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Published: February 10th 2006
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The train journey continues...
00:26 Lights have come back on. French speaking New Brunswick woman that I starting chatting with earlier won't shut up now! She's singing! It's past midnight lady!
02:00 Rolling! Hey is the old guy across fro me sleeping on the floor?
03:57 I have no idea where we just stopped. Riviere-du-loop. Kilometre 907 is my guess. 02:32...that's the time we were supposed to have arrived here.
06:48 Charnay in 15! Kilometre 1099!
07:03 Train is backing up to change tracks.
07:15 Leave the train. I walk towards the station to find my bag. I meet two Swiss women and we head to the shuttle.
07:23 I see L'Ocean take off. I'm sitting in the shuttle bus that will take me to Quebec City.
08:30 Checked into my hostel after a short trek...uphill! I'm the first one in my room. It's huge! Eight beds but the floor space is like a mini dance studio. lol
It's been since 1992 that I was here in Québec City last. And from what I can see so far it is still really beautiful even with the gloomy gray cloud cover. Touch wood it stays dry! It’s now time to
wash up and then explore the City since I have the whole day ahead of me. So exciting!
Chateau Frontenac
Old City with character
Cobblestone pathways
After a quick consultation of the Lonely Planet and my wonderful free colourful map, I was given at the hostel; I set out onto the streets of Québec City. My hostel is located in the Old Upper Town and is close to lots of the touristy areas.
I decided I wanted to check out the Musee du Civilisation today since the bible, the Lonely Planet, indicated free entry on Tuesdays starting in September. Score! Once again I just started wandering the streets in the general direction of the Musee and came across so many other things to see that I was probably sidetracked a good two hours before getting to the museum. lol
* I started walking around the Chateau Frontenac.
* I saw a huge mural in the Old Lower Town.
* Which then drew me to the shops around Place Royal.
* Then I stumbled upon all of the art galleries along the streets leading up to the museum.
* Not to mention my little snack break
Pausing to take a picture.
Just wandering about the old part of the City. of a peach, granola bar and scone...hey it was weighing down my bag!
Then I got to the Musee du Civilisation. Hey, I think I remember coming here 13 years ago. Of course I don't remember what I saw but I'm sure their exhibits are changing all of the time. This is some of what I saw this time around...
* Russian Czars and the Revolution - learned a little a bit about the Czars of Russia and they sure did have lots of things on display! The church also seemed to have played a big role. A lot of the arts were displayed too. They have a couple of screens showing ballet that really isn't my thing.
* 26 Objects. This showcased Québecois authors displaying objects that correspond with a letter of the Alphabet. It was really quite interesting since it was also displayed in English!
* Crime Scene. The mission is to try and figure out who dunnit. It's almost like CSI but was easy for me to figure out. lol Things like fibre analysis, biometrics, autopsy etc. were covered.
* Quebec: Now and Then. Pretty self explanatory.
* Salt. Not so interesting to
me...
* Exhibit on media influences or something like that. It doesn't open until tomorrow so I didn't really pay that much attention.
* Indonesia. The exhibit doesn't open until November 1st. Bummer cuz I think it would have been an interesting one...
Then I wandered around more shops along Rue St. Jean but didn't really buy much. Oh wait, I did pick up a bag of Munchos. Finally! I've found my Munchos! I was disappointed when in Atlanta and I couldn't find any. I don't know why I'm so addicted to these processed potato flake chips. lol
I went back to the hostel to rest up before heading back out for dinner. That’s when Mari Claude and Kat came into the room. Marie Claude is from Invermere but grew up in Quebec and Kat is from Byron Bay, Australia and has been in Quebec since about May.
After Kat changed six times, the three of us were ready to hit the streets and find something inexpensive to eat for dinner. I'd say we wandered around for about half an hour before deciding on a quaint little cafe where they sell sandwiches, baked goodies and hot and cold drinks. We sat there for a couple of hours just chatting. Kat and Marie Claude had some interesting stories to tell about the people they encountered at the last hostel they were at and incidentally where they met. The stories they told involved some freaky behaviour and in turn no doubt some freaky people. Then somehow Marie Claude started telling us about her freaky mother and some things she experienced while growing up in Montreal. But I won't go into detail.
We eventually headed back to the hostel. The Walk was super cold. I guess because we'd just been in a super warm café. But after a bit of walking we warmed up. We came across a little ice rink that was set up at the end of Rue St. Jean and was near our hostel. Kat being from Byron Bay has never in her life seen snow before so she wanted to check out the huge pile of "snow" that was actually ice from the make shift rink. There were some guys ice skating and shooting pucks around. We didn't stick around too long for fear a puck came flying towards us. Ouch!
Back at the hostel Kat collected a whole bunch of fliers and other free brochures to work on a collage. We chatted while she clipped and then a couple of our dorm mates came back to the room. One from Japan (living in Montreal at the moment) and the other from Korea (currently living in Vancouver.) Kat has been travelling with a guitar and we all coaxed her into playing a couple of songs for us...even though it was 11:30 at night. It was an awesome performance. Her voice reminded me of someone else I had met on my travels. Also a fellow Australian! We wanted her to play more but it was getting late and we didn't want to annoy the neighbours too much. So we didn't bug her too much.
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Elliot Nixon
non-member comment
What's that picture of?
Is that a hostel I see there in that picture? If so, where did you stay?