Saturday, August 25, 2007

Back!

NB and I are finally back home. We arrived yesterday afternoon. Our house didn't burn down, our bikes, computers and tomatoes are still there, and all the plants are happy and well.

And now, for a weekend of recovering from our vacation!

NB has already uploaded his vacation photos here. Mine are slowly going up here.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Heritage Festival

Welp, NB and I had a great Heritage Festival weekend, as usual. We're pretty bushed, though.

We went soon after it started on Saturday. It was raining a bit before we left, so we put on some raingear and drove in. By the time we got down the hill, it was raining harder, and we were starting to get soggy by the time we reached the festival. The hot-drink vendors did well that day. We went from booth to booth, soggy tickets in hand. There were no line-ups, and after getting our food we'd duck into the exhibition tents and eat there. The sun came out briefly when we got to the end of the tents. We made it back up the hill and to the car before the rain started again. It was really pouring on the way home, and we were pretty happy to have gone earlier.

On Sunday we met my brother at the LRT station and wandered around together. He was taking cellphone photos for his foodie friends back in Quebec, and I brought the little digital camera so we got a few pictures of the food and booths. These are just mine, since he's on the road back and hasn't had a chance to post his yet.

One of the first things we noticed was the Segway Police:



There were a few of them and they were riding around, answering questions, flashing their lights and whatnot. We played the "spot the police" game -- they were on foot, on bikes, on segways, in a car, and a few went by in a golf cart. It was like collector trading cards. I didn't take photos of them all, though.

The England exhibit was set up nicely, but they didn't have anything too interesting to eat.



Apparently my parents were also wandering around. We went around by the pond to find the Polish exhibit.



We talked to them briefly, but they weren't planning on staying very long. They came back in the evening and walked around some more after the stores closed, and they said it was very crowded later on.

I took a few pictures while we decided what to eat next. Some dancers by the Hungarian pavilion had pulled some bystanders into a circle dance:



NB had some tasty rendang at the Indonesian pavilion, but it looked like a bit too much food to me:



Some Polish girls in costume preparing to dance:



Later on we got some mango shakes -- the best drinks at the Festival, with the Nicaraguan cacao and Scandinavian sima being possible runners-up.



But not even a mango smoothie could cool this spicy, spicy papaya salad from Laos.



I gave it a good go, but had to give up a few bites in. NB liked the spice, but didn't like the papaya, and my brother liked neither. It was my one failed experiment. Luckily, the Laosian meat skewers more than made up for the disappointment.

NB and my brother tried some Zimbabwean sausage kebabs, which were delicious. I tried coming back several times on Sunday and Monday to try to get one for myself, but the supply was low and they went quickly.



We sat down to rest at the top of Saskatchewan drive, and I got my brother to take a photo of NB and I:



I have a few more photos from today, but am too tired to upload them. I'll have to do it later in the week.