Cool Things About Canada
- The people are lovely, so friendly and helpful, only met one surly Canadian and I can hardly blame her she was stuck in a toll booth taking money from reluctant travellers going into the National Parks
- The Rocky Mountains are amazing! Never seen anything like it in my life, so beautiful (except maybe New Zealand, looked a lot like NZ on steroids and without any sheep).
- Vancouver is a really pretty city, very clean and modern and so many green zones and tree lined avenues.
- Polite traffic… four lanes merging into one – no problems.
- Nice classy beggars… dude chalking a Caravaggio painting onto the sidewalk (much classier than the gypsies waving heather at you in London!)
- Polishing up on my French… not speaking with anyone, but reading plenty of it. 🙂
- Cute little ground critters… squirrels, chipmunks and gopher type things that would come right up and play around you.
Not so Cool Things About Canada
- Couldn’t work out half the road rules… flashing green lights, four way stop signs? Who has right of way?
- The pollen from the pine trees… it’s everywhere, a fine yellow dust that gets in your eyes, and puts a fine layer of yellow dust on everything, so glad I am not allergic to it.
- Tax. Everything you buy is the price on the shelf, plus tax… and tax rates vary depending on what you are buying. Just include the damn tax in the shelf price and itemize it on the receipt – we all know it’s there.
- Really, really bad road signs, even on the Icefields Parkway, a highway known for its amazing stops and lookouts… never a sign at the actually turn, it’s usually back a few kms, if at all. And hardly ever do you see distances on road signs, so you’re never quite sure how far you have left to go until a point of interest.
All up though, I loved Canada and reckon I could live here… now if I could just convince my in-laws to spend one Christmas in Canada so we could come and visit and I could see whether or not I could cope with the weather in winter!
