OCT 17, 2015 – From Kingston I took a bus to Toronto. Since I already knew the city, I had only planned one night there. But as it turns out, Brandon, my other roommate from Kingston, now lives here. He hosted me and took me to a nice bar near Greektown. Being reminded of Toronto’s nightlife made me regret a bit that I had so little time. At least I went for a little bike ride the next morning and was able to secure a cheese cake from Uncle Tetsu’s shop – a new and very hyped Japanese bakery in downtown. I only went there because there was no line, but the cheese cake was really delicious. A shameful detail that remained unchanged is the arrivals hall of the bus terminal – since 2010, passengers get dumped in front of a locked building with an unhelpful sign on it (see below). One would expect a more welcoming reception in such a large and generally well-organized city.

OCT 16, 2015 – On my way to Toronto, I stopped for a few hours in Kingston ON, where I had lived for five months in 2010-11 and done an internship at CMC Microsystems. My former boss gave me a tour of the offices, where I met many familiar faces and some new ones. CMC has since built a new prototyping lab, which I got introduced to as well. The city itself still looked much the same – the most notable difference being a new microbrewery called Stone City Ales on the main street. After tasting all their draft beers, I concluded that the 12 Star Session Ale was my favorite, but I liked Beau’s Kissmeyer Nordic Pale Ale even more (this was on their guest tap). Further down the street, the cinema had closed its doors and apparently a large building with expensive condos will replace it.

OCT 15, 2015 – I visited my former roommate Nolan in Ottawa for a few days. He lent me his bike and I went on a ride along Rideau Canal, crossed Ottawa River, and biked up to Pink Lake, inside Gatineau Park. The autumn colors were beautiful. The city itself has not changed much and its transit system is still very badly accessible for visitors, with buses accepting coin payments only, and a very complicated network of lines. Hopefully things will improve with the new light rail that is scheduled to open in 2018.

OCT 13, 2015 – For my night in Montreal I chose the Central Hostel, which I had been to several times in 2010 and 2011. I was not disappointed – this hostel is still excellent and very affordable. Since my train was only at 4pm, I had almost a day to spend in this wonderful city. I walked through different parts of it, looking for worthy photo subjects. At Marché Jean-Talon I was amazed by the diversity of Québec produce, and in Boulevard Saint-Laurent, after having a sandwich at legendary Schwartz’s Deli, I found a lot of breathtaking graffiti art.

OCT 11, 2015 – Once I arrived in Boston, I quickly regretted that I had only booked two nights here. But I am in a bit of a hurry to get to the west coast, so I had to make some compromises. The city has an abundant nightlife with a lot of live music, and many relaxed places to hang out. It has the atmosphere of a student city, similar to Toronto for example. I also like its architecture, a colorful mix of small and large, old and new buildings. My friend Elitsa from Bulgaria showed me around and gave me access to the beautiful Harvard Library, which is not open to the public.

OCT 9, 2015 – Due to bad planning I missed my flight for Aruba by a few minutes. The flight options from Cayenne are limited, so I had to stay for two more nights and shorten my stay on Aruba to a single night. My CouchSurfing hosts helped me out, and I spent two lazy days around their house. I also had time to cook dinner again and to go for my first run in more than three weeks. On Aruba, I had a great airbnb host named Willeke, whom I’m happy to recommend. I rented a mountain bike and went for an afternoon ride in Arikok National Park. This was a lot of fun, also thanks to Tri-Bike Aruba who had provided me with a great hardtail bike.

OCT 8, 2015 – A friend recently recommended me the Snapseed app by Google for editing photos. While there are many other apps that do similar things and that I haven’t tried out, I find this one quite easy to use, and its results are impressive at times. Like Instagram, it contains a bit too many retro-style filters for my taste – but even those can be useful when applied correctly and sparingly. During my extra days in French Guiana, I edited some photos, which I will share below. Some of them had already been posted or sent as postcards.

Oct 7, 2015 – Last Saturday, the group travelled back to Switzerland and my solo travels officially started. I spent an extra night at the hotel in Cayenne to get organized, and ate at the excellent Restaurant Paris Cayenne, which didn’t have a table for us the night before. On Sunday I really wanted to get out of Cayenne, so I took a taxi to the airport and rented a car there. I had received a CouchSurfing offer near Roura, in the middle of nowhere, so that was my first stop. Once I found the hut, I was warmly received and spent the following night in a comfy hammock. For the remaining two days in French Guiana, I drove to Saint-Georges sur l’Oyapock, visiting Regina on the way. The border town to Brazil is small and has little to offer, but it was interesting to discover the Brazilian town of Oyapoque, just ten minutes away by boat. It felt much more alive, and I did some shopping there for my host as groceries are much cheaper than on the French side. For the night I chose to stay on îlet Sophia, which was cheap, but there was nothing to do on the island and I had trouble getting a boat back to Saint-Georges the next morning. Back at my host’s place, I prepared my first Rösti in several months.

OCT 2, 2015 – After a first night in Cayenne, we returned to Kourou to visit the Guyanese space center. The Ariane launcher was not accessible yet, but we got to see the Soyuz launcher and the main control rooms.

OCT 1, 2015 – We went on a day trip from Kourou to the îles du Salut. These former prison islands, once feared for hard work and deadly diseases, are now full of overgrown ruins, and inhabited by numerous animals (Agouti, monkeys, turtles, chickens, iguanas, lizards and more).