I'm back... from Canada
Well I don't seem to be too bad on the jet lag scale. We landed at 6am local time, but seeing as I was on Canada time I'm pretty sure that was midnight or 1am for me.
I made the slight mistake of coming home and going to bed till 10 which made me feel ick on several levels both jetlag wise and my lovely cold that I caught yesterday (joy) which has me all catahhred up again. Just call me a dripping tap.
ANYWAY we flew out business class thanks to Y's airmiles making it super cheap. This was great fun. The first entertaining thing was the complimentary 'moulton brown' spa attached to the posh BA lounge. I got a facial while Y went for a massage and shower. I was slightly disconcerted to receive a facial from a tall slim guy but once you have your eyes closed who really cares? The lounge itself was very comfy with tons of free food on offer and various types of drinks and alcohol. I didn't indulge in alcohol, altho Y did.
Then we got on the plane. I flew 'backwards' in this giant bucket like seat with a kind of weird fan thing that could be closed between me and Y. We got this really classy bag with moulton brown products and since I now have two I've saved them for gifts for people... I watched most of stranger than fiction and other random stuff and got to choose what I ate and stuff like that.
We arrived in Montreal first, which was really lovely. VERY cold. But also snowy (yay) and very walkable. I only fell over once on the first night which I think is a major miracle and achievement!! We saw lots of lovely things, and some odd ones too - apparently Canada both in Montreal and Toronto and no doubt everywhere else goes in for underground malls. My favourite bit was Place D'Armes and the Govenor's House ("something something de Ramezay" [sic]). In the latter we encountered a lovely volunteer guide who was bored and wandered round and told us all about Canadian and Montreal history and generally toured us round. Our most extreme moment was the day we decided to go see THE Mont Royal. We went up to St Joseph's orator which was fine, and then Y thought we could do the guide book tour backwards so we took a bus to the cemetory to walk through to the place where they put a cross on the hill...something do with the founding of the town. Well we walked and we walked. And then we walked some more. Finally as the weather began to worsen we met a woman who told us we were on the wrong summit at which point we gave up and started walking home. It was a long walk and as the conditions worsened it became virtually impossible to see anything through our glasses and we were gradually snowed in as we stood up. We finally reached civilisation and a patisserie where we warmed up but also unfortunately melted and were rather wet as we walked the last bit home. I can't say it was a horrible experience exactly (although not exactly fun either) but it was certainly intense.
We stayed in this sweet centrally located b&b run by a guy from the bronx and his japanese wife. The house had that french style of using 1920s posters as pictures framed on the wall and a slightly arty rough finish but very comfortable.
Then on Wednesday we flew to Toronto. For the first time ever that i recall I very nearly felt like hurling. Was only cattle class so nothing much to report.
In Toronto we were booked into this Hotel called Sutton Place. It was a giant skyscraper of a place and very modernist on the outside. Rather in the opposite direction inside tho. I'm sure it wasn't the best hotel ever but I've not really stayed in many, just prague and bruges so I don't really know how to judge. Rooms were enormous.
Toronto was a much larger place, much warmer temperature wise and more modern in feel. It was less easy to walk around. We saw more museums, more churches and china town. I don't think I've really been to a real one before. In the middle of it it had a moose statue decorated with chinese dress and a necklace with a coin with a hole in it. I think it was meant to be like those cows that were in london once. From Toronto we went to Niagara. We stopped at a local vinyard and learnt about ice wine which tastes like I don't know archers or something v. nice. and also stoppped at the completely tourist ambered niagara on the lake before getting to tthe falls themselves. They were gorgeous and there was something about seeing it with huge lumps of snowy ice that was quite awe inspiring but we could have done without the fog. We saw a gorgeous exhibition in the royal ontario museum about the native peoples of canada with artefacts, paintings, extracts from accounts from early settlers and all sorts of info.
The other feature of our holiday was food. We ate Japanese sushi, I had thai and I think y had vietnamese, we grilled our own food in a korean grill house and NO I DIDN'T burn anything PM :P nya! And we ate Ethiopian and Peruvian and had crepes and all sorts of good pastries. I also ate bagels with cream cheese for breakfast every day while in Montreal.
I had a really lovely time, and apart from a few food related grumps - I had warned y early on that I couldn't skip meals but he didn't really take it to heart till my stomach went a bit weird, his determination to take in entire museums whole we had no real problems. Y seemed to like organising what we did and following guide book walks and i was happy to tag along. It did highlight for me once again as every encounter with Y does, firstly that I could never be interested in him, but also that we are not exactly friends. We had a few conversations but mostly only talked about meals and what were going to do next. We also had a few convos about music but I couldn't really tell you anything about what he reads or what he likes watching or anything like that. We did watch a tiny bit of tv tog but not really much. I learnt more about his upbringing and family but he always discusses that.
So with that I am going to love and leave you. I am still wading through 30 more hotmail emails.
love QR
I made the slight mistake of coming home and going to bed till 10 which made me feel ick on several levels both jetlag wise and my lovely cold that I caught yesterday (joy) which has me all catahhred up again. Just call me a dripping tap.
ANYWAY we flew out business class thanks to Y's airmiles making it super cheap. This was great fun. The first entertaining thing was the complimentary 'moulton brown' spa attached to the posh BA lounge. I got a facial while Y went for a massage and shower. I was slightly disconcerted to receive a facial from a tall slim guy but once you have your eyes closed who really cares? The lounge itself was very comfy with tons of free food on offer and various types of drinks and alcohol. I didn't indulge in alcohol, altho Y did.
Then we got on the plane. I flew 'backwards' in this giant bucket like seat with a kind of weird fan thing that could be closed between me and Y. We got this really classy bag with moulton brown products and since I now have two I've saved them for gifts for people... I watched most of stranger than fiction and other random stuff and got to choose what I ate and stuff like that.
We arrived in Montreal first, which was really lovely. VERY cold. But also snowy (yay) and very walkable. I only fell over once on the first night which I think is a major miracle and achievement!! We saw lots of lovely things, and some odd ones too - apparently Canada both in Montreal and Toronto and no doubt everywhere else goes in for underground malls. My favourite bit was Place D'Armes and the Govenor's House ("something something de Ramezay" [sic]). In the latter we encountered a lovely volunteer guide who was bored and wandered round and told us all about Canadian and Montreal history and generally toured us round. Our most extreme moment was the day we decided to go see THE Mont Royal. We went up to St Joseph's orator which was fine, and then Y thought we could do the guide book tour backwards so we took a bus to the cemetory to walk through to the place where they put a cross on the hill...something do with the founding of the town. Well we walked and we walked. And then we walked some more. Finally as the weather began to worsen we met a woman who told us we were on the wrong summit at which point we gave up and started walking home. It was a long walk and as the conditions worsened it became virtually impossible to see anything through our glasses and we were gradually snowed in as we stood up. We finally reached civilisation and a patisserie where we warmed up but also unfortunately melted and were rather wet as we walked the last bit home. I can't say it was a horrible experience exactly (although not exactly fun either) but it was certainly intense.
We stayed in this sweet centrally located b&b run by a guy from the bronx and his japanese wife. The house had that french style of using 1920s posters as pictures framed on the wall and a slightly arty rough finish but very comfortable.
Then on Wednesday we flew to Toronto. For the first time ever that i recall I very nearly felt like hurling. Was only cattle class so nothing much to report.
In Toronto we were booked into this Hotel called Sutton Place. It was a giant skyscraper of a place and very modernist on the outside. Rather in the opposite direction inside tho. I'm sure it wasn't the best hotel ever but I've not really stayed in many, just prague and bruges so I don't really know how to judge. Rooms were enormous.
Toronto was a much larger place, much warmer temperature wise and more modern in feel. It was less easy to walk around. We saw more museums, more churches and china town. I don't think I've really been to a real one before. In the middle of it it had a moose statue decorated with chinese dress and a necklace with a coin with a hole in it. I think it was meant to be like those cows that were in london once. From Toronto we went to Niagara. We stopped at a local vinyard and learnt about ice wine which tastes like I don't know archers or something v. nice. and also stoppped at the completely tourist ambered niagara on the lake before getting to tthe falls themselves. They were gorgeous and there was something about seeing it with huge lumps of snowy ice that was quite awe inspiring but we could have done without the fog. We saw a gorgeous exhibition in the royal ontario museum about the native peoples of canada with artefacts, paintings, extracts from accounts from early settlers and all sorts of info.
The other feature of our holiday was food. We ate Japanese sushi, I had thai and I think y had vietnamese, we grilled our own food in a korean grill house and NO I DIDN'T burn anything PM :P nya! And we ate Ethiopian and Peruvian and had crepes and all sorts of good pastries. I also ate bagels with cream cheese for breakfast every day while in Montreal.
I had a really lovely time, and apart from a few food related grumps - I had warned y early on that I couldn't skip meals but he didn't really take it to heart till my stomach went a bit weird, his determination to take in entire museums whole we had no real problems. Y seemed to like organising what we did and following guide book walks and i was happy to tag along. It did highlight for me once again as every encounter with Y does, firstly that I could never be interested in him, but also that we are not exactly friends. We had a few conversations but mostly only talked about meals and what were going to do next. We also had a few convos about music but I couldn't really tell you anything about what he reads or what he likes watching or anything like that. We did watch a tiny bit of tv tog but not really much. I learnt more about his upbringing and family but he always discusses that.
So with that I am going to love and leave you. I am still wading through 30 more hotmail emails.
love QR