January: Travel Notes
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January: Travel Notes
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A QUICK PRIMER ON THE HAMILTON SHOPPING SCENE: The Warehouse, a Walmart-type place, is the closest store-type thing to campus and has another branch downtown; the dollar stores downtown vary widely in quality and selection, but have some good deals such as my $3 power adapter for my laptop; there are two used book stores and a major chain store of average quality (Whitcoull's); the Chartwell Mall is vastly, vastly over-rated and has nothing of serious interest; the public library is decent but charges for new releases, cd's and videos and reserving things. A QUICK PRIMER ON THE HAMILTON NIGHT LIFE: The Outback is by far the most popular destination, but gets quite over-crowded and the guys are all young and grabby. They have nice apple shots though. The Casbar isn't bad and has live music. The Boston Cafe in Hillcrest has cheap pitchers of beer for students sometimes. A QUICK PRIMER ON THE MAJOR HAMILTON ATTRACTIONS: The Waikato River (obviously) which has walking trails, rowing events and an apparently over-priced little boat cruise; Lake Rotoroa, a man-made lake with some trails and such; The Hamilton Gardens, a massive complex with numerous themed gardens and walking trails that definitely merits further exploring one of these days; Founders Theatre and Riverlea Theatre; the cricket/rugby arena and assorted bars and restaurants. RAGLAN TRIP REPORT: Raglan is a beach community about 90 minutes by car from Hamilton. We went with a local, who took us to two beaches: one our friend recommended for its large expanse of squishy mud, and another which is a more traditional surfer-type beach. We also did some browsing in downtown Raglan (which greatly resembles Ontario's own Wasaga Beach community) and stopped in on our friend's grandmum. We then got takeaway (take-out) fish and chips, and sat on the beach eating them and playing with a guitar. It is definitely worth it to stop at Bridal Veil Falls on the way. Bonus: this was a cheap trip. All we paid for was gas and food. Unless you get into surfboard rentals, you can enjoy the beaches for free. |
