(East) Canada and America

Canada and America: Reunited with my dear family


Now I’m in the right flow of writing: A cold corona next to me, sitting in the front of the pub where I’m staying at now, a warm breeze and a breathtaking view over a lake with flamingo’s.. OK next blog coming up: My amazing trip with my dear family, being reunited after 15months of travelling alone..
My plane from Vietnam had a bit of a delay, but it got me in Vancouver in time. I saw the breathtaking view from the plane and immediately decided I want to come back here and see the west of Canada too.. In Vancouver I had my local flight to Toronto where my cousin was waiting to pick me up. I haven’t seen him for over a year and we chatted the whole way back to my uncle and aunties house. I thought my family was there already, but apparently they were all at the cottage 400km away, so I arrived in an huge villa and stayed there a night alone after having a nice Canadian meal at my cousins place.. actually quite nice being alone, the difference between Vietnam and Canada is huge, so I had some time to adapt to the country and not to my family yet :p.. I was so nervous, counting down to see my family again. I was actually the one picking them up from the airport after I was gone for 15months already, the irony.. The time waiting for them at the gate went so slow, they nails I’ve finally grown, were all gone in seconds. Finally, the first one I recognised was my dad, I started running and hugged my mom first, she hugged me like never before. After also squeezing my dad, brother, sister and my uncle and aunt, it felt like it was a week ago I saw them for the last time. It was completely normal again.. the ride back I spend with my mom on the backseat, and offcourse we couldn’t stop talking. After we got back at the house, more of my family had arrived. So from spending a night alone, I came back in the same house with 17 other family members, well you understand I had to adapt even more and needed some time alone sometimes. But I loved it!! It was like the old days, drinking beer, making the most stupid jokes, laugh and laugh and realise that you’re lucky to have such an amazing family who will let you be the free spirit you are..
(I hope I get everything right for this blog, we’ve done so much, I might not do it right, sorry!)
But the next couple of days we spend preparing for the wedding and visit my auntie and uncles ‘little’ holiday lodge. A beautiful house at a lake with around 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, living rooms, a boat and all the fun stuff you need for some fun on the water, too bad the weather wasn’t that good, but we had fun anyways. We got back the day before the wedding, it is a tradition that the family of the groom prepares dinner and a small party. So my uncle, my sister and my cousin and I went (booze) shopping in his 2 cabriolets (That car is to die for). The rest of the day we just spend on eating too much good food (finally cheese again!!), drinking a bit too much but definitely having so much fun doing traditional games, perform and just enjoying some family time.
The day of the wedding, we all got dressed up, it was my first wedding and finally got to wear my tailor made dress. The location was half an hour away and we all got driven by my uncles employers. The location was stunning: An old barn all rebuild for weddings and other parties. The wedding was outside tho, it was as if I had stepped into a movie. All white chairs, a white arch and a breathtaking view.. Made me long for a dream wedding, one day... maybe... still waiting for prince charming... getting lost in my story now... ok back to reality. After the ceremony, we had dinner inside. Between the meals we had speeches (my uncle said people from all over the world were at the wedding, and mentioned my travels as well), but my cousins speech was so beautiful, it almost made me cry.. If you can describe words in love, he did the perfect job.... The food was good, the speeches were fun and after dinner, the party was getting started. We all danced the night away but the highlight was a performance done by my family and I. In Holland it is a tradition to sing, dance or act on a wedding and so did we. The place (in Holland ) where our family lived for years, has a kind of an organisation where they shoot at wooden at a bird up on a really high pole. The one who shoots the bird from that pole, is the king. Next to that they play drums, wave flags and wear tradition clothes. Soooo, so did we.. My family had brought their drums and tradition clothes from Holland, practiced playing the drums and waving the flags and my cousin became the king after he shot the bird with an plastic gun. The noise in the barn from the drums was insane but everyone loved it. After my cousin shot the bird, he went to see his new queen and after that they were crowned. You could definitely see that we didn’t practice enough, but that was actually the fun part.
After the wedding it was time to see more family in Canada, my lovely (aunt) Maryann and celebrate my birthday!! Last year my birthday was in Australia with my ‘Family’ This time in Canada with my real family.. A day full of good food, beautiful and surprising birthday cake and a visit to the Niagara falls. (Wondering where my next birthday will be). We stayed at my aunties place for a night (hugging their snakes) and planned our trip from there. Our first stop would be the Fingerlakes. We rented a huge car at the airport and my brother drove everything. I convinced my family not to book anything, but just look on agoda.com for the cheapest places. Love that website. And it worked, our first night was in a quite cheap roadhouse, exactly what you see in the movies. Perfect to start our trip. The next day we enjoyed nature, an unnecessarily expensive boat trip and a walk through forests, rocks and rivers. The day ended in a local party with a live band, absolutely lovely. (OK, offcourse this whole story is going to sound too perfect, offcourse we had our issues, especially me, to be with my family 24/7 after being alone for 15months, but I’ll explain more later..)
We left the Fingerlakes behind and went to my favourite stop of love, peace and happiness: Woodstock. A huge grassfield with the peace sign mowed into the grass, monuments and a big tree where people left messages behind. Mine is on the bottom of this story... Exactly when we were looking at a sign with the picture how Woodstock looked like in 1969, a guy arrived and told us he was there on that picture. It was his first time coming back to Woodstock after that. He explained the chaos, the lack of toilets, places to sleep and food etc. I loved it, it sounded like the perfect musical fair: music, love, peace, happiness etc. NO WORRIES! After visiting the museum, we went for dinner in town, we all got a bit tipsy, listened to music and... talked about smoking weed, lol!!
From all the love and peace we went to the city of shows, lights and 24/7 chaos: The big apple. I thought I would absolutely hate it, especially after coming from the quiet ricefields of Vietnam, but, I actually really liked it. My brother had arranged an apartment 1min walk from Central park, big enough for the 5 of us to live in for 5 days (I slept on the couch, still better than a lot of hostels:P). The next days we enjoyed the view from ‘the Rock’, celebrated our mom and dads anniversary with dinner in the empire state building, went to times square, visited a baseball game, ran along the famous lake in central park, saw the statue of liberty, walked over the Brooklyn bridge, visited ground zero and ate a lot of good food. Busy but amazing 5 days, time for our next stop: Washington.. Between New York and Washington we were thinking about staying in Philadelphia or Atlantic city, but it was horrible. Philadelphia felt like a dark, unsafe and expensive city and Atlantic city, the city of Trump, was even worse. It was all based around big hotels with only places to gamble, the beach was a nightmare and everything looked so unattractive. We decided to drive straight to Washington, a big contrast with New York, but also a really nice city. In my opinion, Washington is the politic city, big buildings, clean, well arranged and way more quiet. We stayed in a nice hotel, swimming pool and everything. We visited all the important places (White house, parliament building, the needle etc) and I actually enjoyed the ‘quietness’ of the city.
After visiting two big cities, for me it was time to visit a quiet place again, more nature and less chaos. So we stayed in my aunts trailer next to the border of Canada. The last sleepover in America. Overall way more to tell about this adventure, but too much to read about.. Back in Canada, we stayed at our uncles place for another few days. Time to relax, enjoy the luxury, my family and the last days before I go back to Holland. I will always remember the last night before we left: My uncles has four quad bikes. My uncle and aunt were on one, my ‘sister’, my mom and brother and my dad was on the back of mine (with his bad back...) I laughed my ass off!!! We drove through a dried up pond, there was mud up to our knees and we slipped from left to right, after half an hour of driving up and down we were all covered in mud.. I heard my mom screaming and my dad was pinching me all the time.. Best family activity ever and for me the perfect ending of my family trip through Canada and America!

‘Let happiness rule the world’ Loesje

I still can’t explain how I reacted sometimes towards my family. In my opinion it was such a switch from being alone and doing my thing for 15months to being with them for 24/7, I lost my freedom so quick that I lost myself sometimes.. It was like an after travel depression when you come home, but then, still travelling. It scared me how I reacted, how angry I got sometimes. I guess that I just really need my freedom. Although my family definitely gives me my freedom, I still felt I got trapped, again. But after all, we all enjoyed our trip together and who knows how long it will take till we are together again...