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To infinity!.. and... beyond... uh.....

a travel blog by haveyouseenmypassport

Ok, so this is the trip that the pre-trip trip was all about, going to Cananda to start with, Vancouver to be precise and seeing what happens from there. At the end of the day we're going to be ending up Melbourne town, but between the 9th of March now and sometime next year, who knows what could happen right?
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Winding up the weeks

Vancouver, Canada

Ok! A busy week of not much this week! It's now Sunday, and while I feel like we've had a really busy time of it, the opposite could not be more true. Starting with Monday, we went and had a game of frisbee at Kits beach. Sarah still throws like a girl, insisting that I have to walk 30 feet to either my left or right to catch the frisbee that she "meant to put over there". I'm pretty sure that I got seven or eight times the exercise she did that day. I have decided that her attempt to kill me this week was clearly by running me on the beach so much that I would go into cardiac arrest. Obviously this did not eventuate. Phew! The feeling of Summer is getting stronger and stronger though, there were heaps of people at the beach on Monday night, so I imagine the weekends are getting pretty chockas down there.

Tuesday and Wednesday we managed to not do anything interesting at all... Well, not that I can remember, so it either wasn't that interesting OR is was so much fun and so interesting that I can't remember. I have a feeling that it is the former.

I was getting serious steak cravings Thursday evening. Once you've gone back to having pub food, you know you're in trouble cause you crave it more and more. I (having no will power or budgetry sense) forced a sit in at Bimini's tap house for a $10 steak. Brilliant! Once again cooked to perfection. I'm pretty sure it was anyways, mine only stayed on the plate for about 30 seconds. As for Friday, well, it was my last day at CLBC. The lovely crew there took me out for lunch to the pub across the road. Now, I had only been there a couple of months, but everyone was so lovely, they made me feel like I had been there for about 10 years! It was awesome! I had a nice burger, plenty of bacon on that one. Finished out the afternoon and said good bye to all the CLBC people. Sad to go, but happy to move on. I think that's probably the best way to put it. I'm really looking forward to getting moving across Canada and leaving work is just one step closer! But I would like to say a big thank you to everyone therefor making me feel so welcome, it was great!

As for the weekend, well, I can't really remember what happened, so it can't have been that interesting. There is no doubt in my mind though, that we had penty of time for beering and relaxing! I know for a fact that we watched "Return of the King" on Sunday, so that took up a good 3.5 hours and there was plenty of domestic work around the house. I even got a little bit out of control and bought a swifer. Yes, I was getting homicidal about the dust. I don't know exactly what it is about our apartment that makes it so dusty, but it sure is annoying when you sweep and 10 seconds later there is more dust. This could be affecting my decision to be a full-time house husband. But probably not.

Hope everyone is well and stuff. Only like 20 more days here in B.C. Probably less, I didn't do the sums.

Cheers

Tom

permalink written by  haveyouseenmypassport on May 13, 2007 from Vancouver, Canada
from the travel blog: To infinity!.. and... beyond... uh.....
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Clambashing?

Sechelt, Canada

Ok, this wasn't really in Sechelt, it was on an Island called "Nelson Island" which is off the West Coast of Vancouver, and between Vancouver Island and Vancouver! Unfortunately Sechelt was the closest that we could get our little Blogabond map! And it's not surprising really, considering that Nelson Island has a full-time population of 0! The thing is this Island has a bunch of holiday homes on it and we were lucky enough to be whisked away by Shannon and John. Hilarity does not ensure, but it was a SWEET trip anyways!

==> Taking a step back for a moment, unfortunately it was a fairly un-eventful week. The highlight was possibly when I got to fill envelopes with bits of paper for the BC Education something or other. The lucky bit was that I was in an office with another temp who was ok with my constant blabbing on about general rubbish and life. So, thanks Heather, I needed to be a motor mouth, just like most days!

Now, back to the most awesome weekend ever. Our preparation was mostly done on Friday night. By most, I mean all of our alcohol shopping. We decided that one bottle of Bacardi and one bottle of J&B was going to be enough for us to get through the 2.5 days away. We were right. But anyways, we packed our bags and watched Teev until really late so that we would sleep. This turned out to be the less wise idea as we were absolutely shattered in the morning when Shannon and John picked us up at 6am. Still, we were so pumped about going to a private island (I was having visions of Skaramanga's lair, but that might just be cause I saw a man with three nipples), and generally having a lot of time off. The drive was nice, the scenery was pretty sweet and I kept on getting into giggle-loops because Shannon and John are pretty hilarious at the best of times. They were telling us all of the Canadian slang for various things, not all of which are blog friendly! So we arrived at the marina and got on Shannon's Dad's boat and headed over the rolling ocean to Skaramanga's lair (for anyone scratching their head right not, that is a James Bond reference: The man with the golden gun. You know, the one with "Nik Nak" the psychotic midget servant). So, we land the boat at Shannon's private jetty

and we're looking straight at the cabin! SWEET! Incidently, the boat that we got there in is parked in the photo, the photo was from when we were out in the dingy, cheating death>>> But more on that later. We were greated by Trudy, and sat sraight down for lunch. I must admit that I was looking for Nik Nak for a good portion of the time. I was however disapppointed as he did not appear. SO, we had plenty of time for doing outdoorsy type things as there is no teev in the cabin. I was a little surprised that I managed alright without it. After about 2 hours I didn't even notice there wasn't one! I have learned a few new card games. Actually, I learned them, but now I forget. Already. God damn you teev.

On this Island, there are a number of lakes for us to visit. We only got around to hiking to one of them, but it was pretty amazing. Just as in previous Canadian forrests, this one also had no smell. So weird. We did find a metal tap in it's natural habitat of the Canadian wilderness.


Smaller lake on Nelson Island
Arriving at the lake we weren't disappointed with the view. This picture simply doesn't explain how pretty it was, but hopefully you get the idea. On the hike back from the lake Sarah cried out in pain, for no apparent reason! Then we discovered she had fallen victim to a Tick! Not the kind that you want on your homework in grade 2, with a big red pen, no the kind that give you LIME DISEASE! We didn't know about the lime disease at first, Shannon's Dad filled us in later. It was a pretty gross insect that was sucking the blood from Sarah's belly region. It was Alright because Dale removed the tick without incident. Apparently the mortality rate for tick victims is quite low. Still, we were pretty impressed. So after that excitement we decided to go boating!

This was when were in the dingy. I'm not a huge dingy fan to be honest, but I'm prepared to give most things a go. So out we headed around the little bays that the Island had. It was amazing, some of the houses that have been built on this Island are just stunning. On cliffs, next to the forest


Purdy boat and water
whatever. It was sweet. Just a few moments before this shot was taken a man went past in a sea kyak/canoe thing. He nodded, although he didn't wave as I think he was too busy holding the rowing sticks. Still, it was nice. Life's better boating as they say here! So while enjoying the scenery and waving to other like minded "boaters" we were unawere of the danger lurking in the water. No, not a shark, not a croc. I'll give you a hint "It's big, it's heavy, it's wood!"... That's right you guessed it. A log.

Killer Log!
We hit this one despite me shouting "LOG". I was later informed that the most appropriate thing to have said would have been "LOG!!!" followed by the direction that the log was in. Thanks to pretty quick thinking on Shannon's behalf and some damn good log spotting by me, we only hit it at a crawl. Sarah's face was rather amusing. Sadly I dind't get a picture of it. Not to worry.

Our next major expedition was prawn hunting the following day. We managed to score a couple of shrimp and one rather large prawn that Sarah and I got to eat. Dale and Shannon told us that some Summers all you can eat is prawns cause you catch so many. Not this time, but not to worry! They were awesome. Tasty little buggers. Kinda cute and innocent looking, while they still had their heads attached anyways.


Prawn hunt with Sarah and Shannon's Dad

The next morning we pretty much cleaned up and went home. We were absolutely shattered from all of the activities and no teev. Thanks you so much to Dale, Shannon, Trudy and John. We had an absolutely sensational time! Seeing something off the tourist track was fantastic! We hope to return the favour to Shannon and John in Aus!


The gang on the Island

permalink written by  haveyouseenmypassport on May 23, 2007 from Sechelt, Canada
from the travel blog: To infinity!.. and... beyond... uh.....
tagged Canada, Vancouver and Prawns
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I'm an Extra Terrairian

Lake Louise, Canada

Well, I've managed to slack off and not keep up the whole one entry per week. Sorry about that, I'm sure you're devastated, but I've been pretty busy you know! Can't just sit around writing blog entries all day. For God's sake! Right, so let's finish off the Vancouver chapter of our story shall we? So I finished up my week and a bit with West Coast Air. I must admit, I did have a rather pleasant time of it. Everyone was lovely and the work wasn't too hard, so it was winners on all sides really. Thursday was the day of cleaning. Megan was to return home on the Saturday, so I wanted to get everything tip top. Did you know that if you accidently inhale oven cleaner, it burns your lungs and throat!? Well it does! I wasn't doing anything other than cleaning the oven with oven cleaner, but none-the-less, it was a fairly unpleasant experience. Friday was more cleaning and generally sad to go from the house, that was until Sarah came home and we went down to the beach for a BBQ with Sarah's mates and their "Smokies". Smokies are kinda like the equivalent to the good ol' Aussie snag from coles. Not much meat in it, but extremely tasty! a few drinks and smokies later and we headed to Simon and Amber's for a drink, then Sarah and I said our goodbyes to many peeps that were good enough to turn up. That wasn't fun. Sad to leave, but happy to move on is the only way that I can put it.

Saturday morning we moved out of our place that we had called home for an all too quick three months and headed back to Amber and Simon's. Looking for something to do, some bright spark came up with the idea of heading to "Wreck" beach. Well, yes, the place is wrecked. That's because of all the nude weirdos there. Don't get me wrong, it's fine for them to be there. I suppose it is a nude beach after all, but it was... unpleasant. Basically there didn't seem to be many naturists there. I'm sure there were some, no doubt. The majority of people however seemed to be off their faces on one substance or another and just looking to get nude. I can now say I have been to a nude beach though. Fortunately, clothing was "optional". We opted to keep our clothes on. After such a disturbing experience I wasn't sure if I was going to cope with all-you-can-eat Japanese and Korean BBQ. But I struggled on! It was AWESOME! Basically for those of you not lucky enough to have experienced it, there is a nice big grill type thing in the middle of your table and you order lots or marinated meats and cook them for yourself. I know what you're thinking, "What kind of idiot pays a restaurant so that they can go and cook their own food?" Well, apparently lot's of idiots. It was SUPER tasty though, so we had fun. Once again there were a few more drinks at Amber and Simons and we turned in for the night.

Our last afternoon in Vancouver couldn't have been more ideal. Sunday arvo, we headed down to a rammed Kits beach for Bocce, picnic and yes, surprise surprise some beers! Brilliant! We lost Bocce, but won the race to the Esky, most of the time actually. Heading to the Grayhound station a bit light headed we were deifitely feeling sad that we were leaving, yet so excited it was time to go and see some stuff! WOO! Grayhound buses, for those of you who are wondering are not exactly... luxurious. They are enough to get from where you are to where you're going, but don't be surprised at the lack of lavatory technology. There is a hole. And it has blue stuff in it that smells bettter than poo, but not better than no blue stuff or poo. Sorry for being so crude, but it was something that I'm probably going to be scarred for life with. It's ok Mum, I'll survive. Right, the 15 or so hour bus trip to Lake Louise wasn't that bad at all actually, we just had a quick snooze and lots of looking at the pretty mountains. Sadly the bus was moving too quickly for piccys.


Nice shiny lake (possibly my best pic ever!)
Here in Lake Louise, the scenery is just stunning. There will be photos added to this blog sooner or later, but the internet and I are having a disagreement at the moment. Nothing serious, just a lovers tiff. Right, so we get here, dump our bags at the hostel and go hiking! Sweet, the trails were pretty nice, well trodden and clear. Getting to the top was easy and walking around lake Louise really was a nice end to the afternoon. Coming back down to the hostel wasn't without it's leg pains, but it was alright. Now, for some reason two people who try to start chainsaws with their sinus cavities checked into our room. Hostelling isn't as great as they would have you believe sometimes. So, if you SNORE like a constpated T-Rex, maybe you should consider other people's mental health and get your own room. Please.


Me and Oreo, we're good buds
Now I've got that out of my system, Tuesday (today) we had a smashing time horse riding. That's it folks, you heard correct. Tom has now ridden a horse. It wasn't without it's challenges. Oreo (my trusty steed) did attempt to go home early at one point and he was having none of my attempts to re-direct him down the way that we were supposed to go. Our guide, Steve, sorted him out good and proper though, so we were back on good terms (me and Oreo). Two and a bit hours of riding later and Oreo got a bit spooked by some other horses coming up behind us. I'm convinced that it was my pure skill and horse whispering abillity that prevented a full blown bolting. Sarah seems to think that it was Steve grabbing him and getting in the way that stopped a bolting. I like my version better. But whatever.


So now it's now and I'm pretty zonked!

Hope all are well!

Tom

permalink written by  haveyouseenmypassport on June 5, 2007 from Lake Louise, Canada
from the travel blog: To infinity!.. and... beyond... uh.....
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Banff, Saskatoon and Emma Lake

Prince Albert, Canada

It would seem that there is a city missing from every Australian map. Perhaps that would be better phrased as “every map of Australia”. Apparently Banff, Alberta, Canada is also a city in Australia. “What?” you say, well it’s like this; after the magic of Lake Louise and the Banff national park, we left early in the morning for Banff. Upon arriving at our hostel, we were… well, I want to say greeted, but that’s not really the case. We were tolerated by the front desk attendant, who was gracious enough to inform us that check-in was not until 3pm (It was 8:30am). We could put our bags in their storage locker. Sorry, by storage locker I mean trash pile behind a broken fence. I wouldn’t have been so offended if it weren’t for the slack mouthed Australian chick pouting so much about doing her job. Ok, fine. It was fine. I calmed down after a bacon and egg McMuffin. It then became apparent that the people who weren’t speaking Australian (yes, that’s Australian) were the tourists, all the people who were speaking Uztray-yun were in fact the locals. The scenery was pretty and we did manage to meet some people who weren’t from Australia, but overall I have to say that I was disappointed with Banff. Certainly not a patch on Lake Louise. I think the skiing and snow boarding is the big thing there, so seeing as we were there during the cross-over between snow and sun, we were probably a bit unlucky with the weather. Not to worry though, we managed to hike a bit too! Sarah was leading me out of town when we came to what looked like a walking track. “Let's see what's down there" said Sarah "Ok" said Tom. So we wandered down this track. I couldn't help but feel like I was being led down the garden path. I can confirm that bears do indeed sh*t in the woods. We didn't catch Yogi pinching one off or anything, but we did find what appeared to be bear poo. It might not have been, but it was fun to say that it was. We did manage to see a deer, but it was scared of Sarah so it ran away. Fair enough really. hehehehee. Only joking. So after a hike up Tunnel Mountain and a few more snap shots, we headed back to the hostel, checked our email and headed for Saskatoon! Only a 15 hour bus ride, pretty short by our standards really.


Rockin' out with Stu
When people told us that Saskatchewan, which is the province that my mate Stu lives in, was flat, I sorta went "yeah yeah, course it is, whatever". Now I realise why they felt it necessary to mention. I don't think we actually made a turn between when we crossed from Alberta to Saskatchewan until we were about 10kms from the bus depot. Stu arrived at 05:30 to pick us up, sporting an Australian flag and chanting Aussie Aussie Aussie! We were most impressed! So not have seen Stu for a couple of years we had to do all of the mandatory catching up and general banter. I'm sure that Sarah was bored out of her mind, not having been present for most of the stories we were reciting. Excellent to catch up. No sooner had we arrived though and we were on our way again with Stu, Amanada and Andrew, Amanda's son.

You know we need a lot of stuff
We need quite a lot of stuff for four days away, and we made sure that we jammed everything into Stu's VW Jetta. Nice little car that one. So the two hour-ish ride to Emma lake was FLAT. I mean not one hill on the way. Sure, over say 20kms we might have gone up or down a foot or two, but really, it is that flat. Upon arriving at Stu's cabin, Stu entertained all of us by squealing when he went into the cabin to clean out the spiders. We were most impressed with his show of courage and stoic resolve to rid the cabin of cobwebs. You'd think with all the travelling that we'd be pretty well relaxed by now. It turns out we weer able to get even more relaxed by spending a few days at the cabin. The most active thing we did was probably canoeing, but it was with a difference. We were towing a dingy behind us with Andrew and Amanda in it for a bit, then we were towin Stu, then they got to tow me! Sounds pretty fair really.

Don't get any ideas Sarah

One of the higlights for me about Emma lake was the opportunity to buy fireworks! Not a brilliant idea after a few cans of lager, no, but we bought a "Dragon's Egg" and set it off. We were completely sober anyways, so it didn't matter. You can tell we hadn't been drinking because the video of the rocket going up has my not drunk maniacal laugh in the background when the rocket goes off! Sweet!

The dock at Emma Lake

After our four days at the lake it was time ot come home. Stu had to go back to work in Saskatoon. Poor bugger. Hat off to him for not calling in sick though, I know I'd be tempted. Especially if there were a few drinks in it for me. We've basically been sitting around and updating blogs/photos/emails for the past day now. Stu has brilliantly let us hog his internet connection, so we're pretty stoked. Next stop is a place called THUNDER bay. Hoping to see some THUNDER there. Then it's Toronto. WOOWOOO!

Hope all are well.

Tom



permalink written by  haveyouseenmypassport on June 13, 2007 from Prince Albert, Canada
from the travel blog: To infinity!.. and... beyond... uh.....
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Jump in the waterfall, it's REALLY safe!

Thunder Bay, Canada

Leaving Saskatoon to go to Thunder Bay was a slightly sad experience. It had been absolutely fantastic to see Stu and hang out for a week or so. Also, meeting Amanda and Andrew was great! Arriving into Thunder Bay after 20 hours on a bus was... Interesting. The cab driver at the Greyhound station insisted that the place we were going did not exist. "Do you wanna stay at the Super 8 motel?" "No, please take us where we asked to go" "Ok, but I'm pretty sure you want the Super 8, Machar St is pretty sleazy" "Please, just take us to this address" "Ok". Right, so we arrive at the hostel, open the door and we're greeted directly by the owner! They must have known that we were pretty important. Lovely lady, more of a converted house than hostel, but the welcome was sensational. So we settle in, decide to go shopping for some food (side note, it's pissing down with rain). So we head out, find the the local supermarket is shut due to lightning strike and power outage. No problem. Head back, get changed for a nice pub dinner, lock the room, asking for a key on our return. We stumbled on why the cabbie told us Machar street was a bit sleazy.

Sleazy Street
About four porno stores, less than a two minute walk away. Sarah was in heaven. They had private "viewing" rooms in them too apparently. I know if I open a porno store, that is going to be in BOLD print on my sign. Sadly the pub was full, so we walked, bought our staples (bacon and eggs) and headed back to the hostel. The nice hostel owner then informed us that she was unable to locate a key for our room. Which was locked. I managed to find the key, un-marked on a coffee table next to the sofa. Weird. So after a pretty hectic/weird day we retired for the evening. Although we were invited to the farmer's market in the morning we didn't go (I thought Sarah would try and sell me to a farmer).

We did however take up the invitation to go to the falls and river with the hostel owner. "You can jump in, it's really safe" was what we were told. The falls however look like this:


Jump in this... yeah... right
and the water was pretty high. Neither Sarah or I were game, although seeing as Sarah hasn't tried to murder me recently, I guess she egged me on a bit. Now, this wasn't exactly the kind of place that everyone gets to visit in Thunder Bay. We had to trespass, lead by the hostel owner and we had to park the mini-van in some out of the way dirt road and put the hazard lights on. So seeing as we'd gone to all that effort, we weren't leaving without someone jumping into the waterfall. Of that much we were fairly certain. Carlos, the awesome Spanish dude we met at the hostel was going to be the one that took up the challenge.

Brave Spanish Carlos
And just to give you some perspective of the size of these falls:

Clever guy
This is one of five locals jumping in to the wash from about 5 meters. Crazy.

Look at my "piece" (not really ;) )
We were lucky enough to get taken to another locals only swimming place by our intrepid hostel owning guide. It was pretty awesome there too, although there were no falls. There was however a nice rocky outcrop to jump off! Brilliant! Another local who happened to be there showed us how to climb up and generally jump off logs etc. Don't worry Mum, I was very careful, and I'm pretty sure my travel insurance covers falling off cliffs that were climbed for the purpose of jumping! It's fine!

Post days excitement, we headed to the Greyhound station and waited for the bus. I think I had the misfortune of eating the worst hotdog on earth. No photos sadly, but trust me, it was horrid. Our all too short time in Thunder bay ended, but the excitement was not over yet. The Police arrive at the bus station, I was worried they'd find out about that key of "H" that Sarah is smuggling for the cartels, but it turned out they were dropping off Big Ted and his accomplice from certain crimes committed in Thunder Bay. The nice policeman wouldn't leave until he saw the crooks get on the Bus with us. This made me a little uneasy at first, but I didn't catch either of them trying to half inch any of my stuff during the bus ride.


Everyone can afford the Greyhound, even Big Ted

On to Toronto

permalink written by  haveyouseenmypassport on June 18, 2007 from Thunder Bay, Canada
from the travel blog: To infinity!.. and... beyond... uh.....
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Yo, ya ma.

Toronto, Canada

If I had to describe Toronto in one word, and one word only... It would be... "better-than-Thunder-Bay". Hyphens make more than one word into one word right? Good, I thought so :) The Greyhound ride to Toronto from Thunder Bay was actually not as harrowing as I thought it might be. Probably because we're getting used to these ridiculously long bus rides. If I had to guess. Still, there were moments when I thought I was going to go troppo. But it never happened.

The hostel we're staying in here is pretty awesome. Not far from the bus station, you walk past the University of Toronto and down the equivalent of perhaps Brunswick St and then you're more or less there. A short walk. It's been hot though, so we were absolutely stinking. Sweet everywhere. Yuck. Not to worry, we got to check in and put away our stuff no hassles. The "Much Music" awards were apparently happening on the main road, outside one of the major Canadian TV stations. As Hilary Duff, Avril Lavigne and myself have all had a falling out over a bagel recently we snubbed them and didn't go to watch the performances, had a bite to eat and generally pottered around.


University Street
The Monday however, we got our act together in the early afternoon and headed out for some sight-seeing. Not before some bacon and eggs, though. Essential sight-seeing food if you ask me. There seem to be a lot of statues around here. To be perfectly honest I got a little bit bored of reading all of the descriptions on them. So I stopped after the first one, but that didn't stop me from taking a ridiculous number of photos. I was surprised to find that me and my trusty steed Oreo had been immortalized in Bronze in the middle of a Canadian city park. We were pretty happy about that though (Oreo and I).

Whoa! Me and Oreo in Bronze
This city is actually really beautiful, and reminded me of Melbourne more than Vancouver ever did. The fact that it reaches as low as -30C on a regular basis during winter would probably convince me otherwise though. Still, we had a pretty sweet time walking around and generally checking out the tourist trail. Of course, we couldn't go to a city without checking out the brewery that was closest to our hostel now could we? The Steam Whistle brewery was only a stone's throw away, so we headed there for a well deserved pilsner and free bottle opener.

Inside Sweet Brewery
This brewery was pretty sweet, they fed us up with free samples, took us around, told us history and generally had a laugh with us. Not a bad craic at all. Lovely hospitality. bit tipsy and full of great ideas we decided to head up the world's tallest building as our very next activity. Of course, I'm talking about the CN tower. This thing is stupid large. I mean, like really stupid. What I found really interesting about the place is that someone actually bothered to drop an egg down the middle of the thing (obviously on the inside) and make it not break. Now, I'm not adverese to the occasional frivolous activity, but seriously... An egg... 300 meters of air... and the ground. "Gee, let's see if we can make it not break!" . I just hope tax payer $$$ was not involved!

Dreaming of falling?
A bit more walking around, taking photos and general pottering and that was our day. Sadly we missed the second brewery tour that we were planning on doing at another of Toronto's local brew houses, but we did pop and see the "Music Garden" that was designed with the help of Yo Yo Ma and some other notable music types. While not overwhelming, it was nice to see some purdy flowers and take some piccys and stuff. Didn't really see how the trees related to the garden, but seeing as I don't have perfect pitch and I can't read the sheet music that was on all the placards, I think I was always going to have trouble with that. After a real espresso coffee, a couple of pints of beer and some poo-tine, we now find ourselves in the hostel, looking forward to our dinner.

Hope everyone is well and having a nice time! Niagra falls and Montreal tomorrow!


Yo Yo Ma's Purple flower

permalink written by  haveyouseenmypassport on June 19, 2007 from Toronto, Canada
from the travel blog: To infinity!.. and... beyond... uh.....
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chirpy birds must die

Montreal, Canada

Well, a very good morning to everyone. It is now about 6:30am, which is a whole hour past when I dragged myself out of bed this morning. I know, it's not the bird's fault that it has to chirp it's happy little chirping. Nor is it the bird's fault that I had a skin full last night and am now hung over, but I would just like for it to stop. For just a few minutes. Not to worry. Montreal has been sensational to say the least! We arrived and instantly booked another night (seeing as we couldn't find 2 days worth of stuff to do at Niagara Falls). Having walked around a bit and done some general meandering, we booked two more nights! Brilliant!

More old Montreal, looking at city hall
So of course, Montreal is in Quebec, and they speak French here. My Quizical looks at the beggars asking me for money in French (either that or making interesting fashion commentry and asking to be paid for their opinions) told them that I was a foreigner, so they had to start the whole story again in English. The answer still a resounding "Non". Still, I was impressed with their language skills. The place is nothing like anywhere else that we've been in Canada. The architechture, logically, is much more "French" and the booze is at European prices (*cheep*). Sarah and I were naturally at home. Or so we thought. Possibily the most bizare scene I have ever happened across was in one of the parks near where we are staying. Picture this, there is shouting and fighting and general chaos. You prentend you're dead until everyone else is "dead" on the battle field and then you start all over again. Yep, knights in plate armour, weilding what appeared to be swords and other such weapons made from pool noodle material were belting the shit out of each other, pretending to be dead, then doing it ll over again! Hilarious!

Noodle fighters
The dudes in the armour were obviously serious about their hobby, and there was plenty of effort in the costumes, so we were rather impressed. I know pool noodles don't really hurt, but I still wouldn't like to have one wrapped around my head. So while all of this excitement is going on, about 200 meters away, a cannibis-haze is floating into the sky from a drumming cirlce. I thought it was impromtu, but the locals later told us that it was in fact a weekly event, as was the noodle fighting. So, basically, for a good time in Montreal, take your pool noodle swords and your drum to the park, and when you're done beating the hell out of the other noodle flingers, you can go and drum with the hippies! Fantastic. I was absolutely gutted that I had left both my bogos and my pool noodle sword at home. Not to worry.

Old Montreal Port
Still, with all the excitement, we've had plenty of time for relaxing. Moving on today to Quebec city, which apparently should be interesting as not as many people speak English. I was entertained greatly by an Australian girl in the bus station informing everyone that the Quebec locals spoke very "poor" English. Yes, love, that's right, they speak FRENCH. Although daunted, we're not going to let it stop us doing anything. We have purchased a phrase book, quite useful actually, and Sarah will no doubt pick it up pretty quickly. Apparently there are quite a few similarities between French and Spanish, so should be no problem. Otherwise, I hope all are well and not too boozed! Take it easy.

Tom

permalink written by  haveyouseenmypassport on June 26, 2007 from Montreal, Canada
from the travel blog: To infinity!.. and... beyond... uh.....
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I think we should buy a toaster

Quebec, Canada

"Je ne parle pa francais". I remember that from French. To be more precise, I remember that from year seven French taught by Madam Parker. She was a nasty lady. Probably still is. So, when I say I don't speak French, it's probably very lucky that there are so many people in French-Canadia that speak enough English for us to get by! Phew! Montreal was a hoot, Quebec was... Interesting. Arriving at the hostel, we were greated by a nice lady who gave us our things (sheets etc) and told us that it was essential that we put our "valuables" in the safe. Incidentily, the safe was in fact a locked cupboard. I was a little concerned about her enthusiasm for having all of our valuables in the one place and was even further alarmed when we were told that there were no locks on the doors. So, this was essentially the safest or more accurately, the most secure hostel in the world. No problem, just walk in, no security, walk up the stairs, to a room that doesn't have a lock on it, pick up whatever you would like and off you go, into the street. We moved the next day to one of the best hostels that I've stayed in.

Yep, sure do like statues
Enough griping! Quebec city is a much more stunning place than I had ever imagined. Even the bus station there is awesome! Like some kind of spired bat-mansion that Bruce Wayne would be all too happy to live in! Awesome! The city itself has loads of history about it, which I'm not going into, but trust me, it was impressive. So if Montreal was like Europe, then I'm not entirely sure how I would describe Quebec city. The buildings were AWESOME, the castle/hotels were beautiful and the locals were extremely friendlly. We ended up staying a whole extra day, although to be perfectly honest, after that long we were struggling with the French. It was at that point that Sarah suggested we buy a toaster. That's not going to help your Frecnch I hear you say. No, but Sarah though that it might save us some money, after all, she doesn't like sandwiches, but she does like toast. More on that later.

We spent most of our time in Quebec city wandering around, the whole place is a warren, not like from Broady, more like how the rabbits make. So there were endless lanes, alleyways and general winding roads to explore. The first night that we were there, we decided that we were going to go and watch the sun set. I thought this was a brilliant and romantic idea. When we arrived at the most Western point of the city with the sun going down, we were a little surprised to see that the most beautiful sun setting I have ever seen was punctuated by power lines and tower blocks. Still, it was lovely. What I think I have enjoyed most about Quebec and Quebec city has been the contrast with the rest of Canada. The currency is the same and the federal government is the same, but the people just seem so completely different. It's amazing. There are probably so many similarities between French-Canada and Europe that there isn't enough time to talk about it here, but if you have the time or the inclination then I highly recommend coming here for a looky see.

So Sarah suggests we buy a toaster. I laugh. Heading back towards Boston, we get the greyhound, just like we have every other time we've gone from one city to another on this trip. I told her, sure, not a problem, as long as you're going to carry it. When we got to Ottawa there were some more passengers with some kitchen utensils and one of them happened to be a crock pot. Had Sarah decided to purchase her toaster then the only thing that would have been missing for a whole kitchen was the kitchen sink.



permalink written by  haveyouseenmypassport on July 1, 2007 from Quebec, Canada
from the travel blog: To infinity!.. and... beyond... uh.....
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Long time between drinks. Not for me.

Boston, United States

Well, I've been extremely lazy updating this thing, so here goes with a bit of a rant and blog.

Let me tell you about the best bus trip in the world.

The first thing that you have to do, is be in Ottawa, Canada. Not an unpleasant bus station at all actually. I wouldn't say that it's the Taj Mahal of bus stations, but it is clean, there is coffee and generally speaking it's "nice". Ok, the second thing you need to do is get the bus to Boston MA via Syracuse NY. The bus to Syracuse will probably be empty, or have very few people on it. When you cross the border form Canada to the U.S. explain your prescription drugs and dual passports to the border guard. They have guns, so don't piss them off. If you're female, I highly recommend putting your toiletries in a highly accessible section of your bag. If you're lucky enough to get a male customers officer, the shade of scarlet that he'll turn when he searches your things is priceless. Thanks to Sarah for that one. Ok, now, get back on the bus assuming that they've not found those couple of keys of Charlie that you're obviously smuggling in... Well, I suppose that you're probably going to try and work in the states illegally (every body wants to according to the border guard). Right anyways. Get back on the bus, and a couple of hours later find yourself in lovely Syracuse NY. You have to change buses here. The distinctive smell of urine coming from the terminal is just delightful. Also, the crack addicts who work at Subway (EAT FRESH!) will be very helpful when they make your sandwich. Ok. You're halfway there. Only 10 more hours to Boston! You're jumping on a bus that's come from Toronto, so there will already be people on it. Lots of people. Well, not like it's full or anything but if the bus is half full and those people all take up more than one seat then i guess you could say that the bus is full. If the familiar smell of urine is not present on this Greyhound bus, you're probably in the wrong place. Don't panic when the driver shuts the CAGE DOOR that seperates you from the front of the bus. No no no, it doesn't put him in a sealed section, it sections off the passenger bit from the door. Reassuring when it comes to having a crash actually. For the next ten hours try do stem the flow of water onto your thing because people take cups of water and put them under their seats. I read recently in TIME magazine the Americans are boycotting drink bottles as the contents doesn't spill out when they're tipped over. Also, apparently "the bathroom" in a greyhound bus in it's entirity is for collecting wee. Accidently pished on the floor? Don't worry! It's meant to be like that. Apparently. Of course, this can flow into the passenger section. And that's how it should be right? After 10 hours... YOU'VE MADE IT!

Boston is nothing like a greyhound bus in the states. I couldn't smell wee, and for most of the time people weren't spilling into the area that I was sitting on. If I was sitting down that is! We had an awesome time here. Sterotypes really were blown out of the water here for me. It was nothing like the US that we know and love from Hollywood. I suppose that's a given. London contrary to popular folk stories called "East Enders" isn't full of people selling lighters, 5 for a paaand. So I guess it follows about the states. The HI hostel there really is nice and if you get there and have the chance, pop and get pizza from the one around the corner from the hostel. $4 for a pitcher of beer! Brilliant!

We arrived and went straight to the Samuel Adams brewery for a tour. It was pretty fun, we were actually touring a research and development brewery, which was interesting. Apparently Samuel Adams beer has won awards in Australia. I had not heard of it before going to the states. Whatever. It was good as the tour was free and so was the beer. They gave us a glass to keep as well. While we were in the tasting room a young chap (who apparently was by himself) sat opposite Sarah and I. He seemed to be somewhat inexperienced in beer pouring though. Now get me wrong, if you open a bottle of beer and it stats to spray everywhere, by all means, stick it in your mouth and get loads of grief from your mates for looking like you're performing sexual favours to your beer. BUT if you can't poor a beer and some froths up and spills over the table, do not under any circumstances slurp it off the table. That's what our inexperienced beer pouring friend did. Delightful.

permalink written by  haveyouseenmypassport on July 4, 2007 from Boston, United States
from the travel blog: To infinity!.. and... beyond... uh.....
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A city that never sleeps

New York, United States

There seems like so much to do in New York, and there really is! Cliched, sure, but true all the same. We arrived in to the bus station sometime in the afternoon and were aghast at how stupidly and insanely large this joint was. About 87 gates for buses. Buses EVERYWHERE. As we've already discussed the general clientele of Greyhound USA, I think you can probably appreciate why I superglued my wallet to the inside of my underpants. Strangely, for being so large, NYC is actually rather easy to navigate. The subway isn't quite as handy as the tube, but it's pretty impressive and it does run 24 hours! Broadway is every bit as movie like as you can imagine. I did look in Central Park for the pigeon lady from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, but I couldn't find her. I can never remember if it's Streets or Avenues that go North South?

Our hostel/hotel was rather pleasant and on Broadway, which by the way is a VERY long road. So we got in, settled and went exploring. I can understand why they made Central Park so massive. They have so many people that don't have gardens or anything, all jammed into this city, so they need somewhere for them to play baseball, and somewhere to take their dogs. So it is rather community friendly and the ambience quite unique. The hot dog venders were a bit of a disappointment to me though, I was expecting thick NY accents and barrels of attitude. Sadly there wasn't any NY accent (more central asian) and they were extremely helpful and friendly! I'm not complaining, but I am surprised! We walked all the way from our hostel to times square on the first night and ended up in Toys'R'Us. I wouldn't ordinarily mention this, however, there was an INDOOR ferris wheel. That's crazy I hear you say, well wait there's more. They also have a full size(ish) Barbie fun house. I was kinda impressed and disturbed at the same time that there is Oktoberfest Barbie. By the looks of her, she'd have trouble carrying a dozen steins of pilsner in a beer tent, but she would be popular with the lads. Sarah said that people would look at me funny if I kept wearing the Optimus Prime helmet in the store, so I took it off. I didn't buy it either. But I did keep pressing the button that made the helmet say "Megatron must be stopped!". Sweet. I hope Santa reads this.

Unfortunantely it feels like we really didn't get to do much stuff while we were in NY, there is just so much to do. We did manage to get to the Met Museum of art though. I don't know anything about art, but I'm reasonably sure that if you take a piece of canvas, stretch it over a funny shaped timber frame, paint it deep blue and call it "Blue Canvas" you're not an artist, you're a knob. That said, there were some absolutely stunning pieces of art.

With so much history as well. My favourite part was the arms and armour section, they had suits of armour that were hundreds of years old, with the most ornate and intricate metal work I have ever seen. They did look difficult to get off if you needed to evacuate your bladder mid-battle. Much to my dismay they had taken the handles off some very old and beautiful Japanese swords. I meant to ask why they did that, but I forgot and/or was to lazy. After about four and a half hours of walking around we'd seen nearly a fifth of the entire place, but our legs were getting a bit tired, so we called it a day. We did leave feeling more cultured than when we walked in, that's for sure. I think I'm going to make strange shaped canvases, paint them one colour and sell them for a million dollars each, anyone interested in purchasing one, please feel free to email me through this site.

Other fun things that we did included: going to Staten Island to go past the Statue of Liberty, Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge on foot (more fun than it sounds), and uhmm.... eating lots of bacon cheeseburgers from the fast food joint around the corner from the hostel, and going to Wall Street. Got the American Psycho feeling from the place though... Wasn't nice. But a very pretty building.

Next week join us for London!

permalink written by  haveyouseenmypassport on July 5, 2007 from New York, United States
from the travel blog: To infinity!.. and... beyond... uh.....
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