Elena's Legacy. Texts written by Elena, excerpts from texts she liked, her artworks.

Monday, October 8, 2018

Parade Gay in Montreal

Montreal's Pride Parade

Each August, Montréal Pride welcomes the world’s LGBTQ+ community for 10 days of Pride. With dozens of activities including the Pride Parade, bustling Community Day and the unforgettable T-Dance, it’s all here. Gay, lesbian, trans or any other shade of the rainbow, Montréal Pride has something for everyone.

All the pictures of the Pride Parade have been taken by Elena.

This colourful festival offers an exciting, fun-filled program: Community Day, free shows and T-Dance at Parc des Faubourgs, festivities in many of the Village's establishments and the famous Pride Parade!

The parade takes over Saint Catherine Street, but there’s also the celebrations in the Parc Des Faubourgs all weekend and in clubs and bars all over the fine French city.

Musicians opening the Pride Parade.

Head to old Montreal for this circuit-style party in a tiny space filled with extremely hot guys.

North American pride events usually take place in June, but Montreal's busy festival schedule makes that tough.

When Montreal Pride took over organizing the events in 2007, the only spot available was in mid-August.

Ajouter une légende

ATQ - Association des transsexuels et transexuelles du Québec. Je suis mois. Je suis trans.

Red and black cars.

Green men from the skies.

A boat, all aboard on the vessel!

Ancient Spartans are proud to take part in the Parade!

A man proudly waving the gay flag.

Indian ladies, Asian community.

People dancing.

Sunday, October 7, 2018

Olympic National Park

3 million visitors per year – 1,441 square miles – the best example of virgin temperate rain forest in the country. 600 East Park Avenue, Port Angeles, WA.

On a relatively isolated peninsula with no roads traversing it, Olympic is one of the most pristine of the nation's parks. It has been referred to as the last frontier. It divides into three distinct environments: rugged coastline, virgin temperate rain forest, and rugged mountains, at the foot of which is the largest intact strand of coniferous forest in the lower 48 states. The park also plays host to 60 active glaciers.

Peak season tips: Though three-quarters of the precipitation falls from October 1 to March 31, Olympic still receives mroe rain than any other area in the United States. Always bring rain gear.

Camping : Nestled in thickets of spruce, the main coastal campgrounds of Kalaloch and Mora proide privacy and a sense of wilderness. For an even greater sense of solitude, try one of the two smaller campgrounds, Ozette Lake or Erocson's Bay – the latter is accessible only by canoe. All of the coastal campgrounds are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Hoh campground is the largest in the rain forest. The four smaller campgrounds, especially the 29-site July Creek campground on Quinault Lake, have more privacy and better wildlife-watching.

On the mountain, the Deer Park campground, at an elevation of 5,400 feet, feels remote but it is accessible by car and provides an excellent base from which to explore the mountains.

Most of the 17 developed mountain campgrounds are available on a first-come, first-served basis, but group reservations at Kalaloch and Mora campgrounds can be made through either the Kalaloch park ranger or the Mora park ranger.

Best one-day trip: On a drive up Route 101, you can take in the park's harbor seals, gigantic driftwood, and tide pools teeming with activity along the coast. On the right, you'll pass a sign for the world's largest cedar tree. Switch off onto the spur road to the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center. There is a ¾-mile round-trip hike that winds through the dense rain forest at the end of the road. Back in your car, turn onto the road to the Mora Campground, where there are several short scenic trails along the beach.

Flowers, just sakura flowers. Photo by Elena.

All Aboard the Orient Express

Eight incredible rail journeys that take you to Hell and the Outback

For years I have been traveling the great rail lines as a life-long lover of a rapidly disappearing way of looking at the world. Here is a highly subjective listing of some of my favorites, based on the scenery outside, the service inside, and the ever-intangible “romance factor.”

The California Zephyr – Chicago to Oakland

The original California Zephyr of 1949 was conceived as a cruise train – the journey was just as important as the destination and took 8 to 10 hours longer than the competition. Its successor continues that tradition by scheduling the three-day trip to time the best scenery with daylight hours, leaving Chicago in the afternoon and arriving in Denver the following morning so you wake up to see the breathtaking beauty of the Rockies. Along the way in the passage through the Sierra Nevada and a fine view of San Francisco Bay. It offers Amtrak's largest helping of scenery.

The Cariboo Dayliner – British Columbia, Canada

The fourteen-hour trip from North Vancouver to Prince George includes some spectacular and seldom-seen scenery through the Coast Mountains and up the Fraser River Valley. For a day trip, travelers can get off in Lillooet to return to North Vancouver by sunset. BC Rail runs the trains daily in the summer and three times a week in the winter. The cars are not particularly luxurious, but their enormous windows allow the scenery to work its magic. Reserved seats include a meal.

A train! Photo by Elena.

Copper Canyon – Mexico

This line along the edge of Mexico's spectacular Copper Canyon (for times the size of the Grand Canyon) and through the Sierra Madre was proposed at the turn of the XXth century as a short route from Kansas City to the Pacific and completed 60 years and one revolution later. The 14-hour trip includes a 15-minute stop to view the rugged canyon bottom. Stay overnight in Los Mochis for the return trip, or – if you are ambitious – make the somewhat unpredictable trip overland and by ferry to Baja California.

Indian Pacific – Sydney to Perth, Australia

This three-days trip covers 2,720 miles, from the Pacific through the Blue Mountains west of Sidney and across the outback to Perth and the Indian Ocean. Most of the journey is spent in the austere beauty of the Nullarbor Plains, where one stretch of track goes 297 miles without a curve. Passengers can kivk back in luxuriosly refurbished lounge cars as they watch wild kangaroos leap across the outback. One of the attractions is going completely across something.

The Oslo-Trondheim-Bodo-Narvik – Norway

Surprisingle enough, Hell is located near the Arctic Circle. It is a small town nestle in the Dover Mountains of Norway, just a few miles from Trondheim and not nearly as unpleasant as its namesake. Norwegian State Railways operates several day trains and a night train through the mountains. The scenery is austere, but the trains are comfortable and well-equipped. Sharp-eyed travelers may sight the occasional musk ox.

Rhaetian Railway Benina Line – The Swiss Alpa

This train descends some 4,000 feet as it makes its way from Chur, Switzerland, across the Benrina Pass and into Tirano, Italy – all without the reassuring traction that cog railways offer. It is the highest crossing of the Alps by any rail line. The train itself is not particularly exciting, but the scenery is unsurpassed. There is no dining car, but travelers have about an hour in Italy to buy ice cream before the return trip. Eurail passes are valid, or travelers can make reservations at any Swiss train station. The express line travels each way once a day. Book through a travel agent or call the rail line in Switzerland for details.

The Trans-Siberian Railway – Moscow to Vladivostok

A seven-day journey into the Far East on the world's longest continuous rail line. Of the regular trains on this route, the Rossiya is the best. It's not luxurious, but it does offer sleeping berths and a dining car. The entire trip can exhausting, so you may want to take it in bits and pieces. A consortium of Eastern and Western businessmen have put together a charter train, called the Rhythm, that runs the same route on occasion and offers world-class dinging and the height of luxury. The best part of the trip is finding out that a country that was once absolutely forbidden is absolutely beautiful.

Venice Simplon-Orient-Express – Paris to Budapest or Venice

Perhaps the ultimate experience in pampered land travel, on of the most famous of train lines. Murder is rare, but fine dining and classic details like posh, overstuffed upholstery are not. The cars have been restored so authentically that most of them do not have air conditioning, so you may want to avoid travel during the hottest months. The dining car service is that of a four-star restaurant. Uniformed gold-braided stewards will go out of their way to make your trip a comfortable one. We recommend the southbound line for scenery, but you should take the trip for what's inside the windows.

Rocky Mountain National Park

3 million visitors per year – 414 square miles – One of the highest regions in the country – 114 mountains above 10,000 feet – Superintendent, Estes Park.

On both sides of Rocky Mountain National Park's 44-mile Trail Ridge Road, the highest paved road in America, are craggy snow-capped mountain peaks shrouded in clouds, alpine fields ablaze with wildflowers, and crystal-clear mountain lakes. Elk, deer, mouse, coyotes, marmots, ptarmigan and the bighorn sheep – the symbol of the park – can often be seen.

Peak season tips: The road to Bear Lake is one long traffic jam in the summer. Consider spending most of your time on the west side of the park; it's less spectacular, but also less crowded, and there are better opportunities to see wildlife.

Camping: There are five campgrounds in the park, each with a seven-day camping limit. For reservations to Moraine Park and Glacier Basin campgrounds, call Mistix. The other three are available on a first-come, first-served basis. In the summer, Timber Creek, on the west side of the park, is recommended – it doesn't fill up until about 2 p.m. Aspenglen and Longs Peak, where one begins the ascent to the summit, are often full by 8 a.m. Privately owned campgrounds also are available.

Best one-day trip: For a sampling of the varied topography, take Fell River Road to the Alpine Visitors Center at Fall River pass, 11,796 feet above sea level. Drive back along Trail Ridge Road. If time permits, turn off Trail Ridge road onto Bear Lake Road, which winds past lakes and streams to Bear Lake, where there is an easy a 1.1-mile hike to Dream Lake. A less-crowded trail nearby is the Glacier Gorge Junction Trail to Alberta Falls. Those who are in peak physical condition may want to attempt Long's Peak Trail, a strenuous 8-mile hike. A third of the 15,000 people who attempt it every year don't make it – at 14,000 feet, there is 40 percent less oxygen in the air.

Best experience: Eighty percent of the park's trails can be ridden on horseback, and there are two historic ranches at the center of the park. Horses can be rented from livery concessions in Glacier Basin and Moraine Park. For a list of nearby ranches, many of which of offer accommodations, contact the park administration.

Flowers blossom. Photo by Elena.

Manhattan - Part I

New York, Manhattan, Part I

Manhattan is coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state of New York. The borough consists mostly of Manhattan Island, bounded by the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers; several small adjacent islands; and Marble Hill, a small neighborhood now on the U.S. mainland, physically connected to the Bronx and separated from the rest of Manhattan by the Harlem River. Manhattan Island is divided into three informally bounded components, each aligned with its long axis: Lower, Midtown, and Upper Manhattan.

Manhattan is the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world, and the borough hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world. Manhattan is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization: the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.

Many multinational media conglomerates are based in Manhattan, and the borough has been the setting for numerous books, films, and television shows. Manhattan is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders. Manhattan real estate has since become among the most expensive in the world, with the value of Manhattan Island, including real estate, estimated to exceed US$3 trillion in 2013; median residential property sale prices in Manhattan approximated US$1,600 per square foot ($17,000/m2) as of 2018, with Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan commanding the highest retail rents in the world, at US$3,000 per square foot ($32,000/m2) in 2017.