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I feel privileged to be posting this journal from Canada, dear reader , while enjoying my first visit to this wonderful country. While on the road Canadians have always held a special place in my heart, and they share with Australians a spirit of fun and adventure that ensures they are always excellent travel companions. Now I'm pleased to report I can finally dispense with the worn out travellers line that I would love to visit your country. Here I am and very glad to be in the country that was narrowly beaten into third position in the recently completed 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, just behind Germany and the United States in the overall medal tally. Although the men's ice hockey team failed to win a medal, which led to a fair amount of angst in this hockey loving country, congratulations to the women's ice hockey team for being consecutive olympic gold medalists. My first port of call after crossing the US border was Montreal which is an exciting and truly bilingual city, where you will hear French and English side by side on a daily basis, but let's recap the journal to bring you all up to date on my travels.

We left off in a suburb of Maine where I was staying with my sister and her family. I was lucky to have a family changeover of hosts when my brother picked me up and took me to his apartment in Portland, the biggest city in Maine with 70,000 inhabitants. We spent an excellent three days exploring the picturesque capital, and going out nights with his friends from an outdoor activity club. They are great people and a lot of fun to be around. I was happy to share some time with my brother who is in reasonably good shape after going through a very tough period in his life. Thanks a million for your hospitality and wonderful cooking, and continue to take care of yourself brother. Keep in mind that although most of the family are on the other side of the world, we'll always be there if needed to support you in any way we can. After a great stay in the United States I packed my bags, as it was time to move on and north is the plan. My brother farewelled me at the bus station on a freezing night, and I jumped on the greyhound for an overnight bus trip across the Canadian border and on to Montreal. We had an uneventful border crossing in heavy snow as the passengers travelled into Quebec province.

I'd become accustomed to snow in New England, but the winter scenery is so beautiful in Canada with snow totally dominating the landscape. I walked around Montreal for two days and the city was covered in a white blanket making for a great experience. There are a million inhabitants on Montreal Island and three million in greater Montreal, making it the largest city in Quebec province. I could only spend a brief visit on this occasion, but really enjoyed strolling around wonderful Montreal. This included quality accomodation in the Hotel de Paris, where I fell in with a a group of Europeans guests. French was the language of choice for the guests during my stay, and it was great to hear this beautiful language again while recognizing words and phrases I'd previously learnt. After a week in the french speaking province of Canada I'm doing OK on the basics of the French language, but the first few days had me mixing up my responses by replying in spanish which has been a little embarrassing at times ... but all good fun!

I took a Canadian bus north to Quebec City full of excitement during the two and a half hour drive from Montreal. With great anticipation I fell straight into the arms of a travel friend, who has a gorgeous little apartment right in the heart of the city. My lover and I are ten minutes walk from the old city, and it's a wonderful experience living like a Quebecer during my visit to this beautiful city, proudly about to celebrate it's 400th anniversary in 2008. The mighty Saint Lawrence river is partially frozen over, and while crossing the bridge out of Montreal Island I was amazed to see dozens of little figures ice fishing in the distance on the frozen river. The new travel experiences keep piling up at an incredible rate while experiencing my first serious winter. Forget -2 or -3 celcius during the day in this part of the world, the locals tell you they're lucky to be having a warm spell, it can often be far colder up here at this time of year, and particularly so a few weeks earlier. When the weather starts to get seriously cold my face goes numb, and I find it hard to talk but my Canadian friend. She blithely informs me I have to acclimatize and then continues with nightmare stories about temperatures of -20 to -30 Celcius, with a wind chill up to -45 in the middle of winter. Crikey, I think this little Aussie will pass on that scenario if it's not too much trouble!

The combination of beautiful old streets and buildings with an impressive covering of snow make Quebec an unforgettable city to visit. I'm told by the locals it's been a mild winter this year, but with so much snow the authorities don't know what to do with it. I've witnessed snow ploughed up higher than me while strolling around this beautiful city with my lover, and clearly the weather has been cold enough this winter that every time it snows another layer is added to the previous layer of snow. It's great fun although I am wearing every layer of clothing in my backpack to assist with keeping my body temperature at a reasonable level. This entails six layers on my upper body with the obligatory gloves and beanie. We are having a wonderful time in Quebec including wine and cheese, strolls around town, good food and good company meeting her local friends. The local Quebecers are super friendly, open and hospitable, and really appreciate effort on the part of tourists to speak French. Quebec is a beautiful city with great people and remarkable hospitality so guess what, basically all of you should be here now!

As I continue my travels, until next time it's signing off for now

Tom

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