How about Canada aye!!

Dear Diary,

With a functioning computer, a bit of spare time, and a few good coffees, we thought we'd make use of these special ingredients and send out a decent update.

Friday marked an important milestone in the trip... re-unemployment, a beautiful thing!! Was a really good experience working in a completely different industry, but we were happy to finish up after six long hard weeks. In our time there we found ourselves learning a fair bit about the flower bulb process, met some interesting people, and of-course managed to get a handle on a little more dutch, particularly reading and writing. Full credit to Michele, more often than not working the machines and on much tougher jobs then half the lads. So all in all, quite grounding to know what it must feel like to be an immigrant. We have attached a few photos showing the size of place, the halls loaded with packages of bulbs (3 halls in total), and a few action shots for general entertainment.

As we had mentioned in our last post, we've managed to catch up with a few people and spend a little time on the road in our half saturday and sunday's off. Theres a range of photos following, but as you can see, Ryan got the full presidential treatment with collection from the station, including free luggage transportation (I still have a flat tyre, turns out a grown man on the back wheel was a little much).

We've managed to jam in plenty of sightseeing in at the local beach reserves, as well as a weekend away to catch up with our mate beast in Maastricht. A town located in the very south of holland. An absolutely stunning spot, not far from the boarders of Germany and Belgium so very fancy. And with a 'Botel' (you guessed it a boat converted into a hotel) booked we strolled the streets, sampling food and beer from all over the place.

Life in the van ('Vileri' named after our tough Russian soldier mate that we stayed with in Siberia) has also entered new highs with our first month of living complete and basic upgrades happening on a daily basis. We are now rolling with insurance, a spare tyre, sheets, pillow cases, a gps navigator, a full brake down kit, and most importantly some knifes, so we no longer need to use two sides of the spork at once (a 500g steak was the last straw!!).

So with some Euros in the bank, a bit of time spent on planning we packed up Vileri, locked him up, and jumped on a plane to Canada for our detour leg of the trip. We have two weeks here, and have spent our first few days in Toronto. We'd like to thank the Canadian customs for the welcoming party, very pleasant bunch you are (not!).

So far we have covered the CN tower, the Central Island, Kensington markets, the hockey hall of fame, the city centre, some local hockey bars with the lads, watched the waterfront Marathon, and last night we got to see the New York Yankies play the Toronto Blue Jays in baseball at the Rogers stadium. So nice its nice to be here, and awesome to see all the places Hannah and Phil had told us about (Tim Hortons is everything you said it would be Phil!!).

Today we have a day trip planned for Niagra falls,

Thanks for all the news from home - keep it coming.

McDuff

Tristan and Michele