Quebec In Words...

I am not sure what happened to all my Quebec photos but I can't seem to find many of them at all, (UPDATED PHOTOS FOUND AND PLACED AT THE END!) though I didn't take many I took more than I now have in my iphoto library. It's very suspicious.....  If I find them I will post them, but in the meantime I want to get my blog and you folks updated.

After Ottawa I went to Montreal and got to stay with my friends Emily and her brother Alex. It was wonderful to stay with them a couple nights and have a home base for a while. I got to explore the town more thoroughly that way. Montreal the town itself was beautiful. It felt almost as if I was in Europe with the duplexes that were made of brick with small patios out front and colourful or artistic walls.

My favourite part was the plateau area where it is easy to walk around to all the different shops and parks. This is were I found the famous French food I had heard about and the trendy shops full of great clothes and arts. Alex and I walked down to La Fontaine Park where there were many picnickers and live shows for kids and live music. This whole area was my favourite part of Quebec. It felt relaxed, fun and full of life. This unfortunately is a contradiction of how I felt during the rest of Quebec. I was nervous just from the start because I don't speak french and can read it only so-so. I also felt nervous because I have heard stories of how awful it can be in Quebec for English people because of the stories about how anti-english they can be. I apologized for my lacking skills at every turn to people I met. They all seemed very kind for the most part, but I did get the taste of those stories on my first night in Quebec when a very angry man followed my friend and I as we walked to a local restaurant. He yelled at us to leave Quebec since we didn't speak French (which she did but we were speaking English at the time). Unfortunately I let me own fear hinder my enjoyment of Quebec and I was always on guard and felt very insecure about exploring incase I ran into another person like that and got myself into trouble. He wasn't the only one who treated me differently in an unkind way but there were just as any people who were nice to me too. It's funny how we remember the bad more than the good. I also explored the down town area by the water where the streets were for pedestrians only and the boats came and went. I ate down here but it was terrible tourist food that was mostly just burgers and fries (I ordered crepes but they were worse than my own!). The down town area was definitely over rated and over touristy. I also hiked up Mount Royal and tried the local bagels all of which was fun and delicious in that order!! I enjoyed Montreal quite a bit and visited a few other friends for Collage and High School. I got to eat a yummy breakfast with a theatre friend Sabrina and her two girls then had coffee later that day with my High School friend Sophia. It seems that Montreal, if not all of Quebec, is very good food oriented. I loved every moment of it!

The one thing that was really stressful was the driving, the laws are different here (no turning right on a red) and the lights are in different places than I am used to, but most of all the drivers are crazy aggressive. It took time to acclimatize to the ways of the road, but I did eventually figure it out and relax at the wheel.

Unfortunately it rained both times that I passed through Quebec City. And I don't mean a victoria sprinkle, I mean thunderstorms, wind and torrential rain so I didn't really get to explore it much except for a drive through which only made me want to come back one day to enjoy the Lower Town, despite my anxiety over my inability to speak French.

Once I passed through Quebec I was in New Brunswick which surprised me. I spent more time then I thought I would there, but that is for another post.....

Down near the Old Port

Super Touristy spot where food is terrible

So the sign on the second floor says a louer but it looks like it says a lover so I always did a double take every time I saw the sign :)

Notre Dame

The park I was talking about earlier 

Quebec City, though you can't tell that I was actually in the middle of a wind and rain storm at the time. 

Quebec City

This is in the upper area of Quebec city where the old Fort was.