On the Road

Adventures, Sights, and Thoughts in Canada

By: Frankie

Roadtrips are a lost art these days

I recently just came back from a ten day trek across Northeast Canada, hopping through Montreal, Quebec City, and Nova Scotia. Accompanied by some friends, we set off entirely by car, which meant a lot of time to stare out the window and enjoy the stark plains of a mid-March Quebec. While I've been lucky enough to have traveled to Montreal and Quebec City before, the wintertime really does shift the aura of the cities, as everything feels slightly tinged in not only Canadian hospitality but also the faint ennui of months of gray skies and snow. To me, this trip felt much more honest to the "Canadian Experience," and I think driving everywhere enhanced that feeling. Although we were tourists, we stayed outside of the major cities for the most part, which meant our commutes felt similar to that of a salaryman, waking up at 8 to drive into the city and leaving by 10:30 to go back the suburbs. As with any good and proper roadtrip, the most fun came from the drives in between stops. Athough my group is not naturally the chattiest, we were still able to find good moments for banter, and the moments of silence made for great opportunities to appreciate the scenery around us. Maybe its the classic foreign country bias, but the – while mostly standard by East Coast Metrics – scenery felt specifically intriguing and enchanting, with large frozen lakes and rivers and deep valleys lit up by small settlements or the chilled plumes of factories.

The roadtrip also gave me needed time to reflect on myself. Since about the end of February, I've been romanticizing this trip as the panacea to my current life situation. All would be revealed and my problems erased if I could jsut make it across the border. As the trip winded down, I realized that I still felt the same as when I left, which kinda freaked me out for a bit. If the big Canada trip couldn't fix me, what could? In a way, I'm most grateful for this trip for forcing me into that relaization, and making myself confront those feelings. The setting does make for a contemplative atmosphere too I cannot lie, its easy to want to think about everything when you're in Nova Scotia and the world feels so still. In short, you really get it all with a roadtrip, and with the right group it can be easily the best way to travel.

Pack your bags, and hit the road.

Bay Area

New York

Since 2003