Canada Day adventures

Canada dayYesterday was Canada Day. Thousands showed up to celebrate 148 years of Canadian history. I always enjoy the Canada Day festivities and make a point of attending them each year. I was originally planning to go solo, but one of my friends wanted to go too, so we decided to meet up.

I arrived downtown around noon and met up with my friend who was already there. There was a band playing Celtic/East Coast/rock music and it was really good. I’m a huge fan of East Coast fiddle music and bands like Great Big Sea, so I really enjoyed their music. After they had finished their set, we wandered down to the river where people were flocking in abundance. We stopped to watch a few buskers. One was an amazing contact juggler. You should definitely look up contact juggling if you’ve never heard of it before, its pretty neat 🙂 Another was a performer who juggled knives while balancing on a stack of PVC pipes and boards. It was really entertaining, if not a bit stressful, to watch.

We walked through and perused the street vendors as well. Its amazing the creativity you can find in the art, jewellery and clothing being sold. We then stopped for coffee and walked along the river. We then wandered through the mall in Chinatown. There were all sorts of interesting grocery stores, herbal stores, bakery shops and cute anime stores.

We spent some more time walking around the area before the two of us split up and headed home. All in all, we spent about 6 hours walking around, talking, and taking everything in. There were fireworks at 1o:45 pm that night to commemorate the occasion, but I just didn’t have the energy, so I decided to go home instead.

It was a really enjoyable day. There were crowds of people everywhere, but we spent a lot of time walking down quieter streets, so I didn’t get too overwhelmed. I also got the chance to talk with my friend for hours and we took lots of fun pictures too! I loved the atmosphere of the event. But what I really valued was the time I got to spend with my friend. I got to know her better and we had a really good time.

What do you like about festivals/holidays?

Image credit: “Canada Day” by Alejandro Mejía Greene is licensed under CC by 2.0

 

 

8 thoughts on “Canada Day adventures”

  2. Warrior Freya says:
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    There’s a festival held every year where I used to live called The Flowertown Festival. To be honest I’m not sure why we have it. But tons of venders so up from all over, even out of state. There’s amazing food, games you can play to get tickets that you can train in for prizes. Raffles you can enter. And it’s held in spring, so normally it’s not too hot. All of the flowers are blooming so the air is sweet and light.

    I used to love going to it with my family, and later with Warren #1, my first boyfriend. We would walk around looking at all the venders before we figured out what we wanted to buy.

    I always got a bottle of sand art. Basically you went up to a vender who had whole bunch of colored sand in different containers and a huge selection of empty glass bottles. You used funnels to fill a bottle with whatever color sand you wanted. You could layer all sorts of colors together and use things like toothpicks to make designs in the bottle. It was always fun, and one of the memories I associate with Flowertown Festival event.

    In general, holidays mean family for me. They’re the times where we’re able to eek out time to really be together. Now that my brothers and I are grown and living our own lives, it’s so easy to feel separated and detached from them. Holidays allow us to touch base and reconnect.

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    • Ally says:
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      I love sand art! It sounds like you have a lot of wonderful memories. I agree, its a great way to connect with others. And having so many things to do (vendors, games etc) usually gives everyone something they like, even if its just taking in the atmosphere 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

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