Ottawa and the Chair of Horns

May 29, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

We just spent a weekend in Ottawa – as we went by car this time, we decided to focus on places that are a little harder to visit using public transportation.

I’ll start with the strangest part: we stopped at a flea market in Stittsville on Sunday. There was a lot of used furniture and the usual knick-knacks that are typically found at flea markets. But then we saw “it”! As you can see from the picture, “it” is a chair made out of animal horns. This raises all kinds of questions. Was the chair builder somehow inspired to build a Chair of Horns and subsequently went looking for the perfect horns? Or did the chair builder already have the horns…and then arrive at the unavoidable conclusion that they must be used to build a chair?

The startling chair of horns in Stittsville, Ontario — The startling **Chair of Horns** in Stittsville, Ontario

It would be interesting to know the answer. From my perspective, when I see horns, I don’t immediately think that “I must build a chair out of these”. Anyway, it’s quite unusual and, if you’re lucky, this Chair of Horns might even still be available for purchase!

Although we didn’t realize it was happening until we arrived in Ottawa, we also managed to attend part of the annual Tulip Festival. This festival has its roots in the gift of more than 100,000 tulip bulbs by the Netherlands to Canada, as thanks for Canada’s role in World War II (you can read the details here). The big event this year was the unveiling of the new “Canada 150”: a tulip that resembles the Canadian flag (see photo at the top of this post). It has been developed in anticipation of Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017 and will apparently be available commercially later this year.

Part of the Tulip Festival near Dow's Lake — Part of the Tulip Festival near Dow’s Lake

Many of our destinations were food-related. In addition to various ethnic grocery stores, we went to a Malaysian restaurant on Friday and a South Indian restaurant on Saturday. We learned that the food from the Kerala region of southern India is very spicy…even the mild dishes would be considered at least “medium hot” elsewhere. Fortunately, we were able to balance it with gelato from Little Italy on Preston Street.

World of Maps in the Hintonburg district of Ottawa

However, I think our best food experience was in the Hintonburg neighbourhood. We found a lot of great little shops here: my wife enjoyed a Christmas store, I enjoyed visiting a record shop, and we both spent a lot of time in “World of Maps”! As this is a travel blog, I have to mention this as a travel store worth visiting in Ottawa. Lots of maps and travel guides, of course, but also lots of other travel literature and supplies. If you need a New Zealand sticker for your car, or a flag from Barbados, this is your place!

My Capricciosa pizza at "Tennessy Willems" restaurant in Hintonburg — My Capricciosa pizza at “Tennessy Willems” restaurant in Hintonburg

Anyway, we had a great lunch at a Hintonburg restaurant called “Tennessy Willems” (spelling apparently intentional). It focused on Italian food and was extremely committed to local ingredients. The Capricciosa pizza (usually my favourite kind) was one of the best I’ve ever had; I’m glad that I remembered to take a picture before eating. The sauce was particularly good – the restaurant even sells jars of it!

Stay tuned for a few more flashbacks, as the Southern Hemisphere countdown continues!

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: Reykjavik and Traditional Icelandic Food (2008)

May 22, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

As I’ve mentioned a few times in my blog, Iceland has a very small population and the majority of it is in the capital city of Reykjavik. So what’s it really like?

Unfortunately, I don’t have much to show you. This was the very first destination with my digital camera and I didn’t anticipate that I would ever be writing a blog about it. However, upon reviewing my photos of Reykjavik I realized that almost all of them were dominated by a large umbrella, as it was raining for almost our entire visit.

The Bautinn in Akureyri, Iceland - we ate dinner here once — The Bautinn in Akureyri, Iceland – we ate dinner here

We spent a lot of time indoors in Reykjavik. I wasn’t going to include the photograph below, which was clearly not taken with my usual care, until I realized that there really wasn’t much blog-appropriate photography from Reykjavik. Most of the photos in today’s post are from elsewhere in Iceland.

Part of the cafeteria menu at Reykjavik's bus station — Part of the cafeteria menu at Reykjavik’s bus station

Many travel guides spend considerable time describing some of the more unusual traditional Icelandic foods. Iceland was once a poor country and it was necessary to eat whatever was available. As you can see from the Svið (sheep’s head) in the above menu, some of those traditional items have managed to stay popular today. I took a look at the Svið (which does not include the brain) but did not actually have any.

At one of the big markets in Reykjavik, we encountered the legendary hákarl: putrefied meat from the Greenland shark. It has to be buried underground and allowed to ferment for a couple of months because the meat in its “original” form is toxic to humans. The poisons include uric acid…it seems that this particular shark urinates through its skin. However, the fermentation process, followed by another extended period of air-drying, removes the toxins from the meat and it becomes edible.

Buildings near the harbour in Húsavík, Iceland

I did not try hákarl either: while it may not have been toxic, it apparently smells like very strong ammonia and rotten cheese…and can cause gagging for the uninitiated. At the market, we could not smell it because it was kept tightly sealed. Given the way it was presented at the market, it did seem to be aimed more at adventurous tourists than at everyday Icelanders.

Another traditional item I did try was Brennivín. It is the equivalent of brandy, as the name translates into English as “burning wine.” It is actually a powerful schnapps-like drink made from fermented potatoes and caraway seeds. Many travel writers speak poorly of it (indeed, its nickname is “Black Death”) but I enjoyed it enough to bring some home from the airport’s duty free shoppe.

I also developed a taste for chocolate-covered licorice in Iceland: like most northern European countries, Iceland is crazy about licorice and there are many different ways to enjoy it. I later had a variation on this theme in Finland (licorice-covered chocolate, which I liked even more) but it was in Iceland where I first discovered and enjoyed this unusual combination of sweet and salty. If you like dark chocolate with sea salt, you will surely enjoy the combination of chocolate and licorice!

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: Urban Life in Northern Iceland (2008)

May 15, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Akureyri is the “capital” of the northern part of Iceland and is, in fact, the second largest urban area in the country. However, its population is still less than 20,000! Iceland is indeed a sparsely populated country, with just over 300,000 people altogether (most of whom are in the Reykjavik area).

The Akureyrarkirkja ("Akureyri Church) in downtown Akureyri — The Akureyrarkirkja (“Akureyri Church”) in downtown Akureyri

Akureyri feels bigger (at least in summer), as it is a major transportation and administrative hub. We spent 5 nights here in 2008: the main reason was to have a base for our day trips to the Lake Mývatn region (see this post, that post, and still another post), Grímsey and the Arctic Circle, and the fishing town of Húsavík. There weren’t really any specific “must see” sites in Akureyri, but we ate a lot of meals here and enjoyed making it our home.

Deep inside Akureyri's botanical gardens — Deep inside Akureyri’s botanical gardens

There were some surprises. Even though Akureyri is almost at 66 degrees north, it had botanical gardens! As there were very few trees left anywhere in Iceland, we really enjoyed getting some shade and seeing some plant variety here. We also spent an evening watching what was presumably a professional soccer game. The quality was uneven but the sparse crowd was very enthusiastic.

I spent a little time at Akureyri's soccer stadium — I spent a little time at Akureyri’s soccer stadium

While we were in Akureyri, the 2008 Olympics were taking place. I’ve never seen so much handball before…and I was quite surprised at the physicality of the game! Iceland is handball-crazy and they participate in many international competitions. Even so, it was remarkable how well they did in Beijing: they won the Olympic silver medal! Considering the size of the country, this has to rank as one of the greatest Olympic achievements. They lost 28-23 in the gold medal match to France: a country with 200 times the population of Iceland.

Exterior of the Bláa Kannan in downtown Akureyri

As in Reykjavik, relief from the then-extortionate costs of eating in Iceland was found in Akureyri’s Thai restaurants. We also enjoyed some relatively inexpensive times at a café called the Bláa Kannan. As the name suggests, it was very blue…and also very cozy. Who would have expected to see a Parisian-style café in Akureyri? Unfortunately, we were not able to find a cheap way to do our laundry in Akureyri: at $50 (in 2008 dollars), it remains by far our most expensive laundering experience!

We had lunch at the Salka Restaurant in Húsavík

We went on a day-trip to Húsavík (see photo at the top of this post) just to experience a smaller town in northern Iceland. It’s known among tourists mainly for whale-watching but, after our “unsettling” experience sailing to Grímsey, we confined our visit to the town itself. As with Akureyri, it may have been relatively small but it was certainly not narrow-minded. We easily spent a couple of hours in one of the local museums. Actually, we were impressed throughout Iceland with the level of literacy and linguistic proficiency. Everybody seemed to be reading books!

Rough-looking bar at the harbour in downtown Húsavík

While Iceland’s main attractions remain its natural wonders, even its smaller urban areas are enjoyable. Stay tuned for the next post, where I’ll be taking a look at Reykjavik, Iceland’s edgy metropolis!

Posts from Base Camp

Showtime in Kingston!

May 8, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

While the sound wasn’t so great at the Los Lobos concert in Toronto, we have had a lot of great concert experiences this year in Kingston at the Grand Theatre.

Last fall, we saw Darlene Love…you know her voice, even if you think you don’t know the name. She sang on a bunch of the early 1960s records produced by Phil Spector but she was very rarely credited personally. She also was a back-up singer for some artists you may recognize: Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Tom Jones, The Beach Boys and Dionne Warwick, to name just a few.

With Darlene Love at the Grand Theatre in Kingston

Recognition came later: being admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011, being named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 100 greatest vocalists, being invited onto Late Night with David Letterman every year to sing her signature song “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and then more recently starring in the feature film “20 Feet from Stardom” (which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2013). She was in Kingston as part of her tour to promote her new album cleverly titled “Introducing Darlene Love”. But she also sang the songs that first made her voice famous…it really sends a chill down your spine to hear “Christmas” live!

One of the great things about shows at the Grand Theatre is that the performers generally come out afterwards to sign autographs and pose for pictures. Darlene was no exception and it was great to meet her. She has been singing for more than 50 years but still sounds great and loves what she’s doing.

With Holly Cole at the Grand Theatre in Kingston

We also saw Holly Cole, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Johnny Clegg this year at the Grand Theatre. Each of them were inspiring in their own way…and we also had the privilege of meeting each of them and getting pictures and autographs from them.

Buffy Sainte-Marie on stage at the Grand Theatre in Kingston

It was especially cool to see Johnny Clegg (see photo at the top of this post) in Kingston. I first wrote about Johnny Clegg in this post from late 2014. We previously traveled to Ottawa and Niagara-on-the-Lake to see this South African legend perform but never thought that we would be able to see him in our hometown.

We were a little concerned that seeing him for the 3rd time in 5 years might not be as special. Happily, we were wrong. His set list was quite different and he seemed even more energetic than before. You get the whole experience at a Johnny Clegg concert – the incredibly joyous South African music that makes the crowd go wild…followed by reverent silence as the audience hangs on every word when he tells his fascinating stories. And the stories were all new too!

We’re really fortunate to have this facility in Kingston…I’m sure we will be attending some great shows in the 2016-2017 season as well.

Stay tuned for some travel flashbacks…and the countdown to our mysterious summer adventure in the Southern Hemisphere!

Pierre Vanderhout's Travel Blog

Monthly Archives: May 2016

Ottawa and the Chair of Horns

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Travel Flashback: Reykjavik and Traditional Icelandic Food (2008)

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Travel Flashback: Urban Life in Northern Iceland (2008)

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Showtime in Kingston!

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