Back in Canada for work, I found myself with a few hours of free time to explore the city; what to do, what to do? To say that this city has an infinite list of things to do is a huge understatement!
My favorite thing to do in a big city, any city really, is to walk the streets, people watch and to get the feel of the unique vibe of the city.
Hello Toronto!
We walked our way to Graffiti Alley, which is in a really neat part of town. It is in the Fashion District and runs south of Queen Street West from Spadina Ave to Portland Ave.
Graffiti Alley is a true alley, there was a large truck backing up when where there, it’s beautiful and real. You can just imagine how it got started, mural after mural until it turned into this amazing space.The colors are so vibrant! There is approx 1 km of art.
Never heard of it? If you are Canadian, I bet you have seen it without knowing what it was. It’s the alley that Rick Mercer, a fellow Maritimer, walked through during his awesome rants on This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
My beautiful cousin Nicole, who lives in Toronto (Oakville), was our tour guide. Yes she is my first cousin…really, she is super petite with an Italian or Spanish look, while I have more of a blonde viking vibe, but we are a family!
I discovered Graffiti Alley a few years ago, if you read my very first blog post on the hard hitting subject: How to Take the Perfect Selfie, you will have seen this pic, taken there.
This pic taken a few Novembers ago. On a much cooler day.
You often see photo shoots being shot when touring the alleys, which I love to witness.
Feeling a bit faint here, oufff hot and humid. I seriously thought I was going to pass out! My face looks a bit funny here…funny looking, not funny ha! ha!
If you find yourself with free time in this beautiful city, I urge you to get out and explore!!
I see you there CN Tower!There she is, I’ve decided, the CN Tower is a she! Toronto also has a working trolley system. No texting and walking here! Watch where you are going!!
We have had two awesome meals here, here are my recommendations:
Si Lom Thai Bistro – 534 Church St
Best Pad Thai ever!! Prices were super reasonable.
My second recommendation Is Donatello: 37 Elm Street
Another gem, freshly made pasta, was soooo good!The restaurant is huge, with a rooftop terrace, they have a small eating space right on the side walk; which is where Mary and I decided to eat. It is surrounded by flowers. It was so quaint!
Tomorrow I am off to my hometown of Moncton, N.B. I have already put my parents on notice that I will be expecting lobster rolls for lunch. They are more than happy to comply. But tonight, I am eating smarties in bed; resting up for some vacation adventures.
Thanks for reading, more pictures on Insta & Facebook: oui-liette, check me out! And click like below if you liked. If you didn’t like this post, sorry, but you just read all the way to the end, so it couldn’t have been that bad, lol.
Feel free to share your fav thing to do in this Mega City! I will be back here in two weeks, would love some recommendations.
This is a true account of what happens when you put something out there and it goes viral. No names in this post have been changed to hide any ones identities, lol, that’s how I roll!
Sunday
For my second blog post, I am torn between which story to go with? Girls Just Wanna Have Tea, a hard hitting story on how to throw a tea party; or New Brunswick, Canada, You’re Going to Hate It! A fun tongue and cheek story about my home.
Late Sunday afternoon, I decide to go with the N.B. story, I read it one last time, hoping that people will get the humor, but if they don’t, how many people will actually see it?? Probably not many. I hit send and go on with my day.
Monday
By Monday morning I have gotten a few comments, I am excited, the first few are from friends, but sprinkled in there are a few from people I don’t know. I am reaching people I don’t know, how cool is that?
During the day, I periodically check my emails, each time I have a few more views and comments. By the time I get home that evening, I am very pleased with myself. My second post is getting much more attention than my first post; where I explored the controversial topic of how to take the perfect selfie.
My post gets its first share on Facebook from Paul, a fellow Monctonian. I am so touched, that he thought my post was interesting enough to share with his friends. By the afternoon, I have a few more shares. This is turning out to be a good Monday!
After dinner, while looking at my blog analytics, I notice, if I scroll down…all the way down, I can see more numbers; how many people have visited my site and where they are from… those sorts of things. It takes me a few minutes to figure things out, but when I do, I noticed that 2,100 have viewed my post in the last 24hrs!!!
Holy Shit!! 2,100 people viewed my post!!! How awesome! I call my mom, I am so excited, I need to share. After 5 minutes of explaining what a blog is, I am still not convinced she got it, I ask her to guess how many people have viewed my post so far?
Her first guess is 100K…really?? My 2,100 views suddenly feel tiny compared to 100K. When I bark back “mom!” she just laughs. I should note that she doesn’t have a computer, she knows how to text and that’s pretty much it, so I decide to cut her a bit of slack.
By the time we hang up, I have instructed her that the next time we speak, if asked to guess my number she would pick a realistic number, pretty much any number under 100K! She asks how many I want, I tell her that hitting 3K or even 4K would be super cool.
A few hours later I pass 3K, then 4K! I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the following people: Barney, Lynn, Staci, Claudia, Aline, Kenda, Cindy and Guylaine; because for the rest of that evening, they get regular text updates on how many people have viewed me; and by regular I mean every 20 minutes…ok maybe every 15 minutes.
When I surpass 5K and am almost at 6K, the texts are all the same, brief and to the point: WTF??? I start wondering if I am reading my stats correctly? One last text to Barney, who is away with his family, sorry, Barney’s family; he confirmed the stats are correct. Barney has become my unpaid technician and blog expert.
This is Barney! He is also an amazing photographer!
I decide to go to bed, I wondered if I could possibly hit 8K by the morning? I think that it maybe possible? But then reality sets in, nah, it will die down by the morning.
Tuesday
I wake up early Tuesday morning and the first thing I do is reach for my phone to check my stats. Over 8K views!! And lots of new comments. I make certain to reply to each one of them before I get out of bed. Most are recommendations for places I should visit or things I should try. All are polite and make me feel warm and fuzzy.
By the time I am ready to leave for work, I hit 9K views!! I am not sure why, but I instantly start to feel anxious and actually start breaking out in hives. I don’t know why? It’s such an honor to have people take the time to read something you have written. But on the other hand, 9,000 people have just read something that I have written! I think I am feeling a bit vulnerable, which is strange, since I started this blog and I posted of my own free will.
By the time I get to work, the anxiety is now mixed with excitement, after updating my coworkers with my unbelievable stats. I decide to stop looking, plus I know that the numbers will start to slow down shortly.
At lunch with my friend Staci, I pulled out my cell and see that I’ve just hit 13K!!! OMG!!
At this point, I am questioning what is going on here? Why is my little post about my little province so popular? One more text to Barney to ask: when do you know if you have gone viral? To which he replies, “Liette, you are viral!” Yikes!
Our next stop is Party City, I had joked earlier that if I reached 500 followers, I would do what celebrities do and take my photo with giant numbered balloons. It would be cheesy, dorky and awesome!! I decided that 13K is reason enough to celebrate!
I asked Staci if I should be so bold as to as to assume that I will hit 14K before the next morning? I decide to go for it, what the hell. I pay for a number one, a number four and a letter K; I’ll pick them up after work.
Staci and I goofing off at Party City. Side note, Shark Week on Discovery Channel Kicks Off tonight!
Later that afternoon, my friend Michael, asks again if I have started getting any creepy emails yet? “No, just yours” I reply. He had sent me a cranky message as a joke, he says, the creeps will come, just wait. He is more of a glass half empty kind of guy, lol. All comments so far have been super supportive, nothing negative to report.
A few hours later, I get my first angry comment, instead of being upset, I think, wow! I have really made it now! It was someone who didn’t think that N.B. being bilingual is an asset, blah, blah, blah. It ended with “this F#@$ing Sucks”, not my blog post, but the fact that French people have equal rights I guess?? I have to approve all comments before they appear on my page. I considered approving knowing that the general public would come to my defense. I think about it for a moment, then decide that I want my blog to be a positive space, so not approving his rant. I am open to some controversial topics, if you want to debate which is better a sticky bun or a “pet de soeur”, bring it on!
For the rest of the afternoon the views and comments keep coming in. Bloggers are sharing and re-posting, local N.B. businesses are sharing. My friend Cindy sends me a note that her friends, who don’t know me, are sharing my post. I can’t tell if she is annoyed or happy about that? Lol, teasing, I think she is at the holy shit stage. She was the first to read my post, I sent it to her for feedback. She offered up some helpful suggestions, thank you Cindy!
By now, the anxiety is gone, I realize that this has taken on a life of its own and that I am just along for the ride.
When I leave work to pick up my balloons, I am already past 15K. What the hell am I going to do with my number 4 balloon now? I decided to skip 5 and get a number 6 balloon. I figure that by the time I get home, I will be at 16K, which I was; now I was just getting cocky.
Next is the reflective stage; what is it about this post that people connected with? I think that I have tapped into a feeling of pride? By highlighted a few things that make N.B. awesome, maybe it have reminded others how great it is? Or maybe it have given others the opportunity or the permission to boast a bit too? I think there is a feeling that N.B. is ignored by those who have never been there. We have been the drive through province, but those who have taken the time to stop, love it. Maybe instead of being Canada’s overlooked province, we are Canada’s best kept secret?
I make plans to have my picture taken with my balloons in front of the Welcome to Vegas sign the next day. Even after being here for two years, I still pinch myself and think, you live in Las Vegas! So the visual of a girl from Moncton, standing in front of the Las Vegas Sign with balloons that say 16K for a blog post about her home province, seemed like something I wanted to do! So doing it!
Trying to wrangle my giant gold balloons!
Wednesday
I wake up to discover that I am at 22K views, so my 16K balloons now seemed silly, there goes $30…US!!
I flip my 6 to make a 9 and take a picture, but I am already at 22K! #balloonfail
By the time I leave for work I am at 23K & 25K after lunch!
My friends back home are telling me that they are seeing my story all over their Facebook feeds. It feels strange that I am getting my 15 minutes of fame for a story I wrote about my home province, while I am living in Vegas.
I decide to call my dad, I am almost positive my mom hasn’t told him about my budding fame. He is a fairly popular guy in the area. He’s sort of like Madonna and Cher, he only needs one name…Tilly. I didn’t want people to tell him that they saw his daughter on the internet, without knowing what I was doing on the internet, lol. So I explain to him what a blog is and tell him how many views I have gotten, his response is “ya ok”. I hang up telling myself that I am sure he is really excited…on the inside.
By the time I go to bed, things are starting to slow down a bit. My daily total for Tuesday was 13,268K, today my daily total is only 9,645. As soon as I say it, I see how crazy of a statement it is; only 9K today, oh no, am I becoming jaded…already? This week has been crazy and it’s only Wednesday.
Thursday
My morning total is 27,899, I am confident that I will hit 28K in the next few hours. I am a starting to feel a bit detached; it’s difficult to wrap my brain around the reality of this number.
It’s hard to believe that 27,899 people have taken the time to click on my link and read all of, or part of, my little story about N.B. To be honest, I would have been thrilled with 500 views and blown away by 1000 views, the higher the numbers get, the more surreal all of this feels.
By the time I get home from work I have hit 30K! Feeling so thankful and blown away, my brain hurts!
I call my parents and speak to my dad, he is starting to take interest; he asked and I quote: “how is your thing with the people going?” I feel like I am making progress on the parent front!
Cindy and I make a quick stop at the Welcome to Vegas Sign, sans balloons, lol.
Friday
I think I am suffering from a blog hangover, lol, it’s too much!
I feel that I inadvertently accomplished something that I suspect most bloggers never get to experience. When you start a blog, you want people to like your content and you want to build your followers; I was expecting a slow build. I didn’t expect this and to be honest, I wasn’t ready for it, I was still working out the kinks for gosh sakes!
On my drive home from work, I catch myself making a mental list of all the people who have reached out and sent me a quick email or text and those who have shared my link. And for the first time this week, I get a bit of a negative vibe as I take stock of those who are close to me, who haven’t said boo. In the grand scheme of life, this isn’t such a big deal, I know that, but it does make me think, maybe a bit too much??
I check my stats one more time before bed; my daily numbers are slowing down, it has been a hell of a great ride! But this train is approaching the gate and to be honest, that is fine with me.
Saturday
I am up early to catch a flight to Oklahoma City for my real, paying, job. Wow, what a week! I have stopped checking my stats every 20 minutes. It was fun, but a bit exhausting.
My daily total on Friday was a little over 2K, my grand total by Saturday night is 33,740. I am going to put it out there, that I will hit 35K!
If someone had told me last Sunday, when I hit send, that I would be sitting in a hotel room in Oklahoma City writing that I want to hit 35 THOUSAND views on my second blog post, I would have laughed my head off. But here I am!
Here is what I am going to take away from this experience. Ready or not, shit happens, you may as well enjoy the ride! That sometimes failure is easier to wrap your head around than being successful. And that one should not underestimate the power of their community, correction, my community! New Brunswick, maybe small in size and in population, it may have its economic struggles, but the people kick ass! Although I have had views from around the world, the majority are from Canada and of those, I suspect a large part of fellow New Brunswickers.
Thanks to all who have taken the time to read my posts, if you like my style and my swagger, please subscribe; if you do, you will receive an email each time I post something. Which will be once a week. I am pretty sure you won’t want to miss my next post, which will most likely be how to throw a tea party! I bet you can hardly wait, lol.
If you hate sandy beaches, friendly people, world class seafood and breathtaking natural views; then I am pretty certain you won’t like N.B.!
New Brunswick, in my opinion, is one of the most overlooked provinces in Canada. If you are not from Canada, it’s the one province that you have most likely never heard of.
It’s situated in the between Quebec, Maine, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. It has no bestselling novels with a red headed pig tail girl about it, Sidney Crosby isn’t from here, and Hollywood stars don’t vacation here in million-dollar summer homes. It is a plain and simply a forgotten province which more people tend to pass through on their way to other places.
The goal of this post is to highlight a few of the awesome things about South Eastern N.B. that you probably won’t like one bit.
Here are five random, things about New Brunswick, that you may not like.
#1. It’s way too green!
The landscape is covered in lush green forests and fields. In fact, if you drive 20 minutes in any direction, you will find yourself in the forest; where you can hike and bike beautiful pristine trails for miles and miles or kilometers.
The only thing more annoying than the multi shades of green in the spring and summer are the colours of fall; when all that green turns into yellows, oranges and reds. Make sure not to visit in the fall, it’s too pretty, you won’t like it!
#2. N.B. just has too many beaches!
Everywhere you turn there is another beautiful beach. If you head North East of Moncton, New Brunswick’s largest city, you will hit your first beach in 15 to 20 minutes. Shediac, Cap Pele, Grande Digue, Bouctouche…they just keep coming, all the way up the Acadian Coast. So many sandy beaches with funny names to choose from… too many really.
And don’t expect cold water, nooo; the water in this region is warm! Why? Because it is situated between two land masses; the provinces of N.B. and Prince Edward Island. This body of water is called the Northumberland Strait. It is much shallower than the Atlantic Ocean which feeds into it, so it heats up quickly. It is actually the warmest water North of the Carolinas in the U.S.
There are several public beaches, where you can prance around in your fav speedo; where you can see and be seen. But there are even more private beaches perfect for relaxing away from the crowds of people, ugh, I am fairly certain you wouldn’t enjoy that!
Here’s a hint for finding a nice private beach. If you see a wharf, and you will see many, there is usually a nice beach right beside it; that is where you will find the locals.
If you do run into locals, whatever you do, don’t make eye contact with them, they are so friendly, they will smile and say hi to you for no apparent reason. If this happens, just walk away quickly, before they start talking to you about the weather and asking you where you are from. Be careful, it’s surely some sort of trap!
Growing up in this region, I didn’t really appreciate the beauty of happening upon a lighthouse, fishing boats and colorful buoys, until I moved away. They are plentiful and offer lots of opportunities for that perfect Instagram shot!
#3. Trust me you will hate the Bay of Fundy!
As if all those beaches weren’t enough; next on our list is the Bay of Fundy, where freaky things happen!
The Bay of Fundy has the world’s highest and fastest tides in the world! The tidal range between low and high tide is 16.3 meters or 53 feet.
A great place to witness and experience the tides is Hopewell Rocks. At low tide you will be able to walk on the oceans floor, like literally, you will be walking on the bottom of the Bay of Fundy; but who would want to do that right?
(the image above is a stock image, not mine)
And then, at high tide, you can kayak around the flower pots, that’s what they call the rock formations, because they resemble flower pots; and guess what are on top of these rock formations? More freaking green trees!!!
The tides change every 6 hours; so during daylight you will be able to see one low and one high tide. As if the tides aren’t freakish enough, they create something called a Tidal Bore. Get this, the Petitcodiac River changes directions each time the tides change! Yup you heard me correctly; the rivers water flow changes direction every 6 hours. I am not lying, look it up!
You can be having a drink in Moncton, minding your own business and witness the Tidal Bore come in, it’s basically a wave that sweeps in and changes the direction of the river. If you are very unfortunate, you may also see a surfer or two riding the wave.
(The top image was sent to me by one of my Facebook friends, the bottom is a picture of the Petitcodiac River, taken by me flying into Moncton. Fun fact, it is also called the Chocolate River!)
#4. Too much fresh seafood
This part of the country is just too lobstery! Everywhere you go you are being forced to eat fresh seafood.
Where else in the world can buy lobster from a guy with a cooler in the back of his truck on the side of the road and have it be the best damn lobster you have ever eaten??
They are so cocky about their amazing lobster that they have erected a giant lobster in Shediac, which is; surprise, surprise, the lobster capital of the world. Way to rub it in Shediac!
I just came back from a visit to N.B. and ate lobster 4 out of the 9 days I was there, I mean come on!! I suffered through it, but I am not going to lie, it was difficult.
#5. The people
New Brunswick’s population is mostly a mix of English and French, the French are called Acadians; there is also a strong First Nations presence. It is the only official bilingual province in Canada; this mix of cultures makes New Brunswick very unique and open. The people are naturally warm and welcoming, which is great… if you like that sort of thing?
How warm and welcoming? During 9/11 when Air Traffic Controllers on the East Coast were told to “empty the skies”, NB, as well as NS and Newfoundland welcomed tens of thousands of travelers who were forced to land in Atlantic Canada when the US airways were shut down.
Local communities opened their homes and hearts to these stranded travelers, showing them the meaning of Atlantic Canadian Hospitality.
A more recent example of this hospitality is how the region has welcomed and embraced a number of Syrian refugee families.
I used to joke that my dad would give you the shirt off his back and my mother would feed you; this isn’t uncommon, it’s just how people live their lives. They don’t think, they do, they help; that is who they are.
As you have probably figured out by now, there is nothing to hate in New Brunswick at all; in fact, I am fairly certain, if you give it a chance, you will absolutely fall in love with it! I had to leave to realize how madly in love with it and its people I am. There is a saying once a Maritimer, always a Maritimer; some of us leave, but we always eventually come back.
See you soon New Brunswick!!
Muah!
Liette
If you like this post, please click like. I also welcome comments! What’s your fav N.B. place or thing to do? And if you like me, subscribe! Thanks for reading!
