Montreal and Ottawa
Saturday May 26, 2018
Last weekend was Victoria Day Weekend, which is approximately equivalent to Queen's Birthday in New Zealand. I went roadtripping with my badminton crew to Montreal for one night, and Ottawa for the second night!
I was a bit surprised when I found out the trip to Montreal would take 6 hours. It's around 540km away, which means it's only 100km less than the Auckland - Wellington distance. It was cloudy and a bit wet in some places, but we made it there around 5pm, having stopping at various service centres along the way. I was also missing Community Day for Pokemon Go, which featured Charmander, but thankfully Brian was willing to play my account for me. We had dinner at an all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant, then wandered around the old part of Montreal for a while. The last time I was there was in February 2017, and it was bloody cold, so it was nice to walk around without my face hurting.
In the morning, we walked around Parc des Rapides, named after the rapids of the St Lawrence River passing by. The park is a bird sanctuary, and we managed to spot a few of the great blue herons nesting on some logs in the calmer part of the water. After another all-you-can-eat buffet, we went to Ottawa for the tulip festival. By that time, the sun was out in full glory. We parked over by Dows Lake, and I opted to kayak around the lake with Rohit, while the others shared a canoe. After being on the water, we walked around the tulip gardens until dusk, and settled in for dinner by the lakeside. After it got dark, we enjoyed a pretty sweet fireworks display over the water!
On Monday, we had our third all-you-can-eat meal before exploring the Parliament buildings and then crossing the river to Gatineau, where we did a two hour hike in Gatineau Park. Despite the dozens of flies and bugs swarming our heads, we made it out without any bear sightings and started our drive back to Toronto, finally arriving close to 11pm. What a weekend!
With spring in full force, my social calendar has been filling up. I visited High Park for the white cherry blossoms, and Trinity Bellwoods for the pink cherry blossoms. I watched Eurovision at Pauper's Pub with Marc. I shared 50lbs of lobster with my workmates (it was so good). Things are definitely becoming more exciting as we head into summer!
Posted by Jeremy at 4:09am on Saturday May 26, 2018 :: 0 comments :: 