Leaving the east of Canada

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Montreal:

30th June to 5th July

After leaving Toronto my next stop was Montreal. It was a wet overcast day when I went to explore Montreal. I had got a book of self guided walking tours from the information office so I started with the walk by the river, I found a lovely city beach that was closed as it was a horrible day! I quickly gave up on the idea of exploring in the miserable weather and instead visited the beautiful Basilica of Notre-Dame. The magnificent alter was very impressive as was the huge organ. The stain glass windows along the sides of the church, instead of showing scenes from the bible, tell the religious history story of Montreal from its beginnings as Ville Marie. The next day was Canada Day, I went down to watch the raising of the flag and the ceremony for the new citizens of Canada, after this I was wet and cold so went back to the hostel for a Canada Day BBQ, which was like an Irish BBQ in that the BBQ and the cook were outside under an umbrella in the rain and everyone else was inside eating. That evening there was a firework display, using the tarps the from the hostel we sat on the damp grass at the waterfront and watched the display before walking slowly back to the hostel among the crowds listening to the Jazz festival.

Thursday was a lovely day, I went for a walk to Mont Royal in the sunshine. I spent the day walking around the park and climbing up steep steps and keeping watch for racoons. At lunch time I had a picnic that a cheeky squirrel tried to share with me, I did pass him some carrot but he was not impressed and went to bother some other people after that. The following day I followed more of the walking trails, and got to see some little parks and lots of churches, I went into one and climbing to the very top of the tower where I had a nice view of the surrounding area. The church its self had been turned into a museum with a small chapel in the front. The crypt was never used as a crypt but they weren't sure what it had been used for.

I would not have been able to leave Montreal with out going to the F1 track, I had so much fun there. I got to walk in the Pitt lane, jump on to the starting grid through the gaps in the pitt wall and stand on the bridge where the checkered flag is waved from. I walked the entire circuit, looking at the chicanes and the lumps of rubber melted onto the track from the tires. I went to the Piknic Electronik, on Sunday evening with a group from the hostel. Every Sunday from May until September this festival is on. There were DJ's on two difference stages so we spent the night walking from one to the other, making lots of new friends and having fun.

Quebec:

6th July to 9th July

Quebec was not what I expected. I hadn't expected it to be so hilly or small or as friendly. My first afternoon I went exploring, walking along the boardwalk and the old battlement walls. The following day a walking tour was organized by the hostel, the guide led us all over the old city, the guide had some knowledge of the history however as most of the group only wanted to hear a very brief overview the guide didn't go into to much detail, which was slightly disappointing. I met a friendly Irish girl on the walking tour and the next day we went off to see the Montmorency waterfalls, before getting ice cream in the Chocolate Museum that evening and going into the year round Christmas shop. That evening a group of us went out to the old battlement walls to look at the sunset. There were no spectacular colors to be seen however the old city when lit with the colorful lights does feel slightly magical at night.

Ottawa:

10th July to 14th July

My next stop was Ottawa, I arrived late in the evening and spent the evening sitting on the porch of the hostel with lots of others watching a man from the apartments opposite chase a parent squirrel away from a baby squirrel then pickup the squirrel and bring it over to us to see if we wanted to mind it. His reason for taking the baby was that he felt the parent wasn't being kind to the baby. He stormed off when we didn't want to adopt a squirrel, and tried to get the squirrel to stay in a tree beside his apartment, it ran away as soon as he let it go. It was a very warm sunny in Ottawa and I spent a very enjoyable day sitting by the locks reading a book and watching the boats lock up and down. On Sunday I went on a canoe tour of Ottawa it was a different way to do a tour and as it was another lovely day it was very enjoyable to spend the afternoon. I went to the History museum on Monday and enjoyed the exhibit on the First Peoples, reading some of their legend's and looking at their history in Canada. Walking back along the bridge I had a wonderful view of the city, however it was almost time for my long 3 day 4 night bus trip to Calgary.

Well the bus trip was long (very long!), though the small group of people I had met at the start of my trip were very friendly and made the time pass quicker with friendly chats at each of the rest stops. The view from the windows turned from the cities and towns of Ontario to the flat lands of Saskatchewan, where you can see for miles and miles, before eventually turned into hills and mountains of Calgary.

Calgary:

18th July to 20th July

Arriving into Calgary I found I was in the same hostel as one of my new bus friends. The hostel was cool, free laundry, phone calls and a huge breakfast spread as well as very friendly people. I had amazing shower changing out of the clothes I had worn for the passed 3 days and then going to the supermarket and buying lots of fresh fruit and veg, to make a huge salad. After spending the last few days eating in horrible bus stations and garages, fresh colorful food was amazing! The following day I went for a walk in the nearby parks, enjoying the sunshine and avoiding the geese. I found a latin music festival going on as I was walking back towards the hostel, I felt like I was back in South America. That evening everyone in the hostel went out for 25c wings in a near by pub. After eating our way into a sticky chicken food coma, my time in Calgary was at an end.

Jasper:

21st July to 24th July

The trip from Calgary to Jasper was beautiful, with the huge mountains and lakes. I arrived in the early morning and watched the sun rise and the town wake up. I then got the shuttle up to the hostel and left my bags before walking up to the sky tram to look over the town and surrounding lakes. After lunch back in the hostel I met some people who were going to climb Whistlers Mountain that afternoon and were looking for more people join them. It was a steep 3 hour climb up but the view from the top made it worth it. Shame I had forgotten to bring my camera! The following day I set off at 10.30 back down the hill and along the river, following different trails. Meeting some other people, we ended up walking until 4.15pm that evening when we arrived back in Jasper tired and footsore. We waited for the shuttle to get back to the hostel, then had a lively dinner listening to the guys telling tails of fighting bears, as each story got more and more outlandish, our sides were sore laughing. My next stop is Vancouver, I hope to visit Banff and Jasper again at some other point.

Vancouver

I arrived in Vancouver yesterday afternoon, luckily just in time to get to watch the fireworks display. The guide from the hostel brought us down to the beach and we had a great view of the barge where the fireworks were set off from. Today is wet and I decided it was a good day to spend updating this and planning the next stage of my trip.

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