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Published: March 8th 2007
Bent Violin
My 2nd favourite sculptureAnd boy did it live up to its reputation for winter, it was freezing, but to be honest it was beyond that, it was way way below freezing about 20 C below freezing, add in the wind chill and it was a ball shrinkingly cold weekend.
The awesome foursome making up this little trip Rachael, Gen, Matt and myself. For me the weekend held a little more significance as February the 4th was the occasion of my 21st Birthday, but more on that later.
It had been my responsibility to organise the hire car for the w/e which I had duly done of course going for the smallest, cheapest car that would fit four people into it, I had made just a tiny little insignificant mistake. I had through no fault of my own actually hired the biggest meanest looking car I had ever set my eyes on, the thing probably had its own oil well somewhere in the middle east dedicated to providing the required fuel. It was huge and in all fairness very comfortable and spacious, I don't think it cost us that much extra 😊
With me being extremely unhelpful in the front seat as
Rach, Gen and Me
Having Caribou, a warm, sweet liqueur that really warms you up. the navigator it was a miracle we got to Quebec City at all, I was so useless as navigator that I lost the map almost immediately (found it when we returned the car), took us on the wrong route home and was generally useless due to not really caring as I wasn't driving, let the driver worry was my opinion to be frank.
After we arrived we set out to find the winter carnival, the previous night had dumped heaps of snow, most of it had been cleared but what remained was the dirty slush which gets everywhere, ruins your shoes and gets your jeans dirty. Our first glimpse of the carnival was an ice sculpture cut into the shape of a ball and made to look as though it were made out of jigsaw pieces, pretty cool but there were many better ones ahead of us once we got down into the main area.
Carnaval de Québec The carnival's main focus was a large snowy area cheerfully perched between Vieux-Quebec and what I presume is a pretty green park overlooking the river, when it’s not cold enough to snap your nipples off. The organisers have cleverly placed
it in a natural dip so that from all around you can look down on the crowds and entertainment. For me there were two highlights, the first was all the snow sculptures. Some of them were truly amazing, I had no idea it was possible to create such incredibly detailed sculptures, the people who carve them are truly talented. Among my favourites were the African Elephants, the bent double bass/violin thing and the first one we saw the circle jigsaw puzzle one. There were other really really good ones which I unfortunately didn't get photos of as I didn't want to take my hands out of my gloves, it was too cold.
The other highlight was on a little hill on the edge of the carnival. They had set up tubing runs and you could go and sit in either a raft (of the white water kind) or a large glorified inner tube. We choose the tube and once at the top hopped in, the guy holding it gave us a massive spin as we set off down the hill in a circular blur of snow, ice and bright yellow plastic. It was great fun.
There were lots
Bonhomme Carnaval
Thats the name of the snowman, official ambassador of Carnaval de Québec of other cool little things to do at the carnival like a sugar shack, you pour maple syrup onto the snow and then wait until it is nearly frozen. Then you roll it up onto a stick and lick it like an ice cream, really sweet.
It was such a cool experience and one that is evocative of a completely different lifestyle and culture to that of anything I have experienced before and that really is in essence why I went on exchange in the first place.
Travel and exchange broadens your mind and lets you experience places and situations to which you would never have been exposed had you not taken that leap of faith and spread your wings and escaped the safety of the nest.
My 21st Birthday Technically my birthday was on the Sunday, but Saturday was chosen as the party night. It started off innocently enough (it always does doesn't it) with some/lots beers in the hotel and some take-out chicken. We had been staying with this other group of people that Gen knew and so we were just hanging out with them, every now and again they offered me a shot, "for
my birthday" and who was I to turn down a birthday shot. So everyone was just sitting and chilling in one room and everyone was slowly getting shit faced. It was at this point that everyone started to get VERY loud, lots of shouting and laughing.
Now this hotel we were in was a little family run thing so the people running the place were living only two floors beneath this deafening racket, it was only a matter of time and sure enough the owner came up and told us in no uncertain terms to leave and take the party elsewhere. So it was outside and into a cab and away into the night.
Our first port of call was this cool Irish-type pub with solid stone walls and a really cool vibe. We staked our claim to a slightly out of the way corner and proceeded to merrily pass the time. At around midnight as it was now officially my birthday Gen bought me a dirty pint (A pint with a shot of Bailey's in it) *shudder*, so I knocked that one back. I was later informed the next day that the pint had also had a
Statue on a Hill
This was on the hill we had to climp up to get to the carnival, Quebec City stretches away in the background. shot of tequila in it, fun times! It was from about this point that things get a little hazy for reasons that should not be beyond the grasp of the reader.
Suddenly, I was in this club with little to no idea how I had got there, so I did my best not to look like a drunken buffoon while dancing, mission failed. After an unspecified amount of time in the club we all stumbled out and made a beeline for the closest purveyor of post-beer-grub. After a plate of poutine it was in the cab and home where I had to sleep on the floor as we were squeezing four people into a two person room. And that was my birthday night, there may have been other incidents but they are in no way suitable for Travelblog.
On another note,
poutine is in my opinion one of the best after drinking foods ever, chips with a liberal sprinkling of cheese curds and smothered in gravy, heavenly.
The Rest of the Weekend The next day I opened my presents, luckily my mum had sent me a package and so it was a little taste of home on
my 21st birthday on the other side of the world. We spent some more time at the Carnival (which I have written about above) and just explored around the old port.
We then went and had some beers (hair of the dog and all that) and just chilled out in this cool little brewpub.
The next day we headed home and stopped off at the Ice Hotel along the way. It was really cold and it cost $15 to get in. HA fools, me and Rach decided to give it a miss and Gen and Matt went inside. I gave Matt my camera to take some photos so I could look at them, exactly the same and I didn't have to get cold to get them😊 I mean who wants to look at frozen water anyway, it’s not that cool.
It was really cool to see the Winter Carnival; I had a great weekend and a memorable 21st Birthday with some good friends. Good memories.
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I HATE Poutine!
Though the whole Carnival and Sculputres sound very intriguing, I am far more concerned about being privy to these mythical late night shenanigans not suitable for Travelblog. And don't lie about the Elephants being your favourite scultpure, we all know you loved the "Funny Pointy One". I'm sure I don't need to spell it out for you...