A wet day of museum hopping

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Plan B, it's raining
Parliament and museums
My legs are all wet.

As forecasted by the weather people the rains are here today. But I didn't let that stop me from going out and seeing some of the sights of Ottawa. Good thing for me most attractions in Ottawa are pretty close and are all walkable and the rains really aren't that heavy.

First stop in the morning is to the Parliament Buildings and a guided tour. I had to wait about half an hour but that's okay. They had a display on "Your Parliamentarians at Work" and it explained some of the things that happen around Parliament. There was an interesting photo slide show video thing showing all of the Members of Parliament (MP) and Senators from every area. I was looking out for a picture of Herb Dhaliwal who represents Vancouver South/Fraserview (or whatever my riding is now called!) Hmm, come to think of it, it is Herb that is my MP, right? Or did Ujjal take over? Why can’t I remember?? Just goes to show how closely I follow politics. lol

While I was standing there an MP for another Vancouver area riding comes up and Jean Chrétien and Gordon Campbell are also in the photo and I hear the person beside me say..."I thought that was our Premier..." So I struck up a conversation with them asking if they're from BC. Turns out they also live in South Vancouver but in the Kerr/54th area. Neighbours! lol It turns out they are in Ottawa to attend a dinner because the woman will be honoured for her long term service with the Government - 35 years of service! So of course I congratulated her and she proudly tells me that she'll be retiring in only two years time. This couple arrived into Ottawa yesterday. They will have a rehearsal for dinner at 4 this afternoon (to make sure they accept their award properly?) and then dinner at 6 with some mix and mingling in between. Then it is back to Vancouver tomorrow. What a rush! This is her husbands first time to Ottawa so they're trying to fit in a few touristy things while they have a chance. We would have talked more I'm sure but they got tickets for one tour ahead of me so we wished each other well and parted ways.

Not before too long, my tour was ready to go. I actually probably could have snuck in with the group before ours because it was a bunch of Chinese people on a tour. Hmm, I've had a tour in Cantonese last time, why not Mandarin this time? haha Our tour guide Stef was really peppy and quite an interesting guide - an awesome speaker. We couldn't go into the House of Commons because all of the MP's were in session but we did see the Senate. There were some amazing stained glass windows and sculptures too. Of course there were lots of huge paintings of monarchs and past Prime Ministers as well. We couldn't walk into the library like I remember doing the last time round since they've been renovating the library for the last 2 and half years. Apparently the original colour of the ceiling of the library was a robin's egg blue and they will likely repaint it during the renovations that should be complete by the beginning of 2006. I forgot that there was a huge fire in the Parliament Buildings in 1916 and one of the only parts of the building to be "untouched" was the library. I guess with the building being built with lots of pine and lots of varnish was used, it just went up in flames really quickly. There were seven fatalities and some of those were women who went back into the building to try and retrieve their "precious" fur coats.

After the tour, I took a walk up the Peace Tower. Geesh, I didn't know you could go up the tower! It's only nine stories high and the look out is just below the clock face. There are some pretty great views from up there. Did you know that the clock chimes every 15 minutes and that there are 53 bells that we passed on the elevator? On the elevator ride down, we were told that the elevator doesn't travel straight up and down but sort of goes down on an angle. You don't feel it but when you're looking up, the elevator shaft, you can sure see it!

Next stop after my Parliament Tour was over to the Currency Museum. It's open today! I noticed today that they had different hours posted outside one of the many entrances to the museum that were different from the hours that were posted on the entrance door yesterday. It's an interesting little museum that is all about what else but money! Not just Canadian money but money from around the World and how trade and currency as we know it today developed. It was really interesting looking at all of the counterfeit Canadian money and also the changes that have been made to paper money over the years.

After spending no money at the Currency Museum I was off to the Canadian War Museum. I figured it being close to Remembrance Day and it being a new location and building for the museum that it should be a good one to visit. I definitely was not disappointed! I spent my entire afternoon there! There were four main exhibit halls that I spent my time in. 1) Battleground, which covered wars on Canadian soil from the earliest times to 1885. So this covered wars with the First Peoples, the French and British and how they helped to shape present day Canada. 2) For Crown & Country. This section covered the South African War and the First World War (1885 -1931). It was interesting to learn about Canadian contributions to overseas wars and Canada gaining international recognition but of course at a great cost. 3) Forged in Fire. This area covered the Second World War (1931 - 1945) 4) A Violent Peace. This area covered the Cold War, Peacekeeping and recent conflicts (1945 - present). I sort of sped through this last area because closing time for the museum was approaching but it showed Canada as a respected International player through it's commitments to Western Defence and peacekeeping. They also had this huge gallery/collection of vehicles, artillery and other large artifacts on display but I only looked down on them from the viewing platform from above.

After a very educational and reflective afternoon at the Canadian War Museum I had to bundle up and walk in the rain for about 25 minutes before making it to Rideau Centre. I was too lazy and pretty wet to take the time to look for a nice place to eat dinner so I settled for the food court once again! Not too bad since I had a Mozza burger which tasted so good since I haven't had one of these since some time last year! And I also had some fruit in my bag so I did have something good for me to eat as well. 😊

I'm almost dry now so perhaps it's okay to face the elements for a couple more minutes walk to my hostel. Considering I was in the rain for 25 minutes without an umbrella I wasn't too wet. Well, my jeans on the front and my bag and jacket weren't too wet like that downpour in St. John's! The water resistanceness of my jacket is still working! haha

I think it'll be a quiet night in again for me since I've been on my feet pretty much all day today...

I met our new cellmate Kish from England. She has also been travelling since December 2004.. Just a couple of weeks longer than me and from the sounds of it she'll be away from home for a full 12 months. We're the same age. It's funny, she thought I was just on a GAP year and would be heading back to school when I got back to Vancouver. I couldn't quite place her age but was thinking 26 -28 years old. Too funny!

Kish has been to Thailand, a lot of the Pacific Islands, Australia, Bangladesh (where her parents were born), America and Canada. She told me that she still has a bit of time and will go to Philadelphia, NYC, Bermuda and the Bahamas. It doesn't sound like she'll stick around England for too long when she gets back. She’d like to learn another language wherever she moves to and is contemplating India since she has a little knowledge of Hindi already. She also revealed she was married for a year but it didn't work out. I wanted to know more but didn't want to appear to be too nosy. lol But I did find out from her that her last name is Stevenson...that doesn't sound like your typical Bangladeshi surname!

We ended up watching movies in the TV lounge area and saw “Mermaids” with Winona Ryder, Cher, Christina Ricci and Bob Hoskins. It's been ages since I saw that one! Then we saw “Dogma” with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. It was okay. By the time we watched these two movies it was close to midnight.

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