HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Arriving at ‘the Cottage’
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Goodbyes are sucky
WORD OF THE DAY: Contiki
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 120km
It’s a change over day today. I say good-bye to my Contiki Spain Husbands and hello to my Contiki Scandi gals. There are just some people you meet on your travels that you just know you will see again and I am happy to hope that I will see my Contiki Husbands again and get a tradition happening like my Scandi gals. We have been able to catch up again 3 times since our Contiki Scandinavia trip in 2007. We met in New York in 2009, at Amy’s hometown of Meaford in 2010 and then Amy met me in the Galapagos in 2011. So this makes the 4th time and both Shauna and Amy are friends that I can count on for life. This is the additional bonus of travelling and the best aspect, well after photography, which I love. Making new and life-long friends.
So Marc and Andy were up at 7am and out the door at 8am in a taxi to the airport. Marc was off to Peru to start a Contiki Peru tour tomorrow and Andy was heading home to Boston. It was great to see you both and I wish you both safe travels. Thanks Marc for making the time, with you getting ready for your trip and finishing up the last thing you needed was the stress of guests, but hopefully we were worth it.
I was staying at Marc’s till Amy was to pick me up somewhere between 2-4pm. She was driving from Meaford, so she had a big drive day today and after collecting me we were going to Shauna’s to pick her up and then head out to the cottage tonight. This suited both me and Shauna fine, as she had come off night shift and I wasn’t going to interrupt her sleep and I had time to re-organize my bags to have a week-end bag for the cottage and not have to bring out my big backpack while I was there. I also had an additional bag of stuff that I didn’t have to pack as we will be in Amy’s car for the next week, so I didn’t have to airline pack as such. So my day was filled with watching season 5 of Nip Tuck, completing yesterday’s blog, packing and finally getting out of my PJ’s at 1pm. I finished the dishes, unpacked the dishwasher, moved all the furniture back to where it belonged and threw out the trash. Amy was keeping me up to date with her ETA’s via text messages and the traffic was terrible. We all forgot that it is the May 2-4 long weekend, with Monday being a public holiday, so there was mass movement of holiday makers also on the roads.
Amy arrived at 4.15pm. It was so good to see her. We had last seen each other only 6 months ago in the Galapagos, which seems only weeks ago and we are the type of friends that just pick up where we last left off. We make great travel companions and it feels great to say hello to more friends after saying good-bye to Marc and Andy, it takes off the sad edge-ness if you know what I mean. So with a final check of the apartment, I locked the door with a key we had cut a few days before and we left Marcs place heading for Shauna’s. Shauna’s place was only a 10 minute drive, if that and she was all ready to go. We got a quick tour around her pad and it was an amazing home over 3 levels. It is the type of home I would have wanted if I had been going back to Australia.
So we were back on the road again at 5pm. We left the province of Ontario and entered into the province of Quebec not long after passing around the city. You can notice the difference of leaving and entering the provinces straight away. It isn’t like crossing states in Australia, the differences are quite noticeable. Quebec is a province in east-central Canada and it is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level. The signs were in French only, and if there was an English translation, by law, the French words have to be first and larger than the English words. They have what they dub ‘the language police’ and if there is a sign that doesn’t comply with these rules they are fined and told to fix the sign or to pull it down. Ummmmm are we in Canada or France? We stopped at one of the general stores on the way to pick up some grog and I needed to get some cash out. I tried both my visa cards in the small ATM machines they have in supermarkets but my card wouldn’t work, I hate that, especially when you know you have money in there. I did use the card to pay for my 1.14L of vodka I got from the bottle shop and it worked, so maybe the link was down to access my funds in cash? I still had 30 odd dollars in my purse, but I hate to not have money in my purse.
After a further 20 minutes we arrived at the cottage. I have heard a lot about this cottage over the years and to actually see it I can see what all the talk was about. It was BEAUTIFUL. STUNNING. MAGIC. The McCormick’s have a cottage that looks onto Danford Lake and it really is a slice of heaven here. We met Shauna’s parents Wendy and George and they gave us a tour of their home. The original cottage is currently getting turned into a garage aka ‘man cave’ for George and was moved back and now stands the new cottage that was built 3 years ago. With beautiful glass windows facing the lake and with the sun starting to set over the lake it was breath taking. There is a feeling of family here. George grew up in the area and his father’s place is across the lake. Generations of families live in the area and it is like a big reunion each year as they all catch up with each other and with it being the first official public holiday heading into summer there are a lot of people heading to their cottages for the first time this year since winter and according to the weather forecast it looks like it is going to shape up to be a wonderful weekend of sunshine.
Dinner was around the kitchen table with chicken and ribs from the BBQ, salad and corn cobs and looked like a typical family meal. This is what I didn’t have growing up and it feels nice to be included into some-ones family if only for the week-end. I’m not knocking my mum, but with just her and I, you would never get the ambience you get with 6 people all talking and discussing things, life, trips and experiences. It was a really pleasant evening with a visit from a long-time family friend, who grew up with George in the area, and her kids played with his kids and the generations and history continue on. This is the things that we Australians don’t really have and I have to say I like the idea. I know things will be different in Ethiopia as Zeme’s family is very important to him and in turn will be equally important to me and maybe I can start my own generation history. After a few more vodka’s we were all tucked up in bed at 1am with the pleasure of knowing that there was no alarm call or anywhere to be in the morning. We are now running on ‘cottage’ time.
Welcome to the cottage.
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