Ottawa

The weather was nice to me today. It sprinkled here and there but I never had to bust out my rain jacket.

I'm staying very close to the ByWard Market so I hopped into a bakery there for breakfast. Only once inside did I notice the signs outside that said that they sell Obama cookies. I then looked up to one of the counters that had a huge poster size photo of Obama in the bakery and two huge displays with several rows of these cookies. Am assuming he liked them and they since named the cookies after him.

Yep, I just looked it up and here's what the internet says "It took only a few words from U.S. President Barack Obama and the Moulin de Provence bakery in Ottawa's Byward Market is still selling cookies at the rate of 2,000 a day, somewhat more than the 200 or 250 cookies they used to sell each week." I just got a croissant and a coffee today, so I'll have to go back for a cookie tomorrow. Next to the poster sized photo of him was a TV that at first glance I thought was showing the daily news. But quickly I realized that it was a loop of the news coverage of Obama in the bakery on repeat. Pretty funny.

I then walked towards downtown and headed up some stairs to see what was at the top. It was the Major's Hill Park which is hosting part of the Tulip Festival. What a fun surprise. I love tulips and festivals. I walked around there a bit and then headed over to Parliament Hill, definitely my favorite part of Ottawa. So beautiful. After taking several photos I walked over to where the bus tours depart from. Since I'm only here one full day and I'm a bit gimpy, I decided a bus tour was the way to go. It wasn't one of those modern looking buses. Ottawa has rickety old trolleys and falling apart double-deckers. I liked it, part of the charm, but a little surprising for the capital. I hopped in the trolley and did the entire circuit, didn't hop on or hop off. Mainly because most of the sites would require a lot of walking, and well because none of them seemed too intriguing. Seeing them from the trolley was good enough. The tour guide was a retired history professor and quite darling. It was only his second day, and he did a great job. Another reason I didn't want to hop off was because there weren't that many vehicles running, and you had to wait an hour for the next one. But you can only hop on if there are seats, and we had several people trying to get on when they couldn't. They were not pleased.

The tour goes through Ottawa and Gatineau in Quebec. The Rideau Hall seemed like a cool place to visit. It's the main government house, but it was closed today because the prime minister was introducing his new cabinet. Speaking of which, we drove by PM Stephen Harper's residence today, pretty swanky. They also pointed out several embassies and ambassador houses. Quite a few museums were on route, like the aviation museum, the civilization museum, and a natural history museum, but none were calling my name.

I learned from the tour that Holland sends Ottawa 3 million tulips every May as a thank you and it creates the annual Tulip festival. The best-known and most colorful flower festival in the country. The tradition started in 1945 in appreciation of Canada's role in liberating Holland from the Nazis and protecting the royal family.

After the trolley completed it's full loop (90 minutes) I decided to do it again. Figured I'd sit on the other side of the trolley and take in new sites the second time around. Well about half way through round #2 our trolley started making terrible sounds. It broke down. Transmission blew. We were in the middle of nowhere so couldn't walk or hop on a city bus. So we waited over an hour for another bus to come get us. The tow truck got there before our ride did. We were right by the RCMP stables. The RCMP being the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. An officer was there within a matter of minutes directing traffic around us, pretty efficient. Sadly he wasn't mounted, was sporting a popo SUV. The whole thing was quite amusing, you could only laugh. Talked to a few folks and then read a few chapters of my book.

Once we got rescued by the double-decker bus we finished the loop. It was kind of nice to have a new tour guide because he had different commentary. Like when we passed the basilica he said that it's a three year waiting list to get married in there. The big joke is - pick your date and then find your mate.

Two of my favorite sites from the tour:
1) Part of the war memorial's exterior is a large fin-like structure that has tiny windows in the shapes of dashes and dots, a Morse code message that says "Lest we forget". Thought that was pretty cool.
2) I really liked The Man With Two Hats statue, also a gift from the Netherlands.

I then walked back to my hostel to freshen up for my dinner date. My dad reminded me that my parent's friend from high school in Buenos Aires, Deb Martin, lives in Ottawa. She came to pick me up and drove me around a bit before settling into a restaurant called the Canal Ritz which was pointed out on the tour. It's apparently one of Bill Clinton's favorite spots in Ottawa overlooking the Rideau canal. Had a delicious meal and fabulous conversation. Am so bummed that I didn't hang out with Deb when I was at St. Lawrence; great woman.

Four random things to note:
1) I forgot how pretty Canadian geese are.
2) The trolley driver kept saying "eh" and the tour guide kept saying "voilà" as he was guiding in English & French. Was fun.
3) As much as I don't love the cold, I think I'd like to come back sometime mid-winter to skate on the Rideau Canal, the largest ice-skating rink in the world. They drain the canal so the water is only two feet deep.
4) A big reason why I'm visiting Ottawa and Montreal this trip is because I had a different mentality when I came here in college - all I cared about were the bars and shops. So I felt the need to revisit the two cities as an adult with a curious tourist mindset. Glad to be here.

This hostel has a big orange cat that sleeps around the living room common area. I was sitting on a chair that wasn't the most comfortable, so when the cat got up from his couch seat, I swooped in. Well he came back and hopped right on my lap and has been laying here since I've been typing this blog entry. With how much I miss my kitties, I don't feel like I can move. I can also tell several other folks in the room are jealous.

Renting a car tomorrow to drive to Canton, NY since there is no way to get there via transit. Well I could have spent 14.5 hours on a Greyhound bus when it's about a 45 minute drive, but I decided that didn't sound fun. Am meeting up with my good friend Kati and her fiancé Keith. We're having dinner with our favorite SLU professor (Big Al), and then planning on hitting up the two (yes, two) bars in Canton. Should be interesting since it's graduation weekend. Then after wandering around campus and hitting up the bookstore on Friday we're driving to Brant Lake, NY for a fabulous wedding. Back to Canada on Sunday.