VIA Canada 150 Trip Part 5: Baddeck, NS

VIA Canada 150 Trip Part 5: Baddeck, NS

The day I spent in Baddeck was a day unlike any other days this year. Or possibly even any other days Iโ€™ve had in the past few years. For the first time in such a long time, I finally remembered again how it feels like to be completely at ease, to sense the solid peacefulness of summer vibes, to wholly feel soothed and renewed. To simply forget and not worry about the past nor the future, for all that matters is really the present. To be brought back to a place Iโ€™ve never had a chance to wander to in such a long period before that day; a place in my mind where solitude is truly a blissโ€”and not at all a sign of loneliness nor missing companions.

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VIA Canada 150 Trip Part 4: Halifax, NS

VIA Canada 150 Trip Part 4: Halifax, NS

Halifax actually reminds me of Edmonton quite a bit too much. This is another kind of a laid-back capital city filled with nice strangers who always go with, โ€œHi! How are you? Have a nice day!โ€ sort of template within daily conversation in grocery stores or anywhere else with customer services. People say thank you to the bus driver even though theyโ€™re exiting from the back door that is a few meters away from the driver upfront, strangers smile at each other when their eyes accidentally meet, the bus drivers smile at each passenger that come aboard, and so forth.

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VIA Canada 150 Trip Part 3: The Ocean Train

VIA Canada 150 Trip Part 3: The Ocean Train

I remember perfectly the very first thing that came to my mind once I dragged my eyes out of my laptop screen to the moving window of VIA’s the Ocean train that evening was one of Robert Frost’s world famous poem.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

I imagined, our train from a bird’s view would be meandering intrepidly along the railway that goes through a thick forest of pine woods, and only pine woods. Green and mighty, lush and tall. Fearless and unstoppable. And us humans inside, busy with each of their own universe. Some were wandering to the dream land, some were venturing into the imaginative universe through their laptop or tab screens where other humans mimicking lives we all never had, some dwelled into worlds of words made of ink, and others were just having cozy conversations with the person next seat. I was the second group, watching Emily Blunt catches daily glimpses of other persons’ lives from behind a moving window of a train.

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VIA Canada 150 Trip Part 0: Full Itinerary

VIA Canada 150 Trip Part 0: Full Itinerary

The possibly best summer in my life that I had been very much looking forward to has finally come! Iโ€™m happy to admit that I had been very fortunate to have come and lived in Canada this year, for this year the country is celebrating its 150th birthday meaning amazing once-in-a-lifetime deals of tourism are lining up. What everyone had foreseen since last year was that the entrance to all national parks are becoming free for this entire year, but one thing that came as a great surprise was that: Via Rail offered a 150$ Canada 150 Youth Pass which means with 150$ you could basically travel to anywhere across Canada using Via Rail train service, for the entire July 2017. How cool was that?!

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New Yearโ€™s Eve in Chicago, IL (2017)

New Yearโ€™s Eve in Chicago, IL (2017)

Chicago was our third destination during our first trip to The States. Having learned from the previous couple of cities, I had a feeling that this city was also going to be all about expecting the unexpected. Iโ€™ve never had a particular amibition to make a visit here, as neither have I about NYC and Washington that were such metropolitan cities I thought I wouldnโ€™t fall for, but Peter (and other sources on internet) convinced Adhi and me that we had to celebrate the New Yearโ€™s Eve in Chicago.

It was apparently a wise decision to make and Iโ€™ll sure tell you why.

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