Oh Canada, you were just wonderful to us. Last Sunday, when the plane landed back in Germany we were all extremly tired but also really happy and overwhelmed by all the amazing impressions. Ten days power-traveling through Canada was hard at times but it was absolutely worth it. I didn´t want to present all the 5000 pictures I took in one huge post so I decided to spilt them up in two posts. So here we go…

The first stop was Penticton, a lovely little town about 4 hours from Vancouver, where my little brother spent his year as an exchange student. I think there are far worse places you can end up for a year, the town is located between two huge lakes in the middle of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It´s absolutely beautiful there. The climate has its upsides too, we were told that it is extremely mild for Canada. The region is also known for its wine and its orchards. Fresh fruit everywhere! We had one day to get an impression of the town and the scenery and get to know the host family before it was time to say goodbye. Heartbreaking!

Fresh garlic from the backyard.  Afterwards we went to Seattle. That meant a 6 hour drive through gorgeous landscape and a (for us Europeans unfamiliar and very long) border crossing. Seattle is absolutely beautiful! I didn´t really know what to expect of Seattle beforehand but I was stunned. I love cities with beaches or a river and Seattle has a lot of water! Basically everywhere there you have access to the sea and the view from some of these houses must be amazing. Sometimes you go visit a City and it just clicks…that´s what happened for me with Seattle. I loved it!

The first thing we did in Seattle was go to the Pike Place Market. Unfortunately, the other 500 tourist that were in town had the same Idea, so it was pretty crowded. It´s probably better to go there early during the week to get a better picture of the original atmosphere. Nonetheless, the foodie in me was excited to see all the fresh fruit, fish and vegetables. It was really hard to control myself and not buy five bags of fresh fruit.

The next stop was the University of Washington. Long time ago, my father supervised a collaboration of several students and the company he was employed at and ever since he is telling us about the campus. He is right though, it really is beautiful. When I compare that to my home university here in Germany – let´s just say it is not nearly as pretty as the one in Seattle. On the other hand, when I compare the tuition fees, I might not be as jealous anymore.

We also made a stop in Fremont and had dinner in Ballard. Both are lovely neighbourhoods with lots of bars, restaurants and cute little shops.

In the evening we felt the urge to get out of the city so we drove until we found a beach we liked. Worth it!

After that quick stopover in the States we made our way back to Canada. We headed to Victoria on Vancouver Island and were extremely lucky on the way – on one of the ferry rides we got to see Orcas.

Victoria is a pretty little town with lots of tourists and even more musicians playing in the streets. They were at every corner and these guys were just awesome. The O´brien Family is originally from the UK but right now they are in Canada, playing at several festivals, concerts or just plain in the streets. It´s definitely worth it checking them out.

Chinatown.

We couldn´t pass this place without stopping and trying some of the chocolates. They were amazing!

We just had a very quick stopover in Victoria before heading up to Ucluelet, a small town at the pacific coast, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. But these pictures are for the next post…