Québec

As with all most of my other travel blog episodes, this one begins with a train ride. I left Halifax, Nova Scotia at 12:30 in the afternoon and arrived in Charny, Quebec at about 4:45am.

Charny is a town on the other side of the St Lawrence River from Quebec, and from there I had to catch a “shuttle” to Quebec city. The so-called shuttle turned out to be a bunch of taxi drivers waiting to take us to the city. They crowded passengers and their luggage into cabs which were really too small to take everyone, but we somehow managed. Half asleep, I watched the Quebec suburbs as we drove during sunrise to the station.

The station house was my first impression of Quebec City and what an impression. As with the rest of the city, the station is grand and old. I walked up the steep hills, through the city walls and into the old part of town, Vieux-Quebec, to my Hosteling International accommodation.

I was dead tired, due to little sleep on the overnight train. I only had a single seat on the train this time because the train was full and I didn't want to sleep next to a stranger, and my last night in Halifax didn't involve much sleep as I wanted to make the most of my last chance to watch TV for a while (and thanks to my hosts' digital TV hard drive recorder, there was plenty to watch).

But I would have to endure my tiredness as check-in would only commence at 2:00pm. It was only 6am. I killed some time with activities such as facebook photo uploads and Skype videoconference with mum (ahh technology) and went out for some breakfast. By that time it was a lovely sunny warm day and I began exploring the glorious city.

Quebec is by far the most beautiful city in North America. It is old, clean and built with a medieval European influence. Walking abound the streets it is hard to remember that you're still in North America. It is more like being in an old French or Belgian fort. The old part of town is surrounded by city walls, with the massive 1800's Hotel Frontenac standing right in the middle of the town, overlooking it. On the river side is a French style fortification known as a citadel, with masses of old cannons pointing out into the river and over the city. The riverfront is lined with European townhouses which could well be along the Rhine River in Germany. And to highlight these sites, I was lucky enough to experience it all in brilliant sunshine.

During my explorations I had bumped into Ziggy, an English girl I had met back in Montreal a week earlier. She would become my travel partner for Quebec.

We walked around town, did a tour of the citadel and checked out the famous hotel. We enjoyed the European influence over food in Quebec. Of all the places in North America, it was definitely the best place to get a decent meal. We had lunch in a brewery bar right on Rue Saint-Jean, a cobbled street running through the centre of the old town. We ate steaks lunches, which I was happy about as I decided I wanted my share of good beef before I get over to Europe.

By 5pm I was exhausated and ready to crash. I checked into my hostel, had a much needed shower (I had been going for 2 days in the same clothes). I had a 2 hour nap, ready to hit some bars that night.

We tried a few bars and one of the places we went to was an Irish pub. It doesn't seem to matter where you go in the world, there are always Irish pubs. I was surprised to see an Aussie rules football jumper (resembling my team, the Richmond Tigers) hanging in the bar. Some locals explained to me that it is from the local Aussie rules football league.

A number of people seemed to be interested in having a chat to me when they found out I was Australian. It seems that finally I had made it to a place that was a little bit less full of Aussies than all of the other places I had visited. Perhaps the Aussies stick more to the English speaking parts normally. Quebec city is apparently 95% French-speaking, compared to essentially multilingual Montreal which is apparently about 65% French, 35% English.

On Saturday morning I woke up shocked to find myself all red. It seems my day of exploration the day before had left me quite sunburnt. I wasn't expecting that to happen in Canada during spring time – maybe “slip slop slap” applies here too. So the first stop on Saturday was to the pharmacy for some sunscreen.

We went to the Aquarium Park, the highlight of which was a couple of beautiful polar bears. I think we must have spent hours watching them play, swim, eat and cuddle. We caught public transport buses across town (often a challenge when you don't understand the system or the language) and back to the city centre. I took a walk around the city walls at sunset, admiring the old city skyline from atop of the city walls. There were many groups of young people sitting on the lush green grass lawns on top of the walls drinking as the sun set... what a cool way to start a Saturday night!

Back at the hostel I met an Irish couple who were riding their bikes across a big chunk of Canada. We went out that night for drinks and ended up at the same Irish bar I went to the other night. I sampled some of my Irish companion's favourite Irish whiskey and listened to their stories of trying to survive crossing Quebec by bicycle, camping in various small French speaking villages in the cold and rain. It made me feel like a very soft traveler, with the luxury of train seats and hostel bunks.

On our last day in Quebec, Ziggy and I did a boat cruise up the St Lawrence river, which took us to the Montmorency Falls. These waterfalls flowing into the river are apparently higher than Niagara Falls. We sat on the sunny (though unfortunately windy) deck of the boat, enjoying some vodkas, and then walked around town and finished off in another old town centre restaurant for a steak dinner. For $14 each we got a steak and chips, with a soup to start with and desert to finish. I very much enjoyed Quebecan eating. The litre bottle of Italian Rose was also a good way to keep up the drinking we had started earlier.

Back at the hostel, it turned out that I was the only one left in my 4-bed dorm and no-one else had checked in... so I did what any self respecting backpacker would do in a hostel that disallowed alcoholic drinks (other than those purchased at the bar), invited a few people to my room to sit around and drink. I felt like a teenager again, buying dodgy cheap drinks at the supermarket and sneaking them into the room, but that was part of the fun. After all, it was good to celebrate an enjoyable stay in America's nicest city.

Today is another beautiful sunny day, and I am on the train from Quebec, heading south. I am headed for Niagara Falls, but have two days to spare before I make it there. It was a toss up between spending them in Toronto or Montreal, but there are a few more things I wanted to see in Montreal, so it will be two more nights there, before leaving Quebec province and heading to the south of Ontario. Maybe it will be a chance to fit in one more serving of poutine.