Forward Planning

MP3 Track of the day: Common People - Pulp

Weather: Beautiful; really sunny and very hot ... a cool breeze though.

I decided to leave my hostel in Montreal as easy as possible; the hostel had been brilliant, but I have had enough of Montreal. When I got to the bus station (very hot and sweaty as it was a 20min walk and the weather was very hot) the queue for Quebec City was out the door. Luckily there were two buses so I got a seat. Well when I say a seat, I lost a 1/3 of it to this fat French-Canadian who decided to sit next to me (where was the hot French-Canadian chick from the first leg?) ... still he may had taken a lot of the space, but I reckon I could win the 'who's the smelliest' category.

When I arrived in Quebec city I couldn't believe how beautiful it was; looking at the map in my guidebook my hostel only looked 10mins away ... however the guidebook didn't include gradients and Quebec City is an old fortified city ... trust me, it was steep.

When I arrived at my hostel (hot and sweaty again) I put my stuff into my room and went out to look for a snack; it was around 4pm so too late for lunch. I therefore went to the local supermarket and purchased an Orange and a big slice of Watermelon (which, in this weather, was fantastic).

After this I could have gone site seeing, however I felt it was time to do a little forward planning. Anyone who knows me knows that I forward plan too much and on this trip I wanted to leave it totally open so I could change my mind in a second. However that thing called 'money' doesn't like indecision and when I looked at 'next day' flights to Halifax from Quebec city, they were in the region of $500 (£480.00). So I looked a few days in advance and the cost dropped to $200.00; however I still wasn't happy because airports are out of cities and the cost (according to my guidebook) could be another $60.00 for transport too and from ... oh and you have to add tax, insurance to those flight costs.

So I headed to the bus and train stations and asked about prices to Halifax. The bus was $146.00 for an 18hr journey; now 18hrs by train I can handle, coach no way. Therefore I asked about stopping off at Fredericton or Moncton for a couple of days before continuing to Halifax (an additional $10 fee).

Finally I went to the railway station and asked there; it would cost $135.00 to Halifax and take 18hrs ... hang on, the train is the cheapest! 18hrs on a train would be fine (I did 26hrs on my Europe tour) and the lady was so nice that I booked it. I reckon it was $5 cheaper than the bus and a staggering £215.00 cheaper than the plane (plus I would get to see allot of Canadian countryside ... this is one thing I enjoyed about my European tour). My train leaves at 9:55pm on Wednesday and arrives 5pm on Thursday ... this is great as a) it gives me another full day in Quebec city and b) I arrive a decent time in Halifax.

Now that I had got this far I thought I would book my trip from Halifax to Winnipeg; now I didn't even look at the train, or bus, as it probably would have taken 4/5 days; I therefore booked a flight with 'Westjet' for $199.00 (plus tax equalled $275.00) for a 4 hour plane flight.

Finally I've pre-booked accommodation in both places ready. The final really long distance trip will be Winnipeg to (probably) Calgary which I'll book once I'm in Winnipeg.

So even though I've spend $450.00 (£300.00) for a week on just travel and accommodation, I feel I've got the best out of the situation and got quite a good deal (plus I no will be going right across the country) ... I feel this netbook has paid for its self four times over .... (sorry Sukie for being so organised, I will try to stop).

Right I'm off for something to eat and then sightseeing tomorrow ... can't wait!

Toodle Pip

DID YOU KNOW?

- That each state in Canada has it's own drivers licence, and that to drive in other states you have to apply for a new licence within that state (met a guy in Ottawa doing just that). I don't think you need to be re-tested, just get the paperwork done. The same applies to education; there's a different sylabus in each state ... how mad is this?

- In the province of Quebec you do not need a number plate on the front of your car; I think it makes the cars look alot nicer.