A Spontaneous Trip // First and Second Stop Manitoba (Winnipeg & Spruce Woods Spirit Sands) // An Appreciation for Technology

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Monday June 6th I graduated! Yay! But that is not why I hopped on a plane several hours after my graduation. Everyone thinks I am on some post-grad journey of self discovery or trying to run away to peace and quiet after a brutal last year from hell. The truth is, now that I am free I am finally free to do what I was born to do, which is to travel. Also my boss at the restaurant needed me in July to fill in for everyone, and I eventually have to do the adult thing and look for jobs in my field so leaving in the middle of the summer made no sense. Plus it is Ramadan AND F1 weekend which means everyone who usually goes to the resto is either not eating supper this week or is going downtown for the cars (aka work will be dead so it was an opportune time to leave). So Sunday I got rid of all my shifts for the next week (by all, I mean a measly 3) and booked a flight to Winnipeg.

If anyone is from Quebec and plans to go West, if you do not have much time, I recommend starting from Winnipeg, last minute flights are CHEAP and Ontario is boring. From Winnipeg I slept Airport Inn Hotel for the night and rented a car the next morning. I spent the better part of the afternoon sitting in a Timmies because I had to plan my trip #wingingit and also I needed to Skype into a meeting back home for this summer environmental research internship I have (if you are not my friend and reading this look into the divest from fossil fuel movement 😉). At Timmies I met this man name Rene, he was from the Netherlands but has been travelling his whole life looking for work for 6 months - getting bored - and then travelling. Now he is in Canada as a truck driver but before that he started his own restaurant in Thailand for 6 years. He told me that people like me and him are just born with a gene and need to travel. I find it funny how everyone is more impressed that I am a lone traveller when they come to the sudden realization that I am a woman alone, he started telling me what a brave courageous person I am, which is nice to hear, but a funny thing to get from someone "because you are a woman travelling alone".

I came to a whole new appreciation for technology during my trip. I can call my family, text, and use my data/gps for no extra charge nation wide. I booked a trip last minute on the web and was able to find cheap hotels when I landed in that city at 1am. I cleared my Visa with my phone app to make sure I had room for my expenses. And as I sat in a cafe miles away I was still able to fulfill my commitment to attend a meeting back in Montreal. I would still be there right now if it was not for technology and how much more accessible it makes travelling these days.

So by the time I finished all the nitty gritty details of setting up my trip I was ready to head over to the HUMAN RIGHTS MUSEUM (YYYAAASSS!). This is the greatest museum ever. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT make my mistake and go at 3 because it closes at 5. Go from 9am-5pm. It is worth the time and the 14 dollars. It is a very interactive museum, I recorded my own story of human rights violations and they display it on a screen once it is approved. There bottom floor is dedicated to the history of human rights and defining what it has meant over the centuries, there is a floor dedicated to genocide which was really touching, there is a floor dedicated to all the human rights gains and losses all over Canada from Aboriginal to women's to french rights. The top floor is the tower of hope where you get a nice view of the city of Winnipeg and The Forks. That was half the museum, I did not have time to explore the rest unfortunately but I highly highly recommend everyone go. The museum is located in The Forks - a public space where the Assniboine and Red rivers meet. There is a nice food market with a lot of local shops with handmade jewelry, clothes, woodwork, etc... It closes at 6:30 though but apparently after July 1st it is open till 9:00. The public park is beautiful right along the rivers and there is a lot of Aboriginal art and sculptures depicting their history which was really great to see. I also visted Louis Riel'd grave at Saint Bonaifce Cathedral Cemetery, because it was right next to the Forks and they love their Louis Riel in Manitoba.

I decided to try couch surfing for the first time ever. As a woman travelling alone I was skeptical. But my host Ali was super welcoming and great! He made me Pakistani food for dinner and I brought him some cannolis for dessert from the market at The Forks. Later on that night we went bar hopping. Our first stop was Albert Street Cocktail Company. It had really cool decor and fancy but tasty drinks. Since it was a Wednesday night it was dead so we headed over to King's Pub just a few blocks down which was also dead but locals raved about it. Both these bars were in the Exchange district. We then headed over to Osbourne village which is a really great street with a lot of food a local clothing shops. The Cavern and The Toad in the Hole are right on top of each other. The Cavern had an excellent soul night, apparently Manitoba has a great music scene. And the Toad is a fun bar with pool and foozeball. The next day I headed back to Osbourne to do some shopping and met a local owner of "For the People" clothes shop who offered me a beer, he absolutely loves the Habs (represent!) and was the only local to tell me good things about Winnipeg. All the locals are very friendly and welcoming but find their city to be dull and boring. In Osbourne there is also this shop called Music Trade where you can find CDs, DVDs, and Records for $1-$5 so I would recommend check that out especially if you want some music for your road trip.

For the rest of my second day I just browsed downtown and saw the Winnipeg Jets hockey arean (MTS Center). I went to a col cafe called "Accross the Board" which is right next to Albert Street Cocktail Company. The food was delicious and if you are with a buddy or two y'all can play board games, but you usually need to reserve because they are very busy. I also happened to drive by the poorest area of Winnipeg on my way out and it is true what they say, there is an unproportional amount of poor Aboriginal people in the city who live in extreme poverty. Ironic that the Human Rights museum is located in Winnipeg, Canada's capital of racism and poverty.

On my way out of Winnipeg to Regina I stopped by Spruce National Park and hiked through the Spirit Sand and the Devil's Punching bowl, a historical spot of the Assiniboine (Nakota) First Nations people. The total hike was 9 kilometers, with photography it took me 2.5 hours to complete, but bring water and don't go in sandals because the sand is hooottt! If you take the highway 5 chances are you are entering the Spirit Sands from the East gate (place of beginnings) the South is the Place of Plenty, the North is the Place of Wisdom, and the West is the Place of Endings. The Devil's Punching Bowl is referred to as a green-blue eerie where the sand slides and disappears into the water, it has moved throughout time from the River more inland. From Spruce National Park the city of Brandon is a half hour drive away for lunch.

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