Lazy Day

MP3 track of the day - The Importance of being Idle - Oasis

Weather: Sunny and warm, a little windy

So a Conservative government (with a little Lib Dem mixed in). Well, as friends at work would tell you, I'm not bias towards any party however ... WELL DONE DAVID CAMERON come on!

Anyway Well last night didn't go quite as I planned; I was talking, and watching rubbish American TV, with two other English blokes until 11:00pm (who seem really nice), so I skipped tea and went to bed.

There were only two things left that I wanted to do today; the falls and walk through downtown. I arrived at the falls and they weren't quite what I expected; the falls (as you can see from pics on my Flickr account) are man-made and really not all that (especially after Niagara). Still the park, and view, were quite nice so I stayed for a little while. Finally I went downtown and had a walk around there; again not really allot to see.

At about mid day I found myself with little to do; Ottawa is a great place to chill but there isn't allot going on. I wish Ottawa was further within my travels, when I was a bit more tired, because it makes a great relaxing city. You have to keep reminding yourself that you are in a capital city (and the capital city of the second largest country in the world) because Derby feels busier; however this is Ottawa's attraction, it's just a lovely relaxing place and I love it.

After having something to eat I quickly went around the Ottawa market (usual tat with some lovely flowers) located at Byward market. The only way I can describe the Byward market area is that it looks a bit like a wild wild west town, just a little more modern (for a photo click here).

I'm now back at my hostel; I'm on the balcony that's attached to my dorm (first time I've ever had a balcony with a dorm before) just watching the world go by. I plan to do a little reading and sleeping before have tea at the stake house (didn't do too well with food yesterday, so I have to make it up today).

While there isn't much doing on I thought I would talk about how I feel the first week has gone (very quickly would be a good description). Money wise, I've spend around £47.00 per day. It's a little too high, but it's also a little too early to tell with the money situation as things seem to be getting cheaper the further I move way from Toronto:

• Hostel stay in Toronto £20.00 without breakfast


• Hostel stay in Ottawa £16.00 without breakfast


• Hostel stay in Montreal £12.00 with breakfast

It also looks like I'll be moving around by Greyhound most of the time. The train (my preferred choice) is so expensive compared to the bus and, because I'm an HI member, I get a discount on the Greyhound services. So for example Toronto to Ottawa:

• Train $105.00 - 5 hours


• Coach $50.33 - 6 hours

No competition really. Speaking of money I got my info for my Alaskan trip emailed to me today (got to love the internet ... the most useful, and time consuming, communication tool of the 21st century) and there are additional charges I didn't know about; for example taking a shower on a campsite can cost $2/£3 (£1.25/£2) per day, so 14 days is £28.00. It's custom to tip the guide $5.00 (£3.75 per day) if they are good (£52.50). I'm sorry but I've paid for this trip already, why should I have to trip the the guide who works for the tour provider ... the tour provider should pay him more! It's so annoying; I don't mind paying the extra £50 for 2 weeks but why didn't they say that at the beginning (or add an additional £50 onto the price ... could be tax reasons I suppose?) because I haven't budgeted for it and I certainly am not going to pay that amount on principle.

Finally I thought I would quickly mention the positives and negatives of Canada. The positives is everyone is friendly and very, very polite. The country is beautiful and there is lots to see ... it's also fairy cheap too. The bad parts is that everyone is very polite, which can get very annoying. The other thing is the word Awesome ... "That's really awesome", "this is awesome", "she awesome", "that toilet is awesome". If I hear that word again I'll go mad! I've also decided that the UK is the worlds best country for comedy ... here they don't understand irony, and their sense of humour is so cringey ... not dry at all. Bring Black Adder over from Blighty and make it a compulsory subject at school. Any finally, Canada's official language is English ... so I wish they spoke English. No that's not a sidewalk, no that is not a 'buck' and they are definitely not pants!

Anyway that's it from me today; don't think I'll be posting tomorrow. My bus from here to Montreal doesn't leave until 5:00pm and so I'll be lounging around here until 3:00pm and getting to my Montreal hostel at 8pm, so not a lot happening tomorrow.

Toodle Pip

Yes okay, I am a Nerd!

MP3 track of the day: Main Theme - Band of Brothers

Weather: Sunny, warm but windy

So after getting up early I left the dorm at around 8am, my first stop being the parliament area. This area of Ottawa is stunning; beautiful Gothic style buildings surrounded by gardens. I spent a couple of hours here, taking photos, walking and sitting on the benches (It was windy in the morning but still the sun was strong; I applied sun cream for the first time on this tour).

After a while I decided to move on towards the Canadian Military Museum. On the way I took more photos of Gothic style buildings next to modern buildings (and, surprisingly, they work well together).

At around 11:00 I had made it to the Military museum; 11:15am I went into the museum expecting to be out in 3 hours. At 5:58pm I left because the museum closed at 6pm (I still hadn't really finished). The museum was fantastic, spilt into six areas:

• Battleground - Wars on Canadian soil, earliest times to 1885,


• For Crown and Country - The South African and First World War 1885 - 1931,


• Forged in Fire - The Second World War 1931-1945,


• A violent Peace - The Cold War, Peacekeeping and recent conflicts, 1945 to present,


• Hall of Honour,


• LeBreton Gallery - a big area with tanks and planes,

I decided to spent along time in the Hall of Honour and the first section (Battleground) because, in my opinion, the early years of any war museum is the best area to find out about the forming of a country. Being aware of time I went through the 'For Crown and Country' a little faster; still only 50% done and it's 2:30pm. I went for a quick lunch (which, because it was 2:30pm the museum restaurant had closed, so it was a 'fast food' lunch of biscuits, chocolate and crisps) and then headed back. Again I went through the WW2 section pretty quickly because I wanted to focus on the 'A violent peace' which had info on the Korean war and 'war if ' scenarios for the outbreak of WW3 (Cold War). Buy this time it was 17:40 and so I raced into the LeBreton Gallery and did a quick 10 minute tour.

I know I'm a nerd; nearly 7 hours in a museum (I could have done with two more hours) but I loved it, one of the best military museum I've been too. When I'm home in the summer I might see if I can get cheap train tickets to London for the day to go to the Imperial War Museum (Don't think I've been ... shocking really).

One thing I loved about the museum is that it showed the Canadian prospective to war and there was one thing that confused me. Within the WW1 and WW2 sections it showed disagreements between the British and French Canadians. The French Canadians, towards the end of WW1 wanted to pull out of the war, Canada had done enough. The French were also against compulsory conscription for WW2; this surprised me as the Western Front was in France and in WW2, France was occupied ... why did they not want to fight for France like the British Canadians for Britain? At the end of the day I found a guide (who was French Canadian himself) and asked him the question. The main reason is set (surprisingly) within the 'Background section'.

When the British defeated the French for control of the Canadian provinces the French settlers remained in present day Quebec; they felt that France had abandoned them. Over the years they lost connection with France because of this loss, and they disliked the British because of their victory over them. Therefore the French Canadians had little ties to Europe, they were in effect in their own country ... the only connection was that they spoken French. The British Canadians, on the other hand, still had strong ties to Britain (The Queen is the head of Canada after all) and therefore the majority British Canadians pressed for immediate involvement which strained relations with their French counterparts.

There were a lot of happy and sad parts to the museum, but one sad part I shall remember forever. In the Hall of Honour there was a letter from a mother to her son. I read part of the letter which started by saying that she was glad to hear from him because she was starting to worry ... it had been a long while since he had wrote. She then described a food parcel she was going to sent to him and that it was over weight and it would be rejected; therefore she had to remove some of the stuff (she listed all the things she was going to sent to him ... load of treats). She then continued and said that the rest of the family was fine and that is as much as I could see. I then looked at the title the museum had given the piece and it said ' A mother last letter' - I presume that means her son was killed ... I wonder if he ever read the letter or got the food parcel ... a massive lump enters my throat every time I think about it.

Once out the museum I headed back to the hostel, however not before I stopped to take a couple of photos of some spider thing. Finally I'm back and it's 8:30pm ... I'm starving and so I need to get some food.

Looking forward to tomorrow where I'm going to go to some small falls and downtown.

Toodle Pip

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