This trip to Ottawa and Montreal is the first vacation travel that Peter and I have done since returning from Europe, which is a horrifying summary of how busy and sucky work life has been. It`s also a bit related to the fact that our urge to sightsee/explore new places disappeared entirely after Europe.
This trip has been dipping our toes back in the travel waters to see if we enjoy it still. And the verdict is mixed. Vacationing is nice. Sightseeing.... meh. Ottawa was lovely because I vaguely remembered the place from when I lived there long long ago and it is pleasant to be in a city where you know enough to navigate and can revisit places you once knew. Also - exploring an english-speaking place is so easy! Giddy-making easy!
Montreal has been interesting - we have never visited here properly despite living in ottawa for 4 years. We have done a lot of walking and gone in a museum and visited parks - so we are playing tourist fairly well. We are sure to put in a lot of down time so we return home rested rather than exhausted. It's nice, but the urge to explore didn't last long if I am honest. We spend a lot of time in cafes.
I do love how bilingual this city is (in the downtown core at least) - I understand the French mostly but I can reply in English and no one seems offended. I'm amazed at the number of people here who are bilingual (and many of them probably tri-lingual). Makes me jealous - if only I had gone to French immersion school, I too could have been bilingual!! *sigh*We're trying to make plans for our February trip to Europe for the ball in Vienna(!) and we are honestly scratching our heads trying to figure out what to do with our time in Europe since our usual approach of wandering around cities doesn't work so well in cold winter places. Our general lack of sightseeing curiosity isn't helping. We're currently thinking we go to Vienna, then Innsbruck for Peter to go snowboarding, then maybe to Munich before ending in Krakow or Prague to visit Peter's sister.
If anyone has suggestions for things to do other than sightseeing, let me know. We're excited for the ball and seeing people who live over in Europe, but we aren't as excited as we should be about the rest. Looks like our year in Europe broke us.
First world problems for sure, I know.
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| Peter happy to be in a quirky live music venue in Montreal |
I think this happens to a lot of people after travelling a lot, seeing things because they are there and you should just aren't enough. I find I prefer to travel with more purpose now and at a slower pace (perhaps that is because I live in London though).
I would go to a city to see someone, or attend something, or to do something new. Finding travel options which push your comfort zone and and when you are pushed you grow as a person. Something visiting churches, museums and castles doesn't really do any more for me.
It's part of the reason why bike touring has become very attractive, it's slower travel, you are exposed to more, you get fitter while on vacation (or at least negate some of the damage done by coffee, cake and wine). It also combines 2 things I love, travel, exploring and cycling :)
Yup - that's exactly the conclusion we reached at the end of our year in Europe - we need a reason to go to a place now, something more than just sightseeing. We ended up planning our Vienna trip to be only 2 weeks rather than 3.... realized we were trying to find reasons to stay longer when there were none that excited us. So we'll do vienna for the ball and so see friends and then Innsbruck so peter can snowboard in the alps while I enjoy cafes, then we'll come home and save some vacation time for something else.