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Ottawa Tulip Festival – 2015 Edition

For some reason, I had zero motivation to go to the Tulip Festival this year. It’s been a tradition since I came to Ottawa, and I usually enjoy the colourful flower beds. I even occasionally attended the events.

Now that it has grown to become the largest Tulip Festival in the world, it has been a victim of its own tourism success. It used to be a low-key event, you know, just tulips for everyone to enjoy after the endless winter. Now busloads of tourists come over, you can’t park anywhere and you almost have to queue to take pictures at Dow’s Lake. I realize I sound snotty—I love tourists, I’m a traveller too! But tour groups are hard to manage. Besides, many attractions have nothing to do with tulips (why do people line up for fudge?) and there are too many “exclusive ticketed activities”—read, “please, spend money.”

Ah, don’t mind me. Maybe I’m just a cranky old lady.

But do you know who else doesn’t care about flowers? Mark. We can no longer take these “baby in front of flower beds” pictures. He ran straight to the amusement rides and then spent ten minutes playing in dirt (and the following ten minutes complaining about having dirty hands—duh…).

So I feel this year’s set isn’t as good as some other years. Besides, it was very windy and getting sharp shots was a challenge.

The flowers are still pretty, though!

Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
Tulip Festival - 2015
Tulip Festival – 2015
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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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