Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada, May 2026

A family journey through Canada

This journey began in Nowy Sącz, with suitcases open once again and that familiar mixture of excitement and gentle travel anxiety that always accompanies long journeys across continents.

This time, however, the trip felt especially joyful, because Mum and I were travelling to Canada to visit Tahir and his family — Amna and little Hania — after many months apart. There is something profoundly comforting about journeys centred not around work or obligation, but around people you care about deeply.

From Nowy Sącz we travelled first to Kraków, and then onward to Warsaw, where we spent several relaxed hours waiting for our flight to Canada. Airports are often places people rush through without memory, but sometimes they become part of the story themselves. We had a surprisingly wonderful lunch there, accompanied by wine and long conversations, watching aircraft move slowly beyond the windows while quietly realising that another adventure was beginning.

Then came the long flight westward across the Atlantic.


Toronto — the first breath of Canada

Arriving in Toronto always carries a particular feeling for me. Canada was one of the countries that profoundly shaped my understanding of the world when I first travelled there many years ago as a student. Returning now, older and carrying many more stories, felt both nostalgic and strangely calming.

We stayed one night in Toronto before continuing eastward with Tahir and his family toward Prince Edward County.

The drive itself became part of the pleasure.

Ontario unfolded gradually through wide roads, forests, lakes, small towns, barns, vineyards, and endless skies. Canadian space always affects me emotionally. Coming from Europe — and more recently from Venezuela — the sheer openness of the landscape feels almost meditative.


Picton and Prince Edward County

For several days, we stayed in Picton, the heart of Prince Edward County.

The County has transformed itself over recent decades into one of Ontario’s most beloved regions — known for wineries, lakeside villages, beaches, art galleries, and local food, while still retaining something wonderfully gentle and unpretentious.

Life there felt beautifully simple.

Morning coffees. Walks through peaceful streets. Time with Tahir, Amna, and Hania. Watching Hania discover the world with the seriousness and joy only small children possess. Shared meals stretching long into the evening.

One of the greatest pleasures of the stay was reuniting with my Canadian friends, Paula and Ruth, whom I have known for many years through humanitarian work. Seeing old friendships continue naturally across continents and decades always feels deeply moving to me. Their children brought even more warmth and life to the gatherings, reminding me how friendships themselves evolve and grow through time.


The Long Sault Parkway

One day, we set off for the Long Sault Parkway, one of the most unexpectedly peaceful landscapes of the journey.

The scenic route stretches across a chain of eleven islands along the St. Lawrence River, connecting parks, waterways, forests, picnic areas, and small beaches. The road itself feels almost suspended between land and water.

Driving there was wonderfully calming.

Blue sky reflected across the river. Boats moving slowly in the distance. Families cycling or fishing quietly along the shoreline. The islands themselves emerged from one of Canada’s largest engineering projects — the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s, which dramatically reshaped the landscape and submerged entire villages beneath the river.

Knowing this history added another layer to the beauty. Beneath the calm surface of the water lie memories of communities that disappeared to make way for modernity.

Canada often carries history quietly like that.


An extra day in Toronto

Originally, we had hoped to make a journey onward to Montreal to reconnect with distant relatives from my father’s family who emigrated from Poland many decades ago. In the end, however, plans changed — as they sometimes do during travel — and instead we stayed one additional day in Toronto before returning to Europe.

And perhaps that was exactly what we needed.

The extra day unfolded gently and without pressure. We wandered through parts of the city, enjoyed long meals, and simply absorbed the atmosphere of early summer in Toronto. The city felt vibrant but relaxed — full of people from every corner of the world, languages mixing effortlessly in the streets, terraces alive with conversation.

Toronto has always fascinated me for that reason.

It is not a city defined by one identity, but by coexistence itself. Entire worlds existing beside one another — Caribbean, South Asian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, European, Latin American — all woven into the fabric of daily life.

Spending that final day there felt like a soft landing before the long journey back.


Returning east

Eventually, it was time to leave.

We returned to the airport carrying gifts, photographs, memories, and that quiet tiredness that follows good journeys. The flight back to Warsaw felt calmer somehow, as if the trip itself had settled something internally.

Back in Poland, this Canadian chapter of the holiday came to an end.

But not the adventure itself.

Ahead still waited another journey: Morocco.


What remains

This trip to Canada was not built around dramatic landmarks or grand ambitions.

It was built around people.

Family. Friendship. Shared meals. Long drives. Lakes and rivers. Quiet conversations. The comfort of being welcomed into homes and lives across continents.

And perhaps that is why it feels so meaningful now.

Canada, once again, reminded me that some of the most important journeys are not about movement at all, but about connection — about the rare and beautiful experience of feeling at home, even very far from where you began.

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