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Published: July 13th 2007
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We left New York, both dreading a 10 hour train ride. It felt weirdly sad to be leaving the big city behind. But as the train slowly, and I mean slowly winded it's way upstate towards Montreal, we knew it would be a journey that we would never forget. We passed through lakes and forests that looked untouched. It was a beautiful ride...
After a difficult hour with the customs officers. "Paddy panicking that they would find the apple he had hidden in his bag and not let him in, maybe even shoot him... we finally arrived. It was late and we had nowhere in Montreal to stay. But the sound of jazz lured us towards the centre and we soon found a hostel. After checking in we planned to get straight out to the festival. But it took longer than expected as Paddy's Algerian room mate caught him in conversation and I literally had to reel him out. (with a rod I picked up at one of the lakes)." It was easy to find where the music was pumping. The festival had a great ambiance. We got some beers and joined the crowds.
The next morning the
rain brought us closer to home. The weather was awful but still we spent most of the day just wandering around the city, visiting the Notre Dame and various art galleries. Anything to escape the rain. It was all very impressive though. After the second night of fun at the festival we decided that it was time to venture out into the wild. We hired a car from 1800 rent-a-wreck. and left the city. We were dissapointed that our car wasn't as much of a wreck as we had hoped. But From this moment... well after we had named him goldie, (later renamed des'ree) our road trip had begun. We first went to the breathtaking Mont Tremblant national park.
We set up camp and after recovering from being the laughing stock of the campsite for the size of our tent and made a little fire to match it.
The rain started to fall as the night began and our poor little tent couldn't cope. It was more of a mud bath than a place to sleep. So we went to sleep in the car. As we scuttle in to the car, to escape the rain, something else
jumped out. "Waaa what was that." I screamed. The locals in the tent next to us calmly replied. "Oh don't worry thats just a raccoon" "Just a raccoon...JUST A RACcOON" were they mad? The thunderstorm came to a pause, not an end as we found out later on. So we made a dash for the dry toilets. But before even getting half way we heard a huge "GRRRRRRR" we ran so fast back to the safe haven of our car, slamming the door shut without hesitation. Now we were hoping it was just a raccoon.
The next place our road trip bought us to was Quebec city. Where we happened on yet another festival. The first day we met Calva who lived in Germany but was originally from Iran. And Sandra who lived just outside Munich. We found an Irish pub with live music. It was lovely until it came to paying. "wheres my tip?" Said the bartender. "You must tip me at least two dollars." We were shocked, he had only poured us a drink. It wasn't about the money though. We would have been happy to tip at the end for a good service. But surely you
don't expect to be demanded of it... am I right? We were a bit shocked as I said but the band were singing Shane Mcgowan so we soon cheered up and it was all good. Not that we bought another drink there though.
The next day we went to see waterfalls with Calva and Sandra. We walked across a bridge which went right over the top. we were terrified but far too breathtaken to scream. After we decided to take a shortcut across the river below. Not such a good Idea. We were drenched and a sandal and a pair of sunglasses down. "that must have been so funny to watch" said Calva after we had made it.
So that night we were sat in the garden of our real nice hostel, on what we called the boat. It was like a huge bench that rocked back and forth. Our friend Calva had left whilst he was off to meet some girl he had met in a shop. He was quite the stud. I gave him a plastic cup to go with the bottle of wine he had bought. Who ever said romance is dead
eh? Anyway we had already replaced him with a Canadian called Jonathon.
We were just casually sipping our coronas and playing the game I have never... when back come Fred and Mickel. (I forgot to mention we had met them the night before. They had come from Montreal for the festival. "We have beer and fireworks, will you come with us to a party?" "Why not!" They had bought back a few stragglers from the festival. We had already missed out on seeing less than Jake with them that night, why should we miss out again. So off we went with these crazed Quebecians. At first we ended up in a park, with beautiful views of the whole city, all the buildings lighting up against the night. But as soon as the fireworks were off we heard shouts and screams. A demented army man was what we all assumed it to be. so we all started to run. I've never run so fast in my life, for my life. We sort of felt like heading home. It was cold.
But Jonathon gave me his jumper and before we knew it we were up at the grounds
where the festival had been. Just as Mickel set the first one we saw a car. "Police" one of the girls shouted "run" screamed another. So we ran from the car. It was just like in the movies where they hide round a corner and the stupid policemen just drive straight by. But it was a bush we hid in. We could all hear each others deep breathing, recovering from the chase. After about five minutes we jumped back out laughing again off to get the national dish: Burger, chips and gravy or Poutine as they say.
That night we agreed that with Jonathon and Sandra we would go camping the following morning.
Camping again was great. building our fire and hoping to survive the bears. But so soon it was that we found our way back to Montreal, sad to be departing from our great car, home and friend; goldie desree.
Niagara falls sealed a perfect time in Canada. We both feel a winter revisit may be in order. Maybe to see the west. Who knows? For now though Its back to the states. As we get closer and close to the sunshine state were
Arnie reigns supreme and the sand will warm our feet.
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Jan
non-member comment
Love the new blog
Photos are really cool, it's brilliant reading your blog, feels like I'm there with you. I want to go to Canada now! xxxxxxxxxxxxxx