Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You: Bonjour Quebec City

20th, 21st, 22nd April

Sadly Vic and I parted ways with Brittany who could no longer join us as we continued our bus trip to Old Quebec City. 6 hours and mostly rainy we just slept and used the free wifi access on the bus (how times have changed). Arriving to a rainy Quebec City wasn't the brightest start but we found the hostel easy enough and went for an evening walk. It didn't take too long for us to be saturated so armed with groceries we headed back to cook dinner, hoping the next day would bring sunshine.

Perhaps a little naive I hadn't really thought about the mix of French and english that Quebec has. In fact it was little to no English but all French. Really like stepping outside Canada and into a European France atmosphere. A great chance for me to practise as I love the language and haven't been exposed to the pressure of being the only person able to speak any french in a while, I got buy practised loads and continued to fall in love with the language inspiring me more to continue with my study once I'm back in Vancouver.

Up early for a run we were lucky the sun was out, though so was the cold wind. We tried to run along the waterfront of the Saint Laurence River but due to upgrades to the path we were diverted. We ended up near the still working army barracks and tried to run through to reach the water, just as Vic ran through a barrier gate a very flustered looking guard jumped up and shouted at us to stop, pretty funny we were almost accidentally in a "secure area". Promptly told the way we should be going we continued on, reaching a very steep set of stairs and went down to the waterfront. Coming back up was the best work out a short sharp burn in the legs.

Still lots of snow though its spring

1/2 way down the steep stairs

We decided to catch the local bus out to the Montmorency falls at 83m they are actually higher than Niagara falls and were definitely worth the visit with the big chunks of ice still floating and the power behind the falls making us two happy girls. After a walk on the snow we headed back and spent the afternoon just wandering the old cobbled streets, attempting to not buy too much. That night we went out with about 10 other people from the hostel to watch a local live music act who were really good, a mixture between french and english self composed songs, in a relaxed yet popular pub.

Another morning run to start out the day, sunshine again but this time it was a really cold icy wind making us really enjoy the hot shower on return. We didn't have any specific plan for the day except to get the ferry to see the lights at night and the Chateau frontenac (the most photographed hotel in the world) all lite up. We wandered around the small inside markets to escape the wind and tried lots of blueberry products and of coarse maple syrup. Yum yum, real maple syrup is so good I had to bring some back with me. As the sun went down we jumped on the ferry (which is just a local commuters ferry) and stayed on giving us sunset views and then night views back to the shore, so beautiful even if the chilly wind kept us inside apart from going out to get photos.

Vics friend Phil, drove from his home after work (around 2hours) to collect us and we all drove that night to Montreal. Arriving at his sisters place, a few beers or more (none by me still recovering from New York effects) and it was 4am before everyone went to bed....... Is this the start of the end of Montreal????