Montreal comes to an end

Tonight is our last night in Montreal. We have an early train to Toronto in the morning so didn't want to have a big night, we just went to a little Mexican restaurant around the block from our hotel and then watched tonight's hockey match on the big screen at a sports bar close by.

The weather the last couple of days has been a shock to the system. Yesterday we were up early, and ready to go out and about by about 9.30. We were prepared for a big day walking around and seeing the sights, but we stepped outside and immediately were hit with extreme wind and snow and we looked at each other and ran back inside! We were going to have to add even more layers under our clothes in these conditions. After rugging up even more, we braved the elements for about 100 metres before we found a little cafe and grabbed some bagels & coffee for breakfast. We took our time as we weren't really that keen to get back outside. We noticed there was a metro station right across the road so we headed straight there and took the two stops to the Place De Arts, and headed for the Museum of Contemporary Art.

We enjoyed the warmness of the museum and browsed the exhibitions for a few hours. The most interesting focussed on experimental rock music and art over the past 40 years until now. After a quick lunch we took the metro further down to Notre Dame. The Basilica was absolutely beautiful, both of us were amazed by the interior decorations, the huge columns and ceiling painted in cobolt blue with gold patterns, and the woodwork carvings were incredible. We caught the end of a tour that was being conducted in English and followed them into the wedding chapel, le Sacre Cour - Sacred Heart. The chapel was partially destroyed by fire in the 90's and was restored using modern design and architecture. It didn't fit at all with the rest of the church, but they had decided it was going to be too costly and time consuming to restore it to its original design.... A shame.

After all the cold we both felt like having an early night so we had a nice meal down the street then headed home.

Today the weather was much the same as yesterday, same temp but a little less snowy. We decided to head to the underground shopping malls that run all through the city. The tunnels link the metro stations and go for 32 km under the main town, and if you don't know where you're going you wouldn't even know they were there! We spent the day (and some money) wandering these malls and tunnels.

Going to get a good night sleep now ready for our big train ride tomorrow... 6 hrs!

Bye for now..xxx


(Updated with some pics from Montreal including our overly decorated hotel!)

Quebec City - Montreal

In the last post i mentioned that we were going to have a big day checking out old Quebec city.

I must have jinxed myself or something because shortly after i started throwing up... and it didn't stop until 24 hours later. For no reason whatsoever, food poisoning? Virus? I don't know. I won't go into any more detail but lets just say that our only full day in Quebec City was spent with me lying in bed and poor neri running around trying to find anything to help me feel better. But let's be honest, what would a holiday be without me assaulting the bathroom. It was blizzarding outside so i guess there's not much we could have done but still I felt awful for wasting a day.

So i woke up today feeling much better... we had to check out by 12pm so quickly headed out to see as much as we could. Lightly snowing but not too cold, we had fun walking around the old city which was absolutely beautiful. To be honest the city is probably for an older crowd, there isn't all that much to do other than marvel at the architecture and walk in and out of the charming little shops. We didn't have time to visit any of the museums which was a bummer.

We did manage to get coated with snow by the guy riding the snow blower before we left.

At around 12 we checked out and started on our way to Montreal.

I'm tired of typing so i'm going to pass over to neri... -j

Well the car ride was pretty uneventful... some lovely snowy scenery along the way, but (gladly) there were no more spectacular lane change episodes or other near death experiences this time.

When we were nearly in Montreal I was looking at the map and realised that our hotel was right in the middle of the main downtown area, so we decided to part with our horrid mini-bus a day early. Jase shed a tear as he handed back the keys but I was happy to see it go. 

We walked back to our hotel to get ready for tonight's activity... our first ever ice hockey match! The stadium is just down the street from us so we walked down amongst all the die-hard fans singing their team's theme song - and this was before the game! The Philadelphia Flyers were playing the Canadien Habs (the google now tells us that Habs means 'Habitants', referring to french canadians, but we spent the whole game trying to figure our what their mascot had to do with anything). 

Very happy to report that our team won, 5-2. We had so much fun watching all the scuffles between the teams and really getting caught up 

in the whole atmosphere. There was a point where one of the glass panels shattered when the puck hit it, and they had to replace it, which took about 10 mins extra. It was an exciting game, and all the entertainment during the breaks kept us laughing - for example,  dance-offs, kiss-offs, and air canons shooting merchandise into the crowd. Unfortunately we were too high up in the stands to get involved in the fun. 

So hopefully Jase will be feeling back to 100% tomorrow and we will have more fun things to report next time! 

xx N. 

NYC-QUEBEC

Last night we went for dinner at the pub across the road from our NY hotel.

As usual the pub was busy, the streets full of people... even on a monday night. Something i love about new york is that there was always something happening, the sound of the city is even a bit relaxing as you go to sleep at night.

We booked a cab for 7:30 in the morning so decided to head home for an early night.

Woke up this morning, quickly packed and got our selves to the airport. On the way there it started to snow and we thought our flight might be delayed, but luckily it wasn't as we were flying north, away from the storm.

A short flight (1 hour) and we arrived in Montreal. Stepping of the plane it was instantly obvious that we were in a different country. No crowds in the airport, no line up for customs, staff more relaxed and smiling, and... speaking french.

We got our bags and collected our hire car for our 3 hour drive to quebec.

So Neri ordered a jeep Liberty (we call it a cherokee in aus) and somehow we ended up with this huge SUV, a Dodge Durnago, which is practically a mini bus on steroids.

Needless to say we had no trouble fitting in our luggage, in fact we could have fit 5 passengers as well as our luggage.

Driving on the wrong side of the road is funny at first, until you make your first left hand turn and almost turn into oncoming traffic. Thats what i did, and if it wasn't for neri screaming beside me, i probably wouldn't have noticed until i came face to face with the first car.

Shortly after, i performed a spectacular lane change and almost crashed into another car, with the lady beeping and yelling at us for a good minute.

But after about 20 mins i got the hang of it.

Turns out that our last minute decision to pay for the gps was worth it.

We made a stop for coffee and couldn't get back onto the main road as the access roads were closed ) i presume for repairs or covered in snow... not sure) and as a result we went on a scenic 45 minute detour through farmland, which wasn't so bad except for the black ice and risk of a moose or something stepping out in front of us.

Finally we got back on the freeway and made it to Quebec city.

First impressions are that this is a beautiful little rustic city. Our hotel (i mean manor) is this old building, fitted out with chandeliers, extravagant carpets and furniture... feels like we are in Europe and the complete opposite of our trendy lower east side hotel in new york.

Haven't had much of a chance to check out the city, but we went for a stroll and had dinner at what we thought was an italian restaurant down the street.

We braved the -15 degree temps, had dinner, then braved the weather again as we walked back to our hotel.

As we were getting in the elevator to our room we noticed that there was a bar / restaurant in our own hotel. We both felt like idiots when we realised the very same place we walked around the block to have dinner at was actually attached to our hotel!

Now back in the room and i'm catching up on some work.

Big day tomorrow as we are going to see what this city has to offer.

(i've uploaded some pics from neris cam)

-Jase

last day in NYC

Our last day here and the weather was much warmer than the last few days... up to about 16 deg C. On Saturday the temps stayed below zero all day so it was a nice change not to have to layer up so much and actually take off our jackets while walking around the streets.

Last night we went to a little south american restaurant right next door to our hotel. It was tapas style food to share and we were both really looking forward to it. Unfortunately I copped a huge chunk of the strongest blue vein cheese I have ever experienced and that ruined the rest of the meal for me... Jase liked it though, he was fortunate to only get a small dose of the killer cheese and wasn't deterred.

So after a so-so dinner we hopped on the subway up to 5th ave to have a look around. The shops were mostly closed but they still looked absolutely amazing all done up with their Christmas decorations. We saw some of the ice skating show under the huge Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Centre, the tree is decorated with a huge Swarovski Crystal star on top, and 5 miles of coloured lights... So beautiful. 

We also caught some of a recording that MTV were doing of the Ting Tings, they looked very cold up on the stage and weren't really there for the crowd, only for the cameras.

After subway-ing back towards home so Jase could check his emails, we then decided to go back out to find somewhere local for a drink. We walked a couple of blocks and found this little club called the Slipper Room, we were told that a band were about to play, and then a dj was to follow, and the password was "patrick swayze". It sounded good so we payed the $5 and went in... A really cosy place with an eclectic mix of New Yorkers all waiting for the band to start. They were called "Bugs in the Dark" and sounded pretty good so we bought their EP for $5.

One of the bartenders took a liking to us, so when the bar (as they always seem to do) runs out of Canadian Club, he went into a mad panic. His search for a new bottle consisted of first standing on the bar to check what was on top... no CC there. Then he ran down this tiny staircase to the basement and was searching around for a while... and eventually he found it! As a result of his happiness in finding a new bottle, he poured us triple the normal amount, and finished it off with the tiniest splash of coke. Whoa. That last one was enough for both of us so we decided to call it a night. We had made some great friends there though... between our happy bartender, and some guy who we met waiting for the restroom, a lot of funny moments. (Jase can elaborate on that one...)

So, today we were both feeling a bit tired but still managed to get out and about by about 9. We first visited Bryant Park and watched the people ice skating (no funniest home video moments though), then we headed up to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building for a great view of the entire city and surrounds.

We walked from there up to Central Park, and checked out some of the touristy market stalls at the southern end. The wintery feel of the park was really peaceful, lots of squirrels running all over the place and lots of people walking dogs or hanging out. We walked all the way through the park to the Metropolitan Museum, which was closed today, so we went a little further up to the Guggenheim. We were both so tired by this stage... we'd had a late night and walked so much, but we had free tickets with our Citypass, so decided to check it out. The architecture of the museum is amazing, and we saw some more famous works from picasso, manet, kandinski, cezanne, van gogh, degas....  Very glad we went in but SO tired afterwards. Hopped back on the subway for the long ride home and here we are.... 

I had a quick nap which has refreshed me enough to go out to grab some dinner, but then it will definitely be early to bed tonight as we are getting picked up at 7.30 in the morning to go to the airport. 

We are on standby with Air Canada to Montreal but the flight had 25 seats available this morning so should be fine. We pick up our hire car from the airport in Montreal and will drive straight to Quebec City for the next leg of our trip. I'm sure it's going to be colder up there so back to layering up for us! 

Hope everyone is doing well and not missing us too much. 

xx N. 

Day 4 - a lazy one...

Seems we can't shake this jet lag.... i was up all night and slept about 2 hours.

Woke up at 6am and was really hungry. Headed down for breakfast.... which for me means toasted bagels with cream cheese and for neri means eating a few pastries.

After breakfast my body decided it was time to sleep (obviously it still thinks in sydney time) so back to our room for a nap. To my shock we woke up around midday and realised that we have missed half a day.

We quickly headed out and made the most of the day by walking up to broadway and doing some shopping... lots of good stores and a lot on sale, even with the poor conversion rates things are cheaper than home.

Had lunch at a cafe on broadway, i had a tuna sandwich and neri had a soup which was good.

More shopping and then back to the hotel where we are getting ready to go out for dinner to a spanish restaurant on our street and then maybe make our way to Maddison avenue for a walk... if we can stay awake.

More updates soon.

-Jase

ps. Ryan & Juliana we had breakfast yesterday at a nice brazillian cafe up the road. I had once a day.

Tomorrow we are probably going to check out the empire state building 

Pics from around NYC day 3

Another NYC night

Back in our hotel room again now, going to have an earlier night than last night so that we don't sleep in so much tomorrow!

Last night we wandered around for a while looking for somewhere to have dinner, but... being a friday night, everywhere that appealed to us was, of course, too busy. We ended up finding an irish pub called phebe's and had a few drinks and a good meal there. Seeing all the locals letting their hair down on the dancefloor was quite hilarious and we had fun just taking in the scenes.

After sleeping in this morning (and subsequently missing breakfast) we headed out about midday, bound for Battery Park and the Liberty Island cruise. We finally figured out how the subway works so getting around is becoming much easier! After seeing the famous statue and doing the loop of the harbour we walked up to the site of the twin towers to have a look and then made our way towards home. 

It's funny how different NYC is to the other places we have visited in the US, can't exactly put my finger on it but it has it's own kind of magic that I don't think you could find anywhere else in the world. 

Anyways, this was meant to be an early night so will finish up here, till next time.

xx N.