HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing more of French Canada
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Saying an early good-bye to Amy
WORD OF THE DAY: Bonjour
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 200.1km
Today I leave the beautiful city of Ottawa and head north to the French province of Quebec for the next 4 days. I have been told by several people that they are not too willing to speak English, and they don’t give English speakers the time of day, but I am sure I will make it through, especially after being in Spanish speaking counties for the last 6 months, I have international sign language symbols at the ready should I need to use it. Crazy thoughts considering I am still in Canada after all!!!
We woke to a nice note left by Shauna this morning in the kitchen. I still can’t believe my luck that I met these two gals on my Contiki Scandi trip just about 5 years ago to the day and we have kept in touch and nurtured our friendship. I am going to miss both Shauna and Amy and know that we will meet up again in the future. Ethiopia perhaps? The amount of people that say they are going to come and see me and Zeme in Ethiopia is tremendous and I hope they all do so they can see what I have seen and appreciate firsthand what a great country it really is. The rate I am going we should open our own agency, or at least pump the business through Minalu’s new company and get a commission. Just remember the door will always be open……
Amy did a Tim Horton’s run this morning for breakfast and coffee and I stayed back to repack my bags for train travel. Amy looked skeptical when asking if I will get everything to fit into my bags, and I was a little myself with the new purchases I had made over the last week, but I got it all to fit, even if I am travelling with my big backpack, my little backpack, my handbag and my rolly bag. As long as I can carry it all myself then I will be okay. This was a section I wasn’t counting on doing with all my bags, but with this train and the return are the only 2 things left on my own and then I have airport pickup and drop-offs and an extra set of hands.
We arrived at the train station at 9.15am, it was only a 7 minute drive from Shauna’s house and Amy waited in the parking bay at the front while I ran in to make sure that I could get a ticket for the 9.55am service. I went straight to the counter and I was very surprised that the ticket one way was 71CAD. I checked online last night and the ticket for a return was 105CAD. I asked if it was cheaper to buy a return and told him about the price online and he said that was an advance purchase fare, they are always more expensive on the day of travel. Great, that would have been nice to read on their web site last night. I have only booked a one way as I am still deciding on what I am going to do with my last 2 nights. I have 3 options:
I extend my stay in Montreal by 2 days and train and fly on Saturday
I keep to the original plan and head back to Ottawa on Thursday-2 nights required back there
I add an extra night in Montreal, catch the train to Quebec City add a night there and a night in Ottawa
All these options, so for now I’ll just purchase the one way ticket and sort out my plans once I get to Montreal.
So I said my farewells to Amy and told her I will be thinking of her in the coming few days. Funerals are so emotional and she is going to have a tough week. I had 35 minutes to spare, so I called Zeme and spoke to him for a short while till they started to call my train and then I loaded up made my way to the train. I had to climb the stairs to get onto the train and there was a staff member there to hand up my bag for me which was a big help and there was luggage storage at either end of the carriages. So I dropped all my bags but my handbag and then made my way to my seat. I forgot to ask for a window seat, so I was sitting next to someone in an aisle seat, but for the 1 hour 55 minute ride I am sure I can suck it up. The seats are quite spacious and they also offer free Wi-Fi on the train for the whole journey, which is pretty cool and it was pretty fast as well. I enjoy train travel, and with my IPod plugged in I settled in for the journey chatting to people on Facebook as we travelled 100km per hour.
Via Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. Via Rail operates 497 trains per week in eight Canadian provinces (exceptions are Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island) over a network of 12,500 kilometers of track, almost all of which is owned and operated by CN Rail. Via Rail carries approximately 4.1 million passengers annually, the majority are on routes along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor.
We arrived into Montreal 5 minutes late and I waited for everyone to get off the train before I loaded myself up with my bags and made for the exit. I asked the Via Rail person on my way out for directions for the taxi stand. I had no idea how far the hotel was from the train station, but I knew I couldn’t carry all these bags too far, so I just jumped in a cab for the 5 minute ride to the hotel. There is not much traffic on the roads due to the public holiday today and the cab only cost 6.85CAD. Well worth the non- hassle of trying to find it all on my own. Especially as it was pretty hot out there, like sweaty hot. I am not sure I would want to be here in summer as I think it could be Australian hot during their summer.
The check-in time was 3pm, but I have never been knocked back for a check-in time, considering it was 12.20pm it didn’t even cross my mind that I wouldn’t be able to get into my room. Well the reception dude didn’t even look at his computer, he just told me check-in wasn’t till 3pm, no if, buts or maybe’s. It was a little spooky as I waited in line for looking at the international clocks they had on the wall and they had 5 countries and one of them was Addis Ababa-Ethiopia. Is that a little random. The other cities were Bogota/Colombia, Havana/Cuba, Milan/Italy, Jakarta/Indonesia and Addis. An omen? A good omen? Well random at least and it put a smile on my dial. So after dropping off my bags in the store room I got directions to town/shops and then made my way one block to St Catherine’s Street, one of the main shopping streets of Montreal and had a look around. There were 50-50 shops open and closed due to the public holiday, but I found where the ATM was, a supermarket and I found a pharmacy as well. So I went in there to buy some travel bottles to stuff the rest of my shampoo and conditioner into, some moisturizer and a new toothbrush. I continued onto a shopping complex that had some food outlets so I sat and ate lunch and there was a store like Big W in there, so I wandered in there and acted like a normal person wandering around the appliances, the Manchester and I checked out some clothes in search for some new tops. But after trying on a few and wondering where the hell they would go, I left them all and decided I just didn’t need anything else before getting home. I had to stop that shopping bug before it got out of control. But I didn’t leave the shop empty handed; I bought a packet of chips, some 2 minute noodles and a bar of chocolate. I wasn’t sure what sort of facilities they had in the room, so this would for now.
By the time I made it back it was just after 3pm, so after checking in as Amy Bowins, I headed to my room. It’s a decent sized room with 2 queen beds, aircon, a microwave, a fridge and tea and coffee facilities. There is also a computer in the room, but it is a little on the dated side. It would be okay if you didn’t have any gadgets yourself, but the Wi-Fi works fine in the room so I have the notebook and the IPod all hooked up. Time to get some blogging done and a chill afternoon. I obtained the Grey Line tour booklet from downstairs and a city map to work out what I am going to do for the next few days. I didn’t even know what there was to do here as I was in Amy’s capable hands. So I went through that, Googled some information and have decided to live a little in the edge and stay 2 additional nights here in Montreal and catch the train on Saturday morning at 7am arriving into Ottawa at 9.25am and then I have 4 hours to get from the train station to the airport for my flight out at 1.30pm. I was always basing myself in Ottawa for the last night as a backup if something was to go wrong (train breaks down or something as drastic) but I figured it’s not like I am catching a flight to Australia or Ethiopia, I am only heading to Chicago, so worst case I can catch a later flight if need be. So mapping out my time, I will walk to Old Montreal tomorrow, book a day trip to Quebec on Wednesday, do a ½ day city tour on Thursday and that leave a day of leisure on Friday. Now that is a great plan and it is nice to know what I am now doing. I am not one of these fly by the seat of your pants traveler (on my own anyway) so it feels great to have plans. I have also been in touch with Nancy, she was on my Africa trip in July last year and she is going to be my date for the Cirque Do Soliel show tomorrow night. It will be great to catch up with her and an unexpected meet up which was a nice surprise!
So BONJOUR to Montreal. I am excited to be here.
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