Day One Hundred and Twenty: camp camp camp camp camp camp!

It’s camp time and as usual I’m in my element. After packing up a few cars to get all 9 Scouts, 3 leaders and gear to the camp we finally left just before 6ish. The drive was about an hour and a half and I was in Marilyn’s car (Reid’s mum) for the journey. It was an interesting ride, we saw several animals and lotsa nature on that journey. We arrived at the site at 7.30pm and were the first lot from our troop there. So we parked up and wandered down to see the field. It was beautiful, and had amazing views of Kent Lake.

 

Unfortunately I received no signal up there so it was the first weekend that I was completely out of contact with those back home, but that was ok, I had plenty going on around me to keep me busy. When the others arrived we chose a spot and then set up the camp as it was getting dark. There were three Scout tents, each with three Scouts in, then Stuart had a tent and I shared with Tiina.

At 9.30pm we went to the entrance of the camp and met with the other four troops who were there this weekend (around 40 Scouts). Here we had a mug up (for those of you who do not know this term, it is just a hot drink to warm you before bed). Mug up was hot cider and it was tasty, definitely warmed me through. We stood by a fire while drinking this and taking amongst each other until the leaders were gathered together for a short meeting to brief us on the camp.

During this meeting I met a few leaders who I had previously met at Klondike, so it was nice to see the again. Afterwards we all went back to our troops to find havoc had broken out … one troop, we don’t know who, had been throwing wet toilet paper around the field … lovely. So we calmed our guys down and got them to bed. Quiet time was from 11pm, but who is ever quiet at quiet time on camp?

I slept pretty roughly that night; I was warm (apart from my nose and toes) but just couldn’t get comfortable. I’m sure I saw most hours go by, interspersed with the odd nap. By the time my alarm cock wet off at 7 the next morning I was bored of lying in bed, so got up straight away. We had until 9.45 to get breakfast and get them ready for the opening horseshoe … but they still weren’t. We missed the opening and the four Scouts who were doing the washing up did such a bad job that they missed the first activity of pioneering because they had to do the dishes again … and again, until they got it right.

Stuart and I took the rest of the Scouts to the first activity and watched them build an A frame from logs lashed together and then walk this frame around … it was interesting to watch, but as usual the Scouts were just not listening to each other, so their walking did not look much like walking.

 

Next activity was called Forest Management where the Scouts were given roles to come to a decision about an area of land. Should they harvest the forest, conserve it or make it into a recreational area. I must say they came up with some pretty interesting ideas … some Scouts from another group managed to change it so that they would kidnap Obama and another suggestion from them to solve the problem was to genetically mutate everyone into sea turtles … interesting indeed.

The last of the three morning rotations was Forestry Maintenance. This is what they were looking forward to … thinning the pine plantation, by cutting them down. Where they were so close together this wasn’t too bad, as they didn’t fall over completely and needed to be pulled from the thick of leaves above, making it safer for the Scouts.

 

Lunch started at 12.15pm and the Scouts had pizza cooked on the embers of Stuart’s fire (he was so proud of himself for making that) and us leader’s had tuna sandwiches and a home made Caesar salad. It was tasty! Then at 2pm the next lot of activities started.

This time there were four rotations of half hour and they included the pitoun toss and plant a log, log rolling and a pillow fight, two-Scout sawing, and finally lumberjack games such as arm wrestling, leg wrestling, high kick and tug of war. Tiina, Stuart and I ran the lumberjack games over by our site and the Scouts seemed to really enjoy them, we set up small competitions to find a winner of arm and then leg wrestling, then we used a long log and held it up to set up a limbo like high kick tournament. Those Scouts were Kung-Fu throwing themselves at that log to kick it down … and didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned that there was no crash mat to land on. Brave!

 

One of the leaders, Scouter Mike came over to see how the activity was going and mentioned his book, “Working Effectively with Youth and with Youth with Disabilities”, it sounded interesting from what he was saying and should be a very useful resource, so both Tina and I bought a copy to read.

By 4pm Troop time started so that the Scouts could rest a little bit and then start making dinner. They had burgers, while us leaders had Venison Stew. I’ve never had Venison before, but it was very nice. We had a bit of a flour disaster when we tried to thicken it up, but all was saved and it ended up being very successful, for camp food anyways.

After dinner the Scouts had a pancake flipping relay race … this was funny! Each group had to bring down a stove, pan and flipper. The Scouts had used up all their weekend matched by now, just playing about and wasting them, so in order to get some more ,they all had to sing I’m a Little Teapot, with actions in the field. They had to do it three times as one Scout claimed he didn’t know it. After giving them the matches, each of us leaders reminded them to grab the matches to take to the race, but did they? Nope. Once they arrived down there they all looked at each other and asked who had them. So one had to go back and collect them.

The race went well, unfortunately one of our Scouts has a sever gluten allergy so couldn’t run the race. He got a bit upset by this but managed to get through it. At 8pm we all had a campfire where each troop performed skits, songs and cheers. They were new songs to me, so I found that rather interesting. To close the campfire we sung Koom-by-ya before walking over to the mug up while humming the last verse. It was lovely. Mug up this evening was hot chocolate, and tasty hot chocolate at that.

After the hot chocolate, Scouter Mike gathered us all by the fire for stories. His first story wasn’t scary, it wasn’t happy, it had a moral to it. It was pretty sad too, about a boy who through peer pressure did something that in the end meant the doctor couldn’t get to his dying father in time. To make the solemn mood a bit happier, he told another story, perfectly punctuated y the little dog on site who barked in all the right places. This story was about a young boy who was looking after an old mans monster, he had to give the monster steak with salt and pepper on for three days, but the monster escaped on the final day when the boy was getting a bit lapse on his work. The boy was chased all through town by the monster until he caught up with the boy, who was very scared at this point, tapped him on the shoulder and said he forgot to put the pepper on the steak. Stuart said he had heard a similar story before called the It Monster).

Quiet time was again at 11pm, and until then Tiina, Stuart and I were stood outside looking up at the stars. The clouds were bowing aside quite quickly to reveal a beautiful night sky. One of our Scout’s sleeping bags had broken, as the zip came off, so to keep them warm Stuart offered to switch bags for the night as he had clothes that could keep him warm inside the broken bag, where as the Scout didn’t. I lent Stuart my camp blanket as an extra layer in return for some thicker socks to keep my toes warm tonight. Sharing works when you both have something the other could use. So off to bed we all went and hopefully we would sleep better and not feel the cold so much tonight. Night!

Update …

New blog header from the walk in Kingston
Have a lovely weekend!

Day One Hundred and Nineteen: my day of rest before camp

I had a lovely sleep last night! I seem to have it programmed that I wake up at 5am first though, because for some unknown reason I did again. But I fell strait back to sleep and got up about 7.30am.

Had breakfast of eggs and bacon (mmmm) and then once Jonas had gone to school and Brent to work, I set about sorting my stuff for camp. I weighed my case and rucksack out of curiosity and the situation isn’t a disaster. My case is 24kg, so just 1kg overweight and my rucksack is only 18kg, so 5kg underweight. So a lil bit of a re-jig and it’ll be perfect! Yays to me.

After I gathered my camp stuff together including my coat and an extra jumper just incase, I had the most wonderful bath ever! Maybe it was just because I haven’t had a bath for so long (not because I wasn’t washing, but because there was only showers at uni). I used my Sanctuary bath soak that mum sent over for me and relaxed with my book. I was there until the water was cold. So worth it.

Next I helped out by emptying and reloading the dishwasher (no comments mum, I do this at home too hehe) and then made some lunch and my supper for tonight at camp. Yes it is camp this weekend, woooop. I can’t wait.

Other than that I read a book, had a nap and that was it. Before I knew it, it was 4pm and I was nearly off to camp, so will update when I’m back, yays!

CAMP TIME!

Day One Hundred and Eighteen: travelling back

I couldn’t sleep again last night. Even Manuela (the Swiss girl) agreed that those beds are uncomfortable and that you can hear everything going on around the room. So at 8 I was up again and by 8.45 I was checked out and walking to the bus station. Manuela came along as well as she needed to look up times for buses to Calgary tomorrow. Once at the bus station I found out that a bus was leaving at 9.30am, so to save waiting around for an hour I managed to get that one … may mean I’m stuck at Montreal for longer, but it may also mean I can get an earlier bus back to Ottawa.

(bus and train station in Quebec City)

The bus isn’t full, so again I have two seats to myself to spread out and relax and there are even plug sockets again … and a wireless, but I forgot to ask for the passcode, so I just used the time to write my blog instead. Out of all the bus journeys there have only been three where I’ve sat next to someone. On the way back from Toronto when the bus was full to burst and when Alex was over and we went to Montreal. I don’t think that’s too bad, considering I’ve taken … wow, this is my 9^th bus! The one back to Ottawa will be my 10^th and last … wow that’s a lot of time sat on the bus.

Anyways … I’ll update more about the journey later. I’m going to read and maybe sleep now, still got about two hours left of this journey to go … fun.

Update: Well the rest of the journey to Montreal went pretty fast, I spent it playing mah-jongg. Well an hour of it playing mah-jongg … the rest I read my book and tried to get my picture messages to work on my phone again, as they went down for ages. They’re back now thank god.

This second bus was the best one so far. I was again sat on my own, but there was a lovely lady sat in the seat across the aisle from me and we (well she) talked for most of the journey so that passed the time, sometimes the three French (from Paris) guys behind her joined in the conversation, but mainly it was me and Carol (that’s her name). I managed to get a bus that left Montreal at 1pm, so I was in Ottawa very early … about an hour and a half earlier than I planned.

But that was fine, I rang Brent and he was there after 40minutes. I was too busy reading my book, so didn’t even notice. I’m now at Brent’s house and my rooms all set up, Brent even put my duvet covers on the airbed too. And we even managed to get lappy connected to the wireless, so I can still stay in touch with the world! This helps as my phone doesn’t seem to get any signal here, so at least I can send messages through Facebook and have my Skype too.

Anyways off for dinner soon, pork and rice, mmm, beats café food any day! Night!

Day One Hundred and Seventeen: Quebec in a day

What a busy day! I don’t quite know where to start … well I woke up at 5 … then 6 … then 7 … and then finally gave up and got up at 8. By 8.40 I was dressed and heading out the door of the hostel to start my day of walking around the city.

I started off by walking the Chateau Frontenac (very posh hotel) and I even went inside. It was amazing, but a little bit dark so the pictures didn’t reflect the beauty. They were also doing restoration works on the outside of the building so that too wasn’t as nice in places. But after ignoring that it was still impressive. And so huge too! It’s been dominating the Quebec City skyline since 1893 and has 600 rooms to stay in. As I said … huge!

 

My planning could have been better for the next part, but in the end it was fun … and healthier even. I took the Funicular, a cable car type thing, down from the Dufferin Terrace by the Frontenac to Lower Town with lovely views of the St Lawrence River. It was only $1.75 (including taxes). Once at the bottom the station is in a building called the Maison Louis-Joliet. This house was built for Louis Joliet in 1683 who discovered the Mississippi River and was the first Quebec born Canadian to enter the history books.

 

At the bottom I walked around the Petit Champlain, which has steps at one end called Escalier Casse-Cou or Breakneck Stairs (which I did go up eventually). This narrow walkway is the oldest part of the town, as French artisans lived in houses on this site as far back as the 1680s, after that Irish dockworkers lived there in the 19^th century. However, by the 20^th century the houses were falling into disrepair and were converted into a row of 50 shops and restaurants. At the end of the street was a beautiful mural painted on the side of a restaurant that depicted the area’s history. They do like painting on buildings here, but they look so pretty, so it’s a good idea.

 

Whilst walking back through the street I met a couple from Ontario who were on their honeymoon. They were wondering what the Funicular was for and didn’t realise that people could ride up and down the hill in it … they thought it was for transporting heavy objects up the hill easier.

Next was the walk back up to the Dufferin Terrace … which was all up steep hills. It was tougher than taking the Funicular back to the top, but the walk was enjoyable, if a little tough on the legs. The views from the Dufferin Terrace (built in 1838) were lovely. I could see along the river and across to the other side too. At the end of the Terrace was the Promenade des Gouverneurs, which included 310 steps and a pathway, passed the Citadel to the Plains of Abraham.

 

By this time the sun was out and I was losing my jackets as I went … that walk was warm. But I made it and wasn’t really tired … there were plenty of space just to walk in between all the steps and give my legs a break from all the up hill work. At the end of the walk was the Plains of Abraham or Battlefields Park. This is where the battle that decided Canada’s future took place in 1759, when British Regulars under General Wolfe defeated the French army. In 1908 the 250acre site was transformed into one of the largest urban parks in North America and the guidebook for Quebec compares it to Hyde Park in London because it is a little bit of fresh air in the middle of a city.

I didn’t walk all around the Plains as I had a lot more of the city to see, but I did walk between them and the Citadel towards the Parliament buildings for Quebec. It was here that I realised my days plans did not last me the whole day … it was only 11am. So I made some quick rethinks with a look at the map and decided to walk around the city’s fortifications by following the wall. I saw loads this way and really feel that I saw the whole city. I walked though Port Saint Louis to the Esplanade (an area of land between the Citadel and the houses of the city to offer further protection) and then climbed up onto the wall, walking over Port Kent and then back down to the ground to walk through Port Saint Jean. 

Here I did a little detour as I noticed a theatre with the Les Mis symbol outside … getting excited as I love that musical I wandered inside … but it doesn’t start until 17 June … so I was a little early. Back to my self guided tour … next was the Artillery Park which has seen two and a half centuries of history since it was considered a strategic point to defend the city from in the 17^th Century.

 My walk then continued along the wall looking at lots of cannons and even seeing a Carleton Street to Rue Des Remparts that overlooked Vieux Port, a more industrial area of the city, which centred primarily on the docklands. The road then turned into a road named Port Dauphin which led to the Notre Dame du Quebec.

 

There has been a church on this site as far back as 1640, but fire destroyed the first two, the third was then torn down by us Brits in 1759 (no reason is given in the guidebook …) and then the fourth also burnt to the ground. The current cathedral was built in the style of the church in 1647 but with modern materials such as concrete and steel. Inside it was glorious. Not quite as amazing as the Basilica in Montreal, but still impressive. Each year 1.5 million pilgrims come to pray at the shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupre … so it must be impressive.

This unfortunately was the end of my walk … it was only 1.30pm … so I sat in the sun outside the Tourist Information Office looking through the guide book to decide what to do for dinner later, as I wanted to treat myself and eat out. I didn’t last night so I could tonight. I found an advert for an Irish Pub called St Patrick not too far from the hostel and decided that would be the place.

So I headed back to the hostel to cook some of my 33cent noodles I got at the supermarket last night, and for 33cent they were tasty! I then wandered down to St Patrick’s pub to sit out on the terrace in the sun and read my book, while giving my foot a rest. I managed to bruise it walking in Kingston, so it’s been playing up a little bit since. Sitting on that terrace was lovely! There were loads of school groups walking around the town, but that didn’t stop me relaxing. I ordered on OJ and sat back to read. By 4pm it was getting a little too windy to sit out there comfortably, so I paid for my drink and went back to the hostel.

After a shower … that was way to powerful! I walked around the hostel reading about its history and more about the area. I then sat down and read more of my book. It’s getting really good! At 8pm I walked back down to the pub for dinner. I was so hungry by this point that I had a starter of Bruschetta and then a main of Beef Cannelloni, as well as two glasses of wine. In between the courses and afterwards while dinner settled, I relaxed with my book (I really do read everywhere …). Then by 9.45pm I was heading back to the hostel ready for bed.

It was a lovely day and I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Quebec City. Unfortunately my bus leaves tomorrow at 10.30 so I won’t have time to do anything before hand, not that there’s anything else I really wanted to do. Night!

Day One Hundred and Sixteen Part Two: the city

 

I arrived in Quebec City at 3.15pm and it was pretty confusing. Everyone speaks French here … not surprising really. A girl from the bus, called Manuela from Switzerland doesn’t speak much French either so together we found a map of where to go and shared a cab to the hostel (we were going to the same one), it was $5 each so not too bad.

 

At the hostel we checked in, I’m not a HI (hostelling international) member so had to pay a little bit extra per night. Nevermind. After I put my stuff in my room and locked lappy away in the locker I went for a little walk, the street by street map in my Canada book to be precise. Manuela came with me too; she’s been travelling across Canada for five months after spending a month learning English (she speaks a form of German in Switzerland).

 

On our walk we went to the bank to get some money and then back across the town to the older part. We saw the old town wall:

 

Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral (“an 1804 stone neo-classical façade conceals an English oak interior”):

 

 

Maison Chevalier (“built for an 18^th century merchant), Basilique Notre-Dame-de-Quebec (a cathedral built in 1647 which has relics from early French rule in Canada), Place Royale (a gorgeous square reflecting what the area used to be like in the 18^th and 19^th century):

 

 

The walk was very … hilly. This city sure is built on hills! It makes it look beautiful but … ouchies on the legs. We found a small supermarket where we grabbed some food for dinner, just some noodles and carrots, mmm, and then went back to the hostel to cook them. It’s now 8pm and I’m already feeling tired. My plan was to walk about the city for a lot longer tonight but I’m pretty tired so I think I’ll potter about here, go online and talk to people. Then tomorrow night I’ll walk about later and find some nice places to visit, as I’ll be leaving Thursday morning. So night!

 

P.S look at the tiny and cute buses!

 

 

 

Day One Hundred and Sixteen Part One: leaving res and travelling to Quebec

 

Well last night wasn’t quite what I had expected … we finally left around 11pm, when we wanted to be there for just after 9pm … well they can’t break a habit of a lifetime can they? Anyways the pub itself was lovely. A little place called Quinn’s on Bank Street, it was only a short walk from the uni and not a bad atmosphere either. Steph, Hester and I sat down at a table as the others were kind of making a circle … until they closed the circle, shutting us out along with Sam and Nathan. So we chatted to them for the night while slowly drinking one drink each (for me that was a pint of Strongbow) and heard the others getting progressively drunk as they drank drink after drink … don’t they want a relaxing evening at all? … Well I did. So I enjoyed it. When Hester and Steph left, I stayed. Looking back, I wish I had left early too.

 

The girls were too giggly, talking about “fit guys”… not my sort of conversation, and by this point I was the only girl in the group of guys, so the conversation got a little harder o to follow. I could handle the top gear conversation, but further than that … I was lost! Must have been just after 12.30 that we left (I didn’t look at the time) and then we started the walk back after Katie stopped off for poutine from the chip wagon.

 

 

The walk back was nice, ambling along listening to all the chatter. At campus we took some pictures by the Carleton sign and then went over to Leeds house, but then the rest of them started talking about going for a smoke at the canal. Well I’ve never participated in these little sessions they have all term so I wasn’t about to start now. So I said my goodbyes and walked back to my room.

 

It looked weirdly bare in my room … but I climbed into bed about 1.30. At 7.45am my alarm clock woke me … but it wasn’t the first thing. Although I didn’t hear Katie and Heather come in, I did hear every bus and train from about 5 onwards … it was so annoying, but I refused to get up before my alarm went off. When it did, I loaded lappy to check my mail one last time in res … gathered my gear together, had some breakfast and then called the checkout line. It was 8.20 by this time and I was told it could take up to 45 minutes for someone to arrive to check my room. I didn’t really have 45 minutes as I wanted to pop to Tim Hortons in Res Commons and use up my dining dollars (I have $14 left and they can’t be transferred) before getting to the bus stop for 9ish.

 

Luckily by telling them I had a bus to catch the process was sped up and by 8.35 I was being checked out. In the 15 minutes I was waiting I woke Heather to say that I’d see her in England (she had asked me to). The check out was easy. I’d cleaned the bathroom yesterday but as Heather was still using it the lady just wrote that suitemates were still around. The kitchen was a tip as it had Katie’s half packed stuff everywhere, but again, the paper just says suitemates still there. My room had no troubles and less than 5 minutes later I was locked outside my room never to see it again.

 

Katie popped her head out her door as the check out lady was leaving and said she’d see me in England. I then received a hug from them both and went down to Tim Hortons where I was meeting Steph to say goodbye (or see you soon). I felt like a pig with my order though … I got 6 cookies, 20 timbits, a cream cheese bagel and a bottle of water. The bagel was for the journey, the water was too. The others … I’ll snack on, but most likely share round at the hostel. It’s one way to meet people. I used $12 out of my $14 but the rest of the money is wiped now and for just over a pound equivalent I’m not worried.

 

As it was raining so hard and I had given my coat to Brent last night, I grabbed a coat off the student chuck out pile (my little one would have held up, but better safe than sorry). It was a nice black parker style one (Primark too!). It’s not as thick as the one I have, but still warm so it’s perfect.

 

The bus came at 9.18 so I was at the Greyhound station with plenty of time before my 10am departure. The bus was so comfy! The seats were a bright blue with little silhouettes of greyhounds on them. I used my newly borrowed coat as a pillow and curled up to read my book … pretty soon I was asleep. I woke up at midday (my stomach really knows when lunch is hehe). But the bus was due to arrive in Montreal at 12.20 anyways so there wasn’t long to go.

 

Once in Montreal I found the gate I needed for the next bus to Quebec City and sat down there. I was fourth in the queue. The guy in front of me smiled when I sat on the floor and said something … but it was in French so I didn’t understand. I used my most known phrase in French … ‘Pardon, je parle un petit Français, je suis Anglaise’ and he understood and changed to English, yays! I then kept an eye on his and his wife’s baggage while they went to the canteen and I ate the sandwich in my bag.

 

Unfortunately my next attempt at French wasn’t as … understandable. I understood what the lady said, eventually, just couldn’t remember how to answer and she was not understanding my broken French. She was asking how long it was until the bus left, as it was due to leave at 1, so what time is it now … basically. So I was trying to say that it was half past twelve … I thought ‘mide et demi heure’ was close enough but obviously not. She saw my watch and just decided to look for herself. Well I tried at least.

 

We climbed aboard just before 1pm ready to go. The bus has plugs! So I got back off the bus to get my lappy charger from my bag. Bonus! The seats were leather which wasn’t as comfortable as the nice blue ones on the other bus, but I wasn’t going to sleep on this bus.

 

Instead I wrote some of this blog, played some games on my laptop – Mahjonng, Solitaire, Mineweeper, Bejewlled and Monopoly while listening to all of Avril’s albums (I love Who Knows from album number one! In fact there are not man of her songs I dislike, there are a few, but that’s expected with any artist, you can’t like everything). It really is an essay and a half today! So sorry if you’re really really bored reading all this … I should practise writing more succinctly, but with my two story ideas alongside my journalism I have to be able to write both concisely and longer to get the point across as well. It’s been a fairly busy journey … but also not at all busy at the same time.

 

More later

Day One Hundred and Fifteen: last day in Res

 

Last day of halls … feels weird to be honest. There’s only just over a week left until I’m back home trying to get back to normal life. I got up and went to the café this morning, have 9 meals to use in 2 days, impossible as there are only 5 meal spaces left, but might as well use as many as I can.

 

So I wandered over in the sun (it’s lovely out there today!) and had a fruit scone and a bowl of pears. There wasn’t much else to choose from, but at least they were tasty. I was the only person eating in there, the rest were all workers … so that was a little weird!

 

My time was spent working on finishing packing today! Most of it was done, but needed to complete it all ready for Brent to collect this evening. He’s letting me keep it all at his house until I go there after camp (plus the Friday before camp too).

 

(not all going home with me …)

 

It wasn’t too bad. I have less stuff than the girls, Katie is having serious problems packing all hers up, but … still tough. I chucked some bits out. I gave some bits away. The tops I got free here (no point in keeping them really) and a few of the cheap Primark stuff that I got before I came away, as well as toiletries I have at home and bed sheets/bath towels. I am sure that case *points* is overweight … but it’s all in there at least. I’ll weigh it at Brent’s and make a decision what to do there.

 

Depends how heavy my rucksack is really. If it’s underweight, I’ll rearrange stuff so the heavier bits are in there, if there’s no weight left on either bag … I’ll have a choice … chuck more stuff (which would be an idea as I could replace it with Primark things as and when I need it, but the hoarder part of me doesn’t want to throw things away …) or pay the excess baggage charge … I really don’t know what to do.

 

I heard from a job today too! Thameside Theatre (where I was working before I came away) said that they had only just hired, but will keep me on file for when they next recruit in September. I know it’s a while away and I’ll still have to go through the interview process, but at least it’s something …

 

I had a great late morning/lunchtime, I went for a walk around campus with Katie and Heather. It’s weird as we all went on a walk when it was -30 degrees and today its +30degrees … so different! We took pictures outside the Prescott sign after sitting by the river and the newly filled up canal. It looks so different with water in! I then went for lunch with Steph, we grabbed a bagel from Tim Hortons and sat by the river where it was at least nice and breezy.

 

(Rideau Canal all filled with water!)

 

(Ottawa River … all sunny!)

 

The rest of the afternoon was mainly spent relaxing … I had a shower as I’m leaving my towels with my luggage at Brent’s and using the ones at the hostel in Quebec … then I was asked by Katie how I managed to get everything into my 2 bags, as she’s sending so much back and leaving bags with friends here to pick up in June. I dunno how I did it … as I said earlier, I know it’s overweight, but we’ll have to see.

 

Other than that … I spoke to mum and Alex, pottered about online and generally relaxed … but not very well. Unless I’m really tired, I find it hard to keep still for too long. Until 7pm when Brent popped by to gather my gear. It wasn’t too much stuff … but it was enough that I had Heather and Katie’s help to get the lil bits down to the car. They went off to dinner while I waited for Brent to arrive.

 

Once I’d helped get the stuff in the car I also went for dinner … it was dead. Well not dead, as most of our group were there, but it was pretty empty and not much to choose from. I had pasta in the end, it wasn’t great, but it’ll do. And then I had pineapples and cookies for dessert. Tasty! On the way out of the café I said to Steph that this will be the last time I touch these doors … done! Finished! No more café dinners! Wooooohooo!

 

Back in my room now and it’s scary how empty it is … it even echoes! We’re off to a pub called Quinns tonight, apparently it’s at Bank and Sunnyside so not too far to go. So I’ll let you know how that goes tomorrow. Night! (night night – that’s the echo!)

Day One Hundred and Fourteen: bikes and art

 

I woke up at 7.30am!? Why?! I don’t know … so I decided to be ultra efficient and get all my washing/dishes done so I can finish packing later/tomorrow. Look at me, being all good.

 

At 10am Brent picked me up to go over their house for breakfast before a bike ride, the weather wasn’t as nice as yesterday, but it was cool without being too cold, which I thought was perfect.

 

Breakfast was delicious … pancakes, fruit, bacon, maple syrup … mmmm tasty! We set off on the bike ride just after 11am; I borrowed a Danish bike … which had a different braking system to my bike. On this bike you had to start pedalling backwards (literally just push the pedals backwards) to brake. It was so strange, but I got used to it … except at points when I forgot and went to stand up to avoid being seated on bumpy roads and had accidently moved the pedals back, thus stopping me. It was a lovely ride though. We went along the canal to Mooney’s Bay (a beach just past Hog’s Back Falls) and then back through some lovely park areas.

 

Jonas beat us back, but we weren’t far being finishing around 12.30. We had a bagel before Brent dropped me off at the Art Gallery in town where I was meeting Steph. She had tried to go last week but found it closed, so as I wanted to go as well, we decided to go together. She was the perfect person to go with, she knows so much about art and the history surrounding some of the works, that it was really fun. Unfortunately you cannot take pictures, so I have none to put in the blog, but it was fun.

 

We finished around 3.30 and popped back to uni to say bye to a few others who were leaving before I rang Brent to go back over there for dinner and more Dead Like Me’s (that series is really good!). Not too late a night tonight though, as I woke up so early for no reason I’m feeling pretty tired, so off to bed with me! Night!

Day One Hundred and Thirteen: bye byes

 

I had trouble waking up to my 8am alarm clock today, I ached so much from the long walk yesterday. But I woke up and had a shower before getting ready to start our last day in Kingston. We left the hostel just after 9am as today we had planned to get the free shuttle ferry over to Wolfe Island. The ferry left at 9.30am and was only half an hour long and took us to Maysville … the smallest town on earth!

 

 

(Steph and me on the boat)

 

We walked along the coast for a while and then realised it was going no where so we turned back … after seeing a sign for a quilting show we decided to go take a peak and saw a church hall covered in over 200 quilts spanning back over quite a few decades.

 

 

Unfortunately we had planned to get the midday ferry back … but we couldn’t find anything else to do so we left on the 11am one and was back in Kingston for a nice early lunch and a wander through the shops on Princess Street before checking out of the hostel.

 

The two ladies who run the hostel were not there when we needed to check out, so we left a note thanking them for the stay and put the keys on a table for them. The hostel really was a lovely place, nice and homely, especially with the friendly cats.

 

(Our lovely hostel – Skweeks)

 

We rang for a cab and arrived at the Bus Station about 40 minutes before our bus was due to leave, so good timing. The cab driver even asked if I was Australian … apparently my accent has a twang. The bus journey didn’t seem as bumpy as on the way there, but the two and a half hours still felt as long, especially getting stuck in traffic on the way back.

 

Finally we arrived back in Ottawa and waited for a bus back to campus, getting back just before 5pm, not bad at all. By 7pm I had unpacked and got changed ready to go out for dinner as a lot of the international lot are leaving tomorrow. We planned on having dinner at 7pm at The Works down Bank Street (gourmet burger bar) … but no … we finally left at 7.30pm (half of us got a lift with Danger’s friend as he has a truck) and because there were 16 of us we had to wait for a table. After 40 minutes they sat 10 and then 15 minutes later they called us last six across. The burgers then took ages to cook, so we didn’t actually eat until gone 9pm, I was so hungry! But my burger was delicious. It was called Five Fine Herbs and was just that, five fine herbs on a burger with cheese, simple and tasty.

 

On the way back … we managed to fit 10 people in this guys truck … one in the driver seat (obviously), 2 in the front passenger seat, 5 on the back seat (including me) and 2 in the box at the back (those two got soaked from the rain water collected in the little thunderstorm earlier). It was rather funny, but meant none of us had to wait for a bus.

 

Once at campus we went and said goodbye to those who had left the meal early to pack (Rob’s getting a midnight bus to Toronto and several are leaving in the morning). Most of the girls were still planning on going out clubbing, even though it was 11.30pm by the time we even got back to our rooms for them to get changed. I’m not going to go as I’m feeling very tired from my little adventure to Kingston and am now going cycling in the morning … weather permitting. Can’t wait! Night.