Canada on the Back Burner?

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It is easy to want to travel the world with so many interesting and completely different places to go. We often forget about all the beautiful wonders in our own country. I am one of those people. Although I love Canada I generally take it for granted until I’ve been away for a long period of time. Sure most of Canada is cold for several months out of the year, but there are still great sights and interesting places to see.

I have traveled quite a bit in Alberta. I’ve been to the major sights: West Edmonton Mall, the Calgary Stampede, Banff hot springs, hiking in Kananaskis, snowboarding at Sunshine Village, and camping all over, among other things. I have also seen a fair bit of British Columbia's cities and sights. However, other than driving through Saskatchewan and making it to Winnipeg, Manitoba I have not had the chance to venture any further east.

Provided by: David Rumsey Map Collection

This is not because I am not interested in seeing eastern Canada; I am. I already know I want to see Toronto, Montreal, Niagara Falls and Prince Edward Island just from word of mouth. But the sad fact is I am more willing to spend a large amount of money traveling somewhere more foreign.

With so many places on my list I will likely not see everything I wish to so priority comes first. Priority often changes but at the moment generally involves: Japan, Australia, Egypt, Greece, well, pretty much all European countries. With so many places to go in so little time, some are obviously going to be left out. 

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So does that mean I should scrap Canada off the list? No, I don’t believe so. Perhaps eastern Canada will just be pushed back till later in life when longer trips aren’t possible due to work constrictions or I am too old to take extensive trips. Maybe by then I’ll have a sweet RV ride in which I can travel across Canada in.

Or perhaps it will manage to make its way up the list due to issues in other countries, like the economic and political issues that have recently occurred in Greece and Egypt.

Greece has recently been known as one of the first out of many possible European nations to have a completely failed economy, although they have been suffering for about three years. This crisis greatly affects travel to Greece as it can cause more problems such as: strikes, transportation cuts, opening hours to be cut back and problems for struggling hotels and taverns. On the bright side it will also decrease the value of the Euro making it cheaper for foreign travelers as well as decrease the amount of travelers that you would have to deal with on your trip. However, I think these current cons still outweigh the couple pros that come with it.

Although, the political unrest in Egypt started over a year ago, the countries tourism industry is still suffering. This unrest has caused Egypt to be seen as a unsafe destination for travelers even though some parts have been violence free. This has caused a huge drop in Egypt's economy as tourism is one of their major sources of income. This will make it difficult for Egypt to get their tourism industry back to running like it once was. Especially since Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada are still suggesting that it is not safe to travel to Egypt.

These types of issues seem to be coming more and more frequent as time goes by making it difficult to travel to popular destinations. Maybe that is why I postdate Canada because I feel like the rest of the world will change before I can see it in its glory days; while Canada will always feel familiar and accessible. Thus, it can wait.