This might sound naive, and I'll be honest, it is, but I didn't realise how French the Quebec province was. I knew they spoke French, but I didn't expect there to be no English signage, or for the cities to be so visiably French in style. And the most surprising thing to me was that they have French accents, not Canadian accents. They really are so seperate from the rest of Canada in terms of culture, it's not hard to believe it when we were told about how the province has in the past attempted to seperate from Canada to become it's own country. I can imagine that they would try again at some point in the future.
Quebec City was our first stop, and it's been one of the most beautiful so far. The architecture, the style, the 'feel' of the city is very old and very French/European. I loved the old city, still walled in, making it the only completely walled city north of Mexico. It was also where we had the most amazing non-included dinner on tour - very well done duck and veges.
The trip from Boston to Quebec City was the day of the Wellington earthquakes. While I was very confident knowing that my family and friends would and were keeping me updated via txt on the situation and their safety, I didn't like being out of touch with the internet. At every stop I'd get on the wifi and read more news about more earthquakes, and by the end of the day I wasn't handling it very well at all. I was very lucky to have a calm and understanding tour manager and a roommate that understood and was able to make my laugh so much I thought I'd pee my pants.
This day was also my brothers 30th birthday, so I enlisted the help of my fellow travellers to help me sing happy birthday on speaker phone at 8am in the morning (midnight at home). They loved it, my tour manager thought it was awesome and they asked me for ages about the birthday awards our family has started. And I think Lexi enjoyed 55 people from Germany, Belgium, USA, Australia and New Zealand singing to him from Boston.
Canada is cooler than the States. It has been a welcome change to wear long sleeves and pants (pants!!), and not sweat so much that you have have a serious conversation with yourself about whether you have or have not actually wet your pants while sitting in the sun.
We left Quebec City and arrived in Montreal. It was a short drive to the city nearby. While still French, it was not as French as Quebec City. Our first stop was down by the wharf for a group photo, then while the rest of the group went on a terrifying jet boat ride along the river, I had poutine (Fries, gravy and cheese curd - a Canadian favourite) and wandered around a beautiful little area of cobblestone shops, small alleyways, all filled with beautiful jewellery stalls, art stalls and souvenir shops. It was so nice to have some time to myself to just go at my own pace and explore.
The next day was completely free in Montreal, so guess what I did?! I slept in. It was blissful. Every single day on tour has been an early start - usually between 6.15 and 7am every day, and those of you that know me well, know that I hate doing early mornings. So a sleep in was definetly what I needed. Only I as coming down with something - inevitable on a contiki tour I'm told. With a sore throat and feet that have been swelling in the heat this whole trip, I decided to have a lazy day at the hotel. There wasn't too much I wanted to do in Montreal as it was so it didn't take much to convince myself.
In the late afternoon my friends returned and we started playing games in the hotel room before having a late dinner in the hotel restaurant. Montreal was hosting an international fireworks competition, with Croatia competing on this night. We had a prime spot on the hotel balcony for the half an hour show.
We said goodbye to Montreal very early the next morning, heading to Toronto and out of Quebec province and into English-speaking territory.
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