Day 10: Canucks Go, I am back.

The flight date has been altered so we are coming back to Vancouver today, for the Canucks playoff final match as well. Good thing is that we get to feel the heat of Canucks match in Vancouver, cuz that’s our team after all, right.

We first went for breakfast at Second Cup, but I gotta say, why the bagels there are so different than the ones in Ottawa. The bagels here taste really bad, it kinda of ruined my good impression about Second Cup, but well, that’s alright. We then went to the bus station to double check if the pass I had was still valid and could get us to the airport.

After making sure everything, we sort of took a stroll around the neighborhood, the most special thing is the building looks, no matter the store or the house looks, they are all having these cute ladders, love them. Not spending too much here, we then went back to the hotel and did the final packing, and ready to say goodbye to this not even 1 star hotel, well, maybe 1 star, at least the hotel owner did everything he could to ask us to stay. However, we didn’t see him when we checked out.

Montreal airport is huge, love it, but I didn’t spend too much time to appreciate it either. Time to go back, yeah. We stopped at Winnipeg, Manitoba, that’s kinda cool. Therefore, I have so far been to 5 provinces of Canada. The province of British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, what a great achievement.

7:20pm, hi Vancouver, I am back. I think I still like the weather of BC the best.

Day 9: Québec City

Final tour in Montréal – Québec City. Again, I joined Gray Line company for this tour, due to the different year brochure, we paid more than the price we saw on the brochure. The 1-day tour cost around $120CA with roughly 3 hour drive for one way.The tour we joined this time was with more people, like with no empty seats, and with the visitors from other countries too. The driver is old but still strong, he speaks French and English, but sometimes I had a hard time getting used to his accent and understanding him. However, we got a local docent with a super cute accent when we arrived in Québec City.

He likes to pronounced the words separately, something like: na-vi-ga-’tion, and put lots of emphasis on the last syllable. It’s super cute. We all loved our docent, this guy.

And, the Québec City, it’s fantastic. You wouldn’t feel like you were in the North American country, you would feel like that you were in the Europe, serious, you would. Moreover, believe me, every single photo you take is cute and pretty.

The docent brought this huge and simple umbrella to obtain our attentions, also to prevent from everyone getting lost. It worked, we could easily see where this guy was. He took us for a simple, quick tour of lower city then we hoped on the bus again to the upper city. People here mostly live in the upper areas, and you can see the life style in this area is more modern, but the housing here…holy cheap.

Then, we were back to the lower area of the city to enjoy our lunch. Due to the fact that the hotel owner booked the tour for us, we didn’t really know what’s included in the package of this tour. I soon realized that the lunch was not included, no…. It would have gone better if it was.

After the lunch, we went for the smell cruise to St. Lawrence River, but the docent was not with us. There was another speaker/host on the cruise, wearing mid-century costume, speaking both fluent French and English. He started with French opening and following by English, but I admired his language skill because he introduced the whole thing in both languages and not even looking any notes.

After the cruise, we had 2 hour free time to do whatever we’d like, taking photos or visiting this cute city. Here are the photos of Québec City…

5pm, time to head back to Montréal. Vancouver, see you tomorrow.

Day 8: Explore Montreal

Even though we are in the French zone, there is no way for me staying at the hotel only. The hotel is quite not comfortable after all too. I am going to explore this city, I believe that I will see the beauty of this city. Montreal, here I am.

Today’s schedule: Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal -> Old Montréal

Ticket Machine

Bought three-day pass, we were heading to our attractions. The pass only cost us around $15CA for three day use, it’s quite a good deal. Then, we had no idea how to get to those places and which stop we should get off. We finally got off at the station called: Champ-de-Mars, and I pronounced it wrong…no big deal, as long as I got off at that station, right?

The interesting thing to explore the city is that you never know what to expect and what will end up. We were lucky to find Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal without making any efforts, why? Cuz I don’t even know how to pronounce this church and I found it by following the signs and people. I have to say…following people is a good way to get to your destination.

Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal

So, here we are, at Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal. It’s quiet, sacred and solemn. Everyone soon felt so peaceful, me included. There is an admission fee, $5CA for visiting Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal, photos are allowed inside the church. There is a also church tour available, you can get to know the church more from the professional docents and don’t worry if you don’t speak French, they speak English for those visitors.

Enjoy the photos.

And the photos of street looks outside Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal.

Starbucks time again, even the connecting wifi site of Starbucks is in French too, of course. I was glad that I only needed to clicked the box to get connected.

Next, it’s Old Montréal. It’s located not far from the church so you can take a stroll to there. Old Montréal is an exceptional historic city centre, you will have a unique experience here, I guarantee you. This is a must-visit attraction when you visit Montréal. It’s still preserved the European-style building district. This place alone, you can take tons of photos. Spending your afternoon here is a great option with hassle free. Get yourself to visit the souvenir stores too.

Photo time:

Old Montréal

Old Montréal

Went back to the hotel to take a rest and contact travel agent to change the flight. It’s hockey playoff final, didn’t want to miss the game and the final match. Then, we decided to come back to Vancouver earlier to watch the game with Vancouverites. So we took time to visit the one of the best universities in Canada, McGrill. At this moment, it started to rain…like cats and dogs, what the hell? Alright, it didn’t matter much as long as I got to see the university. It deserves to be called one of the best, why? cuz the people here possess very unique and excellent temperament, nothing can compare.

Still raining, bought Thai Express for dinner, we headed back to the hotel and watched the hockey game through this old fashion tv set. One more day in Montréal…

Day 7: French Zone, Montreal

I was a bit not comfortable with the next destination – Montreal because I know it would a lot different than any other cities. Yes, we are heading to Montreal today. It’s approximately three hours from Ottawa to Montreal. On the way to Montreal, I could tell that we were getting into the province of Quebec by seeing the French signs and Quebec driving license plates.

Since we were not willing to share the bathroom with other four female strangers in the hostels we changed our accommodations to the hotel when in Montreal, and because of the budget and kinda last minute, we didn’t have many choices and ended up staying in the kinda 50s, 60s-ish lodge with weird pattern bed sheets and curtains and smelly washroom and room. I kinda expected that but still in shock when I actually saw it myself.

And, you hardly see English or hear people speak English on the street. That’s the second shock. Apparently, someone didn’t like it and kept asking me to go back earlier. This was not what I’d planed it so I felt pissed. Only the first day in Montreal and wanted me to changed the flight date, seriously?

We still had to get out of the hotel and go out to see the street and the city although I was a bit freaked out too. But it’s exciting as well, you visit a city, and you go explore the city. I believed that’s the spirit of traveling.

Rue St. Catherine

So, we asked the owner of the hotel about how to get to those attractions I planned. Here is the Rue Saint Catherine-est and this is the Gay Village I supposed. Yeah, saw some homosexual couples walking on this street. Is it the culture different or something, you could see twice as much or even more of them than other places that I’ve been.

Metro Station

UQAM

What’s interesting was that I didn’t know that I was at downtown Montreal already. The buildings here are unique and old, you won’t see anything that you are familiar with, even the brands that you are familiar with, they are in the very old buildings. One more thing that freaked me out was that there was a gunshot on the street today downtown Montreal. A police shot the homeless so the street was blocked by the yellow tapes for the whole day. We saw that on the news via this old TV in the hotel.Still got lots of time and didn’t know where we could go except for Shoppers, it’s really a good companion, how would I stay without it? Heading back to the hotel, I scheduled everything again…and then…nothing to do. Watched what’s on the TV the whole night, browsed Facebook through my phone. Thank god that I bought my phone or the trip could possibly be less fun.

Explore the city tomorrow, good night, I was tired.

Day 6: Little Town – Ottawa

Before leaving the hostel in Toronto, the owner told us that Ottawa is a cute city, a small town, I even responded him: a small town, hum? Now I realised that it’s true, the city is pretty small and I don’t have to spend too much time on searching and transportation. They are all around downtown area, nice for visitors. Even so, I still made the best of the time on this city.

So, the itinerary for today was: Parliament Hills -> Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel -> Byward Market -> Rideau Canal -> Rideau Centre -> Jail Hostel tour

Second Cup

I had a great breakfast at the “Second Cup”. They’ve got this awesome sesame bagel and coffee, I even thought they should change their name of “Second Bagel”, it’s yummy. Maybe that butter helped a lot too, I have to say. With a beautiful day, I felt so easy and carefree this morning, I thought I could spend the whole day at this coffee shop, no kidding. But this is not the reason I was here, so I moved my ass and go take photos and look around the city. Sound better?

According to the Swiss owner of the hotel, today is so-called “Budget Day”, meaning that the government is distributing the budget to all the provinces across Canada, meaning that there would possibly have no free tour in the Parliament Hills. Bingo, I didn’t get to see inside the Parliament, only the outside of the buildings, still nice though, cuz the prime minister, Steven Harper might be in there.

Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel

Rideau Canal

So here are some photos of the Parliament Hills for your pleasure. I like the grass in front of the building best, by the way.

Parliament Hills

Parliament Hills

That beautiful scene with some people reading and enjoying the sunshine reminds me that it’s important to enjoy your life and time sometimes.

RBC ATM

Time to withdrew money again, cash is running out so fast when you travel.

Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel

Due to the heat outside, I decided to get inside the building, trying to get away from the sun for a while after two attractions. Once again, Starbucks is my best friend, same order: Iced passion tea with lemonade, plus a little snack this time. Nice to stay in the cool environment. After a little shopping at the Rideau Centre, I went to Byward Market again. It’s actually a small traditional market, you could see some fruit stands, flower stands, and accessory stands. I bought three boxes of fruit, the vitamins were needed when you traveled. They were:strawberries, peaches, and green grapes.

Thai Express

Then we went back to the hotel with Thai Express dinner, I had to say, they were fantastic with the oyster sauce.

After the dinner, like I said, I used the best of the time in the city so we went to the Jail Hostel to see how it looked like. Thanks to my iPhone, so I was able to find it without any trouble. However, the jail hostel tour had begun 10 minutes ago when we arrived. We would be sorry if there was no more tour so we waited, and waited. Finally we saw the tour guide and he let us in.

Jail Hostel

The jail was quite scary cuz this was real a jail with the prisoners back in 1900s, some were even hanged here. I started to wonder why I spent almost $13CA on this approximately 40-minute tour only. I guess sometimes you would know better if your money is worth it when you see things in person.

Last attraction in Ottawa, done!! Game on, back to the hotel to watch the hockey game. What a coincidence, I happened to have a friend staying in the hostel by the hotel. I invited her to come over and watch the game with us. She started a new job in Ottawa, everything seemed fine except for the after-work life and social issue. I am sure she will be fine, that is a good opportunity for her to grow up and be independent.

Good night, little town.

Day 5: Goodbye Toronto, Hi Ottawa

Time to say goodbye to Toronto and the nice English roommate from the hostel, despite the fact that I still don’t know her name.

Greyhound Station, Toronto

Waiting for the Greyhound coach at the station, I was ready for the next destination but I didn’t expect that many people were also heading to Ottawa. I didn’t make it to the scheduled time bus due to the little episode but luckily I didn’t wait too long until the next bus came.

Greyhound coach information: http://www.greyhound.ca/home/en/TicketsAndTravel/TicketsAndTravelInfo.aspx You would like to check this out: 7, 14 and 21-day Advance Purchase fares, save big. It’s true.

I stayed at Swiss Hotel while in Ottawa for two nights, the hotel was clean and nice. What’s unbelievable was that each room has one iPad and free to use. Yes, it’s true. Also, check this out, each room has…

• Free unlimited wi-fi
• Apple iPad (free to use)
• Swiss Dot duvet cover
• 32″ LCD HD TV
• Rain-drop shower
• Air conditioning
• A non-smoking environment
• Hardwood flooring
• Tea Kettle

Wi-Fi becomes my first consideration when I choose a place to stay, can’t help it. So, it’s nice hotel and the hostess was very nice too. I think she’s from Switzerland. The reception is in the basement so you won’t see stuff working on the ground floor, interesting, eh?

After checking-in, it’s time to explore another new city. I took a walk around the neighborhood and unconsciously we were here, at Byward Market which is part of my schedule for tomorrow.

Byward Market

People lining up for the homemade ice cream

Byward Market

Ottawa is not a really big city, and most of attractions are all walking distance from the hotel, which is nice so that I don’t have spend extra money on transport and stuff.

Hotel information: http://www.swisshotel.ca/ It’s located downtown Ottawa so you don’t have to worry about the convenience and the transport. If you would like to save more money, there is a hostel by the hotel called “Barefoot Hostel”, it’s the same owner as Swiss hotel, and you will asked to check-in at the hotel, not the hostel.

Barefoot Hostel

Day 4: Literary Atmosphere

Today’s schedule was full of literary atmosphere, the itinerary was like this: Casa Loma -> University of Toronto (UT) -> Little Italy

Casa Loma

Casa Loma is one of the famous attractions for tourists, and it’s a must-visit attraction. It’s a middle-century castle and all the original objects are still kept very nicely in this castle. The admission is around $20CA (after tax), you can also purchase “Toronto CityPass” for this attraction. The citypass includes five famous attraction, Casa Loma, CN Tower, Ontario Science Centre, Royal Ontario Museum, and Toronto Zoo for only $58.40CA, plus HST (the tax), you would save 45%. It’s a great deal, but I am not really into the museum and the zoo so I would pass this deal and pay for the admission.

When you enter the castle, you will go to a counter where you can take a walkie-talkie thing with many languages available. You will sometime see the pictures on the little screen while listening the walkie-talkie. You can get to know more about the history of Casa Loma and explore the former estate of Sir Henry Pellatt, a prominent Toronto financier, industrialist and military man. You also press the number of what each room shows you to know about the castle history. I found it quite interesting and inspiring. You can also go watch the documentary of the castle and Sir Henry Pellatt’s life.

After going through each room and the secret tunnel, now it’s time to head to the next stop: The University of Toronto (UT). One couple was doing their wedding photograph in the campus, made the scene even more vivid. If you like the campus atmosphere, you would like the place like here, filled with traditional castle buildings.

Next stop: Little Italy. But it turned out that it’s only a street decorated like Italy, yeah, maybe bunch of Italian immigrants living here. Other than that, I don’t see any special here but I did remember to take a photo to prove that I’ve been here.

One last stop before leaving the city of Toronto: Dundas Square again. Why? Because I forgot to bring my camera’s adopter with me so I had to go buy an adopter for my camera, what an idiot, eh? I know, I blamed myself many time for that.

Goodbye, Toronto. Hi Ottawa.

Day 3: Niagara Falls

I would like to thank the lady who works at Gray Line named Sandy White at Union Station, introduced the valuable package for 1-day Niagara Falls evening tour. It’s a whole day tour with few stops, and the best part of the whole tour was the fireworks by the Niagara Falls at night. This was the beautiful night in my life.

The tour guide, Allen is very knowledgeable, he knows the history, the geography. He even needs to take an exam and update his knowledge to be in this position. He gave us the kindness, the most information about the tour, but I was too exciting to remember it all.

We first stopped at the winery, tried out some white wine and ice wine. I have to say, ice wine is the most delicious wine of all if you like sweet stuff. I personally don’t like the sweet stuff but this ice wine tastes amazing, you feel like you are in the heaven. No wonder they cost that much. After the wine tasting, we appreciated the scenery when the coach was driving by.

Maid of the Mist

The tour guide took us to “Maid of the Mist” boat ride once we arrived the Niagara Falls. Each of us got the raincoat from the stuff to prevent from the mist and the water coming, but you would know that was not really working because you would still get wet.

The boat ride was truly amazing, you gotta experience that yourself once if you have a chance, not just from the travel TV channel. It will be one of the best experience in your lifetime. If you have someone you love beside you, you know what that will turn out. The Canadian falls are spectacular, compared with the American falls. Part of the tour deal was that you got the chance to the highest level of Sheraton Hotel to enjoy buffet dinner valued over $30CA per person and you also get to see both American and Canadian falls, but Canadian falls are way more spectacular.

Buffet Dinner at Sheraton Hotel

After enjoying the dinner, we got some free time to look around the town. Despite of the fact that I have never been to Las Vegas, I can ensure you this small cute down at Niagara Falls is just like you are in the Vegas. Casinos, hotels, amusements, big billboards, candy, chocolate, and ice cream stores are all around the area.

Everyone in this tour was waiting for the fireworks at 10pm. According to the tour guide, people who joined the tour last time expected to see the fireworks by the Niagara Falls but didn’t have the chance to see it due to the short budget. We first enjoyed the night views of the falls and then took a break from a little sightseeing of the town. After the long wait, we were going to find a better spot to see the fireworks. Luckily, the fireworks had not been cancelled and we did see the fireworks. Even though it’s only 5 minute show, but everyone seemed to have a good mood. The beautiful firework show spiced the night even more wonderful. Let’s return to the hostel.

So check out “Gray Line” at the union station, Toronto. Or you can check it out online: http://www.grayline.ca/ They provide various tours cross the nation.

Day 2: Get Familiar with Toronto

The second day in Toronto, I was gonna to explore this city. It’s a very big city with lots of highrises, big shopping malls, the famous financial district: Bay Street, and high-rise condos.

Today’s itinerary: St. Lawrence -> The Distillery District -> CN Tower

Union Station

The face of Toronto is really different from Vancouver. It’s huge, but people are nice. At this point, we were looking for the subway station, we ended up arriving at “Union Station”, where you take VIA trains and transfer to different colour lines of subways.

The public transit system is quite convenient here, I think that’s one of the advantage of being a big city. Skipped the breakfast, we looked around this city mixed with traditional buildings and modern highrises.

Toronto is a green city, I think that’s what the government is trying to do when you are a modern city, trying to be environmentally-friendly. But that’s be honest, you still see tons of single drivers on the street.

St. Lawrence Market

The first stop was going to: “St. Lawrence Market”, it turned out that I felt I was at Granville Island Market in Vancouver, I was hoping something else, but market is market. What do you expect? Then we found “Pizza Pizza”, you can find a giant pizza here with good tastes.

Pizza Pizza

Before going to have an afternoon walk in “The Distillery District”, we needed to make sure that we have energy to go forward.

The Distillery District

The Distillery District is a very unique place, a good place for afternoon stroll. The location is a bit remote, but you can find a super decent bakery store there inside the art gallery building. The macaroons there are one of the best. Trust me.

Macaroons

Next, we walked all the way Queen street to Eaton Centre, and I thought there were different faces of Queen street, just like the west side and the east side of Hasting street in Vancouver. The east side is always full of homeless and drug addicts, maybe some drug dealers. What you have to do is keep going without looking back. That’s the best advice I can get. Trust me, you would like to get out of there asap.

Then we saw the “Yonge-Dundas Square”, a place that many young girls and boys would like, lots of shopping stores. For me, it’s not really my thing now. But Eaton Centre is huge, many stores are sitting there, some of stores that you don’t see in Vancouver. That’s right, I am talking about “Victoria Secret”.

Yonge-Dundas Square (Downtown Toronto)

Yonge-Dundas Square

Eaton Centre

Eaton Centre

After a long walk today, we needed to treat ourselves nicely so we spent some money on subway, let it take us back to the hostel. You have to purchase tickets to take the transit, don’t ever try to sneak since they have staff and the machine to check your tickets.

Subway Station

Transit system information: The Toronto transit Commission, you can take buses and subways by using the same ticket. You can buy a one-day pass to travel between stops. It’s $10 CA per pass, you are also allowed to bring a person with the same pass during the weekends. Or you simply throw $3 CA to a transparent box in front of every ticket window.

Day 1: Arrived in Toronto

The trip to east coast of Canada, I had been planning for so long, my dream has come true this time. I planned to have a Canada’s east coast tour before I head back and hunt a job. I even bought a brand-new camera for this trip, researched lots of information online, spent much time on ticket inquiry back and forth, and stuff, but at the end of the day, you know that’s worth it. So let the journey begin… We first arrived in Toronto. Before heading to Toronto, I purchased the Airport Express from the airport to Downtown Toronto. Keep this in mind that you would receive 10% discount of the fare if you book the ticket online. However, depending on the flexible fare, you would possibly receive different percentage of discount.

It’s called “Toronto Airport Express”. http://www.torontoairportexpress.com/

It’s super comfortable, the bus is equipped with free wifi, outlet, and toilet. This saves you time and trouble from carrying your belonging and luggage. The bus driver would even drop you off close to where you are staying.

Clarence Castle Hostel

I stayed in “Clarence Castle Hostel”, if you don’t want to spend tons of money on accommodation, hostels are definitely the top choice. However, staying with 6 people, with different living styles was not something what I was looking for, waiting for the bathroom, getting bothered by the late sleepers, and early birds, keeping taking own stuff back and forth. It’s not a long-term plan. But I made it.

King Street

It is actually a very convenience neighborhood.Shoppers drug store and the subway station are just within 5-minute walk. There are many decent restaurants or grill bars on Kind street where you can find a place to dine. Tim Hortons and Starbucks are also just around the corner.

Elephant & Castle

Dinner time: we went for a grill bar restaurant called “Elephant & Castle” where you got the chance to watch Vancouver Canucks Hockey Game, it’s playoff final, couldn’t miss it. But somehow, people in Toronto didn’t really care about the game at all, their own team didn’t make it after all so they got less passion about it. But I was glad that the final game 1 and game 2, Vancouver Canucks won.

Chicken Curry Rice

Salmon Penne

After watching the game, now it’s time to go back to the hostel. CN Tower looked very beautiful at nights, it’s located near our hostel so we were able to see it every time we get in and out the hostel.

CN Tower

The first day in Toronto ended, we had a bit chat with the girl from England who’s planning to stay here for 10 days. She’s very nice and helpful but I didn’t even ask her name, that’s a shame. Good night, Toronto.