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Published: February 10th 2006
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I've landed in Jail!
The old jail is a hostel
Haunted? I don't know.
As predicted, it was a pretty ho hum evening. I was on the internet for a bit and they had a special of buy one hour, get one free so I was on there for a couple of hours which gave me a chance to make a couple of blog entries and to answer a few emails and chat online as well.
Today I'm Ottawa bound. It's only about 1 3/4 hours to get to Ottawa from Montréal. So it's pretty much a commuter train and lots of people onboard. Lucky me has an empty seat beside me. Although when I first boarded there was somebody in my seat. He was supposed to be in car three, seat 23. He was in car four, seat 23...my seat. "Bollocks...pardon my French." He had just finished laying out all of his breakfast and coat and bags and stuff. Oh well! I was just glad he wasn't a monk like I encountered in Thailand and I could talk to him directly. lol
I have decided to stay in Ottawa three nights so as to make it to
Toronto and then Niagara Falls by the weekend. Unfortunately when I looked at the weather forecast for these areas it looks like there will be a bit of precipitation. Oh well, it can't be dry all the time...although that'd be nice for me. And you never know, the weather could change by the time I get there. 😊
Hmm, at the rate I'm travelling across the country, I should be in Winnipeg sometime next week! Holy crow! I knew the time was gonna fly but this is crazy!
As per usual the train ride was pretty uneventful. The directions given to me to get to the hostel were to walk to the bus stop and catch the #95 bus to Mackenzie King Bridge and it'll be at the bottom of the stairs. Piece of cake once I managed to scramble together my $2.75 bus fare! It's only 7km away so it was a relatively short trip on the bus.
The reception staff at the hostel were super friendly and I was quickly checked in and assigned a cell and bed number. Wow, I'm staying in an old prison cell! Pretty cool. I was looking forward to partaking in the nightly haunted ghost tour of the jail but found out that they are don't run every day and it doesn't look like I'll get a chance. That's okay, it probably would have scared me and I wouldn't be able to sleep that well. lol
Since I dropped my stuff off and it was all secured and I made up my bed, I set out to find somewhere to have lunch. I didn't want to be wandering around aimlessly on an empty stomach so I opted for the easy and went across the street to the Rideau Centre and sought out the food fair! Hmm, A&W, DFC, Subway, Tiki Ming, Tim Horton's...so many choices but most of them boring. I ended up getting a turkey wrap at a place that had a whole roasted turkey on display! It was reasonably priced and not too fatty of a choice. Mind you, the three girls sitting beside me with the KFC looked awfully scrumptious. Hey, tomorrow's Tuesday. I wonder if they still have Toonie Tuesdays at KFC? lol
I walked through a few shops but there wasn't much on sale so I decided I should walk over to the Parliament and there are a couple of free museums along the way I wouldn't mind checking out. So I zipped up, got my gloves on and faced the crisp air.
First stop was to see the Ottawa Locks which are at the edge of the Ottawa River and marks the northern end of the 198km Rideau Canal which runs to Kingston and the St. Lawrence River. It was taking too long to fill with water and I didn't want to stand around in the cold so I continued onto the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. Doh! Closed on Monday and Tuesday. I must make note of that! Next up was to take my gratuitous shots of Parliament. I was thinking about it and remember going on a tour through Parliament 15 years ago BUT it was all in Cantonese. So I thought I might as well go on a tour this time around and see how much I retain. Unfortunately for me, the tours for the day had ended already so that means I'll have to come back. Doh!
Next up, the Museum of Money. This museum is also free but for some reason it wasn't open when the doors said it should be open. Doh! Another thing I'll have to come back to!
So I headed back towards Rideau Centre and then towards the Byward Market area. Instead of taking Wellington Street back I decided to walk an alternate route and went along what turned out to be the pedestrian walkway on Spark Street. At Byward Market there were a lot of stalls of fruits and veggies. Apples are popular at the moment as well as colourful cauliflower in purple and orange! It sure looked weird. There are a lot of restaurants and stuff in the Byward Market area as well. Seeing as I wasn't hungry (I know that may surprise some. haha!) and it was only about 4:30, I decided to check out some of the books at my favourite library, Chapters Indigo. 😊
I love checking out the craft books. There are so many great books that I resisted buying. I also saw a 411 book on Degrassi! I can't believe how popular the original series is in Australia because I've talked to a few Australians now that just love the series. So I had to flip through that book and see what everyone’s been doing since the show. I have yet to see any of the next generation series (like Star Trek. haha) but from the sounds of it, there are a few original actors on the new series as well. Too funny. The other really great book I flipped through was by Douglas Coupland and it was dedicated to Terry Fox and features his Marathon of Hope run back in 1980. A truly excellent book. It brought back some memories from 25 years ago when Terry started his Marathon of Hope. Wow, time sure does fly by! It's really unbelievable how far he ran before having to stop.
I made it back to the hostel with about 15 minutes to spare before the all-u-can-eat spaghetti dinner for $5 was to be served. Yum. There was also salad and garlic bread to be consumed. Double and triple yum!
Now I'm back in my cell putting off taking a shower since it's a tad chilly at the moment. But I have to wash my hair so I shouldn't put it off too much longer...
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