Meet "GO Bus"

My cousins who live in Stouffville invited me to spend the day with them and stay over till this morning.

And since the trains to Stouffville run only in the afternoon between 5 & 8pm (and from Stouffville to Union only very early in the morning), and since the Taxis are crazy expensive ($ 100 from Downtown Toronto to Stouffville) so I decided the take the bus, the GO Transit Bus.

The great thing is that the bus to Stouffville leaves from Union Station which is three minutes away from my place. So I checked the schedule of the bus on the GO Transit mobile app and I didn't need to be there except few minutes before the departure time.

I bought my ticket at the station for $9.05 and 2 minutes later the bus left to Stouffville.

A very easy ride, just couple of stops and we were in Stoufville in 55 minutes (of course going on a Sunday morning was easier with no traffic at all).

But even the way back was as smooth, and I barely felt the time passing.

Now my cousins will be seeing me more for sure. Thank you GO Bus 71.

Meet "Diana & James"

Another great people I met through my cousins in Ottawa, during the Winterlude Festival, where we met Diana and James at the Ice park, we had a freezing dance, on the snow, we tried our best to handle the cold, and Diana kept telling me to move my toes while dancing.. It was tough for me but we had a good laugh and the music was nice so it kept us going for an hour..

And after that we decided to go for a bite and few drinks, so we went to The 3 Brewers where I had the famous Poutine and a nice beer..

Diana was upset cause she couldn't make me"Get Nipped" , where u should have a whiskey shot, you toast in the direction of the parliament, you drink it then you kiss a beaver.. And this way you become an Ottawan, so this wasn't possible at the 3B, but we still had our shots.. And the rest was laughs, jokes, Olympics, and weather.. I like how people always start their conversation with me by asking how I am handling the cold and if I miss the Sun in Dubai.. Which honestly I do, big time, but heyyy.. There is so many other great things other than the cold weather, like that fun night and meeting nice people like Diana and James..  

We did a long walk to reach my cousin's car, said good bye to my new friends and wished to see soon in my next visit to Ottawa and of course invited them to visit Toronto for a weekend where I can take care of them the way they did with me during my lovely Ottawa weekend.

Meet "Snowman"

When I started planning a trip to Ottawa to see my uncle and my cousins, they recommended that I book for the first weekend of February as it's the time for the Winterlude festival and all Ottawa celebrates the snow, the ice and all the beautiful side of the winter..

So once in Ottawa, I was excited to see what it's all about, and we agreed to go evening time to the Winterlude outdoor party, check the ice sculptures, dance, and taste the famous beavertail..

It took us more than 25 minutes to find a place to park, but at the end we manage to find a spot really far and do a long walk, where we met couple of my cousins friends and started our tour by checking the wonderful ice sculptures, and hearing the story of how complicated is the process of creating each ice block to make sure it has no air bubbles for the esthetic and to avoid cracks.. Each sculpture was better than the other.. And I thought how bold it is from an artist to put lots of efforts behind a piece of art knowing that eventually it will melt and disappear after couple of weeks, but it's a good lesson as well to know how to let go and don't get attached to material things..

And then it was the time for the beavertail.. We were lucky that the queue wasn't long and managed to get ours quickly.. I got one with chocolate & hazelnut even though everyone recommended to try the original one with powder sugar, but I was happy with my choice and indulged with every bite.

Then it was time to dance and have some fun.. But it was so cold and dancing on the snow for an hour was a bit too much for me.. My whole body was fine except my toes.. So I kept jumping, and moving them maybe they will get warmer but that didn't help much..

I met my friend the snowman, he seemed like the happiest person at the party, dancing and making sounds.. I took a picture with him and we left to go grab couple of drinks to get us warm..

Sometimes, it's nice to meet people without really meeting them but you still feel they make you smile and they spread some positive energy..

Regardless the freezing cold, I enjoyed a lot my first Winterlude experience and promised my cousins to repeat it again next year.

Meet "Chloe"

So far I found people in Canada being friendly and respectful, and meeting Chloe just confirmed that, but she wasn't just friendly, she was funny, and made us feel like we're her guests and she's taking full care of us and engaging with us in a very nice conversation..

I went with my cousins to Bayshore shopping center at 417 & Richmond Road, Ottawa, and after an hour touring there, we felt like having lunch, so my cousin Rania recommended we eat at Moxie's Classic Grill and Chloe was the waitress taking care of our order and our table.. My cousin Riman can't eat anything with heist, sugar or gluten so Chloe helped her and was patient enough explaining every single item on the menu and what she can or can't have or what is good or less good (yes she was that honest).

I told Chloe I'll have the braised ribs burger with caramelized onions and mushrooms and very spontaneously she replied: yeah you're so having it.. It's amazing.. And she was right the burger was so good, and I couldn't wait to start eating, and only at the end I remembered that I forgot to take a picture..

Chloe continued passing every now and then checking if all is going good, and sharing with us a story about her and her husband and her favorite food cooked fresh like the macaroni with cheese and the Pillsbury croissant.. And she ended it by recommending the cheesecake with pecan pie which was super good.

After paying the bill, we thanked Chloe for her super welcoming, warm and spontaneous attitude and hoped to meet her again in my next visit to Ottawa.

Meet "Datcha"

Since I moved to Toronto, my cousins in Ottawa kept asking me to visit for few days, and I was busy settling in and fixing my house and starting the classes, and finally decided to visit for a weekend and they recommended the Winterlude weekend at the beginning of February, so booked my train ticket and was looking forward to see  them after very long time..

First night in Ottawa, my cousins decided to take me clubbing, at Babylon club, where there is a good DJ playing that night, so I took a quick nap and them got ready and we moved around 11pm.. We passed by a pub to pick up Datcha, a friend of my cousins, and just from the short ride to the club, I felt Datcha is so funny and he didn't stop making us laugh with his stories..

And one we reached the club, the queue to get in was huge and we had to wait outside shaking in the cold.. So Datcha decided to go and talk to the security guy and pretended he's the friend of the DJ, and at the beginning the security believed him and we were about to get in but it didn't take long for Datcha's game to get caught and we had to wait for 20 minutes until he knew that a friend of his is already inside and he managed to make us cut through the queue and get in right in time before we were thinking to leave..

Once inside the club, Datcha continued with his funny tricks, where he started blowing balloons and leave them flying between people, it seems he's a character, and my cousins like when they go out with him..

The music was good but some people seemed a bit weirdos for me (maybe I'm getting old), and a funny ridiculous incident happened to me there:

So this short guy came too close to me and asked me if I m Justin, so told him I m not (with his face full of anger).. And after a while he came again and asked me to see my Facebook profile to prove to him that I m not Justin.. Then he was like "swear to God you' re not Justin" So I told him to f... off and here my cousin, to avoid a fight, she swore that I m not Justin and that I don't live in Ottawa.. so he apologized and left us in peace but kept staring at me the whole night with his face full of anger like he wanted to kill me..

And the terror for me was the name... Justin.. Do I look like a Justin? Which Justin? Who's the F... is Justin? And imagine if my real name was Jusitn..

anyway, the night ended well, we had a good time, then I went with my cousins to drop Datcha to his place, and came back home, to get some rest and get ready for another day around Ottawa and meeting other new friends.

Meet "Pedro"

I think Pedro is the youngest friend I met in a while, he's 19 years old.. He's the cousin of my cousin and he moved to Toronto a week ago from Brazil for 8 months to study English, so for a change I felt I know in Toronto a bit more than someone else and this time I can help or give couple of advises especially how to fight the crazy cold.. We both come from much warmer weather and it s our first freezing winter..

So to keep us warm, my cousin, her husband Fouad, and I decided to take Perdro for few drinks, especially that he was very stressed as it was his first time going away from home for few months, so we went to Earls, but one drink wasn’t enough, so we had second round then a third one and ended with shots where Pedro decided to share with us the tradition in Brazil on how you would toast before drinking a shot, so u start with “A cima”(up) then “A bajo”(down), then “A fuera”(outside) and you end it with “A dentro”(inside) and you drink..

It was tough after a warm nice time at Earls to run outside to catch a cab, but it was a very short ride for me and left the cousins going back to Stouffville after dropping Pedro by his place.

Time with cousins is always fun, and I’m sure we’ll be taking Pedro for more drinks in the coming few month during his stay in Toronto especially that after few drinks, his English becomes fluent. J