cerealjoe | Entries tagged with pix:canada2010

Remember how I said that the point of a holiday is to have one epic thing happen in each city? In Korea that worked out marvelously well... and now I can say that I've had an epic adventure in Quebec City also.

As background, let me say that Canada is full of places to eat. There are plenty of restaurants and they seem to be full most of the time. Canadians seem to enjoy Italian food immensely as there are "Italian" restaurants everywhere... and every single bistro or other food place will try its best to offer "Italian" dishes. I've already been to one "Italian" restaurant and that's quite enough for me (I'm a spoiled child, I have Italian friends who have cooked real Italian food for me).

Yesterday I was desperately walking around trying to find a place to eat that wasn't a tourist trap and wasn't on the fast food side. In a side street I fell on a lovely place called "Saint Amour" which turned out to be one of those three star restaurants that have extremely reasonably priced set lunch menus. I'll let you look at the photos and guess how much the meal was (the starter, main dish, dessert and tea). Hint 1: an average pizza costs about 10-15 CAD in the area. Hint 2: I didn't spend all that much. Answer after the photos under the cut.

Kir Impérial (not included in the set menu)
Salade de quinoa

( 3x2 more photos - main dish, dessert )

Quebec City, continued.

I've had my fair share of seeing strange things. They have a shop dedicated to Christmas stuff and it has the creepiest dolls on display. There is also an urban/tourist golf course set up all over the city. Oh, and there are actually tons of maple leaves! I know it shouldn't surprise me that much but it's been a while since I last saw a real maple tree.

The other thing I noticed, also in Montreal, is the fact that there seems to be a lot of graffiti and that some slight vandalism is tolerated. I do understand that graffiti can be seen as art but I'm still trying to get my head around as to the other slight vandalism present almost everywhere... Maybe I'm just too sensitive to that, I've never been able to understand the need some people have to degrade public places for no reason.

( 9x2 more photos - creepy Christmas, maple leaves, urban golf, etc. )

The first major difference I've noticed between Montreal and Quebec is the fact that it's rather chilly in Quebec in the morning. In Montreal I had no problems leaving the hotel without a sweater but here I had to go back to get one on the first morning. In a way, it is refreshing.

Now Quebec City... there seem to be three rather distinct parts to the city: the tourist traps, the urban area and the suburban area. The tourist area is mainly made up of shops (there must be at least two souvenir shops per visitor, at least!) and overpriced restaurants. There are also some lovely areas and there is plenty of grass to sit on and enjoy the sun!

( 8x2 more photos - streets and other amusements )

On est potes avec cette ville!

University dorms wouldn't be the same without shared bathrooms and old microwaves in the hall.

And Quebec City wouldn't be the same without deer hanging around the city center. The police were out in full force to try to get the little one back somewhere safe. I felt bad taking photos of the struggle (the deer at one point was chased by a huge dog and ran far away from the police, I'm not quite sure if they managed to catch it in the end), so that's the best one there is.

Sometimes life just can't get much more entertaining than this.

I blame the next few sentences all on Henry. I honestly would not have known what the heck Tim Hortons was and would not have wanted to go there if Henry hadn't whored out TH and spread his love for that place. At least I didn't try to act like him and hang out with buddies in the parking lot of TH like it was a park... I think you really have to be a proper level of Canadian to understand the logic in that.

(Henry, I totally understand your love for TH. Their stuff is pretty good. I still don't understand why you love tacos and gardening as much as you do... but at least we have the TH issue settled.)

~~Yes, my references keep on getting better and better. At least I didn't learn this on a random Canadian variety show.~~

I also tested the local trains. This might amuse quite a few but I find it so amazing that you can check in your luggage for long distance trains... just like for planes! Alas my 3.5 hour trip was deemed too short and no check-in option was offered. The train I was on also had airplane-like overhead compartments that could be closed! Yes, I am easily amused by small things but I had never been on a train with overhead compartments that could close before!

( 3x2 more photos - train fun and hotel fun )

Dear world,

I hope that you remember all my pay-forward/help-fellow-traveller-in-need karma thing if ever I need some help later on. No really, I think you should.

Lots of love,
Me.

In other news, the hunt for cupcakes continues abroad.

And in other other news, let's learn some local French. Here they use some different words for common things... as shown in the photo below. I suppose this is the equivalent to an "ophtalmologue" but it seems that they also do the work of an "opticien". The other difference that made me giggle was "ordinateur portatif". I don't know why but "portatif" sounds funky, I almost want to use that from now on instead of "portable".

Ah. Je retrouve mon âme d'étudiante! I am, indeed, now in Laval University housing.

But before going into that story, let's have a photo dump from yesterday in Montreal.

Now I've realised something, I, somehow, expected Montreal to be a very European city but it turns out it is looks and feels very American. At least to me. Almost everyone who lives in North America seems to tell me that for them visiting Montreal means almost seeing Europe.

I can't even describe what makes it that way. I want to say it's the skyscrapers and the streets and the huge amounts of food places. One can say that cities like Paris also have tons of skyscrapers and restaurants but they really aren't the same. Have I ever mentioned the huge amount of food places? I do have to wonder how in the world all those can survive? I guess people don't cook at home a lot...

I have yet to really get out of the city center of Montreal, that will be for next week... so maybe then my opinion will change. Who knows!

( 9x2 more photos - stuff, Italian restaurants, some moose and other friendly creatures )

So where have my little two feet taken me now that the conference is over? To many different places. Too many places, perhaps, considering that the last session (which was the session I presented at) ended after 5pm. Cupcakes, Italian restaurants, Korean for dummies books, wine and long discussions were involved.

And it's also way past my bedtime so all those stories will have to wait.

The paper presentation went well, in case anyone was doubting it. In my session there was also a guy who was presenting his first paper at a conference, I do hope that back in 2008 I wasn't reading and doubting myself so badly. I really do.

Et maintenant, douche et puis dodo. Et puis demain, c'est l'assaut de Québec, mais pas du Québec, le Quebec est un peu trop grand mais par contre la ville, ça va, c'est pas si grand que ça.

I don't know if I should blame the failure known as today on the 3rd-day-jet-lag effect or on the fact that I sat through way too long sessions by the end of which even basic stuff seemed confusing... but by 6pm I was ready to sleep. But I did not. I went out for bubble tea and I set out to work on finishing my paper presentation for tomorrow.

Three hours later, my Japanese green tea bubble tea is done and my mango bubble tea is three quarters drunk... and my presentation is still as unfinished as before. That's motivation for you! I blame it on the fact that I seem to have no fear of addressing large crowds and improvising in front of them, it's talking to small groups and single individuals that I hate. No stress and no fear means that my procrastination knows no bounds, plus I can always present almost the same ppt as at one of internal seminars.

I'll get back to everyone's comments tomorrow or already in Quebec City. H-21 or so till my holidays start again. Unless the research group peeps want to go out for dinner tomorrow and still talk about work.

Sleeeeeeeep! Must resist another hour or so. Sleeeeeeeeeep!

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I cannot possibly live across from Chinatown for more than a day and not go buy sweets from one of the shops. The shop was closing so I just picked up the first things I could see... and now I have a stash for tonight and tomorrow.

Acting childish has never felt better!

Also there are shops selling bubble tea everywhere. I'll have to stop by for some on another day.

On an unrelated note, I'm really not a fan of Lady Gaga but damn Lady Heehee rules this world. Pictorial proof right here. Yes, that is the one and only Heechul aka the best diva on this planet and the person who makes up about 99% of the best content on Twitter (he even tweets while drunk, that's how dedicated he is to Twitter) aka the person who should be my BFF but he doesn't know that yet. Because yes, we should best friends forever and yes, we would totally call ourselves BFFs and strut around as if we owned the world.

Sorry about this fangirl moment but my inner fangirl must come out sometimes. And well, it's freaken Lady HeeHee. Have another photo tweeted by @heedictator himself because everyone should admire him... and as a bonus you get Kyu with a funny face in this one.

Cultural expansion was on the agenda tonight in the form of socialising with some food and drinks in the old market building in old Montreal. I must say that old Montreal still puzzles me a tad because it's really not "old Montreal", it's a mixture of old and new. I'm used to "old" parts of a town being just restored old buildings but here it's old and new together, quite intriguing to say the least!

I had a talk with some locals today and it was fun to hear that their main annoyance while cycling around is having to wait to cross the river while a small boat crosses a lock. Such problems! (And now I also want to find a boat actually crossing a lock around here.)

( 5x2 more photos of the storm this morning, more Montreal and everyday life )

It's about three in the morning in Marseille right now but here it's barely past 9pm. I will try to stay up till about ten and hope not to wake up at 2am.

I did not get to sit next to a window on the plane but maybe it was for the best. Alas it seems that the Sunday direct flight to Montreal is a favourite among families with small children because there were children everywhere. Normally children stress the hell out of me but it just gets worse on planes. I survived though.

When I got to the hotel I met the two other guys from the research team and we scouted out the location of the conference venue... it's in a rectangular building that's called a chic hotel and that costs a lot. Following that disillusion we headed to the old part of town for dinner and we kept things local and Italian because honestly, what is the national food of Quebec?

( 2x2 more photos - view from the hotel and funky expressions that amuse me )

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Gali

Where is Gali?

March 2017

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Page Summary

The Saint Amour
A travers la ville.
Quebec, up to brunch.
Deer and microwaves.
Of train rides and Tim Hortons.
Still easily amused.
Day some number - I can't come up with a proper subject.
Day 4 - je veux dormir!
Day 3 - and now the jet lag has caught up with me.
Gali goes to Hollywood... or wait, that's Chinatown.
Day 2 - Montreal - sleeeeeeeeeeeepppppp!
Canada - Day 1 - still alive.

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Where is Gali(nette)?

aka The day we caught the train

Entries tagged with pix:canada2010

The Saint Amour

A travers la ville.

Quebec, up to brunch.

Deer and microwaves.

Of train rides and Tim Hortons.

Still easily amused.

Day some number - I can't come up with a proper subject.

Day 4 - je veux dormir!

Day 3 - and now the jet lag has caught up with me.

Gali goes to Hollywood... or wait, that's Chinatown.

Day 2 - Montreal - sleeeeeeeeeeeepppppp!

Canada - Day 1 - still alive.