When you have family in foreign countries (that you want to visit) you need to make the most of it and that’s what I did when I decided to visit my brother and his girlfriend in Norway.  They had been living in Oslo for a little over two years and I had a good time with them showing me around their city.  Places that we visited included Frogner Park which had some pretty crazy statues, the Aker Brigger (Oslo’s waterfront with the fiord) which has some pretty nice restaurants, The Opera House which is a stunning building inside and out and you can walk up and around it getting some nice views and the Fram Museum that had exhibitions about Roland Amundsen (1^st person to reach the South Pole) and Captain Scott.

Other trips we took around Oslo were to some of the islands in Oslo Fiord were some really pretty views were had.  Me and my brother also hiked up Holmenkollen which was nice to get a good view of the city and fiord.  It was also really nice that it was so accessible from the city with just a short train required to get there.  Note, there is a Massive sky jump up there which is worth checking out.

Olso was really pretty and really dam clean but I couldn’t go to Norway and not do any hiking…so I headed west to Stavanger.  I got the train which took 8 hours.  To be honest I wouldn’t do it again as the scenery along this route wasn’t amazing.  From Stanvanger I went on two hikes.  The first was Priekenstolen.  I got their via a ferry and a bus that took you to the trail head.  It was very touristy but the views were worth it and I got really good weather.  Piekenstolen (the pulpit rock) is an amazing cliff face sticking out into Lysebotn.  The next day I hiked to Kjerag and got there this time by hire car.  Again, the views all the way along were magnificent and standing on the Kjerabolten was a pretty awesome experience.

 

 

Stavanger itself was really nice.  There are lots of shops, cafes and restaurant in the centre and old town Stavanger was stunning with its tiny winding streets.

So after living for Vancouver for two years my second year visa was up and I had decided that going back to Scotland was the right thing to do right now.  A work mate suggested that I drive across Canada before I do.  At first I thought he was crazy because I only had a Toyota Yaris and it was winter…in Canada.  But the more I thought about it I realised, when will I have an opportunity to do this again, I do have A car and I’m in a position to make a one way trip….so I did!:-)

So starting in Vancouver, I filled a water bottle with water from the Burrard Inlet (as close to the Pacific Ocean as I was going to get) and the idea was to carry this over to the other side and empty it into the Atlantic just like Thomas Wiby and Jack Haney (except in reverse) on their trip from Halifax to Vancouver in 1912  .

The first part of the trip was magical driving through the BC mountains and the Canadian Rockies in winter.  I felt lucky enough to be in the Rockies during the summer but lucky doesn’t begin to explain how I felt to visit there the following winter as well.  We stayed in Jasper for a night and then driving down to Lake Louise the following day was just fricking incredible.  We then spent a few days in Lake Louise going on a few hikes taking in more staggering views.

Then it was time to say goodbye to the mountains and the first stop was Calgary where we stayed with a friend of mine from work for a night which was really nice to catch up with him.  This was followed by days and days driving through the prairies.  It was such a contrast compared to the epic Rockies but was kind of epic in its own way, I have never been somewhere with so much sky!  This was also the coldest part of the journey with temperatures getting as low as -40 degrees celsius brrrrr! We did pay a visit to the dinosaur museum in Drumheller which was pretty cool and had a massive collection of dinosaur fossils, 70% of which were from Alberta.  In Ontario, Lake Superior was beast in itself and is the largest fresh water lake in the world by surface area.  We spent 8 hours driving along its shore and that is just the Canadian side of it.

 

The last phase of the trip was through the east coast cities.  After days of endless driving though the centre of Canada we spent a few days in Toronto with a friend.  Of course a trip to Niagara happened which was pretty surreal to see in the winter.  Ottawa was a nice little city (surprisingly small for a capital) but skating on the canal was awesome.  Montreal had really nice architecture and no shortage of murals.  There was quite a choice of vegan restaurants to choose from as well.  Quebec City was sooo beautiful and we stayed in the old town which is surrounded by an old city wall and its stone buildings and small narrow streets really did feel like a European city.  We then travelled into New Brunswick which had recently received a lot of snow and was pretty crazy to see banks of snow piled up metres and metres high on the side of the road.  We also spent a couple of nights on Prince Edward Island and got there crossing the Confederation Bridge, the longest bridge in the world over ice covered waters at 8 miles long.

Then finally, we made it to Halifax on the other end of Canada, 3.5 weeks and 9 provinces later and we emptied our bottle (nicknamed Burrard) into the Atlantic at Peggy’s Cove.  Halifax was a nice little city to explore.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to explore it quite as much as we would have hoped as quite a bit of time was spent trying to sell Yaris L but we did manage to make a trip to the Alexander Keith’s Brewery!

It was an absolute epic adventure and we did actually get quite lucky with the weather.  When we were in the prairies the east coast was getting hit with a lot of snow and when we were on the east coast the prairies were getting the snow.  But there were quite a few precautions we took such as buying a good set of winter tyres, carrying lots of food, blankets, warm clothes, snow shovel, flares, first aid etc.  We also checked the forecast every morning and decided how far we were going to travel that day then booked that nights’ accommodation.  The one thing we didn’t do, and would recommend doing if you plan a similar trip, was install a block heater in your car that you can plug in overnight.  There were quite a few mornings where I wasn’t sure if the car would start but thankfully did.

So it’s approaching Christmas in Canada…what to do….I know,  go rent out a log cabin and a Mongolian Yurt in The Yukon with your friends and spend your evenings hunting for the Northern Lights! The first place we stayed in was a brand new log cabin at Wheaton River Cabins south of Whitehorse http://www.wheatonriver.net/tour/log-cabin/ The cabin was really nice and came with a wood burning stove and its own dog!:P Pan the dog was actually the cabin owners but he loved attention and came around all the time and was sooo cute.  The wood burning stove kept the cabin really toasty even when it was -30 degrees celsius outside.  While we were in the cabin we spent most of our days (which was only about 5 hours of daylight at that time of year) wandering around the woods and playing on frozen lakes. Our evenings generally consisted of making a fire and staying out all night to hopefully catch a glimmer of some northern lights.  We were so determined to see northern lights that we stayed out in temperatures that were cold enough to freeze my beer!

Although on Christmas Eve (and I don’t think there is a better way to spend Christmas Eve) we did go for a dog sledge ride which was amazing! The huskies are so awesome and really eager to for a ride!  Dog sledging on a frozen river that you have all to yourself is a pretty good way to spend any day let alone Christmas Eve!

We spent 7 nights in the cabin and after 6 nights of seeing no lights we had lost all hope.  So on the 7^th night we decided to not think about that and just build as big a fire as possible with all the remaining wood.  And low and behold, in the early hours, the lights came out to play!  They were so beautiful, different parts of the sky would light up green and fade away only for another part to light up! My friends captured an awesome timelapse which you can view on their blog http://www.nomadiclove.com/winter-in-the-yukon-eplic-northern-lights-and-long-nights-timelapse/

Our last 3 nights in the Yukon were spent in a Mongolian Yurt still just a little south of Whitehorse https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/1151325 It was beautifully perched on the edge of a cliff with a view of the lake.  Again we had some more fun exploring the surroundings and playing on the frozen lake during daylight hours.  On Hogmanay we lit a fire around the fire pit and had some drinks around it.  A couple of girls that were staying in the cabin came out to join us and we also lit some Chinese lanterns with our hopes for the year at midnight.  Then we carried on drinking into the early hours:P Naturally me and Ryan were the last ones standing! The next day we woke up ‘slightly’ hung-over with a fresh layer of snow on the ground and somehow managed to drag our asses to the airport for our flight back.

This has to be one of the best trips I have taken in Canada to date! The mountains around Vancouver are beautiful but the Canadian Rockies are a whole other level!! First stop on the trip was in Jasper, a lovely little village in a beautiful mountain setting.  Also Jasper Brewing is worth peeking into.

Then the next part of the trip was a 43km hike to Tonquin Valley. The hike was amazing with the second half involving mountains in every direction.  We even came uncomfortably close to a grizzly bear but thankfully it didn’t see us.  Our hike took us to the cabins we would be staying in by Amethyst Lakes http://www.tonquinvalley.com/index.html which were in an incredible setting at the base of the Ramparts! We spent a few days here just exploring and taking boats and canoes on the lake.

 

After leaving Tonquin we drove south on Highway 93 through the Rockies towards Lake Louise and Field where we would stay for a few nights.  This was the most beautiful drive I had been on with huge mountains around every corner for hours.  We also went on the Columbia Icefield Glacier tour which was pretty fricking awesome.

From Field we went on a few hikes around Lake Louise to Moraine Lake, the Plain of 6 Glaciers and Lake o’Hara.  All of which were stunning and remain to be some of the best hikes I have ever done!

We also paid a visit to Banff and Canmore.  Banff is a pretty tourist town in a picturesque setting but was Very touristy.  Canmore is also worth visiting as it is just outside the national park so a lot less touristy but still a scenic area.  On the way back to Vancouver we stopped into Kelowna in the Okanagan for a couple of days.  There was a heat wave at this time and it got to 40 degrees Celsius, I honestly felt like I was walking around an oven.  We spent our time wandering around breweries and distilleries (mostly for air con! :P) and hanging out by the lake.  Some wineries were also visited (had to be done its wine country!) but had to limit the intake as driving was involved.

So I had used my first one year working holiday visa and to activate my second one the border had to be paid a visit….may as well take a trip to the states then! So Portland, Oregon was chosen and on the drive down de-toured through Astoria (where The Goonies was filmed) and Cannon beach and was treated to a beautiful sunset.

Wandering around Portland was nice.  It had nice views along the river and it had a small city hippy/edgy vibe to it with lots of vegan restaurants and micro-breweries.  Some of my favourite breweries were Bridgeport and Deschutes but there were so many more I didn’t even get too!  Taking a trip up to Pittock Mansion was good to get a bonny view of the city.

On the road back up to Vancouver a de-tour via Multnomah Falls was taken. They were very impressive but the bridge had been closed because apparently a boulder had crashed into it!!

On arriving to Shuswap in the interior of BC we headed up the river from Shuswap Lake.  At this time of year the red Sockeye Salmon return up the river to lay their eggs and then they actually die.  I had never seen so many fish in a river at once and them being red was even more surreal.  Unfortunately my camera wasn’t good enough to get a clear photo but I honestly believe I could have walked across the river on the salmon there was that many of them.

The next day we went on a drive to Revelstoke and then hiked up Revelstoke Mountain.  We had the whole mountain to ourselves and got some fantastic views.  In the evening the hostel we were staying at put on a Thanksgiving dinner, since it was Canadian Thanksgiving, which was really tasty!

On the way back to Vancouver we drove back via the Duffy Lake Road.  It was a stunning day and we were treated to some stunning mountain views!

In May 2013 my brothers came to Vancouver for a visit.  As part of that visit we took a wee trip down to Seattle.  Just wandering around downtown Seattle was nice which had a mixture of older and newer buildings.  This is quite a contrast compared to Vancouver where the vast majority of buildings in downtown are new glass towers. I had only being in Vancouver for 5 months but was already craving some older architecture!:P On the newer building front, the Space Needle lit up at night was pretty beautiful.

We also took a little wander over to Freemont which had a few random things like a trolls statue under a bridges!

Other star attractions in Seattle included the Pike Place Market (famous for fish throwing), the first ever Starbucks store, The Pike brew pub, the Cheescake Factory and the EMP museum (which I didn’t get to myself but my brothers went and had a great time).

In January 2013 I moved to Vancouver, Canada and I lived there for two years.  In that time various trips to Vancouver Island were had.

One of the towns that BC Ferries sail to is Nanaimo which is a pretty small  but bonny town.  From there I took a short boat trip to Newcastle Island which had no shortage of wildlife including raccoons, bald eagles, deer and wood peckers!

Over on the west coast Ucluelet and Tofino have to be visited.  The drive over there is beautiful with lots of mountain views and lakes to visit.  Also the massive trees at Cathedral Grove are just magnificent. The beaches between Ucluelet and Tofino aver very well known for surfing and I had my very first lesson here which I absolutely loved and I actually managed to stand up very briefly which I was pretty chuffed about.  Surfing is definitely on my re-to do list!  Tofino itself is a lovely little tourist town in a picturesque setting.

Victoria, the capital of BC, is a fun little city to explore and the BC legislature building is pretty stunning although the way it is lit up at night is not to my taste.  The beaches north of Victoria on the east coast are worth checking out too.  They don’t compare to their western island counterparts but worth a visit all the same.

 

As far as short city breaks go, Portsmouth and Southampton, in the south of England, are both pretty good options and easy to get to from one another.  Portsmouth has a really nice walking route down at the waterfront and the main road is set back a decent distance from the walk making it all the better.  There are no shortage of old historic buildings from the Victorian and Edwardian era’s so if you are a bit of an architecture geek like me then you won’t be disappointed.  On the other end of the scale the much newer Spinnaker tower is beautiful (particularly lit up at night) and offers nice city and sea views from the top on a nice day.

Also, in Southampton you can take a walk around and on top of the old medieval city walls which are pretty well preserved and impressive.

This was just a short 4 day trip to the “far north” where 2 out of 4 days were a right off as a result of poor weather but this is just the chance you have to take in Scotland! Besides, then you appreciate the nice days even more and appreciated they were!  On the first nice day I was camping a Durness campsite and explored the coastline a little!

On the next nice day I made the most of the long daylight hours and climbed two hills.  First was Ben Hope, the most northerly Munro, which offered fantastic views of Ben Loyal, the Queen of the Corbetts.  After Ben Hope was “bagged” I drove over to Ben Loyal and climbed that too.  From the ridge there were far reaching and beautiful views over the sea!