Three years ago was Japan 2015. An epic one month adventure where we traveled to many different places, both new and old. One portion had us visiting Shikoku Island, which has four prefectures (equivalent to provinces). We visited three out of the four, though in retrospect, we should have gone to all four so I don't have to go back to that island. As for Eastern Canada 2018, I got the chance to visit three out of the four original provinces that joined Confederation (it's not because I remember my junior high/high school social studies, but rather I learned this from a the parliament tour.) Whether I want to travel to Nova Scotia is something up for debate for the distant future.
I cannot recall exactly when I had plans for this trip, but I like to say it was sometime near the end of 2017. I just signed up for the American Express Gold Rewards card for the 25,000 points that I converted into Aeroplan miles at a 1:1 exchange rate once I spent the required amount for the bonus. An old elementary friend, who informed me of the card currently lives in New Brunswick, which made it a good reason to fly out there. Since I'm flying so far east, I might as well go to Toronto as well, was my initial thoughts. What started as a week trip soon expanded to a two week trip (good flexibility as a teacher in the summer) to include Ottawa and Montreal. At this point, I had to admit I felt ashamed: I've seen more of Japan than my own birth country. In fact, I haven't been to any other province, unless you count the layover in Vancouver 17 years ago as visiting another province.
All the airline tickets were ordered essentially on the last day of work before break started. With astronomical hotel prices in Canada, I had the opportunity to experience AirBnb for the first time. Searching for places took time, but we managed to find locations in the downtown areas of Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. With a car being rented as well, along with train tickets from Ottawa to Montreal, and Blue Jay tickets ordered, all we had to do was wait for August 4th to come.
Time flies and it is suddenly the morning of Saturday, August 4th. I got up earlier than normal, thanks to not staying out late the day before, to work out before heading home for a quick lunch. We arrived at the airport hours early, which was not necessary since the line for security was remarkably short. The plane ride to Toronto was relatively smooth and I got the chance to experiment with my relatively new noise-cancelling headset (which worked remarkably well). Upon landing at Pearson, we went to look for food before our flight to Saint John (not St. John, Newfoundland). I'm not sure if it was due to a lack of eating or something I ate went bad, but I was extremely bloated. Thai Express helped the bloated feeling for a bit, but it came back during the flight to Saint John. Not only that, but the HST was a bit of a shock. I'm too used to just paying 5% taxes, in comparison to 13% in Ontario, 15% in New Brunswick or the GST + QST (5% + 9.975% respectively) in Quebec.
The flight to Saint John was far quicker and we landed just before 2 AM. At the exit/entrance of the gate (since Saint John is so small, you walked to the gate after departing from the plane), we met up with our friend. After literally taking 30 steps, we were at his car. A thirtyish minute drive in fog and rain soon followed. At Saint John, our first meal comprised of McDonald's, and I believe it was the only McDonald's open at the time. It was odd, but pleasant to see quiet streets, with barely a sole stirring at the wee hours before daybreak.
Our friend had beds prepared for us as we got to his place. We ate and chatted for a while before crashing at around 4:30. (Ironically, the last time I went to bed this late/early was in Tokyo in 2015.) It was a rough night of sleep, since I always have difficulties falling asleep on a new bed. We did all eventually wake up at around 10. After a quick breakfast, buffing out scratches from a car, we headed to Moncton. Our first stop was at a restaurant for lunch. Since you're in the maritimes, you got to eat seafood, right?
As you can see from the pictures above, I had a seafood chowder and fish and chips. Both were quite tasty, though it was just a warm up for what was to come in the evening. We then went to magnetic hill soon after to experience an optical illusion in which you car is seemingly pulled "uphill" if you leave it in neutral. Turns out that it's due to the rolling hills beside the road that makes it appear to be going down hill when in fact it's actually an uphill at the starting point of the stunt. After almost getting hit by another patron, we traveled to Hopewell Rocks. We arrived just before low tide, so we were able to walk around the beach, take pictures and dip our feet into the Bay of Fundy (or essentially water in the Atlantic Ocean). After spending some time there, it was off for dinner.
We traveled to Alma for lobster. I normally don't eat lobster because I'm not too fond of the taste (and too lazy to crack the shell to access the meat). I hesitantly ordered a full lobster (quite cheap at $17 before taxes and tip), but had no regrets. It was extremely fresh, and much better than the lobster claw I had in my seafood chowder hours ago. After finishing, taking pictures of the scenic views around the shop, and getting a lobster roll/sub, it was time to head back home.
The second day was dedicated to visiting the capital: Fredericton. Fredericton wasn't that interesting in my opinion. We had lunch at a pub, and explored a bridge before heading back to Saint John for the evening. Back in Saint John, we ventured out for dinner at the nearby Market Square. The Thai cuisine we had for dinner was quite good, though it wasn't the same Thai flavor (with all the coconut) I'm familiar with back home (though that's not authentic Thai flavor).
The last day was to set to explore Saint John, before heading to the airport to our next destination. It was the first time I flew with Porter Airlines, but I had to say I was impressed with the amount of service we got for the price we paid. That also included access to their lounge at Ottawa's airport. After a quick layover, we continued with Porter to Toronto's Billy Bishop airport. Picking up the rental vehicle was a quick endeavor. We then got the opportunity to experience first hand, how driving was like in Toronto. It was hectic, with honking every minute, but we managed to find our first AirBnb. The condo we rented was right on Bay Street, and it gave us a spectacular view from up high. After settling on beds, we traveled to find a ramen place to eat. Hokkaido Ramen Santouka did not disappoint, though when were paying for our meals, it started to rain extremely hard. Perhaps we should have gotten an Uber back, but we decided to trek through torrential rain for ten minutes back to our place. Extremely soaked, we were lucky enough to have a washing machine to wash our clothes right away. After the rain died down a bit, it was off to find more food, yet many places were closed at ten near us. We found a Panago pizza, which did it's job for the night.
Come the next morning (Wednesday August 8), in which I woke up at around 5:30 to head down to the gym to workout. Adrenaline provided fuel since four hours of sleep would not be able to do so for me. It was raining slightly as we returned back to our place at around 9, but it died down as we showered and got ready for the day. Our first stop was for food at a hand-pulled noodle shop. I was feeling ravenous after my workout, so I naturally ordered the biggest bowl they had, which was very large. In retrospective, it was a foolish idea, since I was stuffed and couldn't eat for a while. The Eaton centre was next, which felt very much like shopping back in Calgary. Without finding anything of interest, it was off to see Chinatown, Kensington and the University of Toronto before heading back to our place. Late in the afternoon, we went to the Union Station to meet up with a friend. After a brief reunion, it was off to Momofuku for supper... and I'll just say I wasn't pleased with my meal. If I recall correctly, I walked around 35000 steps that day. We went back to our place to drop off some things before heading back out to see Ripley's Aquarium. At this point, my lower back was starting to hurt, but as a positive note, my feet were in great health (in comparison to wearing sandals back in Japan 2014 and 2015). The aquarium was nice to see, and it had a great variety of different tanks and sea creatures. Not wanting to walk back, we called for a Lyft (which is like Uber) back to our place. After arriving back to our place, it wasn't a far walk for food (Taiwanese Pop Chicken, H-Mart and Uncle Tetsu's famous cheesecake).
Thursday morning arrived too soon, and I was starting to feel the wear of not getting enough sleep. The gym session was horrible for I had no energy. After arriving back to the condo, we got ready once again before taking the Jeep we rented out to Markham to visit the famed Pacific Mall. I was initially excited because I always hear positive stuff about the mall. Our first stop was for food up at the top level, and I was not disappointed by my beef bowl. What disappointed me was the variety of shops at the mall. It seemed like a vast majority of them were cell phone accessory shops. You can only visit so many before getting bored with seeing the same thing over and over. Fortunately, there was another Asian mall, Splendid China (not joking... this is the name of the place) Mall. It was, personally, more splendid that Pacific Mall, though with less shops to visit. We then headed off to the Bluff's (on the edge of Lake Ontario) to walk around the beach before heading back to our place. Dinner soon followed at another noodle restaurant, before we started walking to the Roger's Stadium to watch the Blue Jay's play the Red Soxs. I'm not a fan of baseball, nor watching baseball because I find it too slow paced. Despite all the energy around me, I was soon nodding off. (To all Blue Jay's/Red Sox/Baseball fans, please don't feel offended.) The Blue Jay's won, and we started to head out of the stadium, to only stop to wait for the rain to stop. Walking back to our place took a while, but we made pit stops for food.
Friday morning was a lot better since I was able to secure a solid, uninterrupted five hours of sleep. The gym went great and we had a road trip planned for the day. Our first destination was Hamilton since one of us did a master's at McMaster. Lunch was at the mall's farmer's market and the sushi was actually quite palatable. After a friend and I got lost trying to find our way out of the mall, we headed towards Niagara Falls after making a pit stop at McMaster's. The town of Niagara was very touristy looking, but we didn't spend time to explore because our main objective was the falls themselves. It was an extremely scenic sight and we got the chance to take a ferry to visit the falls for an in-depth look. After getting sprayed by the falls, we walked around the pathway towards the top of the Canadian falls, before heading back to Toronto. The drive was horrendous due to the traffic entering Toronto, but we made it back in one piece. We ventured to a restaurant inspired by anime: Ken-oh. It had memorabilia of the show, Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken). I never seen the show so I cannot say if the food was influenced by the show, but the sukiyaki set I got was quite filling. After stopping by Pablo nearby for dessert, we headed back for the day.
Saturday morning's workout session was horrible for I was unable to squat due to tight calves. I ended my session early, and headed back to the condo early. Since it was our last day in Toronto, we kept it relatively mild. We took the subway down to Koreatown to eat and explore before heading down to the Harbor. After looking at stores nearby, it was off to a bubbletea place near our condo in which I was looking forward to after seeing a video on social media. After resting for a while, we headed to Kaka for AYCE (all you can eat) sushi, which was quite tasty, though expensive. It was an early night for the first time this trip since we all had to get up early to make our way to Ottawa.
If I remember correctly, Ottawa was about four hours away from Toronto. It's the longest I've ever been in terms of a road trip, but it was not too bad since I was able to view the greenery all around us. Our first stop in Ottawa was to eat pho, though I cannot say it was a great bowl of pho. We then checked in to our second AirBnb place, which was an older house; it was heated by radiators instead of forced air. After walking around town for a while, we met up with a friend's girlfriend at sharwarma before heading down to the parliament building for their light show. I fell asleep for a while on the field due to sheer exhaustion, but woke up to see the show.
Monday August 13th had me sleeping in, instead of heading down to the gym. It felt great. We headed down to wait for tour tickets of parliament before strolling around downtown looking for a place to eat lunch before one of us had to go back home. We managed to find Sansotei, which seemed to be a franchise ramen restaurant. The ramen was top notch, compared to the pho and sharwarma I had the day before. Right after lunch, we hurried on back to our AirBnB so that we could drive to the airport. I got to drive our rental Jeep back, and it was an interesting experience. The roads were like Calgary, in that they weren't too busy, but the Jeep was not the most fun to drive. Maybe it was just our car, but the accelerator was very hard to push. Either way, we returned back to our AirBnb before heading back to Parliament for the tour. We had three places to visit: the Eastern building, the main building and the Peace Tower. The guides for the Eastern and main building were very informative and I actually learned quite a bit from each one of them. It was by far the best part about Ottawa -- since everything else seemed quite ordinary. After the tour, we headed down Rideau Street to eat Korean food at a place called Food Mood. It was a small restaurant with a couple tiny tables and one bar/ledge tables in which we ate our meal. I had kim bap and tteokbokki (Korean sushi roll and spicy rice cake respectively) which turned out to be quite good. As we ate, we saw, what I presume our homeless people across the street from us. One person in particular seemed a little bit off, for he would randomly walk onto the street, while cars are driving and stopping as they approach him, or play with the fire hydrant. After our meal, we grabbed some bubble tea and headed for more food at Chili's. We opted to bring back our meal from Chili's to our rental place, as a "small" snack. After returning back, two of us decided to head to a nearest bookstore. It was small, but filled to the brim with books. Nothing caught our eye, so we headed back to our AirBnb and relaxed for the rest of the night before bedtime. It was good to finally sleep early after sitting back and relaxing. Even on vacation, you need those days sometime!
As for our last day in Ottawa, I managed to get up relatively early to head down to the YMCA. This location was made out of multiple levels and it took me a while to find the weightlifting room. Unlike Toronto, it was relatively newer looking and had a wide variety of patrons of all ages. After getting our workout done, we headed back to our AirBnb to relax a bit before checking out. Since we had quite a bit of time before our train to Montreal (or flight back to Calgary for one of us), we stopped for lunch at a pho restaurant (good, but didn't taste like pho) and went to two malls. The first mall was an outlet mall, which reminded me heavily of the one in Vegas. The second mall was more like Market Mall. We ate at the food court there before being dropped off at the train station for the last part of the trip for me and one other. The Via Rail train we took to Montreal was relatively fast, and the scene outside was filled with greenery. After two hours or so, we finally reached our destination. Not wanting to walk, we took an Uber to our last AirBnb. The first thing I noticed about our apartment was how insanely hot it was, which I think was due to a lack of ventilation. There was no presence of air movement and the air felt a bit stale. After dropping off our luggage, we went to a nearby supermarket, labeled as Provigo. Once inside, we found out that it was owned by Loblaws, and felt very much so... to me at least. After purchasing food, we headed back to our rental apartment to eat and prepare for bed.
Sleep did not come easy since it was dreadfully hot and the pillow had no neck support. We woke up at around 6:30 to get ready for the first day of Montreal. We started with the Notre Dame, arriving earlier than the 8:00 opening time. Once we toured around Notre Dame, we headed to the old port, while making a stop through Jacques Cartier's plaza. The port was pretty, and we realized that there was a science centre nearby with a DreamWorks exhibition. Since there was still an hour to opening, we headed to a nearby McDonald's to relax and wait for the science centre to open. Once inside the centre, we started with the DreamWorks exhibition before watching an IMAX video in French. Perhaps not our smartest choice, because I had no idea what they were saying, despite all the pretty visuals. I did end up dozing for a good portion of the film though, so that kept me awake for a while! After exploring more of the science centre, we left and headed to Chinatown for food (decent Chinese restaurant) before finding a part of Underground City. After exploring the small section, it was off to the Museum of Contemporary Arts. In all honesty, I do not understand contemporary art, but the sculptures present were really creative. Finally, we walked to Schwartz Deli to try out the renowned Smoked Meat Sandwiches that everyone talks about. The line up was relatively large, and it wasn't until a chef/worker came out that I was able to ask for the take out line... which was considerably shorter. After ordering food, we traveled back to our place, which was a lot cooler than the day before, to eat and relax before bed. A long day with a lot of walking but lots of sights!
Sleep that night came easy due to not feeling steamed alive, and perhaps wearing my compression tights prevented my legs from feeling sticky from sweating all night long. We started with hiking Mount Royal, which was a very pleasant hike. It reminded me of Mount Takao the year before in Tokyo with the relatively easy elevation gain. The top was scenic for we could see the skyscrapers that made up Montreal. After walking to an artificial lake, we headed back to downtown to find a place to eat before our next stop. We found Eggspectation, which seemed like a breakfast restaurant. The dish I got was scrumptious and by far some of the best sunny side eggs I ever had. After breakfast/lunch/brunch, we headed to the Museum of Fine Arts. They had a Picasso exhibition at the moment, and it was interesting to see how Picasso was influenced by African art. They would have a piece of African art and a Picasso work that was similar right beside the former. After exploring the museum for a couple hours, it was off to McGill University. Like UofT, it was huge, though didn't seem as scenic to me as Toronto. We were trying to locate the equivalent of MacHall back at UofC, but were unable to do so with what seemed like construction being done to the building at the time. After McGill, we stopped by a Ben & Jerry's for ice cream, before heading back to the Underground Complex to walk and explore some more. We also headed down St.Catherine Street to see the various stores among this long street. The night was marked with trying out a small cafe near our place before walking down St. Catherine's at night.
Friday marked the last day in Montreal to explore. With a large portion of our list covered, we were at the point of the trip where we didn't feel like doing much, so not much was what we did! We started with finding dim sum in Chinatown before watching Incredibles 2 in theaters. After shopping for macrons, we headed back to our rental to relax before heading to another cafe (seemingly geared towards University students) that night. There was the Asian street market, but it was about a 40 minute walk from where we were, and seeing that we need to get up super early the next morning, we opted not to check it out.
Flying back to Calgary early Saturday morning was a smooth experience, though I knew we were close to Calgary due to all the smoke outside our plane. Despite all the smoke, it was good to finally be back in my own bed. Not getting a lot of sleep during vacation made it so that I slept for nearly 15 hours that night.
All in all, Eastern Canada was a success. I can finally say that I've been out of the province to see parts of the second biggest country in the world. The road trips around New Brunswick were pretty, the parts of Ontario was filled with energy and Montreal was filled with culture. Being in Canada though didn't feel like vacation. As different as out east may be to us, there was a familiarity that made it feel like everyday life. As a positive side though, it has stirred a long to go back to Japan... hopefully next year!
Yes, yes... I'm aware that other places beside Japan exists...
As for our last day in Ottawa, I managed to get up relatively early to head down to the YMCA. This location was made out of multiple levels and it took me a while to find the weightlifting room. Unlike Toronto, it was relatively newer looking and had a wide variety of patrons of all ages. After getting our workout done, we headed back to our AirBnb to relax a bit before checking out. Since we had quite a bit of time before our train to Montreal (or flight back to Calgary for one of us), we stopped for lunch at a pho restaurant (good, but didn't taste like pho) and went to two malls. The first mall was an outlet mall, which reminded me heavily of the one in Vegas. The second mall was more like Market Mall. We ate at the food court there before being dropped off at the train station for the last part of the trip for me and one other. The Via Rail train we took to Montreal was relatively fast, and the scene outside was filled with greenery. After two hours or so, we finally reached our destination. Not wanting to walk, we took an Uber to our last AirBnb. The first thing I noticed about our apartment was how insanely hot it was, which I think was due to a lack of ventilation. There was no presence of air movement and the air felt a bit stale. After dropping off our luggage, we went to a nearby supermarket, labeled as Provigo. Once inside, we found out that it was owned by Loblaws, and felt very much so... to me at least. After purchasing food, we headed back to our rental apartment to eat and prepare for bed.
Sleep did not come easy since it was dreadfully hot and the pillow had no neck support. We woke up at around 6:30 to get ready for the first day of Montreal. We started with the Notre Dame, arriving earlier than the 8:00 opening time. Once we toured around Notre Dame, we headed to the old port, while making a stop through Jacques Cartier's plaza. The port was pretty, and we realized that there was a science centre nearby with a DreamWorks exhibition. Since there was still an hour to opening, we headed to a nearby McDonald's to relax and wait for the science centre to open. Once inside the centre, we started with the DreamWorks exhibition before watching an IMAX video in French. Perhaps not our smartest choice, because I had no idea what they were saying, despite all the pretty visuals. I did end up dozing for a good portion of the film though, so that kept me awake for a while! After exploring more of the science centre, we left and headed to Chinatown for food (decent Chinese restaurant) before finding a part of Underground City. After exploring the small section, it was off to the Museum of Contemporary Arts. In all honesty, I do not understand contemporary art, but the sculptures present were really creative. Finally, we walked to Schwartz Deli to try out the renowned Smoked Meat Sandwiches that everyone talks about. The line up was relatively large, and it wasn't until a chef/worker came out that I was able to ask for the take out line... which was considerably shorter. After ordering food, we traveled back to our place, which was a lot cooler than the day before, to eat and relax before bed. A long day with a lot of walking but lots of sights!
Sleep that night came easy due to not feeling steamed alive, and perhaps wearing my compression tights prevented my legs from feeling sticky from sweating all night long. We started with hiking Mount Royal, which was a very pleasant hike. It reminded me of Mount Takao the year before in Tokyo with the relatively easy elevation gain. The top was scenic for we could see the skyscrapers that made up Montreal. After walking to an artificial lake, we headed back to downtown to find a place to eat before our next stop. We found Eggspectation, which seemed like a breakfast restaurant. The dish I got was scrumptious and by far some of the best sunny side eggs I ever had. After breakfast/lunch/brunch, we headed to the Museum of Fine Arts. They had a Picasso exhibition at the moment, and it was interesting to see how Picasso was influenced by African art. They would have a piece of African art and a Picasso work that was similar right beside the former. After exploring the museum for a couple hours, it was off to McGill University. Like UofT, it was huge, though didn't seem as scenic to me as Toronto. We were trying to locate the equivalent of MacHall back at UofC, but were unable to do so with what seemed like construction being done to the building at the time. After McGill, we stopped by a Ben & Jerry's for ice cream, before heading back to the Underground Complex to walk and explore some more. We also headed down St.Catherine Street to see the various stores among this long street. The night was marked with trying out a small cafe near our place before walking down St. Catherine's at night.
Friday marked the last day in Montreal to explore. With a large portion of our list covered, we were at the point of the trip where we didn't feel like doing much, so not much was what we did! We started with finding dim sum in Chinatown before watching Incredibles 2 in theaters. After shopping for macrons, we headed back to our rental to relax before heading to another cafe (seemingly geared towards University students) that night. There was the Asian street market, but it was about a 40 minute walk from where we were, and seeing that we need to get up super early the next morning, we opted not to check it out.
Flying back to Calgary early Saturday morning was a smooth experience, though I knew we were close to Calgary due to all the smoke outside our plane. Despite all the smoke, it was good to finally be back in my own bed. Not getting a lot of sleep during vacation made it so that I slept for nearly 15 hours that night.
All in all, Eastern Canada was a success. I can finally say that I've been out of the province to see parts of the second biggest country in the world. The road trips around New Brunswick were pretty, the parts of Ontario was filled with energy and Montreal was filled with culture. Being in Canada though didn't feel like vacation. As different as out east may be to us, there was a familiarity that made it feel like everyday life. As a positive side though, it has stirred a long to go back to Japan... hopefully next year!
Yes, yes... I'm aware that other places beside Japan exists...
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