You’re Going Where? And You’re Going Now?

I started this blog as an expat living in the UK and travelling Europe with my kids. I continued it while living in Halifax, Canada and exploring the province of Nova Scotia, Eastern Canada, and the Eastern United States. Now we are on the move again! (I also just learned I started this blog exactly 4 years ago yesterday so happy blogiversary to me.)

I am sure that you are asking yourself what about COVID? Why now? Where are you moving?

That last question is the easiest to answer. Toronto, Canada. I am sure to some that doesn’t seem that big of a move but most people fail to understand Canada’s size. Toronto is approximately 1600km away in straight line distance. To put that in European perspective, it is farther than London to Madrid, and in many cases just as culturally different as well.

So why do it now (well not quite now but within the next couple months) and what about COVID? Well, I have a job waiting for me in Toronto and while COVID will make it more challenging, life must go on. We have been good soldiers and quarantining like we should, only going out for groceries once a week, and sheltering in place. We did our part to flatten the curve, but life carries on. The point of quarantining was never to hide out until the end of days, it was to protect the most vulnerable and to ease the burden on the healthcare system so that patients would be more spread out. The end state was never to emerge living in a bubble wrapped in bubblewrap wearing a helmet. (For the record we wear masks when it is difficult to keep 2m apart, like I said we follow the rules and are good little soldiers.)

So we will travel with our kids to Toronto in coming months and start our new life there and it will be exciting…eventually.

We are looking forward to the museums, the art, the festivals, the food, and the culture shift. The excitement of the big city again! Being immersed in a melting pot of cultures in one of the worlds most multicultural cities. We will also have access to a proper international airport again which will open the world to us again after being confined by cost and time to a very small corner of it for 3 years.

I tried desperately to write about our experiences here and our local travel, but the opportunities dried up quickly. This place just didn’t inspire anyone in our family. My personal writing suffered, my joie de vivré suffered, and the morale of our family suffered.

We realize that all our dreams won’t all be open to us immediately but at least when we get there we can get some proper takeaway once in a while, visit an exhibit, albeit with social distancing rules, and start planning some trips from our newly acquired international airport. There is even a Nando’s! (I not so secretly love Nando’s and chicken with a spicy sauce is a bit adventurous for these parts.)

On the travel note, several countries have already said they will pay for airline tickets to visit in order to subsidize their tourist industry with Japan and Sicily at the top of that list for us personally. Frivolous? Dangerous? Inappropriate? We’ll go if and when we feel safe doing so and it is practical. We won’t rush in. We’ll be prudent, we’ll continue to follow the rules and guidelines, and we won’t take unnecessary risks but we won’t spend the rest of our lives wrapped in bubblewrap.