Ottawa

If someone had told me before I left that I would drive downtown Ottawa and even find a spot to park, I wouldn't have believed it but that's what I did...

Not that it's that hard, I just took the exit with the Info sign on it and followed. I parked less then 10 min from the parlement hill. Yesterday afternoon I visited the parlement hill and the parlement itself. The tour inside was free but sadly enough there was a sesion going on so we couldn't visit the senate or the chamber of commons. But the tour took us to the library, the only part of the building that wasn't destroyed in the fire of 1916. I already fell in love with the building on the outside so it was nice to be able to see the inside as well...

After that it was time to try and find my host for the next two days. I had good directions, but when I asked which street was Moody Drive, they told me it was the wrong one so of course I couldn't find the correct address. I finally managed but ended up at Wandas parents who live next door. Wanda herself wasn't home yet but she let the door open so I could get in and out of the wet weather...

Today I took a late start as Ottawa is pretty small and I already saw the parliment hill, the most important part. So today I walked around a lot, discovering that there was much more then I expected. I crossed the river to Gatineau, the French part. Walked around a bit in the park and then horried back to take the boat tour at 4. That was pretty intresting, good explenations and I've seen things I otherwise wouldn't have seen. I regret it a little bit that I didn't visit more then the parlement hill yesterday so that I could have rented a bike today and do a tour around the canal... I also saw the US ambasy, shaped as a submarine, no idea why but it wasn't all that good idea...

Huntsville - Algonquin provincial park

When you pack you always wonder whether you didn't pack too much. I can honestly say that I've worn every t-shirt and sweater that's in my backpack by now, what I didn't expect was that I had to wear them all the same day...

I left Tobermory somewhere between 4 and 5 with as general idea to get as far as possible in the direction of Huntsville. As I was outside all day, I was a bit tired so I decided to stop driving around 6.30 as I wasn't in a hurry anyway...

It was a good thing I did as the next day I was extremely tired. Lucky enough it wasn't busy on the road so I made it to Huntsville without a problem...

Huntsville is a nice but small town. First thing I did there was go to the library to check whether everything was still ok for a couch in Ottawa and whether I got answer for one in Montreal. Two times yes, so that's good news!

I visited a open air museum about how they used to live, about the first settelment there. Combined with the inside part of the museum, you got a good idea. I walked around a bit more but as I was tired, I wanted to go to a motel and sleep for a bit... As the days are long now, I still could go into town again later on. And it was a beautiful day, sun was out, nice weather. So after dinner I walked downtown again (10 min from the hotel) but it started to rain so I had a lazy evening in the hotel again...

Next morning I was going to Algonquin Provincial Park (Ontario's largest and oldest provincial park), to do some hiking. When I left it was around 10, pretty cold. But the closer I got to the park the colder it got 6-5-2 freezing! And not only that, I got caught up in a mild snow storm. Definatly not the weather I signed up for and I wondered whether it wouldn't be wiser to turn around. But as I had to pass there anyway on my way to Ottawa, I decided to keep going. Got my ticket at the enterence (you only need one if you want to do some hiking, otherwise you can just drive through it) with the idea I could visist the visitor center and the museum and do some walking around there. But the weather cleared out, even though it stayed cold. First did the 2 rivers trail, about 2 km, really nice and I had both snow and sun on my way. Next up was the Look Out, only 1 km, but a bit harder, as you had to climb to the lookout and of course the path was a bit muddy... Next stop the visitor center, where you have a look out, can watch a movie and there are several displays about the wildlife and things like that. Pretty intresting. I also wanted to do the Beaver point trail but missedd the sign for it so ended up doing the Algonquin Logging museum first, a 1 km track with some logging history, very intresting. 

As it was 5 pm by then and I was frozen, I decided to skip the Beaver loop. But on my way out of the park, I started to regret it so I turned back and did it. As my car was the only one parked there and I read in another travel report that bears were spotted there ones, I sang all my way to scare them of. Even though I was sure the bears went back into hibernation, I didn't want to take any chances. I didn't see any beavers but I did see a moose...

Spend the night in a place called Barry's Bay. First two motels I saw were closed but the 3th one was open and I took a nice and long bath to get warm...

I'm in Ottawa now, couchsurfing and I probably will share my couch with a nice cat, me happy...

And for those who don't know what couchsurfing is, check the website couchsurfing.com for more info!

Open doors Toronto

Thanks to good timing, I was able to enjoy Open Doors Toronto, when you can visit several museums and buildings for free...
Saturday we first went to Kensington marked but aparantly we were a bit early (10.30 am) so it wasn't as alive as it should have been...
Next stop we had planned was Casa Loma. The streetcar just left so we decided to walk. On our way we ended up at several stop overs, first one was the First Nations house, about the culture of the Canadian aboriginals. It was great, there were story tellers there and if you just tried to imagine not sitting on a nice couch but around a fire place with a star lit sky, the stories were even more moving. Next stop was the Knox Presbyterian church where we had a guided tour and found the nicely hitten bowling alley. They have a lot of activities going on there and even day care for infants on Sunday so that the parents can attend mass...
After a quick lunch we finally made it to Casa Loma, a huge castle built by Sir Henry Pallat to resemble a medieval castle and he did a great job. Walking around in there you wouldn't think it was built around 1910-1915. He spend a fortune on it, sadly enough he also lost a fortune due to bad investments and the first World War so he had to move out. Lucky for all who wants to see something strange and special, it was preserved. As only a part of it was free, Jamie decided not to visit it so we agreed to meet each other again 2 hours later. I loved the inside garden the most but also the grandness of it all. You had an audio phone and got a lot of explenations...
Today we first went to the Elgin and Winter Garden Theater center, an old and beautiful restored vaudeville theater with an upstairs theater as well, the so called Winter Garden, done up in such a way with leaves on the ceiling and trees as pilars to give you the idea you were in a garden, not a theater. It was absolutly amazing, a pity the tour was so short but we were with more than 400 persons there. If I ever come back to Toronto, I definetly will take the whole tour so I can see more of it...
Also visited the McKenzie house, he was the first Major and the nearby St Michael Cathedral, followed by the old and new City Hall...
After a short shopping break, we went to St James Catherdral and St Lawrence hall, sady enough closed. As it wasn't too far from the waterfront, we walked over there finishing our day with having a look at the Toronto Islands again and walk toward the Harbourfront center...
Next two days I'll be at Niagara...

Toronto Islands

I arrived yesterday evening so I didn't do much more then say hello to my host and her housemates, had lunch and petted her cat...
Jamie, a girl zho just moved herem and I went to Toront island today. We were planning on renting a bike but as you had to pay by the hour and neither of us liked looking at our watch all the time, we decided to do everything on foot, the island didn't look that far. We first went to the (haunted) lighthouse and walked on towards the airport, passing the clothing optional beach, funny name...
But we both fell in love with the other part of the island, called Wards island where you have several cottages, some big and some so small that they are dollhouse like and all with beautifu gardens. We took the boardwalk so had a great sight on the lake as well and I saw a black squirl, never seen it before. Also could hear the birds all the time. When we continued our way we had a great view of the city, must be beautiful at night or with sunset. We walked to Algoquin Island, had a look at more houses and started to dream of living there. It's so beautiful and nice and if you work at the harbour area, not really far from work. You only have to take the boat back and no road blocks as cars aren't allowed on the islands...
So my trip started great. Weather was a bit clouded in the morning but the sun came through in the afternoon so it was great...
This weekend it's open houses, so several museums are open for free, good timing...