Canada may be experiencing one of the most miserable winters in memory, but that didn’t stop U.K. resident James O’Malley from visiting the Great White North.
The London-based journalist travelled to Canada for three weeks to visit his girlfriend Liz’s family in Timmins, Ont., and documented his trip in a three-minute clip, capturing all things Canadian.
“My Canadian girlfriend insisted that I see the Canadian winter!” O’Malley wrote on Reddit.
In the “What I did in Canada” video, O’Malley hangs out with a moose, a polar bear and a buffalo, and visits some of Toronto’s famous tourist attractions, including the CN Tower, Honest Ed’s, the Royal Ontario Museum and Casa Loma.
He also tries his hand at some of the most quintessential Canadian activities: snowmobiling, ice fishing and 5-pin bowling.
“We had a spreadsheet to plan the trip to maximize it,” O’Malley told CTV’s Canada AM. “All the activities we did were done with members of Liz’s family, so it was all about spending time with her family.”
O’Malley’s vacation highlight reel has since amassed more than half a million views since being uploaded to YouTube on March 8.
“I don’t know why people like watching it, it’s just me pointing at things,” O’Malley said.
But readers on Reddit were glad to see O’Malley enjoying his time in Canada.
“I always wonder what the rest of the world thinks of Canada,” wrote one user on Reddit. “I tend to think that we’re too boring or don’t have enough to excite visitors, but this video brought a smile to my face.”
“You’ve done more Canadian things than most Canadians will ever do,” wrote another.
And O’Malley says he’s already thinking about another Canadian adventure.
“The germ of the idea at the moment is we want to do a road trip maybe from the East Coast across Quebec, and ending in Timmins again,” he said. “And one day I’d love to do a coast-to coast thing and see it all.”
