A Geologist went on the Railway

A work trip took me to northern Manitoba in April - May 2000.  At this time the gold mining industry was going through a rough patch, with depressed prices and many companies cutting staff and shutting down mining operations.  The project I was running at the time had been shut down and I was at loose ends.   My boss "strongly suggested" that I get out of the office for an extended period as having someone not actively working on a project was likely to get unwelcome attention from the company in the form of a pink slip.  So I quickly came up with a trip to review gold projects in the cheapest way possible in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario.  There was a mining conference in Thunder Bay and I knew people in Flin Flon and Thompson that I could couch surf with.  I arranged a few mine tours and meetings with several companies and prospectors to review their gold projects.   Overall I think I budgeted around $2000 for the trip including car rental, gas, airfare and food.  The f

Spain - July-August 1995 Castillo de Coca - 16th Century Castle: what most people associate with Spain What I was more interested in when in Spain My then girlfriend's family originally came from Spain so we decided that we should take a trip to Spain on one of my work breaks in early 1995.  We had everything planned and tickets purchased when Canada and Spain got into a spat about Turbot - the Turbot War.   Spain changed their rules on tourist visits with Canadians requiring a tourist visit to get into the country.  Suddenly I was trying to figure out how to get an entry Visa. Normally this would not be an issue, but while all the changes happened I was working in Argentina.  Much more difficult to source a tourist Visa from there.   We ended up deciding that if I was not able to get into Spain we would just take a holiday in England as our flights connected through Heathrow.  At the end of all of this Spain and Canada settled their differences and the Visa requirement was removed