das loft

I'm in Nelson, BC, a true jewel of a city in the Kootenay mountains.

I must say that the fact that Nelson has its very own brewery producing all the different types of beer you'd ever want - certified organic, to boot - is really the icing on the cake. I have a bottle of the Nelson Brewing Company's oatmeal stout - exquisite, I might add - sitting next to me as I type. The Nelson Brewing Company's brewery occupies part of the Kootenay Warehousing Building, a cute hundred-year-old structure a few blocks uphill from downtown Nelson. This building also happens to house Nelson coffee authority Oso Negro's coffee bean roastery. Oso Negro produces the best organic, fair-trade coffees for distribution to cafes and health food stores in Nelson and area, including its very own, ridiculously popular Oso Negro Café, where you really have no good reason not to visit at least once a day if you live in Nelson. It's gorgeous, like virtually every other establishment in this city.

My dad and I are camping in the Nelson city campground. I visited Nelson earlier in the summer and really liked it, but it turns out Nelson is even prettier than I realized. We've been walking and driving through some of the neighbourhoods, and it really feels a lot like a European town - German to be more precise, even though there's probably no actual German influence here. The hospital is perched on the mountainside and surrounded by lush vegetation of all kinds. Random plum trees and pear trees bear the sweetest fruit over sidewalks. Walkways, stairways and alleyways wind their way around terraced homes and gardens. Houses are painted in many bright colours and kept in remarkable shape. No wonder people want to live here so badly. It's pretty darn easy to fall in love with this place.

We're trying to help Meta and Chris find an apartment here. One of the ladies running the campground told us that finding a place to live in Nelson is hard work. You have to read the classifieds every single day and just take whatever you can get. If you're picky, then you're probably going to end up homeless. (I guess other people want to move here that badly.)

I just wish there were more towns in Canada, especially in Ontario, that were built with as much care and attention to detail as Nelson was. Most other towns I know sprawl far too much. This is even true of any of the other valley towns we passed through in BC as we were driving towards Nelson. Their aesthetics simply paled in comparison. Most of the towns in the prairies, especially in Saskatchewan, were ugly as hell. (I should note this isn't so in any German prairie towns I've visited.) What went so right in Nelson, I wonder? Obviously it has a lot more history than most of the other towns, and that certainly plays a key role. But Cobourg has history, too, and beyond the downtown there's basically nothing to feel good about in that "feel good town". My dad jokingly said that seeing Nelson makes him almost feel like a fool for living in Cobourg.

I'm probably not going to live here right in Nelson, as exciting as that thought is. Winlaw is the place for me, for now. But I'm very thankful that Canada has a town as beautiful and loved as this one.

Labels: bc, nelson, winlaw