In The Bag

Handbag necessities for travel: iPod, sunnies, Holga camera, Hurraw! (raw, organic and vegan lip balm- no beeswax!), a beautiful notebook for sketching and writing lovely words, and a tea thermos, for, well, lovely tea.

Road trips and in my case, bus trips, require planning. Don’t be one to get caught out stocking up on non-nutritive ‘health foods’ from the gas station. Store bought muesli bars don’t cut it, gorgeous, so hit your local market or better yet, your kitchen, and get prepping. This morning I was tucking into some coconut flavoured almond yoghurt (thank you Calgary!) with some hemp hearts and coconut water while reading a bad ass book on holistic healing. Other snacks I loaded into my lunch pack included: a few bottles of kombucha, some organic loose leaf tea for my thermos, home made and store bought kale chips, home made raw energy balls, garlic stuffed olives, and a few jars of green juice. I have never felt better traveling, despite enduring two 18 hour bus trips in the last week.

I want to make quick mention of the fact that Vegan Era’s 21 Day Live Vegan Program is now over! If you participated, well done and congratulations! I need to thank Mandy and Dave profusely for this program; I have been flirting with veganism since the moment I became vegetarian, but after a whole month (I started on March 1), I’m proud of myself for legitimately living the vegan lifestyle. This is the start of a significantly beautiful friendship between my body, mind, the environment and our animal neighbours. I am impossibly excited about the future.

My friends in Banff and Calgary were brilliant hosts in accommodating for my dietary restrictions. Rach took me to Nourish Bistro in Banff, where water was cutely served in Mason jars and the vegan nachos were served with twenty-seven toppings! We also tucked into mushroom ravioli, vermicelli noodles and falafels.
When I arrived in Calgary, Sarah and Trav introduced me to The Coup, an outstanding vegetarian restaurant. We started our night with a bowl of punch and fresh fruit, then enjoyed some rustic yam fries and no-rice sushi, before moving onto our main courses. Mine was a beautiful towered ensemble of portobello mushrooms, wheat berries, walnut pate and sprouts; ridic! Sarah chose a tempeh quesadilla which was wonderfully smoked, and Trav enjoyed a huge satay bowl. It was the perfect introduction to Calgary, a place that I subsequently fell in love with, despite it’s seemingly ho-hum reputation.

I’ve had an amazing time exploring more of Canada and reconnecting with friends; bonding over wine and great food, playing pretend-photographers, getting stoked on natural produce, witnessing miracles, drinking almond milk London Fog’s {woah!}, thrift shopping like a crazy woman {thank you Sarah Bear for reinventing me} and realizing that my decision to become vegan doesn’t restrict my fun, my life or my friendships. Rather, it gives me opportunities to respect my health in times that I otherwise wouldn’t, and if nothing else, provides some interesting conversations!