Any place that sounds similar to 'otter' has got to be good

MP3 track of the day - Nightswimming - REM

Weather: Sunny

Well today I was moving out to my second stop; Ottawa. After having a full English breakfast I walked to the bus station and caught the Greyhound to Ottawa. The bus was packed and I sat next to a lady who was trying to sleep. As the 5 hour bus journey started I wasn't that impressed by the scenery, worst still the woman in front was trying to retract her seat into my knee caps (a sharp palm-strike to her head-rest sorted her out). After about an hour we turned off the main road and headed into the country which was stunning. We went through a place called Tweed which, was beautiful, (Google map it) as the village sat right on the lake front.

At half way we had a pit stop and I got to stretch my legs; the woman I was sat next to woke up then, saw I had a Canadian guidebook in my hand, and we started talking about travelling. She had just finished an 18 month tour of South East Asia (small world) and she was telling me all about it; it was very apparent she missed it.

Once in Ottawa I bought my Greyhound ticket to Montreal for three days time (the bus station is a little out of town, so I didn't fancy coming back) and I caught a bus into Canada's Capital. Ottawa, any place that sounds like 'otter' has got to be good, and so it is. However Ottawa is strange; being the capital of a country you would expect a huge place with allot going on ... not at all, in fact Ottawa could be mistaken for a small city (abit like the size of Derby) with very quite streets. Ottawa hasn't got allot going on, but it more than makes up for it with how it looks and feels ... it feels like a small village.

I got to my hostel, the Backpackers Inn, and it's very cool. It's a converted house; you have to take your shoes off at the front door and the whole place has got a 'family run' feeling. I'm staying in the 'Asian' dorm; a 10 bed dorm where each bed is named after somewhere in Asia (I have the Ta-Mahal bunk). In the room we have a couple of brits, a couple of swiss and a South Korean (which, just like the South Korean in Germany, he is very nice ... so much so I'm thinking about seeing if I can visit South Korea). There is also a Russian which has been brilliant; finally I can actually put my years of studying Russian into practice; I said all the phases I know:

• Hello
• My name is Matthew
• I am 13 years old - (that's how old I was when I learnt Russian, I don't know how to say 26)
• Goodbye

So, it was a confusing 7 second conversation but finally I've spoken some Russian, to a Russian ... result. There is also a Polish guy here but he seems a bit weird (I think he may have been drunk) and he tried to offer me a spliff (not sure if he was joking or not, still my face said all he needed to know). He saw that I had tied my bags to the post and wondered why ... no one else had and he said it was okay to leave it all open...

... I've now moved my bags onto my bed and will make sure the pack safe is very VERY secure.

Can't wait until tomorrow ... toodle Pip