Lori Henry’s Travel Newsletter- Summer 2010

The Alianait Arts Festival: Artcirq Performs in Iqaluit, Nunavut (Canada).

We’ve had incredibly hot weather for the last few days here in Vancouver, topping 30°C for the fifth day in a row, and I’m lovin’ every sweaty second of it. I’m only home for the next couple of days before flying off again, so I’m getting things done like doing the Grouse Grind for the first time (my story coming soon to WestJet’s up! magazine), dining at local restaurants like the Smoking Dog Bistro and Adesso (also in up! magazine very shortly), and doing the fun things like laundry and yard work.

A couple of announcements:
For those flying WestJet this month, make sure to pick up that copy in the pocket in front of you and turn to page 10: yep, that’s my smiling mug being introduced as the new Vancouver City Specialist for the publication. To start you off, you can read my Beginner’s Guide to Vancouver.

I am also the new Editor for the cultural dancing festivals calendar for ontheglobe.com. I’ll be listing some fantastic events all over the globe that require you to get your dancing shoes out of the closet. Olé

The Art Nouveau City of Alesund in Norway, Europe.

Iqaluit, Nunavut
My summer started out with an incredible trip up to Iqaluit, Nunavut in Canada’s arctic. I went there to check out their summer festival, the Alianait Arts Festival – trying out Inuit Drum Dancing, Bollywood, throat singing and Greenlandic Mask Dancing and Folk Dancing – but left having learned so much more than dance steps.

I stayed with a local couple and their 8-year old son who had moved from Ottawa and had been living in Iqaluit for a couple of years. Before I knew it, we had a 2-month old Inuk baby delivered to our door who needed care. I can’t say too much about him, because he was taken in by social services, but I can say that he changed my life. That little guy wailed in my arms for hours and threw the whole household upside down for a few days. It definitely wasn’t an average trip, but going up north never is.

Denmark
After a week of recovering from the arctic, I boarded a red eye flight for Denmark and spend the next week checking out Copenhagen, the home of Hans Christian Andersen in Odense and meeting the 2,000 year old bog man in Århus. From there I hopped on a surprisingly cruise ship-like ferry that took me from Copenhagen to Oslo in Norway.

The Maihaugen Open Air Museum in Lillehammer, Norway (Europe).

Norway
Oslo is the “big city” in Norway and I thought it was alright, although I liked the smaller cities of Lillehammer and Bergen much better. My favourite city of all was Ålesund, which is also called the “Art Nouveau City.” You can read about my adventures going down the Olympic bobsleigh track on BCLiving.ca. The trip was finished off with a day in the amazing city of Amsterdam.

What’s Next?
After being at home for a couple of weeks to recover from the last trip, I’m getting ready for the next 2 months. I’ll be travelling to Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands), Halifax, Toronto, Quebec and Newfoundland, as well as more of Europe: the Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Romania.

In the meantime, you can read my article on Sparkling Hill Resort (remember the -110°C cold sauna from my last newsletter?) in the September issue of Spa magazine, as well as upcoming articles on ReadersDigest.ca.

You can keep up with me in between newsletters on Twitter and through this blog.
Ciao!

If you haven’t subscribed to the newsletter yet, you can do so by putting your email address and city in the boxes below.