Winter Winnipeg and Why It Matters

Whenever you mention to someone that you live in Winnipeg, usually the first thing they'll say is, "Wow, I hear it gets really cold there." And they're not wrong. It does get really cold. And we're not just talking, "Oh, it's a bit nippy outside. Maybe I should put some mittens on." It gets down to -40° centigrade. And if you're wondering what that is in Fahrenheit, it's -40° F. Yep. It's that cold that it's the same. It's even been known to be colder than the surface of Mars. And since I just moved from the UK to Canada, I thought I'd document how I survived my first winter in Winnipeg,

life lessons, ice fishing. Today it is - 31° outside. They set up a restaurant on the frozen river. It's really good. It's great. It's time for Jet. So, let's rewind for a second. My name's Carl Watson. I'm a travel filmmaker. I've got a YouTube channel documenting my adventures around the world. My wife Jamie's from Winnipeg. And so last year I moved from London, UK to Winnipeg in Canada, which I talked about in my critically titled video, I moved from London, UK to Winnipeg in Canada. And I thought this video was just going to be a fun update for people who follow my channel, maybe get 10 or 20,000 views.

But this thing blew up. A YouTuber from the UK who gets paid to travel the world has decided to move to Winnipeg. Carl Watson is moving to Winnipeg. In fact, he's made the move. Lives here now. Was a joke? Nope. How do we get him on the show? I am doing a very organic call out right now. Somebody out there has got to know Jamie and Carl. Carl Watson, this YouTuber. Please get him in touch. I loved your video. I watched all of it early this morning before the show. What kind of reaction has it got so far? There's been a lots of lovely sort of heartfelt messages from fellow Winnipeggers, welcome me to the city, which has been fantastic. And then there's been a whole ton of other comments from other Canadians thinking

I've made the greatest mistake of my life. It's probably my most commented on video I've ever done. Like every It feels like half of Canada has kind of weighed in with their opinions. Your video is spectacular. It gave me chills, man. It g I've been living here off and on for 55 years and you gave me a new perspective on where I live. I have to tell you it was a crazy time. Like I didn't think saying nice things about Winnipeg would be so newsworthy, but there was a buzz about it and it was it was really good fun. Welcome to the show, Carl Watson. Yay, Carl. Good morning, guys. So great to finally be here. How do you explain Winnipeg to your mates back home? Uh, well, first of all, I explain where it is. Um, I say

it's right in the center of Canada, and then I sort of say, oh, you know, all those huge mountains in Canada, and they're like, yeah. I'm like, it's not there. It's uh it's it's the prairie lands. It's flat. You know, it has a gets a bit of a negative rep sometimes, especially from other Canadians. They look at you as if you're crazy when you tell them you're moving here. But once you get to know it, you get to know the people, get to know the city, um there's a lot of lot to love about it. But of course, there were a lot of comments saying, "Oh boy, just wait till winter. Wait till you feel that cold and then you'll change your mind about winter peg." So let's have a look to see how I got on.

So yesterday we got 15 cm of snow and today it's blue sky. So, it's just like whole neighborhood's this gorgeous winter wonderland. Carl Watson. He went outside and he was like, "It's it's a winter wonderland out here. It's brilliant. I'm going to tell all my friends back in the UK." And brought his dog out and whatnot. He sent me the video. He's like, "It's so magical out here." And I said, "Yeah, call me in February. Call me in February when you've been in this for 2 months." You're like, "All right, I've quite had enough of this." Putting aside that Dave's British accent there was so bad

it could almost be considered a hate crime. He does actually have a point because there are some things about it. snowing all the time. That could be a real pain in the ass. So, I'm about to do something which I've never done before, which is use a snowthrower to clear the drive. To give you some context, before I move to Canada, I know what a snow thrower is. In the UK, if it snows and you need to clear it, just wait half an hour and the rain will wash it away. Basically waited a few days too late to do this cuz the bit that I've been driving on was really hard to move. So we have to get the shovel on it.

The end part of the drive which we had been on took like 2 minutes to clear. This part of the drive that we had been on and had compressed all the snow took an hour to clear. Life lessons. Speaking of lessons, and check this out for a segue, but now that I'm living in Canada, it'll probably be a good idea for me to brush up on my French, what would it be a second language here at all? But I'm actually currently trying to learn Spanish because I'm going to be traveling to Latin America a lot more because it's a straight shot down from Canada. And I've been learning with this week's video partner, Rosetta Stone, an immersive

language learning platform that I'm starting to use. Now, sure, I picked up a few Spanish phrases here and there on my previous trips, but I wasn't exactly engaged in deep conversation. And I've tried using other language learning apps, but that didn't help me with any real life conversations at all. It just felt like I was learning lines from anchor mantor. So that's why I've started using Rosetta Stone because you learn the way we naturally pick up languages as kids by associating visuals, sounds, and context. Not just memorizing vocabulary out of context. You're learning to actually think in the language by using images, native speaker audio, and context clues to help you actually understand what you're hearing and seeing, not just repeat it. Some of the

features that I like are true accent, which listens to your speech, and gives you real-time feedback on your pronunciation. So, you're learning how to speak correctly from the get-go rather than picking up bad habits. So, when you actually travel to the country and start speaking, people aren't just like care. Another feature I really like is the flexibility. The lessons are as short as 5 minutes and you can do them from your phone or desktop whenever it fits in your day. And as well as the core lessons of like unit one and unit 2, you can set up a personalized learning plan. So, you can say, "I want to learn Spanish for traveling in Latin America." and then it'll give you a plan

of not just the main lessons, but immediately give you some key phrases to help you get around. There's a link in the description with a special offer of over 60% off a lifetime subscription. And with that, you get access to all 25 languages forever, even if your travel goals or life plans change. So, I'm super excited to put into practice what I've learned in my future travels, as well as brushing up on my French for my upcoming Canadian coast to coast trip. J Ed. Anyway, back to Winnipeg where the Christmas season was upon us. Jamie and I actually started our Christmas celebrations a couple of weeks early this year because we're going to be away over the holidays on our honeymoon.

So, we're at Next Door, which is where we had our Winnipeg wedding. We got a lovely little Christmas market on and we bought some brulee beers. It's like a stout. Not usually a fan of stouts. This one tastes all right. But a dark chocolate cranberry. We've got espresso martini. Um you get the stout and then you just punch the fire poker in and see what happens. So that's what we're going to do. Are you ready for your I am ready. Yeah. So it's to pour over a little bit. It's the caramelized sugar. Cheers. See what it tastes like.

Very sweet. By the fire. Okay. So, it's January 24th. It's - 18° outside. So, 23rd. Sorry, it's January. Doesn't doesn't really matter for the context. It's January and it's - 18° outside. So, we're going for dinner outside because Canada, that's what we do. So, uh we're going to a place called Raw Almond. They set up a restaurant on the frozen river, except this year it's not quite frozen enough or the right way. So, we're beside the river and apparently supposed to be super fancy,

lovely, gorgeous meal. You don't been to this? No, no, this is my first time coming here. I'm really excited. Yeah. I haven't had a date before. So, uh, finally you're here. So, we can go. There we go. M&S is here, too. Mess is here, too. Hey, you've been before? Yep. Last year. Cool. any good? No spoilers. Obviously, it's good, but The chefs that come and do ramen are a combination of local chefs and also chefs that come from around North America/ possibly the world. The world was last year. It literally takes a village to make this all come together.

It's a whole community and it's not just our community. It's communities stretching across far lands. 2011, Joe came and knocked on my door and told me, you know, about doing this project and I thought he was totally nuts and um I said, "No, this is our 10th building that we built in Winnipeg." So, it's huge. We always wanted to make it to 10 years. Who knows if we'll keep doing this, but we did it. We have a little drink to offer everybody. But before we do this, I'm going to call upon my friend Elder Barbara to give us a little blessing to get the party started. It's a good way to start any celebration is with prayer in a song. But first of all, I'd like to welcome you to Treaty One Territory, the land of my ancestors, the cre

and the nate people, the Dakotas and homeland of the Matei and of course the settlers. It is my responsibility as to welcome yourselves, your ancestors, your families. I thank you for this day. I embrace you all. Thank you for being here to support our nephew, our uncle, whatever it is you're related to. But we are all human beings and we have to support each other. The whole evening was wonderful. And there's like this strange juxosition of an incredibly informal, relaxed, friendly, even family-like atmosphere, like chatting away with the other guests that you're sharing a table with. But

the food was absolutely topof the line. Like one of the best meals I've ever had. And we were treated to a nine course menu. So the chef that we're having their menu tonight is from Michigan. Yeah, Michigan. We got fact checkers over here. and come here just to experience cooking in the winter on the ice and all that kind of stuff and putting together these really beautiful menus. It's phenomenal. And they have a wine called water to run. So bonus points. This is the elf tender. Um and then the smoke. Yeah. Amazing. It's like you cooked a perfect bit of meat and then left it by the fire in the campfire for a while. It's like you're eating it by the campfire. Yeah. But it's already soaked up the But

you're also like breathing in the smoke as you're doing it. Jamie's way better. It's really good. It's great. It's lovely. So, I posted some Instagram stories of me being outside when it's like -28°. And I get messages from friends back in the UK saying they can't even imagine what it's like being in that extreme cold. So, I thought today I'd film my experience outside. Rosie, do you want to go for a walk? So today it is - 31° outside and feels like -34 with the windchill. I think some parts of city with bad windchill feels down to -45. But Rosie insists. So we're going to go outside for a few

minutes. Just quick just a quick walk. Is that okay with you? Okay, good. Well, racked up and ready to go. The first thing you notice when you come outside is you take a big breath and it's like the oxygen is isn't there. But actually with these layers on, it doesn't feel too bad in terms of what I'm wearing. I'm not actually wearing any thermals. I'm just wearing like jeans, t-shirt, check shirt as always, and a hoodie. But then on top of that, I got snow pants, Parker, just gloves and hat, and some nice snow boots to keep my feet warm. And Rosie's not wearing anything. She hates her snow shoes and things like that. So, she's always just happy to come out like this. As you can see though, it's Rosie taking me for a walk rather than the other way around.

Coming from the UK where it gets damp cold, the UK it could be like plus 5 and you feel absolutely miserable cuz it just it gets through to your bones. Whilst here it's it's dry, so if you wrap up warm, you don't feel it that much. But also here, everywhere has amazing central heating because they have to. So as soon as you get inside, you're warm again. You're warm outside cuz you're wearing all the right layers and you're warm inside. So it's actually practically not that bad. Plus, it's sunny and like you Oh, I got some deer over here. Oh, look at that. But yeah, with the right layers on, it's

okay. If you take your glove off for just a second to say, I don't know, pick up dog poop, your hand hurts from the cold. So, you need to be wrapped up properly. But if you are, then it's fine. Anyway, let's get you inside. Come on, Rose. Oh, yeah. And you got to plug your car in so it doesn't freeze. There you go. So today we've come up to near the town of Selkerk, which is just north of Winnipeg, and we're going to do a very quintessentially Canadian activity, which is ice fishing. I know what ice fishing is. Sorry, you seem like a little bit of a indoor

YouTuber to me. No, no, I'm always outdoors, just in the summertime. I'm not used to this. One of many first today. Just driven onto a frozen river and we've parked up. It's not like we've only come to do this. There's like a hundred other cars or maybe 200 other cars in tent setup. Just what people come do on the weekend, you know. Okay. Loving this. This is hard. Trying to get one of these in. Fortunately, we were with our friends Brett and Brent who had all the kits and at least some clue as to what we were doing.

What we got there? Tell us what we got there. We got a buddy heater. It's even nice and warm. Nice and toasty. Oh yeah. Like it'll heat up really quick. What do we got here? That's our augur. I could probably do one hole here and we could probably do another hole in that corner. Drill, baby drill. Yeah, that'll fit with you. Right there. Yes. Two feet. Foot and a half maybe. Oh, wow. Cool. That's not that much at all. Is that why you want to hear when you and your car are on the ice? You only need 8 in to have a car. It's twice as much. We can take a semi out here.

Not fun. You made it look so easy. It'll make it look easy in the edit. There'll just be a weird crack as it falls through. Stuck. There it is. I drill a hole in ice. Now we fish. Find food. Now we get beer. Ice fishing. But yes, we're getting set up inside. We've digging some holes. Got a little fire going. We're going to put some speakers on, have some tunes, have some Caesars, some beers, try to catch some fish. And that's all before 11:00 a.m.

What? My first time fishing. I think I'm doing it right. Anyway, we got some beers that do float cuz we dropped it in the ice hole by mistake. Uh yeah, I'll demonstrate. I was worried that wasn't This is Flying Otter, my favorite local laga made by TransCanada Brewery. They have not sponsored us, but if they're watching this and they want to send me a lot of free merchandise and free flying otterters, then get in touch. Worth a try. I'm like, do the plug, buddy. Do the plug. It's Taste of Canada. Got to milk it. On the last video, we had this mer local merchandise company like they saw it and went, "Oh, we'll send you some free t-shirts and stuff." I was like,

"Amazing. Here's our address." And I went, "Cool. We'll send them right out." And then it never showed up. And you kind of want to go like, "Hey, were you supposed to like we're going to get those?" But you can't really You can't really go like, "Can we get our free stuff, please?" Yeah. But if they're watching this, they know who they are. It's happening. Pick the tasty one. This is the tasty one. Hey, this is delicious. If we can keep it, I'll keep it. Let us know in the comments, viewers. But it's far too late.

We have our first fish. Yeah, but if they're here now, they're here now, guys. This is the time. So, I'll throw that guy down. We're going to keep him. Don't let him fall in. Don't let him fall again. He's a foot long. A few minutes later, I nearly caught a fish, but it got away. But then a minute after that, I actually caught one. I just caught a fish. Man points. Canada points. I provide for you. Right. So, make sure I don't drop it back down the hole. All those people are coming. She'll never survive the wind.

You caught a fish. Yeah. So, we caught two fish. It was fun. It's funny just like hanging out with your buddies, having a drink or some tunes, you know. It's It's pretty warm in there. It's not too bad. And catching some dinner. So, now we're going to go to a restaurant now, get some lunch. But later, we're going to cook these up. And by we, I mean Brent, cuz I have no idea what I'm doing with this. But yeah, ice fishing. A little while later, we had our friends round and Brent had prepped the fish so we could have some beer battered fish tacos. I think most people in Winnipeg do when they catch fish, they turn it into a taco. It's a classic Manitoba thing. Learning so stupid.

One of the main events on Winnipeg during the winter is the festivo, which celebrates Canada's fur trading past and unique French heritage and culture through entertainment, arts and crafts, music, exhibits, and displays. The only problem was back in September, I scheduled a group tour I was going to be hosting in Sri Lanka for the second half of February without properly checking the dates with Jamie. And it turns out those two weeks were going to be the exact two weeks that festival was on. So that meant I missed the biggest winter event in Winnipeg. Fortunately, Jamie went along though with some friends and captured some of the fun on her phone. So we're at Best Valar.

Carl's in Sri Lanka right now. So, I'm subbing in. Uh, I have an ice glass filled with Caribou, which is a fortified French red wine or Kebeekqua red wine. And you have to drink it in an ice glass at least once while you're at festival. So, cheers. I definitely won't miss Festival next year or ever again really because it looks like the absolute highlight of the winter season. But then I was back in town at the start of March and so Jamie and I went to a chess game. Wait a minute. Are you So, I'm in my third Jets game. Say hello. Third Jets game. Couple observations. One, it's way easier to follow the puck at a game than it is on TV. Correct. That is very correct. And then also the atmosphere. It's so different to

football in the UK. Football is just the crowd just does songs the whole time. That's what the atmosphere is. The crowd doing songs. Here there's no songs. There's a chant go, but there's a lot more production to it, which is true of all North American sports. It's a much bigger production. The timeouts and the pauses and all that. It's amazing at just so different to what I'm used to in UK. What is a jumbo death dog? It's a giant hot dog. It's like a hot dog with whatever toppings your heart desires. I might go for chili. Yeah, you get the classic perogi. I'll get chili. Perogis because that's my heritage. Yeah, it's time for the death.

Well, it is March the 8th and it's 2° outside, which is unseasonably warm for this time of year, but we're going to be heading out to the lake for the weekend. And look, Rosy's looking at me. So, what are you doing? Someone's very excited. Hold on, Bugs. Wait. I trust you. Go on. Good girl. Yeah. My first time being out here in the winter. It's really something special to see. It's so quiet. Like in the summer, this place is quiet. is super chilled, but you will have like fishing boats out and the occasional jet ski, but right now it's just it is silence here. And there is some snowmobiles out on the lake way over there.

Yeah, they have some like uh snowmobile tracks like roots and go all around the lake in the areas here and obviously out on the lake when the conditions are right. Yeah, this is so beautiful. So, yeah, it's like 3:30 in the afternoon. We're not even wearing gloves, enjoying a beer, and taking the furball for a walk. Rosie. You want to go home? Okay, we're turning around. The puppy wants what she wants. So, when you're out here in the winter, it's amazing and it's quiet, but you also never really know what kind of wildlife is out here. So, there have

been bears out here. There are wolves sometimes and in the winter then there's not a lot of people around. Sometimes the animals are here. So when Rosie doesn't want to go any further, I'm inclined to listen just in case. So we're going to turn around. Lead the way, Rosie. No, that's not where we live. This way. So about to do what is apparently a very Canadian thing, which is grilling outside in winter. Now, granted, it's like - 2 right now, so it's not really the extreme colds of winter. Um, but yeah, I love grilling, so that's what we're going to do. Rosie is just chilling down here whilst I'm cooking up.

This is looking so good. Dinner served. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, back in the city. And even though it was only mid-March, the snow had started to melt. So I'm probably the only person in Winnipeg that's annoyed that it's melting already because I had a lot more stuff planned to do for the video. You know, I was going to go skating on the river. I was going to go to the ice maze. Oh well, roll on summer. The thing is during the melt this period, there's uh there's no sugar coating it. It looks disgusting. It's just like gray and

sludgy and dirty everywhere. But once the summer comes around, that's when Winnipeg really gets to shine. So there you go. That was my first complete winter in Winnipeg. Now granted, one, it was actually quite a mild winter, all things considered. And two, I was actually away quite a lot, but you know, I travel for a living, so what do you expect? But hey, I'm still getting out there amongst it. I was out walking rosy inus 30 odd degrees. I caught a fish. I mean, what more do you want? Man points, Canada. But now I'm back for the whole summer, and I'm just really looking forward to getting stuck in with it. And yes, there are mosquitoes in the summer. I had so many comments in the last video like, "How could you not mention the

mosquitoes? There's so many mosquitoes." And it's like, I just put bug spray on and get on with it. But anyway, the next video on the channel will be one of our short winter getaways cuz we spent a weekend in the Bahamas with my best friend James. And then after that, it's back to the big documentaries. And I've got three in the pipeline. There's the Sri Lanka trip from February, the island camper road trip from April, and my recent trip back to Switzerland. So, loads to look forward to. As always, like, share, subscribe, turn on the notifications, tell your friends, tell your neighbors, all that kind of stuff. And I'll see you again very soon.