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Published: April 23rd 2006
Le Chateau Frontenac
The most pictured hotel in the world, pictured again."Nobody spends any amount of time between the northern shores of Lake Superior and the eastern shores of the Atlantic without drinking a Canadian beer (the good and bad), hearing about hockey and noticing how simple life can be" - Lonely Planet
Our Canadian border crossing from Maine to Québec was thankfully fairly uneventful. Our Hawaii license plate didn't seem to be of concern to our very French-Canadian border agent. What seemed to be more curious for him was why I (Marisa) was driving and not Josh. Funny...since HIS WIFE was driving, there must have been some sort of arrest or DUI in his past. After assuring him that Josh had driven the day prior, he let us pass. Once in the province of Québec we felt instantly like we were in another country, which we were, but it wasn't that cars, houses, landscape and people looked or acted any different than in Maine. I think it was more the excitement of knowing we were IN another country.
The province of Québec is fairly unique in that most people are primarily French speaking, although most are bi-lingual. The fear prior to going to Québec City was that we would
Talking with the French
Josh getting in touch with a little French history in Quebec. be stuck with no French skills and would not be able to communicate for food, drink, hotel, etc. What were we thinking??? Upon arriving in Québec City, we made a bee-line to info center thinking that at least ONE person must speak English and can help us find our way. A very friendly woman with electric pink lipstick helped us orient and even found us an affordable hotel in the old city. We later found that everyone spoke conversational English and the way to communicate whether you were French or English speaking was to say "hello" instead of "bon jour". I made the mistake of responding to a "bon Jour" with a "bon jour" and the waitress began reciting the specials in French. Upon noticing the puzzled look on Josh and my faces, she promptly switched her speech to English. How cool is that?
Québec City is the capital of the province and is also a more affluent area. The old city is an attraction all to itself. It has cobblestone streets, historic buildings and is walled in from the newly erected "new" Québec - skyscrapers and all. The old streets wind in a puzzling circle and could barely
Quebec City Streets
Easy to imagine what it was like 200 years ago. Awesomely beautiful city. fit the Durango down the narrow alley ways to the underground parking structure. After getting settled in our quaint hostel, we walked the old city which was an old fort on a cliff. High above the river below, the old City is a great vantage point up and down the river. Québec is also known for the deep freeze throughout the Winter being very far North, but we were lucky to be there during the start of the thaw where snow was still on the ground but the sun was also out to warm our faces. After a wonderfully French meal of Steak, Pomme Frites and Chocolat Mousse we enjoyed a post meal walk under a full moon. Romance is still alive even after 14,000 miles in a car together.
Post Québec City, we drove on to Montréal. Josh hade heard great things about the city which I think probably prompted the trip up into Canada all together. The city, very different than Québec is highly populated and very metropolitan. Still predominantly French speaking, it also has a very young population being a large college town. The pace of the city was much faster than Québec City and it
Montreal
The waterfront park in Montreal. exuded a youthful spirit that made us want to explore the different boroughs throughout the town. Our accommodations, fortunately, put us right in the middle of it all. Our first evening we made our way to Rue Ste Catherine which was an interesting mix of high-end stores, restaurants and strip clubs. It was actually a funny mix because right next to a Marc Jacobs higher-end fashion store there would be an XXX lap dance haven with bright neon lighting and a creepy looking bouncer outside trying to lure in the young couples and rich men. We made our way to Peel's Pub (thanks Mike for the recommendation) where we indulged in the local favorite poutine-sp which is essentially french fries, with gravy AND cheese on top. Not exactly the diet food of choice. However, a nice order along with the Canadian beer served us well. We also noticed among the young crowd, people speaking English and French. In fact, Josh noticed a table next to us where a man and woman were speaking French until another woman joined them and they all started speaking English. Josh and I agreed that growing up speaking 2 languages would be really cool. Post
Peel St., we ended the night at Hurley's Pub where we made friends with the server who talked to us about growing up French-Canadian. She explained that if you were not born in Canada, you were promptly enrolled in French immersion school, so everyone grew up speaking both English and French. She also explained that different parts of town are known for being the "english-speaking" part of town or the "french-speaking" part of town. So depending on how you are feeling and/or who you are interested in hanging out with that night, you can chose your spot accordingly. Josh and I enjoyed walking into different parts of town to immerse ourselves into the neighborhoods. There is even a very lively Latin Quarter. Apart, from the vibrant nightlife and the bi-cultural lifestyle, Josh and I were disappointed by the dirtiness of the city. Since the city is covered in snow from September to late March, it is understandable that some trash is buried and in the thaw there is just an overall yuckiness, but of all the big cities we have been to this trip, Montréal, by far, has had the most trash and grime. In addition, we were struck by
The Olympic Stadium
If you think US government spending can be a debacle sometimes, check out the story of the Montreal Olympic Stadium. A beautiful but extremely falty suspended roof loves to leek. the number of young beggars on the street asking for "beer" change or "pot" change. Our thought is Montréal is fairly young and transient which attributes to some of the backpacking crowd we saw begging on the streets. It somewhat reminded me of Pacific Ave in Santa Cruz. Overall, Montréal is a great place to visit for a fun couple days of exploring different cavernous bars and great fattening food.
Our last stop in Canada included the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Josh and I thought we would take a break from the big city exploring and just "chill" in a beautiful place. We did not take our guide book seriously when it explained the Canadian side of the falls was a Vegas-style affair. Well.....it is crazy!! Casinos, buffets, lights, bells, whistles and more money making ventures than we ever thought possible from such a natural attraction. We were in Niagara just before Easter Sunday which could have contributed to some of the crowd, however, I am pretty sure they are still in their "low" season. I can only imagine this place in the high season. After walking down the very noisy Clifton St. which held all of the
Niagara Falls Craziness
Majestic Falls combined with Fake Haunted Houses and Ripley's Believe it or Not and Casinos, a completely logical combo, obviously. kid/Josh attractions to include fudge, soft serve, Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and a huge gorilla holding a Whopper we finally saw....the Falls. The Falls are absolutely amazing. I have seen nothing like them. Even Yosemite's falls are very different that the grand Niagara. Just imagine 1 million times your backyard's pool worth of water running at 60-80mph down a steep cliff. One question Josh and I had that we never quite got answered was, do fish go over the edge with the water? If you have this answer, please send via blog so we can stop debating about it in the car. Per our guide book a $10,000 fine and a psych eval await you if YOU actually MAKE it over the falls, but apparently 3 of 14 have made it in the last 25 years so the odds are not in favor of anything but the water. What seemed so interesting is how easy it would be to get in your barrel and actually make it to the roaring water if you actually DID want to do such a nutty thing. There was very little barrier between the crowds of people and the rush of the rapids. A
Don't step back.
After 12,000 miles in 3 months, neither of us even thought of pushing the other over. Still Happily Married! Wish us luck through Yellowstone. JK. couple interesting things Josh and I observed about Canadian Niagara--1. it is way more hip than the U.S. side. Looking across the river it was obvious the U.S. had made Niagara a national park due to the tree colored visitor's center up on the hill above the falls. In addition, maybe 30 or so people we checking out the waterfalls on the U.S. side vs. the thousands of people on the Canadian side. Who said the U.S. doesn't care about nature? 2. Hindi families obviously find Canadian Niagara the destination of choice. Family after family of Hindi travelers roamed the streets of Niagara Falls taking pictures and eating cotton candy. Everyone having a great time.
To Detroit.......we finally get ourselves to the Windsor/Detroit border and speak to another very large and in charge border agent on the US-Canadian border. Unlike our Mexican border crossing, this time he didn't buy our driving a Hawaii plated car, having Washington and California driver's licenses, being on the road for 3+ months, not having jobs, husband and wife with no change of name on Marisa's passport, Marisa's passport has 5 different Asian country stamps (most of the countries have had drug smuggling national
Niagara Falls
The classic horseshoe falls at Niagara. issues in the distant past e.g., Thailand) so we had to stop to get searched. We watched as our things were unloaded piece by piece. Josh took this particularly hard since he had expertly packed the back of the car to absolutely maximize our space and "streamline the car". A very large German Sheppard jumped in the car and wriggled around a bit. Meanwhile Josh and I hung out in a very small secluded office("no pictures, please") with a very hyper young Border Patrol agent who was trying at every turn to act as tough as possible. We watched dark skinned person after dark skinned person come into the office for "processing" but no group stayed as long as we had to. An hour later we were finally cleared for take off. Thanks Homeland Security. Pretty sure 3 drug dealers crossed the line while you were spending your man hours on our car. But that's OK. No hard feelings. Back in the USA.
"One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." -- Henry Miller
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