Wednesday 11th July 2012
Our final day in Canada before flying out at 9.15pm tonight to Dublin. Slept poorly and awoke at 4am. Walked up to Mont Royal park and decided to see the sun rise over Montreal on our last day in Canada. There was no lights in the park so we had to walk up in the cool morning air in almost pitch black. In the end only took us 26 minutes to get to the top. At first we were alone looking out over the City, which slowly had a dark sky turning orange and purple. We were soon joined however by a little old man with a flat nose who kept sneaking his flask of whisky out. Then up the stairs came another tramp, this one with long hair and a little radio clutched to his ear. He picked up a bottle of wine left on the wall and emptied it, put it in his bag, then sat on the bench between us and flat nose acting erratically. We moved over to the lookout fence. Thankfully a group of 5 young lads came up and sat in a line on the fence to watch the sunset, they barley made any sound. Just before the sun came up a group of 4 young french/montreal girls came out, screaming, giggling, jumping around.... They got their photo taken with the boys and started running about the place. It had been nice and peaceful even with 5 young lads and 2 tramps, but the girls made a din. Just before the sun came up we were finally joined by a bald man who stood doing some kind of yoga stretching (which the girls lined up behind him mocking him) as well as joined by a black fella on a bike who soon dismounted and started rooting around in the bushes below the lookout wall. So, this was our first and last Sunrise in Canada, and it was a god one at least, all be in with strange company. Then headed back down to hostel by around 6am, starving.
Had the hostels free breakfast for the first time (toast, cereal and coffee). The hostel seemed empty, and actually without the sleeping bodies everywhere looked like a reasonable hostel. We checked in for our flights online and then eventually found a printing shop which charged us $1.38 to print one page from a USB.... ridiculous. Walked down to station midday to catch the airport shuttle to Montreal airport. Will sit about there and wait for the flight to board for 9.15pm.... Goodbye Canada, you've been good to us! (except for half of the wwoofing hosts that is, oh and that place that chagred us $1.38 to print one page....).
Tuesday 10th July 2012
Last full day in Canada. Awoke and stepped over the sleeping bodies to shower. Tall one used his new laptop properly for the first time, un-used to the silence and lack of extreme heat from using one. The wifi was still down in this God foresaken place so we headed up to Mont Royal street and after some confusing directions from a confused french lady finally found a McDonalds. We ordered their 'adult' yoghurt and berries, but their english was so bad they gave us a little children's pot of yoghurt each. We sat down and enjoyed the slow and painful wifi. It was a strange McDonalds.... not sure whether to describe it as a retirement home in Florida with all these very ancient old men shuffling about grumbling in french wearing loud shirts, or describe it as a homeless shelter, as all the old ones seemed somewhat dirty, confused with scabs on their cheeks. Wondered up to 'Mile End' district as stated in Lonely Planet as the up and coming trendy place. All we could find was some sparse half closed cafes and a couple of sleepy tramps.
Sorted out our bags ready for flight tomorrow, before heading back down town. Spent a long time looking for a good cafe for lunch, wanted a jacket potato but all we could find (other than Asian food) was burgers, chicken, chips, poutine.... So we went for fried chicken. We got cornered by some charity lad rattling a pot, he said it was just a petition to sign and a coin donation so we stopped. As we signed the petition (for Cruelty against Animals) and dug out change the lad started babbling about puppy farms and cloning in the most incoherent way.... we couldn't understand a word he was talking about and didn't even respond, just signed the thing and left. Did a bit more shopping and then back to hostel for more wifi and bag sorting....
After being cooped up for hours in that little box room headed out to find dinner at 9pm. After much searching the last few days for a Jacket Potato, we stumbled across a small jacket potato cafe just a few blocks down from the hostel! We sat outside in the cool evening and had a potato with chives, sweetcorn, cheese and sour cream. We also brought coffee and spent too much, so again left no tip.
Monday 9th July 2012
On our way to Kingston and the 1,000 Islands. Our last bus journey in Canada, what a relief. Stopped for a subway breakfast on the way down, then sat in the bus station on the only free seat. We were next to an old man who was looking through a little box of photo slides which he held up to the light to look at inbetween sniffing and coughing loudly. We moved once another chair came free and small one kept throwing tall one's ebook on the floor when they sat down, so when small one went to the toilet tall one moved small one's belongings so someone else took his seat. Finally a big double decker Megabus turned up for 8.30am. There was free wifi onboard but for some reason small one brought neither his phone or tablet and so went cold turkey for the 7 hour return trip that day.
Arrived in Kingston admist a lot of roadworks around 12pm. Had 1 hour to get down the 5km to the harbour for the 1.5 hour boat tour at 1pm. Caught a bus for $2.50. Booked the tour and stood in the queue waiting to board. Infront of us a group of very snotty Indian ladies and behind us a Chinese family complete with an enourmous picnic hamper, this was beside a large sign saying “only food purchased on-board allowed”, as they handed out their homebaked cakes. Kingston looked quite nice, big Town Hall, old firestation building, lots of scumbags walking about though as well as a lot of very young buskers (busking with card tricks or ukuleles) as well as homeless beggers some fo which had urintated all over the pavement where they stood. Still, the weather was nice and small one was looking forward to the sun burn.
The boat trip headed out of the harbour, an announcement came on stating something in French, it then finished and repeated the same statement in German, and then in Spanish, then in Chinese, then in Japense and finally in English. We hoped the whole commentary wasn't going to be repeated 6 times. The commentary was worse, it was some mock Sean Connery actor pretending to be the hundred years dead former Priminister, jossing with a modern female narrator about what a metric system was.... it was all pre-recorded and all pretty tedious. The tour itself was nice enough, in bright sun headed up Lake Ontario and into St Lawrence river, between a few little and large islands..... think we saw about half a dozen, a long way from the deceiving name '1,000 islands'. At one point the Captain came over the speaker (an actual real person speaking at last!), he announced that a common question was what is this land to the left and how much are the houses. He then preceeded to tell us “thi is the mainland and in regards to the hosue prices there is one coming up here on the left now, white boarded front, five bedrooms, 2 car garage (etc etc) asking price 2.4 million dollars”.... we assumed it must be his own house he's trying to flog. The tour ended going past a huge group of 12 year old's in the sailing club outside the largest colony of prisoners in Canada at Kingston's State Penitentiary.
Back in town we tried to find a cheap lunch and opted for a greasy pizza and steak taco thing with tap water. When we paid the waitress asked if we wanted our change ($5.24), to which we said definatley. She brought it to us all in coins (no $5 note) expecting us to leave some for a tip. She lingered by the entrance to come and collect the tip after we left, but small one pocketed everything and walked past her with the coins loudly jingling in his pocket. We walked the long 5km back to the bus station, it was pretty hot and tiring walk, especially though the somewhat scumbag housing estates. Tall one was wearing his new Hawaiian shirt and thought perhaps somebody might shoot him. Finally back at the bus terminal for about 5pm, our bus was due at 6.20pm. The woman at th counter announced a bus was boarding for Montreal at 6.10pm, so we presumed it was ours and queued for a good while, turned out this was the former one running an hour late! We were turned away and continued to wait, buying 2 cups of coffee from a very large transvestite. Finally the bus came about 6.45pm. We boarded and took our seats and this drievr with a huge moustache and a lisp started to speak in a very dreary monotone voice about “there is a toilet at the downstairs back of the bus, for those of you upstairs who wish to sue the toilet please come down the bus stairs very carefully, the stairs are very steep, please use the hand rail.....” it went on for a good five minutes.
There was a nice sunset during our 3 hour return trip, though tall one complained of a headache and small one of a lack of wifi. We did however get some entrainment watching a woman using sign language on skype on the chair infront of us. When her conversation was over she started looking through some holiday snaps, starting with one of her sat next to a statue of an Orang-outang which she looked at for a very long long time, before going to the next photo of her lying across the back of a statue of a Hippo. Finally back in Montreal at about 9.45pm. As we entered the depot the driver did another lispy, montotone annoucenement which we could not tell was a piss take or not, he started along the lines of “we are now arriving in Montreal, thank you for travelling with Megabus, be sure to take all your belongings with you, check under the seat and in the electrical sockets and in the pockets at the back of the chairs for any items you may have left such as hand bags, carry-ons, mobile phones, glasses, sunglasses, laptop computers, jackets, sweatshirts....” The worst thing was we didn't think he was joking. A walk back up town at night, past 5 police cars parked up and the sound of a lot of whistles blowing and cheering down the street coming behind us. We hoped it wasn't some student protest on the rampage about to catch us up, sadly we never saw it.
Sunday 8th July 2012
Awoke in the morning very hot and uncomfortable still. Reminded us of sleeping in Tony Campervan in Australia – on the bed with the electric fan on us. There was then a race to get into the single shower and bathroom before everyone else. Outside our bedroom door bodies of sleeping people were everywhere, God help them trying to sleep in communal areas. It was like waking up on the morning of a hosue party, seeing just people sleeping hap-hazardly everywhere.
We walked out down town and found the old bus stop. They had moved to a new address, but at that address there was another sign saying door out of order and to use a side entrance. We found it was the right stop for our trip tomorrow at least. Then on to a Subway for breakfast, a”nd all the menu was in French.... On to downtown Montreal, out on the Old Port to the white clock tower where there was a fancy sand beach you had to pay to access with a guard and high fence stopping people from sun bathing for free. Next to the white clock an asian man was bending and rocking on cross-legs. Back into town and through the cobbled streets of Old Montreal, a very nice area, lots of old shops, cafes and old stone buildings. Lots of arts and crafts for sale, looked at a small jewellers stall with customized bracelets. Then the ugly man stepped over and said “they give me there names and i put them on ha-ha-haaa!”, we kept walking. Through town to the Catherine Street shopping precinct. Spent abut $150 each on new shirts and shorts. On the way back looked around a small junk shop stacked with old clothes, teddies, and junk. Old jazz played on a gramphone and some bohemian looking girls gave us free home made lemonode out of some bizarre ceramic clay pots. At the back there was a sort of stage above the shop floro covered with piles of old clothes, on which 2 female customers were on their hands and knees wading through for stuff to buy. A lot of books also for sale, but a sign posted on all the shelves read “SOME BOOKS NOT FOR SALE, PLEASE ASK AT THE DESK WHICH ONES”. After This shop went to a cheap clothing store a few doors up, where a lone large rabbi was keen to sell us flip flops, commenting on what a good colour they were.
After dropping off all our items headed up to the Parc Du Mont Royal. At the start by a huge monument was hoards of students and young people dressed like the homeless lying scattered across the ground. A lot were congregated around the weekly Sunday Tam Tam drum session, of which groups of people banged different drums and percussion whilst the hoards of young people danced in some strange fevered mess around them. By the large monument was a God awful Jimi Hendrix impersonator, with a huge bad wig. We noticed he wasn't even singing he was just miming to a CD player.... he looked so dishevelled he was nearer to Hendirx ready to be buried than Hendrix born again. After that on to the big park lookout, some steep stairs and lots more people. At the top a fantastic view over Montreal and at last somewhere to buy some water after not finding anywhere down in the park. Headed back down into town and tall one brought a new laptop. We asked one of the attendants to get us one and he told us a little about it then walked off, we didn’t know if he was going to get one or not.... after 5-10 minutes we thought not and got some nervous Indian man to get one out to sell us. Went for dinner at the Mont Royal area and had a 3 course meal for $12. The place was owned by some real greasy, hairy slime all who sat at the entrance greeting everyone, then occasionally we heard him calling out pot washers, young chefs and the good natured waitresses with bad English – he then proceeded in nit picking at what work they’d all been doing in ear shot of all the customers. We tippe dour waitresses, but then had to pay at the door the owner who asked if we wanted our change in coins for the tip, we said “no tip for you” and left.
Saturday 7th July 2012
A noisy, hot, uncomfortable night. The street was filled with screaming lunatics and students, the temp was high and we had no air con. The beds were very hard and covered with slippery plastic for incontinent people, as well as two plastic covered pillows. The top bunk was very very low and very very close to the bottom bunk (you could not sit up). Gladly left in the morning, but not after small one opened the bathroom on a foreign girl sat on the toilet screaming “NO NO NO!” to which small one said “try locking the door next time”. Headed down to the station around 10am, train leaving at 1pm. Had a lunch which the cafe owners could speak NO English at all this time. Tall one ended up with a blue cheese pizza as he didn’t now what was on it, so bareley ate anything.
Boarded the train, had a screaming child behind us for a lot of the 3 hour trip. Arrived in Montreal about 4pm. The train had had very high air con so was a shock to come out in such high temps in the City. It was a big city, and around the station there seemed to be large traffic junctions but no pedestrian lights at all, every person seemed to be black as well. We did notice that the locals seemed to be speaking more english than French which was good. Had a sweaty 3km walk to the hostel up a residential road. Up a yellow spiral staircase to a large open reception. It was only $20 per night each for a private room. It was a very very unique hostel. In the reception room alone there were rows of beds just lined up across a top balcony, with nothing but a few sheets pegged up. It was hard to tell if it was a curtain for privacy or just washing out to dry. An old man sat on the sofa watching TV and right next to him was somebody’s bed and belongings. Opposite reception was a washing line with sheets hiding another set of beds. Out in the garden under the stairs (in open air) was another couple of beds, along with a campervan with more beds. Our room was downstairs, thankfully had a locking door and four walls.... though was pretty dingy with no windows or air, but the wifi worked at least. Outside our door was the front room, though no social areas, just more beds instead of sofas.... there also only seemed to be one toilet and one shower for the house, they’d probably converted the rest into beds...!! It would do and the street was quite nice. Had a walk around and found some nice cafes and bars, all very bohemian. The evening was very humid but with a nice cool breezy, the streets had some very nice large, colourful houses surrounded by lots of greenery and trees, people everywhere, a lot of hip looking youngsters and a lot of old men looking confused. We have four nights here before we leave.
Friday 6th July 2012
Off the train after 5am, and the next step was a taxi with our prepaid ticket by viarail. He got us into Quebec City pretty quick, though it was all a very bizarre process having to take a direct route to a major city with 3 types of transport. We arrived at the station 6am, stinking from the same clothes for over 24 hours and both very bleary eyed and tired. Hostel check in in Quebec was not until 3-9pm! We sat in the station and found a cafe which was quite a cheap fry up and free wifi. After that we changed and cleaned in the station toilets, that was pleasant.
Walked up to the hostel by about 8.30am. Missed it the first time as the entrance was some grim internet / kebab shop. There was an enormous French guy behind the counter, lots of freckles and one eye slightly off centre, by his feet was a little white terrier. He said his name was Pierre Skippy, and then proceeded to get a map of the city out (after we told him we had one) then started to draw on it where there were free concerts that night (which we didn’t ask for and didn’t want). We could not stop the man talking and finally he said to leave his bags just there by the counter (essentially just on the floor in the internet cafe) and come back at 3pm, we asked if we could use a shower, he said he was full. We wondered into the City wondering if our bags would still be there later. It was actually a very nice City, lots of hills and a network of streets to navigate which had dead ends due to the Fortified wall surrounding the centre of the city. Found some nice little narrow laneways, very French, such as the Latin Quarter, Place Royal and Old Lower Town. Some very good buskers playing some French folk music and also a man urinating on the roof of a house we were looking down on from the Fortified wall. Had some lunch in a small cafe , had soup and coffee. Walked done to the Battlefield Park where the British beat the French in the 1700’s. There was some concert going on and a fat man on a quad bike was rounding up children having picnics in the sun and telling them to leave as they could not watch the show for free outside the fence. Then at 12pm a huge canyon went off and made tall one dive for cover.We missed the changing of the guards at the Citadel (you had to pay) but we heard that the soliders comemarching out with a goat on a lead for some reason.
Found a TD bank and closed our accounts, then small one brought some hiking boots and childrens trousers in a camping store. A snotty young French girl served him and said he could into purchase ANYTHING unless he joined the shops membership and paid $5!! She then gave him shoes and his trousers and said there was NO BAGS, not even paper ones. Outside the shop small one checked the receipt and found the shoes were $15 more then he’d been told, he went back in and the girl who’d helped him with the shoes earlier (who was not snotty) apologized as the shoe had been on the wrong shelf. Headed back to the hostel to check in. We were 5 minutes early before 3pm, and he told us we’d have to wait. Then he said he’d check and all the rooms were miraculously done. Pierre then started getting a map out and explaining all the free concerts, we stopped him and said he’d done that already. He showed us our room which was perfectly fine and then took a seat and started talking.... finally we got away, though he did say that the hostel we’d booked in Montreal was not actually a private room and more of a curtain around a couple of beds?? We may have to look into that one.
After a much needed shower ventured back up town in the muggy climate to get sweaty again. Small one got $1000 euros at a good rate with a burea de change. We stopped in a large bakery shop and brought a meal deal with a sandwhich, coke, soup and cake for $9. Small one had a large red hair in his soup, we looked at the counter where four staff members had large hats covering there heads, and one girl didn’t have a hat and had red hair. She was obviously a snotty supervisor. Small one got a new meal, but no refund. Outside on the street a man was on scaffolding banging drums very loudly as 4 men dressed as huge horses were assaulting poor children and old ladies by running at them in their huge hideous costumes. We headed home and phoned the Montreal hostel on the way. We asked if it was a proper room we had tomorrow and not the back of a van with a mattress that someone in their hostel review had said they’d ended up with after booking a private, the girl responded with “oh you don’t want to be in the van then, okay i can change that”.... thank Christ we phoned.
Thursday 5th July 2012
Checked out early with our last and still free breakfast with Jean-Francois. He said he’d drive us to the train station (train at 4.15pm) as it was actually 9km away. We put our backpacks on the backseat of his car as he noticed how big they were. We then wondered down into town.
It was low tide so we made it out along the spit to Perce Rock, didn’t get too close as half of it looked ready to collapse. Then had some more pizza for lunch (had pizza everyday for the last 5 i think). Our train leaves at 4.15pm and gets in to Quebec at 6am, so we brought some bottled water, though small one messed up – again buying ‘flavoured’ (or tainted) water, this time orange flavour. He took one swig and looked at the bottle as it tasted like the top was dirty or something. Headed back up the steep hill in sweltering heat, tall one carrying a small green beetle on his finger. Arrived at the top both damp messes, and having to spend the next 24 hours dressed like this. Sat in the lounge a while and then Jean-Francois’ 84 year old father turned up to drive us to the station. We thank Francois and followed dad to the car where we noticed our bags were gone from the backseat and hoped they were in the boot (they were). It seemed a long long drive to the train station, well outside the town. Small one was kind enough to let tall one sit in the front and make awkward conversation with an old man who left very very long breaks between speech – we weren’t sure if he was struggling with English, out of breath or both. Made it to the station and were told that infact due to line problems it was a shuttle bus from Perce to New Carisle (4pm-7pm) and then the train New Carisle to Charney (7pm-5.20am) and finally another shuttle from Charney to Quebec City (5.20-5.40am). Was gonna be a fun trip.
Boarded the bus when it arrived, it was full of lunatics. Hump back old women with perms, a lone Asian woman clutching a pillow, a stripey topped woman with 7 bags to go into cargo, and a trio of old people who bickered loudly and the oldest lady wheezed a puffed like a steam train getting onto the bus (we thought she wouldn’t make it). Then ironically the bus kept pausing when it got to a railroad crossing to check each way, perhaps forgetting that the bus was the replacement service for the ONLY train running!!?? Same thing we found before was that the driver (and his assistant?) only announced things in French, they seemed to resent it when we asked for it in English. Got to the train at 6.45pm, and it actually waited an extra 10 minutes as the stripey woman had forgotten something and had to go back.... ridiculous!
This train was older and more tatty than the last, though there was heaps more leg room and even a foot stall to come out. Went to the dinning cart and brought a starter (soup), main (pasta or beef dinner), dessert (cheesecake/apple pie) and coffee all for $15 each. In the time it took us to eat all of that the little old grumpy ladies on the table next to us were still eating the 1 course.
It was a relatively painless journey. There were some really loud talkers after 10.30pm which was annoying when you were trying to sleep uncomfortabley. But the service was far from full like the last one, though there was a carriage full of school kids who had drawn moustache son their faces with felt pens.
Wednesday 4th July 2012
The view over the ocean showed huge fog banks all up across the village, Perce Rock, the island and all across the bay like a giant blanket. We Collected our breakfast this morning and paid for our extra night. The owner was nice enough to say he hadn’t charged us for our 2 extra breakfasts (for some reason the continental free breakfast stops every year after the 2nd of July?? – but he didn’t charge us anyway). We then moved to our new chalet number 28, a much nicer place, though right next to a staff shed so cleaners and workmen kept going back and forth. Spent the day in and around the cabin. Small one ordered food from town and the guy turned up with only half the order, small one argued with him that he was paying the same delivery fee for half an order, but the guy didn’t care too much, small one told him he was very very bad (his English not so good). After small one phoned H&R Block tax services, still no refund from February, this time at least he convinced them to refund him the $148 fee he’d paid them to screw it all up. Did some laundry to which a middle aged French couple shouted up to us when they had finished with it “you may now begin your washing!”. The day started off sunny and we sat outside, but by midday it was cloudy and we were inside again.
We also had an email from Tom from the whale watching wwoofing, who said, “there’s a pair of boots outside the back door, did you guys leave them there on purpose?!”.... we weren’t trying to trip him up, not sure why he used the words “on purpose”?, but that’s Tom for you.
Wondered down the hill at 6pm to get some dinner, same snotty French place as yesterday. We sat down at a table outside next t some screaming children on a playground. The French waitress came out with the menus, clucked about us putting the menus infront of us saying “Lobster?....Lobster?”, we said “No”, she opened the menus up infrotn of us and pointed to where the lobster was listed for $30 per person and repeated “Lobster? Lobster?”, we said “No” and pointed to the $9 chicken nuggets and chips for tall one and the 6 inch pizza with chips and soft drink for small one. She then sighed and asked what to drink and suggested “Beer? Beer?!”. We said no, nothing for tall one and just the free soft drink for small one.
On the way back brought a ceramic Puffin that held toothpicks from a souvenir shop and also past two Ground Hogs chewing the grass outside a restaurant. At the top of the hill went into the bar and sat down with Jean-Francois the owner. He seems to be in reception from dawn till after dusk. Francois then got out his phone and started going on about where will the mono rise, showing us an app on his phone that when he held it up to the sky it showed him on the screen where the planets and where the moon was. We had a couple of beers each, Jean-Francois gave us one free beer each. The moon then came into view, lit bright yellow/red above the island. We were then joined by 3 middle aged Japanese men who had doubles of Tequila.... the middle one didn’t look to chirpy and only spoke Japanese. We went to bed.
Tuesday 3rd July 2012
Started our day off with our croissant and carrot muffin, loving baked last night by the owner. We were served at the cafe/bar by a new, round French woman dressed strangely in a blue nurse uniform, she seemed to have no English. When we left she said “enjoy your day”, too which small one responded by saying “Bonjour” as we walked out. We farted around all morning until after midday, small one maximizing his online time as usual. It worked out waiting till after noon for our hike as by then the grey clouds had lifted and it was a bright sunny afternoon. Headed down the hill into town and had a nice lunch and a cold beer. Served by some somewhat snotty French waitresses, they really don’t like people speaking English here. We then headed up past the church and hiked up a gravel road in the hot sun to a Grotto.... or waterfall in the forest. There was a couple Mary statues posted around the cliffs there, one of which showed with coins and flowers, as well as having had her face painted with black like a member from the rock band Kiss.
We then carried on up the Mont Saint-Anne hill to some nice lookouts down nt he village, then a long track around the top of a steep valley to a place called The Crevase, where there is a huge drop between two close cliff edges. Finally back down to the chalets, thankfully our hike had taken us in a giant loop around the back of the chalets and so we did not need to walk back up the hill from the village. It was a good 10km walking today, shattered again.
Back into our wood cabon/chalet, small one lit the wood stove and made us even more hotter than before. Then reception phoned up and told us not to drink the tap water.... considering the only water here is either in the toilet, shower or bathroom sink we hadn’t drank a thing anyway...
Monday 2nd July 2012
Had a lie on, small one still shattered, bags as big as bales under his eyes. Then up to the bar/cafe for our free continental breakfast. Wasn’t really a continental, it was just one small glass of juice and one cup of coffee (no refills), then we were given one pastry that he had us pre-choice when we checked in as he clamed he made them fresh every night. We couldn’t believe that last night he stayed up to bake 1 carrot muffin, 1 croissant, 1 chocolate muffin etc etc, he obviously means he needs to know in advance so he can get them out his freezer or something.
We booked 1 more night in Perce, which meant we could now catch the train from here to Quebec on Thursday an arrive at the more sensible 6am, opposed to the bus on Wednesday which would get us in at 3am....
Head down into the town,as we walked out past the other chalets small one was commenting how these ones have a better view than theres, tall one said loudly “no they’ve got all those telephone wires in the way!”, then turned to see a sour middle aged couple sat out in the deck chairs by him. Then we headed down the very steep, tiring hill. Tall one was dressed like some weird 14 year old boy in a Ninja Turtles t-shirt.... all the kids were dead impressed though. It’s a very nice, colourful little village right on the cliff edge over looking the large rock archway and the Bonadventure island. We did find that everyone only spoke French to you, only after you started speaking English did some of them speak it back, even then some sour woman in the souvenier shop seemed dead against speaking anything other than French. It was different to the Cape Breton French villages who always addressed you by saying “Bonjour, Hello”.
We took the boat trip out to Bonadventure Island. It was only $18 for the trip and $6 fo the National Park fee. The boat first took us over to the large archway rock formation and then circled the whole island. We saw a ton of wildlife, two Minke whales came up right by the boat, later we saw dolphins fishing as well, there was loads of seals, and hundreds of sea birds – razorbills, gulls, gannets and guillemots all circling the boat and lining the cliff faces all cramped on tiny ledges.
The boat had a little parks lady telling us about the wildlife, but at times she only spoke for long periods in French, though occasionally did a very brief English translation. Most customers seemed French speaking as well. One family had a chubby little 10 year old boy (he loved Tall one’s turtles t-shirt), he seemed very attached to the father who both stood embracing in the middle of the boat, a little too intimately and for an awkwardly long period of time...
The island was nice, we stayed about 2 hours. Hiked ahead of all the tourists from the boat across to the other side where there was an enourmous colony of Gannets. They were contained within a wooden fence, but you could get right up close to the out side birds. The group literally smothered the hillside on their little muddy nests, some you could see their potato like eggs, and others had limp grey skinned chicks. Some Gannets got quite vicious, and one seemed to being dragged and pushed about by 2-3 gannets, blood pouring out his eye and beak. Though the Gannet couples seemed more friendly, as the male brought back pieces of grass and seaweed for the nest, the female would rub up against his head. A young French family with two young girls took our photo for us, small one took his backpack off and put it on the ground out the way for the photo. Afterwards he went to pick his bag up again, only to find one of the little girls standing right on top of it, crushing our sandwhiches, so she could see over the fence.
Back across to the island, and there were some spots of rain and very grey clouds. Though within half an hour it was sun again. Had a basket of fries and some local brew ‘Caribou’ beer in a small pub. The woman who ran the place had a huge fat eyebrow and bloody bruise above her eye. We played draughts on some bizarre mirror board, small one lost. Brought some beers and food from the co-op then walked over to a short lookout by the beach. Once we got to the start of the lookout we realized a small wooden hut contained a young spotty girl who was collecting $1 for everyone for the lookout. Small one started to argue with her, but as she was only about 14 tall one just gave her the dollar. We were back from the lookout within 5 minutes, headed for the beach and saw the exact same view of the arch rock for free.
Then we trundled up the very steep hill, very slowly. Small one complaining and wanting to hitch-hike. Tall one refused as they had failed so miserably yesterday at that. We made it in the end and are now recuperating in the chalet. It was a great day. Both shattered.
Sunday 1st July 2012
It was Canada day... hooray!!! ?
Campbellton hostel was still very quiet in the am, no more checkins. Went to check out and the receptionist was a different guy who was very strangely not sat behind the desk, but just sat over on the sofas with his arms folded, doing nothing but staring into space....
Had a walk round the town, got our tickets for the bus to Perce, a 4 hour ride leaving at 10.30am. Tall one went and found some food for us from a busy little cafe. Whilst he was gone some man running a hot dog stand came over and chatted to small one about how much he hates the Chinese.... Caught the bus at 10.30am, the driver didn’t seem to speak much (or any) English, and all the passengers on board seemed to be speaking only French.... welcome to Quebec.
The bus was pretty busy and it was a nice hot sunny day. Small one was very pleased the the bus had free wifi. It was a shame then that we broke down an hour later in a place called Carelton. The driver made a few announcements over the next hour, all in French. We didn’t have a clue if we had stopped for lunch or what was happening. Finally we figured it out and the driver told us in broken English bus broke, new bus come in 6 hours time...!! We had been in Carelton since 11.30am, and so we decided to try and hitchhike to Perce rather than sit here till 6pm. Small one went to a little cafe booth and took a lot of pain and explaining to be given some scrap card board to make a sign. Tall one later went to the same stall and brought 2 burgers and chips, they really had little English, we thought Canada’s Quebec would be bi-lingual after spending so much time in airports and bus stations having to listen to both an English and French announcement, but apparently here in Quebec they don’t bother with the English translation. We hitchhike for an hour and a half and nobody looked even vaguely interested. It was Canada Day as well, so it was a great way to spend it, being ignored by Canadians. In the end we waited for the replacement bus, which showed earlier than expected at 4.30pm.
There were half as many passengers by now as everyone had got rides from friends. Got in to Perce around 7pm (5 hours late!), the driver was nice enough to drop us up the top of the hill at our chalet accommodation. Which was a good job as it would have been a very slow walk up that 2km steep hill.
The log cabin chalet’s were very nice, some built in 1935 apparently. There TV sets were certainly from the 1980’s. We had our own wood burner stove, which had free fire wood, but you had to pay for the kindling for some reason?? We also had free wifi int he room so small one was happy. Great ocean view at the back for a nice sunset, and at the front the hill looked down ont he very quaint little village and the Bonadventure Island. We sat in the bar a couple of hours, had 2 local beers and chatted to the French owner and another woman we presumed to be his partner. They were very friendly. The bloke told us that he had seen an article that Puffins were being caught in in nets by Irish children, strangled to death and lined up on the beach just for fun?? Small one said he had not heard of that one. Some young girls turned up next and sat by the piano, the owner turned off the stereo and said, “looks like we now have a free show”, then the two girls sat there and started to play chopsticks on the piano.... we left soon after.
