After spending about 6 days in Canada now I thought I'd share some observations in case you've never been. Canadian readers, feel free to comment if you think anything is unfair, I don't think anybody reads the comments anyway so complain all you want.
One of the more unfortunate aspects of Canada for a person who is burning thousands of calories is that the food is a bit more expensive. This isn't helped by their favorable exchange rate so I spent certainly more than I anticipated. Beer is also more expensive, with signs for happy hours advertising "only" $5 pints!
With regards to language, yes they do say "'eh" here and there, much the same way as I would say "oh yeah" or "really," and they all have a strong accent on the ou sound like about, without, etc. Besides those things and the fact that they spell "centre" wrong, pretty much everything else is the same, although every label is required to have both French as well as English.
Some random observations:
Milk is sold in bags not cartons, so you snip the corner of a bag and place it in an open top pitcher.
Still have payphones!
When paying for something, whether at a convenience store or restaurant or whatever, they bring a card reader to you and you swipe it. Rarely did the credit card leave my hands which was pretty comforting.
Most "washrooms" have hand driers, but unlike the US they don't also have paper towels. Save the paper, no other option.
I was surprised to see as many classic muscle cars as I did, such as Camaros, Mach 1s, etc.
They do have their impatient cabbies and guys that call you an asshole when they clearly stepped out right in front of your bike, but overall they are a friendly people and don't bite. Go visit, 'eh!
yeah you got photos! I was just looking at you, me, and dad's photo strip this morning. good times.
ReplyDeleteI spend only 3 days in Ontario, Canada, but I think you are wrong in some points:
ReplyDeleteFood is not much more expensive. Compare no frills with ALDI and you find that no frills is doing even better in the "ALDI concept" of reducing a supermarket to it's basics. And so the prices are comparable in both stores.
Regarding language the Canadians use a second language I can read, compared to the Spanish in the US I do not understand at all.
And you forgot the most important point: They use the metric systems. That is much more comfortable than the US system of oz and quarts. Especially if you are cyclist, since you will enjoy finding juice in packs to a liter and not a pint or two quarts (450ml resp. 1800ml) like in the US. A liter is a good size, since you can easily drink it during one evening.
I read the comments, and I love a good pint of juice! :) Just kidding, but I think it all depends on what you're used to. What is ALDI?
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