A Few Favourites | Wanderful

Photographs are an excellent way to save memories of people, places, friends, events, sunsets, scenery etc. While at times it is important to put the camera down and just look at the beauty of the scene in front of you, sometimes its those random shots you take, or the ones that remind you of a specific story around the time that the photo was taken. I have decided this week to share with you some of my favourite photos from Canada so far for one reason or another!

Every July 1st, Canadians celebrate their birthday of their own country. The whole country shuts down for the day’s celebrations and anything owned that is red and white is worn with pride. This is a scene from Ottawa and my first Canada day in 2010.

I first arrived in Canada in the winter, at the beginning of February. The Rideau Canal had just opened up for the skating season. This is my first skate along the world’s longest ice rink and also my first skate in quite a few number of years!

Summer evenings, in my opinion, should always be spent outside as much as possible. Whether its sitting on a patio or by a lake, running or relaxing with friends, I love to enjoy the late evenings and warmer weather. I realised pretty quickly that after such a long dark winter, I had begun to love the outdoors even more since moving to Canada. This is from Bluesfest. The annual 2 week festival in Ottawa just down the road from my house. packed full of other people enjoying the beautiful weather, music and drinks!

Continuing with the theme of summer, and related to a previous post on Canadian Cottage culture, this is a scene from my boyfriends cottage on the beautiful St Lawrence river and the 1000 islands. You can only come to cottages in the summer in general and its a haven of peace and escape from city life!

I’m sure it will sound crazy to many people reading this, but I have never (as far as I can remember) carved a pumpkin at Halloween! Under heavy instruction (and help!), the taller pumpkin was my first attempt at pumpkin carving before we hosted a Halloween party! I think it was pretty good!

As mentioned in my last post-this is a scene from the Ottawa Tulip Festival where I am delighted to see all the flowers in place of the snow!

I love this picture for a number of reasons, but mainly it is just the pure Canadian-ness of it. I am sharing a ‘beavertail’ with a friend while once again skating along the Rideau Canal.

The absolutely stunning ice hotel that my Boyfriend and I stayed in for a joint birthday (a day apart), Valentines and Anniversary–February is a busy month, but means we get an excellent excuse to splash out on a mini travel adventure!!

Still learning to walk in the deep Canadian snow!

Claudia Guest

A traveler all her life, Claudia was born in Germany and raised in England. She regularly visited various countries around Europe and the Americas, but it was when she was 18 that she really discovered her own overwhelming lust for travel. As soon as she finished school, she and two girlfriends backpacked through Italy, Southern France and Spain. Five months later she was back on a plane for a two-week sailing holiday in the Caribbean and a week after returning from that she was on another plane bound for Australia, where she traveled for three months, before going to teach English in Ecuador for four months. From there, she studied at university in England, traveled to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, and then headed to Canada on a work visa, where she is today. This summer, Claudia is working on a tourist cruise boat in Ottawa…yet constantly feels Asia calling her back. Try to keep track of where she goes- or just look up in the sky, where she’s most likely bound for somewhere new!