Canada

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Our next stop was Toronto, Canada where we stayed with the parents of one of our Brisbane friends, who had kindly offered us accommodation for the few days we were there. They were living in a quaint house in the suburbs of Mississauga, but close to the railway station which made it easy for us to get into the downtown area.

The cold weather stepped up to a new level going from REALLY COLD to F$@#ING FREEZING! We spent one day walking around the city with our friend’s brother, where we were outside for a good three hours of the day, which wasn’t the smartest of moves considering the temperature was below -30 degC. Patty had done the right thing and borrowed this huge thick coat known as “big blue” from our hosts which was as thick as a double doona and extended down to below her knees, however I thought I would be right. Oh, how wrong I was! A couple of hours into our walk, my feet and hands were like ice blocks and I couldn’t feel my thighs, nose or cheeks.

One of the most interesting things we did while in Toronto was visit the CN tower, the tallest tower in the world, and considered one of the top 10 engineering wonders of the world. There is a restaurant and observation deck about two thirds of the way up, which also has a large glass floor section, which is very strange to walk over. Patty struggled to even walk across it let alone look down at the ground hundreds of meters below! After taking in the Toronto sky line, we had a lovely dinner in the revolving restaurant.

Anecdote: In Toronto, we visited one of the strangest museums we have seen, the Bata Shoe Museum, which had an amazing collection of shoes from around the world (I had to wipe the drool from Patty’s mouth a number of times). It gave the history of shoes back to ancient times when they were first worn. The variety of shoes was huge; everything from astronaut shoes, high heels, basketball shoes, sandals made of straw, big fashion label designer shoes to a boot to protect the hoof of an injured cow! Probably the most painful shoes we saw in the museum were from China where they had the tradition of binding women’s feet from a young age to limit their growth to the size of a child’s foot, considered a sign of beauty. The shoes for their feet were so small they looked like horses’ hooves, ouch! (Thankfully this practice was banned in the mid 1900’s.)

Niagra Falls is only an hour’s drive from Toronto, on the US / Canada border, and so we did a day trip there with our friend’s parents. I realised that Patty and I had been spoilt by some of sights we had already seen, because my first impression of Niagra Falls was that it was about a tenth the size of Iguazu Falls in Argentina. The falls were still spectacular, more for the fact that everything was covered in ice, the trees, rocks, buildings and ground, caused by the water spray coming off the falls. The entire surface of the water flowing over the falls was also filled with pieces of ice, large and small. We spent a few hours admiring the falls, including having a bite to eat in a restaurant overlooking the falls.

Our next stop was Montreal, a five hour comfortable train trip north east of Toronto, where we stayed with Patty’s sister, Paula, and her boyfriend, Francisco. We realised before arriving here that in the middle of winter, there is not a lot to do in Montreal. We also knew that Paula goes into hibernation in the middle of winter, and would not want to do much, so we were looking forward to spending some time relaxing and catching up on sleep, as this would be our last opportunity for this before we got back to Australia. So this is exactly what we did for the first few days in Montreal, hardly leaving Paula’s apartment. By the third day of this though, I was starting to go a bit stir crazy, and decided we had to get out and do something.

The times we did leave Paula’s apartment were typically for her to take us to her favourite restaurants around Montreal, of which there were many. We tried her favourite Japanese, Greek, Thai, Portuguese and French restaurants; some more than once they were that good! Mind you, the lack of exercise combined with all the food we were eating continued the weight gain that had started in New York, and my belt buckle got to try a new notch on my belt.

Anecdote: Paula is a heavy smoker, and she was very conscious of the fact that we were not, and also hated the stink of smoke, which permeates through everything when you smoke inside. Although she has a small balcony off her apartment, being the middle of winter, she had no intention of going outside and using this to smoke. So when we first arrived, Paula (and sometimes Francisco) would disappear into the bathroom, with the extractor fan on, for 15 minutes at a time for a cigarette. However, she is such a heavy smoker, we hardly got to see her, as 5 minutes after coming out of the bathroom, she would be back in there again for another fag! On top of this, her apartment has only one toilet, and I was caught out a few times, getting a sudden urge and straining to hold on, while I waited for her to come out. We managed to find a different solution after the first couple of days, which was turning on the stove extractor fan, and Paula happily smoking away underneath this, which meant we could at least chat with her while she satisfied her addiction!

Paula’s apartment is about a 30 minute walk from the downtown area, so Patty and I headed into the city one day (while Paula & Francisco slept in). We came across a huge ice skating rink in Old Montreal on the banks of the Montreal River, and so we decided to hire some skates and have a go. The last time I remember ice skating was when I was about 8 years old, and so I was pretty nervous stepping onto the ice. My biggest concern was falling over and injuring myself just before our 3 weeks of snowboarding! We both cautiously and unsteadily negotiated our way around the rink a few times, like two old arthritic women, until we gained a bit of confidence. We ended up spending nearly 2 hours on the ice, although needing regular breaks as our wobbly ankles got tired very quickly. I have a lot more respect for ice hockey players after my pathetic duck shuffling across the ice!

Anecdote: Paula is also completely against any form of exercise, even walking a couple of blocks to get somewhere. She will ALWAYS drive her car, even if it means taking twice as long! An example of this was when we went to a restaurant to celebrate one of Paula’s friend’s birthdays. Paula decided to drive the car and so we all piled in. We then drove around the streets for the next 20 minutes (Paula had forgotten to check the address of the restaurant before leaving because we were running late, one of the few traits she shares with Patty, as the two sisters are completely different!), only to arrive at the restaurant, no more than two blocks away from her house! To rub salt into the wound, by this stage we were super late, and as we couldn’t find any parking near the restaurant, poor Francisco had to drop us off in front of the restaurant, while he then spent another 20 minutes trying to find a parking spot! All this drama to avoid a 10 minute stroll!

We decided to hire a car while in Montreal, and drive the 250km to Quebec City, to spend a couple of days there. Quebec City is by far the most beautiful city we have seen in Canada, with the old, walled part of the city high up on a hill, overlooking a huge, frozen river. There were also plenty of stunning old buildings with gorgeous architecture, including the famous Chateau Fontanac (where the movie “The Shining” starring Jack Nicholson was filmed), to look at in this part of the city, all covered in a thick layer of snow.

We visited Quebec City at the perfect time as they were in the middle of a winter carnival. We spent an afternoon at the carnival, trying out all the rides on offer including toboggan and tubing slides, and a flying fox, as well as some exceptional ice sculpture exhibits.

We also visited a 36 room functioning hotel constructed entirely from ice! A new hotel is constructed at the start of winter each year, and operates for about 10 weeks. The hotel is built over a 5 week period, with more than 25 ice sculptors employed to make the complex, including all the rooms, a grand hall, a huge ice bar (with drinks served in glasses made from ice), an ice café, an ice slide and even a chapel, where there is more than 40 wedding ceremonies held each winter. Each room is designed with a unique theme, some also having specially designed fire places (that only provides light, not heat, for obvious reasons) and hot tubs. Outside of the fact that everything was made of ice; the walls, floor, tables, chairs, columns and beds; the ice sculptures were also incredible; huge chandeliers, and according to the theme of that year they carve different structures. This year the theme was biodiversity so there was a tiger in a bamboo forest, flowers, various fish, octopuses, frogs, bees and more.

Anecdote: Driving back from Quebec we got an unplanned Canadian experience as a huge snow storm arrived shortly before we headed off. Patty was freaking out, questioning whether we should be driving at all, however there was no turning back once we were on the highway. The snow was falling that heavily we could only see 50m or so in front of us, and big drifts quickly built on the sides of the road. The scariest part was when trucks came flying by in the overtaking lane, as you couldn’t see a thing for 10 or 15 seconds as they came by, and just had to try and keep going straight. Three and half hours later, we made it safely back to Montreal, although others weren’t so lucky, as we passed two trucks and three cars that had run off / slid off the side of the highway!

Part of the reason we visited Paula at this time of the year was to celebrate her birthday with her. As a present, we paid for a night away with Paula and Francisco in Bromont, a small town about an hour from Montreal. The thing to do in this part of the world is visit one of the many Scandinavian bath houses, which we did one evening. Outside of the wet and dry saunas, and various massage showers, there was an outdoor hot tub where we spent quite a bit of time chatting and taking in the night sky. At one point Patty and I decided to climb out of the spa and jump into a snow drift. Although it didn’t feel that cold while in the snow, it felt like ten thousand needles being poked into our skin when we jumped back into the hot spa, very painful!

Finally the snowboarding part of the trip began as we flew across to Big White in British Columbia, for two weeks in the snow fields. Big White is a ski in / ski out resort and is massive, with more than 110 trails (the longest one 7.2km!) and a huge terrain park on the mountain, well serviced by 16 lifts. Our room was nothing super flash, however it had a kitchenette where we could make breakfast each day and some of our meals, the complex had a hot tub and sauna for soaking away the aches and pains each day, and it was also right in the centre of the village, close to the supermarket and bakery, restaurants, bars and shops. Even better, we could strap on our boards outside our building and ride straight onto the nearest lift! And one last bonus, the day before we arrived, nearly a half metre of snow had fallen, so we arrived at the perfect time to enjoy some fresh powder (called “champagne powder” because it is a very dry snow perfect for skiing)!

With plenty of fresh snow to provide a nice soft landing, Patty had decided that this was the ideal time to give snow boarding a go for the first time. She spent the first morning with me learning the basics, before taking an afternoon lesson, while I got to go off and explore the mountain on my own. I met up with her at the end of her lesson and she was super proud of herself, saying how the instructor had told her she was a natural. As there was night skiing, and Patty seemed so confident, I decided to take her up one of the green runs. We jumped on the high speed lift and proceeded to go a couple of kilometres up the mountain, and at this point Patty started to have doubts. I reassured her the whole way that it was only a green run and she would be fine. We get to the top, strap on our boards and begin coming down the green run, and Patty almost immediately starts panicking and loses all confidence, saying the run is too steep. We end up spending the next hour trying to get back down the slope to the village, Patty cursing me the whole way down, as she spent pretty much the whole time sliding on her backside, with calves and quads burning. Suffice to say, not the best end to the day, after she had been so happy after her lesson, and me in the bad books!

Over the two weeks we were at Big White, Patty continued to take lessons and practice her new skills on her own while I continued to explore the mountain on the harder runs, and also the rails and boxes in the terrain park. We would meet up each day for lunch, do a couple of runs together after lunch to see how she was improving, and then split up again, meeting back at the hotel at the end of the day for a hot spa. Each day we would get back to the hotel completely buggered, and the hot spa was a lovely way to finish the day. Normally we would then cook a light dinner and typically be in bed by 9pm (Patty at times would be asleep by 7pm!). No partying and late nights for these two old fogies!

The weather was brilliant while we were there. There were only a couple of days that were fogged in, where we just did a half day on the slopes, but the rest we had unlimited visibility and half of those were blue bird days! We were also lucky enough to have a couple of 10 – 20cm dumps while we were there, so got some fresh powder to play in.

Outside of the snowboarding, there were also plenty of other activities to keep us entertained in the evenings. Probably the best of them was for Valentine’s Day we went on a 3 hour snowmobile tour, stopping along the way at a secluded cabin high up in the mountains for a romantic dinner (with 7 other couples). The guides also lit a bonfire in the snow (which melted a 2 metre deep hole in the snow), and set off a little fireworks display for us. We finished the dinner cooking some marsh mellows over the open fire, before heading back to the village on the snow mobiles. The snow mobiles were heaps of fun, and had unbelievable power! We had a great time flying along the forest trails, with Patty laughing away with delight behind me! A lovely Valentines evening!

After two weeks on the slopes, our bodies were in dire need of rest and recovery, with bumps, bruises, aches and pains. Our last stop in Canada was Vancouver. Vancouver is a gorgeous city on the west coast of Canada, and outside of the cold, it reminded us a lot of Brisbane; good sized city, compact down town area, close to the water, etc. We spent our first few days here walking around neighbourhoods and checking out the sights. The most interesting place we visited here was the Vancouver aquarium which had some very amazing aquatic life endemic to the Arctic area, including beluga whales, otters and dolphins. There were also heaps of interactive displays that illustrated some really interesting facts about various creatures found in the oceans.

We also spent a couple of nights in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, about a half day’s travel from Vancouver. Again, this was a lovely small city, with a huge amount of history. We spent a day at the National Museum here, learning all about Canada’s history, including the logging and fur industries and the Inuit indigenous people. There was also an IMAX here, where we spent a few hours watching a number of documentaries. We had organised a sea plane to fly us back from Victoria to Vancouver, as it was super cheap, and would have given us a birds eye view of the area; however a snow storm came in on the day we were going to fly out and all the flights were cancelled, so we had to bus / boat / bus / train it back unfortunately. On that sad note we departed Canada and headed on to Japan.

Anecdote: By far the coolest place we visited in Victoria was a bug zoo. It was a small zoo tucked away in a small street, and it had some really interesting bugs to check out, including an ant colony, and numerous varieties of spiders, scorpions, cockroaches, stick insects and more. There was a guided tour of the entire zoo, with the guide giving a rundown on each of the bugs, and then taking them out of their cage so people could also touch and hold them. Patty was a bit creeped out when it came to the tarantulas and scorpions, but she managed to work up the courage to hold them without panicking and throwing them across the room or jumping on them!

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