A New Year, A New Adventure

After leaving Paris in July and moving back home, we have spent countless hours figuring out our next steps. Where should we go and for how long? There are so many countries and cities that are on our bucket list. Which ones should we choose? How can we make this work and tie it all together? We saved endless lists, accommodations, flight options and more. Finally, we started to solidify an itinerary. Even as we are writing this, we are still finalizing the end to this epic new adventure. Are you ready to come along with us? Pack your bags. On y va!

Perhaps you are curious where are we heading now? Our first stop was Vancouver, Canada. We decided that this would be a good location to settle in a bit. Time flies as we already spent a whole month here. This type of slow travel allowed us to work, plan, and have more normal routines. We stayed in the Oakridge/Sunset section, a diverse neighborhood with beautiful parks and excellent transit. Although there is an abundance of restaurants, shops and bars scattered all over the area, the block that our airbnb is located retains a homey, residential feel. We found a great bakery within a 20 minute walk on Main Street called Sweet Thea Bakery. If you plan on heading to Vancouver, we highly recommend this spot as they have great breads, pastries and even coffee.

If you don’t already know, we are huge Anthony Bourdain fans and one of his spots that he would go to in Vancouver was Tojo’s. As this was one of our first true sushi experiences, we tasted some of the freshest seafood in our life. The Tuna Tataki was a highlight and a must try when dining at this “Vancity” institution.

Two of the most enjoyable activities were venturing to the third largest park in North America, Stanley Park and the vibrant Granville Island. Stanley Park is a one of the kind peninsula with forested trails, a water park, a heated outdoor pool and both sandy and rocky beaches. Mesmerized by the surrounding crystal clear water, we decided to walk around this national historic site. Although the 7+ miles/10 kilometers walk may not be for everyone, we saw many people riding their bikes/electric bikes and just relaxing on the benches while soaking in the nature and wildlife. We were even fortunate to see more than 10 seals during our walk. It was fascinating to just admire them swimming around in the ocean, not a care in the world. As we passed several beaches along the way, we were reminded on how much we missed the distinct smell of the sea and the sound of the crashing waves. Even though it was too windy and cold to enjoy the sand, we were still happy to just take in the sunshine, as we discovered it can be very rainy in January.

Another day, we travelled to Granville Island, where we gathered some great snacks at the Public Market. The friendly staff at Benton Brothers Fine Cheese helped us select a nice array of Canadian cheeses. We couldn’t resist picking up some Montréal style bagels (specifically blueberry and sesame bagels) at Siegel’s Bagels. Olive lovers will appreciate the variety of olives at Duso’s Italian Food. For something uniquely Vancouver, Longliner Seafoods has maple candied salmon and double smoked salmon; along with the “half sour” fermented pickles at Hobbs Pickles and the honey glazed donut at Lee’s Donut. After gathering the goodies, we walked over to Liberty Distillery, Vancouver's first 100% Craft Distillery. The staff was very attentive and made us two delicious cocktails, Ruby Red and Bay of Islands. They select only the finest, organic British Columbia grains to make their spirits; which you can clearly taste the difference in both of their drinks. Our final destination was the self proclaimed, Canada’s first microbrewery, Granville Island Brewery. Their Belgian Strong Dark Ale fittingly called “Black Mass” and the light, refreshing Chicha de Jora, or corn beer named Cermaiza were clear stand outs in their selection. However the big surprise was their tasty roasted cauliflower appetizer and the Mediterranean sandwich.

Apparently heavy snowfall is a rarity in Vancouver and a snowstorm hit us on our very last day. We had some camera work done a few weeks ago and Gary from Everything Electronics even braved the snow to deliver our camera. With our freshened up camera in our hands and our bags packed, we jumped on a plane the next day and flew for about 10 hours to our next destination on this adventure.

We are in…Japan!

We finally made it to Asia and we will be spending the next three weeks here. Stay tuned to find out more😉.

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