Carrousel

I haven't traveled out of town since March, however these past two weekends have felt like a trip around the world. My city hosts a Carrousel of Nations where you can sample food, music, and entertainment from a variety of places.

Last week we started at the Greek Fest where we sat outside enjoying the beautiful weather while watching the children dance in their traditional outfits. I visited Greece in 2012 and was blown away by the beauty of both the country and the people. This brought back some great memories.

The ticket booth was manned by two older Greek men and they were extremely efficient at keeping the line moving in a quick, orderly manner. We sampled the cheese and spinach pies but the line for gyros and honey balls were too long.

The Brooks kids

After the crowds got to be too much, we made our way to the Bavarian Fest. I traveled here in 2014 and was lucky enough to be in Munich for Oktoberfest. At this festival, we had pretzels, schnitzel, and sausage. Of course we also had beer! We sat on the patio and watched the sunset. Musicians and dancers came outside to perform. I had to work at 7 the next morning so our carrouseling had to be cut short.














Paulaner beer reminded me of Oktobertfest. PROST!
The food was also delicious here.








This past Saturday, we visited the German Fest which coincided with the World Cup, Germany vs Sweden game. Again we had pretzels, sausage and schnitzel. We had a debate over which place made the best pretzels.  It was a tie!

Erdinger beer was on
tap and it went well
with the pretzels

The festival was busy and there was lots of dancing before the game started. My nephew Zach is a huge fan of soccer (football) and was excited to be a part of the crowd. Germany won 2-1! ⚽️⚽️⚽️🍺🍺🍺








Zach tapped out after the German fest but my sisters and I continued on. Our next stop was the Caribbean festival. We were pretty stuffed and just a little buzzed from the German fest. We rallied though as we wanted to try their jerk chicken.






It's been close to 9 years since I visited Jamaica. Our resort had a jerk hut on the beach and it was incredible. This was pretty good too. I ran into a couple friends here (Nicole and George) who travel to Jamaica almost every year. They didn't go this year so this was a good festival for them to visit.


By this point, we were full and definitely buzzed but felt we had room for one more festival.

The Scottish club was definitely worth the visit. We were entertained for hours with dance and music. Hearing the Border Cities Pipe Band play Amazing Grace almost brought me to tears. They are so incredible!

We had to try the fish and chips!

This young lad is a student
at the school my sister
teaches at. He did a great job!

It was so fun to "travel" to these villages the past couple of weekends. I feel so fortunate that I've been on many trips and have seen some wonderful places. For people who don't get the chance to travel, the Carrousel provided an opportunity to try new foods and experience different cultures. This event occurs every year and I try to go to a couple of the venues. Hopefully your town offers something similar so that for a few hours you can feel transported to a different place.

~MT

BOTTOMS UP

When you clink glasses with a fellow traveler, you are solidifying a bond, whether just for the night, the duration of your trip, or if lucky, for an entire lifetime. You share tales of your adventures, your past and where you want to travel to next. Like food, drink is an integral aspect of culture in most countries.

CHEERS: Being Canadian, I hold a fondness for Canadian Club, a Whisky that originated in 1858 by Hiram Walker. They had great marketing (seriously, check out their ads) plus they hid cases around the world. To this day, some of them still haven't been located. This is the drink of choice for Don Draper in Mad Men. I prefer to drink my CC mixed with Diet Pepsi, which my friends and I refer to it as a RIOT (rye+diet).

CC+DP=my drink of choice

KAMPAI: In Japanese, this means to empty your glass. However, the custom when drinking with others, is to never let your friend's glass empty completely. It's standard to serve one another which is a bit of a problem as you never really know how many glasses you've had. Although sake is the national alcoholic drink, most people only have a glass or two of the rice wine and beer is the more popular drink. It pairs well with edamame, salted boiled soybeans.

Drinking is an important role in Japanese society and widely accepted. There are vending machines everywhere; you can drink on public transportation, in parks, even while riding your bike. Alcohol is sold at every convenience store and they are open 24/7. It's customary to go out for drinks after work, and for those on a budget, there's nomihodai; all-u-can-drink for a fixed price and period of time. After living in this country for 6+ years, I'm surprised my liver didn't explode.

Beer Festival-KIRIN 

Although Kirin was my preferred beer, when I traveled to Sapporo, I had the chance to visit the museum and brewery there. They had nomihodai and for 120 minutes, I sampled Sapporo beer while playing century-club (a drink a minute for 100 minutes). Budget boozing at it's finest. Asahi and Suntory are the other popular beer brands in Japan.

PROST: For a country that invented Jagermeister, a 70 proof liquor, you know that Germans take their drinking seriously. They are very proud of their beer and have a strong opinion about which is the best one. Oktoberfest is celebrated annually in Munich, Bavaria and more than 6 million people attend. I was fortunate to partake in the festivities back in 2014.

A delicious amber brew

Hofbrau Festzelt

Lederhosen worn by most

Oktoberfest was definitely one of the better festivals I've attended. There are amusement rides, games, pretzels and beer. Lots and lots of beer. The 16 day event is extremely well organized. I was most impressed with the waitresses carrying around 10 1-litre steins at a time!

SLAINTE: Guinness used to be given out to new mothers in maternity hospitals. That practice has since ceased but this particular beer is a meal in a glass, and an acquired taste.

Look closely, you can see the shamrock in the foam

I'm not a huge fan of the beer, but I do like Jameson, Irish whisky. If you'd like to sample a bit of the Irish favourites, try an Irish Car Bomb. This drink features a half pint of Guinness, with a shot of Jameson and Bailey's Irish Cream mixed together. The name is offensive, referring to troubles of Northern Ireland. The drink is essentially unheard of in Ireland. Most would find it distasteful to mix Guinness with anything.

Stay tuned for the next instalment which will feature drinking snake wine in Vietnam!

~MT