Thunder only happens when it's raining

Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City

Ottawa

Ottawa- Parliament Building

Ottawa Centennial Flame

As soon as we arrived in Ottawa, Amy, Emily and I braved the icy rain and went up to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to have a walk round this incredible government building. Pretty impressive, as you can see! The gloomy weather was a bit of a downer, but also actually had quite an authentic effect on the gothic-style of architecture: something tells me the gargoyles wouldn't quite have looked right on a sunny day...

The Centennial Flame, as pictured above, which sits on the grounds just outside the building itself, I am told is a symbol for the unity of Canada as a whole. The shields you can see placed around the flame each correspond to a province or territory of the Confederation and celebrate the date at which each one joined - starting with shields for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario from 1867 all the way up to Newfoundland in 1949, with everything in between.

The flame was lit for the first time in 1966 to celebrate Canada's 100th birthday.

Montreal! 

Montreal was definitely one of the cities I was most excited about getting to on our trip. It was rainy and freezing but that's okay, we're British - we've always queued up and moaned through worse!

Montreal's 1976 Olympic Pool

Our first stop was the Olympic Stadium where Montreal held the 1976 Summer Olympics. And it was very 70's, let me tell you. All brown and beige carpets and circular patterns and block colours. As far as i'm aware they still have some events held in this little retro treasure - unsurprising, as someone told us that all in all it cost the Canadians over $1 billion to build! A billion dollars! 

Quebec City

Quebec was stunning. Seriously quite amazing. I would definitely list it amongst my favourite of everywhere we visited, so if you're considering a trip anywhere in North America, make sure Quebec is one of your stops!

We arrived in the city early on the Tuesday morning, so the second we were allowed to escape the dreaded tour bus of doom, Emily and I left a grouchy-morning-do-not-disturb Amy to snooze on the back seats whilst we stretched our legs and saw some of the area. And at 8.00am there was really no better time to watch the city wake up and come to life. The drizzle kindly subsided for a few minutes while we walked uphill to discover some of the incredible little backstreets with some amazing little quirky shops and cafes. 

All the while, Emily and I found ourselves repeating one phrase in early-morning awe, like parrots at less than minute intervals, "I could live here! I could definitely definitely live here!" 

We agreed that the french-speaking parts of Canada really made us feel so at home because they were noticeably more European than the rest of North America which we had visited- from the obvious language change, to the buildings and city layouts, to the general chillaxed, sarcastic, 'so what?' attitude of the people.

It's not America, it's not France - it's Quebec. 

Amy and I overlooking the view from La Citadelle

Amy, me, Emily at La Citadelle

Quebec City from La Citadelle

Later, Amy joined us for a historical tour of La Citadelle: the largest British fortress in North America, it is an active military garrison and has been home to the Royal 22e Regiment since 1920. The phrase pictured below, "Je me souviens", is actually the motto of the whole province, and translates as "I remember". Although there is apparently speculation over the interpretation of these words, they are largely thought to represent the francophone Quebec people's preservation of their heritage.

We enjoyed this tour not only because it gave great insight into French Canadian history and culture, but also because it was led by a beautiful man with a lovely accent named Reuben who we attempted pitifully to flirt with and aptly nicknamed 'Sexy Reuben' for the duration of the trip.

So, that was Canada done and dusted! We left Quebec very reluctantly and moved onwards towards Boston, to finally go it alone after the end of our tour with lovable Frank the tourguide, and of course our substitute Mums and Dads who had looked after us so well over the past week. 

They did, however, leave us with their card and told us to give them a call if we ever need a place to stay in Santa Barbara... Watch this space for a trip to the west coast coming sometime soon!

Listening to: "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac.

Listen here.