Parking tickets, Jet Boating and Ghost Tours: Days 6-9 of Trek America

We left Algonquin and headed straight back into civilisation. Our drive to Montreal was going to be around five hours, so to break it up, we decided we would make a pit stop in Canada's capital, Ottawa. It was a beautiful, sunny day, we stopped around dinner time and found a little park to make some dinner. Kaley gave us an hour to explore before we had to hop back on the road.

Parliament Hill

From the little I saw of Ottawa, I really liked it. We walked along Parliament Hill which was stunning. We kind of just mooched around, found a little market place and had a look there before we walking to our meeting place, the Notre-Dame Basilica. We had a quick peek inside of it, which as you can imagine, was absolutely gorgeous.

Kaley had parked the van around the corner and as we headed back there we saw a parking officer who had literally just issued Kaley with a ticket. We were all kind of bummed about it and asked him if he could just let it slide, but unfortunately he didn't. So much for that Canadian kindness, eh? We hopped back in the van and started the last two hours of the drive that day. MONTREAL, MONTREAL.

We were all pretty excited about Montreal. Although, admittedly, we were also a little nervous because we were heading straight into French-speaking territory. I mean, yeah, I got a B in GCSE French, but hadn't really done much with it since. We were staying at the HI-Montreal Hostel and were pretty excited about having a bed to sleep in. It was my first time in a hostel and I didn't really know what to expect, but honestly, it was absolutely fine. Lucy, Megan and I were sharing a four-bed room, we had our own little shower and toilet en-suite. The room was a decent size, it had lockers for our expensive possessions to go into when we left and the beds were comfy. There was free wifi and downstairs there was a bar area that had pool-table and there just a great vibe to the place.

We did have some issues with the washing facilities, mainly with another Trek America group who thought they owned the machines and that caused a little bit of friction. Ironic, because we were heading out for food with that very group later on that night.

I was excited about the first night in Montreal. We all got kind of dressed up and were so looking forward to it because we were heading to O.Nior for dinner in the dark. Yep, that's right, we would be eating our meal in PITCH BLACK. I didn't really know what to expect, but we arrived at the restaurant and waited for the other Trek group to arrive too. A waitress came out and gave us a menu, advised us we could either pick our starter/main/desert or we could go for the 'surprise' option. Being the fussy eater that I am, I definitely went with the choosing my meal option. I picked a fillet steak with mash for my main and a chocolate cake for my desert. We then were split into groups where we headed upstairs into the restaurant and into literal darkness. I'm not kidding when I say I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. There was no light in the room what-so-ever. Not when the waiters brought the food out, not when we were eating. Nothing. Not even a tiny bit of light. We never actually got to see what the room looked like. Most of the staff were visually impaired and it was actually incredible at how they were able to serve us. It definitely blew everyone's mind. My sense of taste definitely heightened though. Also, Wes, the Trek leader of the other group spilled his water on me, twice. But it was fine. Those who had the 'surprise' option took great pleasure in trying to figure out what they have. When we came out, it was like coming out of the cinema, but even more so. Our eyes had adjusted to complete darkness so it was weird being in the light again. Although the first thing everyone did was to see if they had dropped any food on themselves.

Before we went to O.Nior

After our dinner in the dark experience, we went to some dive bar somewhere in Montreal. It was kind of grungy, but oddly, I enjoyed it. We did tequila shots and started playing the game Odds which Kaley had introduced us too. I'm sure at one point Dan went over to a random group of girls and opened his shirt while dancing, or something like that. It was funny to watch. We didn't really stay out too late and left the rest of the group to go back to the hostel. The girls and I had a good old chuckle while we were getting ready for bed and planning what we were going to do the next day.

So day seven was our free day in Montreal. The hostel was doing a walking tour of the city, which we decided we would join for a while. In the afternoon, some of us were going jet boating on the St Lawrence River. Megan wasn't going to do the jet boating initially, but little did she know that Lucy and I had hatched a plan with Kaley which meant that actually she was. We did the walking tour of Montreal, then stopped for some dinner in a restaurant called Venice, which seemed very health-conscious. Lucy and I told Megan of our plan at dinner, and, bless her, she cried (which we caught on video.) After doing a little tacky souvenir shopping and getting some ice cream, we headed down to the harbour to meet Kaley and do the jet boating. We met Dan and chilled on the grass a little, before heading to get our tickets. So we were all laughing while waiting in line, some of the people getting off looked absolutely soaked, and others looked fine. We had our water-proof shoes and cloak on, given to us by the company, but I can safely say that NONE of us was expecting for what was about to happen, to happen. I think we were all a bit naive, none of had brought a change of clothes, we were all wearing denim shorts and regular tops. At first, it was fine, the boat was just going at speed along the river which was so much fun. But then we went on the grade three and four rapids. That's where it got real. All I remember is sitting, seeing this huge wave coming towards the boat, shutting my eyes and then, suddenly, we were engulfed and soaking. Neither of those are exaggerations. I mean, I was soaking from head to toe. The rapids were so powerful that I held my nose to ensure my nose stud didn't come out and kept my eyes shut when I knew we were about to hit another wave so that my contact lenses didn't come out. Honestly, it was insane. It was incredible. Well worth the money.

Soaked through after jet boating

We survived!

So we got off the boat, all soaking, not really sure what to do next. We kind of wandered around for a bit, stopped and got ice cream again (because, why not?) and just chilled out for a bit. We knew that we wanted to head to Mont-Royal, a volcano-related hill, to watch the sunset. We set off in two Ubers, Megan, Dan and I in one, and Lucy and Kaley in the other. My driver clearly had no idea where he was going, because he asked us which point we wanted to go too. We didn't realise that there was more than one point, so Megan told him the most popular. He dropped us off at the wrong point, so the three of us, climbed the hill/mountain whatever it was, and ran through it having no idea where we were or where Lucy and Kaley were. We were gutted because we thought we would miss the sunset. Somehow, we made it, and Lucy and Kaley were waiting there already. The views of Montreal were amazing, the sunset was gorgeous and it was lovely warm evening (despite the fact most of our clothes were still damp from the jet boating). We walked down the mountain as it was getting dark and realised we had no way of getting back to the hostel. Kaley tried ringing a taxi company and proceeded to shout "ENGLISH, ENGLISH" down the phone (hilarious). At this point we were cold and starving because all we'd had all day was various flavours of ice cream. Dan saved the day by somehow managing to get two taxis to come for us and I had the brilliant idea of us getting a Dominos back at the hostel. By the time we ate, it was after 10.30pm, but the pizza was so delicious.

At Mont-Royal

View of Montreal from Mont-Royal

Day eight meant leaving Montreal and heading further into French speaking territory, to Quebec City. We left Montreal around mid morning, it wasn't as early as usual. The drive to our KOA (Kampground of America) was roughly a two and a half hour drive away. We arrived at the campground mid afternoon, pitched our tents and headed to the store for food and alcohol. I thought it would be hilarious to push a child's shopping trolley, to which I received a lot of weird, disapproving looks from the locals. Ooops. After getting back to camp, we played in the children's park and swam in the pool for a little, before having a chilled out night making food, sharing stories, making the others watch Top Gear funny moments. It was a good night.

Day nine brought our free day in Quebec City. We left around mid morning and knew we wouldn't be returning from the city until late that night. We started in La Citadelle de Quebec which was really cool to see. I hugged a massive Christmas tree and got hit in the face. Quebec City is absolutely gorgeous. The streets are cobbled and quaint and it's actually like being in France. We saw the Chateau Frontenac, which is a Fairmont Hotel, and North America's most photographed hotel. It was obvious why. It was huge, gorgeous, over-looked the river and looked like some kind of castle. We stopped and had dinner (lunch) in a little French restaurant and were there for quite a while before doing a little bit of wandering and shopping. Somewhere along the way, I began to feel really poorly and really sick. In the evening we were doing a ghost tour around the city, which I had been looking forward too. It was good, the woman telling the story was a great performer, but I didn't enjoy it as much because I felt really ill. I don't believe in ghosts at all, but I did enjoy hearing the stories and seeing the sights of where certain, mysterious things had happened. By the time we got back to the campground, everyone was exhausted. We all headed straight to sleep because the next day was going to be an early start and one of the longest drive days yet.