(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Travel is partly about freedom…so committing to a scheduled event is not something you want to do too often.  However, sometimes it is fun to anticipate a special event that you would never be able to experience at home.  Here are 6 of my travel year’s top events!

1.  Live Second City show in Chicago

I hadn’t planned to be in Chicago this year, much less attend a Second City performance.  In fact, I only bought my ticket 3 hours before the show began.  But when I had a free evening in Chicago, visiting the launching pad of so many comedic careers seemed like the right thing to do.  Just visiting the lobby was amazing, as the photographs show that virtually every comedian started their career with Second City.  The show itself was very funny too; as usual, I found the improv portion to be the funniest.  For some reason, the absurdly absurd  situations really resonated with me!

2.  Paris St. Germain v. Reims – Soccer Match in France

This one wasn’t planned either.  I was leaving Reims on a Saturday morning and assumed that their Ligue 1 team wouldn’t play until Saturday afternoon.  However, this weekend was the season opener and Reims happened to be playing a very rare Friday night game at home…against Paris St. Germain, the richest (if not the best) team in French soccer!  There were at least 10 national team players freshly returned from the World Cup on the Paris roster, so there was an exceptional level of skill on display.  Even more remarkable was the fact that Reims almost won!  Paris equalized the game midway through the second half, but the Reims supporters were still thrilled with a 2-2 tie.   It was a very exciting game and I had a great seat near the centre of the field.

3.  Heerenveen v. Feyenoord soccer match

This one *was* planned: my cousin belongs to the Feyenoord fan club and I knew seeing a Dutch “Eredivisie” soccer game in Rotterdam was going to be an overwhelming experience.  The crowd was definitely more intense than in Reims (although it was a little disappointed with a tie against underdog Heerenveen) and I will never forget the electrically-charged environment.  It was also great to see the game (and have pre- and post-game refreshments) with my cousin and his family.  I hope to take them to a hockey game in Canada someday.  Speaking of hockey…

4.  Hockey Night in Hungary

When you get a schedule of a bunch of overseas hockey games, you never know which ones are going to be the most memorable.  From my perspective, they kept getting better as we moved from the Czech Republic to Poland to Slovakia.  I’ve already described the game in Slovakia as one of my Top 5 “Wow” moments of the year but the next evening’s Hungarian game was pretty special too.  As you can see from the above photo, I had a great time playing hockey for “Team Canada” on this tour and the Hungarian game was a wonderful “grass roots of hockey” way to wrap things up.  It felt great to be a Canadian: the level of respect and appreciation shown here, as in the rest of our games, was unforgettable.

5.  Los Pacaminos at the Half Moon in Putney, England

This was booked far in advance and was the “wild card” of my music tour of England.  After getting tickets for a couple of “big name” concerts, I stumbled across a listing for a band called “Los Pacaminos” who were performing in a small pub just southwest of London.  Quick research revealed that this Tex-Mex bar band (see picture at the top of this post) actually consisted of veteran professional musicians and was fronted by none other than 1980s legend Paul Young (“Every Time You Go Away”, “Come Back and Stay”, etc.).  I was mere feet from the stage and had a great time…as did the band, who played none of Paul’s hits but did play fun song after fun song (many of them being Pacaminos originals).   My university band used to play a dismal version of “La Bamba”…so it was fun to hear these guys absolutely nail it!  They only play a few concerts each year; I was exceptionally lucky to see them perform.

6.  Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall (London, England)

Booked even farther (more than 5 months!) in advance and anticipated to be one of the highlights of my tour, this concert more than lived up to my expectations.  Everything was exceptional:  the legendary and opulent 5200-seat venue was beautiful inside and out, the atmosphere was joyous, I had a great seat in the 12th row and the 20-piece band was excellent.  I never thought that I would hear Marc Almond (of Soft Cell) sing both “Tainted Love” and “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” with a swinging R&B orchestra, but that’s what happened.   On top of that, renowned soul vocalists Joss Stone and Ruby Turner delivered great sets too.  Both the venue and the orchestra are highly recommended for any music lover visiting London.

I’ve recounted lots of highlights already.  But there are more year-end lists to come!