Bonjour Quebec
Our train trip from Montreal to Quebec was relatively painless, with the exception of a 15 minute walk – up a massive hill!!! The main part of Quebec city, the old town surrounded by the wall, is on top of a hill. With a backpack on my back, a day pack on my front, my handbag over my shoulder and dragging our third bag, my lungs and quads were burning. It felt good to be alive! HA! (Mike – I would just like to clarify that I had a backpack, day pack and the laptop and also that the third bag has wheels. I think you should have all the info before you judge me.)
So, the hostel was great. Cosy and we met some really lovely people here. A few frenchies, one of which was Antony who could speak English relatively well, another three, 2 of which were the “crazy Fabios” as Antony called them, and another guy from Indooroopilly, Liam. This made it a lovely place to stay. However, due to the weather, being winter and all, there were a few things that were either closed, or had limited hours. And it wasn’t really the weather you could wander around for hours. No, definitely not. However, I’m sure we did enough for me to ramble on for a few paragraphs.
Our first expedition was lunch. It was at a crepe place recommended by the Lonely Planet. We had to line up in their doorway and then finally got a nice “cosy” seat (we were all squished in there) and then served by a young lass who barely spoke English. Well, we were definitely in Quebec! FYI – a quick geography lesson – Quebec city is a city of the province of Quebec (a province is like our states). Montreal is also in Quebec, and although English and French are spoken in both, Quebec city is almost soley French. Hence, all the museums had a lot more French than English in their exhibitions.
Our first day was spent wandering around the Notre-Dame de Quebec Basilica-Cathedral (it’s only a minor Basilica – whatever that means). The Notre-Dame de Quebec parish is the oldest parish in North America, has been destroyed twice by fires (when will these people learn! Everything has been destroyed by fire!) but always rebuilt on the site of the original church, which was originally built in 1647. We then spent some time in the Musee de l’Amerique francaise. This is the oldest museum in Canada, and was really good for getting and understanding of “french culture in North America”. Seriously though, it was a great history lesson but we don’t remember a lot of specifics. However, the poor frenchies had a lot of fighting to get where they are now. It’s amazing how they have managed to keep the French language and culture, despite being invaded/taken over/surround by the English. It really made us understand why Quebec people are so passionate, to the point of snobbiness, about their French heritage.
The other interesting thing with this museum is that it’s in a building that makes up part of the Séminaire de Québec site, founded in 1663 – lots of religious stuff but what I remember is that the priests were big on education. In fact, students are still taught in the various buildings of the Seminaire.
The next day we wandered around and looked at various things (see photos). The most interesting thing would be the Citadell, which is a military get up on top of the highest point in Quebec City. On one side is a massive old cliff and the other is not one wall, but two. It was cold and we missed the tour (there’s only one a day in winter) and decided not to bother the next day. The citadel is part of the the fortifications of Quebec city. It’s the only city in North America that still has city walls. Honestly, the wall was a bit of a let down because it was covered in snow so we couldn’t really walk on it. However, we did manage in the end.
That day we also headed up the Observatoire de la Capitale, which was a big old lookout from the top of a building. It was pretty impressive actually – very informative. We finished our day at the pub with the 3 Frenchies, Liam and Antony (who was trying very hard to talk to both us Aussies and the French dudes) having a few drinks and watching an ice hocky game. How Canadian!
And yet another cold day. However today had warmed up slightly and I don’t think there was any snow. You see, the last few nights, we’d come in and it would be snowing late in the afternoon/early evening. Got to admit, it’s damn pretty watching it snow outside while you’re all warm and cozy. Different thing when it’s swirling in your face with the wind when you’re walking back from the grocery store. Anyway, today we wandered around some dodgy markets where we had a maple cone each. Mini ice-cream cones filled with, you guessed it, maple syrup! Pretty sickeningly sweet, even for me. Then we hit La Rue Petit-Champlain – the oldest street in North America. Along the way we found a funky mural painted on a wall (again, see pics). I’d tell you about it, but the sign was in French. Now, the warm weather was good, but not for my poor feet. You see, snow turns to slush when it gets warm. And slush is wet. This is not good especially when you are wearing Sketches (not really snow-melt proof) that you’ve had for a good year and worn almost every day. So, my feet were soaking around lunch time and continued to be all day until we got home. That was the beginning of the end for my old sketches (you’ll be pleased to know I finally got rid of them a couple of months ago – YAY!). We then left the oldest street (big deal!) and went up the Funicular (Aus needs to get one of theses – it’s a guaranteed tourist money maker – they are everywhere in Switzerland!).
Because it was cold, we were bored, and we didn’t know/weren’t that interested in a tour of the la Chateau Frontenac, we headed to the St Ursulas Convent Museum. We should have gone to the hotel. No, it actually wasn’t too bad – quite interesting really. These chics were pretty hardcore with what they put up with, but also managed to make a bit of dough with a lot of different craftwork and skills such as painting (lots of flowers I think), tapestry, cross-stitch, and gold leaving everything in sight. The stuff was pretty impressive and you’d be hard pressed to find some of the skills around these days I think. We then headed to a 100 years celebration of some park/battle at said park in Quebec City (it’s this year) in some park amongst a hell of a lot of snow and checked out the Stanley Cup (again). Mike has seen the bloody thing 3 times now. Apparently there are two, but we were told in Montreal the other one was in Afganistan, but miracously it was in Quebec when we got here as well…..hmmm….anyway, we hung around there for like 5 seconds and then went and stood on the damn wall (check out photos to proove it). And to end the day (with my wet feet) we then decided to walk along the Promenade des Gouverneurs. This boardwalk goes along the cliff in front of the citadel, and gives great views of the Saint Lawrence River (check out the photos). The best thing was the beavertail at the bottom – it’s like a wholemeal, sweetish bread, covered in banana and nutella – YUM! And it was warm! And then finally we got back to the hostel and I got to take of my shoes!!!
Our last day was pretty uneventful. We checked out Quebec City’s Parliament Buildings (Hotel du Parlement), which had a FREE tour. It was actually very interesting. We then went to a chocolate shop in town for a snack (probably lunch) and then did a little tour of their mini museum and then had a few cheap samples of their dark chocolate (a quarter for a small cup). We then went out for St Patty’s day! It was bizarre, we were in Quebec City, a french speaking town in Canada, celebrating an Irish holiday, with a Frenchman, in Irish pubs, with French/Canadian bands singing AC/DC. We then met an Irishman, who doesn’t drink, and was in Quebec to learn French because his countrymen no longer speak Gaelic! It wouldn’t happen in Australia!
Toronto
I will be honest up front – I didn’t like Toronto. Now, it may be because it was cold, covered in snow and I was ready to move on to Europe. Or it may be because it was a big old city, with rubbish everywhere, including a million cigarette butts (honestly, I thought it was dirtier than New York, but we were staying near China Town, which can sometimes be a little grubbier than other parts of a city). However, I would be willing to say that in the summer it might be a completely different city. The hostel was amazing though – one of the friendliest.
We only had a few days here and it consisted of the Royal Ontario Museum (Ontario is the province that Toronto is in), the Hockey Hall of Fame (one reason we came to Toronto) and Niagara Falls (the other reason we came to Toronto).
An interesting thing to note with the ROM – they had “The Black Star Sapphire of Queensland”. Now, we were thinking, surely that’s not OUR Queensland? But is there another Queensland in the world? Geography has never been either of our strong points. Low and behold, there is a little old picture of Aus and what do you know, it’s from Rubyvale (yep, know it intimately)! Now, if you want anymore proof that it’s an Aussie stone, listen to this story. Old Roy Spencer, then a young lad in the 1930s, found the stone, showed it to his dad – old Harry Spencer, who then, and I quote “threw (should be “chucked”) it down by the back door for use as a doorstop”. Rightio – only in Australia. Now, the little plaque says that neither realised the value of the thing until it was sold to the Kazanjian brothers (whoever the hell they are) and cut to reveal the star. Now, the fact that it is rather vague about the sale of the diamond, makes me believe that perhaps the Spencers were shafted? And either gave it up or sold it for very little. Let’s hope not, for little Roy’s sake. Check out the photos – the actual Sapphire itself is pretty cool.
Ok, so the Hockey Hall of Fame. Well, there was a lot of hockey. It was actually pretty interesting and we included some photos so you can appreciate what I went through. I mean, how great a sport is and how amazing the Hall of Fame really was. Interesting thing, it was in a shopping centre! Weird man. Weird.
MIKE – Ok so Bec has left this part to me for obvious reasons. The place is fantastic and I could have spent days in there. It has a whole bunch of things from game worn jerseys and gear to hockey sticks and pucks used to register various records. There are glass cabinets dedicated to each person inducted into the hall of fame, and other things scattered around all over the place. There are theatre rooms showing movies and another section that has all the trophies awarded to teams and players at the end of the year. The last part is an interactive section where you can do things like choose which camera to broadcast on (Bec was good at this), commentate a piece of footage (Bec was not so good at this) and have a go at shooting a few pucks at a goalie on the screen. We thought we would give this a shot and I must say I was a little worried given the fact that I there were a lot of people waiting to have a go and I thought they would assume I at least had some idea because what male in Canada doesn’t, right? Good thing was I didn’t do to badly. Bad thing was Bec scored with her first two shots and generally made it look very easy and impressed everyone. Good thing I’m not competitive!
Ok, now Niagara. I have to say, I was a little disappointed. I think I was spoilt by the Grand Canyon. The falls are not overly tall so they seem so much smaller than what you think they are going to be, and standing from the top takes away some of the impact (it’s too cold in March for the Maid of the Mist that takes you in a boat around the bottom of the falls). However, they are quite beautiful, especially surrounded by the ice, and are very wide and the amount of water is amazing. The other thing about Niagra, is it’s just a touristy town, with Casinos and expensive hotels etc. The American side is much less touristy (believe it or not) but their view of the falls isn’t as good. Two really interesting things (we did a tour – this is how we know) is that 1) the falls have progressively been moving back because the volume of water eats away the rock it’s flowing over and 2) they cut the water flow at night (by diverting the river elsewhere) to make electricity which has meant instead of the falls eating away 1.16m a year (3.8 feet), it now eats away about 30cm every 10 years. The Niagara region is Ontario’s, maybe even Canada’s largest wine producer, and based on our drive along the river, it would be beautiful to come out during spring and summer. However, I’m not sure I could handle the crowds, because we were there on a Friday and the weather wasn’t perfect and there were people everywhere! I think I would seriously hurt someone if I was there in the middle of summer.
Alright, so now it was time to say farewell to North America. It was an amazing year and even now, I look back incredibly fondly of not only Canada, but America. I know everyone loves to bag the country, and the people, but honestly, we didn’t have any real problems, and actually had some of the friendliest customs officials around! However, it’s time for some serious culture, so off we go to Europe – YAY.
p.s. in case you didn’t know (I doubt I would have), the capital of Canada is Ottawa, not Toronto or Vancouver.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Oh Canada....
The Wonderful Amtrack – “QR doesn’t have these issues” (Mike's bit)
Before we get to the actual trip, lets set the scene. We planned to spend a quiet night in New York for our last night since we had to be on the train at 7ish meaning leaving the hotel at around 5:30am. We decided to get on the free Staten Island ferry again for a view of the NY skyline and Lady Liberty at night. This went pretty well but we missed the return ferry by minutes. You see you need to get off the ferry and then get back on. The one going back wasn’t the same one that went across and the unfortunately they didn’t wait. Next ferry… 1 hours time! So we get on that at about 10:30pm. Rebecca is yelling cause she wanted to be asleep by now and the whole thing is obviously my fault. When we get back across, the Subway is closed for track work and we need to get a bus. Things are getting better!! Furthermore, NY is in the midst of a windstorm that is bordering on cyclonic (I mean hurricanic?!?!) and we are standing outside waiting for the bus. We got home ok and went to sleep at about 1am. The thing is, daylight saving also kicked that night so we actually went to bed at 2am. That’s a good 3 ½ hours, who needs more? We got to the subway, and no trains came for about 15 minutes, which is weird for NY. The one that did turn up went one station and then decided to stay stop since someone’s NY commute had got the better of them and they decided to pass out. Maybe they were on the Staten Island ferry last night? So we had to get the next one while the paramedics came down. Just kick the person off and keep moving people! We got to the station to find a massive line for customs, and no baggage check. Hence we were only able to secure a seat either side of the isle from one another which was better then most people could muster.
Now the train ride itself wasn’t that note worthy. The scenery was good, lots of snow covered fields and the like. A few hours in and we had to stop for an hour for the track ahead to be cleared of fallen trees or something. Looks like the hurricane winds were not only in New York. All I can recall is that the train stopped within sight of a Macca’s and a lot of the passengers where wondering if they would have enough time to make it there and back. Eventually we where on our way. A few more hours and another stop. With little to no communication on what was happening we sat there waiting. An hour later they informed us that the track could not be cleared and we would be swapping to buses which had been called about 1hour ago. Ok so they knew to call buses but not let the passengers know. Good customer service that! People being the impatient types that they are decided to go collect luggage and wait in the snow. Even though the staff told us the bus would still be another hour, and 6 where on the way, they thought they would miss out. Three hours later we got on a bus. Smooth sailing now, yes? NO!! The Canadian border crossing thought it would be a good idea to get everyone off the bus, unpack the luggage and get you to line up with your luggage to speak to a customs officer, at 11:30pm. Did I mention that it was about –10 outside the bus? Got to the customs officer, she asked about 5 questions and that’s it. So what did I need my bags for? Back on the bus. I felt so sorry for the poor bus driver who had to unload and reload the bus in the freezing cold. We eventually got into Montreal about 12.30am, a 17 hour journey that was supposed to be 9 hours.
Montreal (Bec's bit)
I have to say that being on the train and seeing all that snow….everwhere…was kinda a little freaky. I remember thinking, “what the hell have we gotton ourselves into?”. We arrive at the station, with like $5 CAD so after we frantically look around for an ATM we set of through the snow (it’s cold, like real cold, and there is snow all over the footpath) to find a taxi. Amazingly we found one, and it was only a 5 minute trip, if that. However, you know it’s bad when we has to stop about 5 meters away from the front door and tell you he can’t go any further because there is a big pile of snow that hasn’t been cleared. Hhhmmm. So after waking up our dorm mates at 1am, we finally got to bed!
Just a comment on the hostel – one of the best we have stayed at….warm, cosy, friendly, good brekky, and a cool dorm buddy from Germany. Anyways, what we first noticed was how “French” Montreal actually is. We knew it was bilingual, but it’s really more French than English. Anyway, it was a great novelty going around and saying “oi” and “bonjour”. HAHA – I speak french! So our first day was just spent wandering around and gawking at all the snow. The next day we headed up Mount Royal – and the weather was perfect! We walked up the mountain, on snow, surrounded by snow, and the views were amazing. This place was like a winter wonderland. Then we kinda got lost and ended up at an ice-skating rink – well, a pond really. We figured we might as well skate – badly mind you but we didn’t fall over once. However, I did learn that “watch out you old bat, you’re in my way” is “Attentione!!!” in French. He was a whimpy little kid anyway. Check out the photos – they do this place more justice than my descriptions.
That night we headed to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal. For $5 you went to this light show at night, which included a kind of educational video. However, it was the tackiest thing ever! It was professionally done technical-wise but the acting was terrible. However, the drama of when they drop the curtain and reveal the church is pretty impressive. The actual church itself, although amazing, was pretty tacky….lots and lots of gold. Again, check out the photos.
Our next day was spent at the Biodome, which was originally the velodrome for the 76 Olympics. This place has four ecosystems – a tropical forest (it was so nice to feel humidity again!), a Laurentian forest (? Think north American wilderness), a marine ecosystem and the Artic/Antarctic. It was pretty cool – the highlight being some monkeys running around the walkways changing cages and the penguins were hilarious. Right next to the Biodome was the Olympic Stadium, which has a tower thing – the weather wasn’t the best but it cleared up enough to see (we picked the worst day to go up!). Again, check out the photos.
Our final day was spent wandering around again and then checking out the Musee d’archeologie et d’histoire de Montreal – otherwise known as the Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History. This place was pretty cool because the basement is actually an archaeological dig, where you can see the remains of some of the first structures, like stone fortifications, and other stuff like a cemetery.
Well, that concluded our trip to Montreal. I was surprised how much I liked this city and would love to go back and see what it had to offer in the summer. Oh, one more thing to note, on about day 2/3 of like 4, we finally found how to get to most places through the underground tunnels – seriously, if you need underground tunnels to go somewhere in winter, is it really worth it?
Next…Quebec!!!!
Before we get to the actual trip, lets set the scene. We planned to spend a quiet night in New York for our last night since we had to be on the train at 7ish meaning leaving the hotel at around 5:30am. We decided to get on the free Staten Island ferry again for a view of the NY skyline and Lady Liberty at night. This went pretty well but we missed the return ferry by minutes. You see you need to get off the ferry and then get back on. The one going back wasn’t the same one that went across and the unfortunately they didn’t wait. Next ferry… 1 hours time! So we get on that at about 10:30pm. Rebecca is yelling cause she wanted to be asleep by now and the whole thing is obviously my fault. When we get back across, the Subway is closed for track work and we need to get a bus. Things are getting better!! Furthermore, NY is in the midst of a windstorm that is bordering on cyclonic (I mean hurricanic?!?!) and we are standing outside waiting for the bus. We got home ok and went to sleep at about 1am. The thing is, daylight saving also kicked that night so we actually went to bed at 2am. That’s a good 3 ½ hours, who needs more? We got to the subway, and no trains came for about 15 minutes, which is weird for NY. The one that did turn up went one station and then decided to stay stop since someone’s NY commute had got the better of them and they decided to pass out. Maybe they were on the Staten Island ferry last night? So we had to get the next one while the paramedics came down. Just kick the person off and keep moving people! We got to the station to find a massive line for customs, and no baggage check. Hence we were only able to secure a seat either side of the isle from one another which was better then most people could muster.
Now the train ride itself wasn’t that note worthy. The scenery was good, lots of snow covered fields and the like. A few hours in and we had to stop for an hour for the track ahead to be cleared of fallen trees or something. Looks like the hurricane winds were not only in New York. All I can recall is that the train stopped within sight of a Macca’s and a lot of the passengers where wondering if they would have enough time to make it there and back. Eventually we where on our way. A few more hours and another stop. With little to no communication on what was happening we sat there waiting. An hour later they informed us that the track could not be cleared and we would be swapping to buses which had been called about 1hour ago. Ok so they knew to call buses but not let the passengers know. Good customer service that! People being the impatient types that they are decided to go collect luggage and wait in the snow. Even though the staff told us the bus would still be another hour, and 6 where on the way, they thought they would miss out. Three hours later we got on a bus. Smooth sailing now, yes? NO!! The Canadian border crossing thought it would be a good idea to get everyone off the bus, unpack the luggage and get you to line up with your luggage to speak to a customs officer, at 11:30pm. Did I mention that it was about –10 outside the bus? Got to the customs officer, she asked about 5 questions and that’s it. So what did I need my bags for? Back on the bus. I felt so sorry for the poor bus driver who had to unload and reload the bus in the freezing cold. We eventually got into Montreal about 12.30am, a 17 hour journey that was supposed to be 9 hours.
Montreal (Bec's bit)
I have to say that being on the train and seeing all that snow….everwhere…was kinda a little freaky. I remember thinking, “what the hell have we gotton ourselves into?”. We arrive at the station, with like $5 CAD so after we frantically look around for an ATM we set of through the snow (it’s cold, like real cold, and there is snow all over the footpath) to find a taxi. Amazingly we found one, and it was only a 5 minute trip, if that. However, you know it’s bad when we has to stop about 5 meters away from the front door and tell you he can’t go any further because there is a big pile of snow that hasn’t been cleared. Hhhmmm. So after waking up our dorm mates at 1am, we finally got to bed!
Just a comment on the hostel – one of the best we have stayed at….warm, cosy, friendly, good brekky, and a cool dorm buddy from Germany. Anyways, what we first noticed was how “French” Montreal actually is. We knew it was bilingual, but it’s really more French than English. Anyway, it was a great novelty going around and saying “oi” and “bonjour”. HAHA – I speak french! So our first day was just spent wandering around and gawking at all the snow. The next day we headed up Mount Royal – and the weather was perfect! We walked up the mountain, on snow, surrounded by snow, and the views were amazing. This place was like a winter wonderland. Then we kinda got lost and ended up at an ice-skating rink – well, a pond really. We figured we might as well skate – badly mind you but we didn’t fall over once. However, I did learn that “watch out you old bat, you’re in my way” is “Attentione!!!” in French. He was a whimpy little kid anyway. Check out the photos – they do this place more justice than my descriptions.
That night we headed to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal. For $5 you went to this light show at night, which included a kind of educational video. However, it was the tackiest thing ever! It was professionally done technical-wise but the acting was terrible. However, the drama of when they drop the curtain and reveal the church is pretty impressive. The actual church itself, although amazing, was pretty tacky….lots and lots of gold. Again, check out the photos.
Our next day was spent at the Biodome, which was originally the velodrome for the 76 Olympics. This place has four ecosystems – a tropical forest (it was so nice to feel humidity again!), a Laurentian forest (? Think north American wilderness), a marine ecosystem and the Artic/Antarctic. It was pretty cool – the highlight being some monkeys running around the walkways changing cages and the penguins were hilarious. Right next to the Biodome was the Olympic Stadium, which has a tower thing – the weather wasn’t the best but it cleared up enough to see (we picked the worst day to go up!). Again, check out the photos.
Our final day was spent wandering around again and then checking out the Musee d’archeologie et d’histoire de Montreal – otherwise known as the Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History. This place was pretty cool because the basement is actually an archaeological dig, where you can see the remains of some of the first structures, like stone fortifications, and other stuff like a cemetery.
Well, that concluded our trip to Montreal. I was surprised how much I liked this city and would love to go back and see what it had to offer in the summer. Oh, one more thing to note, on about day 2/3 of like 4, we finally found how to get to most places through the underground tunnels – seriously, if you need underground tunnels to go somewhere in winter, is it really worth it?
Next…Quebec!!!!
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
New York, New York!
We are currently sitting in an airport in Paris, waiting for a delayed flight to Barcelona.
A bit of a run down so far from where we last left you. We left North America and caught up with Mike’s rellies in Edinburgh. We then got sick and flew to London, and met up with my brother. We got even sicker and then flew to Paris. We have actually spent about 4 extra days here just so that we (in particular me) could recover.
Ok, so back to our trip. Now it’s time to tell you about New York.
New York
We spent a lot of time walking around and on buses in the Big Apple. We got this cool bus tour ticket which gave you 5 tours in 48 hours – we got in 4 (Upper NYC, Lower NYC, NYC at Night and the Brooklyn). They were double decker buses with a clear roof so it was the perfect way to see the city – you were constantly looking up. Other than that we did all the touristy things. We saw the Statue of Liberty from the free Staten Island Ferry. You can’t go up inside the statue itself anymore, so we decided to be stingy and just see her from the boat. We took photos of Times Square, wandered down Wall Street (and went into Tiffany’s – bling everywhere!), went up the Empire State Building, and saw the Memorial to the World Trade Centre. They are building this massive reverse fountain – it’s like a big hole in the ground with water flowing down and the name of everyone who died will be inscribed on the walls of the fountain.
For those of you who watch The Late Show, we went to Hello Deli for lunch one day. We still don’t really know the deal, but the deli owner has appeared on the show for years. We took a photo of the shop, but decided not to pose with him considering we had no idea who he actually was. Actually, this was how we found out it was famous – someone asked if he posed for photos.
Another highlight of New York was our trip to the theatre – we went and saw Rent. Figured it was appropriate considering it is a musical about New York. It was great – I was laughing and crying. One of the stars was an American Idol reject (Mike’s words). We also went to see ANOTHER basketball game – the Knicks (NYC) vs Cavalliers (Cleveland). The Knicks lost (Mike – No surprises there but we did get to see LeBron drop 50 points, though I missed his half-time buzzer beating 3 while I was taking a photo of the court logo…. Damn it!). While talking about sport, we also went on a tour of the Yankee Stadium. This is their last season at the ground they first moved to in 1923 (or something, though it was dropped and rebuilt in the 70s) and then they move into a massive new stadium across the road, which costs something in the vicinity of $1.2b! Mike – I thought the whole thing was awesome, getting to go in the press box, the clubhouse and sit in the dug-out. I think I took about 100 photos!
What else? We went on a carriage ride through Central Park – a bit of a rip off but it is the thing to do. Didn’t see much of the park – too lazy to walk around the whole bloody thing, not to mention most of it was still dead due to the cold weather. We also walked the Brooklyn Bridge and got lost on the other side. And how could I forget?!?!? We went to the Guggenheim – it was so cool! Best museum I’ve ever been to. They had this Chinese guy who “painted” using gunpowder – really different stuff. He also had some interesting exhibits, like 9 cars – real ones - with all these tubes of lights sticking out of them that ‘crashed/tumbled/exploded’ up the middle of the Guggenheim. We also went to the Museum of Natural History – a great museum but full of stuffed animals – literally! And they also wouldn’t let me buy a postcard – the bastards shut their shop at closing time – EARLY!
It’s also worth mentioning 2 of our dinners. One was in the meatpacking district – ultra swanky area with some cool bars and restaurants. We had a steak and lamb cutlets served on a stone-like hotplate. Really pricey place but great food. We also checked out a sushi place after our broadway show. Apparently we tried dolphin skin – now I had problems with this but then got over it. We were then told by a German chick that it wasn’t dolphin skin. I’m not sure if I want it to be or not. Either way, their food was amazing and even their sushi (which I don’t really like in Brissy, but all sushi in Nth America seems so much nicer) was delicious.
So, New York finished our US travelling and then we headed back into Canada. But more about that later!
A bit of a run down so far from where we last left you. We left North America and caught up with Mike’s rellies in Edinburgh. We then got sick and flew to London, and met up with my brother. We got even sicker and then flew to Paris. We have actually spent about 4 extra days here just so that we (in particular me) could recover.
Ok, so back to our trip. Now it’s time to tell you about New York.
New York
We spent a lot of time walking around and on buses in the Big Apple. We got this cool bus tour ticket which gave you 5 tours in 48 hours – we got in 4 (Upper NYC, Lower NYC, NYC at Night and the Brooklyn). They were double decker buses with a clear roof so it was the perfect way to see the city – you were constantly looking up. Other than that we did all the touristy things. We saw the Statue of Liberty from the free Staten Island Ferry. You can’t go up inside the statue itself anymore, so we decided to be stingy and just see her from the boat. We took photos of Times Square, wandered down Wall Street (and went into Tiffany’s – bling everywhere!), went up the Empire State Building, and saw the Memorial to the World Trade Centre. They are building this massive reverse fountain – it’s like a big hole in the ground with water flowing down and the name of everyone who died will be inscribed on the walls of the fountain.
For those of you who watch The Late Show, we went to Hello Deli for lunch one day. We still don’t really know the deal, but the deli owner has appeared on the show for years. We took a photo of the shop, but decided not to pose with him considering we had no idea who he actually was. Actually, this was how we found out it was famous – someone asked if he posed for photos.
Another highlight of New York was our trip to the theatre – we went and saw Rent. Figured it was appropriate considering it is a musical about New York. It was great – I was laughing and crying. One of the stars was an American Idol reject (Mike’s words). We also went to see ANOTHER basketball game – the Knicks (NYC) vs Cavalliers (Cleveland). The Knicks lost (Mike – No surprises there but we did get to see LeBron drop 50 points, though I missed his half-time buzzer beating 3 while I was taking a photo of the court logo…. Damn it!). While talking about sport, we also went on a tour of the Yankee Stadium. This is their last season at the ground they first moved to in 1923 (or something, though it was dropped and rebuilt in the 70s) and then they move into a massive new stadium across the road, which costs something in the vicinity of $1.2b! Mike – I thought the whole thing was awesome, getting to go in the press box, the clubhouse and sit in the dug-out. I think I took about 100 photos!
What else? We went on a carriage ride through Central Park – a bit of a rip off but it is the thing to do. Didn’t see much of the park – too lazy to walk around the whole bloody thing, not to mention most of it was still dead due to the cold weather. We also walked the Brooklyn Bridge and got lost on the other side. And how could I forget?!?!? We went to the Guggenheim – it was so cool! Best museum I’ve ever been to. They had this Chinese guy who “painted” using gunpowder – really different stuff. He also had some interesting exhibits, like 9 cars – real ones - with all these tubes of lights sticking out of them that ‘crashed/tumbled/exploded’ up the middle of the Guggenheim. We also went to the Museum of Natural History – a great museum but full of stuffed animals – literally! And they also wouldn’t let me buy a postcard – the bastards shut their shop at closing time – EARLY!
It’s also worth mentioning 2 of our dinners. One was in the meatpacking district – ultra swanky area with some cool bars and restaurants. We had a steak and lamb cutlets served on a stone-like hotplate. Really pricey place but great food. We also checked out a sushi place after our broadway show. Apparently we tried dolphin skin – now I had problems with this but then got over it. We were then told by a German chick that it wasn’t dolphin skin. I’m not sure if I want it to be or not. Either way, their food was amazing and even their sushi (which I don’t really like in Brissy, but all sushi in Nth America seems so much nicer) was delicious.
So, New York finished our US travelling and then we headed back into Canada. But more about that later!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Savannah…Frankly Rebecca, I don’t give a damn
Ok, so a lot of people have been a little curious as to our more obscure destinations. They are a result of one of two things – sport or books. We went to New Orleans because I had read a book years ago set there (can’t remember anything about it now really except for the fact it was set in New Orleans). We also went to this next destination because of another book – Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. If you like reading and if you like a good story, read this one. It’s great.
However, I’ll be honest. Although New Orleans lived up to my expectations, exceeded it in fact, Savannah was a little disappointing. It just seemed so much more….grand…I dunno, just bigger in my mind. But, it was a very pretty city and it was a relatively relaxing time after New Orleans. Here’s what we got up to….
We got up nice and early from New Orleans and caught the enlightening E2 bus again to the airport. We left our bags at the hotel to save ourselves some grief and then drove back to pick them up before we headed to Savannah. We had a domestic within about 2 seconds after getting in the car (but don’t worry it was over just as fast), but then proceeded to find our way without getting lost! Amazing! Anyway, the trip went well until we decided to take a scenic detour. We didn’t get lost, but honestly it was a waste of time! It was supposed to be a coastal road, but there were a whole bunch of houses in the way (not sure if Lonely Planet is out of date or what), however, we did visit a tiny town called Seaside – it was where The Truman Show was filmed, yep that’s right, it wasn’t a set, it was a real life place. It was actually kinda freaky. All the houses had a sign out front with its name and the names of people who lived there. Riiight.
So we finally got to Jacksonville where we crashed for the night.
The next morning we drove the 2 hours to Savannah (after a fabulous continental breakfast – not a doughnut in sight!). After checking in we headed downtown to explore. Not much to report here, just that we wandered down the main streets with all the Squares. Not sure if you know, but that’s what Savannah is famous for, it has like 12 Squares in the middle of two of it’s main streets which make for a very pretty place, but a pain in the bugt to drive. And the cars have right of way, not the pedestrians. These Squares are full of statues, memorials, fountains, trees etc etc. For dinner we had fried chicken from the shopping centre – YUMMY!
One thing we noticed on our trip were that there were a fair few Confederate flags being flown. Mike’s favourite comment became “don’t these guys know they lost the war?”
So the next day we headed to the Forsyth Park which was pretty impressive in winter, so it would be amazing in summer. The main feature is a massive ole’ fountain and sends water flying left right and centre (don’t think it was designed this way). Then we did a bus tour and got our bearings and a little local history. Afterwards we went for a tour of the Mencer House – the one and only from the book. I guess you guys really need photos to appreciate this don’t you? Sorry about that! The rest of the day was spent wandering around and checking out other monuments and parks and shops etc. Another thing to note about Savannah is that it’s covered in azaleas – they had only just started to bloom when we were there but by now (March) they should be in full bloom.
Well according to our photos, most of our last day was spent wandering around the Bonaventure Cemetery. This is the cemetery that has a lot of people buried that are significant in Savannah’s history. It has a lot of very ornate graves and used to have the “bird girl” in it who is the statue on the front of the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. She has now been moved to a museum – stupid tourists! For our final dinner in Savannah, we went to a pub – The Exchange Tavern - along River street, the main tourist drag.
The next day we drove back to Jacksonville to catch our flight to New York. We had to fly from here, and not Jacksonville, because it was cheaper for our car hire. Anyway, we were on the road on time, had brekky with ample time but then got distracted by a Target – ours is good, but theirs is a 1000 times better! Anyways, we finally got on the road (late) and then got lost. Not happy jan! Anyway, we finally asked for directions and found our way back. The traffic got heavy and we started to freak out. It was fine, we made it with plenty of time. However, we got there and our flight had been cancelled and they didn’t tell us. So….we ended up flying with another company on a flight an hour or so later (so no need to speed after all that!) and it went direct to New York! Hence, when I started the New Olreans blog, it had been one hell of a morning!
So enough for now. I will go and try and write something for New York. And try and find you all some pics!
Love ya
Bec & Mike
xoxo
However, I’ll be honest. Although New Orleans lived up to my expectations, exceeded it in fact, Savannah was a little disappointing. It just seemed so much more….grand…I dunno, just bigger in my mind. But, it was a very pretty city and it was a relatively relaxing time after New Orleans. Here’s what we got up to….
We got up nice and early from New Orleans and caught the enlightening E2 bus again to the airport. We left our bags at the hotel to save ourselves some grief and then drove back to pick them up before we headed to Savannah. We had a domestic within about 2 seconds after getting in the car (but don’t worry it was over just as fast), but then proceeded to find our way without getting lost! Amazing! Anyway, the trip went well until we decided to take a scenic detour. We didn’t get lost, but honestly it was a waste of time! It was supposed to be a coastal road, but there were a whole bunch of houses in the way (not sure if Lonely Planet is out of date or what), however, we did visit a tiny town called Seaside – it was where The Truman Show was filmed, yep that’s right, it wasn’t a set, it was a real life place. It was actually kinda freaky. All the houses had a sign out front with its name and the names of people who lived there. Riiight.
So we finally got to Jacksonville where we crashed for the night.
The next morning we drove the 2 hours to Savannah (after a fabulous continental breakfast – not a doughnut in sight!). After checking in we headed downtown to explore. Not much to report here, just that we wandered down the main streets with all the Squares. Not sure if you know, but that’s what Savannah is famous for, it has like 12 Squares in the middle of two of it’s main streets which make for a very pretty place, but a pain in the bugt to drive. And the cars have right of way, not the pedestrians. These Squares are full of statues, memorials, fountains, trees etc etc. For dinner we had fried chicken from the shopping centre – YUMMY!
One thing we noticed on our trip were that there were a fair few Confederate flags being flown. Mike’s favourite comment became “don’t these guys know they lost the war?”
So the next day we headed to the Forsyth Park which was pretty impressive in winter, so it would be amazing in summer. The main feature is a massive ole’ fountain and sends water flying left right and centre (don’t think it was designed this way). Then we did a bus tour and got our bearings and a little local history. Afterwards we went for a tour of the Mencer House – the one and only from the book. I guess you guys really need photos to appreciate this don’t you? Sorry about that! The rest of the day was spent wandering around and checking out other monuments and parks and shops etc. Another thing to note about Savannah is that it’s covered in azaleas – they had only just started to bloom when we were there but by now (March) they should be in full bloom.
Well according to our photos, most of our last day was spent wandering around the Bonaventure Cemetery. This is the cemetery that has a lot of people buried that are significant in Savannah’s history. It has a lot of very ornate graves and used to have the “bird girl” in it who is the statue on the front of the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. She has now been moved to a museum – stupid tourists! For our final dinner in Savannah, we went to a pub – The Exchange Tavern - along River street, the main tourist drag.
The next day we drove back to Jacksonville to catch our flight to New York. We had to fly from here, and not Jacksonville, because it was cheaper for our car hire. Anyway, we were on the road on time, had brekky with ample time but then got distracted by a Target – ours is good, but theirs is a 1000 times better! Anyways, we finally got on the road (late) and then got lost. Not happy jan! Anyway, we finally asked for directions and found our way back. The traffic got heavy and we started to freak out. It was fine, we made it with plenty of time. However, we got there and our flight had been cancelled and they didn’t tell us. So….we ended up flying with another company on a flight an hour or so later (so no need to speed after all that!) and it went direct to New York! Hence, when I started the New Olreans blog, it had been one hell of a morning!
So enough for now. I will go and try and write something for New York. And try and find you all some pics!
Love ya
Bec & Mike
xoxo
Friday, March 7, 2008
New Orleans
Ok, so here we are sitting in the Jacksonville International Airport…and what a morning! But I’ll tell you about that some other time. This blog has been written over a few days, so my apologies if it's a bit disjointed.
New Orleans
Day 1
I loved this place! Mike not so much. After our bus trip into town from the airport (a little unsettling) we checked into our beautiful (and secure) accommodation. It was called the Lamouth House and it was built in like 1800 and something. We had a room in the courtyard, which has a fountain and a pool. We started our visit with a brief exploration of the French Quarter (Vieux Carré), including the Moonwalk on the Mississippi River. We had dinner at a place called Pere Antoine and I sampled one of their cocktails, which I think was called Sex on the Quarter. FYI – New Orleans cocktails are strong! You don’t need more than 1 or 2 to be feeling nice and relaxed. For dessert we checked out the world famous (apparently) Café La Monde. This place sells traditional Café au Lait and Beignets – yummy, fried pastry things smothered in more icing sugar than you have ever seen in your entire life! Needless to say, we tried these again in Savannah, this time with praline sauce – YUMMY!
Day 2
The next morning, we discovered our “improved continental breakfast” included cereal, toast, tea/coffee, orange juice in the smallest glasses in the world, mini cinnamon rolls (you people are really missing out!) and doughnuts – all 4 different types. This was pretty cool the first two days, however, I was kinda over the sweet stuff by day 3 and was craving wheat, grains, and fruit! Anyway, after breakfast we headed out for a bit more exploring and hit a few museums – The Cabildo (Louisianna & New Orleans History Museum), the St Louis Cathedral, and the Presbytere (Madi Gras Museum). Not the most amazing museums of all time, but we learnt some stuff. A very brief history of New Orleans – the French founded New Orleans in 1718, after about 40 years (in 1763) the Spanish took over for another 40 years, then the French took it back again in 1803 (we heard a few different stories as to why this happened). But then 20 days later, the US bought the land off Neopolean (the biggest landsale ever in whole wide world at $15million). New Orleans’ unique music, food and culture is a result of the combination of Spanish, French, African and Canadian (now called Cajun) peoples. There’s a lot more to it than this, but we don’t have enough time. The St Louis Cathedral is pretty and the Presbytere Madi Gras Museum was interesting – it’s certainly not just one parade, and there are “Krewes” that are set up to organise various parades and there are heaps of different Krewes. Then there are all the celebrations outside of New Olreans, like the Cajuns who ride around on horseback and chase chickens. Anyhoo, the rest of our day was spent riding the streetcar along the river to the RiverWalk Shopping Centre. That night we headed out to Frenchman St in Fauborg Marigny, a suburb next to the French Quarter really close to us. It’s supposed to be a little less touristy and more local (unlike Bourbon St which is like walking down a mini Vegas Strip or somewhere in the coast). We went to dinner at Snug Harbor, a contemporary jazz place. Food was great, jazz was yuck so we left. I had a baileys at the bar and then a cocktail and was pretty well sloshed. So we wandered into the street to find some more jazz. We found one place with rock/jazz but were only there for 10/15 minutes or so and they finished the set. Then we found ole’ Reddy Teddy at the Apple Barrel. Reddy was sloshed (or so we think) but could sing and stand on his head on a chair and we reckon he was pushing 60 – quote “I might loose my mind, but I won’t loose my hat” – and he didn’t. So we hung around here for a while and then headed home. And the great thing about these places, there’s no cover – you just tip the band when you leave!
Day 3
We started our next day (a little tired) with a free tour of the French Quarter. This was great as we learnt some new stuff and clarified a few of the things we’d learnt the day before. Just as the tour finished it started pissing down rain. So we found somewhere for lunch – Café Maspero, and then went home to wait it out. The sun came out but as soon as we headed out again in started to piss down. We had booked a boat trip in the Mississippi River on the Natchez paddlesteamer and as we were waiting to get on, it pelted down. I don’t think it has ever rained that much or hard in Brisbane or Vancouver! But the sun came out in time for our trip up the Mississippi. That night we were buggered with all the walking, so we headed out to a quick dinner at Angeli, a cute little Italian place down the road, and went to bed.
Now, we haven’t mentioned the Hurricane yet, so we will do so now. Firstly, the French Quarter didn’t flood when Hurricane Katrina hit. In fact, the Mississippi and its levies didn’t overflow at all. This was because over the years the Mississippi naturally flooded and deposited silt etc along the riverbank. Therefore, the riverbank is some of the highest land in the area. Imagine the Mississippi River snaking it’s way across the bottom of the screen, the FQ is tucked right it, further up the page. The rest of New Orleans then spreads all the way up the top of the page and out to the left and aright. What is at the very top of the page is Lake Pontchartrain, which is about 10 feet deep. Unlike the Mississippi which is 80 feet deep. It is the Lake that flooded. It is also all the manmade levies running from the lake that flooded (as one of our tour guides commented, there’s a lesson in that). Some areas along the Mississippi did flood, for example the much talked about 9th Ward, but there is a levie from the Lake running right next to it, which is why it ended up flooding. I’m not sure if everyone knew this (I can’t really remember), but there was another Hurricane called Rita that hit a month or so after Katrina. This got the places that Katrina didn’t. In fact, in the Cabildo museum there was a photography display of the devastation that was captured by New Orleans photographers and journalists. There was also a section by a whole bunch of high school kids, along with a statement like “I’ll remember…” or “I won’t forget…”. One quote was “I remember wondering if my house survived the storm. I’ll never forget when I found out it didn’t”. I was almost in tears a few times. You just don’t realise how many peoples homes were destroyed, some small coastal towns completely and utterly disappeared. One of our tour guides has been re-building since it happened and still has at leat another year to go yet.
Day 4
Today was excellent. We booked a 2-in-1 tour – the plantations and the swamp. We spent the morning touring 2 plantations – Oak Alley and Laura. Oak Alley was very pretty, with an alley of live oaks leading up to the house (as opposed to dead ones? No, “live” just means they don’t lose their leaves during winter). These things were like 300 years old and had another good 2-300 years left in them. This was an American plantation house – all about showing off how rich they were. Laura was the stand out house and tour. We were lucky, and got Norm, the guy who owns passion is Laura and he owns and help restored the house. This was a Creole plantation house, meaning it was primarily a place of business, not a place to live, so there was no showing off, it didn’t have a front door – you entered through their private quarters and that’s where you did business, it was a very pretty bright yellow and it had an amazing history. I even bought the “Laura” book, who is actually the great-granddaughter of the original plantation owner, Annette. The Creoles gave the business to the smartest child, not necessarily the boy. They also were very family orientated, but almost to their detriment. Laura, who was going to be dumped with the responsibility of managing the plantation at age 13/14, like her Grandmother, gave it all up and walked away from her heritage and culture because hse didn’t want to turn out like her Grandmother and decided she wanted to be a free independent woman. It was sooooo cool!
Anyway, next was the swamp tour. This was pretty cool too. We saw alligators and got to hold a baby. The swamp is where the Acadians found their home. They work off the land – hunting, fishing etc – and are pretty basic people. The Indians shorted “Acadian” to “Cajun”. Originally the Cajuns were French dudes living in Canada, what is now Nova Scotia. When the British arrived in Canada, they sent them off to New Orleans. They are the ones how chase chickens around. Their way of life is obviously being seriously affected with the 21st century thing, but there are a few villages still around. Ok, so we headed back home after our tour and chilled a bit. Then we headed out for dinner and tried Gumbo – a Creole dish with a tomato base, lots of herbs and spices along with spicy sausage, chicken, and rice. Then we had a roast beef and cheese po’boy (short for poor boy) – a New Orleans thing, along with Gumbo, Jambalaya (like Gumbo but more rice and thicker – I think), and Muffalettas (massive sandwiches with lots of meat and an olive oil dressing/salad). Anyhoo, the po’boy was wonderful and then we hit Bourbon St. It was a Saturday night and it was sooooo busy! We decided to just wander and finally we found a place our bus driver had recommended – Funky Pirates, featuring Big Al Carson and the Blues Masters. And he was BIG! Like “get mamma her scratching stick” big. They were awesome! I had a Grenade (like the yard long margaritas in Vegas). Oh, by the way, don’t order vodka and cranberry – the vodka is gross and they use so much of it you can’t taste the juice. Ok, so after our night of soul food and soul music we headed home….late again.
Day 5
This morning we did our own little walking tour and then headed to the St Charles Avenue streetcar. This street car heads up one of the prettiest streets in New Orleans with a whole bunch of picturesque southern houses, verging on mansions. We stopped at the end of the line and had a delicious lunch at La Madeleine bakery, and then headed back. Oh, and this street was also lined with live oaks. That afternoon we headed over on the free ferry to Algiers, the second oldest neighbourhood in New Orleans, established in 1719 (note – this suburb is older than Australia - well the colonised, European Australia anyway. In fact, I think there was furniture older than Australia!). I had no plan or any idea where to go so we jumped on the free shuttle to Mardi Gras World – they make Mardi Gras floats. It was a rip off so we did some postcard shopping, got some ice-creams and got the shuttle and ferry back. By the way, the ferries used to cross over are the ones the move DeJavu (with Denzel Washington) was filmed on.
Ok, that night we did a Ghost Tour. He told us about a few places I wish we were able to make it to but unfortunately we didn’t have time or they were closed. However, I have a whole bunch of good little stories to scare you with now! Hehe. This tour is known to be historically accurate in terms of what happened, but you can decide on the hauntings yourself, but I’m choosing to believe! It makes it so much more fun. The only one I will tell you now is the haunting of Andrew Jackson Hotel, in particular room 201. This place was on a street that burnt down in one of the all consuming fires in New Orleans. They think some of the children that were killed have attached themselves to the hotel building, because there are always complaints of small children running through the hallways. In room 201, there is a little boy who would disappear though the wall or something if you woke up and saw him. But there was this one couple, who had no problems, but when they got home and developed their photos, they had a picture of themselves….asleep….taken from above the bed! ARGH! We fed our tummies with Angeli food again – this time a fabulous gourmet pizza.
Day 6
This was our last day. We finally did our Cemetery and Voodoo Tour today. Dave, our tour guide, took us to St Louis Cemetery 1. I’m not sure if everyone knows this, but because New Orleans is below sea level, if they bury their dead in the ground, a bit of a heavy rain shower, and the dead rise (HAHA!). Seriously, though, the bodies make their way to the surface – not attractive. So, to solve this problem they have aboveground burials, often family tombs, or ‘oven’ vaults. Give the bodies a year and a day (so the saying goes) and they pretty much turn to ash due to the heat. How it works is a person dies, they get put in the tomb (it has a little door they open, and then they smash down the bricks), and it gets resealed. Then, when the next person dies, the gravediggers (?) open the door, empty the coffin into the bottom of the tomb, throw away the coffin, and put in the next person. Don’t ask me what happens if something dies before the year and a day is up. This graveyard included the second most visited grave in the country (Elvis is #1) – some voodoo queen or priestess, Marie someone. There were a whole bunch of coins, lollies, dollar notes, drawings etc on her grave. And then some political leader goes and decides to get buried next to her – smart man. And today, I got sunburnt! Naughty I know, but I just couldn’t resist wearing my summer dress and I forgot sunscreen :-)
To cool off we had lunch in one of the courtyards – unusual that one is open, but it’s amazing how nice and cool they are. Then to finish of our New Orelan s visit, we had dinner at the Port of Call – a place just up the road from us, once again recommended by our bus driver. Great burgers! Then we headed to another of his recommendations, Donna’s Bar & Grill. Here we saw some traditional New Orleans jazz and swing - a band called "George French Band featuring Ms. Germaine Bazzle". They weren’t as funky as ol’ Big Al Carson or Reddy Teddy, but they were good. We also got so sample some BBQ chicken, red beans and rice from the owner of Donna’s Grill – Charlie.
A little message...
I just want to say one more thing, if anyone has ever considered, or ever does consider, going to New Orleans – DO IT! It is an amazing city. There are so many things to do, eat, drink and listen to! You won’t even notice the damage of Katrina but if you do, you’ll be moved because someone would have told you their story, or you would have seen a picture that captures so vividly what they went through. And you will help rebuild a city that has managed to pick up and keep on partying, despite what they went through.
New Orleans
Day 1
I loved this place! Mike not so much. After our bus trip into town from the airport (a little unsettling) we checked into our beautiful (and secure) accommodation. It was called the Lamouth House and it was built in like 1800 and something. We had a room in the courtyard, which has a fountain and a pool. We started our visit with a brief exploration of the French Quarter (Vieux Carré), including the Moonwalk on the Mississippi River. We had dinner at a place called Pere Antoine and I sampled one of their cocktails, which I think was called Sex on the Quarter. FYI – New Orleans cocktails are strong! You don’t need more than 1 or 2 to be feeling nice and relaxed. For dessert we checked out the world famous (apparently) Café La Monde. This place sells traditional Café au Lait and Beignets – yummy, fried pastry things smothered in more icing sugar than you have ever seen in your entire life! Needless to say, we tried these again in Savannah, this time with praline sauce – YUMMY!
Day 2
The next morning, we discovered our “improved continental breakfast” included cereal, toast, tea/coffee, orange juice in the smallest glasses in the world, mini cinnamon rolls (you people are really missing out!) and doughnuts – all 4 different types. This was pretty cool the first two days, however, I was kinda over the sweet stuff by day 3 and was craving wheat, grains, and fruit! Anyway, after breakfast we headed out for a bit more exploring and hit a few museums – The Cabildo (Louisianna & New Orleans History Museum), the St Louis Cathedral, and the Presbytere (Madi Gras Museum). Not the most amazing museums of all time, but we learnt some stuff. A very brief history of New Orleans – the French founded New Orleans in 1718, after about 40 years (in 1763) the Spanish took over for another 40 years, then the French took it back again in 1803 (we heard a few different stories as to why this happened). But then 20 days later, the US bought the land off Neopolean (the biggest landsale ever in whole wide world at $15million). New Orleans’ unique music, food and culture is a result of the combination of Spanish, French, African and Canadian (now called Cajun) peoples. There’s a lot more to it than this, but we don’t have enough time. The St Louis Cathedral is pretty and the Presbytere Madi Gras Museum was interesting – it’s certainly not just one parade, and there are “Krewes” that are set up to organise various parades and there are heaps of different Krewes. Then there are all the celebrations outside of New Olreans, like the Cajuns who ride around on horseback and chase chickens. Anyhoo, the rest of our day was spent riding the streetcar along the river to the RiverWalk Shopping Centre. That night we headed out to Frenchman St in Fauborg Marigny, a suburb next to the French Quarter really close to us. It’s supposed to be a little less touristy and more local (unlike Bourbon St which is like walking down a mini Vegas Strip or somewhere in the coast). We went to dinner at Snug Harbor, a contemporary jazz place. Food was great, jazz was yuck so we left. I had a baileys at the bar and then a cocktail and was pretty well sloshed. So we wandered into the street to find some more jazz. We found one place with rock/jazz but were only there for 10/15 minutes or so and they finished the set. Then we found ole’ Reddy Teddy at the Apple Barrel. Reddy was sloshed (or so we think) but could sing and stand on his head on a chair and we reckon he was pushing 60 – quote “I might loose my mind, but I won’t loose my hat” – and he didn’t. So we hung around here for a while and then headed home. And the great thing about these places, there’s no cover – you just tip the band when you leave!
Day 3
We started our next day (a little tired) with a free tour of the French Quarter. This was great as we learnt some new stuff and clarified a few of the things we’d learnt the day before. Just as the tour finished it started pissing down rain. So we found somewhere for lunch – Café Maspero, and then went home to wait it out. The sun came out but as soon as we headed out again in started to piss down. We had booked a boat trip in the Mississippi River on the Natchez paddlesteamer and as we were waiting to get on, it pelted down. I don’t think it has ever rained that much or hard in Brisbane or Vancouver! But the sun came out in time for our trip up the Mississippi. That night we were buggered with all the walking, so we headed out to a quick dinner at Angeli, a cute little Italian place down the road, and went to bed.
Now, we haven’t mentioned the Hurricane yet, so we will do so now. Firstly, the French Quarter didn’t flood when Hurricane Katrina hit. In fact, the Mississippi and its levies didn’t overflow at all. This was because over the years the Mississippi naturally flooded and deposited silt etc along the riverbank. Therefore, the riverbank is some of the highest land in the area. Imagine the Mississippi River snaking it’s way across the bottom of the screen, the FQ is tucked right it, further up the page. The rest of New Orleans then spreads all the way up the top of the page and out to the left and aright. What is at the very top of the page is Lake Pontchartrain, which is about 10 feet deep. Unlike the Mississippi which is 80 feet deep. It is the Lake that flooded. It is also all the manmade levies running from the lake that flooded (as one of our tour guides commented, there’s a lesson in that). Some areas along the Mississippi did flood, for example the much talked about 9th Ward, but there is a levie from the Lake running right next to it, which is why it ended up flooding. I’m not sure if everyone knew this (I can’t really remember), but there was another Hurricane called Rita that hit a month or so after Katrina. This got the places that Katrina didn’t. In fact, in the Cabildo museum there was a photography display of the devastation that was captured by New Orleans photographers and journalists. There was also a section by a whole bunch of high school kids, along with a statement like “I’ll remember…” or “I won’t forget…”. One quote was “I remember wondering if my house survived the storm. I’ll never forget when I found out it didn’t”. I was almost in tears a few times. You just don’t realise how many peoples homes were destroyed, some small coastal towns completely and utterly disappeared. One of our tour guides has been re-building since it happened and still has at leat another year to go yet.
Day 4
Today was excellent. We booked a 2-in-1 tour – the plantations and the swamp. We spent the morning touring 2 plantations – Oak Alley and Laura. Oak Alley was very pretty, with an alley of live oaks leading up to the house (as opposed to dead ones? No, “live” just means they don’t lose their leaves during winter). These things were like 300 years old and had another good 2-300 years left in them. This was an American plantation house – all about showing off how rich they were. Laura was the stand out house and tour. We were lucky, and got Norm, the guy who owns passion is Laura and he owns and help restored the house. This was a Creole plantation house, meaning it was primarily a place of business, not a place to live, so there was no showing off, it didn’t have a front door – you entered through their private quarters and that’s where you did business, it was a very pretty bright yellow and it had an amazing history. I even bought the “Laura” book, who is actually the great-granddaughter of the original plantation owner, Annette. The Creoles gave the business to the smartest child, not necessarily the boy. They also were very family orientated, but almost to their detriment. Laura, who was going to be dumped with the responsibility of managing the plantation at age 13/14, like her Grandmother, gave it all up and walked away from her heritage and culture because hse didn’t want to turn out like her Grandmother and decided she wanted to be a free independent woman. It was sooooo cool!
Anyway, next was the swamp tour. This was pretty cool too. We saw alligators and got to hold a baby. The swamp is where the Acadians found their home. They work off the land – hunting, fishing etc – and are pretty basic people. The Indians shorted “Acadian” to “Cajun”. Originally the Cajuns were French dudes living in Canada, what is now Nova Scotia. When the British arrived in Canada, they sent them off to New Orleans. They are the ones how chase chickens around. Their way of life is obviously being seriously affected with the 21st century thing, but there are a few villages still around. Ok, so we headed back home after our tour and chilled a bit. Then we headed out for dinner and tried Gumbo – a Creole dish with a tomato base, lots of herbs and spices along with spicy sausage, chicken, and rice. Then we had a roast beef and cheese po’boy (short for poor boy) – a New Orleans thing, along with Gumbo, Jambalaya (like Gumbo but more rice and thicker – I think), and Muffalettas (massive sandwiches with lots of meat and an olive oil dressing/salad). Anyhoo, the po’boy was wonderful and then we hit Bourbon St. It was a Saturday night and it was sooooo busy! We decided to just wander and finally we found a place our bus driver had recommended – Funky Pirates, featuring Big Al Carson and the Blues Masters. And he was BIG! Like “get mamma her scratching stick” big. They were awesome! I had a Grenade (like the yard long margaritas in Vegas). Oh, by the way, don’t order vodka and cranberry – the vodka is gross and they use so much of it you can’t taste the juice. Ok, so after our night of soul food and soul music we headed home….late again.
Day 5
This morning we did our own little walking tour and then headed to the St Charles Avenue streetcar. This street car heads up one of the prettiest streets in New Orleans with a whole bunch of picturesque southern houses, verging on mansions. We stopped at the end of the line and had a delicious lunch at La Madeleine bakery, and then headed back. Oh, and this street was also lined with live oaks. That afternoon we headed over on the free ferry to Algiers, the second oldest neighbourhood in New Orleans, established in 1719 (note – this suburb is older than Australia - well the colonised, European Australia anyway. In fact, I think there was furniture older than Australia!). I had no plan or any idea where to go so we jumped on the free shuttle to Mardi Gras World – they make Mardi Gras floats. It was a rip off so we did some postcard shopping, got some ice-creams and got the shuttle and ferry back. By the way, the ferries used to cross over are the ones the move DeJavu (with Denzel Washington) was filmed on.
Ok, that night we did a Ghost Tour. He told us about a few places I wish we were able to make it to but unfortunately we didn’t have time or they were closed. However, I have a whole bunch of good little stories to scare you with now! Hehe. This tour is known to be historically accurate in terms of what happened, but you can decide on the hauntings yourself, but I’m choosing to believe! It makes it so much more fun. The only one I will tell you now is the haunting of Andrew Jackson Hotel, in particular room 201. This place was on a street that burnt down in one of the all consuming fires in New Orleans. They think some of the children that were killed have attached themselves to the hotel building, because there are always complaints of small children running through the hallways. In room 201, there is a little boy who would disappear though the wall or something if you woke up and saw him. But there was this one couple, who had no problems, but when they got home and developed their photos, they had a picture of themselves….asleep….taken from above the bed! ARGH! We fed our tummies with Angeli food again – this time a fabulous gourmet pizza.
Day 6
This was our last day. We finally did our Cemetery and Voodoo Tour today. Dave, our tour guide, took us to St Louis Cemetery 1. I’m not sure if everyone knows this, but because New Orleans is below sea level, if they bury their dead in the ground, a bit of a heavy rain shower, and the dead rise (HAHA!). Seriously, though, the bodies make their way to the surface – not attractive. So, to solve this problem they have aboveground burials, often family tombs, or ‘oven’ vaults. Give the bodies a year and a day (so the saying goes) and they pretty much turn to ash due to the heat. How it works is a person dies, they get put in the tomb (it has a little door they open, and then they smash down the bricks), and it gets resealed. Then, when the next person dies, the gravediggers (?) open the door, empty the coffin into the bottom of the tomb, throw away the coffin, and put in the next person. Don’t ask me what happens if something dies before the year and a day is up. This graveyard included the second most visited grave in the country (Elvis is #1) – some voodoo queen or priestess, Marie someone. There were a whole bunch of coins, lollies, dollar notes, drawings etc on her grave. And then some political leader goes and decides to get buried next to her – smart man. And today, I got sunburnt! Naughty I know, but I just couldn’t resist wearing my summer dress and I forgot sunscreen :-)
To cool off we had lunch in one of the courtyards – unusual that one is open, but it’s amazing how nice and cool they are. Then to finish of our New Orelan s visit, we had dinner at the Port of Call – a place just up the road from us, once again recommended by our bus driver. Great burgers! Then we headed to another of his recommendations, Donna’s Bar & Grill. Here we saw some traditional New Orleans jazz and swing - a band called "George French Band featuring Ms. Germaine Bazzle". They weren’t as funky as ol’ Big Al Carson or Reddy Teddy, but they were good. We also got so sample some BBQ chicken, red beans and rice from the owner of Donna’s Grill – Charlie.
A little message...
I just want to say one more thing, if anyone has ever considered, or ever does consider, going to New Orleans – DO IT! It is an amazing city. There are so many things to do, eat, drink and listen to! You won’t even notice the damage of Katrina but if you do, you’ll be moved because someone would have told you their story, or you would have seen a picture that captures so vividly what they went through. And you will help rebuild a city that has managed to pick up and keep on partying, despite what they went through.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Welcome to Denver - Population: No one but us
Hi everyone!
Well, in keeping with our New Year's tradition of keeping up a regular blog (and email replies) we are about to do our first blog of the new leg of our trip - only 3 days in!
But first, an update on the last month or two in Vancouver. We moved - that was fun! (detect the trace amount of sarcasm here). We spent our last two weeks living with Chris and Alice (payback!) and it was great to have roomies again.
We celebrated Australia Day with work (well I did anyway), snow and a few drinks and dinner with Chris and Alice at a local restuarant, named after a place in NZ - Raglans. Two things worth mentioning - great chicken wings and MASSIVE cocktails, ie in a fish bowl type glass. For Mike's birthday we went to the hockey the night before, but we spent the actual day moving house. That night we went out for a steak at The Keg. Aggie's b'day is a day later (same year) so we headed out to a club on Granville St that weekend, called Crush. Not a bad place - if you can get in. We were ID'd, wand'd for metal obejcts, then our photo was taken and scanned then compared to our IDs, we paid our cover, handed a ticket to the guy right next to us and then went to the coat check and paid more money to check our jackets. But it was a great night and there was a DJ from Sydney who was pretty good.
We finally ended up night skiing on Grouse - both of us were nurisng some sore heads and necks due to massive stacks. Actually, after skiing at Whistler, Grouse is pretty boring - 3 minute runs just aren't challenging enough! Anyway, we also checked out a few more hockey games. We spent a lot of our last week eating out at places we had always wanted to go, and we had our last ski on Grouse (the weather started out beautiful and turned ugly fast - pics to come). We went out Friday night with my mates from Harbour Cruises (my first job) and then Saturday night we went out with "'Couver Crew" (ie Aggie, Lukas, Bodhi, Chris and Alice) for dinner at a Greek restuarant down the road. All in all, we are happy to be moving on to more travel (and hopefully warmth and most importantly, sunshine!) but just can't believe it's all over! We will miss all our Vancouver buddies (and Aussie and NZ buddies)!
Ok, so back to our trip. Lukas and Aggie were kind enough to drive us out to the airport - at 4am! We got there in record time and had plenty of time to check in. Our flight was a non-event and we landed in Denver around 12ish. It was very flat (with the exception of the Rockies of course) and brown....and deserted! It was Sunday, but still. We found the hostel, and the first thing we thought was DODGY! They didn't have our reservation (I'd even rung the previous day to check) and reception was through another business' door and the whole thing looked shady. So we thought we'd "look at the room" before making any commitments. The place turned out to be one of the cleanest hostels I've seen. We got used to the place and figured that it only really looked dodgy because the area was full of parking lots and industrial type shops, it was cold and everything was dead. However, we found out today that this was not the case - it really was dodgy (you'll find out why later). Anyhoo, we spent our first arvo wandering around downtown, at first enjoying the blue sky and sun, and then fighting the gusty winds and swirling snow. It was freakin cold! But the following two days turned into beautiful ones - with warm weather! Downtown was pretty deserted, and this continued on Monday. We didn't know what was going on but found out Monday was a public holiday - President's Day - and Tuesday it turned into a thriving metropolis......kinda.
Our priority for Denver was to see the Colorardo Avalanche (ice hockey) and Denver Nuggets (basketball). Mike - I'll take over this part. I have actually been a fan of the Avalanche for some time and Allen Iverson is my favourite NBA (basketball for those not in the know) player who happens to now play for the Nuggets. So this was shaping as somewhat of a dream north american sport trip for me. Turns out that the one player I really wanted to see on the Avs went down with injury 10 weeks before the game and was scheduled to come back about the same time as this game but never made it back in time. Nevermind, I still saw the team, however, they got flogged, which was pretty bad. The Nuggets, on the otherhand, got up in a pretty close game. All in all I walked away happy, and a lot shorter in the hip pocket but with enough merchandise to fill a separate bag.
Not much else to note about Denver. We went to Capitol Hill - their parliament building (seems to be a common theme, but they are free! and usually have interesting buildings and you learn a little about the city). Avoided (well, missed really) the tour but got to go up in the dome, which is gold plated. The views were amazing, especially because of the sunny day. However, the place definately looks better in the warmer months. They had some pics up of the view during summer and it is green and there are lots of flower beds. The only other thing we did was check out Boulder. Its about a 45 minute bus trip from Denver and it's a University town - i think the Lonely Planet said there is a 30 000 student population. Not surpising considering the size of the friggin' campus - you think UQ or Griffith is bad, I would be lost in this place as soon as I turned around. All in all Boulder was a nice enough place - we liked it cause it was warm. The last thing we were going to do in Denver was a tour of the baseball field, Coors Field, but we picked the only day of our visit that there weren't any tours. So instead Mike just bought stuff from the shop :-)
So today....well we were up at 6am today to catch our mid morning flight (you can never tell with US security) to New Orleans. We met this guy from Melbourne in a cafe and had a chat to him (he was also on our bus and we knew we were all from Aus because we had Kathmandu bags - his and Mike's were identical!) He was actually heading to Vancouver to do the working visa thing and believe it or not he was staying across the hall from us at the hostel - never even saw him. It was at this point he informed us that there had apparently been 6 shootings in the last month within a block of the hostel (deep breaths mums!).
Again, the flight was uneventful. We knew we were in "Naw-lins" when we got to the baggage claim area and there was a brass band playing. And it was humid! Yes, I have never been happier to feel the humidity before. It almost felt like home :-)
The bus trip downtown was interesting. Mike reckons harrowing but I think that's an exaggeration. Honestly, it's only really in our minds - in reality we were going down the main drag from the airport to the financial district/french quarter in the middle of the day. But when you know New Orleans can be dodgy if you're in the wrong place, in particular at night (don't worry, we won't be adding those places to our itinerary) you kinda think twice. NOTE - the bus trip was $1.60 each (listen up AirTrain), so we each saved $13.40 (shuttle) - which is why we took the "cultural experience / live like a local" option. Mike - That and the cabbies apparently like to take tourists on the "scenic route", ie the wrong way, for a big payday. We arrived at the last stop and although I knew what buses to catch, I had no idea where or when exactly - just the general vacinity - bit of a "she'll be right mate" attitude. So after lugging our suitcases for a few blocks in the rain (yes more friggin' rain!!!!) we saw a bus coming and hopped on - with all our shit - I'm getting pretty sick of our 7 bags by this time. So we finally arrived on the edge of the French Quarter and it's starting to look like the New Orleans I've come to see. We walked yet a few more blocks (I think it was only 4, but i was actually sweating by the time I got to the hotel) and finally arrived. This place is gorgeous! A bit worn, but very New Orleans French. It's recently been renovated and only around $60 a night, incl tax and brekky! We are in the courtyard, with a fountain ourside (I can hear it now, mmmm along with a train - there's always a friggin train!), and our room is very romantic. We wandered around tonight looking for somewhere for dinner and it's a lovely area but very touristy.
Anyway, we are going to get an early night. There's so much I want to do here and we also need to do some washing. Apparently the pub down the road has a laundramat....interesting.
Good night. Hopefully you're all doing well. We miss you!
We'll get some piccies up soon.
xoxo
PS - We just wanted to say a special thanks to a few people -
Well, in keeping with our New Year's tradition of keeping up a regular blog (and email replies) we are about to do our first blog of the new leg of our trip - only 3 days in!
But first, an update on the last month or two in Vancouver. We moved - that was fun! (detect the trace amount of sarcasm here). We spent our last two weeks living with Chris and Alice (payback!) and it was great to have roomies again.
We celebrated Australia Day with work (well I did anyway), snow and a few drinks and dinner with Chris and Alice at a local restuarant, named after a place in NZ - Raglans. Two things worth mentioning - great chicken wings and MASSIVE cocktails, ie in a fish bowl type glass. For Mike's birthday we went to the hockey the night before, but we spent the actual day moving house. That night we went out for a steak at The Keg. Aggie's b'day is a day later (same year) so we headed out to a club on Granville St that weekend, called Crush. Not a bad place - if you can get in. We were ID'd, wand'd for metal obejcts, then our photo was taken and scanned then compared to our IDs, we paid our cover, handed a ticket to the guy right next to us and then went to the coat check and paid more money to check our jackets. But it was a great night and there was a DJ from Sydney who was pretty good.
We finally ended up night skiing on Grouse - both of us were nurisng some sore heads and necks due to massive stacks. Actually, after skiing at Whistler, Grouse is pretty boring - 3 minute runs just aren't challenging enough! Anyway, we also checked out a few more hockey games. We spent a lot of our last week eating out at places we had always wanted to go, and we had our last ski on Grouse (the weather started out beautiful and turned ugly fast - pics to come). We went out Friday night with my mates from Harbour Cruises (my first job) and then Saturday night we went out with "'Couver Crew" (ie Aggie, Lukas, Bodhi, Chris and Alice) for dinner at a Greek restuarant down the road. All in all, we are happy to be moving on to more travel (and hopefully warmth and most importantly, sunshine!) but just can't believe it's all over! We will miss all our Vancouver buddies (and Aussie and NZ buddies)!
Ok, so back to our trip. Lukas and Aggie were kind enough to drive us out to the airport - at 4am! We got there in record time and had plenty of time to check in. Our flight was a non-event and we landed in Denver around 12ish. It was very flat (with the exception of the Rockies of course) and brown....and deserted! It was Sunday, but still. We found the hostel, and the first thing we thought was DODGY! They didn't have our reservation (I'd even rung the previous day to check) and reception was through another business' door and the whole thing looked shady. So we thought we'd "look at the room" before making any commitments. The place turned out to be one of the cleanest hostels I've seen. We got used to the place and figured that it only really looked dodgy because the area was full of parking lots and industrial type shops, it was cold and everything was dead. However, we found out today that this was not the case - it really was dodgy (you'll find out why later). Anyhoo, we spent our first arvo wandering around downtown, at first enjoying the blue sky and sun, and then fighting the gusty winds and swirling snow. It was freakin cold! But the following two days turned into beautiful ones - with warm weather! Downtown was pretty deserted, and this continued on Monday. We didn't know what was going on but found out Monday was a public holiday - President's Day - and Tuesday it turned into a thriving metropolis......kinda.
Our priority for Denver was to see the Colorardo Avalanche (ice hockey) and Denver Nuggets (basketball). Mike - I'll take over this part. I have actually been a fan of the Avalanche for some time and Allen Iverson is my favourite NBA (basketball for those not in the know) player who happens to now play for the Nuggets. So this was shaping as somewhat of a dream north american sport trip for me. Turns out that the one player I really wanted to see on the Avs went down with injury 10 weeks before the game and was scheduled to come back about the same time as this game but never made it back in time. Nevermind, I still saw the team, however, they got flogged, which was pretty bad. The Nuggets, on the otherhand, got up in a pretty close game. All in all I walked away happy, and a lot shorter in the hip pocket but with enough merchandise to fill a separate bag.
Not much else to note about Denver. We went to Capitol Hill - their parliament building (seems to be a common theme, but they are free! and usually have interesting buildings and you learn a little about the city). Avoided (well, missed really) the tour but got to go up in the dome, which is gold plated. The views were amazing, especially because of the sunny day. However, the place definately looks better in the warmer months. They had some pics up of the view during summer and it is green and there are lots of flower beds. The only other thing we did was check out Boulder. Its about a 45 minute bus trip from Denver and it's a University town - i think the Lonely Planet said there is a 30 000 student population. Not surpising considering the size of the friggin' campus - you think UQ or Griffith is bad, I would be lost in this place as soon as I turned around. All in all Boulder was a nice enough place - we liked it cause it was warm. The last thing we were going to do in Denver was a tour of the baseball field, Coors Field, but we picked the only day of our visit that there weren't any tours. So instead Mike just bought stuff from the shop :-)
So today....well we were up at 6am today to catch our mid morning flight (you can never tell with US security) to New Orleans. We met this guy from Melbourne in a cafe and had a chat to him (he was also on our bus and we knew we were all from Aus because we had Kathmandu bags - his and Mike's were identical!) He was actually heading to Vancouver to do the working visa thing and believe it or not he was staying across the hall from us at the hostel - never even saw him. It was at this point he informed us that there had apparently been 6 shootings in the last month within a block of the hostel (deep breaths mums!).
Again, the flight was uneventful. We knew we were in "Naw-lins" when we got to the baggage claim area and there was a brass band playing. And it was humid! Yes, I have never been happier to feel the humidity before. It almost felt like home :-)
The bus trip downtown was interesting. Mike reckons harrowing but I think that's an exaggeration. Honestly, it's only really in our minds - in reality we were going down the main drag from the airport to the financial district/french quarter in the middle of the day. But when you know New Orleans can be dodgy if you're in the wrong place, in particular at night (don't worry, we won't be adding those places to our itinerary) you kinda think twice. NOTE - the bus trip was $1.60 each (listen up AirTrain), so we each saved $13.40 (shuttle) - which is why we took the "cultural experience / live like a local" option. Mike - That and the cabbies apparently like to take tourists on the "scenic route", ie the wrong way, for a big payday. We arrived at the last stop and although I knew what buses to catch, I had no idea where or when exactly - just the general vacinity - bit of a "she'll be right mate" attitude. So after lugging our suitcases for a few blocks in the rain (yes more friggin' rain!!!!) we saw a bus coming and hopped on - with all our shit - I'm getting pretty sick of our 7 bags by this time. So we finally arrived on the edge of the French Quarter and it's starting to look like the New Orleans I've come to see. We walked yet a few more blocks (I think it was only 4, but i was actually sweating by the time I got to the hotel) and finally arrived. This place is gorgeous! A bit worn, but very New Orleans French. It's recently been renovated and only around $60 a night, incl tax and brekky! We are in the courtyard, with a fountain ourside (I can hear it now, mmmm along with a train - there's always a friggin train!), and our room is very romantic. We wandered around tonight looking for somewhere for dinner and it's a lovely area but very touristy.
Anyway, we are going to get an early night. There's so much I want to do here and we also need to do some washing. Apparently the pub down the road has a laundramat....interesting.
Good night. Hopefully you're all doing well. We miss you!
We'll get some piccies up soon.
xoxo
PS - We just wanted to say a special thanks to a few people -
- Chris and Alice - for letting us mess up your place
- Aggie and Lukas - for getting up in the wee hours of the morning and driving us to the airport
- Bodhi - for all the advice and help while we were in Vancouver (and especially the sleeping bags and mattresses!)
Monday, February 11, 2008
A little Aussie town called Whistler
Following on from the White Christmas post....
The next day and the six of us (Me, Bec, Lee, Sam, Chris and Alice) got up and going by eight in order to make the second bus to Whistler. Things didn't start too well for the old busie when he stalled it driving out of the terminal. Let me just say that this does not fill you with that much confidence given the slippery conditions we were about to face. Thankfully the journey went off without a hitch, and only one more stall. The only thing to note was how different everything looked from the last time we came through here in mid July. The lake we had lunch at in summer (Browning Lake) was almost frozen over. I tried to take a photo of the Squamish Inn (where we stayed in July) from the bus but it didn't turn out real flash. About 2 hours later and we arrived in Whistler. Everyone was excited to get there and see everything covered in white. This excitement waned a little during the 20 minute walk to our apartment, mainly due to the fact that we had to drag a suitcase through snowy foot paths while wearing a pack and carrying ski gear. Further waning was experienced when we got there to find that the apartment had only two bedrooms and one couple would have to sleep on a sofa bed in the lounge. Other than that the place was excellent. There was a main bed and ensuite, second bathroom, kitchen, flat screen tv and a hot tub outside on the deck. We spent the first day getting stocked up for the week ahead and went out for an early dinner in the Village.
Anyway, by now you are probably sick of the extended version of events, so I'll cut back a bit. We spent day 2 (first ski day) on Blackcomb where the snowboarders (the other four) left us so they could go and do crazy things. It was apparent that Rebecca was quickly leaving me behind and the skill department, and also that she thought it necessary to offer me advice every 5 seconds. We met the others for lunch and the common fight for a table. The lines for the lifts were fine but the number of people having food at the café halfway up the mountain was crazy. After throwing down some food we headed back out. We stayed the day (10am-4pm) and got home to find the boarders. Everyone was sore and so the hot tub got its first work out. At some point someone decided it was wise to jump out of the hot tub and sit in the snow and then get back in. So everyone took turns at this. The best would have to be Rebecca's who was eying off this mound of snow to dive into. As it turned out, the mound was more ground then snow and her dive made a nice splat sound that everyone enjoyed. After dinner, everyone was exhausted and we were all in bed by 9:30. Boy we know how to party!!!! Day 3 and we tackled Whistler. The boarders ran off again, and Rebecca continued with her advice, deciding to add “Why don't you get a lesson” to the mix. I thought that this was not a bad idea, as it might give me a break from her coaching but decided that since we planned to have a rest day the next day I would do it the first day back. After this we started to do separate runs as Rebecca tackled high end blues and I stuck to greens and low end blues. Thing progressed the same at the end of day 2 like day 1, meeting the guys for lunch, finishing at 4 before hot tub, dinner and 9:30 bed.
Day 4 and Rebecca and I decided to have a rest day. We spent the morning just relaxing and then went out on a guided snowshoeing tour in the afternoon. The snowshoeing was awesome, walking through the Whistler forest, stopping for a hot chocolate and sliding down snow slides! Day 5 I booked in for my lesson. What a dog's breakfast that was!!! We got up there early and there was an all-day group starting in about 10 minutes which was not that much more expensive then the 3 hour. I determined from their descriptions of ability that I was a level 3. They told me to go to the level 3 sign outside where I then described my level of experience again to another person. After this I was assigned to a group of eight and thought all was good. 30 minutes into the lesson and the instructor told me that I needed to work on my turns that this was the wrong group to do it in. For the next 30 minutes he was looking for another group to off-load me onto and I felt like a right tool with the other seven. Eventually he found a level 2 group and kicked me out. So I got bumped back to remedial. Now don't get me wrong, by the end of the day I was better but there were some people in this group who had never even been on a chair lift before so progression was slow!!!! Ah, never mind. I rejoined the rest of the gang at the end of the day for some night tubing. First run and we asked the guy if all six of us could go at once. After some discussion and unsure glances, they decided to just send us down. It was awesome!!! We spent an hour here and had a lot of fun.
Anyway, for those who haven't fallen asleep, I'm going to trim down the rest because I am sick of typing, and I did mention that I would cut back (too late). New Years (Day 6) was pretty uneventful. Everyone spent the day skiing (or snowboarding) on Whistler. Interesting moment of the day was when some random dude come flying round a corner and jumped a 4 foot fence off a green road run straight onto the slope of a black. Didn't see the landing but it scared the proverbial out of us when he flew past. We actually rode the last run down with Lee and Chris which was great. That night we stayed in watching Bee Movie (we know how to party hard!) and then decided to walk in to the village about 10 minutes before midnight. One of the main reasons for the stay home was the fact that they were charging to get into the village. We decided to wait next to the security and watch the fireworks from outside. We were kind of disappointed that there was no real countdown, and I think we actually ended up missing the exact time but we still experienced it. After midnight, they opened the gates but the band was kind of winding down. We decided to head back and finish Bee Movie before calling it a night. The next day (day 7 for those keeping count) on the slopes was DEAD. Obviously the revellers where nursing a few sore heads and so the lines for the lifts were pretty short. Rebecca and I spent the day on the various blue runs of Blackcomb while the others had the day off. Day 8 and we woke to a fresh wonderland of snow. They had 20cm over night and Lee, Sam and Chris needed couldn't pass up the last fix on the fresh stuff. Rebecca, Alice and I loaded up with gear and despite a completely unorganised Greyhound set-up, boarded the bus home at 10:30. That night we went out to dinner at Brown's on Lonsdale with the whistler crew for Lee and Sam's last night in Vancouver. We both went back to work the next day and then off to the airport to see Lee and Sam home. I must admit that I was not only sad to see them go, but a little teary knowing that they where going home. Guess being away is starting to take its toll.
So there you have our white Christmas vacation. Stay tuned for the second last report of the first leg of the US trip and the last report on Vancouver. Down to our last week here!!
Anyway, hope everyone is safe and we miss you all.
Love Mike and Bec.
The next day and the six of us (Me, Bec, Lee, Sam, Chris and Alice) got up and going by eight in order to make the second bus to Whistler. Things didn't start too well for the old busie when he stalled it driving out of the terminal. Let me just say that this does not fill you with that much confidence given the slippery conditions we were about to face. Thankfully the journey went off without a hitch, and only one more stall. The only thing to note was how different everything looked from the last time we came through here in mid July. The lake we had lunch at in summer (Browning Lake) was almost frozen over. I tried to take a photo of the Squamish Inn (where we stayed in July) from the bus but it didn't turn out real flash. About 2 hours later and we arrived in Whistler. Everyone was excited to get there and see everything covered in white. This excitement waned a little during the 20 minute walk to our apartment, mainly due to the fact that we had to drag a suitcase through snowy foot paths while wearing a pack and carrying ski gear. Further waning was experienced when we got there to find that the apartment had only two bedrooms and one couple would have to sleep on a sofa bed in the lounge. Other than that the place was excellent. There was a main bed and ensuite, second bathroom, kitchen, flat screen tv and a hot tub outside on the deck. We spent the first day getting stocked up for the week ahead and went out for an early dinner in the Village.
Anyway, by now you are probably sick of the extended version of events, so I'll cut back a bit. We spent day 2 (first ski day) on Blackcomb where the snowboarders (the other four) left us so they could go and do crazy things. It was apparent that Rebecca was quickly leaving me behind and the skill department, and also that she thought it necessary to offer me advice every 5 seconds. We met the others for lunch and the common fight for a table. The lines for the lifts were fine but the number of people having food at the café halfway up the mountain was crazy. After throwing down some food we headed back out. We stayed the day (10am-4pm) and got home to find the boarders. Everyone was sore and so the hot tub got its first work out. At some point someone decided it was wise to jump out of the hot tub and sit in the snow and then get back in. So everyone took turns at this. The best would have to be Rebecca's who was eying off this mound of snow to dive into. As it turned out, the mound was more ground then snow and her dive made a nice splat sound that everyone enjoyed. After dinner, everyone was exhausted and we were all in bed by 9:30. Boy we know how to party!!!! Day 3 and we tackled Whistler. The boarders ran off again, and Rebecca continued with her advice, deciding to add “Why don't you get a lesson” to the mix. I thought that this was not a bad idea, as it might give me a break from her coaching but decided that since we planned to have a rest day the next day I would do it the first day back. After this we started to do separate runs as Rebecca tackled high end blues and I stuck to greens and low end blues. Thing progressed the same at the end of day 2 like day 1, meeting the guys for lunch, finishing at 4 before hot tub, dinner and 9:30 bed.
Day 4 and Rebecca and I decided to have a rest day. We spent the morning just relaxing and then went out on a guided snowshoeing tour in the afternoon. The snowshoeing was awesome, walking through the Whistler forest, stopping for a hot chocolate and sliding down snow slides! Day 5 I booked in for my lesson. What a dog's breakfast that was!!! We got up there early and there was an all-day group starting in about 10 minutes which was not that much more expensive then the 3 hour. I determined from their descriptions of ability that I was a level 3. They told me to go to the level 3 sign outside where I then described my level of experience again to another person. After this I was assigned to a group of eight and thought all was good. 30 minutes into the lesson and the instructor told me that I needed to work on my turns that this was the wrong group to do it in. For the next 30 minutes he was looking for another group to off-load me onto and I felt like a right tool with the other seven. Eventually he found a level 2 group and kicked me out. So I got bumped back to remedial. Now don't get me wrong, by the end of the day I was better but there were some people in this group who had never even been on a chair lift before so progression was slow!!!! Ah, never mind. I rejoined the rest of the gang at the end of the day for some night tubing. First run and we asked the guy if all six of us could go at once. After some discussion and unsure glances, they decided to just send us down. It was awesome!!! We spent an hour here and had a lot of fun.
Anyway, for those who haven't fallen asleep, I'm going to trim down the rest because I am sick of typing, and I did mention that I would cut back (too late). New Years (Day 6) was pretty uneventful. Everyone spent the day skiing (or snowboarding) on Whistler. Interesting moment of the day was when some random dude come flying round a corner and jumped a 4 foot fence off a green road run straight onto the slope of a black. Didn't see the landing but it scared the proverbial out of us when he flew past. We actually rode the last run down with Lee and Chris which was great. That night we stayed in watching Bee Movie (we know how to party hard!) and then decided to walk in to the village about 10 minutes before midnight. One of the main reasons for the stay home was the fact that they were charging to get into the village. We decided to wait next to the security and watch the fireworks from outside. We were kind of disappointed that there was no real countdown, and I think we actually ended up missing the exact time but we still experienced it. After midnight, they opened the gates but the band was kind of winding down. We decided to head back and finish Bee Movie before calling it a night. The next day (day 7 for those keeping count) on the slopes was DEAD. Obviously the revellers where nursing a few sore heads and so the lines for the lifts were pretty short. Rebecca and I spent the day on the various blue runs of Blackcomb while the others had the day off. Day 8 and we woke to a fresh wonderland of snow. They had 20cm over night and Lee, Sam and Chris needed couldn't pass up the last fix on the fresh stuff. Rebecca, Alice and I loaded up with gear and despite a completely unorganised Greyhound set-up, boarded the bus home at 10:30. That night we went out to dinner at Brown's on Lonsdale with the whistler crew for Lee and Sam's last night in Vancouver. We both went back to work the next day and then off to the airport to see Lee and Sam home. I must admit that I was not only sad to see them go, but a little teary knowing that they where going home. Guess being away is starting to take its toll.
So there you have our white Christmas vacation. Stay tuned for the second last report of the first leg of the US trip and the last report on Vancouver. Down to our last week here!!
Anyway, hope everyone is safe and we miss you all.
Love Mike and Bec.
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North America - Trip 2
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