I recently entered a writing piece about a time I felt immersed in a place. This was a tough choice, as on most trips I try to learn as much about the place I’m in and the local culture as I can. There was one time though, standing high on a platform, kissing giraffes in Kenya that I felt completely at home.
Here’s that story (If you like it, please click the “Thumbs Up” and help me win a trip!)
http://realtravelstories.com/kissing-in-kenya/
Take a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando. Travel between Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley on the magical Hogwarts Express. Step inside Gringotts bank and take the thrilling new ride “Harry Pottter and the Escape from Gringotts.” Watch the wand choose the wizard at Ollivanders and take a flight on a Hippogriff by Hagrid’s Hut. Then, head into Hogwarts Castle and jump on a broom with Harry for a “Forbidden Journey” before strolling through the shops of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, sipping a delicious Butterbeer!
Almost a decade ago (seriously where does the time go?!?) I had just graduated from theatre school and was looking for a different kind of challenge. Something that would take me out of the country and away from constantly worrying about myself. While looking into options, I came across Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village Program and knew I had found my next adventure.
In November 2006, I travelled to San Jose, Costa Rica with my sister, Erin to meet up with the rest of our Habitat team led by an amazing woman, Mary. She told us what we’d be doing over the next week or so and gave us a brief history about Habitat for Humanity, before we headed out to Buenos Aires, the village we would be building a house in.
My sister, Erin, and I digging trenches in Costa Rica with Habitat for Humanity
Our build started with digging trenches for the foundation. It was long, hot work, but at the end of the day I would leave the site feeling great. I couldn’t really speak much with the locals who were there helping, but their warmth and generosity was immediately evident. The family we were building the house for was there working alongside us every day accompanied by their young daughter, who spent the days playing in the dirt, smiling and laughing.
The team of volunteers and locals at the construction site
As the week rolled on, we started putting in the posts, mixing cement by hand and starting to put up the walls. Going into this, I had very little construction knowledge. Now, here I was, in a foreign country, trying to communicate with the contractor in a foreign language and helping build a much needed home for a wonderful young family who, without Habitat, likely wouldn’t have had an adequate place to raise their daughter.
Holding up the corner posts while the cement was poured
That’s the beauty of this organization. Bringing people together and teaching us that with a little love and a hammer, we can make a difference in someone’s life, while at the same time, they are making a difference in ours.
The walls are going up!
Back home, I couldn’t stop talking about this incredible experience and vowed to do another build and continue my involvement with Habitat as soon as possible. Then life got in the way and there was always something else to do. Several times a year, I would look at the Global Village page and start thinking about where I’d like to go next and I would visit the Habitat Toronto page and say I’m going to do a build in my own city, but never followed through.
On September 14th, I’m finally keeping my promise to myself by participating in Habitat for Humanity’s Women’s Build in Toronto along with my sister, Allison, to help build a better home for a family from the GTA who is struggling with their current housing situation.
I’m incredibly excited to be working with Habitat again and am currently fundraising to help with the build.
If you’d like to make a donation of any amount to support us, we would be very grateful! It’s easy – all you need to do is click the link below and it will take you to my fundraising page. Click on “Donate Now!” and you’re all set! 🙂
Thank you so much for your generosity!
xo Crystal
Montreal is a gorgeous city. Head down to Old Montreal and you almost feel like you’ve touched down in Europe with the old buildings and cobblestone streets. Here, street performers are abundant and the Basilica at night is a sight not to be missed.
Apart from the beautiful setting, Montreal is a foodie’s playground, with just about every type of food you can imagine found within her streets. Treats from around the world, as well as local classics like Montreal smoked meat, steamies and poutine.
While the food is good, the craft beer scene here is great and constantly growing.
Here’s just a sampling of what Montreal has to offer the beer lover.
1219 Crescent Street, Montreal
Frosty Morning brew
The unique layout of this place, with three bars spread across three floors, Brutopia is a great spot for the craft beer lover. They brew a bunch of their standard beers directly on site, including an IPA, Honey, Brown Ale, Blonde and a fruity Raspberry Blonde (which is my fave!). Throughout the year, they also offer selections like a Chocolate Stout, Scotch and Cream Ales like Frosty Morning, plus many more. Brutopia imports other craft and micro-brewed beer, so their stock is always changing. Aside from the beer, the neat thing about Brutopia is they have a viewing deck overlooking the stage, where they routinely host live music, open mic and trivia nights.
29 Laurier Avenue West, Montreal
Dieu du Ciel is the perfect place to end your Montreal Brewery tour as they are open seven days a week until 3am. With a beer menu that is updated constantly (They rotate up to 17 different styles on tap), visiting beer drinkers often head straight here to see what’s new. Always packed with both locals and those just visiting, Dieu du Ciel is known as a contender for top beer spot in the city. Whether you’re looking to warm up in the winter or cool down in the summer, this is the spot. Favourites, like the creamy Aphrodisiaque and the coffee-infused Péché Morte make a stop here worth it. Add their more experimental brews and a visit here is an essential and worthy one.
Chai Ale at Dieu du Ciel
2049 Saint Denis Street, Montreal
Trying a flight or two at L’amere a boire
L’amère À Boire specializes in classic English, German and Czech ales and lagers, from Hefeweizen to Czech-style pilsner. They also have a great selection of tapas and seasonal menus to pair with their 22 house beers, including the German-inspired Montreal Hell Lager. The bar itself has a sleek, café vibe to it, with a loft, backyard terrace and a small patio out front for the summer if you’re looking for a quick beer (or flight) along St. Denis.
245 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal
A perfect summer drink- Pamplemousse
Benelux Brewpub has two locations offering a menu of a dozen or more craft beer at each spot. They switch up the selection available, moving between old favourites and new contenders. The focus is on Belgian and American styles, with interesting one-offs like Amalgame, a sour brown with cherries aged on oak for one year, or the refreshing summer Pamplemousse. There are plenty of options ranging between blondes, ales and stouts. When hunger hits, Benelux offers the $7 Eurodog and praise is unanimous that it’s a must-try.
1356 Saint Catherine Street West, Montreal
Blanche brew at 3 Brasseurs
Started in France and now with four locations in Montreal, Les 3 Brasseurs is more than just a restaurant and pub chain. They maintain a steady menu of beer crafted on site, including a White, Blonde, IPA, Amber and Brown. In addition, they offer a monthly brew and a seasonal brew, always keeping a new beer inspiration part of their brewing routine. There’s plenty to choose from in the way of food and they specially design menu options to be paired with certain beer.
Next time you’re in Montreal, be sure to cross at least a few of these breweries off your list!
Clips from Walt Disney World’s magical ‘Wishes’ Fireworks display. Always an impressive show!
While in Boquete, Panama, I stopped by one of the local coffee farms to learn about how some of the world’s most delicious coffee is made…and tried a few samples. It was perfection!
This week, I had some fun playing around with iMovie and made my youtube channel a trailer.
Check out Tales of a Travel Addict- The Trailer!
What would you do if you only had one dollar a day to live on? If you didn’t know where your next paycheque was coming from? If you had to choose between sending your children to school or feeding them?
For many of us, this seems like an impossible notion, but for 1.1 billion people around the world, living on ONE dollar is a daily reality.
I just watched the documentary Living on One Dollar, where four American friends head to a rural village in Guatemala for two months to experience what it’s like to live on one dollar a day. Each morning, they would draw a number from 0-9 out of a hat. This number represented how much money they had to spend that day. Somedays, it was 0, other days they were lucky and could buy bananas along with their rice and beans. They took out a loan for $125, which had to be paid back bi-weekly in increments of $6.50 or so. With this, they rented a one room house where they slept on the concrete floor. They also planted radishes so they’d have some income once their crop grew. During this time, they interviewed some of the 300 locals living in Pena Blanca, Guatemala. Their stories are both inspiring and heartbreaking, but regardless of how little they have, they are all willing to open up their homes and lives to their neighbours and these four Americans.
I’ve traveled to places very similar to Pena Blanca where extreme poverty surrounds you and I’ve always been incredibly touched by the generosity I’ve been shown by complete strangers, who have invited me in for a meal, even though they really couldn’t afford it.
Over the years, I’ve often found myself broke and struggling to pay rent and buy groceries, but I always know I have another paycheque coming or I have family, friends and options available to me when I get really stuck. Those times are stressful enough and I only have to take care of myself. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to have a family to support, be making a dollar a day and not even knowing when my next day of work will be.
Listening to these guys talk about their experience and watching the interviews they did with the locals really puts things back in perspective.
As one of them said,
“It’s not due to laziness that someone is poor. It’s not due to a lack of ambition or lack of intelligence, it’s because they lack things that we take advantage of everyday.”
We don’t realize the daily things we take for granted – education, clean water, food in our belly and a roof over our head. These are things we just expect to have. But watching this documentary reminded me it could just as easily have been me in that situation and still could be.
To learn more about the film, the project and to get involved visit http://livingonone.org/livingonone/film/ or watch the documentary on Netflix
One day, it would be nice to have an unlimited budget to travel with, to not have to worry about counting dollars, pounds, euros, shillings and so on. Unfortunately, I’m not there yet. More than once in my life (four times to be exact) I have decided to buy a plane ticket instead of paying rent and come home from a wonderful adventure homeless, seeking temporary refuge on a friend’s couch, in my car or at my parents’ house.
This time, however, I opted to attempt to keep my apartment. I found myself in Prague for four days with approximately $50 to spend after paying for my hostel.
So after having a great (and cheap) time exploring the city, here’s my (practically) FREE guide to Prague!
Best of all, the memories and photos you’ll take with you when you leave are FREE. So get out there and explore fairytale Prague, without worrying about overstepping your budget!
Sometimes being a tourist in your own city can be a great mini-escape. This is definitely true for me each spring when the Japanese Cherry Blossoms bloom in High Park. While you will be sharing the beauty with thousands of others, it’s definitely worth the trip.
These beautiful blossoms only last for about a week, so pack a picnic or bring your favourite book and a camera and head to Toronto’s High Park!
To get to High Park, take the Bloor-Danforth subway line (Line 2) to High Park station, exit, walk across Bloor Street and into the park.
Tales of a Travel Addict 
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