A blissful weekend in Ottawa

This past weekend I ventured, once more, to Ottawa to spend the weekend with Chris. All the traveling (Ottawa, Ottawa-Toronto-Montreal and back, and then Ottawa again...) has been a bit tiring, but each weekend is filled with so much fun stuff that despite being exhausted on Monday mornings it's all well worth while.

This past weekend was no different. The weather was nice most of Saturday and all of Sunday and we tried to make the most of it, soaking in the last warm days of the year. A lot of hanging out in the market, walking and rollerblading along the river and canal and a tinny bit of shopping all added up to a perfect end to the summer season.

As some of you may know, Chris has a 22 km bike ride to work, most of which is along a paved bike path running parallel to the Ottawa River. Since Sunday was such a gorgeous day, we grabbed our rollerblades and headed out to get some fresh air. We took the path towards Chris' work since he insisted that there was something neat along the way that he wanted to show me. Despite the CRAZY wind, we pushed on and after about 2 hours came to this spot:


Behind Chris you can see a series of rock structures. It didn't take long before we took off our rollerblades and went exploring amongst the rocks. Turns out that there is an artist who puts these up without using any binding agent. He just finds the perfect center of gravity and manages to balance the rocks, often using little ones as anchors. Naturally they fall down ever so often, especially on windy days like that one, but he returns frequently to arrange them in some new and interesting way. Naturally, we came equipped with a camera and I had a fantastic time snapping shots. Here's a small sampling:

The Inuksuk

It looks like the rocks in the foreground are huge, but in fact they are only about a food high. A really cool shot nonetheless. Apparently if I had an SLR, both the foreground and backgound would be in focus. One day...

Looks like a bird on top of a rock :)

We've seen something like this before in San Francisco a few years back; there was a man doing the same thing on the beach near the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. I have to say that I liked the Ottawa version of this form of art a bit better, though the backdrop was not as nice as in San Fran, the structures themselves were much more interesting and the actual location was nicer too; because the level of water in the river was high many of the figures were standing in water. Very cool.

On the way back we stopped along the way to take some more pictures (in case you didn't notice, I really like taking pictures... especially of puffins...)

Chris speeding along. Can you tell how windy it is?

A picture up a 'fruit' tree.

Along our path we met a baby squirrel and after waiting for about 10 minutes, he was kind enough to look right at the camera.

More colourful trees.

This upcoming weekend I'm staying put in Montreal. We are having a in-house MTB race (basically a time trial up Mont Royal) on Saturday and I'm going to try to catch up with a friend as well as do some school work which has quietly been piling up for a month. Then after that, the next two weekends in a row I will be in Toronto and KW so again more commuting. After that though, I'm not leaving Montreal till at least Christmas, so if any of you want to see me, you're going to have to make the trip up! :)

Getting to know quirky Montreal

Having lived in Montreal for a few weeks now I have come to notice a few interesting (to me anyhow) things about the city, its people and way of life.

- Pedestrians will treat the red light more like a suggestion rather than the law. Basically everyone jay-walks whenever possible. People will cross the street even if they don't need to, just to jay-walk.
- Bikers, rollerblading and pedestrians have no fear. You see people zooming down hills on roads, that have potholes which would make Polish sidewalks blush, with no helmet and a latte in their hand.
- Wine, beer and most other alcohol can be purchased along with your bread and produce. This is a VERY nice transition from what I was used to in Europe.
- The metro is RIDICULOUSLY hot, always. I'm not sure how their ventilation system works here (perhaps it doesn't) but it's freaking hot on the trains and in the stations. Not looking forward to the winter.
- It is much colder here than in TO. You know, you hear about it but you don't really believe it till you get here. The wind is colder here, so even when they claim it's 20C outside it feels like it's 10C. Oh yah, we had frost one morning last week...
- Montreal is teaming with life and quirkiness... There is a general sense of ease about the people and their way of life. It feels like the city just knows how to live. Look at the pictures below to see what I mean...

Overall, I have to say that Montreal has not won my over yet, but the city is definitely growing on me. I've been told that it won't be long now...

Anyhow, a few weekends ago, Chris came up to visit me in my new place and we spent an amazing Sunday exploring Montreal on our bikes. It was a beautiful day so we headed up Mont Royal to enjoy the views of the city and take in some of the activities happening in the park.

A view of the downtown from the look out point on Mont Royal (almost the summit). You can see the river in the background.

Another view, this time through the trees. Despite it being early September and still technically summer, the colours have started turning. Another week or so and the view should be spectacular.

Every Sunday during the summer, a small part of Mont Royal turns into a hippie zone also know as the weekly tam-tam. Basically people show up with various drums and jembes and throughout the entire day a steady sound of percussion can be heard in the vicinity of the Mont. There is also a lot of dancing, chanting as well as other recreational activities.

Another very odd and quirky activity on Mont Royal; medieval sword fighting. Yes you heard me right. There are groups of people who meet every week and have mock sword fights. They dress up, bring their foam/cardboard war weapons and basically smack one another for hours. They split up into two teams and on a signal given by someone with authority each side charges forward and the fight begins. It appears that they have rules, because after about 5 minutes they retrieve to their respective sides and the whole process repeats. There are a lot of kids/pre-teens who participate, but there are also some adults and they always seem to take the game the most seriously. Although it looks and sounds weird, after about 10 minutes of watching them I kind of wanted to steal someone's sword and get into the action myself. Maybe next time...

This guy was by far the best dressed of the bunch.

We were on our way back down from the Mont when we noticed that there was a plane parked in the middle of the street. Turned out that the pilot had to make an emergency landing and luckily due to favourable traffic light at the moment, could safely descend onto Park road. Naturally people were curious and also a bit confused. One guy that was over by the tam-tam hill said that he saw the plane fly right above him and land on the street. "I looked over at my friend and said 'Yo man, what are we smoking??!'" - he joked as he shared his story with us.

A neat shot of one of the statues in the park near the top.

Labour Day Weekend in Ottawa

After a quick move to Montreal right before the September long weekend I decided I needed a vacation, so for the Labour Day weekend I headed up to Ottawa to visit Chris in his new apartment. His parents also made the trip up and together we spent a fun weekend shopping around in the market, sight-seeing parliament Hill and of course biking along the canal. Overall a great break before the start of school.

Chris' mom getting excited about the little wooden crafts in the market.

So many peppers! Absolutely gorgeous!

You know what's better than the sight of all these colourful flowers? The smell and only $5 per bunch. Awesome...

Street art in the market.

Chris and in the background parliament Hill.

The museum of civilizations in Hull (on the other side of the Ottawa River). Didn't make it inside this time around, but next time...