Month: February 2006

BiblioTravel entry

I’ve added Dark Star Safari to BiblioTravel – this book took me about 6 months to read, but it was worth it (good preparation for my trip, even though I’m only visiting one country in Africa)!

Here’s an excerpt from my entry:

… Theroux’s journey takes him from the top of Africa to the southernmost tip. As he explores eastern Africa (mainly by bus, car, or train) he tries to offer readers a view of the continent that is different from what we are likely to find in newspaper headlines.

Where pedestrians dare not tread

James and I have something we do in Ottawa about once a year or so.

We go where you are only supposed to go by car.

Once it was a trip to the Science and Technology Museum, in the dead of winter (I think it was February). From what I remember, the bus ride there took a few hours. Even the walk from the bus stop to the entrance of the museum took quite a while and felt like a route few people had actually walked along.

Our next notable jaunt was when I was shopping around for furniture. We made it out to Ikea and Leon’s in Ottawa’s west end – not only did the intersections feel like they weren’t designed for people to use, but the lack of sidewalks on the way to both stores made us feel like we just weren’t supposed to be there. And after we had crossed a major highway by bridge and everything.

Most recently, we decided to make the trek out to Best Buy. And it went quite well! The most difficult part was not quite knowing where we were (this time we were east of downtown, near the train station, but we weren’t sure of our bearings). But since we managed to avoid getting drenched by the 3-foot high splashes the passing cars made, we considered the trip a success!

Categories: Life in Ottawa_, Friends and Family_