Montreal: Olympic Park, Biodome, St Laurent, St Denis, Notre Dame Basilica, Old Montreal

Happy 1 month! It’s been 1 month since we left home.

Jon and I began our day at Parc Olympique and Biodome de Montreal. Parc Olympique was built for the 1976 summer Olympic game. At the park, there is an Olympic stadium with a diagonal elevator that leads to the observatory. This is the tallest inclined tower in the world. There was also a sports centre with 6 aquatic pools. The biodome contains plants, animals and ecosystems. However, we didn’t get a chance to take a tour because they were closed.

We then walked around Saint Laurent Boulevard and Saint Denis Street. These are some of the main streets here. There were lots of cute boutiques and restaurants. We also walked around their underground pedestrian network. We walked to Victoria square which is named after Queen Victoria. We also walked Place Ville Marie, a large shopping mall. There we ate a smoked meat sandwich with fries. It was delicious. We also walked around Chinatown which was quite nice. There were bakeries and little shops. We saw a Holiday Inn with a pagoda top.

We came back to our hotel and took a nap. Then we went to the Notre Dame Basilica light show. It was about the history of how Notre Dame came to be. It had audio and visual effects. Afterwards, we walked down Saint Paul Street. There were high end restaurants which we couldn’t afford. Then we walked by the water and saw these funny apartment complexes that looked like Lego.

We also walked through Jacque Cartier Place which is in Old Montreal and saw a street show. The performer had 6 audience members dance to the Lion King song that goes “in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight”. The atmosphere in Old Montreal is very mellow and “romantic”. There were nice street music, restaurants and stores.

Then we went to the local grocery store and bought croissants, havarti cheese and some meat to make a sandwich. It wasn’t bad. It’s a healthier alternative to Mcdonald’s. We also had a salad in a bag because we didn’t want to mix it in a bowl. For lunch, we had chocolate bread.

The hotel we’re staying in is very nice. Our room is tiny, about 10 by 10 feet but what it lacks the staff makes up. We were served breakfast and they also help us do our laundry for free. How nice!

Have a great night everyone!

thousand island parkway, Montreal

Bonjour tout le monde! Jon and I are in Montreal now. We had such a refreshing night yesterday. We slept in till 10:30am. Gordon made us mushroom, sausage, and green and red pepper omelette. It was tasty. It was nice seeing Gordon.
We drove on the “Thousand Island Parkway” which was very scenic. There were little islands in the St. Lawrence River. Some of the islands were occupied by a single house. It was pretty neat.

Before we knew it, we had crossed the border into Quebec. We stopped at the visitor’s centre to get pamphlets and maps. We also went to Tim Horton’s to get a bagel. This was the first time I exercised my French. It was horrible! I didn’t know how to say bagel with herb and garlic cream cheese. Bagel is the same in English as it is in French but herb and garlic are different.

We’re staying at a hotel on Saint Catherine Street which is one of the main streets. Since we arrived early, we walked around our neighbourhood. As we were walking, Jon asked me if the guys here were more feminine. I wasn’t sure but before we finished the block, we saw rainbow coloured flags on the buildings. Apparently, we’re staying in the gay district of Montreal.

We walked to the Subway station to purchase 3 day bus/ subway pass. I was repeating "I would like to buy two 3 day passes" in french. When I did say it, the attendant pointed behind me and said go to that machine. We had a poutine at la belle province. It was huge. We ordered poutine with smoked ham. It was good but not good for you. We took the subway to get back to our hotel. Fortunately, we have air conditioning! We’ll be planning our next few days.

Have a good night!

Colbourne, Campbellford, Kingston

Hello everyone! Jon and I are in Kingston now. We’re staying with Gordon, one of our high school friends. Before we left, we bought some asian buns for the road. Today, Jon and I drove to Colbourne to see the Big Apple. We had a slice of apple crumble pie which was quite delicious. We also went to Campbellford to see a giant toonie. Afterwards, we drove to Kingston.

As we were waiting for Gordon, we watched a bit of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It’s very addicting. Gordon took us around Queen’s University campus. There are lots of nice looking buildings here. We also walked by the water which had a nice view. I was wearing ballet flats the whole time. Normally, I wear running shoes but I didn’t know we would be walking that much. As a result, I have 4 blisters. Ouch! Fortunately, my feet got a break when we went to a Japanese/Korean restaurant for dinner. Jon ordered seafood udon which he enjoyed. I ordered Korean sparerib dinner box. It was tasty.

About a block down, there was a supermarket. Jon and I had to get milk so we went there. By then, my feet were killing me. So before we left the supermarket, I took some Kleenex and wrapped it around my feet as cushion. It helped a bit. Jon and Gordon thought I was silly. Jon eventually gave in and carried me to Gordon’s house.

We wanted to go on a haunted walk because Kingston is haunted. So we walked for 30 minutes to get to the tour site but we couldn’t find the address. Eventually, we met up with the tour group. The tour was quite interesting. The tour guide took us around the neighbourhood and would tell us stories about how certain places were haunted. She brought us to the front of a bed and breakfast inn. She was telling us that people staying there would see an old lady on the balcony sitting in a rocking chair. It just so happened that an old lady was sitting in a rocking chair on the balcony. The tour guide said afterwards “that lady is not the ghost”. Ha ha. There was another incident where the tour guide was describing how there are corpses in the parking lot and then she pointed at this crack on the ground and said that there may still be one right there; a little boy was sitting on the crack. Ha ha.

Gordon is making us dessert. It involved ice-cream, bananas and chocolate milk. He’ll also make us omelette tomorrow. Oh the life of luxury.

Have a good night everyone!

Edit: Gordon made deep fried banana with ice cream. It was good. It's late now so we shall sleep. Au revoir!

Toronto: Kensington Market, China Town, Queen Street, Korea Town, Little Italy, PATH

Good day everyone! Jon and I slept in till noon because we were so tired yesterday. Yesterday, we ate at that Chinese restaurant which had lots of MSG in their food. I had a terrible headache and felt nauseous. So Jon and I stayed up late to watch Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Ha ha.

Anyways, we took the trolley to Kensington Market. It was interesting. It had a very hippy feeling. There were cute stores selling vintage and second-hand clothing. There were little cafes as well. Jon and I went into this store that sold novelty items such as a cupcake holder. It reminded me of stores you’d find on 4th.

Afterwards, we went to Queen West where we saw the Much Music building. The windows were covered up so we didn’t see much. We saw lots of fabric stores here and cute boutiques.

Then we went walked into The Bay to get to PATH, an underground path that connects “50 office towers, 1200 plus stores, hotels, restaurants and visitor attraction”. As we were walking through the Bay, Jon kept on making slogans for Estee Lauder in French such as “Tout le temp, je prefere Estee Lauder”, and “Quand je suis avec mes amis, je prefere estee lauder”. It was very annoying. When I read the description of PATH in a travel book, I thought it would be an underground shopping centre like they have in Shanghai. However, it’s just an underground walkway similar to the subway connecting to Pacific Center. Very anti-climatic!

We then took the trolley to the St. Lawrence Market but it was closed. You would find antiques there. Afterwards, we took the subway to Church-Wellesley Village, also known as “The Gay Village”. We saw one drag queen.

After that, we went to Bloor-Yorkville which has high-end retail stores like Gucci and Hermes. Jon was tired by then so we didn’t see much here.

We went to Koreatown and saw Korean grocery store. We went back to our residence and watched Lord of the Rings. As we were watching the movie, we made a salad which we were eating from a large pot. Jon and I bought pocky yesterday. He opened it up and the colour is darker. The pocky comes from Thailand. It tastes a little different but still edible.

For dinner, we had ramen. Jon had beef teppanyaki and I had round pieces of pork, I think. It was tasty. Afterwards, we drove to an area called Little Italy. It had a few gelato stores, pizza and restaurants with patios.

Yesterday, we met a person at Ontario Place who was a photographer for different newspapers who showed us pictures of Caribana. He stays at the same residence building as us. Today, we bumped into him and he offered to show us more pictures. So he showed us more pictures and explained to us the different roles in a band. A band is a group of people that march in the parade. He told us more but we forgot. He was very nice and gave us some magazines to read.

We’ll be heading to Kingston tomorrow. Have a good night everyone!

Toronto: Caribana, Centre Island

Hello everyone! Jon and I had quite a day. We had to wake up at 8 am because our parking ticket expires at 8 am. We’re not sure if you can purchase the next day’s parking ticket a day in advance and we’re not willing to take the chance. Of course we went back to sleep and officially woke up at 11:30am.

We purchased a day pass for $10. On weekends and statutory holidays, you can use one day pass for 2 adults so that worked out well. We took the subway and then transferred to trolley to reach Ontario Place. This weekend, Toronto was having this Caribbean-style event called Caribana. The parade was on July 31st and the events continue till today at Ontario Place. When Jon and I got there, we learned that we had to pay for entry. We had to pay $38 for the two of us. Since we were already there and it took quite a walk to get there, Jon paid. We thought there would be a closing parade as mentioned on the website but there wasn’t. There was a stage with people playing recorded Caribbean music. There was one Caribbean food booth. The rest of the site was a kid’s amusement park. It was so sad. It was hardly Caribbean themed.

Jon was quite upset because he paid $38 which is one day of accommodation. We had 2 ticket stubs as proof of purchase. So as true Asians, we sold the ticket stubs for $20. Of course, we made sure the people purchasing the ticket stubs would be able to enter Ontario Place without any problem. We were able to cut our losses. Ha ha. Also at the main entrance, there were Purex people giving out Purex samples (laundry detergent). Since we went to the main entrance 3 times, we got about 7 packages of purex samples.

After we left Ontario Place, we were heading to the ferry terminal to go to Centre Island but we saw a Caribbean festival at Waterfront. We got off the bus to take a look. The festival was what you would expect. It had clothing/ accessory booths, live music, and lots of food. This was 100 times better than Ontario Place. The live music was amazing. The group we heard was called afropan. They played lady gaga’s bad romance Caribbean-style and the Recess (television show) theme song. They got the audience involved. It was a good time. There was a lady dancing with her parrot. She flipped the parrot upside down and wiggled it around. It was very odd!! Jon and I ate Jerk Chicken Roti. It was quite spicy but not bad.

Jon and I went to Centre Island which is an island located south of Toronto. At Centre Island, there was an amusement park called Centreville. It was very cute and they did not charge us to walk around the amusement park. We walked over a bridge and saw a sign that said “clothing optional beach”. Ha ha. We didn’t make it that far because Jon and I were tired.

We bussed back to Chinatown and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I had baked spaghetti with cheese which was not as good as the Boss Restaurant’s. Jon had chicken steak with bacon and mushroom sauce on rice. He liked it. We will sleep early tonight because we are tired.

Have a good night mon!

Toronto

Happy August! Jon and I was able to sleep in today. So our day began at 12:30pm. We walked through Chinatown and purchased some buns for lunch. Then we walked to Dundas square which is Toronto’s version of time square except less busy. They had jumbotrons with ads on the buildings. There was also Eaton Centre. We walked along Yonge street where there were many stores. Then we walked to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Afterwards, we walked to the CN tower and took pictures from the outside. Admission was $22.99 which is expensive. In Chicago, the Willis (Sears) Tower was $15 or so. We didn’t think it was worth it. We also saw the Rogers Centre and Air Canada Place.

We walked through the Entertainment District where there are theatres. We then walked back to Dundas Square to meet up with our high school friends, Peter and Will. In the square, we saw break dancers and drummers. We also saw a chalk artist who drew pictures with chalk on the sidewalk.

We ate Pho in Chinatown with the boys. It tastes like the Pho I normally eat in Vancouver so it was tasty. Afterwards, we had bubble tea. I ordered watermelon green tea with aloe vera. I wanted something refreshing so that’s why I chose watermelon but it tasted like a jolly rancher. Jon ordered Mango green tea with pearls. He liked it. Peter asked what the difference was between green tea and black tea. I said that black tea is stronger. He didn’t understand what stronger meant. When we was ordering, he asked the waitress what the difference was between green and black tea. She said “black tea is stronger” which was exactly what I said. The restroom at this bubble tea cafe was not located near the back of the cafe but in a different room upstairs. Peter didn’t know where it was so he started heading to the back of the cafe where the kitchen was. As he got back there, the waitress ran to the back to get him and redirect him. It was funny. Peter thought he had to pee in a wok. Ha ha.

We drove Peter to Hamilton where he is staying. Jon and I are heading back to our residence. It’s been fun seeing our friends.

Good night!