{"id":24622,"date":"2021-10-01T13:33:41","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T13:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=24622"},"modified":"2026-07-22T18:18:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:18:44","slug":"back-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/canada\/back-in-canada","title":{"rendered":"Back in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I can\u2019t quite believe it, but I\u2019m back in Canada. Penticton\nBC, to be precise, in the heart of the Okanagan Valley, one of the world\u2019s most\nscenic wine regions, and home to a dynamic wine scene that\u2019s moved a long way\neven in the seven years since I first came here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve been travelling a bit of late, after a huge travel fast,\nalbeit an externally applied one. But just short haul: Italy, Ukraine, France\nand Romania. I wasn\u2019t expecting to be doing long-haul so soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it\u2019s the rearranged <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winealign.com\/awards\">National Wine Awards of Canada<\/a>, which I judged in 2014-2019 inclusive, and then the pandemic hit. It\u2019s a really good competition looking at pretty much all the Canadian wines, judged really well by a nice group of people. I was invited while it was still impossible to travel, but fortunately my hopeful yes to the invitation didn\u2019t prove to optimistic, and early September Canada relaxed travel restrictions for the fully vaxxed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The process of getting here wasn\u2019t too painful. I had to get\na PCR test (I did this in Romania before coming here) and download the ArriveCan\napp. This app allows you to fill in a lot of information, such as proof of your\nvaccine status and your quarantine plan (should you need to: this is the only\npotential tricky bit of the process). Then at the airport, you give your ArriveCan\ncode (it shows you are eligible to visit Canada; you\u2019ll already have had to\nfill in your electronic travel authority of course), proof of your PCR negative\ntest result, and you are good to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The flight was just as all flights used to be, with the only\nexception being the need to stay masked the whole time. This is strictly\nenforced. On a new 787, even economy class is a pleasant experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Landing in Vancouver was a good experience, too. I went to\nthe Canadian transfer lane in the customs hall and was through in 10 minutes,\nwith no queuing. You don\u2019t leave airside, so there\u2019s no fresh security. I was\nasked what I was doing here in a very friendly manner, and even when I said I\nwas a wine journalist I wasn\u2019t dealt with suspiciously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then a quick internal flight to Penticton, and here I am,\nready to judge wine, visit some wineries, and then spend a few days on the island\nworking and relaxing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Are we back to normal? Absolutely not. But I\u2019m glad that something that was a big part of my professional and personal life \u2013 travel \u2013 is back on the agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Reminder: this blog is irregularly updated, but there are daily updates on the <a href=\"https:\/\/wineanorak.com\/\">main wineanorak site<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I can\u2019t quite believe it, but I\u2019m back in Canada. Penticton BC, to be precise, in the heart of the Okanagan Valley, one of the world\u2019s most scenic wine regions,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24622"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24626,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24622\/revisions\/24626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}