First Encounters - Part ll

Top 5 most memorable first encounters with a city or town:

#5 - Victoria, BC, 2008

I don't expect I'll encounter too many experiences like this in my life time. Selling most of our belongings and bidding a fond farewell to a comfy home, job and good friends to move to the other side of the country and start again had the makings of a memorable experience even before leaving the other London. We'll see how this one plays out. For the time being, a little over a week after arriving in Victoria, I find myself waking up in the morning and wondering how I got here...and why it hasn't started snowing yet...

#4 - Rocky Harbour, NFLD, 2003

I'd heard many people say that Newfoundland is the most beautiful place in the world. That arriving there is "just like coming home". Well, I've heard lots of people say similar things about lots of places. It's all relative. Right? I thought so too, until we visited Newfoundland in 2003. It really is the most beautiful place in the world and Gros Morne National Park is the most beautiful part of the province. Unbelievable.

#3 - La Paz, Bolivia, 2008

I expect anyone who's ever flown into La Paz from sea level will know why I've included it on this list. The flight from Miami is an over-nighter that lands at sunrise amidst unbelievable views of the Andes, the red-brown rocky terrain of the Alta Plano and the endless third world sprawl of El Alto. If the beauty of the landscape, the culture shock or the jet lag aren't enough to consititue a memorable experience, the sudden transition to 4,000 metres above sea level will seal the deal. Getting into a cab at the airport with a driver who couldn't understand our Spanish or speak English was kind of fun, too.

It took about two days for us to get used to breathing the thin air. When a Brazilian girl we met on Isla del Sol heard that we had flown directly into La Paz she looked at us in disbelief and quipped, "Are you crazy?" Crazy? Perhaps. In the right place? Definitely. Bolivia is the most amazing country I've ever visited. Hands down!

#2 - London, England, 1994

Without a doubt, April 5, 1994 was the worst day of my life. It's the day that I finally came to understand the meaning of the saying "kicked when you're already down". It's the day the guy I'd become engaged to in a cafe near the Eiffel Tower two days before told me he wouldn't be going to England and I decided to go on anyway realizing too late that he didn't mean he wanted us to part ways - just that he didn't want to go to England. The day I left Paris on a train bound for London, England with about $100 Swiss Francs a maxed out credit card and too much pride to ask my parents to wire me money to get back home to Canada. The day I travelled in the same train compartment with the Smiths from upstate New York who had brought along the bottle of "French wine" from their hotel room fridge that had a twist off cap. After the wine, Mrs. Smith delivered a four hour running commentary of the view out the window as we rode through the French country side while her husband snored beside her. The day I rode a jet-foil for the first time across the Channel and got seasick for the first time. The day the Immigration Officer at Dover almost turned me away at the boarder for having less than the minimum monetary requirement for entering the UK (I don't know if it's still like this but at the time, travellers entering the UK were required to prove that they possesed the equivalent of $5000 USD). The day the friend who came to pick me up at the train station in London, gave me a big hug and told me, "I heard the news."

I thought to myself, how could he possibly have heard? I hadn't even told anyone I'd become engaged. "The news?"

"Yes, Kurt Cobain died this morning. I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"


#1 - Victoria, BC, 1990

Driving across the country from London, Ontario to Victoria, BC on the Trans-Canada at 17 years old in a '67 Volvo is most likely the coolest thing I'll ever do.