Tara Bolt misses traveling.

Before COVID-19, the woman from St. John’s, NL, traveled the world several times a year to spend free time with her husband and their then two-year-old son.

“It was really hard not being able to travel or even being able to plan a trip,” she says.

Now she makes herself satisfied by looking back at her photos from past trips and dreaming of a time when she can travel again. While she can’t book anything right now, Bolt has been researching her next adventure and figuring out ways to bring the world into her home.

Like the thousands of others who dream of travel, many find creative ways to travel virtually and learn about other cultures from the safety of their own home.

For Bolt, that means watching travel shows. One of her favorites is “Traveling with a purpose ” on Amazon Prime and “Somebody feeds Phil, ”A fun food travel show on Netflix. These shows, she says, are enough to give her a taste of another location, even if they can’t physically be there.

Going after COVID is not in sight right now, but Larissa Newell, Branch Manager of Maritime Travel Charlottetown, PEI has the next best thing with this photo shoot in her backyard. Newell hopes to make people confident that the journey through the photo series will return soon. – SaltWire network

World at your fingertips

Leah Jessalyn Stultz, also from St. John’s, arranges her trip in a slightly different way. She and her kids used Google Earth to show new places on the street. Sometimes, she says, they’re looking for something specific, like the pyramids, and sometimes they just want to see what the houses or the landscape look like in distant areas. Favorite countries they have visited so far include Egypt, New Zealand and Antarctica.

Through her St. John’s Girl Guide / Sparks unit, Karleena Squires got the girls to follow magazines from a girl who travels the world learning about leading in different countries. Every week they play games from each country, tinker with different sights and learn some words in new languages.

So far, the Sparks have enjoyed lion hunting in Kenya, surfing in New Zealand and listening to music from different countries.

How do you hit the waves halfway around the world? It’s all about imagination, says Squires. The girls lay on their stomachs and paddled to a wave and followed all the action like they were learning to surf while playing classic surf music.


The central PEI Community Navigator Peggy Miles is pictured with Nicole Yeba, who taught viewers how to prepare Congolese food in the “Cooking with Culture” courses currently held by the PEI Community Navigators organization. Miles said the idea behind the series is twofold: it offers a taste of travel when we are all grounded due to COVID, and it allows islanders to connect with newcomers. – Contributed

Everything about the food

For John van Gurp, who lives in the West End of Halifax, NS, everything revolves around food.

He’s eaten his way through the various small, locally owned, international restaurants in the Quinpool Road neighborhood. From the sushi Wasabi house to Seven peppers‘Syrian Halal, Song is Korean to Heartwood and Wild leek He tries everything for vegetarian and vegan food. This week it’s spicy chana masala and vegetable biryani Naan ‘n curry.

“In this great city, you can walk to the world’s cuisine. We love it, ”he says.

That’s it PEI Community Navigators Team does through their Cooking with Culture Initiative. The group’s mandate is to support new residents and work with community members to build welcoming communities in rural Prince Edward Island and to provide community education programs on the value of newcomers. So they created a virtual, global cooking series.

In the past, Scott Smith, the Western PEI Community Navigator, hosted a 10-night weekly 10-country class introducing the culture to the area’s new residents through photo presentations and food sharing.

The group knew this concept was already of interest to residents, explains Peggy Myles, the coordinator for Central PEI. When COVID-19 hit, Myles said they had decided to take classes online and offer a weekly series of cooking classes with cultural dishes as a way for longtime islanders to connect with newcomers.

Classes take place in common spaces with kitchens, halls, museums, and performance theaters, or even in chefs’ homes under the COVID-19 protocols, Myles says.

Over 100 people from across PEI signed up to take classes, cook at home, or see how featured foods such as Congolese, Filipino, Pakistani and Japanese are made. Lists of ingredients are sent in advance to those who want to pre-register and try to cook with them.

Upcoming courses include Brazilian, German, and Indian cuisine, as well as some longtime islanders, including a Mi’kmaq moderator, a sixth generation dairy farmer, and possibly an Acadian or seafood cuisine, Myles says.

“The sessions are interactive and it was really wonderful to see participants asking questions – both about the food being cooked and about the culture of the moderator this evening,” says Myles.

Myles adds that these sessions have also helped educate all islanders about the food resources available from tip to tip.

“It’s an opportunity to share information about Asian grocery stores, local vegetable producers, and even what’s available at the regular grocery store that attendees may not have noticed before,” she says.

Nicole Yeba shows off her finished Congolese dish after teaching online viewers how to do it from home.  - Contributed
Nicole Yeba shows off her finished Congolese dish after teaching online viewers how to do it from home. – Contributed

Funny pictures

Larissa Newell, the branch manager of Maritime Travel Charlottetown, PEI, encourages everyone to keep dreaming and planning as travel will return when it is safe to do so.

“We are confident that the vaccines will travel to Canada on their way soon, maybe even later this year,” she says. “We remain optimistic about sun targets in the coming winter as well.”

Maritime Travel offers a range of free virtual experiences to help people travel the world from home and get inspiration for their next trips. These experiences give everyone the opportunity to discover new destinations, experiences and overlooked hidden gems around the world.

Tomoko Craig shows how to prepare Japanese food in the
Tomoko Craig shows how to prepare Japanese food in the “Cooking with Culture” courses of the PEI Community Navigators program. – Contributed

Newell says they will be taking part in European River Cruising virtually because a lot of people are really interested and it is a unique way to experience these countries. Anyone interested in jumping on board tells Newell to follow his Facebook page or contact him to get on the mailing list.

“You never know what you might discover,” says Newell. “There may be a destination you’ve never thought of before and you need to know it has to be on your bucket list.”

In the meantime, Newell brings the world closer to home through a fun photo series. Over the next six weeks, Newell publishes travel-inspired photos to keep people dreaming of travel. So far, this has included Paris, a hot air balloon ride on an African safari, and beach shots, all of which were taken in her snowy backyard.

“While there is nothing like experiencing a destination in person, we are very fortunate to be living in a technological age and visiting destinations virtually,” says Newell.

Right now, virtual travel is much safer and cheaper. Take this opportunity to explore the world.

WHEN YOU GO:

Cooking with culture courses with PEI Community Navigators is free, and users can send information via email.[email protected] to check availability for registration. Classes are held every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. AST time and they prefer people to tune in live. Prior to the class, each participant will be sent an ingredient list and some basic instructions to help them prepare.