Quebec City (Thurday, Fri, Sat leave Sun)

We arived in Quebec in the afternoon of thurday the 4th, on the train. We didnt get seated next to eachother on this train, and I was moved about three times before they could find me a free seat! A nice train ride through the country though. It was nice to be reaching a hotel rather than a hostel for once, as the bellman greated us and opened the doors for us and there were elevators to reach your rooms! The last places we have stayed in Canada were up at least 3 flights of stairs, which of course we had to get all of our luggage up (and back down, which is not as easy as it sounds).

The hotel is lovely and this time I get the double bed! There is a pool, gym, sauna and outdoor spa. The winter carnival activities are about a 2 minute walk down the road (we couldnt be in a better spot) and one of the roads the hotel is on is a hot sport for resuarants and bars. woo! So you can almost forget how feazing it is here!

We have met up with Steph and Alices parents, Wendy and Nigel who are so kindly going to let us stay at their house for most of a week when we leave for New Brunswick. They arrived on Friday night, and so all saturday we spent exploring the carnival and the city. The carnival includes all sorts of activities and located all around the city, however the man area is the place up the road. It has ice scupltures and carvings, tubing, sleigh rides and other activities. There is also this giant ice castle across from the grounds which you can walk through and gets all lit up at night. Tonight we are heading to a parade, held for the winter carnival. Its about a half hours drive out of the city and its going to be cold.

So freazing watching the parade! The vibe is cool though, as every body dances and sings to keep warm, so nearly everyone is involved in some way. When we got back, Steph and I had an outdoor spa. Such a refreshing thing to do when it is negative degrees outside, and all the other people are wearing beanies! Off to new brusnwick early in the morning, au revoir Quebec!

xxx

Montreal (tues, wed, thurs)

Caught a train ride to Montreal, from Toronto on Tuesday, which is part of French Canada. The start of out stay here was tarnished slightly by a not so lovely taxi ride (the gentleman decided to take us half way round the city, proclaiming he didnt know where we needed to go, when we finially got there he says oh! Saint piErre! However we had written the address down for him to over come any language barriers...).

The Hostel here is great! Its an alternative hostel, there is no TV and everyone is encouraged to cook healthy meals and drink nice tea! The communial kitchen is lovely, but our room is sweet as well. I dont know how but Steph got the double bed! We are staying in Old Montreal, which is just beautiful. All the buildings have so much old character and its so nice to go walking down them, as their all covered in snow.

We were able to explore the city on foot quite well above ground, but below ground there is a network of underground malls and shops connected to the subways. This was obviously easier to reach by the underground! It was insane how much shopping you could do underground, and how dissorientated this made you when you finally reached ground level.

Had to leave pretty early on Thursday, but Steph and Al mannaged to fit in an iceskating trip! (I was uploading blogs). Then off to our next stop: Quebec City!

Toronto (sat, sun, mon)

We made it to Toronto! And its freezing!! It was sitting on about minus 12 when we arived and was so dark but only about 6 pm. So all we did was grab some dinner and warm up before heading to bed. We are at the gloabl villiage backpackers, which is quite nice, dispite the hike up the stairs. We have a room to ourselves, which includes Stephs younger sister, Alice. We met up in the Toronto airport and she will be with us untill we leave New Brusnwick.

On sunday we managed to have a walk about town. We visited the CN Tower, which is apparently the tallest building, but i doubt it considering Dubai is breaking every record atm! You get to wlak out over this glass floor though, which is pretty awesome. We then stayed warm by walking around the shops! And then caught the underground to the Royal Ontario Museum. It was huge, we were mesmerised! We didnt get to see it all and we rushed some parts, it was so extensive. They had this amazing geology section, It was stunning. It also included a jewellery display aswell (mostly from the same lady) which included all these amazing vintage peices from Cartier, Bvlgari, Harry Winston etc. So increadible!

On Monday we headed out to Niagara Falls (over an hours bus ride away) with a tour group. It was impressive and the view was lovely, however it would have been nice to be able to ride the 'maid of the mist'. We couldnt because the river was mostly frozen on top, even with the fall still flowing! The mist creates rainbows over the river and the falls themselves are breathtaking up close, but it was too cold to stand around looking at them for very long. The next stop on our tour was Niagara on the Lake, which was this special little town which had tried to preserve its old character. Its situated where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario, hence the name. All the buldings are old and there are no fast food places or neon signs at all. Instead (like all tourist destinations) you will find quiant coffee shops, fudge and lolly shops and authentic souvenir shops. It was such a pretty little town with the snow falling! Our next stop was wine tasting, i didnt even realise it was included in our tour! Best suprise ever! They took us to a winery called 20Bees, also home of the Dan Akroyd wine (who knew!). Apperntly he has a very good taste for wine. 2OBees also makes Canadas famour style of wine: Icewine. The grapes are picked when frozen, which contain far less juice but is more concertrated. The amount used for one bottle of icewine is equivelant to 30 normal bottles! The result is a very sweet desert wine, which we got to sample. The tour was great, with a funny guide and good stops. It was also great to get out and see the Canadian countryside!

Love E, S and A
xxx