When my brother travelled across Canada, he managed to fall in love on the bus, as documented in the lovely Elodie (I’ll stick a link in here somepoint!) so I was alert to the possibilities of high romance on the road to Montreal. Unfortunately no-one caught my eye, so I had to look out of the window instead.
I think I decided that I wasn’t going to stay in Canada on the road to Niagara, an ugly highway decorated by strip malls, it just made me think that this is not how a country should be. By contrast, heading north there was more snow, more trees, the occasional frozen lake and it was all very scenic. Add a hill or two and it would have been beautiful.
Another example of the divided by a common language thing, we passed a sign for Tippers Family Campground. At least I assume it was, maybe the families are all having their picnics amongst burnt out cars and rusting fridges.
Got stuck for a while at Ottawa bus station waiting for my connection. Apparently someone had cleaned the engine, the water had then frozen and put the engine out of action. I guess public transport has problems the world over, but this seemed a properly Canadian reason. After we left Ottawa for Montreal it got dark so I couldn’t see any more of the scenery from there on. I’ll assume it was all lovely.
Got to Montreal and the hostel about 8ish and was soon drinking with some of the other guests there, culminating in heading out to Igloofest. I didn’t see much evidence of igloos, but there was some very impressive ice sculpture’s. But it was really just a big outdoor disco. Given the temperature was about -15, dancing to keep warm was pretty much compulsory, and having to wear about seven layers had the added benefit of masking my terrible dancing at least to a certain extent. It was a really good night, and today has been mainly recuperation. Looking forward to heading out tomorrow to see the city.
So much beauty out there 