Walk up one street and you’re at East Hastings - the epicentre of Vancouver’s homeless and poverty crisis. They just moved everything up a few streets. As I draw toward the area I know exactly where I am without even looking at the signs. A red-haired lady stumbles past me, dazed and unable to walk a straight line. She spits here and there. People with shopping carts filled with bags upon bags of belongings push along and as I near the intersection of E Hastings and Columbia to my left there is a huge swarm of people in dirty clothes - literally a hundred I would ... read more

The smog may obscure my view of the mountains, turning most of them into distant shadows, but it sure does make for a pretty sunset. I am sitting on the balcony of a 2 million dollar home in White Rock, BC at a small get-together of my cousin’s friend from camp. Spent the day on the beach in White Rock. Not the best, lots of rocks and seaweed, but it’s still the Pacific Ocean and it was my first dip of the trip. The Festival of the Sea was going on so it was nice listening to some folk music while swimming or relaxing in the sun. The town reminds me a little of the O.C. - beach, pier, rich houses, close to a big city but just far enough; or I have possibly been watching ... read more

Montreal as a city has a flavour that I haven’t experienced anywhere else I have travelled. It seems like one of the most European-esque cities in Canada, probably even North America, but it also has that urban concrete jungle feel too it that is common in Canadian cities. I’ve been to Montreal plenty of times, but usually in big groups with school or my dance group. This time it was just my sister, our cousin and I. Our cousin had come from Poland this summer and had been to Canada many times but never outside of Toronto. With Greyhound tickets so cheap and Montreal only 8 hours away we decided to spend a week in this festive city. And festive it was. We lucked out on the Just for Laughs Festival and Montreal’s famous jazz festival, ... read more

So after our beautiful bus ride from Sarajevo, we finally arrived in the Mostar bus station and were bombarded by "soba" ladies. There were so many of them selling rooms that we could barely get off the bus and no matter how many times I told them I already had a room, they persisted. It was only until one of them noticed another bus pull into the station that they stopped. One of them would notice the other bus, point and yell and then they would all run to the other bus with their flyers. Mostar was interesting. On our way to Mostar the landscape had luscious, green, rolling hills, waterfalls and turquiose rivers. As we got closer to Mostar, the lanscape changed to barren hills littered with tree stumps. The city was pretty small, although ... read more