Sunday 4th March 2012
Still changing drivers throughout the night. Again at 3am changed in Dryden for a rather stern seeming fella, told someone off for sitting in the front seat when he’d been sitting there behind the last driver without comment. Whilst waiting in the station for the new driver the big stupid Canadian on the bus went in and used the ladies toilets instead of the mens, when he came out he pretended it was deliberate then started talking about how he got wounded in the army and was lucky to be alive.... blur blur blur. During those early hours they also past a huge lorry which had just over turned on its side from the ice, police were there and the coach driver slowed down so everyone could goose neck. Later got to a place called Kerona (about 2 hours from Winnipeg), and broke down. Stuck on side of road for 2 hours, the driver ordered taxis and sent (thankfully the scum bags) back to the nearest Tim Hortons. I think the driver was getting fed up with the endless moronic questions, such as “how long are we going to be here”, “i don’t know the coach is broken down, we are waiting for the mechanic”, “okay so when do we leave?”, “i don’t know when the coach is fixed”, “how long will that take”, “I don’t know we are waiting for the mechanic”, “when doe she get here?”. The mechanic came and basically just needed to de-ice the engine, as the coach had been running non-stop for a day and a half....
The last hour had some different scenary, now across the open, flat, white snowy prairies of Manitoba. Both very tried now, but beyond caring. Getting very disgruntled with the snorting of flem and dying sides of a man coughing to death infront. The two looney ones with the red eyes and stupid expressions seemed to keep wondering up and down the bus and they really stunk bad now. Then two dippy girls got back on the bus and clumsily walking past with their Tim Hortons coffee managed to spill it down small one’s arm. Had to then put up with two big Canadian fellas chatting endlessly about the politics of Canadian sport.... it really really was thrilling.... in that droll accent and their stupid theories and arrogance, the head phones went on as soon as possible before we strangled them.
Finally arrived in Winnipeg 3 hours over due, around 11am. The Greyhound stop is actually at the airport, miles from the CBD (even though the bus drives through the CBD to get to the airport). The driver was nice enough to drop tall, small and some random girl into town on his way out. Tall and small did not say good bye to any of the lunatics (they’d be a fresh batch tomorrow night) they all seemed to be travelling on to yet another bus, tall and small were done in. The old fella with the wrinkled ears who’d been dying in front of them on the bus kept asking everyone for money to buy a coffee. After 35 hours together there was no love lost.
Got to the 'HI Hostel' and was given 2 free coffees on arrival. Could not check in for anther hour or 2 though, but they were very pleasant. Strangely the hostel seemed to be full of black men, literally hundreds of them, there was no white face to be seen. Once we got into the room we noticed that the toilet had a red light bulb, which made the bathroom look like a miniature brothel. The heater was on full blast in the room and even though it was minus temps with thick snow outside, tall one was sweating in a pair of shorts inside as apparently the heating cannot be adjusted. Tall and small had their desperately needed shower, but found that the shampoo had frozen solid from being under the bus for 35 hours. They defrosted it enough to use, though it was like bathing in ice cream. They had a rest in the chairs which all seemed to be rocking chairs, then headed out for food. A strange Irish pub was open (it was a Sunday and apparently not much is open then), but when we asked the Irish bar man for food he said the chef was not in and he did not know when he would be here, we asked if we should wait and he said well he might be 5 minutes he might be 2 hours.... we went to Subway. Spent the rest f the afternoon in our sauna of a room sorting out photos and blogs etc etc. Just glad to be able to stretch out and not worry about smelly lunatics.
Saturday 3rd March 2012
Snow was very thick on route, and we ran almost an hour behind. The driver claimed not to worry about connecting buses as they always waited if the other bus was running late – we wondered how they knew to expect anybody to transfer when nobody pre-booked? Scum bags on board were hard work, they all seemed Canadian, no backpackers. Mostly men, real hicks (like Dave from the Melon farm in Charters Towers, Australia). Big stupid expressions, making arrogant speeches and conversations about a load of rubbish but very loud so everyone could here. Two were really rough with blood shot eyes, and kept nodding to each other and going back and forth to discuss things quietly, and seemed to leap off the bus for a fag every time we stopped for 5 minutes. The big stupid Canadian man kept being a pain in the arse, having go at the driver that he wasn’t stopping enough for breaks and when he did it was in the middle of nowhere (by a Tim Hortons coffee shop?). The men seemed to love to cough up flem and one of them with wrinkled face and ears seemed to sound like he was dying. There was a middle aged couple near us who t first looked alright (Eating their blueberry bagels) until small one pointed out that the man was merrily fingering her. Admist all of this chaos the heating was on way too hot, the reclining seats gave you no leg room and the lunatics stunk and wore dirty clothes (and this was even before they had started the 30 hour bus trip!!??). Anyway, nothing very pleasant to say about them, we hadn’t expected such rough people, we’d been used to other backpackers on the New Zealand and Australia buses.
Arrived an hour late in Sudbury, but the connection was late also, so made that fine. It was a new bus and new driver. He kept the front seats free as he was delivery boxes of human blood to a small town. Stopped in Blind River around 11am where small one brought some tim hortons coffee and poured it into our now empty flasks. We were pretty well kitted out food wise, even with a pack of carrot, celerey, soda bread and humous dip?? Eating a dainty picnic with a flask of Barrys tea amongst a bunch of red necks on a bus in the middle of a snowy nowhere was a little surreal. There was some nice scenery, an awful lots of snow which made the roads seem dodgy also made the forests look quite nice, and the occasional view of the frozen great lake (with little wooden ice fishing sheds dotted about). Stopped at Sault St Marie to drop off the blood around 1pm. Changed driver again at White River at 5.30pm, this is also where there is a statue of Winnie the Pooh – as a solider had brought a bear cub here from a trapper years ago and named it ‘Winni; after Winnipeg, then sold it to London Zoo – where A.A. Milne named Winnie the Pooh after it. A little bit of a tenuous connection, but enough for them to claim it was Pooh’s birth place??? Changed driver again at 10pm at Thunder Bay, where the cleaners had used so much chlorine in the men’s toilets that anyone who went in came out with their eyes watering. We set off with our new driver, but small one thought we left a pregnant women behind who was travelling alone – we were quite tired by then and so just went back to sleep (or at least tried to). Sleep was hard on the bus as every time he came to a schedule stop the lights would come on along with an announcement down the microphone, so you’d never get more than 2 hours delirious peace.
Friday 2nd March 2012
Up for breakfast and the French family could be heard through the thin walls. They had barely any English but this did not stop small one asking “what is your name?” in his primary school French.
Checked out midday and headed out to the bridge across Ottawa River. Stopped to look at the Cathedral and a giant spider. Across the snowy bridge which sounded like it had trains running underneath it, but this was just the cars running over the pavement making a strange echoing vibrating noise. Walked round the funky shaped building the other side and back across the bridge. Finally found the Rideau Canal which we completely missed yesterday. It was so snowed bound that there was no ice or ice skating to be seen. Walked around it and over it on the bridges, but not aloud on it. Still looked quite nice though. Looked for a nice cafe to have a proper mug of tea in, small one chose a bakery, but tall one got stuck asking for a proper mug and not paper which confused the poor girls. The clearly didn;t actually have china mugs, even though you could drink in, but instead of saying “no, we only have paper cups” one of the girls started rinsing out the china mug she’d been drinking out of and handed it over, then she saw that we needed two cups and started hunting around the other staff... Tall one said it really didn’t matter he just though he’d ask – he was happy with paper. Finally they gave him paper, but then when the girl found another china mug they were offered again.... Tall one just wanted to forget the whole thing now. After a ‘relaxing’ cup of tea tall and small ventured back out into the frey. They had a whole day to kill, and so headed for The Natural History Museum. Got in around 3pm and headed up and down the 5 floors of stuffed stuff while tall one complained of a very bad headache. There seemed to be lots of grandmothers struggling to control their single grand children from screaming and running. Looked at dinosaurs, stuffed mammals, birds and bugs, then (to waste time) just hung about in the big comfy chairs by the front desk for almost an hour. On the way out Small one stopped to pose with the Wooly Mammoth statues. Headed back to the main city Centre and stopped for a coffee in a bakery market area. Quite a nice market building with suspended cartoon market sellers waving cartoon dead pigs and geese at everyone. Was going to use the toilet there but a weird bearded man went in first and never came out. Took some photos of the City at night time, then headed to Dominos for some food. Ordered a 4.99 pizza each, the cashier had no change for a $20 bill so ran off for 5 minutes to get some, then he didn;t have enough for tall ones $20 either... Tall and small then sat and waited for the pizza and noticed how the poster of the friendly family eating Domino s had all had their eyes stabbed out with something on the poster. Finally got the pizza and as they were avoiding going back to the hostel (as it was very small) they stood outside the LCBO and Metro eating out of the box like tramps. A quick food shop where small one picked up a lot of made to order food, then changed his mind and left it littered around the store. Back to hostel for 8.30pm before walking to O’Connor St to get a taxi with a direct route to the bus station.
When we left the hostel at around 9pm, just passing the front of the hostel was a seemingly normal young fella who asked “hey what is that place?”. Small one told him it was a guest house, and it was then we noticed we was another lunatic. He had frozen snot congealed to his stubbley face, his hair was all wetted down strangely and he kept looking at the floor and back tracking his steps. He wanted to know if we could give him some money to go stay there, we said no and he kept walking. Unfortunately he was walking the same way as us, but after a block he did his weird back tracking thing and went the other way...
Down at the station and was a little confused as to where to queue, as we were due to leave at Gate 5, but the portable sign that said “Queue Here for Gate 5” was by Gate 6. Asked some Greyhound girl who put us by the sign anyway. There was a middle aged woman sat alone on the only bench there so we asked if we could sit down, she got up without saying a word or looking at us and just walked off – she never came back (the friendly type). Thankfully we had gone to the right gate and so we were 2nd on the bus (even got the seats with the extra leg room). We watched more and more scum bags queue up for the trip, some big stupid fella had queued by Gate 5 (and not by the huge queue next to the sign) and so had to get on last, grumbling all the way. While waiting to leave we saw a Greyhound guy transporting “Greyhound Express” post parcels on a big trolley from one bus to another. Halfway across the carpark he hit the curb and half of them fell on the floor – luckily it was only the ones marked “Fragile”... it won’t be a service tall and small will use in a hurry. Finally set off just around Midnight, we were due to arrive in Sudbury by 6.30am, ready for the new bus to Winnipeg leaving at 7.15am.
Thursday 1st March 2012
Awoken at 4am by small one tapping away on his new tablet, when the thing starts up this woman voice whispers the name of the laptop, but it sounds more like she says “Chlamydia”. Tall one tried desperately to get back to sleep, only for small one to keep asking him annoying questions like “how do you spell ‘Shredder’?”. Small one then opened the last of his beer (brought back on his 30th birthday.... yes they lasted that long), had his final beer in Toronto at 5.25am.... the perfect way to start a trip. Left at 7.45am, struggled with the very heavy bags up to the station. Sat for a while and watched a perfectly abled Amish man use the disabled toilet rather nervously. Queued outside in the slushy snow around 9am. Bus filed up pretty quick, so needed to queue. Did not need to worry about our bus ticket scam (buying a $20 ticket to Montreal via transfer at Ottawa, instead of buying the $50 ticket just to Ottawa?!) nobody asked us or cared where you were going one we got to Ottawa.
There was a lot of snow on the road heading there, the landscape was pretty barren, but the occasional nice little farm or village, but buried in snow. The road ahead looked dangerous, roads weren’t as well ploughed out in the sticks compared to inter city. Small one loved the novelty of drinking a flask of Barrys tea in the middle of a snowy nowhere. Arrived in Ottawa around 2.30pm, managed to get a taxi to the hostel which costs $15.94! Gave the taxi driver $21 and sat and waited patiently for the change which he was trying his best to take his time with hoping for a tip. Managed to upgrade to a private room, as don’t want to stay with any lunatics in a dorm.
Headed out for a couple of hours before daylight faded. There was lots of snow in Ottawa, the most we’d seen on our travels anywhere. A lot of horrid brown slushy snow, and (to make us not get home sick of Toronto) also plenty of lunatics – including some Salvation Army people on strike walking the streets with boards strapped to their chests with illegible writing. Walked up to Parliament Hill and small one was struggling in the cold and snow. Found the famous ‘Cat Sanctuary’ built on the far side of the hill. So set amongst these fancy old Parliament building is this little cat village for homeless cats... Stopped at the far side of the hill to take a photo of the view over the river. A black policeman got out of his car and came over just as we were leaving. He said “excuse me what were you guys taking a photo of over there...?”. Tall and small were confused, and he continued, “just out of curiosity what were you photographing over there?”. Tall and small a little bemused said “the scenary....?”. “Oh” he said “because there’s something very important happening here tomorrow....” He said this very mysteriously and tall and small still looked bemused, “you guys don’t know?”. Tall and small didn’t have a clue and he said that “yes there was something very important happening here tomorrow and we’d see it on the news”, then he left.
Small one was getting cold now and so they headed back via a Metro shop for $30, but brought this fantastic pre-cooked Pork roast with roast potatoes, and pasta, dessert and a drink. It was huge, and was like eating a whole piglet each. The only other guests at the hostel seemed to be a French family in their house. Then as they ate two guys came in, one was struggling with three baskets stacked up high of laundry so he could not see his way down the stairs, and another little German lad who waltz in chatting with him telling him how much he was struggling. Tall and small now confused again why the little fella wasn’t just helping. They then went to bed early around 7pm, Tall one popped over to reception first to get a map, but three separate people pointed out his ‘Toronto Maple Leafs’ beanie. Asking things like “Hey your a Leafs fan?!” Tall one answered “say what?”, they would point at the hat and tall one would deny all knowledge of it. Then someone else piped up “Hey the Leafs are doing great”.... Tall one “what?”. He quickly learned and took the hat off, hiding it in his pocket.
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